Canning juice, building clay ovens, and finding it's all part of the "lifestyle"

27 August 2012
Week Four

Wow, has it already been four weeks since I started this blog. Time flies when you keep busy, I guess. And busy we have been. It seems like everyday all day we are working on something and by the time we put the birds to bed between 8:00 and 9:00pm, our feet ache and bodies hurt. We flop onto the sofa, peruse the internet a little, and suck down a gallon of fluids that we've sweated out during the day to alleviate the headache of dehydration.

This week had us starting homeschool, rebuilding garden beds, moving dirt, cleaning yards, cleaning the garage, processing bushels of free apples, making juice, reworking the fire pit, and starting the base for the clay bread oven. That's what ... only nine things ... but nine very time consuming, energy zapping things they are.

Here's the start to the base of the clay bread oven. It ended up being three concrete bricks high with a 16 gage steel plate for the oven base. It's surprisingly level for just having put it on the ground with little surfacing done. Now we have to buy the clay and work the oven. I'm so excited I can hardly wait for that first loaf of crusty bread and that crispy crust pizza. My mouth is watering just writing about it.

The juice we canned is a mix of cranberry apple. It is amazingly yummy. I love cranberry juice and making my own makes me very happy. Even my daughter who doesn't like cranberry juice much, likes this. After we canned the quarts of it, we figured out how to condense it so we will use less shelf space for storage without losing any of the flavor.

These two little guys are two of our bantam roosters. They are such a hoot to have around, more like toddlers than chickens.

Moonshine is the black and white one. He is a Cochin and a big fluffy bully who likes to cuddle. Instead of attacking someone or another chicken or even ... yes I'm serious ... a turkey who is what, a hundred times bigger than him or something, from a frontal mode, he runs sideways at them like a little crab. It's amusing as long as it's not me that he's gunning for.

This white fluffy guy is Sa Kin, which I'm told in Japanese means "golden child". As a chick he was golden colored, thus the name. He is my buddy. Why the Japanese name? Well, he's a Silkie and Silkies originated in Japan. They have black skin, black meat, and even black bones with feathers that, well, aren't really very much like feathers at all. He's more like a little hairy chicken but he's sweet as can be. He has these funky feet too with five toes, most chickens only have four toes. I've always wanted one of these bantams so when I found one this spring I jumped at the chance to get him. He finally started crowing this week ... lol ... but like everything else about him, his crow is kind of soft and sweet, almost like a baby laughing.





And of course, after all this bone tiring work we've been doing, we find out this week through various blogs, that apparently, everything we're doing is somehow part of a trendy "new" lifestyle. WHAT? ARE YOU BLINKING SERIOUS?? The homesteading, self-sufficiency life is by no means a "lifestyle" choice that anyone with any knowledge of what they are getting into makes lightly or quickly and is certainly not a "trend". It's what our grandparents and great-grandparents and their parents before them did to actually SURVIVE. It's not a save the planet, feel good, warm and fuzzy, million dollar business to support or ideal to subscribe to or even a weekend project. We work hard to do what we do, and some days just aren't long enough to get it all done. So, why are we doing it? It's our life. It's how we've lived for the past 18 + years. It's not new. So why? Why? because we're poor. We don't have money to buy all the food we want, so we grow it and raise it and hope we have enough income to fill in the gaps. We don't have money to hire a landscaper to come and build the garden beds and put in thousands of dollars of plants, so we do it ourselves and grow the plants from seeds or rescue a forlorn looking plant on the 75% off rack at the end of summer. We don't have money to buy bug spray for the garden, therefore it's organic. We don't have money to haul off all the chicken waste and rabbit droppings, therefore we recycle and they become fertilizer.

Everything about our lives is about making do with what we have here and now. So very little is left at the end of the day, that's there's no time to think about what we're doing next year or the year after that. Sure we have hopes and dreams and plans, just like everyone does, but the reality is that we have no way to "make" those dreams happen. If they fit into today, then great, let's go ... but if not then they remain an idea on a sheet of paper. It certainly isn't a "lifestyle" that I ever would have chosen.

And yet, there is some magic to it. As hard as it is, as mind numbingly tiring as we get at going through it day after day, there are some benefits too. In a funny way, we eat healthier than most other people because our food is fresh, from our yard, grown without chemicals or pesticides or hauled from half the world away. It isn't processed beyond recognition. Our children know how to work and follow through to complete a job and they know how to entertain themselves and think for themselves. They've had to. And in some small way, we're giving back to the world by recycling what we can, by not polluting the world with more chemicals and poisons, by using what we have here and now and not relying on massive amounts of fuel to move our food from Guatemala or wherever to us ... in some small way we are doing something positive.

But most of all, we do some of these things because we enjoy it. Even if we won the lottery, we would still own a farm with chickens and turkeys ... it would just be a LOT bigger and we'd have peace of mind that if we woke up one morning and couldn't do it anymore, we'd still be taken care of. That isn't a certainty for us now. Some "trendy" lifestyle this is ... LOL.

Cooler temps and routines

21 August 2012

 Beautiful blue skies have been the choice of the week with temps in the mid 80's. This is kind of unheard of weather for Oklahoma in August but hey, you ain't getting any complaints from this department!! I love it and so do the birds and the garden.

 Biggest news of the week and change to our household, our son moved into the dorm at college. He's in an honors dorm so hopefully they all have good work habits and study before they party. You never know though, they are college kids alone in the world for the first time. I can't really blame them for trying things out occasionally. I hope his room stays at least this clean for the remainder of the semester. Ha!

Built a new garden bed this week. 3 x 10 and 12 inches deep. We used recycled feed sacks from the poultry feed as ground cover. It's porous but heavy so water can get through but weeds will have a hard time. We have one more of these beds to build in the next week or so and then we'll have to reframe the greenhouse we built last year to accommodate it all with our other beds. Don't know how we'll heat more space but time will tell I guess.

And the other big news of the week, our toms are sure strutting their stuff, puffing up and booming. They've even started to follow the girls around some. The fair is just around the corner but we had to clip Boyd's wing today as he came out of their pen, flew the length of the yard, flew over the greenhouse, over the fence, and into the neighbors yard. Luckily it was in the neighbors yard with the empty house and not in the crazy neighbors yard. We didn't want to have to ground him but it's too worrying to have him flying over fences so home he stays from now on.

We finally got most of the apples put up from our friends tree. Best deal in the world for us. They have two apple trees. We keep them picked and supply them with a couple of jars of apple butter and we get all we want. Their pear tree is almost ripe too but I'm hoping to get the last two bushels of apples we picked this weekend put up before we start on pears as well. My dining room table is covered with boxes and buckets already. We also need to get the new pantry cabinets built for all these canned goods and dried goods. Our bedroom, the coolest room in the house, is almost out of storage nooks and crannies. The apples have been made into applesauce, apple butter, apple pie filling, and pectin so far. Just got a good recipe for apple juice though without having to press the apples so we'll be trying that this week. Then the pears will be made into pear preserves and pear honey. Yummo! Pear honey is the nectar of the gods as far as I'm concerned.

Turkey flights, fall gardening, and cooler temps

Week Two (August 2012)

(Four of the turkeys snagging treats from the "green" bowl ... apples, oatmeal, and yellow squash)

Why, of all times out of the year, did the weather choose to cool down now? Maybe I shouldn't ask that as I don't want to the temps to go back up at all. They have been beautiful the last few days and we even had a wind chill the other night. The last two evenings we've been able to sit outside and enjoy the evening weather which makes us happy campers. But does this mean they will stay cooled down? I hope. Or could it mean that fall will be early?

I hope not to that one as planting for the fall garden is in full swing. The kids and I got two of the garden beds cleaned out and added compost to them this week. I got all of the tomatoes transplanted and started seeds for more squash as well as broccoli, brussell sprouts, and cabbage. Once the lime gets added to the beds and they get a good turning I will be planting rutabagas, parsnips, lettuce, bush beans, kale, and cucumbers. I might even attempt another melon planting ... although I don't think they'll grow well in the cooler temps. Might be worth a shot though to find out.

Then today we got the materials for another garden bed and will be putting it together this evening after supper. We make our beds 3 x 10 and 12 inches deep. They're the perfect size to be able to reach all the way across and deep enough for the roots to grow nicely without being so deep that we can't maintain the soil from year to year. I'm thinking all the tomatoes will go into the new one, since they are so finicky about their soil, and I'll try growing some carrots around them. I wish I had some onion sets to put in now ...

AAACCKKKK!!!! Oh sorry, we just had a power surge and the internet went out and I hadn't saved anything ... but it's back now. Strange we went all summer long with all of these insanely hot days running air conditioners, etc with no power troubles at all and now that it cools down, we're losing power almost every day. Go figure.

Anyway, if I had some onions to plant now I could harvest in about December for green onions. I do have some peas that I think I'm going to plant and see if I can get fresh peas for Thanksgiving this year. That's the plan anyway, not that my plans usually work out quite like I plan. There always seems to be some "catch" to them in the end. Although our greenhouse plans worked out pretty well, at least in terms of growing stuff. Alas keeping it heated and watered was a different matter though.

So, the turkeys have taken to flying around some now. Especially our one tom that we named Boyd. He thinks it's great fun to fly up on top of the garage roof and watch the world go by. We, on the other hand, aren't so amused by it. It's not exactly easy to get up there and get him down. Luckily he hasn't taken off anywhere. I could just see him landing in our neighbors yard. They H.A.T.E. our birds (which is fine because we dislike a lot of the things they do too) and would kill them if they ever got in their yard. Of course our neighbor behind us doesn't mind our birds at all, but if one of the turkeys got in his yard, it would be dinner in a heartbeat. He wants to buy one from us for Thanksgiving. We'll see.

At least our turkeys aren't flying around as much as the ones we heard about from the plumber yesterday. He told us that he had wild turkeys at one time and after they were a few months old he thought it would be safe to let them out in the grass. So for a couple of months they were fine, but as soon as they started to fly, he couldn't go near them any more or they would fly up into the trees and not come down. He said eventually he had one of his females that flew off and he never could catch it. He said he'd be driving through town doing a job and see his bird up in a tree somewhere but before he could get it, it would fly off again. I hope Boyd never gets that idea!!

(Here's the naughty little fellow now!)

(And just so he's not left out of the photos this week, this is our other tom, Mr. Mister)

 

Oppressive Heat and Doubled Sorghum

Week One (August 2012)
I decided that it was time to start blogging our farm life if for no other reason than to keep an account of all the things we do and how we deal with all of the issues that arise. Obviously this isn't the first week of our "farm" life but it's the first week of my writing about it.

The heat has been incredibly oppressive, 108 to 111 degrees every day with no rain and no relief. After experiencing heat exhaustion last week, it's difficult for me to even go outside at all which has left my husband and son doing most of the work. We did get the birds and rabbits moved into the new garage conversion so they at least have an air conditioned space that they can escape to when it starts getting too hot. The chickens so far have been smart and retreat indoors during the hottest part of the day. The turkeys on the other hand seem quite content to just lay in the sun and warmth. I guess since most of the domesticated breeds originated in Mexico, the heat isn't so much of an issue for them.

We've been letting them out in the mornings to graze and wander where they will in the yard. Everyone rushes the gate as we open it and then scatters. The chickens take up residence in the compost bin or one of the garden beds and scratch and dig finding bugs. The turkeys tend to stay en masse and talk up a storm eventually eating grass and finding a nice dirt patch to wallow in. If we are out with them, they swarm us wanting treats, apples mainly. It's hard to even get them cut up without the birds grabbing them from us or biting our fingers.

Our garden has been ... rather odd this year. We planted tomatoes early and got an early crop before they all died out. Not sure why but we won't be planting the tomatoes in the same spot again. We also had butternut squash set on early and for the first time ever. Our pepper and eggplants have grown like crazy but we've only had a few peppers set on and not a single eggplant. I'm guessing the grasshoppers have taken their toll. We also had green beans really early but then they died out too. The interesting part is that all of the weird stuff we planted has done great. The sweet potatoes have taken over their bed, the bizarre little red melons have set like crazy but taste like dead fish, the chinese long beans are producing their hearts out, the quinoa is still growing great, and the sorghum ...

The sorghum has produced double heads on each and every stalk. They put up heads early and as we waited eagerly for them to ripen, suddenly they put up yet another head so instead of harvesting the heads and then cutting the stalks and pressing for syrup, we are having to wait until the second heads ripen and we can harvest them. I did some research on the internet but couldn't find a single thing that could tell me why we got double heads like that. I guess we'll just be grateful for the double grain production.

Now comes the fun of trying out a fall garden for the first time. We did a greenhouse last year for the first time and were incredibly happy with the outcome of it providing lettuce and greens all winter long as well as getting an early start on peas and carrots. The fall garden will have tomatoes, corn, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, kale, brussel sprouts, parsnips, and rutabagas ... if the tomatoes will grow. I planted them two weeks ago and they came up just fine but are now just setting there doing nothing. They aren't putting on true leaves or getting any taller or dying. They are just doing nothing. I've never had that happen before so I don't know what's wrong. And we still have the peppers, eggplants, some winter squash, the chinese beans, and sweet potatoes growing as well.

We butchered our first rabbits this week. It wasn't as difficult as I thought it was going to be. It's a little sad to knock them out and to see their heads in the bucket but processing them was much easier than processing a chicken. There's no feathers to pluck and the insides come out in one big lump. We ate the liver with some onions on that day and it was pretty good, not livery at all, just soft in texture. I floured it and added some salt, pepper, and garlic powder to it then sauteed it in butter with the browned onions. The rabbit meat went in the freezer otherwise though. We'll have to eat one pretty soon.