Agrarianism Works
1/03/2007 - 4th Day - Before Breakfast. Yesterday the Sustaires finally arrived for good, Logan was able to begin making plans to start the work on his land, and I did some canning and cheese making. The children and Danielle are working hard to get done with this current "session" of homeschooling. The weather has turned a bit cold, though it did warm up enough yesterday for awhile that we did not need coats. Today and tomorrow they are calling for a spot of rain.
Yesterday, there was a big sale at the grocery store in Coleman, so I took the fellas and Chris W. there to pick up some bulk items for food storage. They had their canned vegetables for .89 for 3, and had some meats and sausages on sale for a pretty good price. I also bought a "test" roast so I can try out my new canner. The last week or so has been a long teaching session with the fellas about the rudiments of food storage, bulk buying, storage and preservation techniques, etc. They came over last night and were gleeful and excited that their whole delicious dinner only cost them about $1 for two people. I am excited that the lessons that my family has learned by eating minimally over the last 8 years is now being handed down to fellas who have yet to start their own families. They will be able to start out right. Since they are also learning how to produce their own food, milk cows, make butter, etc. they should be very well trained by the time the Lord brings them a wife.
(For dinner last night, we had smoked brisket, yankee beans (navy beans), peas and garlic toast made from rye bread.)
I tried my hand at making a few soft cheeses yesterday. I made three different attempts, and we should be able to test them all today to see how they turned out. Then I got our new canner out to give it a test drive. I took the large roast I bought at the store and cubed it. It made enough for three quart jars. Anyway, the canner worked well, although it was tricky keeping the pressure steady on our kerosene stove. It took quite a bit of monitoring, but it worked, so today I am going to start to can quite a bit of the meat we have in our freezer. Yesterday we found out from the butcher that they will take our pig in for killing tomorrow, which doesn't give me long to get much of the freezer cleaned our for Mr. Pig to go in it. I hope to cold smoke a bunch of his meat, so hopefully he won't keep the freezer full for too long. So it looks like I will be working the canner for the next week or so.
We have been getting a pretty good milk supply from Ami, so I have been rotating the milk out daily for different purposes. We skim the cream for butter and for cream for the coffee. We rotate the milk that is skimmed for use as cheese, or we barter some of it. I give the fellas their milk supply when they need it. If there is any left, it goes to the pig (not after today). We still pick up a couple of gallons of whole milk a week from Danielle's "milk lady" friends so that we can make extra butter and, now, cheese.
The root cellar progress has slowed down significantly because of a lack of money, but we still do some work on it daily. We have also begun work on our milking shed, which right now just takes labor and not money. In the next week or so, Lord willing we will begin working on preparing and manuring the gardens for spring. The fellas are probably going to be in demand quite a bit to help out the new homesteaders with their building projects, so our work here will probably slow down for the next two months - though I do intend to finish the root cellar one way or another.
Danielle, the children and the fellas all send their greetings. I hear them stomping around this morning preparing breakfast, setting the tables, making coffee, putting up the milk from this morning's milking, etc. Breakfast is at 7!
Michael Bunker
Yesterday, there was a big sale at the grocery store in Coleman, so I took the fellas and Chris W. there to pick up some bulk items for food storage. They had their canned vegetables for .89 for 3, and had some meats and sausages on sale for a pretty good price. I also bought a "test" roast so I can try out my new canner. The last week or so has been a long teaching session with the fellas about the rudiments of food storage, bulk buying, storage and preservation techniques, etc. They came over last night and were gleeful and excited that their whole delicious dinner only cost them about $1 for two people. I am excited that the lessons that my family has learned by eating minimally over the last 8 years is now being handed down to fellas who have yet to start their own families. They will be able to start out right. Since they are also learning how to produce their own food, milk cows, make butter, etc. they should be very well trained by the time the Lord brings them a wife.
(For dinner last night, we had smoked brisket, yankee beans (navy beans), peas and garlic toast made from rye bread.)
I tried my hand at making a few soft cheeses yesterday. I made three different attempts, and we should be able to test them all today to see how they turned out. Then I got our new canner out to give it a test drive. I took the large roast I bought at the store and cubed it. It made enough for three quart jars. Anyway, the canner worked well, although it was tricky keeping the pressure steady on our kerosene stove. It took quite a bit of monitoring, but it worked, so today I am going to start to can quite a bit of the meat we have in our freezer. Yesterday we found out from the butcher that they will take our pig in for killing tomorrow, which doesn't give me long to get much of the freezer cleaned our for Mr. Pig to go in it. I hope to cold smoke a bunch of his meat, so hopefully he won't keep the freezer full for too long. So it looks like I will be working the canner for the next week or so.
We have been getting a pretty good milk supply from Ami, so I have been rotating the milk out daily for different purposes. We skim the cream for butter and for cream for the coffee. We rotate the milk that is skimmed for use as cheese, or we barter some of it. I give the fellas their milk supply when they need it. If there is any left, it goes to the pig (not after today). We still pick up a couple of gallons of whole milk a week from Danielle's "milk lady" friends so that we can make extra butter and, now, cheese.
The root cellar progress has slowed down significantly because of a lack of money, but we still do some work on it daily. We have also begun work on our milking shed, which right now just takes labor and not money. In the next week or so, Lord willing we will begin working on preparing and manuring the gardens for spring. The fellas are probably going to be in demand quite a bit to help out the new homesteaders with their building projects, so our work here will probably slow down for the next two months - though I do intend to finish the root cellar one way or another.
Danielle, the children and the fellas all send their greetings. I hear them stomping around this morning preparing breakfast, setting the tables, making coffee, putting up the milk from this morning's milking, etc. Breakfast is at 7!
Michael Bunker
posted by Michael Bunker at 1/03/2007 04:29:00 AM
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