Posting

Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted much lately. There is actually a reason for that... Jed and I are expecting a little one and things are a lot more interesting. As it turns out, I seem to hate the smell of alfalfa, grass, animals, air, dirt, and most everything else. I sleep through most of my time at home and when Jed isn't home I've run through putting the animals away while trying not to throw up on them. As the nausea goes away I'm able to go outside a little more. I'm able to go outside and at least look at the animals and see how they are doing without just running and throwing food at them while I close them up. As you might expect, the whole pesky pregnancy side effects were not really planned for. I thought I would be finishing up a bunch of projects, continuing with contruction, and working on my workout to keep the baby healthy. We'll see how things get worked on as the energy comes back.

Rosie and Jed's home for displaced animals

We recently acquired a few new face at the homestead, due to some life issues a friend of ours was unable to have a place for a few of her animals. So to help her out we offered her some space at our home for a pair of drakes (male ducks) and a goose (female.. Uh... Goose). So now we have a few more faces in the flock and we will see how they fit in. Hopefully a couple more drakes will keep our ducks happy and I am guessing that another goose will fold right into the flock pretty well. There was a little bit of hostility from the turkeys as they attempted to show the newcomers who the boss turkeys where in the yard and the French geese snapped at the new drakes a little to show them who the top water fowl are in the yard. But after a short swim and a preening session they seem to be settling in OK. We will see how they do tonight with the coop arrangement.

Pride in small things

At out home we take pride in small things, getting the fire going with only one match, finding a new brown egg, green wheat poking up threw the straw, and this morning watching Trouble (our newest kitten) catch a mouse. In the first few weeks that we had Trouble with us our other two cat would bring Trouble field mice and drop them in front of her, so that she could learn to catch them. As time went on Trouble would "assist" the other cats in catching mice, after they where caught by the older cats she would be allowed to play with them (to death). Now Trouble has firmly moved into big girl cat land, she catches and "plays with" her own mice (and growls at the other cats when they get close to her new toy).

Some people may find it odd that we don't mind when our cats catch and kill mice or birds. Part of our reasoning is that while our cats are members of our family they are also a form of employee. The cats have a job to do just like the rest of our animals, the goats are to eat weeds and give milk, the pigs are to turn the ground and provide meat, the chickens are to eat bugs and provide eggs and meat, and so on. Part of the cats job (in addition to keeping peoples feet warm on cold nights) is to keep down the population of field mice. When we first moved into our home we had a problem with mice getting in the house and eating food from our cabinets. Within a few weeks Calvin (our black cat) had discovered that from time to time when he opened the flour cabinet there would be a mouse in it (much to his joy). And soon he would check the flour cabinet (AKA mouse dispensary) several times a day to see if it had been "restocked". With in a month or two, no more mouse problem. So when I see Trouble working hard to pull her own weight around the farm I take a little pride that our newest member of the family has what it takes to keep herself welcome on our little homestead.

Frozen

Rosie and I returned from a trip up north to visit our families, we got back Sunday night and went straight to bed. Granted it was cold when we got home (low 30's) but by the time I woke up to go to work the temp had dropped by a lot. All of our water pipes where frozen, no shower, no coffee, no good. We use a few 5 gallon buckets for watering our animals and on a normal cold morning there is about 1/2 inch of ice that has to be broken so they can drink. This morning the 5 gallon buckets where frozen solid into a 5 gallon ice cube. All the animals seemed to be fine by the early morning light but I think we will need to do a little more planning for the cold winter, more pipe insulation and a good stock of firewood.

When Turkeys ATTACK! Er....Uh.... I mean investigate.

While we we out feeding the animals one evening and I thought I would bring our camera with us and take a few pictures of them and perhaps a little video as well. Here is how it turned out:

Rain and disappointment

So Sam and I went threw a Herculean effort to dig out the stream and the duck pond in anticipation of heavy rain and flooding like we had last year. Now we are in our second "rain storm" of the season and the skies have dropped nearly nothing on us. No rapids in the creek, no flooding chicken coop, no bridge under water, NOTHING! It is like building the Ark and then getting nothing but blue skies and warm weather from there on out. No that I want our farm to flood, but I want to see some running water after all that effort. Oh well.....

Extractor - the honey dance

I splurged and purchased a hand crank honey extractor. I don't have many hives, and I plan on leaving most of the honey there for them, but I was going to see about taking a little from the sides to see just how good our honey is. =)

We'll see if I can get a chance to extract this weekend.

First day of frost

Mark the calendar, today, October 27th was the first day of frost. The squash was all hit hard, but it looks like the citrus and the guayava are doing just fine. I'll see if I can cover the squash when I get home. We'll see how badly they got it. The tomatoes seem to be doing just fine.

Well... that sucked

Besides being sick this weekend, we had a fabulous time with Sharon/Mari visiting. She helped me finish the pond and so we began to fill it up.... and that killed the well. Luckily, it died on Sunday so we didn't have to go that long w/o water. The well company came in on Monday. Took out our old pump (They're only supposed to work for 7 years, but this one had been in there since 89.... 7 years... vs 21... ) and put in a new one. We now have all the piping in the front yard.. and since they kind of trampled one of my beds I just uprooted all the shallots and brought them in. So now we have a spiffy pump that's working great and that will provide fabulous pressure for the whole house. On the down side... it was an unexpected expense.. on the plus side, we don't have to worry about a pump for years. =)

Corn harvest

We were able to harvest our late corn. I planted the corn really late in the season so I wasn't even sure if we would get any. Well bloody butcher turned out the be a fabulous type and we'll be sure to plant some of these next year. I also just picked up a grain mill so we're drying the corn to grind up for tortillas, cornbread, and anything else we might think of.

Ducks as lawn mowers

Yesterday when I got home I noticed that the front lawn looked horrible and most of it was on its side and that the lengths were not even close to being close. I thought that my scything had just gone to crap and that I needed to get lessons on sharpening my blade again... when I saw some duck heads peak out from under the squashes.... Apparently the ducks have taken it upon themselves to come up to the front and eat down any errant grass, watermelon, lettuce, seedlings, collard greens, cabbage, spinach, and anything else you can think of.... So until I fix the side gate I'll have ducks that come to the front to feast on food. Oh yeah, I also noticed that they leave a sentry in the back to quack bloody murder if it looks like if I'm walking towards the front. It doesn't really helps since I can clearly see 9 sets of webbed feet under the bush they try to hide.

Concrete work ptII

I think the weather gods all focus on any weekend that Steven and I hope to pour concrete. This is the second part of the concrete work, and it rained on us again. Poor Steven had to put up with a distracted Rosie, a sick Lil'Rosie, and it seems like everything else that could have gone somewhat wrong. My 2x4's seem to be a cause of great distress. Apparently, my 2x4's are waivy and upset him to no end. Eh... I got them on clearance, and they match my house. And then after all the sidewalk was poured he let it dry up a little so that he could do all the finish work on it, but Trouble got to it before he could and ended up leaving a story of a chase on the concrete. Steven was pretty much at his wits end by that point so he was able to fix most of the concrete that had the deep paw prints, but he also left some sections with paw marks as they were already dry by the time he got there. In the morning, the turkeys and the ducks decided to add their dirty claws and webbed feet to the design. We'll see how it turns out, but so far, it looks like it belongs around our house. =)

Lil'Rosie on the mend

Lil'Rosie was doing well this morning. She's not back to her normal bossy self, but she's able to function on her own. Yesteday when I went to go see her at lunch she had not eaten so I had to hand feed her until she got a little bit of food in her. After work I went back home and separated her from the herd and took her over to the alfalfa and hay. She ate until she filled in again, which is good, but she was still acting frightened of everything and would get scared if I wasn't around. After eating her fill I took her back with the other goats and she spent the night with them. I think I only heard one cry at all last night, so it's a big improvement. This morning she started eating on her own and was drinking water. She was also moving around and it looks like if Lil'Rosie and Bugger are starting to become close friends. I think they both have that association of humans as bringers of safety and happy thoughts. We'll see how things progress. The herd is keeping its distance and taking care of her. Ramses is not being harsh on her and none of the other goats will take her food. I think they know she's still sick. This has been a learning experience, but one that was most likely needed. I'm very glad we did not give up on her, but I hope that she's able to fully recover, as we cannot keep goats that require special needs.

Day 5: Lil'Rosie

For the last 5 days I've been spending a lot of time with Lil'Rosie as she's not full up to speed on taking care of herself. We gave her the last shot of thiamine today and I put her with the other goats. I think the thiamine really throws her off. To recap, Sat and Sun my brother Steven came out to help pour some more concrete around the house. This was hampered by an altered Lil'Rosie that wanted to follow myself or Jed around everywhere we went. In the end, I just stayed with Lil'Rosie and let everyone else do the work since we couldn't do much with Lil'Rosie following us around and got in the way. She was also trying to eat dirt, which wasn't good, and was trying to step on the wet cement. On Sunday she seemed to get her appetite back and ate to her hearts content. She filled in and was drinking tons of water. She looked almost completely healthy and we decided to put her with the rest of the goats this morning.

I just went to go check on her during my lunch, which I've been doing since last Thurs, and she was staring off in a different direction not moving and not eating. She didn't seem to have eaten anything since that morning so I fed her some alfalfa by hand until she zoned out. She then sat down with some food hanging out of her mouth and stared off into space. Ramses led her over to the water where she drank. As I was leaving she realized I wasn't around and ended up trying to run to see where she could see me and to call out. I think this whole process is going to make Lil'Rosie that much more clingly and weary of when she's not feeling well. Although goats aren't swamp dragons, taking care of a sick goat can get tiring especially when you have to go and sleep with them out in the porch if they start freaking out. It has been an educational process and I look forward to learning more about goats, but at a calmer pace rather than a steep learning curve.

Tale from an eternal optimist

Lil'Rosie is still with us. Last night we fed her some oil and forced her to walk around with us. We also gave her some baking soda and water, as well as just plain water. We kept massaging her tummy and forcing her to walk. The physical stimulation helped and she would revive for a little, but we would have to keep forcing her to walk. Around 10 last night she was walking around on her own and stumbling around... but on her own. Through the night we would check on her and go massage her. She was still walking around. This morning we massaged and walked with her.. I gave her a little water. She had passed stool throughout the night... which didn't seem like a blocked bowel, but I'm new so I don't really know. I called the vet and let him know that she was walking around blind and somewhat drunk, but that she was passing stool. He said she was probably just passing what was on the other side of the obstruction. He also said the since we gave her oil she would probably get some in her lungs and die of pneumonia if she lived through this. He said the blindness sounded like thiamine deficiency and that if I really wanted to that he could prescribe some to me to see what happened. I said I would like that and at lunch I picked it up and brought it home. I gave her the first doze of 3ccs of thiamine, massaged her, walked her, gave her a little water, and then went back to work. She was already responding to my calls and was looking like if she was waking up a little more... I just got home to a goat that wants to go back with her brother, who is running around, and who is chewing cud. She's able to pass water and solids fine... although she is still a little bit disoriented she's doing a lot better. She's laying right next to me while I type this out in the front yard. The vet said she should improve by tomorrow afternoon. I can only hope that she won't catch pneumonia, and that she gets all better... I like Lil'Rosie... she's one tough little goat.

Thank you, Lil' Rosie

Today was a very stressful day. I went to go feed the animals only to find Rosie non-responsive and twitching. I left for work and called all the vets and researched what could be wrong with her. I was able to get a vet appointment and came home to pick her up. I was going to unload the van but when I got home she was screaming in pain and I just ran back, picked her up, and loaded her into the van. I drove like a mad woman to the vet only to have him be an hour late... The sad news is that she has a twist in her gut and will most likely not last through the night. The vet said that she was going toxic and that neither we nor the piggies should probably eat her. =( So we're seeing if she'll last through the night. We've tried a bunch of different remedies... but we're not sure how much that can help. We've been outside with her most of the day and we cannot determine how much better or worse she is getting. We can only hope she makes it... but we're also afraid to hope. Thank you for keeping up with your part of your contract Lil'Rosie. We love you and we'll miss you very much if you go. =(

Putting in the sidewalk

Adding the walkway around the house is one of the most actually important improvements we have to do on the house. The foundation is a bit... crappy and so we have to make sure that all the water actually moves away from the house rather than just pool around it. We started this project last year, but as neither of us know how to work concrete and since my hours had been cut down to the point that I couldn't afford to buy concrete... it was put on hold. But this weekend my brother, Steve, drove down from Modesto to help with the beginning of this project. Today we were able to complete the most necessary part of this project. It was also a blast because it was Steven's birthday and Juan, Dante, Lucy, and Marc were able to visit him. Steven drove down with Kristina, My mom, Francisco, Maggie, and Ceaser. I also completed a ton of digging around the house before they arrived, which was actually welcome since it made me feel as if I was out fighting in one of our SCA wars. I was soaked with sweat, stabbing with the hoe or shoveling dirt. I only had one bad point today when I forgot to eat and got a little light headed, but the rest of the weekend went smoothly. We'll see about attempting to either finish part of the back by ourselves, or what will most likely happen will be that we'll just wait for Steven to come back so that he can direct us again. I loves you Steven!

Ironically, as soon as Steven drove off, a few sprinkles fell from the clouds... I think the weather gods wanted to let me know I should get a move on. =)

Earth Works

During the rainy season last year we had a moderate flooding problem as the seasonal creek jumped its banks and swamped part of the yard. Granted the the rains of last winter where pretty epic at times, but I don't want to have that much of the back yard under water again. So as a solution I decided to rent an excavator (mini backhoe) and dig out the creek and enlarge the duck pond. Sam, Sam's Dad and myself worked from sun up to sun down to get done in one day. In the end we moved many tons of earth (no exaggeration) and got the creek cleared to about 3 feet wide X 2 feet deep. The new duck pond was a little bit of a learning process, the perspective from the cab of the excavator does not give you a good idea of the depth you are digging to. So the old duck pond was maybe 10 feet X 4 feet and 3 feet at the deepest. I was digging a much larger pond but nothing outrageous, or so I thought. I realized my mistake when I thought I had dug out a thigh to waist deep pond about 15 feet X 10 feet, to show me the size Rosie jumped into the pond I had dug and the depth was about to her shoulders around 5 feet deep. So the new EPIC POND is in the area of 25 feet X 15 feet X 5 feet deep. I hope the ducks and geese like it........

Pop goes the mead cork

Happy Autumn..... it was 113 here today. It's 8:30pm and it's just starting to cool down, we're finally down to the high 80's. As it's been hot... I just had a bottle pop its top. I heard the pop and put on shoes to go check out the noise. Luckily, it only popped the cork and didn't harm the bottle. I dutifully drank some of the ginger mead and then corked it with a note stating that it's for Rosie. I hope none of the rest pop. =( I'd like to share some of the bounty before I get completely hammered.

Heat Kills Brain Cells

At least that is what my cats are telling me. It was in the 100s again today and the cats let me know that they were not amused.

Ghost soap

Angelica has anti-bacterial properties so I decided to blend it with cinnamon for a lard soap. But apparently it was also used by native americans to sprinkle around the house prior to moving in so that the ghost would leave.

I love multi-purpose items. I thought I was just making some anti-bacterial soap but apparently I was also making soap that will ward off ghosts... I love it.

The images with clear plastic are some molds that Jed ended up getting for me as a present. =) We were able to used them at a soap making class in Santa Barbara and they worked out pretty well. The little ovals say 100% natural and the big square one is a bunch of little bars with the shape of the goddess on it. I think those might end up as presents for people. I couldn't find the little plain oval one that I wanted so I just left the rest in a big block. Hopefully this will last us another year. I was going to see about going to Food4Less for more pig and cow fat to make more batches of soap. I was going to see about starting to make our own laundry soap, not that we use much, but it would be nice to be able to control what goes into it. That and I'm sure the pigs would love all that extra cow fat as a snack.

Kim-chi

Kim-chi is a vital part of our food source at casa de deranged. We.... usually when I say we I really mean the royal we since I end up doing most of the food prep... back to the post... We ended up making up a batch earlier this summer, but found that we did not make enough with two big pickle jars full of kim-chi. We ended up finishing a jar in a week and that was just too depressing. So we've started up another two batches of kim-chi so that Sam can take some home with him and so that we can have more kim-chi for the winter. The process starts off simple as you just have to rinse out the cabbage and then apply salt to every leaf, add heated water with salt, and then finish it off with some more salt. This takes out the moisture from the leaves. We prepped eight cabbages for regular batch (red) kim-chi and I'll see about starting the second batch today as the cabbage did a fabulous job of releasing its moisture so far.

Jammin!

As the berry season is ending we thought we'd try out some more jams. Jed has also seemed to go through all the blackberry, raspberry, and strawberry jams we had around the house so we thought we'd try out making jam with honey so that I could eat it as well. We ended up making a sample batch of honey strawberry jam and it turned out delicious! It has a slightly sweet tart flavor to it and its consistency is that of preserves more than of a hard jam or jelly. Since that was a big success and because I was able to go through two jars and two loaves of bread in two days I thought I'd make some more. Lisa also invited me over to her place and we ended up making grape and strawberry jelly. So far so good! And today I was able to make a batch of raspberry jam and another of strawberry jam. I still have another 3 batches on the way so that we might have enough jam to last us a year if not a bit longer than the first batch. I'll see if I can find any more blackberries in season or figs, and I just heard that blueberry jam was really, really tasty as well. We'll see what we'll mix up next.

Recipe for "sweet harvest jam" from honey.com

4 cups of fruit
2 cups of honey
1 packet of low sugar/or home made pectin
juice from 1 or 2 lemons

Smash fruit to consistency that you like. Add pectin and fruit to a pot that you can boil your jam in. Turn on heat and wait until it's a full rolling boil. After a minute of boiling then add honey and lemon juice. Bring back to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Then pour into prepared canning jars, put into hot bath and soft boil for 10 minutes. Take out of hot bath and let cool on window sill or appropriate surface. Ta-dah!

Bread Oven - Another project done

The bread oven is finally finished and we're able to use it!! I was thinking about setting up fire up days so that we can have a set day to fire up the bread oven and have a full afternoon of baking and hanging out. As we learned in our first attempt of baking bread in the oven.... it cooks quickly. We put in three loaves of rye in for about 15 minutes and they were already burnt by the time we pulled them out. So we'll have to only leave them in there for about 10 minutes or just start checking at 5 minutes. We could probably start off with pizzas to try it out and then bake and bbq the afternoon away. I'll post the days if anyone is interested in joining us so that you can take bread home. Even after the bread and the corn were done it was hot for hours and we could have baked many more breads in there. We'll have to also try out some naan and other breads to see how they do. =)

Happy Equinox!

The full moon came up over the trees as Jed and I were feeding the animals. It was gorgeous and the day seemed just about perfect. The temperature is still in the 80's and it's supposed to be in the 90's if not 100's this weekend. =) This means that all of my sun loving plants should get a longer chance of life and we might end up with more food. I was able to walk around and take some images of our baby plants and some of the not so baby plants. Enjoy!

Scythe

As many of you know, Rosie and I have a passion for history and as such we often look for the more traditional approach to our homestead. One of the things we do (with few exceptions) is keep our power tools to a bare minimum. We find that hand tools are effective, affordable, practical and most importantly fun to use. So when Rosie was clearing the grass and weeds from between the raised bed gardens I thought I would shoot a little video to show just how effective a scythe can be. Having use a electric and gas powered weedeater in the past I can tell you that the scythe is quieter, lighter, cleaner, more precise, safer and easier to maintain and fuel. Of course the scythe Rosie is using in the video is not your hardware store special, it was ordered from a specialty scythe dealer who makes their scythes in the European fashion. I can strongly recommend Scythesupply.com for your scything needs, they sell custom made scythes of the highest quality. The scythe in the video was purchased as part of a "Scythe Outfit" which included a scythe, peining jig, whet stone and carrier. Really, if you need to cut grass or weeds seriously think about switching from a mower or weedeater to a high quality scythe. Oh and sorry in advance for the video being sideways, our cheap-o camera has a narrow view and turning it sideways offered the best angle.

A new pig

So I was at work the other night and there was a knock on the door, Rosie had come to visit me. Since it is a little bit of a trip down to my station from home I was kinda surprised, but pleased, she had made the trip. Turns out Rosie math strikes again, my lovely wife was down in the south county to buy a new little pig. Yup our TWO pigs have become THREE pigs. Really I don't mind, we are looking to slaughter one of our grown pigs in the near future and we did not want the remaining pig to be lonely, so we had talked about getting another pig to keep'em company. She (our new oinker) is a little skiddish but is starting to eat out of our hands and is getting more and more friendly. I was a little concerned about how our other two pigs would deal with a new arrival, especially one so small. So I end up sending a majority of my day off building a new pig pen, attached to but separated from the other pig pen. Well it seems my worry was needless, the moment the new and old pigs saw each other they started talking up a storm (the oinks where flying back and forth) and the only problem seems to be that the big pigs don't understand why they can not get closer to the new pig. So as of now they sleep leaning on their respective sides of the pig fence so that they can touch as much as possible while they sleep. As soon as the new pig gets a little bigger (to avoid any accidental damage from a big pig rolling on her in its sleep) we plan on removing the dividing section of fence and allowing the piggies to mix.

Turkey on the roof

I was working in the garden the other morning and I could hear the turkeys calling. I could tell they were close by but I couldn't figure out where they were. I then looked up and found that the turkeys really enjoyed jumping on the roof to come visit me.

Finished house projects

As I posted before, the living room is finished and now the master bathroom is finally finished!! Yaaay! Here are some images. I've also added some other random images. =) Not all of are the bathroom.

Attack Turkeys

I am sitting in the living room having my morning coffee. As I look out the window I see a gray feral cat staling threw the tall grass, no doubt in high hopes of pouncing on one of our small animals. Before I can get up and walk out doors I also notice 3 turkeys, heads low with extended necks creeping up on the cats flank. The turkeys walk, wait no, stalk threw the grass quietly. There is a predator in their teritory and they are going to "deal with it". Then a jump, a flurry of feathers and the sounds of a very unhappy cat. A gray feral cat leaps back over the fence, eyes the size of its head and the thought no doubt running threw its mind "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!!" Now the turkeys walk the perimeter fence, back and forth like good sentries eyes alert for more hostiles.

Ever watched the raptors in the movie Jurassic park? I think they where based on turkeys hunting feral cats.

Projects

I really need to be able to finish a project before I start new ones... I also need to realize that this is our house and thus we will be able to work on it for many years to come. I do not need to finish all the house projects in one go. =)

That being said, I'm currently working on the bathrooms. I finished the base for the bathtub, ripped out the vanity and am about to put in a wall sink. I got to take out the vanity today and I'm waiting for the plaster to finish drying so that I can paint the wall. Then I'll go ahead and mount the new sink, put in the new faucet and we should be on our way to being done with the master bathroom. I'll have to make sure to paint the floor, mount the mirror back up and see if there is anything I need to change before I put the side boards on the floor and call it done.

Done is beautiful. I look forward to being done with at least one bathroom so that I can think about starting on the other. The guest bathroom will have a new vanity with the Native Trails sink (classic in antique) with a Brizo faucet. We'll then be able to put in the cast iron bathtub and put up the tile on the bathroom wall. We'll have to take out the insert we have in there right now, but there won't be any tears shed for changing that out. I didn't get to take pics of the destruction of the master bathroom, but I'll see about posting some images of what it looks like right now and after I finish. =) Yaaay,

Cycles - noticing trends

It's September... and it's 102 outside right now. Last year we noticed that it was in the 110's at the end of Sept and I was guessing that it would be the same this year. What does this mean? It means that all the gardening books I could ever read are all off since my seasons are nothing like what they describe in the books. If I was to keep it to say.... summer and have that be from the end of August through the end of Oct then we can work on that. I think I have to shift all the seasons so that I can be sure that I'm planting things at the right time. We have our freezes early in the year all the way through May so I would not be able to plant any of my heat loving plants until way after that. As soon as Aaron and I set up the greenhouse I think I'll start some of those crops in there until the soil heats up enough for me to be able to put them out. Or I can just see what plants do best in our environment and only keep exotics in the green house. We'll see.

Nonversation of the day

Squeee!!! I found some clover growing in the front yard. Yaaaaaay!!! We'll see if any of it will grow in the back.

Cat and Mouse

This whole time I thought Calvin was trying to teach Trouble how to hunt and kill mice... now I think he does it just to get her out of his hair. She is a kitten and as such will be very energetic and rambunctious... he is older and cranky at this point.

And on that note, we can always tell when Calvin caught the mouse for her as it is unharmed and she gets to play with it. She brought one in the other day that she caught all by herself and it was in half and the organs were falling out. Jed and I just sat, watched, and laughed the whole time. We were commenting on how we might want to get her out of the habit of eating the mice inside since we find it funny, but not everyone might find it very hygienic. I love our sense of humor.

Living room images =)

Guacamole recipe

This is for mexican guacamole, which means it will be nothing like the stuff you get from the store.

You'll need:

ripe avocado
ripe tomatoes
onions
chile peppers
garlic
cilantro
lime juice (real, just squeezed)
salt

Directions: Peal avocado and place the meat of the avocado into a bowl. Start smashing with a fork. Next chop the tomato, onions, chile peppers, garlic, and cilantro. You want some but not as much as the avocado. Lastly, add some lime juice and salt to taste. Then use your chips to enjoy your home made guacamole. =)

Things I wish I would have known - gardening - pinching

Pinching is a wonderful thing. A lot of gardening books will post on this, but they mostly talk about stalk shoots and side shoots and how to pinch them off so that you can get bigger growth, but the part that I think helps out the most is pinching off the shoots that are about to seed. Even if you have a "slow bolt" type of plant, pinch off the stalks that show that are about to bolt so that the plant can continue to produce. This works for herbs (basil, mints, etc) as well as things like spinach so that you can get more leafy greens. This will cause your plant to produce more greens in an attempt to grow more seeds. If you let it go to seed too quickly then it will focus all the nutrients on the seed making process and none on your leafy greens. Try it next time and see if it will provide more greens and then just let it bolt(go to seed) when you are ready.

Things I wish I would have known: Gardening - mounding up

Have you ever heard the term mounding up? Well, this applies to many of your allums and others, meaning your onions, shallots, garlics, leeks, celery, potatoes, carrots, and others. What mounding up does is it ends up building up your bottom shoots or your root head. When your shoots start thickening (such as onions) simply mound up a little bit more soil around it to build it up and to fool your veggie into thinking that it has to grow some more to reach the air. The root will expand and grow giving you a bigger head when you harvest. If you plant down far enough (seedlings) you should be fine, but if you are planting seeds then you will want to mound up to give you bigger veggies. The same applies to your celeries so that the shoots can be blanched and that you get bigger stalks. This falls into the "Something that could have been brought to my attention yesterday" category since reading all the gardening books it doesn't really tell you this. I figured it out after much trial and error, but I thought others might want to know.

NOM NOM Honey

I was just directed to Honey.com and found a ton of really nummy honey recipes. These include jams, peaches packed in honey, and a lemon honey jelly... they all sound fabulous!! I can't wait to try some of these at home. NomNomNom

Honey Packed Peaches
http://www.honey.com/nhb/recipes/recipe-details?RecipeID=131

Strawberry Jam
http://www.honey.com/nhb/recipes/recipe-details?RecipeID=1231

Honey-Lemon Jelly
http://www.honey.com/nhb/recipes/recipe-details?RecipeID=130

Lettuce/beets/radishes/turnips/squash

All sprouted or are in the process of sprouting. It's been hotter than the dickens (according to Jed) with the temps in the 105's area and the plants have been taking a beating. I'll see about watering some more tonight so that they can keep growing. The lettuce looks about ready to pick as well as the onions, tomatillos, and some more cilantro. I'll see if I can make some green enchiladas from the garden... that would be yummy.

Livingroom and Moon

I'll see if I can post some images of the end product of the livingroom when I get home. Although the light isn't really the best in the evenings. Talking about evenings, did anyone else notice the gorgeous moon out there last night? Looked like dawn all night because the moon was so bright. The stars weren't really visible because the moon was blocking them out.

1 year Post

One year ago we moved into our home. Before we moved in we took out all the carpets, washed everything (many times), stained the floors, painted walls, and cleaned some more. We took out one of the cabinets and the dishwasher. Thanks to many friends who stopped by to help us we were able to finish a lot before we even moved in. We continued working on items and then had a house warming party in Sept because frankly, if we waited to have the house warming party until we were finished we would never have it. We continued the work inside with painting and outside with gardening. We constructed coops tore down makeshift pens and continued to see what worked best to contain the animals. We acquired pigs. Lost pigs. Shot a pig. Cursed at a pig. Enjoyed the company of our chickens. Cursed coyotes and predators for the death of our animals and continued to try to maintain a garden. On New Year's Brighid told us of this really nifty tradition in which you get at least 12 different types of fruit and have your house all clean for the new year. The fruit represent the bounty of the next year. The cleanliness means the organization for the next year and then you spend that day doing what you would like your next year to be like. We cleaned the house, had fruit for breakfast, and spent the whole day working on projects such as constructing a better bridge to get to the other side of the back yard. In short, we hoped that this year would be productive and fruitful. We've continued to work on projects at a crazy speed, but other projects get put on hold until we're able to get to them. The wood burning stove went in and the cheapo fireplace went out. The bread oven is started, but I still need to finish putting additional layers. (At the moment, the cats use it as a shady spot to hide in so that they can scare the chickens.) The master bathroom is almost done and we're getting ready to start work on the hallway bathroom. I spent this last weekend working on the painting in the livingroom so that I can mark that off my list. The livingroom has already gone through a redecoration and it's starting to look like what I would like it to look like.

So I guess we can say that the first year in our home has been very busy and productive. We look forward to many more and to the addition of more self-sufficient measures such as solar and wind power. My goal is to get us off the grid completely, but that is a long term project. The front garden is blooming and I just found a local supply(as in around the corner) for horse manure that I can get every day of the year. =) Which means that I'll be working on the back garden soon. As the job market is lagging and my interviews seem to flop, I'll continue working on the house and see what comes of it. To our house and our family: a toast. May we meet again for many years to celebrate the work that we've put in to construct a haven and a home we feel happy and safe in.

Death of a duck

When I picked up the Pekins I could tell that one was a lot small than the other. That was supposed to be because he was standard and she was a jumbo. As they grew I was not so sure, but it was clear that the little male had hip/feet issues. He would sometimes fall on his back and be unable to turn over. As we moved them outside this happened less frequently and we were hoping that the exercise and the sun would help him. Weak legs are usually caused by a low temp in an incubator (causing the last things to develop aka the legs to not fully develop and thus causing weak legs) so I'm assuming that is what must have happened.

When we moved them outside the geese saw both the baby pekins as their children (though at first they tried to shoo them away), adopted ugly(to a goose) children, but their children non the less. They would devote their time to the pekins and bring them food, teach them how to search for food, swim, and clean themselves. In short, the geese were very attached to their pekins.

Today I came home to find that the male pekin was dead, on his back near the pond. My only guess is that he got flipped over and was unable to turn back around and died of dehydration/exposure to high temps. I knew something was wrong because all the geese were surrounding the pekin and had their heads hung low. They didn't make a sound or come over to greet. They just mourned. I approached and they came over slowly and quietly. They led me to the pekin and surrounded him and tried to cover him with their outstretched wings. I'm not usually a sentimental person but to see the geese mourn for their adopted child made me sad. When they were done they stepped back and I walked in and picked him up. I could not bring him in since I did not know how long he had been dead and I wanted to make sure he did not die in vain. I placed him under the dead sycamore so that his body can feed the next tree that we plant there. The geese walked with me as I placed his body in the hole. I put the tree back over him and could only tell the geese I was sorry for their loss.

Jed loves me =) I am Kronos

Sooo, Jed always has a really hard time picking out presents for me because he says I'm difficult to shop for. For example he thought I was just joking when I first asked for a composter. This year, I hinted that I would really, really like a grass scythe and he surprised me and got me a kick ass scythe set. It came with everything and it was actually built to my height and specifications. The one thing he didn't know about is that the scythe blade is gold colored. The first time I opened it my first thought was: Kronos? Do I get to control time now? Although this is not the case, the idea is pretty cool. =)

I'll have to post how it works after I have enough grasses and items to cut down... once things start growing again since the goats/sheep have done a pretty good job of clearing everything else.

Mead update

While Guy and Sharon were over we were able to bottle up the Sage honey mead and the Ginger/Sage honey mead. I know that Guy and Sharon didn't really like the slightly lingering aftertastes... but man am I in love!!! It tastes just like a cool, bubbly, coconut juice. It tastes fabulous and helps whenever we're slaughtering any of the animals.

And a short story:
Guy and I bottled the sage mead and in order to do that we ended up clearing up (aka: drinking) the contents of some of the half containers. One was nice and bubbly and fun and the other one was a definite date rape (Thanks J for giving it that name) drink. We ended up leaving the date rape drink because it was a little too intense and we could only sip w/o getting almost instantly drunk. It is very, very sweet, but also very, very alcoholic.

We still have one carboy full of really sweet mead (date rape) that I think I'm going to cut with apple juice to cut some of the sweetness and the alcohol level. =) We'll see how soon we can bottle it.

Borage - anyone want some?

I planted some organic borage in the front and luckily all of them sprouted, but on the down side, they all sprouted. I have an excess of borage. Would anyone like a seedling or two? You can eat the young leaves (not the full grown as they are a little spiky and sticky), the flowers attract beneficials, and helps with skin rashes and inflamation.

PS. Image from http://adamofeden.ca/Glossary.aspx

Books

I wanted to make some recommendations on books for the incipient modern homesteader. Rosie and I have learned a lot from our books, and a lot more from the hands on we were inspired to do from our books.

Anything by John Seymour, the man was a visionary. He wrote quite a few books on how to be self-sufficient on a small plot of land, in many cases a small urban back yard. He takes a no nonsense approach to the modern homestead, there is very little philosophy in his books but a damn lot of good advice and guidelines for any one who desires to be more than a "consumer" of our world. I can not recommend his books enough. No really, stop what you are doing right now and go get one of his books.

Farm City by Novella Carpenter. A young woman who decides to start a farm in downtown Oakland. Not a lot of advice for a homesteader but more along the lines of a kindred spirit who goes threw nearly the same experiences Rosie and I have in many ways. If you want to see what is possible in a small space this is a fun read.

The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan. She concentrates on doing more with less, if you have a yard you can have a small farm. For our readers in town and city this is a great book, she can suggest how to get more from a small raised bed garden or a window box.

Storey's Guide to Raising "fill in the blank". I can only half recommend this series. While there is some very good information about building feeders, noting illness, treating mild sickness, picking breeds, and feeding much of the books spend a lot of time on the idea of "profit" and how to make more money off your livestock. While there is nothing wrong with this idea, Rosie and I are not trying to make money on our animals, we are trying to raise them for our own use. So the information is good but the aim is off in our opinion.

I am sure there are more good books out there, but these are the ones I have been reaching for on a almost daily basis. Good luck, good travels and don't let the pigs bite you.

Freeeeedom!!!

Our ducks have watched Finding Nemo too many times... they are taking advise from Dory and are pushing on the door in the morning to knock it over. I discovered this yesterday morning when I couldn't sleep. I heard them all quacking quietly and hearing a commotion from the duck coop. I went out to make sure it wasn't a coyote and watched them all push at the door until they knocked it over. One duck got too excited and quacked loudly, only to be sushed by the other ducks. They all then quacked quietly as they ran over to the pond for a very early morning swim....

That flighty mistress, Fate.

Fate is a fickle mistress and in our home personality counts for a lot. We had been talking about if we wanted to breed from one of our animals, she is reasonably healthy and a decent breed. Then she made a very large mistake.

She snapped at Rosie while Rosie was petting her.

Rosie was not hurt in any way nor was she even startled but in that split second that member of our farmyard lost her chance of passing on her genes and moved from the yard to the menu. Right now we are full up with meat in our freezer from Big Goat, so there is a stay of execution but it is only a matter of time. That one act sealed her fate.

There is no room in our home for a hostile animal, I will not have the threat of injury hanging over the heads of my guests or my family. We had a rooster who was hostile to people...... He was delicious.

Big goat is delicious

Did you guys ever watch the movie Up? Do you remember the joke the dog makes? (It's funny because the squirrel was dead) Yeah, that's what this reminds me of. =) Not that I'm mean or any... ok yeah, yes I am... she had it coming, but for breeding reasons more than anything else: She had a double nipple, which we do not want to pass on to any possible future offspring. She was under developed due to many internal parasites that had lived in her for way too long. So we did the best we could. We took away the parasites, fed her as much as she wanted, and then we're finishing the loop by eating her.

It was a clean kill and she went quickly. We then hung her up, skinned, disemboweled, halved, and put her in the freezer. Thank you, Big Goat, you completed the contract.

And of course we had to enjoy home brew while we slaughtered.... we could not have it any other way.

Friends

This last week we had friends stay over and got to many different projects. I feel a bit bad that I made them work so hard... but on the other hand we did get to finish and work on many different cool things. Thank you Guy and Sharon!!!

Things we got to work on: bread oven.... which is a lot more work than thought out... even for 3 people.
Finished or mostly there: pick up and split firewood, pick up posts for garden edging, slaughtered big goat, weeded the front garden multiple times.

=) Thank you both for all the hard work and letting us hang out with you just that little bit more. You guys are amazing! We look forward to seeing you at SCA events and hopefully (I'm being selfish here) we'll find you jobs down here.

Front garden

I have 7 raised beds, 1 citrus strip, 1 plot, and all the edges next to the gate. At last count we have:

plot:
Corn, onions, squash, bean, and pumpkins

edge:
5 grapes, 2 blueberries, 4 black sage, 3 rosemary, sage (salvia officinalis), english thyme, marjoram, 2 lemon balm, rue, german chamomile, yerba buena (spearmint?) echinacea, strawberries, ollallieberry, and lavander

citrus strip:
tomatoe - Beefsteak, peppermint, nasturtium, aloe, misc. baby plants ... to be determined when they get some more leaves

Trees:
1 almond, 1 apple, 1 lemon (meyer), 1 lemon (kafir), 1 orange(Valencia)

1 raised bed:
chives, lemon balm, borage, fennel, cardamon, 5-6 watermelons, 6 cucumbers, caper bush

2 raised bed:
lettuce, asparagus, artichoke, Chaste tree

3 raised bed:
bush beans, climbing beans, eggplant, pickling cucumber (a lot of each), asparagus, artichoke

4 raised bed: (Salsa)
tomato - Mr. Stripey, tomato - Roma non-hybrid, cilantro, tomatillos, sweet peas, 3 watermelons, 2 chiles, 1 pepino melon

5 raised bed:
celery, spinach, potatoes, sun flowers, pepino melon bush

6 raised bed:
potatoes and sun flowers

7 raised bed:
P(flowering beneficial), stevia, bay laurel, radishes, beets, turnips, okra, squash