New beginnings

Hello.  It's been a while.  I have been focusing on my children as they continue to grow and venture farther from home, for longer periods.  I have been focusing on my health, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis about 5 years ago and decided to radically change my diet instead of opting for drugs.  We moved, in town still, but a move is still a move, and it sometimes takes a while to find a groove in a new setting.  We have 4 acres now instead of 2, beside a beautiful creek.  And I have found... it's too much.  I am good with 2 acres.  Moving forward, this is good to know!  We have stopped breeding the sheep, and are currently keeping 5 ewes as lawn mowers.  (Why?  Our daughter is now a vegan... 'nuff said.)  I have down-sized the turkeys considerably, only keeping a breeding pair of the Royal Palms at the moment, concentrating on my chickens, particularly on the ameraucanas (wheatens and mottleds).  We have added guinea fowl, which are fun, and a lot less maintenance than the chickens.  I have shifted focus on the ducks, from the swedish to anconas.  I can feel now, that I have time to maintain this blog if anyone cares to read it.  If you do, please let me know.  If not, I can archive it and move on, and I thank you for your time.

Snow Day!

So we got a heap of snow in a couple of days... so much so that my van is going to remain parked for the time being.  At our old place (did I mention we've moved??), I would have inched my way down the driveway, and parked at the bottom if I couldn't make it up again.  Can't do that at the new place!  The road coming into our property is at a fairly decent incline, and apparently not high on the snowplow list!  So, the kids and I have been a bit stranded for the past several days.

Thank goodness Santa had the fore-sight to include "Monopoly Deal" in the boy's stocking!  We've been playing it almost non-stop since Christmas.  I am not only enjoying the game itself, but it is so heart-warming to watch the kids at it.  Even though there is a clear-cut winner and a lot of swapping and stealing of things, everyone has taken it all in stride, and sometimes even with laughter on the part of the "victem"!  I guess it shows that the kids are (sigh, teary-eyed) growing up, and becoming more mature.  Oh my goodness. :)

And also, as with my last post, oh so many months ago, it IS all about the snacks!  For me?  Lots of chocolate, and this tea.

... which we tend to call "fake chai" because, as good as it is, there is not a tea bag in sight.  Now, all I need is a roaring fire, and we would be quite set.

Happy New Year to all, and the best of 2016 to us all!

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.

The Long and the Short of It

Hmm.  It's been so long, I hardly know where to start.  My year last year was a bit of a doozy, health-wise.  The short story is that all my weird pains were finally diagnosed as Rheumatoid Arthritis and the specialist of course wanted to put me on all kinds of major drugs right off the bat.  I have resisted that, going solely with diet changes.  I've slowly been eliminating different foods and lately stumbled on the book "Why Isn't My Brain Working" which basically says that most afflictions have to do with an unhealthy brain and here's what do to about it.

So my year last year was about good days and bad days (probably an even number of both), and working our family business and trying my damndest to keep up with our garden and the animals.  Let's say the animals are well, we added about 9 more laying hens, and I grew great pumpkins, which I'm still enjoying from the freezer.

2 weeks ago, I started on the path of the "Auto-Immune Paleo Diet" (insert groan here), and here I am, still figuring it all out.  Basically, I've totally cut out all grains, dairy, eggs, and all nuts/legumes, extremely limited sugar & coffee, and nightshade veggies.  It's quite the thing.  I'm hungry ALL the time, and I'm obsessed with my next meal or snack.  After 2 weeks, I'm kind of getting the hang of it, but if I'm not always eating, I'm hungry.  When I was first diagnosed last year, I started limiting a lot of bread-y things, and the weight just fell off.  Not that I was big before.  I'm 5'7", and have weighed 134 lbs for most of my adult life (with the exception of pregnancies).  I'm now 20 lbs lighter.  So I can't really afford to lose any more weight.  It's very weird, and I don't feel strong, which bugs me, being the independent kind of person that I am.

Am I feeling better?  I think so.  2 weeks is a little early to tell, but I feel like I need to document this somehow, to see any results.  I'm still really stiff in my ankles, which means I limp pretty much all the time, but it seems to be lessening.  What I am noticing is that I experience less ups and downs throughout the day... like a fog has lifted.  And I'm sleeping through the night.

That's about all I can say for now.  I'm taking it day by day.  Thanks for listening.

Sonkers!

I've made this a few times now, using what ever berries/fruit I happen to have on hand at the time.  It's kinda like a pie turned inside-out.  I am not skilled in the pastry department, so I avoid pies if I can... But this, thanks to an article by Ashley English that appears in her book, "A Year of Pies" and I believe in Taproot Magazine too.  (Adapted recipe after the photos)

This one was raspberries:

And dolloped (is that even a word?) with spelt dumplings...

... and served with ice cream!  Voila:

Recipe:

Filling:

• 4 1/2 half-pints raspberries

• 1/2 cup honey/agave/maple syrup

• 1/4 cup arrowroot powder or cornstarch

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Topping:
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (or spelt or combo)

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed

• 3/4 cup buttermilk (or yoghurt)

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Butter a 10-inch skillet or a 9-inch pie pan and set aside.

Prepare the filling:

Combine all the ingredients for the filling in a medium-size bowl. Stir until the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed and the berries are well-coated. Cover bowl with a kitchen cloth and set aside for 15 minutes.

Prepare the biscuit topping:

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl.

Using a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter cubes until the mixture is crumbly and the size of peas or smaller.

Create a well in the center of the mixture. Pour in the buttermilk, and using a large spoon, gently incorporate just until all of the dry ingredients are moistened. The mixture will look quite wet at this point, but that’s fine.

Assemble the sonker:

Place the blackberry mixture in the prepared skillet.

Using a large spoon,dollop the surface of the raspberries with the biscuit topping, aiming for mounds of about 3 tablespoons of batter. You needn’t be terribly specific on the biscuit amounts; as long as the surface is dotted with reasonably similar biscuit mounds, you’re fine.

Pour the melted butter over the biscuit topping and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking an additional 30 minutes.

Cool at least 30 minutes.

Enjoy!  And, if you have leftovers, you can have it again for breakfast, with yoghurt on the side instead of the icecream.  

How Does Your Garden Grow?

My garden? This year?  Not very well, I'm afraid.  I got a really late start for a couple of reasons... one was that our garden gate is one that has very large gaps in it.  Not large enough for sheep to bust through, but plenty big enough for the ducks and chickens.  So after waiting and waiting for said gate to be replaced, I got impatient and tacked a bunch of netting over the gaps.  A little unsightly, but effective.  

So my lettuces didn't get planted... or rather, they did, but the ducks ate it before I had the netting up and I didn't bother to replant.

Thank goodness for garlic that was in last fall:

and New Zealand spinach (not really a spinach) that reseeds itself:
(notice the peas in the background -- that was all the kids' doing, not mine)

So this year, I think I've resigned myself to things that don't need a lot of work, like pumpkins of various types and sizes...

... and raspberries & blackberries that are threatening to overtake a very large part of both the garden and the chicken yard...

Low maintenance, people, that's what I'm going for this year.  I don't have time for succession planting or lettuces that are going to bolt at the first hint of heat.  It's going to be a hot one, so definitely don't need THAT.  I'll concentrate on garlic, pumpkins, and berries me thinks.  Lots of jam and pumpkins to get us through the winter.  Sounds good to me!

Oregon Coast Cowl

So we travelled down the Oregon coast this past December, when the temperature hit record lows... We were in our RV and F R E E Z I N G ... which thus inspired me to whip up this little dream of a cowl.


Super easy pattern.  I wanted something reversible; repeatable but not totally boring.  Something I could wear with just about anything (also inspired by my limited travelling wardrobe). And soft as all get-out.  So I opted for a Royal Alpaca in grey.

**I used less than 1 skein for this project.  You can customize however you like.  Choose your yarn.  Choose your needles according to the yarn.  Knit for as long as you like it.  I kept going till it would wrap around my neck 3 times, not loose, but not too tight either.**

Cast on 32 sts.  (or any multiple of 8, depending on how wide you want it).
Row 1-4: Knit 4, Purl 4, repeat to end.
Row 5-8: Purl 4, Knit 4, repeat to end.
Rows 9 on:  Repeat rows 1-8.

When you are done, join ends in a simple stitch.  I twisted mine once before I joined the ends to have a flip in the cowl.  Also, make sure you end on a row 8 so when you join the end, the pattern flows.

Lambing? Check!

I guess I've been a bit remiss in updates about how the lambing all went this year. (Sorry 'bout that.)

Well... I'm happy to report 10 healthy lambs running around our little 2 acre piece these days.  (Whew!)  So yes, Stella and Sunshine birthed 2 healthy lambs without missing a beat, as suspected.  Dulcie did birth triplets again, and since we knew to keep an eye on her, we watched all 3 born, easily and quickly, and dear mama Dulcie took all three of the little rams and is nursing them all!  Wow.  She is my rock star.

Moo, on the other hand... she birthed twins again, the first born easily and the "right" way... #2 came out backwards, and with a great deal of effort by mama and quite a bit of help from me.  Poor thing.  I wonder if she's just not cut out for the whole thing.   She nurses and cares for them amazingly, but the whole birth thing?  I shudder to think what would happen if we weren't around to help her.

Moo and her lambs

And Smudge?  Gosh, we didn't even think she was pregnant, and she popped a single lamb out one evening while we were having dinner.  Poor thing had this bewildered look on her face like she had NO idea what was happening to her.  She took to mothering like a natural though, and a bossy mama too, always yelling for her little boy.  Good practise, I hear, for a young ewe like Smudge to only have the 1 lamb to deal with.

Sunshine's little ewe lamb

So here we are, several weeks later, and everyone doing very well.  A happy shepherdess over here :)

Ignorance is Bliss

... it is, in regards to sheep anyway.

Last Year, I had no idea what to expect.  And the first lambs came over night and surprised me in the morning, all cleaned up and perfect.  This Year, because of last year, I'm watching closely.  According to the day we got the ram, and how long a ewe's gestation is, first lambs could have started arriving on March 16.  Here we are on the 18th, and my poor sheep look like they could burst at any second: they are grunting a lot, their udders are HUGE and they seem so uncomfortable.

And last year, the ewes were all first timers, as was I, so we all learned stuff together.  Now, fortunately or unfortunately, I'm watching for certain things.  For example?  "Moo" birthed both her babies backwards.  Healthy and wonderful, but thank goodness I was around to give her a hand or it may not have ended so nicely.  So I'm watching her.  And her sister, Dulcie, birthed triplets, but after the first 2, she looked like she was done, so we let her be.  And unfortunately found #3 dead in the straw the next morning.  It could have been born dead for all I know.  But this year, I know she's fully capable of birthing more than 2, so I'm watching her too.  Stella and Sunshine both birthed beautifully on their own, so I'm not too worried about them.  And then there's Smudge - Stella's little white lamb from last year.  I think she might be preggers too, but I held her back from the ram a bit, to give her a chance to grow up a little more on this end of things, so I'm still not sure if she took.  We'll have to wait a bit to find out.

As there were no lambs in sight this evening, it'll be at least another day or 2 of watching...

Embracing 2014

Well... it's been a while.

I had every intention of writing for the last... well, since the last post really... I have lots to say (wink)... it just didn't happen.  (Obviously.)

We were away on a little jaunt to Southern California for a sunshine break  and I couldn't seem to log on to post anything.  And now, I want to write stuff, but my camera's on the fritz.  So finally, I figured I'd just jot down a few things... a "to-write" list, if you will:
- a photo of my finished shalom sweater (which I LOVE, btw)
- an easy-peasy pattern for a simple cowl that I knit on the road (when I was FREEZING on the Oregon coast), in a light grey, Royal Alpaca.  Dreamy.
- a soap-box version of what I think of this latest backyard chicken craze
- chicken update (all those babies from last year?  All grown up and Gorgeous!) & plans for 2014 babies!
- sheep update (Yep, I think they are all preggers -- due anytime after March 16)
- a mild rant on my frustrations and successes with home-schooling
- book reviews on 3 (!) novels I read while away.

.. and a few other things.

Suffice it to say, that I'm REALLY glad 2014 is here because 2013 was not my favourite year.  Putting a positive spin on it, I did A LOT of learning (read: made a ton of mistakes) and I'm looking forward to putting my learning into practise this year.  (Lesson #1: NO PIGS).

That is all.

For now (another wink).

Weekend Reading

Ah Hah!  I found one.  A novel I could read right through.  I have attention-deficit when it comes to novels, you see.  They can't seem to hold me very long.  But something the way Jeannette Walls writes really pulls me in.  I've read her memoir, "The Glass Castle" and her other novel "Half Broke Horses", and now this, her third "The Silver Star".  She says it's a novel, fiction, but I'm sure there are pieces of her crazy childhood all over this book.  Especially in the mother character.

I said it before after reading one of Walls' books:  If you think your life is spinning out of control, just try to imagine what life was like for her growing up.  Your life?  It ain't so bad.  Cozy up this weekend with a good read and really enjoy that extra hour tomorrow.

Welcome Back Apollo!

Heeee's baaaaaack!  And he's bigger -- much bigger!
After several lengthy family discussions, the conclusion was reached that although shipping the lambs off in the fall is very sad, the joy we get from seeing them born and having them bopping over the pasture all summer far outweighs the sadness at the end of it all.  Daughter thinks it will get easier, as it did with the extra roosters and turkeys that ulitmately end up in our freezer.  I guess we'll see about that. 

I realized today why so many books are written on farm stories.  Because so many ridiculous things happen on farms.  Like today.  Hubby and I went over to a neighbor farm to pick up our stud-Ram this morning.  Same Dude as last year.  And yes, that's Dude with a Capital D.

Well.  My neighbor shepherds have a lot more sheep than we do and do things a little different than we do.  They don't have time to pussy-foot around.  Ahem.  We do.  So, instead of their suggestion of tying him up and dragging him into a cage on the back of their well-equipped pick up, we gently loaded him into the back of our mini van, furnished with soft hay and willow branches to munch on.  We were warned it wasn't a good idea.  He was going to vault over the seats and create such havoc that we'd probably have an accident on the way home... so they said.

Not so.  My dear hubby sat in the back of the van with him (ok, kind of "on" him) and talked nice to him and when he started to get a little jumpy, stroked his ears as I directed.  Mr. Man lay back down and totally relaxed. 

I think he remembered us.  I've read that sheep can remember people for up to two years.  We were nice to him last time and he knew that.  So he settled in for the short ride and seemed genuinely happy when he realized where he was going (thankfully, a short ride down the road).

And?  He got right down to business as soon as he was re-introduced to the girls.  We'll be seeing lambs in March.

Goodness.  

Good-bye Kiki

Our little farm has one less this week. 

Kiki was a tiny mille fleur d'uccle that hatched from some eggs given to my dear chicken-lovin daughter this summer.  This very observant child of mine noticed right away that something was up with the itty-bitty bird's beak.  Kiki, as she came to be called, was born with cross-beak, a genetic deformity with no cure. This sweet little thing would trill when you talked to her, like she was just tickled to be having a chat with you... she would happily scamper after the kids, and put up with the costumes the children made for her.

Sigh.

Some survive, some... don't.  We did all we could for the tiny, fiesty creature.  We made sure she could eat, undisturbed, with a deep dish that she could get her whole face into.  With a cross-beak, a bird can't peck or preen the way "normal" birds can, so they need special attention.  Unfortunately, with a severe case (like Kiki), try as they (and we) might, they just can't get enough food to sustain them. 

Kiki passed away quietly, early Saturday morning.  We will miss her vibrant spirit.  It gives us peace to know that, somewhere, she is finally eating her fill.

Sheep Dreams ...

I have sheep.  But they may soon be but a dream.

Sigh.

We bought our 4 little lambs a couple of years ago with the idea of breeding them -- for meat lambs, as they are hair sheep.  We raised them and then decided not to breed them that first year as our very sensitive (especially in the animal department) daughter couldn't bear the thought of sweet lambs going off to be "murdered".

So that opened up the discussion that we aren't keeping the sheep for pets, and if they aren't going to "earn their keep" by providing us with lambs that we in turn sell for other people's dinners, then we can't keep them.  Daughter decided that she can handle it if we don't get to know the lambs and whomever buys them (and then eats them) does not EVER speak of it to her.  Okay .... 

We bred the (now) ewes last October; they all gave birth to beautiful healthy lambs in March.  And yesterday, the last of them went off to the slaughterhouse.  Dear, sweet daughter was beside herself with the emotional pain of saying goodbye to these lambs we raised over the past 7 months.  We did end up keeping one lamb, Stella's little white girl, who has just the gentlest personality that she had to be spared.

It's again breeding time for the ewes.  But now, after witnessing our girl's reaction to the reality of raising lambs for the table, we need to revisit the conversation: how do we do this, and honor our child's feelings at the same time?  Is this something we need to harden her to, to force her to accept that this is what we do if we want to keep so many animals?  She doesn't have to come to the abattoir.  She doesn't see the carnage. She only has the images in her head. Granted, they are powerful images.

 Or do we abandon ship, truly honoring her feelings, and sell our little flock?

Selfishly, I say, but, what about MY feelings?  I feel like I have finally found something that matters to me.  Providing quality meat to my friends; raising the lambs as healthily and ethically as possible.  A very wise person once said, to change the world, you first must change yourself.  I want my food raised ethically.  So that's what I'm doing.  But I may not be supported in what I believe and enjoy, and may have to give it up.  And that makes me so sad.

Weekend Reading

"Farm City - The Education of an Urban Farmer" by Novella Capenter was EXACTLY what I needed to read.

If you've been reading this space for a while, you may have noticed that I have taken a significant break from posting my once-traditional Friday "Weekend Reading" posts.  I love to read.  I try  to read novels.  Sometimes I succeed. Mostly I don't.  Well-meaning friends pass along these "wonderful" books for me to read, and I start them, and enjoy them for a chapter or 3, then I put them down ... and down they stay.  Unless it's a novel I can learn something from.  I don't mean history or geography.  I like geography.  History is a bit meh for me as I prefer to live in the present and not-so-distant-future.

So this book was so perfect for me. Right now.  Basically, this apartment-dweller decides to squat on some land next to her rented space and first construct a garden, very quickly adding poultry that will eventually be consumed.  (Unfortunately, not all are consumed by the author.  I'll spare you the details - you'll just have to read it.)  Then she decides to raise a couple of hogs and this, for me, is where it got interesting.  

I was reading this book when I was knee-deep in the middle of raising our 2 pigs, by very similar methods as the author.  I laughed at her follies (which were not so different from my own) and gave a nod to her observations and comments about raising her pigs in the manner she chose.  Finally!  I felt like there was someone out there doing what I was doing.

Now, I'm sure there are LOTS of people doing what I'm doing.  I just don't know any of them, and they definitely don't run in my social circles.  Most unfortunate, this, as my frustrations and exhausted ramblings about the amount of food pigs can consume, and how much decent food people will throw into the garbage mostly fell on sympathetic ears who really had no idea how commited we were to raising our pigs.

If you choose to read "Farm City", I'm sure you'll enjoy it, even if you never raise hogs or know anyone who does.  It's an eye-opener, let me tell ya.

Harvesting, Defined

To Harvest (v): To glean or collect or gather, usually pertaining to fruits, vegetables, grains.

We were told late last year of an abandoned apple orchard in our neighborhood, so this year we decided to harvest some apples for ourselves.  The children thoroughly enjoyed running in the overgrown space, admiring the trees with shoots sticking out every-which-way, with kid-sized apples at their height.

And they happen to be MacIntoshes, my personal favourite.

We gathered a full bag or 2, some to eat, some to process into applesauce, and some to give to some very generous friends ...

Hmmm.  Process.  Applesauce.  Two words that bring me to the second part of this post.

Applesauce goes very well with pork.  If you remember, we raised two pigs this summer.  (I certainly will not forget anytime soon, if EVER.).  The friends who recieved our gift of apples gave us a generous gift as well -- their time and knowledge and skills -- to process our pigs.

It strikes me the various words we use to describe this: Harvest. Process.  Dispatch. Slaughter. Kill.

Really.  It's murder.  There was nothing wrong with the pigs -- they were perfectly healthy -- perfectly happy.  And we ended their lives so we could eat healthy meat.  Although this is why we raised them, and we fed them as well as we were set up to do, kept them healthy, comfortable -- it still does not make me rest easy that we ultimately murdered these animals.  Granted, they are by far  my least favourite critter I have EVER raised, I still do not take their death lightly.  It was over so quickly, so cleanly, so humanely, however, I'm not sure we will ever do this again. I was witness to the entire process.  I felt that I owed them that much. They deserved respect, in life and in death, whether I enjoyed their piggishness or not.

Thank you to our friends.  And Thanks to the pigs.

And that was Summer

Really.  September already.  I feel like this, the Summer of 2013, has gone by in a blur.   Gorgeous weather for sure, and lots to do... So Much to Do.  Too Much.

My poor garden is so overgrown and crazy-wild, I'm slightly embarrassed by it.  I've totally neglected it for most -- if not all -- summer.  Other than watering it on occassion.  If it weren't for all the volunteer plants this year, I'm not sure I'd have much in there to speak of.  Half the potato plants and ALL the tomatoes grew all by themselves, with no help from me.  The chard and New Zealand spinach are out of control.  My lettuces are bolting all over the place.  Thankfully, some things like the carrots and beets don't really care if I pay any attention to them.  They are almost happier if I don't.  I did manage to harvest the garlic at the end of July, but it's still sitting, drying, with old dirt caking the huge bulbs waiting for a good scrubbing and to be put in the basement.

Thankfully the fruit trees don't need much attention.

Really, the only saving grace of it all is that nothing is really going to go to waste.  Sure, I'm not going to be harvesting or preserving as much for us as I would like, but the pigs and chickens will get several good feasts from everything I pull out of there.

So why did everything get so crazy??  I have 2 answers for that: pigs and unexpected chickens.  The pigs we have managed to feed almost for free if you don't count the time and money spent on gas gathering everything for them: greens and other produce from a local grocery store (a lot of it organic), expired bread and milk from a bakery and another grocery store.  Then we cook almost all their food, other than soft fruits and melon-y things.  Three HUGE meals a day.   They are getting big, but not fat, so I think it's a good thing.  The proof, I guess, will be in the... um... "pudding" ... so to speak.

And the chickens?  Yikes.  I was so proud of myself, having planned the 2 hatches of buff orpingtons, marans, and ameraucanas so precisely so as to have the hens laying by September at the latest.  And then came the gift of Salmon Faverolles and Mille Fleur D'uccles.  Two breeds I personally DID NOT plan on having this year -- or any time in the near future for that matter.  But, they were a gift for my bird-loving daughter from a very generous lady.  They hatched in mid-July and won't lay anything till at least January.  I did sell a couple Mille Fleurs and 6 Faverolles, but still.  I'm STILL raising chicks.  And one of the little "millies" has a severe cross-beak, so requires extra attention.  I can pass a lot of that extra care on to the Daughter, since they were given to her.  And the Fav's -- we ended up with 3 pullets and 1cockerel so that's nice, if we choose to breed them.  At this point, I would just like to concentrate on the marans and ameraucanas.  

Sigh.  Lots to do still.

I'm taking notes already for next year, mostly of what NOT to do.  Like no hatching birds after May, for starters.

Chicken Spa Day

Daughter has wanted to give a chicken a bath for AGES, and this time she had a really good excuse:

LICE.

Gross, right?

Not sure how it got into my coop, but there it was, plain as day, clusters of eggs or "nits" glued to the base of the feather shafts on most of my birds.  And then noticing the little ugly things scurrying all over the back-ends of the birds.   Ugh.  I think probably, when our "Old Lady" bird was slowing down and spending most of her days resting in the coop, she came in contact with something that carries it (not sure what, could be any little birdie thing) and the lice had a party on her as her health was deteriorating and we all know how parasites love the sick.

Of course, then it quickly spreads and before we know it, we have a full-out issue.

OK, so first we get a little mad and disappointed that we are not as good chicken farmers as we thought, and then we get down to business.

We soaked them first in a sea salt and pennyroyal oil bath.

Then again in the bubbles:

This drowns most of the lice and provides instant relief from the biting and itchy the little buggers cause.  And it's quite amazing how much the chickens relax and enjoy the bath!  They just sink down into it.  We had to hold them up to make sure their heads stayed above the water!

Then, a blow dry, and let them loose down in the yard to primp and preen and put all their feathers back in order.

Lady Eggadaya (an Easter Egger hatched on our property last year) thoroughly enjoyed her bath. She was the first to have a spa treatment as she was the first to let us know of the problem in the first place.  She jumped up on my lap while I was sitting in the chicken yard and squawked at me as if to say - "HEY.  I'm itchy.  DO SOMETHING about it!"

I'm sure Lady Eggadaya said "Thank You" when we were done.  

Further treatment included 3 treatments of DE dusting, 7 days apart, with more DE sprinkled in their favourite nests and dust-bath areas.

Today was the 3rd (and hopefully final) DE dusting, and checking everyone over, they all look great!  Yay!

Putting By

I love that phrase: "Putting by."  I love doing it.  I try to time it for a cooler morning, as standing over a hot stove in the middle of a heat wave makes me grumpy.  (I'd rather be at the beach, knitting, and watching children splash in the waves.)  We had a day like that this week.  So now we have some more jam (apricot and blueberry) put by for the cooler weather to come.   My jam is pretty basic.  I sometimes like to jazz it up, but with kids it's best not to risk it sometimes.  (They can be Picky!)  I think the jam is more versatile if it's more basic anyway.  Really taste the flavor of the fruit and nothing else.  Really, nothing else, as I don't add sugar -- I use the Bernardin pectin that just uses apple juice and NO SUGAR.

Can't wait for the blackberries to really start going crazy!  Nothing better than home-made jam in the middle of a snow storm.

Yummmm...

Overwhelmed

I am sure, at this time of the year, a lot of people are saying that.  Especially those with large-ish gardens and more than your run of the mill 1 dog household.

New Salmon Faverolle and Mille Fleur D'uccle chicks!

We live in the beautiful, sunny, HOT Okanagan Valley, and as such, as a community, makes for a swell of visitors in the summertime.  Not just us -- "everybody" it seems is hosting friends or family (or both), and taking little stay-cations (as opposed to VaCations) of their own which makes for A Lot of traffic.

So with our large-ish garden, many (too many) animals, visitors and the heat, I'm feeling Totally Overwhelmed.  Thank goodness our visitors are the kind that pitch in and offer a helping hand, an ear,  or a hug (sometimes all 3) when needed.  Not to mention a story or a cuddle for the kids as well.

But really.  It's all coming down to the pigs.

Seriously.  I had no idea these two creatures would up the ante so much on our daily routines!  They are pretty much the opposite to all the other critters on our little homestead:
-The pigs are penned, and thus totally dependant on us for their food (since they completely leveled their yard in less than 2 weeks flat).  The other animals run about, taking over the entire place, hunting, pecking, scratching, foraging and basically taking care of themselves, other than food in the evening before bed, and water.
- They are NOT child-friendly.  One tasted my leg the other day!!  All other critters are friendly or they are given away or processed and put into the freezer.  The kids are not - under any circumstances - allowed in the pigs' pen.
- Although we are doing a VERY good job of collecting free food for the pigs (not putting a price on our time or the gas it takes to get from place to place), these animals need an amazing amount of food, grow amazingly fast, and need to be fed three times a day.

And?

They are starting to smell.

I don't know if they will see September as originally planned.

And I didn't even mention the raspberries, peas, turkey babies and more eggs, ducks, new chicks, all the chickens at various stages of growth....