Sylvia over at   http://homesteadhope.blogspot.com/2011/01/stylish-blogger-award-me-ah-thanks.html  honored us with this blog award! We are truly honored, thank you Sylvia :o), you made our day!

                       as part of this reward, there are 4 things I am asked to do as a recipient:




1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award
2. Share 7 things about yourself
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award!

7 things about myself: Hmmmmm...........

1. I'm a blond, but not in the true sense of the meaning( well I do have my moments, LOL!!)
2. I am a "jack of all trades and working hard to "master" some*wink*
3. I'm very interested in natural healing, I've been studying herbology and homeopathic for almost a decade. In this time I've but only scratched the surface of all there is to learn, so I keep studying and learning.
4. I love all animals, especially horses
5. I tend to be a hermit, not feeling comfortable around large crowds of people. This is why I enjoy our blog so much, I meet truly wonderful people and don't have the pressures of attending a large social event*wink*
6. Before becoming a mother, homemaker and homesteader I was( still am) a..............licensed Cosmetologist. When in school I participated in stylist competitions. I won at Montana state level, was supposed to go to regional, but Mike and I were newlyweds and simply couldn't afford to travel to CA for the regional competition. Although I only attended the State competition, I received a half dozen offers from CA, in particular "Hollywood" to be a stylist to the movie stars. It seems like another life when I think back over it all now, LOL!!!!  Can't you imagine me as hairdresser to the stars, NOT!!!!! LOL!!!
7. As I age, I find myself changing my tolerances( maybe it's just maturity and growth?), for example instead of trying to always be the peacemaker, only to end up hurt, I have begun to take a stand to things/ people. I no longer keep the inner thoughts inside. Now I have to admit I have had to learn to reign in and be careful the words, my tone and attitude. For years I've always kept quiet, not wanting to stir the pot or make things worse, protecting someone elses feeling before my own, etc..... Why not say how you feel and know that you don't have to put up with the ill behavior of others. Life is simply to short to be upset, angry, bitter or depressed. I've always looked at the glass as half full,and from here, forward I hope to see the glass as full to overflowing, although not in a Rosy tone. *wink*

Hope this helps others to understand a little more of what makes me tick *wink*

Again Thank you Sylvia for this award.
As to passing this award forward I always wonder who does and who does not like these type of things so.......  If you are reading this, a blogger and you feel so led, please copy the information above and display this award on your blog. Let me know so we can read a little news about you. 

May your week be blessed and productive :o)

Cabbage buns how to.......

                     

The last of the "Cinderella Pumpkin" and "Late Dutch Cabbage" from the root cellar. The cabbage has been in storage for 6 months and when in storage for this long, the color tends to fade from the leaves, although it keeps the same crisp texture and flavor, after.................

You peel away the dehydrate and thin leaves, so as time progresses, the original head will be smaller, after you peel away the outer dried and thinned leaves

The head with all dried and thinned leaves peel away, it still weighs 8-10lbs. The leaves taken off will be fed to the chickens, they love them!

All chopped and ready to be added to the browned burger. The burger is browned with onions, lots of minced garlic( we love it!), sea salt and pepper. Then the cabbage is added with about 1/3 c of water to steam over low heat.  While this is steaming, we move onto making our whole wheat bread dough.

The recipe for this bread dough is found here. 

                                   This is our first double yolk egg of 2011 :o)

                          Yeast added

      Mixing and adding alittle flour as needed. You don't want to add to much flour, as your bread will be dry and crumbly.

    It's okay if your dough is sticky. You'll want to lightly flour the work surface and commence kneading. I ALWAYS knead for a minimum of 8 minutes, sometimes 10 minutes, if needed for proper elasticity

                           Lightly flour your hand and knead with the palms of your hands.

     When 8 minutes of kneading is finished push your knuckles into the dough, it should spring back to shape if it has proper elasticity, if not, knead alittle longer and check again.

 Place in a well greased bowl in an area, warm and free of drafts, cover with a tea towel and let rise until double it's original size.

                         Covered and on the table next to the wood stove, let the rising commence!

   Since the Dutch cabbage was so pale, I added 1/4 head of red cabbage we also have stored in the root cellar.  Okay, that's alittle more interesting, but.... how about some

                   Carrots, another root crop from the cellar, as was the onion and garlic that were used 

 The first rise is complete and now............................

                       PUNCH it down, I love this part :o)   I always work the dough back into a well rounded ball and cover rise a second time.  When second rise is complete( about 15 to 20 minutes), punch down again and work into a nice shaped ball.   Pinch off the size, a little smaller than a baseball( see below)

 Pat it out flat, until approx. 1/4" thick and add 1/3c.( approx.) of the cabbage/ meat filling.

 Fold over and pinch down the edges, if some liquid is leaking, you can roll and pinch the edges for a better seal.

Here is the first pan, Ummmmm, Ummmm, sure wish you could smell them.  The bread recipe will make 12 cabbage buns. I doubled it so we'd have some for the freezer( quick spring or summer meals*wink*)

Now give it a try, you won't be disappointed :o)   Be creative you can also substitute a loose sausage, maybe spicy *wink*   Sometimes if I have cooked brown rice on hand I'll add 1 cup or so of that too. :o)
Just makes them more hearty and filling.   Enjoy!

What a find!

When Cortney and were in the city for her Driver's Ed. last Friday, we had some time to kill before her class, so.... we of course opted to stop and see what was new at Goodwill.  Cortney found some treasures/ deals and I found this! 

                Someone started a crocheted afghan and for whatever reason it was donated and I  found it!

 I came with a pattern, many of the squares are finished while others need the cream colored trim added. There are a few more of each color square that need to be made in order to complete this afghan.

 It looks like there is plenty of skeins of each color to do the job.

 There is even a row assembled to give everyone an idea of what it will look like, sort of a patch work pattern.

and the best part, this was the price and Blue tagged items were 50% off on Friday! YEAH!!!!!!  Now I have something to work on in the evenings during our new cold snap. 
      
Yes, that is correct yet another cold snap! Thankfully it's only a two to three day event, but it is almost rude when you step outside after a week or better of temperatures well into the high 40's F and low 50's F.  Tonight our low is -6F and tomorrow's high is 9F.  I'd rather our temperatures stay more on an even keel, it's hard on everyone with this roller coaster we've been on. Many people are sick with a nasty respiratory virus, which seems to take a quick turn toward pneumonia. PTL, we're all in good health here, even with Mike working outdoors we not suffered even a sniffle. :o)

Mike is again at his EMT refresher course, it's been two long days of 12 hours of classroom work as well as stations of scene scenarios. He said last night, funny how when you sit for long periods of time inactive, you just seem to be exhausted by the end of the day, I told him it was refresher lag! *wink*  Today they'll do their CPR recertification as well.  Monday at his job, they start a new project and naturally this is when the weather will rearing it's ugly "bitter cold" head. Thankfully he has many layers and stays relatively warm, if he gets chilled they just warm up in the vehicle for a few minutes. Most of the time it's just his fingers that get cold, because using nailers , drills and screw guns doesn't work well with heavy winter gloves.  Hopefully this will be our last bout of bitter cold, with February just around the corner, but then again our weather has been so our of character this winter, who knows?

Good news! we've found a bull to breed Button to this June. We just couldn't swing purchasing our own bull this year, so opted to lease a bull from friends for a few months. The bull is a Galloway, a smaller breed much the same size as the Dexter's.  If Button takes in June, she'll calve in March 2012 and finally we'll have raw cow's milk again! So glad we've got that settled now onto looking into other homestead projects.

Today, we're making cabbage buns for supper, as well as for the freezer :o)   I just searched our blog and we don't have any recipe or how to pictures so............ Guess we'll make this into a tutorial and post it tomorrow*wink*

The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved for commercial production.

I read this on a web page I frequent and posted it here for all of you to read, just click the link below to read the article in it's entirety
Narmer's Page

The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved for commercial production.


Tuesday, January25, 2011 by narmer



The first GM food crop containing human genes is set to be approved for commercial production.

The laboratory-created rice produces some of the human proteins found in breast milk and saliva.

Its U.S. developers say they could be used to treat children with diarrhoea, a major killer in the Third World.

The rice is a major step in so-called Frankenstein Foods, the first mingling of human-origin genes and those from plants. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture has already signalled it plans to allow commercial cultivation.

The rice’s producers, California-based Ventria Bio science, have been given preliminary approval to grow it on more than 3,000 acres in Kansas. The company plans to harvest the proteins and use them in drinks, desserts, yogurts and muesli bars.

Education is POWER; Click the link above and read the rest of this article!

How could you possibly.....

not have a good day, when you wake up to this beautiful sky! Okay, it's dark when we get up, but I just love waiting for the sunrise to see what God will create today!

Our sunsets have been just as beautiful the last few evenings, hues of purples, pinks, oranges and even  teal!

Blessings for your weekend :o)

An early morning, more so than normal.

 I took this photo at 6:25 am this morning( click on the photo to see it better), the colors in person were so much more vivid than shows up in this photo*sigh*

This was taken just 4 minutes after the first one. I must have moved as the photo is a bit blurred, oops.

This morning Mike had to be to work by 7am, which is approx. a 45 minute drive. They are working on a job that is an additional 45 minutes to an hour away and want to arrive on site by 8am.  So we bump the alarm back to 4:30 am, so we'd have plenty of time for breakfast, getting ready and doing the morning feeding.

Our temperatures are supposed to be into the low to mid 50's by tomorrow and stay in and around that range until late Friday, when another cold front moves in again. Even then the daytime highs are well into the 30's F but evening temps. will drop into the teens. 

We've felt spoiled, especially since this is January and typically our coldest winter month and yet we've only had to kept small fires going in the wood stove, just enough keep the chill off.  For the last week or more we've have been letting the fire go out in the evening. YEAH, sleeping through almost the whole night( except for the midnight calling*sigh* of my IBB, LOL!)  When we turned in last evening our inside temps was 76F( actually it was far to warm for my tastes) and when we got up, I checked and it was 62F, not bad, not bad at all.  Now the next few days a Chinook wind is blowing in the warm up, funny though how those winds feel like they are coming from Antarctica!  Our house will not stay as warm at night if those winds blow, but as long as we keep the temp. up during the day, we'll fair just fine.

Cortney has to work today and tomorrow and we have 12 dozen ( a mix of different cookies) to make for our ambulance service's annual refresher course. All First Responders, EMT or higher, in the state of Montana are required to have so many hours of Continuing Ed. and it is mandatory that part of these hours be a "refresher course" and "CPR certification".  So we know where Mike will be all weekend!

We all are looking forward to February's arrival, we have many events scheduled. The first of which is the; "Sheep Shearing Day" on the 12th! I will get pictures this year, I promise. This has become an annual tradition for us( of course Cortney just loves helping.  It's also fun to see people we've met through this event, that we only see at this event!  Then if our weather stays nice we'll be working on getting our cold tolerant crops planted in the green house as well as our seeds started indoors in our mini greenhouse, mid part of February. We're also hoping to have people signed up for our CSA, by no later than the 24th. That way we can ask what crops they'd be most interested in for their baskets. I think we plant a pretty well rounded garden selection already and just yesterday I mailed in our seed order, only adding a few new OP herbs, Okra, Eggplant and some OP spinach seed. 

Okay  that all the news from here. Praying the remainder of your week is filled with many blessings, much laughter and some rest too.

I'm a little suspicious now.....

Cortney tells me how hard she works on the sheep ranch and then we get these in our email .........

LOL!!! She does work hard, or so her boss says. Cortney just wanted to share these photos with all of you.

Good morning and some internet links of interest

Good morning everyone. Our weekend was filled with odds and ends jobs and some rest as well.

Mike and I split and stacked some firewood on Sat., then Mike split several more logs( to big for me to lift or help with), so he used the bucket on the tractor. Cortney worked on cleaning her bedroom and then studied off and on all weekend for her drivers permit test. She's now taking drivers training. She was not interested in driving, up until this last year, so this is the next step. Her instructor said she did well in her first class and thinks she'll be able to take her test soon. He also gave her a computer test to practice. She didn't like it at first, because it times you and she gets panicked. After two times of taking the computer exam she scored 17 out of 20 the first time and then 20 out of 20 the second, so it didn't take her long to get past her panic*wink* I also got several things accomplished this weekend. I did an inventory of our seeds and found out we really only NEED to order three varieties, plus I like to add a few new herbs each year*wink*, so I got my order together and will get it in the mail today. I'm hoping that today my new mini greenhouse cover and the insulated floating plant cover will arrive in the mail. I've been working the manures and such into the greenhouse beds and will run through it again( by hand) to make everything fine and smooth for planting our cold weather crops. :o)  We are not planning on heating the greenhouse, so I have done some research as to protecting the cold tolerant crops from freezing. First by covering them with the insulated floating row covers and if added protection is needed, covering that with plastic. This is all still experimental for us.  I also worked on flyer's for our CSA garden this year. I'm hoping to fill three subscriptions( two full, for 3-4 person family and one half, for two people or less) I also worked on a questionnaire of which types of vegetables and fruits they'd be most interested in receiving in their baskets and the offer of the possibility of baked goods( breads, cookies, cakes, pie, etc...) for an added fee. Praying this all works out and we have a successful season. It would be nice to get ourselves more established and earn a partial income from our small farm. :o)

The good news is that we are establishing turkey customers, we've already received a few calls from people who want to be first on the list this season. Now to get our hens to have a higher hatch rate, because turkey poults are outrageously prices, from a small local hatchery in our area the prices are $9 each and he said it may be a bit higher than that This would mean we'd have to raise our prices to accommodate and that most likely would be the killer of many sales*sigh* So keep our turkey hens in your prayers this Spring, we certainly will be doing the same.

Here are some links to an interesting story, that I, myself have yet to hear anything about on the Ag news. Of course we don't watch much TV and the Ag. reports on TV are at the noon time broadcast.
The last link is of particular interest to those of us feeding animals and a warning to what the prices may keep doing. I always say prepare for the worst and pray for the best. This is why we are looking into alternative or multi purpose crops to help with our feed costs for the poultry.
These articles are taken from a source I follow, not because they are reporting about Organics, but because they are reporting about the real world feed events. They of course are partial to companies like Monsanto and Cargill and the alike but I also like to have a well rounded view of all news and then I make up my own mind. Just didn't want anyone to think I support this newsletter source*wink*

http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/dioxin-scandal-tainted-feed-went-to-denmark-and-france-id5156.html


http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/dioxin-scandal-now-tainted-pigs-to-be-killed-in-germany-id5160.html


http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/dioxin-scandal-fat-supplier-files-for-bankrupcy-id5162.html


http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/dioxin-scandal-another-1-000-pig-farms-quarantined-id5169.html


http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/kemin-reveals-dioxin-testing-program-id5173.html


http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/dioxin-scandal-minister-calls-for-state-support-id5180.html


http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/feed-prices-and-dioxin-devastate-eu-pig-market-5196.html

And here’s one about grain supply , world wide and what will follow? higher feed costs
http://www.allaboutfeed.net/news/grain-prices-soar-as-us-cuts-supply-view-id5164.html

If people only knew how good........

homemade potato chips are, they'd never by store bought again!

Since we have plenty of potatoes in the root cellar( 400+ lbs) and thinking ahead to the best ways to use them, today we made several batches of homemade potato chips, move over Lays and Ruffles these are the real thing made with skins on and fried in extra virgin olive oil.  The first few batches( pictured below) we got a bit browner than we'd intended, the rest of the batches looked more like home style potato chips.  We lightly salted them with sea salt and enjoyed them with mild Italian sausage, sauerkraut and green beans for our supper.

Fhoto Friday ( heavy laden with photos), a little of this and that

This morning started off with making some steamed veggies for the poultry. This is not only good for their health, it also is a supplement to our feed bill and uses up culled veggies from the root cellar !  The zucchini have kept very well ( from a late Aug. 2010 harvest) but you can see that that they are beginning to yellow and soften. As per, making the best of what you have, we weekly check the root cellar, and cull anything that is beginning to breakdown. It is either used in one of our meals, it's dehydrated or fed to the animals.

 Now I was experimenting and while I didn't get pictures of the carrots themselves( sorry), these are carrots from our 2009 garden, yep it's been well over a year since they were harvested( Sept. 2009) from our garden. I've been experimenting with the best ways to store root crops and my findings are; they keep very well in totes filled with dirt. I tried straw last season, only to find that the carrots and beets began to mildew because our root cellar has high humidity and the straw absorbed the moisture, thus making the root crops mildew. The mildew was caught early enough that we suffered very little loss. I also topped some and stored them in ziploc bags( sealed) in the refrigerator, the shredded carrots( below) are examples of how well they kept. Now they were sprouting roots and new tops, but were still firm and very sweet.  I steamed the carrots, it seems the poultry appreciate them more if steamed, yes I know they are spoiled( rotten,LOL!)

Then it was off to get the small coop cleaned while we have a break in the weather. Cortney dons on Mike's respirator( you don't want to breath the dust, you can pick up Hanta Virus from mouse droppings and we certainly have mice*wink*)

                    The litter has been nicely stirred by the chickens for almost 8 months and has broken down and composted well.

 This was originally sawdust shavings and now is broken down nicely and ready to be added to the compost heap. I also added a thin layer to the raspberries as well as a bit in the green house beds( not to much though)

 This is now how it looks now( below) and how it looked 7-8 months ago. See what good composters the chickens are*wink*

 Our chickens are divided into two flocks at the moment( due to space) Everyone appears to be wintering well.

 This is our larger flock and with exception to the Black Austrolope rooster( who's decided to molt right NOW!), everyone, even our oldest( pet hen, who BTW is almost 9 yrs old) as well as our pet tom, "Snowball" who is almost 8 yrs old are looking very healthy.

 The 9 yr. old hen is the hen on the lowest roost,on the right hand side, doesn't she look good and you know what, she lays once or twice a week, still.

 Here is Snowball, he's looking good as well and his estimated weight is close to 50lbs !

Here are the turkeys, our Narraganset hens and tom, a Bourbon Red tom and a Bronze hen(Lucy and she is 5 yrs old and a wonderful mama) We're praying for better hatches this year. We're also actively looking for a Bourbon Red hen for our tom.

Now to the green house, it's probably 20+ degrees warmer in the greenhouse than outside. So this is when it's time to get all the prepping done, so planting of cold tolerant crops can take place early next month.

 You can see I've already applied some well composted manure and on top of that a light layering of the composted chicken house litter. The pots are covering some of my herbs, such as stevia, rosemary creeping thyme and root beer hyssop.

 The Rosemary is winter well, it is from seed that I started last Spring and I have hopes that it will take off as soon as the cold temps. head out.

 Shows the two composted manures added to the beds, soon to be worked into the soil.

 Potting benches are waiting to be used. I still have to sanitize all of my starter pots by washing in warm water with a little bleach added and letting them dry in the sunshine.

 This is Bee balm, saved for seed, it's still beautiful and the smell is out of this world( wish you could smell it)

Now the frosting, so to speak, a little gypsum and wood ash.  Before you know it we'll have pictures to share of our salad greens :o)

 Mike's been off work most of this week. The ground is frozen and the next job they have involves planting 6x6's. Praying it warms up enough to thaw it enough for their auger to bust through. Anyway we've enjoyed him being home and he's finished many odds and ends projects. One of those is to switch out the F-11 loader from one tractor to the other. I wasn't able to photo the transfer, as I was busy helping by driving one of the tractors. It was a blessing the switch went relatively smooth. The one tractor's motor is tired and needs to be overhauled but in the meantime we need use of the bucket, thus the reason for the transfer.

 All lined up and bolted onto the rear axle

 Now Mike has to manufacture a bracket to finish the mounting to the front frame work.

The tractor( yes we are a International Harvester; "Farmall" farm, because we can afford red and NOT green tractors, LOL!!!) in the background is the tractor in need of being rebuilt.  The transfer was successfully completed. :o) Now he can push the manure pile up to complete the composting, as well as make room for more fresh manure.

The hay is holding up well, we used approx. 2 ton thus far and the Button and Hoss seem to really enjoy it.

 Button knows I put their  mid morning hay( usually just loose hay swept down from the hay loft) out and she is waiting to be let out.

 Here is "Hoss", now 8 months old. He is still on the bottle, but is being weaned off at this time, with hopes of weaning being complete by mid to end of Feb. We are supplementing him with some calf manna( all natural)  While he's not a prime Angus specimen, he's crooked in the hindend, it doesn't matter to us.

 He's growing nicely and we can handle him, he is halter broke, and he is NOT a pet like Button. His time here is limited.

Button enjoying her mid morning snack, Hoss is busy licking on the mineral supplement  before Button finishes her hay, LOL!!!! 

All of these photos were taken today, before noon. Our weather is warmer, warm enough that we did NOT stoke the wood stove during the night, last night and when we got up at 5:30am this morning the inside temps was still 65F., down from 74F.  A bit of a temperature drop has occurred outside in the last few hours and our inside temps has dropped to 60F, so I started a small fire in the wood cook stove to warm the house back up a bit.

Now that Mike has the loader on and working, he has come in to share that it is to slick to push the manure pile up today. We need new tired for this tractor, we do have a better set to switch out to but new tires are out of the question right now as they cost approx. $900 each! Makes me wonder how the farmers afford tires for their HUGE tractors. Mike said the tires for those tractors run approx. $1,500 to $2,000+ each. and some have four tires on each axle< double gulp> LOL!!!  

Mike says he may be able to come up with chains, but is worried that this will do damage to our pastures, so.... we'll wait.

Blessings for your weekend :o)