This book is far from new, it was published in 1945, but it was new to me up until a month ago. I'd heard the reference to it, but didn't realize for a long time it was referring to a book. I thought it was a reference to a setting with lots of creatures, like, you know, maybe a farm, with lots of animals.
So for those like me who somehow missed this classic in high school, it is a satire on the Russian Revolution. The story is about a farm where the animals are tired of being mistreated by the farmer, revolt, and take over running the farm. The pigs, being the smartest, take charge. They lay out the Seven Commandments, learn to read and teach (mostly unsuccessfully) the other animals how to read, direct the work, and otherwise rule the newly re-named Animal Farm. All is fine until someone wants more than others and the Commandments get ... bent. I won't spoil the details - I recommend read the book, or listen to the audio book read by Richard Brown. I went through my library's online service (they use hoopla) and listened on my phone.
There's all kinds of remarks and political opinions on this book I won't get into, but I did think of this story when I was listening to the news the other day. At certain points in debates, one animal gets the sheep to drown everyone else out with a chant that, effectively, stops the debate altogether. It reminded me of the town hall meetings where people with real questions wanting a real dialogue are getting drowned out by protesters yelling and chanting until they shut down the meeting. I'm not a conspiracy theorist or anything, but who is teaching those sheep?
.
.
.
Okay, to end on a happy note, the sun is now up and I'm going to check the fruit in the dehydrator, get another cup of coffee, and figure out how to tune my mower.
Joyfully yours,
K
Saturday, April 22, 2017
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Chickens 2017 - The chicks
You know those kind of people who are prepared for things before they commit? I'm not really one of those people. Usually I have some kind of idea, especially if it is my idea and not being forced upon me. But I am never totally prepared. I was in the middle of the dining room built-in buffet project when I committed to having my son's birthday party a few years ago. So, in true fashion, I put in an order for 60 meat chicks when I had no home for the chicks (cold outside) and no coop for the chickens.
So, Yes! I put in my order and payment for 60 meat chicks, with one week to get a brooder ready, and 6 layers chicks, due 3 weeks later. The layers are coming from a friend who is putting some of her fertilized eggs in the incubator this week. I was not able to go with a local breeder for the broilers, so they came from the Family Farm & Home, on sale. Which is why I went ahead and ordered them even though I wasn't ready.
Failure #1: Last year we did we did 10 chicks inside the house.
They started in a tub in the bathroom, then in the actual bathtub (thank goodness for a second bath), then outside in an enclosed mobile coop. We decided after that - no more chickens in the bathroom. It needed a total wash-down and airing out for days. Not again, no, thank you.
This is what we came up with for the chicks in our unfinished basement. We did change to all red lamps for heat, hanging right in the middle, and a white lamp hanging from ceiling for light during the day. We only had one heat lamp, feeder and waterer, and the wire shelf, so everything we had to buy.
Failure #2: 60 chicks grow really fast.
Did you know that 60 chicks take six times more room, food, and water than 10 chicks? Who knew? Okay, I'm no idiot, I knew that. But this was the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowing and understanding are not always the same thing. We quickly ran out of room for these chicks to be comfy. We had them split up, first into 3 tubs, then 4, and we were filling food at water in each tub 3 times a day - 4 by the time they moved outside. They had feathers, but not fully feathered out, and the temperature was still too low to go without heat lamps, but they were about 2 days away from not being able to move around inside the tubs any more. So we had to make their outside home work, ready or not.
Quick note: I added about a tablespoon of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar to a gallon of water for them from day 2, and they had no problem.
Failure #3: Dead chickens.
We did lose one chick the first day, one chick the third day, and another chick after a week and a half. Every one of them were found under other birds, apparantly smothered. I ordered 10 more than we actually need for loss and give aways, so that wasn't an issue. It bothered me, though, these poor little guys, getting squished when they had plenty of room, and heat - even in the middle of the night they were next to each other, but not huddled in a solid mass. I'm told this happens, and we haven't lost any more since. I used it as a teachable moment and moved on.
Next up...the broiler coop project. Until then,
Joyfully yours,
K
So, Yes! I put in my order and payment for 60 meat chicks, with one week to get a brooder ready, and 6 layers chicks, due 3 weeks later. The layers are coming from a friend who is putting some of her fertilized eggs in the incubator this week. I was not able to go with a local breeder for the broilers, so they came from the Family Farm & Home, on sale. Which is why I went ahead and ordered them even though I wasn't ready.
Failure #1: Last year we did we did 10 chicks inside the house.
They started in a tub in the bathroom, then in the actual bathtub (thank goodness for a second bath), then outside in an enclosed mobile coop. We decided after that - no more chickens in the bathroom. It needed a total wash-down and airing out for days. Not again, no, thank you.
This is what we came up with for the chicks in our unfinished basement. We did change to all red lamps for heat, hanging right in the middle, and a white lamp hanging from ceiling for light during the day. We only had one heat lamp, feeder and waterer, and the wire shelf, so everything we had to buy.
Failure #2: 60 chicks grow really fast.
Did you know that 60 chicks take six times more room, food, and water than 10 chicks? Who knew? Okay, I'm no idiot, I knew that. But this was the difference between knowledge and wisdom. Knowing and understanding are not always the same thing. We quickly ran out of room for these chicks to be comfy. We had them split up, first into 3 tubs, then 4, and we were filling food at water in each tub 3 times a day - 4 by the time they moved outside. They had feathers, but not fully feathered out, and the temperature was still too low to go without heat lamps, but they were about 2 days away from not being able to move around inside the tubs any more. So we had to make their outside home work, ready or not.
Quick note: I added about a tablespoon of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar to a gallon of water for them from day 2, and they had no problem.
Failure #3: Dead chickens.
We did lose one chick the first day, one chick the third day, and another chick after a week and a half. Every one of them were found under other birds, apparantly smothered. I ordered 10 more than we actually need for loss and give aways, so that wasn't an issue. It bothered me, though, these poor little guys, getting squished when they had plenty of room, and heat - even in the middle of the night they were next to each other, but not huddled in a solid mass. I'm told this happens, and we haven't lost any more since. I used it as a teachable moment and moved on.
Next up...the broiler coop project. Until then,
Joyfully yours,
K
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
It's like permanant vacation....
I know days will come when being at stay at home mom won't feel like vacation (I'm only on day 4 after all), but I am going to enjoy it as long as possible. The kids are on Spring Break, so that helps, too. Call it a honeymoon phase. It is a very strange feeling, waking up and my biggest decisions to make are what's for dinner and do we go on a bike ride or to the store first today? Everything else is working on small projects around the house. I can look at an undone (or more likely, half done) project and think "Yeah, I'm going to do that today," instead of figuring out how to fit a whole day's worth of chores into 6 hours on 5 hours sleep.
I shouldn't complain about how it was. I know people who are up at 4am and not home until 7, then they are putting little kids to bed at 8, or shuttling kids to and from sports or music or clubs until 10, day after day, with more sports and clubs and work on the weekends. And I'm not trying to gloat, either. I'm not sitting in some fancy mansion with a BMW in the drive while Hubby earns a 6-figure income sitting at a desk. We've chosen to take the path of being more self-reliant, enjoying simpler pleasures, and going without things that others aren't willing to.
Yes, I have a five year old vehicle with a payment, but we no longer have cable. Yes, our kids have a video game system, but it was given to us and he just bought 5 used games for a whopping $20, using a gift card from his birthday. Yes, I still go to the grocery store, but I buy my eggs, beef, pork and lamb from a local farmer and am raising my own meat chickens, and I preserve a lot of my own food. Yes, Hubby just splurged on that new camera, but I do almost all my clothes shopping (and home goods, books, homeschool supplies, etc.) at second hand stores. It's a give and take, and the more I "give" - not buying a lot of stuff and buying used - the more I "get" - less time at work to afford it all and more time doing thing, like chickens, together.
It all get round back to my Joysmithing goal - creating a more joyful life. The less money I have to spend, the less I (meaning Hubby now, of course) have to earn, and the freer we are to be home as a family. And whether 'home as a family' means enjoying a fire in the backyard while kids play flashlight tag, or building and fixing things at home instead of shipping it off to a repair shop, we are still doing it together.
And now it's time to....well, whatever I want, right? 😊 Actually, going to bed at a decent hour has its perks. Quiet time before kids are up to enjoy some coffee and blog, laundry's already on it's second run, I have some pictures to put in new (used 😉) frames since the cheap ones broke, and then a shopping list. It really is amazing, how much lighter I feel. I didn't feel stressed about my job before, but this new feeling of freedom really is a feeling of being lighter. I can't describe it any better than that, but I bet you out there who have made the choice I have no what I'm talking about. Here's hoping we can all feel this weightless joy.
Joyfully yours,
K
I shouldn't complain about how it was. I know people who are up at 4am and not home until 7, then they are putting little kids to bed at 8, or shuttling kids to and from sports or music or clubs until 10, day after day, with more sports and clubs and work on the weekends. And I'm not trying to gloat, either. I'm not sitting in some fancy mansion with a BMW in the drive while Hubby earns a 6-figure income sitting at a desk. We've chosen to take the path of being more self-reliant, enjoying simpler pleasures, and going without things that others aren't willing to.
Yes, I have a five year old vehicle with a payment, but we no longer have cable. Yes, our kids have a video game system, but it was given to us and he just bought 5 used games for a whopping $20, using a gift card from his birthday. Yes, I still go to the grocery store, but I buy my eggs, beef, pork and lamb from a local farmer and am raising my own meat chickens, and I preserve a lot of my own food. Yes, Hubby just splurged on that new camera, but I do almost all my clothes shopping (and home goods, books, homeschool supplies, etc.) at second hand stores. It's a give and take, and the more I "give" - not buying a lot of stuff and buying used - the more I "get" - less time at work to afford it all and more time doing thing, like chickens, together.
It all get round back to my Joysmithing goal - creating a more joyful life. The less money I have to spend, the less I (meaning Hubby now, of course) have to earn, and the freer we are to be home as a family. And whether 'home as a family' means enjoying a fire in the backyard while kids play flashlight tag, or building and fixing things at home instead of shipping it off to a repair shop, we are still doing it together.
And now it's time to....well, whatever I want, right? 😊 Actually, going to bed at a decent hour has its perks. Quiet time before kids are up to enjoy some coffee and blog, laundry's already on it's second run, I have some pictures to put in new (used 😉) frames since the cheap ones broke, and then a shopping list. It really is amazing, how much lighter I feel. I didn't feel stressed about my job before, but this new feeling of freedom really is a feeling of being lighter. I can't describe it any better than that, but I bet you out there who have made the choice I have no what I'm talking about. Here's hoping we can all feel this weightless joy.
Joyfully yours,
K
Tuesday, April 11, 2017
New Holiday on April 14th!
No, you haven't missed anything in the news. This is my own new personal holiday.
I have 4 more days of working my full-time job before I retire!
I'm not near old enough to actually retire, but I am quitting work to be home on weeknights to be with hubby and the kids, start homeschooling again, have more time to garden, more time to finish house projects, and more time just to be. I worked about 19 years in different careers while I became a wife, mother, homeowner, camper, gardener, hiker, chicken raiser, and all the rest. I enjoy my job, and get satisfaction from doing it well so that my co-workers can concentrate on the job they have to do, but my passion is my family, and the two can't be balanced out anymore. I am ready to drop the working part. I am so grateful to Hubby for doing all the financial stuff to get us ready, and supporting my decision. And before anyone shakes their head and think me naïve, I know I am actually going to have more work as a stay at home mom than going to a job. And while I won't get a paycheck to take to the bank, I will be paid in so many other ways it will more than make up for it. Like Handsome Boy says, I am rich in love.
In other news, since I haven't written in over a month, our meat chickens are here and the broiler coop is finished - what a learning curve! Our egg layers are in my friend's incubator, the new garden beds are covered in straw waiting for a design plan and Mother's Day (aka planting day), shower tiling is in progress, Mom is mended up and ready to move back home, and spring is here!!! Otherwise, I'm generally just trying to put my life in some kind of order so I can actually get things done instead of looking around wondering where to start. Ever since the fall holidays, any routine I once had was thrown out the window. Almost every day has been reactionary. A list got accomplished on schedule here and there, but not nearly enough. I am ready to find my new routine.
As Tim Young from The Self-Sufficient Life says, Here's to getting out of the rat race!
Joyfully yours,
K
P.S. Go Check out Tim's website and podcast. He tells his own stories, interviews with others, and chats with his wife. It's a great show.
I have 4 more days of working my full-time job before I retire!
I'm not near old enough to actually retire, but I am quitting work to be home on weeknights to be with hubby and the kids, start homeschooling again, have more time to garden, more time to finish house projects, and more time just to be. I worked about 19 years in different careers while I became a wife, mother, homeowner, camper, gardener, hiker, chicken raiser, and all the rest. I enjoy my job, and get satisfaction from doing it well so that my co-workers can concentrate on the job they have to do, but my passion is my family, and the two can't be balanced out anymore. I am ready to drop the working part. I am so grateful to Hubby for doing all the financial stuff to get us ready, and supporting my decision. And before anyone shakes their head and think me naïve, I know I am actually going to have more work as a stay at home mom than going to a job. And while I won't get a paycheck to take to the bank, I will be paid in so many other ways it will more than make up for it. Like Handsome Boy says, I am rich in love.
In other news, since I haven't written in over a month, our meat chickens are here and the broiler coop is finished - what a learning curve! Our egg layers are in my friend's incubator, the new garden beds are covered in straw waiting for a design plan and Mother's Day (aka planting day), shower tiling is in progress, Mom is mended up and ready to move back home, and spring is here!!! Otherwise, I'm generally just trying to put my life in some kind of order so I can actually get things done instead of looking around wondering where to start. Ever since the fall holidays, any routine I once had was thrown out the window. Almost every day has been reactionary. A list got accomplished on schedule here and there, but not nearly enough. I am ready to find my new routine.
As Tim Young from The Self-Sufficient Life says, Here's to getting out of the rat race!
Joyfully yours,
K
P.S. Go Check out Tim's website and podcast. He tells his own stories, interviews with others, and chats with his wife. It's a great show.
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Book review: Give Please A Chance by Bill O'Reilly and James Patterson
Little Princess got this book for Christmas from her Great Great Aunt R. It is so cute, and both kids love it. It is a good lesson book on saying please, without appearing as a lesson book. It is easy to read, with wonderful, full-page illustrations by different illustrators. That actually brought on a discussion about types of drawings, media, paints, etc, and research on Handsome Boy's favorites. Princess likes to say "Sure you can" on almost every page, and it has a lot of the simple words she's working on for school. I also like how the kids in the pictures are different ages, and in a lot of common situations. It's about 35-40 pages, but only one line on one side, and a picture and "Please" on the other.
I don't know what ages this is geared toward, but I think anything in elementary or lower would be appropriate. I'm grateful we got this book as a gift. It's already been requested for reading a dozen times in a week. Check it out from your local library if they have it, and buy it if you like it for keeps.
Joyfully yours,
K
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Beef order 2017 / Freezer storage solution
I am so glad (and lucky) I am able to buy meat from a farmer. I know that's not a viable option for everyone, but I would encourage everyone to contact a local FFA, CSA, even your nearest feed or tractor store to contact a farmer that sells their animals direct to consumer. No, I'm not talking about bringing a cow home to your backyard (although with enough room, I suppose you could). It means you buy the animal from the farmer who's raised it, and they (or you or another party) take it to the butcher, who takes care of the slaughter and wraps it up nice and neat for you.
Of course, there's more than one way to do it, but that it how my guy does it. And I'm so glad he does. I don't even ask ahead of time how much it will be. He just asks "Still want a pig?" Or "I have 2 lambs, you want them?" and I just say yes. The meat is delicious no matter what kind of animal it is and they aren't raised in a 'commercial' environment - he personally is with them at least twice a day to let them out to pasture, check their water, feed them slop, gather eggs, etc. And pasture means zero to little feed with who knows what in it. They aren't given antibiotics, growth hormones, or any other 'boosters' that they just don't need. They live off grass, clean water, and fresh air, and get feed and hay only when it's too dry or cold to support a forage diet.
Okay, I'm off my soapbox. Look at it this way. I am supporting a local farmer, I am choosing ahead of time all my cuts, and I am getting delicious meat for a very good price. Just wait, I'll get to that. I can't promise my price will be yours. In fact, it probably won't if your farmer is doing this as a business. My farmer is going to raise these animals anyway, and you can't have just one right? So he might as well get an extra one or two, sell them to friends, and recoup some of his costs. Like I said - I am lucky.
Anyway, aside from pouring over my cookbooks that have pictures of cuts of meat and trusting in my butcher to help guide me through the unknowns of meat orders, I also had to come up with a storage solution. I have a big chest freezer that was gifted to us, but once I put those boxes full of wrapped up meat in there, how in the world do I know what I have? Note: I can't take credit for the original idea. People have been doing this for years.
Anyway, aside from pouring over my cookbooks that have pictures of cuts of meat and trusting in my butcher to help guide me through the unknowns of meat orders, I also had to come up with a storage solution. I have a big chest freezer that was gifted to us, but once I put those boxes full of wrapped up meat in there, how in the world do I know what I have? Note: I can't take credit for the original idea. People have been doing this for years.
Solution: Make a list.
Wait, that's it? Yup. That is it. It seems so simple, right? And it is! A few minutes of work before stacking up boxes in the freezer makes for infinitely more minutes I am not trying to dig in the freezer just to see what I have. Hindsight really is 20/20, because I've dug through that freezer more times than I can count. And when I am short on time and don't have a plan for dinner, the last thing I want to do is move around boxes and bags stacked inside a chest freezer! If you have one, you know what I'm talking about.
So I list up how many packages of what, and number the boxes 1, 2, 3, etc. so I know what is where, and hang the list on my freezer upstairs. Now when I am brainstorming the weekly menu or just trying to get ideas for that night, I know exactly what I have. And I mark it off as I go, so I can make sure I'm using it and when I need to get more. I keep a separate list for beef, pork, lamb, chicken, premade meals (dated), homemade apple cider, veggies, and whatever else goes in that freezer. I started doing in for the stand up freezer, too, just so I wasn't digging through cold boxes with the door standing open.
So if you've ever lost something in your big freezer, take that extra minute and make an inventory, then keep it up whenever something comes in or out. You will save yourself time and energy, which you can use on more Joyful things in your life.
Joyfully yours,
K
So I list up how many packages of what, and number the boxes 1, 2, 3, etc. so I know what is where, and hang the list on my freezer upstairs. Now when I am brainstorming the weekly menu or just trying to get ideas for that night, I know exactly what I have. And I mark it off as I go, so I can make sure I'm using it and when I need to get more. I keep a separate list for beef, pork, lamb, chicken, premade meals (dated), homemade apple cider, veggies, and whatever else goes in that freezer. I started doing in for the stand up freezer, too, just so I wasn't digging through cold boxes with the door standing open.
So if you've ever lost something in your big freezer, take that extra minute and make an inventory, then keep it up whenever something comes in or out. You will save yourself time and energy, which you can use on more Joyful things in your life.
Joyfully yours,
K
Monday, January 30, 2017
Multi-meals with Lamb and Bacon
I am ever working on my cooking skills, but what I really need is more organization in my food use. I get beef and pork every year from a farmer friend, I've also gotten lamb from him the last 2 years, and I've been gifted venison from my neighbor more than once (repaid with dried fruit goods). I also have foods I have canned and dried myself. So I have food in the house. Then the question is - what do I do with it?
My solution is meal planning and cooking/prepping for multiple meals. The planning part is not an ingrained habit yet, so the days my week is not planned out, I At least get the next day's meal figured out. Prepping for multiple meals is a new skill for me, too, but I've found it really lends to using your imagination! So here is what I made this weekend with one pound of bacon.
I actually started with the classic "What's for dinner tonight?" Answer: lamb. Searching the net for a recipe, I found Daube a la Provencale. I have no idea what that means, but it's fancy lamb stew. I didn't want stew (we had beef stew already this week) but I liked the initial prep. I based dinner off this recipe, but after the bacon, lamb (2 lamb steaks, trimmed and cut), onions, and celery were browned, I scraped up the brown bits with a little red cooking wine, and put everything in the crockpot. I did add about a cup of homemade chicken broth so it wouldn't burn while the lamb finished cooking. Add sides of brown sugared baked acorn squash and oven steak fries, and a meal is made. A delicious meal, with only a few pieces of squash left over! **Leftovers are the bane of my fridge, and if there's nothing left, that means everyone liked it, and my proportions were right.
With Friday's dinner done, I had a half pound of cooked, chopped bacon. Now the question is "What do I do with this?" Answer: no idea, not at first anyway. Sometimes ideas need to come on their own. :) Some went into omelettes Sunday morning, and I initially was going to put the rest into a goulash. As I started into the kitchen to make the goulash, I thought better. Hubby and I were doing work outside in cold and snow, and everyone in the house is starting to come down with coughs and sniffles. Soup it is!
I had put the lamb bones and trim into the crockpot with water and onion ends, the part you normally toss or compost, intending to make broth or stock for the freezer (Can you tell I don't like to waste things?) but used it for soup base instead. I tossed it in the stockpot with some fresh carrots, potatoes and celery, some canned corn and green beans, and a bit of seasoned tomato sauce (almost the last of a jar I opened to make spaghetti sauce- I still have to find a use for the rest of that). Oh, and the bacon! Veggie soup with bacon - yum! And only 2 quarts leftover, perfect for 3 lunches and a dinner at work.
So, 2 lamb steaks, a pound of bacon, and some veggies to make 2 awesome meals with extra. I call that successful meal planning and successful use of leftovers - from the lamb trim, the chicken broth (which I had made like the lamb), the scrapings from the pan, veggies before they go bad, and bacon already thawed in the fridge.
Joyfully yours,
K
Joyfully yours,
K
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