The trouble is that we are so far removed from the food we eat, that we no longer seem to understand how to feed ourselves appropriately. Even people my age and a little older seem to have forgotten their roots, how they ate when they were young. Part of the problems is we have become lazy, complacent with so so food and are always in a hurry. 

I started a discussion with a young lady who does not earn much money to live on. She said she cannot afford to eat well and she has an autoimmune disorder. When I was in several Paleo groups, there were many young people with similar health concerns and they were finding relief with the Paleo diet, but they also complained that it was not affordable. 

Let's see. 
I seldom buy drinks, not coffee, not water, not pop or juice, nada. I often bring a drink from home or if I do purchase coconut water, I will port a can of that with me on a road trip. I take along a mason jar of lemon water in the summer, brew coffee at home all year long and never buy sweet drinks at all. The average cost of a drink is around $3 with some being less expensive and some more. If you buy 2 drinks a day, let's say you spend $5 per day (per person) and that is $150 a month minimal. If there are two of you, that can easily be doubled. Buying beverages is the biggest waste of money going, especially bottled water, which has been shown over and over again to be no better than tap water and sometimes worse, plus the numbers, hoards of bottles, is killing our world. Save the money. Bring something from home. 

The second great expenditure is food you buy as convenience food when you are out. Hamburgers and fries, the occasional bag of chips, chocolate bars and such - these items are triple priced in convenience stores and fast food joints. Do not spend money there. It is empty nutrition full of terrible things anyhow. It is pretty easy to spend upwards of $200 a month of these junk items without paying much attention to it. 

Try not to buy drinks or convenience or fast food for a month and instead put the money in a jar. See how much you have at the month's end. 

The largest spending on food that you could make at home is bakery products. Bread, buns, crackers, cookies and such, are all cheap to bake at home, even using organic ingredients. Kellogg's shut down the Canadian plant so Frosted Flakes are imported now. The cost today at Walmart of a 1.06 kilogram box of this cereal is $7.98 or $2.30 per pound. Bread is terribly expensive too averaging $4 per loaf of decent bread, if you want to call it that, because it has a lot of chemicals in it too. A loaf is often 1 pound, so that is $4 per pound. You can buy 10 pounds of organic flour for 40 cents a pound. All it takes to make bread is flour, salt, yeast and water, so it costs maybe 42 cents a pound to make your own bread. It costs 40 cents a pound to buy organic whole grains, which can be sprouted if you do not have a grinder and made into bread just like that, if you have to have bread. Forget the sugary cereal altogether. 

Anything that comes out of a package with more than a couple of ingredients has been processed and that equates to being expensive. Anything that you do not have to prepare, like precut carrots, are very expensive too. 

So, to eat well on less, there are only a few tricks. Buy whole raw food, including raw whole organic grains if you want to use them. Culture whole milk (goat is better than cow, because it is less regulated and not homogenized) into kefir or yogurt on your own. Eat less meat but when you do choose bone in cheap cuts and slow cook them for 12 hours or so and make soup, stew and gravy to extend the meat. Avoid rice, pasta and premade starches and go back to eating potatoes.

Our town permits people who do not live where they can grow gardens to use some land just out of town for that purpose. There are also ways to garden in pots on patios and balconies. There were many ads on Facebook at the end of the gardening season giving away free produce. A small freezer would be handy to freeze some produce, but learning to can is also a good way to save free food for the winter. 

I lived on welfare and raised three children. We grew a garden, and I preserved, pickled and canned food. I got free food from places that had an abundance and picked food for free too. Everything we ate was made from scratch and nothing came out of packages. We ate well. You can too. You just need to learn how to do so. 

​Will you?

Last summer, 4 baby bunnies escaped by slipping through the dog kennel wires. They became yard bunnies. I thought at first that the dogs would kill them, but they had already realized that the bunnies were part of the stock they were taking care of, so they left them alone. So did I. Well, not entirely, I did try to catch them off and on, but had no luck, so finally I just gave up. 

They are not terribly wild and certainly not tame. They do not run away from me, but if I get within their comfort zone they will hop away. I am not sure where they spent the winter..perhaps in the straw bales or hay bales? I did see them continuously hop in and out under the chicken coop, but it is not warm there. If they dug into a hay bale, they would have a good warm winter nest. They chew and claw a burrow in there, and line it with the shredded straw or hay. Most of the time they sleep together too, even though they are the same sex. I have males together and they do not fight and females and they do not fight. The only time I separate them is when they are breeding. I am not sure where I will put the females to have their babies this summer. There are 5 breeding does now and 2 bucks. Petey, my original buck from Holland is retired due to always having chronic eye infections. He is not a strong animals and right from the get go, he had problems in the winter. I think it is because he was fed gmo rabbit pellets and he still prefers to eat them over good food. 

I went to gather the eggs this morning and saw that there was rabbit fur all over the floor. OH oh! Perhaps a weasel attacked one of the yard bunnies. Wait, no, what is that in the nesting box at the bottom? It is a female rabbit having babies and placing them in the nicely lined nest with the breast fur she plucked out. Oh! 

But I cannot leave those babies there. That would be certain death, either from the chickens thinking they were mice and eating them, or freezing because the temperatures are going to drop drastically to minus 24 in the next few days or even one of the Muscovy ducks wanting a midnight snack. Mamma bunny finished kindling, that is what it is called when a doe rabbit gives birth, and fed the babies then left the nest. The mother rabbit only feeds the babies a few times a day, but she stays close. When I went in, so did she, so I closed the hatch and caught her. Luckily there was a little kennel there, in which I placed her. Then I got a box for the babies, lined it with llama fleece and her own rabbit down and placed the babies inside.I was surprised at how strong they were for having just been born. I had to hang on tight or they easily would have jumped out of my hand. They made little sounds too. 

Mamma rabbit and the babies were transferred to a super large dog kennel in the porch. She has hay and a litter box, food and water and hay to hide in or eat. She is not happy. Who would be after being free for the winter and now being caged? I hope she feeds her babies. She did go into the box to visit them, so I know she knows they are there. I have decided not to try to feed them if she abandons them. There is a way to do that with a makeup sponge dipped in milk, but there are 5 babies and with working, I don't know if I could manage. 

So, my new kindle reader is a Mamma bunny! Ha, fooled you!

Given that the sires were young Shetland ram lambs, between 4 and 5 months of age and small, as Shetlands are, it is a wonder they bred those big girls at all. The ewes must have laid down for the rams or they snuck up on them when they were lying down. Otherwise they could not have mounted those girls who were twice or more their size. And given that it was completely unplanned and unwanted breeding, I was feeling very unhappy. 

But, as usual, I chose to look for the silver lining in the storm cloud. The lambs have all been strong and healthy, though singles instead of twins. The ewes were those who had previous twins regularly, so the only assumption to be made, is that the numbers of sperm being produced by the young rams was not much yet. It was obviously enough to do the job. A ewe will release one to four eggs and then they will be fertilized by the same number of sperm. The ewes were coming in off pasture then and were in prime shape, fat and healthy. They would have released the greater number of eggs as usual. The only other explanation is that one or more of the fertilized eggs did not continue to become a lamb, though who would know why. All the lambs born have been singles. 

The lambs have been born without assistance. They are robust and alert and know their mothers. They were born outside in the open air and the weather has cooperated by being unseasonably warm. Today it reached 9 degrees, almost unheard of for February in the frozen north. Call it global warming or whatever, it was perfect for babies being born in the open.

The mothers all are fleece animals and with the infusion of the crimpy fine Shetland fleece, their offspring should have pretty exquisite and unusual wool. I am tempted to keep these babies and see how they turn out. 

I think that Tova, the Gotland ewe will be next. She is laying down and getting up a lot, but she is a hogget, or a ewe who has not lambed before, so she does not know what to expect. Gotlands are primitive sheep though, so her instincts should be strong and her mothering ability excellent. It looks like Rosy, my favourite Babydoll next to my Anna, who now lives in a new home, is also bred. Shetland/Babydoll crosses are fairly common and apparently they are sweet natured and have great fleece. 

So, really, there is nothing to be upset about other than yes, this is not what I had in mind, but given all the positives, there is definitely a silver lining. Today, Sharon, the lovely Karakul/Cotswold ewe, gave birth to a beautiful black baby girl with tightly curled fleece. Karakuls are born black and as they age, they become silvery, but Shetlands born black stay black ,so it is a wait and see with her. I am grateful for these babies, strong and healthy, and for their mammas, protective and nurturing and even those rascals who sired the lambs. Boys will be boys, I guess. 

​

Darn those precocious breeds of sheep anyhow!

There was another ram lamb born today, a four horned all black half Shetland, half Jacob, born to Jean, my four horned Jacob ewe. I was so set on breeding her Jacob and building some Jacob stock back up. The young Shetland rams had other ideas it seems. Jean's little fellow will have four horns and will be half Shetland. That in itself is a little rare. I am thinking I should castrate him, making him a wether, and keep him for a pet and for his fleece. It will be very interesting to see a four horned half Jacob who is all black. His fleece should be quite wonderful, I am thinking. 

So, upon a very very close inspection, I noted that there are several ewes further along than they should be in their pregnancies, if they indeed were bred to deliver in April and May.  There is over a month to go and the Tunis sheep has a developed udder and is ready to deliver any moment. She is not overly large this time, which makes me think that the entire flock is destined to have singles only. 

I am very disheartened with this knowledge. I had so very much counted on the purebred babies to help along the flock development. If the Babydolls are going to have cross bred lambs, and I suspect Rosy for sure will, as she is very large for the predicted due date of being bred to the Babydoll ram, then a whole year of breeding is somewhat wasted. There are 7 Babydoll ewes, though the ewe lambs may be too young this year and if all of them are bred to those little Shetland baby boys, what a terrible waste of this year. 

We do learn from our mistakes and this is a huge one for me. 

A new baby was born earlier this evening. She is a strong, but small, robust little girl, a ewe lamb, born to Mary, a Cotswold/E'st a Laine Merino, and my largest sheep. Mary should have had twins that were twice this size, but like the baby born to Lena last week, I believe the sire of this lamb was a 4 month old Shetland ram lamb and the mating took place in September prior to separating the lambs from the mothers. I am pleased that both lambs are well and strong, but my ineptness in this situation, the lack of prompt removal of the male lambs from the ewe flock, has led to two breedings so far. I am hoping there are not many more if any. 

One good thing is that the fleece of this little angel should be exquisite. The Cotswold is soft, lustrous and curly, while the E'st a Laine Merino is crimpy and fine and thick. Add the soft Shetland curls to the mix and she should have fleece to die for. 

I separated the mother and baby,taking them to the barn where there was no wind so the baby could dry off. The mother was still cleaning her at that point, but at 9 pm, Mamma Mary had already led the lamb back to the flock, despite the snow falling down outside. The lamb appears not to be cold (it is only minus 4 currently) and knows where to nurse. She is not hungry but wags her tail when she is near her mother, so she is recognizing her in the flock. Mary is an excellent mother with superior instincts and will be a wonderful mom again. 

Welcome baby ewe, welcome to the Fat Ewe Farm! I guess Mamma sheep is not as fat as she was this morning. 

Ingredients: Select Roasted Peanuts, Corn Maltodextrin, Sugar, Soybean Oil, Salt,Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Cotton Seed And Rapeseed Oil), Mono- And Diglycerides.

from the label of Kraft peanut butter


from the label of President's Choice organic peanut butter

Ingredients: fresh roasted organic peanuts. 

Hmmm. Things that make you go hmmm. 

In Kraft peanut butter after peanuts come corn maltodextrin from GMO corn, Sugar from GMO sugar beets, soybean oil from GMO soy beans, Hydrogenated vegetable oil (cotton, maybe GMO but for sure heavily sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and defoliation chemicals, Rapeseed (GMO canola) and mono and diglycerides, which I am sure most folks are unsure of. They are emulsifiers, that is ingredients which bind the mix together to make and keep it smooth. Most are derived from palm oil. 

To make peanut butter cookies with Kraft peanut butter, if enough flour is not added, the oil will separate under heat and create one ugly mess. 

But to make organic peanut butter cookies from organic peanut butter, only organic eggs and organic sugar with optional organic vanilla extract are needed. 

Organic Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup of organic peanut butter, stirred to make it smooth first (keep the oil in)
1 cup of organic blonde cane sugar
2 organic eggs ( I used the ones from my farm picked fresh this morning)
1 teaspoon of organic vanilla extract, or make your own from vanilla beans with vodka. 

Mix the ingredients together until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl. Form into medium size balls and flatten by hand or with a fork. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 6-8 minutes, longer for larger cookies. Remove the cookies when they are still soft and let them cool. Who can let peanut butter cookies cool? 

They are incredible with Enjoy Life no soy chocolate chips if you like chocolate and peanut butter together. Who doesn't? 

So, which peanut butter will you use from now on? Come on over and enjoy some cookies. 

Anna, the beautiful little Babydoll lamb who was abandoned by her mother after a very difficult birth, was sold to a new home today. I cannot lie and say I did not shed a tear. I raised that little lambie, got up and night and cuddled her when she was lonely and loved her so much. She slept with Robbie, the border collie, and he kept her bottom clean with the tenderness of a loving mother. He is really good that way. 

The folks who bought Anna also took a young black ram and they wish to have little Anna's of their own. Anna was exposed to the ram, Tuck, this year, and is likely bred. She does have a bit of a round belly on the underside, but it is early to tell. She may not be due until June at the latest, depending on when the ram visited her.She did not want to be bred though, and ran away from him every time I observed them together. 

There will be a new crop of little Babydoll lambs born in a few month. Rosy is already very big. She was a twin and her sire was a twin, so there is a good chance she could be carrying twin Babydolls. I am looking to trade my mature rams, Friar and Tuck, for two new boys that are unrelated so they new daughters can also be bred in the following years. 

The folks that have Anna are a young couple without children and I am sure Anna and the black ram will be well loved.I will miss her, most certainly. She would always return my call with her baaa. Sheep remember their mothers for their entire lifetimes if they are allowed to live in family groups. Good bye my sweet Anna. I love you and miss you already! Thank you for our two years of joy. 

Recently I bought some destashed wool from a person in Ontario. She had purchased a large amount of excellent quality wool, mohair and blends form a person who was retiring I believe, way too much for herself, so she was selling it online. There were many pretty colours and grades to choose from. I made a selection and she posted more, so I added to it. I am very pleased with the wool. Much of it does not come in useable form, but on a skein and it needs to be wound into a ball to work with so it won't tangle. 

I am not a fan of working with boucle wool because of all the extra loops, but I love the way it looks when finished. I bought a beautiful fall coloured rust boucle wool and mohair blend to make something for my daughter in Australia. I gave it a try attempting to crochet it, but quit after the first row. This one will have to be knit on larger needles so the loops are not mistaken for stitches themselves. There is also a beautiful pastel coloured gradient boucle of wool and a little mohair that I can crochet. I have started a little of it to see how it goes, but of all that I bought, this is my absolute favourite. It is as soft as a cloud and the colours are those I love to wear. I am going to make a small shawl, since there is only one large skein of this yarn. 

There are quite a few utility yarns for sweaters or lap blankets and such. They will stitch up quickly. I ordered several plastic looms too. These are devices that one loops the yarn around and then brings the under thread over the new loop, thereby creating a knit stitch. They come in several sizes and shapes. One is a sock loom, and it has not arrived yet, and the others are round looms and rectangular looms. The easiest is to make something continuous, like a toque or scarf, but they can be used going back and forth too, to make small blankets, that can eventually be sewn together to make a large blanket. Sweaters and shawls and basically anything one can imagine are easily done on the looms. For the very loopy boucle wool, this might be the best answer. The projects go rather quickly too, because there are two strands held together for the projects since the pegs are very large. 

I had hoped to send my own fleece out to be made into yarn, but so far it has been too contaminated with hay to make anything really nice. I did send some to the mill and got batts made for felting, but it too has quite a bit of hay in it. Ah, maybe next year the wool will be better. 

I like to work on about 5-8 projects at a time, so there are many different needles and hooks with different wool in them beside the chair I love to sit and work from. Eventually the projects get finished. I know that is not the way most people work, but it is always the way I have functioned. Along with knitting, loom weaving and crocheting, I will be sewing, making soap and working with the critters, so there are even more projects than one can see at first glance. 

Do you knit or crochet? I prefer real wool, mohair, angora, silk or cotton to anything synthetic. How about you? 

Usually the hatch is split fairly equally, which means there will be as many roosters as hens. My Serama hen crawled under a pallet, don't ask me how, and laid a dozen eggs there, and hatched 10. But the majority of the young ones are roosters, not hens. I am not sure she laid all the eggs, either. Perhaps another hen started the nest and she came along and took it over, adding her eggs to it, or she started the nest and while she was out for lunch, other hens laid in her nest. Any or all of those scenarios can and do happen on a free range farm. 

Some of the offspring definitely have Serama genes. The beautiful beetle green black feathers and long tail feathers are Serama traits. They have black thin legs, too and are great foragers and hardy birds. I did not keep any thought, because they are quite small and dress out to a three pound bird for the soup pot. 

The Serama offspring combined with the offspring of the hen who hatched her brood in the barn. Neither of the broods would go into the chicken coop, even when the weather got very cold. The majority spent the winter perched in the day house, never meant to keep chickens in, but to give them a spot out of the snow in the winter in which to hang out. None of them got frozen toes, amazingly enough. Two of the roosters and one hen perched outside in the pine tree, but when it got to almost 40 below, they decided to stay inside finally, except one, who perished in the cold. I had caught the three birds repeatedly and locked them in the coop and the next night they were outside again. The rooster who stayed outside was raven bait by morning, so sad, but the other two learned that inside was better than outside and still go in for the night. 

Now, with the disproportionate number of roosters, I will have to have them butchered, but the chicken processing plant closed and it is not worth taking ten chickens to the colony an hour away. I may have to do this myself, but killing the birds does not bode well with me. I can clean and pluck them, but kill them, I don't think so. I have the roosters listed for sale in several places and have no takers. A few of them are Easter Eggers, that is they have some Ameraucana blood in them, which will produce hens who lay coloured eggs of blues and greens. 

There is one rooster whose breeding I cannot figure out. He is large, blue on the bottom and a beautiful copper on the top. He is also very late maturing, only now getting his male feathers. The other roosters have had their feathers for months. The only blue chickens I have are Ameraucanas, but he has no muff or blue legs. He is a mystery boy for sure. 

Like many of the males on farms, they are excess and will be used for meat. Only one rooster is needed for a small flock of hens. Too many end up fighting amongst themselves. I have a beautiful splash Ameraucana rooster from Ontario and lots of new eggs coming in April for hatching. This weekend some of the hens are going to new homes to produce hatching and eating eggs for others. Of those new chicks, there should be a spectacular new rooster. A new breed, Cream Legbars, will be added to the Chanteclers and Ameraucanas. They have sky blue eggs!!

It is not good luck to be a male on a farm. Good thing that is not how it is in other walks of life, right?

So now we wait, wait for the appropriate drying time and wait for the asbestos flooring removal crew and the adjustor to look at the windows. Then we haggle and bargain. I will be permitted to do the painting. How it works is that I will be given an allowance for painting including the paint, either to hire a painter or not. I found a great painted willing and ready to do the job. I can paint the lower floor while she does most of the upper floor and we have discussed using mistints and leftover paint, which is what I usually use anyhow. One major problem is the floor in the family room. There is a huge heave in the centre of it, likely 2 to 3 inches high. One person I spoke to suggested that that is where the water pooled and then since the floor had hairline cracks, the pressure simply pushed the concrete up at the weak point. This may have to be jackhammered open and repoured.

I am trying to look at the positive side, in that there will be new paint and a fresh new look in the house, but man, this is not the way to redecorate folks. I would not suggest you try this at home!