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 18, 2014 Lemon Cake and An Apple Blossom

I had a wonderful sleep last night.  I dreamt of looking at houses.  They were all circular, I guess like a yurt, and there were no hallways.  I always wonder why I dreamed something so specific.

This morning I woke up to all manner of dog mess.  There was poop and pee and puke.  The three p's.  I also know why this happened.  I heavily suspect Onslo is being territorial in the laundry room and doesn't let Lizzie eat.  When I came home last night I let her run around the living room and gave her a bowl of food and water.  A little later I put her back outside for half an hour and then brought her in for the night.  She most likely had to go again later in the night and made herself sick with not wanting to go on the floor.  And then she went on the floor.

Luckily the weather this week will be very nice and it's a good time to transition the dogs to staying outside on the back porch at night.  It's very secure so I don't worry any stray coyote or house cat will get them.

Today I have to do some weekly chores.  For some reason I always enjoy putting my clean clothes away on Tuesday.  I also enjoy dusting and vacuuming.  I think in a way it's tidying up the house and having it ready for my days off from work.  Sort of starting with a clean slate.

Other things I need to work on are finishing the potato bed.  I strongly suspect this will win out over everything.  I desperately need to finish sanding the china hutch.  I can see it from almost anywhere I am in the house and its' unfinished state.  It is so very hard to work on it when the weather is so very nice.  Ah, there really are so very many projects I'd like to work on and so very little time.  I'd best get to work.  I'll be back soon to update my day.

I had meant to post this at the end of the afternoon but I was in a cake coma from a delicious made from scratch lemon cake with lemon frosting.  I'm trying to cook more from scratch and I think cake is a great place to start. 

Lemon Snack Cake from Hickery Holler Farm

 

In the hoop house there are lots of big and little things happening.  I've noticed some plants are getting their true leaves.  This is a Fordhook zucchini.  

 

 

This is a cucumber.

 

 

Hello strawberries.

 

 

Apple blossom on a Fuji apple tree.

Some seeds are just coming up.  I'm happy to see my Japanese white eggplant make an appearance.  I've noticed some seeds dying off.  These are only in the biodegradable/plantable pots.  I think they may drain water and dry out too quickly.  I'll have to keep a better eye on these.  

 

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 14, 2014 Estate Sale, Strawberry Plants, and Nectarine Tree

Today I'm doing something I hate.  A mammogram.  I generally hate all doctor visit kind of things.  They're so tedious.  Waiting in the waiting room.  Waiting in the exam room.  And you know it's absolutely beautiful outside.

The rest of my day will include things like paying the bills.  My life is getting more exciting by the minute.  I do hope to have some pictures up.  I've been scouring Craigslist in case there's something I can't live without but need a truck to pick up.  I need to get my money's worth out this truck we bought. 

On our way to town I noticed a sign for an estate sale.  Oooooh.  There's rarely one close by our house.  Rowan and I went to the sale after we had done all our town stuff.

 

Here's a picture of almost everything I bought.  Rowan picked a game and I also got a rug.

 

 

If you're like me it's hard to resist so much wonderful stuff.  I had no problem resisting this cherub riding on a smiling (?) dolphin soap dish, though.  Later as I was editing this post I thought, "You know it's so absurd it would look great tucked away in a corner holding a potted plant."  I should have bought it...

 

 

True spring fever.  I'm now planting seeds in everything I can find, including this egg carton.  I simply poked holes in the bottom, filled with dirt and seeds.  We'll see if I get 36 melon plants.

 

 

A typical day's fashion sense:  My sloggers, leggings because chiggers suck, a cool skirt, my apron because my skirt doesn't have pockets, and my sweater.

 

 

One of the eleven strawberry plants!  They've become more intensely colorful and the leaves are opening up.  I bought these in a box for $4.99 at Tractor Supply.  (Not an endorsement, just a fact) I've decided to give 2 plants to a friend when I'm certain they'll survive.

 

I went to look at the nectarine tree again.  Is it really spring?  I have blossoms on my tree!  The apple tree is not too far behind.  The weather for the next week will be mild.  I hope it's not too soon for these blossoms to appear.   

February 13, 2014 Homeschooling Tale

Today we will be catching up on school work.  Like a whole week's worth.

Homeschooling is great.  It gives our family a certain amount of freedom we would not have otherwise.  There's also a certain amount of constraints.  Like your kid is always there.

I love not having to wake up early and nagging at the kid to get up and get dressed.  Then there's either putting the  kid on the bus or driving her to school.  I'd think I'd rather claw my eyes out than drive to school 5 days a week.  We actually tried the bus for 3 years.  In Rowan's fourth year on the bus we started having issues about bullying.  If Rowan decided to go back to public school I would drive her.  I don't believe making someone self-immerse for an extended period of time in miserable situations makes them tougher.

Jace says he never wants her to go back to public school.  He says the influences there are too damaging.  Rowan does not like to watch any scary movie and we don't let her watch things with a lot of smooching or cussing.  So for her to go to a public school and be bombarded by violence, cliques, and behaviors of modern relationships makes her a little cuckoo.  And yes, these things do happen in first grade.

We're now into our second full year of homeschool.  It's been mostly great.  I can't remember being scared at all to try it.  Perhaps since I always pretended to be a teacher when I was little and taught my dolls prepared me for this.  While there are things I loathe teaching, like grammar, there are other things I love, like math.

Since we are in the country we do not belong to a homeschool group.  We did try but it wasn't a good fit and was pretty far away.  There are other kids in our neighborhood Rowan likes to play with.  She knows to get her work done by the time they are getting home from school, if she wants to play outside with them.

The truth is I like having her around.  She's becoming a real gardening nut and all around outside kind of girl.  She knows where food comes from.  She's becoming more capable with helping and she never complains about having to let the chickens out, or putting the chickens up at night.

I remember her favorite show as a baby was Little House On The Prairie.  She loves the books, too.  Perhaps as my love of teaching my dolls has come to fruition, so has her love of being Laura Ingalls Wilder.

For today we will have to put our outside dreams aside.  We will have to do our school work.

Today's Garden Collage

 I'm trying different ways of putting up my photos. 

Sometimes pictures don't need a long explanation.  It's pretty obvious.  A short 5 words or less description will do.  I would anticipate seeing a lot of these in the future.

February 12, 2014 Bought Our New Farm Truck and Pineapple Zucchini

Hi y'all.  I got up early this morning as I was supposed to go with a friend of mine to visit another lady.  My friend woke up with a tummy ache so we aren't going.  I admit I wasn't thrilled about getting up early but thought it would be a nice thing to do for my friend.

Now I have time to do some other stuff.  There may be time for Jace and I to go look at another truck we found about an hour away.  First, I need to put laundry away and let the chickens out.

I did manage to redo my header to something I like.  Blog work is always so tedious.

Reading over some blogs this morning I found a canning recipe for Pineapple Zucchini.  Now most of you know that zucchini can be very prolific.  There's even jokes about people locking their cars so no one can sneak a bag of zucchini into their front seat.  If I'm lucky enough to have a prolific amount of zucchini I'm going to be using this recipe.

 

Finally!  I am so happy the truck buying adventure is over.  We decided to go see one of the trucks Jace found on the internet.  The salesman assured us it hadn't been in a flood or fallen off a cliff.  It drove like a dream and about 30 seconds into the test drive Jace declared this was the truck he had been looking for.  We made an offer and 2 hours later I was driving it home.  Jace had to leave and go to work so I had to stay at the car place and finish up the paperwork, transfer insurance, and clean out the car we used as a trade in.  (Kind of convenient Jace had to leave and I got stuck with all the dirty work, if you ask me.)

Now I can get back to gardening and chicken-ing stuff.  I'm really going to have to start thinning out the chickens.  I just can't seem to find the time.  Or maybe I don't want to find the time.