Are We Real Farmers Yet?

 

Dressed to kill!

It is done.  We are minus two roosters in the barn and up two stew birds in the fridge waiting to be air-sealed and put in the freezer.  I took no delight in the actual killing and I'm thinking that is a good thing.  If I were indifferent to it then that might be cause for worry.

The entire family was required to be in attendance despite my "city" daughter's pleas to be excused from it.  Even my visiting parents looked on and shared stories about their young years on their parent's farms.

Apparently my dad never had much to do with the chickens.  The men in his family took care of the cows and the fields and the chickens were left to the women.  He has memories of my grandmother and her two sisters dispatching, cleaning and putting up 20 chickens in an afternoon.  We are pitiful compared to that.  It took us a very long time to do the two.

My mother has vivid memories of chickens.  It was her job to do the plucking when she was a girl.  Her dad would dispatch and I believed her mother scalded and then mom plucked.  Grandma saved the feathers and made pillows and mattresses with them.  Grandma did not however save the feet.  My mom was surprised (and a little grossed out) when I said we needed to save them to add when we make stock.  She thought the couldn't be cleaned quite enough.  I too pondered this at first but when scalding the entire chicken (not just holding it by its feet and dipping it) the skin peels off the feet leaving them clean.  I now have two sets in my freezer.

I found I didn't mind plucking although if we were going to do more chickens and be more efficient I would want to build a chicken plucker.  I didn't try cleaning out the bird.  I left that to my husband.  I figure after he "masters" the job then he can teach me.  Then again, perhaps I will just attend an intensive seminar at Polyface.

All in all it wasn't a terrible process. I don't know if there is a broiler biz in the future or not but at least we won't be dropping any chickens off at the animal shelter- not that anyone would mistake us for hipsters.  (We maintain that we're pretty much where hip goes to die... LOL!)

 My husband's fancy killing cones were not quite the right size.  Plan B: milk jug and empty ice cream pail.

 

 Scalding the chicken

Taking turns plucking.  Yes, us wussies wore gloves.  Notice the manly husband and his lack of gloves.

Andi terrorizing city-sister who took photos the during the first chicken and was required to help during the second. (I can only imagine her journal entry that night... what awful parents...lol.)

God's Plan For Us...

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

Romans 12:14-16

1/2 Duggar For A Day (Friday's Read & Write)

Well, I apologize for not getting Friday's Read & Write up yesterday (on Friday... what a concept!) But I was busy experiencing what it would be like if our family was 1/2 the size of the Duggar Family instead of 1/4.

I had a total of 10 children for 24 hours to celebrate my son's 13th birthday and to help good friends celebrate their 21st anniversary.  Wow... ten kids consume a lot of food and create a lot of dishes.  But it was a lot of fun and the Kooshian family is wonderful.

I had three 16 year-olds, two fifteen year-olds, two thirteen year-olds, two eight year-olds and one four year-old.  Needless to say I crashed out on the couch about 9:30 last night after all was said and done.  I was trying to watch a PBS documentary, Eating Alabama, (about eating locally) and 1/2 way through had to mumble at my son, "Don't delete it when it's done." Then I was out until 11:00 when I moved to my bed.  Sleep is truly a wonderful blessing from the Lord.

So for yesterdays Read & Write...

Two new magazines: The newest issue of The Costco Connection (Free at the warehouse.) and the newest issue of Hobby Farm.  The Connection usually has good info on books that are coming out for release and didn't disappoint.  They had a nice little write up on Carol Rifka Brunt's debut novel Tell The Wolves I'm Home and an interview with journalist/writer Tom Wolfe.

Hobby Farm has a great article on grafting tomatoes but I think I stick with just trying to grow them before I get all fancy.  It also had a blurb (answering a reader's question) about showing chickens.  I think I don't want to get into that either as you have to bathe the chickens and I can't see any of mine submitting to that.  But they had an article on Herbs to sell at farmer's markets that was quite intriguing and I can see myself growing some of the varieties mentioned.  I love herbs!

This week, at the library, I picked up two books: The Duck Commander Family (Duck Dynasty Fare) by Willie & Korie Robertson (with Mark Schlabach).  It is a delightful little read with a look into the inner workings of the Robertson family and some unique recipes- Fried Bologna anyone?  The best part is the pictures of pre-bearded Robertson men!

The second book is The Weekend Homesteader- A Twelve-Month Guide to Self Sufficiency by Anna Hess.  This books contains easy weekend projects for all months of the year for those of us working to provide for ourselves and lead a different type of life than mainstream. Some of the things are for beginners and some are for more advanced practitioners. The July topics are Fall Planting, Freezing Food, Hanging Clothes Out To Dry, and Budget.  I need to start thinking about fall, I have plenty of food to freeze and put up, I desperately want a clothes line and budgeting advice is always welcome. Can't wait for reading time tonight.

Okay, well I have kiddoes that want to be fed, farmer's market shopping to do, weeding, harvesting and two roosters to butcher today as well as dinner out at Red Robin. (My parents are taking the whole family out- yeah!)  I think I must get started!

Have a great weekend!

Teen #3 (And A Future Farmer- I Hope!)

13 years ago, on a warm sultry early morning in Meridian, Idaho, I was awakened from a good sleep at 5:30am with a pop-pop sensation/sound.  Did I dream it?  I'd better check.  Off to the bathroom I scuffled and sure enough my water had broken.  I hurried back to the bed to tell my husband and before he had fully woken my contractions had started in full.  I called the hospital, went outside to the travel trailer my parents were staying in to let them know what was going on and off we went to the hospital in downtown Boise.  It took about thirty minutes from our house to the birthing floor.

During the drive I remember telling my husband that everything was okay.  He didn't need to speed because my contractions weren't very bad. (Our first child came in 2 hrs, the second was induced for various reasons.)  We parked and I waddled up to the birth floor and was just about to check in when this tremendous contraction hit.  I remember looking up at the clock.  It was 6:10am.

I was escorted to triage and the nurse proceeded to ask me to change and of course, pee in a cup. I went in and changed but was unable to oblige the nurse with the other.  I was in a lot of pain, there was a lot of blood and it just wasn't gonna happen.  When I returned and told her I couldn't go she got me up on the table to check my progress.  The next words I heard were, "I see a head!"  Then she turned to the other nurse behind her and said, "Get me the resident on duty, STAT! We are having a baby right here."

The resident got there pretty darn quick but that nurse almost delivered without him, all the time apologizing that I wasn't in a private birthing suite. (Uhmmm... I was not caring where I was.  I just wanted to finish the task at hand.) My son was born around 6:30am.  My own doctor hadn't even made it despite my persistent warnings to him that I birth fast.  "Don't worry," he said. "I live ten minutes from the hospital." Ha!  I got to tell him, "I told you so."

It is only fitting that we had chosen the name Remington for him because he shot out like a bullet! One hour- start to finish.

Today, thirteen years in the future, a wonderful young man stands before me and I am blessed.  He is a crazy silly kid but I see a godly man starting to form.  God is good!  Happy Birthday Remington Carlisle Lewis!!!

To The GRAM!

The Grand Rapids Art Museum has just started free Tuesday admission!  So guess where John and I, the kids and Grandma and Grandpa Schuh went yesterday!  I can't pass up free admission to a museum! 

I was quite excited to go because one of the visiting exhibits featured the quilts of Susana Allen Hunter.  I was surprised to find out that Ms. Hunter wasn't an art quilter or hobbyist in pursuit of the perfect look.  She was a poor farm wife who made quilts out of necessity to keep her family warm.  She recycled bed sheets, clothing, and flour, seed and feed sacks.  Some quilts had no batting, some had homespun cotton batting and one even had batting made from lint.  She wasn't concerned with perfect lines and rarely used any common patterns but merely put pieces of cloth together to be functional.  I bet you she never thought that any of her quilts would be museum pieces yet here they are.

My husband was not impressed, but I was.  Here was a woman doing what she needed to do to provide for her family and she worked with what she had.  She didn't have an unlimited budget and a cute little quilt shop to purchase fabric from.  She didn't worry about perfection but time and love went into those quilts.  She probably didn't even have a sewing machine.  I can only hope that I serve my family with such dedication.  There was no photography allowed so I didn't get any pictures but I will remember those quilts for a long time.  Those quilts represent freedom to me.  Freedom from vanity, freedom from expectations and just a true humbleness.  We woman need more of that!

Of Turnips and Rutabagas...

This is our first gardening year on our new property.  We moved in last mid-June and decided just to watch and listen to the property before embarking on any gardening ventures. But while we waited, we planned and for Christmas I gifted my husband with a seed collection from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

 

The collection I bought him was the Large Northern Package (They also have southern packages.) and it contained over 25 types of vegetables/60 varieties.  In other words we got 60 packages of seeds.  Included were some veges that we probably wouldn't have picked on our own like turnips and rutabagas.  But since we know we need to expand our vegetable horizons we planted everything with a vow to try it and use it/preserve it.

 

 

Now it is into summer and the turnips are ready for harvesting and the rutabagas are growing nicely.  But what to do with them?  Of course I've seen them at the grocery store and occasionally at the farm market but I've always skipped over them.  So I consulted my cookbooks and came up with a recipe for butter roasted turnips.  Surprise of surprise they weren't bad.  Now, they will never be a common sight on my dinner table but seasonally they will make a nice change.  Next time I'm going to try roasting them with butter and brown sugar so they carmelize a bit. I also might mash them. 

 

What I'm really excited to do is use the turnips and rutabagas in soups!  Not in the summer, though.  I try to stay away from hot soups during the summer. They are, however, a staple on our table the other three seasons. 

 

There are three ways to preserve the veges.  I can can them but I would need a pressure canner and I do not as of yet have one.  I could blanch and freeze them or I can blanch and dehydrate them.  I'm going for dehydrating.  After prepping the veges (wash, remove tops, peel) I will cut them up into slices, steam blanch for 5 minutes and then dry them in our dehydrator.

 

 

 

As you can see our dehydrator is a dinosaur but it still works just fine and soon I will have preserved turnips and rutabagas to throw into soups when ever I want.  I think they will be a perfect addition to my hearty homemade soups!

 

How do you use your turnips and other root veges?  Anyone willing to share recipes?

 

A Monday On The Homestead...

Apparently 1/2 my teenage chickens have decided that they should be free-range.  I am consistently finding them outside the pen.  They fly to the top of the fence and then jump off or fly to the top of the chicken tractor.  I wouldn't mind so much but I don't want my garden eaten up by them.

 

The only chickens that do have permission to free-range are Mrs. Q. and Mrs. P.

 

If you noticed, at the end of the video were my two adult roosters, Jack (shorter/fatter) and Sawyer (taller/thinner).  Also, if you noticed, on the fence there are two killing cones my husband made and mounted.  Those boys are more trouble then they're worth.  One of my hens has a horrid wound all down her side because of them and most of my other hens have puncture wounds.  We filed down the fellas' spurs but it didn't really help much. So, this coming Saturday, we will be inducted into the butchering club.  I'm not really relishing it because I do enjoy them and they are pretty but I think my adult hens will fare better and in two or three more months Snowball will be mature and take over rooster duties without anyone to challenge him. 

I have mullein growing back in the field which I plan on harvesting to use in herbal medicine.  I walked back this morning to grab a picture or two. 

Here are the killing cones up close and personal.  John spent last Saturday building and mounting them and then pouring over internet video and through our chicken raising books to learn what to do past the initial action.  I asked if he thought he got the process down and he said he did.  I hope so... I'm just going to be following his instructions.  I will probably blog about our process but I don't think I'm going to be taking pictures so everyone can let out a sigh of relief.

Now after all that cheery talk about offing offending roosters... let's have breakfast! Homemade scones with homemade strawberry jam and homemade whipping cream!  Yummm!!!!