ducks like broccoli

wintertime has settled in, and things have been pretty slow with the farm life. between Christmas and jobs and such we haven't had as much time to work outside as much as we'd like. we thinned out the chicken herd, since they aren't laying as well . in winter the hens lay less unless you put a light on them. the length of daylight affects how often they lay.
We are set to have a butchering day for the hog soon. The hubby says she weighs around 400lbs now. I'm going to miss her . But she was always supposed to be BBQ .
The boxer doggies are set to have puppies within the next few weeks, I have to say. I'm excited about that.


We had planted a winter garden back before Halloween. Planted broccoli , Brussels sprouts, greens and cabbage to start. However now we just have some greens growing.......apparently ducks enjoy little broccoli and cabbage plants immensely. And now that we have run out of garden to destroy,all of the mallard ducks have flown away.


So we have 2 Peking ducks, a flock of guiena birds, a brood of bunnies ,a very chunky pig, chickens, and the doggies l rambling around the yard. Im very ready for the springtime .

I've been thinking of sharing some of my old-timey cooking skills here during the winter, then getting back into the garden and animals as it gets warm again.  what does everyone think ? leave comments ?

pictures....

Round one finishing up.....
   Next we plant beans, peas, and such, then its time for greens and more cabbage.

Basil

Sage

I`m going to dry some of my herbs to use over the winter, I used some of the oregano and basil in our homemade spaghetti sauce, it was great.

These  are the hubby`s guinea birds. they still bunch all up when you walk by, but are warming up to us some. An unfortunate cricket came by while I was feeding them the other day....Ive never seen such a ruckus like these birds made over that poor bug.

Ol BBQ here is really enjoying all the garden scraps and is getting rather hefty. She really likes the mud hole we made for her.

                          Let a kid hold your phone......you end up with 15 pictures of the cats hehe

               

The bad side to keeping animals and a little bit of me ranting...

So a few weeks ago we had some rough weather. We had a heat wave come through and for a few days it was about 106 degrees give or take. We had some trouble with the bunnies. The first day of the heat, we lost my California buck, so the hubby put up fans at each side of the pens and gave everybody extra water and such. The next evening, we lost 4 more bunnies. So at this point I made him take all the rest of them into the house. Messy and smelly, but we managed to save the rest. I wish everyone couldv`e seen how he was so worried and even bathing the last one to pass in cool water trying to save it.

We raise them for meat and to sell, but we love our animals, and respect what they give us. We try to be kind and loving even if (like with the pig ) we got them to raise for food.
The hubby started me on the path to raising and growing our own food by making me watch a documentary about how animals are raised and how food is grown for us by big companies. I recommend everyone watch that . It made me open my eyes, and look at my fast food a little differently. I had a family member say that we were mean for raising animals for food, so I thought I would make sure that everyone who knows us, or reads this knows how and why we do it.
If you go to a chicken house for example, they are stacked up so tight they can hardly move, and suffocate and live in their own excrement. Our chickens get to run around the yard, or at least have large cages that are on the ground, so that they can have bugs, grass and such. Our bunnies are given grass, hay, and rabbit food, and are routinely loved on by us all. Our piggie is on the grass, with a nice big mud hole for it to play in. In fact, I never knew pigs were so silly and comical, this one runs and plays like a puppy. If you see how hogs are raised for meat like for the grocery stores, they are given medications to keep them alive because their living conditions are so poor and they cant even turn around they are so packed in their fences. 

Basically, I just want everyone to know that even though we do hunt, and fish , and raise our own meat. We do it for the health of our children, and to know that our children see that even though an animal has a purpose of meat, or eggs, or even guard dog, it should be loved and cared for.

 When hubby decides to try the chicken tractor idea, we had no clue it would be such a success. We had to buy a whole new chest freezer to put up all the groceries this man keeps hauling into the house. He is on a roll. So far ......

• over 50 quarts of stewed tomatoes
• 40 some odd bags of sliced squash
• 6 qts spaghetti sauce
• 10 qts of hash
• 7 or so qts sliced zucchini
• 5 or so gallons of stewed cabbage

 The okra and corn will be coming in soon, and he is planning a round of green beans, peas, and such to plant next. I`m excited to see him having so much fun, and it fun to make homemade spaghetti sauce. Here's how we did it.

We sliced the tops off the tomatoes, squeezed out all the seeds and juice, trimmed the other end off, and just threw them into the food processor. One you have enough, just cook on very low heat, add spices and we added some onions and bell peppers chopped up in the food processor. It didn`t take very long, and we had fresh sauce for our spaghetti that night. Best part is I knew exactly what was in it......no preservatives or anything.







We had to trim the tomato plants and spruce up the garden after an incident in the garden. Apparently critters were enjoying our very lush little garden spot. Me and hubby were picking tomatoes by the laundry basket fulls one day and suddenly he says woman, go get the gun.....run.... so of course my silly butt says "why? did you find a snake? " Needless to say he looks at me funny and says heck yeah i found a snake....run woman.....
So I tear off into the house, find a gun, and bullets..... run back to hubby who is looking kind of intimidated......and with my bare feet and shorts on run and throw everything at him. He says he found a copperhead.....a big one. so after he shoots the poor thing, about twice .... he looses it, cant find it anywhere......then I hear him almost shriek, its had done crawled over his shoe......So the snake is dead, hubby didn't get bitten, and he declares we are done in the garden for the day.  I wasn't as worried about the snake......I had more problems with the big wasp that flew up my shirt and the big  spider that I had on my arm.  Bugs just freak me out.....

Rooster chorus line

Well it has come to my attention we may have quite a few little bantam roosters. These past few evenings have been quite noisy, as the little ones try their hardest to learn how to crow. It`s really kinda cute how they sound.It seems more like a croak than a crow, but its cute all the same. Now I`ve got to start making little pens to put them in though so they wont start fighting.  We let one little pair of bantams out on the yard, and they walk around with the ducks, and roost on top of another cage. I love how they like to follow us around the yard , and just be silly.

We have moved the guinea bird babies out of the brooder into a cage in the yard. They are cute little buggers, and have started to make that weird noise all guinea birds make. They still seem a little skittish, but I'm sure if we keep at it they will warm up to us good.

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Gardening

The garden is getting into full swing now, with tomatoes, squash, and zucchini literally flying off the vines. I`m running trying to keep up with putting everything up, thank goodness the hubby enjoys freezing stuff too. Yet the freezer is full already , so we are going to try drying some of it in the dehydrator, and start canning what we can too.

I have been getting creative and trying to find different ways to prepare squash, and have tried stewing them , baking them, grilling them, casseroles.....you name it. My favorite way yet has been to slice them in half longways, sprinkle them with salt, pepper,butter,  and garlic powder, bake them until tender, then put cheese on top, and bake until the cheese has melted .

We had quite a few cabbages to get ready all at the same time, so we looked it up, and found out you can freeze them. Just cut them into quarters, blanch in boiling water for about 3 to 5 minutes, then cool in ice water. Put into freezer bags and freeze. Since the leaves are still large, when you go to use them you can even have stuffed cabbage, or just cut them up and have boiled or fried cabbage, or add to soups.


We have cucumbers, okra, corn, and watermelons that should be getting ready to start making soon.

For the love of bunnies

Baby bunnies have arrived on the scene, and the girls couldn't be happier.

One of my favorite pictures of miss Willow.....

I caught her !

After a while this poor puppy needed a break, so hubby made the dog pen.....

Now they have room to run and be messy, and hide from the child who makes them dress up...

Here's what happens when I give over the care of my flowers to hubby , mums in June (still don't know how he got them to come back from the dead little sticks they were after last fall)