Just another Day on the Farm

Horse Clinic Today-Ground Training and Trick Training

Posted on March 9, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Yup, I adore my Big Brandy Girl and she is so! amazing to me, but we always need to refresh and learning is the new ending job of life.. So got up early, did milking, some chores, had a great! hair day (to the point I never did put on my new cowgirl hat, cause on a really great hair day, who wants get hat head LOL) and loaded up the van and headed off to the clinic..

Took a new route and it cut darn near twenty min off the drive time.. awesome! and I was very pleased that everything started on time and we covered lots and lots of things.. I have four pages of notes filled with things I want to either keep on improving and or tweeking with Brandy and few new things to boot!

There was one lady from the clinic I went to last year and otherwise the other nine were all new faces, there are some interesting day long clinics coming up but they are all in the month of march, like one every single weekend and I would love to go to at least two of them,

The first being about working with a new momma and colt, this could be applied to working with Girl and her calf and would be a excellent thing to get to and then there is a conditioning clinic for getting ready for the spring session.

Watch for lots of these things to come out over the next while on the horse blog, there is cross over but not too too much..

Posted in draft horse | 4 Comments

Challange for all the gardeners!

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I love gardening, and I believe that everyone should have the right to good qaulity food and have been following this group since I saw them at the permaculture weekend event last year and I have shared a number of things on the blog/facebook page but they meetings tend to be well over an hour away and in the evenings, between chores and late driving, it pretty much has left me a cheerleader on the sides..

At least until today, they are asking for folks to consider splitting and growing extra’s for the Community Urban Food Forest, now they ideally want to get to the point of being able to make their own extras to offer for sale but that is a ways off yet, right now they need things to get that food forest planted and going..

That is where I and I hope lots of other gardeners come in.. now I am going to admit that I am the first one to say, that I have lots of room and certianly could use pretty much all the soft fruit starts for my own food forest but when it comes to plants, seeds and gardens and gardeners, at least to me, there is as much of a urge to share the plants as I get to share the bounty!

So given that, I figure I will offer up 25% of what I had already pinned or plan to split or started last year for my own food forest to the group (if they meet their approval but I can’t see why they would not) and I am going to throw down the garden glove! for all the local gardeners to get behind this idea with me 🙂 (Please, pretty please with sugar on top) and split off and well root out something in their garden this spring/summer and bring it in this fall of 2013 for their plant out and dig in date..

For those that think this is a great idea but are not local, well don’t give up on the spirit of the challange, google if you need to, there must be a community garden, or a church garden or a garden food based program somewhere in your neck of the woods, track down something you consider worthy and work with them, be it donate seeds, or grow a row or give fresh produce to the local food bank or soup kitchen or ?

So what do you think girls! are any of you with me? Let me know what you are going to try and do and we will share our stories and success with each other..

I need to see what made it though the winter before I can give a list of what I will be growing for this worthwhile project, will update as soon as I am able to do so!

“Permaculture Ottawa’s Community Plant Nursery Resource List
We envision the community plant nursery as a source of locally adapted permaculture plants that we can use while establishing our Community Urban Food Forest at the Just Food site in Blackburn Hamlet. By donating cuttings, seeds, layerings, and splittings of your useful permaculture plants to the project, you will be helping us to conserve our resources so that we can focus our purchasing powers on plants that are rare and difficult to get in the Ottawa area. Once we have acquired a base nursery of these plants, we intend to propagate them and make extras available to the community. If you sign up to donate plants, please remember to email your contact information to Permaculture Ottawa (subject heading: CUFF community nursery) at permaculture.project.ottawa@gmail.com”
For more information on the project please visit http://permacultureottawa.ca/projects/community-urban-food-forest/

Farmgal Style Donar Meat Roll..

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Ok I am going to own up on this, I was trying to make a beef Mock fast Pepperoni, I took beef minx, added spices, a bit more fat, packed it into one of my big bags, tied it off, simmered it for a full hour, and then let it cool and sliced and served it for both me and Dh to try, it would work well on a pizza or in different dishes but mock pepperoni it is not.. its spicy and lovely but not right for that..

So I waited for DH to try it and he approved it and said, it takes just like a beef donar meat does.. and when I had the nice bite, I could see what he meant, needless to say that will need to be on the dinner meal with this at some point..

But for breakfast this morning, i had these lovely’s.. FG Donar Meat Roll, Sheep Milk Paneer Cheese with my extra garlic pickle.. awesome!!!

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | 2 Comments

Sheep Milk Paneer- Made with Lemon Juice

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I followed the recipe for Paneer from Forgotten Skills of Cooking and it turned out whiter then her’s in the photo but otherwise, its awseome, we had some fresh last night in the supper and it got a 2 thumbs up yum from DH, and I now have lots in the fridge, that is one of my big supersized dinner plates that is sitting on, I made it with 4 pints of milk so 8 cups of milk, which was just half a cup more then the recipe called for but sheep milk produces more solids so I was very pleased with how much of this wonderful Indian Style farmers cheese.

Really can you get a easier cheese to make, in a deep steel pot, add your whole milk, (ideally raw that has aged at least three days before making, this works best with older milk if you have the choice), heat till just under boiling, add in 1/3rd of a cup of either lemon juice or vinager in a pinch and it will curdle, allow to continue heat for maybe a min, taking off and let the pot sit for ten or so, then strain though either cheese cloth or a good quality lining.. afterwards I added in salt, both for taste and keeping power, that’s it folks..

Because of the acid in the cheese, its a bit sharp for a sheep cheese which naturally tends to be on the sweeter side.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Sheep Milk Paneer Cheese Recipe | 1 Comment

International Womens Day

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Posted in Life moves on daily | 2 Comments

A Sure Sign Spring is coming..

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Despite the bitter wind today, clear signs of springs are showing themselves on the farm and this so far has been one of the biggest..

yup the sheep are starting to shed out their winter woolies..

Milking this morning was cold, enough that the first milk to hit the steel froze right up..

This little lamb had the perfect idea, shelter from the wind, warm bedding to sleep on and fresh green hay to nibble. thankfully only the wee lambs can pull this little stunt off and once they get bigger they won’t be able to get up and into the bales..

Today’s big lession for Brandy was to be tied up and to just hang, she is better about this somedays then others, but its a good lession and reminder that she can be tied off and stay there while I go about doing other things..

But the other little lambs were all sleeping together and chewing cud, its so cute to see itty bitty woolies chewing away on a tiny piece of cud.

Posted in Critters | 1 Comment

Several Thousand Pounds of free bad/old round Bales…

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

Sounds awesome! Farmer R was dropping off some lovely fresh green hay for the pasture critters and we got to talking, and we got around to the topic of straw, (need another four large square bales dropped off) and that lead to asking about if he had anything in a tighter round bale for the straw that would work as a target practise bale for the crossbow and for my bow that I want to be able to shoot off the horse by the end of the summer!

Trust me on this, with hay supplies as tight as they are right now, no way! would I ever consider doing this with a hay bale, even if I paid for it, it would just be wrong this year to do that to a good bale, when I know that so many others are doing without.

But I was thrilled when he said, yes, he had a bad bale that would do just what I wanted and then I was even more pleased when he said, do you want them all, and I said, how many, and he said, six or seven or so.. I snapped them all up, they are a mix of weed/old hay off the edges of a field, and they were baled wet and hot, so can’t be used for critters be it feed or bedding but they can be used for safe target practise and they can be used for safe garden bedding as long as we were masks when working with them cuz they will for sure have mold in them, or they will work at being set on their sides, end to end as a rapid and easy way to add in another four feet high by four feet wide instant garden bed for the coming year.

Posted in gardens | Tagged Hugelculture beds made of round hay bales | 4 Comments

March 6th- Pink Feather proofing :P

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

March 6th- Pink Feather proofing 😛.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

Do you ever do things in your garden just for the pretty?

Posted on March 5, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

I hate when the lose the rest of the post.. this had writing in it and lots more photos.. but I will need to redo it all again.. so watch for pretty in the garden round two.. but for now.. do you like to have things in the garden that are there to add color or texture that is just for the pretty, not because its functional for growing?

Posted in gardens | Tagged gardens | 5 Comments

The Bit.. dum dum Dum DUMMM..

Posted on March 4, 2013 by Just another day on the farm

ah, brandy and the bit.. you just never know where quirks come from when you buy a older horse, Brandy is very good about tacking up in so many ways, call her and she will meet you at the gate, I have even been able to get her to learn two different names for where I want her to go, she can be harnessed up for draftwork without even being tied up, she is just put into stand mode and she understands it and does so well with it.

When it comes to the saddle, blanket or fiddling around with gear etc, she is very good, and again when being worked regular, she is trustworth 98 percent of the time being put in a ground tie

But the bit, that is a different beast.. if you get her in the right working mode and can get the bit in on her first try, she is good and you are done and all is well..

She did not like the first bit I got her, it was a straight bit in the same size as what I had been told she had before.. she hated that bit, and her mouth was so soft it was crazy, yes I had her teeth checked, yes I checked other things as well..

My dad sent me the most amazing bit for her, properly fitted, full cheek and copper roller, better fitted to her mouth, giving her a sweeter taste and something to play with.. 200 percent better in so many ways..

She does not fight the bit once its in, she is so much better to ride, it was like taking her from stick shift with someone just learning to auto drive, the head lifting and dropping disappeared, she softened and was so much more willing to do her turns and flex’s.

She is calm and play’s with her roller and you can see she likes it..

But the fly in that soup is that she still does NOT want to take a bit.. and did I ever get reminded of it yesterday, the two favored tricks are head to the ground, with maybe half a inch clearance from ground to nose or head as high up as she can get, both are very effective at keeping you from getting the bite in the right postion because as soon as it is in the right spot and touches her mouth, she then relaxes, opens and takes it..

Now this means that you end up needing to tie her up to a post to keep the head in the correct postion in order to have it happen as smoothly as possable if you forget (like I did yesterday) you end up having a battle and then needing to retie her..

Not how I want to start getting ready for a ride..

So this is my current small baby step challange.. teach Brandy to not just take the bit but to look forward to taking it and learn to bite herself.. and the secret is answered in this photo!

That’s right, i’m going to bribe her into it.. I am even using the straight bite because i want to just start working with a bit only and it holds its shape really well for training, so the first thing we did was just stand there with a bit in my hand and offer her cookies in the same hand, this alone showed me just how much work I had cut out, as she circled and at first gave me rump.. it took a good ten minutes to get six cookies taken within six inches of the bit.

The second lession was easy, let her taste the molassies and then smear it all over the bite, so she could lick it off, first two times she would not take it, just lick and lick and then back off.. Third time offered a molassies covered bit and she licked and mouthed it and took the bite herself into her mouth and cleaned it and I took it back out..

Good enough for now.. will continue to do these until she is looking for that bit and treat, and at the same time I will start adding in the bridle rattle, shake the bridle come and get a cookie, walk away, repeat, then work her up to needing to touch the bridle, then cookie, then touch the bit, then cookie..

Going to work the free bit and the bridle at that time, then will start to sweeten her riding bit, anytime she is being tacked for riding, I will sweeten the bit but with apple sauce, as the molassie scent is going to be a training tool for the moment, then once I want to transfer it to the riding bit, I will do a mix of molassies/apple sauce, the goal is to have her looking for that bit and wanting it in her mouth for her sweet treat..

So how long do you think it will take to make this happen.. I want to do three short 2 to 5 min training sessions daily but can go upward of ten min depending on Brandy’s reaction..

This is a slow and steady, and she gets to set the pace of this learning curve.. Dibs that by the end of the month, I will have her taking her bit willingly..