Farm Life

The past several weeks have been really intense - good, but intense.  Here are a few pictures from throughout the planting season.  We are almost done planting and are now mulching.  We are up to 105 chickens and are ready to butcher.  That is next....  as soon as we get the details worked out.  There are 6 ducks in our menagerie and two pigs.  The green feed in the orchard is working out great and our "chicken salad" is giving our cooped chickens lots of greens in a steady way.

There are a bunch of quail in my sister's ever expanding incubator.  The first one is pipping out, probably tonight.  By tomorrow we will probably have a bunch of quail.  I don't even have a vague idea of how to take care of them, but will soon figure it out.

There are 60 chicken eggs in the incubator at this time.  Since we decided that 15 is the limit for one Mama Hen (otherwise the little ones get suffocated) we are trying to train a couple of other Mama's.  One is working out nicely and I'm looking for another little house and have the next Mama picked out.

We ended up with over a hundred tomato plants.  Thanks to all who took my extras.  They were overwhelming.   We also have in onions, garlic, potatoes, sweet and hot peppers, cucumbers, 27 varieties of melons, beans, peas, radish and lettuce and will be planting corn soon.

The raspberries are just ripening up and the kids have been on the strawberry hunt for days now.  I have little bunches of strawberries all over the place, and if you hunt, you can find some.  It is a lot of fun.

The guys have been working like madmen on a road realignment project and a big house foundation, but they have shoved a couple of things in around here.  Fence fixing is ongoing and we did a lot of work on our pool.  It is quite old and needs work - always.  We pressure washed, drained and painted the pool and shortly they will convert an old, non-working hot tub that was attached into a kids pool.  By the way, that was a royal we.... I really didn't help at all.  My sister is the ramrod of that project and boy am I glad it is almost done :)  It will be more efficient, safer and a lot cuter than anything I could come up with.

Hope everyone has their garden in.  We are working hard in ours.  Everything is popping up and growing like crazy.  I can't wait for tomatoes!

Showing off a beautiful granddaughter!

We love baby ducks!

There is always time for a bike race!

This is the "chicken salad"  Different seeds planted in these old raised beds and as they grow, the chickens can eat the greens, but the plants live.  It is working really well.

The house and run for our Mama Chicken...

Training up a second Mama Chicken in this house.

A little repair work on the step.

I am really not helping.... just checking it out.
Patching and painting are not my thing at all.
I really admire anyone who can do this type of work and I WISELY married someone who is great at it.  Twenty nine years and counting!

 Let the painting commence!  A little tile work and it is just like new  :)

This mess will become a neat kids pool with some gravel, some concrete, some paint and some tile.

We collected about 50 million polliwogs to feed to the ducks and worms in the pool cleaning out process.   We also collected several buckets of very nice leaves laced with lots of algae and used them to mulch the potatoes.  We begin refilling the pool Wednesday.  I can't wait!

Loving it!
Be healthy and well
Cindy

Baby Pictures

I wanted to show off our beautiful, sweet, new granddaughter. 

Everyone is healthy, happy and well.

Grammie is REALLY HAPPY!

Babies are a blessing from God  :)

Cindy

Baby is HERE!

The newest addition to our family is on her way.  They have induced our sweet daughter in law and we are praying for a safe, healthy, sweet delivery.  Our grandson is here sitting on Papa's lap having a little Julie's Organic blackberry ice cream.  We have sunshine on one side and rain over our head.

We enjoyed having our little grandson here and he had a full day of puppies, chicks, ducks, tractor rides, baseball, kitties, egg gathering and other fun stuff.  It is a sweet day!

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

A couple of additions to the farm

We have recently added a few animals around here:

Two new kittens

Some baby ducks......

To go with the duck pond

A little coop for Mama Hen "Aunt Bea" and the new chicks (sorry, no pics of the new chicks - they are totally cute)

A little coop for the roosters to be butchered soon

Two new piggies and...

A coop for the "old biddies" - 

when the new hens begin laying, these older ones will be butchered.

No pictures yet:

New puppy for son in law.... Odie... he is so great!

New baby for son and daughter in law soon!

Recipe for converting an unused playhouse into a chicken coop!

Take one old playhouse (cost - nothing)

 Add one creative sister (cost - priceless)

Mix in one handy brother in law (totally awesome)

Some old chicken wire and some screws (happen to have on hand)

Blend with one useless swing frame (and cut it to size to fit down garden rows)

With a hubby who knows how to use old stuff (and make it new)

Mix the house and frame together with a grin

 Ta-Da!  You now have one movable chicken coop...

 Great for fertilizing, worm eating and weed control 

while your little roosters get ready for the freezer!

Next little house - a house for mama hen and babies :)

Redirecting of energy

I just wanted to apologize for no new posts..... I forget every year how exhausting and intense this season is.  Our concrete construction swings into full gear at the same time that our garden swings into full gear.  I always say we go from 10 mph to 90 mph overnight  :)  It will probably be about two weeks before we can settle into our new summer routines with the bulk of the heavy work done..... then I'll be back (hopefully with pictures.  I was being faithful to take pictures but cannot find my camera right at this time)

Some of the topics I would like to cover over the summer:

• Phase 3 - Soaked grains and nuts - I don't know what I was thinking - this should have been done over the winter, but there you are :)  Hopefully this topic can be covered with some thoroughness over the next 6-8 weeks.

• Pregnancy diet - My daughter in law is about to deliver her second baby and my daughter is expecting in December.  We have found some really wonderful and helpful diet information for pregnancy.  Some of it is really important.  I actually want to cover it in 4-5 different posts.  Our local midwife will probably have to help me - when she explains things they make sense, then I cannot really repeat them very well.  Both girls have kidney issues, but we found a diet that is so helpful.  We took Dr. Brewer's recommendations and combined that with Sally Fallon's wisdom and came up with some good stuff.

•  If you want to try any of his recommendations, go grass fed, organic and local.  We have ramped up on the egg thing because of a wonderful enzyme that is in the egg white of a grass fed, fertilized chicken egg.   The only thing is that you have to eat it raw.  It is great in a smoothie.

• My sister came up with an amazing idea for a quick chicken coop.  Take an old kids playhouse (she had one) and screw chicken wire to the windows.  One window was left open, but we screwed a clasp to it so it can be opened and closed.  the door had a latch put on it.  They then took an old swing frame and wired chicken wire to it.  Ta-da:  Chicken coop with a little run that can be moved and the little run can be put down a garden row, which then also gave us a chicken tractor.

• My sister will need to do some guest posts.... she has been studying the chicken thing and is now the local expert.  She came up with the cool new chicken coop (I need about 5 more of those old houses.... if you have one locally you want to get rid of.).... also we made a "chicken salad" using some old frames.  We planted it and put chicken wire on top.  The chickens will be able to eat the green tops, but not the plants.  Stay tuned for this one.  The stuff is just sprouting........ we are getting quails next and every 3 weeks another bunch of chickens hatches.  We butcher our first bunch of chickens in about a month.

Anyway, be blessed today.

Cindy

Gazpacho

Gazpacho

In Andalusia, most gazpacho recipes typically include hard bread, tomato, cucumber, bell pepper, garlic, olive oil, vinegar or wine, onion and salt. The following is a typical method of preparing gazpacho:

1. The vegetables are washed and the tomatoes, garlic and onions are peeled.
2. All the vegetables and herbs are chopped and put into a large container (alternately, the tomatoes may be puréed in a blender or food processor.
3. The soaked bread is then added (optional)
4. Some of the contents of the container are then blended until liquid, depending on the desired consistency.
5. Chilled water, olive oil, vinegar and salt are then added to taste.
6. The remaining contents of the container are added to the liquid, then briefly puréed until there is some texture remaining for garnish. (optional)
7. Garnishes may be made with fresh bell pepper slices, diced tomatoes, or other fresh ingredients.

Traditionally, gazpacho is made by pounding the vegetables using a mortar and pestle.  This method is still sometimes favored as it helps keep the gazpacho cool and avoids the completely smooth consistency, and foam, created by blenders and food processors.

A recipe with measurements (for you control freaks :)

Gazpacho Recipe

Ingredients

6 ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 purple onion, finely chopped
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, chopped
1 sweet red bell pepper (or green) seeded and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped fresh chives
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
2 Tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons sugar
Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
6 or more drops of Tabasco sauce to taste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (omit for vegetarian option)
4 cups tomato juice

Method

Combine all ingredients. Blend slightly, to desired consistency. Place in non-metal, non-reactive storage container, cover tightly and refrigerate overnight, allowing flavors to blend.
Serves 8.

Salsa

Salsa

Tomatoes in various colors (each color is a different acidity and gives your salsa a complex flavor) 

(you can blacken some of them for smoky flavor)

Sweet and Hot Peppers - seeded and blackened in a cast iron pan

Tomatillo

Onion

Garlic

Cilantro

Salt

Pepper

Cayenne

Cumin

Cucumber - with the peels on and I like to put the bitter end in for complex flavor

Lime juice and zest

Whey

I don't have amounts.  What I do is go and pick in the garden and throw everything into the food processor.  I blend it to chunky and season it to taste.  It tastes different every time.  It is a family favorite.

The whey cultures the tomato mixture and adds all kinds of wonderful health benefits.  This is an enzyme rich, antioxidant rich, nutrient dense food that packs a big health punch!

The Extra Step - Menu Planning

My personal Waterloo - Menu Planning

Phase 2 ends with menu planning.  Really, this is my biggest weak area in the entire realm of food preparation.  However, I know, know, KNOW that I must get it down on paper and follow it.  So, for me, if not for you... the bullet points:

• Eating for health requires you to incorporate some specific foods on a regular basis.  If you have no plan, you will probably miss some things you want to work in (the raw liver is still in my freezer... going to go on the menu!)
• When you are planning to plant and eat from your own garden, you should know lots of things to do with what you grow.  PLANNING helps.  You know what to grow and how to use it.  Also, your family won't get sick of the 10 things you are good at :(
• When you are attempting to reach a health goal, a plan is good.
• Time, money, effort and energy is freed up.  No more trying to figure out what is for dinner.... and it is 6:00 at night.
• If you plan to soak your grains (Phase 3 - been trying to get to Phase 3 for a month now) you have to plan ahead.  Flying by the seat of your pants just does NOT work (trust me on this one).
• Make it a part of your routine and you are more likely to be successful.  Make it work for YOU. 
• Check out what they say at the Weston Price Foundation to help you incorporate great principals.

Find someone to help you get started or to keep you going.  A couple of friends are so good on their menu planning.  You might look at Jabez Farms.  She is so faithful with her Menu Planning Monday.  As a bonus, she has been so encouraging for me on Facebook to get on with the program :)  Thanks Kim.  You are the best.  

Personally, I am planning to go with a seasonal menu.  I have begun the process using some of the ideas from Passionate Homemaking and Keeper of the Home.

This is an important step in our household as we get more and more busy.  Our work season just swung into full gear, the gardening is intense and everyone needs to stay healthy, busy, productive and well.  A seasonal menu seems to be what will work for us.  This will help me in planting the garden as well (see, everyone has priorities - I have charts, diagrams, lists, orders - everything in order for the garden... hmmmmm, just apply it to the kitchen!)

So, the final step in Phase 2.  Get a menu figured out.  What do YOU need to eat to be healthy.  Do you have a plan?  What does your family need.  Is this a short term or long term need?  It is important to figure it out.

Pray that I can get this are organized!

Cindy

Beet Kvass

Over at Evelyn Fields place she made Beet Kvass.  Apparently I missed this step completely  :(  She did a great post on it and I would encourage everyone to go look at it.

Beet kvass is what I do when I need a detox at the cellular level.  Personally, I add some cayenne pepper to mine (my sister hates that) and drink it by the glass.  I do not recommend this - it is just what I do when I have to do major detox, especially when we choose relationship over healthy habits.  Sometimes those two things conflict and we almost always opt for relationship..... this puts the brakes on legalism.  But a good detox helps :)

Go take a look and enjoy!  The day is gorgeous and I am headed out to weed eat a bunch more grass for the pigs (they are loving it) and for the chickens (ditto).

Our egg production is up, our feed bill is down, our hens are happy, our meat birds are growing.  The day is promising  :)

Cindy

 Longing for Spring

Christian Christoph Sturm (1740-1786)

(set to music by Mozart)

Come, dear May and turn the trees to verdant green
  and make the little violets blossom by the brook!
How gladly I would see a violet one again, dear May
  how I would like once more to take a walk!
But most of all I feel for Charlotte in her grief;
  the poor girl just sits there and longs for blossom time.
In vain I fetch some toys to help her pass the time
  she sits upon her stool just like a broody hen...
If only it got warmer and the grass began to grow!
Do come, dear May, we children do beg you earnestly!
Do come and, above all, bring lots of violets
  and also nightingales and pretty cuckoo birds!

the violets we planted a couple of months ago....

(Mama Hen has 20 chicks under and about 10 from the last batch she brooded hanging out with her - what a Mama!)

...and it seems as if winter is giving it's last gasp.  

A little snow to say goodbye.  

Tomorrow, Spring will probably win.  

I love the seasons.

Cindy

Sally Fallon Morell in the UK

Sally Fallon is speaking at an event in the UK.  The Blog "Harke is Online" appears to have posted two complete events that she spoke at.  The first appears to be 77 minutes long and the second 52 minutes long.

Vimeo of UK Wise Traditions Conference 

I don't have time today to listen to all of this, but I know it will be good.  I will probably break it down into segments and watch all of it over the next several days.

I'm putting in a link so all of you can hear it from Mrs. Morell herself.

Cindy

A little more on the chickens and the farm

Today brought 2 pigs to our little ranch.  Something new to learn about :)  They have some organic pig food, grass clippings and a pile of oak leaves and acorns.

We have been reading a great book on Open-Air Chicken coops.  Here is a link that has portions of the book that you can read on line:  Fresh Air Poultry House

Turning our enclosed chicken coop into an open air coop seems to be a successful experiment.  Two days ago we had 22 hens and one rooster in a large coop with a covered run.  They free range in the afternoon.  We have consistently been getting 8 eggs from that coop.  The other coop which is open air has 8 hens and one rooster and about a million little chicks.  We have been getting 6 eggs from it every day.

Yesterday the guys cut some holes in the walls and doors and put chicken wire in.   Five of the hens went to my sister's house.  Today we got 9 eggs from 17 hens - a little more than 50%.  It was quite rainy today, so hopefully that will increase.  Six hens from the first batch we incubated will join these hens in the big coop soon.  They should start laying about August.

They ran the weedeater in the rain today and raked the grass and weeds for several hours.  We put huge bunches of fresh clover, grass, vetch and weeds in for the hens and chicks.  All loved it.  The kids and I dug a LOT of worms and tossed them in.

The sunset was gorgeous, but my camera does not do it justice.  

NOTE FROM ARLEEN ON THE BOOK

Gold in the Grass

Here is one of Arleen's favorite sites:  Chicken Feed

I like this one on worms:  Worms for feed

....and this one:  Journey to Forever 

The Ideal Chicken for the Consumer and for the Producer (in a nutshell :)

*********************************************

There are many things that a commercial chicken or egg producer can do to increase the health value of the product. While the "Organic" label is a start in the right direction, it by no means assures us that that chicken is the very most healthful bird on the market.

Though not all of these items can be accomplished by the average chicken producer, in my estimation, the supremely most healthful chicken, for meat as well as for eggs, would consume the following feedstuffs in these ways:

1. Ample grass and living plants, along with insect life and subterranean flora and fauna that is found in the grasslands. It would be truly free range, or perhaps a better term needs to be sought. "Grass-ranged" is one option. Whichever term is used, it should be a legally-certified term so that the public will know that this chicken was ranging on ample living grassland that includes wild insect life and a variety of plants, and that this chicken was on this range for a large proportion of its feeding hours immediately prior to consumption by consumer.

2. Wild ocean seafood added to the diet daily, in enough quantity to raise the omega-3 content of the chicken and eggs to nearly equal with the omega-6 content.

3. Extra protein supplementation from a variety of sources such as 100% grass-fed milk and meat products, insects, worms, nuts.

4. Grain supplement only as necessary to sustain adequate growth and laying, based on a mixture of five or more whole, live, unmilled grains. All grains to be completely free-choiced for a period of time, then removed before nighfall. If corn is used, it must be cracked within no more than 24 hours of being consumed.

5. Legumes daily, to balance the protein, B vitamin, and other profiles of the grains. Legumes and grains naturally occur together in all wild pasturelands, and complement each other, probably in many ways that we do not yet know. To eat the one without the other is to invite disaster, imho.

6. Salt derived solely from dried kelp, free-choiced.

7. Calcium derived from oyster shell or grass-fed bone, free choiced.

8. Water free-flowing from living spring or stream, without chlorine or other such industrial toxins added.

And with these safety assurances:

9. Absolutely no addition of any kind of oils to the feeds, to prevent the misuse of trans-fats-laden and re-processed oils as a calorie booster or for any other reason.

10. Everything consumed by the chickens to be certified stringently 100% Organic, not certified by an organic-label certification scheme that allows 5% (or any other percent) of non-organic products to be added and still use the term "Organic."

11. The breed of chicken should not contain any "Cornish" or other unnaturally-fast-maturing variety. The chicken should mature in the normal amount of time, a little more than 5 months, not the abnormal, ceiling-less growth curve leading to harvest at two months as in the Cornish crosses.

So, I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Cindy

Chicken Coop Renovations

Our chicken ranch seems to be continuing on.  My sister found a great bunch of old books on raising chickens, feed and how to manage flocks - old school.  The books are from the 1920's and they are so good.

We continue to learn.  Right now in the "open air" coop there are 8 hens.... and we get about 6 eggs a day from them.  In the enclosed coop there are 22 hens.... and we get about 8 eggs a day.   Hmmmmmm, what is wrong with this picture?

After studying, reading and thinking, talking and pondering, the guys have cut out the door and some "windows" to make the enclosed coop "open air".  I'll let you know how it goes.  So far, the chickens seem to love it, but it is the first day.  The idea is to give them light, cross ventilation and one solid wall for a feeling of protection. 

I am going to do a separate post on my sister's thoughts on the whole chicken process.  We are both more convinced than ever that it is a good way to go.... raise them up as natural and healthy as possible by giving them what they need.  This gives us ample resource then for protein from the meat and eggs.

We are weedeating around the property, raking it and using it for feed and to build our compost (under the roost).  The long season of rains has given us plenty of opportunity for an abundance of weeds :)  and clover and vetch and other wonderful, edible herbs, seeds, grasses and legumes.

The tomato plants that I started from last year's heirloom seeds have done better than anyone could have reasonably expected.  I ended up with 672 healthy, beautiful tomato plants.  About 2/3 of them are "spoken for" and I will end up with about 125 for our garden.  It should be wonderful.  We are hauling them in and out of the house while the weather is unsettled, but after this next set of storms, they will be handed out and ours will head to the garden.  I can't wait for fresh salsa!  It will also be nice to have the dining room and kitchen counter back :)  I plan to start my cucumber seeds in peat pots this week (if I can just find a little time).

It is baseball season and our son-in-law found time to play a little ball with our youngest son out in the orchard.  What a great day!


Best of health to you
Cindy

Garden Goodness

Hello all.  I have missed visiting with you.  Every day goes by so quickly during this season.  The garden work continues.... even though we had an amazing snowstorm today.  Big, fat, fluffy flakes that came in a flurry and are almost gone by this evening.  Winter headed out with a sulk :)

Right now tomato and pepper plants are consuming my attention.  The counter has been cleared of most of the cultured stuff to make way for lots and lots of veggie starts.  We saved seeds last year for the first time, and the germination was a little sketchy.  I overplanted to compensate and have spent days thinning them down to a maximum of the 3 strongest plants per cube.  Yesterday and today I separated them into singles so they can get a lot bigger over the next few weeks.

I also separated out groups of different kinds of tomatoes to share with friends.  If I promised you some you might want to nudge me.   Because I didn't label these, it is random lot of tomatoes, but I kept them to one variety per container.  As I have been separating, I choose one from each container for each of my friends.  This way they end up with 20-30 heirloom tomatoes - all different kinds - don't know which is which :)  They are all good.

The tomato plants look much healthier than the pepper plants.  Maybe they were a little cold on the germination - but they are coming up well.  I might end up buying some starts of peppers.

Next up I will start cucumber and then last melon plants.  I will also direct sow cucumber.  The melons, though, I want to keep track of.  I ordered about 15 different types of heirloom melons - pink, yellow, orange, red (inside the watermelons) so these will be planted with a little more attention to which is which.  We have seed from last year and I purchased some new from Baker Creek Seeds.

Let me know how your garden is going.  It looks like here where we are there will be about 10 more days of storms.... then a couple of days to dry out.... then the garden will begin in earnest.

My sister and I continue to study the benefits of grass fed chickens.  It is fascinating and will need it's own post.  Right now I am feeding them an abundance of greens in the morning (clover, weeds from this area, several types of grasses and vetch) with some scratch thrown in.  The long, slow rains have kept everything green.  In the evening they get a little laying pellets.   We are moving them onto a scratch that combines oats, sunflower seeds and other organic grains.   We are trying to move away from corn and soy.  So far so good!

Blessings
Cindy