Dream A Little Dream With Me....

Okay folks. I have not been able to stop thinking about the biggest, most exciting part of our manifestation that I really really hope to have completed within the next five years (though hopefully much MUCH sooner)....

The certified Greenhouse Kitchen.

Just saying the words makes me feel like I'm standing right in the middle of it, surrounded by lush, blossoming plants.... inhaling the aromas of rosemary, citrus, fig, thyme, white sage..... looking out onto our property as I put together some of the most amazing baked goods and soups you've ever tasted.... Seriously!

So I'd like to take a moment to create a visual for all of you lovely people who are following along with this manifestation, in hopes that maybe you can help us make it happen even faster than we could ever dream!

Let us begin.

This is our garage:

Now, this is just your typical garage (although much neater and cleaner than many garages I've seen, thanks to Ryan and is anal-retentive penchant for being organized), but the potential for this space gets my whole body buzzing with excitement!

Imagine, if you will, stone flooring shimmering here and there with smooth pieces of sea glass... A beautiful recycled-glass island in the center of the room, with a large farmhouse sink at one end... Imagine, on the left side of the room, a beautiful six-burner gas range with a double oven and a pull-out drawer to store our cookie sheets and baking pans (like THIS ONE)... Along that same wall will be more counter space, along with a beautiful large-capacity refrigerator (maybe like THIS ONE?)...

Along that front wall where the garage door is, will be two french doors that open to the parking lot (and the fresh air and sunshine), maybe something LIKE THIS - but without the shutters... Oh, and that little door on the left will not exist... The whole front wall, as well as the side walls will be glass (because... it's a greenhouse kitchen)....

We will take the ceiling out of the garage to expand the space upwards, where a U-shaped catwalk will be, gently flowing with all sorts of wonderful herb plants, fruit trees, and veggies which can all be accessed by a spiral staircase over in the front-right side of the garage/kitchen...

And above the sliding french doors at the front of the room will be a giant stained-glass spiral, in gorgeous colors that will wash over the interior whenever the sun bursts through!!

Each day, you will find me in that kitchen creating the day's soups and baked goods... Everything will be made from scratch, and from organic and/or local foods, many of which will be grown and raised on our own property. The selections will vary on a daily basis, and will manifest based on whatever I happen to conjure up! A few days ago, I made almond-flour banana cupcakes with Elderberry buttercream frosting... and oh my god... they were delectable. The cupcakes were so moist, yet they held together beautifully... and the Elderberry frosting was not overly-sweet, but the perfect complement to the banana and spice flavors. And Creamed Cauliflower Meatball soup? Oh yes... savory... hearty... creamy... hot and soothing on a cold Winter's day....

You all will want to come to our kitchen.

This kitchen is going to be the focal point of our entire endeavor. Folks will be welcome every day to come in and partake of the nourishing goodness that we have to offer, and to get to know us as we get to know our community. And the whole family will be involved, which is equally as exciting because I really feel like it's so important that families work together, especially when you're trying to live sustainably, cultivating your own property.

I cannot wait until this creation comes to fruition! So if you would, please pass along our GoFundMe link if you think there are people in your circle who would help us make this a reality. Or if you feel so compelled, send us a word or two of encouragement because sometimes it's hard to keep the faith that it will happen (even though I know it totally will because we want it to). Any and all support is welcomed and we are grateful for all of it!!!

You guys are awesome. Thanks for letting me share with you. :)

Bridging the GAPS

I don't know if any of you have heard of the GAPS diet before, but it's basically a gut-healing protocol that can actually reverse symptoms of autism, food and seasonal allergies, anxiety, depression, and all sorts of other mental and physical ailments, both chronic and occasional.

I have tried to do this diet a couple of times before, but it never seemed to be the right time to successfully make it through the Intro stage... Holidays seemed to loom big and full of delicious crap that I wasn't supposed to eat... and if you know me well, you know that I absolutely adore food and have a sweet tooth the size of one of the moon's biggest craters, and so.... well, my will-power was powerless. And I failed. More than once.

But I am not going to judge myself or say "Oh Lindsay, you're pitiful! How come you can't just stick to this diet and heal your body when you know you need to?!" Truth be told, the GAPS Intro diet is hard. There are 6 stages to the Intro portion of the diet, and you start with eating only bone broth and well-boiled vegetables and meats basically. At stage 2 you can add in raw egg yolks and soft-boiled eggs... And little by little you are able to add in more foods, watching closely to see if your body reacts negatively to any of them as you go.

I have a history of anxiety, very low energy, irritability, constipation, and chronic fatigue. It makes for kind of a miserable existence at some points.... but that's why I'm trying to heal myself! I want to have energy, and experience joy and bliss, and POOP! :D

So anyway, I'm on Stage 2 right now, and hoping to breeze through it quickly, because on Stage 3 I can start eating nut butters, and you have no idea how hard it's been for me NOT to grab a heaping spoonful of our homemade peanut butter!!!!!

I haven't experienced too many die-off symptoms yet, which are a result of the body killing of the bad bacteria. When bad bacteria die, they release toxins into the body which can actually make your symptoms worse before they start to get better. So far, I have experienced some mild nausea, headaches (which I never get), super-irritability (oh how I feel for my family right now, lol), mood swings, and some pretty intense cravings. This morning I was cutting a banana in half for Maya, and the very end broke off and I could literally feel myself pop it into my mouth and cut through the soft, sweet fruit with my teeth... and I got kind of emotional again  because I knew I couldn't actually eat it without messing up my progress thus far.

Believe it or not, healing begins the day you start the diet! I experienced die-off symptoms on Day 1, and it's only Day 3, but I can tell my body is changing. It isn't exactly comfortable... and I didn't expect it to be... but it's proof that healing is taking place.

And I know many people will say "But aren't you hungry????" I'm actually not. The idea is to begin by consuming foods that are very easily digestible and healing, which is where the bone broths, well-boiled veggies and meats come in, along with probiotic foods with each meal and each cup of broth. Plenty of animal fats are a necessity, and I find that I feel satiated and nourished even when a big ol' sandwich is what I'm craving. Oh how I will miss bread..... at least for awhile... *sob*

Anyhow, I will post here and there about my progress just in case anyone is interested to know if it's working. And if anyone is interested in learning more about the diet, and possibly doing the GAPS protocol, I highly suggest getting a hold of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride's book "Gut And Psychology Syndrome." It explains the origins of many diseases and allergies affecting much of the world today, and how the brain and the gut are so closely related and affected by one another. It is an invaluable source of information for those struggling with these dis-eases, especially for those who want to HEAL them!

Right now, I feel a lot of brain-fog... lethargy... and an all around "Blah-ness." So I'm going to stop writing for now. But stay tuned, as I'll have more updates on the rabbitry, GAPS, family-life, and so on in the days to come!

Whoever Said Rabbit Feet Were Lucky....

....obviously never had a rabbitry. Seriously, the crap that's been going wrong seems to be outweighing the things that are going right... and that probably isn't true, but you know how it feels when setbacks just keep happening.

For starters, let's discuss the watering system. Ryan spent quite a bit of time hooking up a rain-barrel watering system so that we didn't have to keep filling up water dishes for each of the rabbit cages. We purchased some nipples online so the rabbits could drink whenever they pleased, without the risk of them pooping in their drinking water. At first, it seemed like it was going to work pretty well... but then the water froze. We needed the water warmer for the barrel, and thanks to the donations we've received so far, we were able to purchase one!

"YES!!!" we thought, as the water in the barrel started to warm up nicely. And then.... the water in the lines going from the barrel to each nipple froze. And then the T-connectors that linked the tubing to each nipple started breaking. Why? Because they're cheap plastic.

So shortly after this happened, my parents surprised us with a visit (they live in Missouri and I hadn't seen them since last Christmas)!! My dad is pretty handy in various areas, and they spent quite a bit of time outside in the barn messing around with the rabbit set-up. They insulated the lines to help keep them from freezing, and again... everything looked great. Until..... the water got TOO hot. Seriously the little rabbits were gonna burn their tongues. According to the description of the warmer we bought, it is  "Thermostatically controlled to operate only when necessary." Well, it was operating when it wasn't necessary obviously.

So then Ryan and my dad went to the hardware store and purchased a timer for the warmer, which would allow us better control of when and for how long the mechanism warmed the water. Ryan first set it to come on for 30 minutes, then go off for 30, etc. That still kept the water too hot. Then he readjusted it so it came on for a shorter period of time, and stayed off for a longer period. Hooray! That seemed to work! The water was nice and warm, not scalding, and the rabbits seemed quite happy.

Until...... we forgot about sexing the rabbits and chaos ensued one night when one of the males in our silver doe's cage started to get possessive of the females and began fighting with one of the other males in that cage. They were literally screaming and chasing each other in circles around the cage, which got the rabbits in the adjoining cage riled up, and soon the whole cage was swinging from the rafters.

Ryan took one of the males out and put him in a smaller cage by himself, and eventually slaughtered him as we needed meat, and it also solved the issue of him fighting the other male to the death. Or so we thought. Why? Because there was actually one more male in that cage. Yep. 

We ended up making a few more small cages so every rabbit that needed to be separated could be, and Ryan recently reattempted to hook up the barrel watering system (and it works!), so for now, all is as it should be. Let's hope it stays that way!

Bad Hare Day

Even though we have been trying to improve our rabbitry setup (and it has definitely been coming along), we were not - until very recently - able to purchase hanging feeders and set up our rain-barrel watering system. What this meant is that the rabbits would consistently sit in the food dishes to eat, and for some whacked-out reason they would sit in their water dishes as well. And what happens when animals' butts come into contact with anything you wouldn't want poop or pee on? They poop and pee on it! Or in it, in this instance.

We were very good about washing out their food and water dishes daily, but if a rabbit wants to take a drink at 3am and they pooped in it at 2am... well, we aren't awake to take care of that.

SO! Suddenly a bunch of the rabbits got the sniffles and sneezes. One of the runts of our Rex/New Zealand mix had a big white booger on his nose. Crap!!!

We have been giving them echinacea in their food, and it actually seems to be helping a lot, thank the lard (yes I meant to say lard).

That big giant child containment unit that I wrote about in my previous post got an overhaul thanks to Ryan and his uncle, Brian. Even still, it was not the proper setup for a venture that we hope to get certified by the USDA and MOFGA.

Now, I have actually been trying to write and complete this post for about a week now, but have been finding it a challenge as we've been gearing up for Christmas, plus we've had appointments and general "things-to-do" that has eaten up a lot of our time. We came into more money via our GoFundMe campaign and were able to go buy some proper welded wire material to make our own cages!! Oh, and also thanks to our wonderful donators our water warmer for the rain barrel is here!

This is the welded wire we bought: it is .5" x 1" squares, and is 3' x 87' long.

J-hooks and j-hook pliers for bringing the cage pieces together.

Ryan snipping the cage material...

Me cutting the cage material... (aren't these photos riveting???)

Just an idea of how the j-hooks work to bring pieces of the cage material together.

So this is the first cage that we made... it's really too big (3'W x 6'L x 2'H), but whatever. Our rabbits will have an extra roomy space for now! ;)

Ryan suspended the cage from the rafters in our second garage so that they would be up off the floor. This will not only keep the pee and poop out of the cages, but will also make it easy for us to reach in and take the rabbits out when needed (although it might still be a bit of a challenge since we made this particular cage unnecessarily deep).

Happy wabbits! (They love the heat lamp)

Bunny pile!!

This is our new buck. He's a purebred New Zealand, so once we breed him with our big NZ mama (she is seriously huge now... she's gotta weigh at least 15 pounds) we'll have a little of purebred NZs! :)

Our next step is to build some ramps that connect to the underside of the cages, and a trough with soil in it. The pee and poop will slide right down the ramp and into the soil trough, where it can be used immediately as compost! 

TA-DA!!!!!!! 

Recipe: Rendered Lard From Beef Suet

Ever since I started researching traditional food diets, and following related blogs like Nourished Kitchen, Cheeseslave, and Food Renegade, I've learned a lot about some of the misleading information circulated by the USDA - as well as your local chain-grocers - regarding what's healthy and what isn't. One of those tidbits of misleading information is that a low-fat diet is healthier than a diet rich in healthy fats. Healthy fats, you say? For anyone who is interested to know the truth about fats, I urge you to read this article by the co-founders of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  Don't be intimidated by how long the article appears to be... you can just read the first 1/4 - 1/2 of the page for a good deal of important information on the subject. And by the time you're done reading that you may be so intrigued that you simply want to read the rest of the article!

And yes, I could have tried to give you a short version of why quality fats are good for you... but it's 9:30 at night, I'm pretty tired, and I'm too lazy. So..... you should read the article, mkay? :D

Anyhow... One of my favorite healthy fats to use in cooking is lard. I especially love to use this in my super wonderful pie crusts that I occasionally make for pot pies (have I mentioned how epic they are?). Now, I can actually remember a time when I was a lot younger when they sold lard in plastic tubs (just like butter) in the grocery stores. I don't remember brand names or anything, just a yellow plastic tub with the word LARD on the front. I cannot even imagine where that lard must have come from, or what quality it must have been, but I am so glad we never consumed it.

The lard I render, however, is creamy and rich and adds wonderful flavor to whatever you use it for - try making french fries with it... you'll never fry them in "vegetable" oil again! (Did you know that vegetable oil actually does not consist of any vegetables at all? It's oil from SEEDS!! And what's worse... it's most likely from GMO seeds!!)

To render lard, you start with 1.5 - 2.5 pounds of quality grass-fed, organic beef suet or leaf lard from pigs. I buy mine at our local food cooperative and it's fairly inexpensive.

Cut the lard into 1/2 inch chunks and put them in a heavy-bottomed stock pot with 1/4 - 1/2 Cup of water. Simmer on Medium-Low heat for about 45 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally to prevent the lard from scorching and/or sticking to the bottom of the pot.

As the suet or lard renders, the liquid will become golden, and small bits of fried fat will start to rise to the top. These are called "cracklins," and you can actually save these after you are done rendering to use in salads, on top of casseroles, by themselves as a healthy snack, etc. Salt 'em up and mmmmmMM have you got sump'm gooood!

Cracklins. Looks like popcorn chicken, right?

Anyhow. Once most of the cracklins start to sink to the bottom of the pot, your lard is ready to be jarred. I use Ball mason jars to store the rendered lard in, but any glass container with a fitted lid should do fine. Strain the liquid from the pot through a mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth or a paper towel (if you are going to use a paper towel, I highly recommend something cheap and 1-ply... NOT Brawny... the lard won't pass through it and you'll end up with a huge mess... ask me how I know.)

Allow the lard to cool before putting the lid on the jar. The lard will be golden while it's hot, but will turn white and creamy when it cools! It's pretty neat.

Hot....

Cooled!

Rendered lard will last for a fairly long time at room-temperature, but will last even longer when stored in the fridge. I usually only make one jar-full at a time so I don't bother putting it in the fridge, but I also tend to use it up within a month or so, so if you don't think you'll use it that fast, I'd keep it in the fridge.

Gobbledy Gook

WARNING: This post will contain graphic images, so do not read any further if you have any issues with anything related to animal meat preparation.

On November 26, 2013... at some time between 6pm - 7pm (I think)... two turkeys met their fate.

It was a cold, snowy night... dark as squid ink (but our outdoor lights were on so we were fine)... and we knew it was time. Because we waited until the last damned minute to take care of not one, but two Tom turkeys that we'd acquired from our neighbor up the road.

To be honest, I didn't want to process turkeys at 6 or 7 o'clock at night, but with only one more day until Thanksgiving, and too much to do to get ready for our feast, we had to suck it up and just do it. So we got our butcherin' clothes on, prepared what we needed for slaughter, processing, and packaging... and we got to it.

Now, because it was dark and cold outside, we decided it would be best to kill the turkeys outside, but to butcher them inside the barn. Had I known what this experience would be like, I would have adamantly insisted on doing everything outdoors.

To begin... did you know that turkeys smell awful??? And I don't mean after you kill them... They literally smell like a poopy zoo. I had smelled them briefly a few days ago when we first got them, and Ryan opened the door to the mini-garage where we were keeping them until we were ready to process them. I thought they stank then... but was I in for a surprise.

I had set up the tripod outside in front of the tree that we were going to hang the turkeys from, with the intent of documenting this whole process from start to finish. Well, sorry to disappoint everyone, but I ended up not being able to participate much. Aside from the fact that I didn't feel ready to process the turkeys that night in the first place, once we got the first turkey slaughtered I just couldn't get past the smell.... It started out at the tree... the turkey had just died... and it farted... and it kept farting as Ryan moved it around while un-fastening its legs from the ropes he'd set up.... and it staaaaaaank. It was that poopy zoo smell, with some other raunchy smell that I couldn't quite identify.

This is the first Tom that we processed. He was alive in this photo, and he was probably farting.

And this was after killing it and he surely was farting here, too.

Some of you may be scoffing at my childish description of the smell, and at the fact that I handled this process in a less-than-stoic manner. Well look.... this was my very first poultry processing experience. For whatever reason, the rabbit we slaughtered did not have this effect on me. In fact, I was rather pleased that I handled it so well and was able to jump right in. The turkeys, however, were simply not what I was expecting (not that I really had many expectations), and there were things about it that caught me off-guard (like the smell) and it just wasn't in the cards for me. That being said, I will gladly try it again, on a bright, sunny day when we can do everything outside in the fresh air. Live and learn.

So Ryan killed the first turkey and we took it into the barn to process. Ryan had set up a counter-top table with our knives and a trashcan to put the guts in. He cut the turkey's head off all the way, then took it outside to submerge it in a tote-full of very hot water. Doing this loosens the feathers so that you can quickly (sort of) and easily remove them.

After the turkey's "bath," Ryan brought it back inside where we cut off the wing tips - which do not really offer any meat and would just add extra work to de-feather - and started plucking. It was really weird resting one hand on the bird's still-warm body and ripping feathers out. I didn't necessarily mind it, but the damn bird still stank. Yes, I will admit, I had hoped that dunking the bird in the hot water may have helped get rid of some of the smell.

It didn't.

Plucking.

While it wasn't taking all that long, it was taking long enough that we didn't feel like doing it any longer (by this time it was nearing 8pm), so we decided to just skin the birds and make a turkey pot pie out of it instead of roasting a whole turkey for Thanksgiving (my pot pies are epic). 

Ryan started to gut the turkeys, and Sophia started getting overly-tired, and Maya - though sincerely interested in the whole process - just wanted to go inside and watch a movie. So I happily obliged them and took them inside to settle in for bed. Honestly, I felt really bad because I didn't help with the rest of the first turkey, or the second turkey, but Ryan said he understood and didn't seem to mind doing it himself. 

The next day he brought all of the meat in that he had stored in our barn fridge, and holy cow was there a TON!!! Those turkeys had some big breasts. The meat from that alone filled a huge metal mixing bowl we have. We've been eating off of it for three days now, and there's still a bunch left that we're going to freeze. Then there are still turkey legs in the freezer! I used a two legs for some turkey stock, and pulled all of the meat off the bones after it cooked for about 8 hours. It was just like pulled pork.... only turkey.

Gizzard halves, liver, breasts (with heart), legs.

This is another one of those learning experiences I knew we would have at some point along our Farming/Self-Sustaining/Dream-Manifesting journey. Even though I felt like I had failed at first, I realized that I did the best I could this time around, and next time will be better. :)

New Project

The other night we had insanely strong winds and frigid temperatures. All night, right into the morning, the wind literally howled, screamed, whooshed, and whirled, and when we woke up in the morning there was a sheet of ice stuck to our front door.

I kept thinking about the rabbits outside and praying that they were warm enough in their hay-stuffed cubbies, and even though I know they were, it was an urgent message that we need to build indoor hutches for them before Winter officially arrives.

So the other day we started prepping our indoor hutches. Wanna see what we're using? :D

Do you like our Child Containment Unit? No seriously.... that's what it was. We got this thing for free from a church that used it in the nursery... There were four mattresses that came with it.... For children.... And there are sliding "jail" doors on it.... That lock.... WTF????

Needless to say, we told them they could keep the mattresses as we wouldn't be caging any children in it. And if we did decide to cage some children we certainly wouldn't want them to be comfortable or anything... After all... it's a dungeon! 

Here we have a test specimen (just to see how well this unit truly worked).

If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding!!!

Okay, I'll stop I swear. Seriously though.... tsk tsk.

So anyway! Our plans for this setup is to put plywood up on the backside of the unit, take out the sliding/locking doors and install hinged doors for easy access. The inside of each hutch will be lined with chicken wire, as will the floor, and underneath the chicken wire at the floor will be a slide-out tray that catches the pee and poop so we can easily clean them.

Here I am, sawing off the dowels from the backside of the Child Containment Unit... I mean soon-to-be rabbit hutches... with Sophia strapped to my back. I am truly amazing. Thank you, thank you.

With some of the money we've been given through our GoFundMe link, we are going to buy a water warmer for our rain barrel, and some tubing so that we can set up a better watering system than what we currently have (which is... plastic pet bowls).

While this hutch unit will serve its purpose throughout the Winter, it would not pass inspection by the USDA. What we really need are metal/steel hutches that can be easily cleaned/sanitized. The above unit is made out of particle board or some other weird wood-particulate material. We would love to be able to reach our goal that we set through out GoFundMe campaign to build a certified kitchen/processing/packaging area. 

Things are coming together slowly, but surely (actually, a bit more quickly than we'd initially thought!), though at times things can definitely seem overwhelming with everything else we've gotta keep up with here at Wild Hare Farm! I love it though. I wouldn't want it any other way... except I could use a personal chef... that would just be the bees knees....

THESE GUYS are our next project....

 And because I got too busy to post this when I had originally intended to, the turkeys have actually already been processed. And so I will document that rigmarole in my next post!