This Stew uses a lot of fall root veggies, i did a mixed blend of Potato, Sweet Potato, Carrot, Winter Turnip and Parsnip. You are welcome to create your own fall root blend as long as it adds up to six cups worth of chopped root veggies.
1 pound of Beef stewing meat
1 med onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp of oil olive or fat of your choice
6 cups of mixed winter root veggies, peeled, cubed or diced your choice on size
1 cup of pearl barley
2 quarts of broth, 1 quart beef broth and 1 quart veggie broth
Salt, Pepper, favorite herb blend or in my case Montreal Steak Spice Blend
In a heavy bottom stewing pot, add oil at med heat, peel and dice onion and garlic, add onion cook till clear, add garlic and dried beef stewing cubes, let sit till bits of brown appear on the garlic and onion then flip the meat, ideally you want to cook these till you have some brown bits and edges so that you will be able to deglaze the pan when you at your stock.
Add the stock, and scrape up all the good browned bits into your broth, add in all your veggies and your barley and bring to a slow boil, drop your heat to a simmer and ideally cook 60 min to 120 minutes at a slow simmer with the odd stir, if you have any sticking, either reduce heat more and or if need be add a touch more broth. The barley will add a lovely just there thickness to the broth.
Serve with salad or good bread for a hearty meal be it lunch or supper!
Nov 8th – The planned costs for the 30 yard bin was sent out on this day, it was posted on at the start of the challenge and it was followed up on. it is already half full at this point.
Nov 9th- Stayed home, 0 spending, it was couples weekend as Miss R was off for a 4H square dancing event, the troop did very well bringing home a number of placements.
Nov 10th – Stayed home 0 Spend, the whole weekend was spent in a sort mode, we were working in the basement, sorting donate, keep and or purge. Lots of work done. Including putting back over 200 clean jars in the cellar.
Nov 11th- 0 spend Miss R went to outdoor events, we stayed home and had a quiet day here on the farm. Other then a load of donate going to the church basement drop off in town.
Nov 12th Up early in the morning and off the dog and i headed to the vets to get him altered. He was the first one in so we were there when the door opened and back to pick him up late afternoon, while the kitty’s stay overnight, the dogs come home the same day so lots of time and love and care for him on the day off and for the next two weeks of healing. He is doing much better in the body suit at the moment, we are switching out the collar for the body suit and will only go back to the collar if we have to, so far he is being very good about listening and the body suit appears to be working for him. I find it really depends on the dog. Day 2 of 5 for his pain meds and so on but so far things are looking good but really you need at least 7 days after a surgery to be sure its all on the go. Planned Vet costs.
Unplanned costs was 30 dollars for the body suit, i have budget planned and bought the cone but he really didn’t like it AT ALL every time it touched something he would freeze and think himself stuck and then cry so we had to unstuck him over and over
While unplanned, i am not unhappy at the extra spend for his comfort and to give us our freedom back from having to “rescue” him
Nov 13th- Miss R worked on the farm with booked paid days total of three days this week and lots got done. Combo of yard clean up, Croft barn clean up, winter prep work and starting the break down to do a inside rebuild plan for winter.
$20 dollar spend for a Christmas present for a second hand book, it was on my list for a while of wants but hard to find, its out of print and the few dealers i had found understood its worth and i was not going to pay 100 or more for it.. This book seller had it at the best price i have seen at 19.97 and its mine now.
This is totally not planned, used books were not on the list of approved spending.. None the less one more Christmas present have been gotten and should be here first week of dec
Otherwise, regular spending on bills that come out mid month and grocery spending, plus a tank of gas for the car. If you are having a no spend November, how is it going for you? Doing well? Having trouble? Have you started getting some presents to put up?
When you have livestock, you have a mix of bedding/hay/feed and poo.. When you use the deep pack method, you have to do big clean outs, those with equipment and planned buildings for said equipment can do it in very quick order as they can turn their piles
We have old buildings, we have no machines to help us and so its the old fashion way of Pitch Fork, Shovels, wheel barrels or sleds depending on the time of year and lots of sweat.
We are not planning at this time to add any bigger livestock to the farm and if we do, they would be housed in the Big Barn with the horses, there is two very large areas, one that was our pig barn lots and one that was our winter sheep area, plus the horses. Even if we do take down the front of the big barn and that is part of my plan to have done, that addition would stay.
So that means a overall redo of the smaller croft barn, including taking out all the current stalls, a deep cleaning, repair work as needed on the building and a rebuild inside the croft barn itself. We are going to move the layer chicken pen to the other end of the barn that still has the attached outdoor safe pen for fresh air and one flexible pen that can be used for raising meat birds or used for broody duck hens and their ducklings etc.
The other end is going to be cleaned out, the double pen taken apart, any repair work as needed and rebuilt as the clean room/tack room/freezer and where the seedlings get started etc It already has power and it will have heat as well.
The middle is still on debate but as its currently just a open space, other then needing sorting what is on the pallets its just there. I want at least one or two full size dog pens for future needs for both the dogs but also if ever need to treat a sick barn cat, help tame a wild stray cat and or whatever.
We have been up to the top of the croft barn and its dry, stable and we are giving thought to flooring it and putting in access stairs and a trap door and doubling our space.
This is a big winter project and its perfect for Miss R, she will get to learn how to use the correct tools and how to build inner pens/walls/doors and more. This will prove to be most useful skills to have when we rebuild the “red” shed by the big barn.
When it comes to farm buildings, small outbuildings, and so on, it time, weather, critters have access to it, its going to at some point require repair.. It really felt good to see how much progress has been made both in the yards and the croft barn over the past days. It will be the last big project and turn over to the closer croft barn and being designed to be our “age out” barn.
It was a surgery day, Big Guy headed out early this morning for his altering and he was picked up and home by mid after and we are on watch and care. Of course Miss Fancy also had to get into something that caused part of the muzzle to swell and be swollen, so that is also being treated and watched carefully
Where Uther just crashed and bashed his way around with the cone, it had to be held together with lots and lots of duck tape, poor Remmi has it hit something and its always hitting something and he holds and whines for help because he is “stuck” and waits to be rescued.. I am sure he will get over it soon enough but just to make sure i have ordered in a male body suit for him to we can see if he does better with it.
Its been a busy in day on many fronts but the hounds have my main focus and will for at least the next while! Routine perhaps, but that does not change that care must be given.
A day like any other A son arrives home to mother A folded flag on his lead-lined urn Come from the Gulf, where the oil fields burn
A patriot lost to Red machinations A hero lost in the great clash of nations The chaplain’s eulogy is generic and brief It does not allay the mother’s profound grief
He signed up as a mechanic Amidst Democracy’s great panic He went to war in the gunnery room Of an air cruiser bearing nuclear doom
When Jetpack troopers assaulted Kirkuk High overhead, his air cruiser shook Dodging air to air rockets and Soviet flak He kept the guns firing to support the attack
Boarded by the enemy over dusty Helmand He wielded hammer and wrench in grim hand to hand Fought them till they could stomach no more Piling up their broke bodies at the gunnery room door
The captain learned of his valor and what he had done Arranged for promotion, gave him control of a gun So in the clear blue skies over gutted Tabriz He swatted Red fighters as if they were fleas
But south of Tehran, the atomics started to fly And caught in a blastwave did his air cruiser die Months later, ground troops secured its skeletal wreck And collected his ashes from the gunnery deck
Gone from the living, gone from the fight He among thousands came home on one flight So the Air Corps could return him back to his mother To put on a shelf, next to his brother.
Last time one of the big 30 yard bins arrived on the farm was for the big change over and house update, out went the old oil tank and furnace, all the duck work and so much more, a change over for the deck the old one taken off and new one built in its place.
With the last of combining two households together from my mothers storage unit, including a number of totes that were shifted as keep/go thought/check every paper so we could close her storage unit in town and with Miss R moving in, who was sharing a apartment space with sisters. Along with a older shed that came down first roof wise and now more so in the storms needing to be finished torn down and cement floor and so on cleaned up so that we can build a new shed over the base its certainly time for a clean and gentle purge.
What is a gentle purge, well that’s when you go though each room, with two boxes, the donate box and the to the bin box vs the deep clean, sort and put back.. The doctor has spoken, my last lung test showed a drop of 22 percent and let me tell you i feel it, i feel it big time and on so many levels. While we deal with the medical issues and their side effects, sorting and giving the house a DEEP clean is a very good idea, so is doing the sheds, croft barn and so on
While i have sat with mask on, my job is to go though the boxes, sorting keep, donate, has checked by someone else and or bin it. We has a flood in the basement this spring during the crazy rain storms and we moved and lifted and ran fans and so on.. but knew that things would need to be checked and such enough there was more to be thrown out, it was dry yes but water damaged.
We have the bin for a month if we need it but i have hired full time help for a week plus what we can do ourselves. Even if it proves to not help my lungs and or overall health, i think just for my peace of mind to head into winter with a full sorted, deep cleaned huggle household is going to be a very good thing
There are going to be some happy ladies at the local second hand stores when they go book shopping, i used to read a lot of Vampire related books and my taste has changed and so i let them go to the donate boxes.
Farmgal Tip of the Day, If you can and know you are going to be donating, Do it four to six weeks before Christmas so that thrifting gifts can find them for this years gifting.
30 Day Challenge – Day 17 of Writing a blog post .
There is truly something special about handwritten letters, when we type out our writings, it becomes about our voice in how we write and just like with auto tune, so many now use writing tools to correct their writings that even that “voice” is becoming less and less.
My Grandmother and I wrote letters and sent little care packages and gifts to each other when i moved north first to yellowknife NWT an then to Iqaluit, Nunavut. While i did stop in when i could, the truth is for those years letters and regular phone calls were how we kept in touch. I kept all the letters, cards, and photos she sent me over that time frame.
This one caught my eye today when i opened the card and saw that i had never taken the money out of the card with the letter that it came in.. Hard to believe that grandpa would have needed to have gone to that bank some time in 1987 and that those three dollar bills are all wrapped up and i can’t help but wonder! how many of those 66 Canadian dollar bills spread out among all the grandchildren are still in our homes, tucked into drawers and books, and photo albums, did any of them get a letter of the little story to go with theirs?
I will pass them on with the letter and the story into my mothers side of the family and down into the generations that were born and have only seen and held a Loonie aka one Canadian dollar coin.
Do you have hand written letters from your grandmother? Do you have paper one dollar or or two dollar Canadian dollar bills tucked away? If you are one of my cousin’s reading this, do you have your gifted one dollar bill or bills?
Nov 1st – headed into town to take the truck in for routine fall oil change and checks, all good no extra spending required – Essential
As i was at Canadian tire, the sales were good and the signs everywhere, i made sure to use the direct doors into the service area and put my mental blinders on LOL. I had thought i would need to leave it there longer and so i had Miss R come behind me to give me a ride back to the farm with a plan for Dear Hubby to bring me back.. But as it turns out they were fast on the turn around and said, just wait.. so wait we did.. With no coffee, or nothing.. I did give a thank you cash bill gift to Miss R as a thank you, I consider this good manners to kick a little something towards gas or a coffee etc
Nov 2nd – Today as Pantry stock up day based on cycle sales at a store that is a bit of a further drive then we normally go to, i went with a clear list of what was to be gotten with only three blank spots for sales unknown to me at the store. I did very well indeed, getting everything on my list and stocking up on a goodly number of things including a butter sale. I did fill my three wild card spots but only with pantry staples and only with on sale items. A costly grocery run yes, however it meet my No buy rules nicely!
Nov 3rd – a cold Sunday on the farm, everyone was home today so we have a lovely farm style brunch, Dear hubby dug the last of the potato’s (we had been digging as needed for over the past three plus months now) and Miss R was working on the hauling up of jars and clearing them out in the pit trench. I should be able to say that nothing was spent but its not true. Tribal Spirit drums put up their moose and deer scrap bags. These only go on sale rarely and they are $20 a bag, they are not “scrapes” so much as off cuts and the price point on the bags are amazing. While i could say that we didn’t “need” this sale we were going to buy moose and deer hide and i could have bought at full price, maybe at sale price or i could buy on the rare, sells out so fast blink and they are gone and take a gamble on color and so on.
So lets take a vote! Yes or No on the leather quote “scrap” bags in both colored and natural moose hide and natural/smoked colors in Deer hide for small winter projects and Christmas gifts
Nov 4th- No spend
Nov 5th- Motel spending due to needing to be close to the hospital for the next morning, so as far as i am concerned, while we certainly do not do a hotel room monthly or routine etc, its a approved spend
Nov 6th- The Hospital Parking Lot fees again fall into the approved spending, however the time and money spent at Tom’s Bakery as i waited for a number of hours while Dear Hubby was in the Hospital, was not approved spending. I did limit myself to reasonable portions and did not buy anything to take home with me. If you ever get the chance to stop by, they have VERY good coffee and their soup and bun for lunch was quite good, the sourdough bun was delightful!
Nov 7th- The gate came in, we have had access to the dog runs from the side door closed off to the main farm yard for a five plus years now and it has worked well for us. However with Miss R having moved in, it was time to do a rebuild and finally add in a gate to that area so she can have access to come in and out of the door which leads much more directly to her room. So the gate was ordered last week and came in to the local hardware store, the gate and the required hardware was all gotten on this day.
How has your first week been, i know a few folks here and on Facebook said they are also going to do their own version of a no spend November. Did you find it easy this week, did you struggle a bit?
In the past days and weeks, months now boy, have i been burning daylight! I have been forced to slow down, way way down and there is really no way to see the end. My body has decided i am going to take this rest regardless of what my mind and my spirit wants.
Its been brutal to cancel plans, to have to face the possibility of needing to change my coming one year, three year and five year longer terms plans. Its not just me facing some health issues, Dear hubby is as well.
Each time we think we get a handle on things, each time we think we are staple, something new hits us and then its rounds of more testing, waiting, more testing, maybe answers and then more choices and changes feel like they are forced on us
Dear Hubby’s numbers are rock solid for his Diabetes and yet the disease itself marches onward, I am following all the requests and rules and more and yet my last lung test showed very poorly indeed, dropping my capacity by 22 percent and that is leading to a host of other issues.
They adjust meds and order you to rest, to recover, to listen to your body, to not push yourself, to eat right and drink your water and sleep, don’t stress, can you work less, can you sleep more, can you lose weight for me and for Dear Hubby Don’t lose any more weight and can you please work out and gain muscle mass back!
I feel a fire in me, its deep and its banked and i am doing my best to make sure it does not come out and burn those around me. My mind is working and i am left sitting with a body that is limiting and a mind that is a force of its own.
As folks tell me, you will feel better soon, are you sick again, i am sure you will feel better after a sleep, maybe just try harder, i can feel the walls going up, i am sharing less an less, sharing details and hard truths with less and less people.
Last year i would have shared details on the medical tests that took place this week.. This year, i talked in person with less folks then i can count on my hand and shared nothing. I will wait for results to be known and then we will see..
Finding myself smiling more and nodding my head as i say things like.. it will take time but thank you for your kind words.. and i mean it, i am grateful for those that care enough to ask and offer
I am just tired and so its easier to be quiet in certain ways and just get on with it, and that applies for a lot of the outside pressures lately as well. I know things are in flux, things are changing, i see what is happening and coming.
Keep steady, Keep Quiet and Pace it.. one thing at a time, one list at a time, stay flexible, stay fluid, and just keep getting the next step done and the next and the next and the next and the next!
I may be burning daylight, i may be burning with some low simmering belly fire but its going to find its way out in so many small quiet ways that will have ripple effects..
This forced rest is leading me to focus on what really matters to me and is this something that i can give my time and effort.
If you are dealing with short or long term health issues and working on dealing and adjusting your world, just know you are not alone! If you are narrowing your focus, know you are not alone. If you are finding yourself quiet right now, know you are not alone.. Allow yourself that time to reflect, learn and refocus.
I think the reason it is the most popular is because there are not as many recipes for Heart as there are for the basic cuts of meat that are turned into stew!
Wait, don’t like dumplings, then add some Baking Powder Biscuits on the side! O they do work perfect with a good fall styled Venison Stew.
Struggle in find a good way to use and serve Venison, find it a bit strong in flavor? Here is a loaded slow cook Venison Stew recipe for you! The thing that most folks that are new to wild game is they try and cook it like you would store beef but it is so very lean and compared to those tender cuts, it can be quite firm and or chewy.
I have made this recipe or a version of it a number of times for guest, its a great way way to introduce folks to a venison that the meat is going to be small bite size and fall apart tender! Low and Slow folks, Low and Slow!
For everyone with tags be it you have started or will be in the stands soon enough, good hunting and may your freezers and many bellies be filled for the winter coming!
I am sorry to have this rant, I might not even post this.. I most likely will and I am sure I will lose a reader or two.. but I have to write this.. If you live in an apartment or a tiny condo in the city, you can be many things.. You can be […]
Ok, its just going on record that we are going to be “in just in time mode” on most things this year. Let me give a example.. we have pulled at least a hundred or two wild parsnips but then we needed to focus on this or that.. and suddenly this week, we are like.. […]
Just another Day on the Farm 