Windy Weekend

This weekend we made sauerkraut.... or I should say, we starting making sauerkraut...take a few weeks for the cabbage to ferment.  When I think of sauerkraut I always think of my mom. She was the sauerkraut bringer at all holiday gatherings.  She made a great pork and sauerkraut dish.  I also remember her meatloaf...that was always good.  I miss her so much.  Losing a parent is just something you never get over.  The pain lessons but never goes away. 

So, back to sauerkraut.... we put the cabbage in a food grade 5 gallon bucket with a brine solution, put a plate on top of that, weighted it down with water jugs and covered it with a towel.  We will see how it turns out in a few weeks. 

We also made and stuffed into casing:  breakfast sausage and smoked kielbasa.  The kielbasa will be smoking all day today.  Yummmm  We used our Kitchen Aid Mixer with the grinder attachment to grind up the meat and then the 'stuffer' attachment to fill the casings. 

We try to not to let anything go to waste and with our worm bin, compost piles and occasional fire (to use the ash to improve the soil), we are able to get rid of stuff without actually throwing it in the trash.  When we get chickens....they will eat alot of our scrap food but for now we give that to the worms.

Our radishes are ready and I wanted to find something to use the radish greens (tops) for rather than give them to the worms.  I found a really good and easy recipe for Radish Top Soup and that was our lunch yesterday.  It tasted a bit like potato soup and was perfect for a windy, cloudy day.  I also made a Blueberry Buckle that is almost all gone. :)  Cris was picking up a load of sheep manure yesterday so I thought I would try my hand at cooking for once since he is usually the cook.  I was quite pleased with the result of the soup and blueberry dessert.  I even managed to plant two rows of garlic while he was gone yesterday.

Today we are working on the fencing at the area that runs along side the road.  We finished up the backyard fence job to keep the dogs in during the day while we are at work.  That way they can be outside and still have shelter (under the covered deck).

Speaking of dogs, as you can see by the photo of Nugget from an earlier post, he was injured about 10 days ago when he was running through the pines.  He runs just like a deer and jumps over logs....it seems he jumped and did not see a limb sticking up from a downed tree and it basically impaled him in the chest.  Cris heard a scream that he thought was a coyote but it was Nugget screaming when he was hurt but the limb.  Long story short, a trip to the emergency vet, stitches and $440 later, he is fine.  He would not wear that 'cone of shame' on his head so I bought him some toddler t-shirts to wear so he would not mess with his stitches.  He looks so funny in his little shirt but he is used to wearing it now and just sits there while I take off the dirty shirt and put a new one on him, like it's just part of his outfit now.  Dumb dog. 


Daisy is 100% adjusted to living with us now and is just the sweetest dog but is quick to alert us of anything that is out of the ordinary on the farm. 


The cows are doing great as well.  Our friend Susan delivered the 4 heifers (Scottish Highlands) to us last Sunday.  They are Mandy, Hyacinth, Harriet and Zinnia.  Our first morning with them was theatrical because the 3000 volt electric fencing was not enough to keep Zinnia in and twice she went for a walk in the woods.  I 'babysat' the cows Monday morning while Cris went to Tractor Supply and picked up a 5000 volt system which now works just fine.  A couple pops from that and she decided that inside the fence was better.  We are doing the 'rotational grazing' where you move the cows every two days.  Once we get chickens in the Spring the chickens will following the cows on the schedule and the chickens will feast on the bugs that go over the cow manure and that will help to scatter the manure around the pasture.  The girls get a little sweet feed each morning with some d.e. sprinkled on to keep them parasite free.  We are trying to keep them on a natural diet which means no commercial drugs.   The only heifer that will let us pet her is Hyacinth because she had alot of human contact as a calf.  The others will stand by us (especially with the feed bucket in my hands) and are starting to warm up to us a little each day.  Hyacinth is halter trained as well. 

Teddy seems to be the cow dog and studies them. He at first would be aggressive and bark at them but he is learning to respect them more now.  I am sure as their horns continue to grow, he will learn a little more respect for them.  Nugget could care less about the cows and Daisy is more into being a sheep guardian dog then cows.