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!

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged | 3 Comments

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.

 

Posted in At the kitchen table | 11 Comments

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?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , | 4 Comments

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

Posted in At the kitchen table | 8 Comments

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?

Posted in Life moves on daily | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

May Garden Overview -2017 Tracking Year Data

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Hello Folks, I am going to do my best heading into 2017 to have a big old tracking year, I need to do this and I have the book, the paperwork and the plan..  I will make it happen..

So this is the first month of scales, daily writing of what is coming in.. O the fun.. (not) lol.. but if I can get into a daily habit, it will prove to be much easier.  I think that I will need to get my own little second book for this, its proving at times to take to much room in my current recording book.

May  Costs- 17 dollars

Output Costs: 17 dollars

An so it starts..  While I do have a soaping scale, I am going to round things into pounds or fractions of pounds just like I took everything into pints, regardless of the jar size itself..  so it can be a quarter of a pound, half a pound, a pound an so forth.  Yes, I know I am Canadian but I was raised with gallons and pounds, I am the crossover gen and it never stuck any more then it needed to.. give me feet, pounds and inches!

Started in April  and continued to be grown and or planted out in May – A ton of garden seedlings and flowers, I am so rounding this one out for the sake of my fingers and typing.. Needless to say.. I have planted out

  • -7 trays at 72 cells -504 seeds started
  • 3 trays with 24 cells -72 seeds started
  • 2 trays with 12 cells -24 seeds started
  • 5 elderberry cut starts branches
  • 5 High Bush cranberry Starts
  • 6 yellow raspberry cane starts

The real question is how? do I figure out returns on this and I have decided that until its planted in my garden or harvested and eaten.. its just sitting there and growing.. but not cost counted.

 

Outside, in May, we planted out rows of carrots, beets, turnips, winter turnips, radishes, beans, two blocks of corn, cabbage, potato’s, we will continue planting as time, weather and work allows. This week, we will get all cucumbers, squash and pumpkin plants and such planted out.. Sweet Potato’s will be done in the next week as well hopefully.. there are 75 plants in total that need to go out.

 

Harvested in May (all dried herbs and such will go with Mountain Rose Herb costs per their site)

18 pounds of Burdock root –  (really people) 5 dollars a pound for fresh eating and 15 per pound for cubed and dried.. Ok then..  -90 dollars (all leaves are going for fodder for sheep and pig)

30 pounds worth of Dandelion heads at 2.50 each (and I am low but they started out smaller and now are much bigger heads)  -75 (some of these are being used for fodder for the little pigs but I am bringing in a average of a pound a day this month)

20 bunches of green onions (this one is tricky, I have both green onions up and coming in but I also have a lot of just the greens of walking onions coming in, we had a price drop in stores and at the farmers market so I am reflecting that) 1.99 per bunch -40

70 oz of Dried Spring Nettles -157

5 bunches of radish’s -2.99 -15

6 pounds baby spinach – 18

24 pounds of rhubarb – 5 dollars a pound at the store (I have seen it as low as 4 at the market and 3.50 from a farm friend) but the average is still 4.99 per pound at the local stores.  -120

Mint – I am not sure how to count it, but 3 pounds of mint so far.. it was used fresh to make cold tea and hot tea and in cooking.. but going to put it at 3 per pound -9

I have harvested just shy of 4 pounds of rhubarb flower buds, but I have no idea how to price them? I think they would have to be considered either a speciality food.. so lets go 5? per pound -20

No sprouts this month, I have moved to yard greens only!

 

Started in March

  • Sweet and Hot Peppers
  • Tomato’s
  • Kale
  • Pots of Pea’s
  • Put a number of cane and soft fruit seeds into cold damp status
  • True Potato Seed
  • Potted up Sweet Potato Slips
  • Mixed early greens
  • Bloody Dock seeds
  • Cabbage
  • Broccoli
  • Started a full tub of self-rooting storage beets with tops started that will be transplanted and grown for bi-annual seed collecting for 2017
  • Sprouting potato that will potted up in the same way that will be used for very early summer small fresh eating spuds, rather then waste them at this point.

March imputes: Sprouts -2 trays per day.. organic mixed sprouts each tray is slightly bigger then the tray at the store at 3.99 each.. so that’s 8 dollars per day in sprouts

Total produced : $544

  • Jan $161. 40
  • Feb $248
  • March $248
  • April 245.50
  • May -554.00

May $544.00

Minus – 17

May total to the good –527

Garden Output to date : In the good $1,388.30

Posted in Garden, Garden harvest | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Canning Round up for May – 2017

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

2017  Please note for ease of tracking, I will be rounding everything up or down into pints.. example, if I do 7 quarts of something, it will be written as 14 pints, if I do 8 80z jars it will be written as 4 pints..  you get the idea.. It will make my life so much easier when I am the math each month for a round up this year..  I will try? to keep the page updated on this on the blog directly but will only share this post at the end of the month. It will be both a monthly round up and a running count for the year.

Lilac Jelly made from the Standard Lilac flowers with a mix of the darker flowers.

 

Total Pints to date for 2017- 154Pints

  • Canning Running List.
    19 pints of Turkey Veggie Barley Soup
    9 pint of rabbit meat
    4 pints of raspberry-Ginger Jam
    6 pints of blood orange marmalade
    3 pints of kumquat marmalade
    4 pints of lime marmalade
    4 pints of Lemon Crown Royal Jelly
    4 pints of Pink Grapefruit and Rose Petal Marmalade
    6 pints of Seville Orange Marmalade
    9 pints of Beet Pickles
    18 pints of Canned Pork
  • 5 pints of plain sweet bread and butter Sunchoke pickles
  • 1 pint of Sweet Bread and Butter Sunchoke and Pepper Pickles
  • 4 pints of Dill Sunchoke Pickles
  • 9 pints of ham bean soup
  • 9 pints of rabbit stew
  • 5 pints of Rabbit Meat
  • 18 pints of lamb stew meat
  • 18 pints of lamb stew made with veggies and barley
  • 4 pints of lilac jelly (8 half pints plus one 4 oz)

 

Feb Update
No canning done in Feb – However I used a total of 47 pints from the pantry thoughout the month of Feb. Out of homemade Canned Corn

March Update
March was a lean canning month (which just makes sense when you don’t buy much off the farm)
-9 pints of Pickled Beets
18 pints of ground pork

April Update

May Update

  • 5 pints of Rabbit Meat
  • 18 pints of lamb stew meat
  • 18 pints of lamb stew made with veggies and barley
  • 4 pints of lilac jelly (8 half pints plus one 4 oz)
Posted in Canning, dry pantry, food, Food in jars, Food Storage | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eastern Painted Turtle

Posted on May 29, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Coming over the road and up our driveway was a big beautiful lady, she was heading for our pond,  and was pouting as our cats were very interested in her. I expect that she has plans to lay in our pond (we have had baby turtles in our pond on other years)

We picked her up and after a few pictures, we carried her with care to the pond, set her down by the water an watched her head in, I will enjoy seeing this beauty sunbathing on the log we have placed for her. I have hope that I might be able to watch carefully enough to see where she lays her eggs and be able to mark the area and create a safe spot around it and then track when her wee ones are hatched.

She was grumpy when we first picked her up.. lol

Starting to relax now, I love how fast they seem to figure out that you don’t mean them harm, so pretty, love the pattern and colors. Let her have a dip to rinse out the grass by her head and to relax even more.

This one big turtle, a full-grown female, I wonder how old she is.. I also wonder if she could be bright eye’s mother?

So you can see the size difference between a Baby (approx. six month old Eastern Painted turtle vs the mature adult in the photo’s above.

I love that my land is healthy enough to support a native turtle population

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Overload.. LOL

Posted on May 26, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Spring has come in full steam.. and I am finding that I fall behind, it happens every year and its something that I wish I knew how to make not happen.. Is there a single farmer that feels in control in the spring?

If they or you do.. want to share your secret? I have 60% of my must do planting done, I have 20 to 25% of the rest started and ready to be planted out, I have a huge garden area prepped and ready to be planted.

I also have a huge amount of produce that needs to be processed already, this past week, I have been in a push to get the years supply of wild violets with flowers in the mix done and I might have another week before the flowers are done and I will only have greens.

I am pushing hugely on the spring nettles and they are growing upwards of what seems like half a foot to a foot daily at times.. all good things in its own way.

The strawberry beds had their first go round and are not slowly being pushed in the new round of weeds up that I have not gotten to yet, and in the one bed, mint as invaded.. I have decided to let it grow for a bit, then I will cut it to the ground, harvest it and process and repeat, rather then worry about pulling up strawberry plants roots until after the strawberry harvest, which appears to be heading towards a grand one.

Got the asparagus bed done for the spring and am pleased with the results.. next year will be our first full harvest year, they are already up and turning into ferns. Grow my pretties, Grow!

The yard is so high at the moment that I am grazing the goats on it, when the time is right, we will cut it, dry it and roll it for hay, the pasture is slowly growing but this past week between a light re-seeding in some spots, the dragging, warmer temps and now a few good soaking slow steady rains, it should just explode into growth.

We have cut down a area of tree’s, some fire wood, some to burn, some into future fence posts, we removed Norway maples and popular and a few spruce as well, that area will be replanted into two rows of food producing hedge rows and it will also open up the annual smaller garden space between them all.

My side yard towards the brown shed has a huge pile of throw away, its a combo of many things, working and building removal parts, its also got the bagged pulled and sun cooked wild parsnips, and its got extra things that are being removed in regards to the upstairs bedrooms and such for the reno work that will be done up there over the next few months before my mom comes for her visit this fall.

Its driving me crazy, it has to go! I have called and booked a big bin to come so that I can load it all up and have it hauled away. There is a part of me that knows that I should wait till fall when we have all our projects done but I just can’t do it.. I can’t stand the idea of that pile just being in my eye site for another four months. Better to get that area cleaned up and all that out before the heat of the summer. If I need to, I will bring another smaller bin in the fall.

Farmer R came for the big water bin and its fixing today (as we have water this spring) and so that is one more big thing out of my yard.

Hatch #2 is on day 16 or 17 and I have candled and removed the 2 eggs that were dead and hope that the rest will keep on going, Hatch #1 had moved out of the house and into the big coop and are doing very well so far. They are loving their bug hunting in the big outdoor pen, the fresh bits of hay to peak at and I swear they all snack on the goat poo when given a chance.

Must get to the rhubarb! Must get the to… well you get the idea..  I have faithfully written the amounts down in my book at least till a few days ago, I wore the battery out of my digital scale and because life is like that.. I also need a new battery in my big scale as well.

I will pick them up on the weekend, I am heading to the city for a visit with a dear friend and then we are hitting the big supply place and I will be coming home with a year supply of sugar, flour and a few other things..

Have a great day and a grand weekend!

 

Posted in Life moves on daily | 3 Comments

This and That Post

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Just another day on the farm

Hello my dear readers, I had planned on posting the most awesome recipe of rabbit liver pate including some outstanding locally produced maple Syrup but we had a opps and the bag with the liver got frozen, so know I need to thaw it out and I will get that recipe made for very soon.

I did some rabbit butchering this week, my biggest female was 8 pounds, and I can see why she did not have kits.. way to fat inside but she has a lovely massive pelt on her that will be put to good use in the near future.

On to some sad news.. I had written about my outstandingly awesome Blue Purrpot last year and that he had gotten stepped on as a kitten by Caleb, it was touch an go on if he would live from being stepped on, It was amazing to all that he pulled though and it became a joke  that my “free farm cat” was most surely not free by the time I paid his medical bills, well he appeared to be fragile but healed and we had him altered at 9 months of age.  Sadly it would appear that the damage done when he was younger has come back as he matured and it was just to much in the end.

You were only with us Blue Cat aka Blueberry for a year.. but you were one of the greats my sweet happy purry loving boy..  Rest in Peace my sweetheart.  Thank you to Farmer Y for trusting us with him, and I am grateful that I will still get to visit with his littermates.

On a more positive note, we did our annual apple Blossom Photo Shoot for our little Dezbot and I have to say that I very much like this years photos.

We also had a surprise in the barn this past week, the one yearling we thought had missed, surprised us with a single small but active and healthy ram lamb.. can you believe it.. another ram lamb..

On the other hand, the weaned lambs are in their own mob now and are doing very well in their own pen and area, I am very pleased so far with how they are doing. The next two days are planned farm processing days for the freezer camp, and the weekend is booked from sun up to sun set and it will be so worth it!

Posted in At the kitchen table | Tagged | 5 Comments