Things since last year's post (sorry sorry) A textile/rug loom (a Macomber Ad-A-Harness built in 1950), spinning wheels (yes, plural), carding machine, wool sheep on the property, joined a Spinners group AND a Weavers group too! I've participated in demonstrations for weaving on a two treadle loom AND a barn loom (so called because of its larger size and beam construction...) Just when you think you haven't done much, just listing it off is a big deal. I boiled down hard maple sap last January for syrup. I have a sap shack planned and will get it installed in this or next month.

I still haven't progressed much further with the mule's training though. And Cookie Man the donkey hasn't been harnessed more than once in the last year... 

I planted Saskatoon berries (a berry that tastes like blueberries) and have an order in to the Missouri Conservation in Licking, MO for more trees.

http://mdc.mo.gov/your-property/seedling-orders-and-planting-guide/seedling-order-how

They have Shellbark hickory trees that have immense nuts on them. Should be interesting. 

I adopted two Pit/Labrador puppies (3 1/2 months old) a month or so ago and they seem to be really attached to me already. I still have the older dogs but the Livestock Guardian dog, Tasha the Anatolian, has gone up north to Chicago to live with her beloved Vince (my son). She's perfect for him and they adore one another.

I came down sick with a terrible upper respiratory infection a month or so ago and am still struggling to overcome it.

The Feast of the Hunters' Moon 2015 was a great success, as usual! We sold lots of soap and Sweet Annie (I adore Sweet Annie). So much so that I sent away for and got a Sweet Annie charm that I intend on attaching to an ear cuff for the Feast.

I gleaned gourds and pumpkins from a local pumpkin patch and fed the pumpkins to my American Guinea Hogs and am drying the gourds to tinker with containers and such. Should be fun. Never on the level of friends of mine, but something fun for the farm.

Daikon radishes, turnips and mangels (sugar beets) continue to fascinate me and I hope to have a large planting of same for the pigs, equine and goats. I'm not sure if sheep like mangels, but it could be a nice treat for them.

The two ewes (Border Leicester and Border Leicester/Finn) should be bred to a Finn ram but if they don't have lambs in March, I'll rebreed to a Tunis ram if I can find one...

I have just three Oberhasli dairy goats now. One really nice buck and two non-related does. I'm a bit edgy about the newer doe as I was told after purchasing her she didn't take (wouldn't settle/breed) after 4 or 5 "driveway" breedings. I'm hoping with her great genetics and the buck's superior genetics she'll settle and give me at least one doe. It'll be nice to have fresh goats milk again!

I'll post pictures of as much of the above as I can find asap. As usual, please feel free to visit my FaceBook White Pine Soapworks page!

https://www.facebook.com/White-Pine-Soapworks-160474870637649/?ref=hl

Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!

JohnO is destroying the old hog hut and enclosure...  We utilized everything we could off this and now the space previously occupied by American Guinea Hogs and Asian Heirloom Hogs will be raised beds for mangels and daikon for animal and human use, Saskatoon bushes (oh my, these things are wonderful to eat and lovely landscape plants) and put into food production for animals and humans.  Since there are lots and lots of logs to use and the ground is so very poor here (barring the pig manure), I'll scrape some of the composted equine and goat manure to fill the beds.  Because I've got free-range chickens, I'll have to fence off the raised beds because they're so industrious they'll scratch out all the plants and dirt looking for grubs and bugs!  Chickens do an amazing job when you want them to and are very irritating when you don't want them to.  It's a balance, really...

Ruby Jayne is never far away.  This is a fairly large area and should work out well.  Heather and I planted mangels and sugar beets, but the ground is so hard (hardpan) that they didn't make it.  Even the Oaxacan corn I planted isn't doing well.  Very yellow leaves (low nitrogen) and not growing.  I'll try to help, but anything I put around the plants will be scratched away by the chickens.

Planting in the existing log raised beds...  again!  These were the best 'investment' I could have ever made.  I was trained in using row garden (open, plowed and raked patch planted in rows) but this?  This is far superior, especially for poor ground and ease of weeding.  The plants are up, the edges are defined.  What's not to like?  My son, Heather and Anthony all helped over Mother's Day weekend.  It was glorious.  I planted a straw-bale bed (to the right of Anthony and the garden cart, but quickly realized that a straw-bale bed only lasts one year.  The straw bales break down quickly.  So, I cut two very long logs and pushed them into place alongside the straw bales, one on each side and broke the bales down a bit.  Next year (or even this year) I'll put arched cattle panels in between the logs for vining crops.  Cucumbers, melons, beans, squash, whatever.  I like morning glories, so some of them too!  Here in Indiana, we can pretty much toss out seeds and they'll grow.  Amazing weather conditions...  And with composted equine and goat and hog manure?  Even better...

The 'blank' spot where Ruby Jayne (the dog) is laying was another straw-bale bed.  It broke down and then was covered in quack grass (a noxious grass) and Creeping Charlie (an annoying vining weed used long ago for bittering beer).  So I destroyed it with Bob 185 (the Bobcat) and will most likely leave that mostly open...

Best.  Weekend.  Ever.

the 'crew'...  thank you thank you thank you!  Anthony wants to learn how to butcher.  He's a foodie like me and Vince and Heather (and Aaron - Heather's fiance).  Now I plan to get a Hereford Hog (it's a heirloom hog but is a larger hog) to see how it's growth pattern works out.  I'll have Anthony come and help.

Heather took the picture so couldn't be in this one.  And in case you're wondering?  I'm 5' tall (ok, maybe less) and was standing on a 10" clump of dirt to make this look a little more "even."  Vince on the right is a full head (at least) taller than I am...

It would be dumb and damaging to take it out now.  The honeybees have incorporated it into their hive.  It's theirs.  All is not lost.  There was enough room to slide a frame down the side and several down the side to the bottom of this pic.  Doh!  The feeder and queen cage should have been taken out and frames should have been placed fully in this.  But it'll be ok.  Promise.  Don't get caught up in your "vision"...

(left) Buster the crabby cat and (right) Sarge the squirrel, snake, mouse, vole, shrew, everything killer.  Someone kept leaving vole butts for me to step on in the barn.  It was these guys.  I think they thought it was funny. 

goofy cats

Hugelkultur!  aka:  raised bed with an altitude.  A hugelkulture is stacked logs with dirt piled over the top.  All well and good until the chooks (chickens) find it.  I had flowers and melons growing on this until they found it.  This is positioned under a large tree to experiment with light...  I need to cut off one more branch and then there'll be enough light to grow melons and cukes on it.  I am also interested to see how it changes the drifting snow.  This technique is very very permaculture.  This kind of bed uses less soil and the logs break down slowly retaining moisture and giving off nitrogen.  Interesting, really.  Bob 185 makes it so very easy to stack logs and dump 5' buckets full of dirt in various places... 

I plan to make more...  When you have logs?  Use 'em!

Another view of the hugelkultur.  Typically, this should be completely covered and then branches and such are 'woven' against the soil to keep it in place.  Did I follow instructions?  No.  It'll be fine.  In the background is the orchard.  The foreground is a 'mini' hugelkulture with some logs inside and then just covered with dirt.  I was running out of time to assemble and for this season, I'll make it work.  After the growing season, I'll put more dirt and build up both of them.  It's an 'eye break' and a buffer zone from the road. 

I'm really fascinated by permaculture.  Why do we till down 10+inches and disturb the soil so deeply for our gardens?  I've gotten better and more yield from my raised beds I've ever thought possible.  Keyhole gardens (started in South Africa and layered with, essentially, trash and covered with dirt), hugelkulturs, etc. are a less labor-intensive way to garden, in my opinion.  Who wants to spend hours and hours when you can spend minutes weeding?  I have better things to do.  Like play with the equine.

WARNING:  GORE!  Tasha hates groundhogs.  HATES them.  Unfortunately, this was the neighbor's across the road.  Not that he cares, but it was across a busy road.  I'll keep her tied for a while...  She was across the road and had this baby groundhog dead before we could even yell STOP!

Heather and the pigs - American Guinea Hogs.  The sow from last year and this year's gilt.  I believe strongly in treating animals with respect.  These two won't likely be butchered anytime soon as they are valuable as breeding stock.  American Guinea Hogs (AGH) are very hand tame from the get go and on the American Livestock Conservancy list.  It takes just a day or two to start taming them and a week to get them this tame for the most part.  As piglets they tend to be a bit more flighty (or mine did) but they are lovely little pigs.  I have yet to butcher a AGH but hope to next year from my own stock.  I was going to keep the gilt, but sold her as breeding stock (or pending pick up anyway).  I like her long loin and decent hams.  They've a similar look to Asian Heirloom Hogs, but are meatier and more friendly.   

another part of the orchard - looking to the North and West.  I have very little fruit on this year.  We had a tough, cold winter here and then a late frost.  May 15 was our last frost this year!

left to right front row:  apple, apple, pear - behind:  apples, pecans, Saskatoons (immature), brambles (raspberries and blackberries) cherries and peaches.

The doeling, Emmaline, in the foreground.  She's very rough right now and I'm continuing to work with her...  She's also turning black.  If I would shave her down, she'd be black like her half-sister, Lilly Mae in the background.

Buster the crabby cat.  He hisses.  He hates everyone.  But every now and then?  He tolerates me petting him.  This?  This is unusual to say the least...  He came to me grossly overweight, matted, hissing and peculiar.  Now we're just down to hissing and peculiar.

Vince cut down most of the elderberries.  I've discovered I love smelling the flowers and still want to make elder-flower water sometime but really don't care for the berries much.  Since he cut them down, the red raspberries that grew underneath them that I didn't think I cared much for have grown exponentially since they were able to get light.  And berries and berries and berries!  I plan to freeze a lot, thaw them all out and juice them.  I'll save the seeds to put in scrubby soaps and make the fruit juice into leather in the food dehydrator.  Wonderful. 

A lovely spider that surprised us both. 

My pretty Starla.  She's so glossy right now.  I think I caught her mid-ear flip.  She's my mule.  I love her...  And Ed the Arab and Cookie Man the donkey... 

Well, I think I've about caught up to today.  My ricotta is almost boiled enough to make ricotta.  Maybe a cheesecake tomorrow or even lasagna for lunches.  I'm hoping everyone is having a wonderful summer!  I will start posting soaps soon...  But for now, more posts on things on and around the farm...  Have a good evening...

We're still dropping Eastern White pines out of the new meadow/pasture.  I've been telling anyone that'll listen to me that I need more SPACE for animals.  With almost 25 wooded acres, you need more than a drylot paddock for animals.  So my friend has been dropping the trees in the area I want.  It took me about 4 years to talk him into it.  These trees are about 60' tall and weren't thinned properly when they were small.  So they're "Q-tips" of trees.  Like lodge-pole pines, really.  Only just a little green branches & needles at the top since they had to grow so tall and fast.  On the good side, these are wonderful for raised bed borders and some are big enough for dimensional lumber off the saw mill my friend owns.  He's using an 8N Ford (his also) to push them over.  He also has a Bobcat that we're doing the same way.  He makes the undercut, I get on the equipment and push with it while he makes the final back cut.  Dangerous?  Um, YEAH.  Gorgeous meadow/pasture eventually?  Um, YEAH.  And we're leaving all the hard maples.  My dream is to have a small maple sugar camp for Agri-tourism in the few weeks of the Spring when sap is running.  Do I know what I'm doing?  Um, YEAH. 

some really, really BIG logs?  Um, YEAH.  Some of these are about 20" across at the butt.  Each log is about 60' tall.  A LOT of logs!  Great for building raised beds and such.  HORRIBLE for fence posts.  Eastern White pine is a soft wood and tends to rot when it touches the ground.  Yes, telephone poles are pine.  But they're treated.  This is raw pine. 

LOTS of logs!  I feel like I live in Alaska or Maine with all the pine logs in these piles.  This is only ONE pile.  There are 4 others.  Two of which are big logs that can go on the sawmill for dimensional lumber. 

This meadow/pasture will only be about two acres when we're done.  The hard maple trees are not in this picture, really, but are large enough to tap and will be very lovely when the pines are away from them and they've got air and space to grow.

Tasha came to me from a friend who bought her for her property.  Tasha was a puppy and ran the calves and sheep there and killed all the cats.  Then she went to my friend's daughter's house where she ran the Corgis to distraction.  After my beloved Jules was killed on the road, my friend gifted her to me.  I adore her.  LGD's are the strangest dogs I've ever worked with.  I'm used to dogs that are strong-willed and try to bite or dominate me.  This?  No.  They try to out-think you.  YOU say you want three cats?  THEY say, Ok, and then "remove" the cats when you aren't looking.  I love her.  As a LGD?  She works well.  But I want her socialized to me.  I think it'll take another 6 months or so before she decides she belongs ONLY to this property.  Currently she thinks all property on either side of the busy road belongs to her.  Yes, she's a brindle.  I love brindles.  Unfortunately, with her coloration she looks wolf or coyote-like.  So I put a bright orange collar on her.

The pines we're working on cutting down are over her shoulder to the left and behind her in this picture (below).  There are approximately 10+ more acres of mature pines, so don't worry.  We've left some...

Ok. ok.  BoJangles the Border Collie X likes to sit on round bales too.  She's on top of a tarp covering the round bales.  She taught Tasha how to jump up on them.  She's a clown. 

Ruby Jayne's getting too old to jump up on the bales. Yes, this was early early Spring 2014

This was the day, early this Spring, that Tasha decided to kill baby chicks.  We had to have a talk.  And I went and got a LIVE baby chick to let her know I was not amused and that this chick was to stay alive...  As you can see?  Tasha is not very impressed with my goofy instructions (the chick is between her front legs!).  We got 40 Americana chicks and then I split them with the neighbor.  Now the chicks are full grown and Tasha doesn't see them as hors d'oeuvre any longer...  although, to be fair, she didn't really EAT them as much as she just play-killed them.  Not today, Tasha.  Not today...

My friend, Heather, came out to help numerous times...  At one point this early Spring I was bottle feeding 7 babies.  The two Nubian babies had to be pulled from their dam as they were chewing (yes.) their momma's teats raw.  The ram-lamb (the black-headed animal) was an orphan from another friend's farm and then the two Oberhasli kids were orphaned as I had to euthanize their paralyzed momma.  Their triplet didn't survive.  Ruby is invaluable as she likes to clean babies - fore and aft.  Then another neighbor had a kid that had goat polio and wasn't going to survive.  So her sister came with her.  So.  A ram-lamb, two Oberhasli, two Nubians, and two Myotonics.  SEVEN.  We had to bottle in shifts as their sizes were very different.  A Lambar bucket wouldn't work very well...

EARLY Spring pruning...  This was a Granny Smith apple that was a Standard.  And overgrown into the pass-thru driveway to the barn.  So, I stubbed it.  Severely.  It'll be a problem now since it'll want to send out shoots everywhere (and it has).  Heather and I both worked on it.  She was a bit more delicate than I.  I went and got the Husqvarna chainsaw and STUBBED it.  It was about 25' tall or more with very small apples.  I took it to about 12' tall.  And just major branches.  It'll be a nightmare to tame, but I'll keep on it.

(I'm trying to get caught up to July, can you tell?)  I LOVE early Spring and fiddleheads...  This is a leatherleaf fern.  Here in Indiana we have several native ferns that endure year round.  This last winter was extremely brutal, but the ferns still send up their glorious fronds in these lovely fiddle-heads.  I love seeing them...

Anemones.  Purple, pink, mauve and "white"...  I love these little wildflowers...  They grow mainly on the bluff facing East/North...  Lovely things...

Then, disaster struck with Bug the tractor.  I went to start him and heard a clatter and bang and breaking metal.  I thought I threw a rod.  No.  What it was?  The ring gear and starter gear.  Oh, no problem?  NO.  PROBLEM.  JohnO told me to get the parts, he broke the tractor in two and fixed it!  I would have loved to turned wrenches to fully understand what goes where, but JohnO makes it look so simple.  I'm sure I'd never been able to do this by myself.  The tractor was in two pieces.  Bizarre.  The new ring gear has to be heated to 350F and dropped quickly onto the corresponding piece so it will mate tightly to the other part.  JohnO heated it in his oven.  Yeah.  The old ring gear had to be cut off.  I'm glad he has the knowledge and the understanding or this would have been a very costly repair.

I was very very sad to see I'd lost my entire hive last winter.  They starved and froze.  Or froze and starved.  Either way.  Devastating.  However, a local guy was selling package bees on Craigslist and I ordered a package.  Delivered from Georgia in one day.  This time I situated the hive behind the house where it is protected a bit more and further away from the field across the road.  I'd not worked with package bees for a few years so was a bit nervous, but these honeybees are very quiet and it went well.  I'm hopeful and the hive seems very robust. 

Please.  If you plant pines, thin them.  They shouldn't be like this.  Yes, it's pretty but they really shouldn't look like this...  Even if I thin them now, pines don't have latent buds down their trunk and they'll never branch out lower.  Ever.  *sigh*
(I have to go check the ricotta I'm cooking...  brb)

I had Nubian goats and Oberhasli goats.  My friend helped me get both, graciously and I'm eternally grateful.  Her comment?  It's just as easy to feed NICE animals as it is to feed sub-standard animals.  She's right, of course.  However, the Nubians were very needy and constantly bawling and wailing for attention.  Almost made me lose my mind (shush).  So, I had 13 at the beginning of the year.  Now?  I have three Oberhasli does and one VERY nice Oberhasli buck from Ober Boerd in Ohio.  PHENOMENAL animals he has.  PHENOMENAL.  His Obers are about 2 gallon of milk a day.  2 GALLON!!!  Off of 135# animals!  Wow and Wow.  The twin to the buck I bought went to the Phillpines (yes.) to upgrade the Oberhasli there.  I'm very excited about this buck and think he should do some nice things for my SMALL herd.  My does aren't registered currently but I had an ADGA member come out and she has written me a letter to get them registered as NOA (Native On Appearance).  With a registered buck?  I'm on my way, AGAIN.  And no, I don't tie my animals out regularly.  I had to tie her so I could get a picture!  This is the black 'expression' of an Oberhasli.  A black buck isn't registerable, but this doe is.  Sounds confusing?  Maybe.  But black is the recessive gene for Oberhasli.  This doe is a little rough looking but is shedding out nicely.  I'm looking forward to babies from her.   

Lilly Mae - out of Omo Mae by MayBelle.  Omo Mae is a 'normal' Oberhasli color and milks about 3 quarts a day.  Not great, not good, but keeps me in cheese (mozzarella and ricotta), table milk and milk for soap. 

Omo Mae & Lilly Mae (Mother and daughter)  Omo is very rough-coated too.  It was a tough winter in Indiana and we're still working through it!

How much soaping have I gotten done?  Well, none.  This time of year I don't do much soaping.  I think I've only made 5 batches this Spring.  I plan to take off an entire week in early August to make around 30 batches.  I've got some new scents and found a Bedtime Bath (chamomile and lavender) that I'm looking forward to.  Since I add eggs off the farm, the lather is so so silky and nice...  The house will smell wonderful. 
Back to the goats?  I should have babies in November/December at this rate as both of these does decided they wanted to be with the buck.  Emmaline (from Emma the doe that I had to euthanize) is way too young and has had a struggle to be healthy.  On my farm when they're removed from their momma for whatever reason, it's a little tough for them.  But she's doing ok and growing slowly.  I'll get some pics of her too.  And the buck.

No one believes me and so I'm just throwing this out there.  you DON'T NEED TO MILK EVERY 12 HOURS.  There.  I said it.  I don't.  With these Oberhasli, or any goat with a long, level lactation (meaning they start at a good level and don't taper off in volume of milk), you can milk once a day.  You won't get the optimum amount of milk, but hey.  I've been milking Omo Mae once a day for the last month or two and I'm consistently getting 2 quarts a milking.  Enough for drinking and cheese for me.  How much easier can it get than that?  Whatever you read in a book is a GUIDELINE.  YOUR farm/smallholding may vary.  Find your level.  It'll be ok.  What's the worst that can happen?  Your goat dries up?  Yeah.  That's it. 

Snakes on the farm.  I saw a GORGEOUS HUGE Black King Snake the other day.  Omo Mae and I almost stepped on her!  Yes, her.  When they're this big?  It's a her.  Gorgeous.  I tried to touch the snake, but she was having none of it.  I'm 5' tall and I figure this snake was about 5 1/2' long.  About as big as they can get.  There's a lot of years of mice and such in that snake.  I've had snakes in my garage for years and years.  I find their skins shed in there.  Must like the mice too...  I gave up being worried about it years ago...  

What's to worry about?  She went on her way and I went on mine.  We'll meet again, I'm sure...  And then there was THIS little one I found in the garage.  THAT is a sticker off of a cooler.  HOPELESSLY stuck.  I decided to douse it in olive oil to de-stick him/her.  It's a milk snake.  Poor baby.  It took a while to de-stick it.  No, it's not dead.  Yes, it's stuck UPSIDE DOWN.  Man, what a cruddy day it was having.  Cruddy.  I washed it off after de-sticking it and set it loose in a flower bed.  A very small snake. 

Poor little milk snake baby.  Am I edgy about snakes?  Sure.  Does that stop me from helping one in trouble that would have died for no good reason?  No.  Lovely thing, really...

and THEN there were these FIVE little stinkers.  Their momma had gotten killed on the road and a local farmer called me to let me know they were there.  I moved momma way back off the road (they were not pleased) and although I TRIED to figure a way to capture them without them spraying me?  I wasn't able to do it.  I'm afraid possums or fox ate them.  I have several fox living on my place.  It's the way of things.  They are lovely, but weren't very amenable to being picked up or handled... 

Emma had TRIPLETS!  Two bucklings and a doeling.  Unfortunately, the first buckling presented completely wrong.  He was bent in half mid-back.  No way was he going to be born.  Emma tried, evidently, for a good part of the day to birth him but I wasn't there to help and he got completely stuck.  I tried to push him back and re-present him but didn't have the strength to do so.  I called my neighbor friend and she came down and was successful in birthing him.  The first, stuck buckling was already dead from the stress but the second buckling and the doeling were birthed alive and healthy.  Both of them were presented wrong as well.  Emma's just given me singles in the past so I didn't think at ALL she was planning on giving me triplets.  Because of the difficult presentation, Emma was paralyzed in the hind legs. 

That was two weeks ago.  She had made some progress and we had battled pneumonia and everything else that goes along with an incapacitated animal.  I got her up and massaged her legs and did everything possible to help her for these past two weeks.  The vet looked at her yesterday and said there was nothing more we could have done and nothing more we could do.  She said Emma's prognosis was very poor.  The vet said maybe a year for recovery and even then it didn't look good.  I decided to spare my beloved doe any more pain.  She cried out each time we stepped away and she fell from the paralysis.  I put her down. 

Sometimes we have a good outcome and a few times we don't.  Unfortunately, this wasn't a good outcome.  We make tough decisions when we have livestock.

Thank you, Emma, for this year's buckling and the doeling and all the wonderful milk for the past three years.  You were a pretty lady.  I'm sorry I couldn't have helped you more.

   

I'm so very embarrassed.  I post regularly on FB but have neglected my blog!  I've been busy (as usual).  My raised log beds were an amazing success.  Permaculture is fabulously amazing and a lot less work!  I don't know why I waited ~17 years (ok, all my life) to build them.  I guess I was too stuck in "traditional" row gardening.  Who shoved me over the line to freedom?  Well.  Jessica Diemer-Eaton for one.  Jessica and her husband are amazing folks.  They do wonderful presentations amazing things and show how the Woodland Indians here in the area would have lived, harvested and put by in the way of local foods.  She has small intensive plots of garden that seem to work well for them.  Here is a link to Jessica and Mark. 

http://www.woodlandindianedu.com/aboutus.html

Very wonderful. 

Secondly, the Community Gardens at Purdue University.  These gardens are rented square foot spaces by the students and their families that attend the university.  Some of them have casual gardens and some have intensive plots that feed themselves nicely. 

The Community Garden folks use re-purposed branches fallen from trees, binder twine, etc.  FOUND items.  Absolutely lovely.  I decided since I have mature Eastern White pines that we had to cut for goat pasture, I'd used some for the beds and incorporate the saplings we removed for larger trees to flourish for the trellising.  I grew Tepary beans (from the Southwest - specifically from http://shop.nativeseeds.org/collections/tepary-beans), pink beans, ojo de cabra (eye of goat from the markings on the beans), glass gem corn, green Oaxacan green dent corn (I got just a few ears but they are gorgeous) from Gurney's (http://www.gurneys.com/product/oaxacan_green_dent_corn), all kinds of tomatoes and a multitude of peppers.  I don't think Gurney's has Oaxacan green dent corn currently, but it's available on the web. 

I happened on a recipe that I morphed from ANOTHER recipe I don't care for.  Mom always used to make a cucumber/onion frozen relish with sugar and vinegar that I don't like.  However, I realized that if I replaced the cucumbers and onions with thinly sliced peppers and added oregano, garlic, thyme and whatever struck my fancy?  I had WONDERFUL relish to add to sub sandwiches!  It freezes well and is amazing.  

This is just a quick "HEY I'M HERE!" and I'll follow up with more asap.

It's about Road Turkey.  Road Turkey and being observant and a sharp turn.  I wanted a turkey for Christmas, but decided against it.  Turkey isn't my favorite, but Christmas and turkey seem to go together...  The road I live on has a sharp turn from the major road to this one.  As I was driving home one day, I SWEAR I saw a commercially plastic-wrapped turkey in the field at the beginning of my road.  I convinced myself to go back to check it out.  Yep.  A ~20# turkey.  Plastic-wrapped and starting to thaw.  I took it home, insta-temped it.  Still plenty cold and icy.  So, I spatchcocked it (split it down it's back and flattened it to cook quicker) and then stuffed cracked black pepper and bacon grease on the left side under the skin and stuffed herbs and butter under the skin on the right side.  It was wonderful.  And I was very thankful for the gift from The Road (but sad someone else didn't have Christmas turkey).    

I think I saw the turkey and no one else did because it had snowed.  A very pretty snow.  The turkey looked like a lump of dirt.  Ok.  A really BIG lump of dirt.  With lettering on it... 

There's always a gorgeous sunset, seems like...

Having access to a Bobcat sure makes a difference when it comes to cleaning up huge rounds of wood and stacks of limbs.  So much better!  I'll have to smooth the yard and replant, but still.  So much better.

Since it's cold and snowy outside, it seemed like a good time to decant and bottle the mead I set in July.  I have orange mead, lime mead with jalapeno, lemon mead, ginger lime mead and a grapefruit mead....  I didn't have an actual correct carboy top for the bubbler, so I used the handyman's friend, duct tape over plastic wrap, for the top and then stuck the bubbler in the top.  This is what it looks like when mead is truly ready to decant. The fruit will drop to the bottom as seen in the above.  Each gallon of mead yielded 9 bottles of mead.  

Mead is honey 'wine.'  Having your own honey and lots of herbs and spices makes it fun to experiment.  I now have cocoa mead setting.  It'll be ready to decant in 3-4 months and ready to drink at the end of 2014 or so.  Yes.  2014.  Cocoa purportedly has some bitter qualities in it that doesn't mellow for at least a year. 

Mead is fun and the recipe I enjoy playing with is made with bread yeast (look of horror on brewer's faces, I know.  Google Joe's Ancient Orange Mead for the recipe).  Then, I've been taking artist's license with it. 

If you want to try it?  Have fun!  It doesn't have to set as long as I've let mine set before decanting, but it adds to it's mellowness... 

I don't really drink, but do enjoy a sip now and then...

Bottling.  I used a quick siphon and 5/16" hose  Worked very well with the bottles I sorted from the recycling bin.  You have to use the recapping kind - not the screw kind.  Then clean them (or run through the dishwasher), reclean and then use cleaner designed for brewing equipment.  I have my own bottle capper and also have friends with cappers.  You can get the caps via the internet or check around!  Someone in your area probably brews beer or wine and has access.   

What's left over.  The dregs.  Both the fruit and the dregs (in the bottle at the left - thanks, Susan and Andi for the bottle!).  The fruit, it seems to me after tasting, is very similar to that used in fruitcakes.  I've MADE the glazed cherries and pineapple for fruitcake from scratch and this differs greatly in its preparation, but it seems to me that the 'ancients' wouldn't have wasted anything.  I put the fruit (minus the spices as they've been used to their fullest) in the dehydrator and will tinker with making fruitcake with them after chopping and glazing.  I think they'll work out fine as long as not too much is used.  The fruit is very wine-like and rich due to the fermentation.  Interesting. 

Here's hoping you all had a great Christmas and wonderful holiday season!  I've gotten a nutcracker, or two, for each year for my son.  The Rat King is the one from 2012.  Stacking nutcrackers, sitting nutcrackers, a soccer guy, Pez ones, metal, wood, plastic...  They make me smile.  (and yes, there's candy in there too)...

It'll be warm soon!!  Welcome 2013!!

Two fields within 6 miles of my house have cover crop planted on them.  They were wheat fields (bearded wheat - so pretty) and then afterwards, Daikon radish was planted as cover crop.  Cover crop is planted to both conserve the dirt and to bring up nutrients from deep below the hardpan line.  When we plow, we run the risk of making a 'line' that is never broken.  Any dirt below that is hard and nearly impenetrable from years of X" deep of plowing.  Cover crops can alleviate this. 

Wheat gets harvested around the Fourth of July, so it was some time after that the radishes were planted - perhaps in August when the seeds were broadcast.  They don't look like they're in rows and since radish seed is fairly small, it was most likely broadcast - strewn at a rate predetermined by some kind of machine or by hand.  Anyway.  I've got to contact the farmer as I took 5 radishes to eat.  I'm sure he/she won't mind but I would like to trade them some soap or something.  I make it a point to never take something without asking.  In this case, I made an exception (because I was so excited to see an entire field of radishes) but will give something in trade.  Below is one of the five radishes I harvested.  Imagine 25 ACRES of Daikon radishes!  Wow.  Just wow.  Truck farms (those farms growing tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage or other vegetables for sale) aren't really around here but more up north near Lake Michigan.  However, 6 miles to the north of me was a 30+ acre field of tomatoes and peppers.  I never got the change to introduce myself to them but plan to next year.  Perhaps I'll take them a jar of preserved green tomatoes. 

These radishes I plan to shred and try to preserve ala Kimchee.  Or something...  I found a website that says you can chunk and roast these like other root vegetables. 

I guesstimated 25 acres but it could be more like 40 total.  THAT is a lot of radishes!  Eventually the frost and cold will kill them out, they'll return to the soil and enrich it for next year's crop - most likely soybeans or field corn. 

Beautiful Daikon radish.  Stir fry, shredded and salted, roasted, I'm going to experiment with different dishes with these.  My friend told me of a radish quiche/tart that sounded quite interesting. 

Things that fascinate me...  We, here in NorthWest Indiana are in zone 5b or so...  Wonderful to see these kinds of things...   

The feller (a person who cuts down trees) said he had crushed several things that I REALLY didn't want crushed.  I got home tonite?  It was a metal chair that was in poor shape and a metal split wood rack that was broken.  Neither were the items I worried about - they are safe!  I had thought I had enough things moved away but when the trees are massive (as this oak in the front yard was) there's always some kind of hiccup. 

I'm thrilled.  I didn't get a before pic as I wanted to, but just know this was several tons of oak.  If and when it came down by itself - even though it was a healthy tree - it would have destroyed the house. 

The other reason it had to come down?  This massive oak tree was planted OVER THE SEPTIC FIELD by the previous owners.  Never never never do that.  The roots can and will grow into the field, searching for water. 

Near the base, the stump measures 9 1/2' around.  Yep.  It was a big tree.  I don't like destroying trees, let alone oaks (one of my favorites) but this was a plant growing where it shouldn't be.  The classic definition of a weed. 

The other tree I had cut down was a Blue Spruce planted way too close to the house against the garage.  It died from a mite infestation before I could realize what its problem was.  It's been standing, dead, for a good many years.  Just ITCHIN' to fall on the garage.  Not anymore!  Both trees are now in the safe zone.  On the ground. 

This may look like an incredible mess (and it pretty much is) but it's also LOTS of wood for the woodburner.  The Blue Spruce isn't very good - too much pine tar/resin - but it's great for  fire starters.  The oak will yield quite a lot of wood to split (yes I have a splitter).  Perhaps 3-5+ ricks of wood.  Wonderful, fragrant-smoke oak. 
And now I can get a lot of light to my new-this-year garden.  When I get the greenhouse up, I plan to collect water from the run-off from the sides of the greenhouse.  So if we have another tough year/drought, I'll have water stored. 

Cookie has the most AMAZING bray!  Loud and LONG!!!  No wonder they had to find him a new home.  I think it's glorious, but in the ritzy neighborhood he lived in, probably frowned upon.  Welcome, Cookie!  Talk all you want.  :o)