Good Morning from cold and wet Suwannee County Florida.........

Good Morning from cold & wet Suwannee County Florida. This was the view from my back door at 0700 this morning. I have never seen the boys lined up against the fence like this. Ribeye is on the left, he will transition to the freezer this spring. Little man is in line for next spring. Our plan is to start a new steer every spring raise them on pasture and butcher at roughly two years old. By starting a new calf every spring we have one ready for the freezer every year. I buy dairy breed bulls locally when they are a few days old. We have many dairies in our area so newborn bull calves are always available and very affordable (usually about $50). When I buy them they have had a couple of days of colostrum and transition to milk replacer nicely. It takes one bag of milk replacer to transition them onto grass. After they are on grass they do not get fed any grain (other than what they may steal from the horses).  I band them shortly after they arrive thus turning our bull calves into steers.

Thrift store finds of the week...... and paper or cloth?

My husband swears I will break something glass at least once a week and lately he has been correct. Yesterdays booboo was a big one! I broke the coffee pot! I was putting away the mixer, I had unplugged it but did not realize that its cord was under the coffee maker. I will be darned if the whole coffee maker didn't do a flip on the counter. Boy howdy what a mess (the pot still had coffee in it plus grounds from the basket). As soon as I cleaned up the basic mess I headed into town to my favorite thrift store (The boys ranch opportunity store in Live Oak). Thought never needing them in the past I had taken notice of a large collection of coffee carafes there before. The had lots but not the one I needed (Murphy's law) but then I spied this beauty for $5. It is a cuisenart and low and behold it works!

Apologies, updates and the farm gets a new home....

It has been almost a year since my last blog post. So very much has happened!

First, as you may know I am in nursing school and will graduate with my RN in May. School is the main reason for my woeful lack of posting.

Second, the farm moved this year. It was not planned and happened rather suddenly. Although initially traumatic it was a true blessing in disguise. Scurvy Elephant Farm now calls Suwannee County home. We are on 9 acres with a lovely 2br 1 bath home built in 2008. The property was already cross fenced into 3 pastures and a large yard and has multiple outbuildings. It is almost like it was made just for us! We are surrounded by forest land and have no neighbors within sight distance.

I Love Thrift Stores! ........But, there are rules......

I love thrift stores! After all what's not to love? You never know what you are going to find, so it is an adventure. You are saving a lot of money by buying used. You are reducing the amount of "stuff" that fills our landfills. In many instances you are coming home with higher quality products than otherwise fit your budget.  You are also keeping your hard earned dollars at home working in your community, many times going directly to a local charity. So, thrift store shopping is good for your wallet, good for the planet, a rewarding pastime and ultimately good for the soul :)

Here are some of today's treasures  ( solid maple bench/table $5, 3 yards of flannel $1, milk glass mixing bowl $3, pastel metal hanging planters $1, huge bag of paperback books for daddy .25 each, three nice flannel shirts $2, white leather nursing shoes $3.......

THE GOLDEN RULES OF THRIFTING

Rule #1 You don't always find what you went looking for, (if you went with an agenda), but you almost always will find treasures, so slow down and really look.

Rule #2 Don't bother stopping at a thrift store when you are in a hurry. This relates back to rule #1, you need time to slow down and look.

Rule #3 If you significant other is not into thrift store shopping, DON'T TAKE THEM WITH YOU! Seriously, you will not enjoy it, you will feel rushed and there are laws against killing them for ruining your adventure.

Rule #4 Think outside the box. You may not need a giant clear glass cookie jar but that same cookie jar would make an awesome terrarium that you can keep to enjoy or give away as a gift (think cheap, unique, personal gift).

Rule #5 It is not ALL about YOU! Keep your eyes open for cool gift ideas for Christmas and Birthdays. This is a win-win situation. You get to save money on gifts, plan ahead and have your very own adventure doing it.

Rule #6 Take the largest vehicle you own when thrift store shopping, you never know what you will find. Wouldn't it just suck to find the hot tub you always wanted, its only $25 and you are in a car when you have a perfectly good pickup in the driveway at home?

Rule #7 Be careful who you share your adventure with. If you and your dear mom collect the same thing, DON'T TAKE HER! Think harmony in the family, you don't want a wrestling match in the middle of a store you would like to be able to come back to. Plus, as mentioned above, there are laws against killing people while thrifting.

Rule #8 Vacations are awesome thrifting opportunities. While in different locals you may find region specific treasures that would never show up in you hometown thrift store. Plus, thrifting is cheap entertainment while traveling.

Rule #9 If you have friends and family that are "above" thrift store shopping, for heavens sake don't tell them thats where that lovely set of silver you just gave them came from.

Rule #10 ...... This is the very most important rule of all.........Have fun :)

Smelly bones..... A Theory......

Ever since we started eating grass fed meat we have notice how quickly bones/carcasses start to smell REALLY BAD.  I am not referring to fresh bones but cooked ones. It does not matter if it is a rotisserie chicken carcass or bones from a roast.  In no time at all they smell really foul in the garbage. Scenario, boil a chicken for dumplings, bone the chicken and discard the bones in the kitchen trash, by the next morning they stink. Do the same thing with a factory raised chicken and the bones do not smell that foul that quickly.

My hypothesis is that all the crap (preservatives etc) that are pumped into factory chickens when they are processed makes them not rot as quickly as naturally processed chicken bones. It reminds me of the twinky that will live longer than I do. Do I want to consume something that doesn't rot naturally. If it doesn't rot naturally what does it do to my body when my body tries to digest it? Just a random thought.....

For the love of Pears..............

The universe finally allowed time for some canning today! Our Sand Pear was the only one that bore this year due to the weird winter but she bore a phenomenal number of pears. My beloved Ball Book had a syrup recipe using Honey so that is how the batches started, when the honey ran out I replaced it with Agave, then added vanilla and cinnamon to the third Agave batch, finally ending with a brown sugar batch when the Agave ran out.

Fortuitously Erin over on the Polyface Hen House Blog  posted a nice Plum Cake recipe today that I stole and used pears instead of plums, it was a huge hit! So I thought I would share it here too. Just a note on using pears, I cooked mine in agave syrup for about five minutes before adding them to the cake.

Pear  Cake  (or other fruit of choice)

3 eggs; 1/2 c. butter, softened; 1/2 c. sugar; 1 t. lemon zest; 1 c. flour; 1/2 t. baking powder; 1 1/4 c. plums, pitted and sliced

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Grease and flour one 9 inch tube pan.  Separate the eggs.
2. In a small bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form, and set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.  Beat in the egg yolks and lemon zest.  Stir together the flour and baking powder and then beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture.  Gently fold in the egg whites.
4. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared pan.  There will only be a little over an inch of batter.  Arrange the pears, attractively over the batter.
5. Bake for 40 minutes or until cake tests done.  Allow to cool before serving.

*** Recipe courtesy of Polyface Hen House Blog

We are still here.........

It has been seven weeks since my last post. The farm is doing well although it has been largely in coast mode because of school. I have been in school for quite some time but until this semester it was pretty laid back and really didn't compete with the farm for my time. That all changed this semester when my actual RN classes started. The first three weeks went by in a mad whirlwind of being in class all day everyday trying to absorb everything we needed to know before we started our first round of clinical rotations. We are now in our second week of our first clinical rotation and are finally starting to get into a more regular predictable rhythm. I finally feel like I can take a deep breath and devote a little more time to the farm.

First day of clinicals

Last weekend we sorted out 25 pullets from the grow out tractors and set them up in a grow out tractor being converted to a layer tractor and encircled them in a fenced "learning yard" so they can get used to the new tractor as home base. They new girls have learned the routine quickly so their fence will come down this weekend and they will have true free range during the day. The new ladies are from two age groups about three weeks apart. They still have a bit before they start laying. Our original laying flock of ten are finishing out a molt and starting to lay more consistently.

We have a few stragglers from the last batch of broilers we processed that will be processed this weekend. Once these are done we only have one group left that will be ready in another 2-3 weeks.  I would like to try a small batch of Peking Ducks. Erin posted on the Polyface Hen House Blog back on the the second about a trial run they are doing raising ducks in tractors on the same schedule and feed as broilers and they are doing well. Her post gave the little shove I needed to brave a batch myself. Now I just need to talk Rick into it :)

Roasted Duck for Christmas Dinner Sounds Amazing!

Until next time, may your gardens be green, your larder be full and your family happy!