Baby Chicks

last night we were hanging out talking in the living room when we startled by very loud peeping and the dogs barking like crazy! Wow, a baby chick is very loud when it hatches!!

The chicks weren't due to hatch until today, so i was totally unprepared. Honestly i didn't think the eggs would hatch at all, this was our test batch with the new incubator.

Now, i am having mixed feelings about hatching chicks this way. I know how important it is to keep the brooding instinct alive in our heritage breeds. the only way i am able to console myself is by keeping these chicks as meat birds, even though I had originally thought i would sell some of the birds that ended up pure. We have three different types of birds out there, Rhode Island Reds, Golden Buffs (crossbreed), and our Black Jersey Giants. Both of our Roosters are also Black Jersey Giants so those eggs laid by the giants are the ones we want to hatch. But, all of the hens lay brown eggs!!! We have three hens whose eggs i will chose for hatching, hopefully i chose well. I will stick an egg a day into one of the nesting boxes, marked of course so i know which eggs to collect, and see if someone wants to volunteer to be the broody hen (the broody instinct is said to arrive when a predetermined number of eggs accumulate, around a dozen). This way i don't lose the income from selling eggs, or the benefit of eating our own fresh eggs.

The downside to all this is that we leave for vacation on Monday, for almost a week. I know, terrible timing. I have issues with my patience, i am working on that.... i will give an update on this situation when we return, but now i need to finish packing!!!

but, aren't they cute?



cheers, Nyn

Jump Start on Spring

Here in North Carolina, with daytime temps barely hitting 40 and nights way below freezing, we are still deeply embedded in winter. The ground is frozen (have you ever walked on frozen grass? it's an odd sensation) and the wind is biting, but when you look out the window and see the sun shining it's hard to not start thinking of those seed catalogs promising bountiful gardens to any who so chose to lift a spade. Over the weekend, my trusty man servant and I tore down the remains of last years garden and prepared for a whole new year of real food. That's what a garden gives you ya know, REAL food. Earlier in the winter i had begun my garden plan but with the knowledge that spring was still far away I tucked it in the recesses of my mind, ready for when spring knocked on my door. That is until i happened to pull out my journals and realized that i needed to plant things NOW! What?! my mind screamed as i glanced outside at the still frozen landscape. I must have looked a sight sitting at the kitchen table with my books spread out in front of me staring dumbfounded at the pages. But it was true, if i was to set out healthy plants come spring i needed those seeds started yesterday! Okay, so i know a lot of you fellow gardeners are wondering why i am freaking out. This year, in my continuing quest to learn biodiversity as part of our sustainable life, i want to plant by moon phases. The Farmer's Almanac website (http://www.almanac.com/gardening/planting-dates) has a great feature that allows you to find out when the best time to start seeds for your location is. So back to my rising panic. Next week is our annual ski weekend. We take it every year, but this year is extra special. My best friend from ninth grade, whom i haven't seen since then, will be flying out with her husband to join us. We will be back home on the 25th, which also happens to be the last moon favorable planting date for my tomatoes and peppers. And i wasn't ready, at all, or so i thought. All year i have been saving our toilet paper rolls and every clear plastic container that had a lid and top. Think of those plastic containers of spinach, rotisserie chickens, deli prepared foods, etc.
If we brought them home, i saved them! While the kids were settling down for the night with their books, us adults were busy cutting toilet paper tubes in half. I soaked a bucket of planting mix, thankfully i grow herbs indoors all year so i keep a big bag in the ready, and searched the junk drawers for something to press the soil into the tubes with. I found the perfect tool in a couple of 1" pvc end caps, leftover from some project we can't even remember now. Then we started filling the tube halves with soil, pressing the dirt in until it was hard packed, then filling the trays.

I have placed our ironing board, which we NEVER use, i mean c'mon...ironing???? in the dining room and had my trusty man servant hang a shoplight from the ceiling. I placed two heating mats (remember safety, its not wise to use regular heating pads since they aren't made for this purpose) on the board and placed the seed flats on them to warm overnight.

This was two days ago, last night we planted. In case you are wondering, you don't have to turn the lights out and plant by the light of the moon. I did actually ask that question! I feel a great relief at having that task out of the way. But then i remember that on the day we get back from our vacation, we will be planting seeds in the garden, which isn't ready. Another method of biodiversity that we are trying this year is animal plowing. We are allowing the chickens to turn the soil in the garden plot rather than mechanically plowing the area. not only will we save the labor of doing it by hand or the money by renting a machine, but the chickens get to eat all the bugs and seeds they want and they leave us extra manure in the process. Manure that i don't have to shovel! nobody had to tell me twice which choice to make. Great as this is, it still takes time. And we sure don't have much of that! By our calculations, if we let the chickens roam the garden area every day until Saturday, then on Sunday we can plot out some rows for the early crops of peas and onions, that way when we return all we have to do is stick those seeds in the ground. We will still have quite a bit of manual labor as the garden grows, but that's the case of EVERY garden. No matter how well planned and plowed ahead of time.

Another project of mine that i didn't plan very well for is baby chicks. The sample set of eggs, 4 of them, are due to hatch this weekend. Why do i always seem calender dyslexic? Check back for updates on that......

Cheers, Nyn

Bread Basics

ah, the smell of fresh bread.....soon, because there's bread dough rising on my counter. All right, those who know me will call me a liar of sorts because while it's true there is bread resting there - it IS resting in a bread machine. I make bread on a regular basis, not daily but close to it, as a staple food here in our house. We don't buy bread anymore, and haven't in over a year, and we are quite happy with that! I went through piles of recipes before i finally settled on one that is a nice versatile dough that i can use for both buns and loaves, with no off the wall ingredients that i would not normally have in my kitchen. In the future, once we are officially homesteading at Nyn Acres with our first milk cow or two, i plan on searching out a new recipe that would allow us to use up milk, buttermilk, or cream, but for now that stuff costs money and is better used in other dishes. I know lots of people who carve out a day each week to make enough bread to last until the next bread day, usually making 3 to 5 loaves at a time, wrapping the loaves in foil and bagging them in the freezer until ready to use. I tried two loaves once. Without a large capacity stand mixer (or any stand mixer for that matter!) at my disposal it was a chore. I have carpal tunnel and while this didn't debilitate me, later that week hand mixing red dye into fondue for cakes (i will talk about that escapade at another time!) did me in. that was last summer and they are still too weak to mix much more than a single batch of tortilla dough :( I will eventually be forced to mix my bread by hand as we will essentially be roughing in pioneer style for quite some time once we make our move. I am working on some herbal tonics and vitamins to improve my hands but until them i don't want to cripple myself so i use my bread machine. that's my justification :) Once the machine has taken care of the hard part, i shape the dough into a loaf pan (or buns) and take over from there. Since i am home during the day it isn't an inconvenience to start a process that takes close to four hours from start to finish, and when i have plans i make bread the evening before. going to bed with the aroma of fresh bread wafting through the house has its own perks! Now, let's get on to the important stuff here....the bread!!! I will give the recommended information for making bread by hand, mixer, or whatever you are using regardless of how i do it, just to avoid mass confusion and a possible riot.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup warm water (100 degrees or so)
2 TBS honey
2 tsp yeast (i use the active dry yeast because its readily available - keep it in the fridge in an airtight container)
3 cups flour (i use a mix of half unbleached white wheat and half unbleached whole wheat)
1/4 cup oil (i prefer canola, use whatever salad oil you have on hand, other than olive - it lends its own flavor and tends to overpower unless you are planning on that as your flavor i.e. herb bread)
1 tsp salt
1 TBS butter (the REAL stuff)


Start by measuring your water into your mixing bowl or bread machine pan. Add the honey and the yeast. I like to give the bowl a little swirl to spread the yeast evenly around the bowl. Let this sit for about 10 minutes. When the yeast has become puffy (for lack of a better word) add the oil, flour, salt and butter. Start mixing! If you are using a bread machine use the dough cycle - it should be complete in 1 hour and 20 minutes. If you are mixing by hand the recommendation is 300 folds, that means that each time you push your hand into the dough count that as one, and if you are using a mixer on medium speed set your timer for 10 minutes. Once the machine has beeped, you have counted 300 folds, or your timer has gone off, remove the dough onto an oiled surface. I like to simply spray my red and yellow can of spray oil onto the counter when i spray my pan. Don't forget to spray your pan. Then turn the dough edges nice and neatly upwards and to the center of the dough, making an upside down loaf, gently flip it over and into your (sprayed) pan and cover with a towel. Set the pan in a warm place, not the oven and preferably somewhere where you won't forget about it - or set a timer. Anywhere from 30 minutes to over an hour later depending on conditions too numerous to go over here, your bread should have risen over the top of the pan by about double. Preheat your oven to 375 (if you are much more competent than i am you did this before the bread was ready to go into the oven) and carefully slide the pan onto the middle rack. i say carefully because you can be too rough with your bread, and if you are too rough with your bread it can collapse. If this happens, bake it anyways...it will make good croutons! Once the bread is in the oven, turn the temp down to 350 and bake for 30 minutes. Here in North Carolina we are at sea level, you may have to adjust baking temp and time for your location. When the bread is done, set the pan on a wire rack for about ten minutes to finish. Then you should be able to turn it over and slide it out of the pan. Cool for a few hours before trying to cut into it or you will squish it! Once you have tasted fresh baked bread, there is no going back! In fact, we use unbleached flours and i had bought a bag of "regular" all purpose flour for some holiday baking. I made bread with this flour and my children complained that it had no taste....WHITE bread had NO taste! and that coming from a bunch of kids! We are hooked on homemade bread, toasted with a fried egg straight from outback cannot be beat!

cheers, Nyn

Making Laundry Soap

Since i posted the ingredients and tips for automatic dishwasher soap, i needed to also do this for laundry soap. In our quest to become slightly more self sufficient before we make our move out west, learning how to make our own cleaning products was pretty high on my list (right next to canning, which i have yet to do). This recipe i have been using for quite a few months now, still using my first batch too. We consist of myself, my trusty man servant, and our three kids, so you know we need some heavy duty stuff that does the job without being expensive and also will be good for the environment, since our plans for the Nyn Acres homestead include a grey water system. This also applies to our hair and body products as well as other cleaners - i will delve into that at another time. Now with that being said let's take a look at what you'll need....


1 bar of Fels Naptha Soap
1/2 cup Borax
1 cup Washing soda
Box grater
5-7 gallon bucket with lid
Large pan
Wooden spoon and measuring cups

Start by grating the soap into a large pan (fill the pan with water, about 3/4 full so it won't boil over. trust me on this one!) Heat to boiling stirring until dissolved.

Once the soap has dissolved completely pour the mixture into the five gallon bucket. Please be careful, the mix will still be boiling hot! Then add the Borax and washing soda, stirring until dissolved.

At this point i carry the bucket to the bathtub since that's the easiest place for me to fill a five gallon bucket with water. Fill the bucket with water and put the lid on, carry (or have someone else carry for you since it will be heavy) to the laundry room and let sit for 24 hours.

After 24 hours you will have some really yucky looking goo in your bucket, but that's what the laundry soap looks like! i carefully swish the bucket around, with the lid secure, to mix everything up a bit, then fill a smaller container (this is what you will keep on the shelf for regular use - i reused a mrs. murray container since its easy to handle and the lid works as a measuring cup) halfway full, then top off with water.

Give it a good shake to completely mix the soap with the water (i also recommend giving a lighter shake before each use just to give everything another chance to mingle) and pour into whatever you are using to measure with. I typically fill my lid twice, it equals 1/2 cup, for a regular load, more for really dirty boys clothes!

I also like this recipe because i can add my vinegar directly to the wash water at this time. the vinegar works as a clothes softener, i will see this spring how it works on my clothes that dry outside on the clothesline.

In hindsight i should have taken pictures of the process, and since the mix has lasted so long i don't need to make any more (plus i have no room to store another bucket!). The next time i do though i will repost this with photos to make it easier to follow.


cheers, Nyn

Making Automatic Dishwashing Soap

Today i ran out of my dishwashing detergent and had to make more, so i figured now would be a great time to share my recipe.

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1/4 cup Pickling Salt
1/4 cup Citric Acid

Mix together in airtight container, use 2 tablespoons per load.




This makes enough mix to fill my container, recycled metal coffee can, about a quarter of capacity. I could double or even triple it but a word of advice: the citric acid will make the mix clump. This is completely normal. If you already use anti-clumping packets you could drop one of those in the can, i haven't tried this method myself. I simply scrape the bottom of my container when it clumps using my dispensing spoon.
I have been asked why the salt and citric acid? There are all types of scientific answers to this question, but i am not a scientist! so, my answer is that the salt acts as an abrasive, table salt has additives in it whereas pickling salt does not, which makes it ideal for this use as well as for canning! The citric acid is what makes your dishes sparkly clean, without it you would have cloudy dishes. The measurement i have provided works well with my water hardness, you may find that you require more, or even less, of citric acid depending on how hard your water is (you can't get much harder than ours). If you find that your dishes are cloudy after using this, just add more citric acid until you find the right amount for your situation, and don't forget the vinegar rinse!
i use two scoops per load, about two tablespoons - again, may vary depending on your water quality and how dirty your dishes are! The best combination i have found in my testing of many products has been to fill the rinse aid dispenser with vinegar, use this mix in the open cup, and fill the closed cup with more vinegar. My dishes are spotless, including the glasses, and that's pretty darn impressive to me!
Now the downside..... (yes, there always is one). Chocolate and meat residues need to be pre-washed. No matter how many times i put a used hot cocoa cup in the dishwasher, it came out looking exactly like it was when i put it in! It's a really simple fix though...now i just rinse my dishes better (which we should all be doing anyways right?!)

Cheers, Nyn