Little House in the Big Wood

Eggs

2012-02-20T15:37:00.000-05:00

The chickens have gone on strike. I shouldn't complain. They made it through January, and I just defrosted the last carton of eggs I froze last summer. (Freezing in the shell keeps them more egg like, although the shells crack, so they need to defrost in a container that won't leak). It's been about two weeks now without a single chicken egg.

However, we do have these lovely eggs. Three turkey eggs, which really are quite similar in taste to chicken eggs, just slightly larger, speckled and thicker shelled.

The larger egg behind, we've been getting a couple of those a week for awhile now, and assume they are goose eggs. We're pretty sure all of the ducks are male.

And then we got the really big egg. It looks the same as the 'goose' egg, just bigger.

So we're watching those ducks, and trying to pick a female. Maybe.

More likely though, we've got two breeds of goose. This pic is from last summer when we got the new geese. They're all the same size now, and all look the same to me, except one grey tail feather on each of the new geese. We weren't sure what sex anyone was. Now we're thinking we've got two geese and a gander, and one of the geese lays bigger eggs than the other.

But it could be a duck.

Squarefoot Greenhouses, Take Two

2012-02-17T11:35:00.000-05:00

Ok, I tried drawing out how I planted greenhouse #1 last year.

It seems like there's a lot more space around plants than I remember leaving. Was it really just the crazy pumpkins and tomato trees that caused the jungle? Broccoli did well, even though it was planted closer together than it should have been. The beans were insane, planted far too close together, and of course the poor planning on my part, not leaving any foot room.

Here's the new plan for greenhouse #2. This is the new greenhouse, the area wasn't planted last year.

Cucumbers are the main focus this year. I haven't harvested more than 4 or 5 cukes since we moved up north. The plan is to plant them straight down the center, with some sort of trellis between them, hanging from the roof, and send them toward the sky. According to the companion planting chart, they like sunflowers, which have never grown more than a foot for me. I figure one seed between each set of cukes shouldn't overcrowd them, and they might do ok. They also like beets, carrots, radish and dill, so I'll put them in the next row over. They don't like tomatoes. Which could be one of the reasons they've never done well for me here. I've tried to group all the stuff that needs plastic covering together, and since they're both late transplants in the spring, they end up together in the garden. If that's the case, this will still be too close together.

Next, the peppers. I stuck the lettuce in, because they seem to be neutral. Romaine has not done well in the garden, and I'm hoping for some early leaf lettuce.

Tomatoes like carrots and onions. I've given them more space in this plan, a 2 foot square, around the outside edge. I think I'll just put a row or two of carrots and onions between them, rather than a square foot.

Which brings us back to greenhouse #1.

I debated the cucumbers for awhile. If I put them in both greenhouses, then I can't rotate the floor plan between greenhouses next year. But then it occurred to me that this floor plan can go into greenhouse #3, which is to be built this summer. So double cukes this year.

Then I figured I should cause myself some headaches and throw some monster squash in. The square foot rules say to grow them vertically, in a 2 square foot patch. I'm going to plan on setting them free out the east side of the greenhouse. Early. Before they go crazy. And cut off extra shoots. Yeah, that's the plan. Can anyone picture me actually cutting off shoots? I will. I'm determined. They'll be safe from late June frosts, but taking their chances with early fall frosts.

Squash help corn and beans, eggplant likes beans, so they're bunched up together. Radishes help squash. (Why are plants I hate, radishes and onions, so helpful?) I threw in some mangels, cause seriously, no one is going to eat that many radishes. Maybe the cows will like them mixed with the mangels.

Mangels along the north side. They're in the beet family, so a couple of kohlrabi.

Brassicas on the west and south side. I'm hoping cabbage and broccoli are different enough to not hurt the soil. Onions and rosemary to help deter bugs.

Better? Still lots of stuff that could easily be grown outside, but with the companion plan, I'll do both.

This gives me a clear rotational plan for next year, switching greenhouses, but cuts my tomatoes back to 16 plants. One more than last year, but far less than I already have started, and a few more than my first plan. The rest will have to go out in the garden unprotected, which is ok, because I need a batch of green salsa this fall. It gets a little bit of almost everything inside, so I should get some variety, even if it's a bad weather year.

Rosemary is supposed to be perennial. I looked it up. While I need the help with the cabbage worms, I don't think I want rosemary coming up in the tomatoes next year. Not that they seem to have anything against each other, I just really don't want self seeding/perennial plants taking over the greenhouse. So I think I'll try it in a few small pots that can be moved from greenhouse to greenhouse. I might squeeze some basil in with the tomatoes, too.

Square Foot Greenhouses

2012-02-15T12:50:00.000-05:00

Everyone's heard of square foot gardening by now, right? I've read about it before, but I brushed it off, since space was not my issue. At least, not until last year, when I tried to cram everything into the greenhouse and it turned into a jungle. I had pumpkins going crazy, big plants towering over smaller plants, and no room to walk.

I've been thinking about how to get the best use out of my greenhouse space while avoiding last year's mistakes. And it brought me back to square foot gardening. I've made some plans, but I'm not quite sure how it will work out.

I'm planning on tomatoes and cucumbers on the back end (north) of both greenhouses, with some trellis (I'm thinking orange plastic snow fence) behind. This has me a little leery, since the wind beat the snot out of that end last year, and the cucumber in the corner suffered frost damage so close to the wall. I'm planning two more rows of cukes down the center of greenhouse #1, just to be safe.

I used the black boxes to represent 1X6s, which I'll put in for walkways. The vegetables are colour coded for spacing. Most, I found references to on other sites, a few, I'm guessing. A large square (red) would be 1 plant, while a small square (blue) would be 16.

The three empty squares on the south end are in the doorway.

I'm not sure whether alternating same type of veggies between squares is required, or recommended, or if people just do it to look pretty. I wasn't going to at first, and then I thought, if one square doesn't work out, another one might. Height differences between plants might give me more room to work around them, or it might just bury the shorter veggies.

I also have concerns about the broccoli in greenhouse #1, since some of it is in the same spot as last year.

I wouldn't normally worry about carrots or lettuce being out in the elements, but I seem to have room by this plan, and I did spend a lot more time fiddling in the greenhouse last year while the garden weeds got totally out of control, so why not?

I'm only allowing for 12 greenhouse tomatoes. That means the rest of them have to go outside! Which is probably for the best, because otherwise I'd have a jungle of tomatoes and no room for anything else. But, but, but... I'm already replanning it all in my head, and I haven't even got this posted yet, lol.

Any thoughts?

A Day Without Water

2012-02-14T09:51:00.000-05:00

Well, the better part of the day, anyway.

Yesterday's mishap with the shut off valve, led to one of those practical guides of how much water do we need to store.

Water storage pre-mishap:

Bowl of water in sink, soaking to loosen dried food (poured into doggie stew pot)

1 5 gallon pail, nearly full, which collects water from the relief valve on the water tank. (used to wash dishes).

14 2L pop bottles (used 2 for dish rinse water. I wanted 'cleaner' water for the rinse, which proved fruitless after the first few items were rinsed, used 1 in the bathroom to wash hands and flush the toilet until the snow melted)

2 4L jugs distilled water. (used half of one to bake bread).

24 500ml bottles (drank about 4)

pot of tea (made before the mishap)

Additionally:

3 5 gallon pail of snow (dishes)
4 5 gallon pails of snow (bathtub, to flush toilet, and wold have added hot water for baths if we didn't get the problem fixed)

At the end of the day:
11 2L bottles
about 20 500ml bottles

Melting snow is definitely more convenient (and cleaner) than hauling water from the creek. It can also be put into a variety of readily available containers once the bucket comes in the house. I had two pots on the stove, and one on the wood stove all day, melting and heating snow. I filled the bathtub with snow to melt slowly. I could have easily grabbed more 5 gallon pails, pots and bowls if I needed more, or faster water.

I also left the critters to fend for themselves for the day. Although it's not really recommended (eating snow requires more energy than drinking water), one day wasn't going to hurt them.

If this had happened in the summer, with everyone at home, with our water intake being higher, and needing to get water to the critters, we would have been in trouble. Not because we don't have access to water- we have the creek and a natural spring next door, but because carrying water takes some forethought. For one thing, carting 5 gallon pails are heavy, and without lids, would spill quite a bit.

So even though we had more than enough water for this situation, I'm going to increase my water storage. 2L pop bottles would work well to get water from the spring, and if I'm going to store them, I might as well store them filled. I have a large camping jug, and I might as well keep it filled as well. A couple more of those would be handy for hauling water, as would some 5 gallon pails with lids. A couple more cases of bottled water wouldn't take up too much room either, and the bottles would be very convenient if I had to do this long term.

Another handy device would be a siphoning hose set aside just for water.

For the critters, I think I need to look at a 55 gallon drum. We have lots that we use as rain barrels, and water 'troughs' for the critters, but one without the top cut off wold be good for hauling water from the creek. Of course, long term, running the fence to the creek would be the best solution.

Dad picked up the parts I needed in town, and came over to help me fix the pipe last night. By 7pm, we were back in business, and now I know how to do minor plumbing repairs.

Uh oh

2012-02-13T11:59:00.000-05:00

Look what I broke.

#1 shut off the water to the barn yesterday. There's a trickle leak out there, and we were running out of water due to it being a heavy laundry day.

He forgot to turn it back on. I went to turn it on myself this morning. But it's been awhile. I turned off the house valve. Or, at least, that's the valve I grabbed.

Except, it's been a long time since the house was shut off. The valve was rusted up. Water started spraying out of it. Oh shit.

I tried to turn it back off. Then it snapped. Then it really sprayed all over the place.

Thankfully, we have an emergency shut off switch on the well.

Now I'm heating water for dishes on the wood stove. And baking bread with bottled water.

Pay Backs?

2012-02-08T08:11:00.000-05:00

Is this my punishment for waking her up?

The boys got on the bus yesterday morning, then sent me a message to check the pasture. Their bus driver had seen a lot of 'traffic' at the neighbour's place. Tracks, packed snow, and piles of poop. She was wondering who broke out.

So I went to take a look, and there was Tori, halfway through the man gate, munching hay out of the lean-to. The gate's been snapped in half. The snow around the lean-to is well packed down, and a couple of piles of poop left in the yard, evidence of late night party animals. Only on a full moon.

The cows were in the barn, and Knightmare was in the pasture, so I shooed Tori back in and went to get some wood.

The wood pile is frozen. I dragged a skid over from the lean-to for a temporary fix. There's nothing to nail it to on the barn side, so I tied it into place with some baler twine. Hopefully this will hold until the weekend.

But then I got to thinking...That's pretty odd. Never before have my party animals broken out, and then put themselves back to bed. When my critters break out, they make me go round them up at the neighbour's. They had plenty of fresh hay and water, believe me, there is nothing greener on the other side of the fence. The only reason for a breakout at the moment, would be to find some spring lovin'. And then they definitely would not be back where they belong by morning.

No answer at the neighbour's place, and I hope everything's ok. A lot of trampling, and some hay ripped apart, but no critters appear to be loose there either. I'm thinking somewhere up the road, someone's critters were out rampaging the neighbourhood. And for a change, I don't think they were mine!

Liebster Blog Award

2012-02-07T13:57:00.001-05:00

I got a blog award from kymber at Framboise Manor. It's hard to believe anyone reads my drivel, let alone rewards me for it. Thank you, kymber.

here is the award:

Below are the rules of the award:

1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award
3. Pick your five favourite blogs with less than 200 followers, and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received the award.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.

I thought it would be much harder to choose since the list of blogs I follow seems to be ridiculously long some days, lol, but that under 200 followers rule makes it easier. A lot of the blogs I follow are well over that limit. And then, watching the award cycle around a few other blogs I read, it would be kind of silly to toss it back where it's just been, right? So here are my five blog picks.

#1- Attack of the Redneck Mommy

Tanis writes from her heart. Her blog usually makes me laugh my guts out, but other days, she makes me cry. Some days she makes me laugh until I cry. It's always raw with emotion and I never miss a post.

#2- Essential Bread

I just started following Melany a couple of days ago, after following a bizarre series of links which led to a news article about her eating her back yard squirrels. That's my kind of girl. I'm still catching up on her back posts, but I'm sure it's a keeper.

#3- Ohiofarmgirl's Adventures In The Good Land

"a tiller of the soil, a keeper of the flocks, and a hater of pigs" What's not to like? She did some great butchering posts a while back, and I love her dog posts!

#4- A Northern Life

Fellow Canadians and northerners trying to live a self sufficient life.

#5- (and #6) are both written by goats, but there's nothing in the rules saying the authors must be human. They both bring a smile to my face, though you might have to live with goats to truly appreciate them. Their humans also have blogs.

In a Goats Shoes

A Goat's View of Eden Hills

I hope that you check out each of them, give 'em a read. Don't tell 'em I sent you though. Cause they'll say, what? Who? that lurker who was just here? Yup, kymber, you're dragging me out of my comfort zone. Thanks.

Transplanting Tomatoes

2012-02-07T06:00:00.002-05:00

The 2011 saved seed tomatoes were pushing up against the plastic roof already, so I did their first transplant. I planted three seeds per jiffy disk originally, and almost all of them had three seedlings growing. There are two jiffy disks with no San Marzano, and one with no Sweetie. Almost all of the older seed that did germinate has two seedlings.

I made new pop bottle greenhouses. I have to do some more rummaging through the recycling before I can transplant the Marzano, Starfire and Sweetie tomatoes. I peeled the netting off the jiffys and divided them to separate the roots.

I transplanted them with two seedlings in each pop bottle, for a total 13 2L bottles, and 3 1L bottles, 32 plants total. I buried most of the stems for strong root systems (the stems will grow more root shoots under ground), and plenty of room to keep growing.

So I do get to play in the dirt in February, after all! Yeah for tomatoes!

Scary critters

2012-02-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

I looked out the window into the pasture this morning, and what did I see? A dead cow!!! Not just any dead cow, but my beloved Dorie. She was stretched out in front of the hay feeder on her side, her neck stretched out and her head in the snow. No movement at all, not a twitch. Her belly looked slightly, distended, just the beginnings of bloat.

Resisting the urge to vomit, or cry, I threw the dogs out before donning my coat and boots. Out the door I could see she was still laying in the same position, despite the dogs morning ritual of barking their lungs out just for the sake of barking. I felt sicker and sicker as I walked out to the pasture, calling her, with no response.

It wasn't until I was over the fence, less than 20 feet away, that she rolled over and looked at me.

Dorie, left, Mindy, front

Evil bovine. She's perfectly fine.

Wait a minute!!! Was that slight bloat actually a calf?!!? Oh, precious Dorie! Although, she didn't seem impressed with me waking her up.

[Note how 'shorter' the hay feeder has gotten in the snow.]

Tori and Knightmare were curious about the early morning excitement, but paused for a picture, and some loving.

Casper, the steer, Oscar, the billy

The boys also came out to see what was going on.

Back in the house, settled, and calm. Husband and Bigs long gone for the day, Littles still sleeping, all is quiet.

Until another source of evil decides to play with the dinky cars lined up on the back of the couch, thumping them onto the floor. Thanks, Lucky. That helps.

Must be something in the air today.

Stretching the Season

2012-02-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

Since I still haven't found my garden journals, I started making some new notes. I live in North Eastern Ontario, in a 2a growing zone. Frost free range for 2012- June 8th to September 6th (89 day growing season). It's a short season. In order to harvest what I plant, I try to stretch the season as much as I can.

My seed packets give the following guidelines.
Peppers- 70-75 days to harvest. Start indoors mid Feb to late March/10-12 weeks before required for garden. Transplant late May.
Tomatoes- Days to maturity 65-76. Sow seeds indoors 6-10 weeks before last frost.
Broccoli- 70 days to harvest. Sow indoors 6-8 weeks before transplanting outside.

Brussels Sprouts- 90 days to harvest. Start indoors 4-5 weeks before last frost.
Cabbage- 65-68 days to harvest. Best started indoors 4-5 weeks early.
Cucumbers- 67 days to harvest. Indoors 3-4 weeks before setting out in garden, or direct sow outdoors.
Pumpkins- 75-110 days to harvest. Sow seeds outdoors late May/June. Indoors 3 weeks early.
Squash- 80-90 days to harvest. Sow outdoors late May/June. Indoors 3 weeks early.

Parsnip- 105 days to harvest. Sow mid to late spring.

Now, I'm pretty sure the seed packets all pretty much say the same thing, and it's up to us to adjust for our individual climates. Like if you live far enough south, you grow brussels sprouts and cabbage in the winter, and if you live far enough north, you start your seeds much earlier.

I'm also pretty sure that the seed packets assume that after that last frost, you enter into warm spring weather, followed by some heat in the summer. And while that does happen from time to time (last year was amazing!), our normal summer weather is more like other folks' spring. Lots of rain, with average temps in the mid 20s. (Celsius). Which for me means slower growing plants and more time needed to ripen. On top of that, our springs tend to be hot and dry (necessary to melt all that snow), which kind of stunts the early garden growth.

And, finally, when they say '65 days to harvest', they don't actually mean '65 days until you should be rolling in the veggies'. They mean something more like '65 days til the first fruits start to ripen'. Which means that I'm often just starting to see my plants start producing when frost warnings start coming.

19 weeks before frost free- Jan 27th (222 day growing season)
This is when I started my tomatoes in 2010, which were just starting to ripen when we got frost. I'm sticking with this date because I now have the greenhouse to help them along. Also started my peppers this week in 2012.
16 weeks before frost free- Feb 17th ( 201 day growing season)
This is when I would normally start my peppers. I'm going a little earlier this year, hoping for bigger, and more peppers. Which means I have nothing planned for February. Which means I will probably start something I didn't plan, because I'll be itching to play with dirt. So maybe I'll plant a little herb garden, along with some salad greens. We'll see.
10 weeks before frost free- May 30th (159 day growing season)
Seed packets- Peppers (75). Planning to start the broccoli here. Almost 4 weeks earlier than last year. Only planning to put 4 or 5 in the greenhouse this year. The rest will be put out in the garden, and while most did mature last year, I don't want to trick myself into believing we'll have two beautiful summers in a row.
8 weeks before frost free- April 13th (145 day growing season)
Seed packets- broccoli (70), tomatoes (76).

7 weeks before frost free- April 20th (138 day growing season)
When I plan to start 1st batch of cucumbers, because 2012 is the YEAR OF THE CUKE!, brussels sprouts, cabbage.
5 weeks before frost free- May 4th (124 day growing season)
When I plan to start squash, pumpkins and 2nd batch of cucumbers. Seed packets- Brussels Sprouts (90), Cabbage (68). They might make it if I started them here. I might start some greens, beets, mangels, to transplant. Maybe a few of everything I would normally direct sow, just to see how it goes. Depends how busy I am in getting the garden ready to plant.
3 weeks before frost free- May 18th (110 day growing season)
Seed packets- Squash (90), Pumpkins (110), Cucumbers(67). They'd barely be producing when fall frosts hit, IF we got the summer heat. Not soon enough!
I'll probably be direct sowing/transplanting into the greenhouse here- lettuce, chard, onions, as well as starting peas and beets outside.
Frost free-June 8th (89 day growing season)
The rush is on to get everything else into the garden. Carrots, potatoes, beans, kale, kohlrabi, radishes, rutabaga, spinach, turnip, and onions, along with all of the transplants.

So that's my plan so far.

Seedlings

2012-02-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

More peppers have sprouted!

I have been watching The Edible Garden, another British infodocreality show. Why is it that they have so many useful and interesting shows on, while we are flooded with all of those crappy idols, x's, nexts, and such? At any rate...

She starts a million seedlings for her little garden, including lettuces and such, to optimize her minimal space. Space isn't my issue. Weather is. The one time I tried growing lettuce inside it bolted very quickly. However, I am re-inspired. I'm going to try starting it in the sunroom, and then once the sunroom starts getting warmer in the spring, I'll try moving it into the living room, which mostly only catches the morning sun. Maybe, if I'm lucky, I'll have a nice salad or two, grown at home, before August.

Some Winter Pics for my Southern Friends

2012-02-03T17:10:00.000-05:00

Who've forgotten what snow looks like. A balmy -7°C today. High of -4°C is forecast for the week, and a low of -14°C.

The view from the end of the drive, facing the road. This pic is roughly the same spot, less than two months ago.

The front yard, aka the flower bed, from the driveway. The little branches sticking up out of the snow are my lilacs.

Care to go for a drive?

This is my camouflage pick up- the one we use for firewood and manure. It takes a winter break every year.

Want to play on the swings?

Don't forget the shovel!

Here's our sunroom wood pile. It looks pretty full still, because the fall was pretty mild, and we weren't burning much before the snow and colder temperatures. The front row is frozen in place. If you can see in behind, there's a lovely little firewood fort the kids have created by crawling in over top of the front row to get wood.

And here's the basement wood shed. There will be some work getting this refilled this summer. A little less than half gone, so far. The milder temps mean more moisture in the air, which feels colder.

Looking toward the pasture drive, and into the pasture, from the road.

Nelly, up to her knees by the goat fence, Mindy at the corner. This is 'just off the beaten path', where the critters have been milling about, packing the snow down.

Ice hanging off the house. We have to knock it down several times a year,
because the weight of it damages the eaves and edges.

Ready to start gardening and raising turkeys?

Maybe I'll just knock the snow off the roofs of the greenhouse. (Weight, again).

And go inside, and dream of spring.

Tomato seedlings are cruising right along.

Welcome to my winter wonderland. I don't care if Willy saw the sun. There's no way that's all going to melt in less than six weeks. And milder temps always mean MORE SNOW. So I will continue in my life as a hermit. It'll be gone by May, right?

Tomato Sprouts

2012-02-01T14:27:00.000-05:00

Well, aren't we in a hurry!

Yesterday I discovered most of the tomato seed saved from last year's plants was sprouted. This morning the last couple were up as well. 7 days and 100% germination. A couple of the San Marzano are up as well, but most of the older, purchased seed is still sleeping.

Cheese Challenge

2012-01-30T08:10:00.000-05:00

Another Year Without Groceries has set up a cheese challenge for 2012, making home made cheese.

I'm not sure why, with all of the odd ball old fashioned stuff I do, why oh why, are cheese and soap making such difficult concepts for me. It's like everybody's doing it, and I can't wrap my head around it. Like it's just some difficult foreign process that requires more prep and and consideration than I'm willing to devote to it.

Well, that needs to change.

So, here I go, following her blog. Sounds simple enough. Is it too simple? Is that the problem? Am I just not willing to believe that something so good could be so simple?

I'm perusing a couple of books and a kit from amazon. I've downloaded the complete book of cheese for kindle (free, public domain).

The January challenge- Nothing but Curdled Milk
Paneer
Ricotta
Yogurt Cheese
Buttermilk Cheese
Queso Blanco

I did the Queso Blanco, cause it seemed the easiest. I don't have a cheese press, so I just squeezed the excess whey out through the cheesecloth as best I could.

It actually turned out quite solid, which surprised me. On it's own, with crackers, I found it quite salty. I used about half of it to make a batch of cheese buns. They tasted great, but you couldn't see the cheese in them like a cheddar cheese bun. It just kind of melted into the dough, but there was still a faint cheesey flavour to them.

Bread

2012-01-29T09:39:00.000-05:00

I guess I got a little lazy when we were buying all of that store bought bread. Out of the habit of baking everyday, combined with everyone here wanting just one more slice, or one more sandwich, to enjoy this great bread, it shouldn't have come as any great shock that there was NO BREAD in the house yesterday morning to pack Husband's lunch for work. Oops. He left with a double serving of banana bread, some cheese and crackers. Grumbling.

I rectified the situation with a triple batch yesterday. This is Grandmother Bread, and absolutely delicious!

Washing with Lye

2012-01-26T06:00:00.002-05:00

For a few years now I've been planning to make some lye soap. When I first read about it in an old timer's book, it seemed like a fairly simple plan. I just needed to build this contraption to catch the lye.

The plan was to build a large wooden box to dump the wood stove ashes into. Then it would be connected to a drain board connected to a bucket. Dump the ashes in all winter. Let it snow, let it rain, water it down, collect the lye.

And then make soap. But the whole process was sounding rather time consuming, smelly, and somewhat dangerous. I left it to simmer in my head. TShadn'tHTFyet so, no rush.

And then I watched Tales From The Green Valley, a British documentary of life on a 17th century farm. And they got a might dirty over their year on that farm. And they had to do laundry down at the creek. And they made themselves a batch of lye to wash that laundry with.

And they didn't make soap. They poured the lye directly over the laundry, then beat it clean.

Well, that's easy enough, isn't it? I could do that. Well, I'll let the washing machine do the 'beating', but I could make lye for laundry.

I started with two 4L ice cream buckets. They stack, and the plastic ridges hold the inner bucket an inch or so higher than the outside bucket. I poked holes through the bottom of the inside bucket to allow the lye water drain. I put in a coffee filter, and wood ash. Added about 4 inches of water and waited impatiently.

It took forever to drain. In my second attempt I removed the coffee filter. Very little ash leaks through and it drains faster. It seems to work best if I leave it to drain overnight though.

The lye water seems more potent. The first load of laundry I tried needed to be rewashed. The second load was ok. But laundry after leaving the lye to drain overnight turns out quite nice. I was also pleasantly surprised by the smell- almost like that fresh air scent from line drying. A pleasant surprise in the winter.

Further research reveals that pine ash is not recommended, and soft water is. I have pine and poplar ash and hard water, which could be why my results aren't great.

I think I'll be sticking to store bought soap for town clothes, but the lye water will be fine for farm clothes. Time will tell, too, I'm sure. If things don't seem to be getting clean after a few washes, I'll reassess.

Tomato Day

2012-01-25T18:59:00.000-05:00

It's tomato day! Last year I didn't start them until Feb 8th, and then suffered major losses in my rush to get them out to the greenhouse. I ended up buying tomato plants.

In 2010 I started tomatoes on January 25th. I had to transplant them 3 or 4 times, and they were huge when they finally went in the garden. They were still mostly green when we were hit by frost.

So, even though 2012 is the Year of the Cuke!, I am looking forward to canning a ton of tomato sauce, tomato juice, tomato soup and catsup. It might be overzealous, but I want lots of big red juicy tomatoes along with the cucumbers.

Today I planted saved seed from last year. I'm still waiting for this year's order to arrive.

I started 8 jiffy discs with San Marzano tomatoes (2010 seed), 4 Starfire Improved (2009 seed), 4 Sweetie (cherry) tomatoes (2008 seed), and 12 with my saved seed from my 2011 tomatoes. (I don't sort or separate my seeds. All the tomatoes I saved seed from, from different plants, went in the same tub.)

Then, since I had everything out, and I have my pepper seeds (you know, the ones I said I didn't want to waste greenhouse space on this year?) I started 4 California Wonder (2010 seed), 20 Salsa Pepper- Annaheim (new for 2012), and 8 Jalapeno (also 2012).

I don't usually start peppers quite this early, but I figured it couldn't hurt. I haven't had a good pepper year yet. Surprise, surprise, oh Canada! lol.

Then husband asks, what's next? Um... Oh boy. Where did I leave my garden journal from 2010? I'm going to have to do some digging. My notes from last year are all pretty much irrelevant, since I started everything in the greenhouse, and then restarted and restarted after various losses. All I can remember from 2010 is that the sunroom was a jungle, and I started the pumpkins and cukes way too early (they were flowering in the house!)

But there you have it. The 2012 gardening season has officially started in the great white north. :)

Eggs and Baking

2012-01-22T17:57:00.001-05:00

The chickens are down to about two eggs a day, although we're still occasionally picking up a turkey egg, which are about the size of a double yolker, and have a thicker shell, and tougher membrane than the chicken eggs. We also got one goose egg. Yeah! We know there's at least one female goose! Hopefully one of the others is male and she likes him! But I digress...

I used one of my batches of frozen eggs up during the christmas baking frenzy. I just pulled the second one out of the freezer to defrost yesterday.

They're still kind of slushy here, but you can see I just scoop out a yolk, and the white comes with it. They don't last as long in the fridge as I had hoped they would, so I lost a few from the first batch. I'll be baking up a storm in the next couple of days to try to use this batch up without any going bad. Next year, smaller batches.

Blue cookies

My first attempts to bake with more of our free foraged fruit (raspberries and blueberries) were both wonderfully successful. I made a batch of banana bread, but replaced half the sugar with raspberry sauce. They devoured it in no time. I've made both raspberry and blueberry bread before, but without the banana it comes out very dry. Most blueberry cookie recipes don't work for me because they expect you to be using whole blueberries. My blueberry sauce is more like a heavy syrop or a runny jam. Somewhat similar to pumpkin puree. Hmmm... The pumpkin cookies were a hit, why not try it with blueberries?

I left out the cinnamon and nutmeg, and cut the sugar due to the blueberry sauce already being sweetened. I debated the chocolate chips, but threw them in in the end. Yum!

Before replacing my yeast I had started reading a bunch of web pages and recipes for sourdough bread. One of them said to bake buns in muffin tins. Who'd have thought that would make such a difference. These aren't sour dough buns, but I tried the muffin tins, and I'm happy to say they did make a big difference in the shape! They're a little narrow at the bottom, but still, the best batch of buns I've ever made. I'll be keeping my eyes open for extra large muffin tins at the thrift stores. I think they'll make some great kaiser size rolls!

Winter Food

2012-01-19T18:31:00.000-05:00

After yapping about the garden and the harvest all year, I thought it might be interesting to write a little foodie post here in the great white north.

I haven't been out to a grocery store yet this year. lol. Not a huge accomplishment, we're only three weeks in. However, I don't do a lot of grocery store shopping in the small towns at all, and I haven't been to the city since November.

I was buying a lot of bread! Yes, bread, of all things. Husband was picking it up on the way home from work, parents were picking it up for me, and I even bought a few loaves at our little store. I was still baking lots of bread, but no one wanted to eat it, least of all me. I tried a bunch of different recipes, but I was getting nowhere. It was all so disgusting, heavy, and smelled like beer when sliced open. I finally gave up, and asked my dad to pick me up some new yeast. That was definitely the problem. We're back to light, fluffy, yummy, fresh baked bread. Now when I think about how much money I wasted on store bought bread while trying to convince myself that that jar of expensive yeast was fine... Yeash. Should definitely have replaced the yeast sooner.

Vegetation wise, my few trips to the store since fall have yielded a few stocks of celery, which for some reason are hard for me to resist in the winter. Maybe it's the crunch? Celery is one of my favourite snack foods. I'm up to three bags of frozen corn, because you can only eat so much turkey before you go on a corn rampage apparently. And of course, I never leave a store without a bunch of mushrooms. Do they actually count as a veggie? Packed with Vitamin D, mushrooms are one of my best friends throughout the winter.

Otherwise on the veggie front, we're getting low on carrots. We had some spoilage this year, I think due to that lovely weather we had in the fall, keeping the cold room warmer than usual. Beans and beets are the everyday go to veggies, pretty much alternating every third day. The bean supply is getting slimmer, but not done yet. Broccoli is gone, gone, gone. A few turnips left, and still two pumpkins. Finished our first ten pound bag of onions. Onions are starting to get soft and grow, so I'm not too sure how much longer the second bag will last. I'm into my third (and last) 50 pound bag of potatoes. I'll need to make a trip to the potato man soon to replenish my stock. I nearly forgot about the tomatoes, so I've just started using them up.

In the meat department, eating a few turkeys certainly helps to clear out some freezer space! I'm actually pleasantly surprised with the reception the turkey is still getting around here. No complaints from the boys, despite turkey sandwiches and days of leftovers. Lots of roast beef, a bit of corned beef, and a fair bit of steak is gone, but still over half remains. I am starting to dig for pork, which is kind of funny, considering how I avoided it for so long. We will definitely be ready for new piglets this year. The bit of pork we're eating is now a rare treat. The bear has hardly been touched, on account of it all being in the garage freezer. I do have room now to start shuffling some things around and bringing more variety closer for convenience. A warmer day would be encouraging to get my arse in motion.

Fruit is crazy. I think the boys are losing their sweet teeth as well. They've eaten 1 jar of pears, and a few jars of jam. My fruit shelves are still packed. The apple supply has dwindled significantly, and they devoured a big pot of applesauce after I did my midwinter apple sort, removing apples with bad spots from the boxes. Perhaps it's just that the pumpkin treats have been sufficiently satisfying. At any rate, I will be trying to stuff more fruit into baked treats for the rest of the winter. Blueberry sauce cookies anyone?

Reasons to head out to the grocery store... We are getting low on rice, dried beans and pasta. Pasta sauce has also taken a hit, and baking supplies (powder, soda, chocolate chips, and sugar) are at an all time low.

All in all, I'm quite pleased with our harvest from last year, and looking forward to doing it all over again this year. It's definitely been our most self sustained year yet!

Seed Orders

2012-01-15T18:47:00.000-05:00

I started writing this a bit ago, before the computer crash...

Another blog posted this Online Canadian seed catalogue listing the other day. A little early, but I just can't help myself. It is January, after all. I'll be starting tomatoes soon!

My choices this year:
Boughen Nurseries, hardy plants for zones 1-3. I ordered 3 Siberian pear trees, and 3 seedling plums. If these do well for me, I'll be buying many more fruit trees from them in the future!

OSC Seeds gets the majority of my order, due to their stock of forage seeds for the pasture, and lower prices on vegetable seeds.

Prairie Garden Seeds, with their selection of grains and heritage seeds get the rest.

I spent more online for seeds than I ever have in the past. A lot more. However, I ordered EVERYTHING online this year, which I have never done before. I usually shop online for some oddball stuff to try, seeds that are hard to find locally, and heritage plants that I'll be saving seeds from for the future. Then I pick up a little of this here, and a little of that there, as long as the garden stores are open. I can't honestly say how much I usually end up spending in total, but I am a bit shell shocked at what I just spent.

New to my garden this year will be eggplant, kale and kohlrabi. Recipes welcome. I've never eaten any of them.

And Today...

My first order has arrived from OSC! I am getting the itch!

Need tomatoes... They're coming from Prairie Garden Seeds. Must be patient...

So not gonna happen...

2012-01-15T15:14:00.000-05:00

The only thing that appears to work in any of them are the fans. Crap. Most of the parts are not interchangeable due to planned obsolescence. Crap.

On a positive note, I can now, mostly, see what I'm typing.

Computer Crash

2012-01-12T05:54:00.000-05:00

My computer bit the bullet this week. It's actually the third time my computer has died. Husband has rebuilt it with pieces from other dead computers. This time it doesn't look hopeful. It looks like my hard drive is kaput. Over ten years of info on that thing. And when was the last time I did a backup? Hmmm. The last time it died? 4 years ago ish. Crap.

Posting this from the kids' computer. Won't be doing much of that for awhile. I can't figure out the settings on it. My eyes are going squirrelly. Husband's computer is worse. He has it set to microscopic- and he likes it that way.

So, no worries, I'm still alive and well. Just very, very quiet.

The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker...

2012-01-04T13:17:00.001-05:00

Usually I am well prepared for temporary power outages. But the other day, the power went out first thing in the morning. We had just gotten up, lit the fires, and made a pot of coffee. Two hours 'til daylight. -32°C outside. Brrr. And that was it. Lights out.

Normally I have an assortment of candles sitting out on the hutch in the living room, one in the bathroom, a couple in the kitchen, and one in my room. I know where they are, easily accessible, not too much stumbling around in the dark.

But... The candle in my room disappeared somewhere in the pre christmas chaos. The candle in the bathroom disappeared somewhere. Haven't figured that one out yet. One of the kitchen candles was burned down beyond use last time, and I hadn't replaced it. And my hutch? Well... We set up the little tree this year, on account of a chewing puppy, and I cleared the hutch off to place the tree. And in my pre holiday hum bug, where exactly did I dump all of that stuff? Yeash. Stumbling in the dark.

I love candles. Always have. Like moths to a flame. I love the colours, the warmth, the wet wax pooling up and running away. I told husband not long ago that I should learn how to make candles so that I could be 'the butcher, the baker, the candle stick maker'. lol. And then, one of the blogs I follow posted about making new candles from old candle wax. And then the power went out.

So, after I found the candles, while we sat at the kitchen table playing chess and battleship, warmed by the heat of the wood stoves, I watched the pools of wet wax grow and spread and harden. I kept thinking to myself, I wish I had printed that blog post. I got an empty jar and started collecting the used wax as it dripped away. By the time the hydro came back on I had quite a bit of wax collected. I also trimmed off the uneven tops of some large candles, and emptied the tiny bits at the bottom of some almost finished candles. Then I went in search of that blog post. And I could not find it. I wish I could give credit where credit is due, but I'm at a loss.

Instead, I googled candle making and found a variety of different perspectives. Most of them agreed that the wax should be melted in a double boiler. I used an old pot full of water and inserted my collecting jar and a candle in a jar that had drowned itself long ago. I heated it gently on low heat, the wax melted fine, no broken jars or explosions.

My wicks are just thick cotton string, twice dipped in the melted wax with a plastic fork, and then laid out to harden. For one candle I reused the little metal bit from an old candle, the other I just held in place with a bit of wax, let that harden, then continued pouring. I used a pencil to hold the wicks somewhat centered in the jars. More wax was needed as the wax cooled and hardened and left a dip in the center.

Both candles burn fine and bright. The thicker one doesn't melt evenly, so I'm now searching for thinner jars and glasses for future use. They're self drowning candles in the jars, so I poured the wax off periodically into my collecting jar as well. Then I thought, why not make new candles while the old candles burn? I had a little shot glass, and enough wick trimmed off from the first jars to fill it. I poured the wax off the melting candle directly into the shot glass around the wick, making a third candle. With a few prepared wicks and enough empty jars I could keep myself supplied with candles for future power outages during power outages.

How cool is that?

Other notes on being prepared...

-Lots of board games, cards, books, etc. Zero boredom, short term.
-Short on snow this year. We didn't need to melt any for this short power outage, however we'd be hard pressed to find enough clean snow to last 2-3 days this year. The creek is not frozen, nor the spring, but hauling water from either requires better planning. I need to look into collecting better large jugs, and a sturdy, lightweight sleigh to haul it with.
-Tea pot. I have a lovely little cast iron kettle on the wood stove all the time, to add moisture to the air. However, it's rusting on the inside. Unappealing for tea. Of course, any pot would technically work to heat water for tea, but I'd really like a large stainless steel kettle.
-Breakfast. I haven't really considered wood stove breakfasts before. Low on eggs and bread,breakfast was a couple of apples each. I know I can cook any one pot meal I might need for supper on the wood stove (roast, stew, soup, etc), but I need to pay more attention to simple meals for breakfast and lunch, especially in the event of a long term power outage, or come up with some other cooking methods. The sun room wood stove has a small surface area, allowing for only one pot or frying pan at a time.

It's good to have the power go out at odd hours. Helps jog the brain for future preparedness.

Harvest 2011

2012-01-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

Time to remove the little gidget in the side bar. The year is over, this is what we harvested, foraged, and gleaned.

Asparagus (spears) 22
Bear - doggie stew- 18
Bear - roasts - 3
Bear - Steaks - 3
Bear - Stew - 4
Beef - Corned - (meals) 7
Beef - doggie stew - 22
Beef - Ribs - (meals) 3
Beef - roast - 32
Beef - Steaks- 10 (meals) + 2
Beef - stew - 16
Beef - tenderloin- 2
Beef Stock- 50 cubes
Beef- tallow- 7 pints
Beets - Pickled - (quarts) 21
Broccoli (half side dish) 16 frozen + 3 fresh
Brussel Sprouts (stew servings) 5
Carrots 4 gallons
Cauliflower 5 heads
Chicken 3
Cucumber 3
Dandelion Greens (meals) 60
Eggs (approximate) 2490
Fish (meals) 5
Green Beans (meals) 48 frozen + 18 fresh
Green Pepper 3
Jam (pints) 23
Partridge - #2 - 1.5
Partridge - husband - 9.5
Partridge -me -17
Potatoes 5 lbs
Pumpkins/Squash - (chicken feed only) 12
Rabbits - 2
Rhubarb (bunch) 5
Swiss Chard (meals) 10
Tomatoes 17 gallons - 18 frozen meals
Turkeys 10
Turnip 2 gallons

2012 plans...

Garden

No plans to increase the size in 2012. After finally getting it fenced in 2011, the goal is simply to keep the critters out, fertilize the soil with lots of good manure and compost, and keep the weeds manageable. If the three lonely strawberries come up early enough in the spring, they'll be transplanted to the 'flower bed'. Otherwise they'll be plowed under this year. That'll add about another 8 feet of workable space inside the fenced in area. Previous owner had a couple of feet of grass between the garden and the black currant bushes. We fenced on the far side of the black currants. This space, and the mostly empty strawberry patch have been sitting dormant.

Asparagus- I will buy more crowns, and possibly more seed. The existing asparagus patch is mostly between the garden fence and the rock wall now. Plants I started from seed are in the 'flower bed', and this will be their third year, or their first harvest year. The seed plants are very thin though. I left the garden ones til year 4 to start harvesting. I want to add some asparagus to the forest garden area.

More carrots, pumpkins, squash, and swiss chard. No cauliflower (I's affeared of them worms, lol). Corn. In the greenhouse. Hopefully.

Cucumbers. 2012 will be the year of the cuke. They're getting a whole greenhouse.

And with any luck, we'll see greenhouse three and four spring up. Although, I am considering building them outside of the garden fence. Maybe along the treeline, past the raspberry patch.

Meat

No more rabbits. The boys used to like rabbit, but not so much anymore. In 2010 we raised a couple of litters with little cost and little effort. In 2011 I only bought three bucks, because that's what happened to be available at a price I was willing to pay at the time. We lost 1 of them. We put two bags of feed into the other two. They were already butcher size when I bought them, but we never got around to it. We don't over winter rabbits, so we'd be looking at buying new stock every year. The rabbitry just isn't warm enough to keep them overwinter without adding hours of labour everyday just to keep them watered. All in all, an expensive and unsustainable practice. And then, when I cooked a rabbit a couple of weeks ago, the boys informed me they no longer particularly care for it. Well, that's done then. No more rabbits.

Beef. Casper for the freezer. Another bottle calf for either 2013 beef or bull. The boys are working on leading Toothless, and so far it looks like he might turn out as gentle and cooperative as Nelly. Which means we'd be able to keep him until he has breeding age daughters. Researching, registering, buying ear tags. If we get our three possible calves this spring, we'll be tagging for the first time, with the possibility of selling our beef in the future. They're required to be tagged to leave the farm (sale or slaughter).

Turkeys and/or Chickens. Debating with myself. We have two toms and three hens. They're all doing well. We're pretty sure at least one of the hens is laying. We find a large speckled egg about once a week. Always on the floor. One of the hens was accidentally left outside one night. We found her in the morning, burrowed into the snow, no worse for wear, at -38°C. Definitely hardier than chickens. If they go broody in the spring and hatch some eggs, we'll have turkeys for the freezer in the fall. If they don't go broody, then we'll have five for the freezer in the fall. Assuming, of course, that the wildlife stays away.

The chickens, on the other hand, I have neglected the butchering for the second year in a row. We've had a lot of losses to wild life. Better in 2011, but still pretty bad. My heart's not really in the butchering. It's a lot of work for one or two meals, especially when it only takes a few minutes more to butcher a turkey, which is easily 4 meals or more.

I ended up with 10 turkeys in the freezer. Easily 40 meals. I butchered 3 chickens. Maybe 6 meals at best. I spent about the same on feed for each. So, I'm thinking I might not buy chicks this year. I still have chickens to butcher, and they might hatch some chicks on their own. But I'm thinking I might limit my chicken rearing to egg layers.

So I might buy more turkeys this spring after all. The only real concern is that there is a minimum order of 25 birds. Which would give me 30, plus any hatchlings. Which is a lot of turkey.

Pigs. Hoping for a couple of weaners this spring. Maybe another big pig. We'll see what comes up at the auction. I'm ready for pork again.

Milk

I want some. Especially if we buy pigs. I'll wait and see what happens with the girls, if we get calves. We think Nelly would make an easy milker, but of course we haven't tried it yet. I'm considering buying a jersey. In my original milking plans, one friendly, hand milked, all purpose cow made sense. I didn't want 4 gallons of milk twice a day. I was having trouble figuring out what to do with all of the extra milk from the 2 gallons a day Dorie was giving us. But at that time, I wasn't considering feeding excess milk to pigs and birds and dogs. A jersey is sounding pretty sustainable these days.

Happy New Year to you and yours! May the year go well, whatever you're planning!

Snow

2011-12-19T09:51:00.000-05:00

We finally got some snow! It's been a strange winter so far, with just a dusting. But this morning we woke up to find a good 6 inches in the open areas, and drifts of over a foot in spots. It should be a white Solstice after all!

Cows were not as impressed with this change in the weather as I was though. Poor things will have to walk all the way over

to the round bales to eat. And that's at least 20 feet. Knightmare and Oscar weren't too disappointed about everyone else hiding in the barn though. They seemed to be rather enjoying their breakfast in peace.

We've gone through all of our square bales already, and bought two more loads as well. It was time to bring in some round bales. They aren't as nutritious as the square bales, but they certainly last longer. It keeps all the critters from milling about around the gate first thing in the morning complaining that they're hungry, too. So now we're feeding a mix of squares and round bales. We haven't fed any grain yet this winter, and everyone seems to be maintaining their weight so far.

In other news, #2 has been working on snow removal with Grandpa. He's learning the art of tractor driving and using the bucket.

We butchered two more roosters- weights are looking much better now. I couldn't find my scale, so I don't have an exact measurement for these, but it was definitely worth the wait. They're a nice meal size now. Although, Husband dished out the meat for supper, giving the boys each just a tiny sliver. He was confused by the single plate of meat. Me thinks we've been spoiled by those huge turkeys! The roosters are big enough now to feed my brood, but there wasn't much in the way of leftovers. We'll get one skimpy chicken rice casserole, but that's all. Which means I have to cook again tomorrow. Ble...

The logging company has been working on the crown land behind our property this week. So far we've seen lots of equipment go in, and two tractor trailer loads of logs come out. Husband took a drive back to see where they were at. It's way out there, past the creek at moose camp. They've put a temporary bridge in. Which means we won't have access to the scraps they leave behind in the spring.

We went to the Santa Claus Parade the other night. It doesn't seem to matter how many of these things we attend, or where we watch from, my children are always on the opposite side of me. That's #2's backside on the far left. It was -13°C, so the marching band was reduced to drums. He was disappointed he didn't get to play his baritone. I was happy he didn't come home with it frozen to his face.

The Littles were happy to attend. It was the first small town parade we've been to in years. Every business in town seemed to be well represented with free gifts for the public- pens, construction paper, teddy bears, Santa hats, and candy. Wow, I can not believe the candy. #3 said it was better than Hallowe'en. Just as much candy, and all he had to do was stand there. It was pretty funny when a float with little ones was going by, and one little girl cried out 'We have to give the candy away!' as she tossed a bag towards us. Too cute.

#2 made the basketball team at school. They played in their first tournament last week, and won both games. Their first home game is on Wednesday. I'm hoping we get to go and watch. Husband's been stealing my car to go to work (4 wheel drive), and we won't all fit in the truck. Hopefully the weather will be good so he can take the truck to work.

We've got a new system in place this year to tell us when the buses are cancelled. The radio stations around here don't seem to be aware that some of us are up at crazy hours to get ready for school. The Bigs' bus comes at 7:03. The radio stations announce cancellations at 7:15 or later. Last year I'd go out and tell #1 to come back inside after he waited out in the cold all that time. This year, #2 has made friends with the bus driver's son. He comes downstairs in the morning and tells me whether the buses are cancelled or not. Texting does have it's uses.

I've been spending many of these cold winter days curled up with a good... kindle. My other present arrived early, and Husband never makes me wait. I don't think he likes to wrap, lol. It's just the standard, original version. No fancy Kindle fire available up here, north of the border. But I love it. Much more than I thought I would, actually. In the past I haven't bought very many new books. It's always cheaper to buy from thrift stores or used book stores, and there aren't a lot of books that I couldn't wait to find a used copy of.

We bought the first kindle for #1 in September. Finding large print books for him has always been a pain, and finding a copy to use at the same time as his class was even more so. I read most of his books to him last year. When he came home with Stephen King this year- well that was it. I am NOT reading that. (I read about 3/4 of The Shining when I was a teen and have avoided Stephen King ever since. He terrifies me). So we bought him the fancier kindle, with audio book and text to speech capabilities. It's been working out really well for him. I downloaded a couple hundred classics for him (free public domain titles), as well as the books he's needed for school. And when he wasn't using it, I borrowed his kindle a few times.

So I kind of wanted one of my own, but I thought I wouldn't use it that much, because I'm unlikely to start selling off my kids to start paying for new books. But present day was coming, and Husband likes his shopping made easy. So he talked me into it.

The kindle arrived, and I set it up on the same account, which let me download all of #1's books for free. Then I added a bunch more classics to my list. I had just finished one of those when a friend from highschool mentioned that she was pleasantly surprised with her book club's choice. I got the title from her and looked it up.

30 Pieces of Silver by Carolyn McCray

The reviews sounded interesting, and the price was right, so I bought it. And I really liked it. It was very detailed, fast paced, hard to put down. And it introduced me to the world of Indie publishing. Or independent publishing. Or self publishing. Almost as good as public domain books, there are a ton of books available from new authors for as little as 99¢.

So, while I'm still unlikely to ever keep up with the New York Times best sellers list, I have a variety of reading material at great prices available at my finger tips at all times!

My First Full Canner

2011-12-13T17:39:00.000-05:00

Turkey Noodle Soup

About 4 Cups leftover turkey, diced.
6 medium potatoes, cubed
4 large carrots, sliced
2 Cups broccoli, frozen
1 package fusili, 900g
Enough turkey stock to cover.

I heated it up to defrost the broccoli, then jarred it up. 10 pints, processing now, for 75 minutes, aiming for 10 PSI, but currently well above....

I made enough soup for another 5 or 6 jars, but that will be part of supper. I know, I know, you're not supposed to can noodles. But these are intended to be quick and easy lunches for Husband, so I have to give it a try. He won't add his own noodles later. He normally just opens a can, pours it in a bowl, and pops it in the microwave. Gross.

It looks like I'll need to start force feeding people canned goods if I want to keep playing with my canner. Either that, or buy more jars.

Hard at School

2011-12-13T09:35:00.000-05:00

The Littles amuse me. I couldn't help but snap a couple of pics of them this morning. We've been having trouble getting started and organized this year, with extra chores and distractions. We're not often all ready to work at the same time.

Time to change things up a bit.

As soon as they got up this morning, before they could hit the computers or tv, I redirected them to get their school books out. I was still having my morning tea and computer time. Easier to give up than when I'm trying to bake, or cook, or headed to the feed store. They were eager to get down to business too, so they could play before chores.

#3 plopped himself in front of a stool. Home made desk.

#4 landed on the couch. Notice the window? It's still dark outside.

It took them less than an hour, and now they have the whole day to enjoy.

Right now #3 is working on Math Basics 5 (Walmart), Cars reading comprehension (Dollarama), and Learning Horizons Third Grade Language (Dollarama- but I haven't seen them there for a few years). #4 is working on Singapore math, primary 1A (ordered online) and just finishing up Learning Horizons Kindergarten Language (Dollarama).

#3 is reading Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. He's been doing well with novels and reading in his spare time since early summer. He also has an annoying habit of reading over my shoulder.

#4 and I are working through Dick and Jane. Again. He's still having a hard time. I think the issue is more with him NOT looking at the words than his abilities. I sound them out and he says them, but he's often looking at the pictures, or what the dogs are doing, or his belly button. And then he can't read on his own. It might have a bit to do with him being the baby too. "But I can't read!" has served him well over the years. Without the Bigs at home, he gets more individual attention from mom, but he doesn't have so many people close by to just tell him what he wants to know RIGHT NOW. We're working on it.

Beef and Turkey Stock

2011-12-12T12:13:00.000-05:00

I found this processing times and pressures chart the other day. Perfect.

Turkey soup got put on hold, as I need to make a batch of turkey stock first.

I usually use chicken soup base powder or bouillon cubes when I make chicken or turkey soup. I made a batch of chicken stock once, a few years ago, with the chicken feet. It did not impress me. It was very fatty, and not very flavourful. I froze it, and then tried to figure out what to do with it. I don't cook much with chicken stock. I didn't like it in soup. I think there might still be a jar at the back of the freezer above the fridge. I should probably throw that out.

I had much better luck with my beef stock. Did I post that? Oops. Doesn't look like it.

I made beef stock from Steaks' neck and leg bones. I saved another batch of bones to do another batch of stock later. Mostly following the instructions here, but I read over a few different methods before I started. I think the big difference between my methods and most other peoples, is the quantity. The instructions there said 3 hours minimum, 6 to 8 if you can do it. I had my big stock pot (came with my propane cooker for roasting turkeys, bigger than a 5 gallon pail) over half full of bones, meat and veggies, with water to cover. At 3 hours nothing seemed to be happening. At 8 hours, the meat was just starting to fall off the bones. I ended up letting it simmer for two days before I strained it and started reducing. Then I froze it in ice cube trays. 2 cubes is plenty to flavor gravy or a big pot of stew. I like it.

So today I am making turkey stock. I'm using the big stock pot again, with the entire turkey carcass. I didn't roast the bones, since I roasted the turkey yesterday. All of the bones, skin, fat, cartilage, and a generous handful of meat. Lots of carrots and onions, the last bit of celery ends I had in the freezer, half of a green tomato, sage, rosemary, thyme, a bay leaf, and 5 cloves of garlic. The smell is already starting to make me hungry.

Now I'm debating. Should I pressure can the stock? (less reducing) Or freeze it in ice cube trays like the beef stock? (less storage space) Of course, I'll have to wait and see how much is left after I make turkey soup tomorrow.

Funny Looking Chickens

2011-12-12T08:28:00.000-05:00

I took a bin of sprouted bird seed out to the chicken pen yesterday. The turkeys were happy to see me.

It seems that we managed to luck out and not butcher two toms and three hens. We're still letting them out every day. They seem to like the extra space and fresh air, despite the cold. I'm leaning more toward keeping them to breed next year. They've reached a formidable size. I have plans to increase security in the turkey pen this spring. With a little luck, it could work.

The geese are also fans of winter outdoors. Goose always did like to have a snow bath. Keeping clean is more important to them than a little bit of a chill. The geese made short work of my seed tray. Unlike a chicken, which will cackle in delight when they find something tasty and attract a crowd, the geese were pretty quiet as they gulped down the greens. They didn't want to share.

These guys, however, are quite intent to hide inside most of the day. Not even fresh green bird feed would lure them out on this chilly day.

The ducks wander in and out as well, but I didn't get a picture.

And since it was a lovely bright day when I took these pics, and they're still dark, the problem seems to be with my phone. Crap. I cleaned the lens cover, and changed the settings to night. Hopefully that will help.

Beef Stew

2011-12-11T07:30:00.000-05:00

I'm thinking I need to find my real camera for in the house winter pictures. Or wait til noon. Or something. There's just not enough light in my kitchen right now.

Ok, so I read the manufacturer's instruction book and recipes, cover to cover. I scoured the net again. I read blogs and forums and cooking sites.

Near as I can figure, you just need to know the processing time for the 'longest' ingredient. Any recipe will do.

So my second canning adventure, 6 pints of beef stew. Processed at 13lbs (I haven't got the heat/pressure ratio figured out on my stove yet, so I'm erring on the side of more pressure than less) for 1 hour 15 minutes (based completely arbitrarily on a few different recipes, no idea what the processing time for my longest ingredient actually was).

I made a big pot of stew for supper, planning to can the leftovers. Mixed everything in the roasting pan, set the oven for 250°F. About 2 hours in, I'm reading this forum, where another first timer was also asking questions about beef stew, and the experienced canners told him he was going to have jars of mush. Oops. Apparently you can stuff raw. Who knew? lol.

Ok, so I checked out my stew. Potatoes were still hard, and the meat wasn't too far past the defrosting stage. What the heck. I jarred it and started canning.

The end result- there is some mush in the jars. The green beans are looking pretty soggy. But the potatoes, carrots and meat look pretty good. So I think It'll be ok. It has the same orange coloured oily slime around the edges at the top as you see in store bought (one of the reasons I never eat that stuff). We'll see what Husband has to say when he actually eats it.

The one thing that concerns me, is when I opened the canner, after it depressurized, the smell of the stew was REALLY strong. I've never smelled my canned goods through the jars before. Is that normal? They all have good seals and no smell now.

Turkey for supper tonight. Turkey soup to can tomorrow!

Pumpkin Treats and Butter

2011-12-09T08:52:00.000-05:00

Pumpkin Treats. Terrible picture.

Of course, the old standbys- Pumpkin Pie and pumpkin bread. Of the new recipes that interested me, I tried the pumpkin pie squares (yuck. Worse than pumpkin pie. Mouthful of mush. I swear kids and Husband will eat anything. I can't believe they let me put that in my mouth.), pumpkin brownies (nice, but weird. I think I'll add more cocoa in the future), and pumpkin sheet cake (this one I like, moist, fluffy cake, almost like carrot cake or spice loaf. Yummy).

Another crappy picture

And since my Christmas present arrived, I thought I'd try it out by canning something you're not supposed to can... Pumpkin butter. 7 half pints.

I stuck my finger in the leftover pot, and as always, I figure it tastes like a bowl full of sugar. All of my jams, jellies, syrops lately- they all taste like sugar to me. I think my sweet tooth is dieing off in my old age. The kids cleaned the pot out though, so I don't think this stuff will be hanging out in the cold room too long.

I spent a good chunk of the day yesterday scouring the web for canning recipes. I found some interesting things to try, but not quite what I was looking for. My first canning goal with my new pressure canner, is to replace all of those canned soups and stews that husband likes to eat for lunch. I know I saw a blog not that long ago that had the types of recipes I was looking for, but no luck finding it yesterday. I didn't bookmark it at the time, because I had no idea that I would be getting a pressure canner. Crap. Anybody got any good sites to recommend?

Taste Test Two

2011-12-07T06:00:00.001-05:00

Another taste test, after 16 days of corning. The colour is better throughout, though batch one (the back of the plate) is definitely pinker than batch two. It all tastes pretty much the same now. The second batch might be a little milder, but not too noticeably. A little saltier than store bought, but otherwise, definitely worth doing!

5 meals in the freezer, 2 we ate.

Pumpkins

2011-12-06T09:54:00.000-05:00

Cooler weather means more time inside, and less work to do. I finally have time to deal with those 6 pumpkins I bought back in October. Just in time too, it seems. The one on the right had a couple of bad spots that I had to cut off.

Cleaned out and cut up into chunks in my roasting pan. I baked it for about 5 hours at 250°F.

A nice bowl of seeds. Washed, soaked in salt water, then baked below the pupkin for about 20 minutes.

I mashed the pumpkin as it was cooking. I didn't skin it. The skin is edible, so I decided to try it out and see what happens. I run the mashed pumpkin through the magic bullet before using, so that should grind up any chunks that hand mashing missed.

Now what to do with it? Two large pumpkins yielded 11.5 2 Cup servings, stored in 500mL sour cream containers.

I've frozen it this way in the past, but freezer space is still at a premium. I'm afraid to even walk into a grocery store right now. The only way those remaining roosters and turkeys are getting their heads knocked off any time soon is if they're going directly into the oven.

Of course there are pies to bake, and pumpkin bread, but this is a lot of pumpkin to use up, so I went in search of some new recipes to try. The ones I thought looked interesting are linked below.

Pumpkin Bread

1/2 Cup butter
1 Cup pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/2 Cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 3/4 Cup flour

Mix everything up to the salt. Stir well. Then add the baking soda, baking powder, and flour. Mix well. Pour into greased loaf pans. Bake @ 350°F for 50 minutes. I play with the flour somewhat, since home made pumpkin puree is not always the same consistency.

Recipes To Try:

Pumpkin Pie Squares

Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin Butter

Pumpkin Lasagna

Beef and Pumpkin Stew

Pumpkin Chili

Pumpkin Soup

Pumpkin Fritters

Pumpkin Pancakes

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

Pumpkin Brownies

Pumpkin Sheet Cake

Chilly Nights

2011-12-06T09:06:00.000-05:00

A little chilly last night. -30°C. Frost on the INSIDE of the door. Still no snow to speak of.

Food Bank Drive

2011-12-05T07:45:00.000-05:00

The Bigs' school runs a food bank drive every year in December. The first week of the drive is a competition between classrooms. The classroom that hauls in the most donations wins a pizza party. It's a pretty stiff competition, too. Some of the teachers encourage their students by matching the donations they bring in. #1 took about three cans to school every day of the drive last year. They were running out of room in the classroom, and his teacher was starting to worry about how much it was going to cost her to match it. They ended up coming in second place!

The second week of the drive, students go door to door around town collecting donations. Their gym looked like a small grocery store when they were done. It was an amazing accomplishment!

This year it's an even stiffer competition. #2 just happens to have the same teacher #1 had last year. And #1 just happens to have the teacher whose class won last year. The pressure is on. Starting in my cold room. lol.

Last year I suggested a few things that I wouldn't miss to #1. After he took those items, he helped himself to a couple of cans of whatever he felt like. He didn't make too much of a dent in our supplies, but it was noticeable.

This year, this morning, I went to the cold room with them and picked out a variety of items that I won't miss.

Some things I planned for- like the evaporated milk and assorted coffee pouches. They were offered free with coffee purchases earlier in the year, so I saved them for the food drive. Some things were a bit of an excess here, like BBQ sauce and salad dressing. The rest was just a can of this, a can of that. We won't miss it.

So I told the boys to take what they wanted out of this selection. If they haul it all off to school before the end of the drive I'll have to pick out another box full of goodies.

I told the boys to ask when the food bank pick up would be, or if the school has any freezer room. I have two store bought turkeys that I bought on sale, probably last Easter., that I'd be happy to donate. I told them to ask if home canned goods would be accepted as well.

Please support your local food bank.

A long, long, time ago, when #1 was just a baby, and #2 was on his way, we were in a car accident. Husband suffered acute whiplash and was off work for several months. We had no food storage. We had no savings. The food bank saved us. It could happen to any of us. Please give.

Feeding Time

2011-12-01T18:09:00.000-05:00

With our wonky weather this year, and serious lack of snow, we are entering December and still mostly taking the hay bales out to the pasture. It's getting harder though, not being able to see rocks and stumps, and the ground's not frozen, so there are a lot of ruts.

We tried out the hay feeder a few times now. It works, mostly. Oscar can climb over the top. Billy goats are a pain, lol. But with all of the ruts around the barn, it makes it hard to walk carrying bales. We need some snow to fill in the pot holes.

Mindy & Dorie

And some way to convince these guys that the hay tastes just as good in the feeder as on the ground. So, please, get out of the way.

Toothless and Casper, butt to butt, Nelly behind, Tori watching Husband in the yard

Toothless is weaned now, and growing well. He needs to put on a few pounds to keep everyone else from pushing him around. He is sprouting some little horns though, so it shouldn't be too long before he gives them hell. He's still a big baby with us though.

Toothless

Toothless and Nelly are serving double duty as the chicken coop heaters this year. It's easier to lead them in, and less likely to cause trouble. And this way I know that Toothless will get enough to eat without being pushed around too much. Nanner invited herself in one night, but then decided it wasn't cold enough outside yet to be trapped inside. If the two of them don't give off enough body heat to keep the pump from freezing, we'll have to start rounding up the goats. I don't think old faithful is going to work this year. Casper isn't quite weaned yet, and I don't think Dorie will be willing to not rip the building down if he calls to her in the middle of the night. Unless I get desperate, I think she'll remain outside this winter.

The Taste Test

2011-11-29T09:34:00.000-05:00

The corned beef. I cooked two pieces together, one from each bucket. They had to overlap in the pot when I started.

Afterwards, they both fit on a single plate with room to spare. A lot of shrinkage. I forgot to take a picture.

The results so far- the piece from the first bucket was pinking up nicely along the edges, and you could almost tell where I had poked it, as the pink followed through in spots. It mostly tasted like corned beef, although it was a little heavy on the pepper. The piece from the second bucket remained a grey colour, right through cooking, and tasted more like very peppery roast beef than corned beef.

So, the rest shall remain in the basement a few more days, awaiting another taste test.

Corning Beef

2011-11-28T06:00:00.002-05:00

This was a new one for me. I attempted some hams with our first pigs. They didn't work out so well. With our second pigs, I tried a brine, making some back bacon and cottage roll type hams. They were better. The smaller pieces turned out really well, actually. The larger pieces needed more time in the brine, and maybe some injections into the centre of the thickest parts. We ended up eating them as slow roasted pull apart pork. Delish!

I found three brine recipes online. I used this one in one bucket. I started out with this one in the second bucket, and then started fiddling with it, because it just didn't seem right to me. It ended up closer to the first, without the cloves, and bay leaves. I don't have a kitchen scale, so my measurements are approximate. I left out the sodium nitrate. I'm going to freeze it after anyways, if it goes bad before then, I'd rather throw it out than eat carcinogens on purpose.

I used some of the methodology found here. I used the egg in a shell to test the saltiness of the water. I pierced the meat vigorously with a fork before submersing it in the brine.

Now it sits in the buckets in the cold room, covered by a plate to keep it submerged, as well as a lid to keep dust and such out. Stirred on day five. The directions vary, saying to leave it for 3-15 days. I'll be testing the first piece today, on day 9. If it's done, I'll package and freeze the rest. If it's a little weak, I'll leave it sit a few more days, and test another piece, continuing until it seems ready.

Tenderloin

2011-11-23T06:00:00.001-05:00

Graphic images will follow.

The tenderloin is located on the inside of the carcass, just below the hips. Start at the lower end, on the spine side, and run your knife through til you hit bone. Run the knife up the length of the tenderloin. Insert fingers and lift the meat off the back.

It can be pulled out mostly with your fingers, but you may need to trim a bit around the upper section with your knife.

You can slice it into steaks, or cube it and use for stir fry. Or leave it alone, in place, for t-bones!!

Rendering Fat

2011-11-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Before rendering the fat for lard, I went exploring. Turns out, it's not lard. It's tallow. Same purpose, same idea. Different name.

I followed the basic methodology seen here, Mark's Daily Apple. With a few changes, of course. I used all of the fat that I trimmed off the beef, not just the back and kidney fat. A lot of it was thin and stringy strips. I cut the larger pieces up, but left the thin bits. I never shredded it. I didn't cut the bits of meat off either. I just spend two days trimming all of the excess fat off my beef, I wasn't about to spend another two days trimming the bits of meat off my fat. I did the oven method, leaving the roasting pan of fat in the oven at 200°F overnight. There was a lot of fat, and it took a long time to render.

In the morning, I drained off the liquid fat.

Then added more trimmings to the roasting pot, and put it back in the oven.

I poured the liquid fat through a strainer, into pint jars.

Now just to wait for it to cool and harden.

I left some headroom, as I was considering freezing it. Freezer space is at a premium though, with 5 turkeys and all of those roosters left to butcher. I'll probably just store it in the cold room instead.

Skinning

2011-11-20T11:38:00.000-05:00

Graphic images will follow.

I meant to post this awhile ago.

Start at the top of the leg and cut through the skin. Peel that skin back, and start cutting and peeling next to the skin.

The weight of the skin will help peel it away from the meat as you go.

Make shallow cuts, into the skin/away from the meat. Keep pulling.

Work around the lower legs the same way. Cut through the skin at the top of the legs, back to the chest opening to separate it from the body.

There are other methods to do this. Some say they're easier. I don't find this difficult, and it gives me something to do while I wait for the meat to age.

The skin is now hanging inside the garage door. I'm not tanning it 'properly'. Just scraping, drying and salting. I have no special plans for it. Maybe some repairs to harnesses and such. Mostly just to see if it'll turn out.

Cutting Steaks

2011-11-20T09:28:00.000-05:00

Graphic images will follow.

I cut both front leg/shoulder sections the same as with the road kill bear. Dad came over to help me with the first side, to section the meat and cut the steaks. I don't have a lot of pictures because it was a learn as you go process, and messy, and I was busy trying to keep up, lol.

We used the meat chart from mom's old cookbook. There are lots available online as well. We drew roughly where we figured the cuts should be made right on the beef, then tried to make sense of our drawings by lining up the bones on the other side. Dad never worked in a butcher shop, and when he butchers wild game he debones everything.

The first picture is separating the rib steak section from the t-bone section. The t-bones start at the base of the tenderloin and run up to the top of it. The brisket/shoulder section, and the flank (belly fat) were already removed. My knife is inserted between the ribs just below where the tenderloin had been.

This is my current meat band saw. It's an old black and decker that we bought at a pawn shop. I like it, because it's powered externally by a drill, so I can open it all up after I'm done and wash everything with no fear of damaging it. I would like to get a proper meat band saw some day, because there isn't quite enough clearance to slide the steaks right through on this one. We have to turn them as we cut.

My sad little t-bones. I never knew that tender oh-so-delicious piece on the bottom side of the t-bone was part of the tenderloin. Tenderloins don't leave moose camp. They're the first piece to rot if you hang too long or in less than desirable conditions, so hunters pop them out and fry them up at camp. We made some delicious stir fries with them. But they would have been better on my t-bones!

And just for fun, here's a side pic so you can see how thick they were. You can also see that I don't cut straight.

The rib steaks were cut the same way. We also used the band saw to cut the ribs.

We cut boneless blade steaks. We cut a few round steaks from the first side. I cooked them for supper so I'd know whether I wanted to cut more from the second side or keep it for roast. Those are the really big cheap steaks you see in the store. They weren't bad, but I'd rather have the roast. I love roast beef.

Price of Beef

2011-11-18T12:40:00.000-05:00

This week's Food Basics flyer has the following beef on sale
outside round roast or steak - $5.49/ lb
sirloin tip roast or steak - $5.99/ lb

Links (if they work at all) will only work temporarily. When the new flyer goes up next week it'll wipe these out.

In other words- rump roast ranging from $3-6 per pound. I cut each side into 5-6 roasts. 12 roasts of approximately 4 pounds each. At $5/pound, my roasts would currently be valued at $240.

No Frill's
stewing beef - $3.99/ lb
I've got ten packages so far, roughly 2 pounds each, with approximately 4 more packages left to trim. Value- $112

Independent
inside round roast - $4.99/ lb
strip loin steak - $9.99/ lb
top sirloin roast or club pack steak - $2.99/ lb

24 top sirloin steaks, about a pound each, $71.76

Metro
red grill angus tenderloin or steak - $14.99/ lb
stewing beef - $3.99/lb

Tenderloin. Times two. At least three pounds each. Yum!!! $90!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cut t-bone steak and rib steak, over a pound each, 50 steaks. Conservatively, at $6/ lb (that'd be a really good sale) $300.

Shoulder blade and other assorted roasts, guessing roughly $5/ lb, approximately 4 pounds each X 18 - $360.

Corned beef- This will be experimental, post to come... - approximately 24 pounds @ $8/ lb (the last price I saw it on sale for)- $192

Ribs. Hmmm. I've never bought beef ribs. I can only remember even considering it once when these dinky little packages were on sale for about $4 each. That was at least two years ago. At that price, comparatively, I've got about $48 or so worth of ribs.

Comparatively, $1413 worth of mostly run of the mill, whatever came off the assembly line beef. Compared to organic grass fed beef- ha! Can you even buy it here? Cause that's what he was! I'm guessing, maybe, double it? $2826

Plus tallow and beef stock and dog food.

I paid $1000 for Steaks, and with any luck, come spring, he will be a daddy to three new born calves. I'm pretty sure I got one hell of a bargain.

Thank you Steaks, and thank you Mother Earth for this bountiful harvest!