Reducing and Preserving

I am on a mission. The mission is to recycle, compost or repurpose as much as possible. It is astounding how much we have reduced our trash. Of course we try to cut back on the amount of pre-processed foods we use as well and that helps a lot. The opportunity to get creative in the re-purpose part is kind of fun. The real process does not start when you have trash, the process really starts when you decide you NEED something. The question that begins it all is: Is this a necessity or not? Do I already have something on hand that can work or is there another way to go about this? It really is amazing the answers you will come up with and the amount of trips to the store you can reduce.

Now, it is exciting when you run across something you never knew before. This year we were able to start canning some of our food and look forward to doing even more next year. I grew up in a home where most of our food was canned or frozen. I NEVER knew you could freeze eggs! Did you? Not in the shell of course, they would explode. If you want to know how to do it go HERE. It is my understanding that eggs will do well like this for up to six months. This was music to my ears because our hens have been really being generous with the eggs and we have not built up a client list of buyers. I would hate for them to go to waste, this way they don't have to.

Kids! Feathered and otherwise.

The weather has gotten colder and the days are shorter. This means that even with the timer on the lights the chickens are spending more time indoors. I think some of them are getting a bit short with each other, one girl has become a full on bully. I have been turning their dirt and sprinkling clover inside the hen house so that it gives them something to do and they won't get bored, but to no avail. I am not spending as much time with them lately because I am sick and they almost act like kids when they feel ignored.

The other day I was turning the dirt, or I guess I should say TRYING to turn the dirt, and while they all stay in front of the shovel, one even rides the shovel so she can get her claws in the break of the dirt to help turn it (I guess I don't go fast enough), Turkey girl was instead following along beside me. The whole time she is looking at me and talking, it was like she was tattling that the others would not let her get to the bugs. Those chickens are funny birds.

Sarah has been having a tough time with feeling she doesn't have a spot. Taylor is the oldest and she has band and is gone a lot. Daniel gets lots of attention because of his diabetes and Asperger's. Sarah does not see her specialness. I tried to get her in the SibSaturday program at Vandy but I was very disappointed in the chaos of trying to jump through all the hoops. So I came up with a different idea. Sarah is going to be my apprentice. After afternoon chores the kids wanted hot chocolate to warm up. I told Sarah I would show her my secret to making the best hot chocolate ever and she was very excited that only she would know, not Taylor and not Daniel, just her. So I told her that I have many things that my Grandmother taught me that I could teach to her and her eyes lit up. So I think we may have our answer. Of course I did not know that Daniel was hearing the conversation and later he addressed it. He asked me, "You know when people die they leave boxes?" I said, "What boxes?" "You know they leave people stuff in a box." "OK" "Well, when you die you are going to leave Sarah a box of recipes huh?" The way Daniel sees things is pretty black and white. I hope that what I leave all of them is more than a box of stuff, I hope that I leave them with some wisdom, some history, some life lessons and a ton of love to last them their whole lives.

What's News

Our neighbor told us to take some of the pears from a tree in the yard next door. There was a ton on the ground and the bees were taking them over so not wanting them to go to waste we obliged. I sent the kids over with bags to pick up a bunch. Daniel was scared to touch any because of the bees but Sarah being the brave little "big" sister found that if she kicked them the bees would scatter and she could pick them up. Then in order for Daniel to not have a meltdown or to not get in trouble for not helping, she would pick up one for her bag and one for his bag. It was really sweet in a sneaky kind of way. Anywho, they came back with a lot of pears.

I had a plan for my day and it had not included fruit but what a welcome blessing. I sat everything else aside and started preparing the pears and canning them. We ended up with 12 pints and 1 quart. (I ran out of pint jars.) There was a bunch of scraps from this ordeal, the peels and cores and a few whole pears where the bees had done too much damage. Oh but the chickens had a field day with the yummy treats. =) Sunny decided she likes pears too so I gave her a couple, one she ate and one she kept to play with. Now when we go out to the barn she grabs her pear and wants to play keep away. Dixie was not as interested in the pears, I think it was too much work for her to have to chew, she is a funny dog.

We have an enclosed back porch with storm windows but it still gets pretty chilly out there. I am in the process of putting the shrink wrap stuff on all of the windows to hopefully create a warmer environment. We bought a five shelf stand and plan on buying one a month until I have four to connect together along the long wall. I have some of my plants on the shelves at window level and will make a curtain for the bottom shelves to store canned goods and material. I am hoping to make the porch a makeshift greenhouse so I can start all my seeds early. It will also be a good place to sprout wheat berries this winter for a green treat for those silly chickens.

We finally put a timer on the light in the chicken coop and it works fabulously. The light comes on at 5am and goes off around 7ish at night, this way they can continue to have the 14 hours of light to continue to lay. They seem good with it. Blue gets so tickled at them because when you go out to the coop the bird herd hurries towards you to get some treat, usually clover. Well the ground is hard and they sound like a basketball team running. I went out a couple of days ago to turn over some of the dirt in the run, they love this. It gives them fresh ground to scratch at, it helps keep the soil cleaner and oh the bugs and worms to be had with each shovel of dirt. The problem is that they try to stand on the shovel in order to be the first bird to get the treasure. I have to be very careful not to cut someone's toe or beak. They are nuts I tell ya.

Saturday morning I headed out to the coop to let the chickens out and on the way was surprised to see I was being stared down by a big white cow. Now I would love to have a cow, but I don't. So who was this visitor to Redbud? On further inspection I found there to be about a dozen cows behind my barn. Turns out that they belong to a neighbor I did not know and the cows had broken a fence that I was unaware of. I called a neighbor that I knew had cows and he figured out who these pretty animals belonged to for me. It was cool to meet new people and as I took pics of the visiting bovine, it seems they are camera shy, they headed back towards the hole in the fence and kept everything low key. The fence has been mended and all is good. Part of me thinks the cows left so gently because somehow they knew they were eating the chicken's clover and if unleashed those birds would go all Kung-Fu on them for that offense.

The leaves have been turning beautiful colors lately and we have been grabbing every opportunity to capture some of that beauty with the camera. I so missed having Fall and trees when we lived in CO. I just wake up everyday feeling blessed to be here.

I have continued to work on crochet and sewing projects. The school needed winter items for baskets to be auctioned off. So, not having a ton of money these days, I decided to crochet some items. I made a scarf for each basket and then the kids said that nobody was bringing stuff in so I made a stocking for one and for the other made a beenie in school colors along with a Harry Potter Scarf Bookmark in school colors. I was going to do some mittens as well but figured maybe they were tired of me sending in homemade stuff. I hope it was ok. I am working on a hanging clothes organizer for Daniel so he can pick out his clothes for the week and each day have it's own shelf. I had some green heavy fabric that will match his room nicely, I will post a picture when I am done with it. I am sure that Sarah will want one too, just so everything is Even-Steven, and I have some dark denim fabric with whith hearts on it that I could use for hers. I wish I knew a good place to buy fabric locally. Wal-Mart doesn't have a fabric department anymore and I have not ventured too far to look since we are down to one car.

The kids want to plant popcorn next year. Yea! I also want to plant more sunflowers since the harvest from this years plants was so good. We ended up with a gallon and a half of seeds that I processed after taking some out for next years planting and the ones that Taylor stole to give to the chickens. We also stapled a few heads to posts for the birds. I am thinking of doing a Sunflower house with the kids. So the walls would be Sunflowers and maybe Indian Corn planted alternately in the form of a large square. Inside we would plant herbs that have a relaxing scent when crushed and on the outside planting a companion flower along the walls. I think it would be fun for the kids to have a living play house.