After Months of Preparation

I thought the biggest difference in growing our food would be the growing.  But in fact, the biggest difference has been the cooking.  We don't fill up a grocery list with any old thing that comes to mind anymore.  We eat what we have, unless it's something special and then our planning begins way in advance.  That's how it's been with my husband's favorite thing — jambalaya. 

Last summer we planted okra for the sole purpose of jambalaya.  They've been sitting in the freezer waiting for this day.  Okra is native to the humid subtropics of the gulf coast, so it was kind of a funny joke growing it in desert Idaho.  But it grew and it did fine.

Those chorizo's he worked on last week went in the pot, along with some black beans we grew.

We crock-potted two of the chickens we raised last summer.  They made the whole kitchen smell like hearty dinner.  Our daughter stripped the meat off the bones.  The fat and skin went to the chickens, but we tell them it's pork.  That seems OK, don't you think?

It was a long day of cooking.  At the same time I was working on a parmesan.  We had to negotiate for stove space.

Although my husband and kids love it, I've never liked jambalaya.  It's too hot and the sausage is gross.  I usually just eat oatmeal on jambalaya days.  But I must admit, this stuff was actually good.  It was still hot but had good flavor.  The sausage was flavorful and not too fatty.  Everyone agrees that of all the jambalaya's he's made, this was the best.  Which is good because he made enough to last for days.

All of this cooking got me to thinking about our next batch of meat chickens.  I think I'd prefer to raise one large of batch rather than two smaller ones.  So we'll plan on getting baby chicks in late March which would give us a butcher date of early June.  My nine-year-olds want to raise some chickens for themselves too.

Right now in the dead of winter with the land silent, it is an exercise to think forward to warm days and the growth of spring.  But it will come.  Just as those silent times of our spiritual life always give way to warmth and growth.

Late Winter Living

Our baby plants have become toddler plants.  The cabbage leaves have grown large enough to shade the stuff around them. The lettuce looks strong and is putting on its second set of true leaves.  Praise God!  Last year I had so little success getting plants started, but these look great.  They aren't too leggy and are growing strong.  Broccoli is next on the list to get started.

Those sausages my husband made turned out pretty good, but pretty hot.  He just loves hot dogs so he had to find a solution in this self-sufficient lifestyle.  He's enjoying fine tuning the recipes to be exactly what he wants.  Our youngest likes them a lot, but after chewing up a bite he runs around saying, "hot... hot..."

After this success, my husband is saying that we need to get beefy done into just hamburger.

That's right.  Score for lower-carbon living!  We cleaned out the laundry room and set up racks to dry clothes.  We dry clothes outside in the summer, but the winter has required running the dryer.  I've read that electricity used for heat is the most inefficient.  We were able to get about three loads on these racks and they dried in under a day.  Praise God!

Tomorrow jerky turns ten weeks old.  Our friends with a family cow wean their calves at ten weeks.  But I think the dairy we got Christina from keeps their calves on milk for four months.  Since we've started making jerky wait to nurse until we're done milking, the process has become pretty comfortable.  With over four gallons a day coming in the house, we don't need more milk.  We're thinking about letting him keep going for the time being.

That Was Awful

Today was the day to give Christina the shot.  Since my huband did the shots when she had milk fever, he said it was my turn.  Oh no.  I've been praying all week that she'd go into heat on her own and we wouldn't have to do the shot.  But she didn't, so we do.  It went badly.

I tried twice to give her the shot, but I was overcome with weakness and shakes.  Each time the needle barely went in.  Blessedly, my husband took over.  The first time she jumped away from the needle.  The second time he got the needle and serum into her.  So poor Christina got poked four times and had to deal with uptight, nervous people.  I feel like such a woos.   At least it's over.

The breeder guy comes on Tuesday morning and hopefully the breeding will be successful. 

With the new pedal grinder, our teenagers are now calling flour grinding exercise instead of work.  My 13 year old happily sat up, read her book, and pedaled away.  Only when my younger daughter demanded a turn did she stoop.  That's what we like, kids fighting over wheat grinding!

Learning to Adjust

We got two eggs yesterday and we are happy!  Since the days have gotten dark our flock doesn't lay much.  We could put a light in the coop to get more eggs, but instead we're trying to live with God's design — chickens don't lay much in the dark.  Last week we went several days with no eggs or one egg.  That was hard.  Then we got four!  We were so happy.  I've learned to modify many of our recipes for fewer eggs.  Last summer when we were getting eight to twelve a day, I modified recipes to use more eggs.  This sustainable living means constantly adapting to the reality of the food God provides for us.

My husband is making a big batch of sausages he is calling chorizo.  He mixed the meat, spices, and curing salt three days ago.  Today he rolled them out into logs using wax paper.

He laid the logs out on roasting pans and dried them in the oven at 200ºF all day long.  The house is full of smell.  Each time he comes into the kitchen he said, "oh, that smells good."  Each time the girls and I come into the kitchen we say, "ugh, what is that smell?"

I made a monterey jack cheese two days ago and it bombed.  I tried cutting the curd in a different way but it didn't knit together well.  This time, I went back to my old way and things turned out better. But not perfect.  I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

We have been eating that jack that didn't turn out, with kids raving about how good it is.  It's so bland, but there is a hint of good flavor.  It is good to have a slicing cheese.

Last Potatoes

Christina is nine years old today. We'll help her celebrate by milking her at the time she's used to, and feeding her the food she's used to.  Cows do like predictability.  Although we do plan to give her a few more turnips because she loves those.

My friend who came over to teach us to make fudge recommends that we do it often so that the memory takes firm hold.  The kids think that is a great idea.  My nine-year-old daughter and I whipped out this batch.  It wasn't obvious to me when to pour, so we stirred until our arms couldn't stand it any more and just poured.  It squished out a little thinner than we would have liked, but it hardened up quickly and was fantastic.  We didn't even bother putting it on a plate, we just ate it off the counter.

I made a monterey jack cheese yesterday and it didn't knit together.  I tried cutting the curds in a different way and I think they got too small.  As I was loading the curds into the mold, my daughter grabbed some and said we should just eat it that way.  Since the pressing didn't work out, we sliced it up fresh and ate it straight.

With a little sun shining we were hungry for hamburgers and french fries.  We dug out the last of the potatoes from the cellar, and it's only January.  We need to grow a lot more next year.  Thank God we can buy more at the store. 

Some potatoes have started to soften.  We grew three varieties, all close together, and they got harvested together.  Next year we'll plant them in separate spots so they are easy to keep separate.  Some varieties keep a lot better than others.

As we fight the mice in the house, we've ignored the mice in the cow shed.  This morning a mouse was in Christina's feeder when we milked. The mouse ran underneath it but was squashed when Christina moved the feeder around.  Christina is a mighty mouse hunter!  We threw the little dead body to the chickens.  The fastest of them grabbed it and ran.

Done!

We got everything on the to-do list done yesterday.  That's not normal, and it wore me out.  I made mesophilic starter (which I use in cheese), butter, monterey jack cheese, and zucca bars with cream cheese frosting.   We got the last of the grain corn popped off their cobs and sterilized it by putting it in a 200ºF oven for a few hours.   My husband started sausage by mixing the ground meat with the spices and curing salt.   We got a full homeschooling day in and I cut my husband's hair.  And we moved hay.

For days we have been digging hay out of the "portable" carport and carrying it over to the cows.  We have an area in the cow shed for hay, but it's emptied out.  

It wasn't nearly as nice outside as the day before, cooler and overcast.  But the heavy work kept us warm.

Driving the baby tractor makes the work fun for my teenagers.  One drives and the other walks along to keep the hay from rolling out.  My husband, impatient to get it done, just carries the bales over one by one.  I think he's crazy.

We ran out of gas just as it started raining, so we called it done.  Maybe sixteen bales were moved over, enough for about three weeks.  Then we'll do it again.  A tractor with a bucket would make this easy work ...we are suffering from tractor lust.

We made frosting from our cream cheese for the first time.  It's just cream cheese and powdered sugar.  When I invited the girls to try it I expected complaints that it didn't taste "normal."  Instead they loved it.  Loved it!  We slathered it all over the zucca bars.  I thought it was way too much; everybody else thought it was just right (they now claim it was too little).

We have another to-do list made out for today, but failed to put "rest" on it.  Oops.

Sun & Thawing

It was a warm sunny day.  Really warm.  In fact, it was nice.  We took the opportunity to move the new water tank out for Christina and beefy.   

The hoses have been frozen and we've been waiting to try them.  Carrying buckets of water to the cows is getting old.  We unrolled the hoses, connected them, and water flowed.  It flowed!  We danced in celebration.  After the tank was filled, we drained the hoses out.  As soon as it freezes we'll know if they fully drained.

Beefy kept cuddling on my husband while he was working.  He was trying to keep his shorts clean, but finally gave in and hugged back.  Cows do leave a smell on your clothes.

Still no signs of heat in Christina.  Our friends with a family milk cow said the first time their cow went into heat they thought she was dying.  She moo-ed incessantly for a whole day.  So we figured it would be easy with Christina, but nope.  She's quiet and dainty when she's in the mood.

After talking to some professionals, we have a new plan for getting her bred.  It's possible that she hasn't gone into heat, so we'll keep watching.  If she doesn't by Saturday, we go on to Plan B.  We'll give her the shot that the Vet left with us, that will be twelve days after the first one.  Then we'll breed her three days later on Tuesday, along with another shot that the breeder guy will bring with him.  This will give her a due date of Nov. 1st, which sounds pretty good to us.

Our battle with the mice continues.  We thoroughly cleaned out the pantry, ready at any moment to find a small mammal, but we never did.  We found a few droppings on the floor and bottom shelves, but the higher we went the less we saw.  There was no indication of long-term residence.

So the mouse is gone, but where is it?  Did it go back into the garage?  Or is it somewhere else in the house?  Oh, I can't hardly stand to think about it.  We left mouse traps around.

It was so warm that my nine-year-old daughter took scraps out to the chickens with only a tank shirt on.  Those chickens come running as soon as the back door opens.  By the time she gets over to them, they are a convecting unit until the bowl is emptied.

I'm reading "The Good Life," about people who opted out of the cash economy in 1932 and built a sustainable life for themselves.  They had no animals and lived a vegetarian life.  They state that they wanted no dependents or dependence.  It's an interesting idea.  We do spend a lot of time taking care of animals.  If we didn't have chickens and cows, winter would be awash in relaxation.  But the milk and meat and eggs that our animals provide are a real source of joy.  Christina cream in my coffee alone is a daily occasion of gratitude.  And the animals themselves are fun.  But I hear that relaxation is good too.

It's War

OK, it's not war. We don't do war.  But we are in a heated disagreement with some mice about where they are to live and eat.

Saturday morning, we found that a cheese had been enjoyed by something small in the pantry.  Ack!  I wiped it down with vinegar, so the cheese is saved.

This is where the city girl in me comes out.  I can't stand the idea of mice in the house.  Even worse, in the pantry.

I pulled every plastic bag out of the pantry, checking for holes gnawed in the bottom. None.  Whew.  We got some more mice traps and set several up.  But after two nights, the traps are still empty.  That means the little critter is probably still there.  Today we'll empty out the pantry and see if we can't find it's happy home.  And destroy it.  This is just awful.  I'm trying not to think about it.

Over the weekend we made an unplanned purchase — another flour grinder.  When we researched flour grinders there were two that came out on top: the one the family got me for Christmas and this one.  A friend of a friend was selling their Country Living grinder that they had rigged up with pedals.  It's all mounted on a cabinet, the pedals are easy to adjust, and they included a motor if we want to run it on electricity.  It was too good a deal to pass up.

This morning my husband did almost the full grinding job by himself.  I easily finished it off.  We are finding that there are some adjustments we'll make, but this will be a very good set up.

It's sunny and 50ºF.  What a wonderful day.  Even the cows like it and are out on the pasture.  After a week, Christina has shown us no signs of heat.  Chances are, she has been in heat, but if she did anything to show it, it was in the privacy of the cow shed and we didn't see it.  Dang.  It's hard to breed a cow when you don't know when she's in the mood.

Thick and Rich

We finally brought all those acorn squash inside and cooked them up.  There were a lot.  My husband cut them in half and my 9-year-old daughter scooped out the seeds.  The chickens were happy to receive those innards.

The squash filled three cookie sheets, stacked tightly.  Over an hour at 350ºF and they were soft.

After letting it cool overnight, I scooped out the good part and ran it through our hand crank food processor.

The squash came out smooth and thick.  This will make wonderful pie and zucca bars.  Our three squash a week quota cooks us to about a quart and a half.  These acorn squash resulted in six quarts — in pie units that's 12 pies or in weeks it's four weeks.  Although we might just let them sit in the freezer while we eat the rest of the squash in the cellar before it goes bad.

Heavy Cooking Day

It was a heavy cooking day.  The stove was full culturing sour cream, cream for butter, and milk & cream for ranch dressing.  I had a cheddar cheese going and afterward we made ricotta from the whey. 

We also crock-potted two of our home-grown chickens that we'll make into chicken pot pie today.  Plus, we made cream cheese danishes with the butter layer that's been lounging in the frig for too long.

Sometimes cooking piles up on us.  All of a sudden there is so much to be done, and I often don't see it coming. It makes me feel ADHD to have so many things going at once, things that need constant care and watching.

And then God soothed me this morning. The sunrise, glowing out our back window, was a gentle warmth to my shivering brain...

Thank. You...  Thank. You...  Thank. You...

Christina hasn't shown us any signs of heat.  Well, she seemed a little restless yesterday, but we can't use that to tell.  We'll watch closely again today, but we may miss it.   If we don't know when she's in heat, we can't breed her, and we want her bred in about three weeks.  We called a lady who knows what she's doing and she said there is another way.  We may have find out more about it.