Morning of the fox

We have been having some light predator problems again. Most mornings we have a fox that comes onto our property and scares the birds and tries to make off with a bird or two. We have lost a few ducks and Zuzu is just getting too old to keep a spry fox out of the birds.

So I decided I need to take care of this problem.

I got up before dawn, made a small pot of coffee and out one of the guns. It has been warm lately so I just threw on a sweater and headed outside to wait for twilight. The first thing you notice when you are sitting in the predawn morning is the cold. Awaiting my prey I would not tremble, nor talk or whistle, not move in the slightest. And as I sat there in the darkness the cold started to creep in. My legs and hands felt the cold first, then my feet and head, the cool morning with the lack of movement made the cold almost painful.  In the  initial darkness there was not enough light to see any good target but every motion caught my eye and as the sun reached toward the horizon I could make out more and more of the homestead. Sitting there in the painful cold not moving I started to notice things that I normally overlook. The human world is made-up of straight lines, harsh angles and light. The world of the plants and animals moves in winding paths  threw the  darkness, even the vocalization of the animals holds at it center a silence in the darkness. This is not our world, not in the twilight, eyes older than our own stalk that in-between world; neither light nor darkness but a world in transition. Our ancestors wisely kept to the caves and  the  fires until the sun came back to the world and it was safe to venture out, only our tools make us safe in that world between the the light and the darkness. Hours creep buy in the passing of seconds, I don't know how long I have been out here in the frigid blackness all I know it that time is passing. And I wait.
So there I was in the dark and the cold, my rifle cradled in my arms, waiting for my prey to poke his head up. I was protecting my families food, loosing sleep and choosing discomfort over warmth and sleep for them. As the  sun nearly crested the  hills we had approached the time of the fox. That time in the morning when he would come to kill my animals and leave nothing in return, he comes to take food from my family. With any luck this will be the final time he tries.

But the sun climbs higher in the sky and now it starts to crest the hills. The time of the fox has passed and he chose not to appear. Did he sense that this dawn someone was waiting for him? Can a predator tell at some level we have forgotten about, when he becomes the prey? Did I give away my position in some small way? Or was it none of those and this morning the fox simply wanted to hunt another ground? I don't know, but this morning no shot rang out and no bodies cooled in the morning light. There will be other mornings, and this new game between the fox and I is not over.

 Life on the homestead is interlaced with death, sometimes the death of plants, sometimes the death of our livestock and on some morning soon the death of a predator. 

More early mornings and warm coats, perhaps this next time with a hat.

What the heck, Universe!?

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately. We find that we do not have enough time to post during the summer as things get so busy.

To summarize: Everything is growing like mad. I have volunteers all over the place. Sheep are in the pasture. We've sectioned off a garden, house, and pasture area for the back yard. The garden area currently has potatoes growing. They are growing well and I have to mound them up again as they are about 2 feet tall now.  The front yard is producing like mad. We have a constant supply of cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini, basil, and beans. Our apple season is finished as Ivan ate through the whole tree as soon as possible. We have awesome peaches coming in right now and we're really happy with that tree. I was given bees but I still have to go pick them up. We'll have to trim all our fruit trees a bit this summer to alter their growth pattern. We've had hot spells that killed most of the baby olives. We added a puppy to our home; A 70lb puppy. A puppy that is just like a spastic puppy, but just very heavy and trying to teach that puppy all the normal lessons make for interesting times. That puppy attracted an abandoned pit bull puppy that we had to find a home for. Our cat, McGee, passed away this last weekend. All in all, it's been a pretty tough year. It has kind of sucked, to say the least.

And now to today's post:

These last two weeks have been very trying, at least for me. Life has a tendency to throw things in the way just to see how we'll react. Anush has gone back to her owner. Zuzu will be back with her in about a month as well. She will be looking for a dog that is a better fit for us. All of our chickens are dead; I came home to find all of them scattered about the yard. Anush killed them all just for fun. We are now down all chickens, 1 rooster, 3 ducks, 1 drake, and 1 turkey. That was four years of breeding for characteristics we liked and just like that they are gone. I was too emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausted to do much of anything after Anush was picked up so Ivan and I just went to bed. He was the one that let me know it was all right to sleep early. I woke up at 2:30am just thinking about what good can come out of this. What is my lesson learned? If nothing else, it got me out of bed and cleaning find that helps me clear my head. As it is garbage night and I never got a chance last night I started moving out all the recycling and the garbage. I was able to put out the recycling that I've been meaning to for weeks as well as throwing out some additional garbage from the backyard. If I'm lucky I'll be able to keep up this purging from the backyard from now until the back is completely clean. I was able to sort things so that our area for sidewalks are now pretty much ready. If nothing else, I can now build my chicken coop that I want so that they are fully protected without the threat of predators attacking them. I also need to build the duck/goose enclosure as the current old coop is not adequate. I guess the plus side is that we get to go through an pick out chicken breeds we want as well as turkey and duck. While thinking about all this, I dug a big grave for our chickens. I placed them all in the pit and with their bodies we'll be able to give back to the soil. Good bye, Awesome chickens.

I'm not sure if it's a weakness or a blessing, but I can't help but always feel optimistic about things. The garden area will have more time to grow and be adjusted so that when we do the things we've been talking about. Our baby greens will have more time to grow. We'll have kick ass coops. (I should totally make coops and market them as such.) We might be able to train the baby chicks better so that they are awesome. The backyard is a little more clean. We have tons of projects to work on. Our garden and orchard can turn out great. Or nothing might turn out. Who knows... it might just be the lack of sleep and the fact that I have to go turn off the alarm clock so that it won't wake up Ivan. Another day at work. If I was independently wealthy I would totally just be a farmer... I can dream, right?

Sorry about the rambling post....

Some hard truths

I wanted to share some hard truths about life here on the homestead, things that Rosie and I have come to accept that we don't talk much about. In order to keep it on the lighter side I will be quoting from one of Rosie's new favorite movies. Bonus points if you can name the film.

So the time for kitten whispers and tickle fights is over! Here are some of the uncomfortable truths about life on the homestead

1) Your house will never be clean. I know most of you are thinking "But...." well Shut your pie holes! There is a fixed number of hours in the day and Brown cow does not care if the kitchen looks like a bomb went off in it, she has to be fed. So if you come over and I am still trying to clean up and the place looks like a dump, just imagine how bad is was before we knew you where on your way.

2) You will loose all your free time. In order to make sure you will have food next season you have to plant NOW! You may want to go see the new movie at the theater but there just is no time. Your friends may think you hate them or that you have died because you never see them any more (Thinking of Fia a Becca) but the simple truth is that you have to spend 16+ hours a day working to make the homestead operate. As much as we want to be selfish and take a day off, stuff has to get done and done now. A selfish man is like a mangy dog chasing a cautionary tale.

3) Money..... Kiss it good bye. Everything costs more on the homestead. We spend a lot more money than most people in  order to be able to eat and keep our animals. Since we started this whole adventure feed prices have almost quadrupled and we are spending every last cent to keep our farm fed. OK no fun quote here, this part is just hard.

4) Remember bath time? We don't. Just the other day Ivan was saying "Your breath is so bad it made my ears go numb!" OK not really but you get the point I hope. By the time you have finished with your 16 hours of farm and house chores taking a shower is going to seriously cut into your sleep time and given that you have started to talk to your hallucinations the last three days you may  need a little more sack time than shower time. If you want to live the homestead life you better be willing to be a little stinky. 

5) Your life will be more gross than you could ever have imagined. You will find yourself carrying things that smell so bad you gag. Let me just say MAGGOTS and leave it at that. Oh..... the maggots...... When you open/flip over a bucket and  scream out "GREAT MOTHER OF MONKEY MILK!"  on a daily basis you will know you are living the 'good life'.

6) Loneliness. Some times Rosie and I only get to see each other a few hours a week and we see our friends even less often. If it seems like Rosie and I talk your ear off when we see you it is because we are starved for conversation with other people. Farm life is lonely, one of the reasons we try and keep this blog is to help keep us connected with people even when we can not see to meet up with them. Just one of the joys of being me. 

7) Your work is never done. We have only been plugged in a week and every day it's 'climb the tower and fight bugs'.  You will never be out of projects to do and every second of the day there are more projects joining the ranks of the 'yet to be done'. 

8) We don't know what we are doing, not really. We are teaching skills to people that we ourselves have not mastered but some one has to assist with the complicated sheep births and the hoof trimming, it will not do its self. And lets face it, it can be a little scarey some times. But fear is a four letter word people, if you want to go wee wee in your big boy slacks keep it to yourself! That pig needs to be put down, that animal scream in the night has to be investigated and that veterinary medical issue has to be address before it gets any worse. Half the time you are just making it up as you go along but if it works then you have something to pass on during the class next week. 

Don't get us wrong, we love the life we lead but it does have its down sides and it certainly is not for everyone. Hard truths, this is not the idealistic picture if farm life. It is long hard hours by your selves with few breaks to help you keep your sanity. But it is a good life, and I would not trade it for anything. 

Summer Garden

Sheesh, I thought I had posted on this before, but I guess I just forgot. The summer garden is in full swing. We started by tilling part of the of the drive area to the back as well as a small are next to the front apple tree. We planted over 22 types of tomatoes (30 tomato plants in total), an eggplant, some tomatillo, a squash, and a cucumber. The tomatoes are already producing some tomatoes but I have to make sure that I watch when Ivan gets near the spigot because he has a tendency to turn on the water full blast (my poor favas have dealt with this) and I need to make sure we don't have too much water on the tomatoes so that the flowers aren't damaged. We're also adding 8 okra and plant out some more Moon and Star watermelon. The corn will be planted soon along with our Amish pumpkins. The garlic is almost fully formed and we keep harvesting garlic scapes to eat. The weather has been too hot so our leafy greens have all turned bitter, we're still working on trying to figure out a way to keep producing leafy greens through the summer. I'll keep you guys posted as we keep adding more items to the garden.

Expanding the edible forest

We're pretty happy with how the front is looking in regards to using edible landscaping, but we also would like to expand this concept to the back. Earlier this year I planted currants, gooseberries, and some horseradish. Well, the horseradish is valiantly trying to survive as the new chickens (another story) have decided they really like digging up my plants in that area. So far the currants and gooseberries are growing well and we should get some fruit in a few years. We did have a semi-dwarf santa rosa plum I had not planted as I had not found adaquate fencing to keep the geese out, but after the obvious death of the blood orange I decided to take out that root ball and plant the semi-dwarf santa rosa plum in its place. On Sunday Ivan and I picked up some fabulous tomatoes and herbs from Wind Rose Farm (I would highly recommend getting plants from them.) and so we had herbs to add in amongst the fruit bushes and tree. I did graft some mandarin onto the root stock on the side so I'll have to keep watch to see if it does grow. I also have a bucket full of the remaining grapes and another dozen asparagus. I planted the grapes (6) in the back so that they can grow up the fence and the asparagus in the front to help deliniate the planted area vs. the pathway and I it also makes it easier to pick the asparagus when they are so close. We're keeping a close eye on the side area to make sure that it thrives. I'll post picture as soon as I can.

Sometimes all you have to do is ask

I take walks during my breaks at work and I admire all the trees and garden in the neighborhood surrounding my work. Some of these gardens are in little streets and some of the trees are in the cementary that's about a block away. One thing I noticed while walking is that there are lots and homes that have either tall grasses or fruit bearing trees without any work being done to them. I found myself working up my courage to go up the the homes to see if I could pick up the dropped fruit or to cut down the grass.  It's been strangely positive in that people will gladly allow me to pick up all the dropped fruit or will allow me to go into the lots and cut down grass whenever I can. Although I think I would still have to build up the courage to go to new people and ask, sometimes all that it takes is that little bit of effort to go up and ask. I think it helps out many of us; I get to feed my animals and use extra fruit and they get a clean area without too many rotting fruit. Next time you see an oportunity, I would highly recommend that you take that chance.

willkommen, приветствие, bienvenidos!

We've noticed that we've had a few visitors from Germany and Russia as well as South America. We just wanted to say welcome and sorry that Blogger is not very friendly with allowing comments to post. Feel free to email us if you have any questions or if there is anything in particular that you would like to see. We will be posting up a few more posts on slaughtering animals as well as preparing them for the freezer or for curing. Welcome and we hope you enjoy!

The Howling of the Wind

We will hit our four year mark on the 29th of June and I can honestly say that every year has brought different climate. We had flooding issues the first two years with somewhere in the 20 inch/year rate and then only 10 inches last year and a whopping 3 something inches this year since July. The only thing that seems to be somewhat permanent is that we usually always have wind. We've had 60 mph wind gusts this weekend which means I'll have to see how many more almonds and peaches we lost due to them being knocked off the trees. It's interesting to see the growth of some of the trees because you can tell just how windy a year was depending on the angle of their growth pattern. Some trees like the pistachios show drastic leans as they were planted three years ago when we also had gusts of winds that were reported in the 80 mph range.
Last night we could hear the whole house as the gusts would come in. We could also hear debris that was picked up and thrown about. We'll have to see what was displaced in our yard. Luckily, I spent Saturday picking up garbage brought in from our surrounding neighbors' yards (bags and other such things) so we will hopefully still have a pretty clean backyard. I luckily forgot to close the livingroom glass door all the way and it made a great pathway for the wind to flow from the screen windows in the front to the screened door in the livingroom. The house did not creak as much as it could, but it made a great environment for Ivan and I to snuggle in and just dream the night away. (If you get a chance ask me about Ivan learning to not drink water laying down and about how much cats puking in the night sucks.)
Of course with the wind being as constant as it usually is we were thinking about adding wind power after we install solar. If solar provides all the power we need we might forego it, but we'll still have it as an option for the future.

Beauty in change

I love walking out into the yard. The front yard is looking well with all the growing garlic, lettuce, spinach, brussel sprouts, favas, peas, as well as our perrenial strawberries, blueberries, boysenberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, asparagus, artichokes, and blackberries. The almond tree is done blooming and the last of the petals are falling down. The apple tree is starting to bud out with the red tips from the flowers are starting to open. The herbs are coming in with the mints taking over the pathway as well as the garage, the comfrey and others near the patio are looking happy.

I lived in Morro Bay for many years and noticed that I really missed the change in seasons. Seeing plants at every stage of their development, including dormancy seems to bring out its beauty. I find myself anticipating the seasons that much more. Spring and summer are wonderful with the food coming in, but it's also the quiet in the winter from the lack of birds, it's the wind blowing in the fall that lets you know that the temperature will change soon and things are ready to go to sleep. I find myself forgetting to take the camera outside with me to take you all on the trip so that you can see how things are progressing. I wish to show the obsurd growth on one of my white currants and the tiny flowers it's just pushing out because it just wants to give fruit. The spring growth gives me something to look forward to, but it also lets me know how the roots did during the winter. It lets me know if my pruning did the plants good during the dormancy or if I need to change it around next year. I'm not sure if it's the work that adds to the pleasure in the changes, but I do so enjoy our home.

Homesteading with a baby - assigned tasks

I don't think I can actually call Ivan a baby anymore, he's more of a toddler, with that comes all sorts of new troubles but also some perks. Ivan really enjoys feeding the animals, so we decided to have him be in charge of feeding the birds. We have 6 baby Ameraucana in the library and Ivan really enjoys going in there and feeding them. Since they are small and eat through all their food fairly quickly we go into the room about 4-6 times a day and Ivan scoops up handfulls of feed and places it in their feeder in their box. He will sit there watching them and feeding them for 5-15 minutes at a time so we have to keep him focused. He also enjoys feeding the birds outside. The only down side to Ivan feeding all the animals is that he takes his share of food as well. He's limited to a handful of pellets although the birds and/or Zuzu have a tendency to deplete his personal stash as soon as he is out of my realm of influence. He's also in charge of watering the trees, which he does with great gusto, as well as filling up the watering buckets for the animals. Most of the time he is able to move from tree to tree and waters them, but more often he ends up drinking from the hose, getting naked and playing with the water. Let's just say it is a work in progress. He does water the trees by letting the water acumulate at their base, him bathing and drinking is an added bonus he gets.

Difficulties that arrise from assigned tasts include his spilling/wasting food by deciding to put it in non animal related places. There are other times when he's just done and ends up just melting down which means that the task takes even longer to complete as he will not do it nor will he allow us to work on it. As a whole, he is more of a help than a hinderance and we'll see how that improves with time and effort.

Overall I'm thankful for my helpful little guy.

New buds and blooms

I have a few minutes either in the morning or in the evening to walk around and check the trees. I've noticed the French Prune, Barlett Pear, and Keifer Pear leafing out so far. The Panamint Nectarine and the Muir Peach are both showing signs of budding. The Eishemer apple is in bloom as is the Ranger peach and the Golden Apples. I'm watching the Imperial Prune, Santa Rosa Plum, and the new Golden Delicious Apples intently to see when they will start to show the beginning signs of budding. The buds on both the walnuts are fuzzing up and opening so I'm anticipating their bloom soon. The grapes are all leafing out and we're checking to see how this year's crop of boysenberry will do. The peas are starting to grow and curl around any grass stalks in the way and the favas are starting to kick into gear. Spinach is ready to start a long season of harvesting (hopefully) and all the brussel sprouts are gaining height. Most things are growing like mad and the almond in the front is showing promise. We'll see how this spring treats it to see if it will actually give us an abundant crop this year.

Propagating Grapes Part II

After leaving the grapes wrapped in newspaper within a garbage bag the buds started swelling and the roots started developing on the cuttings. I would periodically check on them to make sure they had enough water and to make sure they were doing all right. The roots have developed enough (maybe a bit too much) and now it is time to set them out in the ground. I took the cuttings out and placed them in water overnight as Ivan decided we were done gardening. If you propagate, feel free to plant out as soon as you see baby roots growing. Dig your area down deep and leave a few nodes above ground, but leaving as much area below ground as possible for them to have a good root system. After they are planted we're going to see about protecting them from the birds until they have grown a bit to not be bothered by them. I look forward to lining the south paremeter of our property with grapes as well as sending a few off with Holly to play with.

This same system can be used for olives, pomegranates, mulberries, berries, figs, willows, and currants. This year we've propagated figs, mulberries, currants, and grapes. We'll see what the future years bring.

Brown Cow and Baby Brown

As of yet we do not have a name for baby brown cow so we'll just give a brief description of the pregnancy and labor along with some images.

We managed to breed cow on the first time and we really feel that it helped with the whole process. We kept track of her cycles and our AI lady, Charmaine was able to come out and work her magic on May 21st. Cow took and had a smooth pregnancy. She continued to give us an insane amount of milk through out the year and we dried her off in December. We had the vet out twice, once to check to make sure she took and the second time to make sure the pregnancy was running smoothly as we've never had a bred cow on our farm. Cow kept getting bigger as the year progressed and was showing signs of near labor at the beginning of this week. We did have a couple of close calls when we thought she might be going into labor but it turned out to be false labors. At the beginning of the week cow starting showing signs of her tail lifting and her ligaments loosening. I would go in and brush her as well as scratch her. She seemed to be comforted by those small things.

I noticed cow laying down and lifting her tail and rocking back and forth. Jed noticed her back hunched with her starting to push so we both concluded that she was in active labor. The actual pushing part went by quickly with the feet coming out first and the baby shortly afterwards. Cow was soon up and cleaning up the baby. As a side note, cow has never been allowed to keep her baby as she was being used to breed miniature cows so the baby would come out and be taken away before she can make any contact with it. At first she seemed really attached, but I think she's gotten over the new mother thing. She seems to acknowledge the baby but does not follow it around. She does her thing and takes care of the baby but is not too clingy. I think it also helps that baby cow is very independent and runs around with the sheep. I think she thinks she's a sheep... that might be interesting in the future.

Second sheepy of the season

The second sheepy was born last Sunday. I was about to go out to feed the animals in the morning and I noticed that the second NC ewe was huddling with a small bundle. Yup, baby was born in the night. Nice that cow and the second lamb were born on warm sunny days rather than in the middle of the wettest, coldest night of the month. All babies are doing well and they are all having fun playing with each other.

Food/Edible Forest

I find it amazing when I'm finally able to put a term to an idea we've been working on. While reading the book Free Range Chicken Gardens by Jessi Bloom, she mentioned edible forests and it peaked my interest. As it turns out edible or food forests are practices in permaculture in which every aspect of the landscape is edible. Some studies are looking into the idea that most native american cultures had already perfected this technique and were using them to help feed future generations. As the European idea of farming did not incorporate permaculture at this extent they thought it was gathering rather than harvesting from a sustainable practice of agriculture. Upon more research I found that Australia has a huge movement in this technique with tons of videos on YouTube on how to create food forests. I also found that one of the oldest food forrest is located in Morrocco and is over 2,000 years old with over 80 different types of fruit and food being produced with the help of some 800 "farmers." As you can tell this idea has consumed my time since I found the reference.

Since we first started to populate our backyard we had always inteded to create a landscape in which everything was edible (edible landscaping) but this idea goes one step further; the plants themselves help feed the soil and each other so that the cycle is closed and can go on without human interaction. This idea is so exciting that I'm really looking forward to the time when our vegetative food production can help maintain itself. I know we'll have to add water to the mix, but if we can grow an area that can live off of the water that rains naturally then we can be set for a while. We are planning on having a set area that will be dedicated to annual crops as we do enjoy our tomatoes, lettuces, garlics, and many others so that we can still grow these while a food forest grows up around them. I'm trying to figure out a way so that we can have annuals self seed themselves in the forest. As the forest grows the the decay of the annuals helps feed the soil microbes, bacteria, and fungi which will help feed the plants. The whole cycle feeds itself and helps replenish the nutrients that are needed by the plants.

I can imagine the backyard with different layers of canopies producing fruits, nuts, and fuel for our winter fires. Bushes and smaller trees providing fruit to preserve and enjoy while we're outside. Smaller plants growing up around these working as companion planting such as white yarrow, comfrey, tansy, sage, rosemary, and others that will help the trees and bushes, as well as themselves being enjoyed as spices or teas. Other perenial veg such as artichokes and asparagus helping shade the ground cover during the harsh summers. The ground being covered in strawberries and other herbs that hug the ground and help protect it from erosion. Vines such as sweet potatoes or grapes growing up the trees or along the borders of the property. Tubers such as jeruselum artichokes, potatoes, or any of the other roots dotted around the landscape adding more nutrients to the soil. All these things feeding us, the animals, and each other. I wish our area was big enough to help change the weather partern but I know that one little acre can not change our area as a whole, but it can change the life of the plants that we care for.

If you ever want to geek out a bit do a little research on permaculture and food forests, who knows, you might want to start one too.

New calf on the homestead

So this Wednesday Brown Cow delivered her calf, a healthy female Jersey calf. Cow's labor was short and  with out incident. After the year of the sheep stillbirths Rosie and I get a little nervous around lambing/calfing time, that was such a horrid experience that we are kinda scared by it. But everything went smoothly and after no more than about an hour the calf was born. Within an hour of the calf being born she was standing up and walking around and nursing.

As this is a female calf we will most likely be selling her off in a few months when she is bigger and not so attached to her mom. A mixed blessing to be sure, on one hand we could use the money to pay off some of the farm's debts on the other hand we where really looking forward to home raised ribeye steaks. But maybe we will set a little of the cow money aside and go out to a ribeye steak dinner to celebrate the sale.

We have not decided on a name yet for her, any ideas?

Tree hoarder

I have come to terms with the fact that I love food and thus have a tendency to hoard trees. I will, when presented with a good deal on a tree or the oportunity to propate from a tree, find a way to acquire said tree and plant it in the back yard. With luck my hoarding will help build up our fruit production in the backyard to the point where we are incapable of keeping up with the production of all the fruit.

Also, as I'm starting to experiment with grafting... the idea of having trees available for me to play with is very, very entising. I will have to see what our backyard turns out to look like. It might just be a freakish jungle full of awesome deliciousness, but I think I can live with that.

As an open plea, if you are playing with propagating trees or find a seed that has started I will gladly plant that tree in the backyard if you find that you cannot keep it. Or if you find that you just need to get rid of a gift certificate for Trees of Antiquity, feel free to send it my way. =D

Sheepy Surprises

Last year our Navajo Churros both lambed in March. I was thinking they were going to keep the same cycle as last year but it turns out they bred a month earlier than last year. Last night I was greeted at feeding time by an addition of a tiny baa. One of the NC had lambed yesterday during the wettest, coldest, windiest day we've had in months because that's just what sheep do. It looked like one big healthy lamb. We're very glad with the Navajo Churro sheepies as they have a tendency to lamb on their own without needing assistance and have big healthy animals. I'll go back out there tonight to see how it is doing but Jed said that it was fine this morning. We'll keep an eye out for the Darth sheepy to see when she will lamb. It makes me wonder if all the animals will birth around the same time. We'll keep you all posted with new animal updates.

The Economics of Food

Let me preface this by saying that many people have written about this topic. If you do research online you can find a lot of information on the economy of cooking your own meals. I think about food a lot, if you hadn't noticed, and I have a tendency to talk about it quite frequently. There are a few reoccurring comment that I hear from people that just stop me dead in my tracks.

1. I do not have time to cook. - By doing some of the meals at work in a short lunch break that is proven wrong and it shows that there are many, many meals that you can do in short order, sometimes even quicker than driving to a fast food restaurant and waiting to get poor quality food for what ends up costing you much more in food bills and medical bills. If it is just a lack of motivation, that is another topic which I cannot help with. If you have the motivation you will find a way to cook home meals.

2. Cooking at home is too expensive compared to fast food meals. This I have to dispute as this makes no sense to me. You can buy food at discount in bulk and that can last you from 2-50 meals depending on what the food product is.

Jed and I purchase rice and beans in large amounts. We have a tendency to eat rice in large amounts so the bag might last you a year or more, while for Jed and I we can go through it in one month. That bag can give you over 40 cups of rice. If you're purchasing that bag for $20 dollars (it's usually less and you can buy different types for different prices) then you're paying about 50 cents per every cup of rice you make. When you eat rice from a restaurant (Chinese or anything else) they usually charge you between $2.50 or more for that same amount. You can add it as a filler for many meals and you can make rice quickly while you are preparing the rest of your meal. Not only is the ingredient inexpensive, but the time you spend on it is minimal. If you're thinking about your time as money, then prepping rice to cook (white rice) is about a minute. You pour water into a pot and turn it on, wait for it to come to boil then add your rice, lower the temperature and set the timer. This takes even less time if you have a rice cooker: pour water and rice into bowl and it's done when it dings. The time you spent on a home cooked meal plus the money you would be paying someone else to cook that meal is all being pulled back into your income. You are saving in ingredients, in medical bills as you are not putting processed food into your (and your families) body, your time that you get to share with your family, and on money.

An example, today I made some linguica sandwiches. I purchased 12 buns for $2.59, 5 large links of linguica (each of which make two sandwiches) for $6.35, and a white onion for $.73. These ingredients (plus a little bit of oil and mustard) can make 10 sandwiches and if everyone is hungry and eats two sandwiches can feed 5 people, with two extra buns, or for people who don't want that much meat it can be divided into 12 sandwiches and 6 servings of two sandwiches. The total cost is: $9.67 making each sandwich cost about $.81. You pay $5 per sandwich if you go anywhere else or more if you add fries. A meal that is under a dollar can cost you 10 times that if you go out to buy it. This can feed your family for a couple of meals, making your food cost for a day fairly low.

Another example is making home granola, you can get as fancy as you want or as plain as you like, either way, you will end up paying a lot less than if you were to purchase already made granola. Today I picked up 5lbs of rolled oats at $.69 a lb, 3lbs of 8 rolled grains at $.89 a lb, raw mix of seeds, nuts, and raisins at $3.59 a lb for 1 lb. You'll need honey for your granola and that can add a little more if you don't have honey already, or just use some that you purchased in large quantities and the cost will be less. In total we'll end up with a little over 9lbs of granola for $10.71 (added a dollar for honey as I buy it in large 5lb containers for $13, which I won't use that much for this quantity) meaning each lb of granola I make at home (for this batch) is about $1.19, which you will agree is much less than anything you can purchase already made at the store, even in bulk. This way you'll know exactly what is going into your granola, you get to enjoy making it, the heat of it will in the oven will heat your house, you'll spend time with your family or friends, and you get to enjoy great tasting granola for a while.

You can do it. If you look at ways to bring things home you'll understand how much better it is to cook your own food and to create your own meals. Enjoying time with friends and family is an added perk to the process, but the main goal is to understand that your efforts are helping you save money and enjoy great tasting food that you made. Next time you are about to pick up a hamburger or a hotdog, think about how much cheaper and delicious that meal would be if you made it, or for any other food for that matter. You can cook at home or in the office, all it takes is a little effort. Your time is definitely worth it.

The Lunch Hour - Linguica Sandwiches

It would be a sad work fridge indeed if it did not have some cheap yellow mustard. With this as the beginning I was able to go online for a bit, go shopping for ingredients, cook my sandwiches and eat them in peace before the end of my lunch hour, so you know this is a quick meal.

Ingredients:
Sandwich rolls of choice
One link of linguica per two sandwiches
Onion - sliced in thin rounds
1 tbsp of oil
Cheap yellow mustard

We have a tiny 6"x6" electric skillet at work, which I used for this recipe. Add oil to skillet and heat to hot. Add onions and saute for a bit. Cover onions periodically to help soften them up. Cut you linguica in half, then slice those two halves lengthwise and add then to the onions. The linguica will begin to cook and leak out its juices which will help caramelize the onions. Once your onions are done take them out and let your linguica cook until you are satisfied. I would highly recommend placing the lid on your skillet to diminish smoke and steam that can set off the buildings sprinkler system. While these cook place your rolls in the toaster oven to toast. Once the meat is done place the linguica in your rolls, cover with onions, and then add your mustard. There are many variations to this recipe, feel free to experiment, but above all enjoy! (Ok, above all don't set your building on fire or set off the sprinkler system. )

The Lunch Hour - Thai Beef Salad

I have two notes for the following recipe.

1. I would not recommend this recipe if you are in a small kitchen with sprinklers and no ventilation. The smell permiated the whole building and we got some complaints and many more hungry people ready to join our lunch. You cook the steak in high heat so you can end up with some smoke. We'll not be able to cook this recipe at work again, but everyone enjoyed it who tried it.

2. If you are new to fish sauce, do yourself a favor and do not smell it. You will learn to appreciate the smell after a while, but it is the flavor that you want that makes it worth while. Jed and I really like the smell of fish sauce and it is a very common condiment in our home, but for those of you still starting out - take it easy. Jed's mom is still hesitant to use it in cooking, but we use it every time we go over to cook for them.

This is a simple summer recipe that Jed and I eat on a fairly regular basis. The short version is: You make a paste for your steak then grill that, place the thinly cut steak over greens and pour sauce over it. Ta-da!

Paste for the steak:
About a cup of cilantro stems (save the leaves as you'll use those for the salad a bit later)
2 tbsp of oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 tsp of salt and freshly ground pepper

Place all ingredients in the blender(or something similar) and blend until it becomes a paste. Cover the steak with the paste and leave until you are ready to cook.

Salad:
1 head of red leafy lettuce (I use 2 because I love the lettuce)
3 good sized tomatoes quartered into bite size pieces (I usually end up with 8 pieces if the tomato is big)
1 good sized cucumber sliced into thin-ish (1/4 inch) rounds
cilantro to place after the meat is mixed into the greens

Notes on steaks:
You want something a bit thick. If you prefer your meat well done then use a steak that is about an inch thick (or slightly less) otherwise use something thicker. The meat should be rare in the center. Once you have the salad ready then place your steak on a hot skillet that has a little bit of oil, cover and cook for 4 minutes on each side. Once done take out and let it cool a bit on a cutting board. Once cooled then slice the meat thinly and place onto the salad. Sprinkle with cilantro and pour sauce on top.

Sauce:
2 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce (use less if you wish but do not add more soy)
1 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar

Mix everything together until the sugar is dissolved and pour over your salad. Toss salad if desired and eat with rice on the side. I would highly recommend Jasmine rice. Enjoy!

Oh, and as with most of my recipes - I remembered to take a picture only after we had finished the whole bowl of salad.

Birds as far as the eye can see

Many of you have visited when we have a plethora of feathered friends running around the back yard. The first year we picked up ten Amauricana and we were getting more eggs than we know what to do with. Now we have a lot more chickens, but they have a tendency to lay all over the backyard, sometimes even just stopping and laying eggs right in the middle of the paths. We have set areas where we can find eggs, but it would be nice to not have to go looking all over the place. Jed and I are thinking about a couple of different strategies to our excess of birds. The set number of birds we would like to have are: 2 geese (mating pair), 3 turkeys (1 male, 2 female), 4 ducks (1 male, 3 female), and 6 chickens (possibly all female). This would be a low number until we are able to get all the the plants growing at a healthy rate and still maintain a healthy bird population. This would provide all the eggs we need with the addition of meat from our flock but at a more reasonable quantity. Our goal will be for family production and not for sale. This way we can focus and balance out the food intake as well as the meat and egg production without too much waste. They will also provide the much needed fertilizer without the overkill of some of our larger flocks we've had in the past. We're hoping the lower quantities will also make for a quieter environment. Our goal will be to grow our meat production from spring to fall (or whenever they are ready) and then slaughter them so that we do not overwinter any extra birds. The plucker will help us with this process and I'm sure the second plucker will help us that much more as we have worked out many of the kinks of the first plucker.

We've have set numbers of birds that we know that they can hatch out: Geese (12-25), turkeys (12-20), ducks (6-20), chickens (12-22). We're not sure if we would like to have additional meat chickens as the Amauricans are tiny and do not provide that much meat. We might do some large chickens and some egg chickens so that we have a mixture of both. It is interesting to see the dynamics of the bird flocks and see how we wish to change it. As with everything else in the farm, we learn by doing. We'll see what works for our property and we'll see what we can do to make it work well. We'll probably post more in the future, as with all topics, but for now I think our goal will be to decrease our bird numbers to a more managable quantity.

The possibility of turkey

As many of you know, we have horrible luck keeping male turkeys on the farm. For some reason all the predators love the taste of male turkeys or once they are grown they are too dumb to keep themselves from committing suicide. (FYI - jump attacking Jed is a form of suicide.) We were thinking about picking up another set of turkeys next year, but luckily we had the good fortune of going to one of the local nurseries and it turns out they have a heritage breed tom. They said that they used to have a pair but that the female was eaten by predators, which left them with a lone male turkey. We're going to see about picking him up and seeing if he can aclimate to our homestead, at least long enough to farther some new baby poults and then we can take him back. We were thinking about keeping two females and a male turkey to hatch out new turkeys for us. At first Jed thought that might not provide enough turkeys until we realized that they have a tendency to hatch out 15-25 eggs at a time, which means we'd end up with 20-50 turkeys (accounting for bad eggs and such) a year. That's a lot of turkey. I don't think we can eat a turkey a week, but we can definitely try. Turkeys have turned out to be the best keepers of our homestead, so who knows, we might end up just keeping tukeys and lowering our chicken count.


Image from http://www.porterturkeys.com/narragansett.htm

 The tom looked to be a narrangansett, which is what some of our birds are. The rest of our turkeys are Bourbon Reds.

Extending the berries - currants

Image from Cornell Fruit page

Our first order of currants was a Wilder and a Crandall Black. The Wilder is still growing in the front with the blueberries and is throwing out more shoots. The poor Crandall was squashed to death in the Great Piggy Debacle of 2011. Thanks to the Tree Man and Bay Laurel I was able to pick up a second Wilder (from Bay Laurel) and two new Blacks from the Tree Man as well as a second set of Red Lake. The Wilder is considered a pink (It's light red!) so I thought I'd get some of the reds to match the sets. These all went in near the citrus along the garage as they get a good amount of sun but they are also shaded through most of the year, which helps keep their temps low. Our mandarin and our blood orange are still growing in that area (Keep fighting little ones!) but I thought I'd surround them with other vegetation to help keep their winter temps a bit higher. I've also interspersed some Pixwell gooseberries so we'll see how they produce in the next couple of years. I'm thinking about lining that whole fence line with some of the cooler berries such as currants and gooseberries to help fill in that area and to make it a bit more productive. And since apparently six currant bushes is not enough I ordered another 2 bushes of white currants from Trees of Antiquities to add to the mix. I have not yet pruned them, but Ivan and I have a date with our currants and gooseberries tomorrow so that we can whip them into shape. If all works out well we'll have 8 currant bushes in production with red, pink, black, and white currants coming in each year and we'll add the four gooseberry bushes to that blend and we'll just have to see what awesome jams, syrups, pies, and food stuff we can produce with these beauties.

The Lunch Hour - Chilaquiles

Our lunch hour has turned into a little weekly gathering for cooking and eating. This week we enjoyed chilaquiles on Thursday. It's nice because everyone brings ingredients and we just make fabulous food and then we sit to eat it. The only bad part is that I only remember to take a picture after the food is all gone.

Chilaquiles:

Tools you might need:
electric skillet
spatula

Ingredients:
20 Corn Tortillas cut into chips
1 Small Onion sliced
4 Eggs
1/2 cup Red Sauce
1/4 cup Mexican Cheese
2 Tbsp Oil

Heat the oil in your electric skillet at medium high (or the highest your skillet goes). Add the tortillas until they are all slightly crispy. Add onions and saute until they are limp and slightly see through. Break eggs into the skillet and scramble, making sure that they mix into all the tortillas and onions. Once the eggs are cooked add the sauce and cover everything with sauce. Turn off skillet and crumble cheese on top of everything. Cover up skillet and let your cheese melt a bit (about 2 minutes). Enjoy with cheese and rice or just by themselves. Enjoy!

The Lunch Hour - Enchiladas

I've been thinking about what we can do to make good food at work with the least amount of work and time. Yesterday we made green and red enchiladas. They turned out great and everyone enjoyed them.

Red Enchiladas:

Ingredients:
Red sauce
Tortillas
Shredded Chicken
Mexican Cheese

Tools you might/will need:
Toaster oven
Toaster oven pan
Plate
Plastic bag
Spatula

Green Enchiladas:

Ingredients:
Green sauce
Tortillas
Shredded Chicken
Oil for frying

Tools you might/will need:
Electric skillet
Plate
Spatula

Condiments:
Lettuce - cut up thinly
Onions - cut into thin rounds
Tomato - cut into thin rounds
Mexican Cheese - crumbled
Mexican Cream

For the oven baked red enchiladas:
Pre-heat your toaster oven to 300 degrees F. Place about 20 tortillas into a plastic bag and microwave for about a minute to make them supple enough to roll up. Pour some of your red sauce onto a plate. Place the tortilla on the red sauce and then flip the tortilla over to cover all of the tortilla with red sauce. Place shredded chicken and some cheese into your red tortilla and roll it up. Place your enchilada in your toaster oven pan and continue this until your pan is all full of enchiladas. Crumble some more cheese on top and place into the oven for 20 minutes. Bring out of the oven and let them cool a little. And then apply what ever condiments you might like to your enchiladas and enjoy!

For fried green enchiladas:
Pour some of your green sauce into a plate and microwave it until it is hot. Microwave your chicken in a little plastic bag with some water. (This keeps your chicken from drying out.) Turn on an electric skillet to high so that you can fry your tortillas. Pour about 2tbsp of oil into a small electric skillet. Place a tortilla onto the oil and fry both sides until supple and slightly crispy (if you like them that way, which I do). Lift the tortilla out of your skillet and place onto your plate of green sauce. Coat both sides of the tortilla by flipping it over a few times. Place your green enchiladas on a clean plate and fill with chicken. Apply any desired condiments and enjoy!

Tree pruning and planting

I visited the pruning meeting for the California Rare Fruit Grower's Association of the Central Coast and I think I'm going to join. One of the incentives to join was a Carob seedling and I find it delightfully interesting to add that to our list of products grown on the farm. I doubt that we can use it as a chocolate substitute, but I wish to use it to make carob desserts. We'll see if they have any left next month so that I can join. Their scion exchange takes place next month and I'm planning on attending that meeting. I met a lovely lady who lives in Atascadero who was also visiting that meeting for the first time. We'll see if I can pick up some French Prune scions from her so that I can play with them.

I had an opportunity to prune all of our trees yesterday as it was a nice dry day. I took a lot off the almond in the front as it was showing some signs of borer and I would like to keep damage to a minimum on all our trees. The peach and the apricots were also pruned to allow for top growth. I'm still uncertain on how to trim the front apple tree to help encourage the tree to grow taller. I also wrapped the trees with fencing to see if that will help discourage the geese from eating all my trees. The jerks ate my Franquette walnut tree after Zuzu had knocked of the covering that I had on there to protect it. I hope it can still grow. We'll see as I did not see any actively growing nodes on what was left of the walnut tree.

On Saturday I also made my way to Bay Laurel Nursery and I find it funny that I keep getting the same worker helping me. She's a bit... prickly.. and every time I talk to her I wonder why she's working with the public if she lacks the skills to communicate with someone in an easy fashion. I'm glad she enjoys doing what she does, but it would also be nice to have a person who you enjoy talking to whom you wouldn't mind going back to visit. Honestly, I've only gone twice (once to order and once to pick up my order) and I don't really see a reason to go back if that's the way I'll be treated. They have nice produce, but I think I'll pay extra to have my trees and items shipped from Peaceful Valley if I can feel like a valued costumer. That's just my opinion. But anyways, I stopped by on Saturday to see if I could add to my order and it turned out that the bare root trees were in so I picked up my ordered Muir peach and my Fugu persimmon. I was able to plant those last night although the persimmon turned out a bit more eventful than I would have liked. We have a lot of trees and we're quickly running out of spots to plant them, so I decided to plant the persimmon off to one side. That spot seemed to have 2 1/2 ft of pure rock which I had to dig through. I kept sending up sparks and breaking rocks in half. The shards would jump up and hit my face and I was glad that I was wearing my glasses as they ended up getting scratched from one of the rocks. I would hate to think of what my eye would have looked like if I was wearing my contacts.

I have one almond and the small bushes left to plant. I hope they are all right and that they grow well for us. I look forward to another year of awesome fruit growth.

Freezing

We've been going through a cold spell in California and that means we have frozen pipes in the morning. As we don't have a weather station yet, we have to rely on the pipes freezing to indicate that our night temperatures were in the teens. Our pond was also frozen yesterday, which cause the ducks to slide across the surface in a very ticked off manner. The pond did not melt until late afternoon yesterday as it was even cool during the hottest part of the day. The cold spell is supposed to finish by the end of this week and we're hoping for warmer temperatures. I'm not sure what the trees will do, but I hope they don't get overly confused by all this change in the temperatures.

The Lunch Hour - Rice Crispy Treats

This was actually the first thing I did at work as a treat and you don't need a toaster oven at all, just a microwave.

Tools needed:
Large bowl
Plastic spatula
Large (9x11) glass pan to make a form.

Ingredients:
1 16 oz. or 2 8-10oz Bag(s) of marshmallows
1 box of puffed Rice cereal
1/2 cup of butter (1 stick) - cut up into pieces

Place the butter into a large bowl and microwave until it is all melted; usually about 1 minute on high. Place all the marshmallows in the bowl and melt for about a minute and a half. As with chocolate, the marshmallows will look solid but when you start stirring they will dissolve into a gooey, swirly, marshmallowy blob. As soon as the marshmallows have turned into a huge blog then add the box of crispy rice cereal. Keep stirring with your spatula until all the cereal is coated with marshmallow. As soon as it is all blended pour into your glas pan and pat down to form. You can either let it cool out on the counter or place it in the fridge to cool down quicker. Just to warn you, this recipe makes for some extra marshmallowy goodness, if you would like your a bit drier just put in less marshmallows. As soon as it it cool you can start cutting up your treats into whatever size you would like. Enjoy!

Trees - Past, Present, and Future

Just thought I'd recap what happened in this last year with our trees. As previously stated, some trees were eaten by goats, others by geese, some caught fireblight (I like it when they later post oh, by the way... this tree is highly susceptible to fireblight.. thanks) and some just couldn't keep up.

Those who did not make it this year: Apple Fuji (goats), Apple Honey Crisp (geese), regrowth of rootstock on one of Trees of Antiquities tree (geese), Navel Orange (geese), Grapefruit (geese), Lemon (geese/freeze), Apple Pink Lady (fireblight), Plum Santa Rosa (geese),

Those who were damaged by geese or goats include - Apple White Pearmaine, Apricots Patterson, Pistachios, Pear Bartlett, Pear White Doyenne, Apple Granny Smith, Cherry Rainer.

Actually, the more I review this list, the more I want to punch a goose in the face. I'll just have to remind myself that I'll just have to eat all their tasty, tasty eggs and children.. in front of them. Some of the trees that were damaged also managed to come back and seem poised to have a good growth year for 2013, for that I'll only eat the remaining non breeding pair geese.

The remaining fruit trees include: Apple - White Pearmain, Apple - Golden Delicious Combo, Apple - Granny Smith, Apple - Braeburn, Apple - Summer Rambo, Apple rootstock from pink lady (to be grafted with different apple),  Pear - White Doyenne, Pear - Keiffer, Pear - Bartlett, Peach - Ranger, Mulberry Pakistan (2), Blood Orange, Mandarin (2), Pomegranate (2),  Mango, Orange - Valencia, Pistachios (3), Cherry - Rainer, Cherry - Bing, Pecan, Almond, Apricot - Patterson (2).

Just planted include: Walnut Franquette, Walnut -Hartley, Almond (Nuplus).

On order: Peach - Muir, Plum - French Prune, Quince - Russian, Persimmon. 

Will pick up more to propagate: Pomegranate and figs, possibly some apples to graft.

Would really like some olives, nectarines, and possibly some other nuts. We also planted some pine nuts and some chestnuts to see if they grow from seed. My goal is to actually have fruit/nuts all year round from our trees. Having them be in season just seems to give them a better flavor and helps us savor them that much more.

The year in review: 2012

This last year has been very trying and an excercise in perserverence.

I wrote this in early May. I realized how desperate I sounded:
Our winter was on the harsh side. No snow, but it started freezing in November and the temperature stayed cold until April, when the temps soared to the 100's. The animal's water stayed frozen throughout the day, my trees froze, I couldn't water due to the cold temps, the plants did not want to put forth much fruit/veg, the animals did not appreciate the cold(except Zuzu), it did not rain until March, and we almost ran out of firewood. All in all it was a new experience and a very daunting one with a new little man in the house. Having a baby in the house ends up kicking your butt and making you realize that you have other priorities. /End original post

I was unable to do many things around the farm, including milking animals while Ivan was young. I had the help of many friends to get to do these chores and to you friends I am eternally greatful.

We brought cow home in late winter and we've milked her ever since. She was bred in May (around the 21st) and we're looking forward to a baby calf at the end of this winter or early spring.

We had our goats grow up and we ate them. The male sheep grew and we ate them. In all there is a theme here, most animals grew up and we ate them. At the start of this year we still have some geese and some ducks to slaughter, but we'll see when we can get to them.

The goats did get out a few times and ate my trees, in particular my cherry trees but they had enough time to grow a bit before the hard frosts hit. Our other trees have grown and have gotten over the geese and goats. I think it's something with animals that start with the letter g; they are all just bastards. I'm looking forward to having the trees do a lot better for this upcoming year. Our peach tree grew a lot and it is starting to look like a full grown tree; my baby is growing up. I get to trim them soon to help determine their growth for this upcoming season. The willows and the ash have taken off as well. They provide enough shade to have all the poultry and fowl sit under them.

Projects were started, projects were abandoned or altered. The bread oven was destroyed and a new one was begun. I had my nephews come to stay with us, but I'm pretty sure that did not work out so well for us. Nothing was done around the house, but much food was consumed so in the end I think we ended up at a loss from that. I was at least able to milk cow, but we'll have to see what we can do in the future. If we do have another child Ivan will be my slave monkey and be in charge of any younger sibling.

Our plants out front had mixed results. The sorghum, buckwheat, early corn, pumpkins and cherry tomatoes did well. All other tomatoes and beans did not. We had enough tomatoes but the beans never seemed to take off. We had one late eggplant but no real produce from there. The strawberries did great, as did the apples, the berries, and the grapes. We'll see how the rest of the fruit do in this next year.

We keep on morphing the layout of the back yard and we alter and move things around in the front as we find out what does well and what needs to be altered to improve our production. Now to work on the goals for the backyard so that Jed can sleep better and the area near the house can become more productive.

There was very little rain and much heat. There was very little food and much desire to shoot every animal in the face. I think cutting back to just the necessary animals will help out a lot. As the year cycles through again we start to think of all the things we need to get to and all the things we would like to start with. I wrote up a list of goals I have for this next year, and I dearly hope to be able to accomplish them and more.

Over all, it was a very exhausting trying year and I'm glad it is done. We learned a lot with the birth of many of our animals as we had to help with a few of the deliveries and with the passing of some of the young. We learned that it is vital to stay with the sick young and to do all we can to keep the young alive. We learned that animals will kick out the young if they do not believe it can live and that all young animals (including humans) take up a lot of time and a lot of sleep is sacrificed for the sake of the animals. We learned that there are certain times of the year that work best for slaughters and that there are bad times that we should not. We learned that there are ways to preserve our meat and food while there are other ways that should not be used. I know we did not post much and we hope to post more frequently this year as it will help us keep track of what goes on in the farm and how we can learn from it.

I've recently read a few blogs from people that I love following and some of them have decided to sell off their animals and stop farming. I don't think I can go back. Who knows, I might think differently if something unexpected happens, but I value our way of life so much more through this process.

For those of you following and for those who wish to join in. Enjoy and we hope see you all at the farm in this coming year. Cheers!

Wishes and goals for the new year

I have many goals but as of yet, I have not posted them all. I think this year I'll make my list of items I would like to do or accomplish in this next year. I'll try to make it a To Do list on the side so that I can see how I am progressing this year. My goal is to accomplish at least 2 a month.

1. Finish the Cow Hall - This is important because we need a place for the baby animals to be warm and safe as well as a place all the animals can get out of the hot sun.
2. Make a portable Chicken/Turkey Tractor - Not too big but not too small so that I can move them all around the backyard. I have a few ideas for the portable coop that will also have the Anglo-Saxon motif on a medieval cart. This will also include tearing down the other coops.
3. Make as many dump runs as needed to get all the garbage out of the backyard.
4. Use all the glass wine bottles that we have. Either save some in a secure location for future brewing or for a structure (either a raised planter or a bench).
5. Secure all trees and build an easily climbable fence that will allow me to maintain the trees but keep all the herbivores out.
6. Finish planting the last of the trees that we want on the property. Plant out berries and look into the figs, pomegranates, and olives.
7. Sew together a blanket box for the bees for the winter and a shade spot (or tree) for the summer.
8. Finish permanent bbq/bread oven/smoker. - Initial bricks are laid for bbq and the base outline for bread oven. Need to pour the concrete into the bbq base and install the posts for the bbq. Will also need to pour the base for the bread oven over the bricks that form the round. After that we'll build the actual oven. I'm hoping a more stable secure base will keep it from being destroyed as easily as the last one by the animals.
9. Lay out the bricks under the veranda.
10. Figure out a way to keep my house cleaner and be able to maintain it easier. 11. Clean (and keep clean/organized) the garage so that I can move the Shadow in there. Sell/Donate/Get rid of anything that is not needed.
12. Fix up the wall in the master bathroom.
13. Keep up with all the weeding of the thistle on the property.
14. Set up permanent fence for garden/piggy area.
15. Start the back garden.
16. Dig the hole and install the freezer root cellar.
17. Lay out the paths in the backyard. (Try to place a rock on path at least once a day.)
18. Fix the electrical wiring in the kitchen.
19. Build a better table/layout for the bees.
20. Keep the front patio clean.
21. Build the seat/bookshelf I've wanted to for a while.
22. Organize books and distribute those I no longer need.
23. Finish sidewalk around the house.
24. Build greenhouse/shed. Make it look like the TARDIS if at all possible.

The Lunch Hour - Rigatoni

When I was living with the girls (Kari, Martha, and Tabitha) we had a very interesting eating style, which was large stacks of soda with maybe a side of chocolate bars. Sometimes we would actually cook, and we would greatly enjoy those times, but it was very hard to try to balance everything while working and attending Cal Poly. In hind sight, I think more cooked home meals would have helped all of us ground and help each other out. One such dish was created by Kari. She said that her family used to make baked rigatoni all the time as a quick dish. For some reason her recipe stuck with me and I occassionaly find myself making it as a quick meal that takes minimal work.

Today I walked down to the little local Cookie Crock Market and could not decide on what to have for lunch so I grabbed a bag of noodles, some tomato sauce, and some cheese. Honestly, the recipe just includes mixing everything and putting it in to bake. The office smelled of lovely pasta, making my co-workers sneak into the kitchen to get some rigatoni throughout the afternoon. I made the little toaster oven pan's worth of pasta so I had extra to bring home for Ivan.

Ingredients:

Uncooked pasta to fill your desired pan
Enough tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce to coat all the noodles plus extra
Cheese

In this example I used a medium sized bag of rigatoni noodles, one large container of tomato/basil sauce, and a tub of romano, asiago, and parmesan cheese. I think in college we used to put mozzarella cheese because we liked the melty, stringy type of pasta. 

Preheat toaster oven to 350 degrees F. Place your noodles in your tin/pan and coat with sauce. I added about a 1/2 cup of water to the empty glass jar and shook it to get all the tomato sauce out and then poured it over the noodles. Place in toaster oven for about 15 minutes. At this time mix the pasta a bit more to get the bottom done pasta to mix around and to give the toasty top pasta a little more moisture. At this point sprinkle the cheese on top and place back into the toaster oven for another 15 minutes. This will allow the top noodles to crisp up and the cheese to get all melty. Let it cool a little and then enjoy.

Winterizing the Front yard - The Berry Bramble

My brother Steven has a blackberry bramble in the back yard that they have not managed to tame, cut, goatify, or burn. It's origin is their neighbor's yard, but even so the bramble stretches the whole width of the backyard with it penetrating 5-10 feet in, in some areas. The only thing is that he has not been able to get a consistent production from the bramble and most years they don't even get a pint of berries. I would like to avoid this with my berry production.

Jed grew up in an area where blackberries roamed wild through the forest snatching up unsuspecting children and eating up errant livestock... or so he says. I was allowed to add berries to our property on the condition that I maintained them and kept them from taking over the acre. This I've been doing with our front boysenberry during the late fall/early winter time. The canes that had berry production during the previous summer die off and I'm able to cut those canes down to the ground and sort out the new growth that will produce berries the following summer. I'm happy with the growth we've had with our original boysenberry plant as it seems to double if not quadruple the size every year. The previous summer Ivan, Franky, and I were able to go out every day during June and eat handfuls of berries, honestly, I was tired of boysenberries by the time July rolled around and we were ready for apples and strawberries. But now I find myself craving berries again and so I spent New Year's day working on the front berry bramble. The boysenberry starts canes whenever the tips bury themselves in the soil and start up new roots, when I clean up the front I take these new canes and I move the to different parts of the property so that we can have more berries, a barrier around the property to keep the predators out and a nice green screen to keep busybodies from counting my chickens. The roots on these tips are fairly shallow and the plants are mostly dormant so it's all right to dig them up and move them to a new location provided you've cut them off from the main cane that they came from. This year I dug up about 37 new canes that I was able to then place along the fence line in the backyard. I hope they grow as vigorously as they did in the front.

As with last year, I've woven the berry canes along the fence line. The only change this year is that I transplanted the little grape that was near the Breaburn apple tree to a new location and moved some canes into that area to double our boysenberry bramble for the future. Jed mentioned that this year he would like to get more than just 4 berries. He only ate some when I would bring them into the house for him. I let him know that I was going to be at work, so the he and Ivan would be able to spend hours out in the front just eating berries. And as I greatly enjoy berries as well, I'll make sure to find the time either before I leave for work, or after I get home to sneak some berries off the bramble. After all, if I'm maintaining the berries it only seems right that I get to enjoy some of the sun soaked sugary goodness.

Saturation Point

As some of you know we have not had that much rain for the last two years. Last year we did not receive enough rain to saturate the soil. Thus resulting in a year of having to buy most of our animal food and not enough plant growth. This year, it seems we have hit it. We have not had that much rain, but it is slow and steady. As such, all our rain barrels are full and there are puddles all over the backyard, with out pond and stream being full. I might add that the ducks and the geese are having a great time playing. This does cause a great mucking mess in the back pasture area as cow is a bit heavy and our clay soil turns to a mess as soon as it gets wet. We'll have to see what we can do to minimize any damage to the soil. We hope this steady rain continues so that we can dry farm all our grains and winter beans. I might add that "rain" is used to mean any time the sky spits on us. A local farmer and I were talking excitedly the other day about getting 1/18th of an inch of rain the night before. I suppose after a year of less than 10 inches of rain we get excited about any water that we can get.

Propagating grapes - aka making more grapes vines

I realize that California winter is nothing like winter anywhere else, but it does provide a brief break that allows me to tend to my plants. So far I've been able to work on the boysen berry bramble and the grapes in the front yard. One thing that I really appreciate about these perennials is that I'm able to propagate from them so easily.

We have a very productive and prolific flame grape that I decided to propagate from. Have you ever gone to the store to pick up some grapes and realized that they are cheaper than most other plants? Well, the reason for this is because you can make 20-40 new grape plants from one vine that had moderate growth in the previous year. After you trim your grapes during dormancy, simply take those new bits that are about the thickness of a pencil and cut them into foot long sections, just make sure they have about 3+ nodes on those sections.


 In order to help you decipher the root end cut it straight and the top section at an angle. Make sure that your cuts are close to the nodes but not so close that they will affect the root growth, about half an inch. This allows the roots to grow from the bottom straight cut but also from the lower nodes that will be buried in the ground.

Once you have all your bits cut up place them all together in a bundle and wrap them with newspaper. Dampen the paper around the trimmings and place in a black plastic bag. This will keep the moisture and heat in, which will help the trimmings produce new root growth. Place the wrapped up bundle in a warm dark place. I've placed mine in a dark corner near the wood burning stove. Last year I placed the bundle over the fridge and that seemed to do the trick. Leave your bundle for 4-5 weeks.

Try not to check on them too often but make sure that they have a damp environment to encourage root growth. Once you notice roots forming place in soil. I'll post additional information as this year's batch of grapes grow.