What do you do with those extra roosters?

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

We all know that when we let our hens sit or we buy straight run chicks, we are going to get roosters and extra roosters are a very bad thing in a flock.. the boys will start fighting. Injuries between them increase but the worst is that they will do WAY too much wear and tear on your hens.

Keeping a good rooster in the flock is needed to me.. There are some really great reasons to keep a rooster or roosters in your flock.

Roosters are needed to make chicks! LOL Reason NUMBER one for sure for me.

Roosters are flock protectors, they will and have over the years given their lives in protecting the hens and chicks from both dangers on the ground and in the sky!

Roosters make the hens happy, I know this sounds like a strange one, but when you see them together, you will see the boy present gifts.. Here I found something really nice to eat.. come my pretty little hens

A truly great rooster will dance for his girls, he is a gentleman in this way and the hens do seem to enjoy their dancing if you know what I mean LOL

However in my laying flock of twenty (with the youngest girls still not quite laying age yet) I have three roosters. They get along and if they did not, I would be removing one or more of them, I want good temperaments breed into the next generation.

These boys were lovely, they had good temperaments, they had excellent genes but they were mixed breed. The oldest was about 8 months and the youngest were five months. It was more then time to butcher them out in the cooler weather.  As soon as they were clearly roosters an old enough to be away from mom (after she started laying eggs again) They were run in their own pen.  Think of it as a male only pen.. lots of crowing but no fighting as no stress of breeding females. No big older males beating them up. A much better way to be raised then in the mixed flock. Only one male of this grow out pen made the cut to be moved to the mixed breed pen as a young up and coming back up rooster.

Nothing will be wasted, the main bulk of the meat will go for household use. Some of has been de-boned, some of it will be used bone in and a good amount will be aged and then simmered for soup stock.  Its been a productive day on the farm. Its never a good day when its a butcher day. Having said that there is a sense of pride in the meat I bring into the house. Some of these boys are third or more generation of self-hatched, momma raised here on the farm chickens.  I have known them since they were hatched and they were raised and treated no different up until today then their hen sisters. They had a good life with one bad moment.

The extra’s above that will go for critter use, the feathers will go for crafting and or will be used in both compost and put in a tub with water and they will be composted down for later use in the gardens.

It means I will have one of my winter pens to clean out and get ready for whatever its used for next 🙂

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Sticky Cinnamon Bun Recipe

Posted on April 27, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Cinnamon Buns are truly a amazing treat an they should be very much considered that as they are calorie heavy  but they are amazing!

I almost always make mine with bread dough but I find milk bread dough to be the best to make a gooye sticky sweet fluffy cinnamon bun.

Make a batch of Milk bread dough, after its first rise, split in half, makes one loaf and one pan of buns.

lightly grease your rolling surface then roll or hand work your dough into a  sheet of bread dough approx. all the same thickness, leaving a clean edge of at least an inch then your first layer is butter, it should be enough butter that you see butter not bread dough. then second layer is brown sugar which should be thick enough that you can not see the butter, then you can sprinkle raisons or not and then thirds cinnamon, cover that brown sugar really well.

Roll up the end over and then tuck the edges up an in, then repeat till you are at the end, lift the end up and over the roll and pinch the dough together, slice the ends slightly thicker then the rest, each roll can be sliced 1 inch (smaller) average 1 an half inches or massive 2 inches. the size of the one you make will change the size of well greased pan you will need

they can be placed to touch if you like softer buns, or they can be placed as seen above if you want them to spread out more for baking. Cover and allow dough to double in size, bake until golden brown at 350.

As soon as possible out of the oven and with great care, flip the whole pan upside down onto tin foil or wax paper or non-stick baking mat, then take you licker and take out all the still soft gooye topping and drizzle back over the top of the buns.

if you cut down on butter or brown sugar, they will not make their own sauce or topping, they will still be good but they will not be a sticky cinnamon bun..

 

Posted in Baking, Bread | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

This and That Post

Posted on April 26, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

I have tried to write a number of blog posts but it would appear until I write out something that my head is mulling it will not happen.  So Be It!

Skip this post if you ware looking for a homestead post today.. I will be back to homesteading stuff tomorrow 🙂

I think most of you have heard about the sad events that happened Toronto in regards to the person that took a van and turned it into a weapon and killed 10 and very badly hurt another 14.  It lead to me learning about this sub-culture  I am not going to talk about it, I don’t know enough to do so and I do not want a google search to ever pull my blog up related to it in the future.. so please use the link provided if you want to learn more.

What I do want to talk about it that it was an eye-opening moment for and it made me humble.  You see my hubby and I have been together for a long time, we meet online in 1999. My hubby is a truly awesome guy but he can be very quiet, he is very private, it will take you years to truly get to know him.

He belongs to board online that he regular interacts with, he was a board gamer and had a small group of guys that came over to his apartment to game. We have played live roll player D&D games since we got together. We have been gaming with Mr M and Miss N since Iqaluit in 2000.

One of the things he has done for years now is talk to younger (teen) or twenty year old boy’s or men on this board in regards to dating, or even just saying hi to girls or given dating advice. He is one of the longer term happily married men on the board that interacts in this way and is willing to give a helping voice.

I have a times been asked questions by him as a outside female voice in regards to this or that that has been asked.. I have smiled softly a number of times and though “that’s sweet” or ok..

I remember laughing quietly when he explained that when its hard to find things to talk about with your gal, that is always a good idea to read the paper every day and pick out one thing you find interesting and one to three things that you think she might find interesting and when you have no real idea what to say, bring this up and ask what she thinks about this or that. The reason I chuckled is because my man does do this very thing.. has for years and I had no idea that he used it as a way to provide my need to connect after a day apart in a way to talk and connect without me doing a deeper.. SO TELL ME ABOUT your day!

So its just been something he does but yesterday when I learned about this sub-culture that feels so angry towards women. I stopped dead in my tracks and went to the room my husband was in and said, stand up.. and I hugged him.. hard!

I hugged him and I said THANK YOU.. thank you for all those times you encouraged those younger men on how to meet a girl, how to say hi, what you could do on the first date or how to talk to her in a positive way, how to interact in a positive way in learning about her.

Its like I said to him, perhaps.. just perhaps the kindness and sharing that he has done in this way for YEARS! means that those young men grew in positive way instead of moving into those deeper negative sub-culture circles.

So today I am sorry you are not getting a “homesteading” post, but instead I lift a glass to my husband and all the other men that step up and help those that are struggling on these issues that there is way to deal with this in a positive way, a healthy way.

Thank you Dear Hubby! Thank you!

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 6 Comments

12 Ways to Use Rhubarb with Recipes

Posted on April 25, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

Spring is coming and that means the Rhubarb is up! I drooled over thekitchengardens post with her stunning photos, we may be the same zone but her garden weeks ahead of mine already. If you have somehow missed reading her blog, please do check it out, she is a daily poster, not only does she have a amazing farm, outstanding photos but she is truly a lovely person and it shines though.

My own rhubarb are still wee things but I check them daily as I am working in the gardens digging away on the beds and my mouth waters at the idea of the first spring rhubarb. My goal this year is the same as the past couple years, I want to take off 300 pounds worth. I did not feed them last fall like I normally do so I am hoping that will not effect my yield, I did split two plants, so its possible they will reduce the overall amounts some due to the fact that I will not be picking from those four plants this year as they grow.

On the flip side I have four plants that are finally coming into full production on their third years since they were split and replanted this year, so I have hopes that those four will produce enough that it will not matter that I did the replants last year. With Dear Hubby enjoying his mixed rhubarb canned fruit as much as he did last year, I need to can up 200 jars this year, Rhubarb -Berry Mix is his most favorite, with Rhubarb-Strawberry coming in second and Rhubarb-Raspberry coming in third. I will expand on mixes this year I think and will sweeten the Rhubarb-Raspberry a touch more as he found it quite tart 🙂

Then I still need to do regular canned rhubarb and I want to do at least a dozen jars of canned juice or more. Rhubarb is the spring filler for jars in blends that Apples are in the fall. Enjoy the recipes below

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (something you can find locally in spring at all the stores)

This is a very much a standard spring pie across Canada.

One more recipe for you to check out.. Rhubarb on a Cloud Pie

Rhubarb and Saskatoon Pie

However in Western Canada and from own family, you were much more likely to be served a Rhubarb and Saskatoon Pie

Rhubarb Crisp

A much loved treat by all.. This one is a Oatmeal Crisp Topping.

Rhubarb Apple Mint and Spruce Tip Crisp

This may seem like a different mix of things but trust me on this, the flavour blend is delightful, if you can not get spruce tips, just try a rhubarb and Apple-Mint pie

Rhubarb and Dumplings

This is a great afternoon meal snack, its quite filling on its own and can even be served as a breakfast in spring.

Rhubarb Nettle Iced Tea Recipe

Some people like to add more rhubarb and less Nettle, some like it sweeter or less sweet, some like the slight thickness to the drink that the rhubarb juice adds to it. It a wonderful fresh drink on a hot spring day in the garden’s

Rhubarb Relish

Pretty in Pink Rhubarb Jam

Pretty in Pink Rhubarb Jam

8 cups of peeled, cored Diced Zucchini (a way to use up those big Zucchini)

4 cups of washed, diced Rhubarb

1 cup of finely chopped Fresh Apple Mint

2 cups of unsweetened Apple Juice

4 cups of Sugar (could go down to 3 cups if you wanted)

In a steel pan, med heat, bring to a simmer and cook till the Zucchini is soft and clear about 30-40 min or so use a blender to make it smooth, back into your steel pot, bring back into a simmer Don’t forget to skim it, add one package of pectin(follow directions), then place into hot clean jars and water bath process for 10 min. Makes 4 pints

Orange Rhubarb Chutney Relish

This recipe works really well as a BBQ sauce for all kinds of meats but Chicken and Rabbits its delightful!

Rhubarb Ginger Cake

A lovely lightly spiced cake with tart bites of spring rhubarb.

Carrot Ginger Rhubarb Flower Soup Recipe

A great way to introduce the rhubarb flower to your family

Posted in Baking, Canning, Garden | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

3 Ways to Recycle your Egg Shells

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Just another day on the farm

This lovely sight greeted me this morning, Dear Hubby had washed the eggs and he had color coded them. Just adorable to find this waiting for me when I got up 🙂

With the flush of eggs that comes in the spring, there also comes a glut of egg shells. Most of the time in winter, I throw the egg shells into the pig bucket, when there is a lack of milk in the barn, the extra’s in the egg shell goes along way in the pig bowl.

However come spring my mind turns to other uses, so here is my 3 favorite ways to use up and store extra shells for future use.

Using Dried Egg Shells in the compost pile

This is dead easy, wash, crack and throw them in the compost pile in a scattered way and cover them in the next layer and let them do their thing, I love that when you turn it, you will often find earthworms cuddled up in a half egg shell.. Its truly as easy as that if you are going to use them in a regular compost pile.

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Feed them back to your hens

In order to do this properly, you need to clean your egg shells, Wash the eggs before using them so the shells will be clean and then dry them, you can air dry them or you can low heat dry them. I prefer to use the low heat dry them personally. I often have a old ice cream bucket collecting a number of days worth before I will put them in the oven, so they are already air drying and then if I am baking when I take out the baking, I will put them in a single layer and turn the oven off and leave them.. they will be nicely dried and I save on energy costs. If I am doing a big batch of a few dozen, then I will run the oven a lower temp to get them all done if they are in layers. I will give them a stir and check every twenty min’s or so.

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Wet Shell crushing, it looks good to the layman but no.. this is not going to get the job done

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Dry shell – now we are getting the right way.. the wet shell had a few sharp edges but over it collapsed into itself, where now we have hard and sharp but it also will have crush into bits easily.  At this point, you can just put them into a bag or roll them over with a rolling pin and then cool them and put them back into the chickens feed.  Its different enough that it does cause egg eating but it give them back much needed Calcium.

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Use them directly in your garden soil

You can take your dried crushed bits and  hit them with the garden coffee grinder and voila.. 0 mile organic calcium rich soil amendment, I love this to use in the soil for each tomato plant, each large shell should make you around one scant tsp, I like to use about a tbsp. per tomato plant hole in the garden. It can be used directly in the garden in this form.

*The main ingredient in eggshells is calcium carbonate (the same brittle white stuff that chalk, limestone, cave stalactites, sea shells, coral, and pearls are made of). The shell itself is about 95% CaCO3 (which is also the main ingredient in sea shells). The remaining 5% includes calcium phosphate and magnesium carbonate and soluble and insoluble proteins.

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Last but not least, I have heard of folks taking this powder themselves. I have not done this myself but it is interesting to me. I am not at the point of wanting to try it yet, but if I did I would grind it into a powder as much as possible and then use it in food prep to hide the shell in this way. or I would get my own make your own pills that you can fill and take that way.

Have you ever taken egg shell? How did you prepare it? Did you find there was a positive health result?

 

Posted in Chickens, frugal, gardens | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Flagg Beans Overview and Spring Update

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

As most folks know I really like rare old plant types and I collect a number from Europe but I also have a love for old Canadian or N.A. heritage plants with a special interest in those of indigenous background. If they were from any of the local area’s of Ontario or Quebec even better.

Flagg Bean is a rare bean that also goes by the name Skunk or Chester in some circles. Got to love when a bean has three different names 🙂 It is considered a Iroquois pole bean that has been around a long time, it produces really lovely black and white beans with the odd white bean or the odd mostly black bean. It is a pole bean and it will climb 12 feet if you let it, have a very strong structure for these, you can bring it down to more standard five or six feet in height but it will need to be helped to grow sideways etc

Its a very short season bean, I have seen as short as 80 days listed or as long as 90 days listed, I say that is about right considering the weather and such.

This bean has been grown on the farm in normal years, drought years and flood years and it has proven itself going strong in all the ways.

I do eat the very young green beans here at the farm but once they are of size, you will find them tough if you want to fresh eat them or freeze them, however I find they outstanding as a pickled bean when used young and tender and of course as a dry bean for soups and stews! Very heavy producers, I have always offered them very rich soil to grow in with reasonable drainage in a normal year.

I didn’t mean to do this but I am now on my second year of overwintered beans on the vine, I left the vines and the last beans on two years ago and they overwintered nicely in 2016, I thought huh and just for kicks planted them out in 2017 to see if they would grow and grow they did..  last fall, we picked lots of fresh green beans and I have lots of seed left from my proper harvest of them in 2016 so I told hubby just leave them, we will get to it in the spring 2018

Well, there was ton’s of dried pods on the vine, looking really nice with full clean and plump looking beans in them.. once we picked, cleaned and sorted, we got 2 pounds 11 oz of really nice second year overwinter Flagg or Skunk Pole Bean Seeds. More then I will need for planting this year but I will do some to see if they will grow and overwinter here on the farm for year 3.

 

Posted in Garden, pole beans | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Cheap Labour aka Fire

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

While this only works to a point and must be done safely, the truth is when it come to spring clean up and labour, fire can be a very useful tool.

Update (got a note from one of my awesome readers) yes please check if you are allowed to have open air fires, if you need to burn in a pit or if you can burn on the ground or if you need a fire permit from your local county.

In our case, we are allowed a 1 meter fire year around (so three feet by three feet) and we can use a burn pit or barrel. In regards to the photos shown, you must rake, roll and disconnect the plant material from the ground and take it to the fire in smaller limited amounts that keeps it within that approx. 1 meter fire. That is why it took us x hours to rake and x hours to burn.   You can get a much bigger burn permit when needed for a very reasonable fee in our area.  

What you can NEVER get is permission to burn fields, ditches or lawns.

Most of the time we have the time an energy to collect, haul,, build a compost pile or hugelbed the tree offering, the bio mass from last year. its wanted and its very useful indeed.

Fire is used every year at certain points, you always want to burn sick plants or wood trimming, never adding them to your compost piles or as below burning extra burdock seed heads that I do not want going to seed.

However this year, I am using it as a helpful labour tool, I am have smaller very carefully created and watched in place fires where I am raking and burning that dried, winter kill bio mass in both front, side yard an yesterday in the main garden.

 

It still took three hours on our first round of raking-cleaning and five plus burning but it saved many more to do it this way. The Strawberry Bed needs some more work but I love seeing the new growth on the wee plants

The ground is still frozen under a few inches in a number of places yet and the rest is still to wet to work when I started, so that needs a few more drying and warming days yet before I can work those ones up.

Today I will spread the cold ashes in a thin layer in the old potato beds from last year and mix it  into the soil itself for later spring planting for root veggies, clean ash is very good in small amount for your soil, I use a quarter inch or so of clean burned wood ash every second year in the gardens. remember to keep your stored ash dry before putting it on and mixing it in.

 

Posted in gardens | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Horse Trough Garden

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

I have seen new Metal Horse Troughs used on Facebook and I will admit that they do work well but if you can find old ones that have rusted out, it’s going to be a lot cheaper than buying new from the store’s. This big old trough cost us 2 dollars at a farm sale, no one wanted it because it did not hold water. This just meant that it had drainage to me 🙂

I have used this trough as a hot manure box it was a very raw of mixed straw and manure from the barn but its last fill up was in 2015. This what I started with all the left over bits from last year as well as blow in stuff including leaves.

I am trying to figure out why I had placed a rock in last year.. but it’s just not coming to me now..

Cleaned it up but still very chunky and in need of work. I decided that I would give it a double dig if it was thawed though enough to do it, I also really wanted to see what was happening downward as I was thinking about growing root veggies as the second crop and that only works if I have the depth to do it with.  Because I had lost 30 to 35% of volume in the composting process, I needed to decide what I wanted to do this spring, I am going to use it as is and will top it up in late fall.

I dig down till I hit bottom and just look at how crazy well that composted down in place, After I turned it all, I needed to work the soil to a finer point.

Then I seeded it out for an early spring crop of kitchen garden foods, there is all kinds of early mixed greens, radishes and such and then it got covered with a topper of glass to increase the heat for the next while. It means that I will need to water it but it will also increase growth of both the seed and the plants.

It was great to get even one small garden plot cleaned up and planted out, one at a time will get it done. This is a very easy form of raised garden bed, the challenge for the average person is going to be the cost to fill it.. it takes a lot of soil and of course it will also need to be watered in a way that in ground often does not.

 

 

Posted in Garden | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Friday off.. sort of

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

Well, I was off the farm lots today, I had one of those days that homesteaders and farmers rarely talk about on the blog.. those days were we run all over the country it seems trying to get all kinds of ducks in rows and there is always something waddling off this way and that.. LOL

I got up at normal time and did get some morning chores but thankfully I had checked my calender the night before, I thought I had to get there at 9:30..nope 8:45.. ok that’s a bit faster.

Marble and River Kitten’s had been caught at 6pm last night and crated up till this morning where they were driven to the vets to get their spays and required by law vaccines. Marble cost me a pretty penny more because she was not done before she was an adult.. timing on things just didn’t work out and now I have to pay more.

Thankfully River is still under a year in age and so she did get the kitten discount.. still all said and done, its pretty much 300 per cat.. better than other places in cost but still a huge! chunk of cash for an outdoor barn cat that tomorrow could be gone.

Its something that needs to be done as I do not want kittens on the farm, I want an altered only group of cats. It’s not hard to find farm cats or kittens in need of a new home if I want to add a new cat to our little farm pride. There is a new program called Barn Buddies that does farm cat clinics for altering, Its my understanding that they are 120 per female cat, but nothing else is done.. no checks, no rabies, no overnight after care and no working relationship with the vet afterwards.

It’s a mixed thing to me.. on one hand even with the gas driving to the pick up and drop off point, it’s still a savings of about a 160 per cat but then none of the above.. so I paid more and left the spots (which were totally filled) on the Barn Buddy spaying slots for someone else in the area that needed it just a touch more.

Then I was off to doctors for follow-up on a few things and renewals and I need to mail something.. well that was just not meant to be, first post office system was down and so no go, I took the time to drive over to a different town afterwards and arrived five minutes after 12 and they were closed for an hour for lunch.. I know they all close for an hour for lunch from noon till 1..  Small town living at its finest 🙂

However at the point I gave up and came back to the farm. It was a busy morning in a very different way but still productive in its own way. Did my 3:30 check call to confirm that the girls were recovering well and all is looking good.

Then I did some outside chores and started working in the gardens, I needed to do some looking here and some looking there to figure out what I am doing next and I have got it pretty figured out at this point..  I will take photos as I go, but I do instead to get at least one or two beds ready and planted this weekend.

So much raking to do in regards to picking up tiny and not so tiny branches do to the ice storm and I need to figure out if I want to burn than or if I want to use them in a new Hugel bed. We will see, I need to have a good look at the other beds and see if I need to top them up more then I need a brand new bed.

The weather today has been outstanding, plus 7 with little wind and sunshine.. you need a coat on but who cares.. LOL It finally feels a bit like spring!

 

Posted in Critters, Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments

Ice Storm 2018 Ontario Ottawa Area

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

Well, the ice storm arrived and we were without power for three days pretty much..

We got ICE!  It snapped power poles like they were toothpicks, it brought down tree’s and ripped roofs off and more.. We lost a number of tree’s in the pasture, part of the sheet metal on the big barns roof and a huge part of one of our big grandfather tree’s, that thankfully missed the deck and the old part of the house but if it had fallen different, it could have struck the house easily enough

The prep work for the farm worked very well and thanks to dear friends we got a helping hand on a few other things that were needed including being asked over to have a hot shower and to get a hand on getting our sump pump running again.. Grateful!

I was grateful for the warm feather quilts made by the Hutterites made by our friends that helped keep us warm and for the wool blankets gathered over the years from our local farm sales and second hand shops. The biggest issue we had was trying to dry out the outdoor gear between chores.. Thankfully we have extra’s to use as needed. Mom’s little dog enjoyed her time on the bed and on the couches with her blankets, she was not quite as pleased to be wearing a baby lambs coat for the worst of it, but she gets cold easy and it helped keep her body heat in.

As always the Ecozoom stove is outstanding.. four little tiny sticks an you can boil a gallon of water, cook a meal and with the Shuttle Chef, you can hot water on demand, I really must get another one, so that I can keep hot water for drinks, washing etc in one and a meal ready in the other. You would be hard pressed to do even a faction of it with a regular fire with 1/4th of a standard wood stove piece of wood.  the kindle cracker comes in very handy for this as well. I used pre-cut and pre-dried pine for the stove during the icestorm. That is the joy of the properly done kettle stoves.. little fuel for big payout!

Well, I had better get back to the farm, how was your weekend? I did learn of some gaps in my preps for ice storms and I will try and figure out what I want to change or add and update more once I settled on what!

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments