Friday, December 18, 2015

Holiday Rush

I have been trying to wean myself from the workplace. I say that and laugh because I create more work here at home then at work! I did craft shows for the first time ever this year. I still need to decide if I am going to be able to do this(aka make the same amount of money) with farming and raising puppies as my "job" or give in and go back to work as a nurse. I want to homeschool and be home. There is always an over load of things to do without walking out the door to a job. I still can't see a way to save extra and pay the hiccups like car repairs and birthday items on a one pay check household. So I am inventing new ways to double up and stress ones self out. Not the plan I was exactly going for.
    I have found a good market and many others continue to encourage me to do the crafting. I started with crochet and fleece hats. I am trying to move them though Facebook shares and my page. I wanted to share here some of the items I found I could do while giving spelling tests, reading aloud with littles, or watching a history show on tv.
   I find with the internet and youtube, others blogs, pinterest, and facebook you can learn a lot of new skills and ideas. I can usually figure out a design by seeing a picture. I rarely follow a pattern. I may pull out my yarn if I don't like what I am doing and start over. I want to master the things I do find the best and yet efficient ways to do things. I am thinking of being able to do this year round with dog sweaters, baby items, season craft items, and then the winter hats and mittens later in the year.
     I found I need to be as frugal on supplies too. Supplies are very expensive and people are looking for quality hand made items but not too expensive. The fleece has to be bought on sale or I cant even do the hats. Even my hubby got in on the sales. He found bright yellow yarn on clearance and picked it up knowing how I was whipping up minion hats. I even sold 5 at his job!
    Many financial advisors will tell you make your hobby a part time job. Well this has been a full time job this Christmas season. I have been up late at night finishing orders. I am currently a week from Christmas and have two baby bibs almost finished, two mittens (that are a thorn at the moment), three fleece hats, and two pillows that go on Tuesday before Christmas. I did 5 crocheted hats and two pillows last week so I haven't been slacking on getting orders and getting them out. I also have two comforters to do and pjs for my 8 kids at home before Christmas arrives!
      I also homeschooled during this time. We have done speed drills daily in math, Mad Libs for quick grammar, reading, science, and book reports. We also are watching Christmas videos, doing some Christmas devotions, crafts, baking cookies, and caroling, so I am not keeping up on housework and hope to recover what has been lost between Christmas and New Years. I would advise anyone wanting to be home to find a hobby and make it work for you.

 I did these last year for a woman my husband works with. She sold them for me in November and they all sold!
 I did these this year. My kids have no idea who these guys are because we have no cable TV. The hats and the pillow below sold pretty well this season. The picture is actually an unfinished panel to one of three I have sold in a week! 

 I made this for my step grandson. His mom likes owls so I thought it would be perfect.
 One of 30 hats I sold this year. Minions are popular and I can whip one up in an evening once the kids go to bed.
 My daughter's friend likes the Disgust character. It's a Christmas gift.
 Both are cows I made for littles at  Halloween.

 I made this chicken hat for a baby girl and she has already out grown!
 A slouch hat. I found the pattern tutorial on youtube. Her pattern was less slouchy than mine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysm3RnvCsdU
 Bootie for a new baby at our church
 Again these super popular hats helped me make the Christmas list easier
 These are not hard to make and never go out of style
 My favorite and only daughter modeling the bags I made. 

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Processing Day for the Old Hens and Turkeys

Processing Day came and "it was windy" would be an understatement. We had 40 mph winds while processing outside on the deck and I felt the wind should have blown the feathers off the birds. The plucker my husband made worked great for the 18 old hens and a couple young roosters (who snuck into the pullet box of chicks this spring). We also had 3 turkeys that soon proved to be a challenge. They were over 20 lbs each, I think closer to 30 lbs and the plucker would not do it's job for these big guys. Hand plucking was now the name of the game. Once I got all the birds fully processed, the turkeys were halved and into the freezer.
   The chickens were another story. We left them from "Windy Wednesday" until Monday the following week in the fridge in freezer paper to avoid drying of the skin/meat. I found this idea at The Prairie Homestead  http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/. Jill is awesome with having a good readership and she often shares her own experience, good ideas, and tips for farming.
      I got my courage up a couple years ago and started using a pressure cooker on her advice through the blog. I found it easy and can confidently pressure can everything now! I will warn the new glass top stoves are not compatible for pressure canning. We have propane so I find it very easy to adjust temp quickly when canning.
     The reason the birds were left so long was to allow the bacteria in the meat to tenderize it, it really helps! Without this step the chicken becomes hard like rubber when it begins to cook in a stock pot especially the roosters. I took the chickens out of the fridge and placed as many as I could into the pressure canner with about a gallon of water. At 10 lbs of pressure (once the rocker is going) I gave it about an hour and the birds were so cooked!  I had to do about 4 separate batches but because there is no jars I could just take the rocker off and quick release the pressure So it moved along in a morning.


 You can see the meat was falling off the bones. I strained the water with cheese cloth and picked the meat from the bones.
 I then tossed the bones into a stock pot and filled to the top with water again. I cooked it a couple more hours on low after bringing to a boil for broth.
 This is chicken soup. I put in carrots, onions, homegrown celery from my neighbor, spices,chicken and 1/2 tsp canning salt. Total when finished I had 14 qts of soup. Perfect for when everyone including mama is too sick to cook.
 In the end I got 33 qts of broth plus the 14 qts of soup. I also canned 16 pints of chicken for sandwiches quick meals and salads. This was twenty old hens and roosters! When I did the broth it was only in 25 mins at 10lbs pressure in the canner. When I did soups and the whole meat they needed to be in the canner 1hour and 40 mins for qts a little less for pints.  I will say be careful to let the canner cool. Unlike a bath canner the pressure must come down and with glass jars it requires patience. I found about 30-40 minutes from shutting off the heat to the seals releasing to allow for the lid to be removed for the broth. This is why it took two days to can and clean up.
      I love grabbing a jar of broth to make my rice or start casseroles. For years I was afraid of pressure canning, but the time saved and amount that can be put away in the fraction of the time is so worth the leap into pressure cooking/canning.