New Books!

I treated myself to a couple new books for the new year!

I have been a big fan of Jenna Woginrich ever since I took her Chickens 101 workshop at her farm in Jackson, NY last March.  She is inspiring.  A 20-something, single woman living the dream.   And who can resist a Joel Salatin book?

What books are you enjoying?

A Cold Night

As the sun was setting last night, I belatedly checked the weather forcast.  Temperatures were predicted to dip into the single digits.  Yikes!  Had I prepared the chickens for this cold snap?  To boost their chances of survival during the night, I put some fresh bedding in their small coop and gave them a fresh, warm piece of cornbread.  Then I stacked some thick blankets on top of the coop as a tiny bit of insulation. 

When I woke up this morning, the temperature was 9F.  Once the sun came up, I checked on the hens, and all four were alive and mobile. 

New Year!

Hello everyone, and welcome to 2012! 

My New Year's Eve celebration involved good food and great friends.  Specifically, I learned the fine art of sausage making, starting with the ground pork and spices.

I was surprised to learn that natural casings come packed in salt and refrigerated (usually with an ice pack in the package).  Before you use the casings, you must repeatedly soak and rinse them to make them more pliable and to rid them of the salt.



After the soaking, the casings get pushed onto a spout at the bottom of the sausage filling apparatus.  The apparatus is a cylindrical container with a press at the top and the spout at the bottom.  The filling gets scooped into the apparatus and pressed down and out into the casing.  So simple!

We ended up with about six feet of delicious pork sausage that was rolled nicely.

In the above picture, the sausage is getting poked with a toothpick to release some of the moisture in the filling. 

The sausage making process was fascinating, and something that I think most people could do at home.  Maybe I will get a sausage stuffer and some local pork from Mockingbird Farm and make my own!

Early morning

69 degrees and mostly cloudy.  8 am.

I woke up early this morning to make waffles for my housemates.  So early.  We're talking 4:30 am early.  My coffee has yet to kick in, but I managed to drag myself outside for an early morning photo session in the garden.  So many bloomers right now!

[caption id="attachment_105" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="A gorgeous poppy"][/caption]

 The trees will not be outdone, as you can see by my Hop Hornbeam.



And keeping an eye on me the whole time...

[caption id="attachment_107" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Red, of the Rhode Island variety"][/caption]

I finished knitting a pair of white socks yesterday, but they are stained with ink from my purse.  I suppose I will dye them.  Perhaps later today I can scavenge some natural dye stuffs.

Late May

[caption id="attachment_99" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Whole wheat flour and brown rice"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_98" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Candles"][/caption]



71 degrees and sunny 1 pm

A fine day for hiking up Mount Norwotuck, picking up the bulk grains (50 lbs of whole wheat flour and 25 lbs of brown rice), and making beeswax candles.  Gotta love summer!

Spring Rain

7 a.m. 50 degrees.  3rd Day of Rain.

It's been a while since I last blogged, and I apologize for that.  I went through a little phase where I thought no one really read my posts, and then I went through a phase of forgetting, and now I am back here at my kitchen table thinking that I need to write.  Perhaps it is because of the weather.  A brilliant, sunny stretch of days was followed by rain, which will continue all week.  I weeded and planted and tended to the animals in the sun, but now I am stuck inside watching the weeds grow out the window.  Ah well.

At least the chickens are doing alright.

[caption id="attachment_94" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="This is when they were babies..."][/caption]

Back to School

High 75.  Sunny.

September first.  Although my school doesn't start until next week, I saw my first school bus of the year yesterday.  It's kind of exciting.  I remember feeling the anticipation of the new year, a new start.  I liked school, and I loved the first day.

A storm blew through this past weekend, and the air has been cool ever since.  If you can ignore the height of the sun in the sky and the vibrant green of the plants, it really feels like fall.  I am heading up to D.A.R. State Forest in Goshen to kayak this morning.  I am in training for the Josh Billings Triathlon!