Just another Day on the Farm

Little Things Challenge Feb 2025

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

I have been mulling and starting posts and then putting them into drafts, the world is always amazing, beautiful and a little bit tilted. When we can find a flower that lifts our spirit or where we can sit in awe of watching a bee collecting nectar, where the sunrise or sunset can just make you pause in awe.

At the same as those magic moments in the outer world, we have our family and friend world, and there are the laughs, hugs, tears, sharing of food, dreams, hard work and more.

Then there is the made world, not the connected day to day work with food, soil, plants, animals, crafting or making but the hard man made world of mind work, bills to be paid, the parts of our life that is controlled by so many outside forces.

Its February, the month of love.. and yet that outside world is very much on edge, change is in the air and things will be moving fast and slow at the same time. Canada and globally, things are in motion with more balls in the air then ever.

So after giving it a good think, I have made a few choices for the coming month, i am setting myself the goal of three posts a week (if i do more great).

One Farmgal type post, recipe, book review, product review, sharing of farm life related something, garden and so on.

One “Little Things” post, Beautiful Photography, notes of sweetness, kindness, love and relationship and community!

One Friday Ramble, this will be more political, Cranky, and at times a bit snarky as i grumble at actions being taken and their effects on my life or my community or my country.

I hope you will join me on working this month to see the Little Things! Each week i will give a idea!

This week find time to get outside by a fire, head to the local skate park, join a friend for some outdoor time with a fire, sit by the wood or gas stove, or at the very least sit by a flickering candle warm in side with a cuppa, there is something about the crackle of fire. Can’t get out, can’t have a fire, draw picture of a fire with friends, can’t draw, go online and find a photo of fire that calls to you! Watch a video of a live fire, close your eyes and listen..

Posted in 30 day challanges | Tagged cuppa tea, Find your joy, fire, hot chocolate, Its the little things, Love, Simple life, Stop and smell the campfire, Winter, winter fire | Leave a comment

Feeding Times effects lambing or Kidding timing

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

I have noticed that this post is getting a good amount of views and for good reason, when you do your feeding times has been well studied on how it effects when your momma’s will lamb, kid or calf out.

This is a very good thing for those that work from the farm as they can bring far more babies being born in the first part of the day and get better sleeps or flipping it, you can with correct feeding work towards having your birthing happen at night when you are home if you are working off the farm on regular full time hours.

Its all a matter of when you feed out your hay, if you want 6am morning, feed after 6pm. This does not work if you are feeding round bales and they are on full access 24/7, but it works wonderfully if you are feeding out twice a day.

Do you want your Lambs or Kids to be birthed in daytime hours?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged birthing, farm, Farm Life, farming, Feed for lambing, feeding timing, goats, jugs, kidding, lamb, lambing, sheep, winter lambing | Leave a comment

Frugal Feb 2025

Posted on January 29, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

For so many years, I have done a no buy feb, but we faithfully did a no buy Nov and i am honestly not in the mood for it this Feb. We have a few things planned for the month to try and bring a little travel and adventure into our world while the gardens are sleeping and before the spring arrival of new babies and so on.

What i will continue to do is turn to the freezers, Pantry and Canning Cellar for items to use and find ways to stretch them. Above was a small end package of beef ribs from the 2023. It was a small row of six only, not really enough for a “feed” of ribs but enough to make a perfect two person supper with other fixings.

I oven baked it with lots of seasoning and did a long slow cook at 300, pulled the meat and left the bones, adding in a good amount of water, and put it onto the wood stove, then carefully made sure all the browning bits were scarped into my beef ” bone broth”.

This was the base for both a soup and a cup was added to a pot of rice for extra boost of flavour, yum! It even had a bit of left over rice after the main meal which i turned into a fast lunch by adding a little grated cheese blend and diced up Cured Beef Tongue

One of the things I started doing a few years ago was turning more of my fruit into sauce and then pressure canning it so i could make it self stable without the same amount of sugar needed to do so in waterbath canning. I had high hopes at the time that it would work well for us in our homemade yogurt but members of the household find the homemade yogurt not sweet enough as is, never mind adding in unsweetened fruit.

Muffins to the Rescue! I am almost at the point of being willing to write up this new recipes, just a bit more trying with other fruits, dried greens and spices and different baking trays/sizes for timings and it will be ready to come out here on the blog.

This was a Carrot Pineapple Oatmeal Loaf Muffin, so far i have tried it with apple sauce, peach sauce, Apricot sauce, fresh ginger, ground ginger, with just dried nettle greens, with mixed dried ground spring green blend. I am working to make each muffin either have or be very close to having a fruit and veggie serving, along with the oatmeal and bran bonus.

Some sprouts, some growing fresh and fast greens, radishes and so on, along with frozen, canned and dried goods means that we should be able to help keep the monthly shopping costs down. We will find out Feb 1st if there is in fact if 25% tariffs come into effect and the ripple effect that will have.

Storm update: the wind did some minor roof damage on the croft barn, branches down and so on, otherwise we got some drifts and need walk the pasture fence lines to make sure the hot line is good and in effect for the horses, otherwise, we never lost power and stayed warm and well fed here on the farm and i was truly grateful that hubby was able to make it a work from home day, he got his hours in and switched his in office day to a much safer day to drive in.

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged beef, Beef bones, Beef Ribs, bone broth, Canned Fruit, Canning, dinner, dried nettle, Eat what you grow, Farm Life, food, Frugal Feb, Frugal living, Fruit muffins, Garden like you mean it, Muffins, nettle, recipe, recipes, Roasting Bones, Tariffs | 2 Comments

Wind Storm Prep

Posted on January 27, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

We have a massive winter wind storm coming in, they are saying it could be like the winter wind storms of Christmas 2022, that storm took down a huge number of trees, power outages and drifting snow upwards of 10 to 15 feet depending on where you were located.

Our area looks to be in the middle, with wind to be between 50 to 80 km a hour, where as the worst areas are looking at up to 100 km a hour along with the snow that will happening at the same time.

Today the wind is coming in on our standard winter directions, which is a very good thing for us, it means our both our big spruce tree hedgerow (further from the house) and the closer shorter/dense bush hedgerow will do their jobs in terms of both lifting the wind up and over and helping cut it and hold the snow drifting in.

The shorter thick hedge row has a built in swale in front of it to help catch and hold the snow on that side of the hedgerow away from the house, this means that we will get min drifting in the frontage area between that hedgerow and the kitchen garden to the walkway and the front of the house.

You can see some of what is happening from the photo from my winter wind direction side of the front yard, behind the spruce lines, is in fact a second short line of a combo of native spruce/maple/lilac. Here is that view from a spring/summer photo.

Don’t let the back end view from the higher up photo from the living room fool you on just how much coverage that second shorter/thicker closer hedge row is! This is a direct summer look from the ground level, and you can just see the photo i took the photo out of in the warmth of my house.

The willows help cut the wind some but not at all like the hedgerows do..

This one shows the smaller rose /fruit tree row one of the inbetween the spruce and the house hedgerow..

Did you buy a house that had windrow plantings down to help cut down storm winds/winter winds or drifting? Or did you like me, need to plant them yourself? The winter wind drift side is now triple rowed out and the winter solar sun is kept fully open and allowed to pour in.

If local, stay safe and safe warm, have a good one folks and if you do not already have hedgerows to help protect your home, outbuildings or barns, do consider them, they are worth the work!

Posted in homestead | Tagged Combination Hedgerows, Combination Wind Breaks, cooking on your woodstove, hedge rows, homestead, nature, Shelterbelts, Shuttle Chef, Snow, Tall hedgerows, Thicket hedgerows, weather, Wind blocks, Wind shelters, Wind storms, Winter, Winter Wind, Winter Winds, woodstove | Leave a comment

Corned Beef Tongue -Waste Not, Want Not

Posted on January 23, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

While i used to raise my own beef, I was lucky enough to find someone who raises the most amazing grass fed beef just down the road for me, i gave my calf’s the best life i could but i was always aware that i was using bagged milk to get them started.

So when i was able to find a family farm that i could see the momma’s and the babies in the fields that grow all their own hay/bedding that sold by the whole or Half, it was a perfect choice and switch for me.

I believe this year was the 6th year of buying my bulk beef from them and i always ask for everything i can get, including the odd bits that most do not ask for. I have shanks, tail, heart and liver as well as the whole tongue.

Tongue for me is a odd bit of the beef, it can be tough and its chewy, i am not fond of it as is.. for me, it must be cured into Corned Beef. It needs a long slow cure time, no rushing this one, a solid few weeks in the cold part of the fridge in the brine will get the job done.

Then the slowest (just a simmer) cook time for hours in a fresh spiced broth, and finally peeled, sliced, *you could also smoke it if you wanted and ready to go.

My favorite way to use it is to dice it up into bits and make a Corned Beef Hash to be served for breakfast or dinner for breakfast with fresh dippy eggs!

Served in these bits, honestly, its like a version of beef bacon, its got a lovely beef flavor to it, but that bit of crisp bit with a touch of chew is very bacon bit like. These can be cooked ahead and used just like you would bacon bits.

In todays higher prices of protein, a lot of folks will be looking to buy direct from the ranchers and farmers and buy a quarter or a whole animals, if you have always gotten your meat from the store, it can be a challenge to figure out how to use some the bits and bobs of unfamiliar cuts, this one is a bit more extreme then trying to figure out how to use a flank steak but its a good two pounds of finished meat and that is a good amount of meals when used correctly.

I will be sharing one more recipe using this meat in the near future. While you do need a bit of space in the fridge or cold cellar to do the cure time, its a amazing way to get the family on board when it comes to eating a different cut.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged beef, Bulk buy, Corn Beef Hash, Corned Beef Tongue, dinner, food, Frugal, Homemade Corned Beef, homestead, Nose to tail cooking, odd bits, recipe, recipes, support small farmers, Waste not | 1 Comment

Peach Babies and more

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

Trays and rows of peach babies are all popping up, remember to plant the tail side down when potting them up, i have held them as long as i could and i have them on a 10 on and 14 hours off as i am working hard to limit their growth due to how early in the year it is, once they all get potted up into their own pots, they are going to be taking up a huge amount of room and right now i am just using the air movement from the furnace but will add in a fan soon enough.

I am thrilled that last year more then a two dozen plus hard fruit trees came into production in the combined food forests, while everything will not be in full force until another three to five years, there will be peaches! Local fall fresh peaches indeed!

Our Little Miss Fancy turned one year old

Its crazy how fast time is moving the Big Boys are coming five and they are very much who they will be for the rest of their lives. Fancy is turning out to be a excellent small farm dog and the cold does not seem to be a issue with her at all, she is very determined that she must come out and do chores.

We are in the middle of a cold snap in our neck of the woods, it a deep wide spread cold and i know that a lot of folks are current hunkered down? How is your temps at the moment, be it winter or summer in your neck of the woods?

I am dreaming and craving fresh veggies from the garden, that joy of heading out with bowls to pick things to be brought in and used moments later

Seed Displays are arriving in the local big greenhouses and seed catalogs have all arrived to the house, a few things to get yet but mostly we are good, having ordered in most of my seeds before the new year even came.

If you are looking to buy locally, Seedy Saturdays will be coming over the next few months all over the place, but at least locally here, all the Seed Displays are from Canadian Seed Houses.

I expect that we will see a lot of folks growing more or adding in a few extra food plants or garden box this year, a very good choice indeed.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged Dreaming of spring, Farm dogs, Farmgal, flowers, food, Garden, Garden is calling, Garden seeds, Gardening, Gardening in Zone 5, Growing from pits, homestead, Peach pits, recipe, Seeds, Sib C peaches, Winter is here | Leave a comment

Chick Order Time 2025

Posted on January 20, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

The last couple years i have been ordering in six ready to lay hens and keeping my bird flock very small indeed. It was strange because for the other 17 years on the farm, i always have a mixed flock with breeding hens and roos.

The overall health issues of the past few years has made it better to just buy the ready to lay, and the breed i have chosen lays light blue eggs, its a crossbred and its small and barely eats anything all things considered. Called the Azure Blue by Frey’s, they have been proven to be just delightful to keep.

However with all the issues currently happening in terms of Bird Flu in general and that the farm is naturally on a spring and fall flight path and i fully expect we will have related issues. It was time to switch back to a lovely breed i have owned and loved before.

We will be bringing back to the farm the dual purpose Ivory chicken breed, i am bringing in a set amount of female/male chicks as this breed is able to be feather sexed as day olds

While nothing beats the White Rocks on terms of feed to meat and age rates, as a dual purpose the Ivory is a fine choice, with the hens laying on average light brown large eggs in the 275 range per year of heavy production and the males coming in at a lovely little 4 pound fryer at 12 weeks.

I have gotten them from Frey’s Hatchery before and that is where i am ordering them from again this time. The hens have lovely small combs for our brutal winters an while the males do have larger, its not bad overall compared to other breeds. In keeping with lighting, they are mostly white or light body’s which helps in our deep winter. Darker feathered birds need more light in winter compared to white or light colored.

It is possible that i might also cross out a few of my best producing Azure Blue with a select Ivory roo for a lighter body weight laying hen, we will see

I feel the need to go back to having a dual purpose small flock so that i can if needed do a “closed flock” here on the farm for a couple years with the ability to raise my own meat chicks and replace layers.

One of the perks of the Ivory is that on their second year of life, many of them will go broody and sit a fine clutch of chicks to raise, averaging here on the farm around 12 to 14 per clutch in the past.

This year we also added in a small group of white rock meat birds to raise and 10 mini classic turkeys for a mix of fryer, rooster and canning and more.

Have you ordered in your chicks yet? Are you looking to adjust things with the current state of the bird flu? Are you ordering in more layers as sales will be up for small farmers who do end of driveway sales?

Posted in Chickens, Climate Change | Tagged backyard-chickens, Bird Flu, Chickens, chicks, Duel Purpose chickens, Eggs, Farm eggs, homestead, Homesteading, Ivory Chickens, Raising your own, Turkeys Mini Classic, White Rock Chicks | Leave a comment

Rice Weevil

Posted on January 2, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

I was almost at the end of my one tupperware storage tubs of rice, but its all good, because i had picked up a big bag of white rice at a store, plus i have my US grown red rice, my wild black rice and my mixed blended rice etc.

I like to switch move from the big storage tubs in the laundry cooler pantry, to a smaller working tub in the kitchen pantry, so i asked hubby to grab it and then went, well Bleep.. it was crawling with little black bugs, what a Rice Weevil infestation!

Out they went to freeze in the sub-zero outdoor for 24 hours to wait for garbage day, where they were dumped out and now i just to clean the heck out of my tubs. The good news is only the tubs that got that one bag of rice appear to be effected, so that means my lid seals were on tight indeed.

Still that was many meals of rice that got tossed, and yes i know that in great time of need, it would make sense to freeze and clean and use, but i am not there. I can afford at this time to just remove it and in part its my own fault, my freezers have been full and i have did not freeze the grains before storage.

I will continue to check other grains but so far it appears that i got off lucky and it was contained, its been many many years since i have had a issue and with rising food prices, remembering to freeze your incoming grains could be a meal and money saver.

While i have heard that eggs can be frozen and hatch out afterwards, i have never had that happen, I tend to freeze for 7 days, they say it can be as short at 4 days, if you have the space, why not just make a habit of being a week, the big thing to remember is that after freezing, you need to lay that grain out to dry, you do not want any moisture going back into tub its going to be held in.

This can be harder in larger amounts but the oven turned to its lowest setting to warm it, then turn off and use the oven light does the job well for me

What is your favorite way to help keep this pantry pest out of your house. Do you have good luck keeping tight fitting lidded tubs in your pantry that means if you get a infestation in, that its contained?

Posted in dry pantry | Tagged bugs in rice, Dry pantry pests, dry pantry storage, Freezing your grains, Grain Weevils, Pantry pests, rice, Rice Weevils | Leave a comment

Happy New Year

Posted on January 1, 2025 by Just another day on the farm

Welcoming in the new year with 97 wee peach sprouted pits! What a delightful way to head into 2025

This fall, i put my top 102 select peach pits out of hundreds of choices from five different Sib C that i started from gifted to me pits 6 winters ago.

Five were duds, 97 went though the cold stratification process and cracked their shells, today was the day they moved into the next stage of being potted up..

Over the next six to eight weeks, they will continue to grow, put out first leaves, then true leaves, in keeping with last time, between the duds and baby plant loss, i should or could lose upward of 20 percent before the next big pot up into their own one liter tall pots

Rainy finished her first leather projects from her very first self-processed doe hide, a handmade book and a tool leather roll carrying case, I am very sure both of these will be treasured by those gifted to them for many years to come!

Now that she has done her first hide into leather and learned a number of different things along the way, i am excited to see how her next leather hides go but for right now she is working on a good size buck hide, its about double the size of the doe hide and its prime winter coat.

We have had a warm weather snap, with a bit of rain and the ground water is moving, sump pump is a running and all the cleared pathways are down to green ago but the non-shoveled or plowed are still snow covered so far. Snow and cold are back on the menu this weekend.

We took advantage of the weather and spent time outside and opened all the windows and aired out the house, which i tend to do daily anyway in winter, it might not be good for the heating bill but it helps me breath better and i have made a point all week to sit out in the fresh air for at least half a hour.

This week, we gave out apples to the herd of two as we had Mr. Bojangles 8th Gotcha Day happen, we all continue to enjoy the horses, the soft nickers, the warm necks, the velvet muzzle that just has to get kisses.

I am sad that our mini holiday is over and it just flew by, Hubby is back to work tomorrow and so the new year indeed begins. Wishing you all the best! Happy New Year!

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged deer hide, Deer Hides, Garden, Handmade Leather, horse, Learn the skills, Peach pits, Peach seeds, photography, winter sunshine, work the skills | 2 Comments

Happy Holidays!

Posted on December 28, 2024 by Just another day on the farm

Its been a white Christmas for our farm and household, quiet and lowkey, all the company plans we had for over the ten day holiday window cancelled due to illness but one who came a bit early! It was such a blessing to have D come and stay for a couple days!

So Hubby, Rainy and I have played card games, board games, D&D games, Done a few Photography sessions, Baked goodies, and cooked much more simple meals then i had planned when more folks were coming over.

So today I am going to share, my take on the viral pets and wrapping paper photography for the holiday season. Most folks taped the paper across doorways and then allowed to the dogs to rip it “breaking though” and there are some cute photos/video’s with some very confused pets lol

I went a little more planned, our wrapping paper was tapped over a cardboard box frame, and i set up a lovely Christmas Tree backdrop behind the low table they worked on, with cover for good footing for all the pets, then we added in some lovely fun props!