Guilt Should Have Me Posting

Guilt should have me posting, but I am in a serious rut right now.  The truth is, we are planning to move from the desert, and the hopes of that have got me thinking of nothing but grass and hay and animals and seasons, and a fireside evening with my family, and all of the things like that.  I am tired of houses and so ready to make a home.  I am tired of sand here.  The people in this valley are largely very wonderful people to live among, and the time in getting to know them has been an investment that I would hate to see wasted.  However, I have to consider the lifestyle we really want to live and the means by which we will continue to support our family.  Alfalfa cubes here have now reached $250 per bag (1,200#), having been at $125 when we arrived here.  It is projected to increase only more over the coming months and years.  The man who supplies ours said it will go up by $10 a week from now, but I wonder if he meant per month?  Guilt should by itself have me posting, and it should have me building here, but I am in a position where we need more output for the input than this desert can provide!

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The New Coop

Our most recent investment in the chickens has been a new coop!  A few weeks back a couple of our hens disappeared and we immediately launched a bit of an investigation into it, suspecting coyotes or maybe even a dog, but while out checking on some Christmas lights I heard the very distinct sound of an owl hooting in the big pine tree at the west end of the house.  That settled the idea of what to do with some scraps of wood Jordan has been getting from some of the neighbors here while working for them.  So Jordan and I set ourselves right to work against a frame that we had started for a larger coop that we don’t yet have supplies enough to finish.  What we ended up with is a lean-to against that frame which is intended to eventually serve as the yard to a much larger chicken coop. 

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The only part I did not use scrap for was the door, since I really don’t want to be replacing the door very soon. 

Inside I have our newest feeder that I bought through Amazon.com which is designed to hold some 30 pounds of feed for the hens!  This feeder really helps with the other sky bound predators that taunt our chickens, which are the local doves! 

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As you can see in this picture, the new feeder is pretty large.  It is also inside the netting of the coop, which prevents the doves from getting to it, making our feed supplies last a great deal  longer than they were when the feed was outside!  Given a 50 pound bag of feed costs $20 at out local feed supply store, this is proving a tremendous saving for us!  The feed had one problem that I was worried about though, which is to do with the metering adjustment pictured below.

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The wire bit just pushed through the hole at the desired level, and nothing was there to stop it popping back out.  Given the kids we have bringing large feed bags out to feed the chickens, I was not about to leave that design as is, and have the bottom literally fall out on 30#’s of food and let it fall to the floor.  So I put it in, and got a pair of pliers and put some welly behind it until the hook was bent enough that it was difficult to push through the hole, making it impossible to accidentally get knocked loose.  With some effort I can still adjust the metering, however I just don’t see the need to! 

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The old watering fount has been put into the shed as well, and elevated out of the hay so the water doesn’t get easily contaminated with so much hay that it is impossible for the birds to get to it! 

The coop is built in an area in the yard between the old horse washing station, and the old swimming pool that the goats now inhabit.  This provides the coop with easy access to water for the fount, and electricity for the lighting. 

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The lamp hanging from the ceiling provides enough light to keep the chickens active for the advised 17 hours a day right through winter, although we have to work it manually until there is enough money to get a timer with a photosensitive eye built into it. 

_KJB1414When it comes to the latches on the door, I think two on the outside will prevent any unwanted intrusions by a fortunate animal who accidentally happens to get one undone.  Only one latch is inside since one of us will be in the coop any time that latch is being used.  They are cheap, easy to maintain, and look the part on such a homemade coop. 

The diagonal piece is to hold the hanging side of the door level with the hinged side, especially as the door ages.  Yes, there should be two of them on this door, however I have been building on a tight budget, and as of yet I do not have more than handsaws (no power saws at all!) to do my cutting with.  Hand saws are just not as accurate in my hand as a good miter saw could be, so I will save the construction on that second diagonal until I have the ability to really cut it accurately!  The door won’t hold a bull in, but then, it doesn’t have to.  If you think about it, it won’t even have to hold the wind in as it is covered in chicken wire so we can see who we are going to run into when we open it.  I have again opted for the step in door as it makes it that much more difficult for the chickens to escape while the door is open for one of us to pass through.

The Old Coop

The older coop is now serving as a home for a couple of Pheasants, and our flock of Rhode Island Reds.  We are hoping to get some breeding done in there before the hens get put back in with the other hens.  So far, all of the chicks we have hatched have been Production Reds that were brooded on by one of our white Ameraucana hens. 

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We did try to put some Production Reds into the new coop with the main flock the other day, and I do not recommend doing this!  I think that in order to successfully accomplish integration, we need to put a cage for them close to the netting on the chicken coop so the birds can all see each other for a couple of days or even weeks first, and then integrate them at night so maybe the birds won’t notice the absence of the netting dividing them.  Putting them straight in resulted in one of the Production Reds being pecked so badly that her left leg no longer works!  She is now being cleaned and nursed to see what happens with the leg, but quite frankly, I think her head is going to have to come off as we had a Turkey with a leg injury not too long ago, and that bird just up and died one night.  It is not like they have three more legs to compensate for the gimp leg.  Once one leg is badly injured, they are pretty well doomed, and the other chickens will peck them to death.  If you are seriously considering a flock of chickens, beware that you will come to the point when you will have to differentiate between pets and food, and the chickens are food.  If you can manage a way of keeping such a injured bird, then well done on you for keeping your conscious clear.  I would like to keep mine pretty clear too, but I have got a pragmatic situation to consider, which is the flock over the individual birds. 

Our goal is to keep a large enough flock to provide eggs for ourselves, for us to sell, and to eventually provide meat for our family.  In the long run we want to be able to say we truly eat almost everything off our own land.  We want to have our own chickens, beef, milk, and vegetables and some fruit from off our own land.  We aim to achieve self sufficiency as soon as the end of 2013.  I think that will be possible so long as we can get 2012 past us with all goals accomplished!  Fingers crossed and I will keep you up to date as these goals are achieved!  The biggest step is getting grass under hoof to provide for most of the animals! 


“The Prospering Peasant”

Mr. Kelsey J Bacon

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A New Year–2012!

This marks the first post for the New Year for The Prospering Peasant!  2011 fell apart a little for us in that it has been the year spent in the desert, and our first year in the country!  We have been settling in, and getting some of our personal affairs in order such as setting up house and finding our feet once again as people.  When I moved to the UK almost a decade ago, I felt like I had been demoted from an adult to a child because I had to learn everything all over again.  Returning to America after so long away has been like doing it again, though not quite as severe.  But things have moved on here from the way they were when I left, and the progress is apparent!  Returning with a family who have been demoted from their stations in life has been taming time to get used to as well.  But they have been moving along nicely, so in the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, I wanted to recommit us to this site, and to doing the work needed to establish it! 

The chickens have been doing nicely here, and are now producing more eggs than we could possibly need.  Recently we had a couple of the birds vanish, and we have spotted an owl in a tree on the west side of the house, so we built a new coop to keep the hens in in order to keep them safe.  This also means we know just where the eggs are being laid, which makes collection time easier and more profitable.  The birds are not free ranging anymore, but they are also not sharing their food with the doves anymore either, making the cost of feed more reasonable as well!  You’d think the feed would be more costly since the birds rely on it alone now, rather than foraging, however, I just don’t think there is that much to sustain them here in the desert.  If, and when we move house, which we would like very much to do, then hopefully they will forage for more, and we can keep a proper hen house for them which will not be inviting to the local small birds. 

The horses are fine, and providing the needed escape and entertainment for our oldest son!  We were so sad at the beginning of November to have to let our male go, as he had to be put down because of his cancer.  He was a horse that my grandparents had owned for a little more than the time I had been in England, and if he was not, then he was at least similar to a Gypsy Vanner.  He was a beautiful horse! 

I have long considered if I wanted to really reveal too much personal information on this site, or just go by the nom de plume, “The Prospering Peasant.”  I’d like to come out of hiding as a part of the New Year!  My name is Kelsey Bacon, probably one of the last men in the world to wear the name Kelsey.  My wife is Katrina, and our sons are Jordan and Dylan, also likely the last man children to wear their names!  Our three year old is Kirynie.  We are mixed as a family, me being American, my wife and step-sons are British, and Kiry is dual. 

Our intent is to make this a site about living with modern technologies and learning the older crafts and skills, the lost techniques that have helped our species survive for thousands of years, and become what we are today.  For Jordan, that involves his horsemanship, for Katrina there is the art of sewing and crochet as well as about a billion other things that she involves herself with!  Dylan is an avid reader, and I love the Chickens, the goats, and the horses, and want to build this group on their skills and knowledge, and what we learn from others into a business, hobby, and even a useful reference for anyone else looking to self sustain.  I am not Apocalyptic in my thinking.  But at the same time, I do believe that there are just causes for learning to care for ourselves in a society that is in constant peril of rising costs, or wars, or oil volatility, or whatever may prevent a person from being able to get the goods needed to keep their family healthy and safe.  I am an advocate for taking life slow and simple, and stopping not only to smell the roses, but to grow them as well.  From this standpoint we start out a new year. 

One of our goals this year is to get away from the desert to a place where grass grows under hoof for the horses, so we can get a cow for milk or beef or both, and where we have a viable garden in rich soil.  From there we plan to build our lives, and make the earth work for us.  The goal is southern Idaho. 

Join us along the way!

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Thanksgiving Preparations

Quite a bit of personal stress and a bit of mental blocking that has come along with it has kept me off all of my blogs for the past several weeks, however, I have got to get past it and get back to work.

Yesterday was such a food oriented day, it has to go noticed on The Prospering Peasant’s Blog!  We started off the day with our usual Saturday morning activities, volunteering at our local Bountiful Baskets site, which I love to get involved in because the work gets a little something extra in our basket, and because apart from us there are a few others who show up, but not as many as I would like to see in order to make the work easy, and get it done on time.  Our coordinator is a wonderful lady, who more than deserves to have all the help she can get anyway! 

This week being the last order before Thanksgiving, we ordered larger than usual.  Normally we get a basket or two between our family, but this week we took three baskets and a Hostess Pack, which got us the better part of another basket in different varieties of food. 

We brought home the food, and my lovely wife got busy canning a load of the fruit into jams, jellies, and marmalades.  I think we have enough of all to last us the coming year!  While she was doing that, I was outside with a friend of our oldest son, learning a bit about how to butcher a turkey.

Turkey butchering I could describe in more detail than the canning done yesterday, but for those with weak constitutions, I will save both the description and the photos for myself! 

The point is, that we had two turkeys butchered yesterday, one for ourselves for Thanksgiving, and one for my son’s friend as a service fee.  Doing it was a lot less ‘bad’ than I thought it would be.  We recently had to put down our largest horse, one of the causes of the above mentioned stresses, and that was really horrible because it was like executing an old friend.  But lopping the head off a turkey and plucking it was more like dealing with food.  In fact, our oldest and I both got hungry while doing it, which I think speaks volumes to how it affected our psyche while working at it. 

So, we have a turkey in the freezer, and jams, jellies, and marmalades in the cupboard, and I even remembered to feed my new sourdough starter this weekend, so it will be ready to try a sourdough bread for Thanksgiving! 

I think Wednesday should be bread and pastry day in preparation for the big day.  But for now, I am going to enjoy a day or two working on other things around the house, and basking the the excitement that inevitably comes of the anticipation of one of my favorite holidays of the year! 

Finally, I want to update the animal situation here.  We are obviously down one horse, our wonderful ‘Patches.’  We never really bothered much with what his breeding was, but have recently been made aware of a breed that very closely resembled him.  The Gypsy Vanner breed originated in England and includes Clydesdale in its bloodline.  They have more long hair around the hooves than Patches did, and a bit longer manes and tails, but otherwise are very similar.  It would not be difficult to convince oneself that he is a descent off this breed. 

One of our turkeys was beat up pretty badly by some chickens after it got locked in a pen with several while it had pre-existing injuries to its back.  It died of its injuries, and was buried in the back yard.

Two more turkeys were killed yesterday, but this was on purpose, and they are in the the freezer! 

While I was in Idaho a few weeks ago I went into an auction in Utah and picked up two meat goats.  These guys are Nubians that we affectionately call Dean and Craig, after my wife’s two brothers, that way, though Dean and Craig are still in England, they are always close by!  We are using Dean and Craig as weed eaters at the moment! 

My wife reports to me that while I was out yesterday, a hawk landed among three of our chickens.  Unfortunately for the hawk, three of them were roosters.  It is unlikely that that hawk will be returning soon! 

Enjoy your preparations for Thanksgiving! 


The Prospering Peasant

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Mozzarella Cheese

Friday night I had the pleasure of visiting the Bountiful Baskets coordinator for our pick-up location with my oldest step-son, where we learned how to make Mozzarella Cheese.  Out coordinator, Anne, has done more than 40 batches for herself, and had some pointers to help us to get started on our way.  They say, the best way to learn is to teach, so let’s see how I do at teaching you!

Before I get carried away, I want to thank Anne for her help in teaching us, and showing us her chickens and excellent garden.  Every thing we can do to live well for a little less, or to live in a way that we are self reliant is always welcome in our home!  The method Anne taught us is a basic Mozzarella method, that will serve as a stepping stone to even more experiences with cheese, and it required only some basic supplies and tools!  Best of all, it was complete the same evening!


Supplies Required

1 Gallon Whole Milk (Low Temp pasteurized, standard in the milk department, not high temp UHT!)

Citric Acid

Rennet

Heavy Whipping Cream (Optional, & Helpful!)

Chlorine Free Water


Tools Required

Pot and Lid

Measuring Cups

Wooden Spoon

Cheese Cloth

Colander

Microwaveable Bowl

Rubber Scraper

Rubber Gloves (or very clean, stout hands!)

Thermometer (Not a candy thermometer!)  with a minimum range of 95 degrees F

A Sharp, Long Knife

Any container to shape your finished cheese into for a basic block, to the size of about one quart. 

A Tuffet (Totally Optional!)


Cheese Curds and Whey

With all these items to hand, you are ready to get started! 

The Process

  1. Dissolve 1/4 of the Rennet Tablet in 1/4 cup of cool chlorine free water. (1/4 teaspoon if you have liquid rennet.)
  2. Store excess rennet in your freezer, wrapped in plastic wrap.
  3. Mix 1 1/2  teaspoons Citric Acid in a 1/4 cup of cool chlorine free water to make a citric acid solution.
  4. Pour 1 gallon milk into pot, then stir vigorously while adding your newly made citric acid solution.  (You may opt to add 1/4 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream Now, which will affect your curd result in step 12 below!)
  5. Slowly heat the milk to 90 degrees F while stirring.  The idea here is to be precise and to prevent scalding! 
  6. When the milk reaches exactly 90 degrees F throughout, remove it from the hob and while stirring with your wooden spoon in an up and down motion through the center of the pan, stir in the rennet solution, making sure that any small dissolved bits are swirled out of the container and into the pan.  This process should take about 30 seconds while pouring the rennet solution slowly!
  7. Cover the pot and let stand for five minutes undisturbed. 
  8. After five minutes your gallon of milk with citric acid and rennet solutions will have separated into curds and whey!  (This is when you might want to stop the whole show and sit on your Tuffet!)  Otherwise, continue by pulling at the curd at the top from the side of the pan with your spoon to verify that it has a clear separation between it (the custard like white substance at the top) and the whey, which looks more or less like lemonade below.  If the top curd, which should have the consistency of custard, is too soft, and the whey too milky below, then let it stand for a few minutes more. 
  9. Cut the curd with a knife in diamond shapes while holding the knife at an 45 degree angle to one side or the other.  Be sure the tip of the knife reaches all the way to the bottom of the pot!
  10. Heat the curd on the stove again while stirring slowly to only move the curd around a bit till the temperature reaches 105 degrees F
  11. Remove from the burner and continue stirring for two to five minutes more. 
  12. Put on your gloves or wash your hands and rinse well, then with your hands, pull at the curd, gathering it on the side closest you, and keep pulling your hands through the whey, gathering the curd on the side of the pot closest you.  If you added the 1/4 cup of Heavy Whipping Cream in step 4 above, then your curd will tend to be larger, and easier to gather.  This will result in it also being easier to drain in the next few steps, and it will make the final cheese product a bit creamier and softer in the end. 
  13. Now get your cheese cloth and colander.  You have a choice to either put a pan under the colander to catch the whey or set the colander in the sink and let the whey drain away.  Whichever case, put the cheese cloth across the top of the colander and strain the whey from the curd.  Now hang the cheese cloth above the pan so that the remaining whey can drain from it and let it hang for about an hour, till the whey is thoroughly drained. 
  14. Open the cloth and put the curd into the clean bowl, and using the rubber scraper, remove all the curd possible from the cloth into the bowl. 
  15. Add some salt to taste, usually about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon to the curd in the bowl.
  16. Place the bowl in the microwave and run on high for about one minute. 
  17. Remove the bowl, drain off any whey, and fold the curd over onto itself much like you are kneading bread. 
  18. Microwave again for about 30 seconds.
  19. Remove and drain any more whey.
  20. You may need to microwave it one more time for a few seconds.  You are looking for a smooth consistency much like taffy.
  21. Remove and stretch or knead your cheese.  the more you work it, the more firm it will be. 
  22. Place the cheese into your quart container to shape it as it cools, or you can form it into a log by rolling it out flat, then roll into a log like you are making cinnamon rolls.  In fact, you may want to add seasons to taste on one side when it is flat, then roll it over into a log! 
  23. If you put the cheese into a container (you may opt to pour some of the whey over it to help keep it fresh) cover it and put it into the fridge!  If you made a log, plunge it into ice water to help it hold its shape and to prevent it from becoming grainy, then remove it, cover it, and refrigerate it. 

Congratulations!  You just made Mozzarella Cheese!  You can wrap it airtight and store it in the fridge for up to two weeks, or freeze it for later use! 

Important Editor’s Not:  I was going to put in a photo of the cheese after it was complete, but I was so excited about it that I ate it before I could photograph it!  Watch for more cheese photos in articles to come when we make more cheese! 

I hope you find this as enjoyable as I have!  Who knew there was a block of cheese floating around in every gallon of whole milk in our fridge? 


The Prospering Peasant

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Cheese Is Coming!

I have the Cheese Article written, but I am not going to hit the ‘Publish’ button till I have edited it, and I am not going to do that till after I have had a night’s rest, and have looked at it in the morning because that is when I function the best! 

The good news is that Mozzarella Cheese is easier to make than it is to spell!  We had a great lesson on Friday night, and made a block of about a pound of cheese from a gallon of milk!  So, get out your Tuffet and get ready to eat your curds and whey! 

I have not looked at it yet, but after you have finished making the Mozzarella, there is also a recipe for Ricotta that can be made from the remaining whey! 


The Prospering Peasant

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Much Misc.

There is a lot of Misc. to talk about right now!  The first thing off the miscellaneous pile is the removal of a Facebook “Like” button at the top of the page, and the addition of a couple of badges along the side.  One of those badges takes you to The Prospering Peasant’s Facebook page.  Go on an”Like” that page because an update will post every time I put a blog post up here!  This is the best way to keep up with The Prospering Peasant if you are on Facebook!  I also added a badge for my Photography site on Facebook!  Go like it too, especially if you are in the Moapa Valley area of Nevada, or close to it in Southern Utah! 

The next bit worth a mention is that the chicken egg production is starting to pick up again.  The chickens have been so stressed in the 100+ heat that they all but completely stopped laying eggs all summer long!  This is definitely a reason not to love the heat of the desert! 

This morning my three year old daughter came out in the back yard with me for a little walk.  She is petrified of the New Hampshire Red Rooster because he often tries to act like a Rooster towards her!  We have been teaching her to roar at him and scare him.  But he still does to her like he does to the hens, usually starting with a little dance in a circle around her, just like the hens.  So I put my darling baby on my shoulders, and we chased the Rooster across the yard.  When he finally slowed down, I did a dance in a circle around him, and he ducked way low, and I think he knew what was going on, because for the first time ever, he launched an attack at me!  He leapt up at my leg, but only got me just below the knee, to no effect, and then he ran off. 

Tonight I am going to take one of the boys and we are going to go learn how to make Mozzarella cheese!  This is an exciting prospect that I really look forward to sharing with you!  Details to follow!


The Prospering Peasant

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Coming Out Of The Heat

The heat is still lingering over 100 degrees! For our chickens this means that the stress is still generally too much for them! There has only been a slight increase on egg production as those temps fell below about 95 degrees during the last week. Of course, if you are considering chickens, and you live in a hot climate, then you need to consider how many months of the year it gets this hot, and if you are going to be happy with feeding them without them paying their rent!

As for me, I made a sort of cheese-less omelet tonight. It was made from six eggs, a splash of milk, a tomato, two hot chili peppers, half an onion, and liberal amounts of crushed red pepper, and black pepper! Yum’s the only way to describe that for me, although I would surely have loved some cheese in it!

It’s good to survive such a meal at 40!

That’s all for now, as posting from an iPod is not my idea of the most fun I’ve had on a keyboard!
—–
The Prospering Peasant

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Dog Days of Summer Lingering On!

The season is starting to cool ever so slightly, which is to say that it is still hitting over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the days here, but it is forecast to drop below 100 later this week!  Friday is the first under day and Saturday is set to be cooler, and boy!  Do I hope that the forecast is right!  These chickens have really been suffering for the heat, and need a cool off!  We have a couple of hens that are coming to the point of lay, and I am most excited for them to get into full swing, but it is so hot that the birds will hardly lay an egg for the amount of stress they are under!  Heat and cols stress the birds pretty badly, so production is down for the summers here! 

I just told someone that it is 103 here today.  It turns out, I am a lair.  It is 110 on our front porch, if the old thermometer is accurate to go by!  I still cannot bring myself out to do anything in it!  I am not a summer lover.  The mild climates of California coddled me in my early childhood, followed by the Rocky Mountain winters through my teens.  I have lived in Florida, California, and Colorado to name but a few, and then there was the temperate English Countryside.  Nevada is warmer than any place on Earth needs to be! 

Back to the chickens, we have a Dominique who is laying her first eggs now, and they are getting bigger.  There are a few other hens to follow in the coming weeks, and I will of course update as they do. 


The Prospering Peasant

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September’s Goals

I am calling September a month of goals for a few reasons.  Firstly, we made it through the goal of keeping the kids alive through their first summer holiday in America.  Well, that’s pretty good given the heat in Nevada!  We learned early on that even sitting on the back of a horse can be dangerous in this heat!  I was the teacher as it was me who passed out in the wash a mile from home.  Not an easy distance to travel when you are barely conscious and have just fallen from the back of the horse twice.

Autumn is upon us, and we have much to do to get ready for winter!  We have a chicken coop that needs finishing, but ended up growing larger than it was planned when we started it!  I need a miter saw to get the angles right for the roof.  Winters here are far more mild than the hot summers, so we will certainly be able to step up that and all other outdoor work!

This month is the month I plan on getting a KitchenAid mixer to help in the kitchen chores such as bread making and cookies and treats for the kid’s lunches.  I am also looking forward to the creamy potatoes that thing will put out!  I have lived the last decade without one on the countertop, and really have missed having one there!

From the family allowance pot, we want to get a pressure canner and start our way into canning foods!  With Bountiful Baskets supplying plenty of food for only $15 a week, we want to can excess and make it last for later.  We have checked out videos from the library and looked on the Internet to find out how to do some basic water bath canning and pickling so far, and as the month progresses, I will certainly share our experiences after I have found out what to expect and more on how to do it.  I want to get it right before I publish on it.  So far, we are pickling eggs and making sauerkraut.  So far, the frustrating part has been following advice to undercook the eggs, then having them burst while putting them in to the jar for pickling.  So, I will again let you know how it is done when I do it right!

Again, The Prospering Peasant is a blog of how things are done, and what it is like to do it rather than just purely a how-to instruction!  We look forward to sharing and to getting going for the productive season!  Summer has been hellishly hot, and our whole family is really looking forward to spending more time outside, and doing what many people do in their summers!

Lastly, I have noticed that the articles are read or at least viewed by more people when I include pictures, so I will work diligently to get that stepped up too!  It means organizing a hard drive and clearing a lot of junk out of it!


The Prospering Peasant

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