What a find!

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

Last week my girlfriend said to me.. Got a hour? Lets head to church Basement (one of our local second hand shops) she was on the hunt for some working pants and a few other things on her list.

To be honest, I was not on the hunt for anything but I had my change purse and gave myself a limit of 5 dollars max and went with a smile on my face. Girlfriend time is important, that drive to town and back is when many fun, silly and or important things can get talked about.

I walked into the kitchen section (it’s own little narrow room, think a galley, shelves on both sides and at the end, with just enough room for two people across and to tell the truth, its one of my favorite places in the store but I am at that point of.. if I add it in, I need to remove something at the same time, unless its something on my wish list.

I spotted it on the floor, it had been pushed under the bottom shelf and was next to the wicker baskets. I blinked and picked it up and read the top and then flipped it over to read the bottom and into my arms it went.  LOL

As I set it down at the till I held my breath because I was not sure it would be under my five dollar self-given limit and I was trying hard to figure out what my limit would be if I need to raise it. I was pretty sure I had a good idea of what it was worth new (which is why I don’t own one, because  a new one is out my price range when I can use my cast iron that I already own 🙂

I tried to keep a smile on my face, when she said.. no tag on this one and I said nope.. I knew this because I had looked for one as well.. She said two dollars and I tried not to let to much of my “WHOOOOTTTT!” come out. Instead I said Thank you so much, you have made my day. I am really looking forward to using it.. and that it had been clearly well loved in its life..

The large version of a Romertoff Clay cooker! I am looking forward to learning how to use this pot for bread making, for cooking the tougher cuts of meat.

So any readers on the blog have one of these? Got any helpful hints? What is your favorite way to use it? How did you get yours?

Or on the flip side.. what is your best find in the past few weeks at the local garage sale or second hand shop or farm sale?

Posted in Bread | 13 Comments

RIP Marble

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

Ah, Sweet Baby Marble Purrpot. You are greatly missed on the farm. I love this photo so much because it has DH with his much loved kitties but even more so, it has Marble’s daddy cat Sunny.  Sunny was the father is Mable, Faith and Patrick. He gave us the most outstanding farm cats, friendly, cuddly but outstanding hunters.  Marbles mother did not hunt so Sunny took the task on to teach the kittens how to be hunters. I have never seen a more active father cat.   He was fixed at the same time as the kittens were, so those three will be the only sunny kittens we will have.

This picture shows why she was called marble.. I loved her markings from the moment she joined our world.

Hubby and Mable had a bond from the very start, Patrick was my boy and Faith willingly shares herself with both of us but Marble was not as outgoing so hubby took it on himself to make sure she got lots and lots of people time so she would come out sweet..  O yes, she was sweet

Got room for me dad??

Sadly Marble was hit and killed on our road. It does happen but normally by the time they are two years old, they are pretty careful. She was never much for leaving the farm, unlike some of the farm cats that cross the road daily to hunt in the woods. I was not home when it happened and I can tell you when we drove up and had just thought.. Home after a very long day, the last thing we expected to see was her on the side of the road.

Marble was only with us for 2 an half years but she takes a part of our hearts with her..

Posted in 31 Day Self Reliance Challange | 16 Comments

Frugal is as Frugal does.

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

It happens to all of us, that unexpectedly high car repair bill, you know the one.. the one where you are like this should cost 200 and you go, I have six hundred so if they find something else.. we are good! and then the bill is over a thousand and you blink hard.

Well, we have had a string of Blink Hards of the past six months and we have taken each one with a grunt and an moved forward (because really what else can you do) and then in the past six weeks, we have had a few more and they have been far bigger..  instead of it being a blink hard.. its a sit down and work it out. The Blinks have been all over the place to be honest, some are from the farm, some are from the vehicles, some has been vet care and some has been related to needed medical care.

So in order to both get a few things caught up and for putting away some for that rainy day fund which has been depleted some. we are needing to do some belt tightening. Being on the homestead, the first thing that goes is the outside food budget (it gets cut out or bare bones.  I say bare bones because you can’t miss out on sales. Its never a good idea to not get something that comes only once a year or once every three months or six months in the sale cycles)

The good news is if there ever a good time of the year to eat off your garden and land, summer is the time.. but the bad news on that is that its also the time to be putting up and some of those putting up things normally are gotten off the farm. While certain things are grown in amount for fresh eating and even a few months worth of eating some things are just not mature enough or had a bad year etc and normally those things are gotten in bulk from other local sources. I will need to figure out if that will continue to be the case because those sales and those bushels only come around once a year.

The second is off the farm trips, events or other ways to spend money. The question is what an where can you give and what do you need to spend on. Now I am NOT talking about your regular bills, they are a must and they are not the issue here.  They are just a given.

No the issue where does the “unclaimed” fund go.. that is much harder thing to figure out at times. I am still working on some things.

Examples

I really want to put in a rain garden in the new ripped up front yard, but that means renting equipment that can do the job.. in the long term.. this would be a good thing but is it a hold off and do it later fall but before freeze up?

I need to replant in the yards, but plants all cost money, so do I only use plants, bushes and wild dug babies to do what I want and then have to plan in and leave spaces for the “paid” for fruiting bushes and tree’s next year?

I need to bring in soil, bring in gravel, bring in more fence posts, buy new fencing.. but that’s a tricky one as well, because I don’t HAVE to do that. My old fence may be ugly and it may need to be replaced but it does keep the animals in..  New sheep fencing is costly but its one of the big 2018 projects and we have already got the posts in.. and sections are newly fenced off but there is still three lines that need to be redone.

In the house, there are a number of projects that are in the same boat.. which one needs to be done more then the other.  Getting the power lines and such fixed on the house so that we could get it signed off was spendy, it was pretty much a two month budget on work to be done in the house..

There are lots of things we don’t need anything from in the next month to three months. I figure we can get back to level one in three months (without to many new things happening, like I don’t know.. one of my main big living room windows breaking!) yes this just happened or I should say found today..

And six months to get back to the level that I prefer us to be at.

Posted in At the kitchen table | 15 Comments

Powdery Mildew and Treatment plan

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

Last week was filled with a number of things that kept us just one foot in front of the other.  I might get to the point where I will write about some of it.

However the garden is in full swing, making pots of pasta sauce, putting up corn and beans, and lots of zucchini. Eating it fresh, grating it and putting up small bags of it into the freezer for baking at a later point, and I did nine trays of grated dried for use in winter for soups and stews, I like to just put a handful into them. I found this big one hidden (you know it all happens, you think you got them all but nope) which I am going to make a mock apple pie or crumble with it.

Its aug though that means that like most gardens in our zone. Powdery Mildew is starting to show up on the squash plants. It has not hit the truly bad stage where the whole leaf is covered in the grey but its coming! you can see the infected spots on the leaves. Now is the time to try and get it under control as much as you can.

So this issue is common and there are three ways to work on helping your plants.

  •  Remove effected leaves and then either burn them or bag them up and send them off the property. DO NOT COMPOST THEM please.. or you will be adding to the issue 🙂
  • Air flow, this often happens in plants that have lots of big leaves that layer up on each other, taking out those effected leaves will open up the air flow but take a good look at your plant and see if there is a closed off layered area that is not effected yet.. Take out a few leaves to create better air flow in and around the plant itself.
  • Spray those leaves, there are a number of different mixes you can find on the net to spray them with but I am going to keep it basic and simple. Sometimes you just need to change the ph.
  • Mix 1/2tsp of baking soda with one quart of water. Shake it up till well blended and in a spray bottle, spray the leaves top and bottom and down the stems at least once a week or after each bigger rain.

 

 

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

Project 2018-Stumps- Maple

Posted on August 9, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

We have a number of stumps left over from the work done and some of them are smaller, a few mid size and one that is considered large and two that are massive..

Today we are going to talk about the large size one that came from a old maple tree. It had a dead part on one side that got bigger over the years that was trimmed back on but the other side was great.. still it was rotting out.  Given that the equipment and men where all here on the farm, it made sense to ask them to come across the drive way and take down the big old maple tree at the same time.

It left me this stump..

As you can see its really rotted out inside the stump itself. I have made a little video for you so you can see it go live.. and I have taken photos for those that do not have the ban width to watch it 🙂

The inside wood just crumbled by hand into the most beautiful wood fluff, it will hold water like a dream and continue to rot down inside the stump itself.

its created a very interesting plant shape in the stump, I like it! I have pulled out a few large not as composted piece out and then backfilled the holes till its all level across the stump. there is around ten inches from the top of the wood fill till the top of the stump. That I will fill with a mix of soil/compost. After I get it ready, I will plant it and we will have a lovely permaculture garden stump 🙂

if it was your stump, what would you be planting in it, keep in mind it is First week of Aug 🙂

Posted in gardens | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Future planning-Yard Redo!

Posted on August 8, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Well, we have had the farm for 14 years this spring and we have loved our big old willow tree’s (two of them) our huge very old crab apple and our very large maple tree. The willows are around 80 plus years old and the others are not that far behind.

They were old Grandfather tree’s but they have been warning us for a couple years now that they were at the edge and end of their natural life.. We have had a couple bigger limbs come down in the ice storms, the spring bad storms and then just this week.. we had a short but hard storm hit the farm..

Down came a huge limb and it damaged our power lines and so forth..  So we had to act quickly and get the work done so that we could get our power back on the farm.  It used to be that you could not see our home though the wall of green in levels along the house, you had to drive past the green wall to see the house..

Not anymore.. We had to take down the front small tree layer, the big tree’s and we have lost pretty much all our shade on the whole front of the house and deck..  lots and lots of clean up to do yet.. this photo was taken at the end of day one.. Massive difference and then some.

The stumps got cut down as well as the maple on the side on day two. I am sad that we had such a loss but I am excited about planning the new yard. I will look forward to sharing the planning and the work as it all comes together.

This is the new view from our kitchen window and boy is the kitchen so much brighter 🙂

I will get more photos later. but its safe to say that our whole front yard is going to be changing to a large point.  Now I could have taken less to be honest. Some things had to come down.. other things I said take down for a reason.

Honestly I said take them down to the effects I am seeing in regards to climate change.  We are having so many more storms.. hard fast brutal winds, Ice storms and crazy hard rain storms and so forth.  I believe that when we are done, we will have removed all the “storm danger” to the house trees.

The replanning and replanting will take these types of storms into effect.. including run off for heavy rains, wind breaks for the high wind storms, Shade factors and so much more.  Its both sad to see everything changing but exciting to plan and then work the plan for the coming future.

I am also so glad that we worked on planting out the front over the years because that is now my view and once its cleaned up.. its quite a nice one really 🙂 Spruce, and apple tree’s, hawthorn and a lovely smoke bush and so much more.

Still its a shock each time I look outside right now!

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 3 Comments

Farrier and Vet Care

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

LOL, hubby made me make a shaming Meme for our big boy Caleb.. the reason is seen in the meme.  Our horse’s are for sure big old horse puppy dogs in many ways.. those two geldings are best buds. I am so happy to have them enjoy each others company as much as they do. Just as grateful that you can pull them apart and work them as their own horse.

Weds morning was the regular farrier visit, he is a great guy and really works with each horse for what is best for them. It never fails to amaze me that my boys both get such different hoof shaping.  They have very different hoofs, Calebs are mainly white and he has a good amount of flaring out on them and they are shaped to give him a certain angle that is best for his conformation. Bojangles on the other hand has dark grey hoofs and he is prone to chipping on them. His hoofs dry out much faster then Calebs do and he has a much rounder hoof that is trimmed into a more compact shape.

Both boys passed their feet trims with flying colors and are good to go for another 8 weeks at this point in the year. Always a good thing.

However I needed to take Paris to the vet, we needed to get more flea and tick meds for both the farm cats and the hounds. We normally treat for fleas and such but not ticks.. however we got a notice with the amount of ticks that are carrying lime locally has exploded and I have been finding and removing ticks. Its just not worth the risk. I hate the meds that are required to treat this in the dogs and cats  However when the number of red dots that show positive tests are like a nice red swarm over your own area.

Well, I love them all to much not to get the meds for them. Its a bit costly to do so, I was glad to have much smaller numbers to buy for this year as it is the ticks that are the most concern this year, it means I have to run my control program longer as ticks are active at 4c so longer into the fall and earlier in the spring.  I will take the hounds in for blood work in the spring to make sure everyone is good before starting the meds again.

Are you having a bad tick year? Do you have lime in your area that you live in? We didn’t used to have lime carrying ticks locally like we do now.. but with the longer hotter summers we have had them move into our area and they are exploding in numbers!

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Garden is doing well

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I love when folks post photos of what they picked that day.. but I thought It would be nice to show the day’s harvest as it was being processed.

The little cherry tomato’s are fresh eating, the bowl of peppers was a mix of two kinds, I am very pleased with how well my pepper plants are doing this year so far. Lots of peppers being chopped and put into bags for the freezer for different uses. We are putting up around 8 to 12 cups of roma type sauce tomato’s into the freezer for sauce making every day or second day so far..  No point bring out the big sauce making pots until I have a stock pile or until later in the season when larger amount start coming in.

So far we have four different kinds of beans coming in, and each has its own flavour, one kind we are just eating fresh so far, one kind is for canning, one for freezing and I have been told that the other one is ideal for pickling. I will be trying it this week and see how it goes.

Last but not least, the smaller squash was eaten fresh in meal but the two bigger were grated and frozen for later baking in the year. I know that everyone loves their noodles now made out of fresh zucchini but I still love my grated for making loaves. I will grow some later in the season big for Fake Pineapple but I want lots of the smaller first 🙂

Are you picking daily at this point 🙂 I hope so.

 

Posted in Garden | 5 Comments

Summer Zucchini Pie

Posted on August 1, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Zucchini Pie

This is a very easy dish to make and its flexable.   You will need one base sheet of pie dough for a regular sized pie plate. This can be homemade or it can be gotten at the store (Pie dough is really easy to make but not everyone does)

Once your pie plate is ready, you are going to slice Zucchini into thin rounds and you layer them out two layers deep in the pie plate, intermixed with about 10 to 12 sliced in half cherry tomato’s.

Then in a bowl, beat eight med to large eggs well, Then add in 2 tsp of dill, 2 tsp of Basil and 2 tsp of mixed veggie blend flavouring of your choice and 1/2 a tsp of salt.. Beat your herbs into the eggs well then pour over top your veggies in the pie shell. The zucchini will float up, it happens.

Bake in a slow oven at 325 for approx. 40 to 50 min till pie crust is golden brown and the center of the pie is set. Can be served warm or cold.

Posted in Baking | Tagged | Leave a comment

Homestead- What do we need to produce?

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

So a dear friend of mine said? Ok, so you want to make some changes and I know you love your lists.. so what do you need to produce? I did the first three fast off the top of my head, meat, milk and eggs.

Its a good answer but its not complete by any means and it got me thinking.. What do we need to produce?

The gardens need to produce

  • Fruit
  • Fresh Eating Veggies
  • Storage Veggies
  • Canned or Frozen Veggies
  • Root crops
  • Cold Storage Crops
  • Herbs
  • Healing Plants
  • Fodder
  • Protein (plant based)
  • Bee and Native pollinator food

What does the farmyard need to produce

  • Milk
  • Eggs
  • Meat
  • Wool
  • Manure

What does the land need to produce

  • Compost
  • Pasture
  • Hay
  • Fodder crops
  • Mushrooms

What else does the farm land use and or the farm produce

  • Hides
  • Bones
  • Blood meal
  • Wood
  • Ash

What are our other main goals on the farm

  • A small non-sprayed piece of land that is run by human or animal power
  • To provide for the people and the animals that live on this piece of land
  • To provide a safe haven for native plants and pollinators and other small critters that thrive on our land, be it snakes, breeding turtles, toads/frogs/ salamanders and so much more.

What other goals are important as they relate to the farm

  • A way to give back to the community
  • A way to share the knowledge of what happens on the farm with the great community at large.

So what do we have on the farm that is meeting those goals and how many overlapping layers on certain things do we have? Can we tighten in our overlap, and what does that mean, does it mean remove? or does it mean reduce numbers?

Two good examples of this are Eggs?

We have chickens and ducks. We have three breeding programs of chickens, do we need all of them? Do we need ducks as well as chickens and if so, do we need as many breeding groups, how many of each do we need for our own personal family of two adults, two dogs and seven cats need?

A second example is the goats/sheep.. do we need a milk goat if we have a couple nice milking sheep? Goats give more milk for a longer steadier curve then the sheep do? Goats can cycle more easily out of season then the sheep will.

Does it make more sense to reduce the sheep flock and keep the milking goats or does it make more sense to remove the goat herd and only have the sheep flock?

When it comes to meat production, a pig is the king in this regards.. Honestly I can not beat the production rate of a nice little well bred weaner piglet for turning all my extra’s into really good protein and fat for use in our kitchen.

Having said that, we have been naturally over the past five years having many more meat-less meals, more plant based meals, more huge salad based meals. This means that I need to continue to look at shifting what we are going in the gardens to meet those meal needs, while reducing the animal carrying load on the farm.

Mulling.. Mulling..  Willing to hear what you have to say in regards to reducing the goat-sheep herds or thoughts on removing the goats totally and just focusing on the sheep for our household milk needs.

A good steady ewe can hold that half gallon milking for a good long, long while.. it’s not enough milk for a dairy but its about right for our own household needs (need more when we want to do cheese etc but that is when they freshen more) but do basic house needs.. I have done it number of years where I get a quart a milking for months and that works just fine for the two of us?

But that does not give enough for pig feed, but it does give enjoy for extra yogurt to go to the hounds and a bit for the farm cats now and again per week. or to finish fattening up a couple butcher chickens on clabber.. (if you have never had a clabber finished rooster.. do try it.. o so good)

Also on the hmmmm block is our Geese and Turkey programs.. How many fowl breeds do we need to run and carry?

This is the last post this week on this subject, I have a lovely recipe going up tomorrow and then I will off (I think) for a couple days as I am going on a mini holiday and hubby will be home and running the farm. I am planning on taking those days off from the blog at that time.

Posted in At the kitchen table | 4 Comments