I can relate

Hurry up and Spring already!

It was two weeks ago I planted all my seeds in our greenhouse. The next day a mouse got in dug out and ate all the seeds. Wire mesh in hand I stapled and meshed any and all parts of the greenhouse and replanted the seedlings. Then the below freezing nights started. I had to shut the doors and double plastic the seedlings. I am still doing this as snow is predicted. I will not bring these into my house. Nope, not gonna do it. Outside they stay. And this is where I am now. I have lettuce, cabbage, tomato, basil, dill, cucumbers and okra growing happily in the greenhouse.

Then I went to put black plastic sheeting on the garden to kill the weeds. I upended 50 billion  wintering red ants all over me and the garden at the same time. Did not care, just kept on pinning the plastic down until it was done. Then I took off my boots, jeans and shirt to shake out all the ants. Only got stung on my feet and waist. The cold made them a bit slow. Next, I put out ant baits to stop this ant plague. They just picked up the blue ant bait disc and threw it at me on my way out the garden. Undeterred, I will spread diatomaceous earth at them next week. I have a garden to set and ants will not stop me.

On another note the lilacs are in bloom. These were planted as a hedge by the previous owner of our farm. They come back each spring. They are pretty but to me smell like moth balls. But the bees love them and visitors love them. I like how they hide our propane tank. I think that is why the previous owners planted them :)

Chickens and Sea glass

Here is useless rooster #3. He is a wuss and runs all over the yard screaming. He is chased by the other two roosters. But he is pretty and easy to find in the pasture. And he is a good back up if anything gets the other two.

Here is the game rooster of our flock. He is sweet, just looks fierce. He has his own flock and he follows the big boy around.

So talking to my husband we decided to increase hatching eggs this year because of possible meat and egg shortages. All the places to buy chicks and hens are closed or not shipping. Hatching eggs via broody hen and maybe the incubator is our next option. I have used the incubator in the past years but it has problems. Electricity, humidity and constant temperature regulating. All that is solved by a feisty broody hen. A broody hens do not lay, she sits on any pile of eggs she can find for 21 days. This means keeping egg count and locations log. And after a hatch I need to put mom and chicks in a cage for a week so the chicks learn the coop is home. Not too soon or she will not hatch out all the eggs. But again a broody hen wins. She raises and feeds the tribe of mini dinosaurs so I do not have to - in my house.

Here is the great grandson rooster who is the boss of my herd. He is a Leghorn, Buttercup with a bit of Seabright in him. He is a very large roo with a sweet disposition. His father was killed by coyotes last fall. His brood mother is the hen below.

This is a game hen I sold six months ago at auction. She flew back to our farm and brought some friends. So we kept her and her buds and added them into our small flock. She has only one good eye as she lost the other to a fight with another hen. Faverolle hens are meaner than game hens. This pirate game hen is now one of the best broody hens.They will fight anything that endangers their chicks. I put 10 eggs under her and she hatched 8. The other 2 eggs I set under a Banty hen to raise. We do not name our birds as we do not want to get too attached. But sometimes they do have a personally that separates them from the rest. If you have time to deal with hen drama Game hens are great. But there will be blood as it is their nature to fight and the hens have spurs.

And when I need to relax from farm life, I watch the Northern Mudlarks on YouTube. They have such fun talking about sea finds. I love the beauty of the sea sounds and the glass they find. Just fun to listen to them chatter away as they hunt down a treasure. I miss the sea and the shore. But am very happy to be here on the farm.

My secret recipe book

 Here are the cinnamon rolls made with hand ground flour made from scratch. The color is a bit darker, but oh the taste is heavenly.

The go to book for home cooking. I bought this binder style cookbook after a friends lent me hers. I did not like the binder pages but loved the recipes. These are really good recipes. Taste of Home by readers digest. You can find this used on ebay.

Here is the one I used to make the cinnamon rolls. 

Making your own flour

So after staying on the farm for a month and no leaving the farm, we ran out of flour. But we brought hard wheat berries before the stay at home order. So I dusted off my wheat grinder and got busy grinding.

 Nice clean berries for flour making

Great vintage wheat grinder very loud but very good at its job. I have to do this outside since flour dust goes everywhere.I had two of these machines but gave the second one to friends living in Africa.

Sweet rich unbleached flour. I miss that smell. I buy yeast in bulk and store in my fridge normally. So we always have the basics on hand. The wheat I store in 5 gallon buckets with an O2 absorbers to keep the berries fresh. When it goes stale I give to the chickens.

yep, wearing ear protection and an apron.

Goodbye Bees, Hello baking

A friends mom was getting into bees. She asked about our equipment. We gathered up the hives and tools and took them to her farm. She is raising bees at her place. We just did not have any luck in this area of farming. She has raised bees in the past and is surrounded by woods.

the queens taking a nap

English muffins from scratch

We have always cooked meals at home. But some things like breads we just picked up at the store. But after the virus hit we stocked up and started making our own. We have not set foot off our farm in over a month. Canned milk and butter and flour. But the flour ran out so I had to grind my own wheat. (see next post about that)

Pancakes and strawberry syrup from scratch

Hot griddle cakes and the extras can be frozen.

Local grown strawberries frozen away from 2016.

Home baking and mask making

Etouffee for dinner before Easter.

Peanut butter cookies from scratch

Mask making and adding instructions.

Time to use up extra fabric for the greater good.

Before the Virus

It was after the virus hit New York that we took our tractor into the repair shop.

They told us it would take 3 weeks but in 1 week it was ready for pick up. So we drove 2 hours away masks in hand and no stops to get the tractor. We got this done before the stay at home order. 

Me before gearing up for spring planting. I got the pantry full and seeds for planting before the SHTF.