Author: Cabincrafted1

We May Be In For It

… This winter that is. It is still November and we experienced the coldest night this season with an even colder one due tonight.

This was 2 hours ago. The wind howled all night, yesterday’s rain turned to snow flurries during the night and everything was frosted this morning. It is bright and sunny, but there is no warmth in it. I failed to bring the chooks waterer in last night and it was frozen solid, fortunately there is a spare since there are currently no culls or meat chicks.
It is supposed to warm back to normal by early next week, so Son#1 may not have to wear everything he brings plus Mountaingdad’s barn coat to hunt next week. He is hoping to put a deer in the freezer to supplement the chickens for their winter meat. Their three student budget is tight so meat is a luxury for them. I don’t eat venison and Mountaingdad isn’t a big fan either, but we have the freezer space.
I’m hoping for tolerable weather on Saturday as we will drive two counties over to pick up our freshly killed and cleaned, pasture raised turkey for Thanksgiving. As I was making the menu and grocery list, I was pleased at how few items we must purchase between our garden’s produce from summer, last week’s Farmers’ market and our local turkey. Olives don’t grow here and I don’t have a cow for cream, nor do we have a cranberry bog, but the rest will be local, homegrown, and homemade.
Lovin’life on our mountain farm, even if it is frigid.

November 18, 2014
Dreariness

It is cold and raining. Not the biting cold of last week, that is due again tomorrow, but cold enough to make procrastination on outdoor chores inevitable. I cuddled in bed with my book until the Shadow, the German Shepherd was dancing cross legged by my side of the bed, Ranger, the big guy still lazing on his pad on the floor by Mountaingdad.

It is wet enough that the pups didn’t want to stay outside very long, not long enough for me to finish prepping their eggs, so they hovered around and behind me while I cooked. The recalcitrant hens producing barely enough eggs to have for home use and as I used one of yesterday’s 3 eggs to make cornbread last night for a meal we shared with our recently widowed neighbor after the Pipeline Opposition meeting, there were only two to cook this morning. Once I carton a dozen and put them in the refrigerator for neighbors or friends, I leave them alone and only use from the bowl on the counter. This left me with no egg today, but I had leftover cornbread, a wedge lightly buttered and toasted in a cast iron skillet is a treat to be savored, with or without an egg. The pan was heating to cook the pups eggs, so I got my cornbread first.

With the house critters (including me) fed, it was getting harder to stall about layering up in gumboots, coat and gloves and finally making the wet, chilly walk over to let the chooks out and to feed and water them. Their sloped run, bare of a single blade of grass and with the hay scratched and washed off was as slick as ice. It is too wet to uncover the big round bale of hay to throw more down at the gate, hopefully later it will quit raining long enough to accomplish that task. Their coop hay tossed to loosen it up for insulation and turned to facilitate the deep litter composting that produces heat for them, their feed served in two metal dog bowls to keep it from being trampled into the mud and a quick check of nesting boxes for cleanliness and I found a surprise.

Three fresh, warm eggs to keep my hands warm as I slogged back to the house. I haven’t seen morning eggs in weeks and am luck to find 3 or 4 cold eggs in the evenings. It would be nice to get back to going out and finding more than I can carry in without a basket, but maybe not until springtime.

If it is going to be wet and cold, it should at least be white. I’d settle for the mountain snow flurries that fall for days on end with no real accumulation, just the dusting on gardens, roofs and cars. Cold, rainy winters remind me of winters on the coast, you are supposed to have snow in the mountains. I know, I should be careful of what I wish for, we may find ourselves snowed in without power later in the winter and we haven’t laid in wood for the stove and fireplace, having only a bit left over from last year. I suppose we should set in an emergency supply at least.

November 17, 2014
Sunday Thankfulness

Weekends bring the Farmers’ Market and breakfast out. We live near a major university town and university towns have bagel shops, except this town didn’t. You could get a bagel at one of two local coffee shops, but they were made in a city nearly an hour away. Those bagels could also be bought at the natural foods stores, but they are only delivered once a week. You can get Panera’s idea of a bagel. A new vendor at the Farmers’ Market is now selling bagels, I haven’t tried them yet and yesterday was much to cold to stand outside and eat a cold bagel. On Monday, however, the town got it’s first made on the premises, get them fresh bagel shop. Welcome Hello Bagel. We ventured in instead of going to the usual diner which has been so busy the past few weekends that we have had to stand at the door and await a table. Yesterday’s bagel was hot and delicious, buttered with a cup of coffee. They do need more cream cheese varieties, but lots of bagel flavors.
Fueled with breakfast I braved the market while Mounntaingdad sat in the car and finished his newspaper. My favorite meat vendor was back and was saddened to hear her absence was due to the death of her father. She had just left his side to return home when he passed.
A few meat items and a large cabbage were purchased from her, potatoes and almost 4 pounds of Daikon radishes from another vendor. I had kimchi or more correctly, Maangchi in mind.
Growing up, I had never heard of fermented food, wasn’t a big fan of canned sauerkraut, and yoghurt wasn’t in every dairy case. Upon buying our farm we found, with son#1’s help, a Korean Restaurant in a tiny town west of us and I experienced my first kimchi and though I don’t like all kinds, I do love Maangchi, the radish kind, and a turnip one that is similar. Most all of the fall harvest of radishes were made into Maangchi and it is nearly gone. Daikon’s make a better version and since they were available, I knew I could have more.

Such an easy process.

Not many ingredients.

Like kraut, the radish mix must be packed down to remove air. It can be eaten right away or let to sit on a dark shelf for a few days to ferment before putting in the refrigerator for enjoyment later.

I do think that next year the garden will contain Daikon radishes instead of the smaller cousins.

I am thankful for discoveries, for an awesome local market, for good food and as we are leaving shortly for another organization meeting against the pipeline, for “neighbors” who also want t o stop the desecration of our beautiful environment by this abhorrent potential project.

November 16, 2014
Olio – November 13, 2014

Olio: a miscellanous collection of things.

My blogging goes through spits and spurts, sometimes my creativity is just not there, or focused on other issues. As the winter sets in, I am more content to sit and read or knit, sometimes both at the same time, if my book is on my tablet and my knitting is mindless. I have been going through books at a record rate lately, some of them not worthy of mention, but several quite noteworthy. The Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline fascinated me. The period of time related to my Dad’s young life and I recommended it to him and my stepmom. They both loved it too and set out on some research to see if her grandfather was one of the orphans. He was an immigrant orphan, adopted in that part of the US. They are still trying to prize out information for her, and her mother’s maiden name happens to be Baker. The Glassblowers, Petra Durst-Benning, a translation from German totally enthralled me. A loose historical fiction of the glassblowing village of Lauscha in Germany and three young women as they struggle to survive and break the gender barrier to create some of the earliest blown glass Christmas ornaments. Another good one was The Light Between Ocean’s, M. L. Stedman, a tale of love, loss, and deception, set at a lighthouse off Western Australia.

This is Yellow Cat, a sickly intact male barn kitty that rarely goes to the barn, spending much of his day on our front porch. He is a rescue that was born with Feline Aids and can’t be neutered because every time we try to take him to the vet, he has a rhinovirus attack. He is pitiful, wheezes like Darth Vader, but is loving, friendly with the dogs, and keeps most of the mice out of the house by his presence. He was enjoying the 5 minutes of morning sunshine we had on this brisk cloudy day. We certainly aren’t suffering the cold and snow of parts of the country, but the temperature is 20 degrees below normal for this time of the year and we are having snow flurries and very cold in the teens nights.
On my way to my spinning group today, riding shotgun for hubby, I finished knitting granddaughter #1’s sweater. The ends are woven in, it has been washed and is blocking on the downstairs bed. I can’t decide whether to use plain buttons the color of the sweater or go looking for something cute and three year old appropriate. I guess I’ll decide that tomorrow. I still have two kid sweaters to get done by Christmas, then I will get back to my own sweater.

I did get some spinning done today. My arthritic right thumb has been noncooperative lately and so I have only played a bit with the Turkish drop spindle, but today I spun on my wheel. Though I’m not a fan of pink and am not sure why I bought fiber that color, the darker purples and grays are making an interesting single.

Loving life on our mountain farm.

November 13, 2014
Sunday Thankfulness

Last night it got cold, down in the 20’s cold. The morning was bright and sunny and the two together created frost shadows.

Every trip out to the garden area reveals a few more pumpkins. I think I have harvested in the neighborhood of 100. At this point, there is a small pile collected on the edge of the garden to throw to the chooks. They aren’t producing many eggs lately. Of the dozen hens, we are only getting 4-6 eggs each day. One is in a serious molt, one just got over her broodiness, but that leaves 10 that should be giving me a few more than I am getting. It is enough for us, but not really producing for my neighbor and knitting buddies.

On the knitting front, Granddaughter 1’s sweater for Christmas is progressing well.

The pattern is In Threes which has a cap sleeve, but I am modifying it to add long sleeves. I need to find some buttons and finish the sleeves. I still have two more kids sweaters to get knit before Christmas. One of them is another 3T, so it won’t take too long, but the other is for an almost 8 year old and it will take a bit more time.

We are due for two beautiful days before we are faced with a few very cold days due to the Polar Vortex headed our way. I need to get some extra hay in the coop and figure out how I am going to keep their water thawed. The heavy barn coat has been moved back to the utility room near my gum boots for dealing with the coming winter woes.

November 8, 2014
This Moment

Silly pups

November 7, 2014
Flip flop

Today is gray,
Cold is back on it’s way.
Granola is baking.
Chickens are grazing,
Residents are lazing.
A good day to knit, read, drink tea.

Sorry, not much of a poet:D

November 5, 2014
Autumn Surprises

Today started sunny and at mid day, it is in the mid 60s. A great day in the mountains. We started out early to vote, hoping we will get someone in office who will help fight the Fracking Pipelines and came home for Mountaingdad to get in one of what he knows to be last rides on the BBH before it gets garaged for the winter. It was a good day to work on more of garden close down and to get the garlic planted.

The bed that had contained the peppers and tomatillos hasn’t been used before for garlic, so it was raked to remove the fallen, rotting tomatillos and the stray pepper or two that didn’t get thrown to the chickens or brought into the house. The bed was weeded with my awesome garden tool, smoothed and furrows dragged through the surface. The bed was planted with 74 cloves of garlic. I don’t know if I waited too long last summer to harvest, didn’t wait long enough curing time, but we have a lot of cloves that desiccated in their skins, as much as half a head. If this year’s crop isn’t better, I will start over with new seed garlic next year instead of using cloves from what was harvested.

planted and mulched
covered to keep the chickens from digging it up again
While out there and after a couple more nights of freezing temperatures, I found more winter squash. Most of these will go to the chickens, but there were several Burgess Buttercup and they are so delicious they will be kept. One was pared and cubed last night, roasted with Italian sausage, red onion,a green Ancho pepper, some whole garlic cloves and a few pieces of broccoli. A meal in a pan and it was great.

Several small pumpkins were tossed to the chooks. After finding Broody girl #2 on the nest again yesterday, but not having the heart to dip her hindparts in cold water, I just isolated her in the meat chicken pen for the day and left her there until dark. Once it was dark, I moved her back in the coop on a perch. She nested herself once today but stayed outside after I removed her from the two eggs she had parked on. Another one of the girls is molting. The run and coop look “feathered” and the egg production is down to a maximum of 6 a day out of 12 hens. Hopefully things will settle back into production soon.

Today I decided to start making my own whole grain chicken feed instead of buying the very unappetizing pellets. I am finding that the chooks aren’t eating all of the pellets I put out for them and it is such a waste. They never waste the 5 grain scratch which is a good start on home mixed food. Add some flaxseed, sesame seed, oats, kamut, lentils, kelp and brewer’s yeast and you have a mix that is high enough protein for the layers, they like it, and it doesn’t turn to mush if it gets damp. They don’t eat quite as much at a time either. Since they get free range time for most of each day, they are also getting fresh grass, bugs and totally decimating some of my perennial herbs. I had to put a low fence around one bed that they have decided is a good place to dig, dustbath, and just lay around in.

Another surprise in the garden was secondary broccoli. The primary broccoli heads were harvested a few weeks ago but I left the plants in place. With the freezes, they were relatively cabbage worm free and enough was harvested for a meal or two.

As a bonus, the chooks got the remaining plants tossed in their pen for their entertainment and whatever nourishment they can get from the leaves and the few cabbage worms lurking there.

The day has clouded over, though we aren’t supposed to get rain until Thursday. It was a good day to be outdoors for a while.

November 4, 2014
A Crisp Late Fall Day

The morning is crisp, actually right around freezing right now, but the sun is warming the day back to normal fall weather after our Arctic chill of the weekend. Even on days like this when the sun is out, the little alcove on the south deck is toasty, sheltered from the NW breeze. The view from the porch swing is stunning, though most of the leaves are gone now and the trees bare until spring. It is a great place to sit with a cup of tea and watch the chickens free range and look out for deer and turkey or listen for the hawks call.
The morning chores are done, fresh hay in the coop, chickens fed, their water and the garden hose thawed. I guess I should bring it in for the winter though that makes chicken chores more difficult as I then have to haul the 5 gallons of water from the yard hydrant to their run.
In spite of the shortening days and frigid nights of late, I have another broody girl. She has plucked her breast feathers as the weather chills and I fear for her winter health. She isn’t being allowed to sit eggs, I am removing them several times a day from the coop instead of just at lock down time. I’ve tried removing her repeatedly during the day, set a bag of ice under her, removed her to a perch at night, blocked off her preferred box (she just moves). Today I will dip her backsides in cold water if the temperature rises enough and put her in the meat bird pen alone for the day.
Romeo has nearly finished his molt and doesn’t look nearly as ragged as when he arrived. His neck feathers are glossy and darker than the hens and his tail feathers are coming back in. He isn’t as beautiful as Cogburn was but still a fine looking rooster and calm and nonaggressive toward people.
The greens in the garden perked back up, a mess of them and a roasted pumpkin are on the menu for tonight.
The reknit of the sweater is progressing and last night I ordered yarns for grands sweaters for Christmas.
It looks to be a good first half of the week, perhaps I’ll finally get the garlic planted or there won’t be any next year.
Lovin’ life on our mountain farm.

November 3, 2014
Arctic Zone

Yesterday was cold and wet, rain at our elevation, snow about 800 feet above us. With the cold was wind, stripping the gold and red leaves from the trees that had not lost their leaves yet. A good day to stay indoors, but it was Farmers’ Market day and if we were to have meat this week, other than chicken, a trip to town was necessary. We dallied, not leaving to have breakfast as on most weekends and knowing that there was a home game at the University in town, an attempt to try to miss the traffic seeking to find parking on side streets or failing that, paying $10/car in church lots or people’s yards. Home games are madness in our little town as the university is huge and the alumni dedicated, even in a cold rain. The market was done, the vendors all thanking us for coming out in such nastiness, but we came home with ground beef, stew meat, onions and radishes, still having greens in the garden and a bit of the last salad in the refrigerator. Our usual meat vendor wasn’t there, so I was unable to get the ground pork that I wanted to make a stuffed pumpkin this week, unless I can find a package in the chest freezer. Or perhaps, I will make a pumpkin, chicken curry in a pumpkin shell, there is plenty of coconut milk and red curry in the pantry.

Once home, the winter squash picked over the prior two days were toted down to the root cellar in the basement, two big canvas sacks at a time, many, many trips up and down the stairs. The shelves look ready to provide well this winter.

Pumpkins, sweet potatoes, garlic and canned goodies. This is what is left after loads to northern Virginia and what is upstairs in the pantry. The freezer stocked with green beans, peas, apples, chicken and a bit of pork and beef stockpiled from weekend trips to the Farmers’ Market. Our favorite meat vendor toughs it out at the market on all but the worst winter Saturday’s throughout the upcoming winter.

As the wind blew last night, and the temperature dropped, our power failed. Quickly gathering up the battery lanterns and flashlights and tossing a down blanket on the two quilts on the bed, I settled in with my tablet that had a good charge and the ebook that I am currently reading. Fortunately, the power only stayed out a couple of hours and we were awakened by the TV and lights coming on and the computer printer doing a self start, though it had been powered off before.

The morning dawned an hour earlier, thanks to the time change last night from daylight savings time. Yes, I know, an extra hour to sleep, hmmmph, I awake with the sun and get up once awake, my body doesn’t just switch gears like the clock. As I let the pups out, I realized that we were seeing our first snow flurries and the lightest of dusting on the ground and decks.

Mountain snow showers are a common occurrence, rarely amounting to anything, whenever there is moisture in the air and the temperature below freezing. The freeze last night, the first freeze burned back the pumpkin patch and the bean patch. The greens look sad this morning but will perk back up as the daytime temperatures rise above freezing.

After feeding the chickens and breaking the ice on their water, a walk through the ruined patch revealed as I suspected, several more pumpkins. The largest, not damaged ones gathered and brought in, like I really need more in the house.

Happily, several of them were Buttercup squash. A couple were tossed into the chicken pen and the rest left to be gathered in the garage or thrown immediately to the chickens over this week once the wind dies down and the temperature rises to a more comfortable range. This was the first morning that I had to don the heavy barn coat to go deal with the birds.

The peppers that were gathered prior to the expected Arctic chill have all been processed, the tiny jalapenos sliced and frozen, some used in last night’s chili with cornbread for dinner. The small bell peppers, sliced and frozen, the ripe habeneros packed whole in freezer bags, the green ones set in a bowl to ripen as you can see they are doing. They too will be bagged and frozen. The tiny hot orange pepper that I still haven’t identified, was pureed with vinegar they had been soaking in for the past few weeks and a Tabasco-like sauce made that a single drop burned my mouth for an hour. The rest of them are ripening on the upside down plants in the garage. The tomatillos that we gathered were rid of their husks, washed and packed whole in freezer bags, another 3 pounds to be used in Pozole this winter. A chicken, some tomatillos, a bag of dried hominy soaked, a handful of Mexican spices and a hearty soup to feed a small army is made.

We are lovin’ life on our mountain farm and now must accept another winter is upon us. We were lucky this year, we got an extra 2-3 weeks before the first frost.

November 2, 2014