Bread and Buckets

I've been buying buckets from a local bakery, washing them and then filling them with flour, sugar, rice, etc.  I need to stop by and get some more for cornmeal, and more flour.  All of my dry goods are in the freezer to keep the  bugs out of the bags, so once I have the buckets, I'll transfer them, and free up space in the freezer for meat.

I neglected to fill my sugar cansisters before dumping all of the remaining bag of sugar into the bucket.  I had to break out my handy dandy bucket opener to fill the jar today.  And guess what?!  The sugar bucket was on the bottom of the stack.  Which meant I had to move 75 lbs of dry goods to reach it (sigh).

I've been taking orders for bread.  My special this week is 2 - 12 inch loaves of bread and a jar of jelly (your choice of strawberry, grape, prickly pear and now apple). 

PD#1 turns 14 tomorrow.  I cannot believe it.  My little girl is growing so fast..  It's kind of scary. 

We've been busy here, doing our normal preparations.  I know I am not a hard core prep blogger, but that is because we live it every day, and am not just putting things by "just in case".  Our "just in case" is here.  The economy is so bad, and money so tight, that I don't go to the grocery store except every other month IF that...Tonight for dinner we had rice, with ground beef, canned corn, homemade bread, homemade apple crisp with vanilla pudding, and iced tea.  All from everything here in the pantry/freezer.  It feels pretty good to be able to cook without running to the store, but I am running out of things too.  I haven't been to the grocery store to REALLY stock up in awhile.  I need to go through the pantry and make a note of what I am missing and then bite the bullet and go get it.  I do know T.P. is on the list, down to 30 rolls...not good for PH.  He likes t.p.  It's a no go on getting him to use the flannel wipes. 

Two walls are up on the house, with the other two scheduled to be done this weekend.  Then comes the interior walls, the loft structure and the roof.  We really need the roof, because this week (after a full year of NO rain) it decides to rain.  This does not  bode well for the plywood decking and wall framing.  I am sitting here waiting for a big storm cell to come through.  The rain is much needed and appreciated (thanks Lord!) but the wood doesn't like it so much.

Had to run out and close up the wash house and take the wash off the line, as well as, cover the baby chicks in their chicken tractor.  I hope they keep dry.  We need to move them to the barn tomorrow.  I am worried about them drowning in the storm, or taking a chill/draft.

Areas we prepped this week:  dehydrated the rest of the 20lbs of apples and have about 5 quarts of dried apples.  Filled 3 buckets with dried goods, practiced shooting (dove season is here ya know!) - the goats run FAST when you walk out of the house with a 12 gauge!

Red, White and Blue Ribbons

Today was a good day...we went to the fair and found out the results of the Art and Home Arts Judging.  We all did pretty good, and it RAINED! Yeah!  It would have been nice if it had rained at the land here, but it rained about 30 miles away at the fairgrounds.  Better than nothing, though our pastures could stand some greening up.

Here are some pictures that show about our day:

Opening Ceremones of County Fair

Our Flags

Goat Judging

PS#2 holding a baby chick

(we have these at home, but he was still excited)

PS#2 Blue Ribbon for his "Artwork"

PD#1 next to her Watercolor Entires

(these are only some of what she entered)

PD#1 and her blue ribbon for her crocheted

hat and scarf

PD#2 and her blue ribbon artwork

One of my ribbons for my canned foods

I received 1st in canned fruits (jar of pears in middle)

West wall of house framed out and ready to go up

(Yeah!)



County Fair, Apples and House Building

We have been busy this past week.  We started back to schooling, and have been readying our entries for the local county fair.  This is the second year we have participated, and this year PD#2 got in on the act and drew two pictures to enter into the art contest.  She also made a wonderful cake, but it slid off the seat into the floor when we pulled into the fair grounds.  She was so sad!  I was frustrated, and at the same time felt bad for her.  It's a learning experience to keep your hands on the cake taker...(sigh)

PD#2's cake before 

PD#1 entered several water color paintings, photographs and a crocheted hat/scarf she made this week. 

PD#1's scarf

PS#2 "drew" (term used lightly) two pictures.  He's 2 1/2 and wanted to "make" pictures too.

This little PW entered 8 jars of canned foods, a sampling of each item I canned so far this summer.  I am praying I win a ribbon for one of them.

This week (Monday) I also received my order from Azure Standard of 20 lbs of Akane apples (I've never heard of that type).  I've peeled lots of apples and made an apple pie, and an apple cobbler.  We are "appled" out.  So far, I have peeled (using my nifty peeler/corer/slicer tool) 8 trays of apples for the dehydrator.  Don't be fooled, it sounds like a lot, but it dries out to be 2 quarts of dried apple slices.  PS#2 LOVES them!  They are better than I expected.  I had planned to make applesauce using my Great Nanny's recipe AND apple pie filling, but I think I will dehydrate all of these, and order a second 20 lbs to make the sauce and filling.

French Apple Pie in Cast Iron Skillet

PH has been working fast and furious every evening after work on the floor decking for the house.  It is now finished!  This weekend he will plan out how much additional lumber he will need to start the walls, and will be off to purchase 2 X 4's in town.

PH has made progress on the decking



PD#1 helping daddy put in the screws



Done with the decking!

(doing happy dance)

Other than adding a couple of solar security lights to the property, our preps this week consisted of drying apples and working on the new house.  





Comments to my Commenters

Please don't think I don't want to respond to your posts. I do! But for some reason my computer will not allow, nor will my daughter's allow me to post comments on my blog or others. Sometimes I can get it to work as an anonymous poster, but not all the time (sigh).

Some background info: We have been "prepping" since 1999 (yes PH family were Y2Kers). We purchased our 10.5 acres in December 2007, and moved out here in May 2009. We've been here a little over 2 years, and are making slow progress. Much slower than I want, so I have to learn patience every day.

We homeschool our kids, and are Conservative Christians that home church as well. Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll address the answers in a post, since I can't comment. Thanks for all the support, kind words, and advice, it is greatly appreciated.

The Two Little Pigs

Piggie #1 - 35 lbs (dressed)



Piggie #2 - 50 lbs (dressed)

Only the second day of homeschool, and we've fallen off the wagon.  Yesterday was a great day of schoolwork, we sat at desks and everything.  Today was more of a field trip type of day.  We stopped and picked up pieces of cotton that blew off the cotton trucks near the cotton fields, and we drove to the near by meat market to check on processing guidelines and prices.   A friend called me and told me she had 2 little piggies (wild hogs) in one of her trap and was I interested in coming to get them.  I surely was!  Well, it wasn't really me, it was PH.  I had to wait until he got off of work, then he headed over to my friend's ranch and they quickly dispatched the two...or as my friend told me they say in Virginia (rendered them your personal property).  Ha! Ha!

PH butchered/quartered the smaller one, which I brought home and promptly washed and packaged for the freezer.  The larger one we took to the small town near us and dropped at the meat market.  They have an after hours freezer in the back where you leave your "harvested" animal.  They will contact me tomorrow to ask me how we want him processed (yes it was a boy).  I am thinking ground meat, but PH suggested sausage, so I guess I'm going with sausage...

It costs .55 cents a lb to process, so it will be about $27.50 with tax.  That's pretty could for 50 lbs of meat..at least to me it is..plus the little one brings the total to 85 lbs for the freezer.  I already have one of the goat bucklings in there, ground beef, and a few chickens (that is next on my list to learn to butcher).

Preserving Wild Foods

One of my goals is to learn how to recognize and preserve wild/natural foods.  An easy one is the Prickly Pear Cactus.  Other than the poky spines on them, the cactus pads and purple "tunas" are edible.  Nopalitos (cactus pads cut into strips or diced) and Tunas (made into jelly or dehydrated).  According to information I found online, tunas are similar to Kiwis, in that their taste is relatively neutral and bland.  I've heard the taste described as a cross between a mild bubblegum, watermelon rind and cucumber taste.  Not bad, not sweet, but blah.  They do make good jelly though.  I plan to dehydrate some this weekend, and see if they are good to bake in muffins or cookies. 

Here is the process that I went through today (in pictures):
 


25 lbs of tunas

one tuna

The ends cut off the tunas, and litle hairy spines scrubbed off...

Fruit on the left, peel on the right.  These come right off using the paring knife
and following the line of the peel that surrounds the fruit

Straining the juice to remove pulp and seeds



Finished product



After completing the jelly I have 12 pints and one quart size jar half filled with jelly.  I'll use the quart jar first.  I have a lot of tunas left, and I am going to try to dehydrate them tomorrow.  I have WAY too much jelly.  I've made strawberry, wild mustang grape and now prickly pear jelly.  I may decide to make more and sell it, but we'll see.

PH came home today with a trailer load of coastal hay bales for the livestock.  He was given 100, but only 60 fit on the trailer, so he'll get the rest later.  This is a HUGE blessing.  Right now we have sufficient grass and brush for the goats and horses, but in the Winter we normally have to buy hay in December, and sometimes January.  This amounts to about 20 bales.  We have 5 times that now!  With the drought we are in, this hay is a sure way of God's provision. ;-)

I've also been praying for a male Rottweiler.  We've bred Rotties for over 20 years, but currently only have one 5 year old female.  We are looking for a specific style and look, so not any Rottweiler will do, but Baeta is getting older, and has only had one litter.  This litter sired by our Pyr.  Today on the way home from the small town where we went to Ace Hardware, we noticed a small black and tan dog on the side of the road.  PD#1 said it was a Rottie pup.  Both PH and I said not true, it was just a black and tan dog.  PD#1 convinced us to go back and look.  Sure enough it was a Rottweiler pup.  It's ears are a little fluffy, so it is probably a mixed breed, but other than the tail needing cropping, it is a Rottweiler male.  LOL  All I could do was laugh.  God answered my prayer, but I should have been more specific. LOL  We picked him up and now we have about an 8 week old Rott mix pup named Duke.  I'll post a picture of him tomorrow.  I'll give him the 7 way shot tomorrow, worm him, and call the vet to see about getting his tail cropped.  If nothing else, he'll make a good guard dog to add to the homestead.  Rottweilers are always a great visual deterrance ;-)

I was able to pick up 4 cases of pint jars today at Ace.  They were having a sale that was 2 cases for $11.00.  Since normally each case is $10.99, this was almost buy one get one free.  I was excited.  I also purchased 4 boxes of replacement lids, and a bottle of powdered pectin.  I've never used this kind, only the gel in the pouch, but it is the Ball brand, and is supposed to make more than the pouch does.  22 pints vs. 12.  I'll try it and see.  I do need to stock up on some more pectin.  I have one box of the pouch pectin, and now this bottle, but I like to keep it on hand. 

PH received a bonus from his employer and it is sufficient to complete the entire first floor decking of the house.  Another huge blessing!  Praise God!  We are sufficiently stocked up with food, though there are a few items I could get, but I will continue using his regular paycheck for that.  I don't want to take any of this windfall away from the house.  The sooner it gets done the better.  We desperately need a bigger place to live.  If I end up living in a shell, I'll be fine with that, as long as, the outside is complete.

The local library was also having a book sale.  I was able to get another copy of "Where there are no doctors".  The copy I ordered from Amazon was in sad shape, though it has proved useful.  I also was able to get a copy of the Sheep Raisers Guide for $1.00.  We don't have sheep, but have talked about it recently, so I picked up the book just in case.  I was also able to get several nice art books with classical masterpieces in them for our Art Study for school, plus books on WWII, The History of Scotland, The History of England and a book on Celtic life.  (My family orginated in Scotland so I tend to lean towards that type of stuff, in addition to American History and Government).  PD#1 found a brand new looking horse training book by John Lyons and PD#2 found a Dr. Seuss reading workbook with stickers in tact.  She was thrilled. 

All in all today was a good day.  We were able to add to our preps, plus get a few good books for our homeschool studies.  Pretty cool...

Next on my wild foods list is to make Mesquite jelly (more jelly - sigh) or Mesquite flour.  Plus, I'd like to harvest several cat tails from the pond to see how to prepare them, and how they taste.  We've already harvested and cooked a bull frog, and a rattlesnake, so we've done pretty good so far in finding different wild foods to add to our pantry and/or ability to survive from.  (Here lately the rattlesnakes are getting fewer and far between.  A mixed blessing.  I am glad they are not plentiful, don't want to get bit, but then there aren't any to eat) ;-)

It's not easy being green....beans

Before



After

I am so proud of myself.  I hope that isn't sinful LOL.  This is only the second time I 've used the pressure canner, and I was able to can 12 pints of green beans and 2 quarts.  I wanted to do all pints, but didn't have any available.  I've been trying to save money, so didn't want to rush out and buy any.  I have several cases of quarts, so figured that would be the way I'd go.  I wanted pints, because they are an ideal size for a meal for my family, but I would make do.  Just as I was starting I noticed a box in the back, it was an old box of canning jars I received free from a local lady.  It was a very old box of Golden Harvest canning jars in PINT size.  Praise the Lord!  I was a little worried, because I've only used Kerr and Ball in the past, but after finishing, they all appear to have sealed great and are BEAUTIFUL!

PH is making his list to purchase some lumber this weekend to start the floor of the new house.  I am so excited!  He is also working on a hoop house chicken coop for me, and the 20 little chicks I am expecting.  These will be my egg layers, and I will be placing an order soon for meat chicks.  Probably Freedom Rangers, or Plymouth Rocks, not sure yet.