Joyful Blessings!!

I am very pleased to announce the arrival of TRIPLETS!!

Joy was the last daughter born to Legacy.  This is her first freshening, and our first really good indicator of how Manny's daughters will produce.  So far I'm thrilled with what she's doing.  Except for the first milking for colostrum, she is steadily filling a 2 quart jar at each milking.  Her teats are a bit short, but they are smooth and elastic and I'm sure will lengthen a bit as she matures.  She is a super fast milkout.

Bred to Ditto, these kids have certainly not disappointed me a bit!

Joy labored quietly all day, waited for me to finish barn chores, and got her settled into the birthing stall.  Within just a few minutes of coming in the house to watch her from the barncam....she started pushing.  As I checked my kidding supplies and looked back at the cam....baby #1 was coming out.  I got there just in time to dry her off...

Weighing 4# 4.2 oz is Queenacres Harmony Hue

"Harmony"

Next, with barely enough time to get Harmony clamped and cleaned....

Weighing 5# 7.8oz is Queenacres Hummus

"Hummus"

I knew by the small size of the kids that there was probably another one.  So we waited.  And waited.  I went in to check on the babies, which had been settled into the playpen in the house.  Girl #2 was coming breach....and was hanging by her head.  She was a bit slow to get started but her lungs are clear and she's doing great...

Weighing 4# 2oz is Queenacres Hopeful Hazina

"Treasure"

This was our first kidding of 2013, and the smoothest kidding I can remember...not to mention the babies are beautiful! 

Lots going on here, I have been under the weather so it's been a struggle to get things posted.  I'm feeling much better and there's lots to do!

Bone Broth and Fluffy Feathers

A lot has been going on for the past week.  Last week my mom was hospitalized with chest pains. After an overnight stay, and numerous tests, we found out that she is fit as a fiddle.  Praise God!

Then, our female Anatolian Shepherd, Reserve, finally caught one of the trucks she's been chasing. 

She got banged up pretty good.  She's got a big cut on the inside of her thigh, road rash on her lower leg....and a fractured hip.  I began treatment immediately keeping her warm and giving her doses of Rescue Remedy, and cleaning the wounds.  Then I started making bone broth....I dug through the freezers pulling out all the bones I could find and started a good broth.  Luckily I had some canned already so I started with it, infusing it with Comfrey leaf and mixing in some fresh eggs.  By the second day she could stand and by the third day she was moving around quite a bit...although not using the leg at all. 

Yesterday was a week since she was hit, and she is gingerly using the leg.  I'm sure that she is on the mend....I just hope that she has learned her lesson!

Yesterday we butchered another 6 ducks...all white Pekins.  They sure do clean up nice!

I kept one from this round, a white Pekin hen....to try to cross with our Buff drake.  I like the larger size of the Pekin and hoping to get the faster maturing traits from the Buffs.  We'll see.

Since I was butchering, it gave me an opportunity to make some more bone broth for Reserve.  I used the feet, necks and hearts; added a good handful of Comfrey leaves...

and then filled the pot with filtered water.  This will stay at a very low boil for at least 30 hours to extract all of the nutrients from the bone, and infuse the broth with the comfrey.

By the way, I have been saving duck feathers for about a year now, with the intention of making a comforter.  I think I'm really close to having enough.  Here are the feathers from the 6 ducks from yesterday...

I try to sort them as I'm plucking, but a few of the long feathers still end up in the bucket.  Once the ducks are plucked and I've taken care of the meat, started stock, and disposed of the offal....the last step is saving feathers.

I have a laundry bag that I use for washing the feathers.  It's a cotton muslin bag with a drawstring...

I've had this bag for as long as I can remember, it was the laundry bag I kept in my room when I was growing up.  It just happens to have a picture of a duck on it.  LOL

I use a clean bucket and line it with the laundry bag...

Then I sort the feathers....pulling out any of the long feathers, or ones with really thick quills...

The long feathers could be used in crafts, but since these are plain white...I'm just putting them in the compost..

And what's left is a bag of soft fluffy feathers ready for washing..

I can not stress enough how important it is to keep the feathers wet while working with them.  Once they are dry they expand....and float....and fly around everywhere.  A misting bottle helps.

From here, I tie the bag to secure it.  I can not stress this enough either.  If the bag opens or if it has a hole....you will be picking feathers out of your washing machine forevvver!

I run them through a full wash cycle on the delicate setting.  Once washed, I put them in a bag for storing.  I think I've got enough bags put aside now that I can start on the comforter...but it will be a few days before I've got the time.

Once washed, I do NOT run them through a dry cycle.  I just keep them in a cotton bag for storage and they will dry just fine on their own.  If they were dried in the washing bag, I don't think it would be possible to transfer them to a storage bag....they'd be everywhere!

Detergent Review and Aquaponics Update

I am happy to report that the dishwasher detergent is working just fine.  If you have hard water, you may need to use a vinegar rinse aid.  I even ran the dishwasher without pre-rinsing and put greasy plates from making hamburgers in there.  All came out clean, using just a tablespoon of the detergent.

The drawbacks:  It never thickened.  It's watery, so you need a squeeze bottle to pour it.

I think it could also be used as a dish soap for hand washing dishes also.

A lot has been going on in the greenhut despite cold weather and very few sunshiny days.  I have discovered that celery grows like mad in there!  When I buy celery, I cut the bottom off and put it in the AP growbed.

It doesn't take long for it to look like this:

I harvest the leaves for cooking, the flavor is very intense and clean.

The strawberries are doing well, and we've even had a few blooms!  Have a look at the first berry of 2013!

And this crazy potato has really taken off....not sure what I'm gonna do with it!

This started as a shrivelled up half rotten potato that I just sat in the growbed to see what would happen...

Oh, and we're getting our first aquaponically grown broccoli crowns!

Notice how pale the broccoli leaves are?  We've got an iron defficiency going on in the big system.  The peas are all stunted and pale...

To solve the problem I'm using a powdered chelated iron.  I added a teaspoon to the main system and will be adding another teaspoon each week until I see an improvement.

This has been a neat experiment, and I'm looking forward to see how it does over the warmer months!

Speaking of looking forward to something.  I'm thinking maybe baby for Fiona.  I would LOVE to have a doe from her this year, especially since she bred to Sparta.

Her dam, Faith was bred to Sparta this year as well, and produced a beautiful buckling.  It will be interesting to see the kids from Fiona when bred to the same buck. 

It All Comes Out In The Wash...

I have made our own laundry detergent for a couple of years now.  It's not that I am a soap-a-phobe that is worried about every little chemical that we come into contact with.  Nope.

It's that I squeeze every penny I can.  I can not stand waste, and to me....spending $20 a month to wash clothes is just too much.

Now before you have visions of me standing over a cheese grater with a bar of this...

I do use Fels-Naptha ($1.29 and will last a year), but not in my laundry detergent.  It is what I use in place of Shout or other pre-treatment.  Especially with a toddler....stuff gets stained; peel that bar of Fels-Naptha like a banana, wet the stain and rub the soap on it and the stain will be gone.  Then I just toss the clothes into the washer with my home made laundry soap and everything comes out clean.
My laundry detergent has 2 ingredients....

To make it, mix 8# of Baking Soda with a box of Borax (4# 12oz size...used to be 5#).  I mix it in a bucket with a slotted spoon....be careful not to breath in any of it...it's dusty.

To use, I just use a regular plastic scoop that comes in every box of detergent.  Our clothes come out clean and fresh every time.  It even gets the smell out of the towels and blankets I use in the kidding barn and playpens.  The only drawback to using that detergent is that it does not soften the clothes.  For that, I have discovered these:

These run about $6 each regularly, but about once a year I catch them on sale for $3....so I buy 4 of them at a time (which is a year's worth).  They last about 3 months; they soften the clothes, cut down on static, and make everything smell nice.

So I spend less than $40 per year to do laundry.

The next big washing cost is running the dishwasher.  I've only had my dishwasher for a couple of years and I was shocked at the price of detergent.  I just thought it was a cost that we had to absorb, although I did try to buy the cheapest detergent I could find that would get the job done.

So I started a search to find something that would be inexpensive that I could make myself.  Which brought me here.

I couldn't find the Castille soap that she mentions....so I found something that I thought would be an appropriate substitute. 

I am making it today and will try it for the first time this evening.  I'll let you know how it works!

Duck Harvest

A break in the weather meant that yesterday I spent the day helping a friend with her duck processing.  We got 8 of the 25 finished.  She gets the ducks and livers; I get the feet, necks, and leaf fat.  Oh yea, and she raises sheep so I get a lamb  :)

Meat and livers total was 28.7# Not bad for 8 ducklings and 10 weeks!

Of course, the feet and necks went into a pot for stock...

I added celery, carrots, garlic, onions....and headed out to the greenhut and harvested a couple of Bay leaves and some Celery leaves to add.  It should be a tasty batch, and I tell ya my achy bones remind me to drink this stuff every day....

There was quite a bit of leaf fat considering the age of the ducks.  A good sign that they were happy critters...

First step of rendering is to cut it into slices...

and keep in on a low heat...melting the fat..

If the heat is too high, you may burn the cracklins, which would not make the fat taste good...

Once the pieces have rendered, carefully strain...I use a tea strainer for this since it's so fine.

I use the cracklins as dog treats for the littles...

Which leaves me with a half pint of pure duck fat....it's better than butter!

Once it sits in the fridge overnight it will become a creamy white color and solidify.

I'm dreaming of a lamb chop pan fried in duck fat....

Turkey Trotter Broth Update

Many of you remember me making the turkey trotter broth a few weeks ago.  The general instructions for it were to drink a cup of it every day.  The broth is like a liquid vitamin, but also has all of the minerals from the bones in proper ratio for absorption.  The collagen from the skin and the joints is supposed to help your body make cartilage.  In other words, it's supposed to be great for folks like me with arthritis in every joint and an achy body.

Well, I started drinking it every day, never missed a day until the 2 quarts I had made were gone.  I never noticed a difference.  That is, until about the third day after I stopped taking it! 

The broth was helping, but benefits were so subtle that I didn't notice them until I had stopped drinking it.

So in doing the ducks this week I am using the feet and necks to make more.  This is not something I ever want to run out of again....I'm thinking that any non-laying chicken around here may be using crutches soon...

Here's the duck foot batch, I let it chill in the fridge overnight and then I'll pop that fat cap off before using it.  You know it's really good broth once it's chilled.  The gelatin (which is the good stuff for your body) sets up and it's like meat jello.

New Arrivals and Busy Week

We've got a busy week in store for us! I am helping a friend process 25 of her ducks this week, as the weather holds. Today the first 8 are on the to-do list.

It is starting to look like spring around here; we've got many new babies!  Our mama rabbits had a small cave-in on their tunnels, which revealed a number of baby rabbits....

The tiniest of the babies kept coming up to the surface....which was unnerving the white mama...

Meanwhile the dark eared mama took it in stride.  I got the baby back into the den and covered the hole with a flake of hay to help keep the little guy in his den.  He was clearly too young for such adventures!

We also have chicks hatching, 4 so far.  These 2 are the newest of the brood, and let me tell you they are nothing short of a miracle.  Our big blue hen made a nest in the buck's hay manger and decided to set.  Now usually when eggs start to hatch, they don't all pop open at once.  One will start pipping, then another and by the time the last chick hatches the first ones will be a day or so old.  Mama hen usually keeps them on the nest until she's sure all have hatched.

But the first 2 that hatched in the blue hen's nest must have fallen out of the nest.  When I went to do barn chores yesterday, the blue hen was setting on the 2 chicks in the corner of the buck barn...but had abandoned the other eggs.  We got the eggs out of the nest to find that one had pipped a hole in the shell, but all of the eggs were cold.  The chick that was hatching was cold and not moving.  Well, there's an old saying about hypothermia...."you're not dead until you are warm and dead".  Sometimes, even though a chick appears to be dead, once they are warmed they come back to life. 

And life they have indeed!  Not just the one....but a second one managed to come back from the cold and hatch!  I am thankful that the Good Lord allows me to witness miracles in my life every day!

We are soon to be starting kidding season again.  I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of Joy's kids.  Joy was the very last daughter born to Legacy.  Even though she's 2 1/2 years old, this is her first freshening....and she's bred to Ditto.  I am very excited about these babies, and anxious to see her production.  Her udder is developing beautifully, and her fore udder is so smooth it disappears.

Speaking of production, Faith is not only nursing her buckling....the massive Prince...

but is also still giving me 2 quarts of milk each day.  All at 9 years of age!  I love that goat, and I thank God every day for her!

In addition to the things going on outside, I am getting some beans canned.  During the summer months we eat a lot of pinto, black beans, and black eyed peas to go with BBQ.  It's so much easier if I have canned them in advance, rather than having to run a pot on the stove all day in the heat.  This week I'm doing a few jars as I dream of warm weather!

Suet Cakes, Aquaponics Mishap, and Sauerkraut Update

Blogger is having photo issues so I'll have to just write this one without posting pictures.

After making and canning the burger patties this week, I was left with a lot of grease left over.  I decided to put the grease to use and make suet cakes for the chickens.  To make them, you melt the grease, lard, peanut butter....or any combination of fats; then pour over a grain mixture.
The grain mixture I use is the same that I use for the goats.  It consists of:
Oats
Wheat
Milo
Black oil sunflower seeds
Alfalfa pellets
16% horse sweet feed
Calfmanna
I lay the grains out in a sheet pan, pour the grease over...completely encasing the grains.  Once it is soft set, I put peanuts on top and mash them in a bit.  Be careful where you put the peanuts so that when you cut the sheet into bars you don't have to cut through peanut shells.
Once cut into appropriate sized cakes, I wrap each cake with parchment paper.  Parchment works well because the grease doesn't stick to it, and it's easy to unwrap to feed even if you have gloves on.  Since I only feed these to my chickens during the winter....I usually have gloves on.
They really enjoy the treat, and the fat keeps them from losing too much body condition over the winter months.

Seems like I should be putting a picture right here.
With the weather so cold and the sun being hidden by clouds, I haven't opened the greenhut to check on the aquaponics garden in several days.  On Friday we had a glimpse of the sun and I decided to get in there and have a look....good thing that I did!  One of the elbow joints in the pipe from the floating raft bed had loosened and began to leak into the strawberry bed.  This means that the water was being pumped from the fish tank, to the main growbed, to the floating raft bed...then instead of going back to the fish tank....it was flooding the strawberry bed and emptying the fish tank. 
When I checked on them, there was only about 3" of water left in the tank....it drained over 250 gallons of water!  I am happy to report that all is well, I refilled the fish tank (thank you, Lord for good well water!) and nothing seems to have been harmed in the whole mishap.
The sauerkraut is coming along.  It's been so cool that it's going to be a slow batch...albeit a tasty one!

Still can't upload pictures....but it would let me insert a picture that I uploaded years ago.  Go figure.  Oh well, one of my favorite Faith smiling pictures....she chouldn't have been more than 2 in this shot.