hey y’all! How was your week? My flew right by! I worked at the library Thursday and Friday so I didn’t get a ton of stuff done around the homestead. Anna Lee and I have been walking almost everyday. Sometimes we go in the morning, sometimes in the afternoon. It’s been really good for both of us. Working regular exercise into our day has been very good. You know how busy Anna is so getting her to set aside some ‘me time’ has been hard. Hehehe. Anyway, walking is good on so many levels. I love being outside, in the woods, and just listening to all the sounds and watching the leaves change color, and then fall, making a blanket of color on the paths.
So not much to report in way of homesteading. I did come home yesterday and cook dinner. Last night was Venison Stew. When I shot my first deer last fall, I was gifted The MeatEater Fish and Game Cookbook and it has been a great resource to have. In fact, it’s such a good resource and one of my favorite cookbooks that I own that I keep it handy near the kitchen (as opposed to my office where all my other resources live). Anyway, I have made the venison stew with red wine and root veg many, many times. And that’s what I made last night, except I loaded it with veg! I had turnips, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, chickpeas, broccoli, and mushrooms. It was so good. I can’t wait to heat some up and have another bowl! Tonight I’m cooking one of our homestead-raised chickens. It’s the biggest one we grew, topping out at 6.5 pounds. We’re feeding 5 people with it and I imagine we’ll have enough left over for chicken salad and then I’ll use the carcass for stock. I’m getting low on all our stock (chicken and venison stock mostly) so it’ll be good to replenish that.
Speaking of. I still have grapes and apples to process and today is the day! Actually, this weekend is a work weekend. The fishing guides are all busy working with a boy scout troop working on their fishing badges so that gives me some time to get things done too. So. Today-canning grape jelly and applesauce. Tomorrow is planting the irises and putting the flowerbed border in. And if I can squeeze it in, I’d like to clean out the meat bird tractor. And tomorrow is my oldest nephew’s birthday! He’ll be 14!! I can’t believe it. I wish I could be there to help him celebrate. I wish I could be there for all three of their birthdays! I’ll try to skype with them, if not tomorrow then soon.
I’ve started my Christmas making. I have a feeling it’s going to sneak up on me quickly! I can’t tell you what I’m making because I don’t want to ruin the surprise(s) but I’m busy working away. We’re having a knit and movie night tonight after roast chicken. That’s exciting! Two crafting nights in one week. Do you have any suggestions on movies and/or TV shows that we need to add to our line up? I’m always looking for fun things to watch while knitting at night. That’s become a regular part of my day-falling into bed with my laptop and Hulu, Netflix, or Amazon Prime, and then plugging away at some knitting.
The next few weeks are super busy! I have several classes (virtual) plus a couple on the homestead. Cheesemaking is next weekend and then in November I have pie making. I’m also working on a lot more virtual classes. So stay tuned for those details. I hope to have everything finalized in the next week or so. I started Master Gardener class this past week. The class is from 6-8:45 every Thursday evening. You guys! That is so late for me! Oh my goodness. We had to take a pre-test at 8PM last week and I thought I would fall asleep before I was able to finish it. I’ll just have to pace myself on Thursdays. It’s all good. We stayed up until 11:30 or so last night, which is crazy late for me. So if I can do that, I can definitely stay up until 8:45 on Thursdays. hehe.
I do need to get better at taking pictures. I typically have my camera with me, but with the goal of blogging more frequently with fewer pictures (and fewer words) I need to stay on top of taking pictures. I threw together these pictures today. That’s not really in keeping with my goal–showing you all what I’m up to on a daily basis. Anyway, I’ll get it together soon enough. Oh. Before I go, I want to tell you about another baking fail this week. I had some peaches and thought I would make a peach pie. But I wanted it to be fancy so I thought ‘bourbon, cinnamon, and nutmeg’. And use maple syrup instead of sugar (that worked out great with the handpies I was making). I didn’t peel the peaches because they were on the smaller side. Well. I didn’t care for the pie. At all. The Mister liked it and our friends were gracious enough to say it was good. But I don’t think it was. It was okay. It was edible. Just not yummy. So. You win some and you lose some.
And finally, I am almost ready to start selling eggs (just in time for them to slow down for winter). I purchased my egg cartons, made a label, and just need to call my insurance company to make sure my insurance is ready to roll. Then I just have to wash eggs, stamp the date, box them up, and put them in a cooler with a ‘honor system’ money box. Oh, I guess I need cute eggs for sale sign! Easy enough! Happy Saturday friends!
’til next time
-k
xoxo
Tracy
Oh, Kristin… how do you do it all?
I literally read this post and thought: Good lord, I’d pass out from exhaustion with her schedule! (Make sure you are taking care of you!) Okay, here we go:
Wow, over six pound chicken? To me that sounds really big! So were you more successful than you thought with the raising of meat birds then?
Christmas…. for the first time in years I’m cringing at how fast it’s come up. And I LOVE Christmas. I live for it. I took off the whole second half of December to enjoy the holiday. But now I’m worried I won’t be prepared. Plus, Christmas is going to look very different because of the pandemic. We’ve pretty much told both families (his and mine), we’re not getting into a big group this year. Not going to work for us. My mother is extremely disappointed, of course. This weighs on me.
But, good on you for your making! I am not crafty or a maker, so I will be figuring out how to shop and stay safe. I think I’m going to try to source as much as I can from Etsy. Maybe go smaller this year. Shipping gets to be so expensive.
I am SO like you! I like to be in bed at 8:30pm. I typically read, sometimes watch a video, but yeah, staying out past 8pm? What kind of crazy idea is that? LOL!
Bourbon, cinnamon, and nutmeg sounds good for peach pie. Maybe try again but differently? I love pie. My mother makes wonderful pies… she’s the pie queen. 🙂
Insurance for egg selling? *look around* I had no idea that was a thing! Good to know. (We’re not selling, but we are sharing.) The girls haven’t slowed down yet. We have an abundance of eggs. We eat more eggs now that we have our girls. And we ate a lot before the chickens.
I hope you are still taking time for you and enjoying life! I bet the walks help keep you grounded. Good on you!
Hugs!
chickenlibrarian
HA! That’s funny about the busyness! I don’t actually feel busy at all. I have a lot of things that I’m doing, but I really feel less busy and frantic than in recent memory.
As for the chickens, 6 pounds is usually on the lighter side when you grow your own Cornish Cross meat birds. But with having them on ‘pasture’, or in our case free ranging with the egg layers, they didn’t grow as fast in the 8 weeks. I really need to go to the freezer and write down the weight of the chickens and then do the math with how much money I spent on them. Then I’ll have a really good idea of the cost per bird or the cost per pound. I’m actually considering doing another round in the spring. How easily we forget the trauma of raising our own meat.
I’m probably not going to get a ton of Christmas gifts made. It’s coming up quickly! But I might be able to throw some things together. Or I guess I should say, I’m not going to get a ton of knitted gifts made, but I do have ideas for other crafty gifts that I can make, or throw together (hehe) for the people in my life.
yes, insurance for the eggs. Definitely check with your local extension office if you do plan on selling. I think you might have to label them a certain way, even if you are giving them away. But I don’t think you need to have insurance if you are giving them to friends and family. But don’t quote me on that. I live in PA so our rules are slightly different so I’m not as familiar with NY. Sadly, we’re down to one egg per day and I didn’t save a ton for the winter!! That really bums me out. Big time.
Okay. gotta run. Glad I was able to catch up with you!!
xoxo