THE ARM CHAIR GARDENER !

View from our back deck.  

                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                  BUNCH OF CLUCKIN  CHICKENS !
                                                                                                                  
  I tell  ya, I think this winter planning for the garden is some stressful stuff now !   I have been trying to decide how much and what I would need and want to plant this coming season.   I plan on expanding the garden and adding more. It did so well / I still have carrots and onions in the bed wintering over, we have been eating and feeding the Wabbits .   I also plan on saving my own seeds from know on. So as to eliminate the cost of having to buy every year .                             The PRICES                                   OF ORGANIC , HEIRLOOM SEEDS !!!!!        Makes you want to think ! Think ! and RE-THINK just what it is you really want and need to grow.  Iv been working on it for a while now, and I still can't bring myself to pick-up the phone and make the orders. Seed potatoes  from one place , onions another , rest of veggies from yet another !   I can't find ONE place that has it all.  Than I switched over from that, to give myself a break and decided to start investigating hatcheries for ordering the chickens I want to get this year.    SHIITAKE  MUSHROOMS !   It's a foreign language !   Greek I think !  It takes more to ship than it does to buy .  I just wanted some all around birds, there trying to tell me I have to pick- broiler-fryer-Cornish-BBQ ?  Can't ship little ones with bigger ones, no turkeys with chickens. Easter eggers-brown eggers-dark brown eggers- white eggers-rainbow malty colored ?  Think I might try an old time standard  Red Ranger chickens and maybe some Cornish game hens.  Red Rangers  get to be a good 5-6 1/2 lbs  in 80 days. They're broody ( in Greek ) that means they will sit and hatch there own chic's ,  so I won't  have to keep buying them. And they are good brown egg layers / 150 eggs per hen per year .  I figure can take us down to 5 hens and a rooster for winter . Saving coast of feed , putting the rest in the freezer .  Now the Cornish hens can be, shall we say" harvested"  in 1 month at 2-2 1/2 maybe 3 lbs. and they can be free ranged . I think that's a good plan for the birds and the freezer. Now , if I could just get the garden seeds ordered !   BEFORE THEY SELL OUT .     T

A NEW EXPEREANCE IN THE SUSTAINABLE KITCHEN.

I have been on a journey to see just how self-sustainable I myself can become. As a part of this journey, I was fortunate enough to come into some meat rabbits , thanks to my long time  friend Marty. These are beautiful rabbits , and YES I have grown accustomed to seeing and talking to them twice a day. How ever, I clearly understand why I got them. I received 5 babies when I got the adults . Total, 4 adults/5 babies, and was told I could butcher the babies soon enough. SOOOOO.
The time had come !  I did all my time consuming, careful research and decided I could not hit a rabbit in the head . How could I be sure it was dead ?  Nor could I shoot it in the head. NOT GONNA HAPPEN !   I decided to go with a method using what is called a kill board. A long plank board with the center section cut out. The Ideal is, the board get mounted. You slip the neck of  rabbit into the center cut out section of the board , then pull down quickly. This severs the spine.
MY kill board needs work !    It didn't work!   I cried !   My husband had to shoot the poor thing.  I cried a lot that day. I worried I had caused the rabbit to suffer . My husband thinks I got to attached to the Wabbits , as me and the dogs know them. (smile).
And he is Partly correct .  I believe you need to show love while caring for animals , no matter what you have them for.  Finally, the rabbit was skinned, cleaned and being cut up , when I cut thru the broken joints , I went a little to fare and sliced the skin that holds MY TWO FINGERS TOGETHER.
Yes that SMARTS !  Of course the first thing my husband says is " see , I told you the knife was sharp !    "Maybe because,''  earlier  in the proses, when I just starting out, it didn't seem to be cutting so well. So I asked hem,  if he was sure the knife was sharp enough.  HA HA....... Well I still have the other rabbits to deal with, soon.  For now I'm healing my wounds, and working on my board. Oh !
Before I forget !  One rabbit will feed 4 people . It was a good size ! And it taste like a cross between pork and chicken.  I slow roasted the rabbit in celery soup, yum yum.      I'll keep you posted,    T