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18 Comments

  1. Madam,
    Almond flour baking is a nice treat… infrequently.

    Seeds == including nuts and grains == carry the naturally-occurring pesticides called phytates or phytic acid. To dispel these, we soak the seeds overnight in clear water with a squeeze of lime juice or a splash of vinegar. Our preference is coconut vinegar.

    As far as we can research, the red ‘skins’ on almonds carry the phytic acids, so after soaking overnight, those are easily rubbed off.

    You know the difference between commercial almond meal with the red skins sprinkled through and blanched almond flour… a pale-tan lighter-feeling grind?

    If you folks are near a branch of NaturalGrocers, each store has a demo kitchen with classroom. The cooking and nutrition classes are all free, and they feed us, too!

    Occasionally, one of us feels the need for oatmeal in the morning. The night before, a serving is soaked in the weak acid I mentioned. By morning, the fluid is absorbed, shortening cooking time by nine-tenths. Oatmeal with coconut milk and raisins and crushed filberts… YUM!

    For a Keltic flair, try oatmeal with spiced ground lamb or venison. Cooking the mash in a sheep stomach is optional.

  2. When boiling down a chicken, I find it helpful to freeze a portion of the broth in ice cube trays then transfer the frozen cubes into a container kept in the freezer. Very easy way to add a cube or two when cooking various dishes.

  3. With the absolute frigid temperatures this week combined with a lighter rotc schedule (the school he is a crosstown student at was on break) I started fires both in the morning and when I returned home from work. Now we have a much better idea of how much wood we would really need to keep a fire going round the clock. (And, I supplemented with an electric closed oil heater at night since I have to go out to work early each morning.) What we totally ran out of was kindling. This winter has been very damp and we have used more kindling. We are pretty close on our newspaper as well. I fill empty dog food bags with fire starting stuff and store in the barn. I’ll look to double the amount we stock.

    Too cold for me to cross country ski for pleasure this week, but I did get the dogs out for a short hike a couple days. Being mid-way through life, we have started balancing on our Bosu ball. It strengthens those little muscles needed for balance and, if you do squats, some larger ones as well. I have a smaller, less expensive one to use at the cabin.

    Finally, we have a plethora of used bookstore one town away. I’m heading there to see if I can duplicate our gardening, homesteading and cookbooks to leave here at the cabin. Setting it up to be as turnkey ready as possible for any family who might need to be here suddenly.

    Question for the community…skunks live in our area, any thoughts on how to prevent them from moving in when we and our dogs are not here? Hasn’t been a problem yet; I’m bring proactive.

    1. I made excellent fire starters using dryer lint, put into egg carton depressions and fill with wax. When set cut them apart to make individual starters. They burn about 20 minutes, at least.

  4. Buy a Honda snowblower and never look back, our 9hp track model has preformed flawlessly for over a decade and when we retire to our long driveway place I plan to purchase the next size up though I would not have to. I have never been cold walking behind and steering the unit keeps you warm.

  5. We live in the mid-south and really hate it when it goes to 15° or 20°F because we have to replace the frozen water containers every day. We have heaters for the large stock water but all the rabbit and chicken water bottles/containers have to be replaced and the solid ice bottles brought in to thaw. Everything takes twice as long to accomplish. While the cold weather froze all the poop, now the rain will thaw it into mud poop. Welcome to the homestead!!

    The article on Time and Planning struck a note with me. I harvested hens which were not laying anymore and some roos. It doesn’t sound very time consuming when I say we harvested, butchered and processed chickens. But those who do it realize the amount of time involved. Just catching, killing and plucking or skinning them takes a couple of hours, depending on how many you’re harvesting. Processing 30 pds of chicken by pressure cooking, then de-boning, separating, spicing and canning in the pressure cooker takes a lot of time. Then, maybe I’ll freeze-dry some of that cooked chicken instead of canning it. Then there’s making broth and bone broth and canning that up. Not to mention the clean up and sterilizing everything afterwards. Yep, it takes time and planning!

    Animal

  6. We made some progress here as well as had a setback too. First the setback, last Saturday while retrieving the last bale of grass/hay on the stack which was just out of safe reach i used the hay hook and snagged the bale by the twine and began to pull, unfortunately the twine broke sending me downward,ground-ward at a rapid descent all the while trying to maintain a vertical stance to no avail i tripped over my “miracle buckets” and using my hands to stop my fall i finally landed on the ground.
    My view from the ground to which i could clearly see, my nice 1A ladder to which i should have employed right from the start was still resting securely in it’s place, i then started to access the pain that was emitting from both wrists and what to do next. First thought that passed thru my mind was how i am always emphasizing safety with the wife due to the fact we are a min. of 40 minutes away from any type of emergency service and this day she happened to be in town at her ladies bible study. After a few minutes of rest and moving the wrists it was determined that nothing was broken but both hands took a beating as with the rest of the body.
    Needless to say had to tell the wife about the spill and how i could have prevented it Best to eat humble pie while it’s still warm.
    On a better note there is a hint of spring down here in SW. ID. and got out to do the annual fence mending, we have a combination of wood 3 rail fence and T post with live stock wire and although the wood 3 rail is very attractive it is a lot of maintenance. Began building a sheep shed this week too with left over building supplies that i had laying around the ranch and so far it looks like the only material i will need to buy is the sliding barn door hardware.
    A friend’s herd of Navajo Churro sheep is growing and she is willing to give us a few lambs to start our own herd. I would recommend you look into this breed if you are interested in sheep as they have some wonderful quality’s about them.
    One last note, the article posted last week on SB gave us some great insight into our Great Pyrenees and how he will interact with our soon to arrive sheep.
    Have a blessed and safe week.

    1. “Best to eat humble pie when it is still warm.” Camp Doubt, that is a phrase I plan to use into the future. Especially with my sweet spouse. She appreciates her fella coming clean.

      Carry on

  7. I liked your comment about using the ski poles, fully concur. If you have the ability to use screw-on tips, try giving them double duty as “trek poles” for hiking in the summer. As I have gotten older, they really help me manage a heavier pack and I just don’t feel as beat up after a hike or portage.

  8. This week I attended the Sheepdog Seminar at Coeur d’Alene.

    Inspirational speakers included Greg Steven’s, the cop who permanently stopped 2 ISIS attackers in Garland, Texas in May 2015 which were armed with body armor and rifles, from 50-60 feet away, with his Glock 21 in .45 with 220grains. His 14 rounds vs enemy 30 rounds.

    I was partly ready to guard citizens before. I will be better in the future.

    God Bless

  9. We have a flat of tomato seeds and a flat of kale sprouting here. The heated growing box and grow lights will bring strong seedlings. Good eating awaits in midsummer.

    Carry on

  10. Hey Jim, although I believe the SCAR 17 is the current state of the art light weight battle rifle in .308, spare parts are another story. Due to the ease of building an AR 10 out of 80 percent lowers, and the easy part availability, I lean towards the AR 10. The only real draw back I have found are the problems with suppressing them (I have a trust and paid the tax stamp). They tend to start to have problems with extraction from over gassing and increased back pressure with a suppressor. The current crop of available adjustable gas blocks require an additional tool, and seem to lack the precise repeat-ability of a gas block on a piston rifle in the suppressed position. Any reader thoughts and comments would be appreciated.

  11. Hey Jim, one more question. If a person can so easily buy and make their own non serial numbered AR lowers, what would the advantage be of getting them from private sales with serial numbers?

    1. Because home-made guns can never be legally re-sold, even to a dealer. This all ties in to federal TAX law. An 80% build had no Federal manuafacturer’s tax due. A home build can only be given as a gift, within a family.

  12. Costco carries their brand of organic almond flour made from blanched almonds. Our household needs to be gluten free so we bake with it all the time. I’m eating a breakfast of almond flour pancakes as I write this. I think all almonds grown in California are sprayed with a chemical, similar to hydraulic fluid, to supposedly to kill salmonella which occurred several years back. The government is always looking out for us! So, blanched almonds or almonds from Europe or elsewhere are the way to go. Be happy to share several almond flour recipes and other info we have on gluten free diets. Hope this helps!

    1. Please do! My daughter has gone gluten free after a serious head injury ( I guess that is a common result). I’d love tried and true recipes using almond flour.

  13. Planted celery almost two weeks ago. Still waiting to see sprouts. Have some lettuce coming up, and a sprout of cinnamon basil, which I got free from a seed order. Just today I wrote all our seeds and plant dates, after consulting an awesome planner available from Baker Creek Seeds. (It has a sliding bar for your local first and last frosts, along with a dozen or so plant varieties and when they should be planted and harvested.)

    Just about done reorganizing and cleaning indoors for this winter season. Now that we are getting up to 40 or so during the day, I need to head outdoors to clean up some of the things I didn’t get to in the fall. Also working to eat out of the freezers, like Lily. Early summer pea harvest will be here before we know it!

    Also been keeping track of the crazies in the Illinois legislature and making out witness slips or phone calls. We’ve got a full Dem majority now, so they are fast and furiously (pun intended) introducing draconian legislation. Wondering if we need to fall back into Wisconsin …

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