Duck, Duck, Goose..

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

Nope, just duck! Lots and Lots of duck LOL Hold on fellew bloggers and my wonderful readers, the coming next series of post are all about how to butcher out your duck and then take all those parts and process them and or giving idea’s or recipes for each part.

As I wanted to do a cornucopia of things (don’t you just love that word LOL), I butchered out two ducks, one big Muscovy drake and one Muscovy/Swedish Cross Hen. I skinned them out, and deboned the breasts, cut the legs and thighs as one peice, and took the backs/necks for broth making. Kept back the livers, the hearts, the gizzards, and all the fat trimming that I could get off, including cutting off stripes off the skin itself.

Livers to be made into Pate, The hearts are going into a yummy Curry Dish, the gizzards are going to be used in a stew dish, the skin off the gizzards is being dried, will be ground into a powder and I am going to try a old idea I found in a book that say it will work as rennet for cheese making, we will see if it does or not!

So far, I have rendered out the duck fat, they gave me over two cups and I would have alot mroe if I had been willing to pluck instead of skin, which I will do on a future butcher outs, The cracklings are like little bacon bits left over in the fat, and I have set it aside to use egg dish.

The neck and backs are currently being simmered down into wonderful broth, which will be pressure canned up and be available for later use.- Made a total of 4 quarts of full strength broth.

The legs and Thighs are going to be de-boned and I will be making Spiced Duck patty sauage or meatballs from them..

One of the breasts will be made into Duck Prosciutto, one breast is planned to be made into Glazed Duck Breast with Current/High Bush Cranberry gravy with barley/wild rice side dish.  Then comes Stuffed Duck Breast with Apple-Cinnamon Glaze, and last but not least is Duck with Blueberry and roasted fall veggies..

Boy writing it all out makes me hungry already, if anyone has something that they would like made instead, write and let me know about a recipe and I will give it a try! Each recipe will be broken down into its own post, I’ve learned when I lump them together, even Ican’t find them after awhile on the blog, this will allow me to link them up to this post and put them in the new recipe page.

I noticed that many duck recipes either called for Red Current, Cranberry or High Bush Cranberry jelly, and so today I pulled out pre-done juice and made a duck jelly, its a 50/50 mix of red current and High bush Cranberry and its so good! wow, I am going to make that combo again even if its not for duck use. If you have the chance to mix those two together, do give it a try, both are good on their own but together, they just bring out the best in a combo!

Posted in Critters | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Happy Birthday Blog

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

Can you believe it, my blog is one year old, 597 posts, 53 follows, over 1500 hundred comments, over 50, 000 views.. Its amazing really!

I have got to say that when I started this blog, I was not sure at all what I would find about it, I thought it would be fun to have a place for friends and family to check out what I was doing on the farm across the country.

I honestly didn’t think that a year later, I would have these amazing ladies and gents from across the world that would be regular readers, so let me give you a HUGE thank you.. 

Without you, it just would not be the same at all! Its been a interesting year that for sure, and here is hoping that the coming year will be as much fun as this one has been..

Posted in Life moves on daily | 9 Comments

Farm Kids- you got to love them!

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

Well my day was planned until a knock on the door that came bright and early this morning followed by the belling of the hounds..ahh.. so out the door I went to be greeted by Farmer T’s oldest boy, and friend in tow..

Mom had sent him over to give a helping hand on the farm (and to keep him out of her hair today perhaps?) needless to say, when two eager young lads ask if they could please rake up your yard and give a hand on the daily chores, what can you do other then say yes..

What a interesting day its been, I so rarely get to spend time with teens these days, my girlfriends little ones range from six and under, so lots and lots of babies but not many teens, so rakes where handed out, gloves were given out to the friend who didn’t have any with him, wheelbarrel, water jug and we began our day..  I think they were surpised to have me working with and around them most of the time.

The morning was spent hauling downed branches to the bush pile, raking the whole front lawn, cleaning up the small hugelbeet, which got topped with rabbit poo and many loads of fall leaves..

At which point I snuck in and made a batch of lemon almond cranberry cookies along with some fresh apple and grape juice, the thank you, and wow, these cookies are still warm from the oven, where as kind and polite as possable.

.They started on the side yard, at which point Dh came up from where he had been working in the barn, and sent them home for lunch, with a welcome to come back afterwards, the oldest said, we will just finish to the tree’s and then come back..

Sure enough right after lunch they were back at it, they cleaned out my chicken pen, hauled it to be compost pile, and then put 12 wheelbarrel loads of leaves into the pen for the birds, then they cleaned the small chicken pen, 8 loads of leaves and then they cleaned the duck pen, another 13 loads, the birds are happy as clams, all my outside pens are cleaned and re-bedded down.

I cleaned out garden beds, put away things and did a general yard tidy while checking on them, they wanted to meet the critters so they petted the cow, were totally stunned of the size of the pig and at how very sweet she was.. were amazed to be mobbed by the sheep and the friend was in awe when he felt the lamb move 🙂

They watched chicks playing, ducks bathing and petted rabbits.. now both boys were hard working and as honest as they come, but it was so funny to see how Farmer T’s boy went behind and fixed his friends work at times, or how he would take the lead on how you stack that wood, or move slow now, don’t scare those birds, spread out that pile, needs another load or two, that corner is still bare..

Afterwards they cleaned the tools and hung everything up, washed out the wheelbarrel, flipped it up to dry, and brought everything neatly to the step for me to bring inside.

I figured that it was only fair to offer them a little something  as a reward, now I offered X amount (think our typical min wage per hour), and that is what I gave them, their heads went together and whispers where heard sort of, and they came back and said, it was to much! That they did this kind of work at home for free, and they had not work near hard enough for this, so they gave me back X amount till they figured it was fair. 

Wow, I have to say I enjoy the day, Dh got a whole pen cleaned in the barn, I got the whole planned weekends yard work and pen work done, and more important, I enjoyed the time with the boys, I enjoyed the quiet talking and the questions ask..

Farmer T’s boy asked if after he comes back from moose hunting with dad and deer hunting with grandpa, if maybe he could come over again and spend some time helping with something, and I said that would be just fine, he was quite excited about the hunting trip, and his football team and there was a girl that likes him but he is not sure about that yet, mom says he is still a bit young.. LOL

Was not the day I had planned, I was going to farm sale, but its a day that just fell into my lap and I am so glad that it did! Hope you had a blessed day on your homestead and feel free to share it with me!

This is a homestead Barn Hop Blogs Post

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Food Storage Friday- Unprocessed real food Wrap up.-Week 5

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

Well  the challange for unprocessed real food month with its daily updates on idea’s and thoughts on how to use whole food in your diet finished up on Oct 31st.  I really enjoyed their daily post and idea’s, while I did feel that most of the folks chosen to share where a little on the extreme side of being “green”, which could have scared a few new folks that were just learning, but at least the topic’s were in and of themselves mostly interesting to read..

I am still doing a eat out of your pantry and this past week has been different then the past month, this was the week that I hit the wall! Hard frost ten days back, took out my daily fresh fruit, and most of the extra gardens, now I am down to greens under row cover as what can still come in fresh at the moment..

Now don’t get me wrong, I have lots of potato’s, a few fresh still onions, carrots, turnips, and a boatload of winter squash’s but none the less my fridge is getting emptier, the only fresh fruit in the house is apple, I used the last of my cabbage, (whimper, I like my cabbage!), everything else is either frozen, canned or dried..

So this week, I needed to make up quarts of rhubarb stew from freeze rhubarb, I made up 20 cups of frozen gooseberries into- Gooseberry Juice, Gooseberry fruit, Gooseberry Fruit Roll-ups.

I really need that sheep to have her little ones, I am using canned milk or dried milk at the moment in order to make my fresh milk products,I’m out of frozen whole milk goodness!

So thankful for my year supply of butter in the freezer, I also have many pds of cheese both chedder and mozza in the freezer, but frozen is never quite like fresh..

I have been eating alot of lamb lately and so I have been working hard to find a number of different ways to prepare it, we have had breaded fried lamb steak, we have had homemade chinese with fresh sprouted mung beans on a bed of noodles, we have had orange honey-maple BBQ lamb pull aparts, we have had spicy lamb meatballs with hot mustard sandwhichs, we have had sticky ginger stirfry with lamb.. I can honestly say that each meal was very much its own in flavor and texture.

Let me tell you what a differnce it makes to the lamb meat if its deborned and ALL fat is removed, it could pass as beef, I am really amazed at the difference in taste when you remove all the “lamb” flavor that comes from bone.. But of course save the bones for broth making! Its just lovely to sometimes have it taste like lamb and sometimes for it to be more beef like..

The highlight of the week is that a number of my hens have finished their moult and are back into heavy egg laying mode, so the egg production has been increasing daily, its SO nice to have those extra four to eight eggs coming in daily again, soon I will have an extra dozen or so more daily.

So in a nut shell, there has been alot of trecking out to the freezers, down the stairs up and down for loads from the cellar, starting to sprout already and more taking this or that out and adding it in dried form to dishes and much!more limited fresh food to make meals from, I am truly now eating from the pantry.. Can you believe it took a month to eat though my fridge and the tail ends of the garden hmmm

So how did you do on eating out of your pantry this week ladies?

 

Posted in Food Storage | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Foot Care..this and that post..

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

Its been a interesting few weeks when it comes to foot care on the farm, in a number of ways, with the cold weather, socks/boots have become much more common on the farm, instead of crocks which are my standard wear unless hiking or walking.

My feet are feeling the effects of being in the socks and shoes and are requiring more care, when you work out in the morning chores and get a sweat going, its important to remember to change those socks out for dry ones when you get to the house otherwise, you risk having issues on your feet, same as it take them awhile to get back to use to being confined for hours at a time.

However I am not the only one that has been requiring foot care lately, so far a sheep, a rabbit, rooster and purrpot have all required extra foot care from me lately..

My one ewe had a slightly limp, it almost looked like she had a good hard head butt to the shoulder in a power move so the first day I noticed it, I went huh, keep an eye on that, not better on the second day, in fact now it was a clear limp favoring the right front leg, so catch and checkup, a small foot crack, so needed to clean the foot, do a good foot trim, a proactive foot rince and soak. 

 There is nothing quite as fun as making a sheep stand with a foot in a pan for five min, and you have to take enough water to do a good rinse out first, and then make your clean pan with soak in it, thankfully within a matter of 72 hours rapid improvement was seen and now no limp is there at all but will need to put her on a month foot check for a bit instead of a qaurterly check.

The came the rabbit, now the hutches have a inside area that has a wood floor and a straw or hay bedding, and this really helps prevent sore hocks, however the one rabbit is in love with being out on her wire floor, she just likes to watch the world go by, she is a very clever rabbit and I think she finds it boring inside and more interesting outside, well I noticed that she was having a bit of a kick foot when I was doing her feed, so took a good hard look and she had just one sore hock, must have knicked it on a peice of loose wire, needless to say, it was a hold her down, clean it out, and put my homemade stinging nettle apple cider drench on it, (as she would lick the area, its important to use things that won’t make her sick), boy she was unhappy the first time it got done, but by the second or third time, she had figured out that it was going to happen and that it felt better afterwards, took five days to  get her hock into solid healing mode..

Then came a rooster with a scale lump, dang it, that is clearly a issue, but also easily solved.. time to use basic cooking oil to coat his foot and smuther the mite that was causing the issue, easy enough..

However that is only half the issue, the bigger one being what was causing his immune to dip enough that it could inflame.. so cleaned the bedding, dewormed the flock, and added a little extra parasite deducing goodies to their dust bath box..

Then came the purrpot, she seemed to be favoring her right front foot, but I kept checking her leg and shoulder area, all seemed fine, no issues, check her weight, it was good, checked her coat, healthy and good, checked her eyes, looked good, checked attitude, yup, she was all I am kitty hear me meow!

Hmm but something had to be a issue, she jumped down from four feet and gave a little yip when landed, back to checking her out, well dang, if one of her little claws had not grown out and she was no longer able to retrack it, she has very long fur on her paws so even if I pushed them all the way out, you still can’t see her claws without parting the fur, so I needed to clip the nail and then pull the part out of her little pad, thankful I caught it before it got infected or went very deep but still felt bad, that I didn’t catch it on my first or second look at the leg/foot, she is a old kitty, she will be 15 this year and when I read up about it, seems it happens sometimes to older kitty’s so I will to watch and trim that nail for her from now on. No meds required, she looks after it very well and it healed beautifully.

At first it seemed kind of odd to me when I looked at the farm book and noticed that so many different critters required a little extra foot, hoof, hock, paw or claw care in such a short time, but then I looked at the different causes and thought almost all of the are related to the time of year to some degree..

Me-Cold needing more shoes and boot time, Sheep, fall rains, wet pastures and wet feeding area’s, rooster, more pen time, less free range time, again lots of wet from rains, less dust bathing chances, the rabbit, more time out on the wire in the pen because the cooler temps mean she is not hiding in the shade/wooden part of her hutch more, and the cat is the odd one out!

So how about you guys, are you finding you need to baby your toes a little more with the extra footwear that colder weather brings your way?

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Weight Goals- Nov 3/11

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

I would like to get back into the habit of doing a weekly post on thursdays on how my “Getting stronger/healthier” Goal is going, it really helped to know that if I had that extra something that I would have to report it, to find the time to get that third walk in so I meet my goals for the week etc.

So in 2010, I lost just over 50 pds in total, slowly over the past year, I have been fairly stable, but slowly about ten pds had been gained back, sometimes I would lose a few pds and then hold, and then gain a couple.. but it would be very fair to say that I took off 40 pds and held stable at that for most of this year, which is good but I really need to get back at it, I want to lose at least 50 pds from now to the end of 2012, anything over is a bonus.

So last week I started getting busy on making a few changes, in truth not that many different changes, just cutting portions, and moving back to my herbal tea’s instead of enjoying once a day hot chocolate, hello, Hot chocolate 240 calories per cup, vs tea 30 calories per cup. No Seconds allowed period!  Checked the blood pressure this week and I am still optimal in my results on that.

So when I got on the scale this morning, I was thrilled to see that I am down 3.2 pds, that’s awesome! and a great start.. so only 46.8 pds to go!

Got a new pair of really good quality walking/light hiking shoes, wow, I have not had to buy good shoes in awile, I tend to wear mine out before getting more, they are REALLY getting up there in price, and the brand I picked had odd sizing, but I found a pair that fit really well, and I can’t wait to break them in and enjoy getting in some extra fall walking time.

Goals for the coming week.

  • Eat breakfast within the first hour I am up.
  • No seconds on anything
  • Only three desserts for the week
  • Eat a little more protein and a little less carbs on the main dinner meals.
  • One extra cleaning project per day for extra workout
  • One small upper weight workout per day

That’s enough to try and do in the next week, so any of you working on gaining more general strength? Or wanting to get a little extra walking in? or working on trying to get a few pds off at the moment? If so, drop a note and let me know how its going for you?

 

 

Posted in Goals | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Why I lose more weight in winter..

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I almost titled this freeze your buns, cause I am so excited that being Nov 1st, I can turn on the heat at least a little, I turn the heaters off in the spring and try very hard to not turn them back on till at least Nov 1st, its time to close off the upstairs, I have been washing and switching out my summer curtains to my winter curtains.

Now, I have to own up to the fact that I did cheat while I was sick, I could not get warm, I mean I was teeth chattering cold, and no amount of layers or blankets was cutting it, I did turn on the bedroom heater till I finally felt warm and slept so much better for it. There has to be a balance in all things.

However now that I do feel better, not up to full par but alot better, I have been enjoying the fall weather much more, and I think I have finally figured out why I lose more weight in winter then summer, its because yesterday, I went.. brrr.. getting cold.. and without thinking about it, got up and grabbed the weights, did a little workout till all warm and limber, and then went back to what I was doing..

Yup, the best way to deal with being on the cool side is to do regular small ten min workout’s every couple hours thoughout the day, it ramps up your internal heating and you feel so much better for it.. most likely you also feel better for it within a matter of days because you also are working out more. Add in hauling the water twice daily, instead of the sheep being able to use the pond for water, add in hauling the hay, shoveling snow and it just all add’s up.

While I eat more comfort food in winter, soups, stews, I am not nearly as hungry in winter as I am in summer when I am hot and tired.. I find in summer I can work long enough hours that I am truly hungry, while in winter, I am often content with a pot of hot tea or a bowl of soup..

Throw in the Wii workouts which I have time for in winter and never seem to touch in the summer, I mean come on, there is so! much to do in the summer and why wii workout if you can take a walk, work in the gardens or you are canning for hours on end.

While I have not gained back the weight I lost last year, I have not had a good year in regards to losing weight this year, I go up a few pds, down a few pds and basicly have been stable.. so now that fall/winter is arriving, its time to put alot more effort into dropping those pds.

In keeping with that, I am going to go back to once a week blogging about how I am doing on that, it really helped when I was writing it out weekly and having to own if I lost or stayed the same.. I also found it helpful to know that I would have to write if I did that walk or workout etc..

So how about you? Do you have a season that you tend to lose weight more easily in? Is it winter or summer? Is it related to available time or just will power?

Got to send out a congrats to Andrea on her lose the fluff success

Posted in Personal Care | 5 Comments

Nothing to see here folks..

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I just gotta share, so I was talking to a friend this morning to figure out a get together for coffee this week as I needed to head to her neck of the woods..

She informed me that she had in fact driven by my little farm last week, just to see things, now her point was in fall, she can’t tell what tree is what etc but she saw the sheep out in the pasture grazing and that was really it, otherwise, it seems quiet…

I was pleased to hear this! it means that I am doing something right, I work hard at figuring out ways that my little extra bits blend into the background of the farm, I can’t express properly just how happy this made me, given that she was truly “looking” as she drove by twice, it should mean that folks that are just driving by should see even less..

I work hard to figure out ways to store things so that when folks visit they don’t see the extra stores (or at least not all of them in the same place) I also store some of this here and some of that there, some in the house, some out of the house, my thinking if storms destroy part of the building and or only one building, I at least have some things in other areas to be able to get things to start over from..

So how are you doing on this? When folks drive by, are they seeing your projects, or do you practise hiding in plain sight? Do you do more outside? Do you do the same inside?

Let me give a easy example, on my guest beds when not in use, they tend to have extra blankets on them, sometimes two or three thick, this allows me to have extra blankets in the house if I ever needed them without having piles of blankets in storage that if someone looked at that they would think.. huh.. why so many?

Posted in farm | 10 Comments

Happy Halloween

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Happy Halloween Gang, Trick and Treat for all of you that have little ones, hope you have a great and safe night.

I would like to tell you that its a exciting night for us but alas since moving to the farm it is not, the first year here, I turned on all the lights, put out the pumpkin and light the step up and had candy ready.. nobody came, not even the Farmer T who has three little ones.. The next year, I went big to draw them in but got less candy and still nothing.. now, I don’t even bother to flip the light.. I know no one is coming.. 

Its the very opposite of when we were up in Iqaluit, the first year we were there I got enough for 200 children, and I was out in 20 min flat, after that I would buy enough for 400 which was my max out amount, I had a trip down to the south and I had gone to either walmart or the dollar store and I got these big bags of toys, spiders rings and little hair clips that kind of thing, 50 to a bag, wow were they a hit with the kids, everyone was so excited, it would get so busy on our little street that you just closed the second door and left the front door open for the first while, as they would just come in waves.

I remember loving halloween as a child, one of my favorite things was that mom would make popcock colored balls back when it was considered safe to make homemade candy to give out and away, none of this going to the store and buying the candy in little tiny packages. What was your favorite treat that your mom or grandma used to make at Halloween.

Now for us, we like to look at it more at a part of the cycle of the season’s and with that in mind, we have a special feast in honor of our beloved that have passed on.

So is today all about dressing up and trick or treating?  Or do you use today to remember those loved ones that have passed?

Posted in Family | 11 Comments

Chicken Feed-Protein from thin Air..sort of..

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So a couple weeks back one of the blogs that I like to read recommended a new chicken book, The small Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery, now she did a glowing write up to the point that I had to go check this book out and I pre-ordered it Amazon.ca and it arrived a week later, and I am still slowly reading it..

That in and of itself is telling, most “of the new improved” books I can get though in one read, with most of it repeat info, standard knowledge, or “SS” aka Stubborn and Stupid info that does not work well but its in every single book.

This book however has been a slow read, a read it and then put the book down and think it, and then go out and look at my flock, look at my bedding, looks at how I make a dust bath. Now I will do a proper and full report on this book, and I will be trying a few things that he does to see if they work within my set up or not, however the basic’s is not what I want to talk about..

Now most of the folks that have been reading for any length of time knows that I self-butcher and will do all that is possable to not waste anything that can be used on the farm, which is why I am struggling with this one.

Now I raise greens, extra produce, and let my chickens be chickens, I use them to clear ground, I feed them red wigglers that I have raised in worm bins feed from the rabbit hutches, and yet I am stumped at the idea of maggot buckets that the book is talking about..

He calls this protein from thin Air, and the idea is this, you take a 5 or 7 gallon food grade bucket, drilling dozens of 3/8th holes into the bottom, sides and lid so that the female flies can enter and lay their eggs but small enough that the chickens can’t peck at the contents, then you can put chopped up road kill, or any extra butcher bits into the buckets, He puts a thick layer of organic material like straw or leaves on the inside and then puts the chunks or parts into the middle, this helps keep the smell down and still allows the flies to easily find their way though the straw and into the middle to lay..

Now you wait, the larvae of the common fly species live, feed and grow in their feeding medium, then only when they are ready to turn into flies, do they instinctively find their way to earth, now this is where the feed comes in.. The maggots leave the bucket by the drilled holes falling onto the ground in the chicken pen, Just as the chickens and duck have figured out to hang around my hanging nets filled with a bit of fruit peels or garden leftovers that I hang to bring the flies to them in their pens, they quickly figure out that those tasty protein fly larve are going to crawl out of the bucket and end up down their gullets..

According to the book, the only thing that should be left will be hair, bones and teeth, so in a nut shell, you are breeding flies, not only are you recycling scrap bits or road kill as per the book, but you are also reducing the potential of the size of each new generation of flies on your farm, as the chickens are eating the offspring that are now NOT going to end up adults flies themselves, so its a win-win-win.

Now I can see the logic of this system, I really can, but there are two main things that make me go hmmmm.

1) it would be illegal per my county by-laws, I can bury the extra’s, I can compost the extra’s and I can burn the extra’s but the rules are pretty black and white that I am not to just leave them out for any length of time and rightly so, I think our country rules are fair and even handed and well-written towards the farmer while still staying on the safe side..

Can you really say that the bucket system with lots of straw padding could in fact pass as a active compost system? Maybe for small amounts left over from butchering, but you would have to make sure that your percents are right between dry and wet materal, then you could say its like a compost bin with holes?

2) Its gross me out! I don’t know why, I am not a easily grossed out person, you are talking to someone who as a young child, had her own spider collection that she hunted and brought them bugs to feed on, someone who moves heaps of worms from place to place,  some who has been covered in birthing fluid more times then I can remember, who has covered newborn lamb or kids mouths and helped breath air into them, you get the idea..

And yet the idea of choosing to create a way to produce maggots just makes my skin do the crawl, which is not to say that I won’t give it a try with one bucket and see what happens, but those chickens had better eat those larve as soon as they drop is all I have to say.

I am as interested in the idea of this helping lower and control the overall farm population of adult flies as I am in regards to providing protein to the chickens.

Ok, so has anyone tried this? If so, please let me know how this worked? Any tweeks from the basic idea? How much protein do you get to replace in bought chicken feed vs per bucket? Anyone else besides me that gets the ahhhh feel from this idea?

This is a homestead Blog Hop Post

Posted in Critters, frugal | Tagged , , , , | 15 Comments