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Making Raspberry Jam

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Last year was the first year that we were able to harvest any of our raspberries. We were pleasantly surprised at how many we were able to gather. Many we ate right there on the spot. Wow, they were delicious right off the vine! So, of course we had to make raspberry jam too.

Fresh raspberries do not keep very long so once they started trickling in we froze what we did not eat right away. Once we had enough we planned to make raspberry jam, but things never seem to go as planned. So we just got around to making raspberry jam. Freezing is so convenient if your berries are coming in small batches or if you just do not have time to use them. We pulled the frozen raspberries out of the freezer and ran the bags under some cold water to thaw. They thaw rather quickly.
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Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 2 – The Brooder

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Before your baby chicks arrive, you need a brooder for them.  The brooder is simply a box or blocked off area that will house the baby chicks for the first several weeks of their life.  It can be something more permanent if you think you will reuse it often, but if you don’t plan on getting more baby chicks in the near future, a cardboard box works wonderfully.
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Beginner’s Guide to Essential Oils

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Are you wondering what all the hype is about these hippie oils? Do you have questions but don’t know who to ask? Are you wanting to take control of your own health but don’t know where to start? Then you’ve come to the right place to learn about essential oils and natural solutions that are safer, cheaper and more effective than traditional remedies!

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Getting Baby Chicks - Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 1 – Getting Baby Chicks

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Raising backyard chickens to gather your own healthy eggs is rewarding and rather easy.  As long as you have a few basics taken care of, the chickens will do the rest.  You don’t need to be an expert, and there’s no reason to be afraid.  Take care of these basics and you will be gathering healthy, antibiotic and growth hormone free, pastured chicken eggs in no time. Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 1 – Getting Baby Chicks” →

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New Nigerian Dwarf Baby Goats

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We have been wanting goats for some time now. We did a lot of research on what breed we wanted for milking. Then there was the question of the age. Do we buy a doe already in milk, a pregnant doe, a doe that has been bread and possibly pregnant, or simply go with doelings and raise them until they are of age? Then there was the question of horns or no horns!

There was so much to consider.  Based on our research and personal preferences, we were back and forth between Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs. We liked the idea of having milk sooner than later, but those in milk or pregnant carried a higher price tag and babies are just so blame adorable! Finally we decided that either breed would be fine and we would simply base our decision on what we found available at a reasonable price in our area. We knew we wanted two because goats are herd animals and do so much better with a friend to keep them out of trouble. So, we decided any combination of two female goats of various maturity (doe or doelings) of the same breed (Nubian or Nigerian Dwarf) with no horns would be acceptable. We would see what we could find in our neck of the woods for a good price.

Finally, back in August we bought three baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats. From back left to front right, Brownie, Blueberry (being bashful), and Strawberry.

3 Month Old Nigerian Dwarf Doelings
3 Month Old Nigerian Dwarf Doelings (Day We Brought Them Home)

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Clearing the Land – Finally a “Little” Progress

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Have you ever just felt like you have been so busy for so long and still don’t have anything to show for all of your efforts and hard work? That’s kind of the way we’ve been feeling for awhile now even to the point we have been MIA on the blog. Along with trying to do all of our normal daily routines, garden, and animals we have been trying to work on clearing that patch of land we bulldozed back in January.

Bulldozing Trees with a D4K Caterpillar
Bulldozing Trees with a D4K Caterpillar

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Pallet Chicken Coop | DIY Chicken Coop

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Our first chicken coop was functional, but left a lot to be desired.  We learned a lot from our first little coop, and we put what we learned into our second, bigger pallet chicken coop.  Things we learned from the first coop, make a coop big enough to walk in, roosters are big, need a bigger door,  and always plan you coop to get even more chickens.  Chickens are addictive, and you will always want more.  With these things in mind, we worked on designing our next chicken coop.

The first step was to acquire some wooden pallets.  Wood is getting more and more expensive.  We wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible, as we are cheap.  I got a truck load of free wooden pallets for our chicken coop by asking around. Continue reading “Pallet Chicken Coop | DIY Chicken Coop” →

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How to Pressure Can Green Beans

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Our green beans are coming in nicely this year and not a moment too soon! We had to breakdown and buy a few cans of store bought green beans not too long ago. What a shame. But happily we have already canned our second batch of contender green beans this season. Contender green beans are string-less. That makes life a whole lot easier, but we also will have some half-runners coming in later. They have strings, but they are just such a tasty bean they are worth the effort. If you are harvesting your own seeds from your beans don’t plant contender and other varieties with strings at the same time or they will cross pollinate. There’s no telling what you’ll end up with the next year!

Snapped Contender Green Beans
Snapped Contender Green Beans

So, how about a little canning tutorial?

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