On the February homestead with dreams of springtime...

Clothespins: wonder if an overnight soak in bleach water followed by a day in the sun would help.

Cajun is still around. Just busy I think, but she pops in every couple of days. Not sure about Lizard_keep. Now Twiggybuds is another story. She hasn't posted anywhere that I could find on DG since November. I've sent her 2 cards by mail and a couple dmails and email, all with no response.

I have the same sentiments with my upright freezer as Podster. And it sure doesn't hold as much as a comparable chest type would. Since I am planning on raising my own pork and beef this summer, I am going to get a chest freezer and actually wondered if two 15 cubic ft ones would be better that one large one.

Darius, another idea would be to buy "milk" crates to keep everything organized in your freezer. With 2 levels of them, you could move them around or even lift one or two out to get what you needed from the bottom. That would keep all the bottom stuff from getting intermingled.

Yeah, I was pretty stoked about the whole seminar last night, plus it was really nice to be amongst friends for our first presentaion.

I started out with cloth bags to hold various food groups in the chest freezer. That didn't work too well because things are hard to pack in them to conserve space. Then I tried cardboard boxes but they didn't hold up long. The idea of plastic crates might work, if I can find some that fit without too much wasted space between them. Next time I go to a big city, I'll look for some.

I do concur about the energy loss with an upright freezer every time the door is opened. I've never dropped anything on my foot from that one, but items that do not stack easily are in cheapo plastic dishpans.

good morning
busy day today
good idea on the freezer bags podster. we have an upright. but its getting small ? LOL
i m trying to dehydrate more and more and can stuff.
we have a generator but that only last so long
well off and running
no sunny day here :( but lots to do
seeds are sprouting ! weeeeee

And that retirement must be why you crossed my mind! Good for you ~ Congrats!

Now, I am sure you will work harder than before. Especially with your second jobs' season beginning.

No doubt LOL but at least I like the new boss better.
Need to get into high gear and get my garden going though or I will just be listening to what y'all are doing.

good morning
good to see you lizard_keep
speaking of gardens. yikes. mine is 10 ft under weeds. i had to let it go last year. *sigh* not looking forward to pulling it all out .
uhg
warming up here.
gh house is warm in the 70's , things are looking good in there.
stay well everyone
sue

We're having some wonderful temps here being in the upper 60's. Would be a little nicer if we had a little sun to go along with it...but I'm not complaining.

Mind is in a whirl with my sorting through my seed stash, mulling over my "container gardening" segment of the next workshop and research on raising a few pigs and calves. The key words being "pigs" and "calves". Already have requests to raise an extra pig and 2 extra calves. DH is getting quite interested in becoming a farmer.

Hey, I might be in the market for half a calf, too... :) Limited freezer space, y'know...

I just took down my first venison bresaola that has been "in process" since Jan. 13. I haven't cut into it yet, letting the moisture equalize 24 hours first... but lemme tell ya, I'm IN LOVE with the smell! The white mold that formed on the surface (it's supposed to!) smells like a truly great (and expensive!) aged cheese from the Alps, or Italy.

I made a pound and a half of Feta yesterday from 1 gallon of milk, and getting ready to start another cheese in the morning, maybe a Monterey Jack because I can eat it sooner. I adapted a small (and unused) Havahart trap to put my cheese wheels in to age out in the root cellar. Hopefully, it will work for now until I get a wine cooler for a "cave". The cheese in it is my first hard-rind cheese made several weeks ago, and just now waxed to age.

darius
I wished you lived nearby. I'd love to learn to make cheese. Yours looks so good!

Darius, how cool is that! I am so impressed (and envious) of your determination and acquiring new skills. We'll talk later about the 1/2 cow. :)

This whole becoming real farmers idea is really snowballing. Started out wanting one piglet and one calf, but then maybe two of each would be better for "company" and selling off the second ones after butchering one of each for us. Then maybe adding a milk goat or two to the mix. They can help clean up brush around the place, plus the milk is good for drinking and making cheese, plus possibly selling. The resulting whey from making cheese is good for the chickens and pigs. Extra eggs from the chickens are good for the pigs. Excess unsellable produce from the garden is good for goats, pigs and chickens.

All of this ultimately came from reading a few blogs...ok, a lot. A couple of them claim to provide 95% of their total grocery bill. If we can get this new truck paid off and get 10 CSA members and we learned a few news skills, we could conceivable be in a postion for DH to retire from construction. I was really surprised that DH was really on board with the getting livestock. The other things will be sprung on him along the way. 8D

Robin, it's hard to stop an idea whose (who's?) time has come...

texasrockgarden, someday I may actually offer ckasses, once I learn enough. One problem with making cheese is the "wait" time to tasting! That cheese in the cage above won't be ready for 2-3 more months. Seems like half my already-limited food budget is now going for foods that I won't be able to eat for a few more months. On the other hand, I made a fromage blanc and some ricotta over last weekend and have eaten both! Half the fromage blanc I mixed with 2 stiffly-beaten egg whites and a little powdered sugar, pressed into heart-shaped cookie molds, and served them for Valentine's day with a fruit pureé. YUM. The other half became an herb spread.

I'm chompin' at the bit to make a stilton-type blue cheese, but that's another long wait to taste. Brie is one of my favorite cheeses but I don't have the penicillin culture for the white mold... yet. It's always something, LOL. However, I am really enjoying my foray into cheese and charcuterie.

Here's a yummy pic...

Wouldn't you just want to pull up a chair in there, and inhale? :)

Eventually I will do a ham, but not until I know a lot more than I do now.

Darius, your cheese selection sounds wonderful. I need the inspiration, I've gotten quit lazy in the experimenting department. I make lots and lots of a colby variation. I can make that one in my sleep.lol I need a better cave too and the colby will at least age at cooler fridge temps. Have you tried a munajuusto, that's our family fresh cheese favorite at the moment.

MsRobin, another thing to consider is turkeys instead of pigs. We are not set up for pigs. But have found people will trade a 100lbplus pig for a pair of turkeys. The turkey we raise cheep on clabber from our milk cows (which have provided us steers ;) We pick up the pigs and drive them straight to the butcher. May help if you prefer raising birds. Heritage birds go for a lot around Thanksgiving too. just thinking out loud.

Few more hour of daylight, more seed starting.woohoo

munajuusto? I don't know it... but there are over 2,000 kinds of cheese!

Here's the recipe I use:
http://cheeseforum.org/forum/index.php/topic,1958.0.html

The only difference is I use raw milk, and whisked clabber in place of the butter milk.
Oh, and I round off the liter to 34oz. since I stink at conversions.lol

http://www.onlineconversion.com/

all your conversion needs !

cocoa_lulu, what an interesting recipe, Thanks! I'll have to try it... do you think I could make a batch of about 2/3 of the recipe? (Can't do half, with 3 eggs in the whole recipe!)

The greenish whey is from the riboflavin...

Absolutely, I found there a lot variations on how it's made. You can make it with no eggs at all, if you like. Or you can make it with up to 6 eggs in a full batch. Eggs just add flavor. I don't think the yolks get fully cooked when added to the hot curd, make sure to use safe fresh eggs.

Same with the buttermilk, some use whey as an acidifier, but the buttermilk has more flavor.

Then you have the option of broiling or not, but the cooking adds another layer of flavor and texture.

Then, there all the ways it's eaten. Some like it with honey, dried fruits or nuts. Others, as a savory base. I like it both ways :0) My kids like it plain and hot, right out of the oven. Just hand'em a fork.lol
I hope you like it!

Uh-oh, another recipe gone wild! LOL Darius, you are going to be busy using Lulu's recipe ideas!

Lulu, I hadn't considered turkeys, but that's a thought for a little farther down the line.

Robin, I paid $6.50/lb. for my free-range heritage turkey the last 2 years. Bourbon Reds. Richard may not raise them again ONLY because by setting his own eggs once it's warm enough, they don't mature heavy enough by Thanksgiving. His farm is about half a zone colder than I am here so it's a late start.

Unknowingly, I was running a raging fever last evening. It broke in the middle of the night and I awakened soaking wet. So today I'm short on energy... the milk I have should keep another day for cheesemaking.

Oh, Darius. I hope you're up to 100 percent soon!
Speaking of, Podster, are you doing better too?

We had one interesting situation concerning the turkeys. The last of our turkeys we traded last July. My dh wanted to roast a pig underground for 4th. The turkey pair was breeding age, but hadn't started laying yet. I wasn't sure why, but the woman we were trading with knew they hadn't laid yet and was fine with the trade.

We picked up the pig and he went straight to the processor and was cooling when we received an e-mail. She said we gave her a 'false female'. A Tom with female attributes, this was 'not a breeding pair'.

I was in a panic, I felt horrible. I didn't intentionally try and scam her, However, I felt her e-mailed implied we had. It wasn't like we could simply trade the pig back, We already paid for the processing. She already had plenty of her own butchered pork. We were in the process of trying to figure out the ethical thing to do in this situation. Then out of the blue she e-mailed us to say the 'false female' laid an egg that morning.lol

coco that is a funny story. LOL good thing she laid an egg. yikes !
oooh how i wish some one would invent smell a vision , just like in will wonka .
oh cheese is my fav thing in the world.
darius that cheese in the trap cracks me up LOLLLL . it could be a post card. "what kind of bait do you put in a Beverly Hills raccoon trap ? " ..... Parmesan Reggiano of course LOLLL aaahhh i slay me... or you could make it one of the " captions of the day pics "
love to see what people would come up with ?
not much giong on here

Wow, it has been fun catching up on what everyone is doing, and good to see the same consistent folks are still around here at the Homesteading forum!

Lessee, February recap:
Lost my job in January, so the beginning of the month was spent trying to find a new job.
Daughter, fiancee and grandson have been here since December - now the fiancee went to get a job back down south
Now I am hanging out at a goat farm getting familiar with goats and their needs (animal cookies - check, baby wipes - check...this is sounding very similar to my grandson about now....lol)
Container gardens in assembly stage, along with the chicken tractor - I now own my own power tools and they are not pink.
Flooded basement from busted water pipe repaired (and now with a shut-off valve...woohoo) and still pulling 50 pints of water daily through the dehumidifier a week later

If I checked in daily it would be boooooring, but the recap sounds like I have a moderately exciting life...:D

~H

Hineni ~ glad to see you checking in... even if it means unemployment. It does sound like you have come a long way since your post when you asked for a list of homesteading tools and supplies that were considered important to others. How long has that been?

Then your posts where you were shopping for a homestead. Amazing how time flies.

I would have to say you have learned alot but I don't think we would find you boring. After all, each of us knows the satisfaction of accomplishing a difficult task, the pleasure of acquiring a new animal or the exciting feeling when mastering a new tool.

We will share your joy, wipe your tears or when you are down, someone here will pick you back up, shake you and point you in the right direction. LOL Don't stay away so long but good luck with your job search!

MsRobin ~ how did your second Monday workshop go?

CocoaLulu ~ when you asked if I was doing better, you threw me. I thought how could she know I have the crud. But then I remembered throwing a "sick of winter" fit. lol And yes, with two days of sunshine and almost all my wintersown jugs sprouting ~ LIFE IS GOOD!

Amazing what a couple of days of sunshine and nice temps can do for your disposition after a long (sometimes brutal) winter.

Regarding Hineni, I just want to add how proud I am of her for how far she has come. She has overcome many challenges over the last couple of years and it's so cool to see her moving forward.
(H, you go girl!)

Having trouble getting my post to go out. Will post seminar updates when it works again.

Seminar update: Before we started, we had 65 flyers handed out to food pantry recipients, posted flyers at several businesses all over our town of almost 900 households. Talked it up to everyone we (the 3 of us) came in contact with. Even had it announced on the local radio station yesterday. You would think that we would have a good response. Even a 1% interest would be 8 people or so from our community. Dave (70 yrs old) helped a group of people with a lot of garden work yesterday for over 3 hours and they said they would attend last night, but were no shows.

The reality is of the 8 people that are attending, only 2 (a couple) are not affiliated with MG program and all live outside of our immediate community. Pretty disappointing that there isn't more local interest. That being said, everyone is enthusiastic about the information provided and I'm sure are learning a lot, as are the 3 of us. Everyone is pleased with the timing of the seminar, as we're leading them in the sequence of subjects that will work for them this season. Everyone acquired their seeds and started seed trays this past week. Their genuine interest and enthusiasm makes it all worthwhile.


This message was edited Feb 22, 2011 12:07 PM

Ok, last night was about different ways to garden, ie: traditional in ground, square foot beds and containers. Dave talked about how to improve the soil and getting the PH right. Darin did a beautiful presentation with a scaled down model of a square foot bed, how to put it together, how to plant it and how to turn it into a mini greenhouse. And I talked about the advantages of container gardening and passed around several pictures of different container ideas.

It was interesting watching everyone's faces during each presentation. It was like a light went on and you could almost hear their thoughts....this will work here, that will work there and I can do that. Lots of questions, but not the ones that ask for clarification, more so just for more related info. Pretty cool!

I have found some great info online that we base our presentations on. It's some good concise basic info, a few simple charts, etc. If anyone is interested, send me a dmail with your email address and I'll send you what I have gathered each week. Since I'm on wireless internet and almost in the boonies, my signal is kind of weak, so it may take a couple of emails each week to send the info.

Now that I've taken up so much space, I need to go find something productive to do. Hope everyone has a great day!



This message was edited Feb 22, 2011 12:10 PM

@ Podster - Yes, it really doesn't seem that long ago but the path has been circuitous, that's for sure. I still feel like a n00b though and probably always will. And I have such greenhouse envy right now....that's a greenhouse to drool over for years to come. You have such a beautiful place! Thanks for the inspiring photos on that other thread. They have one that will fit on my deck out on display at Lowe's that I have fondled like a 16 year old boy with his first bra strap, but I just can't swing that cost right now and keep paying the bills. One day soon though....!

@MsRobin - Thanks lady. No royalties were exchanged for the compliments...hahaha! There is NO way I would be this far along without Robin's willingness to listen to me ramble on, and on, and on; her awesome veggies from the CSA last year that kept me kinda guilt-free over my inability to get a garden in while working 16 hour days; her staunch support and then gentle corrections when I come up with yet another hare-brained idea that really shouldn't be spoken out loud...and, well, you get the picture. Her friendship has been priceless.

Today I got 50 plus leeks transplanted, more lettuces out, and began the spinach transplants. All before lunch, which is awesome egg salad from the new local source I have for free range eggs. Gyahhh, I feel sorry for folks that have to eat store eggs, blech.
I taught my grandson how to smell herbs; he loves lemon verbena (one plant I managed to keep alive over winter) and rosemary.He's also great at picking up kindling and putting it in the wagon :) I'll really miss him when they leave. Nothing like baby belly laughs to brighten your morning!

On my plate for this afternoon - rest of transplants out, peeking in the mini-greenhouse to see if anything sprouted (less than 24 hours after planting...prolly not...grin), more soil mixing, post office, a load of bricks to pick up and.....probably won't get all that done :) Always something on the list for the next day... :D

~H

H... free range eggs? They have legs and can cavort all over? LOL

LOL @ Darius. Yep, kinda hard to keep those fresh little buggers in the fridge too :) I hope you're feeling better today.
.
My horse and dog neighbor called and wanted to go out to eat, not one of my fave things to do, but I went anyway. Food was horrible, yech! And expensive :( To top it all off, when I got home I had left the cattle panel off the 'garden' on the deck and my two 100 lb Pyrs apparently got a whiff of the composter (even though it was closed and the lid locked), gnawed the lid off to get to the compost and had a huge brawl all on the deck, busting the composter, knocking off the screen door, scattered peat moss all over, knocked over bags of dirt that cost money and generally made a mess of things and each other while scaring my daughter and grandson to tears. Oy. Thankfully no food plants were injured, it was just a nasty mess to clean up in the cold and dark. I could just kick myself for leaving that panel down....grrrr. Sometimes I wonder if I'm responsible enough to take on animals when I forget important things like that which could have caused a serious loss of food plants. I get distracted pretty easily when other people are around or my work gets interrupted.

How do you all stay focused when you get interrupted or called off to something else when in the midst of a project? An error like that with an animal could result in a complete loss of the animal, or some other stupid thing like them getting hurt and causing vet bills unexpectedly. Just thinking out loud...maybe everyone else is less scattered when it comes to wrapping up something...lol! Perhaps a whiteboard checklist by the house entrance for a while just to create the habit?

Happy Hump Day everyone :)

~H

I keep a checklist at the front door... and another in the truck... and another by the computer. Otherwise I'd even forget my name.

I'm worn out here. An entire week of warm weather. I felt like I had a jump start on spring, then bam, mother nature has the jump on me!

Hinei, I would love to know how other keep a safe balance.
Our larger animals scare me that they could hurt someone if they get loose.
I would say 'fear' is my greatest motivator to check, then double check, gates and fences.

I go through my daily routine saying to myself, "Now I'm latching the gate." Here I am turning off the water." "Now I'm closing the barn doors." Etc. Otherwise I can never remember whether I've done the routine things or not.

Hineni, one time i was in my bath robe in the pouring rain trying to catch chickens ! , slipping and falling , bath robe unraveling and yes. Just my birthday suit on underneath. scary site it was . ! LOL cuz i forgot the door latch..
oh and i won't ever forget the time i was chasing raccoons down away from my chickens.
forgot to turn off the water when watering the gardens.
forgot to turn on the water to water the gardens.
forgot to plug our truck in.... it was single digits.... truck didn't start the next morning
smashed into chicken house with tractor while backing it up .
oh the list goes on. Sometimes i think city living may be easier ? LOL ...

Good thing we can all look back on the dumb and/or silly things that happen along the way and laugh about it!

if only flys could talk ! iwould be in so much trouble ack
few years back i did a stupid canning thread. that was fun !! we leart a lot , didn't we darius. LOL
we had good laughs.
well i m off to bed
nighty night

Thanks for everyone's input and suggestions - and encouragement that I am not the only ninny out here sometimes...LOL!

Today was rather unproductive, at least in forward movement. Spent most of the day cleaning the remaining mess from last night, making sure the cattle panel was UP before releasing the hounds, and battening down for the impending nasty weather heading my way.

One good thing is I opened a rubbermaid tub today and found a bunch of cool things I forgot that I had:

3 sets of tools of my hubby's (not sure what some of them are), but one was a nice set for the car that even has a safety flasher and flashlight on the toolkit.
A big package of waterproof matches, some emergency ponchos, a hatchet, a full Coleman camping dinner set, some firestarters, several flashlights and a mini-propane cooking kit.

Have I mentioned that I still haven't finished unpacking from my move over a year ago? (sheepish look) Just the other day, in another rubbermaid tub, found a bunch of sewing stuff and some solar powered lights...pretty cool.

On a more positive note, my grandson learned to say 'pan' and 'eggs' and part of the word 'butter' tonight while I was cooking a breakfast dinner :)

Hope everyone stays safe in the path of the 'severe' weather!!

~H