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