Self imposed Austerity.

 Now, before anyone that I know reads this and thinks we're in financial difficulty, please know we're fine.  What and why we're doing this is voluntary and I'll share why without too many details.  Just know.  We're fine.  

A little back story.  We got out of debt about 10 years ago, and aside from our mortgage, have been debt free ever since.  We've managed to cash flow any major repairs over the years.  The only exception being the small inheritance we received last year that helped us pay for some much needed repairs and my greenhouse.  This year we had managed to squirrel away enough money to have our back deck converted into a screened in porch.  Unfortunately we've had another expensive issue come up and so our screened in porch will have to wait until next year.  We had the repairs done last week, and everything seemed fine; until they weren't.  Unfortunately there was an underlying issue that wasn't caught before.  So to fix this will add a considerable amount to our bill.  The reason I'm being vague is because what happened doesn't happen often these days.  The company contracted to do the initial repair has not only offered to remedy the situation asap, but to do so at their own cost.  This is a cost that is considerable.  It's also something they can't do often so I remain vague.  

So with that back story in mind, my husband and I are doing everything we can to cover half of what the overage will be.  We're not doing this because the company asked or required it of us, but because we want to honor their work ethic, faith, and generosity.  In this day and age, it's rare to find a business that isn't out for the quick dollar.  Many lay their integrity at the feet of their greed.  This company doesn't.  The owner told me that he knew God would see this cost returned to  him.  We plan to do our part.

So, hence our self imposed austerity.  We're going to do everything we can to gather the funds to help them out.  My part of that is to get back into the kitchen to get meals, and extras covered rather than just dropping an order at the grocery store.  I have gone through my pantry to take an inventory of everything: bought, canned, fresh.  My focus will be utilizing those things first and foremost.  Amazingly I was thinking I needed salsa, and chicken broth, but doing an inventory showed me I had them and had just missed them.  I make our chicken broth, and had put off making more because it was hot.  Then I found it.  Smh.  My recipe is here.  You'll need to scroll down a bit to see it.  It's after Yogurt, Bread, and Mint extract.  My salsa is here.  You'll also have to scroll through a few recipes, but their worth the read.  There are times when I start to take it easy, but then something jars(pardon the pun) me into action.  This is really fun for me.  I like the challenge.  Stretching my frugal muscles.  (Sigh) wish I enjoyed real exercise as much!  

As I sign off here, my list includes Chocolate syrup, Salsa(I only have one jar), Bread, Granola, Cereal Bars, Frozen Biscuits, and grinding corn, and wheat berries for flour and corn meal.  Whew.  Better get started!

Canning Extravaganza!

This summer has been HOT.  Not the hottest we've ever had, but hot in recent history.  We've had a few years of mild summer weather, so this year has been a bit of a shocker!  In addition to that, we're having AC problems.  These will be fixed come Tuesday!  Yay!  As a result we've been using window units to cool the place out of necessity.  Don't ask me about the power bill!  UGH!  Hence the reason for not heating the house up with canning.  

As the harvest started to roll in, I was minimally processing and putting in the freezer until I could can.  By "minimally processing", I mean tomatoes became sauce, Blackberries became juice.  Then day before yesterday we moved our grill from the back deck to our new deck on the side of the house.  For the past two days I've been happily using our grill and side deck as an extension of my kitchen; pulling out the frozen sauce and juice to combine with the current sauce and juice I've been making and canning it all.  This has actually been quite nice.  In fact I do believe this will become my summer kitchen from now on.  

   

Please excuse the water trail from the grill to the table.  I can be a little messy since I'm outside!

So far my tally is 35 pints of tomato sauce, 12 pints of blackberry syrup, 6 pints of blackberry juice, 14 quarts of tomato juice, 2 pints and 4 quarts canned tomatoes.  That doesn't count the canned rhubarb, and green beans I put up earlier in the year.  Still have many more tomatoes to can.  The amount in the picture has doubled today, even with me processing more tomatoes.  Not complaining mind you.  This is a hot, steamy process with great returns come winter time.  The blackberry syrup is great on ice cream, pancakes, or even mixed in ice tea for a great fruit tea.  

Well I'll Be! Learn something new everyday!

 Many years I've planted corn for fresh eating.  Many years we have a good thunderstorm that flattens said corn.  Not all of it, but a big chunk of it.  At times like that one would find me outside attempting to help the corn stand tall once again.  Over the years I've tried many different planting methods to see if any could give my corn a stronger hold on the ground.  None of them seemed to help.  They all got flattened anytime we had a serious wind.  This year I started my corn plants from seed, and then transplanted them in their rows.  All seemed to be going well until we had a serious afternoon thunder storm.  Then it went how it always does.  My corn was flattened.  Not all of it.  Two stalks were left standing in the middle and it seemed the other corn was surrounding the two standing stalks and paying homage to them. 

                                                            

I was in the middle of a chicken coop/run redo and had no time to get out and baby my corn stalks.  I figured maybe a few would come back, but didn't hold out much hope.  I wasn't too worried as we had another bed of corn in our "upper garden" that was surrounded by field fence.  It was doing great because it had a frame around it.  Wind had no affect.  So I figured we'd just have that corn.  A few days passed and I noticed a few of the flattened corn stalks  began to RISE UP!  I took notice, but no other action.  Then they all started to rise, and tassel!  They were green still!  So fast forward to yesterday.  As I was out taking care of the chickens; I noticed once stalk of corn was actually flat on the ground, but at a point had started growing straight up!  It almost looks as if the corn stalk is doing a sit up. Without looking, I'm assuming it laid down more roots and left the old self behind.  There's a sermon in there somewhere!  So my corn that was flattened is once again standing tall.  We may actually get some corn from this bed which would be awesome!  

So today's lesson is never give up!  Create new roots and leave the old self behind!

Philippians 3: 13-14- "Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus"

2 Corinthians 5:17- "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new".

Isaiah 43: 18-19- "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old.  Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?  I will make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert."

A Wom(hen)'s Prerogative, lessons learned, and a promising experiment!

 Well she changed her mind.  Yes, our little broody hen has decided not to brood after all.  At least she did it early on.  We think the reason was having to share a nest with other hens.  It doesn't matter that we have another nesting box available.  The other hens HAD to use the one she was in.  As a result two eggs were broken.  Knowing the eggs she was sitting on were now messy, she moved to the other nesting box to sit on clean eggs.  That's what we think.  She might have done okay with those, but we aren't needing more chicks and she wasn't too determined.  We'll see what happens in the near future.  

So now on to the experiments I tried this season.  I always try new things if I'm not gong to be out much.  It's a way to learn, and perfect skills.  This season I tried two different experiments.  

1) Allowing my tomato plants to remain uncaged.  I did have some caged, but I ran out of cages and just let the rest go to see how they'd do.  I was thinking I liked uncaged better, but when all was said and done; caging is best.  In a pinch though, uncaged still works.  Caging did make it easier to view the tomatoes as they ripened so I could get them before they went bad.  However, with indeterminate tomatoes, their continued growth can become too heavy for the cages, so have some good sturdy cages when you do.  The advantage of uncaged tomatoes is they lay down more roots as they spread making an over all healthier tomato plant.  However, the disadvantage is they are so thick I can't see where the tomatoes are.  It's literally a jungle.  Both experiments had yellowing lower leaves.  However it took longer to get the yellowing leaves on the uncaged plants. Still, if I can't see tomatoes, that's a problem.

2)  Elderberry Branches as pest control.  The second experiment was the most promising of the two.  I'd seen a lecture on the benefits of Elderberry plants.  I've known about the benefits from the berries, but this lecture covered the whole plant.  During the course of the lecture, he spoke of Elderberry leaves being good for pest control.  We'd had a storm take down some branches off my Elderberry bushes; so I tried it out by laying the downed branches around my beans and squash plants.  I'm not out anything except branches that were broken off anyway.  I've dealt with Mexican Bean Beetles every year for the past 29 years we've lived here.  Every.  Year.  Today I saw one; middle of growing season, and my bean plants are almost done.  One.  That one was found on the very first bed of beans I planted, and the one bed that had no Elderberry branches placed.  I did find some squash borers on my yellow squash, but it was after the plants were finished producing.  I'd not put more branches around it in weeks, probably longer.  So while my proof is anecdotal, It's enough where I plan on doing that again next year.  I've included a link to the video if you're interested.

Here's the link

So last but not least is my lesson learned.  Do not attempt to trap Japanese Beetles or June Bugs.  The scent will draw every single Beetle/Bug in the surrounding area to YOUR GARDEN!  I chose to stop putting out traps this year and have seen very few of these insects.  The ones I've seen I can easily knock off into soapy water, and give them to the chickens.  NO TRAPS!   Learn from my past mistakes.  Just say NO!

So what experiments have you tried?  

It's been a while, and a lot to tell you

   

So I know I've been AWOL for a few weeks now.  Like I said before, this time of year is the greatest time for content to write, and the worst for having time to write.  I can't lay it all at the feet of my little farmstead.  A little over a month ago my brother in law unexpectedly passed away.  In my opinion, it shouldn't have happened.  That and a buck fifty will get me a coffee at Denny's.  All I will say is I have no trust in our healthcare system.  GET A GOOD PRIMARY, and allow only him to prescribe, order tests, etc.  If you have another specialist, take their recommendations to your primary before agreeing to anything.  I mean a good primary.  I don't mean a nice primary.  A doctor can have a great bedside manner and be a terrible doctor.  QUESTION EVERYTHING!  TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS!  If something feels wrong it probably is.  HAVE AN ADVOCATE!  Preferably someone with a little medical experience, but at least have someone there who knows you and your wishes.  If I'm not careful I'll go on a tangent.  So I'll stop there.  This may be a longer post later.

In addition to that, and being there for my sister; our grandsons came to stay for 5 days.  While they were here we had a heat wave come through.  Oh boy!  So there wasn't the ability to do much more than pick stuff out of the garden then.  When we were in the house there wasn't much time to concentrate on writing.  

Once they left my focus had to turn to getting the run completed for our Jersey Giants  While still small babies, at 5 weeks old they are more in line with a laying chicken at 8 or 9 weeks.  I did finally get it completed 2 days ago.  I have a couple of aesthetic things to do to it, but structurally it's done and they love it.  Pictures to come later.  

I also finally have our new side deck!  We're thrilled!  For the past 29 years we've had this little 4x4 "landing" for lack of a better word, that was half rotted.  Now we have THIS!

So yesterday was my final "have to" outside.  That was to pick all the produce that's accumulated while I was completing the run.  Hubby was off yesterday so he joined me outside and we picked for 2 hours!  I shutter to think how long it would have taken with just me!  Then yesterday afternoon was spent processing what we picked.  I put up 7 pints of blackberry syrup, 2 quarts butternut squash, and 4 quarts of tomato sauce.  My counters are full of tomatoes still to process, but they aren't quite ready, and I have cucumbers I need to do something with.  The rest of the summer will be light maintenance, and picking.  No other big projects are on the list until we process all but one of the roosters from our meat birds in August.  

We have a broody hen in our layer coop, currently sitting on 8 eggs.  We don't want to break her brood, so we've marked the eggs to keep them separated from the other hens eggs, and the plan is to sell the chicks once they're 5 weeks old.  That's if she makes it to hatch them.  Sometimes hens change their mind.  The instinct to brood is bred out of chicks you buy at the store.  My thought is it isn't so much "bred out" as it is they aren't taught.  Store bought chicks experience no mothering in their early life.  At birth they don't imprint on anyone or anything.  As a result they don't fully understand the concept of brooding and being a mother.  It takes them a few trial and error times through before they get it down.  Sometimes they never do.  With the exception of these meat birds, we stopped buying from hatcheries and instead allow a hen to brood if she wants to.  Those chicks will be mothered for 5 weeks, and will learn how to be a mother as well.  The baby roosters will learn from the father rooster what he needs to know.  We have a great daddy rooster that cares for his chicks very well.  He does so because his daddy rooster did the same for him.  Our plan is to exchange meat bird eggs for any egg layer eggs a broody hen wants to sit on.  While our meat bird hens are figuring it out, we will still be able to continue our flock of meat birds through our egg layer mamas.

I think I've covered the big happenings around here.  I have some posts in mind for the future.  Just have to get some pictures to help cover them.  I plan on doing better in the future writing on my blog now that I have my head above water.  Thank you for your patience.  

Now back to the fun stuff!

 I know it's been like crickets chirruping on here for a few weeks.  That's because I've been racing the clock, and weather.  We had new baby chicks to be delivered this past week and we had to be ready for them.  That meant an overhaul to our current chicken set up.  The plan is to have our normal sized eggs layers in the front coop/run, and the meat birds in the back, larger coop/run.  I'm still not finished, but was caught up enough to move the layers to the front so we could temporarily house the babies, who arrived yesterday.  They can stay in the larger back coop while everything is revamped around them.  Then, by the time they're out and about, their home will be oh so so!

These are called Jersey Giants.  They're a heritage form of meat bird.  While they don't look that giant at the moment, from what I've read that will change.  From what we've read males can get up to 13 lbs. with hens getting up to 10 lbs.  So far we have 25 chicks.  We ordered 24 and the hatchery, Murray McMurray, threw in an extra one just in case we were to lose one.  So far they seem to all be doing well.  This is our foray into raising meat sustainably.  We hope.  The plan is to keep one rooster and all of the hens to keep this flock going.  The rest of the roosters from this bunch will be processed, we hope around 12-14 weeks. We would still get eggs from these hens; maybe not as many as the layers, but still.  Any future roosters would be processed for meat.  Extra hens would be sold.  Sometimes a rooster would go with hens, but that doesn't always happen.  If it does, we're happy to do it.  Below is what they look like all grown up!

We still have some major work to do for the back coop and a little more for the front coop.  I'm pretty happy with what we've done to date.  Still need to paint the new gate and house.

 

All that being said, chickens aren't my only concerns, as the garden is going great guns with all the rain/ breaks of sun, we've been having.  It's like the perfect combo of rain and sun.  My plants are going great, but so are the weeds!  Now that we have a break in the rain; it'll be another marathon to catch up before the rain comes back in:  Picking, weeding, planting, etc.   Fortunately I have my sweet hubby to help!  Check out what came in over the past two days!

Those stalks are rhubarb.  It's the only thing I've canned so far.  Everything else has either been eaten fresh, or is currently fermenting.  I've made a batch of fermented salsa (some store bought ingredients), fermented Latin sauerkraut, and fermented green beans.  I'm waiting to get enough cucumbers in for fermented pickles.  The potatoes have been washed and are currently curing on my counter before cold storage.  

WEEDS!  Thought I'd end this with a little info for weed control.  It's not perfect, but it beats Round up.  

WEED KILLER

1 gallon white vinegar 

1/4 cup dish liquid

2 cups salt

Mix well until salt dissolves.  Pour into a sprayer.  Spray on a sunny day.  Avoid your garden plants!

I only use this in my walk ways between the beds.  I don't want to risk the plants I want to stay by either spraying them by accident, or rain washing the salt into soil where my plants roots are!  This does cut down greatly on having to weed.  Time saver!

LADIES! (only)

 So if you're a guy and want to read this; I guess I can't stop you, but be aware this post talks about female medical stuff so beware!

So it's official.  I am now post menopausal!   YAY!  I say "yay" because it was a rough road getting here.  Many of you are aware that I had a heart attack in 2018, 7 years ago this coming August.  My total cholesterol was 146 total then.  That's a cholesterol people would love to have, but I was put on a statin and was told they wanted it lower.  I asked every doctor if my heart attack was related to hormones since my cholesterol was so low, I was at the best health of my life, and there were no blockages.  Not to mention the heart attack struck 2 days before my cycle was to start.  I was told "no".  Isn't she cute thinking she can play doctor!  I was on to something even then.  Found out today from my Primary that total cholesterol lower than 150 increases all cause mortality.  Dually noted.  From 2018 on, however my cholesterol began to climb.  It currently sits at 223, down from 299.  Triglycerides were fine.  Below is a list of things I've dealt with over the past 7-8years.  See if any of these sound familiar if you're in your 40's or 50's. 

Weight Gain, especially around the waist, despite best efforts.

Migraines( and along those lines throw in a heart attack for good measure)

Insomnia

Increasing cholesterol levels

Irritability

Insulin resistance

Joint pain

Low sex drive

Restless Legs (or shoulders)

Memory Loss/ Inability to concentrate/ Brain fog

Nocturnal trips to the bathroom( that doesn't help the insomnia)

Irregular cycles

These are a few of the things I personally dealt with, but many things women deal with in their 40's and up can be laid at the feet of our hormones or lack there of.  While I knew to expect some of these things, many I did not.  Unfortunately neither did the doctors I was seeing.  I was pleading for answers with every doctor I went to.  I've come to the realization that there is an age and fat bias when it comes to doctors and patients, especially when those patients are women.  I wasn't old enough for the age bias, but I did get the fat bias, I believe.  Rather than seeing the 63 pounds I had lost, they saw  a woman who was off her "diet" gaining weight back and wanted to justify her lack of will power.  Only will power had nothing to do with it.  They never seemed to want to look any further to see if maybe there was something going on.  That is until my current Primary.  He did look further and has been trying to help me through this, but couldn't do much with hormone therapy until I was menopausal.  So YAY!

 This isn't the whole list, so if you're nearing that age of 40's and 50's, find yourself a good OBGYN that specializes in women's hormones; bioidentical hormones, not the synthetic kind( IMO).  Another reason to say "Yay!"  is because, now that I'm post menopausal I plan to go on hormone therapy.  Everyone should do their own research and do what's right for them.  I've been told, many of my issues may resolve with this therapy.  So I'm not just a "yea", I'm a Heck Yea!

So if you're "at that age", and your doctor is blowing off things that concern you or lecturing you because you're gaining weight, cholesterol is up, etc.  Find a new doctor!   Second opinions are great things!

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