Time to trust in myself, time to trust in my horse, time to trust in my training..
yup, it was time to get off the farm and ride!!! this was my partner in crime 😛
This was perfect, ride her till the saddle blanket was wet.. good long ride.. you know the worst and best thing about riding, its never long enough and you always want to go again..
If you can’t go to the garden, then fresh stuff from the garden comes to you! enjoy..
Do you eat popcorn? if so, are you a butter and salt popcorn kind of person? do you use hot air or do you do it the old fashion way in a heavy bottom pot with oil? We eat a fair amount of popcorn in our house, its one of our steady regular crunch treats, we do it in a pot and we tend to make eight cups at a time normally.
The other night I decided to make a real special treat, butter, cream and brown sugar combined with heat makes a nice basic carmel popcorn treat.. Given how sweet it is, you would certainly not want this to be your regular popcorn but it was such a good treat, and you need to eat very little to get your sweet tooth fix 🙂
Well I am honored and thrilled to say- that we have reserved all our pork in 24 hours flat, and I have to say, I’m so sorry for those that have been in contact with us today that I am having to say ” its reserved” but for those that are interested, please keep in mind that Kermit the garden plow pig will be done at the end of Nov after freeze up.
He is a heritage breed of pig, a Berkshire / Hampshire cross, and he has never seen the inside of a barn to date on the farm, he lives in a mobile pen that is moved every two or three days in our garden areas, he does get a piggy feed mix but well over 60 percent of his food is dug and eaten fresh in the garden every single day, he has a big 55 gallon drum sleeping bed for when he wants out of the rain etc.
Again he has not been feed soy, this greatly effects the quality of the meat I find.. as I don’t want folks to miss out, please be aware that I am currently taking reservations on him at this time.. he is available as front or rear quarters, half or whole..
I will do some updated photos of him as a teen now as well in the near future.
He will be finished on extra garden produce, windfall apples and fresh whole cows milk..
Thanks again folks, you have no idea how much I am grateful to you! I am honored that you would like to grace your family tables with something raised on my farm..
Ok, I know that this is going to seem a strange post to non-farmers and it will I hope make perfect sense to those that farm.. or maybe I should give the non-farmers more credit..
So, I buy my feed from a local feed store, I have two choices, the closest one, has a contract for their grains locally, and by local, they mean Ontario, their grains come pre-done in 55 pound bags. I have at times found corn in with my other grains, or sometimes, I have had cracked scatch bags (mixed ground grains) that seem under grown or over ground, or even worse, so powdery that I can’t help but think it was sweepings that topped up that bag..
Then there is the local co-op, now you would think to a point that this would be a even better choice, but the price is much higher and the grains are from both Ontario and quebec, and my critters don’t seem to do as well on their grains, plus I have had issues with some of the ground grains smelling off.. sigh.
Now, I can get to a third feed store and they sell purina, which I am the first to admit that the animals do well on.. sorry but its the truth, their bags sizes are 55 pounds and they are even higher in cost now.. bags that cost 11 to 13 two years ago can cost up to 20 dollar now..
I don’t mind paying for quality, but I also have a issue with some of the things that goes in Purina, and I really don’t like that they seem to adjust their forumla’s based on price costs. Plus they are really processed foods, and ideally I prefer to feed as natural as possible.
So when I found a source of locally produced grains (oats, corn, wheat and soy) where I could get horse, cow, pig, chicken feed, I could have jumped for joy, not only was I allowed to see the whole grains, they are a thing of beauty, to run my fingers though those grains, well to be honest they warmed my heart a little, and that joy just exploded as I listened to the farmer who grew them talk.. his pride in what he grows darn near makes him glow..
Then comes the fact that he can grind the grain himself and that the soy is cooked and done just down the road, as he points to that farm, and yesterday I picked up my first full order (he had given me a half bag to try and see if I like it, the birds went crazy for it!), it was awesome, first off, the price was in line with my most reasonable feed store, but! the grains where of top quality, and unlike the others where they have best before dates to show how long they have sat between grinding and use.. these amazing bags of feed, had been ground just two or a day before I picked them up..
The horse oats are a thing of beauty.. Very pleased to have found this, it will be a very good thing indeed for my farm! Do you source your grains locally, and if so just how local? Are you one of the lucky ones that grows and harvest’s your own.
The large black girls have a date with the local small butcher I use, they will be heading out to freezer camp next Monday the 19th, and I expect I will be getting my meat back by the weekend of the 24th and 25th.
As you know, these girls were born on the farm, raised here, we will have limited pork available for farmgate sales, please use the comment area to let me know if you are interested in any.. You can buy a whole pig, half a pig, a front quarter, a back quarter or a very limited amount of cuts by the pound.
Update: As for Aug 15th- currently all the gilts are reserved
 If there are folks that just want five or ten pounds of pork by the package, I do have some Large Black Pork available now from Angelo.. talk to me..
otherwise we will have heritage garden pig/fresh pork available from kermie in Nov, we are currently taking reservations.
Sometimes thing on the list are there for a good long while but you just keep pushing them down, its something you would like but not something that “NEEDS” to be done.. I have a tied Brandy to fence posts, gates, chicken chain link pens, tree’s, the van, the motorhome, and once I wrapped her lead around a big end of a rock..
As you can see from the above, she is not a hard to tie horse typically, she tends to stay where you put her, in fact she has to date never broken her tie down.
But despite being very well tie trained, she had two issues that really needed work, the first was no being able to see me while being tied.. the first time I learned about this was maybe a week or two after I got her, I had tied her to a post in the little red shed and I walked away to get something I had forgot at the house, well, she called, she pawed, she fussed the whole time I was gone till I was back and then she settled.
So then came the training of I can walk away, and you can chill, we got this going ok on the grooming routine, then for the first time I tied her in the barn and left her.. o my goodness, thankfully she was tied in the big stall and could not hurt herself or the barn, because she was a nuthead..
That was when I figured out that she was not loose or tied stall trained and so we added that to the menu, that came along really well and now, if I don’t want her to have access to the pastures, I can put her in the big box stall or I can tie her in the barn or the alley of the barn and do what I want to do, depending on length of time..
She will willing go in and understands that she is going to hang out, eat some hay and just chill in her stall.. this is wonderful, there are times she needs to do this, mainly because she is just such a nosey and bossy girl in the pasture that its very hard to work with the other critters without her trying to “help” me..
now she has a thing about tree’s or maybe it would be more fair to say she has a thing about branches snapping, I am cutting her NO Slack here! she is in charge of her own reactions, and the fact that being inclose on a bush trail can get her “up” and reactive, it totally her issue, not mine, I love trails and bush riding..
She is very road worthy, but she is still learning on bush riding.. its coming, and I want her to be able to be tied out in the bush, so I took to tie her out in the trees and just leaving her to chill, at first it was only a few min and I would come back and then we built on it.. it took two months but she can now safely be tied out for upwards of a couple hours, with a hay bag or not.
This is a important skill for a horse to have, sometimes she is in saddle and has both bridle or not, but always tied with her halter. Sometimes I tie her high, sometimes really short, other times a bit longer.. she needs to understand that its not always the same.
The cross ties are in a perfect spot in the sense that they are watchable from my living room window, which I love..
The cross ties are in large part to continue her training for the ferrier, I have spent more hours on foot work and training then I care to admit, I had a look in my book and its a little ah at how much time has been spent on this, considering that when she is in harness, she will let you pick up and move her legs as I please and she can and does trick training involving her feet but straight pick up and hold and foot work.. o man..even when I get her doing it darn near perfectly for me, she still is a brat for my ferrier.
So the last two times, I have had him come into the pasture where I have used two tree’s for cross ties and it has helped but this will be much better, I will be able to work her in the same spot every single time, creating a routine in her head and while I will continue to work her in other spots, this will be a huge bonus for when he comes. Plus is so nice and close to the house and the driveway.
This weekend was about getting things done that were on the list but not very high up, it had been a good week in terms of chores and so we were able to relax a bit on the weekend and get a list together of things that should be done but didn’t need to be and so as I walked around this morning it just made me smile! at least a dozen little things got done and its so nice to see them done..
Only took me almost a year to get them, but it was a good learning curve and now that I have them, they will ideally last for years to come..
Now, don’t cheat and look at the second picture at the same time as the first.. what are you looking for? Did you find it in the first picture, the second or the third, and are you still stumped 🙂
you have found it by now yes ?????
This recipe is going to use less oil then normal and I had to remove the walnuts because while I have been eating lots of other kinds of nuts with no issues, I can’t quite bring myself to eat a walnut yet..
Farmgal (frugal on store fats but heavy on farm fats) Zucchinni Loaf
Beat your eggs and sugar and oil or apple sauce and milk, beat well, then add your flour, your spices, salt and Baking powder and salt and zucchini, mix in till just mixed, into a greased loaf pan at 350 for a full hour (but often takes up to ten more min. knife check that it comes out clean.
This is a thick, heavy loaf with lots of filling power, its not a light zucchini loaf, but it will do the trick when you need a good solid energy boost at the coffee break.. Its a bit on the spicy rich full bodied side but if you want it even more so.. add a 1 tsp of ginger to the mix.. be it dried or fresh grated. just yum!
Just another Day on the Farm 