Houdini and Training..

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

How can a little tiny mini horse throw my training right back to square one, cuz that is pretty darn near how I feel about it this week..

I will admit that while I did spend a good amount of time in my younger years around horses, I have had a good gap inbetween, I have always been the type that either liked the horse or not.. If I like a horse, I will go the extra mile and then some and if I don’t feel that connect, I tend to typically walk away.

When Brandy came along, and I meet her, I knew! the first time we looked each other in the eye and spent time together that she set my heart and mind on fire.. she was THERE!

My instinct was that I wanted to spend time with her and create a working bond between us, sure we have ups and downs, always will, but just to see her can lift my mood..

Houdini however is a different matter, and I am struggling to find that connect, that melding, he is pretty in his color and marking, he is cute with his little horse face and his ewak ears, but he didn’t choose me and I didn’t choose him.. he is at this time indifferent to me.. and if I am being truly honest, my heart belongs to another..

I bring food, and water and time outside and he will walk nicely getting to and from where he wants to go and if I work with him, he can be lead into and or pressured to do things but there is no willingness, no trust and no partnership between us at this time..

Some of it could be my own fault, I took one look into Brandy’s face, we breathed each others air and I asked her both out loud and heart to heart.. want to come home and be my horse, and I swear I felt she said yes..

I have spent the past month telling “pony” that he is just on a temp pass, I was by no means not caring for him but I was not connected and when he tried in the first week to ten days to make that eye connect, and come to the front to see me, I would pet him and tell him.. I will keep you safe but your not mine..

Just like I think Brandy heard me, so did pony.. and just as I turned that offer down, this past week he has made it clear that he is turning my friendship down.. he will let me lead but he is not a happy, content or willing follower.

I finally had to step back yesterday and just think on it.. the only thing I asked from him was to let me give him a rub and pat.. and what I came out of that thinking is this..

I need to stop thinking of him as a burden, as a “What am I going to do with a mini! horse” with a focus on “getting him ready to find his home”.. Its just not going to work for him or me..

I need to have a turn around, a fresh look and approuch on this..

Houdini came into my life and that is a blessing!

Houdini is who he is and I am who I am, we will find a way!

Houdini is a horse and needs to be trained as such but before and while we do that, we need to build back his trust in peaple and in me.

Houdini is NOT Brandy and can not be compared to her!

Houdini will teach me things if only I let him, and learning is the name of the game in life.. this old heart has lots of room still, I just need to open up and let it happen.

Ok, so this post has turned out to be pretty personal to me, and I could go back and rewrite it but I going to leave at as is.. Have you ever had a animal come into your world that was unplanned and/or badly timed, that in the end turned out to be a blessing? If so, would love to hear your own stories on this..

 

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Fried Rabbits Livers on a bed of colorful veggies Recipe

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

This is a super simple recipe and makes a wonderful lunch or a lighter supper.. one rabbit liver per person is ideal, increase the veggies based on the number of folks to serve.

I soaked the rabbit livers in whole milk for about an hour before preparing them, I dipped them into thick yogurt and then into spiced cornmeal and into the cast iron they went, lots of hot fat, don’t crowd your pan, cook a few min on each side, ideally flipping only once.

In a second pan, put in a splash of olive oil or any other healthy fat, slice up a onion, half a cup of finely sliced cabbage, red and green pepper, I would have for sure added mushrooms had I had any in the house fresh to use in this, just do a quick stirfry with your veggies, with whatever your favorite spices for stirfry.  As long as everything was cut up and ready to go, they should take about the same amount of time, and be ready to plate up.

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Rabbit Barley Stew Recipe

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

As I have shared in a past post, I tend to cook off the neck, back and rib cages in a pot of water with a bit of vinager added to help draw out the best in the bone broth, and when the meat is fall of the bone tender, I take it out, pull the meat off the bones, toss the bones back in and simmer again for a bit on the bone broth, then strain and use it for any white meat dish. The amount of meat from these parts from one water is enough to make you one good size (ten full size portions in stew, more like 16 or so in soup) per rabbit.

I combined the pulled meat from one rabbit with the 20 cups of rabbit bone stock in this dish, you can use chicken broth if needed to make this, but clearly rabbit bone stock is going to help keep that light rabbit flavour much better in the dish.

Rabbit Barley Stew Recipe.

  • 20 cups of Stock (ideally rabbit bone stock)
  • The pulled and diced or ripped meat from the neck, ribs and boned out back or about a cup to a cup and half of rabbit meat, (could also be made from the two back legs worth of meat)
  • 1 cup of pearl barley (if you want it soupish) if you want a heavy stew, add a extra half cup, just remember that it will continue to swell afterwards and you will need to add more water when reheating the dish itself.
  • 4 cups of mixed diced veggies – your choice but carrots, celergy, pea’s, turnip, cabbage
  • Ideally one cup of leftover cooked mashed sweet root veggies or squash, it can be sweet potoato or yam, or turnip or any of the sqaushes.. (this is the extra that melts in the stew that really adds to it but is not clearly visable)
  • Salt, pepper, turmerac, garlic powder (or add some diced garlic to the dish), Rabbit is a easily overpowered meat/flavour, so go light on the spice to allow it to come though.

So take your pot of simmering bone stock and add your barley and let is simmer for a good while till just done, check your package for how long as it will depend on the size of the barley you used, then add in cooked diced meat, your veggies and simmer for 20 to 40 min as required for the veggies you used, then add in the cooked sweet mashed veggie and stir it in and allow it to melt into the broth and add a bit of thickness to it. Simmer for another five or ten min and then serve piping hot.

It is a meal in and of itself but if you must add to it, then buns or baking powder would work well, or start with a salad.. This is not a like soup, this is a meal in a bowl..

 

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Reader Questions- Rabbit Info.

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

Can I ask about the bit that comes before eating them though? What kind of hutches do you have for them and what do you feed them (pellets/mixed feed/hay/fresh cut greens/kitchen scraps?). Do you have any experience with Morant hutches (moveable runs on grass, with sleeping/nesting quarters)?

We have three kinds of hutches, one is a big homemade one that was the first DH made, its coming on eight years now and has needed the bottom rewired once to date, its a double hutch that is about the length of what would typically hold eight rabbits, so it works really well for a mom with kits, or as a two or three same sex grow out cages.

The second hutches we made are move like my Grandfathers, you take a sheet of plywood and cut it in half, so the base is  4 by 4 and they have a foot at the back as the shelter with 3 feet, the top is solid for protection and the rest is wired, for some reason the bottoms on these have needed more rewiring, having been done twice now.. Again these could easily be split in two and still give lots of room for a single rabbit but again then work wonderful for does and litters as there is lots of room.

Last but not least I was able to pick up proper hanging wire indoor hutches, they are rarely used, mainly as a sick pen that can be easily cleaned down and scrubbed and or as grow out pens if I need the romove, or if a chicken or a chick or duckling needs a recoop place etc. So they are worth having around but I like to give my rabbits more room.

At one time I did try to do the loose floor breeding trio’s with lots of bedding, and box’s and they produced little ones like there was no tomorrow but they had more losses of kits, and slower weight gains then the hutched one’s did and while I can’t say that the female ever looked bad, I felt that they were overbreeding, typically I like to breed no more then six litters per doe and sometimes depending on the size of the litter more like four (I only need so many young rabbits) and they were breeding back to back to back..

As for the outside on the ground hutches, we have tried it a few different ways and its so much more work then I want, I perfer to just take a five gallon bucket with me while I weed or gather wild greens and take them to the hutches and the rabbits from spring to late fall, then deal with hauling the hutches around the yard, but I am in a fairly heavy wild preditors area so that plays a parts as well.

We feed a balanced pelleted rabbit food, a small amount of hay or hay  cubes in the winter, in the very hard cold, I like to put a little bit of sunflower seeds on top the mix for added fats, and the rest of the year, they get their rabbit food along with fresh greens. The kitchen scrapes go to either the chickens or the pig, but a certian limited amount could do to the rabbits, just remember to start small and work their way up to different feeds, as they tend to have more issues with new foods then other critters can.

Hope that helps answer your questions! Let me know if you have any more 🙂

 

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Buttermilk Fried Rabbit “wings” Front Legs Recipe

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

Take your Rabbit front legs and cut them in half, trim them up if you have any extra silverskin and or fat on them, then take a glass dish and fit them in, cover in buttermilk, if its a young fryer a couple hours is good but if its a older rabbit, soak in the fridge overnight.

Take them out and let them drain on a papertowel, then in a dish or baggy, mix cornmeal (I wanted it gluten free but you can also use flour) with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder in my case I used Seasoning salt as well and put each peice in and fully coat the peice, then in a good cast iron pan, melt out a good amount of lard, I went with about an inch to a inch and half as I wanted the fat to come up halfway on the peices themselves.

Make sure you oil is hot but not smoking hot and place each peice the pan as evenly as possable, cook for about eight to ten min on each side, ideally only turning once, drain on a rack or on paper towel, can be served hot or cold..  the keys here are using deep enough fat, keeping the oil hot but not smoking (nice steady heat, and you will need to learn your stove on which is the perfect number for that) and don’t overfill your pan, there should be no touching of the peices..

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Rabbit Butchery and Frugal Eating.. Getting the most of your rabbit..

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

If you are raising your own rabbits and you want to use every part of those yummy rabbits, if you are buying rabbit in the store (yikes on the price, at our local stores, you are looking at around 20 dollars per whole rabbit) you are really! going to want to get as much bang for your buck as possble.. which in my mind at least means breaking down the parts into different meals and some of those ways need to “stretch things”

So my typical breakdown is, two back legs, the back loined cut out, the two front legs, the rest of the ribs/neck and back. So each back leg is a full meal per person or if you really stretching, one full back leg would provide enough meat to use as the accent meat in a full dish. The back loins are enough to do one per person or a full stew/pan dish, the front legs will make a great fried up side dish, and or can be tossed in with the back, ribs, neck for a long slow simmer and the meat pulled off to make soup or stew or pot pie with.

On average each whole rabbit broke down will serve a min of eight meals for Dh and I and if I push it, more like ten to twelve meals for the main meats but if you are lucky enough to be self butchering, I have to remind you that there are more meals in there..

You will get a reasonable portion of blood,  one very small heart, smaller lungs, 2 tiny kidneys and a lovely sized rabbit liver, you can save the heart for future use in a meat minx or dice finely and add to dishes, the lungs can be used in making a fine soup as will the blood and the kidney’s, well I don’t care for them but the old hound adores them, and the liver, o the liver.. fresh rabbit liver is one of the finest!  This is my most favorite rabbit pate recipe but there are a good number of other ways to serve them up as well.

So that’s another four or five more dishes that have rabbit in them, which means that I have brought the amount of meals if you are nose to tail eating upward of 16 to 20 meals  out of that single rabbit..

But I am not quite done!, don’t forget to make your rabbit belly bacon or jerky!  While it can be eaten as a snack, if you want to stretch that out, make it bacon and it will be the accent for around one two person meal per side, so that’s four more dishes..

Last but not least is the Rabbit white bone broth, now I got a half stock pot of broth when the meat was fall off the bone tender and once put though the strainer, it left me with my big steel pot full, or about 20 plus cups of broth, which I am now going to simmer down by half and then either pressure can or cool and freeze for later use in those wonderful rabbit soups or stews, or it could be used to start chicken or turkey meals, anything that uses a white meat in the meal. So that would can up to about 3 to 4 pints of homemade stock broth.

The hide should not be overlooked, if its of good quality, do consider keeping it and processing it, the joy of starting with a small hide is just that.. its a small hide..

Got Chickens? Then be sure to throw the rest of the inners that you are not using out to them, as they will rip it apart and chow down, recycling that into eggs later on. In summer, they are not quite as keen as they are free roaming, they will eat the best bits and leave the rest to be picked up and composted but in winter! they go crazy for it! and there are many amuzing chicken keep away chases over the best parts.

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Offically Introducing Houdini

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

Well, I have to admit to being a bit surprised to need to write this, I guess because if any of my critters were missing, I would be out looking, driving, posting flyers, contacting vets and filing a missing critter report with the authorities and using Kijji to try and get them back, but alas that does not appear to be the case with “pony”

So at this point, there really a few choices, try and find a rescue that will take him, try and find him a new home or just settle in that he will be here for a bit.

I am not wanting to quite give up that maybe, just maybe the right information will get to the right person and so I would hate to put him in rescue or rehome him only to have someone finally pull in the drive with their hopes all up.

On the other hand, the cost of hay is crazy this year and the glut of available for very low cost to free/give away horses on the kijji over the past month speaks volumes, there are a number of mini’s available over the past while and from what I can see, they are certianly having trouble finding them new homes and neither DH nor I want “pony” to end up going for meat by trying to place him as quickly or as cheaply as possable.(  Please don’t think that I mean I want to make money on him, its just that “free” can be a very bad thing when trying to place a critter as it can bring out the folks that sound perfect, and then would turn around and sell him on)

So after many, many! talks between us, we have reached this at the moment, lets get him up to date on his health checks, get his feet done and if needed his teeth floated, lets just say that he is staying till this summer after the first hay cuts start coming in to releave the pressure that is being felt this winter to move animals out due to costs or just not being able to find hay period. Lets put in a few months worth of training, lets get all the basic’s in place and ideally start breaking him for harness/driving, so that he has a much improved shot at getting a good home to move to in the future.

I am at this time, still not really wanting or seeing any point in having a mini on the farm, which is not to say that I don’t like the little guy but I like my “big” horses that can do it all, but I also feel that I should do everything possable to set this little man up to have the best chance in life.

So given all the above, its time to give “pony” a name and admit that he might be here to stay for a while or even a good long while..

Please welcome Houdini !! Our little Grey Dappled Pinto Boy!

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A cow named Girl..

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

I was informad by my dad that I had not talked or posted a photo on Girl in awhile, so here is her update, its short but sweet, she is doing well, she is healthy, eating well, on a good solid routine for being bedded down for the night, and let out in the morning, this will work very well in regards to her planned sharing milking program when her calf comes.

She appears to be ticking right along in regards to her pregancy, she had her feet checked by the ferrier and they were in very good shape, we might do a wee little trim in feb if he thinks its a good idea.  Her temperment has been very good, she has settled as she continues along and seems to be more mature these days then not, but I think Brandy has a good amount to do with that, she is a tough herd boss and allows little to no playing without breaking it up.

The only thing of note is that within the last six to eight weeks is that her teats went from wee baby teats about the size and length of my pinky finger to being as wide as my thumb now and a touch longer then the thumb as well, she is used to be touching, washing, grooming and even mock milking them, and I hope that this will help alot when the true milking times come around. She is just over 1200 pds at her last weigh in, so while she is never going to be a tall cow, she is certianly no light weight either.

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Horse Power, Farmer Power and what a workout..

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

Do you know what one of the biggest perks of being on a machine is?? you get to sit and use the controls, working with horse power in many ways (not all mine you) you seem to be working right along side the horse.. Today was a great example, it was a good two an half hours, the best harness up we have had to date, the best working time and then driving and drive training time so far, and the three of us got the job done.

However the horse, dh and the equipement got the path, FG got the knee high plus snow off the trail most of the time , o my god.. what a workout both in lower body and cardio, I am not touching a kettle bell today! Done, o so done..

Now as they say, on with the show!

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Friday Round up..

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

Well, its a friday round up of odds and ends.. so lets see critters, well everyone is doing well despite the blowing cold winds and snow, I have at least one more sheep starting to bag up so expecting lambs this weekend, the set of twins in the barn are doing excellent, their mother lay’s in the most sheltered spot and then then lay on the other side with not only her warmth to help but snugged in their bedding, they are just rocking along, today is the first day that I will start getting the set up done to milk share with them, I don’t need alot but I do want to get a little in the house, so I am going to be a parttime 3rd lamb, she will be supported accordly, as it will be her first time being milked, I am planning on doing a fairly long post on it, but for now, its just been a matter of starting her off on Milking Ration and mini cubes for extra feed along with all the hay and water she wants, she is learning to come to me for the extra’s and I have been patting and touching her, just a gently process so that first tie up and milking will be a more easy event for both of us. Stessed females don’t let down the milk easily..

The cows are both doing well, I am giving Marty three weeks of finishing very lightly in grain, and the Girl is in excellent condition at the moment and near as I can tell progessing in her pregancy well, the sheep are all eating, and growing in size.. this weekend will be the tagging event for those that are going to buctcher the week after.

The piglets are eating and growing, and sleeping lots in a big piggy pile bedded down in their straw, their beds and bodies steam when they get up so clearly they are warm while down in it. The big pigs seem to be doing well, and little Miss Tooties is fat as fat can be.. that little gal can breath air and keep her not trim figure, it must be a breed thing?

Brandy and Pony are doing well, they are now able to be turned out together while eating and getting exercise without needing full time watching, Brandy is boss and pony perfers to hang with the sheep then with the big dogs (aka the cows an Brandy) but he seems to be quite welcome with them.

The chickens have finished moulting and have settled into their winter laying quite well, the remain chickens are behaving well, no more egg eating.. smart birds got a repreive.

The snow just keeps coming and coming! we have had at least another six inches in total since the big dump, and they are calling for even more over the next day or two.. The wind has been bitter and I won’t lie both Dh and I are really looking forward to needing to haul less water once the sheep and Marty go for butcher, it will help.. I can’t say how glad I was that I got all the birds done enough that we went from four big pens down to one big pen for the winter, makes a huge difference in work load for them.

The battle on the mice or mices is in full swing, there are baits out, snap traps out, glue traps out and live traps out.. die cute little furry but O so bad little critters! So far, I have caught Zero! 😛 but DH killed one in the barn with feed scoop, does that count in some way? I think I might be feeding the barn cats a little too! well.. Get it together Purrpots!

Found someone who is offering Driving lessions and after talking with them, will for sure set something up, I am rusty and Dh’s training is nil, and its proving to be quite different to drive a single vs a team, anyway I will go more into detail on that one in its own post or posts, but lets just say that I hope to get my first lession sometime this month if the weather works for it.

The food challange is going well, I decided to add to it and have decided that we won’t be eating out this month either, normally we have at least two meals out as part of our regular plans, but this month I think instead we will have two fancy meals in on our date nights.

On the weight front, we got a new scale for christmas and both of our offical weighin’s happened on the 27th of dec, which makes it one week today so I made up one of those ticker things but can’t for the life of me figure out how to post it on the side, hmmm.

Anyway the real goal is to be able to mount and ride brandy better but the ticker needed a number so this is the one I picked..  Good week, but then the first always is..

weight

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