Cd Greier

I understand that Dexters are actually a triple-purpose breed (meat, milk, working). Has anyone any experience training Dexters to the yoke or driving them with farm equipment/wagons?

Rebekah Harmon wrote:Wow! I love it! Pretty much every antique store has an old treadle machiene. Maybe I can turn it into a wheel for pottery. Or! A spinning wheel for yarn.

That's what I'm thinking: how to retrofit a treadle for multiple applications. My wish list includes the spinning wheel, grain mill and seed/nut oil cold press.

Jay Angler wrote:Some people tolerate "bitter" much more than others, but it is also an acquired taste to some degree ....

Apparently, as people age, we develop a taste for bitter flavors which are associated with liver cleansing and other health benefits.

John Suavecito wrote: The leaves of horseradish are good-tasting and bountiful.

John S
PDX OR

I've only ever grown horseradish for the roots, which were so strong  they had to be handled with rubber gloves!
But I quit as it tends to take over gardens here (Lol. In dismay, my aunt would dig it up every year, only to see it multiply the next.)
Also, I grew it as an "architectural" plant where it could be contained but flea beetles love it, too, and rendered it "skeletal" instead. So another use for horseradish may be as a trap crop?!

Anne Pratt wrote:We consider meat birds (not free ranging) but don't want to make them into little targets.

It took a couple of years but hawks learned that there were  standard, white chickens (meat birds) at our place and the losses increased every summer thereafter.
We did two things:
- moved the coop and run closer to the house,
- changed to dark-coloured birds.
No losses so far.

Barbara Kochan wrote:As weak as I am at it, at 62 I finally know how important some dreaming is. If you don't have your dream that means you are just shoring up the dream of another/others. While contributing to the well-being of others makes life sweet, fulfilling ones own dreams also makes life meaningful.

Thank you for this little message, Barbara. I'm 59  and unsure if I should continue. (Here comes the whining.) We really want to grow in self-sufficiency and relive our rural upbringing while we are still fit enough. We seized a rural opportunity but after 3 years of weekending and 4 years full-time at the wannabe farm, there doesn't seem like much advancement toward our goals. I want to raise and butcher our own meat and preserve the garden produce (and I have done some already).  Hubby wants peace and simplicity. We have the hobby farmers' classic dilema: enough water, electricity, income and willpower to get started but not enough to thrive. My dear husband has his own dreams and, between hard physical work, off-farm employment and the frigid winters, he's just about ready to sell the farm, literally and figuratively.  
So it's a choice between compromising both our dreams or only one. I haven't got the answer but at least I know others face the same question.

Laura Overholt wrote:I can't believe folks are tossing the gizzards and hearts to the dogs. They're delicious!

When I bake a chicken I always add veggies (potatoes, carrots, mushrooms, celery) and giblets to the bottom of the pan. I add enough chicken broth to cover them and bake everything together. The veggies end up tender and flavorful. The gizzards...well, we kinda like the chewiness? They are good, though! And the hearts are definitely the favorite, we never have any of those left over.

I like to put giblets with the chicken and vegetables in the roaster, too. Fantastic gravy and if no one else likes overcooked veg and giblets, the dog will!
I have tried cooking them and adding them to the bread dressing; I loved it but the kids didn't.
Another option from the Asian side of the family is to slice the raw, prepped giblets very thinly and sauté them with vegetables as a side dish- delicious!

One perk is my other clothes last longer cause I don't wear them except when I go somewhere.

Hasn't the world changed?! Many families used to change from school clothes to house/everyday clothes when I was a kid in the '60s and '70s. When I ran a tiny restaurant, I always wore an apron but have fallen out of habit. My mother's side of the family always wore housedresses. Although I think it's a great, frugal idea (saving wear and tear on one's "good" clothes) I don't know how it would translate in our -20 to -40'C/F winters!
Any suggestions?

When I was a child, Mother had a wringer washer, too. Of course, that was the state of the art at that time but even later, she always used a "sud saver" machine that could be set to divert the water into a laundry tub and suck it back to use again to wash the next load.

Always sort clothes, etc by dirtiness and colourfastness, start washing the least dirty pile, eg, whites or linens,  put the wrung out clothes into a bucket or laundry tub to wait. Do not empty the used wash water; just add the next load of laundry, wring it dry when done and set it aside.

When the wash water is so dirty that it won't clean the next pile, dump it out and refill the washer  with clear water to rinse the first load. Proceed as for washing (wash, wring, reserve) until the rinse water  is too cloudy- DON'T Dump it! Keep the used rinse water, add laundry soap and clean the next round of dirty laundry.

If you feel the laundry needs another rinse, put it through a fresh round of water. When you are satisfied that your laundry is clean, hang it indoors or out to dry.

Basically reuse wash and rinse water as many times as possible. This way you use every bit of cleaning power from a batch of soapy water and use less water in total, which is important in dry locales like mine.