Weekend Reading

I don't know why I didn't think of this before.  I read this book twice last winter, and it seems to me, I need a little reminder.  It's easy to read and one of those books that provides lots of examples of non-violent talk. You would truly be amazed at how your words are received when you use these tools.  I found it also helps if someone else close to you reads it as well, so you can practice together.  As it does take practice.  Our culture seems naturally defensive, and so it is a bit of an effort to change what is so ingrained within us.  But even if you don't have someone to practice with, you can still benefit from it, in any conversation, from your partners to your children and your parents, to the corner store clerk down the road.

The Non-Violent Communication website or NVC site has numerous other books for further study if this particular one resonates with you.

Enjoy this last long weekend of summer!

In Gratitude

This was going to be a post about D-day:

As in Dead Duck for Dinner.

But it's not.

Instead, this is a post about gratitude.

I am thankful for so many things right now:

:: the duck that gave his life for our meal;
:: the woman who writes a blog (listed below) who outlined exactly what to do;
:: the old friend who I spoke with this morning who had some simple words of wisdom and experience;
:: my study habits, retention, and courage to go through with it as quickly and humanely as possible;
:: my mom, for showing me, as a teenager, how to properly cut up a chicken;
:: my family, for their unwavering, quiet support and acceptance;
:: a new friend, who is also on the precipice of killing one's own food, with whom I know I can be understood and not looked upon as a monster as some of my vegetarian friends may do  (I'm not.);
:: the new-found knowledge that, yes, I can provide for my family, good, healthy, antibiotic-free, hormone-free, cruelty-free meat;
:: my dog, for forgiving me so quickly for taking another's life so deliberately.

...and so many things that my brain is overflowing with thanks.

Go in peace, friends.

If you are interested in the how-to, please refer to this website: The Girl's Guide to Guns and Butter.  The information and photos are just graphic enough to make you feel like you actually know what you're doing.

Memories of Oma

I pulled this giant of a beet out of the garden yesterday.

It all but whispered to me... "Make Borscht."  So, I listened.  Maybe it was Oma talking to me from the other side.  I gathered a bunch of necessary food stuffs from the garden -- potatoes, celery, onions, garlic, dill, cabbage -- and with stock from the freezer, voila.  Borscht.  Not quite the way Oma would have made it, as she used beef and beef stock, as well as fried ketchup (no, I'm not kidding, but what's the difference between fried ketchup and pureed tomatoes with some honey?),  but still, it smelled the way I remembered.  I could still see her, standing over her counter, cutting and chopping, and wiping the sweat from her brow.  I ate it thinking of her, too, with a big piece of rye bread with butter.  Lots of butter.  She would have been proud.  She really liked butter.

Weekend Reading Plus...

I have a few books at my bedside at the moment.  Most of which are homesteading manuals of various types.  And I've been reading exerpts from one of my favourite of these, Carla Emery's "The Encyclopedia of Country Living" which we bought at a teeny tiny bookshop in Salmon Arm when we first started keeping animals.  It has been an indispensable addition to our collection:

Mostly the chapters on ducks and how to...um... process them.  Yes.  This is a new foray for me.  We have 1 too many male ducks and we're having a little soiree next weekend, with roast duck on the menu.  Ducks need to be butchered at under 5 months of age or the meat is tough.  Our ducklings are about 3 months old.  This is not something I'm taking lightly, and as I am still going over this in my brain, I will give you the facts:  I want to be self-sufficent.  I don't like the way animals are (generally) treated commercially.  My family wants to eat meat.  I want a close relationship with the food that goes into our bodies.

So.  Here we go.  I'll let you know how THAT goes. 

Venturing Out

Our youngest turkey poults are now about 7 weeks old, old enough to get outside.  They have been living in the old dog run house for the past several weeks, turning a heat lamp on at night for them.  They are getting a little cramped in there now, so this morning, we opened the door just slightly so they can check things out - Outside.  The big and scary Outside.  So they take a few steps, and run back in.  A few steps further, run back in... Repeat.  Typical kids :)

Garlic!

I can't begin to tell you the satisfaction of growing something so basic for the kitchen.  And not difficult!  I love that we planted it in the fall and it did its thing and we dig it up in the summer.  And that we can store it, and enjoy it into the fall.  No way we have enough to get us through to next summer, but we will definitely be planting more this year - I think we only planted about 20 cloves this time.  Onions are about the same on the satisfaction list; especially the ones we planted from seed when I thought it might be "too late" in the season.  Yay!  (Photo by Daughter).

Weekend Reading

Hmmm. This is the 2nd week in a row with no Weekend Reading Post.  I haven't finished a book in a couple of weeks and am on the hunt for a really good read, preferably a novel to counter-balance all the homesteading books I've put forth lately.  I have re-read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban in the past month as I wanted to preview it for the daughter who was itching to sink her teeth into it.  (Loved it- again.)  What took me a couple of weeks to get thru, took her 24 hours.  No lie.  I'm currently waiting on another "children's" book, the 3rd installment of the "Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place".  If it's anything like the first two, it will not disappoint.

Anyone read anything really good lately??

Home-Made Spa

It seems my daughter's friends are all turning 9.  Wow.  They are getting out of the toy-stage of childhood and onto other things.  We like to give home crafted gifts, if we can.  When the kids were really little, this was easy.  Knit a mermaid, sew a pencil case, that sort of thing.  But for a 9 year old?  Hmmm.
Then I came across an article in Living Crafts Magazine on Lavender Crafts.  Fun!  So both kids and I made some Lavender Bath Bombs and Lavender Sugar Scrub one afternoon, in bulk, to give to 3 friends turning 9.

Lavender flowers from our garden

Add: baking soda, citric acid, organic olive oil and lavender essential oil according to recipe, and

press into molds.

Let dry for 24-48 hours, and 

Ta-Da!  Cute, huh?

Cock-a-Doodle-DON'T

This is Jagger, letting it rip.  I love hearing him crow.  And now, with the younger cockerals up the back of the house, he calls to them and they answer.  It's funny to hear them go back and forth.  At least I think it is, and so does the rest of my family.

It seems our neighbor to the south does not.  She thinks he's SCREECHING all day long and has threatened to call by-law on us.  Geesh.  We live in a rural part of town where we are allowed "unlimited" animals on our property.  But she might be able to get us on a noise infraction, with time and help from other neighbors. I honestly don't know if she really has a leg to stand on, but for my own peace of mind, I've moved my bird. I noticed that since she uttered her threats, I'm noticing - and cringing - every time he sings.  I've also had to alter my morning routine to let all the animals out - saying good morning at the usual time to everyone between 7 and 7:30 AM,  except the hens and Jagger whom I've been keeping "cooped up" until 9 AM just to keep this woman happy.  I was finding that one of the favorite parts of my morning was not so much fun anymore.

So.  I've moved all the pullets to the run beside the main flock, which I was going to do anyway.  (And fixed the little coop, yay for me!)  And moved Jagger -TEMPORARILY - to the back run.  He'll be in with the other boys now, kind of a bachelor pen.  Might actually be better this way.  The hens will catch a break, and maybe grow some of their feathers back (if you have a rooster with your hens, you'll know what I'm talking about), and the boys will get used to each other without the distraction of the girls.  Then, come fall, my 2 main boys, Jagger and Jackson, will come back down to the main coop, and the other boys will go into the freezer.

Note to readers: if you don't like the sound of farm animals, don't buy property in an agricultural area.

'Nuff said.

Hide n Seek :)

Hmmm.  Hello Violet.  What are you doing?

Oh my!

I couldn't find one of our turkey hens the other morning.  My imagination thought the worst, so I started looking for feathers, a sure sign something got her.  Couldn't find any.  Another thought entered my head, so I started looking in well- hidden spots, and found her, very quietly, sitting... on 16 eggs.

Abundance!

Summer is about abundance, is it not?  I love how it goes in phases.  After all the planting and weeding and watering.  Then comes the watching.  What will come up first?  What will thrive?  What will we have to re-think for next year?

First, it was the early lettuces and spinach.  We enjoyed our salads daily, let me tell you!  As those got old and bitter, they were ripped out of the garden and offered to the chickens.  (Yum, says they.)

Then, and still, Carrots, Carrots and More Carrots.

So we're eating tons of the things, in soups, muffins and just by themselves.  We keep planting more.  We should have carrots until Christmas.  And then we'll be sick of them.  But then we won't have them again until June when we'll WANT them again.  And so it goes...

I'm also pulling a crazy amount of New Zealand Spinach out.  Well, picking a lot of leaves and pulling a lot of plants.  Have you ever grown NZ Spinach?  If you have, you know of what I speak.  We still have some in the freezer from last summer.  You'd think I would learn.  Nope.  I planted a row of "regular" NZ, a row of organic, and 2 rows of transplants from the little volunteers in the beds it was in last year.  Ugh.  Now it's crowding out the peppers, onions and eggplants, and spilling over the sides of the bed!  Good thing the chickens all like it!  That said, it really is wonderful stuff.  Full of goodness and freezes Awesome-ly!  (Is that even a word?)  I usually pick a huge bowl of it, wash it in cool water, stuff it into a pillow case and chuck it into the washing machine on "spin".  No, I'm not kidding.  Works like a dream!  Brilliant suggestions from my dear pal Lisa from Urban Harvest.  Then into Ziploc freezer bags - whole leaves.  Let it freeze, then crush it and it takes up 1/2 the space.  It's a hardy plant, loves the sun without bolting, and not really a spinach at all.  I don't like it in salads, as it's too "thick" for my liking, but in sauces and pestos, it's amazing.

I harvested all my cabbages too.  All 3 of them.  These awful little bugs got the rest:

A lot of cursing going on as I found all the holes in the cabbage due to this...this... thing.  If anyone knows the name of this little green monster, I'd love to hear it, as well as any tips to eradicate the beastie from my future cabbages.

More later!

The Full-ness of Summer

"Do you have a sec for me?  Puhleeeese??"

Wow.  It's already August.  Where does the time go?  It seems we spend most of the year waiting for summer and then it goes by in a blink.  I truly wonder where my days go.  I have been working 3 mornings a week at our family business, but the rest of the time is relatively unaccounted for.  I have not enrolled the kids in any camps, other than 1-3hr art camp, and the boy in a 2 hr/day music camp - but that hasn't even happened yet. 

My days are FULL.  With what?  Ummm.... there's been more than a few birthday parties for kids' friends lately.  Not very much beach time at all.  The harvesting of various veggies and berries and the resulting canning or processing of such foods. Knitting where I can, even just for a few stitches.

And my "rounds" as I like to call them.

All of which can be interrupted at a moment's notice by one of the children, usually the boy, hollering about something from the deck as they can't be bothered to come and find me.  (Our place isn't THAT big.)  More often than not, the boy needs me to watch him go to the bathroom.  He's 5.  And on the precipice of becoming a musician.  Me thinks he's just getting used to having an audience.  I half expect him to bow after he's done his business.  Anyway, I digress.

About 3 times a day, I start in the backyard with the turkey babes, watering, feeding, checking the heat and watching for anything out of the ordinary.  Then to the adult birds, ducks and geese included.  Then to the "nursery" yard, where the several of this year's chicks (not so much chicks anymore) are foraging and learning about life as a chicken.  I usually cuddle one or 2 of the little ladies (Princess Leia being a favourite -- she's a pure white Easter Egger).

Wondering to myself when I'm going to get to repairing the little coop in the chicken garden adjacent to the main chicken yard so that I can move these lovelies so as to become aquainted with the main flock through the fence.  Gotta do that SOON.  Then, leaving them, through the garden to be sure everything is going as it should be, stopping to munch on something yummy, or yank out a few weeds.  Then to the sheep yard, a chat & a scratch with the girls there, checking on water, and enjoying the simpleness that is sheep.  Watching them for a while, where they are hanging out at various times of the day, what they are eating and when.

Making mental notes to self about all that and thinking about how we are going to pen them with their newborn lambs next spring.   Lastly, to the main chicken yard to watch the grown up birds getting lost in the tall tall grass there, clucking happily to themselves as they find another tasty morsel.  Watching them for a bit.  And lastly into the coop itself to collect whatever gold lies there (in the way of fresh eggs, of course).  And winding my way back up to the house, wash off the eggs and any other goodies from the garden.

All the while, thinking about all these critters that have found their way to us, what they mean to us, how they enrich our lives in so many ways.  And loving them all, even the ones that will eventally be in the freezer, and thanking my lucky stars that I can do this.

Weekend Reading

This Life Is In Your Hands by Melissa Coleman is a memoir about living off the land and the hardships, blessings and tragedies that can go along with it.  In the fall of 1968, Melissa Coleman's parents, Eliot and Sue pack a few essentials into their VW truck and abandon the rat race for a cleaner and back-to-the-land way of life on the coast of Maine, under the wing of Helen and Scott Nearing, authors of "Living the Good Life."  Summers are full and overflowing, while winters are harsh and difficult.

I enjoy reading books like this; it helps keep reality in check for me.  I often say that I was born 100 years too late, that I would have liked to be a pioneer and do everything from scratch.  But honestly, that's HARD.  Really Hard.  There's nothing wrong with a few modern conveniences (like a real oven, and indoor plumbing) but it's really good to know where your food comes from.

Where ever you go, whatever you do, enjoy your weekend!

Coming Up... Stay Tuned :)

Some things I'm working on :
- Triticale update - how much of this stuff can I harvest and how many ways can I use it?
- Another t-shirt makeover
- Garlic harvest
- Lavender fun - or "What to give to 9 year old girls that don't want toys anymore".
- Last batch of 2012 chicks to hatch next weekend!

See you  soon!

Are they turkeys or are they vultures?

Turkeys now doing well.  They like to perch on top of the old playhouse, about 10 feet in the air. All the girls and the 2 yard babies can get up there, and to the untrained eye, they might resemble vultures!  Quite funny and quite safe up there.  Poor Waldo is bigger and is molting so can't get enough air to perch that high, so I usually find him, or clues that he's been, on the gate.  Hmmm.  Turkey poop is similar to chicken poop. But bigger.  And smellier. Yuk.

We moved the babies to a bigger home too; their little cage in the chicken house was getting too crowded.

I was worried about them the first night.  I think I mentioned that turkeys get upset easily, so changing their home was a little daunting.  I was concerned they'd forget how to eat, or be too scared to venture out, away from their hatch-mates, so I made sure they knew where their food and water was by dipping their beaks into it.  They seem to be getting the hang of it.  My fingers are crossed that we're out of the woods with these  little guys!  I swear, chicks are on their way after about 4-6 days.  Turkey poults are more like 3-5 weeks.  Gotta keep a close eye on them, that's for sure.