THE BEST CHORE.
The cow we wrote about last week, Dandy, did in fact pass away. Not only was it very sad, but it also left the farm with a somewhat laborious chore - feeding her newborn calf. With the Smith family on vacation, this task falls to us....but I'll be honest. While it is time-consuming and must be done twice a day, it is definitely not that much of a chore.Feeding this little orphan face every morning is a delight, crouching in the dewy grass while curious sheep and cows sniff at my ears. This little guy is, in fact, a little guy, but Jesse and I hope to one day raise and bottle-feed a little heifer to become our milk cow. Until that day, we will just keep practicing, and enjoying every minute of it.- Hannah.
SUNDAY CANNING.
The Bugtussle family is on vacation! That means we are watching the farm for 10 days - moving the animals, bottle feeding a calf, taking care of Ira's menagerie, and generally being busy! But today. Today, we had an excess of tomatoes and it was just too nice outside to resist. I parked myself in the outdoor kitchen all day long and canned. It was 75 degrees, remarkably quiet with no children or critters around - basically, it was bliss.Canning is normally done in the heat of summer, slaving over a hot stove for hours - and in our case, a WOOD fire! Thankfully, I was able to use the Smith's stove. I read, I watched the hummingbird's on the kiwi vine, I relaxed. We do indeed have a busy 10 days ahead of us, but today was a nice little calm before the storm. Sundays are good for rest, and it is always lovely when our schedule allows them to actually be restful. I hope your Sunday was just as perfect.- Hannah.
NEW FERMENTATION SHIRTS: A GIVEAWAY!
We have new FERMENT shirts in our online store! To celebrate, we are giving away a Fermentation Package - one of our new shirts and a copy of Jesse's book, Bringing Wine Home.All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and we will select a winner next weekend. Tell us about your favorite fermented food, or a story about a weird experimentation in pickling....it doesn't matter, we will be selecting the winner at random. Deadline for entering will be Saturday, September 21 at NOON central time.Also, we tried doing this yesterday through Facebook and everything went terribly wrong.... apparently this is NOT allowed unless you pay lots of money to Facebook. Oops. So, apologies to everyone who entered yesterday!- Hannah.***COMMENTS ARE NOW CLOSED***
The randomly selected winner is:
PJ!
Please email us your information at roughdraftfarmstead@gmail.com
Thanks everybody for all the awesome comments and stories!
AROUND THE HOUSE - POULTRY EDITION.
Although we have a chicken "yard" near the house, the idea of the birds staying inside of this area is laughable. They have usually flown over the fence by mid-morning, turning our homestead into a bizarre parade of chickens. Currently, we have about 40 or so chickens and 5 guineas. The majority of these birds are BANTAMS and are ROOSTERS, so it is a strange-looking and noisy bunch. If anybody wants some friendly, backyard silkies or bantam cochins, let us know. No, seriously - contact us. It is getting ridiculous around here.
