Sad Morning in the Barn

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I am struggling to write this post, and have started it twice now, I know that when we choose to write and share parts or glimpe’s into our lives in this way, its just that.. moments in time written up and shared.

Lets face it, its alot easier to share the good parts, the interesting parts, even the thought filled parts and we all love the funny parts but what about the painful or sad parts.. to share or not.. that is the rub..

I have been writing about the joy’s of my new lambs, and so I guess its only fair to write about the risk’s an sorrow that can come as well. This morning I went to the barn as normal, and was greeted with baa’s , baby bleats, grunting piggy and a moo’in calf.. only one issue, there was no second baby bleating from its jug.. at first this was not much of a worry,they can be sleeping well and not wake up right away, last check at ten pm, showed me a up and nursing little one snug in the jug with a attached mom.

However the mother didn’t come to the front of the pen to greet me and the fresh hay, grain and warm water, now that is odd, and she is standing over her baby all protective, who is still.. after I went in and checked, sadly he had passed away sometime between last night check and morning chores, and I feel the sting of tears in my eyes that I have somehow failed this little one, even as my head tells me, I have not, he has a safe warm draft free jug, a attached mom with milk, and two feet thick of warm clean bedding.. somehow that does not stop the flow of angry that comes at the loss of the beginning of a new life that has been cut way to short.. I will never see this little one bop or come running to see what I am bringing.

I walk away for a bit, I need time to get my head around it, I check everyone else, I feed, I watered, I patted and rubbed and milk my ewe, and I haul my sled down and do all the rest of the chores, in and out, hauling more water.. check all the critters one by one.

Finally, I put it off no longer, I need to do something with this little one, and I am saying right now, Do not read the rest if butchering bother’s you.. stop now..

I skin and butcher the lamb, the meat an bones will go to the hounds, the hide comes into the house, I clean it, salt it, roll it and freeze it for tanning at a later point.

Do I own up to the fact that I felt that sting of tears again while I did that hide, well I did. Did it stop me from making the choice to follow my rule of waste NOTHING, no it didn’t but sometimes that choice hurts to follow though on.

Posted in Real Life, sheep | 9 Comments

Knitting-Cowl

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Just finished it last night and got to try it this morning, Ok, so it was wore with a black wool hat for the real chores but I wanted the whole effect for the picture, so here is my first hand knitted cowl, which basicly means its a connected full circle peice of wool that gets pulled over your head and cover’s your neck down into shirt and kind of pools there for extra warmth, and can be worn just like that, a pretty fancy neck warmer, or you can pull it up your face,  bring it to just above your eyes for extra protection and warmth, I had already knitted a extra wide big scarf in the same wool, which can be used a scarf alone or as a head covering scarf, add in the cowl and its a two peice set to make a cold day outside be alot nicer while you work.

Posted in Carfts an Hobbies, frugal, knitting | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Mock Pinapple Canning Recipe

Posted on January 26, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So as anyone that has been reading the blog knows, I have been canning pinapple, which is a real treat, because when has Pinapple ever been so cheap that you can just can a whole years worth at a time.

Which brings me to a little story, a few canning recipes and nod to my Grandma D and my dear momma for sharing, teaching and passing those lessions on down.

I remember Grandma helping can when she came to the farm I was on as a little one, and and I believe this is Grandma Recipe, but if there is one thing I have learned is that with as many aunties as I have, there seems to be almost as many tweeks to these recipes as there are relatives.. so if you have a different version, let me know and I will add it.

So back in the day, pinapple was a HUGE treat and one that could not be easily come by for the average family, nor would it have stretched very far with the size of the family.

So along comes Mock Pinapple to the rescue. If at all possable you want to grow Marrow Sqaush, I can’t find it in any catalog these days but you can get it at seed-savers, or for me locally, I can find it at Seed Saturday still being raised each year by some familys that sell open and old seeds locally each spring. This is a huge oval yellow sqaush. In a pinch, you can use large overgrown zucchini, by which I mean at least two or three feet long and allowed to get quite hard but not fully ripe either, you can tell the difference by the seeds, if the seeds have turned to the point of being able to collect them, don’t use for this recipe.

When its ready to havest you can then peel it, and take all the seeds out, (Peels to piggy, seeds to chickens) and then you cut it into stripes and then cut the stripes into cubes that will look very much like a pinapple tidbit, Fill your big old steel roaster (the one that covers two burners for canning) and fill it up, measure your cups, and you want a 1 to 4 rato in terms of sugar, so if you have 40 cups of fruit, you want ten cups of sugar, mix the fruit and sugar together, slap the lid on and let it sit overnight on the counter.

In the morning, the sugar will have pulled the juice out of the marrow fruit and will be most likely covering the fruit, Put your pot on the nice med heat and start getting your jars ready, (cleaned, boiled and held in boiling water to keep very hot etc), now take three to six lemons and fine slice them, I am talking maralade thin, and then cut each wheel into six and add them and the juice to the marrow, at this point if you have it, you can also add one huge can of pinapple(but you don’t have to if you don’t have it). Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 to 40 min, you want the marrow to turn a golden clear color, they will look very much like pinapple when ready, then hot can like normal.. Remember to wipe your mouths down with straight vinager, not water to help make sure you are not bringing added germs into the jar. Hot water bath the jars for 15 min pints, and 20 min for quarts.

They will keep in good qaulity for up to two years and then start to lose firmness, at which point, you can use them in baking but they will not be as good for fresh eating. This is a way to take a very little pinapple and make alot of pinapple lookalike,taste a like.

Now of course, I can’t just stay with only that one way, I have found two other ways I very much like..

Extra Version one, Lose the Lemons (but replace with one cup of lemon juice) and add in one can of pinapple juice, it gives a added booster of flavor to the jars, and any extra juice can be canned and used as a base for a drink.

Extra Version two, replace the pinapple with fresh cut up peaches Dice the peach flesh into cubes, Take out six to eight cups of the hot marrow juice, and pour over your peach skins in a small steel pot, simmer, mash and then strain, putting that wonderful peach flavor back into the big batch, you can use as little as ten percent peach to as much as twenty-five percent peach and it will give you a peach cocktail mix that is lovely, and again, what a way to stretch a fruit out.

Extra Version three, just use the marrow on its own with bottle lemon juice added for the extra acid, and throw in a couple peices of fresh ginger in a cheese cloth back, it adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the batch without effecting the look of it. Of course remove the cheese cloth before starting to jar it up.

We might not be able to grow Pinapple in Canada but we certainly can have wonderful rows of jars of mock pinapple to enjoy though the winter.

Posted in Canning, food, Food Production and Recipes, frugal, gardening, gardens, local food | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Chores, New Lamb and Sheep Milk

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Its been a busy morning so far.. first my ear does not have blisters, or white spots, and while its tender, it’s doing well today, just needs to be treated gently while it heals.

I am craving rubarb, which means that my body wants vit C so got a nice pot of strawberries/rubarb stewing away and look forward to that..

Chorse were much better today, its only minus 18 with a windchill of minus 27, compared to yesterday, its feel’s almost warm LOL  Woolie sheep had a fresh delivered little ram lamb waiting for me this morning, got lamb moved, took a little more work and a bit of grain offered to get Woolie into the jub with her new boy, but once got them settled, gave out fresh hay/water with black strap Molasses an a bit of milking ration with kelp and she settled right in and continued bonding with baby and was clearly cleaning him and he is up and nursing, so looks to be good at the moment.

Wow, does my calf Girl ever drink the warm water, I have started taking down a full extra jug of water 2x per day just for her, caz of course I want her to be able to drink her fill and compared to the sheep, she sure seems to drink alot. O well, there is room on the sled for that extra jug so its not a matter of another trip.

FF has settled down into a steady amount on her milking, and it does appear to be a liter per milking, twice a day, so that would be a quart a day, not bad at all for a single sheep, who is not even of a milking sheep breed.

I guess I need to dig out my soap making box and give it a go over to see if anything is missing or if I am good to start a new batch.

Posted in farm, raw milk, sheep | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Comfort Food

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

Do you have comfort foods, Do you reach for chips? Chocolate? Popcorn? or Cookies or how about icecream when life gives you a kick?

Well, I just felt kicked and I am making one of my favorite foods, it goes like this.. Med Steel bowl, three pats of butter, two green flour cups, a pinch of Salt/Sugar, a capful of Baking Powder, mix together, then make a hole in the middle, fill with raw sheeps milk, mix together, will pull into a soft dough, and cut with pint jar ring into circles and bake at 350 for 12 to 15 min till golden brown.

Yup, I am talking about fresh baking powder Biscuits, I am going to throw down with hot dripping butter and a funky jam and enjoy every second of it.. but I will limit myself to two and save the rest for to go for things like breakfast sandwhich or to serve one with soup at lunch.

Now I guess I had better give that recipe in a way that someone other then myself can use, I know there are more recipes for Baking Powder Biscuits but this is the one that I make by heart, I just know what it should look like and I have made it in the same bowl for so long, I don’t even measure the milk anymore.

Farmgal Baking Powder

  • Half a cup of butter or magrine or lard (your choice)
  • Three cups flour
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1 Tbsp of Sugar
  • 2 Tbsp of Baking Powder
  • 1 cup of Milk

Take the first five and add them in a bowl, cut the cold fat into the flour mixture till its blended in to tiny peices no bigger then the size of pea’s, then make a well in the middle and add the milk and stir, it will make a soft dough if its sticky, add a little more flour, turn out on a floured surface and gentle pat down into a round circle about half an inch high, you can cut it with a glass, or a jar lid ring, or proper steel  cookie cutters or you can take a pizza cutter and cut into sqaures or you can score lines and bake it as a solid peice.

If you really want it to be browned, you can make a egg/milk wash to put over top, I did this when I worked in kitchen business but have never felt the need to do it at home, but if you want that store look of so golden brown, that’s how they do it.

I’m looking forward to when they come out of the oven, gotta a huge cuppa of hot rooboo tea with local raw honey.. heavenly.

Posted in food, Food Production and Recipes, Real Life | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Book Review:101 Uses for Stinging Nettles by Peirs Warren

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

This is a little softcover book, but its worth its weight in Gold (well maybe not with the cost of gold these days, but Silver for sure).

I started out using Stringing Nettles in the spring as one of the first greens as a young greens and greens in soup, then I started researching it more and was so pleased with the amount of protein in them, that I began growing large patches of them, and drying many jar’s worth of nettles for use though the winter in so many dishes, anything you would normally put basil in, you can use Dried crumbled Stringing Nettles in.

Then I learned about the fact that Stinging Nettle Tea was a wonderful tonic for a cleaning of your liver, who does not want that!

At which point, I was hooked and while looking for more info, found this little book that was for sale in England, and a few years ago, it made its way to my book shelf.

The different uses are so wide that its amazing, its not 101 uses for cooking, its how to use it to make cord, how to make paper with it, how to dye wool with it, how to use it to make use of it in your gardens, how to make use of it in your livestock.

Even if you have only a little land, I would make sure to have a Nettle Patch tucked away in the back or even better, grow it in your hedges, it grows well between rose’s which can create a nice looking natural barrier between the thorns and the strings, most critters four and two foot will choose to not go though them.

A fair number of folks comment on the fact that the seeds can be dried and ground to be used as a salt substitute, but I have one that I consider to be even more useful for small farmers..

The Juice of the Nettle or a decocotion formed by boiling leaves in a strong solution of salt will curdle milk, providing the local cheese-maker with a good substitute for rennet, in keeping with these, you can also add dried /crumbed nettles(not Fresh) to your milking animals rations to help increase their milk production, it makes sense, given the amount of protein available within the plant.

The amount of land needed to grow the same amount of Nettle Protein, vs Corn, Wheat or Barley is alot less, as is the amount of storage space required to keep a winters supply, this would be a very worth while way to “stretch” a poor hay crop for your barn critters and upping the daily protein given.

One of the best ones for use in the barn is that Nettle roots, boiled and cooled and drunk can be used as a natural de-wormer, I have also given dried nettle to the chickens to help their overall condition and had great results.

Its super easy to grow and it will go in marginal land or spots that you could not grow more delicate plants, I also love that it will grow on second year compost piles as a green cover, just collect and give the dried seeds a shake over the compost pile or dig a clump of roots, split them up and replant them, and let them go, they will multiply like crazy. This is a great wild forage food that should not be overlooked in your home pantry..

We have found that left to nature-Nettles will choose to grow in rich soil, so if you were looking for a spot to plant a little sqash or three sister, if you can find nettles growing, you know that this would be a good spot to cut down the nettles (chopping and turning them under for green manure) and then planting what you want to grow, go back once a week for the next six to eight weeks and cut and use for greens the inch to four inch babies that will pop right back up, till the plant has a good head start, then I would let the nettles go personally, letting them, they will be shorter but will go to seed, and provide some basic protection to your plant, and will come back the next year in a bigger thicker patch to be picked and use in many ways.

Posted in Book Reviews, farm, food, frugal, gardening, gardens, Herbs, local food, wild foods | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Bitter Cold

Posted on January 24, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

ahhhh, frost bite warming on exposed skin within ten min, and they say that in our closest city that its min 30 c with wind chill min 38, but the outside farm says that its min 36 c without the wind chill so assuming that that my wind is giving the same as the city, and it is windy.. that means its minus 42 on the farm this morning..all I have to say is thank you for snow pants, layers, wool socks, and full face covers, I didn’t take baby down to milk out mom, it was just to cold to carry him up and down. So those folks that read from area’s that don’t use Celcus that would be minus 44 F

I know, I know I have lived in the artic where we had whole weeks that were min 65 C with wind chill but we didn’t have to haul water, haul hay/bedding, Milk twice a day or do the rest of the chores, its cold enough that everyone needs extra feed and fat in their diets example, handfull of black sunflower seeds thrown in on top of rabbit food for the extra calories and fat in their diets. Multple trips out daily to check and give small amounts of fresh warm water. 

Its a day for a hot soup or stew to just simmer on the stove all day long, so I can have a bowlful off and on when ever I feel like it.. its a good day to can or bake to get that extra heat in the house, but also spent a bit of time to get all the extra critter water jugs (80 liters each) full in case we lose power, which according to the radio many folks are in fact out of power/heat at the moment locally..

Ok, How cold is it?

1) Cold enough that when you milk the milk freeze’s on the steel bowl that you are milking in.

2) Cold Enough that the critters outside eyelashs or whiskers have frost on them..

3) Cold Enough that the pig was burned by two to three feet of bedding and when she came up for fresh water and feed, her whole body was steaming..

4) Cold enough the rabbit winter crocks didn’t need to be banged out, the ice just flipped out.

5) Cold Enough to need two pair of socks, winter boots, snowpants, and five layers on top before the extra long wool coat goes overtop, with three layers on face/neck and head, two layers of gloves, one inner and one outer.

6) Cold enough that the Turkeys are still up in the tree roost, and didn’t come down until I got to them with fresh warm water and grain, just moved an eyeball in a puffy ball of feathers as I went by back and forth with water for the sheep.

7) Cold enough that according to the Radio, last night we broke the record here for the coldest its got on that day (remember we are in the 30 coldest days of the year) that had been held for 41 years.. ya..we set a new record on how cold it can get.. thank god for barns and straw bedding and that critters are smart enough to sleep together for body warmth or that they can burrow into bedding.

7a) Cold enough that after five trips outside dressed like a mummy, I went out to answer the door for two min to talk to someone that stopped to see if I knew who a lost pony belonged to, I guess at least one of those little old ladies that saw me with my baby oxen in training, can’t see very well, because they thought my calf was a new pony and told them that I had a pony now, in that short two min visit, I froze, the wind blew and I got mild frostbite on the top of my right ear.. Grrrrr, well I should have known better, and now I get to practice how to treat mild frostbite. Its can happen that quick folks!

8) Cold Enough that I don’t feel the least bit guilty about having a big mug of hot chocolate after chores got done.

Posted in farm, Real Life | Tagged | 1 Comment

Got it figured out! -Sheep Milk/Lamb Update

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So we got a pattern now and there might just be enough extra for a little bit of fresh sheep yogurt to appear soon..

We are milking twice a day, Puff getting a nice big meal by nursing off the hard to milk left teat, and me getting a liter a day of milk out of the easy to milk right teat.  With Puff getting his required needs meet, I am pleased to see that we already have a little extra left over for household needs, and that is what we will have is a little till he is weaned off the extra’s milk at six weeks and just gets creep feed, hay and twice daily milk from the left side and then we should have about a liter or more per day for our own uses for the house.

I can’t decide what to do first.. sheep milk soap, or Sheep yogurt, the milk is so rich that I have a cream layer on top, (I know this is not to happen with sheep milk 🙂 but someone forgot to tell the milk that!)

Posted in farm, food, raw milk, sheep | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Baby Oxen Training

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

I had a request to write more about what I am doing with Girl, so here is that post for this time. I do now have the Oxen a Teamster’s Guide by Drew Conroy and I quite like it, but to be honest, I am falling back on my working with and training horses from my youth more then anything.

http://www.prairieoxdrovers.com/index.html

So Girl is a mixed breed calf, being half holstein and half limousin which means that she has parents in both breeds that tend to have very good temperments, and she herself is smart, gentle and willing to be worked with and also willing to work by this I mean she appears to look forward to going to work and comes to be caught and have her halter put on, does not fight her harness and steps right in line with me.

So when I got her at 3 weeks old, I halter trained her and began lead work with her as well as foot/body work.. touching, teaching lifting of feet, using natural flight zones to teach her to swing, always using the same commands while working with her in her barn, or stall, tethering her up both in the barn or outside for short periods of time, so that she learns she has to hold. That was the basic’s for the first two months, then at the age of four months, we stepped it up.

I made her a baby harness out of a 100 feet of nylon strapping, steel rings and heavy duty clips, and began teaching her to wear it and walk with it.. we started working with a touch still (it is only used to help with direction or to stop, NOT used in any way as a whip etc) and begain working her on lead on walks, and teaching, Yup for start  tckk, tckk for pick up the pace, easy for slow down, Wooo for stop, and gee and haw for left and right, Back for Back, Step up for just that.. over for swinging right and Swing for swinging left to get into postion for loads..

That right there another month of steady work, after about two weeks of that, I ran lines down and started working her from behind at times, leading at times and then put a hitch behind her and again worked teaching her how to keep her hitch behind her, how to step in and out, then I attached a log to the back off her lines and she spent a week learning to drag something that didn’t matter to me if she sent it flying or kicked at it while learning.. but in truth it only took a few days to get her to settle right back down..

In the meantime still brushing her down, picking up feet and creating future manners in the barn in regards to being a family milk cow as well as the farm’s draft animal to be, which includes waiting in your certain station to get your morning and evening feed etc.

Then I finally harnessed her, hitched her and had her pull her first baby load, by hauling the 3 person sled filled with a few tools and toolbox from the house to the barn.. That may sound simple but really it was a big deal because it was done right.. she stood while loading, started her load, moved at the pace I wanted, took direction and woo’d on command and stood while we unloaded..

And that is where we are still at.. I hope to continue working with her this winter to get her to the point of being able to haul a small stone boat in regards to moving things from the barn to the gardens, and for skidding out small tree’s. She is very much a baby and I am not asking for long work periods nor really heavy pulls while she is a wee one, but there is no reason she can’t do light work that has been checked to fit her weight requirements.  What she weigh’s is how you figure out, how much she can pull, plus condition and what you are using to have her pull, clearly having her pull a loaded sled is alot less work then pulling a tree part that has drag etc.

Hope that helps.. Now if I could just convince her that my wool coat is not tasty I would be happy camper at the moment..

Posted in oxen | Tagged | 4 Comments

Sneaky Hay Baby Lamb

Posted on January 22, 2011 by Just another day on the farm

So went out last night to milk an there was very little to have, see I had a ewe (carmel that looked like she was likely to start labour in the next while so I moved FF in with spot and L1 aka Hay Baby for the day, thinking that they have solidly bonded and that way, FF can share the pen/hay/water etc.. but it turns out that FF adopted L1 (Hay Baby) after rejecting her own boy L2 (Puff Daddy) and had been letting her nurse.. Grrrr.. so split them up, did a pen barn shuffle and waiting till just before bed and took Puff down and let him get his bed time feeding direct from momma.

Back down this morning and we are back up to our cup and half at milking and then I let Puff finish the clean up to make sure she is well and truly milked out. So now I have enough milk in the house for daytime feedings and can will repeat the process at evening chores, me milking first and then letting Puff finish the job for me.

Otherwise everyone is fine but its way to cold, we have freezing skin warning out right now, and thank goodness that the wind chill does not effect the critters in the barn.

Burning Daylight and need to get back at it..

Posted in raw milk, sheep | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment