KW Homestead

Pasture Raised Poultry & Edible Landscaping Plants Since 2013

Category: her thoughts (page 10 of 21)

Farm Food Friday: Vegetable Venison Soup

This recipe is one of my favorites… Because it is basically my mom’s vegetable soup recipe with venison added! Yummy!

I recommend using your biggest pot for this one. You can see how big the one we used is:

pot

What a big pot (with a medium-sized tea kettle for scale)!

1.  Begin by adding olive oil to your pot and cutting it on medium-low.

2.  Chop up 3 or 4 onions and approximately 1 head of celery. Add these to the pot with some salt and garlic powder and stir periodically while they saute.

3.  Chop your venison steaks up into small cubes and add them to the pot. Stir often.

soup

Onions, celery, and venison sauteing in the pot with olive oil, garlic, and salt.

4.  Slice 8 ounces of fresh mushrooms and add them to the pot. Also add more salt and garlic powder.

5.  Add tomatoes. We used frozen tomatoes from our garden last year, mostly Cherokee Purples, San Marzano, and Black Plum paste tomatoes, but a few cherry tomatoes found their way in there too! If you are using tomatoes from the store, I would use 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes.

6.  Add 1 small can of tomato paste.

7.  Now add a spoonful or two of honey and some sprinkles of cocoa powder (all of this is to taste). This minimizes the acidic taste from the tomatoes and adds a creamy darkness.

8.  Add spices: paprika, basil,and oregano, and of course more salt and garlic powder!

9.  As the dish begins to simmer, add carrots (I used a little less than 2 pounds of halved baby carrots).

10.  Add 1 large can of greenbeans (we didn’t have any of our own greenbeans left over from last fall).

soup

Adding greenbeans to the pot.

11.  I also like to add even more veggies… Frozen okra and frozen Lima beans (small bags of each) can also go in the pot now.

soup

Adding okra to the pot.

12.  Add 2 small cans of corn.

soup

Corn has been added!

13.  Cook the soup on medium-low for about an hour-and-a-half, and make sure to stir it frequently since this is a very dense soup and can stick to the bottom of the pot if you’re not keeping an eye on it!

14.  Check your soup and add more spices, if needed, and a little bit of soy sauce. Check to see how well softened the Lima beans and carrots are, and if you are satisfied with how done they are (and the spices), add 1 small bag of frozen peas. Stir them in and let the soup cook for about 15 minutes longer.

15.  Check your spices again… And if you like it, then it’s done!!! If not, add more spices!!!

soup

All done! Yummy!

.:.

 

A Mushroom Log Update

Since inoculating our shiitake mushroom logs and watering them and watching them for the first few months, we’ve been pretty much ignoring those things, waiting for them to fruit.

A few months ago, we saw one mushroom rearing its head, but it never got very big and no more appeared after that. We knew that it was possible that the logs would not fruit in the fall, instead waiting for the spring thaw to begin coming out, but it was still disappointing nonetheless.

I just checked on them today while I was getting firewood, and still they look the same. Now, in the 20 degree weather, is certainly not a time they would choose to come out, but I was still curious to look!

logs

Mushrooms logs, looking the same as ever.

A few months ago we noticed that a few of the logs were growing a lichen on their bark, which could mean that the shiitake spores couldn’t/didn’t act fast enough inside the log to take it over before the lichen gained control. These logs might not fruit for us, and we didn’t want them the spread the lichen to any of the other logs, so we moved them a little but away from the bunch.We’ll see what they do!

lichens

Taken over by lichens!

As we get closer to spring, and when we get some warmer days here, I plan to hose them down a good bit to make sure the spores inside don’t totally dry out. Since we’re new at this, I’m afraid that the spores that are growing inside the logs might have already dried out too much, killing them. This could just be my worry talking, but we’ll find out in a few months, I suppose! Hopefully once the spring thaw begins, we’ll have more shiitake than we know what to do with! Eating the wild Lion’s Mane mushrooms got us so excited, and we can’t wait for some more mushrooms!

.:.

 

Wind Proofing the Chicken Houses

Tonight it is supposed to get down to 10 degrees (without the wind chill) and we decided that we really needed to set up the chickens with extra windbreaks and warmth.

Here’s what we did:

  • Moved the mobile over beside the standard pen, creating a two-sided windblock for the geese to hide behind.
  • Covered the top of the mobile with 3 sheets and a tarp to keep in the warmth and to keep out the wind.
chickens

The bantam mobile gets some extra warmth!

  • Attached an unfolded cardboard box to the front door of the standard’s house. This is attached with small bungee cords and c-clamps. Their front door is facing the direction of the arctic wind and is only a frame covered in hardware cloth, so we knew that this was a place that they really needed some extra windblock!
cardboard

A cardboard door!

 

bungees

Using our bungees… Thanks Grandma!

  • Adding straw to the area between the standard house and the bantam house…
geese

Creating a space for the geese to sleep!

  • And even though the geese have this great new, less-windy spot, they didn’t think it was worth their time to go near it. Clearly they didn’t even need the wind block! They even had the audacity to take baths right out in the cold wind as the water was starting to freeze over! Ha, ha!
geese

Taking a freezing bath!

.:.

 

 

Naming More Bantams

Since the hawk attacks a few days ago, we’ve recounted and realized that another bantam was taken, Perry, the pretty little one who looked like a hawk herself. This realization was another blow… Especially one that made me feel guilty. Why hadn’t I noticed that she was gone? And how long had she been missing from the flock before I noticed? These questions were bothering me, so I decided to take a very careful tally of everyone who is left to be sure that I have my numbers right in the future if an issue ever arises again.

Related to this, the four black bantams that are still living with the standard chickens had never been named. Early on, there was 6 of them that all looked the same without any major markings to distinguish them. Now that there are 4, I decided that it was high time for me to spend some time observing them (like I did with the new bantam flock) so I could give them names. When they have names, it is much easier for me to remember how many there are and to watch out for them accordingly.

So as an overview for myself more than anything else, there are 12 bantams that are living in the bantam mobile. They are:

  • From the new flock: Elvis, Presley, Red Wing, Robin, Ringo, Poka, Oro, and Churo (8). The 2 from the new flock that hawks took were: Teeny and Perry.
  • From the original flock: Vanna, Q, Bren, and Cleo (4). The rooster from the original flock that the hawks took was Roosty.

There are 4 bantams living in the standard pen, they are:

  • Sola: She has the smallest comb of all and it is very gray. She has no head tuft.
  • Media: She has medium-sized comb that is pink. She has a medium-sized head tuft.
  • Caper: She has a large comb that is gray. She has a large head tuft.
  • Hattie: She has a large comb that is red. She has a large head tuft.

There are 16 standards living in their pen with the 4 black bantams. They are:

  • Rex the rooster
  • 8 Barred Rock hens
  • 7 Buff Orpington hens

So now we at least know how many we have of each (since I always tend to forget). Let’s hope we have better luck in the coming year with keeping an eye on our poultry!

.:.

two hawk attacks in one week

this post brings you some sad news on the homestead.

we’ve had two chickens die this week, carried away by hawks (or maybe the same one), never to be seen again. the first victim was our bantam rooster, roosty, who we’ve had since early on in our homestead life.   we didn’t see him get attacked and we didn’t even realize that he was missing until he next day. the hawk must have swooped down during the day when all of the chickens were out ranging around the yard and carried him off. we never heard a sound during the day and when the chickens went in their bantam mobile at night, we never counted to see if they were all there (we never do this, since they are always so crowded together and it’s hard to count them in the dark).

the second hawk attack was today. as far as I can tell, we lost one bantam. i’ve looked through my list of all my bantams and their names and descriptions and it looks like teeny was the one taken. i heard a noise and went outside to see all of the chickens hiding under bushes or in their houses. i walked around a bit and didn’t see any hawks, and then I went back inside. a few minutes later i heard a similar noise and went back out again, just in time to see a bantam being carried off by a medium-sized hawk. i was in shock at first, because the hawk looked like one of our standard barred rocks, and i thought that perhaps two chickens were simply fighting. by the time I realized what was actually happening, the hawk was flying over our field of pine trees with the bantam firmly in its grasp.

Bantam Chickens Homesteading

r.i.p. roosty. We will miss you.

i still need to recount all of the chickens when i go back outside this afternoon, and get the one bantam that is running free back in her house. then i should be able to double check our losses and make sure that we lost just one today (still one too many!).

all in all, a sad day. and an interesting ending to 2014.

one of our resolutions for 2015: be more careful about when we let the chickens out to range free!!!

.:.

chased by chickens and geese: a hungry flock!

today was wetter and rainier than days past, and even though all of the birds got 4+ hours of daylight to range freely and eat any bugs or other delicious tidbits they could find, all of the birds still acted as though they were starving when bolt and i came outside.

picture this: bolt, who loves to chase chickens (and if he caught one he might try to eat it), coming outside with me to see a horde of poultry coming towards him like flesh eating zombies! of course he was interested, and since the chickens got way too close to him (how could they be so foolish?! oh yeah, they’re chickens!) his interest was definitely peaked! after being corrected a few times, he did a good job of ignoring their creepy, feathery advances and we were able to complete our walk as usual.

once bolt was safely inside, i came back out with a camera to film the horde of chickens chasing me around. i didn’t have any food at the time, but since it was past their usual dinner time, they expected me to have something and thought to follow me around (some of them totally underfoot) hoping i would feed them right then!

i’ve noticed that all of the birds (bantams, standards, geese) have been hungrier lately… perhaps they’re trying to fatten up for the cold winter ahead.

.:.

christmas eve cooking!

biscotti

almond, vanilla, coconut, and walnut biscotti in the works!

today is a great day for cooking and enjoying family time!

you can find us in the kitchen making cranberry fruit leathers, biscotti, and banana bread or delivering our home-baked gifts to loved ones!

 

biscotti

biscotti stage 2

 

bread

pecan, vanilla, chocolate banana bread!

 

sauce

cranberry sauce, waiting to be spread out on our dehydrator’s drying racks.

 

sauce

cranberry sauce about to be transformed into fruit leathers!

have an early merry christmas!

.:.

chicken birth anomalies, part 3: a chick who needed help hatching

despite having a really great hatching experience for our first batch of chicks, there were still some anomalies in our new population of chicks. of course we’ve had some chicks who took longer to hatch then others, or some chicks that appear to be smaller (a little more runty) than the others, but this is to be expected. no chick is the same, of course!

beyond these “average uniquenesses” among our chicks, three particular anomalies stand out from this experience:

  1. a chick born with part of her yolk sac unabsorbed
  2. a chick born with an underdeveloped leg
  3. a chick that actually needed help hatching

i want to describe these three different anomalies and how we’ve dealt with them/plan to deal with them. this post focuses on the third…

anomaly #3: 

the very last chick that was born in this bunch was born with my assistance. he was born over 3 days after the beginning of the hatch was supposed to begin, and it had been 24 hours since the next-to-last chick had been born naturally.

eggs

the inside of the incubator, looking rather empty near the end of the hatch.

just a reminder, all of the other chicks were born naturally, by themselves, without any intervention from me at all. and this is the way it should be, since nature can almost always do “its thing” without any major issues. chicks need to be born based on their own timing. sometimes they need a little extra time to absorb all of the yolk sac into their abdomen (from which they are provided with enough nourishment for a few days and do not need food or water). other times they are still absorbing all of their blood (that was once coursing through the vessels inside of the egg). you should always try not to intervene, and only do so as a last resort.

this is what happened with chick #22. he had pipped through his shell over 24 hours before, pipping all the way around the perimeter. in the previous hatches i witnessed, once this “perimeter pip” happened, it took about 30 minutes for the chick to come busting into the world. but chick #22 was still inside, 24 hours later. i checked him out a few times, moving his egg, and could still hear him peeping inside… a good sign! hoping that a poke or two might motivate him and get him going again, i was disappointed when it didn’t.

so i looked closer… the membrane directly inside the shell had dried out, and was not moist and flexible as it had been during the other hatches. since he was the last one in the incubator (besides 2 other eggs that we later determined had died during development and were not viable anymore), i wondered if him drying out had anything to do with all of the other chicks (and their moistness) being removed. the humidity reading on the incubator still said it was normal inside, but you never know what was happening inside his shell.

after doing some research, i learned that if a chick’s membrane dries out too much, it might get stuck to the chick and keep it from moving around in its shell and being able to break free. it was clear that this is what happened to chick #22.

broken egg shells

some of the hatched egg shells from the chicks before chick #22. see the membranes inside?

so, i washed my hands, got a knife and a damp cloth, and opened up the incubator. i worked fast so that the little dude wouldn’t get chilled. using my knife, i slipped the very tip into the opening of the shell and pulled outwards, gently. this pulled part of the shell away and allowed me to peel the rest of the shell pieces away with my hands alone. before i fully removed a shell piece, i had to see if it was “glued” to the little chick before i pulled it away–since chicks have very sensitive skin and i didn’t want to hurt him!

a few of the pieces were stuck to the chick, pinning his body and head in a certain position. as i worked, i could tell that i was saving the chick’s life, since he was way too stuck in there and would not have been able to peck or kick his way the rest of the way into life.

where shell pieces were glued to him, i used my damp cloth to wipe at the spot until they came free, and then moved on to the next spot. once he was free, i tried to dry him off a little bit, and then i closed the lid to the incubator and cranked up the temperature to 100 degrees to warm him up and dry him off. he seemed just fine in there, acting the way all the other chicks had acted after hatching. i left him in there until he had dried some, and then moved him to see the rest of his siblings under the heat lamp. thinking about how he had been in his shell (potentially using up 24 hours worth of his nutrient-dense yolk supply ),i didn’t want to risk keeping him in the incubator too long without food or water.

so that’s the story of how i got to be a chicken midwife, and man was it super fun! i’m not too cool to admit that i was way proud of myself afterwards! next up on my wish list… being a midwife to mammals!

.:.

 

chicken birth anomalies, part 2: an underdeveloped leg

despite having a really great hatching experience for our first batch of chicks, there were still some anomalies in our new population of chicks. of course we’ve had some chicks who took longer to hatch then others, or some chicks that appear to be smaller (a little more runty) than the others, but this is to be expected. no chick is the same, of course!

beyond these “average uniquenesses” among our chicks, three particular anomalies stand out from this experience:

  1. a chick born with part of her yolk sac unabsorbed
  2. a chick born with an underdeveloped leg
  3. a chick that actually needed help hatching

i want to describe these three different anomalies and how we’ve dealt with them/plan to deal with them. this post focuses on the second…

anomaly #2

when this chick was hatching  i didn’t notice anything different about it. it wasn’t until a day or two later, when the chicks stopped sleeping all the time and started moving around a lot more, that i realized that he didn’t move about like the others. he never used both legs and when he stood up, he usually fell/flopped over in order to move from place to place. i picked him up and realized that his right leg didn’t fully bend. although it looked like a normally developed leg, it seemed like he had something wrong with his bone that kept him from extending his leg past halfway. he could pull it all the way up under his body, but he could’t stretch it out fully.

after i realized that he needed some extra help, i went a little overboard and even designed a metal wire leg for him so that he could learn to walk… but i never used it. jason, rightfully so, convinced me that in the beginning of this life he needed to learn to cope with his disability if he was going to make it at all.

so we watched and waited. i picked him up every chance i got and made him drink water and tried to get him to eat. usually he would protest and not eat anything, but every now and again he would peck at the chick food. this concerned me until days later (he was still doing fine even though he was clumsy and rested a lot) i saw him stand up on one leg and hop/fall over to the food tray and prop himself up with a wing to eat! he’d figured it out after all!

i knew that if he could figure out how to eat, he could certainly figured out how to drink! he was tough, after all.

the video below shows him moving around his house… usually he hugs the wall and moves clockwise (with his bad leg side sticking out). although he moves this way most commonly, he still isn’t scared to move though the middle of the brooder for any reason.

he’s gotten better and better at hopping, and even though he is smaller than all the others (he gorges himself less and has to use more energy getting around), he seems very smart! he usually waits to eat until most of the the other chicks are resting so he has time and space to get what he needs. and… no other chicks are picking on him, even though his foot sticks out sideways. sometimes others will peck at it to see what it is, but never more than once or twice.

one thing that has changed since the first week-and-a-half: his leg no longer beds at all, even towards his body. the bones seems fused in one position… who really knows what happened?!

i’m really hoping he’s a rooster, so that i can have a one-legged rooster friend that rides around on my shoulder! i’ve even started writing a children’s book and he is one of the main characters’ sidekicks and best friends.

.:.

chicks growing up: chick videos at 1 & 3 days old, and 1 & 2 weeks old!

this post is a catch-up post to show you how much our chicks have grown over the last 2 1/2 weeks. how very exciting to see babies born and grow up (even if they’re bird babies.)!

this first video is of the day old chicks sleeping after being removed from the incubator:

this video shows the chicks becoming  a little more active, moving around, and exploring a little. they are about 3 days old in this video:

another video shows the chicks at a week old, when they became much more active. at this age we started to see individual personalities develop, and our chick with the funny leg was still going strong and learning how to fend for himself. yay!

this last video is of the crazy, almost-flying, jumping, pecking, and very-curious chicks at 2 weeks old. they are starting to look scruffy and crazy now because they’re adult feathers are slowly beginning to come in!

enjoy!

.:.

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