Well, Well It's Been Awhile (Part 3)

 December 2020

This month was trying and exhausting. 

The first week of December was cold. On the first frigid Sunday morning my mom looked out to see her huge 200 pound alpine buck down. She proceeded to go see what was going on and decided to try and get him up. Bad idea. He flipped her in the air and she rolled down the frozen incline. She was hurt badly. My sister helped with her Dr appointments while I tended her animals. It turned out he had Thiamine deficiency and within 24 hours of treatment was back to normal. Mom not so much. Though nothing was broken she had hurt her back and was in horrible pain. In addition to that one of her old does had triplets and something went really wrong. Before I could get the vet out we lost her and all her babies. A heartbreaking way to start off the month. Over the next few weeks sis and I were at their house multiple times a day checking in and helping where we could. Towards the end of the month their old dog went into kidney failure. She was still alert and doing ok but needed extra fluids so for a couple of weeks I would go up and give her sub q iv fluids until they could make the difficult decision to let her go. It was such a hard time for them as well as us. Thankfully my parents live next door!

Meanwhile back on the homestead...

We had 6 baby goats born over the course of the month. All are happy and healthy.

The boys shot 3 deer. Sis and I cut them up and put them in the freezer. I canned bone broth several times over the month!

We realized early this month the old Bradford pear was blocking a huge amount to light from the tunnels so it had to go. 

 We were determined to finish the tunnels this month. Ta-Da! and we did. 

The end. Well almost :-)

We opted not to have a large party this year. It just didn't seem right. Not to mention we were mentally and physically drained. We did celebrate Christmas with our family that lives here on the "compound".

It was quieter than usual but that was ok too. We are blessed to have had this time together. It has been a long year. A strange year. A year to remember and at times one we would love to forget! Goodbye 2020.

Well, Well It's Been Awhile (Part 2)

 And so we continue..

November 2020

I spent a huge amount of time on the road  the last 8 weeks working Ludovic and trying to get him ready for our trial that was on the 21st of this month. We thought we were ready until he decided the 4 gunshots during the obedience routine were just a little much. Sigh. We did get his TR 1 title for tracking.

Maybe next year!

I had the opportunity to purchase another dairy cow that was newly freshened. In keeping with our V names I call her VaRona... Sorry couldn't help myself!

We were back in milk! 

We added 3 Large Black Hogs to the homestead. 2 barrows destined for the freezer and a gilt to cross with our Kune Kune boar. 

November was another extremely wet month. We had a couple of torrential storms that left us with a lot of water damage.

And yes we continued to work on the high tunnels! 

The sitting area was completed and the hoops were erected on the first house.

Well, Well It's Been A While! (Part 1)

 Once again I can't believe how time flies! We have had some ups and downs since my last post . Where do I start? 

Let's see...

September 2020

The day after my last post was a very sad one. Our beekeeping society was rocked by the tragic loss of a true "Queen" in the beekeeping world. Her vast knowledge and love of bees was  unparalleled.  

It is a tradition that bees should be told of important events in the lives of their keepers. So my bees were told and then I draped the hives in black and lit a candle in her memory.

We mowed our Fall cut of hay and had part of it round baled for the cows.  The rest were square baled and put in the barn loft.

Work continued on the high tunnels. I went ahead and planted seeds even though they weren't complete.

Lettuce and several varieties of greens were planted in small blocks.

Of course I had to keep it fenced off to keep the chickens from helping themselves to the salad bar!

October 2020

We continued working on the high tunnels. It was slow progress since we were only able to squeeze in a few hours each weekend!

The first tunnel is going to be on the cutesy side with a small sitting area and a walkway with stone pavers. A warm quiet place to hang out and peruse seed catalogs when it's cold and nasty outside!

We also leased a bull to get our 2 dairy cows bred. He was a very handsome black angus. I called him Romeo!

The summer garden was winding down but I still had tons of peppers to freeze and preserve.

Today was fridge purging day. It has become a jumbled mess with all the produce coming in out of the garden. There were a few gallons of old milk to go as well. Our chickens LOVE fridge cleaning days! Nothing ever goes to waste here on the homestead either the chickens or pigs get it. We actually have very little to compost.

Late this evening after feeding we started back on the high tunnels. Even though they are not complete we amended the soil in one half to try and get some seeds in the ground. We tilled in compost and some organic cow manure and got the bed raked out and smooth. Tomorrow some seeds go in!  

A Prepper Pantry Meal

Last night I decided to play around with some of our food stores. I never really fix a meal just for me when hubby is gone but this time I thought what the heck. For an add water only meal it wasn't too bad!

I grabbed a box of my grand daughter's mac and cheese, some freeze dried hamburger, freeze dried green onions and some chili powder.

I refreshed the hamburger for about 15 minutes. Then I dumped in in a pot with all the other ingredients I pulled out. Ta Da! 

Pretty tasty! And plenty of leftovers too!

And Yes... More Pepper Preserving

 I had really planned to take the day off from preserving. Hubby is out of town until late evening and it's been cloudy and rainy. I have a couple of books I would like to read without falling asleep mid first page! I did some housework and took care of critters. I picked up a book and read a few pages but the bucket and bags of peppers kept calling. Preserve me...you won't be sorry....I'll be so yummy this winter...  Fine! Fine! So the better part of the afternoon was spent slicing up all the beautiful bell peppers and freezing for fajitas and various other dishes that use them sliced. I have to say the colors were amazing and a beauty to behold.

I placed them on cookie sheets, let freeze and vacuum sealed them like I do my okra. 8 bags stashed in the freezer with a bunch more waiting to be picked.

Then I started on the banana peppers. I picked out the straightest ones, sliced in half and seeded them. (I'll chop the wonky ones for soups and cornbread) Then I stuffed them with a mixture of cream cheese and grated sharp cheddar. They too went on a sheet to freeze and then I stacked them in a container with wax pepper between the layers. They will be a treat this winter to pull out, bake at 350* until hot and bubbly and devour! 

No I wasn't sorry. I love preserving the harvest. maybe I will take tomorrow off though! ;-))

Never Forget

 What a somber day it was. I like everyone else will never forget where I was and what I was doing when the towers were hit. My heart morns every soul lost and is grateful for all the brave men, women and search and rescue dogs for all their sacrifices. I remember weeks afterwards I'd look at the sky, see a plane and feel a knot in my stomach. Let's never forget. God bless America.

On a somewhat brighter note I finally harvested my Greasy Beans. They are an old Appalachia pole bean. Years ago I was gifted a bag of them that had been dried by stringing them up and letting them hang for several weeks and are called leather britches. I found some seeds this spring and have been excited to try yet another way of preserving the harvest. I strung them on dental floss but any type of thin string will work.

How cool is that? So far I have 3 strings done with more beans to harvest. I'll share the end results in a few weeks!