Been cold!!!!

It's been rather cold here in Virginia...not too awfully cold though. We've had a lot of snow this past week, so I've been trying to keep myself busy with random projects. I've been working on a flower afghan out of one of my grandmothers old crochet books. My plan is to work my way through the entire book.

Frank and I celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary tomorrow. I cannot believe it's been that long ago already. Truly the time has just sort of slipped away.

I haven't worked on getting anything canned this week, but I did find places to put the stuff I canned last weekend. I really need to re organize my pantry.

Not much really going on here other than snow, crocheting, and cleaning. I didn't wan't to let too long go between posts though.

Hope you all are keeping warm and safe!!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Afghan-bouquet-Linda-Mershon/dp/0881956279/ref=la_B00IULX4DG_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1421978104&sr=1-4

You can find the book that contains this project here!!!

Canning Carrots

It was another snowy weekend here in Woodstock Virginia, and knowing that I wasn't going to want to go anywhere, but would want something to do, I ran up to our local Food Lion where they have fresh carrots for 79 cents a pound, and bought 10 pounds of carrots. (I must admit, I loved the look on the gentleman's face when I asked him if he could get me such a large amount since they didn't have that much out)  There is always something year round for a good price that can be canned at the local grocery store. (I personally like Food Lion because there Veggies are always in much better shape, and have a great price.)

I got 20 jars of carrots canned, 3 jars of potatoes and onions, and 1 jar of potatoes onions and carrots canned.  At this point, the jars have been used enough times that you cannot count them in the cost factor, but of course you always have to count the lids themselves.  So in total each jar cost me 45 cents once you break down the cost of each lid.  That's one of the things I love about canning, is how far I can stretch my food budget.

But to can carrots (or potatoes) It's 10 pounds, and then 25 minutes for Pints, and 30 minutes for quarts.

Hope you all are keeping warm and safe!!!

Grans Chicken Soup

Even though today was a nasty, snowy, cold, stay inside kind of day, there was still plenty to do!!! We had some egg eating chickens, that just would not be broke...so I turned them into soup! Not just any soup, but my mother in laws chicken soup! (it's actually chicken noodle, but I don't can it with the noodles in it.) this recipe makes 6 gallons of soup. She makes it every year for the church soup and sandwich dinner. Let me tell you, chopping up 3 pounds of onions nearly did me in.

I hope you all enjoy this tasty soup recipe. I know I've never had chicken noodle soup this good. not only does it can well, but it freezes well too. The best part about cooking ahead to me is not having to think about it later, and an easy meal on a bad day. If you can this, it's 10 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes.

Ingredients:

1 Chicken, cooked, deboned, chopped.
2 bunches celery, chopped
2 pounds carrots, chopped
3 pounds onions, chopped
2 gal water
3 lbs home style egg noodles
2  8 oz containers chicken base
3 (12 and 1/2) oz cans chicken breast

Instructions:

In a very large pot, place water and broth from cooked chicken with grease removed. Cook vegetables in broth till tender. Add chicken base and noodles. Cook till noodles are tender. Add up to 1 gallon more water if too thick. Stir in cooked and canned chicken, just before serving. Makes approximately 6 gallons.

Like I said, this is the perfect recipe for making ahead. Better yet, if you have elderly neighbors, why not share???

Getting Ready

January is almost over, seed catalogs have started arriving in the mail, and stores have started tempting us with colorful packets of vegetable seeds.  For us caners/gardeners this is like a pre season sports play off!!! Unfortunately here in Virginia the ground is still frozen, and its just a tad bit early to get the seeds started. (Unless you do container gardens, then you are probably just fine)

There is however, much to be done to start getting ready! For starters, take a complete inventory of your canning supplies. How many lids do you have? If you don't have enough to get through the first few canning sessions, get out there now and start stocking up while there are plenty to be had. Rings never seem to be much of a problem for me. Somehow, I seem to have more rings than I do jars. Now though, is a great time to go through them, and recycle the ones that are rusty and flaky. Check over your jars. Look for chips and cracks. Nothing is worse than discovering a chipped/cracked canning jar in the midst of the canning frenzy.

Once you have checked your canning supplies, now is the time to go over your equipment. Check the ring on your pressure canner. Go over it and clean it well. The same goes for your water bath caner. It won't have a seal in the lid, but you still need to make sure its clean. Cleanliness is one of the number one rules of canning.

Now is also a great time to clean and organize your pantry. Make sure everything is labeled, and that the oldest is in the front. That's common sense there, so you probably already know that.

This is the perfect time to plan your garden. What do you want to plant, how much do you want to plant, and how many people are you feeding. Do you want to plant from seed, or buy started plants from local nurseries. These are all great things to think about and consider. (We are about to get our tomato plants started) (We are planning on a lot of tomatoes this year) One of the biggest questions to ask yourself as you are planning your garden, if you are thinking big, if you have a good crop turn out, will you have time to deal with all of the produce, and what are your plans for preserving it.

Well, I think I've covered most of the pre season gardening tips. If you have any, please feel free to share them in the comments below!!!

Random stuff

I've been a bit slow on writing blogs this month so far. Things have been busy here though in my defense.  We've had rain, sleet, snow, and tons of mud. I've been trying to keep up with that mess here in the house.

I had my chick hatch out this week as well!!! Out of the 20 eggs I originally set, only 2 hatched. That's it..just 2. As you all know, that's my smallest hatch out yet. They are tiny little things. I'm planning on getting pics of them here soon before they start getting un fluffy.

I've also been working on getting stuff made for a craft show I'm going to be doing in March, and am thinking about opening up a FB store. I think it could be fun. I'm thinking about making and selling Afghans. Mostly so that I can keep buying yarn.

Other than that, that is all the excitement going on here. I'm working on a new pattern for you guys, but this pattern is taking me a bit longer to get done.

Keep warm and be safe!!!

Ready to Garden!!!!

I have already started getting those most beautiful seed catalogs in the mail!!! I love those things, I could thumb through them for hours, going back and forth, again and again. I'm so ready to get my garden up and going. we picked up our tomato seeds the other day, and got our pots to start them in.  We wont start them until next month though. I'd love to start them now, so that we can just pop them in the ground, and they will be ready to produce within a short matter of time. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself though.  After all, tomorrow the eggs in my incubator go into lock down, so we will have babies by Thursday.  (boy the time seems to fly by doesn't it?)

What is everybody looking forward to growing in their garden this year? And what will you do with it???

I'm looking forward to my tomatoes for sure, and I'm planning on making ketchup, salsa, and tomato sauce for whatever we will need it for. It will be a busy summer on that end of things.

Keeping Warm

It's 8 Degrees out, and Bella has picked my chair to curl up in and be warm!!!
Hope you all are keeping your pups and other animals warm in this cold weather.

Cooking canned potatoes

As you all know, I like to can various things. I especially like to can veggies that I can buy for next to nothing. Back in the fall I canned 25 pounds of potatoes, which was a 2 or 3 day adventure.  With it being as cold as it has been, opening that cabinet and pulling out those beautifully home canned potatoes has been a fantastic thing!!!

These are great fixed so many different ways, fried, hash browned, put in soup, or our favorite way, fixed in the oven. What I like to do, that has turned into a favorite here, is to preheat the oven to 400, and spread them in a pan. Salt and Pepper to taste, and then put enough paprika on top to turn it partially red. Bake for 20 minutes, and then increase temp to 450, and turn them in pan, and bake until crisp. Then about 3-5 minutes before you are ready to pull them out, sprinkle the top with cheese. This is one of those deals where there is really no set time, you kind of have to eyeball it.

This summer, we are going to attempt to grow our own, not sure how well that's going to work out, but we're going to try!!!

Snow and cold temps

Well, I guess we couldn't skip winter all together!!! I guess we got spoiled by all of the 50 degree temps we had through most of December, and the 50-60 degree temps we had the first few days of January.  As you all can see, it was rather chilly here this morning. The dogs don't seem to mind it, although I make them come in much more often than they like.

This is Soup and hot tea weather for sure!!! Hope you all are staying warm, and keeping your farm animals safe!!!

Welcome 2015

Hello Everybody, and Welcome to 2015!!! I know I'm a day or two behind on this post, but that's one of the things that happens when you live in my world sometimes!!!

I hope everybody had a very wonderful New Years Eve Celebration. Frank and I had a pretty good one here. We watched an AC/DC concert on the TV with the dogs sleeping all around. (Yup, we like to rock out now and again) and just had a nice quiet evening at home. Then on New Years day, we went to my in-laws for a traditional New Years day lunch. We had black eye peas, cabbage, pork loin, and mashed potatoes. It's supposed to be lucky to eat those things on the first day of the year, so hopefully it will bring lots of luck, especially with everything we are working on here on the farm.

This year will hopefully bring lots of new and exciting things for me to share with you all. We are planning on Expanding our rabbits into New Zealand rabbits, once the rabbit house is finally complete. Plus we are working on starting our own small scale hatchery so that we can sell started pullets. We will be hatching out Rhode Island Reds, Easter Eggers, and Tetra Tints, which is a mix of Rhode Island Red and White Leghorn. They are pretty birds, and excellent layers. We have a hand full of them in our flock right now, and I just love them. Its almost a shame that they wont breed true.

So we will be putting up two new buildings with attached runs in the coming year, a building and run just for the Easter Eggers, and a building with a small run for us to be able to hatch out the chicks, with an attached grow out pin. Now we fully intend to keep the grow out pin that's on the end of our current run as a grow out pin.  Whats going to happen is all of the roosters that we hatch out will go in there until they are big enough to go to freezer camp. Unfortunately nobody wants a rooster unless they plan on doing their own hatching. But that's the bad part of hatching is the high amount of rooster's that hatch out. Then again, if you are like us, and like to produce your own meat, its not entirely too bad, except for you almost end up having to eat chicken every night. (Thank goodness for cook books and internet recipes.)

This year I also plan on bringing you all lots of new recipes, and I have some crochet patterns in the work for free and for sale. (the sales help me to be able to buy the yarn to keep bringing free patterns along with the for sale patterns.)

So, in closing, I'd like to wish you and your families a very happy new year, filled with lots of love, luck, and good health.