Cold jumping beans

Woke up at 2 am this morning to the dogs barking like crazy.  I usually just lay in bed and wait for them to stop but when both bark I figure somethings up.  I should have stayed in bed.  First I stubbed my toe on the bedpost...that's what I get for no glasses in the dark.  Almost stepped on the dog who wasn't impressed.  That sent her off to the living room where she per-ceded to whine at the vents looking for imaginary mice for the next half hour.

There was nothing outside that I could see and the dogs finally settled down.  My last thought before falling back to sleep was I will see what they were barking at on the trail cam in the morning.

And it's a chilly morning here, -14 by the door. Got a fire started before going out with Vixen to let the pups out.  Just like every morning they were waiting patiently by the kennel door.

The pups enjoyed our morning walk to check the gate, fence and gather the cameras.  The pups were jumping around like beans almost the whole time.  Vixen, she just wanted back in the house right away. It was too cold for her.  It amazes me no matter the time of day the pups have so much energy, wish I could be like that. 

Gathered the cameras and was so excited to look and see what was around last night.  And...nothing! lol

Each camera took a few shots but I can not see anything in them.  So, maybe the wind or a small critter like our white weasal set them off.  I did get a good chuckle when I realized that I put up the one looking along the pond upside down!!   lol   The cameras will go back up tonight.  Right side up this time!

Today I am going to clean and organize.  I was going to start making some holiday chocolates but have decided to leave that for tomorrow.  Besides, I can't get to some things because papers are piled up waiting to be filed and I don't even like to look in the dining room area.  So clean it is and hopefully more tossing then re-placing items.

Posted below a few shots that we did get last night.  If you see anything let me know.

Hope you enjoy your Sunday and stay warm!

Hill cam looking along the pond.  Picture is upright now that is why the date/time stamp is upside down.
Can you see anything?

Another shot from the Hill cam looking along the pond.  If you are wondering what the lights are in the distance on the right side, that is a gas plant.
Can you see anything?

This is the camera put up by the barn looking down towards the garden.  When plowing yesterday I noticed what looked like large tracks down a ways but too far and too deep snow to go look.  Nothing went by last night, unless you see something?  The tracks that are  closer in the foreground are from us walking around and where we moved some snow.

A parfait kind of day

I love those yogurt berry parfaits you can buy in different stores.  I decided to try and make some of my own at home.  
Greek yogurt is a great price at Costco, 3 - 500ml tubs for 11.99.  And the large bag of blueberries is huge and I can't remember the price but it's a good deal as well.

The granola I got from Walmart and the chia seeds from Bulk Barn.  Will just buy the granola from Bulk Barn next time as well.

I made a single one my first try and when it turned out better than expected I pulled all the ingredients out the next day to make a bulk batch.

Plain greek yogurt
Frozen blueberries
Granola
Honey
Chia Seeds.

I used some 250ml glass mason jars to make the parfaits.  I put yogurt in first, then blueberries,
I then drizzled honey on that layer and added about a 1/4 tsp of chia seeds.  I did a second layer the same and topped it with granola.
Easy peasey!

I got 9 250ml jars plus the one I made the day before.  I have since had one after freezing and thawing slightly and they are just as good as the day they were made.

 

Farm themed Holiday ornaments

We found these awesome Christmas ornaments - so many great ones to choose from. I love the "Yes, I was born in a barn"  - Cause hey... it sure feels like that!!  

Sue's favorites are the dangling cow, pig and sheep!  The company delivers to Canada, the U.S. and internationally.. Get your order in in time for holiday decorating!

http://www.countryporch.com/midwest-cbk/view.asp?item=MW-639580

 

Dogs

I love our dogs! They keep us company and always make us smile.  They are the best companions to have, they follow us everywhere, never complain, always listen and the only thing they ask for is to be fed and loved.
Thank god for dogs!   The pooches in our life are Vixen, our 12 year old shiba-inu and Chance and Raven, brother and sister, 8 month old mixed breeds.

Snow, snow and more snow!!

Woke up to more snow today and it's cold!!  -32.   The furnace is kicking on because the wood-stove can't keep up, the heating lamps are on in the kennels and barn.  Everyone is keeping warm.
Well, except Ray right now. He is out plowing.  Thank goodness for the tractor cab, no heater in there but better than nothing!
And we could be this guy....

Stay warm!!

Lest we forget

A day of remembrance to never forget!

More snow = hanging indoors by the fire

And it's snowing here again today. Will definitely be getting the tractor out to plow later. I love winter! In other news, I baked a bunch of eggs and bacon today to put in the freezer for future breakfasts. The rest of the day will be coffee in front of the wood-stove watching Netflix

Best medicine!

Best medicine right there!! 

Love this!

I have the PERFECT spot for this setup!! Anyone know if you can get these anywhere?

I love snow. Wait, it's till Summer according to the calendar. For the last two days we have watched it snow, melt, snow some more and stay. What weird weather we are having. 
It's a big wake up though. We are not ready with our winter wood supply yet!! The forecast says it will be up to +18 by the weekend so thank goodness we will have some more time. We will be very busy splitting and stacking to get 4-5 cords put up for the winter.
I hope where you are you are ready for your winter season, and if not I wish you some more nice weather to get ready.
Happy Monday!

A clearing we will go!!

Chaining sawing and stump grinding today! A clearing we will go!! Lol

Yum!

Cucumber Salad in the fridge! Excited for supper tomorrow, having it with Ray's home-made stuffed burgers! Haven't had cucumber salad in forever and found a recipe online today. 

2 english cucumbers, sliced thin
¼ small onion, sliced thin
1/3 green pepper, sliced thin
1 large clove garlic, smashed
1 cup white vinegar
2/3 cup cold water
4 tbsp sugar
2 tsps salt
½ tsp ground black pepper

Peel cucumbers and slice very thin. Place into bowl with onion, pepper and garlic. Mix liquids and spices. Pour over veggies. Refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight. Serve cold.

What does it mean to you to homestead?

Love this article on what it means to homestead. 

http://gnowfglins.com/2014/03/17/how-to-homestead-without-100-acres-and-a-cow/?utm_content=buffer83dc1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Tree check

Went for a walk last night and checked our trees and shrubs. Most of them are doing well. The choke cherries are doing the best out of everything, and some of the raspberries are doing well, same with the maples and some of the apples. Some not so well but we're hoping they will make it.

Squirrel Approved!

The squirrel approves of the new BIRD feeder!

A long day!

Today was the day! We had been waiting for the Willowview consignment auction for a while now.  Guys at Ray's work had told us of the great deals they always found there so we were stooked.

After a long day, our feet are sore and we have a stock trailer, approx 1/2 mile of buffalo fence and posts, a 1200 gal water tank, a Honda lawn mower, washer and dryer plus misc tools and I got thea butter churner! 
Long day though, didn't get home till 10.

New toy

Ray loves his new toy!! Time to water the new trees and bushes.  It is going to make it so much easier than trying to drag jugs or a hose over to the garden area.

Trees, squirrels, puppies, birds and ducks.... oh my!

Our weekend was filled with preparing for tree & shrub planting, picking up our shelterbelt order and planting. We are still not done! But Ray had to go back to work so it will get done in the evenings and hopefully the seedlings will survive the wait.

Other than that we met the newest member of our family on Mother's Day, she will come home with us this Friday.  We are very excited to have our new farm dog.  She is a real cutie, her mom is a husky/lab and dad is a lab/great pyrenees/rotweiler so she has a lot of great breeds in her!

I have been busy doing some more squirrel message gigs on Fiverr for cash for the chicken coop and that is going well. It's really fun to play with the squirrels and people sure come up with some fun interesting messages. 

Ray has also gotten some awesome shots of the birds visiting our feeder.  Since we switched to straight black sunflower seeds we have had one busy feeder! And all types of birds too.  So far we've seen chickadees, wrens, blue jays, and more.  It’s been great morning and evening entertainment watching all the birds.

There is a lot of activity on the farm right now, spring is finally here.  We heard some bull frogs in the pond the other evening and went to investigate. There was some mating going on and already a large amount of eggs.  Ever since I was a kid I have loved the sound of frogs.  We grew up in Toronto and playing in nature was rare but in one place we lived there was a small pond nearby and I was allowed to go there because it wasn’t too far from the house. I would play for hours with the tadpoles and frogs. So I was very excited to see frogs and eggs in our pond.  Brings back great childhood memories.

When we went back to see how the frog eggs were doing we came across about 4 or 5 ducks in the pond.  We scared some away that is why we don’t know how many were there first.  But we were able to get close enough to see a few and Ray got a few good photos too.

So far this has been an awesome first spring on the farm and we are even more excited for everything still to come.  Please share comments on your spring ventures/treasures/stories. We’d love to read them.

~Sue

Our new puppy - coming home on Friday

Busy little feeder

One of the squirrel messages for a customer

Warning - x-rated lol

Lots of eggs - the frogs have been busy

Ducks on the pond

Earning some cash for a chicken coop with Fiverr

So because our farm is new we have a longggg to-do list and not a big source of cash.

We created some cute and fun gigs on Fiverr to make some extra cash for a chicken coop, to start.

What is Fiverr?  It is a site where people offer to do jobs for $5.  Everything from creating logos, business cards, social marketing to unique gift ideas.

Our gigs mostly fall under the unique gift idea category.  It all started when Ray left me a cute message written in peanuts on our deck.

 Pretty cute eh? We were pretty excited when the squirrel showed up and then it gave us an idea.  I already sell on Fiverr, mostly logo, business card and magazine cover designs, so I knew all about Fiverr.

We can up with the idea to sell Your message in nuts for the squirrels and it took off pretty good.  For $5 you get a photo of a squirrel or squirrels with your 3 line message and for extra you can get 4 lines and even a video!!

If you are looking for a unique way to advertise, to get a message about or a fun gift idea, it's only $5 - check it out - http://www.fiverr.com/mudpuddlefarms/get-squirrels-nuts-about-your-message

Also check out our other gigs while you are there.   www.fiverr.com/mudpuddlefarms

We run these under our new farm name Mud Puddle Farms.

See you on Fiverr! If you want to create your own unique revenue stream, contact us and we can offer some tips for getting started.

~Sue

Zero waste restaurant - UNBELIEVABLE

There is a lot of trash out there and we try to do our best to keep our trash to a minimum at home.  We reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible.  Still, there is only two of us and one dog and we have weekly trash to take to the local dump.

When I came across this article I could not believe it.  This is a whole restaurant and they have managed to cut their trash back to one very very small pile in a whole TWO YEARS!

You have to read this article to believe it-

www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/28/zero-waste-restaurant_n_5215019.html

~Sue

Peasant Bread baking

So, my Peasant Bread baking today resulted in one nice size loaf and 11 small size biscuits. Everything is very tasty!

So if you make the bread (recipe below) you can also make them in to smaller biscuits. I used a muffin tin and just greased it very well. Same rise time and same cooking time.

~Sue

Peasant Bread

Note: This is a sticky, no-knead dough, so some sort of baking vessel, such as Pyrex bowls (about 1-L or 1.5 L or 1-qt or 1.5-qt) or ramekins for mini loaves is required to bake this bread.

4 cups all-purpose flour (do not use bleached all-purpose)

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 cups lukewarm water

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons active-dry yeast

Room temperature butter, about 2 tablespoons

1. In a large mixing bowl whisk the flour and the salt. Set aside.

2. In a small mixing bowl, dissolve the sugar into the water. Sprinkle the yeast over top. There is no reason to stir it up. Let it stand for about 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is foamy and/or bubbling just a bit — this step is just to ensure that the yeast is active. * To make fool-proof lukewarm water that will not kill the yeast (water that’s too hot can kill yeast), boil some water— I use my teapot. Then, mix 1 1/2 cups cold water with 1/2 cup boiling water.This ratio of hot to cold water will be the perfect temperature for the yeast.

3. Gently stir the yeast/water/sugar mixture and add to the flour bowl. Stir this mixture up with a spatula or wooden spoon. Mixture will be sticky. Cover this bowl with plastic wrap or a tea towel and let rise for at least an hour.  If you have the time let it rise for 1.5 to 2 hours as this will help the second rise.

4. Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Grease two oven-safe bowls (such as the Pyrex bowls mentioned above) with about a tablespoon of butter each.
Using two forks, punch down your dough, scraping it from the sides of the bowl,which it will be clinging to. As you scrape it down try to turn the dough up onto itself if that makes sense. You want to loosen the dough entirely from the sides of the bowl, and you want to make sure you’ve punched it down. Take your two forks and divide the dough into two equal portions — eye the center of the mass of dough, and starting from the center and working out, pull the dough apart with the two forks. Then scoop up each half and place into your prepared bowls. This part can be a little messy — the dough is very wet and will slip all over the place. Using small forks or forks with short tines makes this easier.
 Let the dough rise for about 20 to 30 minutes or until it has risen to just below or above (depending on what size bowl you are using) the top of the bowls.

5. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375º and make for 15 to 17 minutes longer.Remove from the oven and turn the loaves onto cooling racks. If you’ve greased the bowls well, the loaves should fall right out onto the cooling racks. If the loaves look a little pale and soft when you’ve turned them out onto your cooling racks, place the loaves into the oven (outside of their bowls) and let them bake for about 5 minutes longer. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

Productive Easter Weekend

How was your Easter long weekend? Still not over for you?

Friday was pretty quiet for us. Saturday we went to the GP SPCA in hopes of finding a farm dog or two. It was very busy and though we met a cute pitbull mix we didn't come home with any new friends for Vixen. Maybe next time.

Sunday was busy clearing up some deadfall. I got to use the chain saw for the first time and drag some trees out of the bush with the tractor so that was fun!

We finished our weekend with a very non-traditional Easter dinner - BBQ beer-can chicken, roast potatoes and creamed corn.

Some photos and a short video on our web-site...

http://www.homesteadingalberta.com/#!clearing-trees-chopping-wood/cgik

~Sue

You CAN farm and/or garden anywhere!

Found this great story of a family growing their own food and raising chickens and goats in a small back yard in a large city.

Proof that you can do it anywhere!  
http://www.takepart.com/video/2014/04/16/woman-has-itty-bitty-farm-city-heres-amazing-way-shes-making-it-work?cmpid=foodinc-fb

~Sue

Home!!

It is so nice to come home and sleep in your own bed after being away!

We went down to Edmonton and Red Deer over the weekend.  We drove to Edmonton Wednesday night after the Farmers Market workshop and Thursday morning we went to Tandy's.

If you have never been it's an experience. Ray wants to get in to leather crafting so this was definitely the place to go.  It's like a small warehouse and you can easily get overwhelmed in there but they were so helpful.  I had a list of items Ray wanted from their web-site and one of the guys took my list and found everything for us.  This gave us time to wander around and look at everything.  They have a pretty good collection of books and a lot of different leather hides.

We left with a nice big order that included their deluxe starting kit and some free leather samples for Ray to practice on.  After Tandy's we headed to Cabela's.  Easily one of my favorite stores in Edmonton.

We headed to Red Deer in the afternoon and met some friends for supper and a Jeff Dunham show that night.  So much better live than the videos and he had some new stuff too.  We had a blast!

Friday and Saturday was full of appointments with lawyers, accountants and life insurance agent.  But we still made time for some fun stuff and, of course, visited Wolverine.  There we picked up a Ranchman's rifle for $70 less than GP.

Our big purchase this trip was our new dumping trailer.  We had found it over Kijiji and the timing was perfect to pick it up when we had to be in Red Deer anyway.  Our beautiful new trailer is in pics below.

On Saturday we headed home after another stop at Cabela's when we got a competitive shooting target, some rubber boots and a camo jack for me and more ammo for Ray.

A fun weekend and now there is lots of work to do!

~Sue

Getting into Farmers Markets Workshop

Today was the Getting into Farmers Market workshop in Grande Prairie.  It had been re-scheduled from an earlier date and this one was better for us anyway as we both got to attend.

It was a day long seminar with a lot of great info on what you need to do to start selling food products at Farmers Markets in Alberta.  Besides all of the great info we learned we met some wonderful people.

The managers of the Rycroft Farmers Market were there and we look forward to going to their market in the future.  We also go to meet Kreg from Broken Tine Orchard.  We have been following his story on his haskap berries for a while so it was nice to put a face to the facebook page.

If you are considering selling at Farmers Markets this workshop is a definite plus. This was a first for them but they do plan on more in the future.  You can get more info at http://www.albertamarkets.com.

~sue

Yummy Stuffed burgers!!

Yummmmy stuffed burgers for supper last night! They turned out delicious and for those that asked.. here's how we made them with a little review of the "Stufz burger press"...

http://www.homesteadingalberta.com/#!stuffed-burgers/c21j1

~Sue

Nuts about squirrels

Ray disappeared this morning after breakfast for a bit. When he came back he told me to go to the window with the camera. That's when I seen this.... I love it!..and so do the squirrels!! lol 

Caught on video! The bird seed thief!!

We've noticed that our bird feeder has some damage. We figured it was probably the deer coming over and shaking it to get seed to fall to the ground. Well today I caught this little bugger on the feeder lol 

Video on our youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxLc5GTKdLA

~Sue

Genius!!

I love finding things online that make it easier in the kitchen.  Come apple baking time this will be so great...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=539637342822833&set=vb.100003297160854&type=2&theater

Now just need a drill for the kitchen only!!

~Sue

Quiet that generator

You know those people, right? They are the ones that show up camping and set up right next to you and then haul out the big generator.

Then they start that thing up and all of a sudden the enjoyment of camping outside in nature with the peace and quiet is GONE.

Well there can be a solution. Follow the link below.

http://www.homesteadingalberta.com/#!quiet-that-generator/c172r

~Sue

I love it here!  I played peek-a-boo this morning around the corner of the house with a squirrel!!  lol

~Sue

Deer on the homestead

We had some excitement on the homestead last evening. After closing the blinds to the big windows for the evening I noticed some movement in the shadows moving on the barn through the kitchen window. When I went to investigate out the big windows I was pleasantly surprised to see 5 deer outside.

Photos and video on our web-site…

Homesteading Alberta - Deer on the homestead

~Sue

To-do lists

I was looking at our to-list for this spring and boy, is it long!! Don't know how we are going to figure out what to do first.
How about you? Do you find that you just have too many things to do and not enough time. And it's hard to prioritize what to do first?
Well you have my sympathy!! 

It has been sooo nice here the last week and a bit. We are forecast to get a bit of snow but that could change. I love this time of year when you get to see everything being uncovered after winter.

Sometimes it can be fun! Like this morning, I stepped out to bring some wood in to the house from the back porch (for the still cool nights) and was surprised to see that most of the snow beside the porch is gone. And I found a pair of shoes that had been sitting outside and were not brought in before they were covered in snow. Hopefully after a little air-drying they will be fine.

I've also noticed more squirrels and birds hanging around. Guess they are enjoying the weather too. I am off to search on-line for aprons. Never worn one but yesterday I dumped sauce all over me. So, an apron might be nice! lol
Only one more day till Friday! Have a good one!

~Sue

Honking for Geese

Can't you just hear it? That loud and annoying honk of geese. I can remember going to the park to feed the ducks and having the geese coming around with their loud honking.

They would also chase you boldly trying to get the bread when all you wanted was to feed the cute ducks.

So...would you want them on your farm?... 

Continued at... http://www.homesteadingalberta.com/#!honking-geese/c1o2j

No-Dig Gardening - sounds like a dream!!

Join our conversation on Facebook about No-Dig Gardening.  Started early this afternoon with this link:

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/creating-productive-no-dig-garden-under-year

It's a very interesting topic.  Obviously where you live, your climate and your soil has a lot to do with whether this would work for you or not.  Tell us what you think on our Facebook page so everyone can see your comments/opinion:  www.facebook.com/homesteadingalberta

~Sue

Melting snow... blowing wind

Not a lot is new here.  We have been having some very mild weather and a lot of our snow is melting.  It's nice to see the ground for a change.

It has also been very windy here.  Since we have been here less than 6 months we are not sure if this is normal but we have started researching wind power because of all the wind we've been getting.
One thing we've looked in to is recording the wind.  Have you done that?

There are systems you can get that record wind gusts, speed, duration etc.  I find this fascinating. It would be a great bonus to be able to harvest the wind for some power.  As we live in Canada our sunlight during the winter is less than ideal for solar so having wind to back it up would be ideal.

We would love to hear from anyone, especially someone in our neck of the woods, that use wind power.  We have a lot of questions...of course lol.  Practical experience is always the best.

Off to anchor down some tarps before they blow away.  Have a great Tuesday!

~Sue

Rabbits

Anyone raise rabbit for meat? Have you had rabbit meat?

We would like to try some meat but it's seeming very difficult to find any locally. 

Why is that? Rabbit meat is high in protein and they are easy to raise. They do not take up a lot of room either. We are seriously looking in to raising rabbits for meat.

Join our discussion on rabbits on Facebook...it got very interesting... and we'd love to hear what you think about rabbits for meat as well. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=763777426967335&set=a.670042773007468.1073741828.670019503009795&type=1&relevant_count=1

~Sue

Shopping...yuck!

Fridays are my usual town day.  When I go in to get supplies needed, groceries, banking etc.  If I can get away with going I will.  I don't like shopping.  I included a pic of my favorite kind of shopping list below...maybe you'll get a chuckle from it.....or inspiration!

So how about you?  Do you love or hate shopping? Our goal is to be almost completely self-sufficient some day so that going to town for anything will only be needed on a very minimal basis, like maybe every two months or less.

Have you reached that point yet? What do you go to town for?

Short post because I have to get to town and back but I look forward to your replies.  You can also answer us on Facebook at our page at www.facebook.com/homesteadingalberta.

~Sue

Happy Monday!

I don't hate winter. In fact I actually like snow and the way everything looks covered in white and the cool crisp air. I like cozying up to the fireplace and wearing big warm sweaters.

But because this will be our first Spring on the farm I am anxiously waiting for it to get here! 30 days till the first official day of Spring!

Our list is very long for everything we want to do once the snow is gone and it gets longer every day. We are constantly talking about all there will be to do. How about you? Do you have any big Spring plans?

Our first priority so that we are ahead for next winter is to bring in some of the wood that is piled around our property and build a wood shed. It will be a big first project.

We keep categorizing everything has low or high priority and that changes daily. After all plans are made to be changed!!

Today I'm working on our web-site which I hope to have finished very soon. And tomorrow we will have some news!

Hope you have a great Monday!

~Sue

Weasels Stink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Weasels STINK!!!!!!!!!!!

How do I know this? Well, I was laying down trying to get rid of a headache (works best for me) and the dog was with me for a bit but then jumped off the bed and all of a sudden went bat sh*t crazy down the hall and chased something in to the spare bedroom.

I didn't see it but when I went to go in the bedroom the stink was sooo bad I though it was a skunk. I called the dog out and shut the door quick!

I was freaked out! I am home alone so I called Alberta Fish & Wildlife. Nice lady on the phone calmed me down and discussed the situation. Determined that because of previous occurrences and the smell I described it was probably our weasel again!! 

Didn't know weasel's can stink that bad but apparently when they're irritated they can get nasty! Smells almost as bad as a skunk. 

She convinced me to put the dog outside and go in to the room and see if I could figure out what was in there. That was fun.... I figured it must be in the closet from the noises I was hearing. So I proceeded to pull a few things out and all of a sudden this little white head (why do they have to be cute?!) picked out from under the shelving. When I realized it was the weasel again I was sooo relieved!!

Chased him out and down the hall where he escaped under the door to our water softener/laundry area and out of the house.

Now the room is being aired out, smell is almost gone!

Thank goodness for weasels, even though I now know they stink, I'll take them over a skunk in the house any day!!!

Vixen is not so happy though, it's been hours and she is still hunting the house for the weasel that got away!

~Sue