Speaking of chickens

Here's a pair of bantams I got at the farmer's market in Alta Vista where we went to meet the girl who sold us the rabbits.

This guy there had a whole bunch of beautiful bantams and quail. I was trying to show restraint but as we were about to leave my wonderful, darling hubby says: "so that's it, we drove 80 miles just for a couple of rabbits?"

"Go look around and see what else you want 'cause we're not driving back 80 miles when you decided you should have got some of them little birds!"

Can you say Spoiled Rotten!

Thank you honey!

I love my little birds. 

The two pallet chicken tractor

Ken very often comes home with these used pallets. He found these in a dumpster (skip). I started building what we call a chicken tractor. I think in England it's called an 'ark'. They're nice because you can keep moving them around and the chickens have fresh ground to scratch in all the time. I put a shelf /nest box up in the back of this one and a branch so the chicken can go up there to lay her eggs. It doesn't look like much here but I managed to get it finished this morning and I'll take pictures of it tomorrow.

It took me all week to build it because I was using up the stash of nails 'not bent enough to throw away'! They're all in a bucket along with oodles of other odds and ends left over from past projects so it means rumaging through the bucket to find just the right size nail then hammering it straight. The sawing ( the wood for the sliding doors at the back) was the hardest part though. We just about wore out the miter saw and the safety shield fell off it last week. I'm too scared to use it without the shield so I had to resort to the hand saw.

The two chickens that were in the house are in this now and seem to be very happy. I figured that with the high probability of the avian flu showing up over here soon the authorities will no doubt want all back yard flocks confined at the very least. This is a quick easy way to do it and yet they can still be moved around the yard.

The good news is...

..we have NO chickens in the house! They are now both out in the pigeon loft thank goodness. However, we now have frogspawn and tadpoles in the bathroom! 

Bunny Babies

Cassini had her babies on Wednesday just as we'd hoped. They're beautiful little things. She only had four but they are plump and healthy. She ignored the nest box I'd put in there for her and had them way in the back corner by the door. I was a bit afraid to go in there to inspect them but she didn't act at all concerned. Just ate her breakfast and watched me. In fact her personality has made a complete turn around. She's now very placid and lovey dovey! Let's hope it lasts. 

The Stove Arrived!

And as you can see, getting it into the house wasn't that easy!

First of all we had a call from the truck driver who was supposed to deliver it. He was at the country store about six miles away. He'd stopped to ask for directions but the lady there managed to convince him that there was no way he would ever get that big truck down this road! We know that he could have done it but in a way it worked out for the best. Ken took off down to the store and he and the driver transfered the stove to the bed of our pick up.

It weighs over 600lbs and there was just the two of us so we had to come up with a way to get it off the truck and up into the house without killing ourselves!

Taking the railings off the deck and backing the truck up to it seemed like the best way. After that Ken attached a ratchet strap to the deck and the pallet that the stove was bolted to. Inch by inch he ratcheted it closer and closer to the end of the tailgate and then we were able to lift the front end up just enough to get it onto the porch. We did the same again to get the whole thing onto the porch. Then we really had to push and pull it to the door. It was painstakingly slow but once we got the end over the stoop we had a bunch of cut off broom handles to use as rollers. We rolled a little bit then brought the back roller to the front and rolled a bit more. Got it up the little step into the dining room and into place! I would never have thought we could do this without help. I had visions of it sitting in the driveway under plastic until we could find a few people to come and give us a hand.

So now it's sitting here all put together but not hooked up yet. Ken still has to get the right kind of stove pipe for it. We hope to have it fired up by the end of the month.

I'm so excited!

A month or so ago Ken surprised me by announcing that it was time to start researching wood cookstoves! We've talked about getting one for a long time but I thought it would be in the far distant future. Well, our gas (propane) bill has been so high this winter and the electric bill doubled too! We have to do something. With almost 30 acres of woods it's crazy not to take advantage of all that free fuel. It's also tax season and the refund we will be getting back will almost pay for the stove.

So, after much looking and weighing of pros and cons we boiled it down to the Pioneer Maid. It's made by an Amish man and used in many Amish and Menonite households. We chose it because it will also heat up to 2000 sq ft. of space. So hopefully we can wave goodbye to those high heating bills. The one we ordered is just like the one in the picture above. It will have the optional water reservoir and warming oven.

We're expecting it to be delivered on Monday and the sweep is scheduled to come and inspect the chimney too. Not sure when we will have it up and running though. Ken will have to set it up and connect the stovepipe and all that. Then the fun will really begin. Cooking with wood is a whole lot different than using a regular stove. There are no knobs for setting the temperature you have to learn where to place your pans for high or low heat and regulating the oven temperature is something you have to learn too. I have no previous experience with this so look forward to pictures of burnt offerings!

I found some neat looking recipes on the Maine Windjammers Association website. All the cooking is done on wood cookstoves in the galleys of these schooners.

Also found this interesting article .

I'm so excited! Can't believe I'm actually looking forward to cooking. It's a breakthrough!

Dinner Time

 

 

I finally remembered to take the camera with me when I went to feed the rabbits.

This is our pair of California meat rabbits, Huygens and Cassini. We bedded down the horse trailer with hay and they have the run of the place. It's just temporary until the weather warms up and we have time to build something else for them. We're hoping Cassini will give birth around the 8th of March and be a good Mum. She isn't the worlds friendliest rabbit. She comes running to attack our boots and growls like a little bull dog when we go in there! Huygens looks a bit hen pecked at times.

Here's another picture taken yesterday. I love to walk way back to the edge of the woods and look back at the house. It looks so cozy and remote.

Today was sunny and quite warm. We spent most of the afternoon outside playing in the snow. Josh enjoyed some sledding and I got a good work out cross country skiing. I'm extremely rusty and fell flat on my back a few times! I love having this long hill. It's a bit of a slog going up to the back pasture but when you turn around you have this really great glide straight down to the house! Wish I could master the "skate" skiing technique like you see on the Olympics. It looks so easy but I can't get the hang of it and this snow was too deep for it.

We did another couple of runs with Nanuuk and the dogsled. She really put some effort into it today but we kept it short just the same. It's so much fun though. I'd like to get a couple of Alaskan Huskys that have pulling experience but perhaps didn't make the grade as racers.

Speaking of races, the Yukon Quest is going on right now. You can follow it here. 

Snow!

And about time too! This is the first real snowstorm of the winter.

We got out the dogsled and hooked up Nanuuk for a bit of mushing. She did very well but I haven't been working her much so we had to go easy on her. Just a couple of runs DOWN hill and we called it a day. It was fun though and she was very proud of herself.

There's not a lot going on here at the moment. My time's taken up mostly with feeding and watering the animals, walking the dogs and homeschooling. Oh and the chickens! What was I thinking when I decided to hatch chickens at this time of the year??!! I was forgetting that this isn't North Carolina. Now we have two of them in the house and it's still too cold to put them outside even in the pigeon loft. I have to clean them out two or three times a day. They're driving me batty. So is hubby. He doesn't have much of a sense of humor about some things! Chickens in the house is one of them. It's supposed to warm up considerably by mid-week so I think I'll put the oldest one 'miracle' out in the loft. It's fully feathered and getting BIG.

I've made absolutely no progress on the knitting. In fact I can't remember the last time I sat in the livingroom for any length of time. As soon as my bum hits the rocking chair I remember something else I should be doing. But, I have managed to do a bit of eraser carving and will post pictures soon. I still need to order some good paper for printing on though.

I was looking at the calendar today and figured out that hubby retires in 70 days!! Just in time to start on the garden! I'm turning the area by the side door into a kitchen garden. It get's full sun all day. I think it will do well there because the deer don't usually come up so close to the house. This is the year we are gong to try to grow a good portion of our food including meat with a view to eventually becoming as self sufficient as possible. So far we have a deer in the freezer and the meat rabbits are bred. Babies are due around March 8th. We'd like to raise a steer for beef but we still need to get the pasture fenced. That's going to be a big job with this rocky soil! Oh well, lots to look forward to. I'm sure it'll all come together slowly but surely. For now we'll just enjoy the snow.

 

According to yesterday's weather report last night's low was supposed to be 41F but look what we awoke to! A world of crisp white frost.

I'm fast discovering that we live in a little micro climate and what the weather man calls for is usually NOT what we get! In all my years of living in the U.S. I've never known them to be wrong so often.

Oh well, all the better for sugaring. Sure enough the sap was running again. Since it's only small amounts right now I'm freezing it for later use. We are having company over the weekend so hopefully there'll be enough to boil down for everyone's pancakes at breakfast. 

Let it Drip!

Yes! We have sap.

After feeding the goats this morning I wandered up the pasture to the maple tree to see what might have transpired over night. There was a very small trickle of sap going down the knife blade and into the bottle! I switched to a smaller bottle since it was so slow and when Josh and I went back up there this evening this is what we found.

We hung a new bottle and brought this one back to the house to boil down into syrup.

First we put on a pan of water and measured the temperature of boiling point for this ellevation (2069ft) and then set the sap on to boil. The finishing point for syrup is 7.1F above the boiling point of water. With such a small amount of sap it was difficult to know if we had an accurate reading as it was just a mass of frothy bubbles. So we kind of had to hope for the best and guess a little. It could probably have been boiled down a bit further but once it turned light amber and the amount was a lot less that we started with ( this is also the redneck fuzzy math method) I decided to stop it there. With larger batches that are going to be stored I would make sure it was just right, but this was going to be consumed in no time flat!

And look what we got....

Liquid Gold!

There are no other words to describe it. Joshua and I taste tested it and it was wonderful! We were dancing around the kitchen. Every bit as good as any syrup I've had from New England.

Boy am I excited now. Once the sap really starts to run I'm going to be boiling and bottling like crazy!

Got to make some modifications to the fire pit so that it can be done outside though otherwise the kitchen walls and ceiling are going to be all sticky from the steam.

If you've ever thought of doing this and been put off by people telling you your trees aren't the right type, or you're too far south don't believe it. Just do it!

Oooh Roving!

I named this blog The Inky Spinnery because it was supposed to be about my eraser carving/ soft block printing and spinning expliots. With all our moving and getting settled in here both have been on the back burner for a long time. Never did post about spinning. Anyway, over the holidays I saw this lovely roving on ebay and just had to have it.

The color is Shane's Red from the Brown Sheep Company. Actually it's the waste from the yarn making process.

Not sure what I'm going to use it for yet.

I couldn't wait to get started with it!

The white stuff that's aleady on there is some Cheviotte. I have a lot of it but find it really difficult to spin because it's like elastic. I was giving it another go over Christmas and this bit seems to have come out better.  

Redneck Sugaring!

A local old timer who grew up on a farm a mile or two away told me that back when he was a boy his father used to tap their maple trees.

"He would cut a "V" into the trunk, hammer in a table knife and hang a bucket to catch the sap."

So, a couple of months ago while the maples where still identifiable by their leaves Ken and I went up the hill by the side of the house and marked all the larger ones with engineering tape.

The time to start sugaring is when the night time temperatures drop below freezing but the daytime temperatures warm up into the 40's.

Up in New Hampshire my neighbours would usually begin sugaring sometime in March but since we are so much farther south I figure it will probably be quite a bit earlier here but I'm not sure exactly when. Well, this week we suddenly broke out of our deep freeze and into the 50's! They're now predicting a few days of just the temperatures needed for sugaring.

Oooh, what to do? I had intended to order some of the proper metal spiles and didn't get around to it. So, in my panic at maybe missing the window of opportunity I decided to resort to the table knife method!

This particular tree isn't in the best of shape because of having a fence nailed to it at one time. I wasn't going to tap it but yesterday I was reading up on the subject and one guy said he gets the sweetest sap from the most disfigured trees! So I decided to try this one after all.

After hammering in the table knife with a rock I slid the plastic tube from a candy thermometer over it - to help direct the flow into the jug.

Nothing happened! I think it's still too early.

Just what I always wanted!

I've been wanting a set of circular knitting needles for a long time but always balked at the price. Well I finally got some for Christmas from my wonderful hubby. We had a 40% off coupon for "Michael's" and when we got to the store they were on sale! They should have been about $90 and we got them for about $23!

A couple of days later when Ken and Josh were in town without me they picked up a Barns and Noble gift certificate and slipped it in my stocking.

I have a set of straight needles that my Mum and Dad once got me so now I have no excuse not to knit!

Actually, I love to knit but lost all my inspiration when living in North Carolina. I'm so happy to finally be in a place that has a real winter!