Whats for dinner?

Fold laundry, pick up the house, tackle 2nd grade, head outside to do chores, and the next you know its 8 o'clock and everyone is screaming 'what's for dinner?'. Anyone else have this issue? It seems to be a fairly common issue with busy working moms and here, we work with the daylight so its dark before we even stop to think about eating and then all our meat is generally frozen. I tried getting several things out of the freezer and keeping them in the fridge, and then we end up not eating them because who really wants to start cooking dinner at 8:30? I  end up throwing away half of it because I can't remember how long it has been there! I could eat a bag of popcorn every night and be satisfied, although eventually I'm sure it would catch up with me. And then there is the case that all to often we find ourselves eating out which isn't healthy and cost a fortune. All the while, we are working in our garden, canning, or working with our farm fresh meat animals so that we can be healthier??  So explain to me how that works?

I have found when I take the time to plan out a menu and buy groceries we do a whole lot better, I also do pretty good spending a whole day cooking and freezing several meals, as long as I remember to get them out of the freezer in time! Until I run out of menu items and someone complains about eating the same thing every week. My kids love hamburger helper style meals, and they are quick and easy, my six years old loves to cook them, but yet again this isn't on the healthy side, surely its better than eating out though?!

This fancy new printer I got comes with some cool auto print things and with a push of a button or two it prints out a blank calendar! So AJ say, "mom, this is our menu planner, right?". Hmm, okay sure lets try it! Here is where I started:

Goals:

Balance

Nutrition

Convenience

Affordability

Its not really as easy as just throwing some meals on paper. If you want to be successful you need to half way know your schedule. I know there are some days we will be out all day and I don't want to come in an cook and clean up a huge meal. We cook for the kids at church on Wednesday night, so I don't need a meal then. Saturdays, we spend the day generally working on the farm, so I want something quick and easy. Okay you get the point.

*disclaimer* no judging about what we eat! I'm not a health coach, a dietician, or anyone who is qualified to put meals together for others. Eating these foods could cause weight gain, illness, fullness, happy husbands and children, or even death. I am not responsible.

Since we got that out of the way here is where you can get a downloadable copy of the September Menu. The grocery list include all your main items, but double check cause I can't be responsible if I forgot something and you have to go back to the store... happens to me ALL the time. I didn't include staple kitchen items, like butter, spices, and such. I split it into two list because I like my produce fresh, most people get paid twice a month, and that's about how many times I want to go grocery shopping with three kids in a month. The first list is for the 1st-16th and the second list starts for the 17th and continues til the end of the month.

This seemed like a good place for me to start and share my experiences, cost, failures, and insight as I go. I categorized a few things to help myself out. I will also try to get some links together for some of these meals! So here is to my first MEAL MONDAY! Even though I didn't finish it til Tuesday morning!

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;

Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

Psalms 34:8

Where does time go?

My laptop crashed about 3 months ago, and I finally broke down and got a new one. So excited because I got a great deal, and got all the programs I use.... Office, and Photoshop (yeah, my list is long). I also got a cool new printer cheap with the purchase, which I think I am most excited about. Any way, I thought it prime time to revamp the web page, catch up on my record keeping, and try this blogging thing again. Please, don't expect greatness, and you will not be disappointed!

I was thinking of addressing the situation of how fast time passes.... yes exactly like how its been two years almost since I sat down to write a post. Maybe I'm just not as good a keeping up with things like this as I would like to be. Since school is starting back it requires me to sit in the office/school room and gives me more time to focus on things like accounting, records keeping, and perhaps blogging. Then again time just seems to slip right through, while my hands are busy with three children and a full time farm with me as the full time employee. My husband has a full time job so he works around the clock, he says he gets a break when he goes to his actual paying job. One day I do hope we can sustain ourselves on our farm income, *sigh* one day.

Okay, so to actually make a point with this post instead of just rambling on...

...and the point was where does time go, and now its been six hours since I started this post... so yeah point made... time to milk the goat, and do bedtime chores.

Happy Girl and Happy Goats!

I posted this picture on Facebook and Instagram yesterday, but I didn't have space to tell the whole story. I also didn't think it was enough for a blog post, but the picture itself got a lot of feedback, so here it goes:

We have been having some awesome weather here in Tennessee. I have come out of my semi-hibernation this week to tackle outdoor chores that are long overdue.
 I've have been assembling the second greenhouse that I purchased in the fall, and I have been getting things in order for my spring gardening.
Anyway, we were out in the Upper Hog Lot (all of our pasture have names) where were electrified the fence. The goats stay there, unless they are wreaking havoc in the Barn Lot. 
I was moving some chicken hoop coops around and I caught a glimpse of something in an adjacent pasture (Pine Pasture).
It was a large coyote, and it had just crossed over the property line to eyeball the goats. 
Now, like I said before, we had electrified the Upper Hog Lot fence line back in the summer, but pesky little kids (goats, not humans) don't seem to be affected--they would find all these cracks between and under the gates. They would wander all around in adjacent pastures. 
Luckily, they were behaving when the coyote came around. 
Even though I was at a distance from the house and I didn't think I could make it back to the Upper Hog Lot before the coyote left, I had to try.
It never occurred to me that a predator would ever have the chance to get that close to my goats. 
Both of my children were with me, so I asked my daughter AJ to watch the coyote while I ran to the house... I literally ran. And did I mention that I was way out of shape from semi-hibernating?
My children were at a safe distance from the coyote, so I felt like I could leave them there... with 14 goats, a dog, and a blind pony.

Picture break:

Running back, I saw that the coyote had moved and was heading in the exact direction where the kids (goats, not humans) normally play. 

The beast paused, and I found a good place to sit down. Or, should I say I found a good place to almost pass out.

I couldn't stop panting enough to get a steady shot, so the coyote was able to start walking off.

I tried to whistle, but I didn't have enough air yet.

Guess who stepped in to save the day? My brilliant five year old, AJ! 

She and her brother were still up the hill playing, when she decided that "she had to do something". So, she howled.

"Awooo!" She called, stopping the coyote in its tracks.

And I made the best shot of the year! AJ was so excited when she saw it drop.

"Mommy!!" She screamed with glee. "That was the first coyote I ever killed--I mean, helped you kill."

I'm still laughing about that. 

She couldn't wait until we could go check it out! And then she talked about it for hours. It makes me excited to get her out into the woods to deer hunt!

The coyote was a pretty good sized dog, probably one of the ones I had shot at but missed during deer season..But this made for a better story!

In other farm news, is this goat ever going to kid or what? She did manage to get up on her own once today. The kids are still moving around inside of her, and she's still eating/drinking...but come on already!  

No kids (goat or human) will be injured or die in the result of the predators death. 

Cornish Cross Broilers 2015 Part 1

So I thought I would talk a little about Broiler chicken again, if you read my previous post about our attempt with the black broiler you might remember that we still don't have any fresh chicken for the freezer. So I thought I'd start a series about the batch of broilers we are raising now. 

Last year we bought all our meat chickens from the local tractor supply 'Chick Day's', since that isn't going on now I had to search out somewhere new to get some chicks! We found a pretty good deal over at Purely Poultry on their house Cornish Cross day old chicks. I am very pleased so far with the results. We made it over 2 weeks without loosing the first bird! Then when we had single digit temps we had a mini dooms day, even with a second light we still lost 6 birds over the course of 3 days. 

When we first got into chickens the last thought that went through my mind is, 'boy, I'd sure love to kill all these chickens and eat them for dinner'. No- I wasn't about to eat that, it was my pet! It didn't take long to become over run with roosters though, and I think most chicken people can relate to that problem. Although some find better options than eating them, we where fairly used to eating wild game, like dove, ducks, and deer, and luck me, my husband doesn't mind killing and cleaning them. Yes, he is the best! I only get the chicken after its completely gutted, and feathered. The only thing that looks different than a whole chicken from the grocery store is those bright yellow feet! After a few rooster population control meetings, we realized it just not worth the cost and work, what you get from layer roosters. We still really liked the idea of raising our own chickens, knowing what they where eating and the condition that they lived would be far better than anything we could ever buy at the grocery store. No hormones, no antibiotics, non-GMO feed, plenty of room, and real sun light! Following in the foot steps of a friend who had just finished their first batch of Cornish Broilers, we attempted it last spring. You can read more about that here, as well as the failed attempted with the black broilers.

We received 30 chicks on December 18th, all in good health. We start them on a none medicated 18% chick starter. They are kept in a brooder box, with heat light, off the ground. I have never had any issues feeding them all they will eat. Some say they can over eat and die and I could see that being totally possible, but personally we haven't seem to have any problems, especially at a young age. This past week I switch them over to a Non-GMO 22% Broiler feed, they seem to be doing well with that, not quite finishing off the 7lb feeder as fast as the other feed but I'm sure in a few days that will change. These birds progress so fast a few days and everything about them can change. 

We are moving them to a larger brooder box today, because I'm expecting the second round of birds to come in this week. The plan is to process somewhere between 25-30 birds every 4 weeks or so, we let them grow to about 8 weeks normally. Depending on what other big farm projects we have going. It takes a full days work to clean and process them. Last spring the most we did in one day was 15. We have some awesome friends that normally come over and help my husband butcher and clean, but *sigh* I watch from the kitchen window, alone. Ok- sob story over, the hub's messed up and helped me do the last couple last time, and now I can't do it without his help!! It just goes so much faster with some one else, although normally he's like 'would you just be quite and work'.
Joking.

I'll be back to report on this in a few weeks- 

In the Kitchen

I have this obsession with mason jars... I know its a problem but I just really can't find a good stopping point with collecting more. I love to find a sweet deal on them, and better yet be given a box! After canning over 500 jars this year of different things, I just don't know how many I will need... you know?? I have them tucked away in every corner, cabinet, hiding place and boxes in the attic, plus they are on shelves all around the house holding things or just hanging out looking pretty! I have a small collection of the antique blue ones, and I also have the anniversary collection, blue and green ones- but now look what they have gone and done! A new color! ohhh.... ahhh...

Pre-Order Here!

I hit a double with with our cost effective meal last night!  Poor man's supper never tasted so good! White beans and cornbread, and wild duck! I didn't think that white beans would be a meal I wanted on the menu much but with the grilled, bacon wrapped, cream cheese and jalapeno stuffed wild duck... Really need I say more? To top it off I found this tasty cornbread recipe on Pintrest from This Gal Cooks. It was a big hit!  

Yummy Recipe Here

As far as the rest of the week goes.... well-

Tonight: Tortellini & Spinach Soup

Tomorrow: Loaded Baked Potato (I cook for the youth at church!)

Thursday: Spaghetti & Salad

Friday: L/O

Saturday: L/O

Ok. that's as far as I got.... I have to work my part time job Friday & Saturday so I'll have to think twice as hard to have a meal ready the hub's can heat.

Whats your favorite meal to leave the husband in charge of??