At the grist mill today

We got out kinda early this morning and went to get out income taxes done and out of the way. I got to visit with Pauline, a good friend who does taxes here. It was nice to see her and her hubby and both of them look great but are in bad health. With that finished up we had a noon appointment at the grist mill to get our cornmeal ground for the year. I had never been to that particular mill since the fellow got his building built and set up. It was  really neat to see the old engine he uses to grind with. The mill is owned by Glenn and Kathy Kincaid here in our county. Really nice folks. Glenn is partially retired from the school system and farms some on the side. The grist mill is his hobby and he says he will try to make it a lil part time business after he gets retired completely. The mill runs on propane but to start the engine Glenn uses a crank on the wheel and turns it several times to get it going. This is the old way of grinding corn after the hand grinder. I have about a bushel of wheat and ask Glenn if he could grind it on the mill and he said he had never done wheat but sure would like too. So if its not really too cold this week I will winnow the wheat we have and take it to him next weekend to have it ground into flour. That should sure make some yummy bread.

Building that contains the grist mill.

The grist mill in operation grinding our corn.

We had almost 2 bushels of cornmeal ground today and Glenn only charges like $10. Not bad to have a year supply of cornmeal for us and some friends for that price as it don't cost much to raise enough for our use. The rest of the corn will be used for stock feed this summer. I do know the chickens love it in winter time. We brought the meal home and I put it in  the freezer for about 2 weeks which kills any bug eggs in it and then vacuum bag it and store it in a barrel in the cellar.

It is so neat to hear and see the grist mill in operation. If this video will load I will share it with you as soon as I can get it downsized so it will upload in less than one day. Ugh! the pitfalls of satellite Internet. Speaking of Internet, ever since the solar flares occurred my Internet has been so very slow, far slower than normal. Not sure if that had some effect on it or not. If I were computer savvy I could probably re size it myself but since I am not I will have to contact my tech support (Jason) and get him to help me figure out how to do it.

After we got home this afternoon I let the laying hens out and left the hens with the babies in the building. The mommas are feeding and caring for the lil ones and the other chickens don't bother the babies so they are allowed to run together right now. I do have one extra rooster that I need to find a home for. I think our neighbor was wanting a rooster to crow at her house so I think I may call her and let him go live at her house. He is a bother to the hens. I think they are prejudice toward him and holler when he flirts with em and that upsets the buff roo and then a chase ensues. Not good for any party involved.
Not much else happening here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

Making sausage and rendering lard

Now you have successfully butchered a hog and hopefully have pans of odd shaped and strange looking meat to do something with. First off you need to get some of it packaged like you want for cooking. As for me, I sliced the tenderloin and froze it in layers with plastic wrap between the layers. Once frozen I put it in bags and vacuum seal it, label and back in the freezer. The ribs halves are cut in half and each rib is then cut apart. I like fried ribs or grilled ribs, so these are packaged and vacuum sealed and frozen. Now you can freeze the pork chops and chunks of back bone as you like. I froze the pork chops and trimmed all the meat off the back bone chunks for sausage. And you still have odd looking pieces of meat. So you take each piece and cut any skin and fat into about 1/2 inch cubes to render for lard. The lean and about 30% of any attached fat goes into a container for sausage along with any pieces of meat that are really fatty.  Once this task is done its time to grind sausage. I normally use a hand crank old fashioned grinder but Josh was kind enough to loan me his electric grinder which did a great job.

Once all the meat is ground up you season it. I use sage, salt, red and black pepper and a touch of brown sugar. We had about 30 lbs of meat ground, and for this I use almost a quart pickle jar of home ground sage, about 4 tablespoons of cayenne pepper, maybe a quarter cup of salt, less than a quarter cup of black pepper and about 1/3 cup brown sugar. This is ball park. Then I mix in the seasoning by hand. Keep in mind this is more a method than a recipe, so adjust seasonings to your personal taste.

This does take some time. It is also good if you can have someone help you with this as you get the seasoning mixed in they can fry a small sausage patty and you taste test it. Then add seasonings according to your own personal taste. You should be able to taste a lil sage and black pepper, you should have a slight after bite from the cayenne pepper and just know that it has brown sugar in it. The brown sugar does for sausage what salt does for any dish, it simply enhances the flavor. Now after you are done adding ingredients to the sausage and are sure it taste like you want it. Then you can put it in bags like we did or make patties and freeze them, use the way you like. If you use sausage on pizza and like Italian sausage add a hint of garlic powder to the seasoning. Now you can chill out or collapse as I did until day 2 of the lard making.


We got out the cast iron lard kettle that my dad used that his family used and prolly family before that along with the paddle used to stir the lard. I got the kettle all washed out inside and added about a pint of lard that I had here to the kettle over a fire to get it started rendering.

 This is the kettle and then I added the lard after Rodger got a fire going under it. This process is best done outside to keep the grease out of the house.

You need to start with a low fire, as to not get the kettle too hot and burn the lard or it will taste burned.  And it does need to be stirred constantly when you start to keep it from sticking also. We all took turns stirring the lard kettle.

We did this at Jason's house and his cat needed to be entertained too. So we took turns with this as we got a break from stirring.

 This is what the cracklings will look like at about the half way point of being done.

 As the cracklings get done and the lard finishes, the cracklings will float to the top of the lard. When it is done we use large hooks to pick the kettle up off the fire and set it on a flat surface that we have put a clean piece of tin down so the kettle don't become uneven and tip over.

I had a large stock pot to strain the lard into and used a cheesecloth lined strainer. The hot lard and cracklings were dipped out of the cast iron kettle and poured in the strainer to strain out the cracklings and fine pieces of meat. Set the container of lard aside, Do Not cover it, to cool. I do use a towel over the top of the kettle to keep dust and dirt out tho. Let the cast iron kettle cool, wipe down inside with a dry clean rag and store in a dry place till next time. If the kettle is like this one and well seasoned it wont need to be washed at all. Only just to get out dust and dirt prior to next use.  Put the cracklings in a separate container to be used in crackling cornbread or if you are like me to be eaten as a snack. And trust me, today I have eaten my share.
Now most likely tomorrow after the lard has cooled, I will bring it home, and remelt it and pour it into hot half gallon canning jars, and put on the lids. As the lard cools the lids will seal and it will keep for a long long time in the pantry or cellar. The cracklings I will bag up and freeze for later use.
I hope this has given someone the courage to try their hand at butchering their own hogs for meat. If I think of something that I have left out later I will go back and add it to this post but will let you know there has been additions in future post.
We had a good day but there were many times I sure missed dad. This is the first time we have butchered a hog here on the farm since dad has been gone. But I have to say, he taught me well, I did remember how to do it from beginning to end. And now hopefully Jason and Josh both know as well. Maybe I have passed on some knowledge as to how hog butchering is done the Appalachian way.
In the next post I will tell you how to make souse like I have done it and share the recipe or method. And the pickled pigs feet as well. But till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The corn is in the crib

Well we finally got the corn in the crib and out of the wagon. Great weather today, warm and in the 50's with rain and snow on the way. The corn elevator is a handy thing to have on the farm if ya have to store ear corn. It works better than it ever did. With my best estimate we put about 50 bushel of corn in the crib. Now we just need to get some picked out and shelled for cornmeal and hominy. I was very concerned that the corn would mold and start to rot in the metal wagon. But an accident worked out in our favor. When picking corn with an old fashioned corn picker it is best to pick in early morning while the shucks are still only slightly damp from the overnight dew or frost. The picker will shuck the corn so much better at that time and you have far less shucks in the crib. But as circumstances would have it, we picked late in the day and the shucks were extremely brittle and dry. This fact I think is probably why the corn kept well in the metal wagon. A slight bit of moisture would have caused a lot of condensation and all would have been lost. We live and learn here. Now once again I see why my dad alas picked early in day.

The elevator does beat all to heck using a shovel. This crib will hold 100 bushels and it is about half full.

We aimed the end of the elevator toward one end and filled it then moved the wagon and aimed the other way. We used boards to kinda partition off an area in front of the door so ya can stand in there and shuck corn to be shelled. This crib is designed for optimal air circulation. Although it is in a bad location. It is at the end of our yard off the drive way a bit. Hard to get wagons in there because you cant back the wagons up. Backing those things is kinda like pushin a chain. Any who we had a piece of plywood under the end of the elevator as we unloaded corn and the corn banging around does shell some of it. I scooped the shelled corn off the plywood and tossed a feed sack full of shucks and corn in for the laying hens. They will have plenty to eat and the shucks for bedding.  Last evening we had shelled some corn into the box that has the corn sheller attached to it. This is Petunias feed.

The box this sheller is mounted on is older than me. But it still works well, unlike me.  So we bagged this corn up and took it to feed the hog for next week.

 

  Loaded up the elevator to transport to the barn for storage and to keep it in the dry. Cost too much to have parts made when something breaks after being left out in the weather. Rodger had to have some parts fabricated to remount the gears on both ends of that thing and those were not cheap. So back in the dry it goes.  Got the elevator unloaded and went and fed Petunia. She is a happy camper with her pile of hay for a bed and plenty of corn and water.

She has put on a good deal of weight since we got her home. She kept herself lean and trim when she lived at Rosie's place. She ran around with the sheep and cows. Now she has her own space here and all the food she can eat. She is a very good natured animal. Always calm and gentle. No trouble to take care of at all.
Now I am in for the night and it is starting to rain. The guys had to make a trip out o town to stock up on warm long johns and a few supplies this evening after the chores were all done. They had planned on going hunting this weekend but the weather forecast was for lots of rain and snow tomorrow, so they postponed that trip. But I am so thankful the rain held off till we got our corn in the crib.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Yard sale treasures

We went to the 127 Yard sale today. We had went last year and found some good places that had lots of old tools and antiques. Those were the places we went back to this year. We did find a few things that we wanted. I found another old hand tobacco setter. It is in great shape and identical to the one we had here.

This will come in handy in the spring when we transplant tomatoes and such in the garden. These handy tools make the hole, drop the plant in and water all with the simple pull of the handle.
On this excursion I was looking for old canning and cook book. I found several of them. One was an old Kerr canning book from the early 70's. The recipes are still good you just have to adjust the pressure and timing for todays standards.
For people who know me know that I have a weakness for Goetze's caramel creams. I have thought of times when I was younger going to stores and you could buy those caramels by the pound. I mentioned to Jason today when we were between yard sales that I had an urge for some Goetze caramels. We pulled into the big yard sale that is on the property of a church in Frankfort Kentucky and the first vendor we came to had Goetze caramels by the 12 oz bag. Needless to say I came away with 6 bags. One bag was gone is short order. By time we got home this is what was left.

OK so I had my sugar fix for the day. We had a nice time just plundering around looking at all the stuff people were selling. I found a cute lil plate that is going on the wall in my kitchen.

We drove about 150 miles one way to go to all these yard sales. A nice day all and all. I did find some peaches and got a bushel of them to can tomorrow.
We finally got home kinda late and I am thinking it is about bed time. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Fertilizing, planting and transplanting

It has been one busy hot day today around here. It started with some errands this morning. My buddy Gene that had a stroke on April 1st was in need of a haircut and the same lady is the one that cuts my hair. I picked her up this morning and we went to see Gene for a bit and we both got a hair cut. That was a good start to the day. Got her home and came back to help Jason transplant tomatoes and plant beans in the garden. He already had 5 rows of pink eye purple hulls planted by time I got home. We got started on the tomatoes and all those are in. I had 4 rows about 50 plus feet long of those. If we dont get rain tonight we Rodger and I will finish planting the rest of the beans and such tomorrow. Although it was really hot today the tomatoes hardly wilted.
                                                        (tomatoes after they were transplanted)

The peas are blooming, the mustard turnip greens are ready to can, thas a project for next week. The potatoes we planted are not coming up like they should, the onions do look great, the lettuce is ready to eat, the carrots and beets are doing good as well.


                                                    (the rest of the garden)

                                                         (the volunteer potatoes)

As for potatoes, we planted taters last year and the bugs ate the vines up. The potatoes were not worth digging. So this spring they were turned under with the rest of the garden. The volunteers came up and are about a foot tall already. So when Jason ran the tiller in the garden getting it ready to plant everything else he plowed thru the taters and made them into rows. They will get fertilizer a lil later and we will see what they do. If these make good taters, this is the way we will plant them from now on, or should I say let them come up volunteer. We shall see.

                                                                (orchard beyond the garden)

The trees in the orchard all have leaves on them and seem to be doing ok. We have been keeping the grass around the trees mowed  with the riding mower and letting the rest go to seed. There is a really nice stand of grass on the orchard area. It is located on the end of the river bottom east of the garden. And we do need to mow again real soon as some of the grass is waist high.

                                                         (Jason side dressing corn)

The one acre field of corn that we planted for cornmeal is up and it was time to side dress it. They found out that the corn planter and the cultivator are set for different width rows. So the tractor cultivators can not be used to plow the corn. It will have to be plowed with the rototiller. So with not using the cultivator we had to figure out a way to side dress the corn with fertilizer without doing it by hand. Rodger and Jason rigged the side dresser on the 4 wheeler so we could use it. It worked like a charm. It was bolted to the rack on the back of the 4 wheeler and when Jason would take off down the corn row he would trip the machine to let the fertilizer flow out the tube that was attached to the hitch on the 4 wheeler. It did a better job than we could have done by hand.

                                                        (adding 100 lbs fertilizer to machine)

                                            (the little chute drops the fertilize near the plants)

The fertilizer gets dropped right beside the corn in the row so there is no waste and you dont fertilize the weeds and grass. We used 19-19-19 fertilizer and the usual amount is about 400 lb per acre. The flow rate on the side dresser was set for about that much. That was so easy and now we are thinking we will likely use this method to side dress all the garden as well. It sure saves my arm and back from doing it by hand and you are done in a third of the time. It only took about 2 hours to do an acre of corn. And that was a lot of smoke breaks.
While Jason did that I was in the garden getting the weeds out of the strawberries and some other stuff. It was really too hot in the middle of the day for me to be doing that. I think I got a little bit too hot. I got really weak and felt kinda odd. So I came on to the house and had about 3 big glasses of water. I got my self a little bit dehydrated. Or maybe I am getting a little too old to do this stuff in the heat of the day any more.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Chain gang?

Well not really a chain gang. It was potato planting time on the farm. We planted out potatoes the way my dad always did and he had good potatoes.We made a furrow with the rototiller, then someone goes behind and put the fertilizer in the row, someone else usually drags a chain thru the furrow to mix the fertilizer in with a small amount of soil and then you plant the potatoes and cover them over. So today with Jason here, and he always says I work him like a barrowed mule, today I did. He was the one putting in the fertilizer so he tole me to hook the truck chain to his belt and he would do both with one pass. Then I put the taters in and Rodger covered them up with dirt. So we have our potatoes planted. Later this evening we planted the fruit and nut trees that I had ordered. We had piled a good bunch of chicken manure and bedding near the orchard and used that to mix in with the dirt in the bottom of the hole and then set the trees in, watering and back filling each one. All 18 trees are in the new orchard. I still need to get some apple trees to put in there for a good variety of fruit in our little family orchard. All this done, we set the strawberries in the garden on the back side where they can run and spread all over. I also planted a few cabbage and some broccoli in the garden too. We got to try out the old hand tobacco setter that we got last summer at the big 127 yard sale. We have a pretty good start on the garden so far. I always have to draw a map so I know where we planted things and what varieties we plant so we can see what does best here. Like today we planted 4 different varieties of potatoes. There were some Pontiacs for early potatoes, Yukon Gold for storing, GoldRush for storing and some Purple flesh potatoes just because I could. I think I would be kinda neat to serve some purple mashed taters.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead..

Stella

Hot or cold, open or closed

That has been the dilemma here today with the sun coming and going and drizzling rain, and sometimes overcast. It tough keeping a greenhouse at the right temp. It was really cold last night so we had the propane heater on. It warmed up in the day and we turned it off. I had a fan on and went out to work out there this afternoon and it was comfortable. The thermometer said it was 65 in there. The sun popped out and in 5 minutes it went to over 100 degrees in there. Took me a minute to figure out why I was so hot. I was thinking maybe just age, but heck no, I had to open the door and window. I did get more tomatoes, herbs and some flowers started today. Mostly marigolds to use in the big garden for bug deterrent. I sprayed all the seedlings with fish oil emulsion today as well and watered it in. On the way back up to the house I noticed that my herbs are coming up under the wire that I had put over the bed to keep the animals out. So its spring I think.
Jason went to Richmond today to see if he could have my great grand dads pocket watch fixed. Good news is so far it is running perfectly. Just a little part of the family history preserved.
The weather is posed to be nice next week so we are going to try and plant potatoes and get my summer kitchen built. I think maybe we will go get building materials tomorrow. Then we need to get the rest of moms furniture moved and stored for her. There is a lot to do and I must have the furniture moved before April 1st. With a little nice weather we have lots to get done around here. The fence still needs to be put up for the laying hens to have a lot. I am sure they are pretty tired of being inside all the time. Not much else going on here, so till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Trial run

Well as of yesterday the old team drawn hay rake on the farm had been fitted to pull behind the tractor. And all was well. Today we decided to take it to the field where we will eventually be using it to rake hay and give it a trial run. Jason and I were both very pleased to find that it worked like a charm. Of course there was a good bit of nostalgia for me to see it operate again. With the tines dropped down it rakes the ground clean, better than most tractor rakes that I have seen. Only thing with ours is that it requires a rider to operate the lever to raise the tines and dump the hay after you get a pile raked up. And I being the light weight was promptly volunteered. There is a seat for the operator to sit on, a foot pedal to assist with the lever to raise the tines at the appropriate times. I think I like this new toy too. So now we have a means to put up hay by loose stacking it if the time arises that we choose to for feeding livestock. We will be mowing some hay in a few weeks to stack loose for use in the chicken houses this winter as opposed to buying straw at 6 bucks a bale.
My dad was always one to take really good care of his tools and farm equipment. We checked the hubs on the hay rake and it still has grease packed in it that dad put there some 30 years ago and it is still clean and no need to repack. I think he would be rather proud of our ingenuity. God rest his soul. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Older is just as good

As I have stated before this little farm has been in the family for 4 generations. And a lot has changed in that time. When I was just a little girl I remember helping and being involved in what ever work was being done at the time.
I remember one time, I was about 10 years old, dad had mowed the fields and we didn't bail the hay at the time. He always used mules to farm with and we had all kinds of team drawn farm implements. He used the team drawn mower to cut the hay and the hay rake to rake it up. I remember he used a fork to throw the hay in a wagon behind the team and I was the little one so I got to jump around in the hay to pack it down a little and get more in the wagon. That has been 37 years ago. This hay rake is one of the first designs of a steel hay rake, made in the late 1800's and is still in good working condition. This equipment is still here even tho we don't have mules any more we now have a tractor. Jason and I decided last week that we could use the tractor mower to cut some hay we have and instead of paying someone to bail it, we will use the old team rake behind the tractor to rake the hay in rows then pick it up with a pitchfork and stack it that way to use in the chicken houses and just in case we come across some animals really cheap this fall. The hay rake didn't and a tongue in it to pull by so we came up with a plan. We used a landscape timber which is about 3" by 4" for the tongue. Then it was on to a way to hook it to the tractor. We used the metal hitch from an old team drawn cultivator on the end of the timber to hook it on the tractor draw bar. Worked like a charm. We haven't decided yet if someone is going to ride on the hay rake to raise the tines to dump the hay or if he will just stop the tractor and raise the tines and then drive on. I am sure it could be altered to raise the tines from the driver seat but we really don't want to change the design of the hay rake too much. Guess we will see how this works in a week or so when we get ready to take up hay.
The next project will be to fix the stalk cutter so we can pull it with a tractor to chop up corn stalks after we pick our corn before they are plowed under to rot. And its days like this that I am so thankful that my 2 boys got to spend time with their grandpa and know how the old things work here on the farm. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Well sweet potatoes are promising

The Irish potatoes are a flop due to many factors but the sweet potatoes are promising so far. After the discouraging dig in the Irish potatoes and no size or turn out we decided to check and see how the sweet potatoes were coming along. So far it looks like they are going to be really good and big too. They still have about a month and a half to grow before they are done and we dig them for storage in the root cellar. We only dug in the pink ones so far and they are good so the white ones hopefully did as well or better. We prefer the white sweet taters over any other. On the homestead we are divided on which potato fork to use when digging taters and which is easier. I still prefer the one on the left as that I is the one I grew up using. The other one is used like a spade and to me is harder to use. I still like the old ways better.
Not much else happening on the homestead today, other than made a decision to put the remaining tomatillos in the freezer to use in soup and green pork that an online friend sent me a recipe for. Still have lots of red bell peppers to put up in some fashion. Maybe one decision a day is enough so I will leave that one till tomorrow. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

stella

Relaxing and now its back to work

Took the weekend off to visit my youngest son Rob and his girlfriend Amoy and go wander around the 127 yard sale for a day. That is an event to attend if you ever get the chance. Made a stop at one store and they had posted a map of the United States and was asking people to stick a pin in their town. There were pins in at least 30 of the continental states. Did find a few bargains and one item I had been looking for. We found a hand tobacco trans planter and bought it without question. Also bought a few other things that were maybe not really necessary but I thought they were at the time. Ah the fun of yardsaling.
Got back home this afternoon and had the spiced red cabbage to finish and get canned. Smells really good, cant wait to try it. Looks really pretty in the jars too. The cabbage takes a while to complete. You shred 3 large heads of red cabbage, layer in a large container and sprinkle each layer with salt then let sit for 12 hours. Drain well for at least 6 hours. Pack cabbage in hot jars and make pickling solution. To make solution make a spice bag with 1/4 cup mustard seed, 1/4 cup allspice, 1/4 cup peppercorns, 1/4 cup whole cloves, 1/4 cup celery seed tie the bag and put in kettle to which you have added 2 quarts of vinegar and 1 cup brown sugar. Boil this mixture for 5 minutes and remove spice bag. Pour liquid over cabbage in jars to within 1/4 inch of top of jar. Put on lids and bands and process in boiling water bath for 20 minutes for quarts. Seal.
I haven't tried this yet but some recipes follow up with the fact that you can drain cabbage and add mayo and serve like coleslaw as a side dish. Sounds really good and a pleasant twist on slaw.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
stella