Hello, a short post, as I am trying to figure out how to's on my blog. I do not know how to set up the comment box at this present time, so, if anyone is wanting to comment on any of the postings, for now, email me at bountifulvalleyfarm@gmail.com and hopefully that will work and I can visit with ones who desire to do so.
In Joy
Vivian
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Pictures/test run
In Joy
Pressing Onward/Homesteading
A warm Hello, the days continue to be hot and humid, thankful for the ac. We are out early, about 7am and in by 11 am until about 7pm. I and grandson get to the barn as the sun is rising enough yet not over the top of the tree line, it is pleasant enough for us and the cows for milking. In the last post I mentioned our last mama cow was close to calving, and she did just, a bull calf. Her bag has been going bad for a few years and is almost non functioning now, so we are bottle feeding her calf. Though her bag is bad and we feel by next calving she won't have anything, we have opted to keep her and let her continue to have calves, and we will just bottle feed them. She is 11 and we have had her since she was 2 weeks old, so she is more of a pet as well. I always save the colostrum from Elsie each time she calves, so I have a supply to give a new born. When the times comes that this old mama cow will have issues calving, that will be a different decision. Such as they do come in homesteading.
With our milk supply I am making cottage cheese, butter, and round cheese. I also make 'cream fresh' which is a wonderful product to make smoothies, baking and make the fluffiest scrambled eggs. I strain a portion of fresh milk, right from milking, into a 1/2 gallon jar with about a fourth of buttermilk in it, leave it in the cupboard 24 hours, it will thicken, then place in frig. When you are ready to make more, use a portion of what cream fresh you have to begin another batch. It is not thicker than yogurt, but thicker than buttermilk. We have used it as sour cream on tacos. When it is as hot as it is, we do not drink as much milk, so the chickens, cats and grandson's pet pig are getting daily treats of the excess.
Addiemae continues to do well. We are getting a routine laid for her daily care. We press on each day to do what we can to catch up on the work of the farm that 2 months time spent away has accumulated. We are making progress.
The blueberries are just about over, we picked about 15 gals., the most we have ever gotten. For now I have frozen them, waiting for winter when I will make jelly, juice and can for baking. From our small fresh eating garden, which I call FEG for short, we have gotten a good amount of tomatoes, squash, banana and bell peppers of which I have made a soup and added rice or noodles and canned.
I have a camp fire area I enjoy to utilize for heating water, reheating leftovers and cooking so I do not have to use the summer kitchen and gas stove. I do not use it every day, though I would like too. It takes a bit of planning to incorporate it into our schedule. There are many things I would like to do daily in a more 'primitive' way, for a lack of a better word. I would not say simpler, for the work one does on a homestead is just that........ work. As I can I do. This is what I would encourage anyone to do. Everyone's life is different, keeping that in mind, find what does work for you, maybe on a day to day, or if it doesn't, find how it will work from time to time. Incorporate when and where you can.
Homesteading to me, in a general use or term, is providing what you can for yourself, where and how you can. Not everyone will have animals, large garden, 100's of chickens, be able to sell or make a living from their homestead; but there may be a farmer's market, some plain community of sorts around, that sell lots of produce, products you can not provide. No one can do everything. A major thought is to not compare yourselves to ones you see on you tube or even in their blogs, and I am included. I think a lot of the you tubers, when they first start out, do want to help and share their journey of how they got into homesteading, but after a little bit, and it does not take much, with all the praise, glory, and over board comments they receive, I believe they lose their true vision and it is all about, ' hey, look at me.' And if they receive any negative comments, oh heaven forbid they do, they delete them. You tube is another glorying in oneself and is Facebook, and yes, a blog can be too, so it is imperative to keep the perspective of what the goal is. I am not on FB nor you tube and have grown weary of the you tubers out there. I wonder what the true, old timer homesteader would think of the new you tuber homesteaders.? One you tuber uses the word 'homestead homie'. Just what does that mean? Another new term is 'bush crafting', which is only another way to say, 'necessity is the mother of invention."
Maybe the tone of this last portion of my post is a bit negative; I do not mean for it to be that, but just thought provoking to deep pondering.
I am going to share a few pictures of around our homestead in the next post, which I hope will be today or next. I am looking at the 'how' to do it. These pictures are of a few years ago and some from early this spring.
In Joy
With our milk supply I am making cottage cheese, butter, and round cheese. I also make 'cream fresh' which is a wonderful product to make smoothies, baking and make the fluffiest scrambled eggs. I strain a portion of fresh milk, right from milking, into a 1/2 gallon jar with about a fourth of buttermilk in it, leave it in the cupboard 24 hours, it will thicken, then place in frig. When you are ready to make more, use a portion of what cream fresh you have to begin another batch. It is not thicker than yogurt, but thicker than buttermilk. We have used it as sour cream on tacos. When it is as hot as it is, we do not drink as much milk, so the chickens, cats and grandson's pet pig are getting daily treats of the excess.
Addiemae continues to do well. We are getting a routine laid for her daily care. We press on each day to do what we can to catch up on the work of the farm that 2 months time spent away has accumulated. We are making progress.
The blueberries are just about over, we picked about 15 gals., the most we have ever gotten. For now I have frozen them, waiting for winter when I will make jelly, juice and can for baking. From our small fresh eating garden, which I call FEG for short, we have gotten a good amount of tomatoes, squash, banana and bell peppers of which I have made a soup and added rice or noodles and canned.
I have a camp fire area I enjoy to utilize for heating water, reheating leftovers and cooking so I do not have to use the summer kitchen and gas stove. I do not use it every day, though I would like too. It takes a bit of planning to incorporate it into our schedule. There are many things I would like to do daily in a more 'primitive' way, for a lack of a better word. I would not say simpler, for the work one does on a homestead is just that........ work. As I can I do. This is what I would encourage anyone to do. Everyone's life is different, keeping that in mind, find what does work for you, maybe on a day to day, or if it doesn't, find how it will work from time to time. Incorporate when and where you can.
Homesteading to me, in a general use or term, is providing what you can for yourself, where and how you can. Not everyone will have animals, large garden, 100's of chickens, be able to sell or make a living from their homestead; but there may be a farmer's market, some plain community of sorts around, that sell lots of produce, products you can not provide. No one can do everything. A major thought is to not compare yourselves to ones you see on you tube or even in their blogs, and I am included. I think a lot of the you tubers, when they first start out, do want to help and share their journey of how they got into homesteading, but after a little bit, and it does not take much, with all the praise, glory, and over board comments they receive, I believe they lose their true vision and it is all about, ' hey, look at me.' And if they receive any negative comments, oh heaven forbid they do, they delete them. You tube is another glorying in oneself and is Facebook, and yes, a blog can be too, so it is imperative to keep the perspective of what the goal is. I am not on FB nor you tube and have grown weary of the you tubers out there. I wonder what the true, old timer homesteader would think of the new you tuber homesteaders.? One you tuber uses the word 'homestead homie'. Just what does that mean? Another new term is 'bush crafting', which is only another way to say, 'necessity is the mother of invention."
Maybe the tone of this last portion of my post is a bit negative; I do not mean for it to be that, but just thought provoking to deep pondering.
I am going to share a few pictures of around our homestead in the next post, which I hope will be today or next. I am looking at the 'how' to do it. These pictures are of a few years ago and some from early this spring.
In Joy
Friday, July 8, 2016
Homesteading Continues/ Addie's fund raising page
Hello dear Readers, it is a very hot and humid day today, although rain clouds gather and tease for the coming of rain, it passes us by. God knows and I still trust him no matter the weather. I am thankful we have an endless supply of water from our several springs and creeks.
We are home from a very long stay in the hospital with our daughter AddieMae. She is doing wonderful with her trach. I will put the link on to her fund raising page we have set up for updating our simple solar system to accommodate her new equipment. We have committed all to God and who so ever feels led to contribute, we are thankful. God will make a way.
We are trying to get her bedroom organized for all the little medical items we use daily for her as well as the larger items, day by day, a little here and there, we are catching up. Also catching up on things around the farm that sort of went by the way for a time.
Two of our mama's have calved in the last month, so milking time has begun for me. I milk our jersey, Elsie. We have one last mama to calve and when I checked her this morning, she is very close, so I put her in a small pasture by herself. A two year old heifer decided to explore our back woods yesterday, going through a hole she found in the fence. They are cunning enough to get out, but cannot seem to be smart to remember how to get back in "). We did get her in again and have repaired that portion of fencing, again.
I have more I want to share, and I will soon. Time is precious for now and needful duty calls.
May the Lord be praised.
I don't know if anyone can access the you caring page for Addiemae from the link I put below, it is not working for me, until I figure out how to put it in correctly, one can just go to the you caring main page and in the search box type in AddieMae King and it should come up.
https://www.youcaring.com/addiemae-king-590139
In Joy
We are home from a very long stay in the hospital with our daughter AddieMae. She is doing wonderful with her trach. I will put the link on to her fund raising page we have set up for updating our simple solar system to accommodate her new equipment. We have committed all to God and who so ever feels led to contribute, we are thankful. God will make a way.
We are trying to get her bedroom organized for all the little medical items we use daily for her as well as the larger items, day by day, a little here and there, we are catching up. Also catching up on things around the farm that sort of went by the way for a time.
Two of our mama's have calved in the last month, so milking time has begun for me. I milk our jersey, Elsie. We have one last mama to calve and when I checked her this morning, she is very close, so I put her in a small pasture by herself. A two year old heifer decided to explore our back woods yesterday, going through a hole she found in the fence. They are cunning enough to get out, but cannot seem to be smart to remember how to get back in "). We did get her in again and have repaired that portion of fencing, again.
I have more I want to share, and I will soon. Time is precious for now and needful duty calls.
May the Lord be praised.
I don't know if anyone can access the you caring page for Addiemae from the link I put below, it is not working for me, until I figure out how to put it in correctly, one can just go to the you caring main page and in the search box type in AddieMae King and it should come up.
https://www.youcaring.com/addiemae-king-590139
In Joy
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