need to start some seeds. getting hungry.
Hey guys and gals it is Feb. allready
Your reminder is good but it'll still be a few weeks before I start veggie seeds. Just today, I tidied and re-organized my seed bin. Boy was it ever a mess! Now it'll be easy to pick and choose, at least that's the plan.
Holding my spot. Heading to bed now.
Some of the seeds I planted are up. Planting a few more tonight. We have about 5" of snow on the ground now and more coming. Yuck!! But at least the cold is bearable and my animals are all warm.
Please say a prayer for my friend Rodney. He is the guy who owns the barn where we have 3 of our horses. He is in ICU. He has been passing blood for 3 days and had to have a transfusion. They are going to scope him and see if they can find where the blood is coming from. He has had the flu twice since Christmas.
Went to visit Rod. He is pale but was feeling a bit better. Going to do a scope and a colonoscopy today.
Also went to see a church member named Jenny. She has very bed health problems. She is a diabetic and has had both legs amputated. She also has lung and kidney problems along with heart problems. She had surgery to close a hole in her lung. It was leaking fluid into the sac around her lung and collapsed the lung. We had a nice visit and prayed for her when we left. She said she was anxious to get back to church. She took a turn for the worse during the night and was unresponsive. Waiting to hear more from the family. Please say a prayer for her and her family.
Prayers sent their way Cajun.
Eagle's Nest has good meat birds- they get their eggs the same place we do at Ridgway. They are the Vantress strain of cornish cross. That hatchery story is funny. It seems they started the same way Debbie and I have; just playing around with a tabletop incubator. They are both teachers. Now it's a full time gig that they would like to get away from so they can get back to teaching. But they're just too good at it.
A guinea tastes just like a pheasant and is often sold as pheasant. In Quebec they are sometimes called "grey pheasant". They are great roasted and glazed.
Getting started on building the greenhouse this weekend. I have some older polycarbonate panels and just need to frame it up and screw them on. Then provide a heat source. Not sure on that part yet. Eventually I'll have a woodstove out there, But cash is short and the stack is a couple hundred bucks. We'll see what we can do. After all, I'm back to work full time. I should be able to swing something.
We seperated the last of the Silver Laced Wyandottes at work this AM and I carried them to Ashland to the new flock owners. That's an all day trip, but I have the opportunity to stop at Sam's Club on the way back. So, I stopped and got a bag of coffee beans and a huge box of Cheerios. I got a tub of grapes, too. But I ate all those as I drove back to LaRue My computer is giving me fits so I may just have to break down and get a new one in the next couple weeks. It takes a half hour to type out a 6-8 sentence paragraf. It's getting to be a PITA. Debbie has been telling me to get another one for a long time now.
Debbie said she was tired of listening to me Bi%$#^ng about the computer. So when I got home from work she made me cash the check and we went to Marion and I got a new one. It's an HP running a corei3 with 8 gigs of RAM and a terabyte of storage. It's pretty cool. I named it Guadalupe-all my computers have had Spanish women's names. The Dell was Consuelo, and the Systemax desktop was Marisol. Anyway, this one ought to last me 4-5 years anyway. The last one was 7years old. I am cleaning it all up and taking it to the nerds in town to suck it dry and add a copy of windows 8 and then I'll give it to a grandkid.
I decided the greenhouse is going to be a truss type sort of like a minibarn shape. I'm going to start cutting the truss parts tomorrow and making gussetts to join them up. I'll take pictures.
can't wait for pic's of the project. Congrats on the new comp. them is always fun to play with when new.
cool names also. I had a Gateway and i had it for 5 yrs. Gave it to my FIL and he had it another few years. I liked them .
I had a Dell also . liked it but i spilled coffee on it :(
I must admit i m an Apple junkie. Can't help myself . Born and raised in Silcon Valley.
Dh hates it LOL .
well this virus i got is knocked me off my feet. I need to get some herbs to make tea and some Keffir. To help my tummy.
still decidng if i want to grow sweet potato's ? or should i grow fingerlings again . i never have any luck with them but i know what i m doing wrong. i just don't dig them far down enough ? ... kind of a duh moment LOL
whew got to feeding chickens and rabbits and decided to do an extra super duper cleaner upper.
did discover a dead baby bunny. :(
boy that mama cage was in deed a mess. It was long over due. With kids sick and then me sick , it got behind scheduale.
glad its done.
got to hit TSC and get more supplies
i need a hay fork to help me clean the goat pens and chicken pens. just to hard with a broom and rake.
hope you all are well. safe and dry.
sending healing energy to those who need it
Spent the last couple days running leaves through my shredder and laying them out in the new garden space. Ordered seeds for the mangels, beets, chard, spinach, corn, and pole beans. I decided that the I'm going to plant 1/2 the old garden as 3-sisters with neck pumpkins for the squash part. The other 1/2 in mangels. The old garden is 1/4 acre so that should be enough cornmeal, dried beans, and canned pumpkin to last a couple years. The mangels are for stock feed. chickens, cattle, hogs, turkeys, even horses goats and sheep love them.
The new garden area will have our green beans, sweet corn, chard, beets(yeck), turnips, radishes, lettuce peppers, tomatoes, tomatillos,cabbages, brussel's sprouts, spuds, yams, zukes and cukes,stevia, parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil and whatever else I can think of and fit in there. I also have to transplant my thornless blackberries. I'll probably do that this week also. oooh! And I ordered asparagus for us and some rubarb for Jeanette (old lady friend over in Rushsylvania) Gonna be a busy spring and it's coming to fast to get everything done. But that's okay; I don't REALLY need to sleep.....
Sounds like a good garden plan to me, Nik.
Right now, a garden for me this year may be iffy. I just spent a week in the hospital with my 2nd GI bleed in 6 years. Statistically, the 2nd one kills over 66% of people who had a previous one. They took me by ambulance down to NC 2-1/2 hours away because our local hospital isn't equipped.
During all the tests over 6 days, they discovered a small aneurysm on the aortic arch. Surgical repair of it in a GI bleeder carries a very high mortality rate (over 70%), so we will evaluate it again in May when I have healed from this current trauma.
I'm gonna be really upset if I can't get in a garden.
darius i was wondering where you were ?
. You must be a tough old bird, your still here with us. I am sending you healing energy . What a long wait until May to see if it has healed . that can't be an easy wait for you. I hope you can get out in the garden as that always heals our spirits . :)
I have you on my prayer list Darius.
Well, it would appear that I am back to work fulltime now. I have to drive to the Chicagoland today to pick up some birds. SO here I am at zero dark thirty, waiting on my coffee to brew so I can leave the hatchery at 0530. it's going to be a looooonng day. Oh well, gotta make a living.
I awakened dreaming of planting fruit trees, moving my raspberries, and having a shallow tilling done in my bed for onions, garlic and shallots. Now to find some strong lad to do the work...
Oh my goodness Darius. Glad you beat the odds. That is some serious stuff. My dad went through that recently also and had surgery just in the nick of time.
Gardening......I dunno....I think my list is longer than I can handle but we shall see.
Happy Valentines everyone.
The bossman was late getting to the hatchery the other day. And the other driver left the van fully loaded and took the keys home with him. So I didn't get on the road until 0645. I could have slept another hour or so. The trip was uneventful but long, and the boss was ragging me out on the phone constantly. We finally had words. Got everything unloaded and into the boxes they needed to go into and then I split for the house. Yesterday I went back in the morning and the boss was happy and cheerful. I guess he is getting over his flu or bronchitis or whatever he had. I asked how he was feeling and he said he was mending. I said to him, "Good! I won't have to go looking for another job then. You been aweful hard to work for the last few days." He actually apologized and yesterday was a pretty easy and stress free day.
I'm making a big pot of split pea, barley and sausage soup today, while Debbie is sewing on another quilt for a neighbor's wedding present. All in all, life is good.....
Moved my computer to the basement - need to run one more circuit then close up the panel too cold to do much outside today - much less ride.
snowing and cold here today
made lettuce wraps and they sure are good.
Good to hear your boss is getting better. not fun to be sick and those around us usually get the stink end of it .
goats are good . found hay and need to pick up another 12 -16 bales. then i m good until late spring.
baby bunnies are good , eating real food and drinking from the water bottle. stll tryng to get the other rabbit pregnant ? she just will not have any of it ! she actually kicked the male off her ? well if she won't accept the male bunnies then this spring she will be sold.
i m hoping one of the baby's is a female ,
I need to be pruning the pear tree in the back yard - but alas I do not have the energy required to work in the cold. And it is cold.
Hello ~ just peeking in to see what is going on on the Homestead.
Darius ~ thoughts and prayers coming your way. My spouse has dealt with similar issues. The hardest part of it all is putting your hopes and dreams on the back burner while you deal with your health. Best wishes for a speedy and successful recovery.
NikB ~ would you share your recipe for split pea, barleyand sausage soup? That sounds wonderful and I have all the goodies to put it together. Pretty please???
Cajun ~ prayers for your friends and for your husband. Hope his adjustment to the prosthesis is on track.
Wishing for an early spring for those of you looking forward to the gardening season. I am well behind the curve this year but will deal with it as it comes.
All the best... Kristi
Split pea sausage and Barley soup
1C split peas
1/2 cup pearled barley
1C chopped onion
1C chopped celery
1C chopped carrots
6 cups chicken broth
1 C (or more) sliced and quartered smoked sausage or kielbasa
1 clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 clove garlic
NaCl to taste
pepper to taste
.pinch of ground savoury
add everything but the sausage to the broth and bring to a slow boil. simmer until the carrots and peas are tender and add the sausage. when the sausage has warmed (it's already cooked) the soup is ready to eat. Sometimes water must be added as the soup boils.
Let me know how your first batch turns out.
Nik the Country Gormet
The soup sounds delicious and hearty, especially comforting on a cold day. Although we do enjoy eating soups year-round. Will definitely give your recipe a try. Thanks for posting it.
NikB ~ thank you for sharing the recipe. I agree, it sounds really good. I have cut & pasted (giving you credit of course) and will try it on the next cold weekend we have. Mid 60s today didn't feel like soup weather. Glad to see it has carrots in it. They are a favorite of ours.
One question please? I may be obtuse but what is NaCl?
Salt
Thanks ~ I looked at it with a blank mind and now I say 'well duh!' lol
got a coating of snow last night with strong wind up to 60 mph , they have died down a bit but not much
brrrrr its cold.
not much to do today
will hit grocery later
got 7 eggs in the incubator ! and all are fertile. ! whooohoooo. automatic egg turner is the trick .
hope them black silkies start getting busy ! what is with them ??? i may have to break out the mood music. Barry White .
the cochins are all molting :( uhg. seems like forever for them to stop there molt , been going on for weeks and get back to business ?
Glad everyone thinks they'll like the soup. It's a favourite here and Debbie isn't even a soup eater (what's wrong with that woman?!) NaCl is just a test to see how much you paid attention in your grade school science classes. hehehehe
Nik, I use a combination of pearled barley with about a third as much hulled barley in some soups. The hulled barley has a more substantial texture when cooked.
I haven't seen hulled barley in years. Debbie bought a box of quick barley which had been rolled like oats. NOT good in the soup.
My H2O has been frozen for days. It's driving us crazy. It's frozen before, but it usually thaws as soon as the temps rise above freezing. So far that hasn't happened. There is water at the hose, so we can get buckets full to water the animals and flush the john, but anything else isn't happening. it's really irritating me.
yikes Nik hope you can get thawed out soon.
our turkey is laying eggs . woohooo and i don't have a Tom for her :( but her eggs are good.
oh boy our goat pen sure need to be cleaned out.... weather just won't allow it. to cold brrrrr .
got chicken house cleaned up . took the shop vac to the cob webs and some of the other stuff that has been piling up on the floor. yikes
Still no H2O. But it's supposed to get into the 40s today, and sunny. So I have hopes. Keep us in your prayers.
Good luck, Nik. Looks like more cold weather coming your way, though.
I have 2 roofers coming today to give estimates on a metal roof. The added-on back porch has a leaky almost flat roof, so it first needs new framing over it to give it some slope.
i love out metal rood. the sound of the rain is wonderful at night but hard rains can get noisy.
Nik hope you can get some water soon.
we have had some excellent weather today. ! sun sun and sun ,, no wind either warm days for us today. in mid 40's
well i had to buy chicken from the store :( i m out of my stock :(
i did find a chicken that has very little sodium and not pumped up with saline ,, ick nasty stuff . it was on sale so that was a bonus
got it marinading in citrus, pinaplle and soysauce . it will end up korean BBQ by tomorrow when i m done.
chicken got to go outside today and they sure were happy !
eggs in the incubator are doing good so far so good. I think one is dead ? i have not seen much growth in it the last few day but i will give it another few days and then make my decision.