On Just A Couple Acres

~Quarters~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Fri, 24 May 2013 18:51:00 +0000

The Homestead Hog Butchering page now has the videos of our butchering process up to where the half was broken down into quarters (leg, loin, belly, & shoulder).

As I put the video together, I was impressed with really how simple it is to break down a hog. Perhaps that's because of our first experience with butchering a large animal. If you have any doubts whether you can do this, let me reassure you: You Can!!

It is wonderful having this much control over your meat, the choice of cuts, the amount of waste. Even if you don't think you can stomach the slaughter, skinning, or evisceration, you could have the butcher do a "Kill & Chill" like we did last year and then pick up the halves to process yourself. Once you get the hang of what you're doing, it goes rather quickly too, I think.

And this is from a person who plays the "baby" card every year come time for chicken butchering.

Maybe, we'll challenge ourselves to get it done in under five minutes next year.... I think we could do it!

In the meantime, I challenge you to get more involved with the raising of the meat that is placed on your family table and learn of the overwhelming gratitude and satisfaction that comes from being a part of that process.

~Gleanings from May~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 21 May 2013 23:28:00 +0000

Lots of gardening stuff this month, but I think it's safe to say that's what most of us homesteader's have on the brain this time of year. I'm trying the new embedded code from Pinterest this time instead of downloading and uploading every photo and then linking individually to each one. Please let me know if it doesn't work out for you! (*UPDATE: If you are reading this post through an email feed, you will need to click through for the Pinterest links. For some reason they're not showing up there. I'm sorry for the inconvenience and will go back to the old way next month. Thank you for understanding!)

Hope you all find something useful and educational here!

I know all too well how vital having a good dusting spot is for your chickens unless you want them to trash your flower beds!

They have less than a month left and still half-way to go. Would you consider helping this family out?
Lil' Tait Preemie Fund Coming To Completion

Tait and Lauren now have the opportunity in the next 60 days or so, to be free and clear as negotiations have produced the opportunity to pay down $100,000 in the next 90 days, 30 of which have passed already. Their fund-raising efforts have produced $41,000 and they are very encouraged that they will meet their goals. Will you help? Here is your opportunity to join me in contributing to supporting our convictions about life. Pass the fundraiser around, stay tuned and watch for give-aways and donate. God bless you and thank you for your support.

Industrialization and Marriage

By contrast, at the time of the industrial revolution the locus of economic activity was outsourced away from where people lived. Central power sources like water and steam increasingly drew people to work locations away from the home. But that was just the beginning, as more and more activities that were once performed in the home were gradually outsourced. Gardens shriveled and disappeared as growing was outsourced. Eventually even schooling was industrialized, taken away from the home and from apprenticeship relationships. What began to emerge was a division between the home, on the one hand, and people’s lived experiencing in the world, on the other.

The Family Economy in Crisis

But what happens to a society where the nuclear family is in the minority, and dysfunctionality is the norm? Dysfunctionality gives rise to more dysfunctionality. The law of sowing and reaping is inevitable; we reap more than we sow—and absent a fundamental change of course, the unsavory harvest of broken families will only get worse over time. Without the radical reintegration of the family economy and family education, we will fail to salvage civilization.

How Will Your Kids be Prepared For the Real World (Unless They Go To School There?)

Stop: who got us to think upside down? Essentially, what this means is, we feel like the best way to prepare our children for the real world is to take them out of the real world, put them in an unrealistic world all day for twelve years, try to simulate the real world, and then tell everyone this is the only way to prepare them for the real world. It’s hilarious just writing that out!

One in a series of interesting permaculture videos. I thought this one was quite interesting- as well as the property checklist video. It was amazing to see how we should be looking at these things, but often don't.
5 Acre Abundance on a Budget

Integration?

But, why do we do all of this integration? It really is a lot of work to get there. Yes, there is much joy and grace from the Lord towards our family in doing it. We really like being together. When I consider the thought of them going off to a school, public or private, I get teary-eyed thinking of them being away from me and each other all day. I can’t stand the idea of someone else getting their best all day. But, is there more to it than that?
Then it hit me. The opposite of integration is disintegration.

A very basic guide to get you started on your search for the dairy cow breed that will best fit your needs.
Choosing a Dairy Cow: Breeds

Roundup: Quick Death for Weeds, Slow and Painful Death for You

Humans exposed to glyphosate through use of Roundup in their community or through ingestion of its residues on industrialized food products become even more vulnerable to the damaging effects of other chemicals and environmental toxins they encounter!
What’s worse is that the negative impact of glyphosate exposure is slow and insidious over months and years as inflammation gradually gains a foothold in the cellular systems of the body.

~April on the Homestead~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 16 May 2013 17:54:00 +0000

Better late than never, right??

April was much slower than March, but it wasn't without it's surprising blessings. The weather warmed up enough a few days to motivate the children to go walking through the woods and I don't know what possessed them to do it, but they were exploring a hollow tree and found it to be an abandoned bee tree.

The comb was extracted from the tree, much of which was still fresh (not this comb pictured). Thankfully, by the time they were done removing it the weather had warmed enough to get some insect activity and they saw a grand total of 8 bees. The last thing I wanted was to ruin a perfectly good hive!

Naturally, Miss Chloe loved her first taste of honey and carried around that little chunk of comb for a little while just sucking the goodness from it. I've never had raw honey before and was amazed by the wonderful complexity of the flavor and the bit of zing it put on the tongue. I do believe it was the most delicious sweetness I've ever tasted. I'm hooked.

Bees will be in our future. (Lord willing.)

It was all pretty cold so in order to get it to run off the comb without the proper equipment this little setup was made. The stainless bucket has a makeshift filter tied on with elastic. The plastic bucket had some holes drilled into the bottom and the crushed comb is inside being warmed by the chick brooder lamp. I checked the temperature a few times and it warmed the honey up into the 80 degree range. I imagine that since it gets warmer than that in the summer, it was still considered raw at that point. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)

My new sewing machine.

It needs a belt and a bit of reconditioning. And the table is missing the lid but for under $100, it's less expensive than a new sewing machine and will last me the rest of my life.

It's so beautiful though, maybe it will make me want to sew! Maybe.

The blueberry bundt cake from the latest Cooks Illustrated magazine. Didn't work for me so much.

I over-baked it by a good deal, gave it a light touch, watched it spring back, removed it from the oven, cooled it for ten minutes, inverted it onto the cooling rack, lifted it and spun around to take it to cool by the window, and batter spilled out, plopping onto the floor and sounding much like a cow pie when it hits the ground.

The edges that cooked were quite tasty. I see Jacob there thought so too.

We finally got a bit of bare-dirty-foot-making-weather.

My oldest baby turned 15.

Fifteen.

I know everyone says it, but it is true! The time flies. I know it doesn't feel that way when they're little and you're up to your eyeballs in dirty diapers and babyfood messes, but one day I promise you will look back and wonder where all the time went and be deeply impressed by how little time you have left.

He has decided to take up wood carving and wood burning as a hobby. He is quite a talented artist and I know he'll do well with it if he he diligent. I already have a couple spoons and he's working on a cutting board and practicing the wood burning techniques. I bought a few of books to teach him and they seem like excellent resources, full of inspiration. (Woodburning Project & Pattern Treasury; Great Book of Woodburning; The Complete Book of Woodburning)

Hanging out on the deck... you know what this means??

Free-ranging your flock can have its downfalls and the mess they make is one of them. They leave dropping everywhere, trash my perennials, scratch though all the decorative mulch, kicking it onto the sidewalks & driveway, lay eggs everywhere but the nesting boxes, BUT we've had to put ours away for the last few weeks and have since gone through close to $50 in feed we wouldn't have otherwise purchased and I've noticed the eggs getting increasingly pale and less flavorful.

Plus they are delightful to watch.

He is the best rooster. Any one of the other ones we've had I would have been too scared to get down at their level and photograph them.

I had just been thinking earlier in the day that I probably couldn't top any of the photos of the blooming Royal Star Magnolia that I had taken in previous years. When Lydia asked that I would photograph her in front of it, I was delighted to turn around and see the most beautiful indigo storm clouds approaching.

There. Something different.

Mulching the flowerbeds again thanks to the aforementioned free-ranging woes.

First chives!

Mr. & Mrs. Bluebird were scouting our backyard for a home. It's always a treat when the visit.

Oh dear.

I see I'm going to have another one who will be digging big holes out of the warm bread before I get a chance to slice it for lunch.

I guess I can't blame her. There is nothing like warm, nutty, sweet wheat bread.

Pasta Carbonara with Kale in the making. My family loves when I fail to properly plan a dinner and fall back onto this quick meal. Me too.

What excitements did April bring to your homestead (if it's not been so long that the excitement hasn't worn away)?

~Evisceration~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:06:00 +0000

Now that busy spring days are here, it's taking me longer than I had hoped to get this series posted, but I did finally get the 3rd installment on the evisceration process uploaded and posted to the Homestead Hog Butchering page. Now before you watch it, here is a little disclaimer: This is the first hog my husband eviscerated. He just went at it without reading all the directions. (Men!) Skinning had taken longer than he hoped because of trying to pull the hide off instead of cutting it and he has done deer and a bull before so how hard could a hog be? Not quite as easy, it turns out. But, ultimately, the job did get done and I suppose that's all that matters.
So, for what it's worth, there is the video of our evisceration process. If you're more of a "by-the-book" type of person, check out the Homestead Hog Butchering page for resource links.

~A Peek Into Our Soil Food Web {May}~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 08 May 2013 01:06:00 +0000

I received quite a bit of criticism since I have been re-thinking mulch gardening. I suppose it's understandable. After all, the Back to Eden garden does look amazing, the gardener has years of experience with wood chip mulching, and all I've done is read a book.

After reading the book, authored by gardeners with a life of experience though (and comparing it with other resources written by experienced gardeners and orchardists), I simply can't bring myself to continue with an experiment that might destroy my soil food web simply so that I can speak from my own experience.

I'm certainly not saying which method is best for you and your garden. Wood chip vs. hay mulch (or no mulch) is a decision only you can make and live with the ramifications of your choice. I'm just journaling what we are doing on our homestead, right or wrong, my observations, and the lessons I learn along the way. Ultimately, I just want to encourage everyone to *think* before getting carried away with the hype like I did.

To journal my personal experience with wood chip mulch gardening is certainly challenging- I only laid the chips down 7-8 months ago. It has been winter and there hasn't been much in the way of decomposition going on as a result. However, after I finished weeding this afternoon (pesky thistle... no amount of mulching stops them!), I decided to take a sampling of the visible life of the soil food web under the mulch in my garden, taking that first step to gaining first-hand experience and knowledge.

It just so happens that I never did get around to finishing laying the wood chips down as mulch over the entire garden and there are two areas with no wood chips. To put the garden to bed last winter, I layered year-old cow manure, hay, fallen leaves, and then in most areas wood chips. Since we aren't going to be planting a garden this year I'm hoping this "lasagna" of material will work to build soil fertility and the soil food web.

I dug up one shovelful of soil from under the wood chips and one from under the hay mulch and then just started picking through to see what I could see, comparing the two and taking an earthworm count since, after all, they are the superstars of the garden. I recorded our observations in a video and I hope you'll find the results of the search as interesting as we did.

So there you have it folks. My un-scientific results.

In my garden, the earthworm ratio in wood chip vs. hay mulch is 6:21. Six to twenty-one!!!!!! No to mention all the other life found under the hay- including arthropods, nematodes, larvae, eggs, and more! In fact, a chicken joined us while we were picking through and I bet you can guess which mulch she was scratching through...

I'm contemplating peeking under there again in a month and seeing what another four weeks will do.

~One Year Old~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 22:40:00 +0000

Last year, we reserved three of the Freedom Ranger broilers to see how long they would survive, whether or not they would lay eggs, and perhaps whether or not we could breed our own meat chickens. I would never expect a cross to grow as fast as a ranger broiler, but that's alright... I'm not afraid of an older bird.

With Cornish Cross broilers barely able to survive the few weeks it takes to get them to processing age before their legs break or their hearts burst, I didn't have too many expectations for these three hens.

But here we are, a whole year later, and they're all still alive and well. They are just as active as they were 8 months ago, show none of the aggressive characteristics that the ranger roosters demonstrate, and are laying extra large, long, pointed eggs several times a week with a beautiful yolk just as orange as the other gals in the flock.

The next step will be to see how they reproduce. Our rooster is a Black Australorp. When we set out upon this experiment our rooster was a Buff Brahma, a big handsome and friendly fellow whose genetic contribution we hoped would tame down some of the aggressiveness the rangers, yet prevent the size of the offspring from being downsized too drastically. Well he was carried off by an owl one night in the middle of last summer and the largest dual-purpose breed the hatchery had in stock was the Black Australorp, so that's what we went with. So far he hasn't harassed the children and he seems to be very attentive to the gals, but not very large at all. If something happens to him, I would probably go back to the Brahma rooster or if these chicks turn out healthy, see what a Jersey Giant might do.

Ultimately, I'm keeping my expectations very low. My curiosity though is very high and that has worked out in the favor of these gals who would otherwise be feeling very naked and very cold (in the freezer) right now. I'm glad to know that the meat chickens we raise could be capable of living to adulthood, something that no one expects could ever be a reality for a Cornish chicken.

~Gleanings From April~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 19:27:00 +0000

My favorites and yours from off the Pinboards and around the web...

A little potager inspiration for your front yard... not for mine. I'd have to cut down all the trees first. And at this point I'd rather starve than lose even that small buffer from the road noise. (Not to mention privacy!) This is so much more beautiful than a lawn though!

How Much Should You Plant In Your Garden To Provide A Year's Worth of Food?

DIY Coconut Oil Tooth Scrub

Home Mixed Chicken Feed

(It looks good enough for us to eat! Might that be a good indicator of what to feed a chicken?)

Nourishing Foods For Labor & Childbirth

(Lots of different ideas... including dark chocolate!)

Homemade Tomato Sauce With Beef Bones

Sneaking extra nutrition into tomato sauce. Clever.

From consecutive months of pantry envy to successive months of wood stove love.

Odd Bits: How To Cook the Rest of the Animal

Growing Squash Vertically

Worth a try for those of us whose growing space is horizontally challenged.

Nourishing Mounds or Almond Joy Candy Bars

These.were.so.good.

I had issues making them where the coconut oil separated from the other ingredients, but they were so tasty anyway! And if you're shooting for a one tablespoon serving of coconut oil per day then you only need to eat half a disk to achieve it! Everyone here loves them and was begging for more. I'm clearly going to have to start stocking up on coconut oil.

Homemade Oats & Honey Granola Bars

The Organic Orchard

If you're at all interested in growing a holistic orchard, here's a great (free) resource to get you started. Lots of similar information that you'll find in The Holistic Orchard, which I highly recommend.

Edible Beauty

Benefits of Wood Ash in the Garden

I'm not surprised. Ash sure did wonders for our grain patch.

19 Edible Plants

A surprising number grow right in our backyard!

Mason bees for raspberry pollination

Trellising Space-Saving Pole Beans for Beauty

From Puritan Richard Baxter-
The Mutual Duties of Husbands and Wives Towards Each Other

Lastly, Help each other by an exemplary life. Be yourself, what you desire your husband or wife should be; excel in meekness, and humility, and charity, and dutifulness, and diligence, and selfdenial, and patience

I used this site to create a "recipe" that allowed me to get an email every time a treadle sewing machine was posted to craigslist. I passed quite a few up and was able to get a really beautiful one. I have other recipes searching for various breeds of feeder pigs, spoiled hay for mulching, and more. This could be a huge time-saver so you don't have to perpetually check for new listings. I must warn you though that certain language can return some filthy spam listings, so proceed with caution.
IFTTT- If This Then That

I'm really quite excited about this...
The Rebuilding of Western Civilation Just Got a Whole Lot easier, Faster, Cheaper, and Better- and Therefore More Likely to Happen SOONER Rather Than Later!

This will, if it is successful, spur an ongoing cultural and social reconfiguration of every institution in society — a total transformation of civil, political, ecclesiastical and family life as we know it — the likes of which none of us has ever seen before.

Are you ready for a restoration of liberty, constitutional government, free enterprise/free-market (“Austrian”) economics, a “non-humanist” renaissance in literature, learning, the arts and sciences, a peaceful, well-informed rolling back of tyranny, poverty, ignorance, illiteracy and their attendant evils?

And, if all goes well, given enough time, eventually, who knows, maybe even a restoration and flourishing of a true and vibrant biblical Christendom around the world?

The Truth About Big Families

I know families of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and a few with an even dozen. Whenever there is a movie about big families you always see children hanging from fans, piles of horrible food and a mum on the edge of a breakdown. Perhaps that’s why the general public feel they can be so rude to those with a brood. I come from a family of six and my Mum was often asked by strangers: “Why didn’t you buy a television?”, “How do you remember their names?” , or just told “You poor thing!”
So I thought I would share a few home truths – here are ten things I know about big families.

Encyclopedia of Country Living- A free download!!

Reviewing his latest book, The Intelligent Gardener (next in the pile), Steve Solomon shares his years of wisdom and talks about why he no longer recommends Gardening When It Counts. The Ruminant Podcast with Steve Solomon

This looks like it could be an valuable resource to help me get that sewing machine in proper working order again.
The Sewing Machine Shop

The pages available here will provide the information you need to select, restore and use treadle and hand crank machines.

~Celebrating Spring {Giveaway}~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 19:13:00 +0000

Update: This giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Jennifer (comment #42, via random.org) who loves the celtic cross!!

I don't know what it's like where you live, but we've seen more than a few promising signs that spring is finally here!

Spring peepers, blooming bulbs, swelling buds, children begging to camp outside when the overnight low will be 45 degrees.

The days are warmer and longer, the grass is greening up, flies are in the house, doors are being left hanging wide open with barn cats welcoming themselves to a nap on the couch.

Babies have been escaping, chickens have been caught cleaning the kitchen floor, the time of the singing of the birds has come, hair is getting put up, sleeves are shortening, outdoor work has been getting done, farmer's tan is already showing it's first blush, muscles are aching. We're even having our first thunderstorm right this very minute.

I feel like a little celebrating.

How about a giveaway?

Jill (our homesteading, homeschooling mama friend from Paths of Wrighteousness) has so kindly and generously offered you all a chance to win a free stylish and functional Lilla Rose flexi-clip of your choice so you can look beautiful while doing your spring cleaning and outdoor chores this season!

I've told you before all about how the ladies of the house love our clips. (here and here) I don't know how we couldn't since there is such a selection of clips that you simply can't find anywhere else. Not to mention the diversity of hair styles they accomodate. And best of all- without damaging your hair! I don't know about you, but I work hard to keep my hair healthy so I really appreciate that. (Frankly, I'd have them if they were plain and simple for that reason alone!)

So join me as I celebrate a new spring!

To enter the giveaway, you must-

1.) Visit Jill's Lilla Rose website- Which is your favorite? If you can even decide! (1 entry)

If you have a couple minutes and would like to boost your chances of winning, here are a few ways to earn extra entries-

2.) Share about this giveaway... Whether by blog post, Facebook, or Twitter, if you link to this post let me know in a separate comment for each one that you've done so- be sure to add a link to your post. To simplify this a bit for you, there is a "Share" button under the post. (3 entries)

3.) Follow Jill's Lilla Rose Facebook page where she posts styling tips, special offers, and opportunities for free shipping. (1 entry)

4.) Follow Reformation Acres... If you subscribe, follow, or "like" this blog on Facebook, let me know. If not, now would be a great time to start! (1 entry)

Please make this easy on me and sure you leave a separate comment for each option you take advantage of! You have a week to enter and I'll announce a winner next Tuesday morning!

Disclosure: I was given a free extra-small flexi clip in order to be able to provide you with the chance to win your own.

~Skinning~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:39:00 +0000

The video documenting the skinning process has been added to the Homestead Hog Butchering page.

Since we don't have the equipment for scalding and scraping the skin, we removed it. I'll be honest, I'm not too sure what advantage that scalding and scraping has these days. I'm under the impression that the skin aided in meat preservation and since ours is in a freezer, there would be not benefit to going through that process. I don't know, maybe they ate it.

If you don't plan to eat the skin or preserve the flesh in it, the only benefits I can think of is that by leaving the skin on no fat could be inadvertently wasted (and we did leave on more fat on the hide than I would have cared to, but it was given to the hens to pick at and that is at least some consolation) and that the cuts wouldn't be as slippery on the table while processing the meat.

I might be wrong though and if I'd be grateful for the enlightenment if it's necessary.

One way I read of to retain as much fat on the carcass as possible was to pull the hide off the mid-section. A large rock was tied inside the back of the hanging hide, attached to the tractor, and then the bucket was lifted. He was able to get it started on the first hog and if you watch the video, you can see how nice and smooth the fat looks over the back. That's because it was all there. It wasn't as easy as it sounds and took up way too much of the time. It didn't work as well with the second hog. Her fat was ripping off with the skin, if the skin was coming off at all. Eventually, the attempt was abandoned. It's funny how we'll spend more time and effort trying to make something easier and quicker than we would have had we just done the job the "long" and "hard" way in the first place.

Two things I didn't mention in the video. They might be common sense, but I'll mention them just in case. Make sure that once you get the knife under the skin, you cut up and away from the body so as not to puncture the meat or guts. And second, make sure the knife you'll be skinning with is super sharp and you pull the hide away with one hand while skinning with the other, keeping the knife as close to the skin as possible to help keep that fat on the pig.

I hope someone will find this helpful, but please remember as I mention in the video notes, we're far from experts and are just learning ourselves.

~March on the Homestead~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:56:00 +0000

Since the first time since the new year, I really felt like taking some pictures.

I guess I recovered from last year. Either that or the sun came out twice and that was enough to motivate me. I don't think I'll go back to a photo a day with a weekly post, but if I keep this up, perhaps I'll do a monthly post.

March was a busy month here. I was thankful for it as I've found the distraction has been an incredible blessing to me. The winter months must have proved restful for I'm excited to get back to work.

During the month of March you'll normally find me absorbed in planning the garden and tending to the seedlings in the basement. I've said before that caring for those seedlings, thinking of the warm days they'll be transplanted, and the hope of the harvest are the best cure for winter blues that I could think of, but now I know it to be so for since I'm not gardening this year winter is dragging on and on. Yesterday it snowed. Feels more like February than April.

Motivated by the Christian Farm & Homestead podcast on syrup making, we made some elderberry spiles and tapped 8 mature maple trees across the street with the permission of the landowner. Her late husband used to tap those trees when their children were younger so it was good to make use of them once again.

Elderberry or Sumac make good spiles because they have a hard outer wood and a soft, pithy core that drills right out. As it happened my son knew where there was a lone elderberry bush in the woods behind our home (that I wish I had known about last year!) and so we were able to quickly produce free spouts to satisfy our whim.

I'm not sure about how many gallons of sap we gathered so far to give any kind of ratio, but the yield of syrup so far (the last batch is going right now) is 7 quarts. They pulled the spiles and plugged the holes last night. Since we tapped the trees impulsively, we were not at all set up for transporting it back here, let alone evaporating it.

The last couple trips, they made a dolly and wheeled the trash can over. But still that couldn't have been easy with the hill they have to pull it up, let alone the deep ditch at the road.

We started off with a propane burner outside, but it only took a couple days to see how quickly that was going to wrack up a huge expense so the operation was brought indoors and let's just say dry winter skin hasn't been a problem this month. We enjoyed the whole operation nonetheless and intend to make it a part of our homesteading calendar.

Our steer decided that he had enough of the cow pushing him around and knocked down the wall that partitioned the chicken coop within the barn. The cow is a bossy old thing, won't let him near the hay until she's had her fill, and has a very generous personal space that she prefers he wouldn't invade. While in the coop he helped himself to the rest of the chicken feed (Praise God for no bloat!!) and made himself at home among the flock.

So between the steer getting in the chicken feed and someone leaving the lid off the sweet feed for the cow, our feed bill went up a bit last month.

We made plans for our own Chick Day this year (hopefully several) and hatched out four chicks, three of whom survived an incident with the heat lamp.

They're awfully adorable and it's going to be interesting to see what our first cross chickens look like. My oldest has always an interest in chicken genetics is going to have field day with this.

The second batch is going right now with turkeys, ducks, and freedom ranger x black australorp incubating for April's hatching.

Perhaps you haven't heard... we butchered our hogs this month.

You know what? We might not be the best at hog butchering, but I don't think that there's a single one of us who doesn't enjoy this aspect of raising our own meat. By the time it's all said and done after sausage making, curing and smoking the bacon and hams, it's a solid couple weeks worth of work, but it rounds out the experience, increases appreciation for the gift of the meat, and makes it all the more full of flavor.

This was our first time working with casings. It wasn't nearly as daunting as I had expected and I think went really well. Since it was an experimental year we only harvested the intestines of one hog. Next time we'll definitely do both!

Feasting on butchering day...

Maple-Glazed Pork Loin... perfect first meal for a March butchering, right? Oh my! It was so good!

Eight pounds of fat rendered into lard. I experimented with two different ways of preparing the fat and found to my surprise that one way made better cracklings and the other made better lard.

Farmhouse Crackling Biscuits. I need to work with the recipe a bit, just a bit, but these will probably make a nice every-now-and-then treat after lard making day.

The best part of March. The hope of an eventual spring returned.

What did March bring to your homestead?

~Day 22~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 02:16:00 +0000

Today is the 22nd day since we fired up the new incubator and placed a dozen eggs or so in it anticipating this day and the sweet sound of peeping chicks emerging from their shells.

Last night, just after midnight, we heard a rattle of the first chick flopping out and upright on the metal grid flooring and peeping obnoxiously all night long. It's funny how something so precious during the daytime can be so aggravating when it keeps you from sleep at night.

By morning a second chick had hatched, a third had made the zig-zagged break along one end of it's shell, and a fourth had pipped. Just before breakfast that third chick hatched as my loud and excited children looked on.

While we've dabbled in incubating our own chicks in the past, we're trying to get serious about it this year in order to not only save on the expense and shipping of the chicks, but also to improve the health of our flock. Bringing in any birds, whether mail-order or Craigslist, opens your current flock up for disease. By raising the offspring of healthy birds already thriving on our homestead, we hope that successive generations will do even better here. We have only one rooster here, a Black Australorp, so these chicks will be a cross of some sort with him unless one of the eggs selected happens to be from an Australorp hen.

This is our first year using an incubator that wasn't homemade. Our first one worked wonderfully, but successive attempts found us struggling to regulate temperature and even though we've found the eggs to be more forgiving and the chicks hardier than you read about, we haven't had any chicks hatch. In that regard we've met with more success with this incubator, however I think that by the time we call it tomorrow for the other 4 eggs we're still waiting on, overall I'm disappointed.

Our viability candling a couple weeks ago showed us 11 good chicken eggs and one duck egg. We checked again last week and removed 2 from the group and were down to 10 eggs. It looks like we only be getting 4 or 5 out of 10 eggs (I still hold out a small bit of hope for the duck egg. A week ago, it was very active at candling time!). Our hatching rate was better that first year at 75%.

I can't help but wonder if these last 4-5 birds died a couple mornings ago when we discovered the temperature took a huge spike up to 105. It was discovered quickly I know because we had checked it during the AM turning and this was about an hour later, so I was hopeful it didn't have an adverse effect.

The other thing that bothered me was that the eggs just sit on top of a wire grate and when the first clumsy chick or two comes out they're knocking the other eggs all over the place. It's my understanding that the chicks have to be in the same position a day or two prior to hatching so they can get oriented for the big day. Obviously, getting rolled around isn't going to allow that to happen. I think next time, we'll break off the bottom of an egg carton and stick it in there at the last turning in order to provide stabilization.

Late this afternoon, the fourth chick made its way out and is full of spunk. It's a feisty little thing, but it seems as though it didn't finish absorbing it's yolk sac which made us nervous for a while. All the chicken forums indicate that it won't cause any problems and will go away on its own. I sure hope that is the case.

Tomorrow we'll be watching those for the last eggs to show signs of life such as peeping, wiggling, or pips. If there is nothing, we'll clean out the incubator and start over again. This time though with some turkey, duck, and Freedom Ranger eggs I've been collecting over the last couple days. We'll also be sexing the new chicks to see what kind of expansion was just made to our laying flock.

~Old Hen in Parsley Sauce~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:38:00 +0000

A couple weeks ago we culled a few hens from the laying flock and I jumped at the opportunity to try a recipe I've had my eye on for months from my beloved Forgotten Skills of Cooking cookbook.

Old hens have a bad reputation for being good for nothing but to season stock, but allow me to dispel that myth for you because with proper preparation an old hen can be made fall-apart-tender and succulent. Even better because of all that beautiful golden fat.

This meal was absolutely one of the most amazing chicken dishes I have ever made and if you think that I'm waiting until the next time we cull the flock to prepare it, you'd be sorely mistaken. Poor birds, I'd be looking for any reason to dispatch them.

Some notes on the recipe:
~Resist the instinct to cover the bird with stock or water. It really does only take a couple cups of stock.
~Since it's the dead of winter here (despite the claims of the calendar otherwise) I've no fresh herbs growing so I used dry herbs and it turned out wonderfully.
~While the liaison is optional, being not afraid of uncooked farm fresh eggs, I included it and recommend you do so as well if you have the means.

Some notes on the Forgotten Skills of Cooking:
~It's a big, fat, clothbound, beautiful gem of a cookbook full of 700+ wonderful traditional recipes and skills.
~It makes me want to try preparing myriads of dishes I would never have contemplated otherwise.
~It is taking my farmstead cooking to the next level, making what we are growing and raising more satisfyingly flavorful.
~I have a second copy that I will be giving away.
~But you need to work for it first. This month Reformation Acres hit over 1,000 likes on Facebook, 5,000 followers on Pinterest, and is teetering on the edge of 500 blog followers. Frankly, I'm amazed and blessed by all of you but I thought to hit all 3 of those big numbers this month would be neat. So the sooner I hit that number and get 500 blog followers, the sooner I'll celebrate by giving away a copy of this treasure of a cookbook.

{Old Hen in Parsley Sauce}

whole chicken (about 4 pounds), seasoned with salt and pepper
1 large carrot, sliced
3 celery stalks, chopped
1 large onion, sliced
a bouquet garni with a sprig of thyme, parsley stems, tiny bay leaf, & 5 peppercorns
2 c. chicken stock
3/4 c. whole milk or cream
2 T. butter
2 T. flour
4 T. parsley, chopped
Liaison (skip this step if you do not have a farm fresh egg)
1 farm fresh egg yolk
1/4 c. heavy cream

Place the seasoned chicken, carrot, celery, onion, and herbs into a large pot. Pour the stock into the pan and then cover with a lid. Bring the stock to a boil then reduce it to a simmer for a few hours, until the drumstick feels loose when you give it a tug.

Remove the chicken to a cutting board, and strain the liquid, reserving the liquid only. Dispose of the vegetables. Strain the fat from the cooking liquid. (The liquid can be simmered to reduce if it tastes weak.) Add the cream to the stock and bring it to a boil, reducing it again. Make a roux by melting the butter and whisking in the flour. Whisk the roux into the stock, simmering to thicken it to a "light coating consistency." Taste adjust.

Carve the chicken and stir the meat into the sauce along with the parsley, warming the meat back up.

Prepare the liaison just prior to serving by whisking the egg yolk in with the cream. Temper the yolk by whisking in small amounts of the hot sauce until there is half of each in the bowl. Stir the mixture in with the chicken. Taste adjust if necessary and serve over brown rice or rice pilaf.

Enjoy!

Linking To:
Simple Lives Thursday
Natural Living
Fight Back Friday
Foodie Friday
Homestead Barn Hop
Scratch Cookin' Tuesday
Teach Me Tuesday
Family Table
Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways
Simple Living Wednesday

~Slaughtering~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:49:00 +0000

The Homestead Hog Butchering page is now up!

I finished the first video of the actual slaughtering and have it posted there among with some other videos and links that we have found helpful as we learn to process our own pork on the homestead. While you're watching it (and the ones uploaded in the future), just bear in mind that we have limited experience- my husband has now slaughtered 4 hogs in his life and butchered just a few more than that. I feel like I need to repeat this over and again lest anyone think I'm trying to pass off as an expert.

More than anything, I'm selfishly sharing these with you so that next time we can see exactly what we did and then repeat it. We said numerous times it would be beneficial if we did this more than once a year so it came more naturally and we didn't have to keep reading and watching our way through the process.

Although not reflected in the video, the slaughtering did not go off as smoothly as one could hope. The first hog lifted her head just enough that the first bullet, intended to stun her, was misplaced. Watching it over, she lifted her head ever so slightly just as my husband fired. I won't say she wasn't in pain, but she did only seemed interested in getting back to the feed. Within a minute or so of the first shot, a second one hit the target and she went down immediately. The sticking cut was made very quickly and my 14 year old son, who was to help hold her down, wasn't prepared for how forceful she would jerk and was kicked and splashed with blood. I didn't witness the slaughtering of the second hog, but by all accounts it went as smoothly and quickly as could be hoped for.

Two of the hogs we raised this year were for a family member who preferred to have his hogs processed at a butcher and it seemed to me that, despite the last minute of the first hog's life, it was a lot more stressful for those two hogs to be chased around the pasture for over an hour trying to get them loaded up on a trailer and then a 45 minute ride to the butcher where they were held (I imagine without food or water) for 24 hours before being slaughtered.

Among my other regrets is that I didn't realize how forcefully the hogs do thrash and didn't harvest the blood like I had intended to. Although my son would like me to learn to make blood sausage, I'm not there yet (this year's big feat was to clean and use the intestines and a few cuts of offal are in the freezer), but I did want to at least use it as fertilizer. I feel like I can justify not eating the whole animal if I at least recycle those parts to fuel other aspects of our homestead. Our barn cats and laying flock ate well that day! Next time, I'd hope that the hog could be held on its side and a bowl could be used to collect the blood.

I'm working on putting together the skinning video and hope to have it up sometime later this week.

~2013 Hog Butchering Stats~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 18:32:00 +0000

With butchering and processing of the hogs behind us, I was eager to see how things stood from a financial perspective.

There were several different factors that were changed in the way we raised these pigs this year. A few were intended to reduce the costs of raising our own meat even further. A few to improve the quality.

Among the changes were:

{Breed}

We opted for a heritage breed, Berkshires, this year instead of the pink cross breed.

Selecting a heritage breed most likely also played into how quickly the hogs grew. We should have purchased the feeder pigs earlier but couldn't find a breeder. They also should have grown longer. Cold weather can start getting sporadic this time of year (case in point- it's in the 30's this week and last year it was in the 70's) and we had to harvest the meat while there was an opportunity.

Although the Berkshire feeder pigs should have been more expensive, when we did finally find a breeder, the price was the same as in 2011. I would guess because it was off-season (September). Otherwise a heritage pig should cost more, maybe double. Were we to go the heritage route again, I wouldn't expect to find that good of a deal again.

{Feed}

Having finally found a source for GMO-free grain, these hogs were fed the slightly more expensive feed. The grain is organically grown, but not certified.

I rightly expected this change to have an impact on the budget, but hoped to offset that by heavily supplementing with vegetable scraps.

{Scraps}

Unlike any hogs we raised in the past, these hogs were given a constant diet of produce scraps from the grocery store. Two 33-gallon sized trash cans of out-dated produce were picked up every evening.

I had really hoped to see a significant overall reduction in the quantity of feed we had to purchase this year. In 2011 the two hogs averaged a ton of feed (give or take a couple pounds). This year, to my surprise, the average went up! To the tune of almost 500 pounds!! 2400+ pounds of grain in addition to daily produce scraps. What pigs!!

{Season}

In order to facilitate homestead butchering of the hogs, we raised them off-season so that the weather was cold when it was time to butcher.

In past year's we always bought the pigs in the spring, but since we intended to save a couple hundred dollars on butchering costs, have the benefit of using a few of the spare parts the butcher's normally dispose of during processing, enjoy the experience of butchering our own meat, and being able to enjoy the fruits of our labor immediately rather than waiting weeks for the butcher to return our pork to us, we decided to raise this group over the winter months. Since butchering outdoors is best done when the temperatures are in the 30's, the hogs needed to be processed before warmer spring weather hits as I mentioned above.

Over-wintering hogs outdoors could have also factored into the increased feed consumption since I imagine their bodies needed more fuel to stay warm. We attempted to deal with this issue by increasing the amount of corn in their grain ration, thinking the corn would help them put on (or at least retain some fat).

The question is, did any of these changes translate into savings?

{Cost Analysis 2011}

Expenses- $690.51

Yield- 413 lbs.

Price per Pound- $1.67

Feeder Pigs-$150.00

Feed-$440.51

Butchering-$100.00 ("Kill & Chill")

{Cost Analysis 2013}

Expenses- $1007.00

Yield- 342 lbs. 15 oz.

Price per Pound- $2.94

Feeder Pigs-$150.00

Feed-$732.22

Butchering-$10.00 (tape, salt, brown sugar- we already had bulk plastic wrap & butcher paper)

{Difference}
Expenses: +$316.59

Yield: (-70 lbs.)

Price per Pound: +$1.27

Feeder Pigs: $0.00

Feed: (-$291.71)

Butchering: -$90.00

That's a resounding, "No."

But since so many factor's did change this year, it's difficult to determine which one had the most impact on the budget.

Unless we are able to get our hands on a heritage breed like Large Blacks or Tamworths who are said to convert vegetation into meat more easily, we would definitely not waste our time hauling and picking through the produce scraps. (The packaging was not removed and they needed to be opened and disposed of.)

We intend to continue purchasing non-GMO feed. It's simply worth the added expense. If you consider that GMO-free Berkshire pork sells "locally" (nearest is an hour away) starting at $7.00 per pound, we still did pretty good this year.

We will continue to over-winter hogs as well. The fact is, we enjoy butchering our meat. Well pork. Chickens gross me out. It saves a significant amount of money, is less stressful for the hogs not to be loaded up, starved for a day, and killed away from "home", and is less stressful for the humans. I hate trying to make a pig deliberately move from point A to point B. It's virtually impossible, so it seems and it's just easier to walk up to them while their head is in a trough and pop them one. Done in less than 5 minutes.

As requested, during the slaughtering and butchering and processing this year, I took a ton of photos and videos that I'm working through in my spare time. Right now I'm thinking of making a "page" on the blog where it will all be compiled complete with links and other useful information and videos and resources (easy access will be had anytime through the side bar). Then I'll post the link each time I make an addition that will come through the feed. Since a "page" doesn't get picked up by the feed and a post does, those of you who visit for reasons other than the blood and guts won't be subjected to it.

For those of you who like the blood and guts, look forward to videos on slaughtering, eviscerating, breaking down the hog into primals and cuts, making natural casings, rendering lard, and some recipes too, including nitrate-free ham, bacon, and sausage if the recipes are worth sharing.

Linking To:

Homestead Barn Hop

~Rethinking Mulch Gardening~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 01:34:00 +0000

I have been an avid fan of mulch gardening for three or four years now.

I never gave much thought to what improvement the mulch was making for the soil in my garden. I didn't care about anything other than that I didn't have to weed nearly as much as I did the year before. Many times you hear about gardeners losing their garden to the weeds. Maybe you've been there yourself. I know there have been some years when I was just barely hanging in there, but now that I've begun to mulch, my time spent weeding is reduced from hours and hours weekly to less than one hour each week.

Last year we experienced our first drought since becoming gardeners. Looking back, we realized that we could count on our fingers the number of times the sprinkler was hooked up. Our hay mulched garden retained the moisture wonderfully and the plants were able to withstand the heat and dryness that was shriveling crops all around us.

Not being a glutton for punishment, I'm never going back.

There has been much buzz this past year about mulch gardening, generated from the online documentary Back to Eden which highlights an organic garden where heavy mulching of ramial wood chips are applied to deter weeds, retain moisture thereby eliminating irrigation, and improving vegetable nutrition.

As I first began watching, I admit I was a skeptic knowing that wood chips and wood products are to be used very sparingly, if at all, in the compost pile because their carbon to nitrogen ratio is so extreme and take a long, long time to break down.

To keep the average C/N down, I put in nothing woody, nothing with even thin bark on it: no tree trimmings, no hedge trimmings. Trust me on this; you don't want wood in your compost! The C/N of woody materials is way too high and will degrade your compost quality. For the same reason, don't put in any sawdust if you want your end product to have much fertilizing power. If you seem to accumulate a lot of woody plant residues, make a separate compost heap of them outside of the vegetable garden... The wood compost pile will be a slow-working, low temperature heap, and it might be several years before it seems done. When it does seem finished, do not put it in the vegetable patch. Spread it as a mulch under ornamental or under fruit trees. - Gardening When It Counts

By the end of the documentary though, the gardener had explained that the difference is made in that the wood isn't mixed into the soil, but sits on top and therefore doesn't pose a disadvantage to the garden.

Otherwise, I was sold by the beautiful imagery and high production of his garden. It is truly an enviable plot! In one scene in particular, I noticed a shot where you could see his garden edge and the grassy yard that surrounds it. You could see there were the lawn surrounding the garden was green, evidently gathering moisture from the mulched garden, and beyond that the grass was dry, dead, and brown.

I watched it again with my equally skeptical husband who also completely changed his mind by the end of the documentary.

Particularly excited about the prospect of not having apply mulch as frequently (hay mulch usually needs reapplied 3-4 times a growing season), as soon as we could, we found a source of inexpensive wood chips and had 2 dump truck loads dumped in our yard for $20. Knowing that we would be taking a rest during the 2013 growing season, in the fall, I layered manure and bedding from the barnyard, fallen leaves, and all of that wood mulching- basically turning our garden into one huge lasagna garden- in the hopes of improving soil fertility during the rest.

But now I'm rethinking the whole thing.

This winter, I have read a gem of a gardening book for the purpose of educating myself about improving the soil fertility this year called Teaming With Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web. I read a library copy and as I shared snippets aloud, we decided it is a "must-have"for our bookshelf.

Amidst the mountains of information, I learned a few key details about the soil food web and how it is ordered that made a great deal of sense and lined up with the knowledge I gained after reading The Holistic Orchard last summer.

In Teaming With Microbes, there are 19 "rules" for managing your soil food web. The relevant ones to mulching in the vegetable garden are:

1. Some plants prefer soils dominated by fungi; others prefer soils dominated by bacteria.
2. Most vegetables, annuals, and grasses prefer their nitrogen in nitrate form and do best in bacterially dominated soils.
6. Aged, brown organic materials support fungi; fresh, green organic materials support bacteria.
7. Mulch laid on the surface tends to support fungi; mulch worked into the soil tends to support bacteria.
16. Most conifers and hardwood trees (birch, oak, beech, hickory) form mycorrhizae with ectomycorrhizal fungi.
17. Most vegetables, annuals, grasses, shrubs, softwood trees, and perennials form mycorrhizae with endomycorrhizal fungi.

Connecting all of these dots, (and what I learned about organic orchard care- in a nutshell, part of maintaining an holistic orchard is to encourage fungal dominance, particularly of the mycorrhizal kind) it would seem that the Back to Eden garden is an anomaly.

If vegetables prefer bacterially dominated soils and trees soil that is dominated by fungi (supported by what I learned last summer), and if mulch worked into the soil supports bacteria and wood mulch worked into the soil skews the carbon to nitrogen ratio (supported by what I've learned about adding wood to the compost pile), then I should certainly reevaluate my plan of action.

Let's look a bit more at the last two rules I quoted above. I'm sure that most of you have never heard of mycorrhizal fungi. The term has been in my vocabulary for less than a year and even then I didn't fully understand the implications it had in the soil food web until recently. I simply knew that it was to be encouraged to maintain soil health in the orchard and how to achieve it.

So what is special about mycorrhizal fungi?

In return for exudates from plant roots, mycorrhizal fungi seek out water and nutrients and then bring them back to the plant... Without mycorrhizal fungi, plants do not obtain the quantities and kinds of nutrients needed to perform at their best.

Mycorrhizal fungi are of two kinds. The first, ectomycorrhizal fungi, grow close to the surface of root and can form webs around them. Ectomycorrhizal fungi associate with hardwoods and conifers. The second are endomycorrhizal fungi. These actually penetrate and grow inside roots as well as extend outward into the soil. Endomycorrhizal fungi are preferred by most vegetables, annuals, grasses, shrubs, perennials, and softwood trees. Both types of mycorrhizal fungi can extend the reach as well as the surface area of plant roots...

Mycorrhizal fungi is certainly something that those of us looking to garden organically (and by organically, I do not mean using industry approved organic pesticides and herbicides which still indiscriminately destroy the soil food web) should be seeking to encourage in our gardens and orchards, yet recognizing the differences in each system.

One of the things that really drew me to the Back to Eden method of garden mulching is the appeal to created order that was made. (The gardener's ability to draw upon Scripture was admirable and his desire to look seek the Lord's creation for wisdom laudable!) And it would seem that his original application (the orchard) was a correct one, but the issue was in his drawing it into the vegetable garden.

(In regard to rules 2 & 3) These two general rules take the guesswork out of what could have been one of the most difficult things about starting to garden with the soil food web. The rules make it easy to figure out what likes what, but once you understand what is behind them, you will appreciate them even more... Early succession communities are bacterially dominated. As more and more organic litter accumulates in the waste products from these organisms and the plant life they support, fungal spores finally have enough nutrients at hand to germinate. With a place to take hold and the resources to support themselves, the resulting fungi thrive.

Many other factors are involved, but to stick to what concerns us: as plant life and the soil food web become more varied, fungal numbers increase and more short-lived plants like annuals give way to more permanent, perennial grassland plants. More organic matter is produced, providing food for ever-increasing fungal populations. Shrubs move in, followed by soft hardwoods, expanding saplings, mature hardwoods, and finally the kinds of conifers you find in old growth forests. All the while, fungal biomass grows in proportion to bacteria, which cannot possibly compete because they are limited to digesting simple sugars and other carbohydrates- which are in limited supply given the ever-increasing mass of more complicated plants full of lignin and cellulose.

Moving from the beach, so to speak, to grasslands to old growth conifers, fungal dominance increases in the soil each step of the way. Part of this increase is explained by the tentative nature of early plant life. It is hard to form mycorrhizal relationships with plant roots when the plant dies after only a short period of time.

From this we learn that by observing created order for the entire cycle of plant growth in a given area, our annuals and perennials that we are growing to feed ourselves best thrive in soils that are not the same as would support mature hardwoods and conifers where you find that beautiful fungal duff.

Now after completely rethinking mulch gardening, I will no longer pursue converting my garden into a Back to Eden style garden. I will be looking to emulate the model set forth in Teaming With Microbes for promoting a soil food web best suited to what I will be growing in a given area- bacterially dominated vegetable gardens and a fungal domination in my orchard.

Mulches are easy to acquire and relatively easy to handle and use in support of your soil food webs. Simply apply the rules and the appropriate mulch (green or brown; wet or dry; coarse or fine) in the appropriate way (dug in or on the surface) around your plants (vegetables, annuals, and grasses, or trees, shrubs, and perennials). Be careful: add a layer any thicker than 2-3 inches and you may end up blocking moisture and air and smothering mycorrhizal fungi.

Lawn clippings are a terrific green mulch to use around your annual flowers and your vegetables during the growing season. Even though they lose their color and turn "brown," they are still considered "green mulch because when they were cut, they contained sugars that remain even after the chlorophyll has faded. The same is true of straw.

When the weather warms in the coming weeks I'll removing all of the wood chips we laid down in the garden this fall. I'll spend my afternoons hauling load after load across the yard to the orchard. It is slow, heavy work moving the wood chips (another disadvantage over hay or straw or grass), but I'll be glad for the excuse to be out in the sunshine working my winter-weakened muscles. Then it will be time to start seeking out some barns that need their floors cleaned of last years hay before the first cutting is brought in.

*Unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from Teaming With Microbes.

Linking To:
Simple Lives Thursday
Homestead Barn Hop

~Gleanings From March~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:09:00 +0000

My favorites and yours from off the Pinboards and around the web...

Best Winter Egg Layers

(The secret to eggs in the winter is to get a few production hens to carry you through because the heritage breeds simply aren't going to.)

How to Make a Dandelion Crown

The Child Housekeeper- A free ebook-"Written by two women who clearly understood and loved children, each chapter covers a different aspect of housekeeping sweeping and dusting; cleaning; laundry work; mending. Each lesson includes general directions on how and why the task is done, and is accompanied by songs, stories, bits of science and history, and play to reinforce the lesson."

How to Make a Twig Whistle

Guide to using apples

Handy.

Identifying a cows health by their swirls and coat

Treadle Sewing Machine advice
I'm on the lookout for a new sewing machine since mine is on it's last leg. I'm seriously contemplating one of these and never having to buy another sewing machine again.

Balsamic Vinegar and Honey Pulled Pork Sliders
Now that I have some pork roasts in the basement, this will be on the menu!!

Baling Hay by Hand- Great idea for small scaling hay-making like in the orchard!

Lasagna Raised Bed Garden- love the wattled sides for a potager!

My poor willow tree will have no branches left by the time I'm done with it!

Wood Cooking Stove. Envy.
No electrical components on that to get fried up while you're in the middle of making spaghetti & meatballs.

Jean Skirt Refashion- I have quite a few leg-less jeans stored up, so this would be a great way to use repurpose them.

15 Foods You Can Regrow From Scraps

Over 50 Canning Recipes

Make an Elderberry Spile for tapping trees- This is how we tapped maple trees this year for free! It would need to be done every year, but it seems to be working great!

Growing New Grapvines From Pruned Clippings- Next dry day, I'll be heading to the orchard to do the annual pruning and since 3 of our grapevines have been mown over or weed-whacked down, I'm going to attempt to propagate new vines before investing in some from elsewhere.

Espalier Pruning - I'd love to try this someday.

Homemade Laundry Deteregent- Not having found a homemade detergent I like yet, might as well give this one a try. I will say this much- it is the first liquid detergent that gelled up for me. I've only been using it for a few days, so we'll see how it goes.

-For those looking to learn to cook from scratch...

The Granny Plan

“The Granny Plan” isn’t about specific recipes, or must-make-dishes and exactly how to do them. Sure we’ll cover a few basics here, but for the most part I’ll be directing you to try some of the recipes you have stashed away that your family will like, or to make something you already make more often. We’ll be working on the routines that keep you ready to cook mostly. And routines that make the family happier with that cooking.

-Loved this story...
The Boy Farmer

He told us he ran this barn we were standing in mostly by himself, with the help of a friend who came after school. He wasn't boasting. It was just a matter of a fact thing and he was glad about it. I looked again at the long rows of heifers and cows and young bulls. He told us how he was sending the bulls back down to Virginia to put out to pasture, raising the heifers to milk and was milking nine cows by hand twice a day since the milking equipment in the old barn had never been put right. How they planted two hundred acres of corn and beans and for every acre they planted way up here in NY, they got twice as much product as the red clay Virginian soil would offer up. He gestured with small man hands, leathery and dark with grime from doing a man's work. When Sean asked his age, he said he was fourteen and that he was schooled at home.

-I always knew that breastfeeding was beneficial, but many of these benefits surprised me...
The Risks of Not Breastfeeding for Mothers and Infants

Health outcomes in developed countries differ substantially for mothers and infants who formula feed compared with those who breastfeed. For infants, not being breastfed is associated with an increased incidence of infectious morbidity, as well as elevated risks of childhood obesity, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, leukemia, and sudden infant death syndrome. For mothers, failure to breastfeed is associated with an increased incidence of premenopausal breast cancer, ovarian cancer, retained gestational weight gain, type 2 diabetes, myocardial infarction, and the metabolic syndrome. Obstetricians are uniquely positioned to counsel mothers about the health impact of breastfeeding and to ensure that mothers and infants receive appropriate, evidence-based care, starting at birth.

-Hope to see many more stories like this in the future...
Syngenta Charged for Covering up Livestock Deaths from GM Corn

Syngenta’s Bt 176 corn variety expresses an insecticidal Bt toxin (Cry1Ab) derived from the bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) and a gene conferring resistance to glufosinate herbicides. EU cultivation of Bt 176 was discontinued in 2007. Similar varieties however, including Bt 11 sweet corn are currently cultivated for human and animal consumption in the EU.

-This is so important! We can't just pick and choose which parts of the Bible are true. It's all true and to do so discredits our testimony and robs God of His glory...
Noted Apologist Calls Out Evangelical Leaders Who Undermine the Word of God

“Many Christian leaders today will say ‘who cares what Genesis says and what does it matter about the age of the earth as long as you trust in Jesus. We need to go out there and preach the Gospel,’” said Ham. “But the point we need to understand is the Gospel comes from this book called the Bible and if generations of people have been led to believe they can’t really trust the Bible or lead to doubt that you can trust its authority or doubt its history – eventually they will reject the Bible and won’t listen to the Gospel.”

~Weekend Plans~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 17:34:00 +0000

We're getting all ready to butcher our hogs this weekend... This will be our second year of doing it ourselves, but last year the butcher did a "kill & chill" for us since it was summer. This time we're doing it start to finish. I'm looking forward to using a few of the spare parts the butcher usually pitches in the trash.

Before we get started, is there anything you would like us to document?

~Your Questions: Where To Start?~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:45:00 +0000

By God's provision we were able to buy a beautiful 3 acre piece of land two weeks ago. I've always dreamed of living in the country and now that we are here I don't know where to start. Our property came to us completely fenced for goats and equipped with a small chicken coop and fenced garden. I guess my question to you is where do you start? I'm a little overwhelmed with the laying out of our little farm. I'm excited about all of it and don't want to bite off more than I can chew. A homeschooler like you, I need to be able to balance all the work and feel like I should ease in. I would appreciate any advise you can give as far as how to ease in.

When this great question came through my inbox, I knew I had to share it with my readers.

It is so easy to get excited about all there possibilities when you get your first piece of land, dive in the deep end head first, not realizing you don't even know how to swim. I think that is a recipe for disaster. You'll end up feeling overwhelmed, defeated, and, unless you're of the most stubborn character, run the risk of failure. We all grew up on Easy Street and this type of hard work isn't in our nature (otherwise you'd see more folks doing it because it's just so satisfying) and increasing accessibility to sustainable food locally makes it simple to pay someone else to raise our food for us.

So if I was starting all over again on a new piece of land, where would I begin?

{Learn the Land}

One of the permaculture concepts is don't do anything for a year, until you've walked it, see where the water goes, see where the frost pockets are, see where the dry spots are. Let the land speak to you. Then start with something you like. What do you like to eat? What do you like to do? What fascinates you? - Joel Salatin

Were I to move to a new piece of land, I wouldn't make any permanent additions for the first full year. Each season you'd find me taking pictures, making notes, recording the first & last frost in my homesteading binder and all other relevant observations. Being armed with this information will increase your success the second year.

Let's look at our orchard as an example. When we planted our orchard, the determining factor for deciding upon a location was, "Where do we have open space?" Our side yard seemed to have the most room and so that was where we planted. Thankfully, there is good southern sun in the winter and the young trees aren't shaded, but we didn't think about those things at the time. Worse than that though was that the trees were planted in the fall and it wasn't until the following spring that we realized just how wet it gets there. We planted half the trees in a very low spot where water sits for months in the spring. Fruit trees prefer to be 3-4 feet above the water table and of the trees that survived that first year, their growth is visibly stunted. We have since built up the area and they're doing better, thankfully, but careful observation would have prevented that issue.

I love that he suggests to grow what you like to eat. Originally, we were planning on getting goats for milk production because operating on such a small scale we thought that was our only option. The problem was, we don't care for goat's milk and I really wanted to learn the skills associated with having a dairy cow- ice cream, butter, and cheese, etc... I'm very glad that we decided to go with a cow and while our cow doesn't produce enough cream for ice cream and butter, I have learned to make several types of cheeses and hopefully will one day have a cow capable of providing us with the others.

{Avoid and Reduce Debt}

The first thing I'd advise is don't get too far into debt because debt is enslavement. Do things that take time and not money and use your creativity to do for yourself.

I would not recommend building your homestead by digging yourself into debt. Quite the opposite. If you happen to have debt, take that first year and try to get out of it. Reducing your monthly expenses will allow you to fit a new feed bill into the budget and ultimately give you so much more freedom to grow and expand when you are ready... not when the finances will allow.

{Start Small, Start Slow}

For many reasons "easing in" is one of the wisest things a new homesteader can do. Not only does it prevent burnout and help you stay out of debt, but it allows you to properly and thoroughly research each avenue you choose to explore. Starting slow, building knowledge, obtaining experience, gaining confidence, and working towards mastering each new skill will allow much of the work to be done effortlessly and as a matter of habit. Going about these new tasks habitually will go a long way to improving morale when there is a bump in the road. And there will be bumps.

Especially since in this case there already is a hen house in place, I think that a small laying flock is a wonderful place to start. A few chicks this spring will generate a great deal of excitement and feeling of productivity, like you're doing something other than waiting. Despite a lot of what you'll read out there, chickens are relatively adaptable and probably the most foolproof of barnyard animals. After 5-6 months of enjoying your young chickens, you'll start being able to gather eggs. Get a few new chicks each spring so you'll have fresh layers in the fall when the older gals are molting and over the winter. They'll keep you in at least a few eggs when everyone else is complaining of empty nesting boxes. After the 3rd or 4th year, cull out the oldest hens who are no longer laying and they can finish their contribution to the homestead by providing your family with a wonderful stock. (I have some simmering away on the stove right now.) You'll also get the benefit of a new skill- chicken butchering.

The second year on the homestead I would plant a garden in the spring. You could even start seeds in the late winter or early spring. I typically start my onions in January, peppers in March, and tomatoes a couple weeks later. I have found this to be a perfect cure for the winter blues and a fantastic and frugal way to extend the gardening calendar. Make sure you mulch your garden. Mulching is a wonderful way to build soil fertility over time, reduce fungal diseases found in the soil from infecting your plants, and most importantly (for me at least ;D ) keeping the weeds at bay. Straw or hay mulching took weeding from a daily chore down to a once-a-week one that takes less than an hour of my time. As to adding too much else beyond the garden and the chickens I would be hesitant to do so. It's hard to be patient, but gardening and food preservation will take more time than you think. Remember ease in. If you plan on putting in an orchard or berries, plant them in the late fall when the garden and all the related harvesting and food preservation isn't consuming so much of your time.

For successive years... well what do you like? What "stokes your boiler?" Do that.

{Build Soil Fertility}

Assuming that growing food in the soil will be a part of every homestead, I would absolutely emphasize the importance of building the fertility of your soil. Since I believe in doing so sustainably and organically, the way food has been grown for thousands of years heretofore, I would recommend doing so via mulching, cover crops, compost, and aerobic compost teas. Test your soil, make necessary holistic amendments using compost tea, compost, and mulch. I highly, HIGHLY recommend a book I read this winter called Teaming With Microbes. It will give you all the science behind building your soil food web and then the tools and knowledge to test and amend your soil accordingly.

To this end, if you plan on putting in an orchard or berry patch in the first or second year, in The Holistic Orchard (another excellent resource), Michael Phillips recommends taking a whole year to prepare your orchard site for planting.

Fruit plantings happen in one of two ways. The go-getter turns the lawn under and, plop, the trees and assorted berries are in. No real transition toward the fungal state occurs prior to the nursery order being made and delivered. The soil biology can recover from such unbridled enthusiasm- it's not "wrong" to do this- but soil preparation prior to planting offers certain advantages worthy of consideration. People with just a wee bit more foresight understand that a year of cover cropping and woodsy mulching not only offers the grower a chance to build organic matter and correct fertility imbalance but can also hasten fungal dominance.

Finally, having that new flock of layers will come in handy while you're building soil fertility. Either by encouraging your free-ranging flock to congregate where you'll be planting by laying down thick mulches for them to scratch through (and subsequently leave their contribution) or by proactively managing the manure of a contained flock via composting, the fertile manure of chickens will give your soil a big boost ahead of that first year of planting.

{Build Skills}

All of this doens't mean that you can be actively homesteading. There is still much that can be done. My next recommendation is work on building your skills.

Food preservation such as canning, curing, smoking, experimenting with cheese or soap making will all go a long way to helping so that the future learning curve will be more focused on animal care rather than turning their products into useable goods. Learning to cook from scratch, if you don't already know how, will help you to know how to prepare the food you grow or raise.

You can spend your time reading and researching the ventures you plan on beginning with. Having that knowledge to draw on when you need it will be so helpful, allowing you to attack a problem immediately when it arises.

You could find a mentor. That's not always easy, particularly if you raise your food unconventionally. (Not much sense wasting your time learning how to raise hogs in a barn on concrete if you want yours out on pasture.) If you could find a mentor to learn from, gleaning from their acquired wisdom and experience, what a blessing that would be! When we started out we didn't know anyone who felt the same as we do and this is where the internet has been a great benefit. One word of caution if you look to the internet for homesteading mentorship: Like the Titus 2 model that the Lord gives women for godly female mentorship where the older and therefore more experienced women are teaching the younger women, try to look for homesteaders who are sharing their wisdom and experience they have acquired over the years.

Another suggestion for anyone getting started on a homestead is to work out. I know this may seem like an odd one, particularly since homesteading often provides a built-in work out with all the chores to be done. Now I'm not talking about lifting weights or anything. And while a cardio workout might help with endurance, I think that, particularly if you will be adding livestock to the homestead, stretching daily could prevent a lot of injuries you could potentially incur while chasing rogue animals, slipping in the mud, etc... I've been stretching twice a week with this workout, really enjoy it, and hope it will be beneficial I play a more active role around here in the coming months.

{Build Infrastructure}

If you don't already have infrastructure in place, barn, buildings, fences, etc... the first year, while you are planning and observing is a great time to work on it (without going into debt, obviously.) Having the whole year set aside to work on these projects will mean fewer impulse purchases. (Like when we bought a cow, but weren't ready for her. Who was supposed to be bred, but wasn't so we bought a bull to breed her when we shouldn't have. Who we then had to butcher because we didn't have the space for him which meant buying all the supplies to get that job done. She also wasn't supposed to be lactating, but was- to the tune of 4 gallons a day! and there was that start-up expense. So much for having 6 months to prepare!)

And if you already have these things in place, you could work on buying high quality tools and equipment. I emphasis high quality because frankly the tools you are going to get at a big box store are made for occasional suburban use. If you don't buy high quality, plan on making an annual expense of the most used tools. (We have more shovel and rake heads than I can count!)

Finally, from the homemaker's perspective, perhaps now would be a good time to get a mudroom if there isn't one in your home. Our home doesn't have one and without an addition there is no where to put one, but "one of these day's" we intend to put at least an access in to the unfinished basement and set up a mudroom area there. Right now there 14 muddy- and by muddy, I mean "muddy"- boots strewn about our schoolroom which doubles as the common entry into the home. The walls are often scattered and splashed with mud. I took down my lace curtains over the door panels because I noticed they were no longer ivory, but beige. The maroon rugs look more dark grey than anything. I could go on. Point being, do yourself a favor and have a mudroom.

Easing into building a homestead doesn't mean that you can't be busy building your new lifestyle. There is always much work to be done and, as you'll soon find out, the work is never really done. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the knowledge there is to be gained and the responsibility of stewarding that knowledge to the next generation so that it isn't once again lost. I really feel like because of trial and error it could take more than a lifetime to recover these skills. There is really no sense in rushing it. So relax and enjoy the simple life and all the blessings and challenges it has to offer.

If you were starting all over again, where would you begin building your homestead? What lessons have you learned?

Linking To:
Simple Lives Thursday

~The Will~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 22:11:00 +0000

{I don't know about you, but I needed to see some color & be reminded that spring will be here soon! Enjoy the flowers!}

There is so much to be learned from Miss Mason as she speaks on the will. Frankly, recognizing my own terribly sinful nature, I have a difficult time reading through these wise words without being convicted and sober over my own lack of self-control over my will.

I know I'm not the only parent who struggles with having stubborn, head-strong children so I hope you find encouragement and strength from the following quotations.

{What is the Will?}

The will is the controller of the passions and emotions, the director of the desires, the ruler of the appetites. But observe, the passions, the desires, the appetites, are there already, and the will gathers force and vigor only as it is exercised in the repression and direction of these- it becomes vigorous and capable in proportion as it is duly nourished and fitly employed.

Character is the result of conduct regulated by will.

Persons may go through life without deliberate act of will- In the first place, the will does not necessarily come into play in any of the aspects in which we have hitherto considered the child. He may reflect and imagine; be stirred by the desire of knowledge, of power, of distinction; may love and esteem; may form habits of attention, obedience, diligence, sloth, involuntarily- that is, without ever intending, purposing, willing these things for himself.

{What the Will is Not}

Now, this confusion, in the minds of many persons, between the state of willfulness and that of being dominated by will, leads to mischievous results even where willfulness is not fostered nor the child unduly repressed: it leads to the neglect of the due cultivation and training of the will, that almost divine possession, upon the employment of which every other gift, be it beauty or genius, strength or skill, depends for its value.

The Will not a Moral Faculty- Again, though it is impossible to attain moral excellence of character without the agency of a vigorous will, the will itself is not a moral faculty, and a man may attain great strength of will in consequence of continued efforts in the repression of direction of his appetites or desires, and yet be an unworthy man; that is, he may be keeping himself in order from unworthy motives, for the sake of appearances, for his own interest, even for the injury of another.

All this the divine grace may accomplish in weak unwilling souls, and then they will do what they can; but their power of service is limited by their past. Not so of the child of the Christian mother, whose highest desire is to train him for the Christian life. When he wakes to the consciousness of whose he is and whom he serves, she would have him ready for that high service, with every faculty in training- a man of war from his youth; above all, with an effective will, to will and to do of His good pleasure.

And here is the line which divides the effective from the non-effective people, the great from the small, the good from the well-intentioned and respectable; it is in proportion as a man has self-controlling, self-compelling power that he is able to do, even of his own pleasure; that he can depend upon himself, and be sure of his own action in emergencies.

It is by force of will that a man can 'change his thoughts,' transfer his attention from one subject of thought to another, and that, with a shock of mental force of which he is distinctly conscious… Power of making himself think only of those things which he has beforehand decided that it is good to think upon.

{Training in the Way of the Will}

It is something to know what to do with ourselves when we are beset, and the knowledge of this way of the will is so far the secret of a happy life, that it is well worth imparting to the children. Are you cross? Change your thoughts. Are you tired of trying? Change your thoughts. Are you craving for things you are not to have? Change you thoughts; there is a power within you, your own will, which will enable you to turn your attention from thoughts that make you unhappy and wrong, to thoughts that make you happy and right. And this is the exceedingly simple way in which the will acts; that is the sole secret of the power over himself which the strong man wields- he can compel himself to think of what he chooses, and will not allow himself in thoughts that breed mischief.

Power of the will implies power of attention; and before the parent can begin to train the will of the child, he must have begun to form in him the habit of attention.

Habit is either the ally or the opponent, too often the frustrater, of the will.

Obedience is valuable only in so far as it helps the child towards making himself do that which he knows he ought to do. Every effort of obedience which does not give him a sense of conquest over his own inclinations, helps to enslave him, and he will resent the loss of his liberty by running into license when he can… invite his co-operation, let him heartily intend and purpose to do the thing he is bidden, and then it is his own will that is compelling him, and not yours; he has begun the greatest effort, the highest accomplishment of human life- the making, the compelling of himself.

Habit of self-management- Then, as was said before, let him know the secret of willing; let him know that, by an effort of will, he can turn his thoughts to the thing he wants to think of- his lessons, his prayers, his work, and away from the things he should not think of; that, in fact, he can be such a brave, strong little fellow, he can make himself think of what he likes; and let him try little experiments- that if he once get his thoughts right, the rest will take care of itself, he will be sure to do right then; that if he feels cross, naughty thoughts coming upon him, the plan is, to think hard about something else, something nice- his next birthday, what he means to do when he is a man. Not all this at once, of course; but line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, as the opportunity offers. Let him get into the habit of managing himself , controlling himself, and it is astonishing how much self-compelling power quite a young child will exhibit.

The education of the will is really of far greater importance, as shaping the destiny of the individual, than that of the intellect…. Theory and doctrine, and inculcation of laws and propositions, will never of themselves lead to the uniform habit of right action. It is by doing, that we learn to do; by overcoming, that we learn to overcome; and every right act which we cause to spring out of pure principles, whether by authority, precept, or example, will have a greater weight in the formation of character than all the theory in the world.

Charlotte Mason's Original Homeschooling Series

~Gleanings From February~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 02:16:00 +0000

My favorites and yours from off the Pinboards and around the web...

Containing herbs to prevent overgrowth... a great idea especially for members of the mint family.

3-Bin Chicken Powered Compost System

An idea for an outdoor canning kitchen.... because who wants to be cooped up indoors canning all summer?? Not me!!

5 Ways to Treat a Fever Naturally

12 Homemade Organic Garden Remedies

Would it be a "gleanings" post without a little pantry envy?

Homemade Natural Makeup

Home Cured Bacon without nitrates... It's almost bacon season in our home and last year we did use pink salt (has nitrates) to cure our bacon. This year, we'll be trying it with sea salt instead, thinking that we don't need the salt for actual preservation since the bacon will be preserved by freezing, so why risk it with the nitrates?

DIY Watercolor Paints

Garden Hen House- Isn't that classy!??

It's official. I'm moving. As delicious as Maybelle's milk is, I need to get myself a Jersey cow that will give me enough cream that I can easily turn into beautiful, healthful, cultured buttermilk like in this video. (One acre of pasture isn't enough to support a larger, more needy cow like a Jersey.) Besides, would it be a "gleanings" post without a resource from The Promiseland Farm?

Growing Your Own Forage Blend for the Laying Flock

Lots of links this month... There were so many excellent articles and bits for me to chew on this month, it was hard to choose!

Out of the Health Maze, Into Gods Peace

Many times my desire for good health has caused me to be gullible and vulnerable to every slick advertisement, product testimonial, website, or published book that falls into my hands. I have found that seeking after health to give me what only God can provide will never bring spiritual fulfillment.

(Be sure to read all 5 parts!)

You Can Take Your Quality of Life and Stick It: On Perspective and Being a Civilized People

What is civilized about a people who will verbally protest against the entities who "take their rights, their money, and their religion" away, but aren’t willing to give up a few comforts in order to stop being dependent on those very entities to live?

Vaccinated Children Five Times More Prone to Disease Than Unvaccinated Children

The numbers are even more divergent for asthma and chronic bronchitis, where vaccinated children are about eight times more likely than unvaccinated children to develop such respiratory problems. Vaccinated children are also far more likely to develop hyperactivity, hayfever, and thyroid disease, with their likelihood three times, four times, and a shocking 17 times higher, respectively, compared to unvaccinated children.

Can Vegans Stomach the Unpalatable Truth About Quinoa

There is an unpalatable truth to face for those of us with a bag of quinoa in the larder. The appetite of countries such as ours for this grain has pushed up prices to such an extent that poorer people in Peru and Bolivia, for whom it was once a nourishing staple food, can no longer afford to eat it. Imported junk food is cheaper. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken. Outside the cities, and fuelled by overseas demand, the pressure is on to turn land that once produced a portfolio of diverse crops into quinoa monoculture.

Pregnant Ewes, Lambing Season, and When Things Don't Go Right

There are high highs and low lows. Birth and death are a part of the farming deal and you are required to deal with it often. Sometimes the lambs show up without incident over night, other times you are out in the barn or field at midnight trying to save your animal. That’s the raw deal, real life farm deal

Technology: How Should We View It

If we are honest with ourselves we will have to admit that with all the promises of technology saving us time and effort we are as busy as ever, maybe busier. We have been duped by the allure of what we are told technology can offer and have bought into a lie. A lie that says leisure is just around the next technological corner but what we will find around the corner is another corner and another marvel to buy and another marvel to consume our time and affections. What happens is that once ones appetite for technology is whetted you then begin to work all the more to be able to get that next time saving advance all the time giving up the present for what you think the future may hold.

7 Lessons From My Hungarian Great-Grandparents

The Art of Self-Education

The system we have put in place is not about nourishing healthy minds, but about giving them Hostess Twinkies instead of steak and potatoes. They step up to the vending machines we call public schools and then press the appropriate buttons until we pronounce them "educated," but their minds are filled with empty conceit or a dread of a hopeless future.

Home: The Center of Agriculture

Agriculture forces a family to work together for their livelihood. It brings worth to each member of the family, and satisfaction in the accomplishment of surviving together. But more than that, nothing creates a dependency on God more than trusting Him to provide “our daily bread”. The beautiful, visual analogy of seeds being planted, then dying, then bringing forth fruit is important for our faith.

~ The Gardening Notebook {Giveaway}~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:08:00 +0000

When Angi from Schneider Peeps asked me to review and giveaway her new ebook, I wasn't excited simply for the sake of having the opportunity, but because as I prepared my own pages for my Homesteading Binder this year, I had decided to look into other materials available out there and came up incredibly disappointed. For about two days, I contemplated writing my own. Since I abandoned that idea, I'm thankful to see this resource available!

After looking over The Gardening Notebook ebook, I was very pleased with how thorough and comprehensive it is in information, resources, links, and tips based upon her 20 years of wisdom as a gardener!

This ebook would be the perfect resource for you regardless of whether you too are an experienced gardener (we could all use a little more organization to increase our productivity, couldn't we?) as well as the gardener just starting out. There are numerous resources out there that could be discouraging to the beginning gardener, but the knowledge and advice in The Gardening Notebook give you confidence to raise your own food for your family this year.

In The Gardening Notebook you will find information on:

-How to Begin Gardening

-Enriching the Garden

-Common Vegetables & Melons

-Fruits

-Herbs

-Ornamentals

-Pest, Problems, & Solutions

And a multitude of printables including:

-Garden Calendar

-Spring or Fall Planting according to your frost dates

-Garden Layout Graphing

-Plant Worksheet

-Local Resources

-Expense Worksheet

-Project List

-Project Planning Sheet

-Seed/Plant Purchases

-Seed Starting/Sowing Record

-Pest, Problem, & Solution Worksheet

-Book List

-Monthly Journal

Do you see now why this would be such a valuable gardening tool?? I don't know about you, but I invest quite a bit into my garden in both time and money and now there is just no excuse to waste that effort as a result of poor management!

While The Gardening Notebook will be half off for the rest of the month, you have the opportunity to organize your gardening efforts for free as Angi has graciously offered to give away an ebook to one of my readers! What a blessing!

To enter, simply leave a comment below, perhaps sharing why you need this valuable resource. Extra entries are available if you share this giveaway, whether on Facebook, Twitter, a blog post, or Pinterest. (If you have a link, please leave it in the comment.) Giveaway ends next Tuesday morning at 7am EST and I'll announce the winner that day.

(Small Print Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links- Thank you for your support!!)

~In Over My Head~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 02:20:00 +0000

As I added the latest two books that came in a shipment today to my nightstand, I realized that I'm in over my head. I know that the dark winter days are when we like to get our reading done, knowing that the business of the warmer months fail to provide that luxury, but this is a little too ambitious, don't you think?!

Here is what I'm reading these days-

Little House in the Ozarks (An insightful collection of articles written by Laura Ingalls Wilder.)

Slow Cooker Revolution (From the folks at Cook's Illustrated- some of these look AMAZING!)

One Man's Meat (Articles written by EB White after moving from the city to a farmstead in Maine.)

Jude's Herbal Home Remedies (very diverse and comprehensive- I'm secretly glad the children spilled water on this library book and now I'll be forced to buy it from them.)

The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient Dense Food (Steve Solomon's latest gardening book- Overall, I loved the last one, and am looking forward to gleaning from his experience once again.)

Born-Again Dirt: Farming to the Glory of God (We're reading this excellent, thought-provoking book aloud together as a family in the evenings and plan to purchase several copies to share with other farmers in our community.)

Teaming With Microbes (A scientific look at the biology of the soil food web and how to foster a healthy one in your garden. Highly recommended for the organic gardener- or for the conventional gardener for that matter if you want to understand what chemicals and tilling are doing to your soil food web.)

How God Wants Us to Worship Him (My Sabbath day reading, besides the Bible, of course. A look at the Regulative Principle of Worship and using the Bible as our standard for worship practices. I highly appreciate and have been extremely blessed by the bold and biblical teaching of Dr. Morecraft over the years.)

Langstroth's Hive and the Honeybee (As recommended on the Christian Farm and Homestead Radio broadcast. My husband is incredibly interested in adding bees as soon as possible and I confess, in my ignorance, to being somewhat intimidated by the seeming difficulties of raising them. I hoping that some of that fear will be relieved upon further education. The methods purported in the book ought to be entirely organic since it was written in the days when there was no such thing as organic farming since all farming was done organically.)

Now, tell me, what are you reading these days?

~Re-Seasoning Cast Iron Review~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 01:52:00 +0000

Last month I was very excited to attempt to scientifically re-season my cast iron skillets. After all, I had read that Cooks Illustrated recommended the method and I had complete faith in their expertise.

I stripped my pans full of enthusiasm and hope of having a beautifully shiny, smooth, black coating to my favorite skillets in the kitchen. I followed the suggested steps for stripping with an oven cleaner and while it did remove some of the gunk, it failed to fully strip the pans. I tried steel wool, which worked even more poorly and in the end the only thing that completely stripped the pans was a wire-wheel drill attachment. It was a time-consuming task, but I eventually got the pans stripped and was ready to move on to the next step.

I followed all the remaining steps precisely as instructed. It was foul work smoking and stinking up the house with cold-pressed flax seed oil, let me tell you! After the recommended 6 coats, I was not satisfied with the level of coverage. It seemed just as thin and rough as it did after the 2nd coat.

Perhaps the mistake I made was continuing to apply coats. Although it might have been visually imperceptible, perhaps the seasoning was too thick. But after admiring the glossy black pan for days, I finally melted in some butter and added diced onions and celery to saute. As the vegetables cooked they began to be peppered with bits of dark black coating that was increasing in quantity by the second. The beautiful seasoning was flaking off into the food!! I'm just thankful I didn't test it out with a cut of meat or something equally valuable!

I had been warned that this might happen earlier after posting the link to the re-seasoning method on Facebook, so ultimately I wasn't surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised.

In the end, I was able to boil water in each skillet and the coating just flaked right up. Once they were cleaned back up, I'm just starting from scratch, seasoning with bacon grease or lard, in a thin layer and baking them low and slow in the oven each morning when I bake bread. When the bread is done, I'm leaving the oven on until lunch dishes are done and letting the pans cool off with the oven. They're finally looking back to normal and I'm looking forward to having my favorite skillets available for my use once again!

(You can even see how the exterior and handle was chipping away after being applied to the heat of the burner.)

Ultimately, lard is a resource I can produce on the homestead as a by-product of pork production making it virtually free and easily accessible. Flax seed oil is expensive and more difficult to find, so from now on, I'll be sticking with good old lard when caring for my cast iron.

How do you re-season your cast iron?

~Chicken Soup with Homemade Spaetzle~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:47:00 +0000

Here is the recipe for our family's favorite, primarily homegrown ( So I haven't figured out how to grow the celery yet... or the supposedly easier substitute lovage. I'm working on it...), and nourishing chicken noodle soup. We've been eating lots of soup the last couple months as illness made it's way through the family and no one ever tires of it, it's so delicious.

I know that there are many recipes out there for chicken soup with a great number of variations, and most will be less time consuming. But I think that the special ingredient in this recipe is the time involved. The fact is that it takes time to leach all of that healing goodness from the bones of the chicken. I'm not in a rush. I've nothing more pressing to do than to make sure that my family is well fed.

This soup is essentially prepared in three steps- first is to build the flavor and nutrition of the stock. The acid is added to help leach as much from the bones as possible. The feet and roasted bones, while optional, add a depth of flavor and texture to the broth that is simply unparalleled. We've run out of feet for the year already and I can absolutely tell the difference. I'm actually looking forward to culling the old hens from the flock more for their feet than for the savings on the feed bill.

Once the stock is prepared, the second step is to cook the vegetables. In my old recipe (in the days before extra bones and feet) I would add them at the beginning of the recipe and their texture left a lot to be desired. By cooking them until just tender during the last hour or two they retain both taste and texture.

Finally, the spaetzle is made and added to the soup. I've made the spaetzle noodles with half whole wheat and had good results. Experiment with your flour of choice to find what you like best. The recipe for the spaetzle comes from my great-grandmother's kitchen. The story goes that she could pick her noodles so fast they'd pretty much all be done at the same time, but I, for the life of me, can't figure out how that's possible. I employ the help of many little hands and it still takes us about 20-30 minutes for a double recipe of noodles.

{Chicken Soup with Homemade Spaetzle}

1 whole chicken
4-8 chicken feet, optional
roasted chicken bones, optional
1 onion, halved, peeled
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled
juice of half a lemon or 2 T. apple cider vinegar or whey
generous palmful of sea salt to taste
pepper to taste

1 1/2 pounds carrots, peeled, chopped
4 small parsnips, peeled, chopped
5-6 celery stalks, chopped including leaves
1/2 c. fresh parsley, chopped

Spaetzle Noodles:
1 1/2 c. flour of choice
2 eggs
1 t. salt

In a large stockpot place the chicken, feet, bones, onion, garlic, acid, and seasoning. Fill the pot to the brim with water. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce to a low temperature. Continue to simmer on low for several hours until the chicken is tender and falling off the bone.

Strain the stock from the pot through a colander (into another large stockpot or I use a large bread bowl). Set the colander of chicken aside and return the strained stock to the pot. Add the prepared vegetables and parsley to the stock and simmer over low heat until the vegetables are tender, maybe 1 1/2-2 hours. Meanwhile pick the chicken meat from the bones and reserve it, discarding the remainder of the strained ingredients and adding the chicken back into the soup to warm while the noodles are cooking.

To prepare the noodles, simply mix together the flour, eggs, and salt until a very stiff dough forms. Be sure to add enough flour that the dough will not stick to your fingers while picking the noodles. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Pick off small pea-sized noodles until you have picked through all of the dough. Keep the flour handy, you may have to dust your fingers to keep the noodles from sticking a bit. Drop the noodles into the pot of boiling water and boil for about 8 minutes after adding the last noodle. Drain the water. Either add to the soup or serve individually in a bowl and top with the soup.

Enjoy!

~2012 Homestead Yields & Cost Analysis~

noreply@blogger.com (Quinn) — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 01:30:00 +0000

Well it's that time of year again.

The time when I get a cold shock of reality and look back at all the records I kept, determining the profitability (or lack thereof) of all the time and money invested into raising our own food.

As I look over the numbers and see where we've made losses and gains throughout the year, I have to bear in mind the true costs and profits of having a homestead.

Last year we set some goals to reduce costs and possibly improve yields. One was to reduce feed costs by 40%. Well thanks to the drought THAT didn't happen. We're still paying an exorbitant for hay for starters. Add to that, we are paying more per pound for hog & chicken feed - but that's a good thing really, because last year's prices reflect industry standard feed and we were blessed this year to find a local source for GMO-free feed for our livestock. Feeding GMO-laden feed was never something I was comfortable with. I feel like it's a giant science experiment and our animals are the lab rats (and ourselves a little further up the food chain), but that way is preferable to whatever is in the supermarket simply because of the improved quality of life I know our food has.

Other goals-

-Get produce cast-offs to supplement feeding. We have been doing this since late summer and while I don't know if it is reducing our grain inputs (it's mostly being fed to the hogs and those numbers are still out), it does give the livestock something to look forward to each day. We were able to get a few truckloads of pumpkins in November. In late fall we passed on the pomice from the cider mill since there was no logistical way for us to get it here and unload it. And daily, we collect 2 trash cans full of produce cast-offs from a local grocery store.

-Greater predator control. Obviously any chickens the critters are eating, we're not. So this was a big goal. Many coons and possums died as a result of this goal. We had less than a handful of losses due to predators this year. Sadly, that triumph is not reflected in our stats since a third of the flock was lost to a huddle (human error). And a couple dozen were lost because of getting held up in shipping over Easter. (Lesson: Do not purchase chicks from the feed store if Easter is early in the year. This year Chick Day is the first week of April and we are passing on them, shopping elsewhere.)

- Reduce the price per pound of our produce by 25-50%. A 45% reduction in the price per pound!! And that with having to battle all of those bugs and everything! I'm incredibly excited about this blessing.

Other notes:

- We did return to the wood chips deep litter method for the chicken coop this year and that fact is reflected in the cost.

- This year, we have had 6 heritage turkeys sharing the laying hens feed bill. Since, unlike broad-breasted turkeys, they still fit into the coop, we can't force them to forage for 100% of their feed like we could the broad-breasted ones. There is no way of knowing who is getting what, but I'm sure that has had an impact on the feed bill. Since they're eating with the layers all other turkey costs are included there, like poults.

-Technically, we didn't raise hogs for 2012 butchering, so all costs incurred last year will be attributed to this year's analysis.

- 2010 Total Yield was 2378 pounds; 2011 was 2482 pounds; 2012 was 2433 pounds. That's an pretty even average I'd say of 2431 pounds per year. With all the variables each year- beef one year, a glut of zucchinis one year, none the next, no hogs this year, etc.... I count it a testimony to God's provision from one year to the next. It's like the ultimate CSA box- you just can't be sure what you're going to get.

{2012 Homestead Yields}

(2011 Yields & Cost Analysis)

Click images to enlarge

{2012 Cost Analysis}

Broilers: Increased by $1.49/lb.
Dairy: Decreased by $.42/gallon
Garden: Decreased by $.91/lb.
Layers: Increased by $1.32/dozen

{2012 Cost Analysis Breakdown}
(2011 Cost Analysis Breakdown)

~Garden~
Seeds & Seed Starting-$348.17
Plants-$118.08
Soil Amendment-$51.53
Pest Control-$3.94
Equipment-$197.98

~Layers~
Chicks-$170.81
Feed-$343.19
Bedding- $89.18
Equipment- $132.36 (most of which was a heated waterer for about $75)

~Broilers~
Chicks-$224.90
Feed-$476.08
Pest Control-????

~Dairy Cow~
Feed- $1976.20 (hay, grain, minerals)
Milk Supplies- $102.10
Equipment- $59.20
Medical- $30.00

And for something new this year, I started to keep a target goal & inventory sheet for the pantry. It's not a perfect record and I'm hoping to make improvements and additions this year. One thing I'd like to do is get a pressure canner and decrease our dependency on the freezer for things other than meat. Right now I have a large chest freezer (like the biggest you can buy, whatever that is) and 3 little cube ones.

{2012 Pantry Inventory}

Hopefully by sharing this others can get a more realistic goal set for themselves this year. Obviously, we all hope to do better than this, but I think that by not setting standards too, too high discouragement will be reduced and others looking to getting into homesteading will stay the course and find themselves pursuing a new, satisfying way of life, learning new skills, and most importantly how to more fully rely upon the Lord who will provide!

Links for 2011-03-31 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:00 PDT

FREE SEEDS!
25 seed packets from Seeds of Change- a $75 value!- for $4.99 shipping!

Links for 2011-03-18 [del.icio.us]

Sat, 19 Mar 2011 00:00:00 PDT

America's breadbasket aquifer running dry; massive agriculture collapse inevitable
Just another reason to grab a packet of seeds and grow your own food.

Links for 2011-02-22 [del.icio.us]

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:00 PST

Pathogen in Roundup Ready Soy and Corn Could Lead to Calamity, Scientist Warns
"A new self-replicating, micro-fungal virus-size organism could be causing spontaneous abortions in livestock, sudden death syndrome in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soy and wilt in Monsanto’s Roundup Ready corn, a plant pathologist has warned U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack."

Links for 2011-01-22 [del.icio.us]

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:00:00 PST

Everything you always wanted to know about COMFREY but were afraid to ask
Comfrey 101
COMFREY FOR THE HOMESTEAD
Comfrey Order Form
http://www.nantahala-farm.com/images/Comfrey.pdf

Links for 2011-01-20 [del.icio.us]

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:00 PST

How to Formulate Your Own Chicken Feed
Hate to use soy for feeding the animals... is it possible to not only mix our own, but grow some of it?
Chicken Feed Recipes
Including traditional recipes without soy