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. 

 

Shed Door Update

G spent a lot of time out in the goat shed winterizing it and making it more efficient for our animals this winter. 

In addition to installing water heaters to keep waterers from freezing, he set up both a light and a heat lamp, both on timers, so the chickens will keep laying this winter and the eggs won't freeze. 

He also cut the shed door in half to keep even more of the warm air in while allowing the animals to come me and go.

We have it cracked open about a foot and a half for now. 
 

Mulching when the Mulching is Good

As you can see from the photos, I'm a little behind on posting... There's snow on the ground now. G and I worked fast and furious to get our property winterized before the snow came and the ground froze, so there will be a few posts from the past coming up.

One of the big winterizing tasks was to put more tree mulch over existing mulch in the orchard and medicinal herb garden. It took many trips with our little black cart.

I recently bought a babywearing jacket with a zipper up the back so you can wear baby on back. It's tricky to put the jacket on by yourself; it has to be centered just so or the baby gets stuck. But nice and cozy once it's on. 

Jaron likes changing it up, so he had a little time in the stroller too. 

While I worked, I heard a strange noise. I looked up and saw first one eagle, then a second, then a third, then a fourth! Four eagles circling in a gentle pattern above my head. 

I worried the eagles would go for our chickens and ducks, but thankfully they kept to the sky. 

Muffin Explosion

One zucchini left in the fridge! Time to make muffins. I heard zucchini can be substituted for apples in an apple pie recipe, so I was going to try that, but then I figured muffins were more bang for my buck. 

Jaron is still doing no added sugar, so I wanted to make sugar free muffins. Chat gpt gave me some suggestions on how to make my favorite zucchini muffin recipe sugar free. Use applesauce instead, skip sweeteners all together, use shredded apples and/or carrots. I decided to make all three plus another recipe for denser muffins to dip in soup. Not sure if I would like these iterations, I decided to make half recipes and made notes to keep them all straight...

Lots of shredding involved. 

On the left is applesauce instead of sugar. The right bowl has no sugar and no substitute. The dough was super crumbly. Maybe adding the zucchini would help. 

Same bowls with zucchini added. Didn't help the bowl on the right very much. 

The finished products. All in all, the applesauce ones were pretty good, not much sweetness at all; you couldn't taste the applesauce. The no additives batch was pretty bitter. You could really taste the baking soda/baking powder. I would probably add some sort of liquid to moisten them up if I made them again.

The next batch used carrot and apple shreds for moisture and sweetness.

They didn't add a lot of moisture, and turned out pretty much like the no additives batch - very crumbly with a bitter flavor. These tasted better just because of the carrot shreds.

The last batch I made required so many substitutions because I didn't have the ingredients handy that the recipe ended up nothing like the original. 😂 I'll have to make it again when I have everything. Here's a list of all my substitutions:

Still, I thought the muffins were decent. They cooked longer than they should have. The only reason I could tell that is because they ended up with a pretty thick crust. If I had taken them out a few minutes earlier, they would have been softer and no doubt more delicious.

The cheese definitely helped save them!.

Two New Breads- Mug Bread and Focaccia

I tried two new recipes from the Brilliant Bread cookbook. 

Mug Bread, which is very simple. All the measurements are done in a mug. 

I used a really big mug so we'd have a lot of bread. It made two loaves. I baked one in a pan and one on a tray. 

 

The loaf pan bread had a super thick crust. Delicious, but hard to cut. I didn't get enough salt in the dough, so I thought it was bland. G said I don't need to save the recipe. 

Focaccia on the other hand... 

So delicious. Easy to put together, easy to bake, tasted delicious. I sprinkled fresh rosemary on top before baking. 

Look at those bubbles! 

I will definitely make this focaccia recipe again!

 

Freeze Proof Chicken Waterer

I came across this video showing how to use geothermal energy to make a "heated" chicken waterer and now I really want to make one for our homestead. 

I don't think we'll get to that this year before the ground freezes. 

I was inspired to use an old tire as an insulated water holder for the ducks and chickens. The opening fits the water dish perfectly! 

I do need to go back and stuff straw inside the tire walls for even more insulation. 

Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls- Maple Syrup Sweetened

It's Bekhor's birthday today (our firstborn who came at 16 weeks). To celebrate his heavenly birthday, I whipped together some sourdough discard cinnamon rolls sweetened with maple syrup instead of regular sugar. Chat gpt gave me the recipe. 

The recipe conveniently used up a cracked egg G brought in from the shed. 

I wasn't sure how the maple syrup would spread in the filling, but it handled quite nicely. 

The dough stuck to the counter making it hard to roll, hence the lopsidedness. 

This morning I took them out of the fridge while the oven heated. Then bam, twenty minutes later, sweet rolls! 

I had 1/3c of Greek yogurt to use up. Chat gpt to the rescue again...

I actually really liked the frosting- a little tangy, a little sweet, good consistency. 

Vanilla Extract

Back in college, a friend gave me a small bottle of homemade vanilla extract. I had other vanilla to use up first, and by the time I finished that, I had received a couple other small bottles as gifts. 

Eventually, I mixed them all together and that's what I've used since. When the vanilla got low, I added more vodka to the jar. I think over the years I did that twice.

Now my vanilla stores are low and topping up the bottle with vodka results in a weak vanilla. Time to make a new bottle. 

G sourced some Madagascar vanilla beans online along with some Minnesota-made vodka. 

It's a pretty easy recipe. Slice eight vanilla beans down the side to increase surface area. Put them in a jar. Pour 8oz of vodka over the top. Rest for six months. 

 That's the hardest part...waiting to use it!

Subbing in Fifth

Another subbing day today. This time in 5th grade, the classroom where I did my long-term subbing a couple years ago. It was nice to be in a familiar classroom with a familiar routine. The kids were pretty chatty no doubt because it's a two-day week and tomorrow is a field trip.

My mother-in-law is home from Arizona for Thanksgiving, so she was able to watch Jaron. She brought him to school over lunch, but he had had so much fun playing all morning, he fell asleep in the car right when they pulled up. I got him out of the car seat anyway, but he was so tired he stayed asleep! He ended up going home without any milk. 

I did some actual teaching today - religion, writing rough drafts for English, a social studies lesson on the fur trade. Best part of the day was starting the book Frindle as a class read aloud. I found out from the other 5th grade teacher that she had planned to use that book in a novel study after Christmas. Wonder if she still will. 🤔

I had another little snafu with the other 5th grade teacher... It was the end of the day and I had just finished teaching her class social studies. We finished a little early, and they asked if they could go out for recess. I knew my class had a PE, but I didn't know what their class was supposed to do. They said that they normally have recess while my class has PE and that Mrs. M would take them out to recess and the other fifth grade teacher would take the other class out. So, I let them go out a little early for recess. I went back to my classroom to get my outdoor gear and let my class know that we were going to have outside recess instead of PE. The other fifth grade teacher looked a little surprised when I said her class was already outside.

Turns out they weren't supposed to go outside. She had a different activity planned for them. They were going to watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and have Charlie Brown Thanksgiving snacks. But since they were all outside she abandoned that idea and just let them have recess. I felt bad about messing up her plans. She said they didn't know that they were missing out on something fun, but I'm sure she was bummed; she clearly loves all things Peanuts. Her classroom theme is Peanuts, and she even has Snoopy themed eyeglass frames.

Risen Savior Subbing

This week on Tuesday was my first day subbing at the school associated with our church. I've been on their sub list for a few years, but this is the first time I was actually called upon to teach. I taught the 5-6th graders for a day. 

Their teacher doesn't know me super well, so he made the day pretty simple. I was a little disappointed there wasn't more teaching to do, but the day went smoothly. Catechism lesson for religion, read-aloud and questions for reading, math test, recess, show a video in 5-6 science (Magic School Bus), work time on final drafts for English, show a video in 7-8 science (Bill Nye). 

I was able to find a bit of time to do extra read-aloud. The book they picked was How They Choked: Failures, Flops, and Flaws of the Awfully Famous by Georgia Bragg. We had time to read one person's story and they picked the man who owned the Titanic, Bruce Ismay. He was a very bad man. Most likely a product of his upbringing, but wow, did he make some bad decisions. It seems like the whole Titanic disaster could've been avoided. Look him up for more of the story.

G brought Jaron to school over lunch to nurse. 

All the students were well-behaved, even the 7-8th graders. I had a little time with them for read-aloud too. We did a handful of super quick mystery stories, similar to Encyclopedia Brown but simpler.

Because the day had a lot of student work time, I had time to do some reading of my own. I've been reading Grow Wild: The Whole-Child, Whole-Family, Nature-Rich Guide to Moving More by Katy Bowman. Good takeaways! Her big thing is stacking activities to build healthy habits into your life. For example, you need to grocery shop, so to add more movement, park far away to add steps. Then carry your items in a basket instead of a cart so you use your arm muscles more. Granted this doesn't work all the time, but you get the idea. 

Or, you want to go on a family hike and you want to eat dessert. Go for a walk in an area with berries along the trail and gather as you go. 

My favorite chapter so far is the chapter about clothing and movement. Our clothes are containers holding us. You will move more if the container isn't restrictive. Pay attention to the movements your kids do or don't do; perhaps their clothing is keeping them from playing to the full extent. She gave some tips about buying barefoot shoes for kids when their feet grow so fast (barefoot shoes tend to be expensive) and gave suggestions on weather-proof clothing. Like I said, I took a lot of notes!

Fire Cider

Ever heard of fire cider? It's an herbal remedy for basically any illness. Lots of ingredients! It seems worth it.

Since there's a lot of room for variation in the recipe, I made notes about how I made this match, in case I want to replicate it later or want to adjust the flavor.

I was surprised it only made one quart. I definitely will be making another batch this year! I'd like to buy all fresh ingredients and see how that compares to this container that uses some dried herbs, etc. 

Shake every day, ready in a few weeks!

Apple Cider Vinegar Ready

The apple cider vinegar sat for a month, now it's ready to test!  

Check out the mother growth on the fresh/frozen batch! 

The post-sauce apple cider vinegar had much less mother growth. Guess from now on I'll use just fresh or frozen apple scraps. 

They say it's ready when it's between 2 to 3 pH. G has some pH test strips from his kombucha making days, so it was very easy. Mine is right at 3. The big jar is more like a 3.5, so I'll let that sit longer.

The post-sauce ACV had a unique flavor, a little sweeter than the rest. The fresh/frozen had more of an alcoholic tone. The bigger jar of fresh/frozen seemed watery compared to the others, definitely didn't have as much flavor, probably because it's not quite ready yet. 

I'll leave some of them to sit a while longer, and turn others into fire cider!