Our weekend projects

Well... Saturday was windy and still chilly but Mike was able to fix a broken wire on the shifter in our car, so we could get it out of " Park", so, we then decided we'd go to the city to pick up supplies to restock our pantry a bit. We haven't been grocery shopping lately, but rather using what we have on hand. We're trying to get down to one freezer, so we can unplug one and we seriously needed to get some older canned items used up. This cleared out several dozen jars, so we will be making some concord grape jelly from juice we canned two seasons ago.  Anyway going to the city on a Saturday is a BAD idea! To many people, to much traffic and after just a few hours we ALL were ready to head home to the peace and quiet.

Yesterday Mike and Cortney began cutting down the tree in our front yard. It unfortunately was never a very good tree. It had not been trimmed properly when young and had far to many weak crotches and when we received the wet snow in May 2010, it busted up beyond repair. While they worked on that, I put away items purchased in the city, cleaned out the entire refrigerator( scrubbing it down thoroughly) and got some house work caught up. Then it was decided, since it was such a beautiful day that we'd better clean the wood cook stove and chimney. We try to do this two or three times during a burning season, it's better to be safe than sorry and if you've ever experienced a chimney fire you know how scary it is!  So I began the cleaning of the stove, while Mike got the ladder and chimney brushes out and worked on cleaning the cap.  Really it only takes about 25-30 minutes to get the stove and the chimney cleaned and then you know a chimney fire is no worries( for a while anyway*wink*)

After we cleaned up for cleaning the stove, Mike and Cortney went back to work loading the wood in the tractor's bucket and gathering the branches into piles. While they were doing this  I got the BBQ'er started( it's the old fashioned charcoal type) and prepped the T-bone steaks, washed and cut up the potatoes for french fries and got the spinach steaming( frozen from last years garden). We had a light dessert of apple sauce topped with cinnamon, sugar and finely chopped walnuts and dried cranberries.

Then we watched two episodes of " Mash" from our DVD collection and turned in early.
Today is laundry day, Cortney was supposed to work, but Charlie called and he's going to be gone today and will call tonight about setting up another day. I'm making our weekly allotment of bread today and may just make a batch of Cinnamon rolls,( Mike hinted about it this weekend*wink*) We're having pork chops, mac and cheese( homemade) and canned green beans for supper. Not sure of a dessert but gingersnap cookies have been on my mind*wink*

Exciting news, we have gotten two calls about our CSA garden and one lady sounded like she was serious about buying a 1/2 share membership for she and her Dh. I mailed both callers for information, as well as a list of produce we'll be growing, so they can mark those they'd be interested in. This will help us in knowing how many plants to start. I put a deadline of March 15th on our flyer's, so.... praying  we fill all of our openings by then. :o)  Getting set to start our plants this week! I got my starting mix all mixed, all I have to do is was my starter pots and get to planting.
The seeds in the greenhouse are still dormant, due to this cold turn, but today and the rest of the week is supposed to be warmer, so praying it will sprout and grow. I have floating row cover material I can use if it were to get sub zero again.

Lambing will begin soon and Cortney is going to be a very busy young lady. Our meat chicks will arrive end of March and the turkeys are beginning their courtship and mating, so will probably see turkey eggs in a few weeks. The birds are singing, the Robins are back and  there is light at the end of our long wintery tunnel :o)

Blessings for your new week, praying it is filled with good weather and productivity.

The ever increasing feed costs

                   We've been keeping track of our poultry grain costs for a couple of years now.  It's just getting ridiculous how much feed has gone up.  For example; in this last month we've purchased feed three times. The first being 2-4-11 and the cost of the grains and wild bird feed was $43.96. Then on 2-18-11 the cost for the same grain and wild bird feed was $45.96 and finally today(2-24-11) the cost was $ 46.36. That is an increase of $2.40 in 20 days time or  5.5%   Now this has been happening for a couple of months and all total it comes to a 10.6% increase since Jan. 2, 2011  Now if we were to keep pace by passing on this increase to our egg customers the price of our eggs would raise from $2.50 a dozen to $3.16 . The last time we raised the cost of our eggs, we lost half of our customers and that was over a $.25 increase per dozen.

So......... we're now trying to calculate how many hens we'll actually need to support us and our loyal egg customers and make an adjustment to our flock, meaning downsizing and putting meat in our freezer. By downsizing and growing more alternative crops for our poultry we hope to cut down on our grain costs.  The increased grain cost are certainly going to continue, thus the reasoning behind not raising feeder pigs this winter. With the change in Mike's jobs and the unstable economy, we felt it best to hold back some. Besides our pork supply in the freezer is still good, although the bacon is running low.

In gathering our tax info. together, it really was an eye opener, as to just how much we do spend on grain, for our poultry. This is something we are focusing on changing, planning our other options and will be implementing our ideas this summer to pull away from that ever increasing expense. We will also allowing our birds to have access to more hours on pasture or free ranging.

Planning, planning, planning; with hopes that Spring is just around the corner, so we can begin implementing all of our plans. :o)

Farming is an "ever learning experience" definitely NOT boring. :o)

Update:

Cortney passed her written driver's test and now has her Learners Permit! :o)  She begins driving in Driver's Ed. on March 18th.

Thought we'd share a couple of necklaces Cortney just finished. The one on the left was a commissioned order, where the patron provided the center piece and the two pearls on either side of it and the one on the right, Cortney made as a donation for the "Volunteer Fireman's Chili Feed", the second weekend in March.  She wanted to donate one last year but she was still perfecting her beading skills.

If you click on each photo, you'll see a more close up version.

Our week last week was so.... hectic and ended in disappointment. We headed into the city( Mike took the afternoon off from work, so when Cortney passed her test we could celebrate), upon arrival at the drivers license office we were informed that their computers for testing had gone offline just ten minutes before our arrival. Her appointment was for 2:30pm and we waited until 3:45pm and still no Internet, so we had to reschedule for tomorrow at 3pm. The kicker is our weather is falling back into the sub zeros with snow beginning tonight and we all know how much I love driving on bad roads*sigh*  I guess if it's to bad we'll cancel and wait for better weather to reschedule, it certainly isn't worth taking the risk of an accident.  Please keep her in your prayers, as she's worked so... hard for this test and was so.... disappointed she didn't get to take it on Friday. I'll be glad when it's done and she can begin the driving part of he Driver's Ed. course.  We'll have to check on insurance costs for her and she's going to pay half. This is how we started Jon off until he had a regular paycheck coming in.

We're working on laundry and prepping for this cold snap. I will say, with this winter being so up and down I've grown intolerant of these cold snaps, I'm ready for Spring, mud and all!

Blessings for your day!

Monsanto Shifts ALL Liability to Farmers

The 2011 Sheep Shearing.....

Actually this took place a week ago Saturday but this week has been a blur.......

Here are some pictures from the 2009 sheep shearing  and this is a video put together by Annabel's very talented son from the 2011 shearing. He did a wonderful job of catching all aspects of the shearing. The shearing has become an annual event for many. This year Annabel had people come from several hundred miles away. Everyone brings something for a potluck dinner, and it's enjoyed by all.  Many of the local spinners guild members attend and offer their handcrafted goods, as well as demonstrations of; cleaning, carding, spinning, felting, etc....

                                 Looking on as if to say, " Here we go again!"

            These are  very pregnant ewes and very heavy. Poor shearers are soaking wet by the time they
             are finished shearing all of the sheep.

            There is a method, first the belly is sheared, then starting with the legs they work their was
around until the wool is off.

                 Not smooth and pretty like being clipped for a show. Look at that belly!

                    Putting the fleece on the table to be gone over and cleaned up a bit.

           All manure, anything wet and hay/ straw are removed by hand picking and shaking.
            I've helped do this a couple of times but never know if I've done a good enough job
            or maybe I've taken away to much.

                         Once cleaned the fleeces are folded in half and roll up. This particular fleece was
                         sold at the day of the sale. The fleeces now sold to individuals are bagged in the large
                         tube bag in the video.

                      Thankfully it was a nice day in 2009 as well as, at this years sheering.
                     
                      Thank you Annabel and Paul for the pictures and the great video and allowing
                      us to share it on our blog..

Somewhat of a confession, but NOT made public.

Things are slow around here; and we've been busy all week running here and there so I'm sharing some news worthy items. Maybe next week we'll have seedlings up in the greenhouse to show you. :o)


Monsanto, Dow to begin pushing dangerous 2,4-D herbicide as 'solution' to superweeds


by Jonathan Benson, staff writer
http://www.naturalnews.com/031396_superweeds_pesticides.html

(NaturalNews) It is something that many farmers of genetically-modified (GM) crops are already trying to do and failing to succeed in, but that the chemical companies responsible for the problem may soon be pushing as an alleged "solution." The Dow Chemical Company has sponsored a study that aims to position the 2,4-D herbicide, a popular commercial herbicide, as the solution to Roundup-resistant "superweeds." But 2,4-D-resistant "superweeds" have already begun emerging as well, which suggests that increased chemical interventions of any kind will only make the superweed problem worse, not better.

Year after year, GM crop farmers have to battle mutant superweeds that continue to grow stronger and more resistant to the toxic pesticides and herbicides used in GM crop cultivation. But the practice is polluting the environment, contaminating the food supply, and spurring the rampant growth of harmful superweeds.

Rather than admit they are responsible for the problem, agri-giants like Dow and Monsanto say that using different pesticides and herbicides will help solve the problem. But such a suggestion could not be further from the truth. Treating plants with increasingly higher levels and more potent concoctions of toxic chemicals is a recipe for disaster, and one that will only make the superweed problem worse.

Dow, of course, found in its own study that using 2,4-D is a successful intervention to help prevent the growth of superweeds, But a review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, which tends to be conservative in its estimation of the environmental harm caused by pesticides and herbicides, says 2,4-D leads to "risk quotients that exceed the level of concern." In other words, Dow's "solution" is highly problematic in terms of environmental and human health.

The report found that if 2,4-D is used the way Dow suggests, humans will be exposed to dangerously high levels of the toxin, which in turn causes autoimmune disorders, cell destruction (apoptosis), nerve damage, metabolic dysfunction, and other serious problems.

The only real way to stop the spread of superweeds, if it is even still possible, is to stop planting and cultivating GM crops. Organic, sustainable growing methods do not require toxic chemical applications, which in turn do not create superweeds. They also do not pollute the food supply and the environment with extremely toxic chemicals like GM crop cultivation methods do.

Update on the Urban Homesteading battle

I need to clarify this; this is NOT my FB page, it is the page of "Denver Urban Homesteading" , it is just an example of the lengths this family is going to over this trademark junk!  Sorry that some of you though it was my facebook page, I don't have a FB page and never will( that's another story)  Please read below what is happening to Denver Urban Homesteading.

DENVER URBAN HOMESTEADING



BREAKING NEWS: OUR FACEBOOK PAGE DISABLED BY FACEBOOK FOR ALLEGED COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. FAMILY IN CALIFORNIA CLAIMS TO OWN TRADEMARK ON "URBAN HOMESTEADING" AND "URBAN HOMESTEAD" AND THEY ARE SHUTTING DOWN FACEBOOK PAGES, WEBSITES AND BLOGS ACROSS THE LAND THAT USE THESE PHRASES. FAMILY INSISTS PEOPLE USING THESE PHRASES MUST CREDIT THEM. FAMILY HAS INCORPORATED AS A CHURCH, A CHURCH OF URBAN HOMESTEADING. EPIC BATTLE IS UNDERWAY AND WE ARE WORKING WITH AUTHORS OF HOMESTEADING BOOKS AND OWNERS OF URBAN HOMESTEADING PROJECTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY TO RESOLVE THIS MATTER.

http://www.denverurbanhomesteading.com/

Thankful Thursday....

The sun is shining and the temperature outside is well into the 50'sF :o)

Just had to share some of our sunshine with you today.

The Dervaes Family Trademarks "Urban Homesteading"

Just saw this over on a forum I read from time to time, so much for; "Path to FREEDOM!" Please take a gander at the article below, you'll see what I mean.

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/stickaforkinit/2011/02/pasadena_family_trademarks_the.php

I really was NOT caught up in a hype over the Dervaes" Family", but it just goes to show you their true colors( "green", and it's ALL about money, not teaching about a healthier lifestyle) These sort of people truly make me ill! 

Plus how ridiculous that these trademarks are even allowed, sort of reminds me of the McDonald's "million dollar coffee lawsuit"  Geeeesh!

A heads up and pictures of our weekend happenings

Self Sustained Living has a news link you ALL need to read and please take heed.

This is one reason, of several that you should be able to grow your own produce, preserve it and store it.

                          Here's what we did yesterday:
                     

                         This is today's temp. at 9am. Yesterday we were sweating bullets, it was 85F
                          in the greenhouse.

                         We also planted Gentilina, May Queen, Iceberg, Little Gem and a Salad mix
                          with Mustard and Radicchio

                          We expanded this bed and plan to do the same on the other side.
                          I'm also experimenting with early cabbage planted directly in the soil
                          verses in pots. We'll see how that turns out.

You can see how muddy it was yesterday, this morning it was frozen again.

 Our temperatures are supposed to be into the mid 40's all week, with sunshine( although not so far today)  I'm hoping this will give all our seeds a good start. 

The warm weather crops will be started indoors, hopefully this week!  We have a busy week ahead; Cortney works Monday and Thursday, with a trip into the city for a Dr. appointment on Wens. and again to the city on Friday, so she can take the written portion of her drivers exam. Her Driver's Ed. teacher said she is ready and needs to take the exam o obtain her driver's permit. Once this is done she'll begin driving in the Driver's Ed car, she's pretty nervous about that but he assured her that he won't make her drive in heavy traffic for quite awhile, but rather stick to the low traffic neighborhoods to begin with. I've been driving for several decades and I don't even like to drive in the city.*sigh*

Well need to get barns cleaned and off to Cortney's cleaning job. I will say it will be nice when she has a license and can driver herself to and from work. :o) 

Praying your day is filled with blessings. 

This Blessing Is For You , woke up feel very blessed to have our car back and ready to go another 150K :o)

We ended up replacing the water pump( it was begining to leak), the thermostat( just for good measure, they are inexpensive) the una-belt, the manifold gasket, new spark plugs and wires, a radiator hose and flushed and changed out the radiatior fluid. It cost a bit more than first expected, but PTL we have the money and now we know it's all done.  Everything else was inspected for good measure.  It will be due for an oil change in approx. 800 miles and we'll be saving for a transmission flush, front and rear differential drained and new oil added( the seals are fine, no leaks), wheel bearing check and replaced if needed and to get shocks and struts replaced in a few months. :o)

We're be off to the "City" today for Driver's Ed., as well as to pick up a few needed items and feed.
Praying your day feels as full of blessings as ours does! :o)

An update on Morningland Dairy's trial

Morningland Dairy update and the Un-cheese party is still going. Praying the judge makes a wise decision.

What cures a windy, blustry day?

Well of course baking!  Yesterday while it was cold and windy we made a pot of Ham and Bean Soup, Cornbread Muffins and Marble Cake with Carmel Icing.  This cake recipe was something new and I thought the Carmel icing( taken from another recipe) would top it off beautifully!

                                       Marble Cake
                 
          3/4 c. lard/ shortening
          1-1/2 c. sugar ( I cut this back to 3/4c.)
          1-1/2 tsp. soda
          1-1/2 tsp baking powder
          1/2 tsp salt
          2-1/2 c. flour
          1-1/2c. sour milk or buttermilk
          1-1/2tsp. vanilla
          2 unbeaten eggs
          Work the lard until soft, add sugar mixing well. Add remaining ingredients;except eggs When mixed well add eggs and blend in. Pour batter into a well greased pan( we used a bundt pan), except retain approx. 1/4 of the batter in the bowl. Mix the following into the bowl and remaining batter
            1Tbsp. sugar
            1/4 tsp, soda
            2Tbsp. cocoa powder( carob powder works well too)
            2Tbsp. hot water
Mix well and pour over the batter in the pan. Take a knife and zig zag through the batter to give it a marbled effect.  Bake at 350F for 30-40 minutes.

                            Carmel Icing
            1 stick butter( no substitutes, sorry)
            1c. brown sugar
            1/4c. cream
            1 tsp vanilla
            powdered sugar
In a heavy sauce pot bring the butter and sugar to a boil, stirring constantly to avoid burning, for 2 minutes. Remove from heat; add cream and mix well, return to boil( stirring) for 1 more minute, let cool. Add vanilla and enough powdered sugar to spreadable consistency .

This and That Tuesday

 Finishing up laundry this morning. Yes, those are red one piece long johns, you tend to need these when it's -56F *wink*

 Second time through, to wring out as much water as possible.

 Jeans are the next load, with towels and then whites to follow.

 We did get 5 or so inches of new snow and a two day cold snap, which is moving out late today :o)

 Okay I finished the edges of all the multi colored squares and decided to assemble another row and attach it to the one that was already done when I bought it. Looks good, yes?  I'm excited to get it finished and on the back of a chair or the couch.

 Closer view for ya!

 Next I decided to dig into my trunk and share some of my treasured keepsakes with you.

 Okay the feather comforter is not so special, just needed a place to store it to keep it safe.

 This quilt is VERY special to me, it was a gift from my Grandmother 4 yrs ago. I had given her the cross stitch squares for Christmas one year, knowing she'd made them before and seemed to enjoy doing them. Never in a million years did I think she'd work them up into a quilt for me.

 She hand quilts all of her quilts. Beautiful stitches, especially since she was 89 yrs old when she quilted this. BTW, she doesn't quilt any longer, due to poor eye sight and her hands have a hard time holding the needle, at age 94 yrs old.

  Her special tag, stating she was 89 yrs old when she completed this quilt.  This is the second quilt she's made for me. The first was when Mike and I were married almost 27 yrs ago. When my Great Grandma( my Grandma's mother) passed away, she left several quilt tops to be finished. When asked what we'd like for our wedding gift, I said one of Great Grandma's quilts. Now Great Grandma didn't buy special fabric, matching and beautiful as the quilts are made with today. She instead saved scraps  from clothing her family wore, old sheets, aprons, etc.....  The picture below is the finished quilt. My Great Grandma pieced the top and my Grandma put it together and hand quilted it. Again she made a tag for it stating these facts, making it such a very special keepsake. My Grandma can tell me which pieces where from who's shirts,dresses, aprons or sheets

 Our son, Jon was baptised in this tux with tails, very cute! I need to find our pictures of him in the tux and post a picture.

 See the tails?

 Cortney's baptism gown and bonnet. Maybe someday these will be handed down to my Grandchildren on their baptism days.

 These were Jon's first cowboy boots!  To cute Huh? They are made of real leather, such a soft leather. Again maybe someday I'll pass them down.

 My Aunt Linda made this when Jon was born and I used it for both of our children and it still looks like brand new. It is hand quilted as well. She still makes beautiful quilts, take a look for yourself on Grasshopperviewpoints

 This is a crocheted blanket made by Mike's Aunt Sidney, when Jon was born.

 This is the afghan she made for Cortney. I also have one that she made for me. She is a multi talented lady, crocheting, beading and many crafts.

 Okay now it's time to put the ham bone on to cook down for our ham and bean soup supper tonight.

 Stoke the stove up a bit, to take the chill off and keep the ham bone cooking right along.

One pitfall of a wood stove and a 101 yr old farm house, dust!  Well...... I better get the laundry finished , clean the bathroom, and of course dust( my pet peeve of chores *sigh*)

Blessings and productivity for your day :o)

General Mills Mind Games - comedy skit about Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal - NaturalNews.tv

Natural News   Exposes General Mills for their deceptive practices in advertising. Below is a funny skit about the whole ordeal.
General Mills Mind Games - comedy skit about Total Blueberry Pomegranate Cereal - NaturalNews.tv

It's always nice to have a backup plan.....

Today a couple of things have taken place, so far anyway.  First our one dog, Casino, has been sneezing and had a clear runny nose for about a week. I began homeopathic treatment as soon as I noticed his repeated sneezing. Although during the course of the treatment he got no worse, he didn't seem to get any better either and this morning he was shaking his head, a sign of ear involvement so..... I call the vets office and they said to bring him in by 9:30am. So we hurry about getting everything in order; start the car to let it warm up, load the dogs( can't take on without the other*wink*) and head down out About 2 miles down the road I notice that the car is about to overheat so I pull off to the side and let it idle with the heater running on high( no warm air), gradually it begins to come down. Now I'm thinking we're beginning to freeze up or something, so we sit and wait to let it cool down, then we proceed slowly, watching the temperature gauge at all times, it never went so high again, but was bouncing around like a ball, first high, then drop low, then climb, then drop*sigh*  By this time we were just minutes from the vets office. I left Cortney in the car with it running to see if it would stabilize, with instructions if it got to the point I'd showed her on the gauge, she was to turn it off. After running for 10-15 minutes while at the vets office it did level off, but was still higher than normal.

Okay back to Casino, they weighed him and he was 51 .8 lbs which the vet said is perfect for his breed. With Casino on the exam table, I explained that he'd had some sneezing, clear mucus from his nose and was now shaking his head. The vet took his temp. it was normal, then began examining his ears, the left one was clear and looked good, then the right, it had a small seed head from grass embedded and was red and irritated but not yet infected to the point of pus. I helped to hold Casino while the vet extracted the grass seed head, he held still like a champ. :o)  Then the vet took a look up his nose and swabbed it, just clear mucus, so that was a plus.  Anyway Casino will be on a course of antibiotics now for 10 days. I'm thankful it wasn't something worse.

Back in the car, we head for home, this time on the county back road, after calling our neighbor to make sure they were home( both of my parents were gone before us this morning) in case( my backup plan) we needed a ride.  We managed to make it home but the temperature gauge was still up and down, definitely NOT normal!  I put a call into Mike, but he is on a job site where there is spotty cell service. I know he checks his phone from time to time and will see our missed call and call us back.  He does call back on his lunch break and asks how Casino is and what the vet found, he is also relieved that it's not something worse. I tell him what the car is doing and that we'd cancelled Cortney's Driver's Ed. class in the city. He thinks it's the thermostat, it's stuck and will put in a call to see about getting it in to get fixed.  We have Mike's truck( but it's horrible on gas, he's driving it today because we needed the car) and our 1987 Bronco II, but it's just what we term as a "local rig", I wouldn't trust it on a long trip but we drive it around our area.  So...... now we'll pray that we can get the car repaired in short order, as Mike needs this car to drive to and from work. He can drive his truck, but only as a short term solution, the gas bill alone would kill us!

What I'd like to know is why it is that the vehicles always seem to run right for Mike and break down  or act up for me? *sigh* Praying the rest of our day is uneventful *wink*

Take a look at what Emily has been doing......

      Hey take a look at these totes over on  A Beautiful Life . Emily is so talented and working hard to build a home business, I just felt led to encourage others to see all that she's been creating. To many cute things, I could get into trouble in her "etsy" shop.  I'm looking forward to receiving our beautiful country tote. :o)