Recently in Good Things Category

Well, not yet but maybe by next spring!

Look what the mail brought yesterday to the farm.

I have always wanted to have honeybees.

I want to learn how to bake using honey instead of refined sugar.

I want to be more self sufficient and self sustaining.

I think this spring I am making real headway to get there!

My readers ask such good question! In the post about hatching my goose eggs renn of rennratt left this comment.

renn said: What are the differences (overall) between different breeds of geese? I understand appearance, but are there qualities that shine in the various breeds? Do you eat goose eggs? Or geese in general? I am fascinated by this.

Let's talk about the incredible edible egg. Not just chickens eggs. Most every fowl egg that I know of is edible. They are. You can eat all sorts of delicious eggs and probably have and may not have known it.

Goose and duck eggs are great for baking. They have a much bigger yolk and make a much richer baked product. Cakes are to die for when baked with duck eggs in place of chicken eggs. Quail eggs are often used for gourmet hors' dourves. You just never know where a different fowl egg will pop up in your diet. People also eat ostrich, rhea and emu eggs too.

 

In this photo is a sampling of eggs I have on hand. From largest to smallest are goose, duck, chicken, jumbo guinea and smallish guinea. The very small guinea egg is about the size of a bantam chicken egg. It would take 3 of those to make a large standard egg in your cooking recipes.

A farm fresh egg has a different taste when compaired to a commercially produced egg. It does take a while to get used to a fresh egg because they are so much richer and have a better flavor. Eggs don't take on flavors when the hen eats wild onions or garlic. But that is not to say what they eat doesn't cause a difference in the eggs when compared.

Farm fresh eggs from a small backyard coop are generally much deeper orangey in the yolks. The whites look cloudy. All of this is a good thing. Hens that are able to freely choose what they eat and are given a much wider diet have a more healthy egg. It has been proven under laboratory testing. Backyard, free range eggs have much higher Omega-3 fatty acids.

 

The orangey yolk is from the wide diet the chickens eat. Chickens are naturally omnivours. They do eat meat and they do eat pleants. Factory hens are fed a commercial mix of feed that is manufactured to have the least waste material and the most utilization in the chicken body.

Backyard chickens get more than feed. They eat bugs and green grass. Many are catered to and get treats just because they are pets more than egg producers.

My own chickens get all of the meat scraps from my kitchen and alot of my vegetable scraps - I have to give some to my goats too. Also my chickens eat grass. They eat bugs. I often cook rice and mix it with yogurt for good probiotics. Chickens will also catch and eat mice, lizard, small snakes and other little critters. This makes deep rich yolks. When I make my 12 eggs pound cake the cake turns yellow/orange from the yolks not a pale yellow or white. Also a cloudy tight white  means an egg is super fresh as the carbon dioxide hasn't had time to dissopate through the shell. You want the yolk to sit up high on top of a tight white. This is getting the best of egg goodness.

This is true for most eggs. Turkeys, ducks, chickens, guinea, pheasant, quail, etc all eat the same things. The eggs are enrichened in the same manner. Geese, however, are different.

 

A goose is a herbivor. It only eats plants. It might swim like a duck but it doesn't eat fish or bugs or other creepy crawlies. Geese are best when they pasture graze. Their diet consists of good green grass in a nice wide field and a clean water source to keep their nares clean and clear.

It was once customary and still is with the English to raise geese. Christmas goose has been popular since Victorian days. Having spent the past 3 years looking for a goose for Christmas dinner and not finding one I decided I was tired of searching for the mountain. I started moving dirt and am building my own moutain -so to speak. I went in search of eggs for breeds of geese that were noted to make the best table birds. There are breeds of geese raised for their liver - mmmm, pate.

 

There are many kinds of geese. African, American, Buff, Emden, Toulouse, Brecon Buff, Buff Back, Grey Back, Pomeranian, Chinese, Pilgrim, Roman and more including canadian and wild geese. Even some real eye candy geese like Sebastopol. I should be getting some eggs for some Sebastopol next week. I am thrilled!

The heavier breeds are good for eating. I did a lot of research and found the most recommenations for embdens as table birds. Those are what I am raising for meat. There are others that are better at laying more eggs. I have some mutt geese growing out and who knows if they will fatten out for meat or be good layers. I have to wait and see. My embdens should be ready late this month. It takes 28 - 35 days for them to hatch. An entire month! The waiting is long and the hatching is longer. Geese are the hardest to hatch.

I don't have a pond. I bet you wonder how I will be able to raise waterfowl on dry land? They live just find with a kids wading pool to dip in to. It would be perfect to have a pond, even a wet weather pond. I am asking Steve repeatedly to build me one. We'll see. Maybe by next spring I'll have one. Fingers crossed.

My oldest geese are four weeks old. They don't need as intensive care as chicks. In fact my geese are turned out now. No heat lamps, tending to themselves. I make sure they have clean water and they graze and nap in the sun. I also give them a dish of game bird feed to supplement them as they are still growing and have not feathered in yet.

I am raising Chickens, geese and guineas.  Turkeys will come this month and hopefully in 2 weeks my ducks will hatch. This is mostly breeding stock for next years big meat harvest for the winter freezer.

Steve hunted this past fall and the wild goose he brought home was delicious. I hope our home grown Christmas Goose is equally as good.

 

Do you remember back in February when I brought this little 12 week old blue orpington cockeral home?

 

He started filling out real nice by 19 weeks.

 

Just 2 weeks ago I thought he was awesome.

 

But look at him now at 25 weeks.

 

Isn't he a knockout?

Can you figure out how big you think he is? He is HUGE!

 

Just another little tidbit - He won't be fully grown to his adult size until he is 18 months to 2 years old.

:)

If you sweep a house, and tend its fires and fill its stove, and there is love in you all the years you are doing this, then you and that house are married, that house is yours.

-Truman Capote, The Glass Harp

 

I am.

My mood is very light today*. Start the video below if you want a taste of the mood that has filled me inside out this afternoon. It's music to read by.

I was out on the front porch watering my plants. Gracie and Steven were in the driveway, Gracie pulling him along in his red wagon, their voices punctuated with bursts of laughter. The cool breeze in a grey sky stirred the leaves on the trees making the hanging baskets swing gently back and forth as they dripped water from the long soaking drink the shower hose provided just minutes before.

I love my front porch. I love the rockers. I love the plants. I love everything about it (except maybe those aweful lamps at the front door but those can be changed one day when I remember to pick something new up from Lowes. Perhaps this but with a brighter brass finish to match the hardware on the glass door. There are some very high priced things that I love but, get real, I am not spending that kind of money on some outdoor lights when these will work and look just as nice.)

There is something so completely southern and victorian and charming about ferns on a long front porch of a big white house. It is gentile. Even on a very hot day it looks cool and inviting. White rockers, white wicker, green ferns and tall glasses of lemonaide filled with cracked ice, sweating into cool puddles on the side tables as the creak of the rockers make harmony with the birds and crickets - soothing and serene is how my brain interprets it.

My grandmother always had tons of plants on her front porch. It was like a jungle. Passersby would see a big white house with a long white front porch filled with baskets and baskets upon baskets of various plants. She had pots of mother-in-law tongues, wandering jew (varigated and purple), swedish ivy, rubber tree plants, string of pearls, peace plants, bridal veil, spider plants, several types of begonias (angel wing is my favorite begonia), corn plant, hen and chicks, moses in the cradle -just to name a few. Her plants where monster sized. She fed dozens of plants weekly with a drink of water mixed with Peter's plant food (back when it came in little white cups). I can see her now with her gallon milk jug full of blue water and a large tumbler in her hand. Every plant got a full tumbler of water.

I remember that during the winter the room she kept them in had lots of light and was filled to brimming with her collection of plants. She would see something she liked somewhere and would pinch off a piece and bring it home and stick it in a pot of soil. She would plants seeds from her grocery store fruit just to see what she could grow.

My grandmother had a green thumb beyond belief. The vining plants she grew were amazing. Some of the plants would hang from their pots and measure over five foot in length. She would eventually get around to snipping them off and starting yet another plant or give them away to someone who was awed by her plants.

My grandmother never had ferns. I don't know why. I never asked her and she never actually said but she never had ferns on her front porch. I have always loved ferns. Especially boston ferns.

The boston ferns I picked up in early spring when it might have been a bit too cool for them to be outside. I had brought home two ferns and I broke them up into four pots. In this area ferns are at a premium in price. You could have knocked me over with a feather when one plant nursery had theirs marked at the low discount price of $19.95 each. Um, no thanks. Not interested. I found my two little baskets at walmart's garden center and repotted them myself. I have spent the summer periodically breaking them up and setting new pots. Now I have eight ferns in various stages of development.

I have no idea where I will put them when the weather changes and they need to be brought in. I love the hanging baskets they are in. The baskets are lined with cocoa fiber so watering them in the house will be a mess. It is a nusance to me to have to take all the plants one at a time to the tub and water them and then have to wait for them to drip dry before rehanging them.

The large ferns on either side of the door are two I picked up at Lowes garden center. The plants had been marked down for clearance for quick removal. I always try to have something large and green on either side of the front door. It just looks inviting to my eye. These two large plants need to be broken up and put into at least 20 inch pots. Where I would put 4 twenty inch pots so that they get good light and are easily accessible for watering? I hate dripping mess after watering plants but I love the plants. LOL I don't mind all the care they need when outside I just dread bringing them in and the leaf dropping and dripping water mess they can create. Any suggestions?

On the wicker tables are peace plants, I started those from 2 little tiny $2 pots (small small plants lol). They should be transfered to larger pot also. I don't know if a larger pot will as nice on those tables. I guess I need to break them apart and make new pots, too.

I don't think I can justify the need of new (more) flower pots to Steve. He won't understand that the square ones on the chains are outdoor pots and just won't do in the house. Also have you looked at the price of large pots? Plastic ones just will not do either. Added to the problem is the need for them to match the decor in the room in which they are to rest over the late fall and winter. See? Always something in need of beautifying. He completely won't understand and will suggest some of those old ugly green or white plastic pots most hanging baskets come from the nursery in. I want something ceramic and lovely to set on a dresser or side table upstairs. I want something fullbodied to set in the downstairs hall which floods with light. I can hang two of the plants in the kitchen in new hanging baskets but the rest will have to be transplanted to regular pots with a drainage saucer. Steve just wouldn't understand the need of it.

You know, you could save me from all of this headache and send me one of your own lovely 10 inch pots and take the chore right out of my hands. Email me at big red couch (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll tell you were to send them. Haha! Just kidding! I am not scarfing for free flower pots! Who am I kidding? Yes, I am! Ummm ...

See this little rocker? I know someone is going to ask me where I got it. This is one sweet deal. This is a rocker for Steven. At nine years old Gracie is still able to sit comfortably in it so it isn't as small as you might think it is. I had seen these rockers at Tractor Supply in early summer. I refused to pay the price they wanted for it. Nearly 100 bucks. The hell? It is a small rocker not an adult sized rocker. Every time I would go in I would look longingly at them but just could not pay the price for them. I watched and waited. One day there were two left and the store had marked them down 25%. The price was still not nearly good enough for me to bring one home with me. I was waiting and watching every time I went into the store until one day there was one left and it was marked down to 25% of the original price. Score! So I brought it home.

I love the look of my front porch. It makes me happy to be out there. I love water the plants and wonderful smell that rises with water, wet soil, plant food, and the fresh air. I even like the chore of sweeping the porch as I wait outside for Gracie to be picked up by the school bus.

Now that you have seen my front porch would you show me yours?

Post a photo of your front porch (or back porch or side porch or patio) and leave a link in the comments section of this post. I'll come visit and post your link here in the main body so others can come visit your porch.

*This post was written early saturday afternoon

Porches

Badger's front porch

Badger is my almost birthday twin. I was born August 20th and she was born September 20th. Go spread some birthday wishes over at her journal today.

While you do that I am going to make some photos of what is going on at the farm as fall rolls in. Yesterday I cleaned and tilled the fall garden spots. Today I am planting my fall veggies.

You might remember back when I was pregnant (almost 2 yrs ago!) I got busy and painted the upstairs bathroom so that it would be nice when my mother came for a visit. All these months later I had been biding my time, absolutely sure the furnishings I really wanted would fall into my hands. A couple of months ago we went to an estate auction. An older gentleman was selling off everything in his outbuildings. Some of it had been around since his grandfather was a boy. Some of it had been collected over the years and then cast aside. Up for auction came this old beat up bureau that had been in an open barn for over 20 years. I was once deep dark almost black in its finish but now was so weather worn that it was greyish white. I knew that piece of furniture. It most definitely was not a bureau. I was a buffet to a long forgotten dining set otherwise called a sideboard. I knew this because I have one almost exactly like it, twice as big, inherited from my stepfathers estate. The large buffet is in my bathroom used as a dressing table and linen storage. I knew that removing the top piece with the small mirror it would fit perfectly in the upstairs bathroom. I really wanted it. Someone else bid on it but at $50 they quit and I won. It has been sitting upstairs for about two months aclimating itself to the temperature and humidity of our house. Look at the grain of that wood!Wednesday night I set about cleaning and began oiling it. Colby was mad to the point of tears that I was putting that "nasty old thing" in their bathroom. I told her to get over it. When she paid the mortgage she could decorate the house. She got madder. Stomped and huffed. Told me how it was too big to fit in the door. It was too big for the room. It was disgusting and ugly. I ignored her. Put it in place. Rearranged the linen storage and all of the upstairs toiletries. It is not too big!I think it looks pefect in there. It is the look I wanted to achieve. It certainly sets off the clawfoot tub. The only thing left that I would like to do in this room is to have hardwood floors put in - but they have to match my existing pine floors and to have crown molding put up. I have some glass shelves I am going to have Steve put up tonight tomorrow night. Matching pink soap!Heaven help me. He will certainly gripe about it. The flower arrangement is there to help take the eye away from the pipes that come up from the floor. The type of tubs I have the pipes are exposed and do not run inside the walls. Colby now loves the look. I knew she would.

Past experience with an old hovabator over 15 years ago left me not wanting to try and hatch eggs myself. The thermostat was wonky and unreliable. Even replacing it with a new wafer it was a pain to get the temp set and maintained. With things changing and solid state thermostats available I thought I would give the idea another go. I cringed every time I looked at the price of incubators with all the bells and whistles. Over $200 in some cases for all the extras. I could not and cannot see that expense for a styrofoam box! I started collecting pieces and parts and figured this girl could make one. And so I did. This is my effort at putting together a reliable incubator. So far it is working fine. I have it running now so I can work out the adjustment on the thermostat for consistant temperature. Supplies: 1 styrofoam ice chest or a chest that is used to ship frozen foods. I had both but chose the ice chest because it is larger. 1 hot water heater thermostat ($8, temp ranges from 90 - 150 F) 25w light bulb 1lamp kit (bottle version) 4 old wine corks 1surge protector 1water wiggler Not pictured: hardware cloth water dish old pc fan adaptor/transformer I cut and bent the hardware cloth to make a rack that fit into the ice chest. I placed an old dish in the bottom to provide more surface area for the water to help with humidity and also to rest the hardware cloth rack on. Be careful because the cloth will scratch you as you work with it. I worked with it removing pieces here and there until I got a good custom fit. I also cut out the area where the light bulb would be installed to keep the light low in the box because heat rises. I am not an electrician and have very little expeience with wiring. I followed a diagram and wired my light and the thermostat. I did wire them wrong the first time but when the breaker tripped I knew then the right way to wire them. LOL The thermostat is the least expensive, single pole version I could find(under $10) from Lowes. The temperature range on this model is 90 - 150 F. The screw at the top is numbered #1 and the lower is #2. I used a bottle lamp kit because it has an opening on the side so that the kit can be wired straight from the bottom or from the side. This was perfect for this project because it allowed me to run the wires, connect them, then seal the base closed. I am terrified of exposed wires and prefer to have everything contained neatly and hidden away. On the kit the ribbed wire was to be connected to the silver screw. So I cut off a piece of the cord about 4 inches long to have wire to work with to connect the thermostat. With the ribbed wire connected to the silver screw I then used a piece of the wire I cut to wire from the brass screw to the thermostat #2 screw, then used the non ribbed wire of the cord to wire it to the #1 thermostat screw. The wire is run through the base screw and then over through the side opening to that everything is sealed shut when the lamp assembly is closed. I then carefully wittled out around the inside hole I made to insert the lamp assembly so that everything was snug and tight. The walls of the ice chest I used are rather thick -just a bit thicker than the screw/bolt that came with the light kit. I was very careful to cut away around my bolt opening to that the light assembly would screw together snug and tight so the bulb did not wiggle around and pose a fire threat by melting the styrofoam. Also I cut away a little bit to accomdate the wiring running over to the thermostat. Assembly on the outside. And from the inside. I put electrical tape over the little screws on the thermostat that the wires are attatched to because I worried if a child reached in and accidentally touched the screws they might get shocked. Make sure you thread your wires through your tiny holes before assebling them. I used an ice pick to make tiny openings to thread the wires through. Next I used an old adaptor, 120v input 12v DC output, from which I snipped off the end and wire it to an old pc fan. I wired the black to the black and the red to the other mixed color wire. I secured the wiring with electrical tape and wire nuts. I used a stick coated wire to secure the fan in place. Using a pumpkin carving tool, I cut out 4 air vent holes and used old wine corks to plug them up with. I cut out a large rectangle in the lid and placed over it an old window glass pane. I used duct tape to secure the glass and cover the edges of the glass. I used pink duct tape because it is a Chick 'Bator! Woot! My helper - I recieved a box of welsummer eggs yesterday. They are now set. Welsummer ChickensToday is Day #1 of Welsummer Hatch Watch 2007. Badger! Do you see how very dark these eggs are?!?! You just wait. If I hatch any and get these dark eggs I can send you some. Farm fresh eggs, never washed or refrigerated will keep on a counter top for 3 weeks. Just think if I collected eggs and mailed them same day you could be eating them in 2 days time! Farm fresh! This part is always exciting and makes me a little nervous. This is an inexpensive project if you go around and collect things that you may already have or someone you know might be willing to give you. For example - check your local Walmart in the sporting goods section where they sell live fish bait. The worms come in large styrofoam boxes. If you ask nicely they will usually save one for you. I am waiting for the next shipment now and the guy has promised to save me the box. Free! It is an excellent project to do with your kids. Even if you live in the city (Yes, you can have chickens in most towns and cities. Some places limit to 3 hens and 0 roosters in the city limits. You can check most ordinances online at Municiple Codes.) but if you can't you can still hatch eggs and give the chicks to someone. It is not like being stuck with a litter of puppies or kittens. If you hatch some rare breed chicks you will be able to find someone through free cycle or Craig's List who will take them off your hands in a matter of minutes. For all of you teachers out there (Yes, you! And you! And you, too!) This is an excellent classroom project for elementary kids EXPECIALLY those in the city who may never in their life get to see where a chicken comes from and how life begins. I recommend this as a great learning experience for your classroom. Chicken eggs take 21 days to hatch. I will be blogging the daily log of temperature, relative humidity, turning of the eggs, etc. You can follow me and use my success and failures to learn from. Rare Breed Chickens: Blue Laced Red Wyandotte Cuckoo Maran Dominiques Sumatras Golden Penciled Hamburgs Silver Gray Dorkings Silver Leghorns Red Caps Egyptian Fayoumis Silver Penciled Rocks Rare Breed Special Lakenvelders Phoenix Blue Andalusians White Laced Red Cornish Golden Laced Wyandottes Golden Campines White Faced Black Spanish Buttercups Modern Bb Red Games Silver Penciled Wyandottes Have I shown you my silkies? How's this for a different kind of chicken? Check out ebay or eggbid.com or someone local if you want to try to hatch some chicks with your kids. Remember it makes a great 4-H or boyscout/girlscout project, too.

My mother was a beautiful bride. She was excited. A little nervous. But most of all - very happy. We are home. The train was great. The weather was HOT and HUMID. I have 5 gallons of tomatoes, 1 peck of snap beans, 3 gallons of potatoes and umpteen cucumbers to finish today. I made salsa yesterday. It is awesome! Home grown tomatoes, jalepeno peppers, hot chili peppers, cilantro and onions with purchased garlic, lime and salt. Did I say it was hot? Yeah, the weather and the salsa. P.S. I don't think my mother looks 60. Does she?

We make our own compost. It is not hard to do. You can do it in an outdoor plastic trash can with a lid. We just do it on a larger scale. Warm, clean and free. Our compost is a mixture of the remnants of about 15 giant round bales of hay that were left scattered in our field and around the fence line by the previous owners, animal poop, yard clippings, orchard clippings, weeds, and the kitchen garbage of vegetable matter only. Pile it up, mix it up, wet it down. Keep it turned, keep it damp. The bacteria present will begin to get very active. On a cold morning you can see steam rising. When you turn it you can feel the heat. It can get hot to the touch. Natures way of cooking makes a very clean, dark brown dirt. The cabbage have tripled their leaves in a week. Yesterday I spread 15 scoops from our front end loader in the garden and around the grapes and fruit trees. The peas have doubled their size in a week. All of the plants love the nice rich tea that runs off when it rains. Compost tea is full of all the nutrients your garden plants need to grow and produce. I know it sounds gross to think of things rotting and decaying but when the cycle is complete compost is clean, doesn't stink at all. It smells fresh and clean. The corn hasn't sprouted yet. We are very careful not to put any meat scraps, oils, etc into the compost pile. We do not want to attract wild animals or rodents. Neither do you. If you make your compost use only vegetation and plant waste. The potatoes are peaking out from the soil. They are purple skinned. When I was spreading the compost I found some things we did not put in there. I have no idea where they came from. It is sort of gross but interesting, too. First, I shoveled up a scull. I have no idea what it came from. It looks to have the beginnings of horn bumps on the top of the scull. Second, I came across a jaw bone with teeth. It is not the same or part of the scull that I found. This was found in a different section of the compost pile. Third, I found a fully intact sea shell. Both halves still closed and the membrane sealed together. Do you think a bird could have dropped it? It takes me longer to do tasks now than it used to. When Colby is home in the mornings she watches Steven and the tasks roll right along. When she leaves for work and its just me and Steven things slow down and sometimes come to a grinding halt. Some days he is content to wander and play in the grass. Some days he climbs on the tractor and 'drives'. There are times he plays in the dirt. Then there are the days when he will not stay close to me. Days when he runs off the minute I turn to do something. Days when he is bound to fall head first into the koi pond. Those are the days I give up and we go inside. The past few days have been pretty productive. Today is already looking like it won't be so productive. Steven has been up since 4am whining and tossing and fretting. He only gets still and cat naps when I am holding him. It is 7:15am. I am already exhausted and pushed to my limit. I have so much that needs to be done today. Anyone want to come play with him while I get my chores done? P.S. - I know I have a ton of email and comments to answer but I haven't had time. But I will. Maybe this afternoon or tonight.