INFIDELITY ON THE FARM

I have told you about Larry....who pretended to be Lilly for several months after I hatched him. Suddenly he began his squeaky crow.

Well that crow is developing nicely and he has a fancy hair doo and he is getting his tail feathers and he is BLONDE!!!!

I knew the faithful 4 would have a hard time resisting. Studmuffin lately has been chasing him away from his girls. Of course he runs away screaming like a girl.

Typical youngin when faced with true power.

But yesterday while I was setting up the new trampoline I saw the drama unfold.

Larry caught one of the females eye. He instantly poofed his feathers, dropped one wing, dropped his head and began to dance.

She glanced back at Studmuffin who was busy finding food for the other girls. She looked at Larry who danced again...making promises he probably would not keep. And then she made up her mind. She walked to Larry. That is when Studmuffin noticed. All he did in his dignified way was round up the remaining girls and walk away.

Last night when I closed up the chicken house....there was Larry on the roost with Studmuffin and the girls...all except the one with the scarlet letter on her. She was banned to sleep alone on the nest box.

This morning she had to make the same decision. Larry began to dance, Studmuffin stood dignified. Then a mean guniea attacked her and what did she do? Run straight for the one she knew would protect her...Studmuffin. And she got quite a shock. He turned on her and burred up and chased her off. No longer would she be one of his flock. She went into the waiting wings of Larry who welcomed her.

As the Farm Turns

8 Days til Christmas...can you believe it?

The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
Transforming the yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.
The sound wasn't loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know,
Then the sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said "Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the line,
That separates you from the darkest of times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at ' Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas 'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of ' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
The red, white, and blue... an American flag.
I can live through the cold and the being alone,
Away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To ensure for all time that this flag will not fall."
" So go back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your son."
Then his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to us

SPRING PLANNING

Oh my goodness....all it took was getting my first two seed catalogs and my mental wheels are now turning like crazy.

I found Backyard Food Production and just from the short preview, want so bad to make my farm sustainable.

I know it takes hard work. I know it takes self discipline.

So I am beginning my 2010 planning. My garden will need to be totally re-conditioned and that must start soon. Some of the beds there must be torn out and re-designed.

I will try to keep the list..... which I am sure will be an ever growing changing thing....up to date. Here is a beginning item:

1. every weekend clean out stalls at the barn and bring home the manure

This item is the keystone to my whole plan. It also will take the most self discipline. I have at my finger tips an unlimited supply of animal manure but out of laziness don't bring it home. Time to change

2. Add 10 raised beds "sealed" at the bottom to hold back bermuda grass and fire ants.

3. Add fencing to protect the garden from chickens.

4. Buy a roof tarp for the shed/chicken house to protect from leaking (this delays re-roofing until next year)

5. Plant a min of 5 semi dwarf fruit trees, 2 nut trees, and 5 grapes and 5 hardy kiwis.

6. Dig out the pond

7. Add a flock of muscavoy ducks and house them in the orchard with "trays" of water at each tree for them to enjoy. These will be dumped when dirty for the tree along with all of the liquid fertilizer.

8. Raise dwarf turkeys...maybe 10? These are small enough for me to butcher by myself.

9. My goal for my garden is 100 pounds of frozen veggies, 200 jars of some kind of tomato product (juice, soup, sauce).

10. Mount 10 bird houses and maintain 2 feeders and 2 bird baths in the front yard.

11. Plant a Linden Tree

Ok that is what I have. Again this will take self discipline in both my budget and in my activity. I will have to fight off doubt. When I update this I will copy the whole thing and add revisions to it.

I am excited about this new year.

FOOD STORAGE EXPERIMENT

My grandsons and I drew a family tree yesterday. We read stories in my fathers book about his mother Genevieve and his father Cecil and their children.

We looked at the photos in the book and the subject of food storage came up. We were on our way to the store anyway so I asked them if they wanted to experiment with two different types of food storage. They thought that would be cool.

We started sweet potatos and beef dehydrating.

Then we started biltong.

Dried meat and veggies is pretty simple. I didn't add salt or any seasonings because I wanted them to see the basics first. My son and daughter loved unsalted unseasoned dried beef when they were young.

Biltong originated in S Africa and has been a meat storage method for thousands of years. Unlike jerky, biltong is thick and is dried in the shade not the sun.

The recipe I used is from The Survival Podcast

By this morning when I took the meat out of the frig to hang it was already stiff and starting to mummify. I had explained the process of mummification to them enroute to the store and while standing in the spice section looking for coriander, my youngest asked "Nanna are we going to be able to eat the mummy meat?"....the man standing beside me left quickly.

Here is the hanging Biltong and it will be ready in two weeks. (my daughter says to have my will in order prior to sampling this...oh yee of little faith)




ps...The sick chicken Oreo died.

OREO IS SICK

I have not paid much attention to the chickens since Wed when I locked them up for the holiday. I wish I had. When I went out to feed and water this morning this is what I found.



Oreo was huddled up behind a box in the chicken house. She is my biggest most robust egg layer and lays huge eggs.

I gave her a shot of antibiotics and we have her in the house. No other symptoms other than her comb is light colored now.

tryp⋅to⋅phan

–noun Biochemistry. an essential amino acid, (C8H6N)CH2CH(NH2)COOH, colorless, crystalline, and aromatic, released from proteins by tryptic digestion and a precursor of serotonin.

Source:



Other items required:



Possitive Evidence of the consumption of too much tryptophan:



HAVE A BLESSED THANKSGIVING

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE TO ALL MY FRIENDS

THE CRAZINESS OF HAVING 4 GRANDKIDS AND TWO DAUGHTERS HERE FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS IS WONDERFUL. A LONG LAST DAY BEFORE A 4 DAY WEEKEND, AND NOW GETTING READY TO CLEAN HOUSE AND GET READY FOR THE BIG FEAST TOMORROW.

WHEN I WENT TO THE KITCHEN HERE IS WHAT I FOUND! MY GRANDDAUGHTER GRINDING MY ACORN PIECES INTO FLOUR!



TOMORROW I WILL BE MAKING HOMEMADE ACORN BREAD JUST FOR FUN.

HERE IS THE RECIPE FROM BUSHCRAFT ON FIRE:

To make Acorn Flour you'll need:
Acorns! :)
Pliers or nut cracking tools
A blender with high speeds
A knee high stocking

For making bread the ingredients are listed below.


The acorns I prefer to use come from White Oaks. The leaves have the rounded edges, and the acorns are larger and sweeter than the other varietes.

First step is collecting acorns. We discovered that as soon as they start to fall, is the best time also to collect. The longer they sit on the ground, the more little species we get to share what's left of the nut inside with!

After gathering a good sized bowl full, its time to get crackin! We use pliers, nutcrackers, fingers and even hammers :)
basically find a method that will enable you to open up the acorn without totally smashing the nut meat inside
Shell the acorns until you have at least 6 cups of shelled acorns.
After a quick rinse, I put about 1 - 1 1/2 cups of acorns in my mixer, and fill it up to a few inches below the top with fresh cold water.
Don't forget to put the lid on..then select a grind on a hi setting and let it grind for about 5 minutes. It will end up looking like a mixer filled with grainy milk.

Once you turn off the blender, it will look like: (GO TO THE WEBSITE TO SEE THE PHOTOS)

Its time to put a knee stocking on your blender now. Just pull the opening over the top of your blender and tug until it is reaches at least half way down the length of your blender.

Now get ready to flip it over into your clean sink. Hang onto that stocking!

I have lost a few batches...so now I do this into a bowl first. The bowl catches my acorn mush filled stocking. If you see my porcelain sink...its brown. That is from the tannins that will be leached out. To leach the tannins, I take that bowl out, dump the contents (that whitish milky looking liquid) down the drain and I turn on the cold tap. Begin to massage the mush in the stocking under running water. Keep moving it around, squishing, massaging it, until the water comes out clear.

Make sure you have a good hold on the one end of the stocking with one hand, while the other hand does the massaging. When the water runs clear, turn off the tap and squish and squeeze until no more water comes out. Now it's time to remove the acorn flour from the stocking.. This is a wet/moist flour.

Simply turn down the stocking until you come down to the wet flour.

, and gently let the flour fall into a bowl. It has a dark brown moist brown sugar look to it now. If you let it sit out for a time in the open, it gets much darker, but the taste won't change.

Repeat the process above until you have collected at least four level cups of the moist acorn flour. I put two cups per ziplock freezer bag, and freeze all my extra for later use.

Now it's time to get baking!

Acorn Bread

2 cups of lukewarm water
1 tablespoon of dry yeast
1/4 cup of olive oil (other oil is fine)
1/4 cup of molasses or honey
2 farm fresh eggs of your choice
2 cups of your fresh ground (or thawed out) moist acorn flour
a pinch of salt
6 cups of flour (best is 3 cups freshly ground wheat berries, with 3 cups unbleached white)

I take my mixer bowl and put two warm cups of water into it, sprinkle the tbsp of yeast on it, while I gather the next three items.

Add the oil, (molassas or honey) and two eggs that have been beaten slightily.

I put this mixture on low in my kitchenaide mixer, while slowly adding the first four cups of flour. I add them one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl between additions. When that is mixed real well, I slowly add the last two cups of flour. I personally add one more into the mixer, then remove the entire lump and knead in the last cup on a floured counter. Now bread making is interesting, depending on all the temperatures, the room, each item, is how much flour you'll need. If the batch is still very sticky, add another cup. I knead about 1-15 minutes, and my finished dough is elastic and does not stick to my hands or the counter.

Now take this lump of dough and put it into a greased large bowl . Lightly grease the top of the dough, and cover the bowl with either plastic or a cloth.

Keep this in a nice warm area. In winter that's near the stove, in summer its up on my counter. After about an hour you'll see that the dough has more than doubled in size. This is good! Punch it down, and dump the dough onto your counter again. Not floured this time. Divide the batch into two, and shape two loaves. Put them into greased loaf pans. Brush a wee bit of oil onto the tops of each loaf, and put them back into your "warm" spot. These will double again! Don't punch them down this time. Instead, pop them into a preheated oven, (350° F)
I bake them for approx. 40 minutes. They will be well-browned, and sound hollow when you knock on them.

Let them sit about five minutes, then turn them out brush them lightly with butter, and put them on a rack to let them cool.
Of course we don't wait until they are cold to eat....they are the best warm and fresh!

Enjoy!

Crazy Monday Night

My house is full. 4 grandkids, daughter and daughter in law. Came home to a clean house and dinner cooking.

So I am watching kids play and sipping white wine.

CHRISTMAS COOKIE PRACTICE

This morning was very foggy but the sun was trying to shine through. I made a pot of real perk coffee and sat and talked to the boys.




Then we got out the cookie dough that I had made last week and we practiced making Christmas cookies.

LESSONS

No pics. Today I talked to my grandsons about disaster preparedness, and I got to show them my preps for if the electricity goes out. I showed them my stash of water.

I let them try out my wind up weather radio/am/fm and they thought that was cool. We counted 7 kerosene lamps 3 of which are filled and ready.

We talked about how some people lose their jobs and so if we have 6 months of food in the cabinets, there is no need to worry.

Then we went outside with their new pocket knives and we had the first of many lessons.

We learned how to hold with the blade away and our thumb on the back of the blade for control.

We learned what our safe space is where no one is allowed to walk while we are using our knife.

We practiced making feather sticks and worked on J's walking stick. I showed them the hot dog/marshmallow sticks i had made.

Then I showed them how the knife works on the flint at the back of a fire starter block and then they go to try. They loved making sparks.

Then I got out dryer lint and lighted it and they thought I was sooo cool.

Inside, mommy brought hot dogs to cook so we built a fire in the wood burning stove...we all took turns trying to light the dryer lint and we laughed and failed miserably. Finally we went to plan B...matches. Mommy laughed and sat on the couch offering her lighter.

We cooked wonderful hot dogs and then watched some Youtube videos on what you can do with a pocket knives. Now they are fast asleep dreaming about using them to carve great and wonderful things no doubt.

NEW PROJECT

I got a wonderful find. A co-worker had a damaged 1930's cedar chest that she sold to me for very cheap. It is wonderful and still smells like cedar! The lid is cracked and will need to be repaired. Then I will decide if I want to refinish it. I love the scratches though. They are like wrinkles on a persons face....they are to be cherished because they tell the story of life.

FIRE BOW AND LEARNING MY KNIFE

I trimmed trees last weekend and saved some small oak branches because I knew they would make good hot dog and marshmallow roasting sticks and they had a V shape so they would be good to poke into the ground as a support for something that needed slower cooking.

After I was done with the first one I realized I had never used my pocket knife for this kind of thing. Here is my knife.




I am not real happy with it because it has a delicate feel to it. I think I will have to watch myself or I will break the blade. This was a find. I found it on the ground outside of a convenience store about 10 years ago. I see it has a little rust that I need to clean off.

I made 3 roasting sticks and then tried my hand at some feather sticks. These will take a little more practice. I need to learn more control with my knife.

I was working on a piece of cedar when I realized the end of this stick could make a good fire bow. As I sat in the front yard whittling away and cleaning my new fire bow I realized I have no clue how to use one.

I have watched Bushcraft On Fire videos on Youtube and Part 2 and he makes it look easy but as I am whittling away I realized his skill makes it appear easy and skill takes practice.

So this is the beginning of my fire bow. Once I have my bow made I will find my drill, a fire board and something to hold the drill with at the top.



I will post my progress as I go. This should be interesting to see if I can figure out how to start fire the old fashioned way.

WHO NEW P-NUT BUTTER WAS A BEAUTY PRODUCT

DON'T EVER THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH HIDING A JAR OF PEANUT BUTTER IN THE BACK SEAT WITH A TWO YEAR OLD. SHE WILL FIND IT.

TROUBLE IN GUINEA PARADISE

DID ANY OF YOU KNOW THAT A GUINEA HUSBAND AND WIFE HAVE FIGHTS? I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT HAPPENED BUT WHEN I WENT OUT LAST NIGHT TO SHUT THE CHICKEN HOUSE DOOR AND "RELEASE THE HOUND" MRS GUINEA HAD DECIDED TO ROOST WITH THE CHICKENS INSTEAD OF UP IN THE TREE WITH HUSBAND.

HUSBAND GUINEA WAS VERY DISTRAUGHT AND WAS SITTING ON TOP OF THE CHICKEN HOUSE MAKING A VERY MOURNFUL SOUND. NOW AND THEN MRS GUINES WOULD MAKE A CHURRING SOUND BUT NEVER CAME OUT AND FINALLY MR GUINEA WENT TO ROOST WITHOUT HER.

ONE OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE FARM.

WOOO HOOO THE BOOK IS HERE!!!!!

I LOVE OWNING A TRUCK!

On craigs list I found a wonderful red steel bunk bed for $80 including the mattresses. It is a twin on full. I will keep my eyes open for another one which will need to be a twin on twin.




I told my grand boys that I would take all 4 grand kids to my local home improvement center and let them each pick out the color for one wall;

When done I will paint their name on their wall with their hand print and then set up the beds. This should be fun.

Happy Veterans Day!

JUST A QUICK COOKIE UPDATE

50 DOZEN COOKIES....64 POUNDS OF CHRISTMAS COOKIES WERE MAILED TO AFGHANISTAN TODAY.

BAKING COOKIES FOR AFGHANISTAN

Myself and 9 other women today baked around 50 dozen cookies for my son to share with his friends overseas. This was truly a labor of love. Thank you to the woman who allowed us to use her wonderful home.

PINE NEEDLE TEA

I had a great evening with my oldest grand son at Cubscouts. Now I am relaxing at home with a quart jar of pine needle tea steeping beside me, and a crunchy cold apple on the other side.





Did you know that the pilgrams were dieing of scurvy while they were trying to survive. Not the natives who lived there though. And they shared their secret with the pilgrams. Pine needle tea. God provides all of our needs. Sometimes all we need to do is go out to the back yard and pick a cold and flu preventative right off our tree.

ACORN BREAD RECIPE--I HAVE NOT TRIED THIS YET

THIS IS THE RECIPE I WILL USE THOUGH

http://www.yhwhswordoffaith.com/acornbread.html

Acorns: Gods gift to the world

For centuries, the simple acorn has fed hungry people.

I got 5 pounds of acorns from a friends tree. Cracked about half, leached in water, then roughly ground them and lay them out to dry on a cookie sheet.





From here I will let my oldest grand son grind it into flour. First in the blender and then in the grain grinder.




Then we will make acorn bread.

GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN

I have all 4 grand kids here and last night we carved pumpkins, cooked hotdogs over the fire and then after dark cooked smores.

GRANDBOYS AND FIRE ANTS

At least he is half listening in sunday school. I was taking my oldest (7) grand son home after he spent the night with me and he was talking about all kinds of things. Then he told me that one time a long time ago the world was covered with water. The plants in the ocean grew and died and grew and died and turned into dirt. Finally there was enough dirt that it was above the water and people could live on that dirt so God decided to make people. But he only made two and they didn't have any clothes on at all! Not even underwear.

Nanna: What were their names?
J: (after some thought) Josephy and Alexsis
Nanna: Wow really?
J: Yea but then they ate an apple and got kicked out

I really love my grand kids.

Also on that trip we decided to play a game and see if we could count all the fire ant hills between my house and his dad's house. Because of all the recent rain the ant hills are huge. We gave up at 200 and then passed two fields which had to have housed 200 each. We really have some problems here.

Hope you have many grand kids and no fire ants!

WET CAMPOUT: pictures are mixed up but you will get the idea

Holy cow what a wet week we have had.

First on Friday I showed up at my sister's home in the middle of a downpour which showed no signs of stopping. So we decided to go ahead and load up. It took us an hour and here is what sissy looked like when we got done.



Because it rained all the way down I didn't take a picture of the loaded truck but here is our campsite when we were unloaded. Pretty incredible right? Believe it or not we used most of what we brought.



Home sweet home.



Here is our first breakfast the next morning. Pork chops and eggs and toast with campfire coffee. That coffee was amazing.



Here is the pier where I fished and crabbed.



Here is our cooking set up....fire grill with cast iron cookware and my coffee pot. The fish holder on the little white table is an amazing asset. It holds not only fish but bread to make toast over the fire and veggies to grill.






Goose Island has a 1000 year old tree.




Here is my crab basket and my only catch of a silver fish of unk name and a puffer fish.



Therefore here is dinner....fresh gulf shrimp thanks to the local seafood market, grilled cheese filled portabella mushrooms, grilled Texas 10-15 onions, smoked sausage, green beans. It was very yummy.




This is one miserable boston terrier. He is not cut out for camping.




We had 12 hours of sunlight on the whole trip. We took the farrie over to Mustang Island and went to visit the state park there. Very beautiful.



And we found a pottery shop. We didn't have time to visit all the interesting shops though.




This is our friends dog Gotto. He was not miserable at all. Unlike Stuey, he loved camping.



But each night I got about 2 hours of sleep due to packs of racoons which would invade our camp and fight with each other and work on out camp boxes. They even climbed trees over my truck breaking branches and dropping them on the truck.

And you guessed it. Storms rolled in this morning which caused us to throw in the wet towel and pack up and come home a day early.

But it was a good adventure. I cooked campfire peach and blackberry cobler, we cooked all of our meals over the fire, we survived savage coons and non biting fish and tons of rain. We came out of it with a better understanding of our own likes and limitations. We will be jointly purchasing a camper with a working a/c and heater. We may have enjoyed this wet camping when we were young but now we like creature comforts that don't include looking eye to eye with a smiling racoon. I like the sound of rain on a tent, but would like the sound on a camper even more.

Then again....give me a beach condo!