Category: Country living

Putting By Commences

Our strawberry plants are first year and we probably won’t see any berries this year and strawberry jam is grandson and son-in-law’s favorite. When I was in the grocery yesterday, I saw that 16 oz clam shells of organic strawberries were 2 for $5.00. Not inexpensive, but a really good price for them. I haven’t found any you pick strawberry fields within an hour drive of us and even if I did, they probably aren’t organic. I purchased 6 clam shells of strawberries. It was interesting that they varied in weight from barely 16 ounces to almost 22 ounces.

I pulled down my copy of preserving by the pint and set about to make jam.

I love the recipe as it has only strawberries and honey with a couple tablespoons of lemon juice. Since it is pectin free, it requires longer cooking and a broad shallow pan to cook it, so it only makes a couple of half pints per batch. The rhythm was quickly found, cutting the first batch, adding the honey to sit for 10 minutes and starting cutting the next batch. While the first batch cooked, the second batch was prepped. The first batch was cooked and put in clean jars to can. While it was processing, the second batch was cooking and the third batch was being prepped. When done, all 12 half pints popped as they sealed, a good sign and now they are sitting to cool on the kitchen counter.

There will be a blackberry jam making session this summer. Blueberries and raspberries canned or frozen for muffins and pancakes or cobblers.

All of the canning supplies will be put away now as it will be a couple of months before we need them again, but it is nice to put something on the shelves now instead of using up the last of the supplies from summer past. Perhaps we will stumble on another deal on strawberries and will put away a few more jars.

April 7, 2015
Signs of Spring

Leaves on the Lilacs
Blooms on the Forsythia, my favorite spring shrub.
New chicks

Frightful on the left behind the waterer. Three are Redtail Hawk colored, one is more black and gray with just a bit of reddish brown in her wings.

The four new Americauna pullets were picked up today. Not wanting to order chicks, set up the brooder and raise them until they could go outside, I spotted a post on one of my Facebook Groups from a lady who offered to include your order in hers and you could pick up your day old chicks from her for cost or she would raise them to 8 weeks for a fee. Wanting to keep a heritage flock of the Buffys, but missing the green eggs from the Olive Egger, I ordered 4 Americaunas from her and agreed to pay the fee to let her raise them til feathered and able to be outside. By fall we should have green, blue or pink eggs.

Daughter and I used a roll of heavy mil plastic and stapled it to the sides of the chicken tractor, put the food and water inside and introduced them to their new temporary home. In a few days, they will be released into the pen to run around and graze and get acquainted with the Buffys through the fence. In 8 more weeks, once they can have the whole grain feed mixed with layer pellets, they will move to the coop. I hope by then that one or more of the Buffys decide to get broody and sit a nest. They will be moved to the brooder pen once they hatch which might expedite moving the Americaunas. Daughter has decided that the largest one with the Retail Hawk like coloring and the dark head should be named Frightful after the Falcon in My Side of the Mountain. The other three are still unnamed. I don’t name birds that I know will eventually end up in the stew pot, so I don’t know if they will be named.

The Buffys got free range time while all of this was going on and every time I moved toward the house or back out toward the pens, I felt like the Pied Piper with the flock so close to my feet that I had to walk with a shuffle to keep from stepping on a hen. They will eat out of my hand, but they don’t want to be petted.

April 6, 2015
Chaos to Quiet

What a week this has been and I hardly took a photo. Last weekend we picked up eldest grandson in Northern Virginia and brought him to our farm for spring break so we had three of the grandchildren here with no parents. The grandson that lives with us currently was in school until early release on Thursday for his spring break, so we mostly were caring for only two during the day. Daughter and son in law arrived back here on Tuesday night, exhausted after taking two days to drive a mammoth truck with their goods here. Wednesday, Mountaingdad provided childcare while we unloaded the truck into two storage units, then helped us take the furniture out of our front bedroom to put their bedroom furniture in there. Thursday after son-in-law’s successful interview, we moved our bedroom furniture into their storage unit.

Fortunately the weather last week was wonderful, allowing free range time for the chooks.

They are loving the sprouting chickweed. Tomorrow, the brooder pen will become home of 4 almost 8 week old Americaunas who will join the flock in a month or so, once they become acquainted through the fences and by fall, we should have some colored eggs to add to the one’s layed by the Buffy’s. Some of the Buffy’s will be culled and hopefully, there will be some new Buffy’s to add to the flock.

And nice weather for the cousins to run the fields and Mountaingdad to take a ride on the BBH to go the hour and a half to the dealer to have servicing and a flag added to the back.

Friday, I drove eldest grandson back to Northern Virginia in time for his evening guitar practice. We ran errands that night and yesterday morning and then I drove home, delighted to find daughter preparing dinner, so I didn’t have to worry with it.

Today we had our traditional Easter dinner of ham, au gratin potatoes, asparagus, deviled eggs and rolls mid day and daughter drove son-in-law to the airport to fly back to Florida for his last two weeks work there before he joins his family here and begins his new job.

It has been busy, this evening it is quiet and I will rest.

Loving life on our mountain farm and all of the young activity here.

April 5, 2015
The Crystal Palace

The storm of yesterday has passed, again creating a snow covered swathe diagonally up across Virginia and to the north east. Today the sun is brilliant and the day so far is frigid. Yesterday afternoon, the chickens were huddled underneath the coop as the snow fell, they were soaked and I was worried about frostbite. Have you ever tried to herd chickens? Not an easy task, but one by one they were prodded out from under the coop to a small patch that I cleared right by their ladder and most willingly went inside. A few had to be picked up and placed inside, the pop door closed and a couple of extra scoops of whole grain feed tossed down to both entertain and warm them as I hoped they would dry before the single digit cold arrived and arrive it did. We plunged from the mid 30’s yesterday morning to 6f (-14.5c) early this morning.

The brilliant sun is causing the ice coated trees and shrubs to sparkle and glitter, the snow blindingly white. Our total on this storm was only about 6″, but it is on ice. The muddy ruts that had formed in our driveway are now frozen ruts but the next week is going to be spring like with a few periods of rain, so the ruts will return.

The chickens pen was cleared of enough snow to toss down their grain and coax them out to feed.

School has been cancelled for the second day in a row, the 14th day this school year. Only one of those days has been made up and only 4 more make up days are currently in the schedule. Their options are to extend the school day or add more days on to the end of the year. They don’t really haven’t any vacation days built in to take that haven’t already been taken. Spring break is only the Friday and Monday bracketing Easter Sunday.

The day is beautiful and the scenery is photo worthy, we didn’t lose power, but I am ready for winter to exit.

March 6, 2015
Tracks

One of the beauties of having snow is the reveal of wildlife that are either nocturnal or camouflaged enough to hide in the woods. With snow on the floor of the woods surrounding our land, we can see the deer and turkey as they move across the white background. Usually we don’t see the deer until they move out into the field, but with the grass covered, they can be seen grazing from the low branches of the smaller trees and shrubs that provide the under story growth.

After the heavy snow last week, the first tracks that I spotted other than the kids and dogs were a path leading from the woods, across the hay field, up diagonally across the upper field and disappearing into the thicket. An investigation to see if it was a deer or a coyote revealed that instead it was Jumper Jr., the young cow that belongs to our neighbor. She visits frequently to graze our field, leaving her herd and last fall, even her spring calf on the other side of the fence. She must have been disappointed to see that the grass was covered on our side of the fence as it was on her own side and she wandered back to eat the hay that had been provided at home. It amazed me that such a large animal could leave such a narrow path through the snow, but her hoof prints were clearly visible in the path.

The day after her track was found, I discovered canine prints coming from the north east woods, straight down, across the electric fence and right up to the chicken coop. Those tracks were not there the night before and our dogs are fearful of the electric fence, so it was probably a coyote or a fox looking for an easy meal. Fortunately the chooks were securely locked in their coop for the night. The tracks were somewhat degraded by the wind blown snow, so they were difficult to identify.

This morning in the light layer that fell yesterday, I found rabbit tracks and the tracks in the lower photo that I can not identify. Both sets came from the north east woods and visited the spoiled hay bales, the compost bin, and the old compost bin where the squash and pumpkins grew last summer.

The critters are out seeking food with the ground covered by the iced over snow. Perhaps I will spread some chicken scratch and birdseed on the snow surface for them.

February 25, 2015
Cave Hill Olympics Vol. 4

Last winter Olympics we had a couple of back to back snows and grandkids coming. We bought a couple of plastic toboggans in anticipation. Once our friendly farmer neighbor with the behemoth tractor with a heated cab plowed us out, we drove to town, resupplied and parked the 4 wheel drive SUV at the top of the driveway. With the toboggans in the back, we loaded the groceries onto the toboggans and before Mountaingdad could turn around, I hopped into one with the groceries and started sliding down the driveway of packed snow and ice. He quickly caught on and hopped in the other one to race me. Each time we had to go out for supplies, we dragged one of them to the top of the drive (2/10 mile) and hauled the supplies back down to the house. When the kids arrived, the fun really began and we took many photos of kids and adults, us included, sledding down the various hills on the property. The biggest kid was our son in law, the one still in Florida trying to sell their house, but he is flying in today for the weekend and some snow fun.

The day after our foot of snow this week, we dragged the sleds out and bundled everyone up for some snow play.

Once we struggled uphill to the top of the drive, sledding down hills as we went and hauling the 3 year old on one sled, we discovered that the road had been plowed by a pickup truck with a front blade and it as it is downhill from the paved road to the bottom of Cave Hill (the hill beyond our house), it made a great toboggan run. All of us, from the youngest, with an adult to the most senior of us, took turns sliding down the slick packed hill, laughing and getting snow covered.

So much fun to be “young.”

Last night after 8 p.m., the neighbor farmer and his behemoth with enough lights to light up our house, plowed us out. We had gotten an additional couple of inches of snow yesterday, it was 13f (-10.5c) with strong wind blowing snow in whiteouts.

We woke to -1f (-18.3c) with a high today of only 4f (-15.5c) and a low tonight of -14f (-25.5c) and light snow falling. We have fires in the wood stove and fireplace and will hunker down except for a trip out to pick up son-in-law by one or two of us when his plane arrives.

Tomorrow is supposed to be somewhat warmer and I expect a great deal of snowplay will occur, lots of dryer time as we dry out layers for more play. Saturday, we are expecting another 5″ of snow and ice before a thaw begins on Sunday. We will enjoy it while it lasts and hope that spring is on its way.

February 19, 2015
All closed up

Our entire region is shut down. No school, many businesses, and community services are closed today. The region doesn’t handle more than a couple of inches of snow, especially when they can’t pretreat the roads. Our 4 wheel drive SUV would probably be able to get up our gravel driveway and our gravel road but the paved road is likely an ice and snow covered downhill slick.
The sun is trying to come out, broken clouds still flurrying, the wind is howling and blowing the snow we got everywhere. The official count for our community was 9″ but going over to do chicken chores, the snow in the yard is over my barn boots and they are 11″ high.

Because the chickens have been cooped up for three days, I attempted to get them outside. Spoiled hay was spread in the run and food put outside in a pan so it wouldn’t disappear 11″ down.

Yesterday they fouled their water pan I used so I could knock the ice out of it each time I went to give them more, so today I hung a waterer inside and spread a new foot of straw in the coop. Between scratching for feed and kicking it out when the coop door is open, the foot thick layer from last week was only a couple inches deep of finely broken straw.
In spite of my efforts, they would go out the return immediately to the coop. They are still laying, we are getting 6 top 8 a day.
The grands want to go play in the snow, but with it in the teens and the wind blowing, it is a bit too cold for much time outside.
We have had our good snow, now I’m ready for spring. I can’t even imagine being in Boston this winter.

February 17, 2015
Winter’s Roar

Our winter has been unusual to say the least. Until a couple of weeks ago, I think the temperatures had been above normal with occasional snow flurries, a few barely covered the ground snow falls that didn’t last. Then things changed. We haven’t seen daytime temperatures rising above 20° (-6.7°c) and night time temperatures near zero (-17.8°c) in more than a week. On Saturday, we were expecting flurries and got several inches with sharp temperature drops. We had driven in to town to a nice restaurant to celebrate our 37th Valentine Day and Anniversary and the drive back home was a white knuckle ride.

Yesterday we took Son#1 and Grandson#1 to the bus to return home from bringing my car home and a weekend visit and it was brutally cold and windy, wind chills in the double digit negatives.
There were severe weather warnings posted for today and the school makeup day that had been scheduled for today was canceled.

We woke to the expected snow. So far about 5″ with the heaviest part of the system due this evening and overnight. We may be looking at a foot or more with extremely cold temperatures and expected to drop to -10°f (-23.3°c) Thursday night. We aren’t used to that type of temperature. Our firewood supply is running low and our heat pump is struggling.
My chooks won’t come out of the coop when there is snow on the ground and with the temperatures as they are, I didn’t even open the pop door today. I have gone out 3 times to change out the frozen water, twice to throw down a scoop of feed into the straw and collect the eggs before they freeze.
Our neighbor has two very pregnant cows and we saw her go down to check on them before the snow cover got too deep. Our steep gravel road will be difficult to traverse in a couple more inches of snow. I hope the cows don’t calve before we have a moderation in weather back to around freezing this weekend.
The grands are playing in the rec room, I am knitting, reading, and cooking stew and homemade bread. A good way to spend a frigid snowy day.

February 16, 2015
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