Wagging Tails Farm

Family Values

2010-08-16T21:41:00.004-04:00

As I was walking out of work today, a coworker and I were talking about this past week. She asked if I had fun, and I said, "of course, I was the only girl in a room full of men." She asked if any were cute, and I said, "yes, one was very attractive, but they were all married."

Now, this coworker is very young, but that still doesn't excuse her comment. She replied "that doesn't matter in this day and age."

Suffice it to say that I was floored. I replied that it mattered to me, as I'm a huge supporter of marriage and I thought she needed to rethink her stance. It bothered me deeply. It still does, as you can see from my post here tonight when I should be packing and cleaning out my car for my trip to Georgia.

That got me thinking about family values and where we are heading "in this day and age."

Vision Questing

2010-08-15T17:46:00.003-04:00

I think that if you take the last two days and compare them to the last two quarters, I have posted more on facebook and this blog cumulatively. Ha ha ha. I guess I just was emotionally exhausted and needed a break. I am feeling rather lazy these last two days. Lots going on and I'm just wiped. Every once in a while, you have to cut back on the work you do and just sit in a hammock and let it ride for a day or two. This post may make you all wonder what I've been smoking. I swear, nothing.

Carl Jung said that every 7 to 10 years people go through transitional periods in their lives where they question what they've done, who they are, and make adjustments along the way so they end their lives exactly where they were supposed to be.

A friend recently asked me about my Vision Quest. Many in my family know of my Vision Quest a few years ago. Most do not understand it. Why did I go to Texas, undergo a sweat lodge ceremony where I underwent grueling heat prior to climbing to the top of a mountain, to sleep under the stars, alone in the wilderness with no food or water in 100 degree heat during the day and below 0 at night for four days and three nights?

If I told you, you still wouldn't understand.

Suffice it to say that like many of us, I was looking for answers. Coupled with the fact that I like to try new things. When life knocks and gives me an opportunity, I take it and to hell with the reasons why. I figure it's all going to shake out in the end anyway, and most of you will forget what I did within a few weeks. 'Oh, that's that crazy Elaine again, just going off on another flaky adventure.'

And of course, true to form, I got more questions than answers. It's taken me a few years to answer even a few of those questions. Most of them are very personal, so I'll share here what did happen that is not so personal.

When I was preparing for my Vision Quest, I was told that through change in focus, intent, environment and diet, the quester enters a highly sensitive state of bodily awareness and is subjected to lucid dreams. So, for two weeks prior, I fasted and meditated and thought on life.

When I climbed to the top of the mountain, at the highest point I could find, I was given four words to meditate on. Stillness - Empty - Surrender - Beauty

I'm reading through my journal now and remembering it all. Some of the visions I had were visual. Some were auditory, such as the early morning just before dawn when I awoke to the sounds of claws trying to claw through my mattress pad to get to me. I was afraid to move. It was so real. I could hear the echo of a cavern and nails on a board and stone underneath me. I just knew that something was trying to get through to me. It ended like every vision did, with me falling fast asleep, so deeply that I could not awaken if I tried. Many times I did, but I could not awaken.

Most of the time, I just slept. I had a feeling that was part of my vision, the sleep. Someone was telling me to relax a little, take it easy more often, and get some rest for goodness sake.

There was the one time when I had a kinesthetic experience where I was sleeping and someone yanked, hard, on my right foot as I lay there.

Oddly enough, I never wrote down my big vision, just all the little ones that led up to it. How the animals came so close to me, and the birds would literally come and surround me in the morning and sing for me. (they would come just to the few trees around me and sing their hearts out) It was like they were curious about what I was doing there. I wrote that all down, but never my vision that led to my Indian name. I held it close to the vest for a few years now. I was told not to share it until I felt ready to. That time is now. I've gone through a sort of rebirth these last few months, culminating this past week where I have finally decided to reemerge.

My actual vision, the one that gave me my name, was all things combined. It was auditory, visual and kinesthetic. Not only that, but I also found physical signs when it was all done.

Here it is, in short form. I was sitting up, looking out over the trees, and a mountain lion approached me. He walked slowly and deliberately, but I was not afraid. He looked deep into my eyes as he approached and came and sat at my feet, looking up at me, much like my dog does when looking for a treat. He laid his head in my lap and we sat there. I can't remember if I stroked him or if we just enjoyed each others company. Finally, he looked up at me after a very long time, and just gave me a very sad, very sorrowful look and I had an understanding. I just knew that he was saying he was very sorry for what he had to do to me, but it was necessary. I looked down at him and told him "go, do what you must." He took left his paw and put it on my right thigh, looking at me all the while with love. Then he unsheathed his claws and swiped down my leg, from inner thigh to outer leg near my knee. It was painful and it bled. Then I slept. When I awoke, near my foot I found what looked to be a large paw print in the sand. A large pad with four toes, very clearly defined, and larger than my hand. Just one print, and very, very clear. So clear that I wondered if someone was playing a trick on me, but I was the only one up there, and no one else knew that I would have had a vision of a mountain lion.

Then my vision returned to me and a coyote playfully approached me, bouncing and bounding. She came to me and saw my blood and felt my pain and came to clean my wounds. She licked my wounds and they healed. I slept again, and when I awoke, she was back with a pup, and he was wounded. He had a broken leg. I repaired the leg and she was thankful to me for my help, and they went away. As he ran, he healed and the bandages fell away.

That's it, that's my vision. It resulted in the longest Indian name the Medicine Man had ever given anyone. Ask me in person and I will share my name, but I will not do it over the internet.

It took me two years now to figure out some of the meaning in this vision. It is so very clear to me now, and looking at it, you can see why it just looks like crazy mumbo jumbo. I believe I know who the mountain lion was now, but I still await the trickster, the coyote, to come and heal me.

For now, I sit here with my leg splayed open waiting for her.

Am I losing you all yet? LOL

Leadership and Change

2010-08-14T09:07:00.003-04:00

Those who have never loved and been loved by an animal, have a part of their soul yet unawakened. - Unknown

This past week, I had been selected for one of the highest honors at my workplace. I was selected to spend a week at Leadership Training Institute. I and seventeen others began the week learning about change, how to institute it and how to manage it, and then went on to learn team building, leadership and other motivational things. I met some very interesting people, and some of us decided we would maintain the friendships we built. Others of us will be meeting to continue to mentor each other.

One of the most fun facts for me was that I was the only girl there. Those of you that know me, know how much fun that was for lil ol hyper-competitive me.

Oddly enough, one of my favorite things I pulled away from this was that I was witness to five amazing smiles. Yes, honestly, it was the smiles that I remember most as I sit here re-living it in true Pisces form.

And I'll tell you why. Smiles define a person.

5. We have one man, who had a serious look as he tried to pay attention to the material, and then would see the humor and let out a burst of air and then a smile would break out. As I watched him, it seemed that the smile often surprised him and that was half the joke.
4. We had one man who I work with frequently, and is just known as a nice guy. He's always smiling, and everyone always loves him who meets him. You don't even have to get to know this guy to know he's just a NICE GUY. You know? He has a young baby and life is good for him, and I pray for him that nothing ever changes, and that life continues to bring him good fortune and joy.
3. The man who brought our food and took care of us had an amazing, brilliant smile that lit up his face. He loved his family, people, and his job. As one instructor mentioned, sarcasm is our number one export in New England, and this man had it in spades. He didn't even know me but instantly saw in me another sarcastic, full of life person and we spent the week getting to know each other and ribbing each other. His favorite moment, I bet, was when I was trying to get out to explore the gardens and he had to explain how to open the door. Oh, boy, was that a trip - don't ever ask a sarcastic man how to get out of a building.
2. There was a man there from Hong Kong and Thailand, although he himself was Vietnamese. He sat next to me on the first day and said at the beginning of the week that his goal was to get to know each person in the room. And he meant it, not just their names, but who they were. He started each day SHOUTING into the mirror "Have a happy day" and explained that a good day was not good enough, he needed to have a happy day. When he smiled, his whole body vibrated with energy just looking to get out and hit you with positivity. He loved people and loved meeting them and it showed, and you couldn't help but love him. He was my second favorite character from the week.
1. My favorite man and also my favorite smile was a Scotsman, and an amazing man. He was so, so serious, and then suddenly and surprisingly, this 1,000 watt smile would break out and I would just feel the joy rising in me from my gut, and I would have to smile with him. When I did, the joy I felt was just completely throughout my body. He had smiling eyes, like we Irish like to talk about, and I never did quite figure out what color they were. :) I found myself hoping and wishing that he would speak more often just so I could hear his melodic accent. (Which was not Scottish, by the way)

I was impressed with him for many reasons, but one was because one of my main drivers in life is continuous self improvement. This man in the short week I got to know a little about him shared a few "faults" about himself in an honest and refreshing way. He was there to learn, and he did not accept mediocrity. Some of the others seemed to want to allow it in during some of the exercises for the sake of simplicity and ease. He is a more surprising and interesting individual than I believe he gives himself credit for. Although I bet his wife is fully aware of how amazing he is. Of all the men there, I found myself continually noticing the many similarities between us, and perhaps that's why I liked him so well. Don't we typically get drawn to those who are most like us?

So, perhaps I'll post some lessons about leadership some time soon. Right now, I have to walk my dogs and then go on a huge, long bike ride out in the woods of New Hampshire with friends to try to burn off some of those calories from the amazing quantities of food they shoved into us this past week.

I'll post the pictures of the event when I receive them.

Lazy Days of Summer

2010-08-02T12:58:00.004-04:00

Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it - Mark Twain

Sometimes when you think your problems are so great, something happens and you realize how small they are. My farmer friend has been working for two years on a dream house on her 200 acre property, only to have it hit by lightning and burn to the ground. Each month, she sends out a newsletter, and in true fashion, she sandwiched that devastating news in with the other news she had to report. Baby lambs born, turkeys taunting the coyotes while her useless but cute dogs sat at the house just watching from afar, her son winning game ball for the Jimmy Fund, oh, and my house burned down. While my friends and family are amazed at my chipper attitude and ability to take life in stride and keep on going with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step... I think if my dream house burned down, I'd have to have a little bit of a meltdown.

Well, the yard is quieter and getting cleaned up and built up again. Next on the list of items to address is a chicken aviary to keep them confined most of the day, to keep my yard from being their dirt bath haven. LOL. I have plans for some top soil to be delivered at the end of August, which gives me a strict deadline to get it done. I'll post pictures of that project. If anyone has plans, feel free to send them along.

School is starting soon for myself and the children. As usual, it will be a challenge to get it all together, but so exciting at the same time.

Well, I know that wasn't too exciting, but I just really wanted to put a post up here soon. I'll make the next one more thought out and exciting, I promise. :)

The turkeys are gone!

2010-07-13T19:19:00.002-04:00

The turkeys are FINALLY GONE!

I can finally regain my yard. I'll be going out with a new friend to the farmer's market this weekend where one of my farmer friends will be bringing me new herbal plants to begin the long, hard process of bringing my yard back to the lush, green, peaceful place where I can lay in my hammock, drink beer and listen to the birds sing rather than take a dust bath every time the wind blows.

Those of you with poultry know what that means. :)

I'll also be heading to another friend's farm where they have allowed me to have full range of their 100 acres to roam and search out wild food. I'll be teaching as I go, so it will be fun to pass along the information to other people besides my very attentive husband.

And good news! I'm heading back to school again. Finally going to finish my pre-med degree so that I can begin the long process of applying to medical schools. Things have suddenly turned around! Thank you to my angel for offering to pay for my last three classes. I'm the only biology and chemistry tutor at my school that has been attending classes and honor society meetings for TEN YEARS. LOL

That's all folks. Keep those neural pathways exercised.

Regaining control of my yard

2010-06-24T15:02:00.003-04:00

The turkeys have eaten everything in my yard. Gobs of medicinal and culinary herbs painstakingly gathered through my travels and inquiries over many years. My family garden where I planted all the favorite flowers of those loved ones both here and gone on. It's time to regain my yard, and control of my sanity. The turkeys will be gone and eaten up this week, as long as the heat holds off so I can butcher them in relative comfort. I will have to can most of them, since the freezer space is at a premium.

While working on my yard and landscaping, I will be building a chicken aviary with the help of my friend, a woodworker. Thank you to his wife for loaning him out to me yet again. (Good friends are like good books, you keep going back to them. This same friend will come over this weekend to help me change my brakes since my car is desperately in need of stopping power and I haven't maintained my own vehicle for 10 years or more.) Remember, ladies, every woman should know how to change a tire, and check their oil. Real women know how to change the oil and reset calipers.

Once the poultry is gone and transformed into eatable form, I will attempt to regain my yard. It's hard work and I feel for those single women out there, I know how they feel - to work a sixty hour week, come home to make dinner, clean up, drive the kids around, play games with them, help with the homework, take care of the pets, and then stay up past everyone else's bedtime to clean and try to get ahead on tomorrow's meal preparation. I will miss my stepkids desperately this summer, but it's good for them to get away right now to get away from their pain, and it will be good for me to get caught up on the deferred maintenance around here.

Stay tuned everyone. I will be taking on chores this summer such as putting on a new roof (yes, all by my lonesome... anyone want to volunteer to help me?), powerwashing the house and deck, building a new deck, building an aviary, planting a new lawn (Lord, please help this one stick), and renewing and reclaiming my gardens. Not having to worry about cooking and picking up after anyone (well, other than my other two teenagers, DSS20 and husband, of course) and shopping for food will do wonders for my to do list.

Wild foods season is here

2010-06-10T21:45:00.006-04:00

I'm back. Took a long time off. Sorry all.

It's elderflower fritter time. I have been searching out the best bushes for years now, and I have them recorded in my GPS device so I can just find them when I need them. Doing that with all my wild foods.

1 C flour, 2 T sugar, 1/2 t baking powder, 3/4 c milk, 2 eggs, beat all together, dip flowers, fry. Make sure not to eat the green stems.

Also, milkweed flower buds can still be had. Daylily flowers, pickerel weed, ramps, yum yum yum. Cattails are coming soon. Sadly, Japanese knotweed is past. However, the daisy leaves are still good and you can still get some salad greens such as stinging nettle or goosefoot.

I'll start posting again now that the season is here and I have more time.

Getting to look a lot like Thanksgiving

2009-11-12T07:30:00.003-05:00

First, let me start by saying, happy birthday Mom.

Well, it's getting late in the year now. My camera has been broken (never let a child take it to school with them for ANY reason) so I can't post pictures of the birds.

I had a nice long conversation with my cousin this week. He's making cheese, and I have all the ingredients, but not the time. I have another crazy weekend this week, so no good then. However, I was hoping to make a wheel or two very soon. Maybe by next Christmas we'll have a bunch of aged cheeses to hand out.

Michael has made his liquid dessert, which is a dark porter with chocolate and vanilla. Can't wait to give some of that away, it's always a hit.

Tonight I will begin to make the starter culture for my ginger beer. I failed last two attempts, which I blame on the house being too hot in the summer. So, we're going to try again now.

Speaking of which, I haven't spent too much time talking about our other livestock - the bacteria. Right now on my counter is a neglected and forlorn SCOBY (a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast) which is used to make a great drink called kombucha. It's a cultured tea that's been drunk for thousands of years as a health tonic. It's cleansing to the liver, but the kids just call it yummy. I'll make up some tea tonight to give it a start again.

Also on my counter is another type of mother culture, kefir grains. That makes yet another yummy, healthy drink. Another mix of healthy, beneficial yeasts and bacteria, kefir has been credited with curing everything from A to Z. I'm giving it to my oldest dog right now, as I believe she is coming down with a slight case of cancer. So, we shall see if this helps her at all. Again, the kids drink it up and adore it in their morning shakes.

As it's getting cooler, it's time to culture more on my counter. I should have a batch of sourdough starting soon, and a friendship bread also. Likewise, a batch of sauerkraut (or five) and kimchi.

Folks, if you are not making your own cultured breads, vegetables and drinks, now is the time to start. What can I say, but it's easy, packs a powerful, nutritional punch, and is associated with long, healthy lives. Oh, and it's so tasty - YUMMY, getting hungry.

Blessings all as we prepare for our winter, I pray that you are all warm and comfortable and not affected by the storms blowing outside all of our doors.

The first snow is falling

2009-10-16T07:40:00.000-04:00

Last night I went to bed with flakes falling, and this morning they were still falling. Not heavily, just a dusting, just enough to say that Samara has seen her first snow. The turkeys are huge, the ducks are ready for slaughter, and I still have yet to build the plucker.

Life on the farm when you have to work full time as well.

The goal, I suppose, is to get debt free and quit my day job. The goal seems far away. The first step is to write down the goals, place the steps in motion, and declare them. Stay tuned.

We have stopped fostering for the rescue we were with, there was too much drama. I don't need drama, I just wanted to help dogs. Life goes on, and the dogs will find another home, I suppose.

My next door neighbor has shot the fox, the wife called to let us know. Brandi's response was "oh, is he OK" and she reportedly replied "No, honey, he's dead." LOL - growing up in the country.

I am in the process of cooking down some pear butter, and the kids went wild for the carrot cake jam out of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I'm probably going to make seconds of that. I have half a bushel still to can up and they're getting soft.

Here are some pictures of Samara to share. She's a big girl now. Whenever we let Zen out with her happy mask on to spend time with the family, Samara gets all gooey, bowing and prancing and just making a fool of herself. Zen has yet to play with her in the house, but she's shown signs of thinking about it. She's a big girl, and just a joy to have, despite her constant chatting.

Wild harvest

2009-09-17T06:47:00.003-04:00

I love to harvest the wild greens in the early spring, I adore the cat tails, and the daylilys, and later the elder flower recipes, followed by the elder berries.

Nothing is as good, though, as the fall harvest. Walking through the conservation areas with the deep, delicious smell of wild grapes on the air. This year we have a huge harvest due to the rains. The black walnuts, wild hazelnuts, black cherries, Jerusalem artichokes, and Autumn Olives. I'll be heading to the dairy this weekend to get some raw cream so I can use the black cherries to make a childhood favorite, black cherry ice cream. It's a taste that grows on you, as it's more musty than the cherries you get in the stores.

I'll be soaking my first harvest of hazelnuts today in a brine solution, to release the enzyme inhibitors they contain. Later, I'll dry them in my dehydrator. The next batch will be soaked and candied in our maple syrup for a healthy snack for the kid's lunches.

This year, I am going to do something more than just fruit leather with the autumn olive. We found an absolutely massive amount of them at the conservation area we had been gathering our groundnuts at. Each bush is literally touching the ground under it's own weight. Autumn olives are one of the highest contents of lycopene known. We are not much in our family for jellies and jams, so that leaves us with dried berries, pie fillings, frozen berries, and just berries in syrup. However, as the fruit leather is a favorite, and needs no added sugar other than it's natural sugars (if harvested after the first frost), we will be running both dehydrators full on for the next month or so as we try to make enough for the winter and to carry us through until next harvest. I also found an Autumn Olive wine recipe. It sounds delicious. This year will be my first attempt at making wine from wild grapes, so I think I will try this also. For those of you unfamiliar with Autumn Olive, it's a red berry with silver speckles on it, and it tastes a bit like raspberry, but after drying, it's very much like a grape-raspberry mix. Taste varies from bush to bush, and it can be astringent, so finding a good bush is important. It can be quite tart unless you harvest after the first freeze, when the sugars develop.

AUTUMN OLIVE WINE

* 4-5 pounds Autumn olive fruit
* 2 lbs granulated sugar
* 1¼ tsp yeast nutrient
* ¼ tsp tannin
* 1 crushed Campden tablet
* 1 tsp pectic enzyme.
* 3 qts water
* Lalvin RC212 (Bourgovin) wine yeast

Fall planting time

2009-09-10T15:12:00.003-04:00

It could not POSSIBLY be time to plant garlic already. Is it? Yes, it is. Sigh.

Time to get your garlic orders in, a recent email says from Seed Savers Exchange.

Yes, it's time to peruse catalogs and select bulbs to plant in the next few weeks.

Not much longer, and we will be seeing frost on our greenery, and then shortly after that, falling leaves on the frozen ground. Beautiful, but such a quick passing to such a short summer. It seems as if we had 3 weeks of summer this year.

Yes, folks, there is even a time for rain, and it was this year.

Peace.

Labor day hike

2009-09-08T18:36:00.014-04:00

Things have been very hectic around the farm recently. The turkeys are huge, the ducks are enormous, and our rooster has lost his tail. Our foster dog went home today, so it's the start of a slowdown. Fall is here, and time to start to pick up the pieces from a hectic, crazy summer.

This long weekend, we went to the Cohos Trail in New Hampshire to do some hiking with our two rotts, and the twins. It will be Zen's last hike, she barely made it the second day of hiking. She can do small hikes, but no more overnight, long hikes up mountains. It's the passing of an era, and sad. However, the bright side is that Clay surprised us all by being a goer. He wanted to go and go and go. In extremely cute, Clay fashion, I asked him as we were setting up tents for the night if he wanted to go to the woods, and he got all excited. Duh - Clay, we're IN the woods.

On the kid front, we were very impressed and gladdened to see that they were able to make such a difficult hike their very first foray out. We've taken them on hikes up mountains before, but never with packs on. They were true troopers and kept up and then some. We did about 2/3 of the hike up the 4.5 miles of trails to the top of Sugarloaf the first day, and ran out of daylight. So, we camped and continued on in the morning to have breakfast at the summit. A total of about 3 hours of hiking, with out of shape people and a senior dog... not so bad. The trek was steep and our packs were heavy, but our hearts were light, especially when we saw what laid in wait for us at the top.

Once breakfast was over, and the relaxation and lovin's were done...

we headed back down the mountain. We stopped at a nice waterfall along the way to fill our water bottles and allow everyone to cool off. Zen plopped right down into the water with her pack on, but the rest of us waited to take the gear off.

When we were done on this side of the trail, we crossed the road to start on the path to the Devil's Jacuzzi, a 12 person natural formation with bubbling water that looks just like a jacuzzi. We overshot it, missing the sign on the trail, and wound up at Nash Stream Bog instead. Poor Zen was so tired, but Clay was just going and going like a bunny. Zen needed to stop frequently, so the 2 mile hike took us well over an hour. Finally, we got to the Jacuzzi, and missed the spur path, so we had to descend a sheer cliff face with the dogs, which we did using teamwork and good old muscle. Thank goodness that those dogs trust us so much. The kids were like mountain goats, no problems. They were made for mountain climbing. We sat at the Nash Stream, and Clay just decided to poop out. Everyone else became energized and played in the water, including Zen

Bran was the only one brave enough to try the Devil's Jacuzzi, so Daddy lowered her in. It was too cold and fast moving to just jump in. She touched her feet to the water and promptly declared he could remove her from the water right NOW!

Finally, it was time to go home, and just in time. Zen was absolutely drained and one more second, we would have had to have carried her. The kids were tired and sore, as were we. We tried in vain to find the next mountain, North Percy Peak, before dusk. When night began to settle, the thought of climbing another mountain with a dog that was not able to drag, never mind lift, her paws just seemed unsettling. So, we hiked back to the truck and settled in to a motel for a night of showers, pizza, and a rare treat, television.

A fox in the hen yard

2009-08-05T12:34:00.002-04:00

Our little farmer recently saw feathers in our yard and came to me to tell me that a hawk had been taking the chickens. We walked around the yard, and yes, I saw a few feathers, but nothing like the powerful taking that a hawk does to it's prey. We should have seen feathers and blood all over the yard. I confess, I began to believe she was just being overprotective. So, we did a head count and came up short. VERY short. Then it dawned on me, she had seen a little orange critter earlier. I turned to her and said "the fox is doing it."

Sure enough, that little bugger had been taking our birds. So far, it looks like 2 adult chickens, 4 baby ducks, and 4 baby chickens have fallen prey to the fox.

We just don't have a big enough indoor space for the birds to be cooped up all day, so that's not an option. Instead, she's been tying the dogs out in the back yard and staying out in the yard with them. Well, yesterday, our oldest girl Zen took off through the woods (still tied to the long lead) and chased that nasty little thing through the woods. Woo hoo, I can just imagine the joy on her face (she LOVES to chase) and the fear in the eyes of that little fox as she turned tail and ran for her life. Depending on how hungry she is (with that many birds gone, I suspect not very) and how many kits she has to feed, she may be back, but I doubt it will be soon. In the meantime, we are now working harder to get fencing up to protect our flock, in what little time we have to spare as it is.

With the long, long hours at work I've been putting in to get the year end completed, I've not had much time to blog. I do have pictures to post, as I've been promising, but haven't had the time to get them uploaded. As a result of this lack of time, I've not had time to do much wild collecting of food. We did harvest some honey recently, and the girls (chickens) and I harvested our garlic. Mostly, our dreams of partial self sufficiency with gardening and wild collecting have been falling apart.

Which brings me to the next point, how to declutter and slow down our lives. It looks like this is the path we should be taking before undertaking any new tasks.

Life continues on the "farm"

2009-07-21T17:12:00.003-04:00

Well, it's been super busy at work. The place where my dogs think I go every day to hunt for their dog food. (I couldn't make them understand any other way)

The turkeys are getting huge. I have lost, or rather, it was misplaced for me, the card for my camera, so I have pictures to post but can't get them right now.

It's extraordinarily hard to keep up a full time job, especially during our busiest season, plus keep up with the demands of all the animals on the homestead, AND keep a clean house. Needless to say, things are falling apart a bit at the seams lately. However, the kids are away this week and it's amazing how things just fall into place and get cleaned up with no effort when you don't have to come home to make dinner. It's quiet without them, though, and I miss getting my phone calls throughout the day to let me know what they're up to.

The ducks are HUGE and have a new pool to swim in. They absolutely love it, but it will be a task to keep it clean. It only takes them two days to completely muddy the water. The duck house is almost built, and we've been enjoying eating from the wild harvest of blackberries, and groundnuts. I made a nice honey with rose petals. Tonight I will be canning beets, last night I canned the greens.

It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding. I enjoy going to bed each night because I am exhausted by that point, but I also look forward to the new morning to begin to see my animals and do the chores that will help sustain them. Each morning, everyone gets fresh grains and water, I put down new bedding for the turkeys, who are extremely messy, and hand out any treats I have like greens, liver, etc. The turkeys follow me around as I do my chores, as do some of the chickens, and George waits on the bottom step for his special wheat and corn breakfast. I want him to eat the nutritionally balanced pellets, so I only give him a snack. He's not starving, because I caught him courting with Martha yesterday. Looks like more babies are on the way.

I want to put a plug in for a great website www.eattheweeds.com - this guy has youtube videos where he shows you how to identify wild edibles and he's just fantastic. I highly recommend him for anyone interested in wild edibles.

July is here and the foraging is on!

2009-07-01T22:55:00.002-04:00

OK, officially on, anyway. We've been foraging for a while now, as the seasons just don't wait... but it is officially challenge time.

I gave a copy of Wild Foods I Have Known, and Eaten by Russ Cohen to the boyscout leader, a friend of ours, and he is loving it. Perhaps a new convert? I love spreading the word that wild edibles are not only healthy and free, but delicious also.

Keep posted, and we'll post more soon.

On the farm side, the baby chicks are 6 weeks old and temporarily living in the big chicken house. They can stay there for a little while, only because they are still small. The duck house is almost built and the turkeys are HUGE. We gave two of Martha's babies to a friend from work and they love them. They will be pets, so it's nice to know that they will be loved.

More later, thanks for reading!

The ducklings are here!

2009-06-24T21:29:00.005-04:00

Some people have asked me why Muscovy ducks are different. The fact is, from what I can tell, that they are not true "ducks" but were classified as such due to their duck bill and webbed feet.

Muscovys are quiet birds, the males making a hissing noise and wagging when excited, and the females almost entirely quiet unless softly peeping to their babies. They don't need water, they make excellent duck mothers, even being used on farms to hatch other eggs. They will roost in trees if left alone, but ours have learned to put themselves away at night into their coop area.

They eat less than other birds, forage really well (they are very wild genetically still), they're true lap birds, enjoying the company of people they trust. In fact, my George waits eagerly at the gate each morning for me to let him out, which I always do first, and then he follows me around while I do my chores. When I go back into the house, he hops up the steps after me and waits patiently while I go inside to get him some treats, which he gobbles up and then hops down the steps to start foraging for his own treats.

Their meat is purported to taste like pork and be indistinguishable from steak in appearance, and to have a lot more white meat than other duck. We will find out soon enough, I suppose. They are used all over the world as superb meat ducks, as one pair will yield up to 100 ducks annually. In Asian countries, they are mated with Peking ducks to make a good meat bird, which is in high demand. This mating yields mules, as they are not entirely the same species, the offspring are sterile.

Martha is now the proud mommy of 12 beautiful ducklings. We have pics, but will have to post later as we have company tonight.

Dinner Tonight

2009-06-23T22:11:00.002-04:00

We were so revved up for the "challenge" of eating 25% of our food over the next three months as wild foraged foods that we decided to start tonight with a preview.

For dinner, we made pizza, admittedly with purchased flour and oils, but using my garlic scapes to make a pesto. The recipe was a handful of garlic scapes, a mixture of olive and walnut oils, some of my dried hot peppers from last year, some parmesan and sharp provolone, and topped with sharp cheddar. It was delicious.

For vegetable we had cat tails with garlic butter. Yummy, yummy, yummy! And dessert was elderberry flower fritters dipped in sugar. The consensus was that we should try to sell them.

OK, so there was a lot of purchased components in that meal... but it was delicious, for sure. I think next time we would use honey or maple syrup to sweeten the fritters. The oils have to be from our food stores since we don't have a way to produce it. If food production were shut off, we have to find a substitute, I guess it would be butter and animal fats again, with some small amounts of nut oils.

I will try to post pictures later, as all that wading in the marsh has us tired, and our full bellies are making us go to bed soon.

Wild Edibles and Medicinals Introduction

2009-06-23T14:33:00.000-04:00

We’ve decided that we will go one week each in July, August, and September and eat only foods that we either grow or wild harvest, with the exception of meat and dairy foods. Tune back in to see how we’re doing and find any recipes I’ve come up with. Anyone with preservation methods for any wild foods and medicines is welcome to send that information to me and I’ll post it here with your permission.

I’d love to see the medicinal and food usage of “wild” or non-cultivated herbs, vegetables, nuts and fruits come back into popularity. Wild edibles are simply incredible in both flavor and nutrient concentration… and the low cost is an added benefit. Many people would be so happy to have you come to their property to dig dandelion and burdock roots they’d invite you back each year. (Just be sure that they don’t use chemicals on their property, which can concentrate in the root crops)

Yesterday, we ate some of the not yet opened flowers of our intentionally planted milkweed. Boiled for 8 minutes until tender and bright green and served with a little salt and butter… yum yum!

Today, on the way home from work for lunch, we stopped to pick some of the not yet opened flowers of the cat tails from the swamp. Boiled for 10 minutes and served with garlic butter, they have a mild taste and are just superb. I’m surprised that these foods are not found in the gourmet and health food stores.

One of my absolute favorites is daylily flowers. I adore them in place of lettuce in salads, but they do have a mild laxative effect. You have to eat a lot to have any issues, but last year, I kind of over did it. I also enjoy them stir fried with a little garlic butter. Try to keep it to a couple of cups a day. Sometimes we’ll just pass some on the road and whoever is driving will pull alongside and the passenger just picks and we eat as we drive slowly along. Talk about nutritional powerhouses, they have huge amounts of antioxidants. Here’s an article about the antioxidant properties, and apparently they are best eaten when first opened. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T6R-4TVTJWR-6&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=75c09b1fae156f89c009f459bd606153

One of our goals this year is guerrilla gardening, but with local natives. We have a pond near us and this will be the second year we will be attempting to plant cat tails there. We’ll be planting ground nuts, milk weed, elderberries, daylily, Jerusalem artichokes, pig weed (wild amaranth), stinging nettles and burdock in a field nearby. And watercress in the brook next to the field. All of these are plants that grow near us and therefore won’t be doing anything to any micro ecosystems. We’re just moving them closer in one location so that we can have one stop shopping, so to speak.

For those of you who don’t know or haven’t tried these delicious foods, please look them up and make a point of trying some soon. Please email me at waggingtailsfarms@yahoo.com if you want more information.

Part 2 of raising chickens

2009-06-17T14:47:00.001-04:00

Hi, all, here’s the rest of my post on how to raise chickens.

I raise my chicks organically, so I use molasses and apple cider vinegar and garlic in my water to help them stay healthy, fight disease and pasty butt. (that’s where their butts literally “paste” up and they can’t release their wastes and die) It’s given at a rate of 1 tablespoon of molasses and ACV and one clove of garlic to a gallon of water.

When your chicks are going to arrive in the mail, call the post office and let them know where you can be reached that day. They will likely call you and let you know when they are in. Some post offices will put a post card in your mail box, so find out what they will do before the chicks arrive. You want to be available to get them home ASAP so you can get water into them. When they arrive, I put the heat on in my car as hot as it will go, so they don’t get a shock of cold and then hot. Probably not necessary, but I like to feel like it makes a difference.

As soon as you get them home, you must take each one out of the box and dip it’s beak into food and then water (or else the food will stick to their beaks). They have enough food in them for about 3 days because they absorb the yolk, however, it’s imperative that they drink. This is one of the number one ways you’ll lose chicks. Make sure to dip each one’s beak and then watch to make sure they start to drink. (Note: turkeys often have to be shown several times over the course of several days)

You’ll want to get them mash for the first few weeks, which is just grains ground to a fine grind, a little coarser than whole wheat flour. You’ll also need to get them starter grit, but they won’t need it right away. Chickens “chew” their food by grinding it with rocks that they swallow, so your chicks will need you to provide tiny stones for them so they can properly chew their food.

I grind my own grain, and I use Ronda’s chick starter recipe #3. See here for more information. http://www.greenerpasturesfarm.com/ChickStarterRecipe.html. She has a great website. I also give them scrambled eggs, yogurt, and kefir.

After a few weeks, they can begin to eat grit, worms and diced greens.
They can also go outside as long as they have started to “feather out” and it is warm. Think about the temperature they have in their brooder box, it should not be much cooler than that. Provide them a warm place, like a box, for them to get out of any wind, and do not leave them alone out there. I like to garden while they are enjoying their first days outside, so that I can keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t get chilled.

At about 3-4 weeks of age, you’ll notice a fine dust all over your house. At this stage, they are ready to move to a bigger container, perhaps one that is not in your house any longer. This year, we used an extra large wire dog kennel, created a false floor by putting strips of wood across the horizontal wires running along the walls of the kennel, and topping it with a stiff piece of hardware cloth. We also give them perches at this age as they really want to be up as high as they can get. The false floor makes it nice because at this age, they’ll be pooping a lot more and you’ll be getting sick of cleaning. With the false floor, you can just scoop under them and bring it out to the compost bin. I also go up a feeder size and a waterer size at this point.

If you wish, you can also bring them outside into their permanent chicken coop at this age, as long as you are going to give them a source of heat.

Once they are fully feathered out you can bring them outside and let them start to free range. They will learn after about 2-3 nights where they live if you put them away for the first three nights and lock them in. My chickens always go away as night approaches, and I just have to go out and shut their door. They peep at you contentedly and let you know that they appreciate you.

Chickens are so much fun to watch, and you get to learn about their little games and personalities. I never knew until I started keeping chickens how much fun they are to share your life with. For instance, keep away is one of their favorite games, which is where one gets a worm and begins to peep loudly. She’ll run around and the other chickens chase her trying to get the worm from her. The other fun thing we really like is when one hen is laying a particularly large egg, she will cluck, and the others will “cheer her on” by clucking in chorus with her.

Feel free to email me or leave a comment if you have any questions.

How to raise chickens

2009-06-16T17:19:00.000-04:00

It’s been raining for about a week now, with just about no end in sight. This is great for my vegetable garden, but the turkeys were moved to the greenhouse and are already messing up the joint. They have to be kept clean or they’ll succumb to disease. The idea was to keep them in the greenhouse during the night and move them to pasture during the day. They’re too young yet to become chilled in the rain, so they’re confined to the greenhouse, with the windows open so that it does not get too moist in there for their breathing.

The chickens have been moved to the large dog kennel inside, which was the turkey cage until they out grew it. They’ve enjoying their new digs, but are clearly going to have to be moved or at least separated into two batches within the week, as they’ve already out grown the kennel. The nice thing about the set up we have with the dog kennel is that they are up on wire so any waste falls through to the bottom tray and can then be scooped and cleaned without the birds coming into contact with the waste material. Anything that can be done to minimize the work involved in keeping them healthy while still keeping us from losing our minds from lack of sleep is wonderful.

Martha is still sitting on eggs. She should have hatched them by now. We are going to give her another week and then decide that they are not fertile. We really were looking forward to baby ducklings. Ah, well. She may have been laying more eggs and we may have our timing off.

Anyway, we’re heading into financial territory where the Great Depression is one of the most searched terms on Google. People are unsure of how they’re going to live, where they’re going to get their food from, how they’re going to be able to sustain their lives. I’m here to tell you that not only can you sustain your family, you can do it well. NOW is the time to start, and we’re going to start with food production. Chickens are one of the most popular ways to raise food for your family. They don’t eat much, can forage for some of their own food, don’t take up much space, and will provide eggs, meat (if you choose), fertilizer, and pest control.

This is my how to raise baby chickens blog, which will be in two parts for space purposes. Anyone can do it. If you live in the city, check, it may be illegal to keep “livestock” but legal to keep up to a certain number of “pet” chickens. If it’s not legal at all, maybe you could share the duties with a friend that lives in an animal friendly area.

I order my chicks as day old (newly hatched) chicks from a hatchery. There are many good hatcheries around. You can also order from your local feed store, such as Agway, or Tractor Supply. You can often find chicks them on Craigslist – look for listings under Farm and Garden – and you may find a chicken swap around where you can buy from local people. You can raise your own from chicks, but you’ll need a broody hen (one with a mothering instinct) or an incubator for that, plus some fertilized eggs.

Before I receive my chicks, I prepare a Rubbermaid tote for them. Line the floor with cardboard and paper towels so that they don’t slip. If they do slip around, they can get permanent leg deformities. I like to put them in my living room because it’s warm and sunny there. Believe it or not, natural light seems to help them grow and thrive, just like plants. They’ll need a small feeder with a cover (or they will poop in the food) and holes around it. I use the kind that is round and screws to a Mason jar. This allows you to go longer in between feeding chores. I also use a waterer that has the Mason jar screwed onto it. You’ll need a heat lamp for them, which is cheaper at a big box store like Home Depot rather than at the feed store. You’ll want an infrared light at 250W and a fixture with a wire protector in front of the light so it won’t fall on them and burn them. You’ll also want a way to keep the light above them and move it up each week as they grow their feathers. Chicks want it very warm as they are born cold blooded (unable to regulate their own temperature) They need it to be 95 degrees for the first week. After that, you’ll want to decrease it by 5 degrees each week. You’ll be able to tell how your chicks are doing easily, though. If they are all huddled under the light, they need it warmer. If they are huddled far away from the light, it’s too hot. If they are spread all over the brooder box, its’ just right. Later, I’ll post the rest of this two part series.

What have you done BECAUSE it is right?

2009-06-12T12:35:00.002-04:00

I have a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. on my wall at work, and I look at it every day and think to myself, what have I done today that is "right."

Here it is for those of you that care to read it.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?
Expediency asks the question, is it politic?
Vanity asks the question, is it popular?
But conscience asks the question, is it right?
And there comes a time that one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.

Without getting into politics too much, I believe we have come to a time in our country when we must begin to do MORE things that are right. We must get to know our neighbors, be the one who looks in on an elderly person in town who's family is too far away, teach others what we know about self sufficiency. I'm not talking here about forced "volunteer service," I'm talking about reaching out, forming a community, being there for one another. Who of you knows your neighbors, or people in your town? Where would you go in a crises if you needed help? Are you prepared physically and mentally for the emergencies that may arrive in your life?

During the ice storm this past winter, I had the pleasure of being prepared enough that I was able to provide for some of my extended family that needed help. It wasn't life saving help they asked for, but it was comfort. A warm house, warm food, a hot shower, and some supplies to take with them back to their house so they could cook. We had visitors coming and going all day, but I still feel as if I failed because I never thought to check on my neighbors. Now, I didn't think of it because they are prepared as much as we are, but anything could have happened and they could have been in need and unable to reach out for help.

I don't know where we are heading in this country, all I know is that for several years now, it's been laid on my heart to prepare for hard times. Now it's being laid on my heart to prepare for others as well, and to teach wherever and whenever I can. How many of us know the Constitution? When is the last time you read it? Maybe some of you may think I'm being a romantic, thinking we can get back to a "simpler" time, but I truly believe that we can turn this country around, and people are waking up all over the place. There are reasons why each and every one of those things were put into our Constitution and Bill of Rights. There were debates, the Federalist Papers were written to take the debate public. Our forefathers knew the dangers of big government and of not taking responsibility for yourself. Well, here we are now.

Where could we be right now instead of this mess - if we all took responsibility and did the right thing - because it is right?

Photo essay / tutorial on how to make butter

2009-06-10T21:30:00.014-04:00

My family eats a mostly traditional food diet. Mostly organic, but not 100%. Mostly meat grown by a friend of ours who has a wonderful grass fed meat CSA www.chestnutfarms.org – and we are raising our own poultry this year, but still strive for 100% “healthy” meat. I have begun roasting my own meats for the kids to slice for sandwiches at school, and have found some recipes for homemade salami, so we are getting there. And mostly raw milk, but not 100% as I am still learning cheese making. I have made some great cheeses, and cheddar is next. My stepkid’s Mom has been very tolerant of this weirdness and I’m grateful that she’s been so understanding in this regard. I hope she knows I am going to these extreme efforts for the health of her children as well as the health and longevity of everyone who eats under our roof. We are strong Weston A. Price followers and believe this is how the Lord has designed our bodies to function at their best.

In any case, this is my first informational blog. I hope it is a clear picture tutorial on how I make butter. I culture my butter, but you can leave this step out and just make sweet cream butter instead. Please forgive the format, I am still learning how to use this blog format and when I enter it, it is formatted in an easy to follow manner. When I post it, the pictures move around. I will try again when I am not so tired to get this right.

Materials needed:

-Crème fraiche to inoculate the cream

-Cream

-Food processor

-Cheesecloth

-Colander

-Large bowls (3)

-Very clean kitchen counters and sink

First step is to culture the cream. I put in a heaping tablespoon of crème fraiche (found in health food stores, Trader Joes, Whole Foods, etc) into a half gallon of cream. Stir it up good and get it all mixed up. Then just leave the cream on your counter. We use raw cream, but this can be done even with pasteurized cream. About 2-3 times a day, shake the jar and then loosen the lid to release any gas buildup. The cream is cultured when it is thick and you need a spoon to remove it. There is no set time for it to be done, if it’s very warm, it can happen in a half a day, if it’s cool, it may be 2-3 days before it’s finished. I know that in my house at 70 degrees, it takes 1 ½ days to be fully done.

You are now ready to make butter. First, put a colander over a large bowl, and line it with cheesecloth. Take out a rubber spatula, and have another large bowl ready in your clean sink with very cold water. Ice is not a bad thing to have in your water, but I don’t use it.

Now, empty the cream into your food processor so that it’s half filled. For my Kitchenaid, it takes a quart of cream at a time. I can process a half gallon at once, but it seems not to clump up the way I like and is harder to wash, so I just do a quart.

Turn your food processor on and wait. In my machine, it takes approximately 1-2 minutes from cream to butter. If you do it often enough, you’ll actually become good enough to hear when it changes to butter. It starts off sounding normal and then swishes (for lack of a better descriptor) and finally becomes a high pitched swish. If you’re watching it, you’ll first see the sides of the processor bowl showing little tapioca sized pieces of butter rubbing against the sides. This is the first sound change. Then you’ll notice the entire bowl seems to be moving as one big lump, this is the second sound change. At either of these stages, you can stop it and proceed to step 2. I prefer to let it go all the way to the end as it’s easier to pour off the buttermilk and to wash it if the butter is more clumpy. If you let it go too long, it will become more like cream again, only greasier, so stop it once it’s clumped up well.

Put the butter into the cheesecloth lined colander, and if you are impatient like I am, you can gently squeeze the butter to drain the buttermilk. You can move on to your second batch now if you are making more, or move on to washing.

Next come the washing step. When you have squeezed all of the buttermilk into the bowl, you put the lump of butter into the very cold wash water. Simply squeeze the butter in the water until it looks very cloudy and nothing else seems to come out. I save this first wash water and call it “dog water,” although the chickens also really enjoy it. Either way, it’s healthy and full of active cultures.

Then I simply wash the butter under running water until it runs clear. It’s important to wash out all of the buttermilk or else your butter won’t last as long, and can mold if left out on the counter. When you think the buttermilk is all gone, wash it once more for good measure.

What I do from here is I package it up into 4 oz packages each, which is equivalent to a stick of butter from the store. I put four of these into a freezer bag, which is a pound of butter, and freeze it. We do all of our spring butter this way to last throughout the year. It’s the early spring cream from the cows eating the quick growing grass that has the most color and vitamins, so yes, butter can be a health food.

The buttermilk can also be frozen and is wonderful not only in cooking, but in smoothies. Mix some strawberries, bananas, a little maple syrup and the buttermilk – umm, yummy!

Pictures of the farm and news from the children

2009-06-08T21:05:00.010-04:00

Here is our young farmer socializing pigs at a friend's farm. The pigs are being socialized so that on open barn days, they will be friendly with the children that visit. Michael says she is socializing WITH the pigs. "How about giving me some sugar!" Needless to say, this little one followed her around after that. Look at the cutie in the back waiting in line for the next kiss.

Today Brandi had to go on an Easter Egg Hunt... again. One of the downfalls of free ranging chickens. We're holding a few eggs back from the fridge to give back to Hope once we get enough in the hopes that she will go broody. If we can convince her to behave, we may try to let her raise some of our chicks.

Good news, George is going to be a Daddy! This is our one year old Muscovy duck, George. Martha isn't coming out of the duck house as she's setting on about four eggs right now. She may have laid more since we checked. She's a bit flighty, so we're not going to push it by checking on her frequently. We don't want her abandoning the nest.

Here is our pretty girl Samara. She's a livestock guardian dog, an Anatolian Shepherd. She's 4 months old now and 50 pounds already. We got her from a very nice, kind woman in Georgia who traded us for finishing off her barn. She's guarding the "livestock" here - the chicks and turkey poults.

Oh, watch out! Don't want to get on the other side of that maw. Samara is a bit more vocal than our rottweilers. OK, a LOT more vocal. But we love her, and she's learning quickly to become part of our pack.

Here's one of Tyler's ladies taking some nectar from my herb garden. Sure do hope sage blossom honey is tasty, because the way they work those flowers, that may be the predominant flavor.

Life on the small homestead farm

2009-06-08T07:36:00.000-04:00

This blog is being created today, 06/08/09 in order to create a record and share my family's experiences at homesteading on a small (1/2 acre) farm.

We've added gardens this year and amended our silty soil. Unfortunately, we're also raising chickens, and they have decided to rearrange our garden three times. So, here it is already June, and we're planting our gardens yet again.

Our stated goal is to raise 50% of the food we need this year from our little humble homestead, which will be hard as the fruit and nut trees are too young to bear just yet.

Currently we have 12 laying hens, and one cute little roo named May May. We have 6 more layers being raised, they're 2 weeks old now, and 30 heritage meat birds. We also have 12 heritage turkeys being raised, they are 1 month old, and George and Wanda-Martha, our Muscovy ducks. Martha is setting on eggs right now, and we expect babies in about a week. Oh, and three beehives currently active and buzzing. We make maple syrup in the spring, and I've taken a cue from Herrick Kimball and raised my own garlic this year. Yummy, I LIVE for garlic.

For those of you worrying that this is too much for our little homestead to comfortably handle, our land is bordered by conservation land, so our little friends forage plenty during the day. Everyone is and will be free range, and our other animals, two rottweilers and one livestock guardian dog (an Anatolian Shepherd) protects the flock. Not to mention that cute little May May can be quite fierce when his girls are threatened.

We are a foster home for rottweilers currently and we've been active in rescue for 15 years.

We'll post pictures soon. Looking forward to hearing from all of you. Please feel free to email me at waggingtailsfarms@yahoo.com