Starting Seeds

Yep it's time. Sis has got some beautiful lettuce started in the greenhouse but believe it or not it is time to start seeds for the spring and summer garden.

It was a cold damp day here on our homesteads so she built a small fire in the wood stove and warmed the greenhouse. Since she had to work later than anticipated Mom and I were put in charge of seed starting duty. Scary, yes. I can say without a doubt she was inspecting our work shortly after we were done! I am more the animal person and Mom well, she is a little scattered. That may explain all the cauliflower that's in the garden that no one remembers starting. Good job Mom, it's gorgeous!

 Today we started a broccoli blend of 4 different varieties. They should produce until the weather gets hot. We also started 8 different kinds of peppers and some snapdragons. A lot still yet to do. Hopefully we will finish most by the end of the week.

 

Homemade Butter

Today I made butter with all that luscious cream from Friday's milk. In today's modern times it is quite easy. I didn't hand churn it, although I have as a child, I used my blender. I carefully skimmed all the cream off the milk and put it in the blender then turned it on high. Wa-La butter in a matter of just a few minutes!

I drained off all the "buttermilk", then washed it. To do this I placed the butter in a bowl of ice cold water to keep it from getting too soft and kept pushing on it with the back of a spoon changing the water every few minutes until it ran clear. After I drained off the last of the clear water I continued to mash the butter until all the water was out of it. I added salt to taste and molded it into a roll.

The finished product minus a few slices that were slathered on hot corn bread!

Now I've Got Milk!

As promised the stanchion was finished on Thursday. It is working out so well! Thursday's milking was a little tough and I was only able to save about a 1 1/2 quarts. The chickens and cats got the rest that had bits of hay and dirt floating in it. Friday was better and I got 1 1/2 gallons. Today hardly any kicking at all and 1 3/4 gallons.

Today's milk. Possibly next weeks cheese!

Yesterday's milk. Definitely tomorrow's butter! I put a rubber band on the cream line.😋

Got Milk?

Well... yes and no...

Let's just say I have a milk cow.

The last couple of days have been quite interesting. It seems Miss Violet has a stubborn streak, about a mile wide!! The first 2 days she has been here have been a battle. Not that she is mean but she is just not going for being milked by hand.She has always been machine milked. I have managed to squirt enough on the ground to keep her from getting mastitis. 

That ladies and gentlemen is about to change tomorrow morning! A stanchion is set to be erected at daylight. Hubby has nabbed a couple of his guys and as soon as it is done I'll be running her hiney in it. Stay tuned ;-)

Violet and Vinca

They are here! The one on the left is Violet. She is milking now. One the right is Vinca and if all goes well she should be calving in September. Violet was exposed to a bull so she may possibly be bred. I will have the vet out to check in a few weeks.

MORE Mushrooms!

I don't know what going on in the mushroom world these days. It seems about once a month I am stumbling on some amazing mark down deals. Today's find were Maitake and Shiitake once again marked down to almost nothing. The Maitake were a whooping 49 cents and the Shiitake 99. I also found 2 containers of white button marked down. So of course I had to scarf them all up!

I dehydrated the Maitake and Shiitakes and canned the buttons. Another nice little addition to the pantry!

Happy New Year 2019!

Happy New Year from the homestead! I hope you have a year of love, happiness and of course productivity! :-)

We have a lot of plans in the works for the farm. Hubby already has plans to do some barn remodeling to better accommodate the livestock we have now since all but one horse is gone. I plan to add 6 more herb beds, medicinal and culinary. We are scaling back on the Kune Kune pigs and plan to add a couple of Large Black Hogs. I am also downsizing the Icelandic flock and adding a couple of Suffolk ewes. In doing this I hope to have some lambs that grow out a little quicker (and cheaper) for the freezer. The new orchard did not happen last year so that is also on the to do list.

Fingers crossed it looks like we may have not 1 but 2 farm interns. I am doing a happy dance thinking about all that we can get done. Many hands make light work!

Today, however was not a day to dream. Chores called and the biggest one was cutting up yet another deer. Number 7 went into the freezer. Though it sounds like a lot, we split them 3 ways between the family members who hunt and cut!

I think though the most exciting news of all is.....wait for it......DAIRY COWS are coming back! I have purchased 2 dairy cows. One is in milk now and one is due to calve in September. I hope to pick them up in the next week. Stay tuned!