Creating Your Own Happiness

This past year was a year of personal revelations for me. I am creeping up on 40 you see.  Last July I found myself soul searching deeper then I’ve ever dug before.   I asked myself, ” what makes me happy” and “what makes me not”.  I formulated a mental list and well I must admit I was a little verbal too.  And damn I’ve been sticking to it and for that I am in a peaceful space!


  

Overall I would consider myself a pretty happy person, although I have my moments…usually hormonally driven.  But I would find myself in situations that did make me a tad bit miserable.  For instance, I HATE shoveling load after load of mulch hay to the compost pile.   Maine Man not so much, he views it as a work out that he actually accomplishes something other then the work out.  I would much prefer to go to the gym and get my butt whipped by a coach.  I LOVE goats, they are a lot of fun but they are also a TON of work and if you have enough of them they can be very costly.  I loved milking, the process of it and the availability of fresh, raw milk .   But it was time consuming and tied me down big time.  I decided to get rid of the goats, I now spend five to eight dollars a week for a gallon of fresh, organic, raw Jersey milk.  Much freakin easier and a heck of a lot less money then all those stinkin’ goats were consuming.





When we first started this journey on the farm my thoughts were to be as self-sufficient as possible.  I slowly realized how much work that was.  Really, it is a full-time job plus.  I am now in a place that I don’t feel we need to do all.  There are other off-farm adventures in life I want to and will experience. Looking back I spent enough money taking beekeeping classes and getting set up to tend bees that I probably could have supplied us with local honey for the next 5 years.  Crazy, huh?  My plan is to offer up our land to an experienced bee keeper to put his or her hives here and I will follow them around and learn as I go before jumping on that bandwagon again.  Therefore we will get all the benefits of the bees, hands on training, and maybe a little honey too.  I would also recommend to anyone getting into bees to join a bee club….a mistake I made.  They are complex little buggers, more so then most can imagine.  It is nice to have experienced people to guide you through your beekeeping experience.


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I do like honey especially on homemade toast with a bit of peanut butter but maple syrup is my preferred natural sweetener of choice.  Fortunately, despite the wacky winter we had we still managed to put up approximately 4 gallons of syrup for pancakes, waffles, and I use it in my coffee. Maine Man is also in the process of making some maple wine.  Can’t wait to sample that.




In addition to weeding out the things that create misery in daily farm life I also made a stance on a personal level.  Instead of constantly doing for others I plan in time for taking care of me on a regular basis.  My kids are older now and very independent.  I am a much happier momma/wife for that.  I will end this rant with a saying that pretty much sums it up…..

• Eat like you love yourself.
• Move like you love yourself.
• Speak like you love yourself.
• Act like you love yourself.

 

Bad to the Bone!

Last Sunday, Mother's Day Bob FINALLY met his maker. He was the farm bully and everyone feared him except Maine Man. Bob didn't mess with MM very often, only tangled with him on rare occasions. His near death experiences reminded him to stay clear of MM. However he picked on everyone else and I was his #1 target, he made me cry on more than one occassion. So basically if you planned on being within 8 feet of him you'd best have a weapon although that did not always stop him. Really... he has attacked me with a pitch fork in hand. He's picked on the kids, both my parents knocking my mom to the ground and he once left a spur in my already injured father's leg. We gave him away once with fair warning and by the end of the summer he returned. As of lately he had become more aggressive running rapidly from afar unexpectedly and I had ENOUGH! That morning I awoken to Flower Girl screaming "Boooooooob". She was out picking fresh eggs to cook me breakfast in bed. Country Boy came up to my room and I said "kill him". With no resistance CB went out and did the deed. They skinned him and he & all the fixings were in the crock pot by 9 am. After all day simmering he was tough as heck. I feed out what meat I could pull off the bones to the dogs. I'm sure our Boxer, Rona took great pleasure in eating Bob because she often fell victim of his violent attacks. The broth I saved for soup stock. Tonight I cooked up a DELICIOUS Asparagus Bisque and the rest I froze. The recipe came from this Bed & Breakfast web site for anybody that is interested. (under lunch then soups). Some of the asparagus came from our garden (first time ever!!) and since I did not have enough some was store bought :)
It has taken a little getting use to not being guarded in the farm yard but it has been a pleasure!

Almost That Time of the Year!

Maine Man ordered broilers (Cornish Rocks) and a new flock of RI Reds. For any of you locals we may have some laying hens to sell and we will definitely have some broilers. We will keep about 25 each for ourselves. I am just waiting to hear back from one friend before I can promise out any of the layers. We will have more later in the season because Country Boy will be getting his incubator going in the next month or so. Let me know if your interested.

Bob Strikes AGAIN ~ day 10

He is EVIL, I swear!

Meanest animal on the farm!

SOON to meet his maker.....

Last week I was the target as I bent over to feed the chickens. He wasn't even phased by the pitch fork I was holding. I was tempted to end him right then. This morning my Dad was the victim. Drew blood and all, even left a spur in his leg. If you've ever been victim of a rooster attack you know how painful it is. I may insist on doing the kill as I have been the victim of most of his attacks.

Wordless Wednesday~BBQ Chicken

Chicks

I think this is our third year of raising broilers. We buy them as day olds and raise them to 6-8 weeks old. They arrived the same day these RI Reds were hatching in County Boy's incubator.

Note the size difference. There is a reason why people do not raise layers for eating.


Now that their feathers are almost in they will go out to pasture within a few days.

We still had some chicken in the freezer from last fall so we only kept 22 and we sold the extras. We will raise another batch come fall. Traditionally we freeze them whole as roasters but this batch I plan to part out. Nothing like boneless chicken breast on the grill!

Thankful for the chicken plucker MM built that makes butchering much easier and cost effective.

Baby Chicks

Back in February Country Boy & I filled his incubator with eggs.

Just as we read, 21 days later... March 13th they began to make their way into the world.

10 days after we put them in the incubator we candled all 41 of them, 6 were not fertile. I was unable to capture this experience in photos but I did get it on video. Let's just say it was AWESOME. You could see those little buggers just floating around in the shell. We were all rather excited by our findings.

19 out of the 35 fertile eggs hatched. Some of the chicks died and some just never made their way out of their shells.

What we've learned, what we will do differently next time around?

• Be sure that there is water in the base of the humidifier at ALL times.
• Don't even peel the eggs a little to help the chicks get out. We did a little because it is just tempting. I do not think it helps and do think it can contribute to their demise. They will come out when they are ready and if they don't, it wasn't meant to be.

Country boy sold 10 today and has 9 left. I doubt they will be here but another day or two. Chicks go fast this time of year. Duck eggs our next experiment. They will be going in tonight.

Stocking Up

We chuckled as our friend backed in our yard to return our chicken plucker and this is what filled his pick-up. 50 cases of canning jars. Hannaford was selling 1 quart cases for $2.50 and 1 pint cases for $2.00. The best part is he sold me some! I bought $28 worth (12 cases). BARGAIN!!!!

Speaking of the chicken plucker that was the 4 or 5th time we have lent it out and MM has used it several times. We have made our money back+++ . The kids and MM just did up 70 Cornish rocks.

For anyone new to reading this blog MM built a chicken plucker a while back, the post is here.
According to my traffic feed that I occasionally peak at this is the #1 post visited. The second most is another of MM's post is how to skin a pig. Funny how the only 2 posts he has ever done are the most popular. Well he has been talking about building a wind turbine so if and when that ever happens I am sure he'll post about. So lucky to have such a handy man!

How to Build a Chicken Plucker

Back in the game! I apologize for the break but I just could not keep up with everything. The pig roast went well and I will share pictures soon. I never did catch up on reading other blogs but hope to in the near future. The following post is written by Maine Man.

I'll start by saying thank you to Angie & Eric over at Children in the Corn for giving us plans to build this project! I had been looking at the whiz-bang chicken plucker on the Internet for a couple of years but I probably would not have carried through without the plans.

The plucker fingers came from Kent Company which is based out of Florida. They were very helpful and friendly folks. These silly little pieces of rubber were one of the most expensive items in the project costing approximately $120 with shipping. Most of the other parts I had with exception to the lumber, screws, and coupling.

Prior to installing 120 plucker fingers you should first drop a brick on your toe while listening to some very loud aggressive music. Anger will make these buggers go in a bit easier. Beveling the outside of the 3/4 inch hole and standing inside the barrel while pulling inward is also a big help. Some liquid encouragement may be needed for this portion of the project. Take note of the redness and veins in my forehead.

I lag screwed the frame together and sealed all the wood with some leftover stain I had kicking around the shed. When I first saw this contraption I thought the tub spun like a washing machine but that is not the case, it is just there to contain the birds.


This is the feather plate, the part that performs the actual plucking process. The plan called for a 1/4 inch plate of aluminum which was rather costly to purchase. Instead I opted to build it from the bottom portion of the barrel and 3/4 inch plywood. I attached them together with #14 self taping screws. It made a rock solid inexpensive plate.


Rather than use a belt and pulley system as the plan calls for I used the auger blade gearbox from an old snow blower that was in the barn. It was a 10:1 ratio which worked perfect with an electric motor that turns 1725 rpm and giving me a speed of around 175 rpm on my feather plate. The bearing block you see on the picture above is an idler wheel off a snowmobile suspension. I installed a jack shaft bearing, the type with a locking ring. That part was from a snowmobile as well. You know you live in Maine when half of your Yankee ingenuity involves some sort of snow related items. Despite this confabulation of parts its construction is far stronger that it needs to be and I am certain it will last for years, perhaps a lifetime.




This is a love joy coupling. It worked great for attaching the electric motor to the transmission. On the first try I weld up a rigid coupling. I had alignment issues which caused quite a bit of vibration. The love joy has a rubber connector in the middle which is tolerant of misalignment and only cost $22.
I had a 1/3 hp motor in the shed off an old bench grinder. Once again I deviated from the plans which called for a 3/4 hp. I knew as soon as I spent $200 on a new one a free-be would appear. As luck would have it my father-in-law was given one by his neighbor. I've yet to install it but must say the 1/3 hp did an excellent job on the average size birds and also worked on the 10lb birds but would bind up on occasions.


The one thing I need to add is a splash guard around the feather plate outlet to keep the chicken soup off your legs and out of your boots. Spraying the bird with the garden hose as it is being plucked keeps the fingers free of feathers and speeds up the process. The process is so amazing, you never realize your boots are filling with chicken juice until you turn off the plucker.

On the left side there is a plastic tote that I modified to keep the electric motor clean and dry.

Looks like fun, who's next?




The finished product 30 seconds later. Bald is beautiful, especially when it comes to chickens. This one dislocated a wing shortly after it became separated from its head. This has been an ongoing problem for me. I have found completely restraining the bird helps keep the muscle spasms from breaking wings but it's not always 100% effective in treating separation anxiety. I've yet to try the killing cone method. Perhaps on the next batch of birds I will.



You must have a thermometer or the whiz bang plucker will make a mess of your birds very quickly. The picture below clearly shows what guess work will get you, boneless chicken every time.
Scald your birds for approximately 30 seconds @ 13o degrees. You'll notice the color of the shin which is normally a yellowish white color will develop a tanish appearance at which point is prime for plucking.

Oops, too hot! Better get out the knife and start boning.

I caught, killed, and plucked seventeen 8-10lb birds in just 40 minutes by myself, not too shabby. It cost about $200 to build. Without my extreme frugalness it would have cost closer to $400. That still is not bad considering similar factory built models start around $1200. I figure we will save a bundle in the long run. Our local butcher charges $3/chicken, $5/turkey and $7 or more for ducks and geese. Plus you have to make an appointment 3 weeks in advance. (don't I hate those long term commitments) Heaven forbid life goes astray and you have to reschedule. That will put you have 3 more weeks.....200 lbs of grain later.

By summers end we will have raised approximately 24 ducks, 80 chickens, and 5 turkeys for the freezer. This means it has more than paid for itself in the first year of use. More importantly than the money it has given us easy access to high quality food and a greater feeling on Independence which is priceless!

Sunday Stills ~Plants & Flowers

Back in the game.... it has been a while since I participated in Sunday Stills. Above is some garlic we planted last fall. We planted 3 types in which I only remember the name of one, Red Russian. I bought 2 varieties at a local grange hall sale from a lady that works at Johnny's. The other variety was purchased at the grocery store and I haven't a clue what it is. We are real good about planting around here but when it comes to keeping track of varieties we re REALLY lacking. I will attempt to better organize our garden records this year.

MM (finally) ordered the fingers for the chicken plucker that he plans to build. The only parts that we are still looking for is a barrel and an 3/4 hp electric motor. We have 40 broilers that are almost ready to go.

~Sunday Stills ~ Reflections

It is that time of the week again for Sunday Stills photo challenge. It always creeps up on me and here I sit trying to get my post in before I head off to bed. This was a hard one for me. I took a bunch of shots in the mirror, none that I liked. This would be have been perfect one for Spring when the ponds begin to open up. I took a quick peak at some of the other submissions and there are some real cool ones like this horse eye. I am amazed by the creativeness (not in me) that this challenge sparked in others. This is by far my favorite one and as the warm weather comes I will be looking for more opportunities to take pictures of reflections. Next week theme is the moon.


Did you see my Harvest 2009 update on my side bar? Egg count thus far is up to a whopping 500. That is because MM put a timer and a light out in the barn for them. We were averaging 8 eggs a day for quite sometime and now we are up to 2 dozen a day....back to what we were getting over the summer and fall.
I was fooling with some angle shots as that was last weeks photo challenge but I goofed. This is one of our 2 maple trees that we plan to tap for a first time real soon.


Answering a few questions from my last post:

Kyfarmlife, I did not make the bird feeder my dad did. It is just a can painted with wood sides hanging by a chain. That would be a good project to do with the kids this summer.

Farmgirl DK, my brother and I were raised separately because our parents divorced and my brother decided to live with my dad and I stayed with my mother. Not too much of a story, seems like an everyday occurrence in this day and age.

Resourceful

My mom picked up some canning jars at a lawn sale. They must have been from LONG ago because as you can see they were priced at $1.99. Well I guess it is ok that I invested in lots over the summer because they do not loose their value. I think she said she paid $3/box.
Before last year I only had a couple canning jars kicking around my cupboards. Now you never know where you'll find them! I even bought some of the 1/2 gallon ones...they have so many uses, I'm addicted. They also sell the plastic covers so after you open a jar you can replace with that so the metal doesn't get rusty prematurely. They also work great for dried goods: beans, almonds if you buy in bulk, flour, sugar. I even drink out of them. Nothing like ice water with a straw straight from a mason jar. I also like to store broth and soups and stew in them. By summer I will have them filled with goat milk. I CAN'T WAIT!

We were not able to get into the butcher for 3 more weeks for the meat birds so John decided that today was the day. While I worked and the kids were in school he processed all 30 meat birds. That is a whole lot of work to do by yourself! He's the man I tell you!!!!
Total weight was about 120lbs and we did not have much money tied up because John bought extra birds and sold them which paid for a bunch of their feed and the cost of our birds and he did the processing which saved us $90.
Our freezers are maxed out. Not sure what we will do when he gets his deer and oh yeah the pigs?????

Just made my third batch of homemade laundry detergent. I will not go back to store bought. 1 batch last me about a month and costs only a couple dollars. It also gets my clothes squeaky clean! It is environmentally friendly the materials used in it's makings are borax, washing soda, and fels naphtha soap. Then their is 3 less plastic jugs that have to be produced. I also really like the all purpose cleaner. I have learned that the way to make all these homemade things work is to do it in quantity so you do not have to add these to your already busy weeks. Always looking for ways to save time and money! Last batch I made made enough to fill a half gallon jug, I used an old vinegar container. Now when my squirt bottle is out I fill it up quickly and viola I have just save myself $3 and that is one less isle I have to go down in the grocery store. Slowly I am distancing myself from the grocery store shelves....


On a final note I'd like to share of few good post I read this week


*7 reasons why it is better to buy used goods
*making pumpkin puree
*roasting sunflower seeds
*childhood memories and pumpkin pickles

ENJOY THE WEEKEND!

Sweet Smells of Fall

The last two weekends Flower Girl has made applesauce. It was another one of those firsts for me. I had never made homemade applesauce. Isn't that sad? Especially when your 6 year old tells you how to make it then proceeds to make it herself and the only assistance you provide is coring the apples. When she first mentioned that she wanted to do this and she "knows how" because she did it is school I was hesitant for a moment. Then I thought what the heck! Worse case scenario, pig food. It took her about 2 hours peeling, cutting, and then adding it all to a crock. Flower Girl's recipe as follows: "about 17 apples cut up small, 1 cup of honey, and a cup of cinnamon." We decided to do a half a batch and I convinced her to use 1 T. of cinnamon i/o a cup...she agreed and it was the BEST APPLESAUCE we've ever eaten! She cooked it on low over night in a crock and we ate it up in no time. She was some proud and so were we!


With the change of seasons you think of all the chores you won't have to do and then before you know it there is a whole other list of chores and need to do's before the next season.
Winterizing the house, setting up house for the critters in the barn, planting garlic, and back to hauling wood...yes our wood stove has been running for nearly a week. No complaints I feel fortunate that we have the wood to burn and do not have to depend on oil. My Maine Man worked hard all summer and put up about 9 cord. I am so thankful that we have him. Without John, we could not function! There is not a thing he does not do (except toilets and he would if he had to) We love him so and appreciate all he does!
It has been brisk here in Maine and some folks even had a bit of the white stuff today...soon we will be shoveling.

We have also been trying to get caught up on some inside tasks that have been patiently waiting through the gardening season. I've painted both the kids floors, (they have the old wood floors) painted the mud room "barn red" (love the color), and we soon will be putting up trim work in the kitchen....yeah ha, it has been 2 years coming.

I took the turkeys to the butchers last week. That was an experience! They were so big I did not have a cage to hold them so their last hours were on sheets in the back of the heated suburban jamming to "I've got friends in low places" by Garth Brooks. What a way to go.
I had one moment of feeling bad but it quickly passed. They had a good life!
I did not watch them get processed but I watched the ones after except for the initial kill, it was not that bad.

We ate our first "farm fresh turkey" last weekend and it was wicked yummy! (yes I'm a Mainer)
With the left overs I made turkey pie, turkey barley soup, turkey salad, froze a bag for stew and I made stock. We have 3 more in the freezer, the biggest weighed 30lbs.

The Cornish rocks are ready to go to freezer camp too. I am afraid we are going to have to process them ourselves because we cannot get them into the butcher for 3 more weeks and that means lots more grain, these guys are little piggies. More grain= $. I think we(John) will skin some instead of plucking and we will make ground chicken. I like it for meat loaf, spaghetti, and I bet it would make great meatballs.

Have you ever bragged before and it come back and bit you in the a@!? Like, "we haven't been sick all winter" and then you are all nearly hospitalized. For whatever reason this ALWAYS happens to me. I was bragging it up the other day that we had yet to have any predator problems and boom...Bam Bam our white duck gets taken out. Country Boy's duck of course, poor kid, he is starting to think he has a curse...his goat, his cat, now his duck. We discovered this the day after I was reading Hobby Farm Magazine and noticed that a picture I had submitted months before of the two ducks was published. I was so excited I got the kids out of bed to show them.
Funny how that all happened. Now the question is what to do with Pebbles? I say find her a partner and John says "find her a home"...we will see but it needs to be soon because I feel sad for her. I thought about mixing her in with the chickens over the winter because John wants to get ducks in the spring, not sure how she will do.
Next day I find a beheaded partridge....what next?
On a lighter note we got 2 little kitties named Gretta and Cookie...their sweet but mischievous!

Lastly, check out a post that Duane wrote over at the Funny Farm about mushrooms. Thanks Duane for your informative post and for answering my question!

Here is the recipe for TURKEY BARLEY SOUP

Ingredients:

• 6 cups chicken broth or turkey broth
• 1 to 2 cups diced cooked turkey
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 celery, stalks, chopped
• 3 carrots, sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf thyme
• 1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (about 2 teaspoons dried)

Preparation:

Combine broth, turkey, barley, onion, celery, carrots, bay leaf, thyme, marjoram, black pepper and parsley in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours, or simmer over low heat on the stovetop for 1 hour, or until the carrots are tender and the barley is soft.
Serves 4 to 6

here is the site the recipe comes from

Open for Business

John set up the stand once again. We sold about $80 worth over the weekend. We had an honor system vegetable stand for 6 weeks during the summer taking in $50-$60/week. It was a learning experience but I think we will do again next summer. I realized quickly that selling veggies is not a huge money maker and does require some effort. I hope that as the kids get older they may take it over. It will be a good experience for them and a way to make some money. It is also nice to chat with the locals and a good way to get rid of extra produce. We also sell eggs on a regular basis when we have extra at $2.00/ dozen. We put them out in a cooler by the road with a sign. The cooler is always empty within a few hours. All these little things we do helps to pay for grain for all the critters.

We had an eventful weekend carving pumpkins and cooking the seeds....

....painting pumpkins. I am am working on a witch one, pictures to come.

Leah's ghost

I forgot to mention we sold all those chicks right after I posted the OMG we have 200 chickens post. We have 30 left that will be in the freezer in a few weeks.

FALL MADNESS

This summer we raised 23 meat birds, another first for us. They were honestly the best chickens I've ever eaten! We were down to 4 or 5 in the freezer and I mentioned to John that I'd like to get some more because I didn't care to eat store bought chickens again. Same thing that happened after having laying birds, now I only want farm fresh eggs....I see a pattern here.
So for all you that know John or have followed this blog know that John is always looking for a good deal and the more chicks you buy the cheaper. So you know it he ordered 200 chicks and received 208 because you always get a few extras. He was hoping to sell 150 or so but, here we are in Maine, it is September but it feels like November and we still have 177 left (30 went to a new home and 1 died ) YIKES!!!
Guess you know what everyone is getting for Christmas this year!
I did want to declare a homemade Christmas this year...homegrown same thing right?
I guess we'll just keep our fingers crossed and hope we get some calls or take some to the auction.

Neglected goats

That is a sweet potato, I was thrilled to see the vine actually produced something. We didn't realize that you could grow them in Maine. They started out as an experiment after seeing it on others blogs. I can't wait to dig them up!

A Blue Heron at the pond. I tried all summer to get a picture of him (her) and finally Luke was able to capture the moment .

Last year we planted edamames and the beans were real tiny, this year they came out perfect, not sure if it was because of all the rain we had this season or because we left them on the plant longer?

We harvested approx 6 bunches of celery. We have relentlessly planted this year after year with no success until this year.

As usual this year we had many more tomatoes than we wanted to process. My neighbor and I purchased this sauce master from Johnny's Select Seed . John and I processed a bushel basket of tomatoes in 30 minutes. We are very pleased with how well it worked just turn the handle and the skins and seeds shoot out the end and sauce flows out the side. The basket made 31/2 gallons and we added peppers onions and spices and turned it into a great spaghetti sauce. The skins and seeds were feed to the pigs.


Lastly, a picture for John's Aunt Bea that requested a more recent photo. This is last June, John's graduation.



That is it for now I need to get some rest I am headed to the Common Ground Fair in the morning with friends from work.
Happy Weekend! :)