Hubby has been working his tail off. Last week he was home from work as late as 10:30. He had to work Saturday too (his half-day - till 5:00!), so all my little outdoor-chores for him are yet undone. I mowed half the back lawn while he slept Saturday evening. I need a better feeder for the broiler chicks - all they do is eat (well, and poop)! I'm out there 3 times a day to refill feeders and waterers.
The hens are being weird. Either the escapees hide their eggs where we haven't found them, or some of them are tapering off. It may be the warmer weather or the fact their water gets too warm. I'm really not sure. Not that 12-18 eggs a day isn't enough, but...
I've run an ad for Trudy, and have had a few calls. We'll see if she's destined to another farm or my freezer.
Mother's Day was interesting. Hubby was on-call till noon, so we stayed around here for the morning. For some reason on Saturday evening his sisters decided to "do something different" for Mom, and forego the shopped-for, planned-for, organized, ready-to-go church barbecue and have a separate barbecue (for which all the Moms must do some cooking). That gave me less than 24 hours to plan food for hubby's and my diets, and prep them. As it was, I spent Sunday morning in the kitchen making a from-scratch potato salad (and I mean homemade mayonnaise made with olive oil, etc), which took considerable time. This while Hubby and kids watched Cars. By afternoon I was beat and tried to nap. I negotiated with Hubby to take the kids to his mom's barbecue and let me stay home and clean the disastrous kitchen and make bread, which we'd been out of for a week! He first refused, until I told him the only thing worse than being working alone at home on Mother's Day was working with everyone underfoot! So I spent a couple hours cleaning and baking and praying. I did pretty well, I think. I'd prayed all Saturday and Sunday that I wouldn't have high expectations (not that I do! I am familiar with this Mother's Day un-occasion!) or be disappointed, and thereby have a poor or hurt attitude with which to ruin the day completely. I had a few moments, but managed through them privately and overall the day ended fine. It was nice to have some quiet time at home to get things done.
I made Kefir this weekend, and Creme Fraiche ("crem fresh" - which isn't fresh at all). They both turned out well. I made a broccoli soup yesterday and served it with the creme fraiche and it was delicious. My cream cheese and yogurt are great too. I'm slowly but surely getting away from feeding my family the genetically-engineered rBGH in most of those mega-dairy products. Now to learn cottage cheese and cheese! Yikes! I'm so blessed to have a supply of organic dairy with which I can make much of this. That supply is scheduled to end, soon, however, and I'm not sure what we'll do then. I'm not quite up to milking my own cow, but that would be the ideal. If cows only came with milkmaids or illegal immigrants or something...
Well, it's time to get back to work!
2 comments:
I was going to ask you what Kefir was, but now I have my answer. So you must need a cow or a goat then to make this? Sounds interesting. I am just beginning in my organic and natural way of life. I am still doing alot of researching, reading books and trying new things. And of course learning from others like yourself. I would love to try to make homemade mayo. It is hard? Do you have a recipe for it? Well, I am going to continue to read your blogs that are much enjoyable. Toodles
Tanya
Tanya,
Sorry it took me forever to add your comments! My spam filter is on overdrive, and I didn't see them till just now. I actually don't have a cow or goat (yet). I long for a jersey cow for the great nutrition, but until I can find a nearby neighbor to "share" it with, I'm not sure I can commit to serving a cow every 12 hours forever. Without revealing too much, let's say I have a friend from whom I can acquire excellent organic milk, and occasionally black-market items (raw dairy is illegal in my state). I used a powdered Kefir starter in the milk. The starter is the right kind of beneficial bacteria, and the milk was grass-fed, organic, whole, pasteurized, and MAYBE homogenized. Sometimes the processor gets lazy and lets the milk get homogenized.
The homemade mayo is a cinch; more so if you have a food processor (seems to me my mom maybe made it in a blender years ago). I will try to make a post with the recipe I used.
I'm so glad you've enjoyed (and laughed at!) some of my posts. I use this blog kind of as a journal, though I write as though for an 'audience'. Of course, mostly I'm writing into thin cyber-air, but that's okay!
Post a Comment