Hopefully Back to Normal

It has been a long road getting back to my normal routine. But hopefully, I am back. I will have to have about a year of physical therapy to get total use of my left foot back. But at least I can walk!!

We have replenished the chickens that were killed by the neighbor's dogs and now we have more eggs than we know what to do with. Greg has found one customer who uses about 6 dozen a week and that will help a lot. We are getting more than a dozen eggs a day now.

I have been researching egg recipes on Pinterest. You can follow me at  https://www.pinterest.com/maen/. Eggs are a very economical way to feed your family. When you think about the price of meat these days and compare that to a dozen eggs it's pretty easy to see that eggs, even though they seem expensive, are still a cheap way to feed your family.  You take a dozen eggs add a few leftovers to them and have a meal that will feed your family for around $3.00.  And it's a great way to use up the leftovers. Add a little leftover green vegetable, some leftover meat and some cheese, maybe some chopped onions or other herbs and bake a fritata or crustless quiche and you have a complete meal in just a few minutes. Serve it with toast and it's a great meal.

One of the bee hives didn't make it over the winter so we ordered more bees and established them in the hive yesterday. If the weather permits we will open the hive on Wednesday to see if the queen has been released.

We still haven't planted anything, it's been too wet to get into the garden. We are thinking about turning our garden into a strawberry bed and moving the garden to one of the fenced in areas. It will be a bigger garden than what we have now. And, this year we are going to make a real herb garden. In the past I have just planted all of my herbs in pots or containers. I am really excited about that. I also want to plant some Asparagus, Rhubarb, and grapes this year.

We are also looking into buying goats again. It has been a while since we have had goats but we really want to get some more and start over.

How is your Spring going?

Have a great day!
Mae

Planning & Doing

Now that Spring is finally here we are making plans and preparations on the farm. We have ordered 75 chicks from Cackle Hatchery. We ordered their Hungry Man special. This will be our first try at meat chickens. We decided to go ahead with the Cornish Cross and try to slow their growth a little. Everything we have read says since that is the meat we are used to, we will like it better. And since we are hoping to eventually sell the meat chickens we decided to stick with what people are used to. We will also get 25 brown egg layers with the order. This will give us more eggs to sell. The chickens will arrive on the 21st of April.

We have also ordered two packages of bees. Our bee hive has been empty since late fall. So we ordered bees for that hive and a new hive. We will pick up the bees on April 27th.  We are going to buy another hive on the 18th.

We are also looking into getting rabbits. Since the kids are staying with us Dixie has decided that she wants to raise rabbits.  The first 4-H rabbit club meeting that she can attend is the 21st of April. We want to have at least one rabbit ready for her by then.

Daniel and I also planted some potatoes. It is a bit early here for planting potatoes. But we thought we'd experiment with the barrel again. It has been warm enough here for them, so far.  I am afraid they might drown with all the rain we have been having.

Daniel also installed on of our rain barrels by the side of the house, and it is overflowing today. We have had over 3 inches of rain in the last two days.

I am making garden plans and once it is dry enough, hope to get some peas, lettuce and cabbage planted.

I am so glad Spring is here!

Have a great day!
Mae

Harvesting

It is a busy time around our house. We went on vacation for about a week and a half and had lots of fun with our children, grandchildren, my brothers ans sisters and their spouses and a few nieces, nephews and their children and grandchildren.

Since we got home it has been back to work in the day time and picking things from the garden in the evening.  I think the bees are really helping us with our harvest this year.  I haven't had squash and zucchini last this long and look so healthy in a really long time.  We are picking them every other day.  I have picked one batch of fresh green beans. The tomatoes are beginning to turn red (I can't wait for the first one). And I will be picking black berries this weekend.  I hope there will be enough right for a batch of jelly. And the herbs are growing like crazy.  Here is a picture of some drying in the window.

Drying Herbs

 Tonight I cut, Thyme, Rosemary, Sage, Basil and Oregano.  I started to get out the dehydrator to dry them but I decided this way it wouldn't cost anything and use no extra electricity.  Win/win for me. And did I mention how good they smell, makes me want to cook something.

It has been really hot here, in the mid 90's all week. We have been in the pool as much as possible which hasn't been very much. But it's nice to be able to get into it.

Have a good week.
Mae

Amazed & Exhausted!

It has been a long weekend. I think I need to go to work tomorrow to get some rest. Yesterday we spent almost 13 hours in the car. We went to Louisville and took Greg's mom down to the country where she grew up. April and Lily went with us and it was a good day. But we didn't get home until 10:00 pm.

After we got home I decided to try this:
http://heavenlyhomemakers.com/homemade-non-toxic-liquid-hand-soap-2

I have to say I am totally amazed! I got Ivory soap, free last week at Kroger. I don't usually use Ivory, but it was free and I knew I would use it. Then I came across this recipe for homemade liquid soap. She made hers for $3.50 a gallon, I think. Since I got the soap for free I decided to give it a try. Ivory is very easy to grate. It only took about 30 minutes all together. When I went to bed last night I was sure that I would not have anything that remotely looked like liquid soap when I got up this morning. It looked like a white looking thin liquid when I went to bed. When I got up this morning, it was a totally different thing. It was very think. After running the mixer through it again, it thinned out. I filled both of my dispensers, and empty bottle of the refill size of liquid soap, a quart canning jar, and half of another quart. We have been using it all day and can't really tell much difference. Of course it only smells like Ivory soap, and it rinses off really fast, like Ivory usually does. But for free, I'll take it.

The rest of the day today, I have been cleaning, doing laundry and putting up corn. I also have made brownies and am about to bake cookies. I had the two mixes that are about to expire so I have got to use them before they do. Also, I hope to pick peas today and get some of them put up. But we had rain early this morning and the garden is pretty wet. Unless it dries up a little I will not be able to do that.

Hope you have a great day!

Mae

3/11/2011

We are excited that our son Daniel and his wife Larissa and daughter Dixie are coming for a visit. It's been 5 months since we have seen them and can't wait for them to get here.

I know have been posting about deals and coupons a lot lately. I do not intend to turn my blog into a coupon blog, even though I am a big fan of several coupon blogs. But, I can't help but pass on a good deal when I see one. I am here to help my kids save as much money as possible, and that's what my blog is really for, my kids. I haven't stopped being a mother and I never will. It is one of the most precious, enjoyable jobs I've ever had. So if it seems as if I blog about a lot of different topics, I do. It's all about things I want my children and grandchildren to know.

Our farming is kind of at a stand still right now. We got rid of all of our goats. Being away from home for such long hours during the day didn't leave much time to take care of animals. Until we find a way for one of us to stay home or work closer to home we just can't have goats. We are considering raising a couple of pigs and maybe a couple of cows but not until maybe next year.

In general we are rethinking what we are trying to do. We want to raise a lot of our food. So this means more than just meat. We never intended to eat goats so I really don't know why we started out with them. I do like them as pets and I know people all over the world love to eat them...I'm just not one of those people.

We are considering some new garden ideas. We are thinking about turning our current garden into a strawberry patch and starting a new garden a little further back on the property. I also want to plant some rhubarb next to the strawberry patch. We would also like to plant a few more fruit trees this year. If we can get the fruits and vegetables established then moving onto animals will make more sense to us.

We are also looking for some more chickens. Our flock has dwindled a little and we aren't producing as many eggs as before. We are going to buy some that are about 19 weeks old instead of baby chicks. It cost quite a bit of money to raise that chicken for 20 weeks until it starts laying. So we are going to pay a little more for the grown chickens instead of feeding chicks.

I am also looking into raising worms. I will post more about this later.

Have a great weekend!
Mae

The Potatoes

The potatoes are doing really well in the barrel. I don't have new pictures yet, but they have grown up past the top of the barrel. We have stopped adding soil to 3 of the barrels, and I started another barrel about a week & half ago. It is already time to add more soil to this barrel.

In the first 3 barrels, the potatoes are starting to bloom. My daddy always said that means they are making potatoes. I am really excited that this seems to be working so well.

I have planted a bush bean in each of the 3 barrels, I read that this keeps away the Colorado Potato Beetle. They haven't sprouted yet so I am not sure how that is going to work.

Last night I picked the last of the cherries from my little tree and I think I have enough for 2 pies. I will make one pie and can 1 quart of pie filling for later in the year. If I could find more cherries I would make more. I don't know anyone with cherry trees. There is a house down the road with one, but I don't know them...maybe I should introduce myself. Hi, I'm Mae and I want to pick your cherries. Do you think that would make a good first impression?

We are still trying to get our garden planted. We planted tomatoes and squash last night, but now it is raining again. Not sure when we'll be able to get back in the garden. Oh well, God is in control of the garden and He knows what we need. I will trust that it will be planted when it's planted and grow as He sees fit.

I hope you all have a great holiday weekend. Enjoy your families.

Mae