Buckwheat Piecrust

We ran out of flour. 

I know, how does that happen? 

Truthfully, it was all the muffin recipes and the two breads. I had to get creative in my baking until we could restock at Costco. 

Enter pastie pie. (I wanted to use up some wilted carrots and cabbage). We had buckwheat flour in the pantry so I found a buckwheat pie crust recipe that I actually had all the ingredients for.

The pie crust was pretty dry and crumbly, but it tasted good. I made a sauce to combat the dryness.

I've made the sauce before with goat milk. This time I used Greek yogurt and added a splash of lemon juice to add tang. It worked!

Jip's Area

Jip has been tethered in the backyard to keep him from chasing our other animals, but that's not a great winter solution. Our plan was to make an area in the shed for him to sleep in where our other animals couldn't access but they could all share the warmth. The duck area would be his winter dog run and then in the spring, he could have one of the pasture paddocks (whichever the goats weren't in). 

We made a super great corner of the shed for him. Sturdy, cozy, goat and chicken proof. 

Unfortunately, he doesn't even get to use it. The first time we put him in his new area, he jumped over the goat fence. 😭 We might be able to keep him from jumping by adding fencing to the top or by making the holes smaller so he can't climb the fence, but we didn't have time for that before the snow came. 

So we came up with an alternative using a tether. 

He is staked to the left of the clothesline far enough away he won't get tangled in the pole. He can run in a circle (and he does 😂). It's just long enough he can enter his dog house which is tucked next to the shed for added warmth. G shoveled show on the top and sides of his house to further insulate the house. 

As you can see from the picture, Jip loves it!

Fall Planting

We opted to try planting seeds in the fall again, hoping for a better harvest earlier in the season this spring. Last time we tried fall planting, there wasn't any snow to insulate the seeds and only carrots and radishes came up. This year's winter is predicted to be wet, so I'm hoping for better results. 

I went through my box of seeds and planted anything I thought might grow in the cold spring- carrots, radishes, turnips, rutabaga, beets, cabbage (first time growing from seed), broccoli (first time growing from seed), and garlic. There are definitely more vegetables I would've planted, but we didn't have any seeds. This January I'll have to place an order. 

G had dug our carrots out of the garden, so the ground was nice and loose for planting. I made careful notes and a map in my plant notebook to hopefully be more organized. I don't think I have enough space for notes on how they grow, so I might redo those notes later.

I had saved seeds from a few radishes that bolted and went to seed. Some I had dug the seeds out, but some were still in the pods. Each pod held 2-3 seeds. We'll see how they do!

Here are our dug carrots drying for a few days to get a harder skin. They got moved to the fridge after drying. If we had a root cellar, I would've stored them there long-term. Maybe next year!

Oat Milk

Oat milk is both easier and harder to make than I thought. 

Soak oats in water, rinse the starch off to keep it from being slimy, blend with new water (cold), strain out the oats. Done. 

We made some hot chocolate with it, and it tasted pretty watery. Maybe if I let the oats soak longer? 

I kept the spent oats to use elsewhere... I tried making pancakes. Like the banana buckwheat pancakes I made before, they really stuck to the pan. 

I tried cooking some in the toaster oven. Still didn't cook super well. I'll have to keep experimenting. 

Jaron liked it though!

Compost Area

After revamping the goat fence, a number of pallets were left available. I took my opportunity to finally build my compost area. 

We settled on two bays to start; I debated a third, but they're easy enough to add, I can always do it later. You can use twine, screws, or zip ties to link the pallets together. We opted for gigantic zip ties. 

To contain the compost, I used a staple gun to attach empty chicken feed bags. Isn't it colorful! 

Here it is with compost inside. I raked up a bunch of leaves and little sticks that had accumulated around the shed. I wonder how much will break down by spring? 

The chickens love it. They've already scratched out a ton of what I raked in. 😂 

I guess I should install a board on the front of the bays. TBD if I'll put a pallet on top to cover the compost.

Vacuum Sealing Beer?

One of the downsides to a growler of beer is that it goes flat fairly soon after opening, so it's best not to keep it long. 

We had some "leftover" beer from a family birthday celebration. Of course I could make beer bread with it, but I thought I'd try to preserve it with our mason jar vacuum sealer. 

I tried two containers - a pint and a quart. Even with the carbonation, the jars sealed. They stayed sealed for a few hours. However, a day later, the lids had unsealed and the beer was flat. So, beer bread it is! 

This recipe tasted delicious. 

Christmas Cactus Buds

I wonder when the buds will bloom. These were an unexpected surprise when I watered the plant the other day. 

It's amazing this plant is doing so well considering where it came from. It was a wedding shower present from G's cousin three years ago. It had been thriving with a ton of flowers, and all of a sudden, it died. I think that was a side effect of "the great freeze" during our honeymoon. 

The heat quit working during the coldest days of the year and almost all of my plants died. All that was left unfrozen were two leaf sections. The vibrant green made me keep them, also considering the fact that cacti are succulents and can be propagated. I tossed them in a box of soil with other experiments and promptly forgot about it. 

A few months later, the chunk was still green. A few months after that, the chunk had a few roots. I repotted it into a small pot. It grew more leaves! Now it's triple the size of the original two salvaged leaves. One of the original leaves shriveled up and the second original is beginning to die off.