We Are Home

After weeks getting ready and almost two weeks vacationing, we are home and readjusting to home life. Our vacation was a wonderful time away with all of our children, even our 20 year old came along.  We went to Yosemite, Disneyland, the Queen Mary, the Getty Villa and the ocean.

After a lifestyle of never eating out, we suddenly were eating at restaurants every day.  It was a visit to mainstream America.  I have spent most of my life eating without thinking and I quickly fell back into old patterns. I admit to even finding it refreshing.  Where was the food raised? I didn't know.  Who grew it?  I didn't know.  Were they treated decently?  Was the land treated decently?  I didn't know.  I scarcely noticed as I sat while others did all the cooking and cleaning.

My children didn't slide into non-thinking as easily as I did.  My ten year old twins commented as we left every restaurant, "it's so strange to just leave the dirty dishes on the table." My teenagers, who have completely rejected factory raised meat, maintained that conviction and mostly ate vegetarian.  However, at the Getty Villa they had free range chicken and our sixteen year old let out a gasp, "I can eat the meat!"

Although we ate out often, we still ate many meals in the trailer.  We had spent weeks cooking and getting all that food ready.  We had homemade pizza, wraps, and chicken strips.  We had homemade crackers, jerky, and dried fruit.  Even the oatmeal in the morning included some homemade applesauce from last fall.

Mid-way through our trip I noticed that I wasn't feeling bad.  I am accustomed to feeling a little off on vacation, not quite right in my stomach, and I realized that the homemade food we brought was probably the reason for the difference.  I got enough good food to keep my system in balance.

Now that we are home, I am relearning and rethinking all of the choices we have made.  It was so easy to just eat what was put before us.  I went a long time without the daily work in the kitchen.  Now I am readjusting to the time every day in the kitchen.  Dishes have to be washed and counters cleaned.  Dinners require thinking and planning and cooking.

I'm also reexperiencing the depth of flavor our lifestyle provides.  Tonight we had chicken with such rich chicken flavor that it barely needed salt.  At lunch we savored whole wheat rolls with homemade butter.

I heard that part of the idea of the Slow Food movement is the privilege of participating in food preparation.  That certainly isn't a typical American idea.  It got me thinking... Do I work so hard at cooking our own food because it is right or because we just can't afford a servant?  If we could afford to pay someone else, would I still do it?

But now we are back.  The garden has been ignored for too long and needs attention.  The cows were happy to have us back.  Christina's udder looks all sucked up inside her; nice and dry and no imminent calf.  And we just got 14 boxes of apples.  Today we turn them into applesauce, apple butter, and frozen packages for pie.

The Day of the Deed

Butchering chickens isn't fun and it is hard work, but a freezer full of healthy, well-cared for birds, is a great blessing.

Our day started at 8am with separating out all the White Plymouth Rock roosters into this little pen.  We were going to do 30, but we only found 27.  That was good enough.  In this small pen, some flew to the top to escape, so one daughter sat guard while we got ready.

The first step is the hardest.  This "killing cone" is behind the barn so the rest of the chickens can't see what we're doing.  My husband carried them over and put them in the cone head down.  The confinement calms the chickens and holds them still while they bleed out.

Our sixteen-year-old was ready to try her hand at killing.  It takes a lot of emotional strength, but only moderate physical strength.  It has to be done quickly so the chicken doesn't feel anything.  The first couple were rough, but then she got it figured out. 

After cutting off the head and dunking the bird in 140-150ºF water, they were ready to be plucked.  Dousing them in the hot water loosens the feathers so they pull out easily, but it still takes a while.  Three daughters worked the plucking and barely kept up.

I was at the end of the line doing the evicerating.  At first I couldn't remember how to do it, but it slowly came back to me.  First I cut off the feet.  Then I slice around the neck to remove the crop and skin.  All clean, I cut off the neck and save it.  Then I slice the skin inside each leg to open them up and slice just under the sternum.  The trick is to get the gut area opened up neatly without slicing into any of the intestines.

With it opened up, then I reach in and pull everything out in one package.  I cut around the tail bone and slice the tail off, removing the whole bundle.  We kept the heart, liver, and gizzard.

All finished, the birds went into a cooler filled with ice water and vinegar.  By lunchtime when we were done, the cooler was filled to the top.

A stray cat that has adopted us thought this was a great morning activity.  She watched with interest and was delighted when I threw her some guts.

After a quick lunch, we brought the chickens inside one at a time, rinsed them, cut the legs off and wrapped them in plastic bags (they don't fit in our bags very well if we leave the legs on).  I dipped the bag into a sink full of clean water to push the air out before giving it a final twist. 

With three of us working, one opening the door, one handing out twist ties, and another the birds away in the freezer, it went quickly.

They turned out pretty nice.  These chickens weighed 2.5-3 pounds.  I was hoping for bigger, but these are normal sized chickens for a century ago.  Today's chickens are almost exclusively Cornish Cross which grow very fast and have enormous breasts.  We raised a batch last year and the kids called them mutant chicks.  They were creepy. 

By the time we were finished at 2:30pm we were exhausted.  This was our third butcher day, so we knew what to expect, but it's still tough.  In the end, our freezer is full of 27 healthy, good looking chickens, that will feed us for the coming year.

Anticipation

We have been planning a long time for this period when Christina is dry.  It is our only chance to go camping and traveling.  We've done two camping trips in a week and now we'll spend a week at home getting ready for a 12 day vacation.

In addition to getting ready, we have a lot of homestead work.  Like butcher day.

These White Plymouth Rocks are looking good and big, even bigger than the full grown red chickens.

We all dread butcher day but it has to be done.  If we procrastinate the roosters will get a sharp taste, or so I've read.  And it's a waste of chicken food to let them keep going.  And it will give us too much to do when we get back.  OK, we'll just do it!

Many look at us like we're crazy to do our own butchering, but it's part of our commitment to these animals that they will be butchered with respect and reverence.  Even our tenderest-hearted daughters share the commitment to do it right and do it ourselves.

I think the biggest butcher day we've done was 25 birds.  This year we have 60 to do plus the entire old flock.  We'll split it into three butcher days.  Tomorrow we'll do 30 and then do two more days when we get back.

Today we'll clear space in the freezer, get out the butcher supplies, and encourage the chickens to have a good day.  Tomorrow we start right after breakfast.

Our herbs are all growing mature and ready for drying.  After two weeks of drying, we crushed up the basil.  Here is our annual harvest.

Today we'll hang parsley.

It's a day of getting ready and anticipation.

Failure

Remember when I enthusiastically wrote about canning cream and pudding for our trip?  That didn't work out.  I'd noticed that they were separating, and then I moved the jars and found the lids unsealed.  Something had been growing in there.  When we poured them out they smelled BAD.  The whole house stunk. 

Canning failures are a big deal.  The stuff in those jars was probably deadly poisonous.  I should have looked it up before doing canning experiments.  Lesson learned. 

Our sweet corn was a complete bust.  We only planted one variety and the whole crop failed.  This was an experiment with the "three sisters:" corn, beans, and squash.  The beans and squash seem to be doing well, but they're all flopped on the ground and the corn didn't even make it three feet tall. 

The short plants set some corn cobs, they're not enough to bother with.

This is soil that really needed fertilizer and the corn showed it.  I've read about the problem of monoculture at the large industrial scale (only growing one variety), and here we've had an example on the small scale.  It will be a year without sweet corn.

Like all failures, these are better thought of as God's teaching moments.  Our job is to learn.

It's Done

After ten straight months of milking, Christina's first lactation with us is done.  She is dry. 

Our routine of heading out to milk twice a day is at rest.   Christina will lounge out in the pasture for two months while we enjoy evenings without an alarm going off.  Even better, we can leave, only needing somebody to feed the animals.

Today we head off for our first camping of the season.  In years past, we did lots of camping in the summer, so going a summer without camping has been new for us.  But now we're going.  It's Fall, the air has begun to chill, but the mountains will be pleasant.  Even better, they'll probably be empty. 

When we got Christina a year ago, it was only seven weeks before she dried off.  It was perfect for us; enough time to learn to milk and then take a rest.  Back then I wondered if we'd make it for ten months of a full lactation.  We did.  Actually, as the months went on, the burden became lighter, just like the adjustment to each new child who has come into our lives.  Yes, it takes energy and commitment to milk a cow twice a day, but I've found that the best things in life take energy and commitment.  Christina is one of them.

But she doesn't need us now and we are going!  We are off to visit the face of God that lives in the beautiful Idaho mountains.  

Strength & Health

Just when I think we've reached the peak in garden production, it goes up again.  Yesterday morning we picked green beans, expecting a big harvest of a full bucket.  We got two. What a strong garden!

Snapping beans and getting them in the freezer is a good excuse to watch a movie.  We've been watching Gone With the Wind since the twins are studying Civil War history.  We sat around the table, snapping beans and watching a 70-year-old movie on my 1-year-old computer. 

After the bean snapping was half done, I got going on blanching.  I blanched and blanched and blanched. 

By the end of the evening, we had five gallon bags ready for the freezer.

Today we have tomatoes to harvest and three boxes of peaches to can.  The cucumbers are producing hard and we may work in a batch of pickles. 

An old friend came to visit on Tuesday.  He's gone back to school and was bemoaning the unhealthy patterns he'd fallen into — not enough exercise and too much unhealthy food.  I thought about how this lifestyle keeps us all healthy without trying or will power.  We just eat what the land gives us.  We work for the harvest and food preservation.  And God gives us strength and health.

Tiny Egg

We have reason to believe the new chickens have started laying.  This morning we found this tiny egg.  When chickens first start laying, the eggs are small.  As I recall, they get normal sized within a week or two. 

I wasn't expecting eggs yet.  I wasn't expecting the first eggs until late October or early November.  This is way early.  Well, we'll see what happens.  When our first bunch of chickens started laying there was one egg one day and a week later the nesting boxes were full. 

We are heavy into travel planning.  Tomorrow we will milk Christina for the last time and Friday we leave for our first camping of the year.  In the middle of trips we plan a butcher day, but if the chickens are maturing faster than I thought those plans might not work.  Hmmm.  We'll see what happens.

Tomatoes

The standard way to make tomato sauce is to skin the tomatoes, put them in a big pot, bring to a boil, use a food mill to remove the seeds, and cook until it's thick.  It takes a long time, uses lots of energy, and must be stirred the whole time.  I'm trying some new ideas to make it easier and use less energy.

This year I'm trying some dehydrating.  I figured if I dehydrated some tomatoes, I could add them to sauce as it started cooking and it would thicken the whole thing up.  After slicing tomatoes, we put them out in the sun and they are dry in three days.

This bowl of dehydrated tomatoes came from about half a bushel of tomatoes.  They are kind of leathery, not crisy.  I left them in the sun for four days and then they spent another two days in an open bowl on the counter, but didn't seem to change after the first three days.

Even though they were leathery, they crushed up pretty good in the blender.  When it was all done, we had about two cups of powder.

A friend mentioned that she doesn't skin her tomatoes, she just puts them through the blender.  What a great idea!  I thought I'd try it, but start with some solar dehydrating before it goes into the pot. 

Rather than only picking the tomatoes that are perfect, we've been picking all that look close.  The ones that are just a little shy spend some time on the counter to redden up all the way.  These will be ready in a few days.

This is a lot of prep, but I'm hoping it makes sauce making faster and easier.  Last year we didn't get many tomatoes, so this year we planted a lot more plants and so far we're on target for a good supply for tomato sauce.

Toe Nail Adventure

It had to be done. Christina's hooves had gotten so long that it's only a matter of time until she started limping and went lame. We had to get them trimmed.  But people who do hoof trimming only do large herds and we couldn't find anybody to come to our place for just one cow.  The dairy we bought her from was willing to give her a trim, but we had to get her there.  Our adventure began.

First we went to Nampa to pick up a lifestock trailer.  But it was too small.  Jersey cows are much longer than horses.  Then we found a place in Caldwell with a big enough trailer.  Back to Boise.  Getting Christina into the trailer wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  She wasn't fast and she did need some convincing, but she got in.  After an hour of driving, we arrived at the dairy she was born on.

First they put her in the shoot.  She's been in this shoot before and needed some reassuring.

After getting her all snugged up with straps under her belly, she was lifted just enough to take the weight off her feet.  Then they pulled her leg back, way back, and began trimming.

She got over an inch off in length and quite a bit of grinding on the bottom.  Cows need hooves that are nice and flat.  One of her hooves had developed a sizable lump on the bottom.  Just taking that off was worth the long drive.

Even though I know it's just toe nail, I still found it difficult watching her being worked on.  She wasn't too excited about being the one getting worked on either.  Several times she kicked and squirmed and tried to get away.  In spite of her struggles, they said she actually was pretty peaceful.  She must have been comforted that people she knew were there.

It took almost an hour with lots of grinding sounds, just like at the dentist, and the smell of hot hooves, just like burned hair.  And then it was over.  She looked resigned by the end, just patiently waiting it to be done but mumbling under her breath, "you suck."  I don't blame her.

Our twins had a wonderful time visiting the cows and visiting some new kittens in the hay pile.  We had a wonderful time being with people who love Christina as much as we do.  All I can think is that God must love us very much to send us to this dairy and to these people.

Then we all loaded back up, drove back to Boise, unloaded the cow, cleaned out the trailer, drove back to Caldwell, unhitched the trailer, and finally made our last freeway trip home.  The day started at 9am and wasn't over until 5:30pm.  It was long but so good to have a cow with healthy hooves.  She walked straight out to her pasture when we got home, had something to eat, and then laid down in her shed to rest. 

Tonight she's sporting nice looking hooves and doesn't seem the worse for wear.  But I think I'll go lay down.

Home Eating & Vacationing

As Christina dries off, we look forward to our first opportunity to travel. We are planning some camping and a long trip to California.  In the past our vacation food came in freezer bags and boxes.  This year we want to take some of our homestead with us.

The freezer in our trailer can take a lot, but not enough frozen milk for ten days.  Suddenly, I remembered the milk that I sterilize for culture and thought of canning milk for our trip.  The milk tastes cooked, but on oatmeal it will be good.  Yesterday, I canned 7 quarts of milk and 2 quarts of cream for my coffee.

We're also thinking of canning pudding.

Last week with a wonderful time with some friends.  We both decided the Fair was too expensive and we would do a home Fair Day.  My friend, Heather, wrote a wonderful blog post about it at Not A Carbon Copy.