Wednesday, July 08, 2009
Entering my 45th year
You know, I must admit that there are times as a mother that I have wondered if my children see me at all as a person other than the one who 'provides' in their lives. But yesterday my kids out did themselves. Especially my daughters. Eryn made this most wonderful dinner - kebabs and veggie kebabs, beet salad, pasta salad, bruchetta and french bread and chips, white and red wine... and TWO cakes - one a divine chocolate from the Rebar Cookbook and the other the Citrus Poppy Seed from the same book to have with my traditional strawberries and whipped cream. Kaetlyn made one cake and did a lot of cleaning. The beet salad was amazing! It was all amazing. And they invited a few of my closest friends and put on a not-to-be-forgotten-ever evening. They even dragged Andrew into service. Erin knows how to get that boy to work. And of course the house was cleaned. It couldn't have been better in any way. It leaves a mother feeling very loved.I must admit, although I won't go into it, that I have had a difficult first half of the year. A difficult year that started last November - big changes that I wasn't particularly looking for - sad changes. On New Year's Eve I put on a crystal type necklace that Drew had given me a couple of years earlier for Mother's Day. I think it was a green hematite but I am not sure. I just wanted to wear green - I felt like I needed its healing energy. And I didn't take it off. And then my grandpa died in January and I kept it on. Some really hard things in my life took shape and I kept on wearing it. In fact, I wore it straight through until July 1 without ever taking it off. It was a really hard first half of the year.
And then it was time to take it off. This is one of the cool things about having a birthday at almost the mid-point of the year - a great time to review my year and do little symbolic things and think about what I have in my life and where I would like to go. Hey this year, I even got a full moon and the perfect party from my wonderful children!
It is time to let go of the first half of the year. And I feel big shifts in my life - not outside so much as inside.
This is, perhaps, a vague post about small things. But sometimes small things are big things. Last night, under the full moon, I went to bed wrapped up in the love of my family and friends and felt very blessed and certain of the direction of my life.
2 comments
Andrea posted @ 7:36 AM
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Redfish Rockin in the Free World
Redfish has been through some changes - both hard in some ways and good in others - the way change usually is. End result is they have a new bass player, which is kind of weird, as Josh was an original member. Now there is only Dean of the original 4. I will miss Josh's epic gooves, that's for sure. Nevertheless this change has unleashed a hurricane of creativity and Shane has stepped in to do an awesome job. After a lot of jamming and rehearsing, last night was their first gig - outside up on Silver Star. The sound was incredible and they were on fire. It was good to see my husband so happy. And you will notice the poor, neglected strat took played second string to the Reverend. In fact, it was on the bench all night.
2 comments
Andrea posted @ 10:25 AM
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Farm Firsts
I told you we had this, right? A broody hen? Buff Orpingtons are supposed to go broody and be good at raising chicks. Usually they don't do that until they are 2 years old. This one is only a little over a year old but we decided to see what would happen. Lots went wrong in the beginning. Other hens kept laying eggs on top of her and some of the eggs broke, making a mess. Eventually we found a way to block her off and we cleaned up the nest as best we could and made sure the eggs were clean enough to hatch - not smothered in dried egg.
But it was so dirty in there, I wasn't sure what would happen - definitely not the sterile environment of a incubator... they make it sound as though one wee bacteria could wipe out your whole hatch... Nevertheless, we let her continue to sit.
And today look what we found underneath her! One little wee pure bred Buff Orpington. There are some ameraucana eggs under her which will be half and half because Marigold is the dad of them all.
Yahoo! This means no more expensive hatchery chicks for me. We also have another hen who went broody. This time we transferred her to the empty side of the rabit hutch where no one can disturb her nest. She seems quite happy in there.
Tomorrow we will move this young mom into the empty chicken tractor with her brood if everything goes all right.
Now the only thing is ... Its really hard to not go back and check every two minutes to see if there are any more...
3 comments
Andrea posted @ 4:36 PM
Sunday, June 14, 2009
My Mornings
Warning: Lots of Pictures.Its 6am and I roll out of bed and pull on my 'milking clothes' of the week - long pants and long sleeves to protect from the mosquitos.
I open the door and step out into the lightly scented morning. From the porch I can see the sheep still asleep around the doghouse. A sign they must have been worried about intruders last night. Otherwise, they sleep under the walnut tree.But its not time for the sheep first. I'll let them rest.
Around the corner to the back of the house (which was originally the front of the house) The chicks are first on the list. The beauty bush is in full, spectacular bloom. I can see it through both kitchen windows and it gives nice scenery for the chick chores.
Of course, they aren't really chicks any more. They will be moving into the freezer tomorrow or the next day. But they still sound like chicks - with little cheeps and peeps.
First I open the chicken tractor so they can get out. Then I move the chicken tractor over to fresh grazing.
Its not hard to get them back in. I just fill up the feeders and most of them run back in.
Then while I clean and fill up the 10 gallon waterer, I walk the stragglers in.
There they are - all in and eating. Can you see the dark ones? Those are the layer chicks. One week younger but smarter and faster they have managed to survive with these Goliaths.
Then, its the chickens. I fill up their 3 gallon waterer and feeders.
And open the door. Suddenly it isn't so quiet any more.
Marigold starts his morning 'chase and pin'.
With the hose still on, it is into the garden. See this old stump? Its got 6 squash plants growing in it. I planted them out as seeds and they have all sprouted (+ 1 extra, I only planted 5). There is a White Bush Scallop in the middle which grows like a zucchini and then there are 4 vining ones to sprawl over the edge. I don't remember what kind. I know there's a Queensland Blue... I'll recognize them when they fruit.
Pick weeds for the rabbits.
Here's one of my favourite early tomatoes - Silvery Fir Tree.
Here's an especially beloved tomato - Cherokee Purple - Amy gave me the seeds for Christmas. There are are couple others in the garden and I gave one seedling to our mother. This one is in the middle of a cucumber patch.
Here's a view down the side. I've planted black currants (Missouri Berry) and some black berries down here next to the hedge of dead tree stumps. The soil is incredible.
And see the wood frame in the corner? That is a cold frame I bought at a garage sale for $5. Its got potatoes in this year but next year it will have peppers.
I set up the hose to do some watering and head to the sheep pen.
I am eagerly greeted by Renauld.
Grain! Grain! Give me my oats!
I put in his bucket with his cup of oats and tie him up in the corner.
Draga is at the gate before anyone else and I let her out without tying her up. I may only get 1 - 1.3 cups of milk from her a day but it is so darn easy, I just keep going. She runs to the stanchion ahead of me.
Then its back to the pen to get Brida. She is a little harder. She doesn't like to go near the dog so I have to go into the pen and set out some oats. Freya wants some, too. She jumps up on me like a dog.
I hope I am not going to regret letting her do this when she is a full grown sheep.
Once I've secured Brida, she follows right behind me. I feel like the pied piper. I took this picture by just putting the camera over my shoulder. That's my own wooly, grey hair at the bottom of the photo.
We've now worked out all the bugs out of milking and she also hops right up on the stanchion with minimal coaxing. Can you see that her udder is lopsided? Basil beat me to the right side this morning. That's okay. There's plenty to go around.
This week's milking song was "River of Dreams" by Billy Joel. I now have the entire song memorized. What a great song!
I'm a messy milker. So I don't have any kind of bucket. I just hold yoghurt containers and milk with one hand at a time. It might take a little longer but I don't waste milk by squirting it all over the place.
I put Brida back in the pen and head to the garden.
I move the hose and pick an armful of weeds for the chickens.
The 'old ladies' of my flock are now up. Here's Lacey getting her morning exercise.
Then into the house to strain and measure the milk. I got a bumper amount from Brida this morning - more than 1 3/4 cups. The most I have ever got from her was 2.5 cups at a time when the lambs were first born. I milk morning and evening so she runs around 3 cups a day.
Now it is time to make pancakes with this milk.
And that is my morning - well at least it was my morning until 8am.
5 comments
Andrea posted @ 8:30 AM
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Cannelloni on the Farm
So, I wanted to do something with the unripened sheep cheese I had made. It was a lot like Ricotta so I decided to make Cannelloni. I have never made cannelloni before so I looked up recipes on the internet and realized that you can basically stuff the noodles with whatever you want. So I made up my own recipe. Now, if you know me, you know that is one big leap of faith. I am a religious recipe follower. I might adjust a recipe but I always use one. I don't know, I felt brave last night...I used one entire batch of soft, unripened sheep cheese (made from 1 litre of milk) that I had just finished making yesterday. It was probably about 2 - 2.5 cups worth. I added to that some fresh chopped up nettle. I didn't measure, I just threw in what looked like a good amount - probably around 1 cup. Then I added about a cup of Parmesan cheese - fresh grated, fresh basil from the garden - about 3/4 of a cup, 3 cloves of garlic, minced and 1.5 lbs of organic ground beef, fried up with oregano, green onions and celery. I mixed it all up into this delicious, creamy mixture and stuffed the cannelloni shells. At first I gingerly used a spoon to try to fill them but quickly abandonned that as it was getting late and we were hungry. Rhiannon and I used our hands. It was mucky but a whole lot faster. We arranged them in a glass baking pan and poured a jar of canned tomaotes over top. Topped that with more fresh basil and another cup of parmesan cheese and baked for 45 minutes. And it was sooooooo good!
Although I insisted to Rhiannon that I did, in fact, NOT use sheep cheese - it was ricotta, I told her.... And she gobbled down more than her fair share. Right now I am smugly enjoying this fact. I don't know when I will tell her it was my sheep cheese.... maybe the next time she makes disparaging comments? Or maybe in a year or two...? or maybe never. Funny, she had no problem with the nettles...
Pictures? Sorry, no. It was almost 8pm when we started making them and after 9 when we got to eat them. We were way to hungry, and our hands way too messy to take any pictures. I could show you pictures of the dirty glass pan, though...It was really, good, though! Unripened sheep cheese and nettle cannelloni. You should try it!
7 comments
Andrea posted @ 9:08 AM
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Complete
Okay, I think my little farm is complete. This week end we purchased these two very well socialized meat rabbit does. The brown one is Rhiannon's and her name is Hazel and the white one we are keeping 'in trust' for Megan, our friend in Calgary. Her name is Cypress. They are both extremely tame and very friendly and Rhiannon is absolutely in love with them. They are sisters and about half grown and they are about 3/4 Flemish Giant. Sometime this summer we will pick up a buck and maybe another doe or two and that will complete our breeding stock.I grew up raising and eating rabbits and I love the meat. Some of our best Sunday dinners were rabbits stewed in mushroom sauce. It really does taste like chicken but let me tell you - rabbits are WAY easier to raise - the mothers do it all. And their poop can be used on the garden without composting.
This is my plan to phase out meat chickens. I will raise only a few to have for the really big roasters but most of our white meat will come from these.
So, now I have everything I want - sheep, chickens and rabbits. Maybe, someday way down the road, I would like to have an Angora Goat but that would be a long ways off and only a maybe wish. For right now, I feel totally complete in my farm.
1 comments
Andrea posted @ 6:50 AM
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Nettling
I went to fetch my good friend, Bozenka, last Saturday for a day of 'nettling'. She showed up like her grandmother, before her, with magic. She had created a Nettle Fairy and brought one for Rhiannon to decorate, which she started to do right away.While Bozenka and I picked nettles, it was Rhiannon's job to take pictures and to escort the Nettle Fairy around and photograph her in different settings. Rhiannon took some great pictures. Here are only a few:
Here she is in our nettle patch.
And here she is with Rhiannon's blueberry bush.
And then she had a little swing.
While we laboured away in this nettle patch that has grown over some old rotting wood cuttings.
It didn't take us long to pick the nettles - we left some tall ones to teach the young ones how to grow tall again. Then we positioned ourselves in the shade on the East side of the house, outside the kitchen window and plucked the leaves from the stems. And we talked. We talked about ourselves, our children, our families, community and the world. Deep, heartfelt talking as we worked separating leaf from stem. As we have lost our sense of community and helping each other, we have not only lost the sense of sharing each other's physical burdens but also our emotional ones, which is perhaps the most important thing that comes from working together like this - sharing, listening.
Then we brought all those leaves inside and left the stems to dry in the sun and later be chopped up and used for nettle infusion. We washed the leaves twice and chopped them up like this to be put into freezer bags for the winter. Nettle can be used in any recipe that calls for spinach - not to mention nettle and pumpkin soup... And we marvelled at the bounty of nettle. Can you imagine how much spinach you would have to grow to be equivalent to one nettle plant?
Sometime in there we were famished so we made this nettle omlette with green onions and garlic and fresh oregano. Delicious.
And now I have some nettle and some fresh sheep cheese to make cannelloni with and a full heart.
6 comments
Andrea posted @ 11:35 AM
