Covert Homesteading Tactics, and. . .

what's going on at Tabletop Homestead.

Just something I've been thinking about.  We go into homesteading with romantic ideas that sometimes just don't work out.  It doesn't mean that our desire to live simply and self-sufficiently on the land is flawed, just that our methods may be prejudiced.  For example, beautiful loaves of freshly baked bread come to mind; however, in our house they often get moldy after being only half-eaten.  But, Middle Eastern flatbreads and tortillas go like hotcakes.  The point being, adapt homesteading to your family as much as your family to homesteading, tweaking it along the way and sneaking things in that they may find that they actually love.  Don't worry about what the books and the folks on the internet forums say, do what's good for your family and what works in your locale.

We've all had one kind of respiratory crud or another for the last 3 or 4 weeks.  It started with granddaughter Lianna and a late night trip to the ER with extremely sudden onset of croup.  Next, her mother developed early pneumonia and  Doodad (my dh) came home bearing glad tidings and snot from Ft. Bliss, which I quickly caught.  Then, Oran (baby brother) knocked Lianna in the head with a flashlight necessitating one stitch, which I provided here at home, and to top it all off Lianna came down with an especially nasty case of poison ivy on her face.  Let me elaborate - her face, her eyes, up her nose, in and behind her ears, her lips plus garnishments over her arms, hands and trunk. (Her mother cringes when I pray regularly for more little arrows to fill our family quiver.)  So, hopefully all you readers will understand why I've been a little behind on posting.

My most recent endeavors have been in drying produce and, once again, cheesemaking.  This week we weaned young goats, banded the boys, and gave tetanus shots (about the only goat immunization I worry about.)

I just can't seem to get it out of the back of my mind "what if I can't get canning lids???"  Therefore, I've been trying to hone my dehydrating skills with my Excalibur dehydrator while planning ahead to using the solid glass scrap storm door I have out back to build a solar dehydrator. http://www.thefarm.org/charities/i4at/surv/soldehyd.htm

http://www.echotech.org/technical/technotes/Solar%20Dehydrator.pdf

http://www.motherearthnews.com/DIY/2006-08-01/Build-a-Solar-Food-Dehydrator.aspx

Lack of a carved-in-stone plan has never been a deterrent to us, and we'll make do, learning along the way, with what God has provided. 

 Currently on my kitchen work table I have jars of dried tomatoes, peppers, onions, mushrooms,  buffalo, hominy and winter squash.  My latest cheese experiments have centered around Middle Eastern cheeses - how to make cheese in a warm climate.  I've been experimenting with Domiati type cheese - Egyptian cheeses which are unique in that salt is added before coagulating with rennet or acid.  These cheeses are aged in whey - some in a fresh state and some after cooking in the whey yielding a mozzarella type cheese.  Though I can provide no documentation, it's my belief that the early addition of salt serves to inhibit the proliferation of undesirable bacteria in the cheese, something that is especially concerning in a warm climate.

I want to elaborate on all this in a later post, Lord willing.

Today I worked on the electric fence gate, getting an electroshock treatment in the process which hopefully was beneficial. LOL.

Last weekend we put new plastic on the greenhouse, and I've been perusing my store of seeds and the latest seed catalogs in preparation for planting.

It's not that nothing's been going on here and in my little mind, but that too much happens and I don't know where to start.  This weekend we will have guests for a hog butchering.  Lord willing I will have wonderful pictures to post.  Also, we hope (check out the Biblical definitions - confidence unwavering, trust, security, assurance) to have venison for provision provided during Dave's next leave in December.

Tidbits:

A nicely written post on Christian agrarianism by Herrick Kimball.

I'm not saying that I will and I'm not saying that I won't, but Michael Bunker provides something to think about in his latest post.

A friend of our family is faced with a recurrence of cancer and needs prayer.  Pray for Dennis and Dory.  I can provide details in private email. 

Till next time, Blessings.

Judy

How Bad Do You Want It

The thought occurred to me this evening, as I was doing evening chores: a woman completely alone on the homestead:  Would I still want to do this if it were only me here?

David is in the city working to provide the monetary means we need to be debt free, as we believe God has ordained (him to provide, us to be debt free.)  My daughter, her husband and the grandchildren are in Texas tending to a family emergency.  I have a rare opportunity to reflect completely alone this evening.

Would I pursue this life alone?  Without a doubt, yes.  Could I have done alone what David and I have done together?  Absolutely not.  Would I hunger for Christian community and fellowship?  Certainly.  But in the end, if it all boiled down to just me, staying here instead of "moving to town and getting on cable" as we joke, would I stay? 
Without a doubt. 

No matter where you are on the journey, how do you feel about this life?  Would you do it alone?  It matters.

Till next time, Blessings.

Judy

Hey Momo, What's For Supper?

 

It's an enchilada in a bowl, a recipe I developed myself.

Tabletop Homestead Posole

(ingredients with ** were produced here, those with * can be produced here)

**1 pound pork loin

* 1 large or 2 medium onions

**2 pints chile verde

* 2 pints canned tomatoes

* 1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1 tablespoon cumin

* 1 tablespoon dried oregano

* 1 tablespoon paprika

**1 pint canned pinto beans

**1 cup dried hominy

1/2 cup brown rice

cooking oil or *lard

water

salt

Cut pork loin into small cubes and brown well in a small amount of oil or lard.  Add chopped onions and salt to taste (helps sweeten and soften the onions).  Saute until onions are soft and beginning to brown a bit.  Add chopped garlic and saute another minute or so.  Deglaze the pan with about 1/4 cup water, scraping up all the browned bits.  Add chile verde, tomatoes, beans, spices, hominy and rice.  Add water to thin to a soup consistence (it will thicken as the rice and hominy cook.)  Simmer 1 hour or until the pork is tender and the hominy is soft.  Serve with grated cheddar or *crumbled goat cheese.

Till next time, Blessings.

Judy

Tidbits

Here's just a few quick tidbits I've collected recently and a quick post to let everyone know that all is well:

I want to highlight this installment of Michael Bunker's Off-Grid Living for Agrarians series.  In my opinion, it's the basis of thought and planning for anyone anticipating off-grid living regardless of their reasons for doing so.  It also sort of sent me off on the tangent I've been on the last couple of weeks, which I'll be posting on soon.

A nice post about investing from Homesteader Life 

Evaporative cooling for food

I was explaining to Lianna about making Machaca, a northern Mexican dried shredded dried meat I'm experimenting with.  I was telling her that it was made in the days before electricity, and that Momo was trying to learn about living without electricity.  She promptly responded, "Well, then turn all the lights and stuff off."

Till next time, Blessings.

Judy

Homestead Storage

"In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has." Proverbs 21:20

I've been thinking about household and homestead storage, and how we don't have nearly enough. I've also been thinking about the stuff we accumulate, and how we have way too much. Kind of ironic, huh?

When we built our house, we thought we were quite clever to design in a 4ft x 10ft pantry. As I've written before, we could clearly use 4 times that much, and ideally in an underground situation to help with electricity-less cooling. That's just for food storage. Other storage needs I've identified include storage for seasonally used large kitchen equipment (canners, meat grinder, cream separator, cheesemaking equipment), my soapmaking supplies, storage for medicinal herbs and tinctures, better weapons storage, along with a household work area - a woman's "shop" for things like extra fabrics and yarn, a spinning and weaving area, a place for extra canning jars, a general area for a woman's projects that won't clutter up the house. Men tend to object to women's clutter, even if it is productive clutter. The moral of the story is, when you build your homestead plan on 3 to 4 or more times the storage space than you think you'll need.

I talked to Dave on the phone this afternoon, he's been away from home for 3 weeks straight and is coming home tomorrow. He asked me what I was doing and I told him that I was going through the kitchen getting rid of things I didn't use. He said, "Don't you do that about every 2 weeks?" I said, "Yes, lately." He said, "Do you have anything left in the kitchen??" The truth is, I do have things left in the kitchen, blessedly things I actually use and a whole lot less in the way of distracting dust-catchers. It's a bit comical how when we first marry we have nothing we need and when we've been married 20 years we need little of what we have. I've mentioned before how we've slowly slipped back into grid dependence after our first 15 months on the land completely without electricity. I'm approaching my kitchen and household purging with an eye to an off-grid lifestyle. It's a great clutter-reduction tool, and goes a long way to improving the above mentioned storage dilemma.

Tomorrow will be an outdoor work day. Dave has instructed me to have campfire making materials ready, as after 3 weeks with the National Guard he needs down-to-earth homestead relaxation time. I suspect his relaxation will be short-lived and that by Monday morning he'll be once again using his days off working circles around everyone else in the family.

Today's tidbits:

From Dry Creek Chronicles, what promised to be an outstanding series on The Lost Tools Of Living

John Taylor Gatto's The Underground History of American Education, an eye-opening expose on the historical development of the public school system.

From Organic and Farming, November 1973, Raising Catfish In A Barrel.

Accountability tidbit: I did get the garlic in the ground.

Till next time, Blessings,

Judy

Today's chores and reflections

Today I've been cleaning up in the goat lot; burning brush and raking up the composted remains of the last 3 large round hay bales we fed.   I'd love to have a chipper/shredder to chip most of what I'm burning (the big stuff goes for firewood) for composting but I don't, C'est la vive.  I have a dear friend who uses the big stuff for firewood, the smaller stuff for campfires and lets the rest of it rot, and that's probably the best option, but something (either neurosis or the ancestral memories of my Eastern European ancestors) makes me want to make it tidy.  At least the ashes can be spread to enrich the soil.  Once this job is through my next plan is to get a bed in the garden ready using the compost I've collected for planting garlic.  The garden year for me seems to start with garlic planting in September or October with August being the Oklahoma equivalent of the dead of winter.  This year has been a wet exception, but usually August is bleak.

I've been thinking today about how chores stack up and how we react to it.  There are those, like me, who bear the thorn of procrastination.  Then once things pile up to the point that action must be taken, we're overwhelmed and disheartened by the fact that we can't get it all done in 2 hours so we don't do anything.    I've studied this pattern of behavior, I've reflected, I know all the tricks and techniques, yet time and time again I find myself in the same situation.  I think of the Apostle Paul:

"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."  Romans 7:18-19

Life on the land brings us ever to closer to God, His providence and His will.  He made me; He knows me more intimately than I know myself; He put me here on this 40 acres of Oklahoma red dirt.  Amongst the many blessing are times of trial and humility.  I could analyze it, but I think He'd probably prefer I just get back to my work. 

Tidbits:

A wonderful post by Kathi at Oak Hill Homestead about how she and her family bale hay by hand.

Michael Bunker is has started a great new series on his Process Driven Life blog about off-grid living for Christian agrarians.

A good article from the Mother Earth News archives on tanning rabbit skins.  I can vouch for the method and it comes to mind for me as I have a freezer full of rabbit hides just waiting on cooler weather.

Till next time, blessings.

Judy

The 7-year Itch

Behold, the LORD thy God hath set the land before thee: go up and possess it, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath said unto thee; fear not, neither be discouraged. Deuteronomy 1:21

I may be wrong, but I think that all of us who have been at this agrarian lifestyle for a while find ourselves a bit lost at times, looking for our roots so to speak.  We make progress, then find that our progress has put us back in the world we turned our backs on.  Maybe not complete re-immersed, but heading that direction.  Or maybe not reconnecting with the world so much as at a loss of what to do next.  There's certainly no lack of jobs to be done, at least not on this farm, but sometimes I'm just stalled out.  What to do????

I think the first step is to start at the beginning, remembering and reflecting on who we were and what we wanted when we started all this; remembering the meals cooked over an open fire, the nights spent reading in the dim lantern light, the evenings waiting for the sun to go down so bathing with water dipped from a 5-gallon bucket would be a cool pleasure; remembering when there was no money for barns and lots and fences; remembering when I thought I was crazy for thinking that this was God's plan for me and knowing with all certainty now that it was and is.  Those at the beginning of the agrarian journey don't have the luxury of time for this type of reminiscing, those of us who have been here a while need it.

The next step for me is to think of those who are in the same circumstance as we were and to find ways to help and encourage them.  I don't write nearly enough, but it is cathartic and rewarding for me and part of this next step is to do it more often.  I get emails from people who say "We've bought 20 acres.  What do we do next?"  I shake my head wondering how do you answer such a question, then I decide that I should at least try.

So readers, I don't know how many of you there are, help me by letting me help you.  Lend me your beginner's enthusiasm.  Share with me that God given spark of craziness that leads you to want to leave the city and milk goats and grow asparagus and keep your children close by your side.  Talk to me, ask me, share with me, help me over the hump, tell me what you need to know.

Heartfelt blessings to you all, till next time,

Judy

Canned Carp

These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat. Leviticus 11:9

From my Grandma Duffek I inherited much of my attitude toward food. I love growing it, cooking it and eating it. I also inherited her sturdy, well-fed form. She had a great appreciation for others who enjoyed food. As I outgrew my skinny little girl's frame, she'd grab me by the shoulders and say in her lovely accent, "Oh my, what a sturdy girl!" From Grandma Duffek I learned that one of the best ways a woman can show love for her family is to cook well.

I didn't get to have the woman to woman conversations with my grandma that I would have liked, but my mother has helped fill in the gaps. One thing she often talks about is Grandma canning carp. Here in the south carp is dismissed as a useless trash fish. Historically, though, it was brought from Europe in the early 1800's specifically for a food fish. Today, the Czech Republic is a leading producer and exporter of fish and among those fish carp plays a large role, so maybe my grandma knew what she was doing.

As I've stated in previous posts, the quickest way to get me to try something is to tell me I can't or even that I probably shouldn't. Last week my son-in-law, knowing that I'd been brewing this idea for some time, brought me a 5-pound carp that he caught while camping. Cleaning it was a bit challenging, as it is full of substantial bones. I found that my large, heavy Oriental cleaver was the perfect tool. (6lbs of carbon steel hand forged by some little Asian blacksmith, $6.00 at the Asian market. It rusts now, but it's super easy to sharpen and I expect it to patina with age.)

Scaling Mr. Bones required a butcher knife, as the scales are large and tough. I actually read about a Czech fishmonger's wife who decorated a dress in sequins cut from carp scales. They are actually quite pretty. My husband and son-in-law advised me to fillet it which would have made the whole process a bit easier, but I didn't want to waste any meat so I compromised and filleted out the sections that had the ribs after I got it scaled and cut into manageable pieces. It was at that point that I determined I ought to skin it. I don't know if this can be done with the scales still on or not, and the men in my house were suspiciously out of pocket during the entire operation. I suspect the entire family was whispering among themselves, "Uh Oh, Momo's doing it again."

I soaked the meat in a brine of 1 cup salt to 1 gallon of water for about an hour, before packing it into pint jars. I had a couple of pieces like big steaks from the rear section of the fish that packed well as they were. I rolled the thinner side meat to the inside of the ones from the section just behind the ribs, and I rolled the filleted rib section pieces. After researching several recipes, I added 1 teaspoon cooking oil and 2 tablespoons vinegar to each jar, topped with lids and rings and pressured for 90 minutes at 12 pounds pressure.

An hour and a half later I expected to have the odor of a blackwater slough hit me when I removed the top of the canner. I was surprised that there was no smell at all. Canning pork or venison is much, much smellier. The 3 jars in the experiment all sealed. So far so good.

Today I decided it was time for the final test. I opened the jar containing the large rear section of the fish backbone intact. It smelled like salmon. Just for comparison I opened a jar of bass that I'd canned as an experiment a month or so ago. The bass went straight to the cats, and not because it was bad. It just stank like fish bait. All the carp bones, including the backbone, were soft like canned salmon bones. Continuing on I mixed up and fried a batch of "salmon" patties. Still no bad odor. I set them on the table and they were gone in minutes. My daughter said, "Wow, this is better than salmon" and Oran and I had to agree.

From the research I did I concluded that in a year with less bountiful rain than we've had this year, it might be prudent to keep carp live and give them several days in a clearwater tank to clean out. Other than that, I was tickled to have found another source of good food for my family in the days to come. I also read that carp can grow at a rate of 6 pounds per year, making aquaculture something I'll have to explore.

Tidbits:

• My recipe for fish patties (was my recipe for salmon patties)

Mix canned fish with cracker crumbs (maybe 1:3 crumbs to fish), herbs of choice (I like dill and sage), pepper, finely chopped onion and enough egg to bind. Fry till brown in 1/2" of oil

• Another interesting reading site,

Historical Publications of the Kansas State Ag Experiment Station

• And just to get you thinking, (while you're reconsidering things you'ld never do, like eating carp)

The Humanure Handbook

Till next time, Blessings,

Judy

Snakes, good reading and chores

"And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Genesis 3:13-15

A few evenings ago I was feeding the pigs right about dusk when I heard my daughter Rachael yelling something. I thought to myself "What in the world is she doing?" when I make out the word "Snake!" I instructed Lianna to see about her brother Oran, both were with me at the pig pen, and I ran (it was not a pretty sight) to the house. I got a look at the snake just about 5 feet from the porch and heading under the house and grabbed an ax, then I changed my mind and ran into the house and grabbed the .22. Rachael had been one footfall away from stepping on him. (We thank God for His protection.) I shot him twice and we had a good lesson on venomous snakes with the children.

He was a Velvet Tail or Timber rattler, about 3 feet long stretched out. Fortunately, this species of rattlesnake is incredibly docile. This one let the dog lick him and only rattled after I'd shot him once. Still, he was much too close to the house and my family.

Here's a good illustration of the triangular head of a pit viper.

And here's a picture of his working end.

A lady on our NewOkiePioneers email list sent me these wonderful pictures of a Copperhead snake, the other common venomous snake in this area.

*********************************************************************************I I know people find me an odd juxtaposition. I have no running water in the house, but I have a blog and a website. I've never owned and don't really know how to load a dishwasher, cellphone jargon like "Bluetooth" just makes me cock my head and go "Hmmmm", I've never watched "Nip Tuck" or "Big Brother" and Napster makes me think of someone who likes to sleep in the afternoon (which I do on occasion), yet I love the internet. Not the internet of chatrooms and YouTube, but the internet that is the largest library in the world at my fingertips. Here's just a sample of what I find fascinating:

Core Historical Literature of Agriculture

Home Economics Archive

Digital Book Index (more than 1500 agriculture titles)

The Soil and Health Library

The Food Timeline

Documenting the American South

Project Gutenberg

*********************************************************************************

I recently did a mental walk-through of the chores that had backed up here on the homestead starting in my mind's eye at the gate and walking around the whole barnyard and house and came up with a list of some 30+ projects, not including major building projects. I just shake my head at women who say, "Oh I have to work or I'd just die of boredom."

Gate plantings
Redo gate signs
Plant fruit trees (along drive?)
Sort and burn woodpile by garden
Transplant giant reed and Jerusalem artichoke to right-of-way
Clean up old wood pallet in garden
Plant garlic
Plant winter wheat
Clean up shower area, make storage for bathing supplies
Move blue tank to goat pen
New worm beds
Move bathtubs to house for planters
Level rabbit water tank
Arrange rocks and set bridge timbers around parking area
Clean up goat pen
Finish clearing and burning in east pasture
Clean out milking barn
Clean lots
Clean barn and feed area
Clean woodshed
Spread woodchips
Transplant horehound bed
Build water catchment
Finish west trellises
Fence to clear west of house
Clear little garden
Add 4th side to compost pile
Clean up greenhouse
Plant trees
Weed south walkway bed
Weed north walkway bed
New rabbit barn
Tool storage at woodshed

*********************************************************************************

A couple of tidbits:

Here' is another great piece by Michael Bunker that I downloaded and saved. It speaks eloquently about one reason the modern world is such a mess.

Here's a really good recipe for Chicken Fried Steak. Even if you haven't had much success with chicken fry (as we call it), try this recipe. I made it using buffalo rump roast, sliced about 3/4" thick and pounded thin.

Till next time, Blessings,

Judy

Target Practice and The Garden Salvage Operation.

And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor shall pass through them any more: for now have I seen with mine eyes. Zechariah 9:8

Sorry, no witty lead-ins this time. I really just have some wonderful pictures of family target practice. Our Papa Hamilton, our family patriarch and a gifted minister of God, came over for family fellowship and a meal of buffalo hash (the recipe's at the end of the post.) Afterwards we just thought it was a good time for some family fun.

Our junior spotters:

I'm not sure, but I think if you look closely you can actually see the bullet:

David spotting:

Rachael takes a turn with the SKS:

Then tries her hand at spotting:

A rare picture of me. I really am more comfortable than I look:

Papa and David discuss an ammo feed problem:

David takes a turn with my new .45:

And Lianna joins in with her BB gun. She hit 3 out of 4 at 20 yards.

The same morning we got the garden ready for the salvage crew. We used electric fence to divide the garden into 2 sections and to protect my still viable peppers.

This is our herd sire Max, 1/2 Boer and 1/2 dairy:

Here's the buffalo hash recipe. I rarely use a recipe, so it's sometimes hard for me to put things in a true recipe format. Bear with me:

Take a nice chunk of buffalo (or beef or venison or pork or whatever). Cut it into cubes 1/2" or less in size. Brown the cubes well in a hot cast iron pan. Remove the meat and throw in a finely chopped onion, a little salt, and brown well. Deglaze the pan with a couple of cups of water (pour the water in the pan and scrape up all the nice brown stuff on the bottom.) Return the meat to the pan, add a couple of tablespoonfuls of tomato sauce or tomato paste or even some powdered dried tomatoes, cover and simmer till tender, adding more water as needed. Meanwhile, melt about 1/4 cup butter and add 1/4 cup of flour to make a roux. Be careful not to let the flour burn. When the meat is tender, pour the broth into the hot roux and whisk to make the gravy. Return the gravy to the pot with the meat and add enough finely cubed (1/4") potatoes to make however much you need. I prefer canned new potatoes for their waxy texture and I use about twice the quantity of potatoes as meat. Simmer until the potatoes are done (or hot in the case of canned potatoes remembering to boil home-canned potatoes at least 10 minutes somewhere in the process.) Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

We make this simple and mild, but it can be jazzed up with garlic, cayenne pepper or chili powder, green sauce, or any number of vegetable additions depending on what's in your pantry and what you like.

A tidbit for today: Here's an inspirational and true post from Homesteader Life,

and an article by Howard King. (My disclaimer: I post this to edify those who agree, to teach those who might, and to incite no argument with those who don't.) God is perfectly capable of leading us where He will have us go.

Till next time, Blessings,

Judy

Turkey Craw Beans and Other Wonderful Vegetables

I got ahead of myself in my last post and forgot to post the picture I took of the prolificity of my Turkey Craw beans, so I decided rather than go back and add the picture I'd just post specifically about them and a few other varieties that I love.

According to the stories, the Turkey Craw bean originated when an hunter somewhere in Appalachia shot a turkey and found an interesting bean in the craw. He planted it, saved seed, and the variety was born. It's a bean you have to hunt for or stumble across, but it is available from a few sources:

Sustainable Mountain Agriculture Center

Southern Seed Legacy Project

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange

Reimer Seeds

The Turkey Craw bean is one of the most beautiful and unusual looking beans, in my opinion. It's listed in most sources as a cornfield bean, and is touted as being stringless and of a good flavor for snap beans. Unfortunately, I missed that stage this year. I don't know yet how they'll do in drought, but with this year's rain they certainly were abundant.

I love the colorful names we've given our southern vegetable varieties. I grow them as much for that reason as any. Here are a few of my favorites, some of which I grow and some I haven't tried yet.

• Mule Team tomato
• Arkansas Traveler tomato
• Blue Goose pea
• Trucker's Favorite corn
• Lena Cisco's Bird Bean
• Texas Homestead bean(the original name of the Kentucky Wonder)
• Rattlesnake bean
• Nebraska Wedding tomato (I'm assuming, based on it's wonderful name, that it must be from "southern" Nebraska. At any rate it's a salute to the other half of my genealogy, my Nebraska Czech heritage. I'm exactly 1/2 Czech, 1/2 Texan, born an Okie and southern as they come.)
• Sheepnose apple

Here's a belated but better picture of my mixed pole bean harvest

I found no interesting tidbits for today, just an uplifting verse from our Lord's word:

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5:7-8

Till next time, Blessings,

Judy

How To Skin A Cat

One of my favorite sayings is "There's more than one way to skin a cat." I get a bit annoyed on my jaunts around the homesteading communities on the internet when people tell other people, "Oh, you can't do that!" as if there's one way and one way only to accomplish the things we do on the homestead. I'm a bit like a Missourian when I hear that; I want to say "Show me." As far as I'm concerned, right Biblical doctrine is carved in stone. Everything else is, well, it's just everything else. I try, when asked for advice, to use the following guidelines: 1) If I've actually done what it is the person is asking about, I say, "In my experience. . ." 2)If I only have anecdote from other homesteaders or have only read about the activity in question I say "I've heard, or I've read. . . ." and 3) If I'm completely in the dark I say, "I have no clue." I often break the "rules", those directions that are in all the books, often word for word in book after book. I make no apologies for it and I've learned some interesting things along the way. I encourage everyone, when it comes to your personal agrarian journey, to try prayerfully breaking the rules. Learn how to learn, not simply how to follow directions. And mostly, pay no attention to those who would tell you "You cant."

Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Joshua 1:9

As I mentioned in a previous post, my garden is a riotous explosion of grass, at least the south side is, and I'm to the point of harvesting seed and putting it to bed for the winter. I picked all the pole beans that had dried on the vine and am almost finished shelling them out. There are several varieties: rattlesnake, genuine cornfield, white half-runner, Kentucky wonder, Grandma Nellie's mushroom bean and turkey craw bean. The turkey craw beans were surprisingly prolific.

Next I'll be making one more harvest of cowpeas along with sorghum. I did manage to get the peppers weeded, and they're just coming into their harvest season so I'll continue to care for them. David and I discussed how to deal with the grass and have decided to run a bit of electric fence to protect the few things we want to keep and initially turning the goats and horses in followed by the pigs. Ideally, we'll get it all done in time to plant some winter wheat for a cover crop.

I grow only heirloom vegetables and have spent lots of time in the last couple of years collecting, sorting and cataloging seed. At the risk of really upsetting some readers, I'm not sure it's time well spent for me. Let me explain. I value the heirlooms, the history they represent and the genetics they preserve. I will continue to grow heirlooms. But, I also value feeding my family in what I feel will be tumultuous times ahead. I've gardened long enough in the same place to have things that always volunteer. Varieties that actually thrive in the tough climate of the southern plains. I've made a decision to focus less on cataloguing and more on simply saving what grows well. Corn is a soft spot for me, so I will continue to be careful not to let my corn cross and to carefully keep the various varieties separate, but when it comes to beans and cowpeas I'm saving them in a mix and planting them the same way. May the best bean win. Hopefully the time I've spent sorting and separately planting, labeling and harvesting different varieties will be better spent weeding.

I've been asked about my new sourdough starter and am happy to report that it seems to be a wonderful one - not too sour with a rich flavor. I inadvertently left a jar of it on the mantle for over a week and finally got the nerve to do something with it. There was a bit of mold on top. Once you've lived on the land long enough you develop a tolerance for little inconveniences like mold. I scraped it off and the starter still smelled nice. I combined it back with some of the same starter that had been in the fridge and made some really good bread. I baked it in a super hot oven in my cast-iron Dutch oven and it turned out great. One thing I've discovered is that with sourdough you have to be careful to let it rise sufficiently. It makes a world of difference in the texture of the finished loaf.

David and Oran got up this morning for their Saturday trip to the feed store - some "man time" that is so important for little boys. This afternoon or tomorrow we'll be getting the garden ready for grazing, so Lord willing there will be pictures in an upcoming post. School has started for Lianna:

and I caught her praising the Lord the other day:

Finally, a tidbit: Don't store too much propane, if you don't want to be registered with the Department of Homeland Security.

It's time to get to work. Till next time, Blessings.

Judy

What We Would Have Done Differently

I stumbled across this piece I wrote in 2002 in hindsight of our move to the land.

What We Would Have Done Differently
2002

March 28, 1999. Got to the farm about 3:30 p.m. without incident until I stuck the truck and trailer along with 14 goats, 5 chickens, 4 cats, 2 geese and a 3-legged sheep. Had been raining here all day and was sloppy, sloppy. Put up goat pens and made bacon, gravy and fried potatoes for supper on the camp fire - turned out raw and sandy. Didn’t sleep well.

March 29, 1999 Up with Dave, then kindled the fire and had coffee and read Countryside. Started laundry (by hand in 5 gallon buckets) - seemed like it took hours - and washed up dishes. Tired already. Put up a tarp shelter for the goats. Third time’s a charm, the first 2 attempts were used for a goat trampoline. Made a pen for the chickens and geese. 2 out 5 promptly escaped. Brought in firewood, straightened up the campsite, juiced up the fire and made stew. Caught a little black snake with an orange necklace and yellow belly. Wonder what we’ve gotten ourselves into. . .

That was more than 3 years ago, and although those were my private thoughts, I wouldn’t have dreamed of letting anyone else know that I was feeling, shall we say, less than confident. After all, when you make the decision to live a homestead life in a plastic world you don’t want to give well-intentioned "normal" people any more ammunition than necessary. By now I’m used to being "that crazy goat woman on the hill who doesn’t know it’s the 21st century" and it doesn’t bother me to say, "You know, we probably should have . . . . . "

Although realistically we picked the most appropriate general area of the country for our needs - warm weather, adequate rain, trees for wood, no building codes or Euro-Union gun laws - we probably could have done a little more research on our specific homestead. We might have found a place in this area that was a little more ideal, but on the other hand it’s purposeless to spend too much time coveting what our neighbor owns on the other side of the fence. We’re making the best with what we have.

Our intention was to drill a well immediately, but finances and geology interfered (another research issue) so we’re still hauling water: do-able but not convenient. Fortunately we’ve got a good spring. We’re working on developing a spring-based water system, and rural water is coming in a year or so, but we should have made an adequate and reasonably convenient water system a priority. On the other hand, adversity IS an excellent teacher.

The garden was another area we approached backwards. When we leveled a place for our "temporary" house, a 1950’s vintage 8x35’ Spartanette park model trailer, we also cleared 2 large garden areas then proceeded to try to coax nourishment from unimproved Oklahoma clay and summer drought. We should have started with what we have now: a 15x20ft, well-amended, fenced plot close to the house; extensive container plantings; with gradual work on the bigger plots to increase fertility and soil quality.
When we moved here our biggest pre-occupation was with building a house. Needless to say, it’s not built yet, but we’re cozy in our little trailer with a 12x18’ addition. We would have been better served concentrating our initial planning and energy on permanent livestock housing and a roomy, weather-tight workshop/tool storage area. Another thing we didn’t consider in the beginning was adequate storage for preserved food and large food-preservation equipment.

A major headache has been our driveway. We spent many a sleepless, rainy night wondering if my husband would be able to get out in the morning to go to work. Surfacing dirt roads with good rock in high-use areas should have been a priority on our homestead.

I really don’t know where we’d be now if we would have started differently, but things have come together as things will. Our little house garden is exploding and the largest plot is perking along with green manures of wheat and rye and soil-enriching crops of black-eyed peas and mung beans. The goats are milking well, the chickens churning out eggs and chicks, and the rabbits finally reproducing like, well, like rabbits. There are jars of home-grown, home-canned pork stew meat in the pantry cabinet and hams, cheeses and bacon in the extra refrigerator.

New homesteaders, don’t fret. We all could have done at least something different or better in the beginning (if we’re honest with ourselves,) and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.  Persistence is the key.  Live and learn.

After The Storm

"Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city." Psalm 55:7-9

We knew we were having quite a bit of rain early Sunday morning, but who would have thought that we would awaken and find that we were in the midst of an actual tropical storm.

It just goes to show, take nothing for granted. We're fortunate to live on a hill, in a house on poles, so flooding is a non-issue. It would take one of Biblical proportions, and we know by God's word that will never happen again. David, Lianna and I got out as soon as the rain stopped to go take a look at the pond and creek. We could hear the seasonal creeks on both sides of the house roaring like snowmelt time in the mountains. Pictured below is normally a path, not a small creek.

We found the dam on our little pond breached, which didn't really surprise us as it had been compromised for some time.

The culvert was right there and we needed to work on the pond and dam anyway, so we considered it all blessing.

The only other damage we found was a culvert out on a road that runs the perimeter of the property and a low water crossing at the far end of our land almost out. Neither was really an issue for us.

We estimated that we ended up with about 8 inches of rain, which filled both mudholes, oops I mean "ponds" here at the house so the ducks and geese are happy. The garden, with all the rain we've had this year, is overtaken by grass and past resurrecting, but we do have a great crop of seed for next year's garden. More on that in my next post.

Tropical storm Erin seems to have ushered in fall, with maximum daytime temps the last few days in the low '90's and night time temps in the low '70's. I've noticed lots of fall flowers blooming about 3 to 4 weeks early, which I find interesting and makes me think I may need to get busy with winter preps. Saturday, before we knew we were going to make history the next day, David and I went on a backroads trip to forage for edibles and medicinals. We didn't find as many elderberries as we would have liked, as the county mowed the majority of the patch we had spotted. We did bring back some poke berries to dry for medicinal use and found a buckeye tree, which is something we've never seen here before.

A couple of tidbits: Rick Saenz has posted an entire series on simple living on his Dry Creek Chronicles Blog. It's a great read.

Here's another inspiring post from Herrick Kimball, The Deliberate Agrarian.

Well, gotta get back to harvesting seeds in the garden.

Till next time, Blessings,

Judy

An Update On Life Without A/C, and a few other notes.

I'm sweaty. It's not that big a deal. I'm at about a week without air conditioning. We did some work on the water cooler on the porch and replaced the pads, pump and drain. We resisted the urge to turn it in through the window to the house. Why? 1) The house is dark and the porch is a much nicer place to take a break. 2) The humidity generated by the water cooler will rust the guns. 3) The dogs and cats are sooooo happy. 4) It gives the children incentive to be outside, where children should be. (No, I'm not anti-child. I believe they need fresh air, sunshine, work to learn from and opportunity for imaginative play.) I figure at my age I would be sweating anyway, so I might as well save electricity while I'm at it. Even while we were using compressor A/C I kept the house at about 80 degrees. That's what I'd recommend for anyone starting this journey. Don't try to go from 70 degrees to 90 degrees overnight. Turn your temperature up a little at a time. The jump from 80 to 87.8 degrees is really no big deal compared to if I had tried to transition from 60 or 70-something. Think frequently about your grandmother or great-grandmother. It was do-able for her, it's do-able for you. Mine hauled water into the house until she was 60. And remember, the advantages to sweating include beautiful skin secondary to pore-cleansing and forced good hydration. :)

I found this on the Reformed Puritan blog:

“The time was when manufactures were literally domestic - the occupations of people in their homes. The industrious producing citizen was a “free-holder,” a name whose vital significance to British liberty our times have almost forgotten. He dwelt under his own roof-tree. He was his own man; he was the free-simple owner of the homestead where his productions were created by the skill and labor of himself and his children, apprentices, and servants. Now all this is changed; the loom is no longer heard in the home; vast factories, owned by the monopolists for whom the cant of the age has already found their appropriate name as “kings of industry,” now undersell the home products everywhere. The axe and hoe which the husbandmen wields, once made at the country forge, the shoe placed on his mule’s feet, the plow with which he turns the soil, the very helve in his tool, all come from the factory. The home industry of the housewife in brewing her own yeast can hardly survive, but is supplanted by your factory “baking powders,” in which chemical adulterations may have full play. This production is centralized. Capital is collected in commanding masses, at whose bidding the free-holding citizen is sunk into the multitudinous hireling proletariat. Conditions of social organization are again produced, fully parallel to the worst results of feudalism, in their incompatibility with republican institutions.From these changes have resulted the extreme inequalities of fortune, expenditures and luxury which now deform American society.”

~ R. L. Dabney, “The New South”. A Discourse delivered at the Annual Commencement of Hampden Sidney College, June 15, 1882. Discussions, Vol. IV - Secular.

Summer is finally here, after our long and wet spring. But, fall is in the air also. Just the other day I saw several signs of fall that were at least 3 weeks early: goldenrod blooming, blazing star blooming, broomweed getting ready to bloom along with a certain feel to the air and angle to the sun. This winter could turn out to be quite a bit of fun.

The seasons pass so quickly now, and I feel such an urgency to get done what I feel called to get done. Not that any of it matters as we are not saved by works, but I believe that God endowed us, at least some of us, with that sense of urgency. I don't know why, but I'll continue to work hard and try to influence my family to work hard in anticipation of a glorious, eternal homestead.

And just in case anyone was wondering, Oran the Superfluously Naughty One is, well, he's cleaner:

Until next time, Blessings.

Judy

Canning Pinto Beans and No A/C

I talked a bit in my last post about canning dry pinto beans. Years ago I met an older lady who taught me how. I had never heard of such a thing, but after trying it found out that, like canning venison, canning dry beans really improves the end product.

I started out with about a gallon of dried beans. I probably could have handled another 1/2 to 3/4 of a gallon in my big pot.

Pick your beans over carefully (the little dirt clods with inevitably end up in your meal even with the most careful washing if you omit this step.) Give them a good washing in a couple of changes of water. Cover the beans with about twice as much water as beans. The addition of a little acid (vinegar, whey, lemon juice) helps the soaking make the beans more digestible. I use citric acid, about a teaspoonful per gallon of water. Improved digestibility = less flatulence. Soak 12 hours to overnight. The beans will about double in size.

Drain and rinse the beans at the end of the soak and cover them well with fresh water. Bring them to a boil and cook for 30 minutes or so. The canning process completes the cooking. The beans should be soft, but not done. Add any goodies you like: meat, onions, tomatoes, etc. Garlic is best added when the jar is opened to serve as it sometimes changes flavor in the canning. I added 2 pounds of lean, chunky bacon ends that I got on sale from the Oklahoma Food Coop.



Get the canner ready and throw the lids in some hot water to soften the sealing compound. Fill clean jars about 2/3rds full to allow for further swelling of the beans. Fill the jars with boiling bean juice leaving 1" head space. Add a teaspoonful salt per quart either before or after filling as you prefer. Or, you can leave the salt out altogether. It contributes nothing to the preservation of the food in this instance. Wipe the jar rims clean and cap with clean, hot lids and rings.



Load your canner.



Secure the top and wait for the steam to evacuate. It's necessary the steam replace air in the canner to allow the temperature to rise to the appropriate level for canning. Once it really starts blowing, give it about 10 minutes, then place the weight. If you look carefully you can just barely see the plume of steam in the picture below.

Process for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. A note, 10lbs pressure is a sea-level baseline and must be increased with increases in altitude. Here are the altitude adjustments for a dial gauge canner:

0-2000 feet - 11 pounds

2001-4000 feet - 12 pounds

4001-6000 feet - 13 pounds

6001-8000 - 14 pounds

For a weighted gauge anything above 1000 feet is processed at 15 pounds.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation at the University of Georgia is a great source for anything you want to know about preserving food safely.

Michael Bunker wrote an especially thought-provoking post Monday on his blog A Process Driven Life. Based on it, I've decided to stand firm on the commitment I made to be as frugal as possible now that I'm home almost full-time. I'm turning off the A/C during the week while Dave's gone. He can make the decision when he's home on how to use it and he's approved of my intended actions in this. I know 9 out of 10 of you are asking "Why?" My ready answer stands as it always has, "Because I can." On further analysis I have several reasons. 1) It saves lots of money, 2) Sweat never hurt anyone, 3) I owe it to my family to acclimate myself so I can remain productive if ever I have no electricity at all, 4) It's our intention to put off-grid systems in place and compressor cooled A/C isn't compatible with a poor girl's solar/wind/generator system, and 5) It certainly further separates us from the world because everyone we know will think we're nuts, which is OK with me. (The technique of letting our neighbors think we're nuts has helped us ward off many problems in our 8 years here on the mountain.)

I know I can do this, because we spent our first 15 months here on the farm with no electricity. We slept in a screen tent the first summer. It's all a matter of planning your work around the daily heat curve and drinking plenty of water which is a good thing in and of itself. I was raised with a water cooler. One without a pump, nonetheless. It was my responsibility as a child to go outside periodically and wet down the pads on the "swamp cooler." We brought ours from western Oklahoma, where admittedly they work better than here in the more humid central south. Dave pulled it out yesterday, cleaned it up a bit and we moved it up to the porch. I thought it would make a nice place to shell peas, and the critters and babies certainly love it.

Depending on the power requirement, if it were to be compatible with an off-grid system we may experiment with using it in the house.

I found a new and delightful blog today: Seeking The Old Paths

And finally, I found this beautiful reminder of the scripture in my front garden. It's a Texas Star Hibiscus.

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Isaiah 40:6

Till next time and a further report on life without A/C, Blessings.

Judy

A Few Bits and Pieces

We all know this one well, but it never hurts to review.

Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. Titus 2:3-5

I received an especially generous birthday windfall recently and hot-footed it down to the local restaurant and janitorial supply. I purchased a lovely stainless steel colander and a good stainless grater along with a canner-sized restaurant quality pot and two 2-pound bread pans. Ladies, it is always worth your while to purchase quality kitchen and homekeeping equipment, even if you have to make-do with junk and save your egg money to do it. Forget the various forms of global discount stores when it comes to these purchases and go for professional quality that will work well and last. I can promise you that if our pioneer grandmothers had access to stainless steel they would have abandoned enamalware and tin in a heartbeat. I love the history and heritage of old kitchenware, but in the long run you're better off hanging it on the wall and buying quality tools for the very important work you do in the kitchen.

I found a really good bread making site, complete with instructional video. I'm on a quest for the secret to making a chewy, rustic sourdough loaf with blistered crust and big holes out of predominantly whole wheat flour. I lost the starter I'd had for several years, probably because I gave myself a bit too much leeway as to what to add to it, and have had to make another one. So far, everything seems to be going well. I used freshly ground organic whole wheat, bottled water (no chlorine) and a touch of malt flour. I honestly don't know the rationale for adding the malt, but I found reference to it here so I thought I'd give it a try. Every day, or even every 12 hours if I think of it, I've been feeding the starter by discarding half and replacing it with the same amount of freshly ground flour and un-chlorinated water to make a soft dough. Time will tell if it will all work out, but so far it looks promising.

Here are some other interesting sourdough links I found:

Sourdough Baking

Carl Griffiths 1847 Sourdough Starter - free for a SASE

rec.food.sourdough Starter FAQ

Citric Acid: For me, citric acid powder is a household essential. I started out using it in making goat milk mozzarella, and have since found many uses for it. It's great for lots of applications that call for vinegar (natural cleaning products, cleaning out the coffee pot, polishing the rust off of cast iron, etc.) 1/4 teaspoonful mixed in a quart of water makes a good hair rinse for use after using a soap-based shampoo. You get the same effect (removes soap curd and adds shine and manageability) without smelling like a pickle. Some older recipes call for "sour salt." This was nothing but citric acid. I make a refreshing summer drink out of shiso leaves (which is an whole new post in itself) that uses a bit of citric acid for tang. I buy my citric acid powder online from Liberty Natural Products.

Here's an interesting blog with a recipe for Shiso drink

I got the first batch of cowpeas canned and was blessed that all the jars sealed. Today I'm using my big, new pot to make a monster batch of pinto beans to can. Some might ask why can something that keeps so well in it's natural state? Cooking beans right can be fairly fuel intensive, plus the fact that it heats up the house. I use basically the same amount of fuel in the same amount of time canning up a large batch as I would cooking a single batch. Plus, a quart of perfectly cooked pintos is wonderful convenience food. I'll document the entire process in a later post.

And finally, Kathi, my friend at at Oak Hill Homestead faithfully posts Thankful Thursdays. They always make me feel good.

Till next time, Blessings.

Judy