Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a safe and fun time ringing in 2016. As I look back on the year, the one thing that comes to my mind is “where did all the time go?”. The days went by so fast that I can’t believe we are already in 2016. Not only that, but we are already half way through January! Right now we are in that time in between. In between cold and warm; in between our old fat selves and our new svelte selves; in between hibernation and awakening. Maybe, we are in between jobs, in between relationships, in between sickness and health or in between the beginning of an educational semester and graduation. There is so much going on in our lives because we have just reset the clock and all the world is in front of us! It is also that time in between Winter and Spring. When, at least if you live somewhere other than say, Florida, California, Arizona or New Mexico, you are pining for Spring and the warm weather and signs of life that just aren’t there in Winter (except for today when it was 57 degrees out and sunny and that really is pretty warm and lovely). We all know that a bright beautiful winter day is at least bearable because the sun is shining and you can pretend it’s really not as cold outside as the thermometer says. But boy when it’s overcast and gray, that thermometer is so wrong! Throw in some rain and it’s worse. Somehow of course when it is snowing, all bets are off! Doesn’t matter how cold or gray it is, snow falling is just beautiful. Snow falling makes us all smile because we know that if it sticks, we can go outside and play! I would guess that those super folks that spread salt and brine when it snows aren’t smiling (except maybe when they get their paychecks with lots of overtime in it) but overall, it is a beautiful and fun sight to see. This time in between is when we really start to plan for what we will be doing on the homestead come a consistently warmer weather. We are making lists and determining what are the things that need to be done now to make sure we are ready for the Spring. We plan for the garden and orchard, we plan for the bees, we plan for the chickens. We also plan for the property and any changes or additions we will make. It is this time in between that can make all the difference come Spring. I also start planning for some sort of trip to go somewhere warm and tropical. I like warm and tropical and I like planning trips to go there. Unless we plan a trip to go somewhere absolutely freezing like we did last year….anyway, let’s get back to the nitty-gritty!
While it is too cold outside to plant anything in the garden, we are planning what we will put in there where and when. We are also planning on where we will put a new greenhouse, including what kind, how big, getting the site prepped and whether we will buy one or build one. I am really excited about having a greenhouse because we can have fresh veggies all year! Yes, I am aware that they sell veggies all year long in that place called a grocery store. Believe me, I know. It seems like I go to the grocery store every. single. day. However, it kind of defeats the purpose of having your own garden and such to go out and buy it from the grocery store. Remember, this is also that time in between when the farmer’s markets are gone and when they return. So, in the whole “self-sufficiency” way, I want to have the veggies we eat all the time to be available all the time. I will still freeze a lot of them from the garden for use during the year, but obviously that doesn’t give you fresh, crisp veggies once they are thawed. They are great to cook with but no so great on a salad. Oh and just a practical note from experience: if you are going to freeze kale or swiss chard or anything that is a large leaf, make sure you cut it up into the smaller pieces you want to cook with prior to freezing. If you don’t, they are super difficult to cut up once thawed and wilted. The expansion of the garden is going to allow us to spread things out a bit more. We won’t necessarily be adding to the number of things we plant as we will not be replanting some of the things we had last year. But it will give us more room to make the things we do plant that much better. As for the greenhouse, we have to decide whether we want a traditional greenhouse where you have tables with containers of plants on them or if we want to plant the plants into the ground within the greenhouse structure. I am pretty sure we will go with the latter, but we still need to decide if we will build it or buy it. We have determined where to put it, we just need to level out the ground for it. We are working on a list of plants we are going to plant in the garden and the greenhouse. We were able to determine what we liked and what just didn’t think was worth the effort. We are also planning the improvements that need to be made to the garden so we don’t have the rabbit issues which includes putting in actual posts and re-fencing with chicken wire. We are also going to be keeping more detailed records on the garden so that a we don’t lose plants and can stagger some plants throughout the growing season. Looking back on what we do and what we do when can certainly help us in the future since the older we get, our memory isn’t going to help us as much as a diary would. And you know, the Hubs isn’t getting any younger!
As for the chickens, we will be culling about half the flock sometime in the Fall. We have to plan our purchase of new chicks so that we can make sure that when the flock gets culled, we have new chickens ready to lay or already laying to take the place of those we process. We are also going to be getting some new breeds of chickens this year. That way, we can tell the young ones from the old ones! Right now, we have at two Dominiques that are at least 2-3 years old, but we can’t tell those from the ones that are 1 1/2 years old! So we learned it would be easier to start out with new chicks that are completely different from what we already have so we can tell them apart. On a different but equally important note, the new heater for the water barrel is working like a charm! We are having nights in the teens and the 5 gallon buckets have frozen, but the barrel is flowing on like normal. I do still have chicka that has not finished her molt (she’s the one that had all of her back feathers torn out by the rooster). She is well into it, but not quite completely feathered back out yet. She will get there, so no need for those chicken sweaters! We have also turned off the light in the run and only keep the light on in the coop 24/7. This seems to have helped with the eggs as we are getting 10-14 a day now. We have also closed the windows about 3/4 of the way and closed the North door just to keep the wind out and it keeps the heat they generate in the coop in the coop.
On to the bees! We will be going through our current inventory of bee supplies to determine what else we need for the four new nucs we have on order. They will arrive April 8, so we need to have everything ready and in hand for that date. Since everyone generally gets new bees that same time, you can’t wait to order supplies because they may be hard to get if you wait too long. As I have hinted, we are going to be adding a couple of new things to the apiary this year. We are also putting the hives in new places. I have already moved our one surviving hive into the orchard and we will be putting up a fence to close off the orchard so the dogs don’t bother the bees (and the bees don’t bother the dogs) and the dogs don’t eat the grapes. I anticipate we will have at least two or three hives in the orchard and the rest down by the new pond. There will be some new and exciting things happening to the hives…a couple of experiments. I am really excited about the new things to come! We are going to switch things up a bit and see where it takes us! I closed the entrance to as small as I can and still have the sugar patties in the hive for them. Since we have had quite a mild winter considering, they have been a bit more active than they would normally be this time of year so they will have eaten more than normal. I can still hear them buzzing when I put my ear against the hive, so I know we still have bees and that is great! I checked on them today since it is beautiful and warmish and there was lots of activity outside the hive. I also checked to see if they had eaten the sugar patty I put on about 6 weeks ago and they still had quite of bit of it left in there so they are still good to go food-wise. Queenie should start laying again at the end of February to get ready for the Spring flow. Gotta have the troops available to forage and bring in the bounty!
The pond. We have already cut down a gazillion trees to clear out the area for the pond and will be using this wood to feed our indoor inferno, better known as the wood burning stove. The Hubs was a tree cutting machine! He is essentially a pro at using a chain saw and dropping trees exactly where he wants them to go (except for one and he took care of that one by having me lift him up to full hight in the bucket of the tractor so he could cut it). It is pretty amazing to watch him. This pond will be about 2/3 of an acre and will have full sun areas that will be great for the beehives. I am hoping this will allow for a better water supply and a sunnier and more lush environment for the bees so they will be so busy making honey that I have enough to take a lot! The pond will eventually be stocked and will be at last 10-12 feet deep by the dam and a bit deeper in the middle. Yes, you could swim in it, but we have quite a few snapping turtles on the property, so I don’t know how great of an idea that would be. But I am sure there are some risk takers out there and you are welcome to have at it! All that is left to do for the pond is to rent an excavator and take out the stumps of the cut trees and then have someone with a bulldozer come in and move the dirt around and create a pond! Since the Hubs plans like a champ, he had the excavators that cleared our property dig out a section of the area he wanted for the pond while they were here with the equipment (even before the house was a thought) so that we could make sure the dirt/clay in the area would hold water. The pond will be fed by one wet weather creek and one all-weather creek. Maybe I will learn to fish. Maybe.
Last post I mentioned that this winter I wanted to make a couple of things: cheese and Limoncello. Why? Because we love cheese and I had never had Limoncello and thought it sounded good. I have not made cheese yet but I have made Limoncello! It was certainly not hard and it turned out so yummy! I also used the lemon rinds that I used for the Limoncello to make candied lemon peels. Thankfully this stuff will keep for months in the fridge. For whatever reason, I decided to make it right around the time I decided to avoid alcohol for 30 days. Why in the world would I do that? Well, I guess I had the time to slice lemon peels from about 10 lemons making sure I didn’t get too much pith on them. Huh? Yep. Oh and I am also avoiding sugar for 30 days. So of course I made candied lemon peels once the Limoncello was ready. I just simmered the peels in sugar syrup and then rolled them in sugar. Of course I tried them both! Verdict: I like Limoncello and candied lemon peels that had been soaked in vodka for a week! I used SKYY vodka to steep the lemons peels in for a week and then I added sugar syrup to it and let it sit overnight and then strained it and put it in a bottle and a quart jar. Turns out the bottle wasn’t big enough and it just made sense to put the rest in a quart jar and make my own Limonshinecello. That way, I could be fancy and pour it out of my bottle or not so fancy and just get my lemon from a jar (if you don’t get it, look up the lyrics for Rocky Top).
Oh! I got a new dehydrator! This one doesn’t spin, it heats from the top so the heat circulates better and you don’t have to rotate the trays! I am currently drying some rosemary, thyme and oregano that is still going strong in the herb garden. This dehydrator also has temperature settings for different kinds of things from herbs to jerky and everything in between! For whatever reason, I had not even thought to use my dehydrator to dry herbs. All this time. I would dry them in the microwave and that was a very tedious and time-consuming process. Silly me. So, I have put the new dehydrator to good use! Our old one worked until it didn’t. You know how that goes. I believe it was a wedding gift, so it was almost 12 years old. In dog years, that is, well, old. It started squeaking (or rather sounding like nails on a chalkboard) when it turned so we would keep it in the laundry room with the door closed when it was in use. It also stopped spinning completely around and would just go back and forth. So, we bit the bullet and bought a new one. Not only did we bite the bullet, we bought a bullet. A Magic Bullet! So fun! Yes, I am talking about a blender, people. Thanks to my cousin, Kevin who gave us the recipe and my awesome Hubs who makes it, we are having magic bullet coffee every morning. So yummy and it has helped me with the whole “no sugar” thing as I no longer need the Peppermint Mocha creamer in my coffee! It has butter, coconut oil, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and honey in it along with your coffee. I know, it sounds gross, but it really is good. I didn’t believe it until I tasted it. I believe the Hubs has perfected the recipe. It will be even better this summer when we can use our own honey!
One more really cool thing: we had the goal of eating at least one meal that came completely from our property. We had the pleasure of sharing that meal with my sister and brother-in-law last month. We had venison steaks that came from deer hunted on the property along with green beans and sweet potatoes from our garden! Technically our glasses of water also came from the property since we have well, so I will take that too. Our next goal is to have an entire weeks worth of meals solely produced or procured from the property. Will keep you updated on that one!
Happy winter everyone!