Just another Day on the Farm

March Challange and “How much land do you need?”

Posted on March 14, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Breakfasts: Eggs, Toasts, Pancakes, yogurt with fruit and nuts

Lunches: Soups, Stews, Dippy egg on hashbrowns

Suppers: Pancakes, Hard Boiled eggs, Greens, Lamb Stew -Veggie/Barley

Extra’s , Beet Pickles, Bread, Pears, Apple Sauce, Mixed Berries, yogurt, Walnuts, Almonds, Strawberries and Rubarb.

The challange marches on, and I am caught this in this trap of being so busy at the moment, I can’t seem to turn around without seeing something that needs to be worked on and done, its springs fault.. the snow is melting and the work is ramping up.. combine that with the fact that I can’t seem to find the time to sit down and write and it makes for a small AHH moment for farmgal LOL

Something came in my small farm that I found very interesting, did you you know that 80% of the farms around around the world are four to five acres, and has been so for around a thousand years, where as the large farms in N.A. typically 500 plus acres have been around for about 60 to 70 years. The idea was that in most of the world, those 4 to 5 acres done right are enough to raise for the family and sell for the extra’s required. I would imagine that if you dug deep enough that you would find those folks are living what could only be called a very simple life and not meeting what we consider “typical modern standards” in N.A.

Still it was a very interesting thought to me, given that I have a very small farm myself, and still feel that I have much land left unused at this time by that I mean that I feel I still have lots of land that could be producing for me and at this time is marginal use at this time.

So how much land really is needed, I have a number of books, homestead on 1/4 a acre, or 1/2 or 1 acre or life on five acres, I must have at least five or more of these books, and they are choke full of very good information, I do think that if you want to do so, that you can turn a typical 1/4 or 1/2 acre into a amazing productive garden with small critters like a few chickens/rabbits etc

There are moments in spring, when I am running to keep up with my pastures and gardens and land, that I think we have more then we need, but those moments are fleeting and I keep poking once a year at least, to the farmer that owns the land, that I would really! like to buy that six plus acres match my own farm, just take it out and down and match it in size to the road etc.. he keeps telling me that the lawyer will cost more then the land, but I am wearing him down.. or at least he seems more open to the idea these days then he did in the first few years we were here..

I think if you want to have the “picture” of what a small farm is.. garden, fruit, pasture, barns and a reasonable amount of critters, you need around that 4 to 5 acres at a min.. Now you will not be able to give yourself that pretty acre lawn, you will need to use the land and use it carefully and well to make it all work but I don’t think you need more then that for a small farm to work..

Having said that, I think that number only holds because of where I live, give me hard bush country and I would want alot more land, at my dad’s place, you would need at least five times more land per head then I do on the land I own now..

So let me put it to you.. where you live now, in the climate you have and the land you are on, how much land do you think or believe you would need to grow your own food, and raise enough to make at least a thousand per acre of extra income?

Posted in farm | 7 Comments

Garden Monday- Indepence Day 03-12

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I decided to combine the wonderful Independence Day Challange with the once a month garden update for my monday’s main posts.

Plant something: Kale, onions

Harvest something: Everything counts – Sprouts, Eggs, Milk-

Preserve something: Yogurt, Soft Yogurt Cheese, dried some apple sauce into apple leather

Waste not: nothing new here, just regular composting etc.

Want Not: 2 spend day out of 12, all quiet on this front! Picked up metal garbage cans for more feed storage that is mice proof, its been the winter of the mice.

Eat the Food: Missed Food Storage Friday last week, however its march challange, so everything is coming from the pantry, freezers or the barnyard.

Build community food systems: Nothing.

Skill up: Worked the draft cow, Made cords for my living room curtains, curing meat

The garden is driving me a little crazy as the moment, it feels and even smell’s like spring but its really not, its to early to do many garden things I want to do. The new sump pump is working well, so that is a great thing indeed.

Posted in gardening, gardens | 2 Comments

A little Cow Love…Girl and Marty Photo Update

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I had settled myself on the deck with a good book and lap blanket to help keep warm but Girl spotted me and being a very bad cow, broke the gate to get out to come say hi.. so walked her back, and then of course ended up spending some time with her, we had Marty out for some fresh air and sunshine, he just got to play..

Girl got groomed, lifted and cleaned each foot, worked on woo and stands, layed across her back in a stand, and other basic ground work done.. She is a baby no more.. She is cow, here me bellow these days..

On the other hand, Marty who is coming on five months is still very much a baby boy, he is also a little on the slow side, he is not the brightest bulb in the pack if you get my drift LOL Given that he came from the same herd, and is the same mix of breeds, and has been raised in the same way, I am always so surprised to see such a difference in temperment between the two of them.

Posted in Critters | 6 Comments

March Challange-Catch Up on Food..7th-10th

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Sorry guys, life had a blip and I am now behind, I will get caught up over the next few days, lets start with the menu and then I will do posts on gardening as I have time to write over the next little while..

7th though the 10th

Breakfasts – Eggs, sometimes Scrambled, sometimes dippy, sometimes in a omlet, so extra for breakfast include, bread, baking powder biscuits, mushrooms, onions, greens, mozza cheese

Lunchs- Lamb, Pork, both roasted, Lamb Stew with barley, extra’s at lunch include pickled beets, English Style Bread and Butter pickles, Pickled pumpkin.

Suppers -Meats have included Chicken, Pork and Lamb, the veggies have included pea’s, carrots, squash and pototo’s, gravy on one night. One night there was cream of mushroom soup with chopped meat, onions an mushrooms.

Extra’s-Yogurt, canned fruit, walnuts or almonds, cheese, bread.. Popcorn

Everyone have a great day and thanks for those that wrote me a note privately to see if all was well..

Posted in March Challange | 1 Comment

March Challange 5th- Seeds

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Breakfast- Scrambled eggs with onion and cheese

Lunch- Roast lamb, with pickles- noodles with butter/greens

Supper-Yogurt, with strawberries and walnuts

Other-Coffee, Water, Mint Tea, Popcorn, dried apple, dried dates, pickles

http://notdabblinginnormal.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/conspicuous-sustainability/

I always enjoy reading Xan posts, I so often don’t live up to her ideals, and this post was no different for me, I spend way more then 60 a year on plants, seeds etc on my garden, and I even failed on the T-shirt test, two years ago in walmart, out of season, they had long T’s with full arms and high necks in black on for a $1 each and brown sweat pants for $1, I bought all five shirts and all three pants in my sizes. I use them to layer all winter long, the brown pants go under my heavy winter sweats as underwear, and with five of the black warm T’s, I was able to go for a full week between loads with them.

I have cloths overload, I have garden cloths, barn cloths, butcher cloths, town cloths and good dress up cloths, can’t see it changing any time soon, I would feel really odd going to town in my barn cloths..

But lets get back to seeds, I keep back my own seed from the garden and I’m pretty sure that even if I didn’t keep back anything from the garden, I most likely have at least three years worth of seeds in the house for planting my garden, and If I can keep back collected seeds, it would be even more.

So why or why do I spend that money each year in the gardens, I am always buying more fruit bushes, new kinds that come out, adding in more of this or more of that, herbs and organic’s add up fast, and there are so many different things to try new each year, will this one work better for my soil, for my zone, for my heat.. I have had to re-learn planting choices compared to what my folks grew out in alberta.

Then add in the fact that I extend my season’s and do a tone of research into what plants produce what in terms of vit/mineral as I am working hard to keep a healthy balanced diet while trying to grow most of it on the farm. I will end up buying this or that on things I have never even heard of or see before because its said to work well in the spring or hold in the cold frames over the winter, it takes me a season or two or four to figure out some of those plants, the ones that come with no directions are so much fun..

I had one fruit bush that I have moved three times over six years, first time, turns out it does not like wet feet, second time, turns out it does not like heavy feeding.. third time, full sun, poor soil and thick mulch, took off and growing and producing like crazy.. and so the fun goes when it comes to gardening.

So are you frugal in your seeds or do you have a seed collection that fills box’s and baskets and overflows.. do you grow each seed carefully in your sqaure foot method or so you sow whole beds and then thin for salad greens and overseed like our grandparents?

Posted in March Challange | Tagged compost, Farm Life, Frugal, Garden, Greens, Herbs, Soft Fruits, Veggies | 6 Comments

Garden Monday-Indepence Days

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I decided to combine the wonderful Independence Day Challange with the once a month garden update for my monday’s main posts.

Plant something: Wheat for sprouts, radish sprouts, ginger root

Harvest something: Everything counts – Sprouts, Eggs, Milk- New for this week, Duck eggs are starting to arrive!

Preserve something: Yogurt, cheese, pickled eggs,

Waste not:just regular composting and closed loop feeding of scraps to either chickens or pigs.

Want Not: 1 spend day out of 5, all quiet on this front!

Eat the Food: See Food Storage Friday Report as a extra, made bread, made biscuits, cooked off extra meat, made mayo, made dressing, hard boiled eggs, pickled eggs in leftover beet juice, its march challange, so everything is coming from the pantry, freezers or the barnyard.

Build community food systems: Nothing, nada, but I did stop traffic on the road when I worked the cow..and I waved hi at them..

Skill up: Worked the draft animal, woodworking, tracking in snow, composting, breadmaking in regards to no kneed cast iron baking, cheese making, sauage making.

Its been a quiet week is many ways but filled with long hours and hard manual work, the days are passing fast and bed is calling me early, I am in tune at the moment with the light, up when it comes up and down when it goes down.. The whole flow of the farm changes when I am the main one at the helm and can eat when I am hunger, sleep when tired, and still find time to get all the must do things done.. its freeing in its own way!

Posted in gardening | 8 Comments

Decoding Gardening Advice by Jeff Gillman and Meleah Maynard

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Advice – it comes from friends, family, and from the stranger at the coffee shop, or at the garden shop where you are looking at plants, and among that free advice are some gems and some duds, the fun part is always been to figure out which are which by trial and error.

I remember asking “why” as a child and teenager when my mother would show me the proper way to do something, and the answer often was, because that is how I was taught and it works. The how and why it worked were often left unanswered, as if it would just happen by magic.

Life has moved on and I still find myself often asking questions on “why” should we do this or that, and what makes that works so when Decoding Gardening Advice, The Science behind the 100 most common recommendations crossed my desk, I devoured it, then read it again, then thought about it and went back for a third reading. This book is done in seven sections, covering everything from soil and water to vegetables and fruit along with more basic sections that the average home owner would find useful in lawn care. This is an information-heavy book, with very few photos or charts.

Each chapter has a listed section on, Good Advice, Advice that’s debatable and Advice that’s just wrong. The perk of this should be clear, its perfect for someone like my hubby who does not want to read the whole book or chapter, he just wants the answer and to go.

Where for me, I like that it takes the “idea” and then breaks it down into the basic science and explains why it would or would not work or in many cases, why it would work to a point, but I wish they had provided a bit more information in regards to where the science source came from.

I really enjoyed the fact that this book did not try to make everything black and white, yes or no answers. As gardeners we know there is wiggle room in many things, and the authors of this book understand this and addressed it in a way I really liked.

If they were dealing with a debatable idea, they not only shared the science behind it but they went one step further and would share how to take that idea and give an even better way to do it.

I have to admit that I don’t think that the authors are quite as eco-friendly as I would prefer for my own lifestyle choices but they give their reasons in a clear manner.

Highly recommend this book for new gardeners, the advice given by friends, family and online can be overwhelming, this book will help you save time and money in figuring out what advice to put to use in your garden.

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged compost, Garden, Greens, Hobbies, Homesteader Books, Veggies | 5 Comments

March Challange 4th- I love my draft cow!

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

The weather is better today but I needed to do more hauling and the drifts are wicked to say the least, I had let Girl out to feed at the big hay feeder and then looked at her, and thought.. hmm, went an grabbed some of her basic gear and had her help me haul the sled up and down six times from the front yard to the barn, and then had her help me haul about two hundred pds of hay down to the barn and then roped the big 900 pd hay bale, and got her to help me flip it.. I am so proud of her, I wanted to help rock it, and so she was in a Woo and Stand.. and then pulled by VOICE command..what a good girl.. I certainly would not trust her outside a fenced yard to listen, as I know just how often I have to still correct a Wooo/Stand these days but she was already in “work mode” all total we went for more then 40 min, she got a bush down and a grain at the end.. I got less of a upper body workout but the legs are just a burning. She walks faster then I do.. I can’t wait for a proper stone boat this year, so I can either ride it or have it slower her down a bit.. Sorry folks, no photos from today, so I put up one from this fall when she was hauling hay, wow, I was just looking at her baby photos, she is getting so big!

Breakfast-Yogurt, strawberries/rhubarb, walnuts

Lunch- Hard boiled Eggs, and canned pears

Supper- Lamb Stew meat, onion, mashed potato’s with greens

Snack- Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

Extra: Coffee, Herb Tea, Water, Pickled Eggs(in the leftover Beet Pickle juice) Hard boiled a pot of eggs, harvested some greens, planted some seeds, and transplanted some onions into bigger single pots.

Given that I am talking about the cow today, I am going to stay on that topic.. and it leads me to… Plowing, and or turning the soil in your gardens..

Now I have read many books on the different schools of thought, till, no till, layer, make a raised bed, hugelkultur and the lists goes on.. I am not going to say which is right or not, I think each one has good points and each one has flaws to a point, so instead, I am just going to tell you what I do..

When I break ground, , I follow the trench digging method, this gives a dig down of about 12 to 16 inches overall, I never go deeper then that, I put good 3 to 4 inches of well done compost and then we dig and flip it, that puts the soil and compost at the bottom with the soil on top.. we try to do this in the fall, allowing the winter to heave and break the soil more for us and to provide snow cover.. if there is lack of cover, I will spread out a layer of straw, leaves or bedding with sheep manure on top..

In the spring, we tend to lightly chop and dig it in over the first four to six inches an then level it and cover crop it, some area’s are planted for the first year to loosen the soil, example growing burdock, stinging nettle, potato’s typically.. Once they are pulled out and dug out, it gets leveled down again, green cropped and or bedded down with cover.

I try hard to not have very much bare soil in the garden, it looks like a jungle and most folks who look at it think I have not weeded at all.. but the truth is I weed out any plants that I don’t eat, but I allow many “weeds” to grow that are used in the kitchen, and I love stepping on mints in the walkways, the smell is heavenly, the extra flowers being in the bee’s etc.

I admire photos of those folks that have neat, and pretty gardens that I remember from my youth, my gardens today produce thousands of pds of food each year but they are not pretty or orderly!

I use my chickens for light tilling and bug control, I use my ducks in the garden at certain times of the year for slug control as well as bug, the ducks don’t like the greens or make near as much of a mess of eating things I want for me, as the chickens do..

However the other thing we have added in for animal power over the years is piggy plows, they are allowed to dig up the deep packed bedding so that its light and fluffy stuff, it lets them express their desire to plow and dig, it allows us to have to work half as hard in the pens to move them around, and added bonus, it allows the compost to work even faster..

Angelo says, I might not think sqaush and onions peels and chicken shells are real food but I love to dig up the pen, mom’s got me working away in one of the birthing pens now that all the lambing for the year is done.. (Note, someone feels comfortable enough to look me in the eye now!)

Posted in March Challange | Tagged Chores, Farm Fresh Eggs, Frugal, Oxen | 4 Comments

March Challange 3rd- Garden-Mini -Zones

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

The winds are amazing today, and I have a few farm things to touch on before getting to my daily menu, and then on to my garden stuff.. So yesterday we had high winds, thankfully, very few things came down or was ruined in the wind, the big one being my huge purple martin bird house, its smashed beyond repair, and there are lots of little branches an a few med size one’s but overall, I am pleased with how the farm and buidings came though the very high winds we had.

The second thing of note is about the cows, Marty is now weaned, and I got to watch Girl do snow play, she was crazy about the new drifts and would lean down and play in them, she snow bathed her face and threw big peices in the air and had all kinds of fun with it.. I know that the hounds love to rub and roll in the snow but I honestly didn’t know that cow’s like to do so as well, I have never seen the sheep or goats do this.

Breakfast- Baking Powder Biscuit with a fried egg

Lunch- Roasted Chicken Sandwhich

Supper-Yogurt-Fruit-Almonds

Other-Water, Coffee, Mint Tea, Pickled Beets, Walnuts, Baked off Lamb Ribs, Shoulder Roast, and 2 pds of lamb stew meat, made fresh soft cheese.

Garden -Mini-Zones

The high winds had my nerves on edge yesterday and I tried to write a couple times but it just was not going to happen, I finally gave in and did my chicken sandwhich but as I checked and double checked things in the yard/garden, and my weights and tiedowns, it hit me.. Mini-Zones and wind patterns are a perfect topic for today..

When we are moving to knew places and or when we are planning gardens, we have a basic gardening zone given to us by the goverment, but that does not mean that is really all we have, we can naturally have an also create mini-zones, that are typically up to a full zone warmer then our typical zone is, on the flip side of that, you can have a low spot that will always get the first frosts..

Fences, buildings, and even different garden structures can all create mini-zones that you can take advantage of in where you choose to plant different things.

Then you can take things to the next level in creating mini zones by making instant cold frames, or row covers, these can make quite a difference to young tender plants in getting them started early or keeping productive plants going on the tail end of the garden season.

The big guns come out when you combine a cold frame that is topped with a hoop house, you can move a full two zones when you do it this way.

Posted in March Challange | Tagged Farm Life, Garden | 2 Comments

Farmgal’s Roasted Chicken Sandwhich.

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I would love to tell you that this is a quick and easy recipe and to point it is… when its put together..

This could be made with any good quality bread, I made mine with baking powder biscuits, I made a basic Garlic-Black Pepper mayo, diced up some fresh green onions, finely diced a half of a small onion, some crumbed sheep cheese, thigh of free ranged chicken, seared and oven roasted in duck fat.

Three days ago, I took my thighs with bone in and allowed them to thaw and rest in the fridge for 24 hours, then I brined them in salt/water for another 48 hours, at which point, I dried them, spiced them and seared them in hot duck fat, then into a hot oven for 20 min, then allowed to rest for five min covered in foil, sliced off the bone into thin stripes, the rest of the meat on the bone will be a treat to chew on later 🙂

I took the pan dripping and added the onions, and gave them a just till clear simmer,(if you meat is a little dry, drizzle a little of pan juices on them, I put garlic mayo on both sides of the sandwich, the onions went next, then the meat, then the green onion and sheep cheese on top and voila.. This was such a wonderful yummy treat to have today after a morning of go-go-go on the farm, it was nice to just stop and savour the flavours, when you are used to store got chicken the first time you try, that darker, firmer and so much stronger flavour of chicken, you can’t help but want to create dishes around things all parts of it!