It's all about the Snacks

Ok, so I've been doing this "auto-immune paleo diet" thing for almost 2 months now.  How's it going?  I really am not sure.  There is this huge list of foods to avoid, and frankly, I'm really bad at it.  For the first month, I totally ditched dairy, grains of any kind, nuts, "most" legumes, eggs, "most" high-glycemic fruits, all alcohol... and a few others.  Exactly 1 month after I started was my birthday, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to have something special on my birthday!  The cupcakes I made had only a handful of ingredients: eggs (like, 10 of them), chocolate, cocoa powder, and honey... And they were CRAZY good.  So eggs have been back "in" since then.  But I didn't notice a difference with or without them.  I am, however, mostly using duck eggs, as they are structurally different than chicken eggs... but that's a different post.  And I came to realize I was "cheating" without realizing it.  I honestly missed my lattes.  I did switch to chai lattes instead of coffee, but I was ordering them with soy milk instead of milk-milk.  DUH.  Soy = soy beans = legume.  Silly me.  But then, thankfully, I rediscovered a local roastery that has Almond milk Chai Lattes.  Saved!  And thank goodness for my bank account, they're not open on weekends.

I'll tell you, for the first while, all I could think about was what I couldn't have.  It gets you down, let me tell you.  My hubby is a fantastic cook and baker -- makes this amazing bread with fermented grains and yumminess.  I couldn't touch it.  Breakfast for the first month was a nightmare -- no eggs!  No toast or cereal or oatmeal or yoghurt or granola!  Geez! So I bought coconut yoghurt (not cheap stuff, lemme tell you!), which has added sugar... not so good on a "clean" diet.  I tried making it myself and failed miserably.  I ate a lot of applesauce that first month.  And I was ALWAYS hungry.  I even woke up in the middle of the night once and had. to. eat. meat.  I raided the fridge in the middle of the night.  I NEVER do that!  I've only got a handle on the frequency of eating recently.  I eat basically all the time.  I always have snacks going.  The best one?  Coconut chips by Blue Monkey.  Cheap and they satisfy the sweet/salty/crunchie cravings.  I love 'em.

Along with the eggs, I've tried a bit of dairy, but my shoulders seem to bother me afterwards.  So I've cut out the dairy (again).  I'm trying nuts this week.  I figured, might as well, as I'm drinking those delightful almond chai lattes a couple times a week.  Still staying away from all the grains though.  Which has me experimenting.  A recent issue of Taproot Magazine had a recipe for gluten-free sourdough starter.  I am trying it using coconut flour.  It actually seems to be working!  It smells yeasty now, and I've been working on it for about 10 days.  Which is longer than the recipe says, but I expected that with the coconut flour.  What spurred me on was my friend discovered this amazing coconut bread "Cocolithic" made with just Organic coconut flour, whole coconut, sea salt, and water.  No grains, yeast, oils or sugar.  I can't wait to try a bread with my starter!  Mainly because I can only get this bread in our town once/week and only if I line up at 9AM.  Crazy. And it's like $8 for what seems like 1/2 a regular loaf of bread.  But it's SO good!

My ankles are still a major issue, but I seem to be more focussed, not so foggy now.  I think.  I will continue on the AIP diet for now.  I've read that the longer a person's been dealing with an issue, the longer it takes to go away.  I can remember my feet bothering me for YEARS.  Not all the time like now, but definitely for about the past 5 years or so.  That's not going to go away overnight.  So I'll keep at it and will post my frustrations and successes as I go.

Incubator Work Out

As promised: Ducklings!!

Bath time:

These 4 little fuzz balls have got to be the cutest things I've seen of late! 

Ya, and going back to that thing I wasn't supposed to do -- incubating waterfowl with turkeys.  Well.  Um. OK, so not only did I mix water and land, I also had the eggs due to hatch on different days, like a week apart, so I stopped turning the turkey eggs while the ducks were hatching.  Not supposed to do that.

Are you waiting for bad news?

There isn't any :)

Eight turkey eggs went into lock down, after resuming the turning schedule after the ducks hatched (I also did a quick clean out of the incubator after the ducklings were in the brooder so the turkeys would have a clean start)...

and...

8 hatched: fine and fluffy and healthy as anything.

Whew!

So Much to Say ...

So Few Pictures!

Like, none :(

Things are rolling right along on our little slice of land, I just haven't had time.  There's couple photos I have taken, and will share as soon as I can get them downloaded, but for now, you'll just have to be patient and enjoy the mental images.

The lambs are getting SO big!  It's getting hard to tell who are the mama ewes and who are the babies.  I'm letting the mamas wean the babies gradually, instead of seperating them as most shepherds do after about the 2 month-mark.  For a couple of reasons.  I think my sheep are happier all together and I'd rather not shock the mamas into mastitus or something of the sort. Plus, I really don't have a lot of extra space to seperate them completely, far enough away from each other, and provide adequate housing so that they are safe from predators at night.  So, I'm going with the gradual wean.  And it's interesting to watch.  Being a long-term breast-feeder of both my babes (we're talking over 5 years and almost 5 years, respectively), it's just easier on the moms and babes, physically and emotionally.  And I'm noticing that the mama ewes are letting the lambs nurse less and less, and for much shorter periods (like, seconds!). So ya, right or wrong, that's what I'm doing and it seems to be working for my girls.

The ducklings hatched last week -- I started with 4 eggs in the incubator, and got four ducklings!  I had to help the last 2 out.  I think they might have gotten a little shrink-wrapped when I opened the incubator to nab the first two.  You're not supposed to do that either - open the incubator when there are critters hatching -- but ducks are messy and I didn't want them pooping on the other duck eggs or disturbing the turkey eggs that still had a week to go.  Ya Ya, I know, you're not supposed to do That Either -- put land poultry in with waterfowl, but hey, I'm on a bit of a roll of doing things against the grain.  So far, it's working for me; hopefully that continues.  We'll see when the turkeys are due to hatch this week!

The turkey mamas are doing fantastically with their babies in the netted yard.  We had a couple of casualties in the first day, when the little tiny poults were finding their way out of the pen through little tiny cracks we didn't even know were there.  But since then, it's been all good.  Mamas are keeping them warm, the poults are eating well and growing strong.  I have someone coming for 8 little ones this week, which will leave mama Tasha with 3 to raise.  Mama Violet still has her 3 (she hatched 10, I sold 4 and some winged predator gobbled down 3 before we could blink).

The chicks we hatched out this spring are all doing well.  My 4H Daughter is slowly but surely selling off her extra roosters to people who want "Daddy Birds" as opposed to dinner, which makes her very happy, and at this time, supplies her with just enough extra cash to pay for their food.  Man, those large breeds can EAT!  She's got the Buff Orphingtons, which we affectionately call "The Monsters".  They are so big, but so gentle, and they way they walk is a sight to behold.  It kind of reminds me of Jurrassic Park - Thud Thud Thud as they cruise the pasture.  Too Funny.  The marans and my 2 sweet little wheaton ameraucanas are coming along too.  They are just 10 weeks old, but so sweet and colorful!  It seems that out of my ameraucana eggs that hatched, I have gotten the ultimate chicken wish: 1 rooster and 1 hen.  Rooster has been named Sting (we name all the roosters after singers), and the hen?  "Happy".  'Cuz that's what I am that she's a hen :)

Lastly, for now anyway, I was perusing the chicken classifieds and thinking "I am NEVER going to find any dark silkies this year"  and lo and behold, the next ad I saw was just that -- Three 12 week old black silkies!  Obviously I didn't hesitate.  I was hoping to get a hen, but now it seems I may have a little breeding pair!  Oh bliss!

I'll sound off for now -- and publish again -- with Pictures! -- very soon.

Take care, friends.

:: In Progress ::

Well.  My dance card has been FULL lately, let me tell you!

So, in short, here's what's in progress around here ...

:: First batch of Buff Orphingtons are now old enough (and Big Enough!) to be in with the main flock
:: Second round of orphingtons - 3 buffs and 6 isobels - are in the transition yard beside the main flock
:: My birthday presents, the marans and wheaton ameraucanas, are now by themselves in the chick yard, covered by netting to protect them from winged predators
:: First hatch of turkeys happened Today!  Mama Violet hatched 10/10 eggs and is now in the Turkey Nursery yard, which is also covered with netting for the same reason as above
:: Tasha the Turkey hen is sitting on a clutch of eggs, due sometime next week
:: The garlic is going Mental
:: I have volunteer potatoes and New Zealand spinach in the garden - boy is it nice when plants come up all by themselves!
:: It's looking like a good crop of strawberries and raspberries this year!
:: We gave away 1 drake (kept 1), and are hatching ducklings in the incubator next week
:: The lambs are now 10 weeks old, and the boys have all been castrated (!)
:: My "shalom" sweater is near completion!

We've plateau'ed for a bit now -- garden is mostly planted, the lambs don't need to be doted upon, the chicks are all outside and doing well, the turkey mamas and babes have protection.  It's all just basic management at this point.  The ducklings will stir things up a bit next week and will require a little extra attention, and I have turkey eggs in the incubator too and my fingers are crossed that all goes well there.  I've only ever had mama-hatched poults before and they do SO well with mama.  Why the incubator then?  I had turkeys laying eggs all over and no one sitting on them, and really, at $15 per poult, it's a bit of gold when they hatch.  All the money we get from selling baby turkeys goes to feeding the rest of the birds, and it would be so nice not to dip into our personal savings to feed everyone this winter.

Next update: ducklings!

See you soon....

I Won't Do THAT Again

What, you ask?  Loan out my incubator in the spring.  Stupid me!    A friend of my daughter's asked if, for her birthday, she could hatch a few chicks.  It was the beginning of March, and I think, sure why not.  Great experience for another home-schooled kid.  (Why should my kids get all the fun, eh?) So after I hatched out 16 of my Birthday presents, 

Blue & Birchen Marans chicks, 3 days old

I handed it over, no charge.  Am I crazy?  Yes!!  There's a guy locally who rents out his incubators to families, schools, libraries, etc for $100.  They hatch out 7 of his eggs, and return the chicks and all the equipment.  Basically charges $100 for the experience, and I'm giving it out for free.  Not to mention, the turkeys, ducks AND geese all decided to start laying and not setting about a week after the incubator settled in it's new (temporary) home.  Grrrr.  So I sold several dozen turkey and duck eggs as "fertile" eggs to try to save some of these eggs that could be turned into creatures.  I'm still waiting for the turkeys to start setting, and I'm collecting the goose eggs to incubate.  I get the incubator back next Friday, and I'm counting the days.  I sure hope these turkeys go broody soon!

Duck, Duck, Goose...

... Chicken, Beep.

Duck Egg, Duck Egg, Goose Egg, Chicken Egg, Beep Egg :)

Hee Hee!  We're up to our eyeballs in eggs over here - must be Spring!  The ducks have started laying and since we have 3 ducks and 2 drakes, we are getting a lot of duck eggs - fertile ones at that.  So while my incubator is on loan to a friend, I'm selling fertile duck eggs.  Not a bad interum gig.  The geese, Jordie and Lucy, are also wanting to start a family!  So I think we are going to let them do that; Lucy is just collecting her eggs at the moment.   Apparently, in her "other" life at the farm-before-ours, she often tried to set on a nest, but the ducks would bother her right off of it.  Not this time!  We'll make sure she has the privacy she needs.

And Mr. Raven paid us a call the other day, and because of him, we discovered the turkeys have started a clutch of eggs as well.  We moved the nest and showed the turkey hens where it was, and they seemed quite happy with the new location.  Not only was the old location in full view of passing crows and ravens, it was right beside the pond.  I could totally see unaware turkey babes plunging into the water and us finding the unlucky hatchlings floating... not to mention distraught mothers!  Ugh.  So move them we did and since they seem to be adding to the nest, me thinks they are pleased with our suggestion.

Spring Reading!

"Hatching and Brooding Your Own Chicks" by Gail Damerow.  Truly, if you're planning on hatching chicks this spring (or ducks, turkeys, geese, quail, or whatever), this book is super awesome, especially if you have kids that are interested in the process, as the photos are Amazing and very helpful!!  I bought it on a whim from amazon.ca and am not disappointed!  Gail Damerow is a noted "expert" on chickens and has written several books, including Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens, which is also very helpful, though I really enjoyed the photos in this book.  It even has real-life images of what a chick looks like in every day of development, which is great if you're like me and crack the unhatched eggs to find out why they didn't hatch. You can then figure on the approximate day the embryo died and possible reasons why.
I highly recommend this book to anyone planning on hatching birds this spring!

And Now We Wait

I can't help it.  I love spring, and now, with Christmas, New Years and my dear daughter's birthday over and done, I'm now waiting for spring.

Truly, when the grey cloud of blah sits comfortably over our valley for days and weeks on end, and all we see of the sun is a brief gasp before he pulls his head back above the clouds, it's all we can do to cope.  We're not much for skiing and skating.  I think maybe we've spent too many winters in Mexico sunshine and we're now wimpy Canadians.

So, we wait.

And plan and dream of chicks and ducklings and goslings and baby turkeys and lambs!  If all went well with Mr. Man's visit, first possible lamb is due to show it's adorable face anytime after March 9.

And so, I wait.

And.

Wait.

How many more days?

Sigh.

Is THIS December??

I know.  It's hard to believe, but yes, I took these pictures TODAY, December 1, 2012.  It got to 11C here today, folks.  I had to document it, it was way too cool.  Like Spring had come early.  All of us - animals included- enjoyed the fabulous weather.

Dog took a nap in the yard; geese and ducks had a swim in the pond (after pathetically trying to dive in their water dish.  They just do that.); I cleaned out the barn; hubby put up new fences.

Kids played in the barn with Beep.  Actually, that's not Beep.  That's her Auntie Madam.  We called her that because when she was a chick she had a black outline on her eyes that looked like eyeliner.  But Beep was there too.

If this is December, I can totally handle winter.

Happy December, people!

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.

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. 

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.

The Farm is Expanding!!

Well, I certainly didn't think I'd say THAT this summer, and definitely not in the way it has.  My "plan " was to get my wooly sheep next year for sure, and bees shortly after that.  Hmm. Life doesn't always work out how you plan, does it?  I casually said to the family the other day, how I'd love to have geese again.  Our friend's parents, who live on a farm in Saskatchewan, raise African Geese, and we were chatting with them about possibly bringing out either some eggs for us to hatch, or some new goslings next time they came through town.

It wasn't even 5 hours later when we got a message that our neighbor wanted to speak with us.  "Oh No." We thought.  We already know he doesn't like our noisy rooster, Jagger.  We thought he was calling to complain or something.

Nothing like that at all.

Turns out, he has a friend who was looking for a home for some of his birds.  Story goes, that this guy's neighbor decided to put up a dog run right up next to his fence where he has kept several hundred (yes, HUNDRED) breeding turkeys and their families.  Long sad story short, turkeys stress very easily.  Poor guy came home to over 300 dead adult and baby turkeys.  He was absolutely heartbroken.  So rather than risk losing the rest of them, he put out the word.  And Our Neighbor suggested Us!  Unbelievable!  We thought he frowned upon our critters, but he says he knew we would be a great home for these birds.  Oh, wow.  Never underestimate someone, people.  You never know when they might surprise you.

So our new additions were delivered Sunday morning, after a 5 hour truck ride in the heat.  Yes, can you believe it??  He was so anxious to see them in a new, safe home that he delivered them, free of charge.  He just wanted to be sure his birds were going to be well cared for.

So, introductions:
There's Waldo, king pin of the turkeys.

Yes, as in "Where's Waldo", because, if you clap 2 or 3 times, he'll "gobble gobble" no matter where he is and you'll find him, and probably most of his ladies too.

Violet

Violet with her 3 babes...

Chuckie the mama duck with 3 4-week old ducklings

Jordie (big white guy), Lucy (pretty brown/white goose) ...

There are a few more, (okay, several) without names yet.

So, in total, there are 6 adults Royal Palm Turkeys, 20 poults (baby turkeys), 2 chinese geese and 6 ducks.  Whew.  They are used to free-ranging and take pretty good care of themselves.  We've set them up in the backyard, which was quite lonely and desolate up until Sunday and we will eventually build them a winter shelter.  As they've been wintered in 100 Mile House, they are used to much harsher winters than we get here.  So, we are sitting a lot, watching a lot and learning a lot about these new arrivals.  And loving every moment.