Just another Day on the Farm

Weigh In 02-2-1202

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Stepped on the scale and down 1.4 pds this week, not great but at least it was a move in the right direction, I really need to cool it on those amazing sunflower seeds, so tasty but so high in calories!

Currently a total of 19.9 out of my 50 pd goal and a total of 14.6 on the family spring weight loss challange

Goals for this Past week..

Journal and take my calories plus make sure I get my water drank!-Yes but still need to add more water in daily..

One longer outdoor walk, one barn stall workout, one weight workout with hubby-No, I did get to spend a lovely weekend with DH but we didn’t go walking in the freezing rain and when we did get a good afternoon, it was all spent hauling bedding, hay and puttering around the farm.

Going to spend at least 10 min on stretches and balance work daily-Yes

Do at least two one hour extra housework workouts-Wash Walls, or cupboards or ? -I got a few things done but not nearly as heavy duty as I would have liked.

If possable eat more greens this week, I have a number of pots coming, break down and just harvest some as micro-greens and plant more pots.-Yes, I still want more greens, going to dig out and bring in a number of bags of greens from the freezer.

This coming week is going to be a simple one

Journel everything that goes into my mouth!
Drink at least eight glass of water daily.
I will spend at least a few min each day outside beyond doing chores
I will focus all my energy and effort on a house cleaning and so not only will get some required movement but will have a cleaner home for it!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Leave a comment

This and That Post..

Posted on February 2, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

I thought about breaking this post up into each part and then to be honest thought No, because I would end up putting up three or four posts and I just don’t have that writing feeling or energy today to fill out the posts to the level I like to do so.

So first for those of you that are willing to pray for others, could you please add my mother to your daily prayer list, she went into the hospital two days ago with what appears to be heart attack like things, and while its not sure what is happening, but lots of tests over the last two days and many more to come are planned to try and figure out what is happening, so I am open to prayer for general well-being, I would ask that you also consider adding in that the right test or the right doctor cross’s her path to give her the help that she needs, please an thanks!

Today is a Ground Hog Day and that means the offical slide towards spring and I am happy for the longer daylight and the fact that the weather will get better all month but today is also a sad day for me, as its my dearly departed daughter Maeve’s birthdate, some years are better then others, and I am having a slightly sad feeling of the day but overall, I am going to have a better day, because I have already decided that I am not openning her box this year. Some year’s I do and some year’s I don’t, it just depends on what I need. You see in her box are her little hand and foot prints, her lock of hair, baby cloths, her little stuffies and many other things from her very special few days with us.

For those of you that have little ones, give them a extra hug and kiss today, take a few min to reflect on just how lucky you are and for those that have lost children or grandchilden, my heart goes out to you and may you find a way to spend time with something that comfort’s your soul, be it prayer, time with your purrpot in your lap or a full body snuggle with your hound or watching new lambs bop and leap with joy.

Posted in Family | 6 Comments

January in Review 2012

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

So Jan was a low spend month in regards to Food Storage Fridays, We did end up going out this past saturday and spent 38 on food storage items- Seeds (sunflower, walnuts, almonds) and a couple bags of popcorn. We also spent 26 on household pantry items that were on sale- Main one being pinesol, along with picking up 3 box’s of wooden strike anywhere matches. For food we spent 11.29 on fresh stuff-Oranges, Banana’s, Brocolli, and a bag of onions, cabbage and a turnip. So for a total of 46.13 spent on food last month.

We had a total of 6 shopping/spending trips out of a possable 31 days in Jan.. not bad, but it would be great to get that number down if possable this month.

This month is a offical $10 spend or less per week for groceries for the household, join in if you would like, will be doing my weekly updates on Food Storage Fridays, but others will be doing it on their own chosen day during the week.

So lets talk about Marty for a second, he is going very well, in fact he is huge compared to girl at the same age, I am surprised at just how much bigger he is, he has always been a big hay baby, I think its because he joins in eating when girl does just on the other side of the feeder, and the same with his sheep buddy, she eats, he eats.. He will be weaned when this last bag of milk is done, he will be approx 16 weeks at that time, which means that he will have had a full ten weeks of extra milk over and above the typical amount done for a bottle baby and it certainly shows in regards to his total costs to date. Now I would be worrying that this was very high, but! I was on Kijji and they have six week old bottle half beef bull calvies on and they are asking for 550 each, they also had little girls of the same age for a hundred less.. so given that he is much bigger, much better started, I am still ahead of the game, plus the costs will now start slowing down, once the milk is done and while it seems odd to say it in feb but its not that long before fresh green grass will be here.

To date Marty cost’s are $496 Jan 2012

Marty-$150.00 **
Milk replacer-$320.00 *
Feed-$14.00
Baking Soda- $2
Hay-$5
Bedding-$5

Extra above and beyond costs or buying in the month of Jan included my new second hand stove and then comes my van, You see when I was gone, DH told me that he went to start my van and it did a odd, click click..die, the way he said it sounds like my starter had gone, not a good thing, but the truck was running and so it got put on the back burner, Snow, freezing rain and sleet was keeping me from wanting to go poke around it, finally went out and gave it a try, and I could see right away that the battery needed a charge, so again had to wait for a break in the weather, which took a good long while, but finally this weekend, we had a six hour window to get the battery charger out and on and sure enough my van started up and got going.. great! but only one problem.. it was frozen in, it was sitting in a dip for each tire on ice.. we rocked it, we did a number of tricks, it was not coming out.. so the choice left was, attach it to the truck and pull it out or call CAA and have them come and pull me out.

I pay very good money for that card (over 120 per year, as I have the gold membership with moterhome coverage) and so i made the call and we have a gent out from down the road here within 20 min and five min later, it was out and all good to go, alot safer to have it done properly. So given a typical call out is a charge of $80 locally, my card only needs to earn another 60 this year to earn its way..

Now I have really enjoyed reading Cheap, Fast and Good’s posts on How does your Garden Grow, she track’s how much she put out, vs what is being brought in, I have my own doubts that I can be as good as she is on keeping her information up, but I’m going to try and make monday’s a day where I post something in regards to the gardens or wild forage or sprouting etc depending on the time of the year.. As always I do better if its a regular weekly event then a monthly event, so we will see if I can get in a habit about posting on the garden on monday’s, give me a helping hand ladies, if I miss it, give me a poke ok..

I will be keeping to her rules of ” I am only tallying expenditures that get “used up.” Capital improvements, like new fencing or tools, will count as household improvements and not be in our accounting”

January FarmGal-How does your garden grow.

Total output : 2.55 for a bag of potting soil (because I forgot to bring some in, and they are all frozen under snow/ice and I don’t want to rip the bags trying to get them up and out.. BAD farmgal..

Impute’s : Sprouts $6 dollars worth, I read the packages at the store for weights on the packages and then the cost of the radish sprouts, and then roughly tried to figure out how many has been used and sprouted.

Micro-greens- 3 dollars worth I will measure more carefully this coming month, right now all I can say is a bowls worth of them, or about the size of a small box from the store.

Total = + 6.45

Speaking of Gardening, I was delighted to get a letter from Lynn who was kind enough to send me a little package of Vinson Watt Tomato seeds.. So Thank you! It also had a little surprise in that she also included some lovely rovering from a cormo sheep.

I am really looking forward to trying to grow this tomato and see how it does in our climate, I will update on how it goes..

Last but not least I was able to keep myself under control in regards to my book buying and only got one this month (which is really good for me) Its heavy enough and big enough to be used as a weapon in a pillowcase LOL Its called Forgotten Skill of Cooking, the time honored ways are the best over 700 recipes show you why by Darina Allen, the so called Julia Child of Ireland..

Let me tell you there are some good looking recipes in there, along with some very odd and old fashion idea.. I will no doubt be trying a number of things but let me give you just one that I will be trying.. Make your marmalade as normal, and then pour a covering of melted rendered lamb fat on top and let it set, then when you want some jam, crack off the fat, take out your jam, wash the fat, remelt it and pour over to seal again.. Its like using wax like they did when I was a child, but they are using lamb fat instead.. something you can produce yourself on the farm… Let me tell you the whole section on perserving would send anyone who follows the USDA guidelines today into a fainting spell..

As they say.. On with the show!

Posted in farm, Goals | 6 Comments

Super Rich and Chewy Heart Barley Stew

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Now, that pile of bits of meat with the tough peices of fat that I cut off, you can add them to the grind for hamburger, 1/4th heart to 3/4 of main muscle meat, or you can use them to delight your four footed friend.

However if you already enjoy the moist flavourful bursts of chewy meaty goodness of chicken heart, then give this super rich stew a try..

3 trimming from lamb hearts-Or trimming from any other heart
1 small diced onion
1 diced garlic
1/2 cup of dried mixed mushrooms
6 cups of lamb stock
1 cup of mixed bitter greens
1/4 cup of barley
Spices- Jamacian Jerk Spices -Going to give you a kick! to this dish..

Put a little goood oil in the bottom of your pan, add your heart, onion and garlic and cook till brown bits show and onions are clear, then add the stock, barley and dried mushrooms, and spices, simmer till reduced by at min half, or for very rich, down to 1/4, then add one cup of mixed bitter greens and serve..

This will make two moderate servings perfect to go with fresh southern cornbread(the unsweet kind) or in a pinch, the northern sweet version.

More Family Friendly : Consider using trimmed heart meat for a more tender, less chewy bowl, don’t allow to reduce past half way point, Consider using more mild baby spinach, instead of bitter greens, consider using montreal steak spice, raither then the hotter jerk Spice blend. Increase your broth by another 2 cups and use more barley and add a diced carrot or turnip for more color and a slight sweetness to the dish, more suited for childrens taste buds.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | 1 Comment

Have a Heart? Heart shaped Box of Chocolates.. nope..

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

How about a whole host of yummy hearts recipes.. In this case, lamb maybe a few chicken or duck heart recipes thrown in.

So I have four to six planned recipes over the next week or two that are going to involve using hearts in your meals, so lets talk about the heart itself for a bit.. Traditionally within our family, heart was eaten, I still have very fond memories of stuffed moose heart, not just good the first time around but so amazing cold sliced thin and used in a sandwhich.

The second way we often got heart was chicken or turkey heart, which tended to be slow roasted and eaten whole.. every now and again, my mom would or myself in my twenties would buy a whole package of chicken hearts, simmer them with onions, garlic, sauce and enjoy them that way..

Most cultures have a story about heart being the food of the warriors or hunters, but really when it comes to cooking, there are few things to remember.

a) Cook it fast or Cook it Slow both will give your excellent results, the middle will give you some very tough meat indeed.

b) Clean your hearts up, remove the silver skin, and the tough outer fat for most dishes

c) Got family or guests that are little ah about the idea of eating heart, don’t serve whole, slice and dice and they will enjoy it much more.

d) Grind it and use it in hamburgers, or other soups, stews or meatballs etc, if grinding it up, still remove the sliver skin but you can leave the fat on the outside as it will blend in.

Tradionally if you are buying your hearts, they will be split open, this is because they must be inspected, and that is the case with my lamb hearts. These have been frozen now for a few months so much duller and darker in color then a fresh heart would be.

First things first if there are any valves left, trim them out and throw them away..

So when you look at the heart, you have the “strings” to remove, and you will have thinner and thicker peices of meat, the thin peices like the one I am holding can be used for stew bits or for ground meat bits.

In the end, between the three lamb hearts I was able to create a number of different meat cuts, on the top left, I have the meaty bits with fat that will go to make my Rich Heart Barley Stew Recipe, the front smaller peices is shown below sliced super thin for use in a fresh veggie Stirfry over a bed of coucous.

The bigger peices is going to be used to make a lovely stuffed peice of heart. On the bottom right side, we have lots of cleaned chopped bits, which will either be made into a stew or used to make heart/Lamb Ground burgers, and on the right top, is lovely cubed heart for a spicy shish kabob.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes, frugal | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Food Production and Recipes, Frugal, Lamb Recipes, sheep | 2 Comments

Johnny Cake or Corn Bread Recipes

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

One of my gifts for Christmas was a acron Corn Pan, now its awesome in so many ways but still on the hunt for a cast iron corn cob corn pan to add to my baking wear collection. When I was up at my Big Brothers, we made a batch of my momm’a cornbread, wow does she make northern cornbread, its crazy rich and sweet, and to this she added more butter and syrup.. It tastes awesome that way, and I remember loving it as a kid but honestly as a adult who try’s to cut sugar down, I found it very sweet. The funniest things about the recipe was a comment, I looked at it and finally had to ask my mom, it was a very odd way of saying, don’t touch the top of the her johnny cake when checking it for doneness.. as its such a moist recipe that the top will stick and you will be left with a finger print in the middle of the pan LOL

So lets talk about some southern Johnny Cake recipes, as sourthern cornbread is not typically done up sweet, here are a couple old fashion recipes, these recipes were first published in 1915 in the Five Rose Cookbook

Recipe #1

1 cup sour milk (buttermilk will also work very well)
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
pinch of salt
1/3 cup melted lard
1 cup ground corn meal
2 cups flour
1 tsp of soda

Mix 3 cups of buttermilk with 2 small tsp of soda, 1 cup of sugar, 2 eggs a 1tsp of salt, 3 cups of cornmeal and one and cups of flour with 1 teaspoon of sifted cream of tarter in the flour. 3 melted tbsp of lard, mix very well.

#3-No eggs

2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
2 cups sweet fresh milk
2 tbsp melted fat
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp baking powder

Bake them all in a hot oven in a greased cast iron pan, ideally preheated first and then add batter and then bake till golden brown..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged Food Production and Recipes | 6 Comments

Food Storage Feb -$10 a week Challange

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Well, I thought about making this a flat food storage feb but the truth is, I am paying good money to get some help in regards to health related to diet and working towards having a little one, so it does not make sense to not follow said advice, which includes having some fresh fruit and greens per day, now I have been able to work out that I use my canned/frozen/dried fruits for most of my portions per day but I gave at one fresh each day, typically a apple, orange or a banana. Now I am not buying greens, I am growing and or sprouting them more so, but I do need to buy cabbage.

So I have done some math and I believe that I can get what I need each week for ten dollars or under per week, getting everything else from the farm in terms of pantry, freezers or fresh on the farm, including eggs, milk, meat etc.

I am giving myself a pass on girls afternoon out for coffee, but I hope? that I will be able to get them all visiting in house raither then going out, to reduce and or limit any spending on them, I do have one give, the weekend before Valenties, we have a fancy four course lunch out booked, this is a freebe meal, I was quite excited to find them and can only hope that they live up to their motta, I will post on the meal, but its all about being local, I found them in my ontario table book.

So I think Daisy said she was up to joining me so I look forward to that, anyone else want to join me, set your own weekly amount that suits your family be it less or more and we will see how it goes, i will be doing my weekly updates on my food storage friday posts.

Posted in Food Storage, frugal | Tagged Frugal | 5 Comments

Trust yourself when it comes to food storage!

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Sunday was a interesting food storage day, brought a new big 20 pd bag of flour in from the freezer and when I opened it, I didn’t like the way the flour smelled, it was off.. not rancid but I started into that bag and just didn’t like it..

Was to Make the first item, still didn’t like it.. when I poured it and felt it, still off, finally put it though the strainer, and sure enough scales and most likely eggs that I can’t see.. then as it warmed up, the smell came out.. rancid bug flour.. what the ??

O ya, last year when the big freezer got unplugged the bags of flour at that time got moved to the truch for a couple days while we cleaned and got the freezer bag again, clearly the bugs had a blast in that time.. neverless to say that flour is off the human table, I am still trying to figure out if I want to refreeze it (so the eggs that I can’t see but figure are in there can’t hatch in my house) and use it to make tack for the chickens, they don’t care about old flour or bugs in it..

Then I sent hubby down for a list of canned goods and one of them turned out to be a second year old rhurbarb, looked fine, popped fine, but had a single tiny black spot on the inside of the lid, hmmm Took off the top of the jar and smelled it, smelled fine, poured it out into a glass jug, looked fine, no mold strings, lifted out spoonful and stared at it, bright color, looks right.. looked at the lid spot again.. poured into a small pot and started to heat it, for two reason’s, a) if there is nothing wrong with it, i am being careful by giving it a boil for ten min, and B) if there is something wrong with it, the cooking will give time for the smell to come up and off, and that is just what happens once it got hot.. the nose knew what the eyes could not see.. this jar had gone bad! and down the toilet it went, not safe even for the critters nor the compost pile.

Then I opened up a new small jar of my bulk raw pumpkin seeds and they had gone/going rancid, sheez! Went to the hounds ground up as natural dewormers so that they could be all used up without going to waste..

It seems like every time I turn around, I am reading on a blog about learning to can or pressure can and how easy it is, and I agree, follow the rules and you will get a good safe product but I want to follow along with the canning and cook books in regards to advice, if you are new to cooking, canning or food storage.. use four of your five sences..

Look at the food- and not just the top, pour it out, lift it by the spoonful, move it around.
Smell your food -If in doubt, heat it to double check.
Feel your food- sometimes just the texture and feel of a tsp of food will give you the answer
Hear your food-Truly spoiled canned food can have sounds that will tell you that its gone..

But for heaven sakes.. Please! don’t taste that food until you are sure. and if it fails any of the above, don’t eat it! The problem with the above is clear to me, if you have never made that product before and or have little or no cooking experance, how do you know that the texture is off, or the color is off, and is that color off because its older or because it went bad.

I don’t have the answer other then to say that as with most things in life, time and practise are required, so might i recommend that you consider doing the above on all your good jars, so that when you hit that bad one, some part of you goes.. Stop wait..

If I didn’t make my bread by hand, those scales in the flour would not have been seen or felt by a wooden spoon but my first touch stilled me.. my rhubarb fruit was sealed, but bad spots on the inside of a lid.. should not happen in a good jar, and as for the jar of my bulk seeds, I always take a first whiff when I open a jar, typically its a pleasent thing, but it also gives you the first best chance as the air is at its most scented, one of the perks of storage in jars, raither then in bags.

Be careful and stay safe in the kitchen.. take that extra few seconds to learn your food, its worth the effort.

This is a Homestead Blog Hop Post.. Want to see what others are up to, use the link to see what folks have posted about and see if anything catches your eye!

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged 100 mile food challange, Canning | 9 Comments

A little soup love..

Posted on January 29, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Since I have been home, I have made a number of soups, here are just a few, some I posted with recipes and some have never made it to a post but they were so good.. Every single soup was started with homemade bone stock, the meats were duck, chicken, or lamb, and at least 50% or more of the veggies came from the farm be it pantry, canned or freezers. Have you been enjoying and making different soups in this cold month?

Posted in frugal | 1 Comment

Gray Day-Freezing Rain and then snow on top..

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Just another day on the farm

Since we have moved here, we have seen ice storm and snow storms but today is just a touch scary, everything was already covered in thick ice (which typically means breaking limbs on tree’s) but then it snowed, heavy wet snow.. about an hour or so ago, I hear a huge Boom! rattle, rattle and then crash! which was the ice and the snow all letting go in a huge slab off my metal roof crashing down on my deck on one side and on the other on to the attached trailer off the kitchen, it was so loud, and seemed to have hit so hard that I ran to check the inside roof on where it landed and then carefully made my way outside to check from there.. other then being in a pile.. everything seems just fine.. Some of the soft fruit bushes are pulled down so low that they are laying over, hoping it does not effect them to badly but I will be needing to do some tying up and I have not even got out to see my young or younger fruit trees..