An update...Finally !!!!

Sorry to all my very faithful readers for my sparse posting. Life happened. With taking care of this little farm and my girls very little time is left for anything else it seems. Busy time for anyone that has a garden to tend too, most of you do I know.

So here is a little of what's going on in my neck of the woods. Plowed the garden a few weeks ago I think.....planted some taters, onions, broccoli and lettuce. I have some mater seeds started and peppers and cuke's too. The cuke's are already up too, in only 4 days they sprouted. Planting all heirloom seeds this year, nothing else. I ordered the Survival Seed Vault on the banner on the sidebar and I am VERY PLEASED !!! I should never have to buy seed again, not too bad for a hundred bucks either. Click on the banner and look at all you get. A big thanks to Bullseye for letting me know about the seeds and for showing me how to get the banner for my blog too. If you want to have this banner on your blog just click the link below the banner and sign up, it's that easy. I think you get a few bucks too if someone buys the seeds from your banner. Hey, you offer a great product at a great price and everybody wins, I like the sound of that. Anyway, order you some heirloom seeds and get signed up to have the banner too, maybe will can all make a buck in the end. LOL

My pygmy goat, Emily never did have her kids, I think she must have lost them somewhere along the way. I was really looking forward to see those little babies too. I'm going to breed her again real soon and try again. Liv is out of town this week with the girls and the camera or I would post on recent pics of the kids, they are growing like crazy.

Chickens are really starting to get in the groove too. Been getting 4 or 5 eggs a day from my 7 layers. Ducks are laying like crazy too. One of the hens is setting on 15 eggs and I think they should hatch in a week or so. It takes the Muscovy's 33 days to hatch I think. I know it's longer than any chicken or any other duck. Guess that's why they're so pretty, they get to take their time. hehe!!

Got a few apple trees planted too. I hope to get a few more next week. Lowes has them for $19.95, well, 20 bucks. lol Planted a Granny Smith and a Red Delicious so far. I would love to have 10 or 12 trees, that would be great. But like everything else, not enough time or money to go around. Maybe later.

Well, I better get back to work. Talk to you soon, I promise.

Chris

I'm a dough beater

After all the waiting for the starter to do it's thing, I finally have sour dough bread. Believe me...It was worth the wait. If you don't remember I used this recipe here. I got it a little brown but man it's great. The crust was really hard when we got it out of the oven but after cooling over night it was just right. I never knew that could happen. I thought it was just gonna be tough but the next morning it was fine. If any of you give this recipe a try please let me know you yours turns out too.

Warren ask in a comment on the last post about my smoking and my cokes. Thank you Warren for asking and I am doing some better the last few days. The numbers I was posting just seemed to make it harder for me and I felt that i was letting others down each day I posted my results. I will start next week, on Monday, posting better results for us all. Thank Warren for asking about it. I was hoping...I mean thinking everyone had forgot about it. LOL

I am sorry I have been so long answering comments.....I have been busy helping out some friends. Is that a good enough excuse???? Thanks for staying with me.

Chris

Helping out

I'm gonna be helping out over at Kentucky Preppers Network a little. Sharing what little I can about preparedness and such. Their asking folks that live in this area to help out with the blog and I'm gonna do all I can to help. I encourage all of ya to check in with your states preppers network and try to lend a hand, I know they'll appreciate it. There's a lot of things to prep for if ya ask me, natural disasters, financial disasters ( I've got experience with that one big time,lol), civil unrest, food storage and many many more. I feel that we all need to answer the call for help for these prepper networks, it's just the "Christian thing to do" as Larry the Cable Guy would say. I'll still be posting here as always, maybe not quite so often at first so please bear with me. I'll keep ya informed of all the goin's on here on the farm and all that crazy other stuff ya'll seem to get a kick out of. I'll be gettin back at ya soon.

Back at Bread Again

Well, I'm a bread lover. Just about any and every kind of bread will do. Found a good Sourdough Bread recipe over a Hallland 1896 and wanted to give it a try. Liv and Savannah also like Sourdough Bread too, so it's a win win for me. Just got my starter mixed and now it's wait and see time. Looking pretty good so far, it's working away. If you're interested in learning to make this Sourdough Bread Starter jump over to Hallland 1896 and give it a look. Come on, you know you want to. I'll keep ya posted as to my results.

A few experiments in alternative energy

Alternative energy is something that is always on my mind. I of course want/need to find ways to do this on the cheap. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know I always try to find the cheapest and most efficient solution to any problem I have. I have been reading a lot of the posts over at Dragon's blog. He has a really nice set up that he has put together on a small budget. He has also coined a new phrase "The Re-Volt". Dragon's system is mostly a 12vdc system. By using 12vdc devices you avoid loosing energy through the use of an inverter. There are many things you can purchase that use 12vdc. 12vdc electric blanket is one that I thought was great! Check Dragon's post and links for more very informative 12vdc systems.

I have a few things that can be used to generate some alternative energy too. One being a small solar panel that I took off of my solar electric fence charger. Here it is while in the sun and hooked up to my new meter. In the sun producing 11.71 amps.

OK, so how can I use this? I just happen to have a lawn mower battery that has a very low charge. Here you can see it's reading 5.52 vdc rather than the 12vdc a fully charged battery should read.

I hooked the solar panel to the battery. Placing the meter between the positive leads.




A reading of 4.50 amps are entering the battery through the solar panel.



This reading is made with the solar panel attached and not much sun at this time. You can see that the power from the battery and the solar panel combined are now 10.13 volts. After charging for a few hours I will take another reading to see what the battery alone reads. Update!! 1 1/2 hours later--no sun, nearly total cloud cover and the battery now reads 7.59 volts. The small solar panel is charging the battery. I have not charge controler so I will have to keep close check on it. That is good news for sure.

Another project that may be of use is the cordless drill motor/generator. This is just a motor taken from a cordless drill. I had a blower wheel that I think I got from an old air conditioner. Attached the blower wheel to the motor shaft with a wooden dowel rod. Not the best set up but it was what I had at the time, so... I then took the rig over the the overflow from my pond. This overflow runs year round. By placing the wheel, which is now the turbine, so that the water passes over the turbine thus turning it, I can produce a small amount of dc power. A very small amount is all I was able to get from this. 0.15 amps. I will be doing a lot more work on this set up. I know that Dragon uses this as a wind turbine and gets good results from it but I don't get much wind. The overflow runs year round though and may be the best for me.

200 th Post

It's hard to believe that I have sat at this computer and clicked 'New Post" 200 times. But you know these puters, they never lie. hehe!! post # 200 comes with an Award too, can you believe it. Shiloh Farms has given this blog "The Lemonade Stand Award". A big thanks to Shiloh Farms. She has a great blog and was given this award and was kind enough to pass it on to me as well. Once again Shiloh Farms, Thank you !!

The Lemonade Stand Award

Seems there are a few rules to accepting this award. There so easy even I can do it.

The Rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post

2. Nominate 10 blogs that show gratitude or great attitude or both

3. Be sure to link your nominees within your post

4. Let them know they have received this award by commenting on their blog

5. Share the love and link this post to the person whom you received your award from

Told ya it was easy. So here are the blogs that I pass this award on to. Hard to pick only 10 but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do.

1. Amy Twelve Acres

2. Throwback at Trapper Creek

3. Self Sustained Living

4. Farm Dreams

5. A View from the Green Barn

6. Woody's Rocky Ridge

7. My Home among the Hills

8. Wretha's Adventures Living Off Grid

9. Melissa's Ramblings

10. Hallland 1896

This list could have gone on and on but, I can only choose 10. Be sure to check 'em out, you're gonna like what ya see, I just know it. Well, I guess I had better let them know the good news.

Once again, thanks Shiloh Farms, appreciated ya.

In other news, we made bread tonight. Sandwich bread that is. Got the recipe here. We eat a lot of bread, we make sandwiches all the time. At nearly $2.50 for a loaf of bread we thought it was well worth a try. Pretty easy so far, it's still in the oven. I'll try to post ya some pics tomorrow, it's getting late. Boy it sure smells go though. One thing to remember is, warm that milk so the yeast gets kinda frothy when mixed together and I should have melted the butter too. Just wanted to mention that in case you want to give this bread a try.

Laundry Soap and New Blog

Well, we ran out of laundry detergent today and I thought I would whip up a batch that I had seen on a blog that I read often. Cath posted how to make it and I referred back to the post before I went to town to pick up the ingredients. God, I hate to have to leave the farm for anything, just don't care much for the outside world anymore at all. Too busy for me. Anyhow I got my goods and once back home mixed them just like Cath said. Wow, it works great !! I had made some once before that was a liquid soap and I just didn't care for it. It worked ok, but was kinda clumpy. This batch is a keeper for sure. Thanks Cath for the inspiration, seems reading blogs is where most of mine come from these days. Speaking of which, Cath has a new blog where she has come out of the closet about her food storage activities. I think she came out of the closet so she could make some more room for her massive canned food supplies. Anyhow, check out her new blog with pantry pictures for all of us food storage lovers. She and Big Daddy have a pretty nice set up looks like to me. It's worth your time to check it out just to see the cabin where she and Big Daddy and the kids hang out on long weekends. Give 'em a look, your gonna love that cabin... I do....

This Post is for Amy

My dear friend Amy has started a new blog that showcases her vintage items that she has collected over time. Her new blog lets us all see the wonderful pieces she has and gives us some information on them or asks questions when she's not sure. Amy has a great blog and I encourage you all to go and see the vintage stuff she has, Amy is what I like to call "Good People". She has a really nice green bowl that belonged to her aunt on there now. This got me to thinking about a green bowl that we have and I wanted to share it with Amy and all of you too.

Picked this one up at an estate sale a few years ago along with a box of other glassware. This one kinda struck my eye because it is such an unusual shape. No name or mark of any kind on it anywhere. I have never seen another one quite like it, it is a 3 sided bowl and came with utensils which is very unusual as well. The utensils are plastic which started to be popular during the 60's. To me it's just a real pretty green salad bowl. I am not a collector but I keep what I like and I like this one.

This is one of my favorites, I'm sure you all remember the Spruce Goose. This cup is made by Anchor Hocking.

Check out this Wonderful Christmas Story

In my travels around the internet and world the of bloggers I found another good'n. Goats in the Garden, and they have a wonderful Christmas Story that I would encourage everyone to read. It will only take a few minutes but you will want to stay longer and enjoy the rest of the blog too. So, head on over and tell 'em The Scavenger sent ya over. Follow this link and enjoy.

http://goatsinthegarden.blogspot.com/2008/12/favorite-christmas-story.html

Pumpkin Puree and Family Visit

My mother and father came to visit from West Virginia. We are always glad to have them, just wish they could come more often and stay longer. Katie kept them very busy while they were here. Mawmaw was worn out by the time bedtime rolled around. Katie and Mawmaw wearing silly hats.

Come on down here Pawpaw and play with us, oh, I'm getting sleepy.

Before they arrived, Katie and I made some pumpkin puree for pumpkin chocolate cupcakes. I read about them over at my buddy Warren's blog. Be sure to check it out, they were great.

Before you start any project of this manner you must first find a good helper which I am lucky to always have on hand. After cutting a fresh pumpkin in half Katie removed all the seeds.

Once the seeds are removed they look a little something like this.

Place the pieces in a bowl with a little water and microwave for 15 mins. to cook the pumpkin.

Once cooked remove the meat from the skin. I use a knife and fork in this manner and it works fine for me.




We then place the pieces in a mixing bowl like so.


Got out our handy dandy immersion blender.


The blades on the end just destroy the soft cooked pumpkin.

After about 60 seconds the deed is done.

Once you have done all the above you can simply put it into a freezer bag and then into the freezer for later use. We got 3 cups from this one small pie pumpkin, used 2 cups for the cupcakes, be sure to read about those here.

Name Droping

I just wanted to take the time to suggest a few blogs that may be of interest to all, they sure are to me. I read many blogs, mostly homesteading and farm blogs, and they always give me new ideas and new insight into farm and homesteading in general. Here are just a few of my daily reads. Give them a read I know you will enjoy them as much as I do. Hillbill2be over at Homesteading Hickory Hills always has a great post about his familys homesteading adventures. He is a Pallet Master if I have ever seen one. This guy can make anything out of old pallets and make it look great. You have got to see his chicken coop and newly built pig pen. I am honored to call him a friend. Next I love to read Dragons posts at Circle of the Oroborus. He's a wild man that keeps us all up to date on prepping for when the SHTF. He's a deep thinker and a straight shooter. He preps daily and when the Poop does hit the fan this guy's gonna be ready. Then we have Big Bear over at Bear Ridge Project posting about his eventual move to his off-grid cabin in the woods on Bear Ridge. Big Bear is a smart guy that knows what he's doing and is good enough to share it with us. I look forward to each post knowing I will come away with something I can use in my situation. You've got read Wrethas 100% off-grid. She is living a dream, well really hers and mine. She and her hubby took the leap and left the city behind. Now they live on a mountian in the Texas desert in their very own cabin. 100% off-grid and loving it, you can tell from the tone of her posts. Wretha has a great post on buying food online today, check it out. Another blog that I just found a few days ago is Notes from Chickenland. The chicken lady has the only garden I have ever seen with wall to wall carpet, really! She has a bunch of pictures of this great way to keep weeds down and conserve moisture, I think she's onto something with this idea. She and her hubby are true Scavengers. Give 'em a read and see some of the things they have found.