Preparing For Isaac

The last few days have been an absolute flurry of activity around the farm.  Being so close to the Gulf means that we watch the Weather Channel and keep a constant eye out for tropical weather. 

 

When Katrina made landfall years ago, my husband was already living with some friends down here in Central Mississippi, while I was still in Middle Tennessee packing and trying to get our farm sold.  For him, the worst was being without power for days and the exorbitant gas prices.  For me, it was the days of not being able to reach him and just the general unknowns.

 

Watching Isaac roll through the Gulf on it's way to New Orleans, it was a bit of deja vu.  Although Isaac didn't bring the severe winds, it has brought plenty of rains.  Most of which have yet to reach us as of this morning.

 

Days ago, when it seemed certain that we were in for some Isaac-related weather, we put our farm plan into action.  Being several hours away from the Gulf means not only having time, but the hurricane effects have lessened by the time the storm reaches us.  We worry primarily about power outages, since we are far enough into the country that even a typical storm can knock our power out for hours.

Our Plan:

 

1.  Make sure all vehicles have full gas tanks and are parked high enough to avoid any low spots that may flood.  You might be wondering about this one, seeing as how we live so far inland.  While we expect some power outages, the purpose of keeping the vehicles full is twofold; for one, if the power does stay out for an extended length of time, we have the opportunity to leave if needed.  The second reason should be obvious to anyone who remembers Katrina, regardless of where you live.  Any hurricane in the Gulf tends to make the gas prices rise!  This is because offshore drilling stations go on lock down, as to the processing facilities. 

As for the parking, too much rain in too short of time can cause flash flooding no matter where you live.  The higher up you can park the better.  If you need to leave you don't want to go out to find your car is stuck!

 

2. Ensure all gas cans stored in the garage are full.  Why bother if your cars are full, unless you have a generator, right?  Well, that depends on you I suppose.  We have a Coleman dual fuel camp stove that can be operated on Coleman Fuel or regular gasoline.  Having those cans full means that I can have extra gas if I need to evacuate for some reason, or still cook if the power goes out and stays out for a long time.

 

3.  All mobile poultry pens moved out of low, potentially floodable areas. Pens are turned to allow winds to pass through. This is one that I learned the hard way.  When I first began building mobile poultry pens I covered the back and the center, leaving just the end with the door open (and covered in chicken wire of course).  For two years I never had a problem, until one afternoon when I sudden storm blew in from an odd direction and pushed a pen back some twenty five feet, killing a hen and breaking the leg of another.  I had thought it a fluke until a few months ago when another store flipped a pen completely backwards, though no birds were injured.  Now all my mobile pens have been made more open, and if turned into the winds allow it to blow right through.

 

4.  Poultry house vents on the rain ward side should be plastic covered to avoid wetting the inside.  Even with a considerable overhang, rains can quickly drench the poultry house if enough wind is behind it.  A stapler, 5 minutes, and some 4 mil plastic and the problem is eliminated.

5.  Anything and everything that might be blown over is put away or stakes down.  Pretty self explanatory I think. 

 

6.  All stock tanks full.  This one I learned from a regular thunderstorm.  A full tank goes nowhere, but a partially full tank, if it takes enough wind gusts to get rocking, will eventually fall over and promptly blow across the yard (or field).  Full tanks are a must!

 

7.  Check flashlights for batteries.  Should be a no-brainer, but I've read stories where people sat in the dark during Katrina simply because they'd forgotten to check the flashlight batteries.  We use rechargeables, so a few days ago I took them out and recharged them all, plus made sure the extras on hand are fully charged.  You just never know.

 

8.  Make sure oil lamps are full and matches or lights are nearby.  An oil lamp is so much nicer to have during an outage than a flashlight.  However, finding a match, especially during a crisis, can sometimes be difficult.  We plan ahead by putting the matches out by the lamps after I checked their oil level.

9.  Empty buckets are in the garage.  A million uses, and a million reasons to have at least a couple 5 gal buckets.

10.  Garage door is sandbagged.  For us, if enough rain comes down, our garage will flood due to some poor construction when the original builder put the house in.  A few bags of sand will keep the garage dry and gives us one less thing to worry about.

 

11.  All laundry is done and put away.  The key here is just about giving yourself one less thing to worry about. 

 

12.  Dishes are all done and put away.  This is two fold.  One, peace of mind.  Two, hygiene!  If you loose power and/or water, you don't want a sink full of dishes starting to smell. 

 

13.  Make sure there's a good supply of foods that require no cooking.  For me, I made some comfort snacks, including brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies, as well as two loaves of bread for sandwiches.  With a propane grill, a charcoal grill/smoke and also a camp stove I also have the option to cook meals if we choose.  On the water front we always have two cases of bottled water on hand for emergencies, as well as a five gallon bottle of water with pump. 

So as I sit here waiting on Isaac to arrive, we hope everyone out there are being safe and prepared!

Another Bunny for the Farm

I wrote awhile back about the two young rabbits we added to the farm in preparation of starting a rabbitry.

Today we've added another.

A friend that I used to work with called the other day asking if we wanted a rabbit.  Apparently it was her grandson's, and she sort of inherited it.  It's been a house rabbit but now my friend's husband has been told by his doctor that due to allergies the bunny must go!

Never one to turn down a friend, I drove the hour out to her house to pick up the rabbit.  She's a lovely two year old lop, white and black.  She had her own cage and is very friendly, so she's come to stay with us.

Since I now have two lop eared ladies, I am thinking of doing lops and New Zealand rabbit breeding.  Lops for pets, Zealands for eating. 

Now I just have to build that rabbit house....

Learn the right way to raise rabbits!  Raising Rabbits Essentials e-books!

Rediscovering Line Drying

Honestly, I've never been a fan of line drying.

 

As a kid, during the summer's while my mom worked and I was babysitting my younger cousin's in our home, one of my duties was laundry.  My mom had one of those big square clotheslines in the backyard and during the warm weather we didn't use the dryer at all if it could be avoided.

 

My dislike of the clothesline was twofold.  One, I hated dragging those baskets of heavy, wet clothes into the yard and spending the time to hang each item from the pins.  For two, I never liked how stiff the clothes felt.

 

There are other things to dislike about line drying.  Bright clothes can fade.  Birds can perch on the line and re-soil (even stain) your clothes.  Neighbors might seem your unmentionables. Items can blow off.  And if you have a dog that can reach your line.... well.... you might come up missing an item or two.  Of course there is always the risk of your friends and family asking you if you're having money trouble when they see your clothesline (yep, seems strange, but I've had a couple ask it).

 

Regardless of this, I'd been kicking the idea of putting up a clothesline for awhile.  Even with all the negatives, there are definitely some positive reasons to do it.

• For one, you save electricity.  I realize it's not much per load, but added up over time the savings can be quite large.  And if you run A/C in the house in summer, your home cooling will benefit from not using the dryer as well.  Not using electricity is also helpful for the environment, and who doesn't feel that's important?
• Another thing that's wonderful about line drying is that your clothes smell wonderful!  Unless someone is out burning or some other noxious smell is in the air, your clothes can really only benefit from a good airing out.  There's a reason all those fabric softener companies try to market their items with outdoorsy scents!
• Depending on conditions, your laundry may dry in half the time!  Yesterday it was 90 degrees with a breeze.  By the time I had gotten an entire load up (15 minutes or so), the first items were nearly dry.  Much, much quicker than the dryer.
• If you have enough line space, you can finish laundry in less time.  The average washing cycle for a large load of clothing is about 30 minutes (though for some HE machines it can be longer).  The average drying cycle is 45 minutes.  So that means that for each load you lose 15 minutes of time waiting for the dryer to finish.  If you are doing multiple loads like I do, that can add up.  I did four loads of laundry yesterday, so line drying saved me quite a bit of time!
• Line drying saves your clothes wear and tear.  As the drum turns in a dryer, your clothes are rubbing up against each other.  Think of this like very fine sandpaper.  Sure, it's not doing much harm, but over the life of a garment you'll loose more fiber that you will using a line dry method.
• Exercise!  Okay, so I had to through that in.  Yes, line drying will make you get out and move!  Instead of standing in one spot and going from washer to dryer, you're going to have to put things in a basket, carry them outside, hang them, then come back later to take them down and fold.  A little more work, but it also is going to but a few more calories and get you a little more fresh air!

So here's some tips to get a good line dry:

1. Don't forget the fabric softener.  The fabric softener will help keep the wrinkles out while drying.  It's always good for keeping your clothes from getting too stiff.
2. Turn bright colored clothes inside out.  This keeps any fade from being noticeable.
3. Hang shirts by the hem, not by the shoulders.  Nobody likes those strange looking pinch marks that clothespins make, so put them somewhere they won't be seen.
4. If your line is in the sun, try not to let them over dry.  The longer they are out the more likely you are to get stiff clothes.

What do you do if your clothes do end up stiff?  A quick fix is to take the load, or the parts of the load that need softening into the dryer with a fabric sheet.  Turn it onto a low heat and tumble for a few minutes.  I know, you're thinking, how is more heat going to help?  Well, remember that fabric softener you washed the clothes in?  Most of the fabric softeners on the market today work best when heat activated, just like laundry detergents do.  Applying a little heat will activate the softener and relax your clothes.  Your body heat will also do this if you choose not to use the dryer.  And while I realize that using the dryer to relax your clothes seems to defeat the point, consider the fact that you won't do this to everything, and 10 or 15 minutes of a warm (not hot) cycle is still using far less energy than a full cycle.

 

Wondering how you can get started?  Get some pins, find a place to put a line, and go!  Hardware stores and home improvement centers either still carry or can get you the big square line dryers if you desire them, but you can put a line just about anywhere. 

 

Now, I'm funny about not wanting a line out in my backyard all the time, so I purchased a retractable unit at Lowe's for about $16.  It has a 49' line, and comes with all you need to mount it.  In my case, I was able to attach the unit bracket to the house, and the hook that the line attached to on a nearby tree.  My line is roughly 30', and the excess is looped around a knob at the base of the unit to keep tension.  When not in service I just unloop the cord, unclip it from the hook, and it rolls up.  When winter comes and line drying becomes not an option, you can remove a pin and take the unit inside for storage.  The bracket and hook stay in their location for quick set up the next time.  Easy peasy.

 

Happy laundering!  Until next time!  :-)

Raising Turkeys Near Chickens?

There's a lot of talk on the Internet and in books about how you cannot raise turkeys anywhere near chickens.  I'm sure that if you live in an area that has a high run of blackhead disease that may be true, but over the years I have never had a case of it.

To start with, I think there are two main things you need to be mindful of - where you got your birds, and how you manage your flocks.

When I was a teenager, my mom raised bronze and white turkeys in with her chickens.  They ate together, drank together, and roosted in trees together.  We had poults hatch and they lived in the same environment with no dreaded blackhead.

Two years ago when I started my own flock, I listened to all the hysteria.  Don't let poults contact the ground until they are three or four months, don't let them around chickens, disinfect all your equipment weekly, blah blah blah.  I listened... and promptly disregarded it all.

I disinfect my brooder and all equipment before the birds arrive, but other than a weekly scrub that equipment doesn't get disinfected again until it's ready to be used by the next batch. 

My turkey poults get moved outside at about six weeks.  Honestly, by the time they hit that age, you'll be surprised at how big of a brooder you'll need! They go out into a mobile pen so that they can be protected but still have access to grasses and bugs.  The mobile pens run the same ground as the chicken mobile pens.  In fact, one of my pens is an 8'x12' divided into two 8'x6' areas.  Right now, one side is chickens and the other is turkeys.  They've been out there for months and everyone is just fine!

Now then, my birds came from hatchery stock, and everyone arrives here as day olds or are farm hatched.  We are careful not to let other people enter our poultry areas (with few exceptions), and we never bring in new adult birds.

We keep our pens clean, and move our mobile pens around often enough that they are always in a clean environment. 

I'm not saying that we'll never have a case, I'm just proposing that maybe a little practical experience might be more in order than complete paranoia.

Seasonal Check: Fire Safety

While working on my fall checklist, and thinking about the upcoming heating season, it crossed my mind that I hadn't checked on the fire extinguisher in... oh... three years?

A quick trip to the laundry room and sure enough, empty.  Probably been empty for quite some time too.  We were already walking that unsafe line of only having one in a two story home with attached garage. 

So guess what got added to my shopping list for my next run to the hardware store?  Three brand new fire extinguishers!

Fire safety should really always be on our minds.  I'm guilty.  I know it.  I strive to improve.  When you consider that a grease fire can burn down your house, or a bad wire, or even a malfunctioning toaster.... It should make you a little nervous.  I hope everyone out there isn't thinking that it'll never happen to them.  Because we all know that that's the most dangerous thought process you can have.

While you are looking at whether or not your fire extinguisher is any good (and I hope you at least had one!), let's not forget smoke alarms.

I like to think I'm not the only one who forgets the monthly (or quarterly) checks of the smoke alarms.  With all the work we've been doing on the house, somewhere in my mind I'd missed the fact that we had just one smoke alarm left. 

I did check it though.

And of course, the batteries are dead.

Realistically, one smoke alarm is just not enough.  I counted it up and it looks like at bare minimum I need 9, but can get by with 6 until the remodelling in a few rooms is finished. 

That's a few more items for the list.

Of course, we do have a bedroom on the second story that could easily be blocked by fire.  The room has a window, although not a very large one.  I think for the sake of doing things right I'm going to get another small fire extinguisher for that room and a fire ladder.  (And a smoke alarm, but that's part of the six I already counted).

I think that will cover us. 

I know I had added all that to my list for next time, but the more that I think about it, the more I think that today might be the perfect time for a trip to town...

Be safe!

The Rising Cost of Canning Equipment

Has anyone noticed the rising cost of canning jars, lids and other canning equipment?

As I can more and more each year, I find myself adding to my jar supply.  Recently I realized I was out of both pints and half pints, and seeing as how I plan to make some pickle relish I knew I need to pick up some more.

Earlier in the year I picked up both smaller cars for $7 a dozen at a local Fred's.  (Quarts were $8 a dozen).  Now, these aren't Ball, but they work just fine and I've seen no difference in the jar quality.  When I went to Fred's this time, jars are sold out for the year.  Bummer. 

Usually this time of year the Wal-mart carries them, but when I went by they were sold out as well!  I realize that lots of folks can, but this was the first time I couldn't find jars.

I figured I would look at Kroger's since I had to pick up a few things, but was not prepared for the $12.53 price tag.  I realize these were Ball's, but they were standard jars, not the Elite series or anything that (might) justify the cost.

Ridiculous!

I checked back at Wal-mart a few days later and found that they had gotten some in, and the price wasn't unreasonable - $8.26 a dozen.  More than I would like to pay, but not terrible.  I picked up four dozen pints but they had not half-pints.

Now lids are a whole different story.  The Ball lids at Wal-Mart are (in my area) a 12pk for $1.63.  That works out to just over thirteen cents a lid.  Compare that to the bulk lids at Lehman's for $64.95 a sleeve (345 lids), which works out to just over eighteen cents each. 

I still have a decent supply of lids since I bought a bunch of 12pks at the end of last year for $1 on clearance.  I hope to get lucky and find a deal like that again. 

Other things like pectin, granite canners, even canning starter packs, are up.  Just another sign of the ever rising costs in this country?  Hard to say.  My suggestion is if you want to learn to can, get started now since I doubt prices are going to come down.  And if you are a canner now, stock up! 

Homemade Pizza

We love pizza.  Just about any kind - pepperoni, supreme, BBQ chicken, chicken-spinach-tomato... doesn't matter.  We love it all!

Tonight we're having a homemade pepperoni, mushroom, black olive with a tomato sauce base. 

I broke into pizza making slowly, at first using the pre-made store bought crusts.  After I learn the basics of good bread making, it seemed only natural to make my own pizza crusts.

Little did I know, that homemade crust is far easier than most other baking!

My go-to recipe came from the Internet.  I'd site the source but I honestly don't know where I picked it up. 

Ingredients:

1 cup warm water (approx 110 degrees)

1 tablespoon white sugar

1 packet of dry yeast

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (can mix in some whole wheat, but don't use more than half or your dough will be dry)

Directions:

1. Stir water, sugar, and yeast together until dissolved.  Add olive oil and salt.  Stir in flour until well blended.
2. Let dough rest for 10-15 minutes.  If it's cool in the house, cover with bowl with a towel to conserve the heat from the water.
3. Dip fingers in a little olive oil and pat dough into a pan, onto a pizza pan, or onto a pizza stone.
4. If desired, sprinkle dough with seasonings (I usually put a little garlic powder and some Italian seasonings on.  Top with your choice of toppings.
5. Bake for 15-20 minutes in a preheated 425 degree oven.

This pizza is just wonderful, and I love that you don't have to pre-cook it like a lot of pizza dough recipes!  The dough will make a large standard crust pizza, or a medium deep pan crust.  You can even divide it into two medium thin crusts - just adjust your time.

Once you've made homemade, you might as well throw out those take-out menus and use that freezer space for something else... because there is no going back!

Enjoy a slice for me!