Each recipe that I've obtained through the web is a link to that recipe!
Each supper includes a "salad bar."
Monday
Meatball Parm Casserole from Joy Filled Eats
Brussels Sprouts
Tuesday
Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Bacon from O Taste and See
Green Beans
Cauliflower
Wednesday
Chili
Veggie Fritters w/ Dipping Sauces from Create Mindfully
Thursday
Fajitas
Friday
Shepherd's Pie from Delicious Everyday
Saturday
Spaghetti with Zoodles
Sunday
Stir-Fry
Monday, July 30, 2018
Sunday, July 29, 2018
Downsizing ... for a spell
For awhile now, my health has been on a down grade. The constant pain got so bad that I finally had to give up watching the grandbeans on a full-time basis. It was so bad, just the mere thought of running after a baby all day while in varying bouts of pain really stressed me out, making the pain worse. So, while it broke my heart to do, it was also a big relief pain-wise. Thankfully, the kids had an alternative plan in the wings and it has been working quite well for them.
I started doing a little better. I was getting things done slowly around the house and farm. Due to being able to move at my own speed instead of the speed of children, the pain was becoming manageable.
Then my daughter-in-law, DILBean2, needed to go in the hospital. Bean2 is, of course, serving overseas. With no one else to take the children until she is fully functional and able to care for the boys herself, we are taking care of GrandBean2 & GrandBean4 full time. This is what family does. We take care of each other even in situations that are difficult and sacrificial. Otherwise, you're not family, you're just people who know each other.
As you can imagine, my health started going downhill again. The positive out of this is, I have been forced to make a doctor's appointment. I need to take care of these babies .... and myself.... and the animals.... and the garden (what there is of it this year).
All of this to say, MrBeans and I have made a decision. We are harvesting almost all of the birds, not hatching anything else, and we have let Blue dry up. This alone will take animal chores down from 4-5 hours daily to about 20 minutes.
I won't have to leash up 4 goats to feed in order to milk - because otherwise Blue is bucking and headbutting everyone who is trying to steal her food even though they have the exact same thing in their feed troughs. That does not make for easy milking. Now we'll be down to just putting food in 4 troughs that are all together.
We'll go from 6 pens and 6 brooders plus incubator chores (it's old so we have to add water twice daily and manually turn) to 2 pens and 1 brooder until the baby quail get big enough to go in their pen - then we'll just have 3 pens - and no incubator chores.
AND our coffers will be FULL! I mean that's what they are here for after all - we provide love and care and a good life - they provide meat for our table. In late winter/early spring we will begin incubating again and start the flocks over for next year's meat.
Another positive out of this - we get to see how long this meat lasts! It will let us know how many birds we should raise next year. While we will be canning all the birds (as it's the only way we've been able to get tender meat so far) we also have half a cow, quite a bit of fish, a little bit of pork and deer left, some birds that we froze before we knew I'd stink at cooking them properly (but I can pressure COOK them into juicy tenderness, so not all is lost), and a couple rabbits in the freezer, plus some canned meat still on the shelves. Out of curiosity, we're going to see how far this takes us into next year.
Therefore, something that seemed so negative turned out to be wonderful blessings in disguise! Out of all this:
1) We are in a position to really care for two little boys that need it.
2) We can help our Son and Daughter-in-law and give them peace of mind.
3) I was forced to finally make a doctor's appointment.
4) We will get to see how long the meat we've raised thus far will last and determine if we need to increase, decrease, or remain the same in years to come.
I'm quite excited for the things to come! Have you ever had a time where you had to downsize the farm or homestead (or other) or had something that appeared to be negative turn out to be some great positives? Share them with me in the comments!
I started doing a little better. I was getting things done slowly around the house and farm. Due to being able to move at my own speed instead of the speed of children, the pain was becoming manageable.
Then my daughter-in-law, DILBean2, needed to go in the hospital. Bean2 is, of course, serving overseas. With no one else to take the children until she is fully functional and able to care for the boys herself, we are taking care of GrandBean2 & GrandBean4 full time. This is what family does. We take care of each other even in situations that are difficult and sacrificial. Otherwise, you're not family, you're just people who know each other.
As you can imagine, my health started going downhill again. The positive out of this is, I have been forced to make a doctor's appointment. I need to take care of these babies .... and myself.... and the animals.... and the garden (what there is of it this year).
All of this to say, MrBeans and I have made a decision. We are harvesting almost all of the birds, not hatching anything else, and we have let Blue dry up. This alone will take animal chores down from 4-5 hours daily to about 20 minutes.
I won't have to leash up 4 goats to feed in order to milk - because otherwise Blue is bucking and headbutting everyone who is trying to steal her food even though they have the exact same thing in their feed troughs. That does not make for easy milking. Now we'll be down to just putting food in 4 troughs that are all together.
We'll go from 6 pens and 6 brooders plus incubator chores (it's old so we have to add water twice daily and manually turn) to 2 pens and 1 brooder until the baby quail get big enough to go in their pen - then we'll just have 3 pens - and no incubator chores.
AND our coffers will be FULL! I mean that's what they are here for after all - we provide love and care and a good life - they provide meat for our table. In late winter/early spring we will begin incubating again and start the flocks over for next year's meat.
Another positive out of this - we get to see how long this meat lasts! It will let us know how many birds we should raise next year. While we will be canning all the birds (as it's the only way we've been able to get tender meat so far) we also have half a cow, quite a bit of fish, a little bit of pork and deer left, some birds that we froze before we knew I'd stink at cooking them properly (but I can pressure COOK them into juicy tenderness, so not all is lost), and a couple rabbits in the freezer, plus some canned meat still on the shelves. Out of curiosity, we're going to see how far this takes us into next year.
Therefore, something that seemed so negative turned out to be wonderful blessings in disguise! Out of all this:
1) We are in a position to really care for two little boys that need it.
2) We can help our Son and Daughter-in-law and give them peace of mind.
3) I was forced to finally make a doctor's appointment.
4) We will get to see how long the meat we've raised thus far will last and determine if we need to increase, decrease, or remain the same in years to come.
I'm quite excited for the things to come! Have you ever had a time where you had to downsize the farm or homestead (or other) or had something that appeared to be negative turn out to be some great positives? Share them with me in the comments!
Friday, July 13, 2018
A lot has happened in a year!
We have really expanded just about everything since the last time I posted!
We've added four goats, a bevy of quail, and ducks to add to our farm. This year we did a combination of incubation and allowing mamas to set their clutches. This was only successful with the ducks. The turkeys have two mamas setting BUT they've only hatched one singular poult and I found it dead in the middle of the pen, looking like it had just hatched. Otherwise, they have set for 3 1/2 months so far. Out of all the turkey eggs we've incubated we've hatched three but two didin't make it. The one that did is thriving with a bunch of pheasants that hatched around the same time.
We've discovered:
You can't brood ducklings with other fowl as they will likely drown them or trample them.
We already knew you can't brood poults with chickens, but you can brood them with smaller fowl like pheasant and quail successfully.... but not ducklings.
Chickens will stop eating if they get too hot and will essentially starve themselves if the heat gets really bad. So we have to put fans on the brooders as they are more enclosed than the coops, thus stay a bit warmer. At least the mystery "illness" that was killing off our chicks has been solved. I feel guilty of negligent homicide.
Ducks will not acknowledge or take care of ducklings that did not hatch under them. Out of 18 ducklings only 6 are acknowledged and cared for by the mama ducks. They left two in the nest (due to timing they were at least in the middle of hatching when they came out) plus some that were pipping AND two that were one and two weeks respectively away from hatching. However, they will resignedly share coop space with them after showing them who is boss.
Goats get up multiple times in the middle of the night to play and eat.
Bees will make a home in a less than perfect (read here, full of holes) hive in spite of what many beekeepers will try to tell you.
Plants can and will thrive in seed trays that are left in the garden plot too long ... and produce a bunch of yummy green beans, too.
You can't just cook up a butchered chicken or it's way too tough unless it is really young. Letting it sit for a day before freezing doesn't help either. In our experience, SO FAR (as there is one way we haven't tried yet) pressure cooking or pressure canning is the way to get super tender, juicy, delicious fresh butchered chicken. Have I mentioned before how much I love pressure canning meat??
So, what else has changed?
My dad has come to live with us after a bout with pancreatic cancer AND an adrenal tumor. He's all better now but we're keeping him here with us.
My cousin moved on to our property in her portable house.
Bean 3 is serving overseas.
Bean 4 got married to SILBean4.
Bean5 got married to SILBean5.
Bean6 started college and moved into a house with 3 other people.
Bean7 got a job, got his driver's licence, was in a car accident, and did Dual Enrollment part time.
Bean8 decided she wanted to homeschool for her high school career.
Grandbean4 decided a hospital stay - complete with oxygen tubes - would be cool.
I became a life member of the Women Marines Association. I am the Toys for Tots Liaison for our local chapter, which only makes sense since I'm the area Toys for Tots Volunteer Coordinator.
The beginning of 2018 pretty much stunk - we lost so many people we loved and cared about and several that were a part of our lives but not that we were close to, including: My best friend #2 (complications from surgery on a congenital heart defect that they had recently discovered), my grandfather (COPD), MrBean's uncle (complications of a sudden stroke - like there's any other kind), and my little cousin (took his own life). Others include, my former father-in-law, MrBean's cousin, my cousin's close childhood friend, my daughter-in-law's grandmother, 2 friends, and her best friend's mother. Only two were outside of an 8 week span of time. Talk about emotionally taxing.
However, life continues on and we always remember those that have reposed.
We've added four goats, a bevy of quail, and ducks to add to our farm. This year we did a combination of incubation and allowing mamas to set their clutches. This was only successful with the ducks. The turkeys have two mamas setting BUT they've only hatched one singular poult and I found it dead in the middle of the pen, looking like it had just hatched. Otherwise, they have set for 3 1/2 months so far. Out of all the turkey eggs we've incubated we've hatched three but two didin't make it. The one that did is thriving with a bunch of pheasants that hatched around the same time.
We've discovered:
You can't brood ducklings with other fowl as they will likely drown them or trample them.
We already knew you can't brood poults with chickens, but you can brood them with smaller fowl like pheasant and quail successfully.... but not ducklings.
Chickens will stop eating if they get too hot and will essentially starve themselves if the heat gets really bad. So we have to put fans on the brooders as they are more enclosed than the coops, thus stay a bit warmer. At least the mystery "illness" that was killing off our chicks has been solved. I feel guilty of negligent homicide.
Ducks will not acknowledge or take care of ducklings that did not hatch under them. Out of 18 ducklings only 6 are acknowledged and cared for by the mama ducks. They left two in the nest (due to timing they were at least in the middle of hatching when they came out) plus some that were pipping AND two that were one and two weeks respectively away from hatching. However, they will resignedly share coop space with them after showing them who is boss.
Goats get up multiple times in the middle of the night to play and eat.
Bees will make a home in a less than perfect (read here, full of holes) hive in spite of what many beekeepers will try to tell you.
Plants can and will thrive in seed trays that are left in the garden plot too long ... and produce a bunch of yummy green beans, too.
You can't just cook up a butchered chicken or it's way too tough unless it is really young. Letting it sit for a day before freezing doesn't help either. In our experience, SO FAR (as there is one way we haven't tried yet) pressure cooking or pressure canning is the way to get super tender, juicy, delicious fresh butchered chicken. Have I mentioned before how much I love pressure canning meat??
So, what else has changed?
My dad has come to live with us after a bout with pancreatic cancer AND an adrenal tumor. He's all better now but we're keeping him here with us.
My cousin moved on to our property in her portable house.
Bean 3 is serving overseas.
Bean 4 got married to SILBean4.
Bean5 got married to SILBean5.
Bean6 started college and moved into a house with 3 other people.
Bean7 got a job, got his driver's licence, was in a car accident, and did Dual Enrollment part time.
Bean8 decided she wanted to homeschool for her high school career.
Grandbean4 decided a hospital stay - complete with oxygen tubes - would be cool.
I became a life member of the Women Marines Association. I am the Toys for Tots Liaison for our local chapter, which only makes sense since I'm the area Toys for Tots Volunteer Coordinator.
The beginning of 2018 pretty much stunk - we lost so many people we loved and cared about and several that were a part of our lives but not that we were close to, including: My best friend #2 (complications from surgery on a congenital heart defect that they had recently discovered), my grandfather (COPD), MrBean's uncle (complications of a sudden stroke - like there's any other kind), and my little cousin (took his own life). Others include, my former father-in-law, MrBean's cousin, my cousin's close childhood friend, my daughter-in-law's grandmother, 2 friends, and her best friend's mother. Only two were outside of an 8 week span of time. Talk about emotionally taxing.
The last thing we did together - and she doesn't even like football but she went with me anyway.
However, life continues on and we always remember those that have reposed.
Friday, March 24, 2017
Time for Bees
I have since joined a Beekeepers Club and learned my bees simply swarmed. A normal thing to happen to a newbie that misinterpreted signals. Therefore, when a surprise shipment of nucs came available to our beekeeping club, MrBeans said get 2! So we grabbed up 2 and have been in a dash to clean the old home and get a new home to get these little ladies a comfy place to live.
After immersing myself in a book and talking with experienced beekeepers, we decided to use the 2 10-frame deeps as one home and to buy 3 8-frame medium supers as another home. Honey supers will go on top of each with a queen excluder a little later in the season. We have inner boards and telescoping tops. The inner boards have two holes each that can accommodate a mason jar of sugar water should the need arise. Currently, we are not feeding in that manner. I'm simply mixing sugar water with a drop of lemongrass and putting it in a bucket with sticks out in the middle of the yard.
If you look carefully, you can see two bees on the sticks. They blend well! I'm working on a 5-gallon bucket feeder that is similar to a gravity-fed chicken waterer/feeder. The one I made will work well when I get a lid that fits a bit tighter. Currently this orange bucket is working fairly well so the 5-gallon bucket is a bit farther down on the list of things to get done.
Transferring the nucs into the hives took a little longer than I intended because I have a rip in my face netting. So I was working one-handed most of the time as I had the rip clinched together in my fist. When I needed two hands, I used them quickly and then grasped the ripped section again. For the most part, using the smoker and moving slowly but surely helped A LOT.
I am repairing the rip this week then I'll go out and check on their progress.
For now, here are the hives set up! There were still a few bees in the nuc after I moved all the frames so they are positioned near the entrances of the hives until the next day.
We were in a hurry to get them set up so the new items are unpainted. Honestly, the old ones need new paint. So I'm going to paint a little at a time to keep as few bees from sticking to the wet paint as possible. I'm also going to use a more neutral color instead of stark white. I've seen quite a few in various colors ~ now I just have to pick what color or colors I want to try!
After immersing myself in a book and talking with experienced beekeepers, we decided to use the 2 10-frame deeps as one home and to buy 3 8-frame medium supers as another home. Honey supers will go on top of each with a queen excluder a little later in the season. We have inner boards and telescoping tops. The inner boards have two holes each that can accommodate a mason jar of sugar water should the need arise. Currently, we are not feeding in that manner. I'm simply mixing sugar water with a drop of lemongrass and putting it in a bucket with sticks out in the middle of the yard.
Transferring the nucs into the hives took a little longer than I intended because I have a rip in my face netting. So I was working one-handed most of the time as I had the rip clinched together in my fist. When I needed two hands, I used them quickly and then grasped the ripped section again. For the most part, using the smoker and moving slowly but surely helped A LOT.
I am repairing the rip this week then I'll go out and check on their progress.
For now, here are the hives set up! There were still a few bees in the nuc after I moved all the frames so they are positioned near the entrances of the hives until the next day.
Saturday, February 18, 2017
Odd Laying Places & Fermented Feed Update
So, I get out to the coop today while it's all nice and drizzly. It looks like like the board across the nesting boxes is working pretty well! Normally, most of the shavings are out of the box the following day, so at least the board is good for that use :D Good enough for me!
After gathering these eggs I went in the coop to tend the birds, only to find ....
Yes, folks, you see that right... 3 eggs under under the feeder and 1 just out in the open. What are these girls thinking??
When I go out to the coop, I have to put everything down by the door and walk to the end of the coop and toss scratch feed through the wire just so I can get in the door without being accosted. I wrote about fermented feed awhile back. Well, here's my girls flocking to it as soon as I put the bowl down.
After getting this flock fed and watered, it's the pheasants turn! They enjoy the fermented feed as well. I throw them some and they pick through the hay to eat it. They're pretty cute running to it to peck at it :)
Friday, February 17, 2017
Mending the Coop
This is what I'm greeted with everyday when I walk around the building to the coop... All my girls & guys waiting on me to throw fermented grains to them!
Today, I have a small job to accomplish ... I must mend the nesting boxes. Somehow, the bottom is coming loose, so eggs are winding up in the straw below. Thankfully there *is* straw there to cushion their fall!
And here you see where the eggs are slipping out when the girls climb in and out. If you are saying to yourself, 'it looks like the girls are roosting in here'... you'd be right. :-/ So, I have a solution for that, too. Technically, MrBeans has a solution for that! ;-)
Scraping out as much poo was first at hand. Not as bad as it seems considering it's all practically dirt. There were only a few older clumps that were definitively poo. We had a piece of 2x4 that was almost the perfect length for the two projects.
First, the 2x4 fit perfectly between the nesting boxes and one of the roosts. So, we fit it under there and sawed it to size.
The rest of it was used to put across the nesting boxes. This will surely help them from scratching out all of the shavings as well as discourage them from nesting. We shall see tomorrow!
Here's the finished product! What do you think?
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
The Feast of Saint Valentine
So we don't really celebrate Valentine's. We generally focus on the grandkids. Okay, that's when I started acknowledging Valentine's in the lovey way. MrBeans got the children something every year. The sap ;-)
It was in a different frame originally, with a wine-colored, felt photo matte surrounding it. Now, it's a bit simpler.
The top one is GrandBean1 and GrandBean2 is on the bottom. Next year I'll need a different frame since I have at least 3 more babies to be adding to the collection!
Still debating on whether to get GrandBean5's footprints & pictures since he was born a mere 2 days before Valentine's. Lots of factors to consider. I'm completely okay with waiting!
GrandBean1's art is the dark pink with GrandBean2's art is on the lighter pink.
This is obviously GrandBean1's artwork ;-)
As you may or may not know, grandchildren change everything <3
I started making crafts for the wee buggers for each holiday. We're going to have quite the collection in a few years.
This year I decorated the hearth with all the Valentine items. I think I like this arrangement the best so far.
The Valentine's Day after we found out GrandBean1 was on the way, I made this...
It was in a different frame originally, with a wine-colored, felt photo matte surrounding it. Now, it's a bit simpler.
For the babies' 1st Valentine's we take "Kisses from Mimi" pictures & make a footprint flower for "Mimi's & Papa's Garden."
The top one is GrandBean1 and GrandBean2 is on the bottom. Next year I'll need a different frame since I have at least 3 more babies to be adding to the collection!
GrandBean1 in the very back; GrandBean2 to the left; GrandBean4 to the right; GrandBean3 in the front.
For the babies' 2nd Valentine's we do art! I fold a piece of pink cardstock in half and let the wee ones scribble away. After a few snips, colors, prints, and tapes these are the results...
The babies' 3rd Valentine's finds them making this LOVE canvas.
There's no telling how I'll arrange it next year considering there will be so much to add!
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