Wow, what a deal!
a warm beginning to the February Homestead
Stuff always goes pretty cheap at the February auction. The really fun one is April. It's like going to the fair as everyone cleans out their barns and sheds.
uuhg i knew i should have went but family stuff kept me from going. i wanted to get some laying hens for spring egg sales...
well i will try again in March , april and May LOL
i got time.
not much here
beautiful day ! sun and warm
my garlic started to sprout ! ack. so i gave it a good coating of straw mulch
also i straw mulched the whole garden area.30'x 50.' area, my theory is . it works on the garlic beds ect... so why can't it work on the flat garden area ?
i will add another heavy layer in the next month or two.
think it will work ? to keep weeds down ?
that way in fall i can do a cover crop , just rake off the straw
so that is my idea ? any thoughts on it would be apprciated.
What a deal on the pullets, Nik. If I'd been there, I'd have bought a crate myself even though I have no hen house built yet!
Went to visit a fellow cheesemaker, and got to pet the baby nubians!
Um. Ace Hardware http://www.acehardware.com is having an internet only sale on Strawberry and tomato topsy turvys if anyone is interested.
$1.99 each. Free shipping if you have it delivered to your local Ace and pick up the order.
yep I ordered. yep yep
I'd love to have some Golden Comets. I have 1 and bought 6 more but those 6 turned out to be red sex links. Grrr
topsy turvy.......they work. The vines do grow upward but start hanging as the fruit get bigger and weigh down the vine.
I have never used a topsy turvy but my Aunt did. She didn't like how it looked at first cause the vines were growing upward but she changed her mind after the vines started to lower. You do have to water them every day when the plants get big just like you would
if they were in a 4 or 5 gallon pot. You can also use them like you would a hanging basket and grow plants in the top.
I wanted them mostly for strawberries. The Guinea hens eat my strawberries that are in the raised beds. And they eat the wild blackberries too.
I ordered 500 strawberry roots. I was going to grow half for my self and sell half.
This message was edited Feb 6, 2012 8:40 AM
Hello homesteaders! Hope everyone is well!
Thought of everyone this weekend, we took out the largest of the pigs.
Needed help, it took us 6 hours just to get the primal cuts, much of that time was standing around second guessing ourselves. I thought of logging on yesterday to ask questions, but figured most everyone would be focused on a different sort of pigskin.lol
Homeschooling is taking up most of my time now, but the garden season is just around the corner..yay!
Starting tomatoes today :0) See you in the garden
Hey, You're ALIVE!!! Glad to see you again. :)
edited for typo
This message was edited Feb 6, 2012 12:21 PM
Please to see you as well!
Got the tomato seeds planted, cleaned out a bakchoi bed, planted beets. We've had very little frost and not a single hard freeze as of yet. Been harvesting veggies all winter, its nice not to be in such a rush to spring plant.
I made a pate from the pig liver and froze, I made it rather chunky, like a peasant style. I think it's going to be good at making a quick dirty rice as well.
Cool! I'm hoping to take a charcuterie workshop in March... it starts with breaking down a whole pig.
Ooo, I'm green, that will be fantastic! I didn't do too many 'fancy things', we will put the second pig up in the next week or so. Now that we know what we are doing I think it go faster and won't be so panicked. I have 30lbs of pork belly and the hams curing and went with loin roasts instead of chops. Making lard tomorrow.
I got a question...what can I do with 6 old bottles of champagne? It taking up too much fridge space...and I'll never drink the stuff. Could it be used to make vinegar?
If they are unopened, they don't need to be kept cold. Just store them on their sides somewhere down low so they don't get too hot (not over 80º-85º or so). If they have been opened, the fizz is long gone and they are just white wine. I'd use them to deglaze pans and in marinades. Some would have been good in your pate! (Wine is used in lots of pate and terrine recipes.)
You might be able to convert some to vinegar, but it depends on how much sulfite has been added when it was bottled. Pop one cork, pour contents (slowly and carefully!) into a glass canning jar and cover with cheesecloth. Leave in a warm place (over 70º) for several weeks. Maybe it will develop a "mother" and make vinegar. If it does, don't throw the mother away... use it to inoculate another batch.
Ha, yes, the pate reminded me of all the unused champagne. I opted to use a mead that my BIL made..it's so good, tho I can't say it stands out mixed with liver :0)
Cool, thanks I'll try growing a mother culture!
Is sulfate the stuff that gives people headaches? Champagne gives me an instant migraine. I was told that can be avoided by buying more expensive champagne. Spending more money on something that makes me ill.... doesn't sound too logical.lol
"Is sulfate the stuff that gives people headaches?"
Yup. Price doesn't make much difference, but organic does.
hey all
wow i too am green with envy on pigs. we hope to do it next year with turkeys. goats and hogs.
Cricket hmmm that topsty turvy does sound fun ! i always wondered about them. i may check into them .
i sold strawberry plants last year . did pretty good too. kept some for myself. but only about 15 plants.
MMMM pate.... mmmm gooood. love it !
got the gravel for the driveway
just got the inside of the barn done
Dh did it all by hand, lots of raking lol
How did you do multiple pics?
Look under post a reply.
I have tried twice to load a post with 3 pics and it won't load.
Make that 3 times. GRRRR
I made myself a hoop house. I am looking forward to getting some things out early this year. I also reconfigured my planting bed. So far I have carrots, green onions and broccoli raab in it.
In this first pic I am cutting the black water pipe with a grinder.
Here are the hoops waiting for a skin.
I can't wait until I am able to raise my own pork. Got so much to do right now it will probably have to wait a year or 2. I did get several trees cut today in the area I'm planning on putting my garden. There's so much I want to learn and so many plans I have my head is spinning. It will come in time though. I am learning so much by reading you all's posts and experiences.
And here is the finished product. After I got it covered, I ran a wire down the top and both sides in case the wind comes up. I weighed the sides and ends down with pavers.
Pretty nifty!
Looks good, Caj!
I had a lovely surprise in the mail yesterday. One of my blog readers (a man in Ontario) sent me seeds for 2 shrubs I want: Osage Orange, and Siberian Pea Shrub. If they sprout, the Osage orange will get planted along the fence line. Don't know yet where to plant the Siberian pea shrub... it's a good nitrogen fixer.
I put them in some damp peat in the crisper to stratify them. Started a few seeds of broadleaf (culinary) sage since I killed mine last year... and a few seeds of white (ceremonial) sage. Moon signs are good on Saturday to start my Babington Leeks, regular leeks, and Welsh onions.
Great score, Darius!
DH fried a turkey on the porch with his oiless fryer. It's a great invention.
Cold and rainy here but no snow. I have to get out and feed the rest of the animals then church tonight. We have clown ministry on Wednesday nights.
Oiless frier? How does that work?
It's a double walled cylinder that has a fire ring around the bottom. It runs on a propane bottle. The turkey sits down in the middle of it in a wire basket. You light the fire with the igniter knob. Only one setting. No adjusting to do. The turkey "fries" in it's own juices. The skin is crisp and the meat is juicy and moist. We inject it with our own "make". The fats drip out the bottom into a drip pan. It's made by Thermos. We love it. It will fry up to a 14lb turkey.
Sounds neat! Why isn't it called baking?
Nice mini hoop Cajun. And I like the sound of your oilless fryer baker. Crisp all the way around.
I been cleaning out grow beds. I don't know what to plant where.
I am cleaning up the tomato greenhouse beds today.
I need to till the chicken coop Barn floor. Using the top soil for the garden beds and adding rabbit manure to it. Till it again so the chickens will scratch it and release more nitrogen into it. :) I didn't do it this time but, next time I am shredding grass clippings and laying it down in the tilled soil for the chickens to compost it. That's called lazy mans composting. Let the chickens do it.
I am planting/sowing snow peas just outside the chicken coop run today too. I am not tillng the soil. Just putting up a few T-post and planting the seeds in the sod. When it rains, all the nutrients from the chicken coop drains to that area. By the time the grass takes over, the peas will be finished. Pull the post and mow the lawn and feed it to the chickens. The great circle of life.
about those topsy turvys
Roots grow down and not up
http://indianapublicmedia.org/amomentofscience/how-roots-know-to-grow-down/
Cricket, Happy Birthday!! Your peas may suffer some burn after a hard rain. Chicken squat is HOT. I have never seen TTs work on anything but a grape tomato. The vines always broke.
PP,I guess because the turkey does not come out like a baked turkey but like a fried one. Quick too.
Darius, I just read about the corn on your blog. Scarey crap, that.
Happy Birthday, Cricket!
Love the barn, Sue. And that Lucy sure is pretty too :0)
Cajun, do you take soil temps? I've been wondering just how much earlier I could start with hoops.
I popped over and read that about Wal-mart as well...humf...comes right on the heels of them announcing that they are introducing their own "healthy food" labeling. Think I'll make that choice for myself.
The steers were loose this morning, ran to see if they damaged the garden. Everything looked untouched, much to my relief. Then I started picking some things for lunch and noticed the very delicately nibbled the heads off my broccoli plants! So funny, I couldn't bring myself to be mad.
Connoisseurs!
thanks a bunch for the birthday wishes. had a great day.
I spent a few hours making sure two rabbits were bred. I am pretty sure everything is hunky dorie. Should have around 14 to 16 baby rabbits by this time next month.
It's gonna get cold this weekend. I spent half the day covering rabbit cages and blocking the wind from blowing directly on the open chicken coop.
Rounded up a few loose roosters so they would stay out of the wind too.
My sister and all her 5 kids are moving this weekend. Hate to see them go.
Which also means I have to clean and list the rental property again. Dreadful.
After this loooong non-winter, I'm ready for spring... but finally winter is knocking at our doors and it's the pits.