Natural way to add Christmas Scents to your home.

Posted on December 23, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Like many of us, I adore my house being filled with “Scents” of Christmas time! The scent of the spruce or pine, the scents we think of for baking, cloves, cinnamon..

We have Christmas oranges so all peels are saved to be used in this. A stick or two of cinnamon curls.

Add your choice of the greens, cedar trimmings, or spruce or pine..

Farmgals frugal tip!

Use your pickling spices, there is no need to pay the higher costs of the blends I have seen at the store.  Its perfect way to do it on the cheaper costs, I buy my pickling spices in bulk at a large discount. You will have bay leaf, black pepper corns, and of course cloves in your blend.

Put your fixings in a pot, fill with water and put it on simmer and other then checking it now and again to make sure its still got water, you are good to go.. if you want you can use a crock pot.

If you are going to be out of the house, turn it off, do not leave a working pot on the stove while you are out, please!

The perk.. everything in here is safe to be added to your compost pile at the end of the day!

 

Posted in gardens | Tagged , | 5 Comments

Do you want your Lambs or Kids to be birthed in daytime hours?

Posted on December 22, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Would you like to know how a simple change can help increase your flock or herd’s day time lambing rates? Do you dislike cold winter all night baby watch, checks and 1 to 4 am birthing times.

How you ask? Its simple really.

Change your main feeding time for your hay.

Make your feeding time after 6 pm in the evening and your ewe’s or doe’s or cows will spend the night working on their dinners and will have their babies during the daylight hours between 6am to 6 pm.

I had noticed that I had a lot of morning and daylight lambing and I love that.. I also found that those girls that hang back on the morning feed out are ready to go.. and It give me a nice heads up for getting them into the lambing jugs.

This works if you want it moved the other way if you work a full-time job off the farm, you can adjust your feeding times to give you the best results for when you ARE home.

The reason I can say this is because they have studied this to the point that they have the present’s that give birth in what timings.

Researchers at the Kansas State Experiment Station followed up with a five-year study to give us all a better idea of what we could expect from a change to evening feeding.

Their results are similar to other studies. Dusk feeding meant that 34% of calves came between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. Another 21.2% came between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., and then another 30% arrived between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. That left only 15% of the calves being delivered between 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Of course your results may vary.

We have done this for years and we have most of our lambs/kids and calf’s born between 7 am and 11 am.  If you tend to have most of your babies born at night and would prefer them to be born during the daylight hours.. do give this Canadian method a try!

This post is part of Self Reliance Challenge Jan 2019.. I am just early! It will be included in the round up posts!

Self-Reliance-Challenge-2019

Posted in Critters, Real Life | Tagged , , , , | 30 Comments

Friday Rambles around the table “Soil Regenerative”

Posted on December 21, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Quick, Quick its pouring rain.. glad you made it, its raining so hard that there are road closures, and the kiddo’s buses are canceled as well.  Shake yourself off and come on in..

I have got a lovely pot of spicy Chia tea on today or perhaps a hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick?

How are you doing today? Its getting so close to Christmas? Are you ready for it? Got your plans made? Still need a stocking stuffer? How about a little package of seeds? I know how excited I get when I get seeds and I expect that others feel the same 🙂

I am waiting for a convention to open up, I am on the email list to get in on the early bird cost fee, I would like to save as much as possible.  Its a three day event and I have a feeling its going to be filled with hot topic/cutting edge knowledge in regards to living soils.

The new year is coming and might I make at least one of my own little New Year Predictions!?

I predict that you will be hearing “Regenerative” and “Soil Carbon Capture” along with “Year of the Soil” and a new one even to me..

Climate Victory Gardens!

Now this little video is very tailored for the states but it gets the point across that this is a movement that is up and coming..

(now please don’t think that the five tips are going to be new to us homesteaders or old gardeners, its old hat for most of us.. other then those that are still tilling every year and keeping bare soil gardens)

I have been hearing that word, just slipped in on the main news, seeing it pop up in BBC news and more.. then one of the grass roots groups I follow and work with, posted that one of their main ladies was going to be a speaker at the coming soil event for 2019.

This is the video from their first one in 2017!

You are most likely thinking hmmm.. but I think that we are going to find that this is going to be a HUGE push in the coming while.. it’s of course NOT this simple.. there are many other factors at play but none the less! I will stay on topic..

This is a much longer video but it explains the basic’s of how/why when it comes to carbon capture in the soil

If you have the time to watch this, its worth it! I know that its dry but I really want you to remember that this was done in 2017.. so many of the things he is talking about is our “right here and now”

I had already planned a number of compost posts and one really longer video on compost and soil in the coming year, I knew that I would be sharing a good amount of posts on my yard work. I have a feeling this convention will provide the spring board to a lot more information sharing with my readership 🙂

As we get closer and the outline come together, I will come back and see if there is any questions you guys have that you want to see if I can get answers for on a global scale.

So do you think that climate victory gardens will catch on?

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged , , , , , , | 20 Comments

Farmgal’s Christmas Journel December 2018

Posted on December 20, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Dec 12th to Dec 20th..

I lost my post, I do not understand how I lost my post, but all my little daily notes are gone..  that will teach me to do it in a different format instead of working the post here in wordpress daily and then saving it as a draft.

I broke my tooth and called and got in to have my filling fixed on weds, the tooth didn’t have any major damage, it just needed a filing and the missing bit of filling redone.  It helps when you have a working relationship with your clinic, I called in that morning and they had me in that evening and fixed right up.

However the freezing on my face did a number on me.. I mean it was crazy, my whole side of the face that had the freezing hurt for days with very close to migraine headache for the first 48 hours and even a push of air on my face on day three could put me in tears.

The simple truth is I did not do much, I was so glad I had posts already done for the blog to share and just have very quiet/no light/careful days.

My Christmas present from hubby arrived this week, my new camera

Then Saturday came and what a day it was..  it warmed up, the sun shined down, we were off the farm for a touch, needed to do this and that.. including dropping off our senior packages. 

We had work to do outside while the weather warmed up..  the warm up melted out little patches of green that sent the chickens into hunt mode 🙂

Sunday hubby slept in and I took to the outside to get extreme close-ups in a hoarfrost delightful photo session.

We spent the afternoon setting up a new bird feeding station that is done so that I can hopefully take some delightful bird photos this winter, so far it’s not worked at all but I will give it time 🙂

Hubby had slipped and was a touch sore so we were taking it careful, he got to the physiotherapy and we got some answers and he is already well on the mend, we were already doing great on our own in getting it better, a follow-up is booked after the new year!

Picked up my old glass frames that have my new prescription so now I have two glasses and can switch them on and off for farm vs town. I liked my older ones very much and wanted to have the freedom to choose.

We did an extra feed run on Tuesday and I have plans coming..  The Christmas box’s have been arriving, one from Hubbies mom, one from my mom and one came in earlier from Big Brother and family. hubby and I are only doing stockings, our big gifts have already arrived but we will pretend and get our photos with them 🙂

I was at the store and I did do some stocking up on some basic’s that tend to be on sale on this time of year, baking supplies typically. I was utterly shocked at the prices of so many things in the store.  Even on sale they are crazy high.

Having said that, I am also watching our pantry slowly but surely getting used up, I counted empty jars and we went though x amount out of freezers and 26 pints worth in the past tend days plus cellar goods. I know that is what its there for and its a good thing to be eating it.. it just drives home that point harder to me that I must! have a good garden year in 2019 as I no longer have two year plus on a number of my homegrown staples.

I have not decided what I want to do about that.. do I buy from the store to restock, or do I wait it out and see what 2019 brings does in regards to fresh eating, putting up 12 to 24 months worth of the basic’s depending on what is needed. We will see.. I think it makes more sense to see what my growing year is..

Its been a nicely quiet week but the freezing rain is coming today and we will see how it goes. I will be going out on the ice that is already out there and getting a few extra things done before we lose the light.

 

 

 

Posted in farm journel | Tagged | 14 Comments

Ordering Seeds in these changing times.

Posted on December 19, 2018 by Just another day on the farm


This post is tailored more towards those that have land, bigger gardens and for homesteaders that are growing to fill their jars, cellars, pantry’s and keep their families bellies full for up to a year or two.

Its not going to be quite as applicable to smaller scale gardens that can be covered more easily, still have drip lines or are watered well as a square foot garden would be.

With the rising costs of fruit/veggies in the store and the increase in recalls, you might also find that extra veggies produced will have very good re-sale or barter value in the coming years!

As will proven quality saved seed!

Want to know what I will be spending more money on this year..

Seeds, so many more seeds. I am going crazy on the seeds, I know it, hubby just blinks hard at me, catalog come in, friends connect and community seed savers and I are chatting.

I am ordering in short season seeds and I hope they are going to help me get two season’s in the gardens. I used to plan for a three season garden, but I am officially saying NOPE.. in the past five years, I have not gotten a single three season garden and with the coming flip of the el Nino, there is no end in sight.

I say two season now because either the first season starts so soon in the spring that come regular garden season, its high drought or it’s flipped and is a flood spring and the back-end is changing as well.. we have more fall rains making it harder to save seed, harder get harvests done and then throw in early hard frosts. Sorry folks, other than in greenhouse or double hoop house growing..

I am calling it.. my farms ability in the first ten years we were here to grow three season cropping is DONE.. so be it.. two season it is..

Adapt people.. It’s the name of the game!

The reason I am pouring of the seed catalog is because I am looking for seeds that

  • Start in cold wet soil
  • Seeds that will start well in pots
  • Continue to produce well in hot dry conditions
  • Set seed in cool temps
  • Set seed in hot temps
  • Produce after light frosts
  • Shorter crops heights
  • Higher crops that produce dense cover

See where I am going with this? If you are garden already you know why that list but for those new at gardening.. lets break that list down a bit of you.

Starting in cold wet soil.. welcome to spring floods or the cold spring evening temps.. both of them can be worked on with seeds that can still be gotten in cold damp soil. both of which are hard as heck on new little seedlings.. they tend to get cranky about both of these!

Seeds that start well in pots (look to the plants that are being set up as “container gardening” It may seem silly if you are planting out half an acre or a full acre in garden to want to have certain plants that grow well in containers.. I am after them two-fold.. One because if they are in pots out in the garden area, they can be pulled if needed into shelter for seed saving even if the rest of the crop fails and second if they are meant to be started in pots, then they will be good to start in the greenhouse in pots and transfer out if required.

A lot of the plants I have grown for many years do good in a normal summer but are struggling hard in these hot summers.. I have had crops that are normally heavy producers just sit there in holding waiting for the cooler fall temps and rains to come and then they explode and for a few years, it worked, the falls were long enough that I was still getting crops in.. but then in the past two years.. hard short sharp frosts with early winters have really messed with that!

Seed saving is a huge part of my gardening and I have had way to many losses in the past couple years.. seed heads that didn’t fill (see the above, nothing like getting the crop and going YES! WHOOT< only to realize that you have these then 5% of your seeds set out of dozens and dozens of winter squash)  Or growing an amazing crop of beans but watching it rain daily for weeks, and finally bringing them in to hang and running heaters to still lose your most of your “seed crop”

So in keeping with that, seed saving times are getting much more tight and I am hunting down types that will set in cool temps and types that will set in high/dry temps. Yes I know that the dry/high will have a lot less yield but that’s fine..

Its happening more and more often that we get lighter frosts earlier in the season, I had friends that took frosts in aug, our normal frost dates are in oct.. so its important to make sure a lot of our heavier calorie crops can take some light frosts without falling over like a wilted lady who needs smelling salts!

Shorter Crops Heights.  I am sure you all know that I am going to say wind, o those crazy high winds and working with swells and planting in created micro climates. Can’t get certain crops to produce in a standard garden. Look to your food forest and get those annuals intermixed, get some wind protection, while still getting edge sun on them.

Crops that will grow tall, have dense cover.. What can I say, no point in just slapping shade over your greens or others that need less sun, does a shade cover produce food or medical use.. nope..  but if you do your research, you have plants that can grow to give you wind cover, shade cover and if luck is good.. they will produce food for you.. if no luck and they get beat up, if they do their job, your calorie dense root veggies that needed some help from the high heat will grow well and be worth the extra work.

I am not bringing in a years worth of these seeds either, I am buying at least three seasons worth at a time, I will give each plant I pick a true test, If they do well, great I will intermix the seeds and plant again, if they do poor, I can start with the pure new seed for another two years.

Learning your garden plants is a dance and it takes longer then one year to know if they are a go. These guys will get 3 years to prove their worth or they will be removed.  I have types and seeds from what I have been growing that are NOT making the grade!

If you have limited space or limited time or limited water and lists go on.. consider forage for your greens needs, consider your area for forage for your wild fruit harvest and focus on calorie dense crops in your garden space combined with your favorite herbs in pots and make sure your “flowers” are medical/pollination plants that will keep and grow your native bee populations.

While its still worth it to have some “hard stone”  fruit trees, give more space to your canes and to rhubarb.. they are going to be your work horses on bad years..  they are as tough as they come..

Best of luck on your own seed hunting.. be brave.. step outside your comfort zone, step outside your local feed store or home hardware center that sells the same 50 types of seeds across the whole country..

Get Small Farm Canada’s Seed Guide to all the seed houses across Canada and happy reading!

This post was selected as a featured post on homestead blog hop! Thanks Ladies!

This post is part of the coming Series for the Self Reliance Challenge 2019

Self-Reliance-Challenge-2019

 

 

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange, farm, food | Tagged , | 35 Comments

Giving back to our Elders at Chirstmas Time

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Our local Home Hardware Store was working with a community program and three senior centers to make sure that all the senior got a “extra” Christmas gift.

The idea was simple, you picked a tag off the tree, looked at the list, picked a name which had a present including sizes and so forth next to it.  There were few rules, try and stay at 25 dollars or below (total fail on our part, but I will get to that later) Must be brand new and still in orgainal  packaging, in a gift bag with easily removed tissue only and no personal information given.

I noticed that a lot of the ladies had been picked up but as many of the elder gentleman, so I asked to confirm if what I was seeing was right and they said yes.. So we picked a Elder Gentleman who asked for a new quilt in Twin size for his bed.

Now I had the thought the day we did this, that I would just pop over to the Giant Tiger store, buy the blanket and gift bag and take it right back.. hah, first off while you could get all kinds of double, queen and a huge selection of king, there was only two twins and both were as pretty flower girly as they come.

So we ended up looking in the city and ended up paying 40 for the twin set with pillow cases, I could not find anything cheaper. Then I had hoped to be able to use on of my church basement gift bags but alas.. none of them were big enough..

I have to admit that I had time finding one big enough but we finally got it done, and got it to the store on time, the ladies asked if we had shopped online or in a store. We said in a store but I got to thinking, that online would have been the way to get the quilt for the price quote given, then I got thinking more.. maybe they were trying to keep track of how much local town sales had happened vs how many folks ordered online.

Part of me wishes that I could have gotten really good quality blankets from the church basement and washed them up and wrapped them nicely, I certainly could have done more people for the same costs..

However today, there are no gently used toys or cloths allowed in drives anymore. everything must be new with many asking for tags still on them.  Same with wrapping, no longer allowed, they must be able to check the present to make sure it all good.

I hope he likes his new dark blue/light blue/cream squared quilt set and I wish him the best this season. Are you working with any community drive this Christmas? Are you doing anything for the elders?

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 10 Comments

How to make Vanilla Eggnog for Christmas!

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I adore good Eggnog, a rich thick one with spices.. yum!

However I really love my lighter version I call Vanilla Eggnog, its lighter in calories because its made with whole milk, instead of pretty much half milk-half heavy cream as is done with really good traditional eggnog.  It also a touch thinner in texture with a this amazing hint of vanilla undertones.

(Now I always recommend that you use real vanilla flavouring in this recipe but I am well aware that the cost of the real this year is sky-high due to issue with “weather” events) so if you have the real, please use it.. if not and willing go for the fake flavour.

 

Vanilla Eggnog Recipe

  • 8 cups of milk or 2 liters
  • 6 egg yolks ( save the whites for other uses)
  • 2 tsp of vanilla extract

If you want it a touch sweeter, you can add half a cup of sugar or a touch of honey, I like it just as it is.

In a double boiler ideally or in a heavy bottomed pan on a slow heat of no more than four, add your milk and slowly start it to heat, stirring often with a whisk, you do NOT want this to boil.. gentle heat is your friend on this one.

Crack your eggs and split the yoke from the white, there are tools for this now if you do not want to pass it back and forth in its own shell. Please no yolk in the whites or they will not whip up right. Do each egg over its own little bowl, adding to the white bowl and yolk bowl.

Beat the egg yolks till well blended, then add around a cup of just slightly warmed milk to it and mix it in the bowl, then carefully add the mixed milk/yolk back into the main body of the milk.

If you want at this point, you could scrap the filling of a real vanilla bean off and into this to cook with it. It will take about five to six minutes to cook though, you are just cooking the eggs for safety sake and gently thicken the “nog”

Remember slow gentle heat, slow gentle whisking, if you start getting a lot of foam, slow down and go a little slower, let it take the time it will..  it will turn a beautiful soft golden color and will just heat enough that it will just start to steam as it all come together.

Add your 2 tsp of Vanilla extract and mix though.. Can be drank warm if you like or more traditionally served cold. Pour into a clean glass jar to chill in the fridge till you want to use it. It also makes a outstanding smoothie base.

If you want to dress this up fancy and add a pop of red, put a tiny scoop of vanilla bean ice cream on top of the glass with a long-stemmed cherry on top!

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Hoarfrost Delight’s Photography

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

It was to be a sleep in sunday that just didn’t happen and I am so glad or I would have missed the Hoarfrost Delight and we all would have missed this photography post!

I headed out onto the gardens, looking for interesting textures, colors, shapes and movement.. While I did crop some of these images, the color changes are due to either close up, background hues or changing light as the hour went by.. NONE of these photos have been “touched up”  They were shot free hand, no tripod.. but lots of hold your breath moves.

O it was a hour well spent!

This is a very tip of a new growth willow branch covered in Hoarfrost crystals.. it was without a doubt one of the hardest to get..

This was on our biggest spruce, I got this series of the two tips,  I could not decide which one to share so you get both!

This one is very Christmas like and I do have a few versions of it that I will no doubt share around the holiday’s.. This one is my favorite!  Hawthorn berries delight the senses!

These double curled beauties are elderberry leaves clinging yet to their branches, I took a number of the leaves because I liked their colors, it was not until I really looked at them in the computer that I found this set of dancing partners!


This is a blackberry cane leaf on a downward hanging branch that had tipped down to try and root out in the spring..

Leftover dried cores of the aster flowers… edge dipped in those amazing tiny ice crystals

I loved the sweeping arc of this seed head but It was getting warmer and its even heavier clouds making the light in this spot very hard to get to work with the angles needed.

There is one more, while all these were done in extreme closeup’s, I looked up as I walked back down the laneway and up popped my Caleb over the heavily frosted plants with just the touch of morning hues in the sky behind him.

O if only that one plant was not rising up into his face.. its perfectly imperfect 🙂

I hope you have enjoyed seeing how I spent a hour of sunday! Which one is your favorite?

Posted in photography | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

How to make your own Bird Feeder Suet Cakes!

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

How to make your own Bird Feeder Suet Cakes could not be easier

It take a few minutes from start to finish and its a great little project to do the little people in your life and will give lots of bird viewing pleasure in return!

You will need

  • Bird Seed
  • Lard

Now what you use to make it in depends on a few things, you could use the bottom of a milk jug or you could use yogurt tubs. I use a loaf pan, I have found it the easiest to make them in a block and then cut them into slices that go out. I have with or without tinfoil.

If you use the tinfoil, you can just lift the whole cake out and then peel back and cut and go, then wrap it back up for storage in the foil until all used up.

Or you can make it without the tinfoil and just dip your loaf pan or tray into warm water to melt the edges just a touch and then flip it out to be cut and stored in a re-useable tray with lid.

I make my batches with four cups of mixed bird seed to two cups of lard. In my own case I use home rendered lard. Please do not use leaf lard for something like this, that really should be saved for pastry or cooking use.

Use the lard or tallow from back area, If you are against using lard or tallow, you can make this with coconut oil. I have not found that the Blue Jays or the Wood Pecker’s like the coconut oil as much as they like home-grown rendered lard.

However in the bitter cold of Canada northern winter, that added fat to the birds diets can mean the difference between making it till spring or not.

If you prefer to not use any fat in your bird seed feeding, may I highly recommend that during the very cold parts, that you increase the percent of Boss (Black  Oil Sunflower Seeds) in the mix you feed.

 

Posted in frugal | 4 Comments

Farm Photo’s for you all.. a brief moment of warmth..

Posted on December 16, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Yesterday it moved from bitter cold to freezing rain and then finally to rain, it rained all night, melting far more of the snow pack then I would have preferred and then it got up to plus 5c.

That is warm at the moment, we headed off the farm to get a number of things done in the morning and got home for a late lunch.. we headed out to do a few things on the farm and that including grabbing my new camera.

I hope you will not mind me cheating 🙂 I am offering up photos for you today instead of words.. I will be write more words tomorrow!

Pretty little Hen sunning herself up on top of a rabbit hutch!

Same Hatch, what a pretty boy he is.. the genes to produce green eggs are in these two!

I don’t know how many people will remember but there was one hatching that just had a single duckling hatched to a chicken momma, and hubby named it Solo.. well Solo is a big strapping Chocolate Barred Drake..

Its fair to say that I am expecting twins from this sweet girl!  Aero is looking great other then she has more wool then I would like but I have hopes that she will shed out fully in the spring.

Sofie has healed enough from her surgery that she has outside time allowed again, I try and keep her in on the very cold days because she is as you can see missing a lot of her belly hair which will take a while to grow back but she adores coming to give a helping paw when we are out working on chore or just hanging out with us.

Patrick is also a follow you all over the farm, dog-farm cat.. what a lovely boy he is!

Spent some time just hanging out with my fab horse’s.. we didn’t work, we just leaned and enjoyed each others company, getting and giving companionship in gentle touches and breathes shared.. It was so nice to just zen with them.

Hope you enjoyed a peek into our afternoon 🙂 O that warmth and sun was so lovely!

 

 

 

Posted in photography | 9 Comments