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Cheddar, blackberries and tomatoes

This is Cheddar Fry, I call her Cheddar for short. She is pregnant, hooray!!! I was beginning to think that I wasnt going to have any babies this year but now I am so excited because she is about 3 months along and is starting to bag up. I wish all the goats were pregnant but I am thanking God that at least one is. She is a 75% boer and the Buck is 97% Boer so this baby should come out mostly boer. It should be 86% boer. So so so cool!!

If you want to know what else I have been up to I have been picking blackberries, I even picture them when I close my eyes at night. They are in abundance this year. I do not know why but they are growing very very plentiful this year. I go out almost everyday to pick and come back with baskets full and on the weekends my husband helps me and it still does not even look like we put a dent in them.

I have also been gardening. My tomatoes are doing great this year and are starting to turn red. This is the best tomato crop I have ever had. I realize the one in the pic is green but it was only pic I had. My zucchini were doing well but without much rain they are starting to die off. The deer ate most of my cucumber plants so they pretty much all died but the things doing well still are watermelon, cantalope, tomatoes, potatoes and green beans so I should have some stuff to can and have over the winter. I cannot wait until we have a good well so that I can water the garden and finally be able to be even more self sufficient.

Fighting the fast food

Over at the Provision Room she is having a great challenge. It is a 30 day fast food free challenge. http://www.theprovisionroom.com/   I actually signed up for it almost 30 days ago and I am really struggling. I thought I already rarely ate fast food and that it would be simple to just stop completely for at least 30 days. I was hoping that after the 30 days was up I would not have any desire to eat that anymore. Well the 30 days is almost up and I sure got a surprise. It is very hard for me not to eat out! It isnt the food I necessarily want, it is the convenience and the idea of not having to cook when I get home. It is also the instant gratification and not having to wait to get fed. We live in a day when most people (myself included) want to get what we want right now. So, with this said I have decided to start the challenge over again starting today and sharing my journey with all who might read this blog. I will share my successes and my failures and hopefully doing this I will feel accountable to stay on track. I would recommend anyone else who would like to start this journey to go to her page and read about the challenge. She has lots of great advice on things like having a car picnic basket and ways to avoid the fast food temptation. Hoping everyone has a blessed day today and is able to stay cool. It is supposed to be another hot one today.

Dandelion jelly

    First I would like to thank www.prairielandherbs.com for this recipe.

                                                                       

ingredients for jelly

2 heaping cups of dandelion petals

2 cups boiling water

1/4 cup lemon juice

4 cup sugar

3 oz liquid pectin

food coloring (optional)

I started out by of course picking dandelions, I picked the biggest ones I could find. It takes alot more then what I am showing in this picture but I wanted to show you how pretty they look in this container. You are going to need 2 cups of the little yellow petals so when you think you have surely picked enough flowers go pick a bunch more! At least that was my experience. After you think you have enough you have to cut the green part off and save just the petals. The green part will make the jelly not taste as yummy. I took an old pair of kitchen scissors, held the flower by the green part where the stem would have been attached and then cut the yellow petals off. I cut them directly into my measuring cup and after I had 2 cups of petals I put them in this bowl.

I read 2 different recipes and one of them said to boil the petals for 10 minutes and the other one said to pour boiling water over the petals and allow to steep for 30 minutes. I did the pouring over and allowing to steep. Either way after the 10 or 30 minutes are up you have to strain the liquid off the petals and keep it to use in the jelly, you can now throw out the petal, I put them out in the yard hoping they might cause more dandelions to grow. My grandma would be gasping right now because she sees these as weeds, I on the other hand see them as opportunities to make delicious things.

This is a picture of the liquid I drained off sitting beside my plastic bottle, that is one thing I am trying to not use any more but still having trouble not picking up some of my favorite flavored water but I am once again getting off topic of my post for today. The liquid does not look to appetizing and I am not sure wether it is or not because I chose not to taste it at this point.  ;-)

I am going to right this post assuming that everyone reading it knows to sterilize jars and keep at a simmer while preparing jelly to keep jars warm.

Stir lemon juice and sugar into reserved liquid in a nonreactive 2 quart pan (do not use aluminum).  Bring to a full rolling boil, which is a boil that cannot be stirred down. Add the liquid pectin and continue to boil 2 minutes. Skimming any foam that comes to the surface. You can add about 20 or 30 drops of yellow food coloring here if you would like. The only purpose of adding food coloring would be to make it a prettier color. Ladle into jars with 1/8 inch head space and wipe rims. Add flat lid and screw on band tightly. Invert on towel for 10 minutes but if they do not seal then you can waterbath can them for 10 minutes. This recipe will make 4 or 5 half pint jars of jelly.

I think dandelion jelly has a very sweet taste and I find it to be very yummy!

Blessings to all!

~April

What I clean with

These are the items I use the most when cleaning. I am trying to get away from using paper towels but one step at a time. Baking soda is good for things that need some scour power and I use the vinegar solution for pretty much everything else.

First I soak lemon peels in vinegar for 2 weeks. I consider the lemon peels to cost nothing because I would buy lemons anyway and this is a good use for them and I dont have to waste them by just throwing them away.

After 2 weeks open the jar and if it smells like lemon instead of vinegar then you know that the cleaner is ready. Strain the liquid off of the lemons into another container.

Then pour into a spray bottle. I like to use a heavy duty one because the sides do not cave in. Vinegar is a natural disinfectant so I use this on many, many things. Recently I have started spraying my cutting boards when I use them and just sitting them on the table to dry overnight to disinfect them after use. I hope you enjoyed this post. Have a wonderful and blessed day! It is rainy today so I am finding things to do in the house. Tomorrow's post will be on my dandelion jelly. Looking forward to that one!

Miracle

This is Miracle! She/he is a Silver Laced Wyandotte, I breed them for meat and for eggs. Miracle hatched 4 days ago and the day she hatched I knew something was wrong. She was never able to get up. She just laid on her back in a distorted position all the time. Could not even stand up. I put her in the brooder box with the other 2 chicks that hatched ( I had a low hatch rate this time) but after 3 days she still wasnt getting up and I noticed the other 2 chicks were starting to peck at her. So, I put her in a small bowl in the brooder box so that the other chicks couldnt get to her and she could die in peace. She was not able to eat or drink so I didnt have much hope of her making it. When I went to bed last night she was still laying in the bowl and at times I thought she had passed on but when I would touch her she would yell. This morning when I woke up and went in to check on the babies imagine my surprise when Miracle was standing in the bowl yelling to be let out. She still has trouble walking but she is able to walk and when she does fall over she can work to get up now, so she is getting stonger. I have some food on the floor of the box for her so she can eat cause she has trouble reaching into the feeder but hopefully she gets stronger everyday and will grow to be a thriving hen or rooster.

Side note: I realized when rereading this post that I kept calling Miracle a she, I do not know if Miracle is a he or she yet.  I guess I am hoping for a hen.  :)

Rabbits

Awhile back I decided I wanted to raise rabbits for meat. We are trying to be as self sufficient as possible and one of the things I really want to do is raise all our own food. One of the easiest and most productive things to raise for meat is rabbits. I started out with 5 does and a buck and kept them all together all of the time and at first that worked out alright because the does were young and having small litters and alot of them lost their first litters but as they got older the does were having larger litters and they were surviving so about a month ago I took the buck out of the pen. I was getting overrun with baby rabbits! Even though we raise them for food I still make sure they have a great life, they get lots of petting and love. I forage the yard and the woods for greens for them to eat, they love dandelion greens! Along with the large 10'x10' pen that I keep them in I also have 3 smaller pens. One houses the buck when I have him seperated from the does and the other 2 house the babies once they are old enough to be away from their mothers. I am adding 2 extra pens soon because I think the smaller pens are getting to crowded. I hope to someday have another 10'x10' pen to put the young rabbits in but that will come in time.

                                              
                                                     Here are some pics of my rabbits.

Young doe I decided to keep

my new buck

                                                                                                                                                                              

2 does

peek a boo

the little ones like to hang out in the food bowl

3 cuties just hanging out



I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little more about me and getting to see some of my rabbits. Have a blessed and wonderful day!
I am so happy it is Friday!

~April