Just another Day on the Farm

Gueana Fowl Nests -what a Mess :)

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I have to laugh, I could not help but notice that my G-Hens have had no interest what so ever in regular nest box’s and if they are going to lay, they have been all over the place..

So when they were moved, they had a great lovely shelter with lots of sleeping bedding and I have successfully had ducks use this area as nesting but again, nothing much was shown in way of interest.. hmmm

So I hit the net and in a nut shell, they like a small dark hidden nest in thickets, where they can look out but not easily be gotten into.. ok, how to make this happen, was the question..

Spring pruning to the rescue, now I know that this area looks like it was just thrown together, it in fact took me an hour to make, set up the roof, and weave these branches into a form of a teepee, some went up and some went down, and a few go across..

I finally stepped back after running of branches and took the photo and then closed the pen and the nens ran over to check it out.. they chirped and peeped and stuck heads in.. and then ran to the back and went to the nest area and looked out..

Ah, sweet success at first blush.. now Dh is making me a 3 inch L ledge that will go on the inside, so that the eggs can’t be rolled out and lost and hopefully those girls will get busy filling the nest with eggs and a month later we will have keets joining the farm.. If I can swing it, I will be trying for two clutches over the season..

Finally found a reasonable cost for Aerator for my personal gardening..

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Without a doubt one of the best seminars at the permiculture seminar was the seminar on how to use a aerator to create billions of live mircos to be used as a living compost tea..

I enjoyed it, took pages of notes and then went and googled prices, and I figured at a min, I needed to spend around two hundred dollars to get the set up done. That is where I have been for a bit now..

That is a lot of money for something that sounds great but I have experance in, something that could or could not work for me, something that NO one I talked to or asked, had any personal information on.. it was just this book or that website..

Which menas not only would I be flying solo on my own to make it work but I would be also finding my own way on how to use it for the plants, I can buy alot of proven garden things.. but still the idea of it niggled in the back of my mind, and its rolled around and around..

And then today, I jumped up and yet YA! I found something called a Mino-O-Life Aerated Bait bucket in a fishing supplies catalog.. for wait for it.. 26.94, everything I need included and I can pick it up in person in ottawa..

It will only make a limited amount of fertilzer per batch but as each batch only takes 3 days from start to finish and using it, this system would allow me to make two batches per week, and with 8 batches per month, over the season, I will have data and info for sure on if its worth it or even needed for our own farm uses to go bigger..

This little kit if it will do the job is perfect for all the smaller home gardeners, I will for sure off reviews and test data over the season..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Lean Pickings at the moment in the forage front..

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

While the nettles are still small an tiny, there are hundreds of them up now! whole patches three feet deep and six to ten feet long are coming up in different area’s, and so it means that I feel little to no guilt with snapping off those wonderful little bundles of tops and putitng them to use in the kitchen! They are at this point my most available green in the garden.

Next up is the many, many hundreds of these little fellow, the naturalize garlics, which should not be confused with the planted garlic beds.. snagged myself a little batch of ten of them, yum mild and sweet with flavourful green tops..

last but by no means last, was this horse radish that had shown up at a no-no place, now I will need to go back out with a big shovel and dig out the rest of the main root, but this will do just fine for fresh horseradish in the house of a couple days.. the four inch green tops have been cut off, washed clean and chop to be added as a fresh green to a dish.

Got some lovely cubed up lamb soaking in oil/vinagar an spices, going to make cabobs with mushrooms/peppers to be done into flat bread hot from the pan wraps with greens and a horseradish cream spread.. it should be awesome! with a potato salad side with the fresh garlic and greens..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

As strange as it might seem, I am in fact having so many things to do today and the weather is so amazing that I am struggling to find and settle on even one thing to write about.. so lets do this the easy way folks..

Happy Earth Day! Yesterday we went off the farm for lunch and the afternoon as my step dad was in ottawa for a working meet, and as he has for a number of years now, he planned his flight home so that we could come in and spend the afternoon with him..( can you believe he is 80 this year?!)

We took in the Musesum of Nature, and much to my amusement and a bit amazement, the first time they ever did a full world view by space was the year I was born.. so here I am with the world the way it looked on the year I and DH was born.. How cool is that?

Its a big, big world and we are honored to have a small part of it call our own at this time, we are stewards of the land that we call home.. I hope everyone still feels a bit of awe, when they really think about this big old world we live in, and I hope that if you have a bit of land or a lot of land that you can yours own, that you take five min today, and go spend time out on it, in it and think what if anything you could do this year that would help make it work better, not just for yourself but on a much bigger scale?

What are you doing for earth day?

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Kermit the little piggy plow..

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I got some awesome photos of little kermie just loving his new job of being a garden pig..

But lets not forget his best buddy.. that’s right, Miss Rooten, Tooten, aka, Tooties.. she says, I am showing him how its done!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged garden pigs, Hard Working Garden Pigs, Turning the soil with pigs, Using Pigs as plows | 4 Comments

Natural herb color testing with lye..

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I love coloring my soap with natural products and I try and keep them to be self-harvested if I can.. but this also means that sometimes you are trying things that might give you some very unpredictable results. If you google, you can find a good basic list of what things will give but then what happens is that a) you get told different things.. or b) what you want to use is in fact not on the list..

That’s where doing a homemade dye lye test comes in really really! handy.. I had hoped that the colors on this test paper that I am showing you would be more clear but we take what we can take..

So this is a elderberry juice.. now if you think about this what color would you expect? purple or blue or green right.. but that is where the test gives you a very good idea, now the colors of the oil you are using and if you are scenting, these can also effect, but you have to start somewhere right.. its going to end up a shade or two on either side of the test color, or at least that is what I have personally found..

So the dark purple juice is on the far left, then the juice with the lye (dark green), then 3 hours later, (Dark Brown) then six hours later,(soft light brown)

Posted in Carfts an Hobbies | Tagged Herb lye testing for soap making | Leave a comment

Elder Bark.. What do I have in mind for it?

Posted on April 20, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

This is the teaser.. After trimming out some branches on my elder bushes, I am currently drying up the bark after removing it off the branches.. What can you use elder bark for? and out of those uses (cuz, I know those that are interested just googled LOL) which one are these planned for?

Posted in wild foods | Tagged Elder Bark, Elders | 7 Comments

Now I need to figure out what to do with them..

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

This folks is my newest yearling sheep hide, I currently have been having a blast exploring different ways to cure them, I have a hide that was salted, and stretched, that’s it, I have a hide that was just egged and stretched, I have one that was salted, stretched and then egged, and now I am working with ones that are being done in lye and worked. I currently have one being cured using the old fashioned method of oak bark soak..

And I have plans to explore different ways of smoking the hides to finish them off, I am looking forward to comparing the finished product when it comes to the hides, I also had a hide in a lye solution that will in fact be dehaired and turned into leather..

But that means that I currently have five big full size rabbit hides, one med rabbit size, and one youngin rabbit hides, two shearing sheep hides, one small lamb hide, one big lamb hide, one yearling sheep hide and one calf hide plus one massive yearling beef hide to figure out what to do with..

The big beef hide is going to heavy to hang, and Dh has declared that he is unsure he wants it as a rug, as downstairs the critters can get at it, but upstairs we normally close off and battle mice, and he does not want to worry about them nibbling, and I agree, I have spent way to much time and effort for that, but what then to do with it.. I can shear it down to a tight short hide but that will only help with the weight a bit and it takes away from the beauty of the hide itself, its in a full winter coat and its stunning!

The lamb yearling hide well that one I have plans for (its going as a present to someone) the shearing lambs hides, well I think I am going to make a shearing blanket with them, it will take years to finish it, as it takes ten to twelve or sixteen of them depending on the size of the blanket to make it and as I normally only have one or two lambs stillborn or die within the first 48 hours, it will take years before I can finish the blanket, but its a goal to work towards.

The calf hide, I want to make into a covering, so its fate is marked out..

But that leaves rabbit hides and the other sheep hides, and I will have lots more yearling hides, but only the best are going for pelts, the rest are earmarked for leather this year..

I am thinking earmuffs? or wrist warmers with thumb holes, so they would be slip on rabbit hide fingerless guanlets?

The one smaller lamb hide was a training to skin hide and its got a number of knicks and holes in it, its a trim only hide.. but the other bigger one is in very good condition, I am unsure what to make with it..

open to thoughts.. I am more then willing to use them to make interesting things for the horse gear? or clothing items or for decor in the house, or if they turn out well, as gifts.. .

Posted in tanning hides | Tagged home tanning of hides, Pelt projects for sheep, Tanning sheep hides | 4 Comments

So help give this bar a name?- winner nanamo..

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I peeked early but the 2 pd soap loaf set up beautifully, the rich dark chocolate top ended up coming out milk chocolate in the end

but as I am using natural colors, not much I can do about that.. I will own up to the fact that I cut this very early and I just took the end peice off, I won’t cut the rest till its further along in its cure.. Its pretty but I wish I had gotten a cleaner line

So my “regular soap” is my sheep milk soap, my “rocks” are sheep milk soap with nettles, and so forth, I need a name for this one..

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Chocolate cream, homemade soap, sheep Milk Soap | 8 Comments

New Soap.. Chocolate Topped over cream lemon scented!

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I did a new soap today, its going to be a hard bar but should have a great lather, lovely scent and a interesting two tone bar, we will see how it turns out, the bottom is a soft cream and the top is a dark chocolate, think like a cake :)..

Here is the wet soap photo of it.. hopefully I will be able to cut it in the next couple days and will be able to share on it.. love how the top came out.

My last batch of mixed with the nettle tops, have reached the cure and they lather lovely, I like the clean non-scent, and they leave your skin feeling clean and soft/smooth, can’t ask for better then that but they ashed..

Now in case you don’t know what ashing is, its a whitish powder that appears on the top of the soap bars..

However what causes it is altogether something else this blog goes into lots of detail on it but the good news is that its safe as can be, its just not nearly as pretty.. On the other hand, I am getting really good at getting a lovely steady trace on my soaps, see that beautiful ring that’s holding after, like you would have in a pudding, o what a pretty trace it is.. 2013-03-03 2013-03-03 001 005 My sheep milk soap at this stage in the game looks like butterscotch pudding no?

And yet, it will turn out as this color once cured out..

Tried my Shampoo Solid Bar, and it had great lather, a good scent, and it worked well on cleaning my hair but given that I had heard that folks were concerned about your hair being greasy afterwards, boy I need to tweek this recipe because my hair was not feeling conditioned at all, I did a vinager rinse and I am happy with how soft and smooth it turned out, but that is a find a better recipe one..

My latest soaping challanges are learning how to make my own saddle soap, still going to be making the wool felted covered soaps, and arrving in the mail box yesterday was my luffa seeds, because I want to try and grow and then make homemade luffa soaps..

Ah soaps, I could make you often but really just how much soap does one family need, good thing I am planning on giving a fair amount of you away for presents this year LOL