What is Tulip Thankful For??

So I went out to tend the rabbits......

And this is what I saw......

Hmm......

What's in here..... 

Whatever it is, it's crunchy...... 

And delicious......

Did I mention delicious?

Mmmm, it's so good!

So what is Old Lady Tulip thankful for??

Acorns of course!

I hope you have the happiest of Thanksgivings, and that we all remember the most important thing to be thankful for is

JESUS!

  and acorns if you are a critter.....

Our First Taste of Quail.........

So when The Man bought his quail, he wound up with 4 females and 10 males.....that's a little too testosterone heavy, so he butchered 5 of them and we made our first meal of them last night.

We went from this......

To this......

I seasoned them with some seasoned salt and then browned them in a little bacon grease....

Then I took them out and let them rest on a plate while I sauteed some diced onion and mushrooms in the same pan.....

Then I put the browned quail on top of the bed of sauteed mushrooms and onions in a Pyrex dish and laid 3 strips of home grown, fresh bacon on top, added about a cup of home canned chicken stock, covered it with the lid, and put it in a 350* oven.....

And this is what we wound up with!  We had quail, baked red potatoes, and sauteed turnip greens and kale.....

How was it you ask?  

FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The quail were definitely a wonderful addition to our homestead food plans!

I am once again, so thankful to our Heavenly Father who provides all our needs in His time!

For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

1 Timothy 4:4-5 

New Additions.....

We've had some new additions to our little homestead in recent weeks!

First, The Man surprised me by declaring he'd like to raise some quail.  I was excited by this as he's always had to work so very many hours he has never gotten to enjoy any of our livestock.  As a matter of fact he usually just sort of saw it as more work for him!  However when we were at work the other day he mentioned he wanted to get him some quail and that would be "his" thing, since the goats are my thing.  It would give him a project and something to take care of.  I said heck yeah!  Do it!  So we found 24 Coturnix quail on C/L and we bought them.  He is now planning to spend part of his Christmas bonus from work on an incubator!

Now on to the second addition!

I'm not sure if I've ever blogged about it before, but back when The Youngun was a toddler and we lived close to my folks, my mom and I raised and showed pedigreed and registered Rex rabbits.  It was something we enjoyed doing together, however God brought changes to our lives and we, as well as my folks, wound up moving.  We moved to town on 1/2 acre and I had no way to keep my rabbits at that time and neither did mom, so they got sold.

Then a few years after that we wanted rabbits again, but we couldn't find Rex (everybody has the little guys, but the big Rex are buggers to find) so we just bought regular ole' mutt rabbits.

And then God brought changes again, so again the rabbits went....

When we were out in Montana, right before we made the decision to move back to KY, I'd bought 4 rabbit hutches on C/L....we hauled them thousands of miles back home and then I sold them....yup that's right....on C/L!

After building me a milking barn, The Man decided he's build me a rabbit barn as well....

So after prayer and consulting our Maker we've got rabbits again!!

We couldn't find any Rex for sale, so we bought a junior Mini Rex buck that I'm going to cross on my bigger rabbits, working towards a full size Rex.  

This is for sure the long way around the trailer park, but it will be fun and the point is to eat them anyway!  They'll still eat good even if they aren't huge.  The Youngun is going to get a Mini Rex doe to use on him to sell pets, and he's beautiful to boot! 

I bought a Silver Fox doe and a Californian doe.  It's not the perfect solution, it'd be much easier to find Rex to start with, but this will be a fun project and I'm not looking to show or register rabbits so it is a workable solution.  I'll also have some really nice meaty rabbits to eat which is the whole point anyway!

This is my first experience with Silver Fox and they are really a nice rabbit!!  

I'm excited to see what colors and fur types I get with the babies!

Until next time,

I remain yours in Christ.....

Chickens in the Freezer!

Saturday morning we were up at at 'em to get the chickens in the freezer.  We went out and built a nice hot fire in the yard with cedar, then set a galvanized tank full of water on some cinder blocks over the fire.  

Then The Husband went to collect the first 4 victims and we were in business.  Sometimes we skin the birds and sometimes we pluck. If you skin, you don't need the tank of hot water, but this time we were chicken pluckers!

I have spared you pictures of this part of the day, but after we got them all killed, plucked and gutted, we brought them in the house to finish cleaning up.

  The way that works is, I put a whole bird down in the nice clean kitchen sink, and wash the heck out of it with cold water.  

 This is when I remove any lingering "leavings" in the body cavity, and pull off any stray pin feathers.  Once the bird is nice and clean, it goes into a tote of ice water on the back porch.  

Where they stayed to chill for a couple hours, while we delivered two ricks of firewood...

After they have chilled in the ice water for several hours, or even overnight, they are ready to finish.  At this point it's all up to you.  You can package them up as whole birds, or cut them into parts.  Since it's only the 3 of us, and we aren't really big eaters, we cut them into parts.  3 legs in a package, etc.  

We skin and bone the breasts for boneless breast meat...

And we put one half a breast per package....

then we cut the thighs in half to make "fake wings".  We really love hot wings, so this way we have twice as many wings.  Then we've still got the other half of the thigh, without a bone to use however we'd like.  Sorry, I didn't take pictures of that!

We left one whole bird for us, and one whole bird to take to our beautiful neighbors...

And by Saturday night my little 50$ c/l freezer looked like this.....

God is good, and as our visiting preacher said last night, we must "count it all Joy"!  To God be all the glory!!

Till next time....

Learning to Live on God's Time.......

Our lives since The Man lost his job in IL have been on a serious journey towards total submission to our Lord and Savior.

In the journey towards that total submission, God stripped our lives down to the minimum.  We lost our house, we lost our car, we moved to KY, we moved to MT, we moved back to KY.  The Man lost his hot rod, I lost my horse, my goats, my "homestead" lifestyle.  But it had to be.  God has to strip you down, to get you to understand TOTAL submission.  When He says He wants total submission, He means it.  Not that God doesn't take our will into account, He loves us, but just like we as parents most often know what is best for our children, God ALWAYS knows what is best for us.  We usually don't have a clue....

That said, however, I believe that when you submit to God's will and you start figuring out that your life is NOT about you, but it's all about serving Him, there are certain things He will give back to you, IN HIS TIME and according to His will.

So when God allowed us to buy this place, I of course wanted goats again.  Did I consult God on this matter?  Well.... I thought I did, but looking back there were a lot of clues that I shouldn't be going about it at that time.

I looked and looked, and obsessed and looked for goats on Craigslist.  I found an ad for some Saanens in milk and a Lamancha from a guy a couple towns over.  We went to look at them in the pouring rain (clue # 1) with no shelter built (clue # 2).  When we got there it was obvious that he'd bought a HUGE lot of goats at the sale barn, and had only had them a couple days.  (clue # 3).  Of course because I was in what I want obsessed mode, I picked out two pretty Saanen does, milked each of them quickly to sample the milk, and then took them home.

The Man threw together a hoop shelter for them out of panels and a tarp (in the rain) and we got them settled in.
We named them Norma Jean and Ruby Sue.

Norma Jean

Ruby Sue

After a couple hours I could tell that Norma had problems.....I didn't have her blood tested, but I know she was CAE postive.  Her knees were HUGE and she was so arthritic she could barely get around.  Why didn't I notice this before I bought her??  Because I was in obsessed mode of course.  Also, although they milked beautifully it was only out of one side.  They both had a spoiled half due to mastitis.  Are we seeing a pattern here?

So then, because I was in obsessed I want it now mode, I kept looking on CL.  I had it in my head that I wanted a Lamancha.  I found one about an hour and a half away.  Went and looked at her and liked her, although she was a Mini Mancha not a full size.  She had a doeling on her and although she had small teats, she milked out easy and quickly.  So I bought her.  And her daughter...which was a really silly move since I had NO way to lock her away and therefore couldn't really milk.......
We named those two Michael and Illsa.

No pictures of Michael and Illsa due to computer crash...

In the meantime, even after getting Norma Jean's feet all trimmed and fixed up, her mobility wasn't improving, and then......Ruby Sue developed a lump, a CL lump.  So those girls quickly left.  There was no way I wanted that lump to burst at my place and risk Michael and Illsa.

Then once again because I was in the mode of "me wants what me wants when me wants it", I still wasn't done!  I KEPT looking and found a lady down in TN with a registered Lamancha doeling.  I still had all my tack from Champ and was feeling like it was time to part with it.  I had it for sale on CL and wasn't getting any offers.  I saw on the website that the gal with the Lamancha doeling had horses, so I thought I'll just email and see if she'd consider a trade.  All my tack for that doeling.  She said yes, so off to TN we went.  We traded for the Lamancha and also came home with a bred Mini Mancha......
These girls we named Jodie and Lexi

Again with the computer crash on these two.....


Lexi kidded with a lovely little blue eyed doeling that we named Deliliah.

Delilah

So there I was with 5 does and no buck to breed them to.  I was trying to milk out under the trees, in all kinds of weather, and not getting much milk because I had no way to lock Illsa or Delilah off of their Momma's.  This all started last year in March ('14) and it was now October 2014 and I was done.  I didn't feel good about any of it, because I was trying to do it on my time, instead of God's time.

Then I got a Mon-Fri 8-5 job and that was that.  I told The Man I was selling the goats.  I put them on CL and sold them in a matter of days.  Now that is because I was back in line with God's plan.  We began trying to REALLY practice total submission to God's will.  It's the hardest easiest thing in the world to do......it takes practice and it takes Faith and I still screw up all the time, but it's a super awesome way!

So, that brought us to around August on 2014.  After our pigs went to the freezer, The Man and I stared talking about how we hate to buy "store" food.  I hadn't drank milk in over a year (but that story will be another post, since this one is reaching novel proportions) and I casually mentioned that if we still had goats I'd take milk to drink with my sandwich at lunch time at work.  That prompted a discussion about him wanting to build me a milking shed, which led to another CL search for goats, this time with LOTS of prayer about God leading us in the right direction.  After several weeks of looking and saving for and getting the building built, we were on the way home from work and I mentioned to The Man that I'd sure love to have Tulip and/or Star back, but I really didn't think Jen would want to sell them.  The Man said well email and ask.....so after praying about it, I did!  And after a long weekend of waiting to hear back from her,,,,,,,,,,,SHE SAID YES!

We know this was God's plan for so many reasons, we got discounted lumber for the milk shed, Jennifer said yes, and lots more I could mention, but the point is it all went SMOOTHLY, which in our case usually means we are in line with His will.......

So my girls are home.  Both of them, and I'm so happy I can't even tell you.  Tulip will be 9 in June and Star will be 7 in March.  They were in heat the day I picked them up from Jen and so we put them in with Silo, her Nubian buck.  If they are both bred, this will be Tulip's last kidding.  I'm really not thinking she is bred, but time will tell.  She was just barely in heat the day we bred her, and she only stood for him once and then she was done.  She came in really strong about 2 days after I got her home, so I'm not sure she settled.  If she isn't bred, then that's fine.  I'm not going to be greedy.  She's a good old girl and I don't want to risk her life just because I want one more kidding out of her!

Me and my old girl Tulip

Pretty girl Star

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.  Mark 8:35

Filling Up the Freezer!

 Sunday morning the phone rang at about 10:20 and it was a guy we work with, telling us he'd shot us a deer!  He said he was about 10 minutes from our house and he'd drop it by.  We usually leave for church around 10:50 so we knew it was going to be a scramble, but he dropped off a nice big doe and we got her hung up in the shed, changed out of our bloody clothes and off to church we went!

When we got home from church, we had to run to town to get freezer paper.  We are butchering our meat birds next weekend, so we knew we'd need a bunch of it anyway.

We packed her body cavity in ice, then made a batch of butter pecan, goat milk ice cream while we waited for her to chill out some.  

We started working on her at 5 pm and finished up at 8 pm.  Not bad for a day's work!  And the best part is, since The Man was a butcher for 10 years, my freezer is full of venison bottom rounds, top rounds, tip steaks, eye of round steaks and all sorts of other fancy cuts!

This is the back legs, or hams.....

While the man hacked the parts off, I worked on grinding the burger with this handy, dandy hand grinder.......

While The Youngun was in charge of wrapping, taping, and labeling!

And 3 hours later, this was all that was left.  These bones are currently residing in the freezer so that I can cook them down for stock.  I'll probably make soup with the meat that cooks off the bones, or possibly barbecue...the possibilities are endless!

It doesn't look like much but that's quite a bit of meat residing in our little craigslist $50 freezer!  We had to buy another one because the three hogs are living in our big freezer.  This little freezer will house this deer and our meat birds that are meeting their doom next weekend.

God is so good, always providing in every way!!

Til next time, I remain yours in Christ,

What Do We Miss Most......

So what do we miss the most about living in MT? 

Is it this??

No, that's not it.

How about this??

Cute, but no.....

Hmm...could it be this?

Not even close.

What we miss most about MT.....is this!!

We still cut a lot of this...

But we no longer have a way to burn it in the house.  We cut because we enjoy it and we sell it for extra homestead project money.  We hope to someday install a wood stove in our little house!  Until then, we'll keep cutting and letting the wood warm us once anyway! 

Until next time..........I remain yours in Christ!

A Day With Steve....

This morning we woke up to our first really chilly day of the fall!  I had thought last night that The Youngun and I would can some black beans today, but I woke up in the mood to play with Steve so off to my fabric stash I went!

I was looking for some pretty fabric to make an apron for my Sister.  My beautiful sister got married when she was 17...... and about 5 months or so ago, she got divorced..............after nearly 22 years of marriage.  She wanted the divorce, and even though it goes against my Christian beliefs to get divorced in most cases, it wasn't a bad thing.  She is a totally different person.  Her husband had tried his best, and mostly succeeded, in stopping her from having a relationship with me, or our folks, and I REALLY missed her.  We've talked more in the past 5 months than we have in the past 5 years! 

Anywho, she was here over the summer with my folks and she saw my chicken apron.  She requested that I make her one just like it.  I said, "Chickens specifically?"  To which she replied, "Oh does it have chickens on it?  I just noticed it was black and pretty!"  HA!  She's not exactly observant, but we love her anyway! 

I couldn't find anything that suited me in my fabric stash, so The Man, The Youngun and I ran to town.  They just opened a Jo-Ann's and I hadn't visited it yet, but I found the perfect fabric there today.

See she loves frogs, and she's struggled all her life with the words that are printed on this fabric.  I'm thankful that God led us to find it.  I think it will mean a lot to her!  I needed one yard to make the apron, but I got two yards, and am going to use the other one to make her either a bag, or some placemats. 

This is the back after I sewed the pleats.....

Now the front showing the pleats.....

Here I am sewing the bias tape on.  It's tedious work, but it sure makes the finished product look nice!

With the bias tape sewn on around the edges and the pockets on.  Had to finish the yoke, straps, and ties......

And the finished product!  As with the chicken apron, the pictures really don't do it justice!  And please excuse the condition of the model, I was ready for supper and a shower!  :)

In other exciting news for our family............lookie here, lookie here!

Guess what that means??  Shhh...I'll tell you  next time!

I remain yours in Christ....