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.

Friday Primal Dinner and mystery on the homestead

Well, first dinner...sorry no pic tonight.  I made a Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli soup and Stuffed Pork Chops.  I made the soup last night, took a little time but was really easy, had a small bowl last night for dinner and let the soup blend overnight...was even better tonight.  So, when I decide on a dinner I often figure out one type of food I want to fix and then try to make them work together.  I had cauliflower and broccoli that had to be used, so found a simple soup recipe and the rest was put in the freezer.  I also had boneless porkchops that I thought would be good for tonight. So, I decided to add some blue cheese to the top of the soup, the parmesan was good but I thought the blue cheese would add a good contrast.  I figured i could stff the porkchops so I mixed some of the blue cheese with some  roasted garlic (also in the soup) and some sage, 'cause sage is just awesome!  It all came out well and I enjoyed...the rest of the soup is in the freezer for another meal.  The recipes are below.

Now for the mystery.  This morning as I was feeding eveeryone I found Mr. Royal (the Royal Palm turkey tom) in the pen with Mr. Buff and big tom...they were not happy with eachother but I didn't have time to deal with.  I figured maybe he got out and my brothers put him in there the night before (though they know he doesn't get along with the other toms so was curious).  When I got home tonight I found out that my brothers did not put him in there and that he was there last night when they got home around 10pm.  Mr. Black was out all day yesterday and was still out this morning...I decided to let him free range for a little bit before chasing him down.  Mr. Royal has always been the aggressive one and he is the reason I had to split everyone up in the first place.  Well, it is dark when I get home from work so I fixed dinner then decided to make sure everyone is in bed.  Oddly Mr. Royal was not in the coop with the turkeys or in hanging with the ducks...after searching with the flashlight I finally found him hunched up in the far corner of the pen and I finally got him to hobble out...he has a bruised leg and a bloody face.  Apparently he isn't king of the mountain anymore.  As much of a pain he is I felt bad for him.  He let me wal in the pen and pick him up.  I brought him in the house, checked him out and made sure there were no injuries I needed to take care of and then put him in the small pen where I put Mr. Black this morning.  *shakes head* If it isn't one thing it is another!  Hopefully everyone behaves until I can work on the pens tomorrow and sort everyone out!
I still haven't a clue how Mr. Black remained roaming around while Mr. Royal escaped the front pen and ended up in the big pen??? 

And now the recipes if anyone wants them.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup (original found online and adapted - original had a lot more stock, I like a thicker soup)

1 head of local broccoli
1 head of local cauliflower
1 bulb roasted garlic
olive oil
1 large onion
butter
2 quarts home made chicken stock
paprika, salt and pepper


1. chop broccoli and cauliflower florets and put in roasting pan with , drizzle with olive oil, paprika, pepper and salt.
2. roast at 400F for about half hour or until tender (flip if browning too much)
3. carmelize one sliced onion (slice onion, saute in butter until golden)
4. place roasted vegetables and carmelized onion (don't forget bits scraped from pan) with chicken stock into blender in batches (I actually put in food processer first but it didn't make it smooth enough so then put in blender)
5. put all in pot and simmer to blend flavors.
6. enjoy as is, with parmesan cheese, blue cheese like I did or yogurt or sourcream (might try next)

Blue Cheese, Roasted Garlic, Sage Stuffed Pork chops

1. mix blue cheese, roasted garlic and chopped sage
2. make pocket in boneless porkchops
3. saute in olive oil on med high so the outside browns then turn down to make sure the chop is done through

small progress...step by step

So, the homestead, as usual, is a mess.  It is in a constant state of progress but since it is the Fall and heading towards Winter...it is time to get some major projects done.  Since I had such issues with the duck pen during the constant rains (it still has not dried out!) I had to quickly toss up some pens and put the remaining ducks in the turkey pen....so much work is needed.

The past two nights I have done little bits of work.  I got some more of the second layer of fencing on the new pen up front that currently houses the 2 turkey toms (the black that will be going in the freezer and the Royal Palm which is possibly going in the freezer or he may be staying depending on if my other Royal Palm is a girl or boy) and my lone goose.  It also has an open bottomed crate with the teenage Harlequin rabbits.  The finished pen will be in two parts and be two layers of chicken wire high.  The first section will be used over the winter for a grow out pen for meat birds (currently the turkeys and goose) and for rabbits to be on pasture.  The second pen will be right next to it with a gate between.  In the spring I will move the animals being grown out to the second pen and plant vegetables in the first pen since the rabbits will have made it all nice and fertile and devoid of grass for me! The grow out pen for the rabbits will be an inside fenced area within the larger pen for double protection with a small hutch inside for shelter and netting overtop (so Mr. and Mrs. Great Horned don't decide on gathering dinner there like they did this summer with my teenage Khaki Campbells!).  I will post pics when I am done with the pens (hopefully this weekend).

I also did some work on the other upfront pen that houses the Muscovies, trying to get the pen netted over and secure.  The front yard on that side of the house is divided with the half in front of the porch being the garden, the other half in front of my bedroom for the ducks.  Half of the bedroom side of the yard is fenced in and netted over for a night shelter for the Muscovies, currently my breeders and the teenagers that will be ready for the freezer soon.  The gate opens up to the other half of that side of the yard and it will be fenced off from the garden this weekend.  This will give them about twice the space.  I will extend the fencing to the side yard so they will have a much larger area to roam during the day and then shooed back into the covered area for night...again, so Mr. and Mrs. Great Horned don't decide they are their dinner.

This weekend is going to be a major work weekend for the homestead.  I have those two front pens to finish and then I will be making my chicken hens very mad.  I will be putting the door up to their new coop in the shed (which is a much bigger area than they currently reside at night).  I will then be locking them in for a couple days while I get the door up on the barn and let them get used to their new night time coop before I let them free range again.  I am trying to make the open part of the barn cleaner and less cluttered because that is where the rabbitry is and I can not keep the chickens off the rabbit cages, I have tried everything and they eventually find their way through every deterent...so now they will be banned from the barn once they get used to their new home.

I think those three projects and cleaning up the yard will be quite enough work.  However, I do need to get another batch of applebutter done, two packages sent out with my peach and apple butters to my parents and a class mate and get my camping gear organized again and ready for the upcoming Asatru gathering.  Oh and homework, of course, and a party for a dear friend's birthday Saturday night!

I will update with pics as the weekend progresses!