Feeding a family on 2 acres

Most people think you need a huge spread in the middle of nowhere to produce the food to feed your family. Well, I'm here to tell you that you can provide most of the food for a family of 3,4,5, or even 6 people on as little as 2 acres. People ask all the time for me to share stories.

Feb 19, 2012: Another cold, snowless morning. Enjoying my coffee and waiting to go out to milk. Poor hubby broke an egg in the pocket of his jacket
last night, so we're a bit delayed this morning as he tries to dry it! One of the pitfalls of carrying that last "late night" egg you discover when tucking in the hens.
I've carried them back in my pouch before, and so far, not disasters.

Bought rumen magnets for the cows yesterday. Rosie has been coughing and coughing so much lately and I'm concerned about hardware disease. It's a problem
when you have cows in town. All kinds of garbage finds its way into their pasture, and you can't always prevent fencing nails from coming out of the fence.
Sometime cows will accidently ingest these small metal objects while grazing and it causes all sorts of havoc - can even kill them. It's called "hardware disease".
So the prevention is to put a small magnet down their throat which then stays in the rumen for life and collects any stray metal objects they ingest. Kind of a funny
procedure, but it works. I don't know if Dixie has a magnet or not. She may have gotten one from a previous owner. I won't give her a magnet as you can't have
two in a cow - they stick together and cause trouble. Plus she is so old that I figure she's made it this long! But definitely one for Rosie and Claribell.

Feb 8, 2012: I was teaching a class last night at the local high school on how to make cottage cheese and we were discussing all the various uses for whey. I decided to do a little research online to see if I could find some ideas other than what I had shared in class. I was absolutely bowled over by the LACK of information on that topic. Even Wikipedia (which had more info than anyplace else) had very limited and vague information (I took the liberty of adding some things there)

I'm amazed!! There are obviously thousands of people out there who, like me, make cheese at home and have gallons and gallons of leftover dairy whey.

Well, let me state right here - there are TONS of uses for dairy whey. For goodness sake, don't throw it away. It's full of sugar and protein. Some people drink it plain (I'm not one of them). But it's a great addition to a breakfast smoothie if you need a protein boost. The best use of it is in baked goods. Substitute it for milk in muffins, bread, pancakes, muffins, etc. You will be amazed at how it textures the flour. You can soak grains in it before grinding it into flour. One of my favorite breads is made with a couple handfuls of bulgur thrown in that's been soaked in whey. It also is great on acid-loving plants like raspberries and azaleas.

Jan 20, 2012: It's been a COLD week. Subzero weather. When it gets cold, you start to realize that cold, water and metal equipment are not a good combination!
I have to take my corn bag out with me in the morning. That's a flannel bag filled with dried corn. I pop it in the microwave for 2 minutes and then stick it in the
pouch of my milking hoody. It stays pretty warm for the 40 minutes or so that I'm outside.

I've moved milking times to 7am for a couple of reasons. I got tired of having to get up in the dark and by 7, it's light. This way I can get my youngest out the door for school and then head out. Also, I switched from a drip-style coffee maker to a stove-top percolator. A friend reminded me how much better coffee is when percolated on the stove compared to the Mr Coffee dripmakers. Once I tried it I was hooked. Big problem though in that I could no longer just set the timer to
have the coffee brewed by the time I got downstairs. Now I have to turn it on, wait for it to start percolating and then time it for 7 minutes. So, one more reason to push back milking to 7 and 7.

Rosie is getting pretty big. She is due with her first calf in a few weeks. Birthing is always an exciting time - a bit worrisome too as one never knows about milk fever. We'll have the first aid kit ready to go just in case.

The "babies" in the new chicken coop are getting to be big girls. They should start laying soon. We decided to expand our chicken operation, so that required a new larger coop. Our original coop has 22 good layers who are heading into their 2nd winter. We keep a light on in their coop this time of year so they will continue to lay. Got 18 eggs today - pretty good for 22 hens in January. The new coop has 65 new girls in it, but I think was built to hold up to 80.

Made delicious oven fried chicken last night. I made cultured butter so had lots of buttermilk. Took one of our big roasters (butchered last fall) out of the freezer, cut it up and soaked it in the buttermilk all night. Then the pieces went into a paper bag filled with flour, parmesan, garlic and black pepper then into a baking dish that I had melted butter in. Bake for about 45 minutes at 425 degrees, turning half way through. It turned out great! This last batch of meat birds turned out quite tasty. Probably because we butchered on a cold day.

Dec 1, 2011: It's finally beginning to feel a bit like winter. We have had a beautiful, unseasonably warm fall. All the animals (and us) have been enjoying it.
Dixie is still hanging in with nearlly 3 gallons of milk a day - absolutely incredible for a 15 year old cow who is more than 1 year into her last lactation. Claribell
turned 1 year old on November 4. We sang Happy Birthday and eveyone had a sugar cookie.

I finally got the book finished on "making dairy products in your kitchen" and it's off to the printers. In the meantime, it's available as an Ebook on Amazon.com
(link on the homepage).

Oct 10, 2011: Beautiful autumn day here in New Hampshire. Woke up at 5:45, dressed in the dark (don't like to shock my eyes too soon) and went down to have a quick cup of coffee. Charlie, our big furry cat follows me as he knows this is the time of day for 2 great events - food and going outside in the dark. Coffee is ready and provides a welcome aroma - thank goodness for automatic timers. Pour it into the thermos, feed Charlie and now fill a half gallon mason jar with hot water from the tap.

I grab 2 more empty jars off the front porch as Charlies slowly follows me outside. He's so excited, but you wouldn't know it to watch him move at a sloth's pace. Down the driveway and into the garage. Flip on the 2 lights - inside and side yard. Quickly check the milking room to see if I'm luck and the girls have slept outside.

YES - luck is with me. Throw on the mud boots and hurry in to slid the outside door closed! It is so much easier to get things ready without all the "help" the girls insist on providing. Fill the 3 pails with some "hay stretcher" and grain for Dixie. Put each bucket in a corner and then let in the girls. While they are creatures of habit and know which corner belongs to them, Rosie tends to bully her way in first and tries to snag a treat out of someone elses bucket! She's pregnant, so we forgive her her transgressions. Claribell looks tired this morning. She's been in heat, so no one has slept in 2 days. All done now, so they will nap today.

After cows, I fill 2 pails, water and layer pellets and head for the coop. Start with the small spare coop and let out "Spud" - she's an outcast and sleeps alone, then free ranges the yard. The flock is in the main coop. They are already in the yard making a ruckus begging for their food. Let their feed bucket down, fill it. Dump and change the water, and they are good to go for today. Back in the house by 6:30. Since it's such a beautiful day, I'll mow later for the girls.