Homesteading is often a roller coaster

I have had some great luck with the 3 litters of kits that have been born in the last 2 months. I was hoping to have 2 more litters born this week.  Sadly so far no kindling from Rowan or Fearn and on top of that, one of Holly's babies (same age as Chubby Butt) was dead when I got home this morning... I have no idea why...was fine this morning is plump and looks healthy. *sigh*

In other news, I got a bit of gardening done tonight. I planted another 2 rows of field peas for the featherheads. The first 3 rows are doing great. I planted 2 rows of sugar daddy peas for me since the ones I planted before didn't do so well.  I also got a row of zucchini planted and a row of spaghetti squash.  I weeded and made the herb garden a bit neater and planted white yarrow, winter thyme, sage, roman chamomile, garlic chives and mammoth dill.  I don't have a lot of luck with herbs fromm seed so I am crossing my fingers and saying a little prayer!  I give thanks for what is growing so far. Hail the landvaettir!

And, I had the very last of the winter squash for dinner tonight....so sad, I do love my squash.  I baked it with sage from the garden.

my oregeno

Beauty as well as bread...

Okay, here is the post that I said I would write after the Living with Intention post. Living with intention and feeding your body is important.  However, there are other things that I think are just as important... how you treat that body and what you do with it and your mind are important too. There has been a lot of emphasis on diet and exercise and there are many different ways to do that. Many valid ways... these are just a few thoughts I have on "moving my body" and nature.

As a homesteader, I do get exercise outside, hauling feed bags, moving things around, cleaning coops and rabbit poo, weeding, hoeing, etc. I don't really like the idea of going to a gym which I can't afford anyway. I honestly wouldn't have the time anyway....not with all the work to be done on the homestead plus still being in school and working a full time job. So, my exercise is not consistent and it is generally need based...I may be a bit chubby, but I know I eat healthy food and I move my body a good amount more than the average person. (I just happen to like my bread and hate treadmills in a building filled with tons of other folks - although a pool that was accessible would be nice)

I also feel the need to be outdoors. My philosophy of life and how I live it, in what I want as my career and with my homesteading, is all about living in harmony with the natural world. As an environmentalist and a pagan, I want my footprint to be light but I also want to enjoy the world around me. I really enjoy hiking and kayaking, fishing and hunting...feeling a part of nature. This is also where I feel the gods the closest.  I talk to the landvaettir as I work the homestead but I feel closest to the gods on the water or in the woods. Spiritually I believe part of my purpose in re-enchanting the world is to help others see the value in living close to the land, the Mother that supports us all. I believe that you can't value something you don't spend time enjoying in some capacity.  A recent article I read reminded me of the healing powers of nature too...and it is true, when I need peace, healing of body or more often, of mind and spirit, I need time just to be with nature.

As John Muir says:

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

-- Our National Parks, 1901, page 56.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.

- The Yosemite (1912), page 256.

I truly believe that to be a part of this world...truly a part of it, we need to live with intention and to walk and see and play within it... not in concrete buildings and asphalt parks. There are advantages to cities and I have lived in and loved them at times in my life. Culture and art are also a great part of being human but for me to truly live, I need to be a part of nature, to see the art in a simple stream or bud of a leaf, the connections that make it all possible. I have always know that everything is connected, but with my studies I learn in more detail of how and it is truly amazing.... biogeochemistry, the way that everything is connected...we couldn't have designed it better.

So, in order to not be all work and no play, I try to find the time to play in nature and just experience. In the winter, that is hunting and walking trails. There is something amazing about sitting in a tree stand on a crisp and clear cold winter's morning as the sun rises, listening to the birds wake up and watching the light change from a dim glow to full daylight. I experience something similar when I take time to fish at sunset at Trap Pond. I rarely catch anything but listening to the inhabitants settling in for the night and the frogs waking up as the light moves to that magickal twilight is just so peaceful. I try to take time to walk the trails in the parks around me and to kayak on nice days. I spent a lot of time last year kayaking places like the Pocomoke River in my Viking kayak and exploring the swamps in my sit on top kayak, my favorite places being the local Trap Pond with the Cypress swamps and down in North Carolina, Merchants Millpond with the Cypress and Tupelos draped with Spanish Moss.

So, this Spring, I am hoping to do a lot more and making a concerted effort to spend that time in nature...it is too easy for me to sometimes just say that I have too much to do and skip the "play time". I am hoping to do Delaware's Trail Challenge (a selection of trails around the state) along with other trails in the neighboring area. Of course, I will be back in my kayak soon, as well, the weather has just been a bit chilly and windy lately. I will be documenting the trails on land and water at my site on
http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=2122060&code=bbfadf4c5fd9a3e6b2232f0b97a09cea



I truly believe that we need the beauty as well as the bread to live a whole life.

The choice of natural medicine

This is an article written by a woman on one of the blogs I follow, a homesteader like me.  I couldn't have said it better so I am just going to paste it here.

By Jill at the Prairie Homestead:


Last night I was flipping through a magazine and came across one of those run-of-the-mill pharmaceutical ads.
You know the ones– they are usually about four-pages long and a serious annoyance when you are right in the middle of a good article.
Usually I can’t flip past them fast enough to get to the good stuff, but for some reason, I was compelled to read through this one in particular.
It was for a prescription inhaler, and while the first page had uplifting-looking photos and touted the benefits of the drug, the next three pages included massive lists of side effects and warnings for everything from severe allergic reactions and pneumonia, to respiratory tract infections and bronchitis. (Uh, I thought an inhaler was supposed to help your lungs?)
I initially shook my head in disgust, and then proceeded with the rest of the magazine.
But it popped into my mind again today, and the more I thought about it, the more mad I became. Yes, mad.
I’ve been pondering this whole idea a lot lately, especially after reading this recent article about essential oils. The article itself was fairly innocuous, but it left the reader with the impression that essential oils are fairly dangerous with a variety of risks. The comment section was even worse, with many folks mocking those who dare to choose essential oils over conventional drugs.
Now, let me clarify– essential oils should be used with common sense. For example, I certainly wouldn’t recommend slathering yourself in undiluted oregano or cinnamon oil…
But I guarantee they aren’t near as “dangerous” or “toxic” as many of the conventional pharmaceuticals that doctors are prescribing left and right. (Like the diabetes medication I saw advertised the other day… There is a big bold warning at the top of the ad that says it may cause thyroid cancer in humans like it has in rats… Um hello?)
Since when did it become “normal” and acceptable in our society to happily and willingly accept all these drugs without ever questioning the consequences?
How come the same people who would never, ever question the long-term side effects of their prescriptions meds, are the same ones who question and criticize our choice of a natural lifestyle and insinuate that we are “living on the edge.”
Sure, I’ll fully admit that there is a time and place for conventional medicine. If I’m in a car accident, you can bet I’ll be thrilled to be in the hospital. However, if I have natural options available to me to treat other issues, why not at least explore those?
As many of you know, my husband received a substantial dog bite wound on his hand about a month ago. We were very proactive and decided to treat the wound ourselves using natural remedies and essential oils. The results were spectacular, and it healed more quickly that I could have ever imagined.
But I’ll be honest– I was scared to death to tell anyone what we were doing until AFTER the fact. Although I was confident that we were taking the necessary precautions and that it would be just fine, I didn’t feel like dealing with the raised eyebrows or people shaking their finger at us for being too “risky.”
It’s a common perception in our society that a doctor and multiple prescriptions are an absolute requirement for any and all medical “issues,” whether it be a common cold or a small wound.
But unfortunately, the backwards nature of our culture doesn’t end there…

Why do we think it’s normal to chow down on every manner of false, processed, pseudo-food we can get our hands on, yet consider it so unsafe and ”risky” to drink raw milk like people have been doing for thousands of years?
Why do we think it’s normal to happily take any prescription that the doctor gives us without question, yet raise our eyebrows and scoff at using essential oils or other natural, time-honored treatments?
Why do we think it’s normal to eat pale-colored eggs from chickens living in horrible conditions, yet get squeamish when the “farm fresh” eggs we get have a speck of sawdust on the shell, or a meat spot inside.
Why do we think it’s normal to spend countless hours and dollars mowing, watering, and fertilizing our strangely un-natural patches of perfectly manicured green grass, yet think putting the time into growing things you can actually eat is too much work and inconvenience?
Why do we think it’s normal to get upset over a child putting a piece of grass in his mouth, yet obediently inject that same child with multiple vaccines at the same time without ever questioning the repercussions?
Why do we think it’s normal for that one pound of hamburger you buy at the grocery store to be the product of hundreds of different cows and ”puffed” with ammonia hydroxide (their words, not mine…), but so many people get nauseous at the thought of cutting up their own meat?
Why do we think it’s normal for foods that have been genetically modified and sprayed with chemicals to require no labeling, yet if a farmer wants to go the organic route, he or she must jump through all manner of hoops and paperwork to have the “privilege” of placing that little “organic” sticker on their products?
Why do we think it’s normal for people to go from their garage, to a parking garage, to their place of work without ever feeling the wind on their face or having their shoes touch anything but asphalt for weeks and weeks at a time?
photo credit
To answer the question posed in the title of this post– No– I do not think that natural choices are inherently more dangerous.
Most aspects of life involve some element of risk, and I encourage you to take the time and research the choices in front of you and your family.
I don’t have all the answers, but I firmly believe that I am placing my family at far less risk choosing to live a naturally-minded lifestyle, than I would be making conventional choices like the rest of society.
And if you are facing the same sort of raised-eyebrows that I do sometimes– take heart and remember this: I guarantee you aren’t alone in your natural choices, even though it might feel like it at the time. People have been doing things like using essential oils and drinking raw milk for thousands of years– Long before Big Pharma ever told us not to… 
Have you ever been questioned for choosing the natural/homesteading lifestyle? What was your response?

Salmon and broccoli with lemon parsley butter / pumpkin scone

Salmon and Broccoli with Lemon Parsley butter, Caesar salad and Pumpkin Scone

Tonight's dinner was very simple tonight with dessert that was left over from breakfast I made for my co-workers this morning.

Salmon and Broccoli:

I sauteed the salmon in a little olive oil.  I cut broccoli from the garden and steamed it very slightly.  I topped them both with the Lemon Parsley Butter - simply some melted butter with fresh lemon juice and fresh parsley.

Caesar Salad:

Fresh lemon juice, parmesan, garlic, anchovies and olive oil.

The dessert was not primal, of course, but is good real food for a treat. I made it for my co-workers this morning from pumpkin I baked last night.

Pumpkin Scones - one of the best moist recipes I have found: (this recipe I got from one of the online homesteading forums, I forget which one. It originally called for a sugary glaze that I eliminated)

(all organic)
2 cups flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger (plus more to top the scones)
6 Tbs cold butter
1/2 cup fresh pumpkin
3 Tbs milk
1 egg ( used a small turkey egg)

- combine dry ingredients
- combine wet ingredients
- mix together
- form into a round disk shape on a baking sheet cut into triangles and sprinkled with spices
- bake at 425 F for 15 min

Living with intention (food)

The other night at our discussion group we talked about "Is the body sacred".  The talk came around to living with intention, eating with intention... really just thinking about how we treat our bodies.  One thing that struck me was "if you would be embarrassed to put it on an altar to the gods, why would you put it in your body".  It has definitely been something I have thought about for quite awhile. I think this will be the first part of a series. This one is about the food we eat.

I didn't always put it together with my spirituality but what I eat has been a concern since I was very young.  (That doesn't mean that I was always good about not eating junk).  When I was 18 I stopped eating meat because of the industry and animal rights.... even back then I knew how horrible CAFO's were.  Over the years my thoughts on animal rights have not really changed but have matured. After working in, and burning out of, the animal rescue field I knew where my beliefs were but getting there was not something I was sure how it was going to work out.  My thoughts on animal rights/pets/shelters is a topic for another discussion, lets just say I understand why "no kill shelters" won't work until people's attitudes and sense of responsibility changes and in my darkest days of animal rescue I had/have doubts of it ever happening, faith in humans is hard sometimes when you see what they can do to animals.

Anyway, for me, I realized, that I was not against humans eating meat...it is natural.  What I was against was the treatment of those animals that became our food and the blinders that people wear.  Not until the last couple generations have people started to eat meat they did not know where it came from or even what it was.  The concept of going to the grocery store and picking out a package of meat and not wanting or caring to know its source is just plain wrong, in my view.  I dealt with people with blinders a lot in the animal rescue field and I found that the amount of blinders people purposely wear about where their food comes from is unbelievable.  My thoughts were that if I couldn't have the courage and honor to kill it, I couldn't eat it.  The very least is people (kids) should learn where their food comes from. Chicken is not a square in breading...it is an animal with a life, though sadly a very short miserable one usually.

My concern was at first and mainly for where meat came from and for that I was a vegetarian, with occasionally eating seafood, for about 20 years.  But then I started to learn about what monoculture farming is doing to the land and realized that it is as much of a concern as CAFO's.  The monoculture farming requires an unbelievable amount of fertilizer and that fertilizer not only taints the food but is one of the major reasons for pollution in our waterways.

So I started homesteading and buying primarily local.  The only meat I put in my body is raised by me, hunted by me or someone I know or is from a local farm.  The vegetables are from my garden or local farms and the CSA I belong to...all organic or very close to it.  All my fruit is from a local orchard except for the bit of avocado, mango, banana and citrus - if I still lived in Florida I would grow all this myself but even though the zones are shifting we aren't there yet.

I have really been concentrating on eating whole foods, meaning "real food", real milk (raw), real butter, nothing boxed or canned.  I have learned to can and I have been doing more and more each year.  This next year I hope to double my garden and start providing even more food for the animals I raise here.

The next part of living with intention is (moving my body)...

Weekend and Tuesday foods

I am a bit behind on the food for the weekend and tonight is Primal Tuesday. Dinner was not totally primal but it was still good real food.

Blackeyed Peas with cornbread
Cornbread in milk
Applecider donuts
Lentils with tomatoes and smoked ham

So, dinner Friday was Black eyed peas cooked with a ham hock and real southern corn bread (no sugar!) This was the first full dinner I made after the new year...and since it is a traditional new year dish I decided i should try it.  It came out really good.

Black Eyed Peas Soup:
1 lb dried blackeyed peas
Ham hock
3 cups home made chicken stock
3 cups water
couple cloves garlic
cayenne
cumin

let cook in crockpot all day - saute ham hock slices in cast iron pan and sprinkle on top of soup.

Cornbread:
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup flour (organic white)
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (local organic, of course)
2/3 cup melted butter
1 cup buttermilk (or whole milk if don't have, I used raw that was just starting to sour)
baking grease for pan

put cast iron pan with baking grease in it in an oven set to 425 degrees.  Mix ingredients and pur in hot pan and put back in oven for 20 minutes.

Saturday morning breakfast:

Cornbread in a glass of milk with pepper.

Apple Cider Donuts
Sunday morning was definitely not paleo but I made apple cider donuts, baked and with a bit Vietnamese cinnamon.  Not primal but still real food.

2 cups flour (I used organic white this time but want to try with other flours)
3/4 cups sugar (organic cane sugar...want to try honey net time)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt (I use pink Himalayan that I use for bread)
1/4 tsp each nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon (I used Vietnamese which is strong)
1/2 cup apple cider
1/4 cup applesauce (I used my own unsweetened)
2 eggs (from my hens of course)
1 tsp vanilla (I used some that I made, it is pretty strong)

And tonight: (sorry no pic) Lentils with tomatoes that I canned and ham left over from making the black eyed peas along with caesar salad and naan from the Indian store (I haven't learned how to make them yet).

I used the crock pot, added about 3/4 lb lentils, 4 cups water, a quart of canned tomatoes, bit of chili powder, ginger, garlic and fresh cut onion then just let it cook all day.

A very cool little story

I got this from Homestead.org, a great homesteading forum.  It kind of puts things in perspective for me.

Snuffy:

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.
On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, 'How was the trip?'
'It was great, Dad.'
'Did you see how poor people live?' the father asked.
'Oh yeah,' said the son.
'So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?' asked the father.
The son answered:
'I saw that we have one dog and they had four.
We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them.'
The boy's father was speechless.
Then his son added, 'Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are.'
Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.
Appreciate every single thing you have, especially your friends!

New Years goals

Personally, I don't make "New Year's Resolutions", I just do what needs to be done.  However, sometimes it is good to take stock and refocus.  In my personal life it is just a confirmation to move forward with school, career, home organization, spiritual growth and remembering to take time doing things I enjoy like kayaking, hiking and diving. I missed all of my kayaking trips this year due to illness or finances or just "too much on my plate".  I will take some time this year....

For the homestead, it means the same but with an effort to move forward, learn and remain positive even when I learn the lessons the hard way.  I do have to step back and remember that I didn't grow up doing this, I don't have a direct mentor to learn from and I don't have much help and I do still have to work full time and attend school.  And most of all, to remember the goals... I do all this because I believe whole heartedly in my goals, they have become a part of who I am and a big part of my spiritual responsibility... living closer to earth.  My goals are simple, to live a simple life eating real food, knowing how my food is raised and to step as lightly on Mother Earth as I can.  In order to accomplish this goal, I am learning to raise my own food both vegetable and animal and with it comes many frustrations and heart aches but also comes satisfaction of goals attained and movement forward. I have only been doing this a few years and if I think back to how I started... I really have come a long way.

Sometimes that is hard to remember when things are going wrong, when I lose a favorite animal and particularly a bunch goes wrong all around the same time like last month.  There are two things that have kept me going recently besides that I love my animals and I really don't want to think about being without them.  (one of my personal goals is to remember to take time to hug Big Tom and watch the crazy antics of the Polish and the ducks... Farm TV is the best entertainment!)

One of the things that has givien me encouragement recently was the outpouring of support when my turkey tom went missing... that meant a lot.  The other was something my father said to me in an email... he said that he was really proud of me with my homesteading and that he really thought it was a great thing I was doing. My father and I have not often seen eye to eye but this simple statement meant a lot to me.

So, my goals for the homestead are simple...move forward. Specifically I want to be sucessful at breeding and raising my birds and rabbits and to expand my garden so I am providing even more of my own food and food for my animals.  I provide about 40% of my own food now, another 40% is local and the rest is mostly things that aren't grown around here like citrus, flour, etc.  I want to be at 60% grown myself by this time next year.  I want to grow more of the animal feed too, I already supplemented quite a bit from my garden and local this fall but I want to be able to do more, meaning buying less feed which is helpful money wise but also to get away from GMO grown crops which I am sure have made their way into the poultry feed. 

My biggest challenge is raising the animals. My thought of letting the turkeys, ducks and geese raise their own young last year didn't really work well. None of the turkey eggs came to term although I know they were fertilized and started, I think my 3 hens fighting for the nest and the heat did them in.  The duck and goose eggs were taken by a snake I believe.  The chickens managaed to hatch a couple chicks but the mothers didn't keep track of their babies and they were lost to the weather and/or predators. This year I will be incubating. I have a decent incubator so hope to be successful with that and if I am then I will let my broodies raise some later in the season. 

I have settled on breeds that I will be concentrating on:
Ducks: I already have a couple pairs that were given to me (Daffy and Donald are the Pekins and Ivanhoe and Rowena are the Roens so I will raise a batch of each)
The two breeds I am concentrating on though are the Muscovies and Khaki Campbells.  The Muscovies for meat and the Khaki's to sell the babies and for eggs.  I have my breeding groups with a group of black and white muscovies lead by Lancelot II and Gwenafar and a couple other girls and a group of brown lead by Cynric and Sabrina with the rest of Charlie's brood (Sabrina is the brood's mama).

Daffy and Rowena

Sabrina and a young Cynric

Turkeys: I am concentrating on the Standard Bronze and Buff breeds.  Big Tom is my stud for the Bronzes with Spring and the young girl who doesn't have a name yet.  Beowulf is the stud for the buffs and he has 2 Buff girls and a Royal Palm girl because I didn't want to keep the royal tom, he was a jerk.

Beowulf

Big Tom

For Chickens:
I have Henry and his girls but some of them are getting pretty old, particularly Henrietta (Astralorp), Buffy (Buff Orpington) and Lucy (RIR) and Vivienne and Merlin (Americauna).  So, I have decided to concentrate on the Buff Orpingtons, Astralorps and Americaunas.  I have some babies growing right now and hopefully they will survive to adulthood and I will be breeding them.




Henry and Buffy



Merlin







Henrietta



Vivienne



Lucy

Too funny and things to keep in mind for the garden this year!

Garden planning has started for the season...yes it is only Jan 3 but I am hoping on taking advantage of a cool weather spring crop before the summer wilts the entire garden.  And this post just made me giggle... hopefully not like a raccoon!

http://homestead.org/SheriDixon/BlackThumb/BlackThumb.htm?utm_source=Adam+vs.+the+Post+Pounder+-+December+16%2C+2012&utm_campaign=12-16-12&utm_medium=email

New Year on the homestead

December was kind of a yoyo month, some good things, some not so good, the end of the semester finals, holidays, being sick, new landlords, etc.

So I have been trying to get organized, house and homestead cleaned, etc slowly, a bit at a time.  The to do list is overwhelming sometimes and I think stress has been a good part of me getting sick and feeling so tired all the time...so, taking it a little chunk at a time is how I am trying to handle it. Today I got a bit of that chunk done...still lots more to do but it is a start.

I have laundry mostly caught up, fresh sheets on the bed, clothes set for the rest of the week. I have food set for the week for breakfast and lunches at work and dinners at home so I am not tempted to eat out. I made scones this morning so I have 3 more for breakfasts with the blueberry cheese I made. I have the rest of the french bread I made from last night's oyster po boys so I will have that will the salmon cakes I made the other day and the rosemary cheese I made. For dinners I have soup that I am making now, black eyed peas and tomato. The kitchen is mostly cleaned and organized and so are my other rooms.  

On the homestead, I got my last wayward Khaki girl in the pen thanks to Shawn's help.  Her partner is in the garden, so within fence but not in the secure pen but he isn't leaving her so hopefully he will be in their soon too.  I got some pins in to secure the other up front pen that the duck boys are in.  

I also got a bit done in the big barn:

1. I got the turkey girls out of the small coop and into the shed with the ducks for the time being.  I also got Beo (my Buff tom Beowulf) into the shed because the boys are starting to fight. Believe it or not it is the beginning of spring for everyone... the girls (turkeys and ducks) are just starting to lay eggs and the boys are starting their turf wars and giving the girls lots of attention! So Beo is with 2 of his 3 girls and i will be moving his 4th in some time this week.  I hope to get the big pen started in the next couple weeks so the ducks and Beo's crew will have more room outside...until then they have enough room in the shed but will have to stay locked up, I can not afford to lose any more of them.  

Beowulf

2. Since the turkeys are out of the small coop, I put the babies in with the polish featherheads.  Hopefully they do okay but it is past time for them to get out of the baby brooder. 

3. I got the barn raked out and hopefully will get all of that into the garden tomorrow evening.

The rest of this week I want to get some work done in the shed (light up); clean the rabbit cages and get their poo into the garden; get some prep work done for new big pen attached to the shed and make some plans set for a decent turkey poult brooder and separate duckling brooder since I know brooding time will be upon me way too quickly particularly with classes starting again next week. And this year, I am going to brood my own babies! 

So...that is the start of my new year with determination to make things good and successful.