More Canning and Collards

Tuesdays are dog training days. Lately I have been working 2 dogs for an hour each and then Saber is doing a nose work class. Since my trainer is an hour away this takes the better part of the day. It's all fun but there is still life on the homestead!
Today's chores were to can the soup from yesterday and to harvest collards from sis's lower garden. If by some chance we ever catch a break in the rain she needs to get her soil turned and ready for the spring. At this point we are beginning to wonder! We were able to turn ours a couple of weeks ago but that is about it. Mother nature has been soaking us with copious amounts of rain each week.

After getting the soup canned, I finished my chores. I headed next door to sis's. She, mom and I pulled collards. And pulled collards and pulled.... soon enough the back end of my truck was laden with LOTS of beautiful greens. We also picked a bunch of broccoli and since tonight's temp is going to dip into the low 20's we had to haul all of the tender plants from the greenhouse to her basement.

There is not near enough fridge space for all the greens so I parked my truck in the unheated car garage for the night. Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow?

Yesterday evening late we loaded up 4 Kune Kune Pigs to take to be processed today. We left this morning at 6:15 and made the hour long trek to the plant. These pigs will be made into sweet Italian sausage, bratwurst, and breakfast sausage both mild and hot.
Once home I plundered through the freezers and confirmed that other than breakfast sausage we are good on pork and don't really need anything until the next go round which will be in about 4 months. My freezers are overflowing and thankfully we have people wanting to purchase most of this pork. However, I still needed to make room for the breakfast sausage. I pulled out several packs of deer for stew and some hot Italian sausage for more Zuppa Toscana soup to can and shaped the sourdough bread that had been rising all night.
Unfortunately, I realized I needed carrots for the stew so I tossed the meats in cold water and made a grocery store run. I had only planned to get carrots but then I discovered lots of mushrooms marked down. I seriously had a long conversation in my head debating whether I had time to do the stew, soup and mushrooms. Canning the mushrooms make them about 60 cents a jar making them less than half the price of what store bough cost plus the taste is so much better. Frugality won out and mushrooms were tossed in my cart. Sigh.

Once back home I started the soup. I used our sausage and some beautiful fresh kale from the garden. This is one of my favorites as I've mentioned before, I make it and once I open the jars I heat with a dollop of heavy cream. Oh my! Now I can use the heavy cream from Miss Violet making it even more delish.

Next I raw packed the deer stew with carrots, potatoes and onions. Once they were processing I started on the mushrooms and popped the bread in the oven.

Soon enough I had 4 quarts of stew and 7 more jars of mushrooms ready to put on the pantry shelves.Since it was past time for barn chores and milking The Zuppa and sourdough will be tonight's homestead supper and the rest will be canned tomorrow!

Canning Hot Dog & Hamburger Chili

We had hamburgers this past weekend. My favorite way to eat one is a big sloppy burger with chili, slaw, onions and pickles. I usually make a large batch of chili and freeze in smaller containers. I pulled a container out of the freezer and starting heating it up. It was enchilada sauce. Oops! I plowed through the freezer. Sauce, sauce, sauce. No chili. MUST HAVE CHILI. Thankfully Dad came to the rescue and had some in his freezer. Since he and my mom live right next door it was a quick save and dinner was only 10 minutes late!

Today I made a double batch but decided to can it instead of freezing it. This way it won't be taking up much needed freezer space and the enchilada sauce will be safe. You can find the recipe on my Eating from the Homestead blog here.
Jelly jars are the perfect serving size. Pressure canning time is 75 minutes.

Sad Days

A battle hard fought by Percy's twin sister. One that couldn't be won. I tried to get her to eat at 4:30 this morning but she had given up. I made the difficult call to the vet this morning. Since it's only a large animal practice no one was in the office but they said someone would be close to my house and would swing by and put her to sleep for me. She left us before they got here.

With sad tears I buried here beside one of my flower gardens where 2 of my beloved bird dogs also rest. Hop on across that rainbow bridge little one. I will miss you.
Life on the homestead is sometimes very hard.

Booted To The Barn!

I walked into the laundry room this morning to find a goat escapee standing behind the door. When I opened it she dashed back to her box and hopped in. You are so busted little girl I said! It was a beautiful warm (and dry!) day, so decided after a week in the house they were ready to move to the barn and be real goats. ;-) Of course this means I have to walk to the barn every few hours to feed the little munchkins.

So Whisper (left) and Percy (right) have joined the rest of the goats and have already made fast friends with all the other kids.

Percy's twin will not be making the move. Unfortunately she has taken a turn for the worse this weekend. Sadly I most likely will have to have her put to sleep tomorrow.

Finally! A Goat With Some Sense!

Today yet another doe kidded. I arrived at the barn to find these two handsome fellas dry and well fed.

Thank goodness!
I am cautiously optimistic about the little twins born Saturday. They seem to be gaining strength and have a good appetite. They have been moved to a bigger box but still remain in the laundry room. The spotted one seems to be having more issues than her brown sister. We will see.The Sunday baby is doing great.

Not Again!

I headed out again this morning on yet another nasty wet day for day two of dog training. The babies made it through the night and had a nice warm breakfast. Mom would feed at lunch and I would be home early today.
I got home around 2:30 and hubby met me in the drive. What are your plans he asked. I told him I had been wet and cold for 2 solid days and felt chilled to the bone. I wanted to get my chores done and sit in front of a fire until I thawed out. Not happening .....

I got to the barn to find another goat had kidded. She had 2 but apparently could only count to one. She was taking care of baby #1 but left baby #2 in a puddle of afterbirth wanting nothing to do with it. I got it dried off and got a heat lamp hung where I tucked both babies until I finished chores. After feeding and milking the cow I milked out first bad mama. Second bad mama only seemed to have enough milk for the baby she liked so I traipsed up the hill to Mom's to steal some from one of here girls.

I left baby #1 with mom and hauled baby #2 to the house. Now I have a basket full of babies in my laundry room!