The Best & Worst Cutting Boards

 

Are you using the right cutting board? You might be surprised. Check out my new site to find out.

 https://easylivingthehardway.wordpress.com/

Cutting Celery or Lovage For Me

https://easylivingthehardway.wordpress.com/

   Since stalk celery and celeriac are a no grow in my garden, I'm looking to cutting celery and lovage to fill in. To read more go to my new blog site at word press.

Udderly Empty

 

Something that is rarely talked about in the online goat world is an empty udder. All the chatter is about how full it is but in actuality how empty it is before filling helps determine how much milk a doe produces. Want to learn more? Join me at my new blog site--

https://easylivingthehardway.wordpress.com/2018/03/15/udderly-empty-is-what-you-are-looking-for/

To Milk Out Partially or Fully?

To milk or not to milk when a goat is nursing babies seems to be the question on Facebook goat sites of late. The answers I saw given were simplistic but one can not say definitively one way or another until several factors are first considered. Read more at my new site:
  https://easylivingthehardway.wordpress.com/

Making Vinegar

I've moved but that does not mean you have to miss out. Join me in all my experiments at https://easylivingthehardway.wordpress.com/ I'm making vinegar now. Come see what I've learned so far.

Changing to Word Press

No time like the present I guess so though the site is not fully up and running, I wrote my first post in Word Press. Livestock's Temperament Determines Economic Success and here is the link. https://easylivingthehardway.wordpress.com/2018/02/26/livestocks-temperament-determines-economic-success/
I knew temperament makes a huge difference whether or not a ranch or Hobby Farm was an economic success but it wasn't until I did the research and listed the reasons that it fully hit home. It might surprise you too. A post later in the week on my Word Press site will go into how temperament affects the quality of the meat. So check out the new site.

It is not all up and running yet but the most important part is -- the post section. 
I hope you like the changes to my writing. Let me know what you would like to see and learn about. I'll see what I can do.

Now the first post is about Swiss Chard. Someday I'll get this Word Press figured out. 

Knife Storage

 

Ignore the nails in the picture. My husband hung the boards before removing them.

 

My lovely set of Christmas knives sat on the counter for a week and a half in there boxes as I pondered about the best way to store them. I have several different gadgets to do so but none seemed right for this expensive set. I definitely did not want to do it wrong as I'll never get another set like these in my lifetime. "As my dad says, do it right or don't do it at all." He was not talking about perfection just correct. So I pondered and researched.

My concerns were:

• The best way to store a knife and not dull it in the process.
• A way to store knives that does not scratch them up.
• How to keep them sanitary. 
• How to keep them dry.
• Safety for me.

THE ABSOLUTE WORST WAY TO STORE KNIVES IS IN A PILE IN THE DRAWER. Not only is it not safe because you reach in and can get cut by the other knives but the klink against each other dulls their edges and nicking the handles. 

 I have this drawer model of knife storage that I've loved. The only problem is if I shut the drawer too hard. The knives shift out of their slots and jam the drawer shut. It's a real joy to get out of that mess. I'm being sarcastic of course. But this has been my favorite storage method except.

• The knives can shift and lock the drawer shut.
• The knives are stored with the blade edge down which dulls the edge slightly each time as you slide the knife in and out.  
• It scratches up the knives a little.

This was not going to work for the new knives.

Kirk gave me a brand new knife block but it has some of the same problems. This open design is better as there is less friction against the knives and is not enclosed so a thorough cleaning can be done which is good but I just don't like the way the knives flop a bit in place so this option is out.

 

My mind began to wonder if a magnetic strip might be the best option but my old one scratches knives. That is when I began wondering if they did not have one with the wood on the outside and magnets on the inside. They do!!!

What I found was a well crafted knife magnetic board by Kurouto.

 The magnets are strong as you can see by how many knives the 12 inch boards holds. The only draw back is there is not a variety of sizes of boards. The boards are well crafted and the wood is beautiful so it makes up for it.

• They hold the knives conveniently and safely.
• The wood boards can be easily cleaned and are fastened with the key hole method so can be remove quickly from the wall if need be. 
• They don't dull the knifes edge in storage.
• They are pleasing to the eye.
• They keep the knives dry. If I don't dry them well enough, they will air dry. 

Now I need to order food grade oil suited for knife handles and for the knife boards.

Is It Safe to Reuse Egg Cartons?

Should you reuse egg cartons from the store? Are they safe? I'll admit, I've accepted cartons from well-meaning friends and neighbors and stored my own farm fresh eggs in them. But there is this nagging feeling that makes me question - "Is it safe?" Especially as I sort through the containers to try and find ones that are not stained from dripping eggs whites passing across them to the fry pan. Or from broken eggs shells once stored inside. Most times this pickiness leaves me with a bag full of fire starter instead of storage containers.

So when our daughter found hard plastic egg cartons, and on sale too, I jumped at the opportunity to leave used egg cartons behind.

Then comfortable with my decision, I did some research on just what a risk I had been taking. What I found scared me.  

·       Salmonella is one such bacterium and it can remain alive for weeks lurking in a used egg carton.  

·       You can be a salmonella carrier without symptoms and pass the disease on to others.  

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) estimates that 79,000 cases of foodborne illness and 30 deaths each year are caused by eating eggs contaminated with Salmonella.

•  For this reason Israel Health Ministry issued a ban on used cardboard egg cartons for arts and crafts in their schools and day cares.

Thinking twice yet?

So what about Styrofoam egg cartons? I saw that some on the internet felt they were safe to reuse because they were sterilizing them. But is that enough? Styrofoam is porous and lightweight foam. This porosity helps maintain heat and cold but it also is perfect for harboring bacteria.

Apparently if Salmonella is given time to form a biofilm in the Styrofoam then sterilization is not enough. If not, then yes, you can reuse the cartons but there is no way for those of us without training and the equipment to know if sterilization is enough. The simple answer to those who would bless you with the offer of used egg cartons is, "No, thank you." or use them as a fire starter. They work great!
(Did not type this post in capital letters. And it does not show up as such in my draft. Do what is up with that. I will be switching one of these days to the new site and this should not happen.)

How To Milk

 

 Squeeze and pull, that's what they do on the old westerns to milk a cow but that's more likely to get you kicked than put milk in the bucket. 

First of all don't pull.The action does nothing but make the dairy animal uncomfortable and simply squeezing will more likely send the milk shooting back up into the udder than down. There is a bit of a trick to getting the milk out but hardly rocket science.

Proper milking is done by first encircling the teet with with your thumb and forefinger in the fashion shown in the above picture and lock them together. This keeps the milk in the teet from retracting up into the udder.

 

 

Then pretend you are playing scales on the piano. Encircle the teet as much as possible with your middle finger and press against the palm of your hand. 

 Then do the same with your ring finger and in doing so you will force the milk downward toward the orifice and out into the bucket. 

 

Don't let your pinky come near the orifice. This is an open passageway and bacteria from your hands can find its way into this  inside the udder. 

Release your grip but don't take your hands away. Simply grip the teet once more between the forefinger and the thumb to contain milk into the teet once more and play the scales with the fingers. I guarantee you will make music - swish, swish, swish. Do this in a rapid manner and before long the pail will be full.

To strip, don't encircle the teet and pull downwards like in the movies. This will bring your fingers in contact with the orifice. Remember that is a big no, no. Simply milk as before but reach higher up onto the udder and lock your forefinger and thumb and play your scales. The udder will be soft and saggy so this will be quite easy. If you feel your goat has not let down her milk fully then bump her in the udder firmly but lightly. I'm never as rough as her kids. It might take a few times but be sure and wait a moment between each one and check to see if the spout fills.

Then if that fails to bring her milk down then massage the udder. This has never failed for me. Milk a bit and when it is barely coming out, message once more. This is particularly effective on nervous new milkers or new to you milkers.

Now go inside and enjoy that wondrous milk. It is within the first hour that goat milk is super high in antibacterials. I often drink it warm at this time to take advantage of that.  

The Virtues of Ducks

Ducks may of done me wrong but I have an idea they might be back in the future. There are some great benefits to raising ducks according to research. My timing for raising duck was poor so I'll wait a while, think things over more, and I would not be surprised if they don't return in a few years from now when the rabbit and chicken self-sustaining set up is running more smoothly. Until then, I'm going to do some more research and some serious thinking. 

  These are the points so far that have me thinking duck:

 (a.) Duck lay better than chickens in winter. Just learned that ducks often begin to lay in February so maybe I was a bit hasty in getting rid of them except I desperately needed their coop and realistically, I'm not ready for them.  Since that is after the winter solstice and light is increasing, I'd guess that is why the timing.  So I'm going to think and watch my chickens to see if I need duck eggs to fill in a gap. 

(b.) Ducks have a larger egg yolk than chickens but when I measured Sasha's egg yolk and one of my Rainbow hen's they were equal in size but they lay extra large eggs. Keep in mind that the bulk of the nutrition in an egg is in the yolk. That is why a chick or duck forms in the egg white and the yolk is they food source.

 (c.) Duck eggs are alkaline and chickens are acidic. That is a biggy. It is one of the reasons why we have goat milk because it too is alkaline so adding duck eggs would be a really good combination.  

(d.) Duck eggs have 6 times the Vitamin D and 2 times the Vitamin A than a chicken egg, more protein too. Other than that pretty much the same as a chicken's egg in nutrition. With having to take 5000 units of vitamin D a day to stay at the lower end of normal and my husband 1000 units that could mean we could go off of supplements part of the year or at least reduce the amount.

(e.) Duck eggs have twice the cholesterol that chicken eggs do but have more Omega 3 fatty acids so don't be turned away. The whole cholesterol and its bad side affects is on debate right now. Cholesterol is far more complex than they first thought and cholesterol does play an essential role in the body. It is the basis of all hormones. Anyway you look at it more Omega 3's is a good thing.

(f.) Duck eggs are richer in Albumen which makes cakes and pastries fluffier and richer. 

(g.) Duck eggs are typically larger than chicken's.

(h.) They handle the cold better and forage better than chickens. I can testify to those two things.

(i) Duck egg shells are much thicker and I mean much thicker. It takes a pretty good wack to open them. This gives them a longer shelf life of six weeks in the refrigerator. They will keep up to six weeks in the refrigerator. As a side note of interest, the shell is much smoother than a chicken's. If you have ducks and chickens in the same pen, this is a way to tell the eggs apart if both lay the same size of egg like ours do.

As for flavor, we prefer chicken eggs slightly over duck eggs but there is not a huge difference in them. So taste is not what pulls me back to considering ducks again in the future. What keeps pulling me back to raising ducks is that their eggs leave a more alkaline atmosphere in the body. Cancer feeds on a acid environment and with it so prevalent in our society, that is a big deal. We definitely need to start changing our diet more in the alkaline direction. The other important factor is that we did not loose a single duck to predators last summer and fall. We did loose quite a few chickens. We have the last two years. I read in one site that raccoons are a duck's main problem. We definitely have those, just look at the claw marks by the latch on our chicken coop. Then there is the down. Something interesting I discovered when processing nine ducks of several breeds so stay tuned. 

A Comparison of WWII and Today.

Instead of just telling you how to do something. I'm going to begin explaining more of our motivations for what we do. I prefer to think of our journey as trying to become more enlightened. We try to be realistic and see things for what they are. The past prepare us for the future and gleaning things from what once was make us more whole. Some would call some of our thoughts - doomsday but I prefer to think we are realistic. We may prepare for disaster but we pray it never comes.Yet, we know that history repeats itself and that patterns tell us that rocky roads are ahead.

What will happen when WWIII arrives? Will life at home be the same as the last world war? These two questions have been roaming around in my brain for a long time. I’ve done some research over the years about WWII and how the home front fared in England and in the USA. Most of you probably have heard of Food Stamps and Ration Cards that were in effect with price controls placed on goods in WWII. But did you know that twenty million Americans were on the verge of starvation despite a greater number of jobs and higher wages? One has to wonder why especially when we were having bumper crops despite a 17% reduction in numbers of people on farms? One reason was that the food we produced was spread between US civilians, the military, and our Allies, the military taking priority. Another is many of the ships laden with food were lost to opposing forces whether sank or stolen. And 5 million widows were left alone to care for their families and that took its toll.

 A total of 12,209,238 Americans were in military service by September 2, 1945 which is 9 percent of the 131,028,000 population.  Interestingly, Germany had a grand total of 22,000,000 serving in some capacity out of 69,850,000 and that was 31 percent. I'd say the difference being war was abroad and not on the home front despite the battle in Hawaii. 

Today our population in the USA is 324,910,953. So doing the math if things were the same, there would be 8,610,140 million near starvation. But things aren’t the same. Today, gardens are simply a summer treat or a money making project. People want served. Even mechanics have their oil changed by someone else. In my childhood days, dad’s changed their own oil and fixed things around the house. My dad did and I can remember how that made me feel – secure. Later like everyone else, he hired everything done. It is the fashion.

No doubt WWIII  won’t be the same as WWII in a vast number of ways. IN part because Wars are not fought in the same manner as before. How will this change things? I don't know. I do know that the mindset of the people during WWII was different. They had done without during The Great Depression and knew how to sacrifice. They were humble, appreciative, and they were from the do-it-yourself era. These people had confidence. “I have done hard things and I’ll figure out how to make it through this too.”, was an attitude that I see now only in older farmers and ranchers. Replaced is a sense of fear. Ask someone what they would do if they had to be responsible for any or all of their own water, food, warmth, clothing, road repair, transportation, sewer, protection etc. if war came to America? See the panic flash across their face especially if you ask in detail. I pray it never reaches our shores but realistically know, it could come.

In WWII Washington Carver, in an agricultural tract promoting home food production, encouraged citizens to grow a garden. He called it a Victory Garden in an effort to boost morale. Twenty million gardens were planted creating 40% of the vegetables eaten by families. Many ate healthier than before the war. Lawns were tilled up, flower boxes converted to vegetables. Today, how many would grow a garden especially of the magnitude to produce 40% of their vegetables?  My observance is that people are happy to eat poor quality food as long as they don’t have to produce it themselves. 

In WWII 95 percent of the clothing we wore was being manufactured in the United States - now, none.  Even of the 2 percent some claim is made here, parts like fabric, button, etc. are still purchased elsewhere. Even if something is totally American made, the parts are manufactured from all over America and shipped to one spot to be assembled. Great now but if like in WWII gas and tires are rationed, then those goods all of a sudden become expensive and scares. Today, “Made in the U.S.A.” is most often stamped on heavy equipment or the circuits that go inside other products than on televisions, toys, clothes, and other common items found on a store's shelves. Companies have moved toward high-end manufacturing. Less costly goods have moved overseas where the labor costs are far less. This is the items we use most. It (seems like) China makes most of what we buy. China is even finding their way into our food market. We know of their low standards especially in food and yet we buy. What if in WWIII we went to war with China- a scary thought? As this thought passed through my mind, I was curious so I looked at various country's military and how they were ranked and why –interesting and unsettling. Some of the most unstable countries are the most prepared for war.

No, things won't be much like WWII. Far fewer of our needs are manufactured in America and even fewer created in our homes. Americans do not have the same mind set. What exactly will come to pass and when, I don't honestly know. I do know that the more we prepare, the more secure we feel. Peace of mind is worth a lot. It matters not whether it is a loss of job, health, natural disasters, or war, we can "ride the river" as John Wayne says and stay afloat if we are better prepared financially, skills wise, and have stores laid up for a rainy day. So I don't think it hurts to think, 'What if?' if it motivates us to create a more personally secure future.

Ducks Done Me Wrong

Things aren't working out so great with the duck project. What I read and what has happened, doesn’t jive. Only one hen laid any eggs. She did so for two months and then quit. I did get the one egg a day and on occasion two like promised. But two months of eggs is hardly enough to keep me excited about their egg laying abilities especially when my pullets are laying very well. Neither is the fact that Eva (the Swedish duck) is just two weeks younger than Sasha (who is a black Swedish duck) and she showed no signs of starting to lay. What's up? 

Ducks supposedly lay well in low light conditions and during the cold of winter, much better than chickens. But, do they lay in the winter when they don't lay in the fall? I doubt it. If they aren't going to lay eggs then I've no use for them except the table. If I feed them fall, winter, and most of spring, then they are simply a drain on the budget. 

In the summer they were great bug killers and weeded the garden some but that time has come to an end. I've been impressed with their foraging abilities but nothing else economically. That means soon they will become a money pit. They may be fun to watch but fun doesn't cover the expenses and money is getting tighter and tighter.

The young chicken's thin tin house won't do for long with temperatures dipping regularly into the 20F at night and I desperately need the insulated duck coop to put them in. We have housing plans for the chickens but the work won't likely happen until after Christmas. That leaves us really short on space. Once again I put 'the cart before the horse'. I should have researched more thoroughly but what has surprised me is that experience and research is not matching up. What has gone wrong?

These ducks came from the feed store and a gal who had too many on her ranch. Don't know if it is just Swedish ducks or ducks in general that the articles and catalogues exaggerate their virtues on. As far as articles on the internet it is pretty much pet owners who write. Though there is much to learn from them, economically they aren't concerned so that part is left out. Our ancestors had them so there has to be virtues I've yet to discover. 

I've hit the internet again and pondered, what do I want from ducks. There a many breeds to choose from. They aren't all alike. Some fly well, others don't, some lay well or so they say, some forage well, and I will attest some are winter hardy. My ducklings loved the snow last spring. 

As I read once more my poultry order catalogue, I found a statement that said that certain breeds of their ducks do not lay as the optimists elude to. I like honesty. They did state that for pure breeds, the Khaki Campbell is the best for egg laying. The hybrid Golden 300 does even better. I had to ponder, 'Is having pure bred important to me?' That led me to the question, 'Are hybrid ducks like hybrid vegetables in that they do not have offspring that are true to the likeness of their parents.?' Ducks having ducks is important for us.

1. That led me off on a marry chase to find out the answers. What I found out is purebred is not what I'm after. What I want is performance. The Golden 300 supposedly lay around 300 eggs a year, better than chickens. They are like the Black or Red Stars Sex-Linked hybrid chickens. They lay well but aren't broody or great mothers. So having offspring in not in their realm unless you use an incubator or have a hen or different breed of duck set on the eggs. Then you could get offspring. What they will be like is another question. I do know that by carefully selecting the offspring that are most true to the parents you can change the hybrid to a more pure line. You can in vegetables anyway. 

2. What does hybrid mean? I found that it is breeding outside a species for instance my Swedish /Pekin duck crosses I picked up. If you cross Aylesbury, Cayuga, and Rouen Clair then it is not a hybrid since they are all in the same species - Mallard. That cleared up that question.

What all this hard thinking has done for me is leave me with more questions than answers. I have realized I need to end the duck project for now. I emphasize now because as I read about the health benefits of the eggs and think more on their other virtues, I have a feeling they will be back. For now, I will continue thinking and researching. Our rabbit and chicken set up needs a great deal of work for it to run smoothly. The greatest lesson I've learned these past few years is that a self-sufficient set up is far different than simply raising chickens for a few eggs or for meat. The same goes for meat rabbits. We have a great deal of building to do and a need to invest money in equipment. 

When they are up and running like we'd like, I'm coming back to ducks. My time with them has not been wasted. I truly believe that, "In all labor there is profit." I've learned quite a bit what to do and what will not work for us. I am realizing what I want from a duck project. I'm formulating goals. As I figure out just what we want, I'll share my ideas with you. Meanwhile, I've have to figure out some great duck recipes. I've nine awaiting in the freezer. The processing did not go as smoothly as it could have. Learned a bit there too. Yes indeed, "In all labor there is profit."