Day 10 of 365 days of our lives on a small family farm

Here we are on day10, wow10 days you have been following our lives and we hope you have learned a little about us and lives. 

Today we started the day after breakfast of course by starting to make pies.  The first batch of crust was scraped due to the vegetable shortening tuning rancid and must now be rendered at so point for soap. Then we made a little mistake with the flour, we found an unlabeled jar of flour and dumped it into another jar we had, it was not wheat flour, it was corn…dhooooo….so as I made the crust I sort of figured it out and figured we had gone that far…lol  We topped with a streusel topping, same flour mix, which is now used up, so it all went well and the pies came out fine.  I love making pies, it is by far the easiest desert food next to Jell-O(we do not eat jell-o, unless we make it from our own cow feet).

We made 4 jars of pear/peach jam and 4 jars of pear/peach pie filling, that went well and we still have enough to make a pie tomorrow. 

We had last night’s dinner for lunch and some of us had hot dogs for dinner and some had chicken, we are cleaning out the freezers on meal at a time…  Every six months we need to almost empty the freezers, because they frost up.  A few years ago we thought about buying some of those fancy frost free ones, but realized it is not practical because of where we live.  Here on the mountain the power seems to go out at least once a month for a few hours or so and with modern freezers the food would thaw very quickly and then refreeze, not the greatest to eat once that happens. Our will keep food frozen if unopened for two weeks; we know this due the ice storms we had a few years back.  Another big plus is that they cost less to run than the new energy saver ones.  Our electric bill on average is about $225.00 per month if you do a yearly average.  That is with three refrigerators running, two freezers, five loads+ of laundry per day as well as the incubator and the many lights that are always on, plus the electric, dish washer, water heater and stove.  We have gone back to regular light bulbs as well, the new ones over all do not seem to save power and they are a bio hazard having large levels of mercury in them and since there is no hazardous waste station nearby, what is one to do with dead bulbs that you cannot legally throw away.  So the green bulbs are not green.  It is sad where you get the point of seeing that much of what you think is green is just propaganda.  Any way back to the point it is almost time to take the hair dryer and rag towels out and defrost the buggers.

I have a ton of school work today, still trying to get it all done.

Let see what else did we do today, played with the little bears, hugged horses, checked on all creatures on the farm great and small.  Returned emails to many people.  Oh we had wood delivered, in case of the storm does hit.  I am so tired of snow.  It will make tomorrow a very long day for me.  I will get up early to get the kids dressed and feed, than it will be off to school and math class for me, after I will go to gym and then to Wal-Mart and then the feed store and home, to more school work and grading papers of the children as well as baking a cake for Isaiah who will be 20 tomorrow, can you believe it, 20 years old.  Where does the time go. 

Well my dears I must go for now, I hope you all join us again tomorrow…Be Blessed and sleep well

So on to the hubbies post:

News From The Doghouse and life in the food chain...

Slept gloriously late today, until some Meany tickled my feet to wake me up at 8:30. I was up at 5:30 and started a fire in the wood burner, then went back to bed and slept solidly...Slowly got out the door at 10 and got chores going, it’s a day to get everything fresh new water, whether they need it or not.

Cleaned the Cayuga ducks pen, thought it would be 2 wheelbarrow loads and it was 3 heavy sopping wet ones. If you got a weak stomach, don't do it on a full stomach, or the ducks will love you forever. As for me, I couldn't wait to get done so I could go eat and have a coffee break. Had to get this job done, cause we lose money on dirty eggs, and today we had a nice black egg as well. Maybe I can get a picture posted of it, it’s cool if you never seen any of them. We at first thought they were bad eggs somehow...long story there for another day.

Have to get some more wood cut cause we got a storm coming on us in a few days, and I don't want to be out in the freezing rain trying to scrounge around for firewood. Got some cut, and we were able to get some solid core stuff delivered as well, so we are going to stay toasty warm through the worst of it, supposed to get down to 12F.

Seen a flock of geese flying overhead headed north...seen 2 flocks yesterday with the Bears, also headed north northwest...guess it is not going to be too bad then.

The Boss has some canning stuff cooking, berries from the freezer from our summer harvest, apples from our tree, and I don't know what else offhand.

Got to listen to my radio show on the computer, listening to Rabbi Dovid and happiness. May your week be a happy, joyous one as well.

On to Dah’veed’s post

The life and times of a rapper/farmer

Ah, it usually takes a near death experience from a live power line at a friend’s farm, to make you truly appreciate the things that are commonly taken for granted. Good times. Today we made peach/pear preserves...on accident. Well we made it on purpose but we didn’t purposely mix them. It happened, and all was well.

Thanks to the Anglo Saxons for creating common English…stupid English lit.

We had rice, peas, Israel cow meat, and cream-of-mushroom soup for din-din last night, and it was good…stupid din-din.

Oh btw, YouTube doesn’t like and material that they think is copyrighted, so keep your eyes peeled, or at least slightly open :/

Mom made pie…

That is all

           Switch~Blade

 P.S. Here is a great link to old cool stuff, like our fridges and freezers.   http://www.antiqueappliances.com/