Saturday

Well, I missed posting yesterday. Mainly due to the fact that I was exhausted from not sleeping well for several nights and it finally caught up with me yesterday.

Today we are processing the Jenk's Hatchery FryPan Special meaties. I'll tell you what, I'm very ready to get this done and over with. These dudes take a very long time to grow out and my attention span is just over 3 months - the time it takes for the Freedom Rangers to reach harvestable size.

A lot of these dudes have started crowing and I'm not cool with that. Yes, I knew that it would happen, but still they started crowing weeks ago. Most of the time it's entertaining because they aren't good at it yet. There are a couple who I would say were over-achievers and were quite good and loud!

What we have learned about these meaties:

1. They are not especially smart. I suppose that's true for most birds, but it took these dudes to figure out the routine in the evening. The Freedom Rangers caught on fast and would generally be ready to be locked in. All without having to chase a few around the paddock to get them into the Chicken Tractor. 

2.  There are three different breeds in this FryPan special and they are all different. The light colored boys were mostly friendly and allowed us to pick them up and set them on our laps at time. There was one dark gray meatie who was just a bully. He would run around and pick fights with the other ones. And the speckled ones were very skittish. They didn't necessarily care if we were near them, they just didn't want to be grabbed. For any reason.

3. As I mentioned before - they are very slow growing. Today we are at 15 1/2 weeks. We could have done nearly two batches of Cornish Cross in the same time-frame. The Freedom Rangers were not nearly as long, but also were a much nicer meat bird which made it more enjoyable to grow them. 

4. Personality - these birds weren't mean, but they were super curious and would not hesitate to start pecking on your leg or arm or whatever after they saw something interesting. As they grew up with the turkeys, we would spend most evenings trying to console the turkeys because the meaties could be so spirited. The turkeys got over the meaties pretty quickly so it wasn't all that bad. 

We may be processing these guys a little early, but I didn't want to be out at the end of the month doing the job in what would most likely be the typical weather for the Pacific NW fall season - RAIN. It can be done, but nobody wants to be in the rain if they don't need to. So, really, we lucked out today - mostly cloudy with a small chance for rain or showers or misting. 

Today was also going to be the day that we promoted some of the laying hens to Freezer Camp. However, that changed when I took one of the ladies that had spent the evening out (bad girl!) and locked her in with the meaties. They immediately started to attack her. Okay, so I guess they get to stay with us a little longer, not much longer though - they are just hanging around and eating food and not laying anymore eggs! Just a bunch of freeloaders. They are sweet hens though, but have outlived their purpose on the farm.

Just for the sake of curiosity we are planning to grow a batch of Cornish Cross. We want to see how different they are compared to the Freedom Rangers and if it will make a difference letting them out on grass instead of confining them to a small space like those big commercial poultry barns that house thousands and thousands of chickens. 

Okay...I'm not going to get started because this is not the time for this subject. What it is time for is some more prep work for our day today!

The Garden

 It's been time to put the garden to bed for quite a while. I would say since the middle of summer when I started to realize that this year's crop garden was just an idea. Or a dream...yeah, dream is more like it. 

The only thing that worked would be the Salvaterra Tomatoes. Even then, I wasn't 100% satisfied with those being in the big garden. Mainly because the bunnies were in and out and nibbling on pretty much anything that looked good to them. We do have a solution that we will put in place for next season. Tom was lamenting to one of our friends about the bunnies and she suggested using burlap. I did a little research and found a 100' roll of one foot wide burlap at Uline. Since there are so many other things to do right now that can wait until the spring once we get closer to planting some crops in there.

Once I can get that in I think I might be more excited about the garden and maybe, just maybe we will have things like beans. 

So long sad 2020 garden!

Today I spent some time getting some of the giant plants OUT. ALL of the Romanesco was overgrown and therefore no longer edible. Actually, I don't think that it was ever in an edible stage. Every time I would go and look at the plants there was nothing. Maybe I just got them out too late. Next year I'll have to try getting the seeds started early and then get the plants our once the frost has past. Hmmmm... Also pulled up the rest of the cabbage, cut open the pumpkins for the pigs and took out the T-posts that were used for a tomato trellis and the stakes that reminded me where the center of the squash plants were.

This year's garden was so disappointing. So much that I didn't really care to see how things were going with so many different things. I am happy that I had enough tomatoes to put several pints of sauce on the shelf and some tomato juice as well.

Next year will be different and I will have loads of time to work in the hoop house and in the garden in addition to taking care of the pigs and poultry. I think I've been wanting to leave my job ever since we added laying hens. That was just one thing in addition to the garden(s), but I could tell that I needed more time. Not to mention the rest of the critters that we have added to our little farm. 

Once I'm retired and settled into my new routine at home Farm Life is going to be truly the BEST.

Saving Seeds - Saving Money

 Just in the last couple of gardening seasons I have started to save seeds from the plants that I had grown in the garden. Beans and Peas were the first things that I had saved. So easy too - just letting the pods dry out completely and then pop them open...Seeds Baby! Last year was my first big seed saving project. The veg that I saved seeds from: variety of squash, Glass Gem corn, peas, kohlrabi and some of my Tiger's Eye Beans. The only thing that I hadn't gotten would be the Provider beans. The geese were allowed into the garden after the season was over and they annihilated the beans. I let them, so it's hard to be upset with them.

Okay, so I may have gone a little overboard last year, but hey, I couldn't help myself. It seems a shame to waste such a precious resource. I can plant row after row after row of sunflowers if I wanted and I might just do that next year. The Glass Gem corn might warrant its own garden space. So many possibilities for the 2021 growing season. 

This morning I spent some time harvesting seeds from my spent Basil, Genovese plants. Also, I prepared the garlic that I saved from the harvest in June and some of the shallots that I pulled up this summer also. Over the weekend I plucked a Salvaterra tomato that was overripe and took seeds from it. There are still a couple of things that I want to get some seeds from a lone Delicata Squash and the Spookie pie pumpkins that came from last year's seeds.

Basil Genovese - Seed Savers Exchange

Mt Saint Helens Garlic - Territorial Seeds

French Shallots - Territorial Seeds

By setting aside some of these garlic and shallots I'm already saving nearly $40. With the seeds from like the corn, beans and peas those packets are $3.25 each. This is pretty typical when ordering from quality seed companies that sell organic, heirloom seeds all non-gmo of course.

My hope is to continue saving the seeds that I know that we'll plant in the future. Starting in 2021 with my retirement and the reduced amount that it will bring and Tom's retirement I think that our income will be more limited and we'll need to be mindful about what we spend our available funds on. We are going into this new phase of life with a lot of reliance on the God who made the universe and cares for each an every need that we have. Trusting that the Lord has prepared the way for me to be away from a full time job. Also, trusting that He hears us even before we realize that we have a need.

Farm Life is a Blessed Life!

Sunday Funday

Today, Monday, I am officially on vacation! A week away from work is just what I need!

This week might be full of all sorts of things that I think that I will get done. There are two things for sure that I know that we'll accomplish - First, Meatie Batch #2 will graduate to Freezer Camp on Saturday and second, I will be sowing a bunch of seeds (greens) into the hoop house bed. I would like to get the garlic into one of the garden boxes, but I will need help getting the fence back up around the box. The chickens abhor a nicely tilled/planted box. They would get in there quick and dig everything up! The netting wouldn't be a bad idea either, so that might happen as well.

The weekend went by pretty quick, as usual. Yesterday I got the rest of the Freedom Ranger chicken into jars and processed. BOOM - cooked meat on the shelf! This time around I had a little help from the hubs. It took me a couple of hours to part out the three chicken from a few weeks ago. I didn't want to spend too much time working on the last five from the freezer. The cool thing is that I filled 7 jars with legs, thighs and breast meat, just like last time...

Canned Chicken Meat!

The only thing I did differently this time is that I added water to each jar. So we have some broth to keep the meat tasty. 

Now, I have five carcasses that I will now use to make even MORE bone broth. I have so much broth on the shelf! More is not a bad thing though. As winter comes I'm sure that we'll be using the broth and some of the chicken to make soup. So easy!

It's lunch time on Monday and I've already gotten the greens seeds planted in the hoop house. I also took the opportunity to bring the Saffron Crocus planters into the hoop house. I'm glad I did as the chickens did jump into the garden box that I placed them into and started to scratch up a couple of the planters. I'm so annoyed, but I only have myself to blame. I should have known better - they will get into whatever has plain soil and start digging away. 

Today has been filled with enough outdoor activities, it's time to do some indoor stuff now.

Friday Fun Day

Actually, Friday's at work haven't been fun for a long time. In fact, most Friday's find my work mate, myself and the PIO just trying to get through the day. Honestly, this week has been really long and I've been looking forward to today more than usual because next week I'm on VACATION!

So, what has happened in the last week?

Last Saturday I did a load of potatoes and then spent the rest of the day and weekend resting.

Sick Day - for some reason I wasn't feeling 100% on Monday morning when I woke up, but then that was partially from spending most of the night coughing and not sleeping. Around breakfast time I wasn't still wasn't feeling great so I decided to take some sick time. With 1040 hours in the bank, I think I can take a sick day. Monday was basically a down day and watching A LOT of stuff on TV. I rented The Biggest Little Farm on Amazon and watch so much Star Trek Voyager. I napped too. 

The rest of the week was rather unremarkable really. My cough was getting to be a bit much the past couple of days, but I'm actually doing much better now. With the days getting shorter there aren't many things to do around the farm. It's getting cooler in the evenings also.

I am looking forward to having a week off though. There are project that I need to do that I would rather do during the daylight hours and not after dinner. Because after dinner is reserved for the turkeys!

Carl is getting so handsome

My plans for the next week - the start pulling up stuff in the garden. I'll probably get the small squash out and let the pigs feast on them. It would be nice to clean things up enough to get the tarp down and help kill off the weeds that have taken over. This will be a fun experiment to see how long it take to smother those weeds! 

The hoop house is ready for planting. There are several things I want to sow, but I'm not sure which greens I want to grow yet. I'll need to remember to water in there otherwise my efforts will be wasted and we won't have any greens this winter.

It's time to process the meaties. My hope is that we'll get that done next Friday or Saturday. It will have to be Saturday no matter what. The decision to get these birds may not have been the best one. Tom picked them up on July 7th and quite honestly I've been getting tired of them. Several of the little roos have started to crow. Most of the time it's entertaining, because they are not good at it and sound like they may have smoked one too many cigarettes - LOL...

Once I get through vacation there will be jsut one more week left in October. Then November will go pretty quick and then December...

THEN RETIREMENT!

What I Don't Do Well

There are a lot of things that I don't do well, but one of them is not taking care of myself very well. It's not like I am reckless and just go willy-nilly doing whatever, which I do, but not to the extent that I did this past Saturday.

You see, if I stand too much or lift too many heavy-ish things, I risk hurting my back. It seems that I've always had issues with my back for as long as I can remember in my adult life. An innocent twist here and a heavy lift there and BAM my back is unhappy. In more recent years I've decided that I don't like to be in pain more than I need to - let's face nobody likes to be in pain. Anyway, I've been getting good at asking the hubs for help lifting pretty much anything that is more than a five pound bag of sugar or heavier. A lot of times, I will carry the hefty-ish item myself on the sly, only to be discovered and then lightly reprimanded for carrying whatever. I'm glad for the help now that I know that it's for the health of my back.

WELL this past Saturday after I found the canning jars I was really excited to do some canning. The project of the day was potatoes. I got two bags of potatoes and after I was left alone for the afternoon I got to work getting the potatoes prepped. Knowing that standing too long will cause me problems, Tom was kind enough to find me a stool to use while I'm working on things that don't require standing. I set up my work table and got to work peeling 10 pounds of potatoes...all while sitting on my very comfortable stool.

One thing leads to another and pretty soon I'm moving back and forth from the work table to the sink and transferring potatoes from my giant bowl to a stock pot full of water for boiling. The stock pot by itself is a little heavy, add water and potatoes and it's a lot more heavy. Fortunately, my work area in the kitchen isn't vast. So transferring the pot from the sink to the stove is just a couple of steps or so. 

To be honest, I never think about if I'm going to be in pain at the end of the day. I'm just enjoying the process so much! 

Nine canning jars later I'm ready to transfer the jars along with the All American canner to the garage. Here's where it gets a little physically demanding. The cart that I use during my canning adventures is this ONE. It is the perfect size to tote my canner and the jars and other tools in one trip. The only problem with using the cart for this particular canning session was the fact that there was 40+ pound bag of scratch in the cart which made the cart hard to pull and left not much room to transport my supplies safely in one trip. I'll tell you what, that thing was HEAVY! I could have wrestled the bag out of the cart, but I would have been in much worse shape.

After I was able to get things out to the garage and the whole process started, I felt the first twinges in my back. It only got worse from that point. By the time Tom had returned I was in a lot of pain and STILL trying to get things done - I had to do two rounds of canning to finish the project on Saturday. Even though my back hurt and I knew better, I continued to do the lifting like I probably should not have. 

The rest of the day was not great. The pain was terrible and it was a reminder that I REALLY need to pay attention to what I'm doing and not over-do it so much. However, to do the things that are fun I have to fit them into the weekends that go by fast. 

The day is coming though, I won't have to work so hard to cram all the things into my weekends. That day can't come soon enough, now that I know that it will be here soon-ish. Until then I'll try to remember to be mindful of the things I'm getting myself into and rest more than I think I need to and be thankful for prescription naproxen!

This is more like homestead life...

There Was A Shortage

There still is a shortage...of Canning Jars!

When I decided to figure out this canning thing I had some jars. The whole purpose of wanting to can food wasn't because there would/could be a food shortage. What I wanted to do is grow TONS of paste type tomatoes and make sauce for the shelf. I found out quickly that freezer space runs out very quickly. In July I used the jars that I had and bought a case here and there and freed up some space in the giant freezer in the garage.

Knowing that I really enjoyed canning more than I thought I would it was time to start buying supples to store for future canning sessions. The last time I bought several cases of canning jars was probably early August. Wilco had a coupon available, so we went and I thought I was stocking up and only got a couple of cases of quart jars and a couple of pints. I may have been able to purchase another case or two after that purchase. 

Since then I have been watching the canning jar supply starting to dwindle to a few cases here and there to NOTHING. Empty shelves wherever we went. My reality, along with the masses,  is that I haven't been able to find jars ANYWHERE. 

During some of my searches online I would find that the places that have (or had) jars available are no where near Mt. Hazelidacreekshore area. On Monday or Tuesday I saw on Ace Hardware's website that they had jars available....in Woodland. Nope, not gonna drive there after work. I believe that Wilco still had some also. Okay, Battle Ground is closer, but still, not gonna drive there after work. After searching some more throughout the week it looked like JoAnn Fabric had a case of pint jars - so I went ahead and put those in the cart and checked out. I was hoping that I would get these, but my hopes were dashed. Within a couple of hours I got the email that said that the jars were no longer available. Sadness. SO CLOSE!

I started to think that my last canning project would be the chicken that we have left from our spring meatie batch. There are only 5 whole chickens left and I think that I would only need like 3 or 4 jars for those. That would have to be the end of my food canning adventures for a while.

However, yesterday we went out for coffee and to run a couple of errands. The first place we stopped was Parkrose and they only have the itty-bitty jars that are good for things like pesto or small quantities of jams or spreads. I did spy the Ball Electric Water Bath Canner though, so that was pretty cool.

Available at Amazon

We found the items that we needed and then made our way to Fred Meyer for breakfast stuff that I meant to make this morning...but didn't. Oooops! There's always tomorrow!

As we were walking through the aisles, it felt almost like I was being pushed to walk down the aisle that we did. I kind of knew that the pecans wouldn't be down this aisle, but then it happened...

What the WHAT?!

I almost couldn't believe my eyes! The elusive cases of canning jars! So, Tom went to grab a cart since we thought we were only coming in for a couple of items. I stood guard over these. Amazingly, no one else showed any interest in this small supply. Any other crazed human looking for canning jars probably would have grabbed most of these, but I'm not greedy. So I just opted for a case of quart jars and a case of pint jars. 

We went to check out and I didn't think much of the cost of the jars, but when I looked at the receipt I found that the quart jars cost close to $18 and the pints not quite $13. Boy Fred Meyer, way to jack up the prices! Meh, I have some jars now. 

So, the lesson that I learned from this year's canning adventure. Buy them when I see them and store them in the basement. There will come a time when I won't need to go hunting for these though, just the lids. However, until we get to that point in my canning adventures I'll be hunting for these jars along with the rest of the bored quarantine people.

Yes, I did do a canning project after we got home...

Nine quarts of yellow potatoes for the shelf

Friday Round-Up

This week has been a little weird - so much that I'm not sure about today and the weekend.

Well, after a solid year of needing, wanting desiring to be away from the Fire District I did it. I quit - kind of. Actually, I decided the kind thing to do would be to give ample notice so that a replacement could be hired and properly settled in before I sail off into my farm sunset. So I will continue to work through the end of December and wake up on January 1, 2021 and be a retired person! 

Then what? Since we will both be drawing retirement (mine will be a reduced benefit for leaving "early") I might do something that doesn't have set hours. The other day it occurred to me that I could become a Notary Public and do mobile biz. Over the next couple of months I will do some more research and see what I will need to do to earn my commission. Until I do that, I will devote time to do more work for Operation Christmas Child and do a whole lotta work on our farm. We'll be doing the work together as it should be and enjoying life as farmers. 

This is really the big thing that happened this week. I spent a couple of days this week going to appointments so, not much has happened at home. Well, that's not true, there's always something. We did move the meaties/turkeys to a less poopy area, nothing big. In a couple of weeks we'll be getting ready to process the meaties and I'll be on vacation - yahoooo!

Until next time...I'll be resting my way through the weekend!

First Friday - Top 5

This past week...wow - it went fast and slow at the same time. 

I decided that it was time for a vacation day to do stuff at home, so I took Monday September 28th off. It was a productive day of doing projects at home and I needed the day away from work just to be refreshed just a little. 

So here's what happened this past week...

1. MORE Canning - Last Saturday I spent part of the day canning some of our homegrown chicken. The first thing that needed to happen is to part each chicken so I could can the legs, thighs and breast meat. It was a very slow process since I have not cut a chicken up before. It was gross, but had to be done, so I powered through. I wanted to do this so that we would have room in the freezer for the 26 meaties that will be processed in a couple of weeks. Anyway, the method was super easy. Basically filling each jar about 2/3 full of chicken and place the lid and ring on and BOOM ready for the canner. I got the idea from Living Traditions Homestead on YouTube go HERE to check out their video. I decided to start with three chickens just in case parting out the chicken got to be too much. It wasn't terrible, I got the job done. Next time I think it will go quicker. There will be a next time since we have 5 more in the freezer that I would like to go ahead the process.

Homegrown Freedom Rangers

Ready for the Canner

This turned out alright

2. The Junior Swine - Victor & Bridgette turned 6 months old on September 28th. Now that Rex & Fiona are nearly two and half years old I can hardly remember what they looked like at six months old! V & B are so good! Actually Miss Bridgette is quite the bully at meal time. So much that poor Victor submits to his sister and will walk away. He is so passive...compliant...peace-keeper. We actually need him to eat up...he is our BaconHamChop!

The Chubby Bubbies!

3. More Canning - On Monday I decided to can the bone broth that I made out of the chicken carcasses from Saturday. Waste not, want not. Since we started growing our own meat chickens I don't think that we have bought broth at the store, but maybe a couple of times. When we process the chicken we save the feet for broth. When we roast a chicken for dinner we take the carcass and make broth. Since we usually end up just eating the legs, things, wings and breast it's a shame to waste the rest of the carcass. Plus broth is the easiest thing to make! I also took time to make Strawberry Lemonade concentrate for Tom. It's a recipe from the new canning book that I bought on Amazon. It was a good day to just do the stuff that bring me joy and also to hang out with the critters when I wasn't doing inside stuff.

Six more quarts of broth and not quite three pints of
Strawberry Lemonade concentrate

4. Beef Box order - We have been ordering grass fed Beef from a "local" ranch for a little while. Previously we were ordering Butcher Box, but I had become a little dissatisfied with the meat and not really sure if it was really good meat. Since we grow our own chicken I wasn't ordering chicken, now that we have Victor, I don't need the pork either. Well, actually, we won't be harvesting Victor for a little while, so we still pick up some pork at the store here and there. Last year Beef Box showed up on my Instagram feed. Hmmm...what is this place? So I checked it out and decided to place an order and dump Butcher Box. I'm glad that we made the switch! The best ground beef and steaks. This week we had tri tip and it was sooo good! The other thing that makes this small biz special is that they are local - out of Cove, Oregon. That means our order ships on a Monday and is delivered on Wednesday. Our Butcher Box orders came from California and it took probably 4 days. They also used bio degradable packing peanuts. Which is great, but it always went everywhere! I'm not sure how our meat is packed from Beef Box as I have yet to actually be home when it is delivered, but I think there is a lot less packing materials. The BEST thing - Hand written notes from Gabby! Every. Single. Time.

 

5. The Turkeys & Meaties - If I haven't mentioned this before, the turkeys and the meaties are in the same area, sharing the same Stress Free Chicken Tractor. Most days the turkeys make their way out of the paddock and free range until their late afternoon meal. At that time they are ushered back to the meaties and spend the rest of the evening poking around looking for things to nibble on. Sometimes a couple of them well "escape" again. When we go out after our dinner they usually make their way back. This is the time that they get some quality human time. Sometimes they want nothing to do with us and will just continue eating or sitting off to the side by themselves. SOMETIMES they get curious about what the meaties are doing. One of the poults was curious about what the two meaties were doing and just casually walked over to check out what the fuss was all about. 

This weekend I plan to relax a bit. Putting my canning obsession on hold for the weekend, but will be looking toward finding something else to get into jars and process. 

Farm Life is a Busy Life.