WINTER BIRTH PREPS

I feel like a new father...pacing in the waiting room nervously. My second doe tore apart her nest today and was running around the cage with hay in her mouth like a huge moustaches.

I have watched her all evening building the most beautiful nest I have ever seens for a winter birth. It is like a ball of hay with a hole in the middle.

Now if she can just figure out how to have babies in there instead of on the cage floor.

PREPPING TO REMEMBER A MIRACLE

SATURDAY CHORES

I have been up since 4:45 am. I have canned 9 pints of chicken and dumplings and have 3 quarts of pickled beets in right now.





Later I will try to pickle some jalapenos..some clinging to the dead plants out front.

Dad is coming over this morning and we are putting up the icicle lights out front and finishing the peg board in the tool shed.

At noon I will be going out to the farm to pick up 2 gallons of raw milk. I did not order rennet to make cheese so I may freeze this milk and order it online. I plan on making mozzerella and cheddar. I want to work my way up to asiago cheese.

A cold front is coming in today so I will try to clean out the hen house and lay down new bedding. Fill food containers up and water the garden so that the spigots can be covered.

Then the most important thing!! I am getting out the Christmas tree and all of the decorations. I will try to see if the grandboys can come and help me decorate and drink hot cocoa with me.

That is pretty much it. Kind of boring and basically just being here to watch the other rabbit to see if she is going to kindle this weekend.

STUFF HAPPENS

Well my biggest bunny had one dead baby 6 days early on the cage floor today.

I am not sure why but it was a very large baby. The smallest is supposed to deliver on sunday. Hopefully that delivery will go better.

WEEKEND CHORES

Well it was a pretty good weekend.

I got the large tarp up to block the wind on the N side of the car port. This will help the rabbits this winter.

I picked tons of beets, turnips and greens and started canning the greens.

I powdered my first batch of dried sweet potatoes.

I made my hoop house for the salad garden.




I killed 3 chickens and used them to make 8 quarts of chicken and dumplings. I will take some of this to work for lunches and give some to my daughter for her boyfriend (special b day request). And if there is any left over I will can the rest.



I almost completed the laundry.

All of the dishes are washed but I would not consider the kitchen clean yet. It is still cluttered.

I cleaned my room and hung up all the clothes that I had washed yesterday. I emptied all the trash.

I bought (but have not used) a food saver vaccum sealer and some canning jars as well as several needed baking tools for the kitchen.

DEHYDRATED SWEET POTATOES

I love having something cool to do when I can't sleep. I got out the dried sweet potato from the dehydrator.

Some of it was the consistency of fruit leather. Some was dry and shattered. Now I know that I want it very thin for how I want to store it. I put all the parts back in on a couple of trays to see if they would become brittle. And while I was at it I filled the remaining 8 trays with some more mashed sweet potato.

Then I put the brittle potatos in the food processor for the initial run.



I got semi large chunks. I could store this way just fine but I wanted powder. So I broke out the blender for the final run. I am very pleased.

SATURDAY EVENING POST

Ok it isn't evening yet but I imagine I will be too busy the rest of the day to post and I am resting from the first part right now.

I drank coffee this morning after I slept in til 7:30am. Then burned some trash, fed the bunnies their morning oats and sunflower seeds and just relaxed.

Then I took off for wally world to get a vaccum sealer. I internet shopped for an hour and found that the one wally sells is the same and I don't have to wait for shipping.

Since I was going to a store in more of a rural comminity I decided to swing by the canning section because the one in the neighboring city to me has nothing left in that section.

This wallyworld is well stocked in the canning section which also included a good variety of vaccum sealers.



I decided to try the Mainstay brand of canning jars as they are 7.88 for a case of quart jars instead of the Ball and Mason which are almost 11 per case. From what I see the only difference is that they don't have a fancy picture impressed on the side. If they explode in the canner then I will understand the difference.



Then I went to my local u pick um farm. I am so excited about this visit. I came away with about 8 lb of beets and 5 lb of beet greens.I also came home with 18 lb of turnips and 8 lb of turnip greens.



They have a glass door'd refrigerator in the garage and I saw small bottles of milk without labels. I asked about them and I guess I have a dairy not far from my house!!! I can order my milk and yogurt etc through her. woohooo So I placed an order for 2 gallons of milk to be picked up next Saturday. I will be trying my hand at homemade cheese which I have always wanted to make.

As you can see from this photo, it is rather remote. But Boo doesn't mind. She waits patiently while I pick turnips and beets so that she can carry them hom for me.





This is the turnip field. See in the edge of the photo...that is my ghost. I have been seeing this lately in some of my photos.



I decided to do something different. Instead of cutting turnip greens and then going back to pick turnips, I decided to simply pick beets and turnips and then seperate them at home.

I got 3 bags of turnips and 2 bags of beets.



I will go get 2 gallons of vinegar and pickling spices and I will make pickled beets. Harvard beets are my favorite veggie.



Here are the beet greens that I will blanch and freeze or can.





Here are the turnip roots. These are so wonderful cooked and mashed like potatos. These should keep in my veggie drawer in the frig for a couple of months...if they will last that long.


Here are the turnip greens which will be canned.

I bought 3 pints of local honey which is in reusable canning jars. And I bought a pint of fresh unflavored yogurt.



Here is the most exciting part. We talked about me killing my meat chickens this weekend...which hasn't happened yet but should tomorrow. When I told her about the laying hens she perked up. She asked me if I would be interested in being an egg producer for her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We talked about the fact that I produce brown and green eggs and I have roosters (this is a problem for many people) and she said that is exactly what her customers are looking for! Now I have a good reason to increase my flock. I will need to remodel the hen house though. YAY a new project.