Sunday, September 11, 2011
Good-bye Chickens
It's a box. And inside the box were 19 chickens.
It was quite the adventure. Yesterday was the day when the chickens were taken off to the butcher. The night before, Kevin prepared this nice box and nailed it to our trailer so it wouldn't come loose during transport (that's the sort of image to keep you up at night!) He broke some air holes into, it, and lined it with some wood chips. Then he backed the whole thing up to the chicken coop door.
We waited until after dark to load them into the box. They were roosting and initially were calm. Of course, the calm quickly gave way to chicken hysteria. Kevin and Lydia have much experience with carrying chickens around, but the interruption to their normal lives, plus being thrown into the box, got them thoroughly wound up. One chicken escaped but Lydia recaptured it. After a breathless 10 minutes, the guinea hen was the only bird left on the roost. (And what she thought about it, nobody knows.)
Kevin then backed the cart back into the garage, closed the door, and turned off the lights. The indignant clucking gave way to calm cooing. They all happily went to sleep.
Yesterday morning, Kevin was up bright and early. He drove off with the chickens to the butcher.
For the most entertaining aspect of his experience, I will link to Naomi's blog post as she describes it beautifully.
http://onegirlinabigfamily.blogspot.com/2011/09/chickens.html
Another little problem was that the box was too big. When Kevin reached in to grab a chicken, they all ran to the other end of the box. He punched a hole in the other end, and they all ran to the first end. It was shaping up to be an Abbott and Costello routine, but a friendly fellow poultry man helped Kevin catch the chickens so all was well. Kevin stood at one end and bugged them and they ran to the other end and were plucked out by the friendly guy.
After all those adventures, 18 chickens were killed and processed in a few hours. We picked them up around 1 p.m. And now we have a freezer full of fresh, organic chicken.
Here are six chickens in vacuum sealed bags. For those who are local and interested, the butcher charged $3 a bird to process them and seal them in bags.
Lost in the tall grass is our forlorn guinea hen. She is territorial and likes "her flock" so is a little bothered that her underlings have disappeared. She was very clearly at the top of the pecking order. However, she hasn't wandered off, and we will make her happy by purchasing a new batch of chickens in the near future.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread
Here is my zucchini bread recipe
1 cup shredded zucchini
8 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter (or you can use 1/2 cup olive oil if you prefer)
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons Stevia (the kind that is interchangeable with sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare a loaf pan 9 inches X 5 inches. I recommend putting an Al foil sheet over the sides and bottom...cover the entire pan. This bread sticks badly. Also spray the Al foil with an oil spray.
Combine all but the last 3 ingredients in a bowl.
Sift the coconut flour and put 3/4 cup in another bowl. Add the baking powder to the coconut flour and mix together.
Combine the two bowls. Mix well. Make sure you don't have lumps and let me tell you, there will be lumps unless you work at it :-).
Stir in the walnuts if you want to add walnuts.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes. You can stick a toothpick in to make sure it is done...if it comes out clean, you are good.
Remove from pan and cool though I like it a little warm.
Yummy!
1 cup shredded zucchini
8 eggs
1/2 cup melted butter (or you can use 1/2 cup olive oil if you prefer)
1 Tablespoon honey
2 Tablespoons Stevia (the kind that is interchangeable with sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sifted coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Prepare a loaf pan 9 inches X 5 inches. I recommend putting an Al foil sheet over the sides and bottom...cover the entire pan. This bread sticks badly. Also spray the Al foil with an oil spray.
Combine all but the last 3 ingredients in a bowl.
Sift the coconut flour and put 3/4 cup in another bowl. Add the baking powder to the coconut flour and mix together.
Combine the two bowls. Mix well. Make sure you don't have lumps and let me tell you, there will be lumps unless you work at it :-).
Stir in the walnuts if you want to add walnuts.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake for 55 to 60 minutes. You can stick a toothpick in to make sure it is done...if it comes out clean, you are good.
Remove from pan and cool though I like it a little warm.
Yummy!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
These Weeks in Pictures
I've not posted many daily life pictures of our family lately, so here it goes.
Sarah got into the pool for a little while and was cautiously pleased with the experience.
And Sarah got plenty of time with Nana, who loves babies.
On Labor Day itself, we welcomed my great-uncle for lunch. He is in his early 90's, a World War II veteran, and has amazing stories to tell about the war. Actually, while his war stories are interesting, I can relate better to his farm stories. He grew up on a farm in Michigan and experienced the introduction of electricity in houses, cars, etc. He has seen so many changes.
Our garden has had a good year considering that we had rains in June that slowed down platning and Kevin has been too busy to spend lots of time on the garden. In the middle of our produce plants are some flowers that Lydia planted years ago, and which come up loyally every summer. They are beautiful.
Satuday, as I said, was in the high 90's. Sunday was in the high 70's, Monday was in the low 60's! It has been very cool all week. Lydia took advantage of cool temperatures and a decent wind to fly a kite for a couple of hours on Tuesday. The kite did very well. At the end, she got tired and I went outside to help her reel it back to earth.
The kittens are outside now. We acquired black kitten at the pet store earlier this summer. She was a relatively happy inside cat for a couple of months, but when she got big enough she acquired a very bad habit. Namely, she would jump up on tables and counters and eat food that she wasn't supposed to. That was a serious issue. But the next problem was that the food wasn't good for her and she would go somewhere and throw up. That was worse. So we decided she'd be better off outside.
Tiger kitten was a stray that showed up on our doorstep (with his mother and brother) in June. We found homes for Mama and the other kitten, but decided to keep Moonbeam. He was inside and we enjoyed him, but he decided the outside was more interesting and started dashing out every time the door was opened. We don't want cats going in and out as we've had problems with bugs biting people, especially ME. So, now Moonbeam is outside too. The kittens were inside together for many weeks and are best buddies, so are very happy to be together again. Both are fixed so we don't need to worry about new kittens popping up, or at least not homegrown new kittens. Since we are out in the country, we do get plenty of strays who enjoy our cat food buffet.
We paid a company to repair a concrete sidewalk next to our garage. They also added dirt next to the house to reduce the amount of water collecting near our walls. Kevin seeded the new dirt with grass. And I have spent many happy minutes watering the grass. It is actually quite a pleasant job, though making time to go out and spray the grass twice a day has been a bit of a challenge.
Ok, so what? It's our refrigerator, covered with stuff? But look inside...
It's clean! Pristine! Amazing!
I clean out my refrigerator from top to bottom about every 5 years whether it needs it or not. It needed it this day, though, as a pop can exploded in the freezer. As long as everything was shut off, I decided to tackle the refrigerator as well. What a job! However, it is done and looks great.
And we found this wonderful watermelon hiding in our garden! Well, true confessions...Kevin's mother found it. She was poking around looking for cucumbers and found the watermelons carefully hidden in the sweet potato plant leaves. It tasted wonderful. We have a couple more growing out there and should harvest at least one of them soon. What fun!
My parents visited over the Labor Day weekend. Saturday was incredibly hot -- upper 90's. My dad doesn't particularly enjoy swimming, but even he jumped happily into our pool. He and Sarah had a little bonding time watching everyone else when he was done.
And Sarah got plenty of time with Nana, who loves babies.
On Labor Day itself, we welcomed my great-uncle for lunch. He is in his early 90's, a World War II veteran, and has amazing stories to tell about the war. Actually, while his war stories are interesting, I can relate better to his farm stories. He grew up on a farm in Michigan and experienced the introduction of electricity in houses, cars, etc. He has seen so many changes.
Our garden has had a good year considering that we had rains in June that slowed down platning and Kevin has been too busy to spend lots of time on the garden. In the middle of our produce plants are some flowers that Lydia planted years ago, and which come up loyally every summer. They are beautiful.
Satuday, as I said, was in the high 90's. Sunday was in the high 70's, Monday was in the low 60's! It has been very cool all week. Lydia took advantage of cool temperatures and a decent wind to fly a kite for a couple of hours on Tuesday. The kite did very well. At the end, she got tired and I went outside to help her reel it back to earth.
The kittens are outside now. We acquired black kitten at the pet store earlier this summer. She was a relatively happy inside cat for a couple of months, but when she got big enough she acquired a very bad habit. Namely, she would jump up on tables and counters and eat food that she wasn't supposed to. That was a serious issue. But the next problem was that the food wasn't good for her and she would go somewhere and throw up. That was worse. So we decided she'd be better off outside.
Tiger kitten was a stray that showed up on our doorstep (with his mother and brother) in June. We found homes for Mama and the other kitten, but decided to keep Moonbeam. He was inside and we enjoyed him, but he decided the outside was more interesting and started dashing out every time the door was opened. We don't want cats going in and out as we've had problems with bugs biting people, especially ME. So, now Moonbeam is outside too. The kittens were inside together for many weeks and are best buddies, so are very happy to be together again. Both are fixed so we don't need to worry about new kittens popping up, or at least not homegrown new kittens. Since we are out in the country, we do get plenty of strays who enjoy our cat food buffet.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Streamlining Story of the World
I've used the history curriculum "Story of the World" for several years. This delightful curriculum has brought us from the early days of human history through, so far, the early European settlement of North America.
For several years, our older girls and I would sit down down a few days a week and they would listen while I read from the Story of the World book. I bought the associated activity books and the girls would color while I read, and then we would sometimes do map work. I really enjoyed these times as I could comment on the history we were reading about, and we often had fascinating discussions. I am minor history buff and learned a lot with them.
But time has become extremely precious around here, and my times with the girls dwindled down to one or 2 days a week at the end of the last school year. This year, Kevin and I talked and decided we should buy the Story of the World CD's where the husband of the book author narrates the book.
Now while I am doing Five in a Row with our boys, our big girls are in another room listening to the SOTW on CD. Then later, the boys listen to another set of SOTW CD's, as they are starting at the beginning of book 1 and the girls are in the middle of book 3.
So, this works. Well. I am a little sad I don't have infinite time to read the books out loud myself, but I'm having to accept that shortcuts like these are wise. The kids are learning and I have more time. Definitely a good decision.
For several years, our older girls and I would sit down down a few days a week and they would listen while I read from the Story of the World book. I bought the associated activity books and the girls would color while I read, and then we would sometimes do map work. I really enjoyed these times as I could comment on the history we were reading about, and we often had fascinating discussions. I am minor history buff and learned a lot with them.
But time has become extremely precious around here, and my times with the girls dwindled down to one or 2 days a week at the end of the last school year. This year, Kevin and I talked and decided we should buy the Story of the World CD's where the husband of the book author narrates the book.
Now while I am doing Five in a Row with our boys, our big girls are in another room listening to the SOTW on CD. Then later, the boys listen to another set of SOTW CD's, as they are starting at the beginning of book 1 and the girls are in the middle of book 3.
So, this works. Well. I am a little sad I don't have infinite time to read the books out loud myself, but I'm having to accept that shortcuts like these are wise. The kids are learning and I have more time. Definitely a good decision.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
The Baby is Just About Done...
with breastfeeding
I said in my last post that I had dropped dairy because Sarah is allergic to cow's milk. I will probably be going back on dairy shortly, as I think she's about done with breastfeeding.
I definitely have some peculiar emotions about that. I am not someone who absolutely loves breastfeeding. It is a very special time and obviously wonderful nourishment for the baby, MUCH better than formula. With our first child, I had a hard time breastfeeding but I remember being very determined. It took 2 weeks for us to really get the hang of it. If I had been less determined, she might well have ended up on formula.
But it is also a struggle for me, especially past the 6 month mark. As I've gotten older and busier, I have had milk supply problems starting as early as 6 months. Miriam, our 5th child, went on formula at 6 months because my milk supply disappeared.
With Sarah, I've had concerns about my milk supply. But I thought I was doing OK. Then a week ago, she went in for her 9 month well child checkup and her weight gain was not adequate. She had dropped from the 40th percentile in weight to the 5th percentile in weight! Starting that night, I began supplementing with formula after every feeding. And the poor girl was drinking the formula eagerly. She obviously had not been getting enough food. I feel so badly about that, but the truth is she was "starving happily". She has been outwardly content and sleeping through the night. I really had no idea!
I was able to get a weight check on Sarah yesterday as another child had a well child checkup. She was up 5 oz in a week, which makes me very happy.
As this week has gone by, I can tell my milk supply is continuing to drop and I think the end is not far off. Sarah is probably our last child, so it is a strange and somewhat sad thought to think that I'm coming to the end of nursing forever. But, I don't know for sure. And all good things come to an end eventually.
I've always had a fairly pragmatic approach to breastfeeding. Yes, it is wonderful. But there are times when it doesn't work out from the beginning, and times when it becomes a struggle after many months. I have a friend with 12 children, and she has had supply issues starting with the 6th child. She nursed and supplemented with formula for the last 6 children. She said she was happy that she has access to a safe alternative to breastmilk.
Now don't get me wrong, I think that moms should try to breastfeed if they can, and that it should be a priority. But I don't think it is the primary priority of life.
Life is a balancing act. I'm guessing that if Sarah was the only child to care for, I could make breastfeeding work longer. I could eat more, and I could spend more time at it. But we've been blessed with many children, and we've been called to homeschool. I am a very very busy wife and mama and that probably affects my milk supply. My husband and other children obviously need my attention and focus as well.
My goal in the next week is to introduce more solids into Sarah's diet, and to look into goat's milk as a partial liquid supplement to Sarah's diet. She's in soy formula now, which isn't the greatest thing in the world. I'm praying for wisdom and direction in helping Sarah grow strong and healthy now that nursing is ending.
Coconut Flour Zucchini Bread
I've been diabetic for more than 7 years now. I was diagnosed during Joseph's pregnancy, but was assured that it would go away post partum. It did not. I really didn't get much better after he was born, and during subsequent pregnancies I didn't get much worse again. Bottom line is that I'm a borderline diabetic. I have had blood sugars in the 200's, which makes me a member of the diabetes community. My goal is to have a fasting blood sugar below 100, and a 2 hour post eating blood sugar below 120. Most of the time, I achieve those goals.
After my diagnosis, I had to change my diet significantly. I used to be a "carb girl". I LOVED my simple carbs. I liked Cheerios and bread and white rice and potatoes. My basic diet was centered around carbs.
All that had to change after I realized my blood sugars were going too high. So I moved to a low carb diet. I am usually very self controlled with my eating, so was able to make the necessary adjustments. I am also not a "gourmet" and I don't require much variety in my diet, so I found it easiest to just eat the same things over and over again. As of a month ago, a typical day's diet would be:
Breakfast: full fat homemade yogurt with berries and Stevia, and eggs
Lunch: A salad or apples and peanut butter or some leftover stew with high protein. Mid afternoon I would have another yogurt with berries.
Dinner: Meat and veggies and salad
Night Snack: Yogurt with berries.
About a month ago, I realized our baby is allergic to cow's milk, so I reluctantly dropped dairy from my diet. Which meant my yogurt had to go away. Which made me sad :-).
I was VERY happy to find something else for snacks and that is coconut flour bread. I am not someone who likes messing around in the kitchen. I cook well, but I don't experiment much. Two friends kept recommending coconut flour but getting to a store to get some was a pain, so I put it off. Well, I finally bought some from Amazon and found a recipe for coconut flour zucchini bread. (We have zucchinis -- oh do we have zucchinis!)
Coconut flour is low carb for a flour. It also absorbs moisture so the recipe calls for EIGHT eggs per loaf. That means there is plenty of protein, and protein is a great thing for a diabetic as it helps achieve more stable blood sugars.
Ok, here it is and it is SO SO SO good! The first loaf was pretty bland. Kevin said it tasted like cardboard. I adapated it (I'm not great at adapting recipes, so I am proud of myself) by adding some Stevia. It is delicious now! I don't let other people eat it. It is MY zucchini bread. I make zucchini bread for everyone else with normal flour. They need to leave my zucchini bread alone!
I feel like I'm entering a whole new world in that I LOVE bready substances and I will experiment with coconut flour to make other things when the zucchinis run out. For now, I'm a happy mommy with my zucchini bread.
After my diagnosis, I had to change my diet significantly. I used to be a "carb girl". I LOVED my simple carbs. I liked Cheerios and bread and white rice and potatoes. My basic diet was centered around carbs.
All that had to change after I realized my blood sugars were going too high. So I moved to a low carb diet. I am usually very self controlled with my eating, so was able to make the necessary adjustments. I am also not a "gourmet" and I don't require much variety in my diet, so I found it easiest to just eat the same things over and over again. As of a month ago, a typical day's diet would be:
Breakfast: full fat homemade yogurt with berries and Stevia, and eggs
Lunch: A salad or apples and peanut butter or some leftover stew with high protein. Mid afternoon I would have another yogurt with berries.
Dinner: Meat and veggies and salad
Night Snack: Yogurt with berries.
About a month ago, I realized our baby is allergic to cow's milk, so I reluctantly dropped dairy from my diet. Which meant my yogurt had to go away. Which made me sad :-).
I was VERY happy to find something else for snacks and that is coconut flour bread. I am not someone who likes messing around in the kitchen. I cook well, but I don't experiment much. Two friends kept recommending coconut flour but getting to a store to get some was a pain, so I put it off. Well, I finally bought some from Amazon and found a recipe for coconut flour zucchini bread. (We have zucchinis -- oh do we have zucchinis!)
Coconut flour is low carb for a flour. It also absorbs moisture so the recipe calls for EIGHT eggs per loaf. That means there is plenty of protein, and protein is a great thing for a diabetic as it helps achieve more stable blood sugars.
Ok, here it is and it is SO SO SO good! The first loaf was pretty bland. Kevin said it tasted like cardboard. I adapated it (I'm not great at adapting recipes, so I am proud of myself) by adding some Stevia. It is delicious now! I don't let other people eat it. It is MY zucchini bread. I make zucchini bread for everyone else with normal flour. They need to leave my zucchini bread alone!
I feel like I'm entering a whole new world in that I LOVE bready substances and I will experiment with coconut flour to make other things when the zucchinis run out. For now, I'm a happy mommy with my zucchini bread.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)