Super cool Water Barrel

I wanted to share a picture of a super cool Water Barrel. I went with the neighbor to a class in Warren County and made two of these Water Barrels. They supplied all the parts ( for a minimal fee-- really was minimal) and we put them together on the spot. What I really like is the stand and convenience of my water barrel for giving water to our birds. Super cool. If you want more information I keep the instruction from the class and can post them just let me know.....

We are trying our luck at Fermentation here on the Farm :)

In a effort to use what we grow, milk or raise I am trying my luck at fermentation. I have read several articles on it both in magazines and online. This is some exciting stuff. I have purchased a one gallon crock from Ace Hardware. Now I purchased one with the lid and weights at mothers day. Right away I tried to make some sauerkraut. A little over a week into it I had moisture under the crock. I spent days trying to figure it out. only to notice a small crack in the side of the crock. Ace Hardware took it back with no problems. Because it was so easy I decided to give them another try. The price on the crock is excellent and because they are so easy to return I felt it was worth a second try. ( Wish us luck) We have the new crock and I am once again trying to make sauerkraut. I am also trying to ferment some cucumbers in a half gallon mason jar. I have it weighted down with a empty jelly jar filled with water. I place jar in a plastic container to catch any over flow and I am super happy I did. Last thing in the picture is an attempt to make curds and whey from fresh goats milk. This is attempt number two on the curds ad whey. I read about it and watch several videos this of course only intrigued me to do it myself.
I will keep you informed about my progress. If any one has easier ways to do this I am super interested. My mother said my kitchen will start to stink but hey we live on a farm. :) It seems like every thing stinks. LOL

Ok here is an update to how it is going on the fermentation. Today is August 14, 2016 and the curds and whey turned out perfect yesterday. In fact is startled me because in the morning I was walking around the kitchen and it looked like the above picture mostly and in the afternoon bam it was separated. The jar on the left with cucumbers and onion in it trying to ferment has been thrown out. I notice a layer of mold on the top of the water - it was pretty gross. So I have started another batch of curds and whey the cabbage in going strong and so far no leaks in the crock. What I will do now is some more research on the fermenting in a mason jar and see if we can give it another go.

Today is September 4, 2016 I just wanted to give an update on how the Fermentation is going. The Crock did not leak. Woo Hoo!! I am super happy about that. Ace Hardware came through on a great price and an item worth owning. I went out into the garden and got the last of the jalapenos. Final try at fermentation from the garden.  

Duck Egg Cake -- Who knew ducks eggs were so Good??

The duck we have has stopped laying eggs. The season is over. :(  What really surprised me was that I now have a love of duck eggs. I have made several of these duck egg cakes and I use duck eggs in my meatloaf, really holds it together. Omelets made with duck eggs were super easy. I can say that with the two ducks I had laying not a single egg went to waste. ( that is on top of the chickens we have) Unfortunately during a sever thunderstorm one duck went missing (we suspect a fox) so for months that left only one duck to gather eggs from. I want you to know I went out and found more duckling for next year!
I am going to share the duck egg cake recipe with all the adaptations I did -- we think it is better than ever!

DUCK EGG CAKE

CAKE:

4 duck eggs ( separated-- use 4 duck egg whites and 3 duck eggs yolks)

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

Lemon Glaze/Raspberry filling:

1/4 cup lemon juice

3 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup raspberry preserves

Frosting:

6oz cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

3/4 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Fair warning this is a involved recipe so get ready. ( BIG SMILE)  It goes fast when you get started.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8 inch pans. ( I posted a picture of them)

Whisk egg yolks in a small bowl until mixed completely. Mix flour and baking soda in a separate bowl ( I used a fork). Beat egg whites in a large bowl at medium speed until foamy. add 1/2 cup sugar increase speed ( I used the highest my little hand held mixer could do) until stiff peaks form.

Now gently mix yolks into whites by hand add flour slowly! I added the flour in small amounts -- Very important mix by hand. It will mix pretty quick - divide into the two 8 inch pans.

Bake 20-25 minutes until light golden brown, Top will be similar to a sponge and toothpick will come out clean. Cool on wire racks. I mix the lemon juice and sugar when the cakes were in the oven-- when the cakes are cooling on the racks I gently poke the top with the toothpick before I use all the lemon juice mixture on both the cakes. Do this while the cakes are still hot.

Mix the cream cheese and sugar. Add lemon peal and mix completely. Add in the heavy cream until icing looks firm. Now this part goes pretty quick. Mix in the vanilla with mixer. It is really good. :)

Now we get to assembly the cake. Place one cake on a platter ( I use a plate with a small amount of frosting on the plate to hold it in place) than you place the raspberry preserve on top of the cake. I put frosting on the bottom of the other cake before I put it on top of the raspberry cake. Now it is only frosting the whole cake. ( final picture) I put in the frig to set the frosting but it never lasts around our house more than a few days.

*******Ok here is my idea-- This is a really basic recipe and I feel so much can be done with it. Next year I am going to try orange juice (undiluted of course) - orange marmalade and use orange peel in the frosting. Just think though really could use anything that strikes your fancy-- this is like a blank slate what else could be combo together. ********* Next year........

Summer is here at the Farm

We have been busy here at the farm with incubators running, hatching chicks and peachicks. Rabbits having babies. Here in Kentucky we have had so much rain. I believe I have lost my half my garden. If I hope to have green beans I will have to replant them by the end of the week and than it will be close for them to produce before the first freeze. The meat and dairy goats are doing well. I have had the milk production go up and down with the extreme heat ( over ninety degrees) and all the rain. I will be taking pictures in the next few days to post.
Sewing wise I have been working on pants for me. I have machine embroidery on three pairs of pants. two have flowers and on one I did patriotic. All are really fun to wear.
On my list of things to do this month is make goat cheese and finish up some sewing projects.
Keep checking back for updates on what it is like out in the country on a dead end street. (just the way we like it -- quiet)

DIY CHIRSTMAS EGG ORNAMENTS --(FROM SCRAP PIECES OF FABRIC)

This is a super cool idea that I have taken to doing. I have (like everyone else) tons of scrap material. I don't know about the rest of you but I do end up throwing some of it away because of space issues. However I thought what can I do with them. Well here on the farm we have plenty of eggs so I started making these ornaments. I give them away at Christmas time and everyone just loved them to pieces.
Here is how I made them:

what you need to do is poke a hole in the top and bottom of the egg and blow out the inside of the egg. I made one side bigger and cooked the blown out egg as scrambled eggs. Be very careful for you can break the egg or get egg shells in your blown out inside goodness. Next I used very hot water from the kitchen facet and ran it through the egg shaking the egg in an attempt to clean it as much as possible. It will take days to completely dry and it needs to be completely dry. Be Patient.

Take a paper plate and cover it with freezer paper. I taped the back to keep the paper on the paper plate. I used paper plates because in the end it was a lot easier just to throw the covered paper plate away than take off the freezer paper from a regular plate. 

Cut up your fabric into small pieces. The pieces do need to be very small but this whole project works better when the fabric is of various shapes. I just went a little crazy and snipped and snipped. I divided my fabric into bowls with different color schemes. Trust me this will make your day go a lot better when you start using the glue things get a little messy and you do not want to be trying to sort through a lot of small pieces of fabric for one color mixed into a large batch of fabric pieces.

Now we glue the fabric onto the egg. There is not right way or wrong way to do this. I overlapped my fabric to cover the whole egg. However it is not necessary to do that. Use regular white ( school glue) it is cheaper and your hand will get all sticky. It is nice to be able to go to the sink and wash up when ever you want. You may find you need to do this often for the fabric piece you keep trying to pick up start sticking to your finger after a while. Now when you cover your egg with fabric place them on the cover paper plates and let them dry for 24 hours. Than I took the glue and just lightly cover the fabric cover egg with a layer of glue. Placed it back on the covered paper plate and let it dry for another 24 hours. This was my way of making sure the fabric was secure.

See here the eggs covered with fabric. My stash of prepped eggs ready to be covered with fabric.

I generally make two plate full of eggs. It helps in the next few steps they can be messy.

Remember you have cover your eggs once in a layer of glue now your going to cover them again in a layer of glue this time roll them in some glitter. Choose the glitter you want to compliment the eggs. This is messy but Wow is it fun.:) Let dry for at least 24 hours.

You know those twist ties on bread? Here is a place were we can recycle them. Yea. Take some ribbon and use the bread ties to wrap them into a hanger. Can you see them there on the carpet? This is another reason why I make several at once. Plug in your glue gun and take the tied in and glue it into the larger hole. I do not skimp on the glue gun glue. I apply generously. Can this be a little trying to you. Well the answer is yes. Be careful not to break your egg. ( you can) did you make the ribbon small enough to go in the hole of the egg. The what if's are endless. Try and go with it - don't let it frustrate you this is suppose to be fun.

Here is what you end up with at this stage.

During this step I gather branches from outside and stuffed them into a box. I placed a garbage sack under the make shift tree. This was to prevent the polyurethane from dripping off the eggs onto the carpet. If you do this outside you may or may not need the garbage sack. I did this in winter time so I was definitely not going outside. ( it was far to cold)

I took a foam brush and coated the eggs ( after the glitter had dried) with Polyurethane. I waited 24 hours and did another coat. I did have some eggs drip. I used the foam brush to dap the bottom of the eggs to prevent a weird look. Also I wore gloves during this step. It will be messy, go slow. The good news this is the final step.

Ta Da Ornaments for any occasion.

Have fun with it.

Making some fun Hippie Pants

This was a quick fix to a pair of pants that had started getting some holes in it. My neighbor gave me this idea - said she had pants like this when she was a little girl. I just ran with it. I fixed the beginning of holes by patching the jeans on the inside with some jean material from another pair of jeans (thrift store find). Next I machine embroidery on the front pocket and I also embroidery on the flair I put inside the leg to make them bell bottoms. I used the same denim I used to mend the holes in the pants.

 Now you can see I wanted them to be calm and use single color designs. I tried to pick colors that would not 'blast' you when you wore them. ( not that I don't just love being blasted with color -big smile)

 My neighbor just adored the embroidery in the front pocket area.

Now on the bell I embroidery a butterfly on each side and just used  a fancy stitch that came with the machine to go up each side of the add on bell. I also left the bottom unhemmed on purpose to give it a rough look. I really like them. I did not do the bell high up on the leg and I was very pleased with the look.
If you want to do this I just did a rough estimate and threw it together. There are many examples if you run a search through a search engine. (which I did not do until after I made the pants.) LOL 
I wear these often now. I believe they will last through summer. Not bad for a pair of pants that came from a thrift store and fixed with another pair of thrift store pants. We are saving money now. :)

Beginning the Tablecloth from recycled men's shirts

I have picked out the shirts to use and started cutting them up. I have a pictures of all the shirts my dad sent me and off to the side is my back up thrift store find that if I need additional material this will hopefully fit the bill. I just cut them into panels for now. I have one panel for the back and one on each side. With the sleeves I cut them into what ever shape they were-- long sleeved or short sleeved. Now it is time to iron and start laying them out to see if we need more. :) on another note I found a stain on one of the front panels of a shirt - which was a real bummer because it had an embroidered paw from the High School were he use to teach. I have treated the stain -- lets hope it comes out. If not then I will need to decide if I want to use it or not. This could be a tough decision being that if will be a table cloth and bound to get stained at some point.

The shirts before I cut them up :

Stay with me I will keep you involved every step of the way.  Have a great day.!!