Time For A Change

Folks, this blog has turned into something altogether different than what I expected it would be. I've decided that in light of the turn it has taken, it's time for a new name and a new look.

Please visit my new home at This Agrarian Life.

All the prior content from this blog has been moved to the new one, and I intend to take this one down, oh, probably around the first of March. All new posts will be made at the new address, however.

Thanks, and we hope to see you over there!

Economic Downturn Cuisine

OR...THE $5 MEAL CHALLENGE!

To give credit where it is due, this post was my husband's idea, and I think it's a great one. Dust off your aprons, because now that everyone's wallet is thinning, it's time to get resourceful. I'm all about eating well (often very well) but there are times when economics dictates that I need to be frugal. I think most of us are at or approaching that point now. My challenge to you is this:

YOU HAVE FIVE DOLLARS. MAKE DINNER FOR FOUR.

Of course, we have outlined some rules and parameters as follows:

• The entire meal (not including beverages) must cost $5 or less. No breaking down individual serving costs, either. If you have to buy an entire bunch of celery just to use one stalk, the full purchase price counts. We're pretending that we literally have a five dollar bill, and have to make a meal with it.
• The meal must serve four average adults. Not football players or supermodels, just average folks. If you'll have leftovers, even better.
• The meal must contain protein, carbohydrates and vegetables in some form.
• Takeout, fast food and frozen dinners are not allowed. You have to cook. We had a frozen pizza for dinner last week that cost five bucks, but it DOESN'T COUNT (mmm...it was good, though).
• Prepared and semi-prepared foods are allowed, but they cannot be served solo. They must be incorporated into a larger dish. For example, you can use a can of cream of mushroom soup in a casserole, but you can't crack open that can of soup, add milk and call it dinner.
• Because we all always have something lurking in our kitchens no matter how bare they are, I'm allowing two "free" items for each recipe that won't count against your budget. Your free items should be things you'd use in fairly small quantities and are likely to have around anyway - the odd can of creamed corn, some dried parsley, an onion...you get the idea. They should not be the primary ingredient in your dish, and they should not be exotic (no foie gras or shitake mushrooms). I have laying hens, so an egg in a recipe might be one of my free items, or vinegar, because I keep that around all the time.
• I'm going to assume that everyone has salt, pepper and oil, so those are free no matter what.

There you have it, folks. Those are the rules. It would be really great if everyone actually cooks their meal, but if you don't, at least look at the ingredients the next time you're at the store. Try to use real prices, rather than guessing. The price of some items can vary a lot from day to day and store to store, so try to pretend that you actually have to go through with this. Even better, DO go through with it. Post your submissions to the comments section, and I'll post an update after a week or so.

Happy cooking!

The Machine Dilemma

Just as I was going on to someone this weekend about how much I love my bread machine, it decided to bite the big one. Well, sort of. The machine itself still works fine, and will likely continue to work for a long time, but the pan insert has cracked, and leaks something awful. While you can get replacement parts for these, the pan insert for my model is no longer made, and I can't seem to find any stock anywhere. This leaves me with a dilemma. I truly can't decide whether to buy another machine or continue searching for a pan for this one, or just give up on it altogether and go back to making bread by hand, the way people have done for centuries.

I'm not normally a big fan of gadgets, especially gadgets that only do one thing, but I must say that the bread machine has been a notable exception. I've found that it really does save me time and effort, because I can put all the ingredients in and walk away, and not have to stop what I'm doing every so often to mix, knead, punch down, etc. I've been quite happy overall with the results I get from it, and if I want to do something special (pizza crust, rolls, etc.) I can still let the machine make the dough and then shape and bake it in the oven. I find this very convenient. The other big plus is that I can bake bread in the machine without heating up my house the way the oven would, which is a boon here in Texas where I live, where it's uncomfortably hot for much of the year. I see that as a distinct advantage. Ultimately I'd like to have an outdoor, wood-fired bread oven, but that isn't in place now and won't be in the near future.

I'm still torn, though, because the machine is large, takes up a lot of space, uses electricity and has parts that will break or wear out. Something about doing it by hand feels more authentic and more sustainable, in that it's one less machine I need to buy, store and cart around. That aspect of hand bread making is very appealing to me. Also, when you make it by hand, you have more control over the end result. I would certainly need to make more of an effort to work bread baking into my schedule. When I use the machine, I get more bread made, but somehow I still feel sort of lame doing it that way.

Undecided.

The Farm Chronicles - January

This post is the first in a series. I plan to write a year-long account of our life here, in monthly installments.

It might seem that not much would be going on here in January. That is hardly the case! It may not be the "busy" time, but there's still more than plenty to do. In addition to all the regularly scheduled tasks that demand our attention - chores, broken things to be fixed, etc. - this is the time for cleaning, planning, organizing, acquiring. This is when we more or less map out our year (or at least the first few months) and take stock of what we have, what we lack and what must go.

We got an early jump on it on New Year's Day, which was spent working. It was sunny and fairly warm, and we were offered trailer loads of building materials and firewood that we just couldn't turn down. We were exhausted at the end of the day from all the lifting and carrying, but it was worth it. We made off with tons of useful stuff and the exercise made us feel good after many weeks of holiday sloth. That same week, we picked up our wood stove. Naturally, it was sunny and a balmy 80 degrees. We spent the next day installing it, which was just in time, since that night we were back down in the thirties, and facing two days of freezing rain. It didn't take long to decide that it was an excellent investment, and improved our quality of life many times over.

The animals aren't bothered at all by winter here. Our winters are mild and our summers hot, so it's in the summer that they tend to hunker down, finding a shady spot for a siesta. Winter is another story, though. The two ducks that had made their way to the pond came back to the house this month, had a nice little chatty reunion with the other two, and finally showed them where the water is. Their new routine is to all spend the night at the pond, take a swim in the morning and spend the day up near the house. In the late afternoon, they all head back to the water for the night. It's quite amusing to see the way they travel as a single unit - they really are extremely charming. The chickens are as enterprising as ever, and are still uncovering new territory to scratch and peck at. We've seen quite a bit of wild animal activity as well. Hawks are plentiful and fly low over the pasture looking for mice every afternoon. We've also had a flock of wild ducks move in. They fraternize freely with our Muscovies, and everyone seems to get along.

It's common during this time of year for work to be disrupted, usually by unpredictable weather. We can have a day that's sunny and in the 70's and make plans to get all sorts of outdoor work done, only to find that the next day is 40 degrees and 25 mph winds. Such is life. We are nothing if not adaptable. There are some things that simply must be done, however, like splitting wood. This takes some planning. We must, as the saying goes "make hay while the sun shines".

My mom came to visit and see the place for the first time this month. It forced us to do some panic cleaning, but that was fine. All through the holidays the house had been terribly neglected. I'd like to point out that we are still normal people, and we do normal things. We read, watch TV, pay bills, eat lunch and so on. We could have been doing any of these things when my mother arrived, but oh no, not us. We were splitting wood and cleaning out the chicken house (I can shovel manure like nobody's business). I was amused - it almost gives the impression that that's all we do out here.

Our day jobs are the reality that keeps our bills paid and keeps us connected to the outside world, and at least for now, I feel like I still really need mine, but I can feel the desire to keep doing it slipping away. I had a particularly rough week with work this month. Nothing major happened, mind you, but I realized that I would rather be doing almost anything but sitting in front of a computer. I consoled myself by snapping some beans and collecting kindling, and felt temporarily restored. Taking this time to plan the garden also helps to combat the malaise, and although I know it will undergo constant tweaking, it feels good to have even a rather fluid plan in place



Did I mention that winter is a time for acquisitions? Goats officially got their slot on the program this month! They won't come home until probably mid-March, but there are three Nubians in the pipeline for us. We've had fun playing with them, but we also spent a long and very tiring day at their current home, disbudding the kids and practicing milking the adult does. You know you're cut out for this sort of life when this is the way you choose to spend a Saturday, and you don't mind that it's 34 degrees and you've spent the whole day outside and are now covered in milk, urine and the smell of burned hair. If you can get through a day like that and still come back for more, good on you - you're home. Bringing home goats of course means barn cleaning and supply gathering. We've decided to take the opportunity, since we must clean out the animal barn anyway, to rent a dumpster and simply clean up the property generally. I've never been so excited for anything to arrive in my life as I am about this dumpster. There's so much stuff here that needs to go, that was never ours in the first place, and getting it all gone will be satisfying beyond measure.

In the planning and organizing department, we elected to join ARBA. Hopefully it will provide some good information, education and networking possibilities. It's difficult to get to know people when you live in a rural area, so joining organizations like this can sometimes be quite beneficial. We also got signed up for some spring classes to further our homesteading education. My husband has a class on wood turning, and I'll be attending a much needed beekeeping course and a two-day gardening seminar, both of which I'm really looking forward to. I devoted some time to the inside of the house, cleaning up and organizing the upstairs room, which really increased our usable space. There was also some revamping of the household budget, which seems to be a semi-annual ritual, and a determination to do a bit of belt-tightening, which seems to be a sign of the times. At least I can say for now that the belt-tightening is strictly a preventive measure.

Some other notable events occurred this month. The swearing in of our new president, of course, as well as my husband's 40th birthday. We had some nice visits with friends and family, and some nice quiet times to ourselves. I'd love to offer some clues as to what February might hold in store for us, but I honestly have no idea! Maybe I'll get to catch up on some reading.

Yeah, right.

Meet The Kids

And Mama, too!

Naomi!


Naomi is the four-year-old doe we'll be bringing home. She is quite a sweetie.

Surrey!


This is Surrey, our buckling, who after much debate, got to keep his equipment after all. ;-) He's very outgoing and friendly, and extra lovey just like a puppy.

I'm sorry to say that I don't have a clear shot of Patience, our doeling. She is a week older than Surrey and looks much the same, but she is mostly black. She's very sweet and a bit shy. It was really difficult to take pictures of the kids, because they never stop moving. They're full of energy and very curious, even at such a young age.

We spent Saturday with them. I got to milk Naomi and we disbudded the kids, which was unpleasant to be sure, but not as traumatic as we feared it might be. They've recovering nicely and we'll get to bring them all home sometime around mid-March, after they're weaned. I can't wait! Well, actually I can wait, since we have tons of work to do before they arrive.

Getting My Goat

My husband and I met our goats yesterday - the ones that will be ours. It was really exciting, and they're unbelievably cute, and of course I didn't take along a camera. What is wrong with me?

It looks like we'll be getting three Nubian goats. One is a mature doe in milk that we were already acquainted with. One will be a wether, and is one of the mature doe's new kids. The third will be a doeling, and is from another bloodline, but the mother is also known to us.

We feel like this will give us a well-rounded starter combination. We'll have one that's experienced at kidding and milking, one female that we can learn with as she grows, and a boy to keep them company and help us with brush clearing (and who knows, maybe I'll teach him to pull a cart). We spent the rest of the afternoon yesterday assessing our barn and fencing, and we have a lot of work to do to get it up to goat standards, but we think we can manage it. I'll tell you, I am a complete list nerd, and right now, I NEED A LIST!

We'll likely be seeing them again soon, so next time I'll remember the camera. For the next few weeks, though, it will be work, work, work for us.

And then it will be milk, milk, milk!

A Boy and his Belongings

This is our boy, Stanley.



Stanley has lots of stuff. His own stuff. He found it, he loves it, he keeps track of it, the stuff is his. Just to be clear, his things are mostly not toys. Oh sure, there are a couple of favorites thrown in for good measure, but toys are largely community property around here. No, his are things that he picks out for himself. "Owning" things seems to be a common trait among German Shepherds, a rather charming one that I had forgotten about. Our other shepherd used to do it too - she kept "her stuff" in the crawlspace (we found dishes, yes dishes, out there all the time). Here's a small sampling of Stan's possessions, in the usual place that he likes to keep them - on the kitchen stoop:



Today we have a particularly well-loved toy (mostly destroyed), a curtain tie back, and a worn out slipper. This is an especially small and, uh, clean sampling. Ordinarily this pile would include such things as my favorite pair of pants (pinched from the bedroom), a chunk of broken glass, a dead and fantastically ripe mouse, aluminum cans, pieces of metal pipe, chunks of wood and things I can't even hope to identify. He can be seen spending most of his day lying in the sun on the stoop, amid his private collection of valuable artifacts, each and every one hand picked for its unique aesthetic.

He is a collector. A connoisseur.