We were out foraging in the woods and happened across a bunch of black walnuts … and then found what I assume is a squirrel’s cache of the things.
Category: Homesteading
Turkey Tail Mushrooms
We’ve been harvesting some turkey tail mushrooms — I’ve marinaded some in a jerky sauce and that made an interesting, chewy mushroom jerky.
Rechargeable batteries in the game camera
We tried using rechargeable batteries in our game cameras — eight batteries per camera, and we have three cameras … so it’d be nice not to throw out two dozen double-a batteries. The question, though, was how long they’d last. (Well, the first question is if they’d work at all … nuance of battery chemistry and electric production … the cheap rechargeable AA’s are lower voltage than throw away ones. But we quickly proved that the cameras would run on these batteries). We put the cameras out on October 3, and the cameras are still operational today. That’s over two weeks on a charge. We’ll see when the last videos record, but they’ve already proven to be functional for our purpose.
The first batteries to discharge stopped recording overnight 11/6 to 11/7 … 34 days on a charge. One set was still working, but we pulled them all to discharge / charge them.
Chest Freezers
We picked up two chest freezers — Whirlpool WZC3115DW — today. We had an adventure trying to get a chest freezer. They weren’t in stock over the summer, and the one we tried to order that included in-home delivery? They wanted to deliver to the bottom of the driveway! But we’re getting into Autumn now, and really needed the freezer space. I’ve got a partner account with an appliance company, and we were just about to order a set of freezers when I found a dented appliance store. For a chest freezer that’s going to sit in the furnace room, half price to have a couple of dents on the outside of the box? Score! And we’ve still got a pickup truck, so we were able to haul both of them home today. I need to wash the things down tomorrow, and then we’ll plug them in and make sure everything works.
Fence Stuff
We got our fence stuff! Eight rolls of 4′ welded wire fence and 50 t-posts.
Coop Mobile, Take 2
We set up the coop mobile again — I got one of the PoultryNet fences from PremierOne — I spent a lot of time debating the “Plus” version of the fence before realizing that you could buy a whole lot of the FiberTuff posts for less than the additional price for the plus fence. And the FiberTuff posts work a lot better. Since the fence was working well, we decided to move the coop over to the pasture (and not herd the poultry across the yard twice a day!!!).
The “wheels” were made using two 4×4’s with sections of 5/8″ threaded rod that were inserted into old propane tube. This was attached to the 4×4 & wheels from one of our yard carts were attached. We were then able to push the coop across the yard.
Hazelnuts!
Our hazelnut bushes are finally growing the male part of the flower that comes out in the Autumn! Fingers crossed, we’ll be harvesting hazelnuts this time next year. It’s been seven years since we planted the bushes, but deer and rabbits chomped them down to little nubs the first year they were planted.
Saving the Bees
Our bees have been invaded by hornets — I don’t think we’ll have a hive much longer, but we spent the day blasting hornets with soapy water trying to protect the hive. A few of the honey bees came over to snuggle with us. It was a really cool experience, holding the little honey bees right on our fingers and letting them perch on our shoulders like really silly pirate parrots.
Garlic Harvest
The garlic that was growing in the front bed for two years made some nice, large bulbs. The garlic that had been growing in the garden bed just this year, however, was pretty small. Each plant had a couple of cloves, but I think there was too much clay in the soil still. And growth was stunted. Or growing for two years help a lot!
I ordered more garlic for next year so we can expand the bed: 1 lb of German Extra Hardy, 1 lb of Chesnok Red, and 1 lb of Music. Also got half a pound of dutch red shallots and half a pound of French gray shallots.
Chicken Birthday Cake
Chicken Birthday cake
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: EasyServings
12
servingsPrep time
30
minutesCooking time
50
minutesIngredients
1 cup coconut oil
3 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 cups wet grated zucchini
1/4 c sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Method
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Melt coconut oil, mix in eggs.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flours, cinnamon, baking soda, and cream of tartar
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until combined.
- Mix in zucchini.
- Add batter to muffin tins for chickens. Then mix sugar into remaining batter.
- Mix together the topping ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, cream of tartar). Partially fill remaining muffin tins. Sprinkle n topping, then fill the rest of the way and sprinkle topping again.
- Bake for 40-60 minutes until a knife inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from muffin tins and allow to cool.
Our first chickens turned one year old on Tuesday, so I came up with a recipe for a “chicken birthday cake” that would be healthy(ish) for chickens and tasty for us. Leaving the sugar out of the batter worked well — the chickens got whole wheat, coconut oil, cinnamon, and zucchini. We got cake — and the topping mixture gave the muffins a crispy and crunchy top. Would totally make this again.