starting working in the dog yard

well we started falling some dead trees here in the dog yard. they have been threatening to fall all year and with the dogs running around I was concerned they would fall. we also have a large amount of just little branches and debris left from spring. a;though this seemed like a simple quick job it turned into a evening of heavy work from the whole family. because I waited so long to get to them the brush has grown up all around them so made it hard pulling the heavy trees in and around the standing one. so the fire is going as I type and we hopefully we can get all the trees burnt by tomorrow .

with our luck the chainsaw is not working so my husband spend a good hour with the axe cutting each tree into sections so they are at least short enough to get into the burning pit. I am so afraid we are going to run out of time this year to get all the projects done before winter falls. I know it is a ways away but each thing we are doing are larger projects and should be done  each in one season but we simply do not have many seasons available for us. |I am also thinking of doing a daily video to go over the days events.

calm after the storm

it has been nasty with the storm the last few days and has left us in not a very good mood. with the chickens being cooped up for 2 days we realize we are going to have to get a bigger coop. so the plans may have to change a bit.

I am going to get started on the plans for a barn. something that will house all the chickens and the sheep and everything else. we are also working on a alternative power source for the barn for wintertime. we are making up some plans and we hope to show you when we are done I am convinced my husband to create a power source that utilizes what we already have.

anyhow I will not get into that as they are just plans right now and they may not come through. we are going to pick up the remaining rolls of fence and then we can let the alpaca and the lamb out into the pasture to eat and get them out of the corral. like any new animal I always like to keep them close for a bit in a corral to get them used to where they are going to live.

so cross fingers we can get the remainder of the fence and we can get the animals out today. I put the lamb out with the alpaca last night. I was so scared he was going to get eaten by a predator as the alpaca has not been with him long to know he is part of his herd.

canning today

well today has been a day where I am starting to a bit of canning for the winter. I am going old school on my canning and am doing a bath boil canning method. this can be very risky if not done right but I have had success with it in previous years.

we are doing a pasta sauce today we love a hot pasta meal int eh cold winter months and the jars we buy are about 650g and does not seem to feed our family of 5 so I have opted to can a 1 ltr jar for each meal. so the process goes we prepared all the ingredients for the sauce which we are keeping basic so we can add things to it as we want variety at the meal time. we cooked everything up in a huge container and then set it off to cool a bit.

 I have the jars all set up and then we had to sterilize them so into a large bath of boiling water for 15 mins lids jars  everything. we remove them with sterile tongs and place them on a cool rack. after they are all set up we then fill the jars with whatever it is we are canning and then seal them close with the sterle lids. we then put the back into the boiling water all sealed for another 15- 18 minutes

lazy day today

well we have decided to take a day off after all our chores were done this morning I have come down with a sinus cold and my head feels like it is going to explode. my husband is fiddling with the incubator trying to rig it  so it is the best possible for limited touching and opening for the eggs.

we are excited that when we went to the parade the other day we have our first customers of eggs. yes we have people wanting to buy our eggs since they are free range and organic chickens. so that is great now we just have to get more hens to lay the eggs for us we have only 2 laying hens right now but have 5 more ordered for Tuesday as the one hen seems to be a dud and is not laying. the chicks are starting to come out and explore a bit which is nice to see them explore the world and spread their wings and get some exercise . so later we are going to go and check on the horses water them and then come home and finish drawing up the plans for the straw barn and the winter green house

this is the style I want of the green house so I will have to see if we can gather some windows that are to be reused for it.(THIS IS NOT OURS JUST A PICTURE OF WHAT WE WANT)

so maybe another post later with some pictures but for now I am going to lay my head down