Saturday BlogRoll call

My Husband had a birthday yesterday, today we are having a party. If you are in the area, come on by, all I ask is that you bring along a side dish.

What!?! You can't make it? Well how about a blog crawl instead?

Crunchy Chicken is a nice pub ran by Deanna. She’s an experimental owner, trying out new things and hoping that she gets a few opinions.

Green, Blue, Brown is a comfy little tavern. You'll need to go into the back, there is a small table were the farmers have their small talk. No worries, I'm sure e4 will be happy to pour you a drink.

Happy hearts at home belongs to Alexandra. Her pothouse might only serve you hot cocoa to drink, but you are sure to find plenty of bread and beans at a frugal lover's price.

C's Life happens to be a café owned by Celeste. There are plenty of pictures hanging on the walls, and conversations glittered with a variety of emotions to keep you company.

Enjoy your crawl. Tell them Phelan sent you, and maybe they will give you a drink on the house.

Sorry I'm Late

I was allowed to sleep in this morning, talk about a rare treat. Spring Break for the public schools has begun today.

I do not have much planned. I will finish detailing my house, then need to start some barn clean up. It smells like a petting zoo in there. I have no idea why that would be.

A little advice, if you are wanting to have some country lovin' in your car, please drive further out into the country, and park where there are no out building lights, preferably behind a hedge row. We really could give a hoot less about your can't get a room, underage, spicing up the love life, cheating on someone, sex. We enjoy our own country road lovin', we don't need you to show us.

You want me to do what exactly?

We, I mean I, bought 4 pekin ducks the other day. No immediate plans to eat them. The reason we ended up eating the first pair was because they were killing our hens. Those of you that are new to my blog missed my rant about how frisky male ducks can be, and that they will chase hens into a pond and attempt to mate with them until they drowned. While at the feed something snapped, and I decided to attempt the duck once again. However, I want to know if I have females or males.

With my anatomy of poultry book in one hand and a duckling in another, I set forth to discover it's future. I'm the kinky palm reader. If I go by the book, it seems I have 1 female and 3 males. Drakes have larger bodies and heads and have a soft quack, while the females have loud, hash quacks. I could also wait until their adult feathers come in and she if the drake's tail curls up, in doesn't on the females.

Excuse me duck.

Flip the duckling over Place the thumb above the vent and your first finger under the back. Place your second and third finger around the abdomen holding the legs between them. Using your other hand, press your thumb and finger together over the vent, the part them slowly so that the vent is extended and the sex organ is exposed.

That my friends, is how you sex a duck.

um. . . I don't see anything.

A Change in Plans

Thanks to e4 I got to update my Zone map. click map for website and larger view.

USDA Zone Family/friends

I have been laughing so hard this morning. Because of my last post, I sat here wondering if my readers have visions of me butchering an animal just for the fat. I can buy fat from the store.

I have had a difficult past 2 weeks. My husband has been in Daytona Beach Florida, working Bike Week. Not only have I done my own chores, dealt with children and taken care of my father, but I have done my husband's chores as well. I must say that I admire my fellow homesteaders, or anyone that can manage several children and a heavy work load on a daily basis.

I am tired. I have so much work that I don't seem to sleep any more. Yet I did choose this way of life for a reason. So much for me to be happy for. And I am so grateful that my husband is home.

This week we will be tackling the garden. As I mention before, our cool weather greens, roots and vegetables go in this month. Although it will be in the upper 70'sF today, we have a chance of frost for another month. Before planting anything that doesn't fair well in temporary cold snapps, check to see what date your region is out of the frost threat. This will save you much work and a lot of heartache. The tilling is my husband's job.

• 

• 1 USDA Zone Last Frost Date June 15 First Frost Date July 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 30
• 2 USDA Zone Last Frost Date May 15 First Frost Date August 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 90
• 3 USDA Zone Last Frost Date May 15 First Frost Date September 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 120
• 4 USDA Zone Last Frost Date May 15 First Frost Date September 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 120
• 5 USDA Zone Last Frost Date April 15 First Frost Date October 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 180
• 6 USDA Zone Last Frost Date April 15 First Frost Date October 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 180
• 7 USDA Zone Last Frost Date April 15 First Frost Date October 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 180
• 8 USDA Zone Last Frost Date March 15 First Frost Date November 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 240
• 9 USDA Zone Last Frost Date February 15 First Frost Date December 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 300
• 10 USDA Zone Last Frost Date January 31 or earlier First Frost Date December 15 Minimum Number of frost-free days 315
• 11 USDA Zone Zone 11 has no frost
  

You have Chosen, Soap

Continued from page 4

You decide to try your hand at soap. While at the local farm store you add four ducklings and a book on natural soap making to your basket. Unfortunately you are unable to find a book on caring for donkeys.

While looking through the natural soap making book you feel a little uneasy about the use of lye, yet decide that it will work out fine and push forward. The amount of equipment that you do not have on hand makes you slightly nervous, and you quickly jot down the items needed.

You decide to think on it for a moment and procrastinate by heading over to the blog Stop The Ride, to see what from scratch items your fellow adventurers have made.

With a long sigh you now have to make the decision on what type of soap to make first.

What soap do you make? Choose wisely.

Ah, Spring straightening out

Warm weather has arrived. Of course this is the calm before the storm. Tornado classes have begun, and house cleaning is just getting under way.

I have been attempting to compact my life, declutter the house. I really don't want to take half this stuff into my new house. Currently I have 6 large boxes to take to garage sale. The one thing that is understood, is that all brick-a-brack or knick knack has to not only be interesting visually, but serve a purpose. They must be useful in some way. In a way this bothers me because. . . ok big dork alert. . . I collect D&D items. I have done this for years, I have figurines that are older than myself. Under this rule, all my D&D stuff has to go. ~sigh~ I might have to make an exception.

Yes there are times were I am materialistic. What real use do those figurines have? None that I can think of. It is more of a sentimental reason why I collect them. I do not obsessively hunt these things down, but if I stumble upon them I buy them {Hence the reason I rarely go into comic book stores anymore} Here is were I begin to rationalize even more, I don't feel it is compulsive buying, if I already have a set I will not re-buy it.

Justification. . . I rarely treat myself to things that are not needed for surviving on a homestead. I buy things for my family that isn't needed, but I general do not splurge on myself. My $2 figurines are just about it. {Unless it's a box set, then I am looking at anywhere up to $20}

Enough about those figurines, I am sure they are not that interesting to you. I was trying to make a point about compacting my life, and then felt the need to defend my choices. Looks like I light have some serious issues to work on.

What do you collect?

The garden is being cleaned up and prepped for potatoes, lettuce, Brussel sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, radishes, and spinach. I am looking forward to working outside again and getting dirty.

Those of you wanting me to make a basket for next month's make it from scratch contest, you have one more day to rally the troops and vote here. Right now the soaps have it.

And the cheesy prize goes to

e-mail me with the address you want it shipped to. It will arrive in a cooler with an ice pack to keep it from clabbering up. ha!

CONGRATS!

Make it from Scratch

Retro Style.

Back in June I wrote about making Ketchup the first time.

Last harvest I felt overwhelmed by all of the tomatoes. We had 6 plants, all bursting with different types of tomato. What on earth would I do with all of them? I made chili, simple. I made spaghetti sauce, even simpler. I made salsa, not too hard. And then Ketchup. How hard could that be? Read more>>>>

It's not hard, I am just a little dense at times. As my mother once said "It must be fun being you" I'm not always dense, I just admit to my thickness. No give-away this week. I will do that once a month.