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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

           

Vodka, vanilla, baking soda and oil

I want to start off by saying that I give credit to www.diynatural.com for the idea of the vanilla and www.imperfecthomemaking.com for the idea of the air freshener.

I will start off with the jar on the left, that is the vanilla. I started this one off by calling my sister and asking her "where the heck do I buy vodka?" and she asked "Why? What are you making?". At least I know I do not have a reputation of being a drunk, lol. I even ended up not being able to find the liquor store so my nice brother in law picked up a bottle for me and dropped it off when he picked up his daughter. I babysit her while they are at work. She is such a sweetie! Oops got off topic. After I aquired the vodka and the baby was safely with her dad on their way home I started making the vanilla. First I cut 4 vanilla beans lengthwise down the middle until there was about an inch left, I did not cut all the way because you want to leave the bottom of the bean intact. I put the beans in a pint sized mason jar and then filled it with vodka. After screwing the lid on tight and putting a piece of tape on the top with the date 2 months from now so I would know when it is ready I gave it a good shake. I now have it sitting on my counter because you need to shake it a couple times everyday for couple months so now everytime I walk past I pick it up and give it a good shake. I have never made this before so you will have to wait until June to see how it turned out.  :)

A couple days later I came acrossed the idea for the air freshener, it looked so easy and fun to make that I decided to try it that day. First thing I had to do was tell my husband I needed a large nail and that it would be returned to him. He proceeded to ask "Why? What are you making now?", I sure get the question alot.  ;-)   After I acquired the nail I then filled a small canning jar, I think it was a half pint, I usually just call this size a jelly jar, anyway I filled it about a quarter way full of baking soda and then added about 10 drops of essential oil (use whatever scent you want to smell) after adding the oils and screwing the lid on tight I gave it a good shake (sound familiar). This is where the nail comes in, I then took a large nail and hammer and made holes in the top of it to let the scent of the oil escape, I made mine in a heart pattern but you can put the holes however you like, all that is important is that there are holes in it. Whenever you want a stronger scent just give the jar a shake. :-)

Today I am hoping I can get the rabbit pen cleaned up so that I can take some pics of the rabbits and that will be tomorrows post. Have a blessed day!

~April

My husband was off work last week for my birthday and we sure got alot of things done that we have been wanting to do. First thing we did was get a new fence up for the goats. The one we had up was not very strong and not as big as we wanted. We ran 4 wires around 2 acres of our property and now they have lots of brush to eat. Happy happy goats. I am still waiting to see if any of them are pregnant. Fingers crossed! I also got a new gate for the pasture. I love it!! The one we had was a homemade one and it was falling down, I now have a blue metal farmgate and it makes the fence look so much better.

Secondly, my husband plowed my garden, it looks so nice now, sitting there waiting to have some fresh veggies and fruit planted in it. I can just taste the fresh watermelon I will be eating from it this year. I also started digging up the spot for my strawberry plants but I did not get that finished yet. Hoping to finish it this week. I already had some plants in the ground from last year and this year I bought 30 more. Last night it got down into the 20s and the plants did not seem to like it. It was probably quite a shock to everything growing because last week was in the 80s and then all of a sudden it got cold again.

About 3 weeks ago I took my buck out of the rabbit pen because I wanted to slow down how many babies were being born and I was starting to wonder if he got any of the does pregnant before we removed him from the pen but over this weekend 2 litters were born. One litter had 7 and the other 9!! Where do they fit all these babies inside of them. You can hardly tell a difference in the size of the rabbit when they are pregnant and then to find out they have that many inside them, it boggles my mind!

I have eggs in the incubator and so far 3 have hatched (lost one of them) and there are 4 more working on hatching today. That will leave 13 eggs yet to hatch, cannot wait to see how many of them hatch. This is my first attempt with an incubator.

Everyone seems to be getting sick around here. My husband was sick, then me and now my nieces and my daughter are sick. I cannot wait until this passes and we are all healthy again.

Well, I am not getting much done sitting here at the computer so I guess I better go get started on my day before it is over. God bless you all and hope you have a wonderful and blessed day.

April

Sorry I havent been posting lately, been really busy. A few weeks ago I started babysitting my niece while my sister goes to work and it has taken a few weeks for us both to adjust. Also been busy cleaning and hoping spring will come soon. Yesterday I planted my starter seeds for parsley. It was so nice working with dirt and seeds again. The 2 little goats on the left are Babylynn and Champ. Babylynn is my daughter's pet goat and Champ is supposed to be my herd sire but he is still really small so I am thinking we wont have babies until next spring. These things happen and God's timing is perfect. My rabbit pen is really getting filled up, so far we have had 27 babies born here but only 12 of them survived. It was the first litter for each rabbit so hoping that was the problem. The funny thing is that I raise my rabbits in a colony setting and I have no idea who the moms are to each litter. The chickens are doing well also, lost 2 of them. One was to my dog and I think maybe a fox got the other one. We have been seeing a fox on my husbands trail camera. It is really pretty. Also been getting alot of deer on the camera but hunting season is over so just have to shoot them with a camera.  My son got a new jeep that he just loves and my daughter got her learner's permit which she loves so things have been going well for them. Just an update on the fun things around the farm.

Happiness, where has it gone?

This is happy!

I have decided to start looking more for the good things life has to offer me. It is too easy to get bogged down by all the negative. The weather out today is what some people would consider to be a negative but I look at it as a way to have my children inside with me spending time together. Last night we had a blast playing Mario together. There was so much fun and laughing, it was a great time. My daughter had school today without having a delay due to weather which meant that I did not get to sleep in but I have learned in the past the only time sleeping in is nice is the night before while I am thinking about it. When I know I am going to get to sleep in I have a tendency to stay up later and when I stay up late I am still tired the next day no matter how late I got to sleep in. My system seems to be on a schedule. I go to bed at 10 each night and wake up at 7 each morning, except sometimes I sleep in on Saturdays because that is my husband's day to feed the animals. After I get myself up in the mornings I get to enjoy some quiet time to myself before my niece comes for me to babysit and before I have to do the morning chores. I get to spend this time connecting on facebook, blogging or just relaxing with a cup of coffee. Actually there is a cup of coffee in my hand no matter which one of these things I have decided to do. I am not trying to pick on anyone or make anyone feel bad, I just want everyone to enjoy life. I went to the fair over the summer and noticed that not a single person even looked happy to be there and the fair is a place where everyone should be smiling. Ever since that day I have been people watching and noone at the mall looks happy, especially noone at Wal Mart, I was even watching a farm show on tv where they were square dancing and everyone looked like there was somewhere else they would rather be. It just seems like such a waste to be so unhappy all the time. Embrace life, enjoy it and give God the glory. Time to get off my soap box now. Blessings to everyone!

~April

herbs

I am hoping to grow an herb garden this year and I am trying to find a good book on how to grow and use them. I am wanting to have a medicinal herb garden and a kitchen herb garden so that I can use herbal remedies and also cook with fresh herbs. I am really excited about this. I am also hoping to find a good resource on learning about essential oils and how to use them as remedies. I would like to never take another medicine again. This is one of my New Year goals. I will keep you up to date on my blog about how this new journey is going for me.

Yesterday I planted some grass in a container in my kitchen. I am hoping to grow it go be able to feed my rabbits fresh grass in the winter time. If it works out well then I am going to start it earlier next year because I think I did it kind of late this year and might not have it ready before we have fresh grass clippings to give them.

On New Year's eve I found a litter of kits in the rabbit house!! It was so exciting. My husband used to raise rabbits and it was cool when they had babies but he gave up raising them. I decided a few months ago to get my own meat rabbits to raise in a colony setting and this is my first litter!! Yay!! There are 2 black ones and 3 white and black ones. I cant wait until they are a little older and are cute and fluffy and hopping around the box.

Another of my New Year's goals is to get all of our past bills paid up within the next 2 years. I need to sit down today and figure out how much we have to pay a month to get them paid off. It will be so nice to be debt free. We are also planning to put a new well in, Lord willing I will never be without water again. :)

Wishing everyone a fantastic 2012!!

~April