Friday, June 24, 2011

Farm News and Stuff

The sheep were safely loaded and taken to the auction. I am hoping the check will come today. I was told that I would be pleasantly surprised at what they bring. I picked a low number and I will hope for that. Anything over that will be a good surprise. :) I felt so bad after they were gone. I had babies crying for their momma and momma's crying for their babies. The next day, the Wonderful Neighbors got 2 calves. Our cows were going nuts because they heard or should I say "herd" the calves bawling. The momma in them came out. Clover, especially was very agitated. I was sitting looking out at the remaining sheep and lambs. I saw them all look up toward the front and start moving that way. They began to carry on. I went out to see what was out there and there was nothing. Then I heard the calves bawl again and the sheep were answering. They were all commiserating together.

I have not heard back from the man with the cow in milk. I am going to try and call him again today. I called on Monday and left a message. I am praying this works out.

I dehydrated 8 lbs. of blueberries this week. If you ever decide to do that, I suggest you do small batches. To have blueberries dehydrate and be like a raisin, you need to either freeze them or dip them in boiling water for 30 seconds. This does something to the skin. Last year I tried dehydrating them without doing this. They just became like these little air balloons. You would bite them and it sounded like you were snapping gum. There was not a lot of substance. This year, I dipped mine in the boiling water using a stainless steel basket from a deep fryer. I then put them in a colander to drain. The weight of all the berries smashed the ones on the bottom and in the middle. Next time I will dip them in the hot water and just hold the basket over the sink. I will put them on a dehydrator tray and then do another small portion. Or, I may end up spreading them out on a cookie sheet and freezing them that way and then dehydrate them. Life is all about learning and trying new things. :)

Our chickens have slowed down a bit in their laying and we are trying to figure out why. We have plenty of customers for our eggs, so I hope they don't go any lower.

I have been wanting to paint for awhile. I don't paint beautiful landscapes or portraits, just simple old country painting, but it satisfies something in me. I had gotten a new compost bucket and started using a different bucket for my chicken scraps. They were empty canvases waiting to be filled. :) My new compost bucket is bamboo. It has a removable plastic liner which I like. I want to carry these in the store. I ordered one to check out the quality.

This is a doo-hickey. :) The WN mama says it is a ladle. The WN girl said it is a little skillet. I am not sure what it is. I bought a pasta pot at a consignment store. This was inside. It would look cute hanging on the wall, so I thought I would decorate it. I am going to give it to someone.

While I was waiting for paint to dry on the above items, I got out my CSA basket. Normally, we get a half bushel basket. This week, they gave us this cardboard box. I had mentioned to the CSA owner that I had thought about painting on my basket, but would not since it was not mine. She said I could paint on them if I wanted to. :)

This is actually a chamber pot with a lid. :) It has never been used for that. I like to give the chickens any scraps that I can. We were using a plastic ice cream bucket for their scraps, but it got gross and was tearing. I dug this out and have been using it.

The garden is growing well. I may go out and take some pictures today. We have had plenty of rain which is a blessing.

1 comment:

Nancy said...

I thought our chickens had slowed down, too. Then my husband went into the coop after dark a couple of nights ago and found a snake in there. Unfortunately, he was in a cage with baby chicks and was killing them. He had killed some the night before, also. He got away but we haven't seen him since and the egg production is up.