Today's To-Do List

Monday is my day off and I'm staying super busy! This is more for my purposes but in case you're interested, here's what is on my agenda:

-Can more green beans (they're on the stove now)
-Bake bread
-Call the builder
-Call the plumber
-Call on prices for an automatic cattle waterer
-Balance the checkbook/pay bills
-Find the title for a trailer we're selling
-Call the orchard to order peaches (Mmmm!)
-Scope out vacation destinations online (this is coming up fast!)
-Make the weekly menu plan
-Make granola bars if time allows
-Finish knitted baby shower gift and make progress on wedding gift

The bathroom needs to be painted and the landscape worked on but it is incredibly hot and humid/sticky so I won't be doing either of those things today. I'm hoping to bust through the rest of the list so I can just knit and work on the bread.

I'd love to hear what you're doing today! :)

Busy Day, We're tired

So I may not have mentioned it yet but both Brian and I's moms are moving or planning to move. Brian's Mom has to be out of her house by the end of August. It isn't as bad as it could be since she moved out of there and in with her husband quite a few years ago. It has been really tough for her though because Brian's Dad and brother have both passed away and a lot of there stuff was in the house and had to be sorted through. We also had a lot of stuff left in the house from when we lived there before moving to the farm. If you haven't heard, Michigan's economy bites and almost no houses are selling. Someone actually came to Brian's Mom and made her a really good offer on the house - it wasn't even for sale. I think this is meant to be and I'll be so glad when it is done.

My Mom is planning to move closer to us next spring. Right now her and my little sister live about 45-60 minutes away from us. My sister will be graduating from high school next year. So far we haven't found a house for them but we're really hoping one will open up very close to us. I grew up with my Aunt right next door and loved going to visit. I keep saying I don't want to have to drive, when we have kids and they wear me out I want to say, "Go see your Grandma!!" and mean it. They're aren't many houses around us so we'll see what happens.

So all of this means that we needed to get all of our stuff out of both houses. Today was the day. My Mom and sister brought what was left at their house. They met me at Brian's Mom's house and helped me get the rest of the little stuff. Now all that is left is some furniture and a few things for Brian, plus he has to get stuff out of the shop there.

We worked at our house ALL DAY to organize the upstairs, haul everyone's old crap out, and move our stuff in. Every one in Brian's family left stuff in our attic. We tried to save some of the important things but at this point I feel like they should have come and got their things by now. Our porch is packed full of junk to go out to the trash. I hate throwing it all away but who is going to want a box of old waders, shoes, and mouse poop? We set aside anything salvageable to donate.

We did find a lot of cool pictures and old letters - I'll share more about that as soon as we have time to look through them. I'm so glad we're one step closer to make this house our home, instead of free storage for everyone else.

After that Brian and I moved 75 bales of hay in to the neighbor's mow. I almost never have to move hay anymore and it is HARD when you haven't been using those muscles. Then I took a shower and made another batch of homemade oreos. Now I'm going to check some blogs and knit until I fall asleep.

Have a great night! What cool things have you found in your house? Did you work hard today or get to relax?

Pressure Canning Green Beans

I spent the day with my Mom yesterday and she taught me how to pressure can for the first time ever. I went in to this completely blind and was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was. Now I have a new skill to add to my list! Yay! Thanks Mom!


While this is in no way meant to be a guide to pressure canning I'll share a few pics and the basic process. That way if you find someone to teach you it won't be so mystifying.

The black pot has a strainer in it and boiling water. The silver one is the pressure canner with a few inches of water in the bottom. We snapped the beans in 2-3 inch pieces and removed the ends. Next, we rinsed them under cool water and put them in the black pot of boiling water. Once the water comes back to a boil they stay in for 5 minutes. At that point we pulled out the strainer, allowed the water to drain back in to the pot, and poured the beans in to the plastic strainer in the sink.


Then it is time to put the beans in the jars. I used the end of a wooden spoon to arrange them and filled them almost to the neck of the jar. The jars will get very HOT. Duh, but I'm a little slow.


You use the liquid from the black pot to fill the jars. Leave about 1 inch of headspace. Wipe the rim clean, then place the lids and rings on as usual.

Here's the fun part!! Put them in the pressure canner and secure the lid. We used the canner's owner's manual and the Ball canning book to figure out the specifics. For our canner we need moderate steam coming out of the little hole on top for 7-10 minutes. At that point we put the little weight on top of that hole. Stick with me here... each recipe calls for certain pounds of pressure. For our canner the piece with the black top equals 5 pounds and each silver ring is five additional pounds. So we put one ring on the black piece and set that over the steam hole. When the pressure reaches 10 pounds the steam comes out forcefully enough to rock the little weight back and forth. Once the weight starts rocking your processing time begins. I set the timer for 25 minutes.



When the time is up you just turn off the burner and wait. There is a little button thing on top of the canner that sticks up as long as it is holding pressure. When the button drops the pressure is gone. Then you can tip the weight sideways to check it. If no steam comes out it is safe to remove the lid. It took a very long time for the jars to cool, much longer than jam from what I remember. Therefore it also took a long time for them to seal.

By the way, 5# of grean beans from my garden = 4 full quarts. Not bad! :)

Do you pressure can? Isn't it fun!? What is your favorite food to pressure can?

County Fair Fun!

These pictures aren't the greatest but I wanted to share all the fun things that happened last week at our county fair!

Our niece bracing her lamb.

Our other neice, Jill. Her sheep was being very stubborn and holding up the class but Jill handled it like a champ.

Jill setting her lamb's feet in the proper place. She ended up winning her class!
Our nephew showing in the Cloverbud class. The little ones are supervised by an older helper and no ribbons are awarded. It is a great way for them to learn.

The best part: my caramel apple!!

It is hard to tell in this picture but this steer weighs 1800 pounds!

Aren't the sheep cute in their pajamas!

We went up on Sunday night to see the animals and exhibits. Then we went back on Tuesday to watch our nieces show their sheep. They did great and I learned a lot from watching.

Do you attend your county's fair? What's your favorite thing to see or do?

More About That Sheep... Update

This is a continuation of yesterday's post about a lamb we found dead. It might bore you but I thought some people might be interested in what we suspect to be the real cause of death, especially if you might raise sheep of your own someday.

We happen to have a relief vet at work this week so I shared my story of the dead lamb with her. She, of course, thought about it a little more logically than me. She pointed out that A)There is no way that all those intestines should have come out even if she had started a major coughing fit and B)Even if they did come out, that wouldn't have killed her. We hear about vaginal/uterine prolapses all the time and the cow or sheep simply lies there until the vet comes to put everything back in. The only way the prolapse itself would have killed that lamb is if there was a lot of blood loss or other trauma to those parts. I didn't see any blood or evidence of that when I found her.

So... what killed her? For that I called a nearby large animal vet that just loves these kind of stories. I gave him a brief history and told him how I found her. He agreed that she didn't die of the prolapse. The most common cause of these sudden deaths that he knows of is an internal abscess that suddenly ruptures. Say when she had her cough that there was infection in her lungs. Her body may have walled that off and build up a ton of white blood cells in the area. If she got to ramming around (excuse the pun) or kicking her feet up in the air the extra movement could have ruptured the abscess. Once all that infection was released in her body it would kill her quickly.

Then, when she died and her intestines quit pushing food through, the gas in her rumen (part of the stomach) built up and created a lot of pressure. Similar to how an animal on the side of the road bloats up. Since the muscles around her rectum were already weakened from when she was starting to prolapse before, that was the path of least resistance. Thus, the innards probably came out after she was already dead. We'll never know for sure what her actually cause of death was but I feel better knowing that I was right not to be concerned with the hint of a prolapse that she had before. The vet offered to open her up and look for an abscess somewhere. I think that would have been a great learning experience but I opted to go to the fair and cheer on our niece instead.

More on the fair later, just wanted to update on this first!

Disturbing Find and Thinking Like A Farmer

***This post contains unpleasant details and is not for the weak.***

I had a very unpleasant surprise this morning as I made my rounds doing chores. I found one of our lambs - dead. She was the first lamb born on the farm. The cause of death was pretty obvious. She had prolapsed rectally, which basically means quite a bit of her intestines had come out her rear end. She developed a cough when she was quite young and as a result she put a lot of strain on the muscles that hold everything in. She would show a small rim of pink flesh around the rear occasionally. After moving the lambs out to pasture a few weeks ago things seemed to be getting much better for her. I haven't seen her cough for a good 2 weeks and there was no sign of a prolapse beginning. Last night she ate very well right along with the other lambs and acted very normal.

On one hand, I totally blame myself. I should have taken quicker action and treated her with supplements or found some way to eliminate this problem. On the other hand, I had every indication that the problem had solved itself. The thing that really gets me is to think that she must have been in a great amount of pain. I did chores last night before 7 PM and didn't go out there again until this morning. I don't think there is much I could have done had I found her alive but putting her down would have been more humane.

I can see a big change in my thinking since even last year. I love animals and I want them to have the most comfortable, healthy life we can provide for however long that may be. Now I'm learning to balance that with practicality and economics. Rectal prolapse is a known problem in show lambs and it is certainly not something I would want to breed for. If I had fixed this problem and wanted to sell the lamb I would have felt dishonest and sneaky for passing her along to someone else. She probably would have been headed for the dinner table at that point, which is one of the purposes of our herd anyway.

So, while this is a really sad start to the morning, I'm not bawling or feeling like a failure, which is good enough for me!! :)

Any similar experiences to share? How do you deal with having farm animals, if you do?

Freezer Cooking: Twin Meat Loaves

Way back when I was looking for new post ideas the topic of freezer cooking came up. I think there was quite a bit of interest in that and yet I've never posted about it since, until now. I'll try to post some recipes from time to time under the heading and label "Freezer Cooking: ________". I thought I had already posted this recipe as a single loaf version but couldn't find it.

This recipe comes from Farm Journal's Country Cookbook. I got my copy from my Grandma's basement and I love it. It really is appropriate for the way we are trying to live and generally avoids "add in seasoning packet" or "3 cups Bisquick".

Twin Meat Loaves

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 c. milk
1 1/2 c. bread crumbs
2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 c. chopped carrot
2 lbs. ground beef

Break two eggs in a bowl and until well broken. Add rest of ingredients and mix well. You'll have to use your hands to get this done in a reasonable amount of time, or I guess maybe a hand mixer would work. Pack into two greased 7 1/2x4x2" pans - I used my narrow bread pans that come close.
Pop the pans in the freezer for a few hours or overnight. Once frozen, tap the loaves out on a plate or cutting board. Wrap well with tin foil. You could also use the plastic out of a cereal box along with brown paper if you're trying to cut back on foil. Label with black permanent marker: BAKE @ 350 f FOR 1 HOUR.

When you go to cook these you can drop them in the pans frozen and thaw them in the fridge that way. I've cooked them straight out of the freezer and they were still done in just over an hour. I actually cooked one for 2 hours when something happened with the sheep and I forgot about it. It didn't dry out or burn even after all that time so it is pretty much foolproof. I don't eat ground meat at all but hubby says this is one of the better meat loaves he's had, he really likes it.

I usually thaw a bunch of hamburger and make 6 or 8 loaves at a time. It is a great back up for a day when I'm out of ideas. Happy freezer cooking!