2014 Projects and Goals

Yesterday, Mark and I put together a list of the projects and goals that we have for 2014. We put them on two separate posters to hang in the house and check off as we go...but thought we'd share them here as well. As you can see, we have a VERY busy year ahead of us. I don't know that we'll be able to check off each one of these, but we can sure try!

Visit Lehmans and Chittenango (if possible)

Fix the pipes under the kitchen sink

Clean out the cellar

Remove all unused wires (phone etc.)

Assess the knob and tube wiring situation

Weather proof/caulk etc.

Build food storage shelving

Doors/knobs and latches

Lock on back door

New keys/keyrings for everyone

Attic – access, usable space?

Have chimney inspected – wood stove options

Install wood stove???

Little bedroom upstairs – sewing/craft room and teacher prep area

All bedrooms need curtains (make?)

Remove all wallpaper

Paint/decorate – room by room, as we can

Gut our closet

Redo all wood floors

Downstairs bath

-New flooring (pennies?)

-New cabinet(s)

-Wallpaper

-Paint and décor

Upstairs bath

-Refinish tub

-Rehang curtain

-Remove wallpaper

-Paint

-Tile (wall and maybe floor)

-Storage options

-Litter/cat food

-Towel racks (hooks/shelves)

-Heat source

-Vent

-Mirror

-Toilet seat

Fridge/Freezer

Dishwasher/Stove(?)

Fix banister/upstairs half wall

Mount potato cutter

Coat hooks

Hang candlelier/Lighting options

Build seed starter area

Parlor (remove closet, once sewing room is complete)

Little Buddy hose/tank

Barn

-Pasture hay rack(s)

-Finish siding

-Make 4 doors (two loft, two main)

-Clean out pasture

-Redo pen doors

-Redo hay racks

-Lighting/lantern hooks

-Always have plenty of hay in loft

-Paint (pressure wash?)

-Clean out/hose down inside

-“est…” sign for pasture side

-Food shelter/deck

Garden

-Order new seeds

-Build tomato cages

-Build a few arches/creative ways to stake

-Fix strawberry garden

-Redo containers

-Stake smaller plants/bushes

-Grapes/arbors

-Retainer walls?

-Bee garden (Cora)

-Shed for mowers/lawn tools?

-Greenhouse

Yard

-Cut remaining pines

-Cut back brush

-Clean up flower gardens

-Finish parking area (clear brush/lay rock)

-Retain blackcaps

-Plant trees in Narnia (buy maples???)

-Harvest pecans – plant new pecan tree

Misc.

Clean grill
Fix rider mowing

New tires for mower cart

Fix/sharpen blades for all mowers

Buy another pitch fork

Turn all compost bins, before barn clean out.

Clean gutters

Snake drain under driveway (options?)

Fill dirt around septic

Fix sewer drain pipes

Repaint/fix front deck

Display bench for front porch

Close off/weatherproof dining room door.

Survey land?

Tap maples

Clotheslines

Make dish detergent

MASTER FOOD PRESERVATION

Bird sanctuary area – see through birdhouse

Deck – at least get estimate

Fence – at least get estimate

Clean garage and Carport (siding on carport??)

Light in garage attic/shelving and bench

Fix garage door opener

Purchase extra propane (options?)

Animals

-Shearing equipment/class

-BEES

--Hives, bees, observation hive

-Order more layers and meat birds

-Donkey (just kidding)

-Castrate sheep (not kidding)

-Vet checks and meds

-Minerals – PVC pipe feeders

-Chicken Tractor and turkey pen

Rainbarrels

Whew - now that's a list! I can't wait until this time next year to see what we've been able to complete.

Just in time for Christmas

Oh boy! I'm going to be in trouble if I don't write a post soon, so I figured I would sit myself down at this WAY TOO EARLY hour of 6 AM and write.

I’m just so thankful for our Thanksgiving success. I find this day a bit stressful, just because there are so many pieces of the puzzle that have to come together, perfectly, to be a success. I ended the day feeling extremely proud. Proud of where we have been in life and how that has morphed us into who we are now. Proud of the food that we served, which is getting more and more local each year. Not just local, but homegrown. Imagine a day where nearly all the meal is grown here. Yum.

We started the morning with two turkeys to cook, along with all of the other dishes that were our responsibility (we share the responsibility and ask that everyone attending bring a dish). We started one early and were amazed at how quickly and beautifully the birds cooked. We were able to get them both cooked and rested before everyone arrived. We made sweet potatoes/candied yams, using real sweet potatoes, our own honey and local maple syrup. We whipped up some deviled eggs, using eggs from our beautiful birds, even though their laying has significantly dropped off, for the winter. We saved up a dozen and shared them with our family and friends. The coleslaw was not grown here, but hopefully next year(?) – we did, however, shred the cabbage and carrots and made the sauce. The fruit salad was all canned (boo), but it was pineapple, cherries and mandarin oranges, so unless we change up the salad, I don’t think there will be any way around this one. Oh, and the stuffed dates – delicious! A childhood memory that I just love. We take dried dates and stuff them with various cream cheeses. One plain, one with nuts, and the other with maraschino cherries. SO SO good! Next came the desserts apple, pumpkin, key lime and pecan pies, cherry crisp and my cousin, Rhett, brought banana pudding (using my Nana’s recipe). I look forward to the year that we will be using our own apples for the apple pie, but this year we had to settle on growing just the pumpkin and pecans. Something that I changed up this year, instead of using Crisco for the pie crust, we used local, organic lard, from a local Mennonite farmer. WHAT A DIFFERENCE that made. Seriously! I’ve never had my pie crust roll out so beautifully. It glided across the surface. I know I sound like a crust geek, but seriously! It was awesome! I will never go back to Crisco. Plus…who doesn’t like the hint of bacon smell when you are baking pies?! The pecan pie, was probably the best pecan pie I’ve ever eaten. Those pies were delicious and I am so proud. But I couldn’t have done any of this, without my team of helpers. Mark, Cora, Drake and even Gage were so helpful that day. They helped me keep my sanity, rolled up their sleeves to wash, cut, clean out, whatever I asked. Thankful. Yet another thing to be thankful for – after a heart attack and a pacemaker installation, my dad joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. He’s healthy and looking good. It was a wonderful day of laughing and enjoying the company. It was such a successful day.

 

Beautiful, homegrown pie pumpkins.

We went ahead and cooked all the pumpkins and made puree out of all of them. We are ready to make several more pies.

That's a lot of pumpkin!

My girl, Cora. She was so helpful that day! She made the decorations on the wall, behind her shoulder and she kept me on task with making the food...and she's cute!

Mark's favorite job of peeling, coring and slicing the apples for the apple pie. After the kids had their fill, the remaining peels went out to the birds. They thought it was a Thanksgiving miracle!

Yams in the crockpot, in the back, and date stuffing in the bowls in the front!

Look at that bird! GORGEOUS!

A little salt, pepper, butter on the outside and onion and celery on the inside...that's all these birds really needed, so tender and juicy on their own. Totally worth raising them!

Seriously look at that crust! Mmm mmm MMM!

Pumpkin and pecan pies - so so good!

Family sitting around the table...Have I mentioned how much I love my dining room? I love that we can have this many people for a sit down meal and be comfortable.

The dessert table!

I'm so happy about that day. It was a good feeling to look around the table and see the food, family and friends. It was good.I look forward to hosting next year as well.
We do Christmas breakfast and dinner at our house too - but since my brother also hosts a Christmas event, we have fewer people attending. We've found it's just too hard for us to do too much running around on Christmas...and we have a very awesome Christmas Eve tradition that I look so forward to each year. More on that in a bit.
With the holidays come so many other exciting things - kids concerts, Mark's room decor, Christmas lights and more. Here is just a glimpse at some of the reasons that I haven't posted in so long...

We redecorated Mark's bulletin board at school. We went with the winter wonderland theme, to reflect the craziness that is outside right now. Isn't the "fireplace" cute?

Have I mentioned that I'm hot for teacher??? Look at that handsome man!

Oh! On a side note, with all of the cold weather that we've been having (single digits!), our house is SO cold. We've been trying to come up with creative ways to stay warm. We actually found this beautiful wood door, in the attic of the garage. It was made for this spot, a doorway between our living and dining rooms. What makes this nice is that it cuts down on the drafts. We close all the doors in the living room (to the parlor, to our room and both doors leading to the dining room) and it traps some of our body heat in here. It's not perfect, but certainly better than last year!

While Mark's was in the attic, he found these old shutters - how neat are these!?

This is how I go to bed most nights! Not very glamorous, but certainly warmer than without the toasty warm hat :-) What you can't see is the electric blanket, under the comforter. WARM!

Here's me and Cora at Drake's holiday concert! See, I told you she is cute.

Drake had a holiday concert - Look how grown up he is, handsome. We are so proud that he has stuck with flute for this long.

Our tree is decorated for Christmas! Here's me and Mark :-)

Last year, we went with a real tree and between that and strep throat, I was miserable with allergies. So this year, we decided to go back to our "fake" tree. It's really beautiful though. I love going through the ornaments each year and remembering why we have them, who they were for, who we received them from etc.

Told you it's a winter wonderland around here. This is the field behind the house, Each branch and blade is covered with ice. COLD!

Cold, but beautiful! I love seasons, I really do...but the single digits have to go!

Each year, we do this. It's a drive through Christmas light display. It is so nice. We turn on Christmas music and drive through, looking at the lights and scenes. If you weren't in the spirit of Christmas before driving through, you would be after!

It looks like some exciting things are on the horizon for us. I'll post more about this in the future, once I have more details. But let me just say that our future looks bright.

Home Grown Thanksgiving...Partially.

If you've been reading this blog, you know that we raised turkeys for the first time this year. This past Saturday, we got them in to be processed at a (fairly) local processor. We ended up with one bird at nearly 11 pounds and the other nearly 12, for a total of 22 pounds of bird. I liked the company that we went with. They are actually FDA approved and if we chose to, we could sell the birds to consumers - but we know that these are just for our consumption. It is a little strange to see just two turkeys outside, rather than four - but I think the remaining two seem a little calmer.
So tonight, we will be prepping them to be the centerpiece at our Thanksgiving dinner. We are hosting our family and some friends. Both birds will be the main part of the meal - but additionally we are proud to say that we grew the pumpkins for the pumpkin pie, grew the pecans for the pecan pie,  and raised the birds who laid the eggs for our deviled eggs. What a delicious, somewhat homegrown Thanksgiving meal this will be! I believe we will have somewhere between 16 and 18 people here for the meal. So much love in our dining room.
EXCITING! (...and busy...did I mention busy? Ok, enough blogging - time to get back to cleaning and cooking!)

Turkey Time

Well the decision has been made. The two turkeys that will be joining us for Thanksgiving dinner (although not in a way that they would necessarily enjoy) will be processed the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving. We have a local (ish) processing center and they had an open appointment for that Saturday - it was meant to be! I've heard of this facility through a couple different people (including a respected organic farmer) which makes me feel more comfortable. I want to make sure that we didn't raise them humanely just to have them tortured in the last few moments of life. I get that it is still death and I'm not naive to think it is this beautiful, sterile, painless process for anyone involved - but I don't want it to be a terrifying nightmare either. I've enjoyed having the birds and hope that Loner and Mama Bird (the two remaining birds) like each other enough to breed and make more for our farm. We'd consider selling some birds if that was the case. Raising them, processing (or getting them processed) and selling to neighbors/family. It might be another way for us to raise some money around here...or just another food source for our family.

Hunker Down and Plan for the Future

With things turning from Summer, to somewhat skipping Fall and heading straight into Winter (we've already had snow!), there aren't a lot of updates to share with all of you. Our chickens continue to give us eggs, but have slowed, with the shorter days and colder weather. The animals are all doing well. We borrowed Zero, an alpine buck, to freshen our ladies. Zero was on loan from the farm farm that bought Herb, Fauna and Blanche from us. If I haven't mentioned that farm, that family, before, I should. They are wonderful people. They have a ton of kids, a combination of natural and adopted (including a number of special needs adoptions). They are so helpful to us, letting us borrow Zero, at no cost... I believe he got to Mabel and Ethel...and unfortunately goats can be escape artists and I worry that he got to Flora (she has a bad leg, and I worry about her being pregnant), and the angoras (does the world need more angora/alpine crosses?). These animals aren't our pets (although we treat them as kindly and lovingly as our pets), they are here for purpose. We need to figure out a better solution for when we have a visiting buck...separate pasture maybe? We continue to work to figure things out.
It is getting close to Thanksgiving, which means two of our four turkeys are short-timers. The question has been asked if it will be difficult to let them go. My response is that, it's never going to be easy to process animals. They are living creatures, they have faces and personalities. We weren't brought up raising our own food...but am I going to let those feelings stop me from enjoying home-grown turkey come Thanksgiving....no! The purpose of those two turkeys was food. They were meant to be eaten and that's what will happen. We have discussed the option of taking them somewhere to be processed. I think that will be the option we choose. Rather than doing the processing ourselves. Time and, I'm not going to lie, emotions, may keep us from doing it. But it must be done.
I was asked if I ever feel down about the limited comments made to this blog. I really don't. It's mostly for us to keep a log of what is going on around here. To keep track of our lessons learned or to be able to look back and see where we were, compared to where we are (so glad we aren't ghetto apartment dwellers any longer). So while I hope that this blog grows and it'd be nice to get additional readers, I'm happy to just have this space...to remember.
....and speaking of growing...Mark and I are trying to figure out what our future looks like here. We are happy with where we are, for the moment, but are always looking to improve. We have oh so many projects that need to be completed around here (the barn, the coops, the parking area etc etc) and we will continue to make those spaces what we want. It's just difficult to find times when we are blessed with both the time and money to complete these tasks. Our focus was lost for a bit last year, but now we've refocused. Once we have some of the major tasks completed, we plan on paying our knowledge forward. So what does that mean?? Well, the plan, at this time, is to transition this place into a learning center. We'd like to start developing lesson plans, to create a variety of classes for children, adults and families. Learning anything from processing chickens to knitting a hat. In addition, we can use the learning space to create a little shop to help support the farm....eventually selling goat's milk and honey soaps, lotions a lip balm...other honey products, including pollen and candles and hopefully some fiber items. I also see this space as a way to support some friends of Fresh Egg's...showcasing our friends talents, referring to farms that have helped us (Spruce Hill, for angoras and Marushka Farm, for sheep etc) and develop a list if resources for services, for people just starting out (county extension offices, quality feed and hay providers, livestock processing places and shearers etc). I've been working on building a website (separate from this blogspot space) and we are going to be launching (hopefully) in a year or so. We'll be taking this time to plan, build out the class list, locate educators (for topics for the "learn with us" series) and finishing the property to make it a safe and pretty space for visitors. In addition to classes (something that lasts for a few hours), we've talked about adding week-long 1/2 day or full day "camps" for school age kids, along with "Fresh Egg's To Go" lesson plans to cater to the needs of our local schools to meet their core curriculum standards and finally, work with some homeschooling networks to offer classes to meet their curriculum needs. It's all a work in progress and we know things could change, but as long as there is interest, we believe we have the skills to make it a success. It would be great to do this to help supplement our income and to help those that are just like us, wanting to learn some of the skills, that generations before us survived on.

Thieves!

So I mentioned (in my Honey post, about our extraction party) how we noticed that our bees were being robbed. Bees from surrounding hives were taking advantage of weakness in our hive and robbing them blind, leaving them honeyless for the winter. It didn't help that we took seven pounds from them - but better us get some than those nasty thieves! We assumed this was most certainly a death sentence for our colony. It still might be, they might be done for, but we are trying to take a stand against those bees. So how can you help a colony that is under attack???
Lessons we've learned:
1) Entrance Reducer: we did not have an entrance reducer on our hive - we had left the entire width of the hive open, leaving roughly 18 inches of space that the guard bees have to defend. It's just too hard for a hive that is already in jeopardy. Our hive kit came with a wooden entrance reducer that allows us to select various sizes of entrance - we chose the smallest size, approximately an inch, thus giving the guard bees a significantly smaller space to defend.
2) FEED!: we need to replace that honey that they've lost. It's not as simple as giving them back their honey (plus, we want to enjoy the fruits of their labor)...so we need to give them a replacement food source. The easiest way to give them instant food is making a 2:1 sugar/water mix. We put 4 cups of sugar in a saucepan with 2 cups of water and dissolved the sugar. Once the mixture cooled a bit, we poured it into a ziplock bag and took it to the hive. We added a super on top of the hive and placed the baggie of sugar water on top of the frames below. We jabbed a few holes into the bag, so the bees can access that food and hopefully calm them down a bit.
3) Continued Feeding: Since we don't have an actual "feeder" we ordered a hive component that is specifically for feeding (to replace the baggie, a more permanent/reusable option) - hopefully that will arrive shortly. Additionally, we need to find a food source that isn't just sugar/water. Bees need a well balanced diet too, while they may survive on carbs (like we would with bread and water), they won't be as healthy as they could be. We've found a couple of recipes - I'm not sure what the best option would be.
We are thinking of doing something like this for the water:
:: 5 cups water
:: 2 1/2 pounds of sugar
:: 1/8 teaspoon lecithin granules (used as an emulsifier)
:: 15 drops spearmint oil
:: 15 drops lemongrass oil
Additionally, they need a protein source. I've been looking online and I think we are going to try something like this:
Makes 6 (1 lb) patties:
3/4 C. pollen
2 1/2 C. hot water
5 1/2 C. sugar
6 1/3 C. brewer's yeast
Perhaps add some Vitamin C to the mix? I'm not sure. But we should be able to mix this into a thick substance and roll it into patties. We can put one on the hive and save the rest in the freezer, until we need it.
We want strong, survival of the fittest bees - we want to help them come along, but they should be able survive without medication etc.
We'll let you know how things go and if they survive the winter then we'll be looking for a strong hive for next year. If they don't make it, we'll know that we gave them a fighting chance and will start again with a new colony (or three!).