Weigh in 15/12/11

Posted on December 15, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Well this weekly posting of weight and goals is going to do a little expanding, as I am going to be doing a fair amount of things in regards to weight/workouts/eating in regards to working towards the goal of not only feeling healthier for myself but also in regards to working towards becoming and staying expecting, I will be adding in a bit more detail on that front on my weekly updates.

So in regards to health goals for the past week, I had my regular Chiropractic treatment, I had regular care as a child/teen and into my twenties, then we moved north and it became more of a when I went home, get checked.. then I didn’t find anyone I liked in my local area for awhile, but that changed last year, I found a wonderful lady who I have been going to for well over a year now, and it has made a good difference for me.

The second thing this week to report on general care is that Dh had his teeth cleaned, again in the past two years, we stepped up care on them, truth is we had been VERY lack in this area, (as in had not seen a one in years) surprisingly for me at least, I went in to get a broken tooth fixed and a cleaning and that was all I needed, poor Dh on the other hand, needed five fillings, a tooth removed and he is on a faster teeth cleaning routine of every four months for a bit till they get his mouth in better shape..  On the other hand, I’m in and out in a heart beat for my cleanings. Of course I do regular oil pulling which they think is crazy but they also comment all the time on how good my teeth are..

So are you keeping up on your regular health needs? Do you believe and get chiropractor care?

So got on the scale fully expecting a “gain” as its that time of the month that I hold alot water/swelling and the scale did not disappoint, according to the scale, I gained three pds over the week.. Bla, like heck I did.. Not.. wait for the update on next week weigh in.. so 6.3 pds out of my 50 pd goal.

Goals for this past week

  • Green Berry drink Daily-6 out of 7 yes
  • Apple Cider Vinager Daily-yes
  • Journal Daily on what I am eating-yes
  • Add in more roasted winter veggies-Make a huge pot and have it ready in the fridge as a side dish.- No, I ended up doing fresh veggies daily..
  • Make and keep a big pot of veggie/tomato/barley broth based soup available when I want something hot and filling.- Ended up doing a huge batch of lamb/veggie.
  • Have a good feed of protein, I have been cutting back on my meat protein portions and I am honestly craving meat, so I am going to allow myself a little more at least three times this week.- Still craving extra protein, not sure why but when I look at the meats, I want red meat, fish, and chicken, Wow, am I craving chicken!

This coming weeks goals

  • Journal my meals-
  • Drink my jug of water-
  • Green/Berry blended drinks-
  • Apple cider Vinager, Cinnamon, and Turmic Daily use-
  • Kettle Bell daily till puffing-
  • Auqa fitness at least once-

So how was your week? Are you feeling the stress of the holidays? Are you as excited as I am that today is the winter solstice, which means that after today, the daylight is going to start getting longer again each day!!

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Humor sort of… New crime wave in Norway… Hand over your butter!

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, so I first heard this story on the CBC 6 o’clock news and I know its all over the web, but I just got share.. I have gold mine in my freezer.. we need to be one of the countries that is sending in tons of butter to norway..  The story said they had lifted all milk qouta’s on the norway dairy’s to increase in country production..

It made me really chuckle because i so often here from folks that always say, food shortages, don’t be silly, maybe we might not have something from around the world, but  we will always have bread, butter and meat…So what do you think.. could we run out of butter in canada??

“Norway ran out of butter this month. There’s none in the stores. People are selling it for inflated prices online. A guy just got caught trying to smuggle 200 pounds across the border from Sweden. People are panicking about the holiday baking season.

Explanations have been advanced. A high-fat diet craze jacked up demand in the country. A rainy summer led to poor grazing conditions for cows, which in turn led to lower milk and butter production. But at its core, this is a story about trade.

Norway is one of the richest countries in the world. Why not just import butter?

It turns out, the country has prohibitively high tariffs on imported butter — 26 kroner per kilo, or roughly $2 per pound, according to Lars Galtung, a spokesman for Tine, the country’s biggest dairy producer. (Norway isn’t a member of the EU.)

In an emergency move, the country’s agriculture ministry just temporarily cut the tariff way down. Tine is planing to import 150 tons of butter, and other companies are importing hundreds more tons, Galtung told me.

But getting hold of all that butter is likely to take a while. Galtung said the shortage is expected to run into the new year.”

Posted in Food Storage | 5 Comments

Baby Makin books..

Posted on December 14, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

 

When I was little, I always assumed that I would have a family, my ideal dream was that I was going to marry a farmer, and have four little ones, a older girl, then two boys and then a little girl, all my aunties had little ones and I come from a big family.. it never even occured to my young self, that I might not get to have children.

 

When I meet my Dh, we were in our mid 20’s and we both said right away, we want a family and got busy! in fact a little more faster then either of us planned, and I was expecting my little girl, when she was born to early and only lived five days, my heart broke and I took a long time in grieving, I also had a number of very early miscarriage’s, then a raither late miscarriage, then I was expecting my son, who was also born to early and only lived a matter of a short time, and since then I am back to either not conceving and or having very early miscarriages..

 

Time has slipped by so rapidly is down right scary, and I just keep getting older..

 

The current books on my bedstand in regards to making little ones include ones I consider ok, good and excellent, and I thought I would share them, and also take recommendations from my readers on if they thought they knew of a good one that I should add to my current reading..

 

Fertility foods, optimize ovulationa nd conception though food choices by Jermeny Groll and Lorie Groll- this book is a very good overview for the average person, and there are parts that I will use but overall I am giving it a 3 out of 5. It loses a whole point because it wants you to use lots of foods that are high processed and not available for me on the farm to produce.

 

You having a baby by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz, its a good solid book with alot of postive info, I like it, buts its more for those that can get and stay expecting.. still I will give it a 4 out 5..

 

Getting Pregnant, what you need to know right now.. by Neils lauersen, the new updated version.. I like this book, its very good, it covers all the basic’s and then some.. it has a very good menu and includes a good section on both vit (how to get them from food) and herbs that you can grow and use to encourage your fertility, the one gets a solid 4.5 out of 5.

 

My newest book is Taking Charge of your Fertility by Toni Weschler, I also got the matching computer software (I like the software) and I devoured this book, and by taking the informtion I had been tracking over the past year and putting it into the software program, it was very interesting to see that I had patterns that I was not able to see on the calander but that the charts showed very clearly.. I am going to give this one a 5 out of 5, its without a doubt one of the most detailed I have ever read and to have the abiltiy to use the software just takes it right over the top..

 

So anyone got any other books that they think that are “must” have to that collection?

 

Posted in Book Reviews | Tagged | 4 Comments

Old Fashioned Cord Making! -Lucets

Posted on December 13, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So Pretty, my different sized lucet have arrived, the big one is to be used to make cords for my larger critters halters or ropes, the smaller are for personal household uses..

I got them from Lynn the weaver, he has excellent video’s and a wonderful selection on his site.. he was easy to work with, and everything arrived on times and of excellent quality.

Here is a great step by step process of how to use these on this site

I have a couple projects planned to finish up yet before christmas, and I will share them afterwards, some of the intended folks read my site 🙂

Posted in Just in Case | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Kicked Day 6 an 7 update

Posted on December 12, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Someone has her eye on me! So here is me owning up to the fact that while we did regular farm chores, did get to the feed store, did get the next and hopefully last thing needed for the new sump pump to be installed and fully auto.. the truth is that I took a good amount of the time off and went to a christmas party,  it was a lovely pot luck get together with my pie, wine, knit girls but instead of it being just us girls, we had our handsome fella’s with us and five little ones under the age of six..

There were homecanned pickles and beets, I made a lamb chili with most things having been grown on the farm, and the homecanned grape juice from the farm was a big hit with both older folks and little ones.. M, The red velvet cupcakes made with beets instead of nasty red die #5 with their cream cheese icing where AMAZING..

What a pleasent way to spend a afternoon/evening, and so I did no canning, no butchering, no extra’s.. I did however get and give hugs an kiss’s, I did get to visit in the kitchen while getting the food ready, I did get to see a full table filled with smiles, laughs and happy baby faces covered in chili or orange salad, I got to watch kid zoomies, and watch them put on a dino show, be a marching playing band on kitchen pots and pans.. 

It was time well spent!  I may not have filled the freezer or the pantry, but it filled my heart and spirit..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 4 Comments

Dark Day’s Challange Week Two-Fried Cabbage Dinner.

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

My Dark Day’s meal this week was fast and easy to make but tasty enough that we both had seconds and enjoyed the leftover’s the next day at lunch..

I took eight peices of bacon, diced them and put them in the cast iron frying pan to which went nexts a small onion diced and a whole box of button mushrooms sliced, I allowed the bacon to crisp a bit, the onions and mushrooms to soften, and then added a whole heaping pile of sliced green cabbage to fry up.. a little pepper added in..

The bacon was from my butcher shop that I get my own lamb done and I made sure to request local pig, which was no issue, he was able to tell me where the pig had come from and its a farm about 20 min away from mine.. The onions was farm grown, the mushrooms and cabbage were both locally grown,  All within 50 miles of me..

While this meal was wonderful, and fully meet the Sole for the challange, it was a fail for my personal challange of 50% being directly from the farm, in this meal, only 25% of the meal was from the farm itself.. Next time I will work to do better!

 

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Mini-Challange-Kicked Day 5-Cherry Almond Cake Recipe

Posted on December 10, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Day 5 came and went..I got a canner full of white navy beans put up and also a batch of white potato’s with onion for a cream of pototo base for soup, just need to pour, heat, simmer and mash and add extra’s to it..

We got the hole opened up in the old basement part of the house in the cement for the new sump pump, and now its a matter of digging it out, and putting the metal sides in, and it will be good to go, then once it dry’s out, I will touch up the edges to make them smooth again and fill in the outside ragged edges.

Spent the day doing the week’s laundry for both human and then critter, so keeping up on the laundry goal is being meet, the canning goal is being meet within reason, and now I just need to get to that butchering..

Made a wonderful throw it together/use it up cake yesterday.. Measurements are iffy but it turned out so good, that I am going to share.. so I had about 1/2 cup of yugurt, about 3/4 cup of apple sauce,  an egg yolk, and about 1/2 cup of cherry sauce that all needed to be used up..

Cherry Almond Cake to the rescue..

  • 1/2 cup yugurt-Plain-Thick Greek Style
  • 3/4 cup of sweetened apple sauce
  • 1/2 cup of cherries in sauce
  • 1 whole egg, one egg yolk
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 2 cups of flour
  • 1 tbsp of baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of all spice
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup of almond slices

Mix your yugurt/apple sauce/egg and cherry’s in sauce (My cherries and apple sauce are sweetened, if yours are not, consider 1/2 cup of sugar or some kind of sweetner), mixed together, then add your dry and almonds, mix together and I baked in a round cake pan at 375, till golden and knife came out clean..  This is a very moist cake, but o so flavourful and yummy!

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Food Storage Friday- Orange Cottage Cheese Salad Recipe

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Where are my christmas baking supply sales!! No where to be found yet, O they are pimping the products left, right and center but the price’s tell the truth, even on sale they are higher then there were last year.. packages smaller, prices higher and many things just not being put on sale in my local area, the big ones I have been watching for.. sugar, icing sugar, and dried fruits/candied fruits/chocolate-coco or chips versions/as well as baking chocolate.. I have been checking each of the local flyers as both walmart and my local will honor the sale prices in the other store flyers.. but its not helping me get any deals..

The biggest and best deal to be had this week for food storage was in cases of corned beef, onsale for a dirt cheap price, and the same with cases of canned ham.. Otherwise the main things added to the house this week was more local cabbages. I know where to get a good deal on coucous in the city and so made the stop at farmboy store to buy them out again, its a over 70 percent savings buying them in their big bags vs buying them in the little box’s at our local stores, and I do like my coucous, in truth I like it more then I do rice for many dishes. While at the Farm Boy, I hit their apple sections and picked out three new kinds they carry, the garden catalogs are offering them for sale this year but I want to try out the apples before I invest in a tree, make sure we like them.. I could not help but think of C.D. post about the food wax.. boy suddenly that perfect shine on bind after bind of apples made me sigh and go.. ya right!

Other then the above, we have been eating out of storage as is per the norm for us, lots of good heathy meals coming from our cellar, pantry, freezers and fresh from the farm critters.. I have to admit that I am looking at my dwingling supply of fresh greens, and wishing that I had a much bigger cold house to put over a hoop house to stretch those greens longer into the year.. Don’t think that the dried ones can pack quite the same punch as the fresh do..

Got another pressure canner to add to my ever growing collection of all things needed to put up food, this will allow me to do alot more jars at the same time, as you do need to be in the house and watching the pressure canners, and on the farm, there are times that you want to be able to break things up a bit more, while I found that when I was doing all day canning, that it would have been wonderful to have two pressure canners going instead of one pressure canner and one large waterbath canner. We will see if the idea works as well in real life as it dream land.

I loved Deb’s comment that Christmas comes but once a year, and I do hope she will take me up on the idea of a guest post on that amazing chocolate cake she was talking about making! Here is one that I love, its not health, its not sole, but its been a favorite of mine since I was child and I have to make it at least once for christmas, its lick the bowl good!

Orange salad-dessert, your choice.

  • One package of orange regular jello
  • One tub of cool whip (or equal amount of real whipped cream)
  • One large can of mandion orange sections
  • One tub of cottage cheese

In a bowl, put your tub of cottage cheese, sprinkle over your orange jello(regular, not diet) and give a light stir, then add in your can of drained orange peices (don’t go cheap on these, or they won’t hold together) and then your whole thing of cool whip, fold in together with careful and gentle movements, then pour it into a fancy serving bowl, cover and chill for at least a couple hours.. its like orange dream fluffy candy.. If you have this, you know what I mean, and if you have not, and can let yourself and your high food standards go for just a little bit, this is one to try!

 

Posted in Canning, Food Storage | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Mini-Challange-Kicked Day 4

Posted on December 9, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I’m not sure if I kicked today or if Day 4 Kicked back LOL Our old sump pump decided it was time to give up the ghost, and so we went to the city to get a new one, only issue is that they all needed a bigger/deeper sump pump hole then what we have, so we left with some truly stunning mable 12 by 12 tiles (more on that later), a new sump pump.

After regular chores today, we have been spending the day making a new larger sump pump area, its amazing what a eight pd sledgehammer can do with time and effort on a cement floor, we have almost all the new space around, and its not a matter of digging into the gravel pad under, then relaying a new gravel bed for it to sit on..

Canning.. None.. didn’t get any done today..

So want to make a very pretty under five dollar christmas gift, I saw this idea on the homestead blog hop, and thought I have to see if I can do it as well.. At the big home Depo, I looked at the different marble tiles they had, they had the standard grey with black, that you commonly see in the stores with their matching marble rolling pin. I also found this stunning brown on brown with white marbling though it..

Ok, this photo just does not do it justise, this is a very pretty marble. I was able to find a package of small backing enough to do eight of these small marble cutting board, the tile was onsale and so was got for 4.50 and the total cost of the backings was two dollars so 25 cents, and so this awesome little gift came in under 5 dollars in cost..  The regular grey marble were not onsale and were 5.50 in cost..

Now as it happens over the past couple years when I have been looking for and buying at farm sales for my old hand carved wooded rolling pins, I have had to buy them in groups or in a box deal and that means that I happen to have a couple of those matching grey marble rolling pins that I have in my storage.  So I can make matching sets as a gifts.

That’s it, that’s all she wrote folks.. I’m done, stick a fork in me.. the bed is calling my name…

 

 

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 6 Comments

Weigh in 8/12/11

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Weigh in day already, huh.. Well I got on the scale expecting anything, good, bad or ugly.. and went Ok.. So I did nothing this week, how fitting on a week that I have needed a kicked challange LOL.. I am the very same weight this week, the auto scale showed 0.0 after it did its magic.. So still a total of 9.3 pds of my 50 pd goal.

Last weeks goals were..

Apple Cider Vinager daily -Yes

Daily Green Drink starting with the basic version-Went to the green drink berry version

Upper body weights-3x this week- Yes

Crunches-3x this week till the burn makes me stop- No, only did it twice.. the other times I stopped when sore..

Leg lifts-3x this week-Yes

No eating after 8pm-Bad on this one, only 4 out of 7 times.

Goals for this coming week

  • Green Berry drink Daily
  • Apple Cider Vinager Daily
  • Journal Daily on what I am eating
  • Add in more roasted winter veggies-Make a huge pot and have it ready in the fridge as a side dish.
  • Make and keep a big pot of veggie/tomato/barley broth based soup available when I want something hot and filling.
  • Have a good feed of protein, I have been cutting back on my meat protein portions and I am honestly craving meat, so I am going to allow myself a little more at least three times this week.

Hope you all have a great week, how’s it going in your world?? Are you already feeling the christmas push towards more goodies?

Posted in Goals | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments