Summer's Here

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Genesis 3:19

As anyone who's pursuing the agrarian life knows, or soon will, God wasn't kidding about that. I spent the day working in the garden. When it gets this hot and hotter, the best plan is to get garden work done in the cool of early morning, but I seem to always drag it into the afternoon and later. It's not especially pleasant working in the heat of the day, but I think it's prudent to acclimate oneself to the heat if one is going to live in the south. I generally work about 30 to 45 minutes, then take a 15 to 20 minute break and tank up on water. I came in on one break today and granddaughter Lianna had fixed me the perfect snack for replenishing electrolytes: sliced tomatoes sprinkled with salt and lime. How she knew to do that I'll never know, but it was delicious nonetheless. I harvested the hulless oat plot today. Quite a bit of it was still somewhat green, but I was afraid the drier tops would start shelling out if I waited. I cut the tops off with scissors and left the straw to incorporate back into the garden. Right now there's a pretty good pile of oats on a screen on the livingroom floor. We'll put it back outside to dry some more tomorrow. I grew up in southwest Oklahoma, wheat country, and I had to laugh at myself harvesting grain with a pair of scissors. I also dug the onion crop today, and it was pretty dismal. We'll have lots of pickled onions, anyway. I let the grass get ahead of me in the row and onions don't do well at all with competition. David and I pulled all the garlic a couple of days ago and I worked on getting it all in, also. The oat, onion and garlic row will all go back in dry beans for a fall crop. We've been really concentrating this year on "calorie crops" - those crops that provide the most protein and calories. For us that's been mostly beans and cowpeas. One can only live so long on summer squash and tomatoes.



This morning my son-in-law Donald butchered another of our small pigs. I'm quite proud of him as he's really getting good at slaughtering effectively and humanely. It's such a blessing to have 3 generations here on the homestead working together, helping each other, just living life. I think there are six more pigs to go and we're caught up. These are small pigs, butchered at about 100 pounds. They have to be split a little between the hams just to fit on the gambrel.



Lianna and Oran know exactly where their food comes from. Here they're helping their daddy move the pig.



David added on to the electric fence to fence some of the front pasture a few days ago. Here's Lena, the Ancient Horse (she's 25 and still beautiful) and some of the goats enjoying fresh grazing.

There's still lots of work to be done this week: finish dehydrating two cases of peaches, finish getting in the garlic, mow, replant empty garden rows, weed, can more pork, the list goes on. If we ever got caught up I don't think I'd know what to do with myself.

Till next time, blessings.

Judy

"The Real World"

I've thought on this before, but never put it into words. At work today (my alter identity, my "real" one being the me and the life I write about here) I was telling a dear friend about the herb I'd found that increases breast milk production. I directed her here to see the picture. She asked me if I ever wrote about her. I told her I only wrote about my life on the homestead, and that she should come to visit more often. :) The conversation got me to thinking about "real life." So many people who don't understand or oppose a simple agrarian lifestyle like to think they live in the real world and we live in a fantasy. These are the people who live in houses practically identical to their neighbors with 5 feet in between; whose lives center around what they do away from home (work, school, sports); who fall asleep at night to the sound of cars going down the road and sirens; who buy and eat "butter" that is about one molecule away from plastic and meat that is sluiced in various viruses and carbon monoxide before being bound up in polystyrene. They grow "gardens" of completely useless pretty flowers and poison any good ground they may have in order to grow a monoculture of inedible lawn grass. They clothe themselves in the latest fashion, regardless of how uncomfortable, impractical or immodest it might be. They plant a TV and/or internet ready computer in each childs large and plushly appointed individual room, completely sabatoging any chance of real family time. And this, they say, is the real world.

Lord willing I will stay on this piece of out of the way land, serenaded to sleep by the frogs and the cicadas and the whipporwills, with an occasional mid-winter refrain from the coyotes. I will haul my water into the house in a bucket, to keep me humble. I will grow and process my food, my meat, knowingly intimately the realness of what I feed my family. I will make my simple clothes and continue in learning about covering my head in submission to my Lord and my husband. I will create real things, useful things. I will teach my grandchildren and try to provide an example for my daughter. I will venture to town as little as possible, finding ever newer ways to provide for the needs of those I'm responsible for right here on this homestead. I will praise the Lord for the love growing in my home; my good and competant husband, my precious child and grandchildren; the roof over my head; the fertile soil and the gentle animals that keep it so; and for His grace in saving one such as me to a glimpse of heaven such as this.

This is life, as real as it gets.

May you all share the blessing,
Judy

Never Complain About Rain On The Plains

This will be just a quick post.

Another storm blew through last night, this time from the north. We received probably another 1 1/2 inches of rain, which topped the ponds off and laid the corn down just a bit. It's been such an incredibly wet couple of months, but we consider it all blessing. This morning the grandchildren and I picked green beans, probably a gallon after snapping. Tomorrow I should have enough for a canner load. It seems like each year brings an abundance of one particular vegetable. I always call it our manna. This year it looks like it will be beans.

Dave butchered a goat for a customer in the city before lunch and we enjoyed some great 3-generational family time. While he worked I snapped my beans, our daughter Rachael crocheted and the children played nearby. After lunch Dave worked on expanding the electric fence for the goats, horse and mule. We found few wild plums ripe on the edge of our property and Lianna and Oran ate the whole bunch. Rachael wanted to learn how to make homemade mayonnaise, so she and I worked on that for a while. This evening was spent putting together my monthly order of soap for the Oklahoma Food Coop.


Till next time, blessings,
Judy

Shame On Me

I am a procrastinator. I always have been and it's certainly a thorn in my side. The longer I put something off the harder it is to do; hence, it being 3 months since I made a blog entry. Forgive me, dear readers. There's certainly not been a shortage around here of things to write about. I'm not even sure where to start and how to organize it, so I guess I'll just approach this post as a ramble.

My sudden disappearance from the online community started with some mid-life issues, the worst of which was a sudden inability to sleep. Without going into the details I'll simply say that I'm sleeping again and have immersed myself in the very best medicine, life on the homestead. I had begun to feel lost and disconnected and am happy to report that by prioritizing my duties to family and home I am once again centered.

Last month we enjoyed a precious visit with the Michael Bunker family and their Christian agrarian community in Santa Anna, Tx. God in His sovereignty and providence knew exactly what He was doing in the timing of this visit. I'm anxious to visit again and fellowship with the great folks of this group.

We've been way behind on our butchering, and I was thankful when my daughter and son-in-law took it upon themselves to butcher two hogs. Our hogs are a pot-belly/standard cross that max out at usually around 120 pounds. It makes for easily butchering one in a day, along with the advantage that the entire carcass will fit into a chest freezer pending cutting up and processing.

We bone everything out and I crack and use the bones for stock making. We canned the hams, shoulders and loins in quarts for what my daughter calls "Instant Pot Roast." She opens a jar and adds potatoes and carrots for a quick meal that doesn't taste quick. I used the neck meat ground with the heart, liver and onions to make "Dirty Rice Mix" (my son-in-law is from south Texas/Louisiana stock and appreciates Cajun food) which I canned in pints. David used some this morning in some rice along with a can of pinto beans and it was yummy. We freeze the ribs for barbeque with the side meat on for a meatier cut. The belly meat and shanks I'm curing in brine for use as bacon and in beans. One skill I want to master is curing meat for keeping without refrigeration, and I decided the shanks would be a perfect practice cut. My granddaughter Lianna has been heping me cut meat for several years now and has recently graduated to a real knife. Grandson Oran has just earned his "butter knife."

Yesterday we butchered 6 rabbits and I spent today putting those up. Here's Lianna with the pans of legs and loins ready to be roasted lightly prior to packing in jars and canning.

Our total yield was:

• 6 quarts of hind legs and loins canned with broth made from the backs
• A generous appetizer quantity of livers, delicious fried lightly in butter
• A meal of "Buffalo Wings" made from the front legs.
  
• Enough leftover meat bits and stock for a big batch of rabbit and dumplings
  
• A nice plate of belly meat for the cats.
• About 1/2 pint of rendered rabbit fat, a delicacy.

I considered our potato harvest this year to be the Great Potato Famine of South Central Oklahoma. It was a fairly dismal yield for 65 feet of row. However, God used it to teach and humble me when what to my (self-assumed) practiced eye looked to be 7 quarts turned out to be 14 quarts. Now I'll think of it as The Year of Loaves and Fishes.








I've identified a new medicinal plant, White Milkwort (Polygala alba). It's reported to be useful in increasing the milk supply in lactating women.
















With this year's crazy, wet weather the garden has been a bit off-schedule. I managed to get green beans, dry beans, corn and cowpeas in during a break in the rain along with tomatoes and peppers, but have been quite late with the rest of the warm season crops - squash, melons, cotton, okra. These I finally got planted just in the last week or so.
We're beginning to pick green beans and am finding that I'm well pleased with the bush variety "Strike." Another variety that I'll definately plant again is the pole variety "Grandma Nellie's Mushroom Bean." My standby pole varieties are Kentucky Wonder and Rattlesnake, which is quite tolerant of the heat. The garlic I planted last fall is almost ready to harvest.










The squash and melons have germinated quickly in the warmth and abundant moisture;











The experimental plot of hulless oats are turning. . .









And the corn will be ready soon.











We've been thankful for the abundant rain, as we know well that in a matter of a week or two the southern plains can turn quite desert-like. Looks like more rain's on the way.

Till next time (hopefully not so long a time), blessings.

Judy