The winds of change

By the end of the month, our farm will have:

• 450 chickens
• 25 turkeys
• 3 goats
• 6 sheep
• 10 pigs
• 1 dairy heifer

All of them using our grass and improving our soil.  

Hold on to your hats, folks, the winds of change are blowin'!!!

Now we're off to pick up our three goats...stay tuned.

I cleaned my freezer

I cleaned my freezer this morning.  The one above my fridge.  THAT one.  The one where I throw every little thing, just "pop it in the freezer".

Do you know how many little things you can pack into a freezer?  A LOT.

My goodness do I squirrel away little packets of stuff.

I didn't take a picture because we have to be family friendly here, naked pictures of chickens is OK, pictures of my freezer contents would require some black boxes.

Here is a list (as near as I can recall, I may have repressed some of the more gruesome images):

• 3 packages of northerns from this winter
• 3 packages of northerns from last winter (You may be asking, "How did you tell?" Freezer burn, my friends, freezer burn.  The chickens will be enjoying last year's catch.)
• A cool whip container (which I thought was weird seeing as how I don't buy cool-whip, but when I opened it...it was mashed potatoes.  Why would I freeze mashed potatoes?  A better question is "What was wrong with me that there were mashed potatoes left over??"
• Blueberries
• Rhubarb
• Frozen veggies
• Breast milk (Yes, you read that right, breast milk.  Having had not one but two daughters who had latching issues I have frozen many a container of breast milk.  But it's only good for 3 months in that type of freezer so out it went.)
• Three frozen bananas (If bananas go south on me I just throw them in the freezer and then make a big batch of banana something at once.  The kicker here is I didn't even know I had bananas in the freezer.)
• Lemons (At least I'm telling myself they were lemons.  They were lemon shaped and I think they once contained lemon juice but I can't confirm that.)
• A three year old package of Phyllo dough.  I'm sure I needed it for a recipe, but if I haven't used Phyllo dough in three years, there's a good chance it wasn't a good one.
• Random cubes of freeze dried baby food (I make my own baby food and freeze it in ice cube trays, one cube = one ounce.  Apparently, a few cubes got lost in the bowels of my freezer and their they were preserved in a dehydrated state.  Cryogenics!)
• A plastic pail of popcorn from my nephew the Boy Scout.  (You've all bought them.  I did and thought we had at least a half a pail.  Nope.  Someone, I won't name any names but it does rhyme with 'Bubby', has been eating popcorn on the sly because there were literally 15 kernals left in the pail.  Now, I don't care that he eats popcorn but we were storing an entire pail in the freezer for 15 kernals!!!  I could have thrown in some breastmilk or a weird banana in that space!)
• Cheese (There's always room for cheese!)
• Yeast (I buy it in 2 pound bags and it keeps well in the freezer.)
• Steaks and porkchops (I was wondering where those disappeared to.)
• Not one, but two containers of soup stock.  (Did I have to store that upstairs?  Why, oh why didn't I take that to the basement?)

Moral of the story:  We are having blueberry ice cream this Friday, banana bread on Saturday, cheese everyday and soup, steaks and porkchops sometime this week.  Don't worry, no breastmilk was served in the cleaning of this freezer....

Four years ago...part II

Four years ago today I was in labor with our first child.  Hubby was a fantastic coach and I certainly couldn't have done it without him.  Our nurse even complemented him on his coaching!  After a botched epidural at 6cm, I went au-natural for the rest.  I'll spare you all the details, but I will tell you this:  Giving birth to Kiddo1 was the most amazing thing I've ever done.

Here is our first family photo!  One minute we're a couple and the next...a FAMILY!

Kiddo1 weighed 7lbs 7oz and was born on the 7th of May.  Which is pretty remarkable until you add in this factoid:  Her parents were married on 07.07.07!

  My mom was teaching school.  She and Dad left as soon as the buses left at the end of the day to get to the hospital to hold their new granddaughter.

I love this photo of my Dad holding my daughter.  

Her birthday last year was the last birthday I celebrated with my dad.  

A goat milking stand

I am the daughter of a master woodworker.  I was patiently instructed on how to use tools and wood to build things.  I built a wooden chair when I was 5 years old.  It certainly wasn't fancy or square but it held me.  I don't build fine furniture, but I could, thanks to my dad.

I am married to a machinist, a metal worker, a gear-head.  He works in metals.  He can rebuild transmissions (I've got one in my garage right now).  Pretty much anything with metal, he can do it.

On our farm, that makes us a pretty good team!  Hubby is in charge of anything metal, I handle the wood projects.

My latest project is this:

If you don't recognize it, it's a goat milking stand!  And I didn't just build it to fill my Tuesday afternoon.  Next week we're scheduled to get at least one goat!!  (applause here)

I grew up with goats and am very excited about this new opportunity for our farm.  There will certainly be more pictures to share next week.

But for now my milking stand is empty and waiting...

Four years ago...

Four years ago, our lives were just a little different.

I was starting plants in the nursery.

My south garden looked like this (planted with strawberries and onions).

And I looked like this.  That's the first thing we ever grew on Morning Joy Farm!

Then life got really exciting...stay tuned for more!

Once-A-Month Cooking

Late last fall, I hit a crisis in my kitchen.  On the days I went to the office for my part-time job, I hated coming home at 5:30 and then going "What are we going to eat?" with small children who hadn't seen me all day hanging on my pants, wanting to help, needing a hug...you get the picture.  

Days that I'm at home, I'm working outside on the farm...same result.  "Why are the kids so crabby?"  Because it's 6:30 and you've been outside all afternoon.

And after 3 days of hotdish (not that I'm opposed to hotdish, mind you), it was starting to send me into a cream of mushroom soup induced culinary coma.

I had heard a rumor that such a thing as Once-A-Month cooking.  Could it be?  

I promptly ordered this:

  

And my life has never been so good!!

My method is slightly different from theirs, but certainly inspired by the saints that are Mimi and Mary Beth (I feel like we're friends).

1.  I shop on one day with a giant grocery list.  I'll just warn you that it might be a two cart day in the grocery store.  But soooo worth it.  Make copies of the lists so that you can check them off in the store as you get the items.  This is critical!  Also check off what you have at home before you leave.  I don't buy chicken, for example, so that gets crossed off.  No need to buy yet another bottle of Tabasco each month.  When I get home I put the perishables away and keep the pantry goods in the grocery bags, so I don't have to take them out again.

2.  I prep my foods the day before the cooking marathon.  By prep I mean chop 11 onions, 7 green peppers, roast 5 chickens and then shred or dice, etc.  (Some recipes use rotisserie chickens, I use my own and roast them in the oven.)  I store all of this prepped food in the fridge in plastic containers. {In the book, you prep and cook on the same day.  I don't because I have small children who may need a snuggle/read break or a cowboy break.}

3.  The day I cook starts right after breakfast.  The recipes walk you right through what to cook and what to combine from all of your ingredients.  You will store your foods in Ziploc bags and plastic containers.  Some meals you will cook (simmer a soup, for example), others you will just combine ingredients and freeze (like Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chicken Pie).  I label each one with the name of the meal and the page number the recipe is on so I can easily reference the cooking instructions.

I have to issue a warning:  The day you spend cooking will be the longest day of your month.  In the middle, I always think "Why am I doing this?  This is insane!"  But then, when you're done and there are 25-30 meals frozen in your freezer, you are TRIUMPHANT!  For you have slain the "what's for dinner" dragon!!  (I may have uttered the words, "I AM AWESOME!"...)

Each evening I take another meal out of the freezer to defrost in the fridge until the next day.  That's it!

This method has worked so well for us.  Hubby isn't a cook, but he can takes something out of the fridge and put it in the oven at the appointed time.  He can start the crockpot.  These meals are mostly main dishes, so we can eat seasonally for the side dishes and vegetables, adding salads during the summer and eating root or home-canned vegetables during the winter months.

In our family, we have homemade pizza and homemade ice cream on Friday nights.  Sunday nights I make either a new recipe or an old favorite, like hotdish.  Lunches are either leftovers or sandwiches and fruit.  That means my month of meals lasts about 6 weeks!

The first two months, I cooked according to the book.  This past month, I chose our favorite recipes from the book and added some of our own.  This is what I have in my freezer:

• Minestrone Soup
• Black Beans and Rice
• Tamale Pie*
• Meatballs*
• Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
• Tortilla Cheese Soup*
• BBQ Shredded Sandwiches*
• Spaghetti
• Chicken Broccoli Casserole
• Smothered Burritos
• Sloppy Joes
• Old Fashioned Beef Stew
• Stroganoff*
• Hamburger Quiche
• Chicken Supreme
• Garlic Cheddar Chicken
• Chicken Wild Rice Soup
• Chicken and Cheese Chowder
• Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chicken Pie
• Meatloaf
• Lasagna
• Egg Bake*
• Upside Down Fettucini Bake
• Macaroni
• Chicken and Noodles*
• Roast, Potatoes and Carrots*
• Swiss Steaks*
• Chili*                                                    (*=my own recipe)

Once-A-Month Cooking has freed up my mind from trying to remember if I have all the ingredients on hand to make such-and-such or to defrost the meat in advance.  And it's freed up my time to snuggle my kids with a book when I get home or play cowboys when I come in from the garden or pasture while dinner is cooking.

**Disclaimer:  Mimi and Mary Beth have no idea who I am.  I just found their book, love it and thought I'd share.  

Tuesday Tidbits

Spring is the time of extra eggs.  And when life gives you extra eggs, you make noodles!

Here's one that made me smile...

And here's something else that made me smile.  He fell asleep building with his blocks.

Happy Tuesday!!