62 Hours

Egad!  It has been over two months since I posted anything.  Time flies regardless of the amount of fun one has.  Hubby swears it has to do with our age.  I would much rather blame the spinning of the earth or the change in the calendar.

Do you ever get that feeling that you are spinning your wheels?  Do feel like you get nothing accomplished or finished?  You maybe one of those persons who can focus from start to finish-not a hint of ADD.  I am not.   As the season has changed and the leaves have begun to fall, I have taken another look at what we accomplished this year, both pre and post my working off the homestead.  If we passed, it was with a D-.  Maybe I am being a little hard on us, but there are some projects that still are not done from months to years ago.

As I reflected, I began thinking about my time.  What I do with it and how much I have to work with. Well, we all have 168 hours a week to work with.  I would love to sleep 56 of those, although I don't believe that is the case.  I work 40 and I add 10 for the weekly commute to and from.   That leaves me 62 hours a week to do what I chose.  That's a whole other full-time job and then some!  I never really figured that out before.  So what in the world do I do for these 62 hours that leave me feeling like I don't get anything accomplished?  Maybe I plan TOO much and do TOO little.  Maybe I sit on the couch too much writing out menus and budgets.  Maybe I go to bed too early and read my library book too long.  Maybe I watch too many YouTube videos or look up too many Facebook posts. (Actually, I don't get on Facebook very much at all anymore.)

62 hours.  I feel that is a good amount of time to keep the homestead running and get some projects accomplished.  I feel that is enough time to take a few of those hours for me to workout at the gym at work before heading home to try and get into better shape to keep my energy up.  I feel that is an adequate time to cook and clean and keep the home fires burning.  I feel that is enough time to take in a musical in the 'Ville every couple of months to reward myself for all of the above-mentioned.

Honestly, today is one of those days I feel like I did okay with my time.  What did I do?

Made toothpaste

Made trail mix to bag up for lunches

Batch of Hot Chocolate for Hubby

Bags of Hot chocolate

Pizza-ish pockets with my homemade
frozen dough

Also made breakfast pockets-sausage, egg and cheese

Freezer meal-shepherd's pie with deer

One shepherd's pie for supper, of course

Blowing out duck egg

This is what my mom makes
from blown eggs.
 ( I did not inherit
her artistic talent, so I will just continue to
raise the ducks and eggs.)

The kids and I also got 16 PB&J sandwiches and 6 deli meat and cheese sandwiches in the freezer for lunches.  There were still a couple of things that I had planned to make for this coming week (chicken fried rice, blueberry muffins, pancakes) that I did not get to.   I am not worrying about it.  Heck, I already know that tomorrow's supper is... chicken fried rice!  

We did purchase some things from Tractor Supply during the holiday sales to get a new goat paddock/browse with a shelter going.  We are going to be separating the herd a bit. We are hoping that Mollie is bred; she sure is acting like it! and we want to keep her and Annie in the goat yard as they are both disbudded.   Maggie, Tulip and Voldemort will be kept in the new area.  Even though Voldemort is polled (no horns), he still nurses Mollie and that won't fly! So he has to take his chances with his sister and cousin.  We purchased an auger to make putting the posts in the clay soil that has not seen rain in 119 days easier and quicker.  We also purchased a 10x10x6 kennel to modify for a shelter.  That'll use up some my 62 hours next week!  I will try and get some pics of how it goes.  

Hope your week is productive! 

Learning to Meal Prep #1

It has become apparent that I cannot cook and prep quite like I did when I was staying at home full time.  I don't bake as much fresh bread and biscuits.  I don't make cookies or pies.  I don't roast beef or pork in the oven.   I don't freeze breakfast burritos or other things.  I just haven't made the time to do a lot of the meals that I did.  I really should, at least in moderation.

My last paycheck was a real eye-opener.  I had spent four days in the cafeteria for lunch.  I could have bought a week's worth of groceries for that!  Those two reasons have helped me to decide that I do need to make my lunches.  However, I do not want bologna sandwiches and chips!  So, with the help of some awesome youtube videos (shout out to Mind over Munch and Domestic Geek-check them out), I have begun the learning process of good healthy meal preps, mostly for lunch.

Last week I went WAY overboard and spent $200 on groceries to prep and have available.  I ended up throwing a lot of things to the chickens.  Hated by the budget, loved by the chickens.  So this week, I toned it down a bit.  I still had a lot of groceries to work with this week.  This does give me hope that I will definitely be saving money when I get the process down, not to mention the health benefits.

So this is what I did this week.  Please remember that I am a novice at this type of prepping and have a long way to go.  This is what I have for hubby and me for four days this week.  His lunches contain larger portions, especially of protein and we are going to add fruit (peaches, nectarines, bananas and apples).

I am trying to incorporate breakfast into my day so that I am not starving by the time I get home after 5:30 pm.  I have a jar of oatmeal, chia seeds, hemp protein, cinnamon and on top I have full-fat greek yogurt, frozen blueberries and honey to sweeten it up.  At work, I dump the jar into a bowl, add hot water and stir for a bit.  Then I add my yogurt mixture and stir. I have done this twice and it does seem to help my appetite so far.

I have a taco plate that includes grassfed beef browned and mixed with my homemade taco mix, black beans (I bought these canned I am afraid, but I have a bag to cook up and freeze into 1 c. portions), spinach, split cherry tomatoes, grass fed cheddar cheese and salsa.  I have a flour tortilla bagged up, but wish I just had some organic corn chips to make it into a salad. I will be adding a bag of organic grapes on the side.

Hubby had grilled up chicken and I sliced each breast into 3 sections.  He has 2 sections and I have one along with a rice blend (wild, red, basmati and brown), green beans and tomatoes for color.  There is a baggie of healthy trail mix for an afternoon snack if needed (pumpkin seeds, raisins, craisins and organic soynuts. (I still make the trail mix for the family with peanuts, chocolate chips, raisins and sometimes craisins/dried cranberries).

  

 I have a leftover meal of potatoes, carrots and kielbasa with green beans.  I have some leftover sauerkraut that I will probably throw in there too.  I am taking raw walnuts for a snack if needed.

And another leftover breakfast meal is a hash of sort.  I used my awesome chopper to dice green peppers, potatoes, onions and sauteed that in butter/EVOO blend. I added black beans to finish off the open can-none wasted!!  The original meal had the eggs cooked in it, I boiled some and tore a piece a bacon in there too.  I sprinkled a little extra hot sauce and there are my four lunch meals ready for next week.

I have an extra day that I can 1)skip lunch, not likely, 2)eat at the cafeteria if they have something extraordinary or the salad bar, 3) take something fresh or leftover from supper that was just to die for.

I feel better about not having bologna and chips and there is still leftovers such as rice and fruits and taco meat, things to make snacks or I can use in supper meals.  Or the kids can grab as a snack.  Don't get me wrong, I still have some chips and bologna in the refrigerator just in case, but it is a lot less tempting when you have a meal ready to go and it seems harder to make a sandwich than grab a tray of food.

The only caveat...

But then again, basically the dishes are a one and done!!

Summer of '16

Having gone back to work at the beginning of summer, I still feel that it was a decent one on the farm.

From the garden: I canned a few tomatoes, ate a few, froze some zucchini bread and fried a few.  I had one cleome/spider plant to survive and thrive.  I canned jalapenos and cooked up quite a few.  I had enough green beans to cook one pot.  No cucumbers-again.  No green peppers to speak of.  I did get cayenne peppers to dry.  

Mollie did pretty well with milking until July when I let her dry up because I was only getting 1-2 cups a day.  I did freeze two quarts of her milk either for ourselves or if needed for new baby goats next spring.  We drank several quarts to gallons and I did make one batch of yogurt.  I, however, did not get to make cheese.  The kit I ordered was on backorder and I did not receive it until after we started drying her up.  

We butchered several rabbits, some being almost 4 pounds, and put in the freezer.  We butchered several roosters and still have a few left in the freezer.  We actually still have about 3 or 4 more to butcher within the next month.  

The chickens did not produce eggs very well at all this summer.  Our temperatures were in the 98-100's most days.  We also switched to a locally milled laying mash that I don't feel had adequate nutrition for them, especially the ones that are about 18 months old and should have been laying very well.  The temperatures are still hot here, in the mid to upper 90s still but the nights are cooler.  We have also added an organic laying pellet to the mash along with sunflower seeds and a few extra "scraps".  
Finally we have some progress! 

We have let the remaining two rabbits out to free range in the garden, along with the chickens and goats to begin the cleaning up process.  

It is time to start thinking about breeding the goats, combining all the chickens and consider incubating for the fall, combining and containing the ducks, preparing the bees for the fall (find the reducers, purchase some extra pollen and non-gmo sugar for emergency feed), clean up all the grass and weeds that have been left to grow and that no animals have eaten and start a new compost pile for next year's garden. 

I will admit because of the hot weather and my getting used to working full time again some of the projects that I wanted to do did not get done.  We didn't repair and repaint the deck and railing, the house didn't get washed, the shutters didn't get repainted.  With a little experience under my belt now, I can get back to planning and setting a realistic time frame for these projects before the winter hits. 

From Homestead to Hobby Farm

Homestead.  Hobby Farm.  Some people use these terms interchangeably.  Some people are very emotional about either / or.  For me, it is now a matter of the heart and home.

I had spent the last 18 months at home, growing the farm and learning many things about the land, animals and myself.  I guess you could say I excelled.  Our farm had become bigger than our britches.  We need more fence and more paddocks.  We need a better "barn" system with more stalls and coops.  We need more feed and water bowls, and the feed to fill them.  We went from 10 chickens to 30, 2 goats to 8, and no caged rabbits, as they were all "free range" and self-sufficient to 15 in cages. 

It became painfully obvious that our one-income homestead was no longer viable as it was.  I began thinking I could make up some difference at the farmer's market.  I had to be honest with myself; spending a day sitting at the market taking money from people is just not in my personality.  Yes, sometimes one has to step outside of oneself to survive, but I had other options.  I did sell Brie and Houdini for some feed money, to help cut future costs, and for the health of the herd.  Brie was well into her role of Queen Brie and I believe this took a toll on Mollie and her babies, including the one  stillborn.

It was a very hard decision, and hubby along with myself teeter-tottered back and forth on what to do, but a door of opportunity opened, and still hesitant, I stepped through it.  I took an outside job, one that I had done before several years ago.  Actually, I had put in an application for a different job, again, one that I had done before, and instead got a call from a manager about another opening, the opening of the job I took.  Apparently, it is a good thing that I did since I later learned that I was the ONLY interview.  It sounds like a bit of divine intervention to me.

I am not going lie.  It is bittersweet.  There are things that I cannot accomplish anymore, such as running the greenhouse efficiently, spending extra time with the young animals to develop a bond or a trust with them rather than just be "she that brings us sustenance."  And even that is not the case because feeding chores are delegated. I won't be hand-washing my laundry very often outside with the animals grazing all around me.  I won't be baking so many homemade loaves of bread or fresh hamburger buns.  I won't have the time to sit at my leisure and listen to the birds or view the beauty of my surrounds anytime I wish.  I have to wait for the weekends, like "normal" people do.

It is going to be hard doing a job in town and then coming home and trying to accomplish a whole day on the farm.  I know that people do it all the time.  I will be one of those people because it is ingrained in my heart and soul.  I am thankful to God everyday that I have this now hobby farm and my family and even an income to enhance my farm and make it better for our family, including our animals.  I am thankful almost everyday.   I do have what my mother has coined "Grinchy Thursday."  Not only is Thursday the busiest day at work, it is also the day before Friday, and about 75% of Thursdays are spent figuring out how to sell all the livestock and sometimes even the whole farm because I am too tired and I can't do it... But by bedtime Thursday night, the Grinch's heart has grown back to normal size and all is well on Lost Arrow Acres again.

Some people knit, some people paint, some people workout...I farm.

Garden Pics 5/29/16

We had several hours of a very light sprinkle of rain.  I wanted to see how the older tomatoes and peppers and zucchini plants were reacting to it.

Baby jalapenos

Green peppers being dwarfed by maters

and zukes

Zucchini plants seem happy

Time to add a higher twine to secure them

Goat barn refuse to be spread

Bunnies waiting to be moved to better grass

Did I mention impatiently waiting...

Our younger chickens playing in the rain

Heading back to the coop, just in case

Hol(e)y Cabbage!!

On Lost Arrow Acres we strive to be the most natural and organic we can.  I am very picky about what I might use on our veggies.  Well, this is the first year that I have grown cabbage and they are not faring well.  Someone is enjoying them before we can. 

 So my first line of defense is a) DE (diatomaceous earth) and b) beer.  No, I am not going to drink it and hope I forget all about the cabbages; it's not even 9 AM yet!  

 I sprinkled the DE on and around the cabbages.  This is supposed to be sharp to any sluggy, wormy, grubby thing that tries to eat it. 

The Dollar Tree container lids will hold the sugary, yeasty beer, which is supposed to attract bugs before they hit the cabbages.  It makes sense right?  If your mother hadn't made you, would you have eaten the vegetables before the dessert?  No, I don't think so.

Well, there is my 2-punch for right now.  If that doesn't work, we will add more strategies.  Fingers crossed this does the trick.  I guess it wouldn't hurt to go ahead and weed the bed too. 

This Week's To-Do List

It's getting crazy around here.  There seems to be so much to do and I am having trouble keeping track.  So, to help me focus I am getting back to my to lists, even though it is not Tuesday.
This is one of those payweeks that falls right when everything seems to be due.  When you live on one income and have bills from the two income days, it can be a bit challenging.  I am even running low in my pantry on essentials.  Ahhh!  Luckily we have a good supply of eggs and milk from the farm, so no worries about starving to death. 

This week's inside chores:  Wipe out fridge.  This is easy with lack of groceries.  I need to go through the office and sort through papers: mail, recipes, receipts, scrap paper.  I also need to clean the forever remodeling dining room: pick up the tools and painting supplies awaiting their use again.  I am waiting for my snap tool and snaps to arrive still, but I have my material for my unpaper towels.  I hope to at least get those cut out and ready for sewing.  I think I have enough freezer fodder to make pimento cheese (without jalapeno).  I will need to bake some bread with my last bag of flour.  I also need to get the menu honed after taking a good inventory of the pantry and freezer list and see what I can make for lunch boxes and then hit the grocery store.

This week's outside chores:  This is where the majority of my time will be.  I still have several vegetable plants in the shade house that need to be in the ground so as to make room for fall vegetable sowing to commence soon.  I have tomatoes, cucumbers, jalapenos and even some watermelon I think.  I need to weed the cucumber bed that has morning glory seedlings starting to come up-oh I dislike those things!  The baby baby rabbits are big enough now to go into their tractor/cage and give mom a break. I will need to make sure we have one available, if not, hubby will have an evening chore to do.  I need to clean out the garden coop and throw that refuse on the compost pile.  The bees need a honey super added and both hives checked.  I need to cut back some of the shrubs around the front steps and deck.  I also am moving the adult chickens closer to the garden and this involves a new fence as well as converting old dilapidated rabbit hutches into chicken coops.  I will be tearing those down to build them back up-one at a time. 

Other than that, I think I am free.  Heehee. Wish me luck!

I will also try to be getting my blogging back on track.  It really keeps me motivated when I can see what I have done.  Sometimes it's hard to think you are doing okay when you look too far ahead at what has to be done rather than what you have done.  Balance, right?

Back in the Saddle Again

You may be humming Gene Autry or singing Aerosmith.  Actually, it is my first saddle...chicken saddle.  Buffy, my buff orpington (not very original, I know), has been Rusty's flavor of the month-or two.  She has been becoming more and more defeathered and had dirt stuck to her back where it looked like she had possibly bled.  Even her wings are becoming affected. 

I am not a sewist.  I doubt that I ever will be.  But I did drag my machine out and tried to make a chicken saddle to help protect her. 

So, lessons learned.  Shorten the top of the saddle by about an inch.  It bunches.  Round the bottom edges, or at least sew it right (inside out and then turn it right side out).  Nonetheless, I think it will protect her before hubby and I do some spur trimming in the very near future, and it didn't seem to bother her much.  When I have a free minute (ha!) I will go ahead and make some more and have on hand.

Garden Update 5/11/16

Things are growing, weeds included.  How did I get so behind on weeding?  I officially have to MOW the garden.  Nonetheless, things are progressing for the most part.

Meanwhile, at the watering hole.

And the babies in the playpen...