February 19, 2014 Hyacinth, Kohlrabi, Chicken Casserole

Good Morning!  I'm not quite awake yet.  You know if the chickens would make coffee they would get let out sooner.

The other day I did finally take out the heat lamp from their coop.  I do expect we'll still have some cold days but they are big enough now to stay warm on their own in the coop.  Last night I also left the heater off in the hoop house.  There was lots of dew this morning so hopefully the plants enjoyed the humid air.

Here's something funny the neighbor asked me yesterday.  They wanted to know if I had any more roosters and if so, could they have one.  I said yes and then asked if they meant alive or dead.  They want a live one for eating bugs.  This can't happen.  Because roosters make noise and the whole point of bumping off the roosters is because I don't want them crowing.  Since I do want to raise broilers I'll pick up a hen for the neighbor one day.  

I'm daydreaming of things I want to do in other parts of the property.  This is bad.  I haven't yet begun to finish the things I'm doing now.  I blame gardening magazines.  They inspire me to do things I hadn't thought of, and I want my yard to look like theirs do right this minute.  I wish they would say, "It took me 15 years to get my yard this nice."  Most people probably don't want to hear that.  I just have to remember that every little thing I do is probably an improvement.

 

My blank slate 32x40 foot garden.  This was 2 years ago.

Ok, it's time to start the day.  I'll be back to show you what I've done with mine...

The first hyacinth bloomed.  I wasn't expecting a hot pink color so it was quite surprising.  I wish the other 6 were blooming but they will when they're ready.

I harvested one of the kohlrabi.  It's been growing since November.  They have all made it through the long winter with no noticeable issues.  I'm always surprised at which plants can survive freezing temperatures.  I cooked it tonight by grating it and putting in a casserole with chicken, noodles, onion, cream of mushroom soup and fontina cheese.  Delicious!  Thank you garden!

February 16, 2014 Processing My First Chicken

This morning I'm trying to find a budget tracker for my phone.  So far I have one I can track my food and gas purchases but it doesn't track my fun money correctly.  Kind of aggravating.  I found another to track my fun money but it doesn't track cents.  I'm kind of particular and think keeping track of cents is important.  I'll continue my search.  Update:  I found one and it looks good at first glance.  I'll test it out this week.

Part of homesteading, in my opinion, is being able to manage expenses no matter how small and pesky they seem.  If you've ever taken a jar, pile, or boat load of change to one of those money machines, poured it in, and see how much all that change is worth, then you know that pennies matter.  The last time I took my pocket change that had filled up a quart jar and half of a gallon freezer bag, it added up to $97.  There's a whole lot I can do with $97.

One thing I used that $97 for was starting a savings account for Rowan.  Now I no longer have to make sure I have cash laying around to give her for an allowance.  Thanks to the internet I can just move that money around and deposit it straight to her account.  She still has a grand ole time going to the bank and filling out her bank slip.  The ladies at the bank are always real nice to her and put her money in an envelope, even if it's only five dollars.

Today I'm planning on sending a chicken to freezer camp.  Jace and I talked about this yesterday.  I've been mentally preparing to do this.  I haven't done this before.  Maybe I should play music.  Something like Eye of the Tiger to get me inspired.  It's not something I want to do but certainly must be done.

 

I did it!  I worked myself up and really did it.  It wasn't very pleasant, but also not too unpleasant.  I thank the chicken for giving me an easy first time.  I think Rowan's face really sums it up.  The video that really helped was this one on YouTube.

 

 

Jace brought me my hot water and worked as my camera man.  I tried to have everything I needed already prepared.  I had a chair to sit in to kill the chicken.  I had my very sharp knife.  I had a tarp on the ground for collecting all the feather mess.  I had a fold up table.  I had a pot of hot water, which I had heated to boiling and kept simmering before I killed the chicken.  The one thing I forgot was a plate/pan to put the chicken on when I was done cleaning it.

 

 

Here I am cleaning it.  The feathers really came out unbelievably easy. 

 

 

This is a picture of its' tail.  Jace wanted a picture of the oil gland but it's really hard to see unless you know you are looking at it.  I was very thankful for this tarp.  After finishing I took the tarp over to the compost pile and dumped all those feathers and what not.  My last step was to simply wash the tarp off and put everything away.

 

 

Here's part of our dinner tonight.  I seasoned with lemon pepper and rosemary.   I have to say the flavor was exceptional.  It was slightly tougher than I expected.  I am definitely forging on with my plan of raising our own meat chickens.

February 2, 2014 Rain and More Camper News

Today it is raining, cold, and windy.  The temperature is high 30's. 

I had to clean out the chicken coop today.  I shoo all the birds out and then block their entrance.  They are very curious about anything I'm doing.  They get very irritated when they can't see what I'm doing.  It took me about 30 minutes to get it cleaned out, empty the waste into the compost pile and put a new layer of shavings on the floor.  I emptied their feeder and filled it with fresh food.  Now their coop is clean, dry, and tidy. 

I checked in the hoop house for any signs of growth.  I'm happy to report there are okra, cucumbers, and marsh mallows growing.  I didn't have time to take pictures today but I will this coming week.  I'm very happy I'm now able to grow something in February.  Only 2 more months till outside planting!

Yesterday we heard back from the bank about the camper.  We got the loan!  We'll sign the papers on Tuesday.  On Wednesday we're supposed to have a walk through and learn how everything on it works.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed about how to furnish it and have enough storage.  I'm spending a lot of time on Pinterest getting ideas.  Today I'll find out exactly where we're headed to this summer, so I can start looking for a campground close by.  Once we actually have the camper at home then I'll call the state park I have camping reservations at for later this spring and see if I need to modify my reservation to include the camper.  Jace and I laugh as we say things like, "well in our vacation home..." 

This will have to do for today.  I have to go to town for some things and then it will be time to get things ready for work tomorrow and put the chickens and myself to bed.  What a busy, busy weekend.

January 30, 2014 Sanding the China Hutch Begins

0800  I'm up because today should be nice.  I let Lizzie out and the skies are still cloudy and gray.  I'm showing 44 degrees on The Bird thermometer.  Google weather shows 39 degrees reaching 63 around 2 pm.  It's also showing partly cloudy, so there should be some sun and no rain.

There's lots of things I want to do today.  There will never be enough time.  Rowan has to finish this week's homeschool work so I'll be inside for that.  I'll see if I can take care of laundry, dishes, housecleaning during this time.  I might be able to sand the china hutch for a little while.  After that I want to be outside!  I charged up my camera battery and I'm hoping to take some better pictures.  Maybe I'll get a good one of the chickens.

Last night I finished reading One Acre Homestead by Sara Simmons McDonald.  There are a lot of useful diagrams for figuring out where to put things.  Then there's math.  Lots and lots of math.  Actually it isn't too bad, mostly for pasturing chickens and other animals.  My chickens have a fenced area and aren't free range.  They would be gobbled up lickety-split.  Something I did learn was I am only using one third of my acre.  The middle third.  The house is in the middle of that so I'm technically not even using a third of the land.  It's more like half of a third.  Most of the outside areas are connected because who wants to walk ALL the way over there for one thing and then WAY over there for something else.  Unless it's the compost pile.  Then it can stay way, way over there.

Rowan is awake now.  She sounds croupy.  This may change all the plans for today.

0115  There's been no sun.  The temp is around 60.  I'm not feeling like working today.  I have been busy looking on Craigslist.  I've had an inspiration to buy a camper.  Now I just need to find one.  The internet is full of camper makeovers and you would think these old ugly campers are just laying around everywhere.  Craigslist proves this is just not true.  There are very few.  I've looked at over 3,000 and probably only found 5.

 

This is how far I got with sanding today.  Not too bad.  Further than I thought I would get.  Now I have a good idea of how long this will take.  Pretty much forever.

  

Here's a pic of the chickens.  They are getting so big.  I'm amazed at how fast they grow.

Peppermint is helping me dig in the garden.  Or she's protecting me from this vicious shovel.