Pickled Garlic…

I used the recipe out of Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon to preserve some garlic cloves I bought in bulk.

Pickled Garlic

about 12 heads of garlic

2 t dried oregano (preferably organic)

2 t sea salt

2 T whey (can use 2 t of additional sea salt if you don’t have any weigh)

1)  Place garlic heads in the oven at 300 degrees until heads open and cloves can be easily removed.

2)  Place cloves in a wide-mouthed quart jar.

3)  Add oregano, sea salt, whey, and cover with filtered water leaving at least 1 inch headspace below the top of the jar.

4)  Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before placing in refrigerator.

It is winter here in Kansas and our house isn’t quite warm enough to ferment on the countertops.  So, I wrapped the jar in a tea towel and set it on top of our dvr to keep warm which actually seemed to work.

Now I can grab a couple cloves, crush ‘em, and toss ‘em into whatever dish I am preparing.

 

Egg season…

With 12 Rhode Islands, 25 Buffs, and 14 Banties we have plenty of eggs on our farm.

The eggs are beautiful and so much more nutritious than the “eggs” you get at the grocery store.  Not to mention the quality of life our chickens have compared to the life of a factory laying hen.  Find a source for farm-raised, free-range eggs.  You will be amazed how easy it is to locate eggs near you and how wonderful they taste.

Foraging and Scottish Highland Cattle…

The past few weekends I have been doing a little foraging around our homestead.  I spent the morning weeding our wildflower area and decided the dandelion greens would be a nice addition to a salad.  So I ran inside to grab my basket and collect a few.

I have read a lot about the benefits of dandelions in Dandelion Medicine by Briggite Mars and online. 

“Dandelion root ( Taraxacum officinale ) stimulates bile production, thus improving liver function, which when sluggish, can contribute to fatigue. Dandelion root improves digestion and increases vitality.” 

All of us could probably benefit from a little liver cleansing these days.  Toxins in the air, soil, and everywhere else cause a burden on our system trying to eliminate these toxins from our body.

I also got to crawl around in these thorny things.  These are sandplum bushes and they grow wild in Kansas.  Everywhere you look (that the township can’t get to and spray) there are sandplums growing.

The plums themselves are tart and not great for eating right off the bush, but they make the best jelly and wine.

So I soaked them, washed them, and bagged them up in 2 1/2 gallon freezer bags and tossed them in deep freeze.  When fall rolls around and our house in nice and cool I will fire up the stove and get to making jelly and wine.  Right now it’s just too hot to mess with them.

I had lots of help when I was out in mom and dad’s pasture picking sandplums.

First there was just one curious bystander.

Then a couple more.

Then a little closer.

And a little closer.

Then it was just time to hang out, stare at me, and make me a little nervous.

The little guy wasn’t too sure it was safe.

But finally started creeping out from behind his mama.

Finally I had enough cow time.  They were really close to me.  Sniffing me.  Watching me.  And breathing down my neck.  I decided to pack it in and loaded up the four-wheeler to head back to the house.

See that little shaded area under the sandplum bushes??  That’s where I WAS standing.  They didn’t waste anytime taking over my spot once I was outta there. 

They really are the best little cows.  The Scottish Highlands are tame and gentle, but were just too curious for me that day.

Solar Oven Cooking…

It has warmed up outside and since we haven’t turned on the a/c yet it’s really important for me to choose my cooking styles wisely.  We have a propane stove so have the cooktop can put out a lot of heat and turn a cool home into a uncomfortably warm home in just a few minutes. 

I did a little experimenting over the weekend cooking with my solar oven.  I love the thing!  I did have to buy the refector separately.  If I had it to do all over again I would probably buy something more heavy duty, now that I know I will use it regularly. 

I baked a banana bread.

It turned out fabulous.

I also tried cooking up my rice for tacos in the solar oven.  The book had two different instructions for cooking rice, but since I soak my rice before cooking I winged it and made up my own instructions.

 

Here is my brown rice in one of the black pans that came with my solar oven.

Next I added homemade kefir and a small amount of water and allowed it to soak about 6 hours.

After the rice soaked I added tomato juice for the remaining water needed.  The label says “sauce,” but it really is homegrown, home-canned tomato juice.  Trust me!

I stuck it in the oven for 3-4 hours and it turned out great.  So great I forgot to take a picture of the finished product so you will just have to take my word for it.  We ate the rice along with our tacos made from local beef.  It was delish!!

I have yet to cook meat in it, but feel fairly confident now to give it a try.  I would like to try a roast or a whole chicken at some point before summer’s end.

Enjoy the heat!

Randy’s Birthday….

Today is Randy’s birthday.  For his birthday he wanted to go fishing.  We had dentist appointments on Monday and took the rest of the day to fish with a friend of his.

Randy with his catfish.

Dan with his catfish.

And me with my catfish.

We were all successful and ended the day with 5 to take home and clean.  We caught lots of sunfish, bullhead, and catfish.  It was a fun day with lots of fish being reeled in. 

Life’s Journey…

I read an interview the other day from Jim Sturgess.  He made a comment about the fact that he is the type of guy who can go to a theater, watch a movie, and leave thinking “I could do that.  I could live like that.”  That is me!  I can so relate. 

If I posted every idea I came up with, every talent I hope to master, or every hobby I wanted to take up it would be a revolving door of ideas.  However, if given a little time I could probably know at least enough about each endeavor to be dangerous.  I love to learn, and I love to read.  I’m convinced I can teach myself enough to get me started into almost anything.

This earned me the title of “flaky” by my husband.  I change ideas, hopes, and dreams continuously and increasingly drive him nuts with my new ideas.  When I start a phrase with, “I was reading today about….” He starts to get nervous about what’s coming next.

I read an article about someone moving to the Alaskan wilderness…I could do that.  I read an article about someone who lives entirely on traditional foods…I could do that.  Someone how homesteads and is self-sufficient….I could do that.  I read about someone who lives in a camper and is a real life “gypsy”…I could so do that!

So this is what my very patient and very open-minded husband gets to hear over dinner.  All the while I’m just waiting to strike a chord with him and have him say, “I could do that too.”  Although I have never really gotten the enthusiasm I’ve been hoping for out of him, he has agreed with some of my ideas and goals for us together.  I take what I can get, compromise on some of it, and throw the rest in a drawer to surface again at a later date.

I think being an avid reader is a huge contributor to this.  I don’t really read novels, I sort of feel like it is a waste of time.  I like to read books I can learn from.  I like non-fiction!  I like anything on living off the land, spirituality, natural health, traditional nutrition, lost skills (candle making, soap making, open-fire cooking, etc.).  I have time to read because I can read on my breaks at work and over my lunch breaks.  I don’t, however, have time to do most of things I read about.  I figure if I read and educate myself now, eventually I will have the time to actually do them and be all studied up on it.

I don’t know if we’ll ever get to move to the Alaskan wilderness, eat an entirely traditional/primitive diet, have a self-sufficient homestead, or live in a camper and travel the country.  I do know it is fun to dream, imagine, and think about all the things we could do in our lifetime.  If that makes me “flaky” then so be it.  I’ve been called worse I suppose.  I just hope life doesn’t pass me by, and when I’m old and gray I can look back at my life and know I lived it to the fullest.

Two quotes I came across this week:

“I am determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances.”

~Martha Washington (1732-1802)

“Borrow from cultures old and new and with our imaginations blend those borrowings to create new ways to live that are simpler, gentler, more generous, and beautiful.”

~William Coperthwaite, A Handmade Life:  In Search of Simplicity

Have a great day!

I Had a Life But My Job Ate It!

I Had a Life But My Job Ate It!

I saw this on a bumper sticker (online) the other day. That is how I feel right now. Randy and I are both worn out from lambing and working and in need of a serious vacation with an ocean involved or at least water and warmth of some sort. We will see if this happens in 2010 or not.

Here is a glance at my day and why I am screaming for life to slow down and allow me some downtime.

3:30 wake up to make bottles and head outside to feed bottle lambs and let the sheep out of the building

4:15 return inside to wash bottles, shower, and get ready for work

4:45 pack both our lunches and layout our morning and noon supplements

5:00 head out the door to work

5:45 arrive at work

6:00-4:30 work at a computer

5:15 arrive home, change, make bottles to feed bottle lambs

5:45 return inside to wash bottles, cook dinner (generally from scratch), and wash dishes (by hand) from breakfast and lunch

6:30 eat

7:00 clean up after dinner, wash dishes (by hand), make coffee for the next morning, and dish up our lunches for the next day, and make bottles to feed bottle lambs

7:30 head out to lock up the sheep in their building and feed bottle lambs, this also includes any doctoring that needs done

8:00-8:30 return inside to wash bottles and get ready for bed

8:30 Bedtime

8:30-Midnight Sleep

Midnight one of us heads out to check on our ewes to make sure no one is lambing or more specifically, having trouble lambing

Midnight-3:30 am Sleep

Then I get back up and do it all over again. This has been going on sine the last week in January and needless to say we are both exhausted and a little burned out. There is a little dim light at the end of the tunnel. It’s quite a ways away, but we will get there.

Spring is in the air and the warmer weather is already lifting our spirits. The thought of a garden right now is a little daunting, but hopefully I will get in the mood as the days continue to get longer and the weather continues to warm up.

I’m not whining! It may sound like I’m whining, but I truly love our life and our animals. That’s the part of our lives we do enjoy. It just tends to feel like we live at our jobs and have no time for our lives. We work twelve hours (including the commute), sleep 8 hours (if we’re lucky), and spend the other 20 preparing to leave our house and animals for the day and making up for the time we were away from our house and animals all day.

It may not seem like we are in self-sufficiency, environmental awareness, downshifting, or any of the things I’ve mention on the sidebar. However, this is all part of our attempt to become debt free and HUGE step toward all of these things. As soon as the debt is gone we hope to take our home off-grid or build an off-grid home. We will still have the expense of maintaining the equipment, but this will eliminate those electric and propane bills we despise so much.

We will get there. I have my moments where it seems impossible, too far away, and out of sight. Then I have days where it is just around the corner, and I can’t wait for it to all come together.

Here are a few things I think would help us cut costs in the meantime and free up even more money to put toward debt:

• Budget, I have set up a strict budget we HAVE to stick to in order to make this work. We will be allotted only so much cash money (credit cards for fuel only) for groceries, auto repairs and maintenance, vet and pet expenses, our farm expenses, and any other miscellaneous expenses. We will also set back money every month for those bills that come due once or twice a year; propane, auto insurance, and car tags and taxes.

• Dinners: one night a week will include eggs. These come from our chickens and are usually in great supply. We will also do one night a week soup or bean dish with salad. These are both not only easy meals, but also frugal meals.

• We are selling all the lambs born on our farm this spring and hopefully some of our yearling ewes. This will help our sheep pay for themselves throughout the rest of the year (hay, grain, protein tubs, and any other supplies needed).

• Cats: As of right now all eleven little darlings are in our pool house 4 days a week. As soon as Randy gets the cat door installed (hopefully this weekend) they will be outside kitties except at night. They can mouse instead of relying on cat food $$$.

• TV: We (as in I) watch very little TV. Once the season finales are over and summer is here, I want to get that whole setup unplugged to decrease the phantom load it is pulling 24/7.

• Utilities: I would like to unplug everything not in use, power down more, and possibly get a wood burning stove in our house to help our heating/propane expenses.

• Cook outside: in the summer this will be a lot easier. I have a solar oven I need to utilize, especially for bread baking. We will be grilling and cooking over our fire pit a lot more and eating cold foods (salad sandwiches, salads, cold rice and pasta dishes, etc.).

• Retirement: we’ve never been fully comfortable with the 401K/IRA retirement plan. We may decrease our input into these for the time being and use that money to pay off current debt.

• Land: we are still in hopes of owning land someday. We were convinced we needed 80 acres because that is the legal requirement to hunt your own land. We are now thinking we would do less than this and raise our own food and barter what we can’t raise instead of hunting.

• Pool: no idea if this is a possibility, but I would like to convert our pool pump to run off solar energy. This would be a good first step to converting our home.

• Well/Pump: second solar conversion possibility

•Limit our Kinesiology/Chiropractor visits:  take a multi-vitamin, CLO, exercise and stretch (yoga), and make improvements to our diet

These are just some ideas of ways we can trim down our monthly expenses and work toward our goal of becoming debt free. We are estimating it will take us under 5 years to become completely debt free including our home. If we buy land it will take longer, but that may never happen. We have the usual bills: mortgage, student loans, home equity loan, etc. We have managed to pay off all our cars and intend to keep enough money in savings so we can pay cash the next time the need for one comes up.

I sometimes think of all the things I would have time to learn and do if I wasn’t at work all day long. I would spend more time with my animals for sure, but I would also love to learn better photography skills, learn to crochet, knit, sew, play the piano, and possibly learn a second language. These desires give me the drive I need to forge ahead and do without now so we can hopefully enjoy all of these things in the near future.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day. I hope this encourages you to strive for simplicity and to become debt free. We will work very hard for the next few years and at times I may chime in here with less than encouraging words when the going gets tough, but I know it will be worth it for both Randy and I.

*Randy just called to say, “how about we ask if your mom will watch our animals and drive to the Grand Canyon for a few days. We can rent a cabin, hike, and just hang out there the whole time.” I’m there…just pick a date!

Deer in the Freezer…

A friend of Randy’s hunts every year, but his family doesn’t like venison.  So, guess what!  We get it.  Our neighbor processes it and all we have to do is pay him for processing.  Yea!  We will have more meat to add to our dwindling supply in the freezer.  We also just got our pork from Mom and Dad’s freezer.  They were storing it until we got more room in our’s.  So, we will have plenty of meat to get to get us through the winter and summer.  We hope to raise broilers in the spring so we will have plenty of chicken also.

Hope you all are staying warm!

How to make Cottage Cheese…

I got the recipe from Countryside Magazine and it is de-lish!

No-rennet Cottage Cheese

1 gallon milk (I use raw)

1 cup cultured buttermilk

Warm the milk to about 95 degrees F.  Stir in buttermilk and allow to set at room temperature for 12-18 hours.  The milk will clabber, or become thick.

Cut the curds into 1/2 inch cubes and let rest for 10 minutes.  Place the pot into a double boiler-type potand heat at a very low setting until the curd reaches 115 degrees F (I didn’t use a double boiler, I just kept it on low for a little over an hour).  Stir often to keep the curds from matting together.  This will take an hour or more.

The curd is ready when it is somewhat firm on the interior of the cheese.  Cook longer if necessary.  Some whey will rise to the top.  Let the curd settle to the bottom of the pot, drain off the whey and place the curds in a cloth-lined colander to drain.  Be gentle, as the curds are rather fragile.

Allow the cheese to drain until it stops dripping (I let mine hang overnight).  Place in a bowl and add salt to taste.  I usually use about one teaspoon of kosher or canning salt per pound.  Stir in about four ounces of half-and-half or cream ( I used cream off the top of our raw milk) per pound if you like a creamed cottage cheese.

I had some for breakfast this morning and it was the best.  Hope it turns out as well everytime I make it.

I have been fighting a cold since Saturday.  I have been consuming a lot of Vitamin C poweder and Echinacea/Goldenseal along with Throat Coat Tea.  I prefer Gypsy Cold Care, but I drank what we had on-hand.

I want to make my own by buying my herbs from Mountain Rose Herbs, but I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Berries…

Over the weekend my Grandma picked boysenberries and was nice enough to share.  I had pulled weeds in them earlier in the season and will be going there to pick berries tonight.  Incase you aren’t familiar, boysenberries are very similar to blackberries in flavor and appearance.

I also picked mulberries over the weekend out of this tree.

See all those weeds and shrubs growing underneath it?  That makes it fun : )     To pick mulberries you don’t actually “pick” them.  You take a sheet, lay it under neath a branch, and shake the branch until all the ripe berries have fallen off.  Then you pour the berries in a bowl and move on to another branch.  I soak my berries in salt water when I get home to drive out any bugs that may be hiding inside them.

With the boysenberries I made my first ever pie from scratch.  I took a pre-oven picture which was a good thing because the after-oven picture wasn’t as pretty.

I asked my grandma how to make this pie and got a “Grandma” recipe.  You use a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  Needless to say it boiled over in the oven and the crumbles on top melted into a puddle,  but it tasted delicious even if it didn’t look the prettiest.

I also pulled some onions yesterday and cut some chives and have them dehydrating in the dehydrator.  I have ham hocks in the crockpot so I can freeze the broth to use for mustard and collard greens in the future. 

Hope everyone has a great day!