And Then There Were Four

Well, we did it. The decision was made. We no longer have Bubbles, the rooster. We were hoping that his disposition would improve. Hoping that he would go back to being the sweet rooster of his youth. The rooster who was so friendly that he jumped in my lap while we were sitting outside. But, it wasn't happening. He has threatened every pet sitter that we've had. He jumped on our neighbor not long ago when he opened the coop door. Luckily, he had a heavy coat on. So, bye bye Bubbles. The Amish neighbors came & took him away a few minutes ago. I told them to take him as long as I didn't hear about what a yummy dinner he made. As far as I will know, he might be running around their barn, terrorizing them & not in a stew pot.

Bubbles & the girls.

Winterizing the Chickens

This weekend we made the coop cozy warm for the chickens. Not over-the-top warm. Just warm enough not to freeze their combs off. This is what we did...

The easy part was placing a water heater under their metal water fount. It is automatically set to go on when the temperature drops below 35 degrees & will keep the water from freezing in temps as low as 10 degrees. So far, the water has only froze once and that was just a layer on top. Of course when there is a  stretch of days below 10 degrees (ugh, hate to think of that), we will have to check the water for icing.
Next, after much research, we bought a thermostatically-controlled outlet (comes on at 35 degrees & goes off at 45 degrees) to which we plugged in a ceramic infrared heat emitter placed in a metal lamp with the protective shield around it & hung it from the coop ceiling. This set-up will keep the chickens from freezing, but will not allow it to get too warm in the coop. We will have to see if the heat lamp will keep the water from freezing.
The coop is so well insulated, that we may have just needed the water fount heater. The chickens give off quite a bit of body heat too. But, since this is our first year of raising chickens, we want to be sure they are all right. I once read a blog that talked about letting her chickens combs freeze like it was no big deal to have to trim off the dead black tips of the comb. I'm sorry, but I won't purposely let an animal suffer if I can help it.

Vinnie supervising Steve with Bubbles looking on.

The rest of the weekend was spent cooking (me) and mudding & sanding the foyer drywall (Steve). We had our Thanksgiving dinner at the farm on Saturday in the midst of the drywall dust floating around. :-) . A decision was made on Sunday....call someone else to finish the small amount of drywall mudding & sanding we have left. It's not that much, but it will get rid of a whole lot of frustration for one fantastic custom woodworker who shouldn't have to do drywall too.

This week, I am visiting family. Love seeing the two granddaughters! I was supposed to leave tomorrow, but couldn't wait any longer, so I hopped in the car this afternoon.
Should post some new pics here this week...

And We Have....Two Eggs!

So excited! I went out to the coop tonight and put some scraps from the kitchen in the run & found our first egg! So I opened up the lid to the nesting boxes in back and there was another one!  I know they must have layed them sometime after noon today. Our old neighbors, Bob & Pam stopped by on their way back from MN to visit, and Bob & Steve checked out the nesting boxes & no eggs then.

The middle one is a extra large egg from the store.

So, like Steve says...they are finally earning their keep. Good thing too after Bubbles (the rooster) nailed Steve on the arm when he opened up the coop door this morning.  He seems to be getting more  aggressive lately. Mostly when he is inside the run. The other evening, Tigger (the kitten), wandered into the run while some of the hens were in there. Bubbles cornered him & started pecking him! I rescued him & he is okay, but will keep an eye on Tigger around Bubbles now.  A couple days before that, we had another incident with the chickens. Steve & I were both busy in the yard. We had let Vinnie (the dog) out earlier & while we weren't paying attention, he decided he wanted a chicken dinner. I saw him chasing the hens & Steve & I both went running. Luckily, the one he made contact with got away with only a mouth full of feathers gone. He hid in the woods for a while & then came back out. So we now have animal rules here at the farm. Vinnie is on a leash when the chickens are free-ranging & Tigger isn't allowed near the coop.

Tigger discovered trees yesterday. Steve only has to rescue him once with the ladder. :-)

We have been busy for the last couple weeks here at the farm now that the coop is finished. Two new outside doors installed along with three storm doors. One storm door to go along with some misc. trim work on the outside doors & garage doors. Then it's time to get our woodpile in order. I hate to say it, but they are predicting a frost the middle of the week here.  Hope they are wrong. Lots of tomatoes still on the vine, the beans aren't dry yet, the few pumpkins we have aren't ripe & almost all the cabbage is still in the garden...I'm not ready! We picked apples off one of the trees yesterday & got four five gallon buckets full. I sorted them tonight & two buckets will be for sauce & two for eating. I have already picked quite a few apples and made sauce (canned & frozen) and finally, after wanting to do this for a few years, canned pie filling. My canning shelf is filling up so Steve will be making me some more shelves soon.

We are still on baby watch. Kristin is due on the 14th but we are hoping the full moon (and her many walks) will bring it on. :-) Can't wait to meet our new granddaughter. I had a great visit the last weekend in August. Tim's mom had a luncheon for Kristin that Saturday. It was at a really cute restaurant and the food was great. While I was visiting, I got to see two of her friend's & their little girls. It was fun seeing Jaelyn with the other kids. I think she will be fine with  a new sibling.

Having fun withe the monkey puppet

Kristin's friend Jen, Evie & Jaelyn

Jaelyn playing with her new kitchen from Grandma Lori.

Son Shane is now on his trip out West. He has wanted to do this for years & finally made it happen. The farm was the first stop. It was nice to spend a couple days with him. Next stop was his friend in Minneapolis & they went to the lake that we always go to every summer to fish for a couple days. I talked to him last night & he was an hour from Montana near Theodore Roosevelt State Park. He will be gone for about a month.

Shane & me in front of his Scamp trailer

He has many friends that he is meeting along the way & I'm sure will make many new friends, too. It is a dream fulfilled & I am so happy for him.
Well, that's all for now. I'm still not done crocheting a blanket for the baby and need to get busy. It's hard having a kitten & crocheting at the same time :-)

Chicken Update

The coop is almost done

A few more finishing touches and it's complete. We put up the outdoor run on Sunday with the help of our neighbor Jim. We still need to make a door and put up the solar predator lights & solar motion detector spotlight and I think that's it. Tonight the chickens moved to their new home...

Settling in. This is as clean as it will ever look :-)

Looking through the other door with the hanging waterer & feeder.

Bubbles (the rooster) was the first one in tonight. We had a trial run on Sunday night to see if he could figure out the ramp which was pretty funny. Not how he reacted to the ramp. It was how he followed me back into the barn. He is just like a dog :-) He follows me everywhere. So tonight, I just put him down in the grass & he walked behind me to the coop. I locked him in & got the girls. I carried them. Wasn't sure if they would follow me & I needed to get other things done before sunset. They all settled in quickly. Tomorrow I'll let them out & see how they handle the great outdoors. I will leave Vinnie & Tigger in the house. Not sure what their reaction would be to the chickens walking around the yard. Tigger is so playful I'm afraid he'd get pecked at by Bubbles. Vinnie went & sat down by the coop as soon as I let him out so I think he will protect them.
Speaking of Vinnie...he hurt himself on Friday afternoon. The vet said his knee is injured. He started to run & must have twisted it. Poor guy. He already has a bum leg so now he is kind of hopping. He is on pain meds & arnica & is supposed to be resting. Hope he gets better soon. He is my shadow most of the time & I hate to leave him inside.

Big barn...little coop

Going down our driveway with the thrasher

The Amish have been thrashing the oats for the last couple weeks. They brought this McCormick-Deering thrasher up to Eli & Lizzie's last week to do theirs. The horses in the back were used to "brake" the machine as it went down the hill. It's like living in the 30's or 40's around here sometimes :-).

Beautiful pine after the grime is removed.

Last week I started to work on the pine boards for the floor. The wood looks great under all that dirt. It does take time to do each board, but it will be worth it in the end. I have about half done now. I need to work on them when there is no chance of rain. Tomorrow I'll have to find another project to work on, which I have many. Taking the indoor chicken cage down is one of them along with playing with my new "toy", a steam juicer. It is almost time for the elderberry harvest. The steamer should make it so much easier.
Another thing I did last week was buy six dozen ears of corn from the Amish down the road.

Part of the corn I preserved.

That was a lot of work! I will not be doing any more this year. I tried both ways. First, I blanched the whole ear & cut it off. Then I tried cutting it off first, before blanching. Both ways have their drawbacks. I chose to freeze not can the corn. Mainly because I have yet to use the pressure canner I got a couple years ago. I will be trying it this year though. I promise (to quit being a chicken about using it).
Some of you might have noticed that I started a new blog about the garlic we grow. I have set up a way to order the garlic, but haven't figured out the shipping yet. It is after 11pm so I gave up researching PayPal for the night. Hopefully, I can figure it out soon. I'll let you know :-)
Have a great week!

The State of the Garden

Mia having some outdoor time.

This sums it up...a lot of weeds :-).  I just can't seem to get ahead of it. Even with this dry spell we are having, the weeds continue to grow.  The veggies are still growing. It's just hard to find some of them. I have almost totally lost the leeks. I found the row, but there aren't very many there. I think I pulled some as weeds. Carrots are also a problem. A few weeks ago, I weeded a partial row, the rest are lost in there somewhere. It all started by going on vacation for a week followed by an intense garlic harvesting. The weeds just got out of control. You know, if you get them while they are little, it is easy to chop them with a hoe. When they are a foot tall, you need a machete :-). So I have been pulling & chopping away every day, making some headway. I can now see the cabbage, tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, basil, oregano, pinapple sage & parsley. Some of the corn is visible along with the potatoes & squash.  Speaking of potatoes & squash, I have had bug problems. First was the potato bugs. Lots of them. Then the squash started wilting & the leaves turned yellow on a few hills. That was caused by the vine borer. I dug them up & put them in a plastic garbage bag to cook in the sun. Hopefully, the rest of the plants will be okay.  I do have three cantaloupe on a vine which is a first. I have never grown it before. I hope the lack of moisture doesn't affect it. We have harvested a few potatoes (there is nothing like fresh hash browns for breakfast), lots of cherry tomatoes (red & yellow), about 6 large tomatoes (they are just starting to come in), a dozen or so peppers, peas, cilantro, basil, oregano, thyme, chocolate mint, orange mint, only a few cucumbers & zucchinis (not sure what's up with that), a few summer squash, lettuce, spinach, radishes, onions and of course, the garlic. On my list this week to pick is beets. I have never canned beets before, so I intend to learn how. I also need to buy some sweet corn from the Amish down the road to freeze. I am growing corn but not enough to do anything with.
On the fruit front, I have picked loads of strawberries and Nanking cherries, a fair amount of blueberries. A smaller amount of raspberries & about a cup full of jostaberries. Almost ready to pick are the blackberries & elderberries. Apples will be next after that, then the rose hips.

I have purring kitten on my lap now. He has been such a joy to have around. That's what we think, not Mia. She is having a terrible time adjusting. I know it takes a while. I have never heard such a low growl out of her before. Growls & hisses every time Tigger is near.  She is camping out in the bathroom now with her water, food & litter box.

Tigger playing in the window.

Tigger out hunting bugs :-)

Vinnie & Brutus (neighbor's dog) got into a big fight today in the basement. We have a bank barn so you just enter the basement through the garage doors. Well Brutus wanted a drink from Vinnie's bowl & Vinnie showed his teeth & barked. Brutus didn't back down so they were biting each other. Steve broke them up & sent Brutus home. The problem is (I think) is that they are both alpha dogs. Not knowing the history of Vinnie, we can only guess at why he is the way he is with Brutus. Vinnie guards the house & his bowls from other dogs. People are fine.

Vinnie in front of the garlic bed.

Besides the animal disharmony, we had a nice weekend. It was my birthday on Saturday. Steve took me out to eat Friday night & I gardened on Saturday while he shingled the chicken coop. We ordered pizza & made a strawberry-chocolate malt for desert. Yum. Then we sat in the lawn chairs and watched the sunset while Vinnie, Mia & Tigger played outside. 

Sunday, putting the hardware cloth around the bottom of coop.

Today we put the hardware cloth around the bottom of the coop. The screens made of hardware cloth & chicken wire for the run are laying on the ground in front of the coop. That is next week's project. We might finish it yet.
Steve brought up the last cabinet for the kitchen. My favorite cabinet. Worth waiting for...

The new "hutch" cabinet

It is a beautiful piece of furniture. I love the three small drawers. As you can see, I have already started to fill it up :-).
This week I'll be in the garden for more weeding chores & am starting on the wood flooring. It all needs to be scrubbed & dried then stacked in the house to be installed this fall or winter. I am still working on a garlic description & price list for sales coming up. I did sell another 15 pounds to the restaurant in town on Friday.

Another awesome Driftless sunset!

Time to get to bed..have a great week!

Time is just flying by! Lots has happened since my last post. Three days after our neighbor told us about
Vinnie, he knocked on the door holding a kitten.

Meet Tigger. Our newest addition. He weighed under 2 pounds when Dave brought him over.  Someone had dropped him off on our road :-(. He is a sweet kitty, part Siamese, I think. Has a huge appetite & won't leave my keyboard alone :-). Vinnie & Tigger get along great. Mia is very unhappy. She hisses & growls at both of them, especially Tigger.  Hope she adjusts soon. I feel sorry for the old girl.
Vinnie got his teeth cleaned & groomed & looks like a different dog.

He is much cooler now. He had 3 pounds of fur taken off! He is adjusting so well. He barks when he should and puts up with Tigger pouncing on his tail.
I finally found homes for the two roosters. It was a struggle. Craigslist and other online forums didn't work. Finally I tried FreeCycle (thanks Karen!)  The coop will be done in a couple weeks. Steve has worked so hard on it, putting all the other projects on hold.

I finished painting it tonight. I'll have to check in the morning to see if it needs another coat of red. We still need to make the ramp, put the screening on the windows and put up the outdoor run, which is already made except the door. I ordered three "predator lights" the other day. They are solar & have a red blinking light that is supposed to scare off bad beasts.  They are set up by height of the predator. That is why I got three of them. We'll try different heights for coyotes, racoons and deer. No, deer are not predators of chickens, but the orchard is behind the coop & I thought it would be good to keep them away from the trees.
On the garlic front...I sold some to The Driftless Cafe a couple weeks ago. We ate there Saturday night & had the garlic appetizer plate. It was very cool to eat our garlic at our favorite restaurant. I am gearing up for individual sales of garlic for seed or eating too. My final total of garlic dug was 1,470.
It was a huge amount of work, then add in the 90 + degree weather and high humidity. But it is done. All hung up and most of it is dried already. We mowed the garlic bed this weekend, put composted horse manure on it, then neighbor Jim tilled it in yesterday. Today I seeded it with buckwheat that will be tilled in a couple weeks before I plant the next batch of garlic. I also ordered two more kinds of garlic. That comes to 32 different kinds for next year.
Last week I visited Kristin, Tim & Jaelyn. It was so much fun. I love playing with Jaelyn & hanging out with them. Soon, very soon, there will be another little one to play with. September is approaching fast. The baby's room is almost done. Here are a couple pics from last week...

 It is getting late...next post will be about the garden & what I am preserving.

He's a Keeper

Mia & Vinnie co-existing

Last night went great. Vinnie slept on the floor next to the bed & Mia slept on the bed. He lets me know when he needs to go out & while I was working in the garden he was always close by. He met Brutus (the neighbor's dog ) this morning & acted like he owned the place.  Brutus accepted it & they took turns sniffing each other.
I am going to research how much food Vinnie should be getting a day & start him on a gradual weight loss diet. I also made an appointment for a teeth cleaning & grooming next week. I brushed him a little today & got a bagful of hair. He will be so much happier (esp. with the heat that is coming) with a good grooming. He should work out fine.
Angie asked how old he is...the vet thinks around eight.

This morning I took the Subie in for a brake job & after that, back out in the garden to harvest more garlic. So much more to do. The rest of the garden is looking neglected. I have been picking blueberries & raspberries, chocolate & orange mint, basil, thyme, oregano, a few cherry tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, spinach, chard, Nanking cherries and a few strawberries that are slow to ripen. I think I might be winning the war on potato bugs, too. I have never seen so many as I've had this year. Many of the plants were stripped by the time we got home from vacation. Have you every been squirted in the face with potato bug goo? Yuck!
The other night Steve & I were sitting outside watching the sun set & decided to let Bubbles (the biggest rooster) outside with us. He was very timid. He pecked at the small weeds in the driveway for a while & then he jumped into my lap! So funny! He sat there for a while & then (I knew it would happen sooner or later) he pooped on me.
I'll leave you with a laugh...time for bed.

Another Storm on it's Way?

We had a very noisy night Saturday through Sunday morning. I think a huge cloud parked over us & stayed for hours. We ended up getting about five inches of rain and constant lightening, some being very, very close. And with the heavy rain running down the hill behind us, our driveway sustained some damage again. Very heavy rutting throughout. It is a good thing we don't have the Mini Cooper any more. We could lose it in a rut. :-(. At least we didn't get the winds or hail. That will come tomorrow they say. They being the weather men, who, I think, like to scare the bejeesus out of everyone. But after last years storm, I will cooperate and be scared. There is a big red box around our weather forecast for tomorrow evening on The Weather Channel. So I won't be sleeping tomorrow night or if I do it will be in the basement on a cot with my new weather radio that Steve bought me last week. It went off early Sunday morning due to a flood warning. Kinda scary sounding, but it works. There is a tone first & then the NOAA computer voice tells you what the warning is. Tonight it will be on the nightstand next to me since we might get severe weather in the early a.m.
In other news...Steve worked on the coop Saturday...

The walls & roof are up.

Now we need to add insulation & siding, & tin to the roof. There will be two windows in front and the bottom opening is their door to get out. The opening on the side (there is a matching one on the other side) is a clean out door. We can open one side & push all the litter into a wheelbarrow, then transport to the compost bin. In the back will be the nesting boxes. Last week we built the screen walls that will go in the front of the coop for their safe outside area. I really like the feeling of the coop. We can see it out the windows and it doesn't block any views. Can't wait to see the peepers out there :-).
Speaking of the chickens...I placed an ad for the two other roosters today. :-(  I wish we could keep them but they will get very aggressive toward the hens with three of them competing for some female companionship. So Henry (formerly Henrietta) and Cassidy (formerly Cassie) will hopefully have a new home soon. It is really cute though when Henry imitates Bubbles whenever he crows. I will be sad to see them go.
The garden survived the rain and is producing an enormous amount of strawberries. Last night I made strawberry jam.

See that bowl? Every day I pick two or more bowlfuls that size. I have been freezing most of them and will be making more jam soon. We love smoothies and have one almost every day, so we should have plenty to last us the winter. Next, the blueberries will be ripening. I have been weeding around them every day a little so I can cover them with netting. I really don't want to share too many with the birds.
Being healthy eating vegetarians (and trying to get back to eating more raw food) means we consume a great deal of veggies & fruits. We also like nuts for protein & are hoping the hazelnut trees will start producing soon. With a hundred of those planted, we will have plenty :-). Nanking cherries, Josta berries, raspberries, blackberries, elderberries, gooseberries, aronia berries, etc. etc. etc. we are finally producing from what we planted. That is exciting! Soon we will have our own eggs too:-). I love the thought of having a full pantry & freezer. It is so nice to make meals from what you have on hand.

That's all for now. Have to get to bed so I can get some sleep before the storms.

Is That a Tiny Crow I Hear?

Well, Bubbles has been crowing for a couple weeks now & is getting a deeper adult voice. What did I hear today after the throaty crow? Yes, a baby crow. Oh no. I think I have another rooster. Henrietta may be Henry after all. Out of all the chicks, she has the most prominent comb. Sometimes they say you can't  tell by that. But now the little crowing noise....

Henrietta now Henry?

Cassie (the youngest) a rooster too?

I am hoping that I am wrong. Most roosters don't get along with each other. In that case, I will have to find a new home (one that won't eat them) for the roosters. I hope someone will want to adopt the rare white & black Javas.
This weekend, instead of working on putting the coop together, we decided to expand their indoor living accommodations so they will have enough room while we are on vacation in a couple weeks. That way our pet sitter doesn't have to worry (and neither do we) about the chickens being outside.
This is how it looks now...

There is a door to get in on the side where Shep is. A couple higher perches make for happy chickens.

We also worked on the outside walls of the chicken run (screened in porch :-). That took most of the day Saturday into Sunday morning. Good thing we are providing the screened area. Tonight while looking to the west, I spotted an owl sitting in the bird tree. (a dead tree that the birds love to perch on). That and all the other predators around (eagles, hawks, coyotes, racoons, etc.) make me a bit nervous about letting them free range. I will of course, but not until they are older.

Here's Steve installing brackets on the corners after putting together the frame. After that we stapled hardware cloth on the bottom portion & chicken wire on the top.

 We're getting there. Who knew (except Judy ;-) that it would be so much work to build a coop.

We left early for home for a graduation party for our niece Lindsay. She graduated from high school & is heading for college to study veterinary medicine. Congratulations Lindsay!

Yesterday I weeded the garden, worked on weeding the blueberries which are overgrown with weeds & put up one last trellis for the peas I planted. I think I'm done planting now. The potatoes are growing great & I found my first potato bug last week. Yuck! It was a huge one, too.

Today it rained most of the day so I worked on some inside stuff. Froze the first batch of strawberries, cleaned the brooder, etc. There was a beautiful sunset thanks to the storm clouds breaking up...

This is the "bird tree" that the owl was in later on.

Have a great night...

Problem Solved!

We have been talking about the flooring for the house/barn since day one of planning the living area. While searching Craigslist, we came upon an ad for pine flooring from a 1920's barn. It is 7" and 9" widths & perfect! There is enough to do the whole house. We wanted a floor with "character". One that wasn't too shiny or new. One that I could just sweep up & it would look fine. The wood came out of an old Iowa barn hay loft. The man that was selling it is in the business of taking down old barns. His business is Iowa Barn Savers out of Guttenberg. So we brought it home.

Good thing we had the extended van with us this weekend. It was quite a load (especially to unload at home with just Steve & I). So the next step is washing all the boards one by one & letting them dry outside. Then we will stack them in the workshop area until it is time to install. I am thinking maybe this fall or winter. We have so many projects to do outside until then. Once we get the floor down, we'll sand it, then put on the finish. I am so excited about this! I can picture it all done (and I wish it was :-).
The chicks are doing great. They are growing so fast! Bubbles (the rooster) and Cassie (the smallest chick) have both flown up & perched on the side of the brooder. I couldn't believe Cassie did it. She is the youngest. I think I will have to start using a screen on the top at night. I did that the first couple nights but then stopped. Steve started building the coop today.

He is standing on the bottom & the front wall frame is laying on top of that.

It will have two windows and a chicken door in the front that they can walk out into a screened area.  As we get more done, I will explain more of the plan. The chicks will be very happy in their new home.
Since it finally decided to warm up (almost 90) we decided to let them outside in the shade today in old dog cages that our son Shane gave us.

One larger cage with four chicks & the rooster & the smaller with two chicks.

They seemed to like it out there in the grass. Steve was close by & I was in the garden. On the way into the barn I realized that Cassie had squeezed her way out of the bigger cage. So I put her in the smaller one & she escaped from that one too. Not only that, the other chicks decided to follow her lead & do the same! Our neighbor's dog Brutus was sitting nearby but he didn't even care. So we grabbed them all up & put them back inside in the brooder. Guess outdoor time will have to wait until they are a little bigger. :-) Bubbles the rooster will still get his time outside, though.
Our neighbor's Scottish Highlander cow had a calf last week. I got to see it at a couple days old. So cute!

Mom keeping an eye on her baby.

We now know it's a boy.  Eli & Lizzie's cow had her calf last night. Another boy. They are glad she finally had it because they have been buying three gallons of milk day for quite a while from another Amish family. I don't agree with taking the calf away from the mother right away like they do, but they do a lot of things I don't agree with :-). We have been having an issue with their horses not having any water lately. I just don't understand. I am going to have a talk with them again about it though. The horses are in our pasture and the water trough they have in there has a leak. It has had this leak all spring. The horses go the whole day without water. Last night they woke us up kicking in the trough. I don't blame them. My neighbor who teaches natural horse training has talked to them about it too. I'll let you know the outcome of the situation...
It is 8 pm and still 83 degrees. I am not complaining though. It has been a cool spring here in the Midwest. An hour ago I went out and picked more Stinging Nettles for tea. I just can't get enough of it. I believe that a craving like that means your body is lacking what it provides (unlike chocolate cravings :-). Nettles are rich in iron, calcium, and tons of other vitamins and minerals. Most important to me is it is a detoxifier for radiation (really, do you think that just because Japan's problems disappeared from the main stream news, that it just went away?) Also can be used for treating for UTIs, and balancing  women's hormones. Nettle is also recommended to anyone with allergies or hay fever. This year allergies seem to be more severe, so drink your tea :-)
"How do I make it?" you say . Well, I'm going to be lazy & link you with a fellow blogger named Rachel who lives here in town. You might of heard of Lusa Organics? I bought some products for Jaelyn. They are wonderful. Check out her blog Clean. She does a great job of explaining how to find, harvest & consume nettles and always has inspiring posts.
I have also been making yogurt cheese lately. I react to dairy in that yucky way with mucous the day after I eat it .(In other posts, I have explained how I kicked my asthma by changing my diet.) Yogurt doesn't seem bother me though. Also making Kefir with raw milk didn't bother me but whole milk definitely did. So my handy dandy yogurt cheese maker has been getting a workout lately.
It is really simple. Buy or make your yogurt. I like the kind I get at the coop from Seven Stars Farm. I also prefer plain so I can add my own herbs or spices.

Simple. Just a container, lid & screen.

Spoon in the yogurt. Put the lid on & put in the fridge.

This is whey. This is what drains out of the yogurt. It is a great protein source that I use in making smoothies.

 So I just realized I don't have a picture of the finished yogurt cheese. It  looks like yogurt, only a thicker consistancy. What flavorings do you like in a dip that you might usually make from cream cheese? Really, anything goes. A simple recipe is to add salsa or maybe your favorite salad dressing or favorite herbs. Make some Cheesy Chips to go with it and you have a healthy snack or appetizer.
Well, I am tired from gardening in the heat today. I have a full day tomorrow of planting, too. We also are expecting the guy to come & install a roof cap on the barn. It didn't have a great one to begin with & the storm last year seems to have bent it too. We have minor leaking in the attic but will take care of that this week (I hope).
I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend!

A New Addition to the Farm

I made this video for my great-nieces, Addy & Noelle. We went to Garfield Farm in Geneva, IL on Sunday for the Heritage Breed Show. Trisha (who you can find blogging here) brought them to see all the rare breeds of farm animals at the show. Of course, we couldn't go home empty handed. So we have seven new chickens! Hopefully, six are hens & we know one (the month or so older one) is a rooster. If you watch the video, you'll know the names we picked out are as follows....Bob (or Bubbles, his nickname) is the rooster. Then there is Henrietta, Hannah, Callie, Phoebe, Wilma & Betty. They are all Javas and were hatched at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Here is a little more about the breeding program. It is a possibility that I will need to get more hens if we have a more than one rooster and have to give them away.  I just love watching them. Bubbles & Phoebe are eating out of my hand now & I am picking them all up to get them used to being handled. Steve mentioned getting some ducks so I need to research that, too. And of course, alpacas are still in the future (maybe this summer). I guess you could call us farmers now that we have poultry.
A far as the garden goes, it has been a cool spring, so not much is planted. I did get most of the potatoes in. Today I mowed, which takes a long time, and it is very cool & windy tonight. Rain is coming for tomorrow, but Thursday & Friday look like nice days.We did plant six grapes last week that the neighbors gave us. Love that we have lots of fruiting bushes & trees growing. We are hoping for some apples, cherries & pears from the orchard this year too.
Well, enough for now. It is 8pm and I haven't ate dinner yet.
Have a great week!