Mini-Challange Kicked Day 3

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

Ok, It needs to stop raining!!! My land is flooded, we needed to lay down boards on one of the gateways because the critters are walking though it and its just a mud trap, and neither they or me want to walk though that kind of mud.. but worst of all, the old cellar is acting like its that special two weeks in spring and flooding, the sump pump is working overtime, the wet vac is working overtime and so is the dehumidifer which is not winning the war..  No signs of a good hard freeze up is in sight yet. Thankfully we plan the use of the cellar for the regular spring issues (everything up off the cement, on blocks etc..

However in the seven years we have been here we have never had a winter floodout, only ever the spring issue, and so I was not expecting it, and that meant I had left a few things on the ground in plastic blue box’s that I often use for really good air flow.. needless to say, part of today was spent, srubbing and processing things for later use so that there was no waste..

As my hubby and I said, don’t just plan for the typical, we must be prepared for the unexpected as well.. so true..

On the other side of things, I got one batch of pressure canning done today, I did six quart jars of the base for a winter squash soup, It has broth, butternut, carrot, potato, onion and celery, and salt/pepper, so I will be able to pour into the pot, blend and just finished it off with milk, and garnish.. got to love having that kind of help in the house.. as I was not about to waste that extra seventh spot, I did a jar of green pea’s for green pea soup.

Only other things that got done extra today was DH, gave those slopping wet outside bird pens a clean out, and we put fresh bedding on the inside deep litter pens as well..

I took the afternoon off and went to my Pie, wine and knit girls outing, the little ones are growing so fast, and the visit was delightful, C had gotten a new pressure canner and we did its first water test so she could see how it was done. Dh was working from home today so he got to babysit the farm while I had a little girls time..

How was your day? Did you get anything on your list done? Did you get something not on your list done but none the less it was a good extra that was just begging you to work on?

Posted in Life moves on daily | 1 Comment

Lamb Stuffed SpareRibs Recipe

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Now I do think this would better with pork ribs as the orginal recipe called for, but I didn’t have any in the freezer, but the lamb ribs are very small, so I went with one year old mutton ribs.

Thaw out your ribs overnight in the fridge, then roll the ribs into a circle, the orginal recipe called for you to tie the ribs with string, instead I used smalll glass baking dishes and did each rib circle in a tight fitting baking dish for each one.. Do whatever works best for you, and your family on how many you need to do.

In a different pot, I cooked a mix of red rice and wild rice together for twenty min till just tender, I drained the rice and to it added 1/4 cup of finely diced onion, 2 finely diced garlic, 1/2 cup of diced mushrooms, button will work but portobello is much better, or a mix of them, half a apple finely chopped, 1 tsp of worcestershire, 1/2 tsp of basil, a pinch of salt/pepper and keens hot mustard..

Mix them all together with the rice, and loosely stuff them into the ribs circle, put a little broth in the bottom, I used veggie because that is what I had at that moment in the fridge but I am sure that others would work, cover and bake at 375 for about an hour and half till the meat is pull apart tender.. I served it with a side green salad.

The above amounts are for a serving for two.. Its a great way to take a fairly boring dish of ribs and making it a quite fancy looking meal when plated up.

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Mini-Challange-Kicked Day 2

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Well today was another cold wet and raining day but my apple mint is still green and going on Dec 6th!.  I did get a break in the afternoon just long enough to scoot out and get some of the year old bedding with sheep/goat poo mixed in, it might not looks like much in the photo but that is six full wheelbarrol loads on that space.. giving about a 3 to 4 inch cover of mixed bedding/poo, rhubarb are very heavy feeders! While lots of area’s can stand to have some added for cover, the big one that I really wanted to get done yet was the rhubarb patch and the grape vines.. Done!

Figured if I was getting things done, I got on the phone and double checked our coming dental bookings, I had mixed up who had what date on the calander, so I am glad I made the call. I also called and ordered another flat of Wide Mouth Jar lids (Ouch, 3.99 for 12 count box, I have got to get some tattle lids for my wide mouth jars), another flat of regular lids (better at 1.49 for a 12 count box) what a crazy price difference.

I have striped the beds and done all the sheets and blankets for my day’s laundry and on all my guest beds, I have switched them from cotten sheets and light blankets to heavy flannel and thick winter quilt with a wool blanket under it.

For my daily canning, I went to quarts and so did five quarts of ham/veggie/white bean soup, and two quarts of chickpea’s which will be used to make some yummy humas at some point.

Now, I know that I’ve had a few friends who read my blog tease me about being a real stickler about following all the rules, only the critters sent to the provinal butcher plant can be sold or given away, no milk, no self-butchered meat etc..

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/12/06/ottawa-farmer-slaughter-pigs-charges-dropped.html?cmp=rss

Charges have been withdrawn against an Ottawa man who slaughtered a pig and shared the meat with a friend, more than two years after the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources first pressed charges.

Mark Tijssen has been up front about the fact his family has spend generations slaughtering their own animals for consumption on their farm just southeast of Ottawa.

But in November 2009, four separate charges were laid against Tijssen under the Ontario Food Safety and Quality Act after a friend left his home in the rural community of Carlsbad Springs with 40 pounds of pork from a pig they had slaughtered.

Tijssen was accused of operating an unlicensed slaughterhouse and failing to have an animal inspected but mounted a defence based on the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Charges withdrawn after two years of court time

After two years of pretrials, the ministry chose to withdraw all four charges deciding there is “no reasonable prospect for conviction.”

Under provincial law, people can slaughter an animal and consume the meat for personal use, but it is an offence to share that meat with others without being licensed.

Investigator log books revealed in court detailed how the Ministry launched a five-day stakeout in 2009 as part of their investigation of Tijssen.

That included one investigator who hid in a tree house with night-vision binoculars and a camera. The ministry also raided Tijssen’s farm.”

While I am very happy that the charges have been dropped, I still get the creeps at the idea that they sent a guy to sit in a tree house with a night-vision binoculars that tooks note that included what his children did and what they were wearing.. And while he had the defence that his family had been self-butchering and sharing for generations, most of us don’t have to fall back on..

I have said it before and I will say it again..  Be safe and follow the rules if you want to do farm gate sales or even if you want to give away meat to friends and family. Learn your province’s laws and check up on them often, they chance alot and far to often, and don’t think that because Farmer X down the lane told, o ya sure, you can do that, take the time to read the current legal requirements.

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Berry Smoothies this week..

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I am wanting to “wake” up my body this week, and get more energy, which includes turning on the inside lights (boo!!) Doing short burst of weigh lifting-Kettle Bells to get my body hot an sweaty, while not pushing my foot by walking to much.. and by making sure I have my “green drink” each morning..

Only thing is my green drink this week as been purple!

Here is what I have been making for a single serving..

  • half a cup of fresh greens-I am using baby spinach
  • half a apple
  • A one inch peice of fresh ginger
  • 1 tbsp of lemon and lime Juice
  • 1/2 cup mix of any of these :Blackberries, Blueberries, Rasberries, Cherries
  • 1/4 cup of either Elderberry Juice or Chokeberry Juice

Its quite nice but it is seedy, if that bother’s you, it might not be the best choice.. If you could get this at Booster Juice, it would run you about $5 bucks, I’m not sure how much its costing me, as many of the things are grown on the farm or wild picked.. but under a dollar for sure..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Mini-Challange-Kicked Day 1

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I can’t tell you how glad I was to read that I am not the only one that is a winter bla-grey day mode or mood! Sounds like we are all feeling the lack of extra daylight, and our winter urges to slow down..

Well, I have to admit that the day itself was just as grey, just as wet and cold, and in no way helping my winter bla’s, however as my evening is starting to wind down, I can at least say that I got a number of my extra things done..

I am hanging my head in shame at just how bad my laundry room got, but I took the before picture, I figured putting up only the after was kinda cheating..

What a mess, dirty cloths on the floor, clean cloths not folded, and even clean cloths folded but not put away, a full bag of canvas shopping bags that needed to washed and lets not even ask how that big wash up sink got that bad (DH?)

Needless to say, I got the summer wear sorted and put up for the season, I got all the winter cloths out of storage, and washed them up fresh and got the rest put away, the floor washed, the sink cleaned out, and the machines wiped down.. Much Better!

I got seven pints of roma beans in a soup broth done, and seven pints of chicken Veggie Barley soup..

Even in the this drizzling rain, I got six more wheelbarrol loads of compost out in the garden and dumped, will spread it tomorrow.. That’s it for the moment, and tomorrow is a new day! How did everyone else do, did you get started on anything or was it make a list or planning day?

Posted in Life moves on daily | 5 Comments

A Swift Kick in the….

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

It’s been grey out, its raining again, the darn cold, wet wind is pushing me around, my foot hurts.. GET over it FarmGal, and get up and get it DONE!

This is offically me kicking my own rear! Last week was sad, I read books, curled up with blankets and purrpots and hounds sleeping on my feet, I’ve been listening to soft and wonderful christmas music, I’ve napped in the afternoon, not because I was up at 5am and want to stay up past 7pm to be with hubby but just cuz, I could and its dark by 3:30 around here..

I went shopping on the weekend, got some great deals and everything will be put to good use, but I wondered around the stores, up and down, just looking.. What the! So much to do, never enough time to do it, and I stood and pushed singing santa’s and laughed like a little girl at them.. I picked up things that I know I am never going to buy and said things like.. do you think mom might like this. or O that’s so cute, what a fluffy cuddley stuffie..

Ok, so lets set some public goals this week and have to prove with photos that I got it done!

1) I will get caught up on the laundry, I will get all the summer/light fall cloths put away, and I will get the winter cloths out, cleaned and into use, I will get the laundry room emptied and a good clean out..

2) I will can 7 pints of beans each day, as I am low on canned beans, and I will not pay the price in the store, when I can my own! Considering I have tons in the dry form in storage.

3) I will can 7 pints of soup or stew each day at the same time as the beans, I want to get a bigger choice down in the celler for over the holidays for DH. Plus why waste the space in my pressure canner, might as tag team them.

4) I will get the rest of the compost on the area’s its required in the gardens and spread out for winter..

5) I will butcher birds this week! I am not setting a high on this, but I will set a low, I must butcher at least ten birds this week of whatever type I choose..

I will update on how it goes this week, How about you? Anything you are putting off that you want to take on as a mini-challange this week and join me? Let me know in the comments..

Posted in farm | Tagged , | 9 Comments

A mouse tale…

Posted on December 5, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

A few of you might remember me writing about the mouse in the bedroom, well I have set traps, the food gets taken, the mouse walks away, I have cleaned, then set out different traps, left the bait, mouse walks away.. third kind of trap, Trap 0, mouse 3

Got one of my best mousing cats, I have seen this cat bring me mice, rats, squirrels, and every baby bird on the farm, and put her on the bedroom, opened all the drawers and let her go at it.. Nothing! Mouse 4- Traps/Cat 0

Time to bring in the big guns, I brought in my best hunter hound, lets call her the black goddess, and this wonderful pup is a natural mouse hunter, she caught her first sandpiper on the river banks at six months, she is trained to track on the farm, and will help me hunt out those bad raccoon’s, they can’t hide from her, put on her tracking harness and tell her to find it, and she will bay the spot, if something is out of place, she can find it.. Missing eggs.. Let her smell one and then tell her.. Find it, and watch her go to ground an sweep back and forth..

So into the cave we went, mighty hunter and dog.. ah.. Farmgal and Black Goddess I mean and I took her to the drawer, that I know they have been making home and sure enough, openned it and I was just fast enough to catch site of a small grey tail..

Drawers taken out, things pulled away from walls, bed flipped up, and the black goddess was on the trail.. HERE FG, whine, even scatch at the area, Three times we were able to track and get that blasted @#$&^@^ mouse out on the floor and the Black goddess ran into walls, into the bed, over the bed, head first into trunks, and three times that little so an so, made its way to freedom.. Mouse 5-Traps/Cat/Dog-FG-0

Finally I said, ENOUGH, and put out the glue traps, I don’t like to use glue traps, I really don’t but overnight, two mice were caught and dealt with, and I ran the black goddess though the room for a search and she didn’t cue at all.. Excellent!

However tonight, she went to the front door area and started giving me cue’s, as I was on the computer and the old cats were in the crate getting their special food, I thought she was just sounding off at them, but then I heard a whine and her special half woofs and she scratched, and Dh went to see what it was, he pulled out the boot totes, and the bench and Black Goddess did a mad scramble and in 6 seconds flat, looked at me with a big old fat field mouse in her mouth, crunch, crunch, spit it out, and give the other hounds the “mine look” Dh went for the dustpan, I went for something out of the fridge to trade the prize for.. she was grateful to trade cooked meat for the body, and then did the dance of joy, when lots of good girls and pats where given.. Strangely all kiss’s from her where off the table.. ehhh!

So I looked at my house cats and gave a little lecture.. Purrpots need to stop slacking, its one thing to have a single mouse make it past the farm cats and then somehow make it passed the house cats to the no cat area, but TWO of them.. hmmm and then to have a mouse show up at the front door area of my living room.. here’s hoping that is the last of them this fall/winter.

Had to laugh, just moments after my post went up, this post came in my mailbox, I had to share..

http://outtakesontheoutskirts.wordpress.com/2011/12/04/mouse-capades

 

Posted in Critters | Tagged | 10 Comments

Dark Day’s Meal -Week One Nov 27th to Dec 4th

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I’m quite excited Dark Days Eating local challange has started, and this year, I am SO! ready, I have tracked down sources and gotten things that last year I could either not find or could not find at a price I was willing to pay, I raised, grew and looked and found local U-picks to make up what I could not grow on the farm, I carefully made batches of on farm or within my hundred mile food shed things and marked them, to tell the difference between them and local to my province or the next province over as they are within that hundred mile mark..

They say we are to lay out our Dark Day rules before we start and then post on how it goes following them, I am going with the basic’s, Spices are allowed, (I did track down salt in my province this time, so its much more local then last year), I am allowing myself, baking Powder, Baking Soda as allowed, Homemade canned things from the cellar are allowed.

As like last year my extra’s are that at least 50% of my Dark Day Meals need to come from the farm itself, and all items from the farm will be listed in Italics..

Stewed Lamb Chops in Rhubarb Relish , with boiled baby potato’s,  Frozen Diced Red Peppers, Re-hyrdrated Diced Onion. Diced Burdock Root and Daylily flowers, Fresh Mushrooms with fresh grated Horseradish, in a touch of butter, seasonings. Homemade Elderberry Tea with Local Raw Honey

Off-Farm Items and their sources.. Butter-St. Albert, Mushrooms- St. Isadore, Honey-Six farms down the road

Posted in 100 mile diet, Winter Eating Challange | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Girl and Marty.. a photo update..

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Marty was very hard to get a photo of, he either was playing/moving, but give him a hand to nurse on and he will hold still for that!

Taking advantage of the sunshine for a winter romp outside, Girls winter coat is coming in nicely, what happened to my red calf, she is now a black/reddish brown highlights cow..

Got Milk??

Well if there is no milk, can we at least be a herd and do the flake lean? Its very interesting to watch them together, and its clear that they really do enjoy having each other for company.. Marty follows Girl all over the place to see what she is doing, if she look at it, he looks at it, if she eat’s hay, he nibbles it, if she chews a small branch, he mouths one too..

Posted in Critters | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Baked Beets in Bechamel

Posted on December 3, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I have done up a good size pot of fresh beets from the garden, they were boiled till fork tender, then I have slipped their skins, trim the ends and sliced them into quarters in a bowl for use in a number of dishes.

Last night we have Baked Beets in Bechamel, heavenly, and while the above photo is them coming out of the oven, as soon as you go to spoon them up, a burst of pink will run though the cream sauce in streaks of red/white in the served dish.

Make a basic rue, with melted warm butter mixed with flour till smooth, warm your butter just till melting, then lift from heat, gently sprinckle about 2 to 3 tbsp of flour on top, whisk in till a smooth paste is formed, then add your cup of milk slowly, whisking the whole time till well blended together, then simmer on a med heat stirring the often to start and the whole time to finish, leaving you with a rich, smooth white sauce! Once cooked and thick, add a pinch of salt, a good cracking of fresh black pepper and some fresh grated nutmeg and stir in.

If you peeled and baked your beet slices, then drain them, and then add the sauce on top and bake in oven for ten min till bubbly and golden just around the edges, if you are used pre-cooked and cooled beets like I did, pre-heat oven to 350, layers your cooked beets, pour your hot sauce over them, and into the oven for about 15 to 18 min to heat though and be bubbly and golden edged..

This is such a different way to enjoy your beets, its a very rich dish, the flavours are mellow and full tasting.. Little ones would love this one! Now the nice thing about this sauce, is that if you want, you can make it with all kinds of roasted veggies, and or you can make it a little thinner and serve it with a fresh pot of baby pea’s mixed in, a dish from my childhood, my mom would for a treat make us creamy pea’s, a personal favorite of mine, as long as the sauce didn’t run to touch or effect other food on my plate, they had to be served on the side 🙂 or on mashed potatos..

This is a Homestead Barn Hop Post..

Posted in Food Production and Recipes | Tagged , , | 4 Comments