Canning Rhubarb Juice (Mock Pink Lemonade #2)

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

My dear hubby and my testers all agree, that the cooked, strained rhubarb tastes like rhubarb juice but everyone says that the stream processed takes like a wonderful Pink Lemonade version of it.

I have to admit that its delightful but I will agree that its not strongly “rhubarb”. I have got it down to pretty much figured out that with this springs rhubarb its a pound to a pint of finished product.

The cooked leftover is being dried, then ground into both fiber and flavour for baking, it dries down quite well because its had so much of the moisture already removed. Its my home grown zero mile bran to increase the fiber counts 🙂

You know how folks buy those tiny little cups of flavoured apple sauce.. well I am doing versions of Rhubarb Fruit mixes in pints for hubby to take for work over the coming year.. Vanilla Rhubarb, Rhubarb Mixed Fruit, Rhubarb and Strawberry (when they are ready) and Rhubarb and Rasberry and so forth.

I am working with ten pounds of rhubarb and 4 pounds of other fruit plus sugar and it works out to 12 pints of finished jars.

I has so surprised at the store, I had to take a picture of it.. clearly I am under valuing my rhubarb based on what I say the local farmer girls offering theirs for per pound.. wow.. 5 per pound on sale at a dollar off..

 

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Bullwinkle Cost Breakdowns and Return rate.

Posted on June 10, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Total returns on BullWinkle

340 pds out of a approx. live weight of between 600 to 700 pounds

228 pounds of prime cuts, steaks, roasts and stew meat- Averaged it out to ten** – 2, 280

118 pounds in organs, meaty bones and dog food trim- Local average rate of 5 dollars a pound -590

** I looked at all four local flyers and the burger is sitting right around 6 per pound, the stew is at 8 to 9 depending on the store and all steaks, roasts and so forth are at 10.99 or higher.. ouch.. how are people affording beef these days?

**** http://grazingdays.ca/grass-fed-beef/buy-our-beef/

I then went to a few sites to get a feel for the local farmers market prices and or CSA shares. The one linked above is pretty standard.. at least 10 dollars per pound, and that is 50% burger and two pounds of steaks and one 2 to 3 pound roast per ten pounds, for a total of 8 box’s or 80 pounds for 900.

So I have decided to price mine at 10, which still brings me under what it should be as I have no burger, just steaks, roasts and stew in this amount.

Bullwinkle came in around 680 give or take on the weight tape, which can go 12 pounds either way. It cost me 2.93 cents to buy, raise and process him per pound. That is a massive savings and in truth puts me pretty much in line with the cost of my other calves I have raised and Its the home butcher and kept it in line with the rest.

Marty Costs

The last time we brought home beef it was a full grown cow and she gave us a lot of beef! Glenda costs were a touch under Marty’s Costs as well..

Bullwinkle -$200.00 **
Milk replacer-$120
Feed-$168.00
Baking Soda- $2
Hay-$400.00
Bedding-$80
Butcher fee’s -(home butcher – 26 for a roll of wrapping paper and 1.99 for my freezer tape)

Total costs -997.99

** I bought Bullwinkle as a just coming one week old calf, he was very well started on his milk and baby ration and he was always a good eater.

So total “replacement Value at local market prices would approx. 2.870

We put out cash wise 998 ( I rounded up)

So We are in the good on Bullwinkle by 1872

which means we averaged out at 2.93 per pound, this is outstanding return value for our hard work an so worth ir.

I will hold off getting a new week old calf till next spring and I will see what the year brings but I am hoping to be able to buy and put up extra small square bales of hay to have extra tucked away so I have a bit more cushion if needed.

 

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Bullwinkle – Another Choice made due to the weather..

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Bullwinkle was a lovely calf last year and a very active almost to friendly Yearling this spring. (yes, he pulled his tag right out of his ear, thankfully it was found, that is why his ear looks like that) I had stopped by my hay farmer and we had a chat, he needed to know how many big bales of hay I would need for the month of june.

Ideally I need six bales (that is the min) and normally, the farmers around here would be cutting hay and there are a few that are doing silage and are cutting wet and green in small amounts to feed their livestock.

My farmer had been out on the highest and driest field two days ago and only did a certain amount of cutting before having to stop due to equipment sinking into the ground, the hay that was cut is super wet and was heavy enough that it was giving clogging issues..

I have cut down sheep last month after I got the “talk” that we would not have hay cut until june.. Yesterday, I was informed that if we don’t get some dry days with some heat and such, that we are not likely to get our first cut off that I can use as dried hay till july..

wow.. July..  so farm Helper #1 came over to give me a helping hand and we spent the day doing the kill, skin, gutting and bury of non-people or dog parts. By the end of yesterday, I was stick a fork in me done tired, we had four quarters, a huge meaty neck, loins and organs (heart and liver) all cleaned and either in the fridge or in a extra smaller chest freezer we have that has blocks of ice and loose ice in it acting as a clean “fridge” area.

I will do weights for human meat but I am not doing weights on what I am using as dog food, which means that my stats will be off in the finished post but not by much.  I had really hoped to keep him till the normal time which would have been late fall.

It will make a big difference to our daily hay needs, I can feed six ewes or the whole herd of weaned lambs for the same amount of hay that Bullwinkle was eating.

Well, I had better wrap up this post, finish my coffee and go grab myself my first quarter and get my day of trimming, cutting, deboning and wrapping meat for the freezer and or for the fridge that will be going to the canner.

 

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So many Baby Bunnies!

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

The Rabbit Momma’s have been hopping to it over the past few days..

Litter #1 -13 kits, all Black and White Pointed. Tones of hair pulled and at the back corner like she likes to do..

Litter #2 – 9 Kits -First time mom, this one is a mix of black, grey and broken with white kits, she had them in a very loose nest but they all have full bellies.

Litter #3-8 kits, Solid Blacks, Solid “grey” and Broken Black and Grey’s, she had them in a tighter nest, not nearly as much hair pulling but they are content little poppers and all have good full bellies, she made a high berm of hay around them and clearly means it.. you just stay in there lol More Broken with white colors in this litter then in the other one.

Litter #4 I almost thought I had somehow messed up my photo taking but I knew I had not.. I was tempted to go back out and move a kit around or two.. and then thought.. nah.. so 9 kits, most of them broken with white, some black, no grey that I could find in this one..  this mother is a littermate sister to litter #2 and has the same male.. her sister’s litter and her own in these photo’s appear so close to each other its crazy, same longer line style.. but I will give you my word, another nine kits and as they get a bit bigger, more and better photos will be coming!

So over three days we had 39 kits born, and 9 weaned into grow out pens. While I am very happy with my girls, I will let them raise the kits for a few weeks before I think about breeding them back again. I thought I would for these four only, do a full track out on them for costs, as I have not done that for a while and because three of the four girls are new to the farm and I want to track growth rates and end results etc.

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Aftermath of the flooding.. Plans and lots of them.

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

As you know my area was hit with drought last year and flooding this year.. now flooding is not new at all in my neck of the woods, there is a reason I do not have to worry about any building close to me.. trust me they would never get a permit for the farm land around my own farm.. thankfully its several hundred acres of farmland.

As other’s flooded out and I took pretty photos of swollen flooded creeks and the local river took docks and pushed the water higher and higher and while 30 min away, hundreds on both sides of the river had water flood their homes up and down the river.

The truth as I said to those that asked, was our farm was good. The water never even came into our pastures, let alone the gardens, barns or outbuildings and it didn’t get close to the house..

But the sump pump ran none stop.. and if I lost power, I will be the first to admit that we would have had basement flooding.. it would have not done much damage as that basement is designed for the flooding, it had to be before they could run the sump pumps back in the day. I would have to have 4 feet of water in there before it could be a full issue, and so far in the history of the house.. never happened.. the older gentleman that was born and raised in the house now in his 60’s says they never had more than a foot at the worst.. even on the worst flooding years..  Good to know.. Good to know.

The pig wallows, the pond and the grading we have done on the farm since we got here made a massive difference on how the water moved, it did what it was to do.. slow it down, the fact that the water moving off the roofs went though the rain barrels, then drained out to planned watering zones before moving to join the swells to finally flow off the land meant that it did not digging, it did no ditches.

The fact that this has happened enough that I have a back area for dryland garden planting and that I have much higher totally different built garden area on the farm for wet spring garden planting and growing is awesome..  you could not more plant in my dryland right now.. it’s so wet anything you put in would rot, but in my wet garden its jungle lush and the food is flowing in already and will for months to come.

The biggest issue that I have found is HAY, which has led to more work in terms of both grain fodder growing (it’s a lot easier to store a year’s worth of grain to turn into fodder then it is to store a years worth of hay) Protein sources programs are in full training, fly’s buckets, BSF larva, Mealworms, Red Wigglers and Comfrey are all in play.

I had talked about the earthen berm that runs across the back-end of the pasture butting up against the garden area before the grade up to the house itself.. I have full plans to raise it and I have decided to create the same thing with swells’ and graded slope on the front pasture. It’s a longer term project to be sure but will be well worth the work (for the first bigger push, I will bring in a small backhoe and get that first layer put into place) and then I will do the rest with human or critter power.

I already keep supplies on hand to both shock the well (which any well owner should be doing anyway) but it was pointed out to me by a doctor that asked if I had tested my well since the flooding, truth was no.. because my well never got over run with water over the top, I didn’t and still don’t believe it an issue, I guess I had better take advantage of my free water testing again and see if I am right?

On the back-end of things, while we have things in place for getting clean drinking water for ourselves and the household use.. it got me to thinking about the critters? Do I need to have some way to clean larger amounts of water if needed? Something to mull over..

Because let me tell ya folks.. this weather.. this hot, O my goodness so hot, need to have a garden area planned and prepped for shade so that you can grow food for the year is need, even if that means you need to buy shade cloths to put up if you don’t have the land I do.. that drought time.. ya.. it’s going to come again.. and you will need to adjust not just the gardening but even consider like I did looking at livestock and figuring out how to get the most bang for your buck meat wise, calorie wise for the amount of water output..

Its right there that you go.. ok, so I can have a small chicken flock (eggs, meat and feathers and compost) with a small rabbit herd (hide, meat, cold poo) and a tiny herd of sheep (milk, meat and hide or wool) and a couple good farm hunting cats for the same amount of water that one single calf will use daily..

When the well is working and water is flowing.. not an issue.. but when water is tight, honestly, you will need to change your breeding programs for your farmstead needs.

And the floods.. well the floods are going to be coming again, the heavy rains will come, look not just to our local woods where the 100 year floods are now coming not every 50 or even 20 but the one local area now says the ten-year floods!

As we found out the hard way locally, the local rivers all might be controlled by dams and waterways but when it comes to backing up them and or risking damage to them, the governments made the choice to open them up and let the water run and if you, your home are in the way.. their answer was simple.. leave. get out.. it’s coming and it will do the damage it will do..

The amount of mudslides do to heavy rainfall and the damage and deaths we are seeing is rising every year..  I know, I know.. not a happy subject.. and if you want, just shake your head and sigh and go.. I know Farmgal, I know.. climate change!

But lets bring it back to our lives, our homestead’s, and what we can control.. you are in control of if you always plant a in ground garden or if you plan to have one or two raised beds as well, (both will grow for you on an average year) but if you count on your own food, the raised bed will be the winner on a rain year.. you are in control of looking at your land and figuring out how to get water to run around your home, your barn and so forth in a way that will limit or control the damage done. You have the ability to look into ways to modify your home to prevent water damage if it did happen.

We have more knowledge at our finger tips at this time and place than any other has ever had.. someone, somewhere in some culture has figured out how to make this happen.. they know how to create it, plan it, grow it and live it..  we just need to be willing to a) find it b) put some time, effort and money into it to make it and prove it! c) Plan for the worst and then live each day like it’s the gift it is!

Better to have the plan, Better to work the plan.. better to never need the plan then to not have it!

 

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Monday this an that..

Posted on June 5, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Well it was a big project and between hubbies nail in the foot (which looks very good today) and me helping do a lift of a cracked sheet of chip board in a two person move at shoulder height slamming my left elbow into a rolled metal edge, which hurt when I did It but has turned into a big old bruise an my arm in a sling for a day or two..

Gratefully its my non-dominant arm an hand, and the hand works just fine an dandy but the elbow itself says, no weight bearing unless you want shooting pain.. ok then.. rest and stretches it is then.

Two new litters of buns have arrived on the farm, My old big girl had 13 kits in a mix of white an black and Choc-O-La had her first litter, she had eight, a mix of solids and broken patterned kits, all seem to have full bellies an so I will do my daily checks an otherwise let them be..

so we have two older litters that are at weaning age, I plan to do most of them as young fryer size, the batteries have been replaced on all my scales, so I have detailed weights again, rather then the non-digital scale.

Speaking of babies, there are cute little fledgings all over the farm, I wish them the best of luck, snapped a photo of this tike in the spruce tree, its mom was up higher and they were talking up a storm.

The big back garden is full of life, corn, carrots, cabbage, turnips, beets an potatoes are all up and growing, strawberries are in bloom an forming, the cherry trees are looking good, the gooseberry an currents are loaded, the cherry tomato plants are in bloom already, an my pepper plants were doing good

until a certain goatling jumped into the horse trough, stepped on an nibbled on some.

Today is monday which is my bread making, baking day, my pull meat day and prep to get caught up day.. it will get done but at a slower pace then normal I think..

Pie says as long as we get our fresh greens on time.. all is good with the world.. I expect Pie is pretty much full grown, she is about a third smaller then pudding.

you all have a grand day!

 

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Nail’s and Feet.. They do not go together well at all Sigh!

Posted on June 4, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Now normally when it comes to finding nails and stepping on them, it’s a farmgal thing, I have stepped on five nails in my life so far and knowing me, I will add to the number over the next 40 years I hope to be alive

I started young, stepping on three of them before I was 18, my mom is a soaking gal, she would do milk and bread poultice when I was very little, I am not saying that I am recommending it, just that it was what was used and that it seemed to get the job done.

As I hit my teens and really nailed my foot as I jumped off a shed roof and landed on nail as I came down, it was soaked and treated with Dettol  Which is something I still keep in the house, it can not be safely used with some of the critters but when it comes to people and infections, I happen to really like it for some things.

So it was a surprise when it was DH that called to me that he had stepped onto a nail that had gone right though his manure carrying boot and though the sock and into his foot.. it was bleeding, and it was allowed to do so, flushed out, treated with Iodine, given a band-aid, wrapped to keep it in place and then sock covered.

Now I have to admit that I might have just left it at that (DH points out that if it was me, I would have treated it at home, he thinks its funny that I asked him go to the hospital when he knows that I would not have felt the same way about it if it was me) but hubby was outdated on his tetanus vaccine, I had my booster three years ago but he says he can’t even remember when he got his last one, and I took a good look at the nail, rusty, coming from a garbage pile and though a boot which was farm muck covered and thought.. hmmm.. NOPE

So we headed off to Emerg, (we live in a hospital dessert zone, there are lots of them and all of them are at least 45 min away.. five in different directions and all of them around the same time to get to..) we picked the country one in the hopes that it would be a quiet night and we were right, in, seen and out in 19 min! Took us twice as long to drive one way as it did to get seen.

They let me come in and after asking the basic’s from DH, the doctor asked me what I had done, I listed it all off, and he said, you are a nurse? yes? I smiled and answer, sorry no.. just a keen interest, a good med kit and vet tec course’s and looking after my mom from both a hip and knee replacement.  He said I had done a great job, asked me to tell him what I was looking for over the next days and what I had planned for treatment, nodded and said you want the nurse to do a new bandage job but honestly, your wife has got this  Thanks Doc!:)

So other then the vaccine (which in truth will not kick in before the issues could, so I will be providing herbal and EO support to work to prevent possible issues) given, we were on our way.  I had to chuckle, hubby says that the last time he had been in a hospital 15, which means he had not seen one as a patent for 30 years..  I can only hope that he will continue to be as health, they did a little check and he was well within normal in all ways 🙂

I did smile when the doctor said Polysporn, I nodded but it will not surprise you that he is getting freshly made tailored homemade green salve instead.. Its not quite the one in the post, its been tweeked for puncture wound care.. with a touch of increased jewelweed for inflammation and no comfrey for open wound etc.

The photo is from this morning before soaking and after a night’s rest, its sealed up quite a bit since yesterday, and its got some redness to it that the soak done right after this photo really helped take out.

This morning, I had a nice small amount of good looking discharge, very pleased with this, as yesterday with him moving on it after I did it the first time, the discharge was much larger and went though the band-aid and into the wrap. We will see how it does today when he starting doing some limited weight bearing on it.

Nope, feet and nails do not go together well at all.

 

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The bin is here! Spring Cleanup

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Well, this is not the first, nor will it be the last bin I have ordered for the farm, when we got to the farm, it would be very far to say that there was a lot of things that had been left to just sit, to go, that was broken, half rotted and more. Piles of things just thrown in this or that spot.

We rented a bin once a year for the first three years and what a difference to the farm to get those things cleaned up and off. Then we hit a sweet spot that we only needed the smallest bin once every three years to just keep the farm tidied up.

We did a med-sized bin two years ago with the Reno’s we did then and over the past two years our “collection” spot has grown and grown and GROWN. With the spring reno’s, and the upstairs’ bedroom reno’s plus the fact that we are taking down the old red shed (we will be rebuilding over the cement floor in the future) speaking of cement, we found a huge fully done cement pad about a foot a half under soil, its massive and I am not sure what was there, we did test holes to try to figure out size and its up there.. I am not sure what to do with that info but it was one more.. huh.. didn’t know we had that.

So we have the bin for three days, first we will clean the collection spot, and then we will see how much space we have and we will just keep going until its full.  I expect that by the time we are done all the work we have planned for the year, that we will need another one by late fall to do a second clean up. We will see.

I do have the legal right to burn a lot of it, and I am taking some teasing locally for not doing a big burn which would be so much cheaper (and it would be) but I just can’t stand the idea of having all that chemicals floating out over my land that I grow mine and my animal’s food on.  I would rather pay and have it processed properly and burned or recycled or buried depending on what it is as the company I am using does sort it which is great.

Well, how do you deal with the regular and standard buildup that happens on a farm, do you have your own area (if you are very far from town) do you still burn? Do you load up and take things to the local dump by the loads? or Do you at times also rent a bin and do a big cleanup?

If you started with a older farm, did you find you had to do a lot of a clean up?

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Corn Cob Cat Litter

Posted on June 1, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

So first off, this review did not gain me anything, I just really like the product.. as you can imagine with the purr pride that is as big as mine that I have three litter boxes in the house between two floors. The purrpots use them when in the house, a lot less in the warmer months then the winter but still as all the cats are called in if they are willing to do so for the night for safety and let back out the next morning if they so choose.

I have never liked the clumping clay litter (which to be fair the cat do) and I have tried the pine based litters (which the cats did not like) so I only switched one box over to this brand at first to try it, I needed to know that it worked, that the cats would use it and so forth.

Now all my box’s are switched over.. the bag seems like its not good bang for the buck considering its smaller size but this product when used correctly, fluffy’s and just keeps on giving!

The reason’s why this cat litter is getting its own post is because it rocks!

a) its made of corn cobs, which makes it a green product that is using a renewable resource.. total score on that one!

b) there is no odd smell or dust or extra chemical’s in the litter from what I can see or smell.

c) its compostable.. I clean it out daily and I scoop all the poo’s from the box but when its time to dump it fully and clean out the box.. I have proven that the urine soaked corn cob left composts like a dream, it can be mixed with layers and given a handful or two of active compost to get it started well and turned it once a week.. it breaks down like a dream! I might not use it in my garden for annual’s but I have no issue at all using the compost around tree’s, bushes and so forth.   I would never even consider doing this with clay

d) Its so light to carry, this is true in its base form, anyone with bad back or weaker will love how light this bag is to carry, I love the fact that I can pick up the box to a waist height and clean it.. its awesome.. also the weight of it that goes out when cleaned is much less then with the clay and therefor it does not load up your garbage bag in the same way.

now I am not sure if its priced the same around the country, for that matter I don’t know how available it is either BUT its 8 dollars a bag, which if you didn’t know that it will double or even triple in size as its used would seem a bit on the touch higher size compared to the clay based.. until you use it..

So there you go.. I truly hope that I will be able to keep getting and using this product locally, if so I will be buying it. it is saving me money, its green based, its compostable (with the poo’s removed) and it reduces the smell and the cats love using it!

It just does not get better then that for me! Have you found a local kind of litter that you just love? Had you found a corn based one years ago and went.. well ya! LOL

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May Farm Overview- Tracking Year Stats

Posted on May 31, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Ok, I am wanting to track this down for this coming year..  May has been a good month, some heat, good amount of rain and lots of growth in the pasture, yard and gardens are all sprouting up.

May has been a run like it matters month.. you get up with a plans and go to bed early tired and sore as you get your garden muscles back.

Costs for May 2017
Hay-$300.00
Feed- $56.00
Straw- 12

Farm Output- Personal use only but local costs to replace if bought off the farm

  • Eggs: 7 dozen  at 5 per dozen as eating eggs- $35 dollars
  • Sheep Milk- 40 liter -(Moving the milk price to the same as the lady down the road that sells it at 8 dollars per liter)-320
    Manure: Finished composting down.. at least 140 dollars worth of compost produced this month.-  140
    1 new lambs (current market value per lamb 100 as bottle babies Price dropped down since last month.  -100
  • Lambs info (* for later in the year, I Will adjust the price to reflect the butcher, the return and sale price sale, but for this month, lets stay with if I sold them as a bottle baby this month)
  • 8 pounds of rabbit meat – 5 dollars per pound locally- 40
  • 11 new rabbit kits- ( do not know how to figure them in, will do them at butcher time)
  • Hatch #2 is in but we had a longer then wanted power loss, I cover it and am hoping for the best, we will see.

Farm loss’s in Feb

  • 4 chickens (two hens and two roosters) all show quality, in mated sets of two.. killed by a coon..  a 100 dollar loss (and if I do not get chick’s hatched in the coming hatch, it was a total loss)

Farm extra’s Costs

  • Farm Hand Help -60

Farm extra’s..
Ferrier – 150 (trims and Caleb shoes) He lost both of his shoes in the deep spring wet mud and I had to pay for a full new set, less then three weeks after getting them done.. sigh!
Vet- (meds- 80)

 

Garden Overview May

Total Garden Costs -$ 17
Total Garden Return – $527

Total Out cost for May on for the farm -$ 675 output cash costs

Farm impute Value – 1,122.00

Total output of the farm in returns

  • Jan – In the hole –1,029
  • Feb – In the Hole –1,429
  • March-On the good side -$ 1,038
  • April -On the good side -$279
  • May -On the good side- 487.00

Yearly total Minus- 654.00

Do you think I will get to the good in June 🙂 I think we will!

Goals- No selling of anything off the farm is planned, the saving costs are what we would have to pay if we bought in the local free market to replace what the farm produces that improves our lives.

Its a tracking year..

and also I have had and seen a number of comments many times of folks saying, my 5 acres and under homestead needs to pay for itself.. well, I like to think mine does, I like to think that a well-run homestead can do just that! So lets see if I am right or not?

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