Baby cow cuteness overload!!!

So it is official, Faith was pregnant! We are pretty excited to present to you, Faith’s baby! She was born on March 30^th, 2016 somewhere in the afternoon. Mom & baby girl are doing well.

Faith is being a very good mom, protecting her baby, nursing her, following her everywhere and cleaning here. She’s letting us pet the baby but she keeps an eye on us.
So, the baby is 1 day old today and there is not much happening to talk about beside the fact that she’s eating well and sleeping a lot.

We can't get over the fact that this little cow is so cute and lovely. I just can't wait until the mother/daughter bonding phase is over so that I can step in a little more and start playing with that little gal! She’s SO sweet and so fluffy! Her coat is all soft and perfect! I just feel like cuddling with her but mom is not to fond of the idea. Even though she is friendly with us, she’s still protecting her baby. I’ll just wait a little before getting between the two of them.

I'm sure we’ll have plenty more stuff to tell you in the weeks to cone. Oh! Just in case you were wondering, name pending but we have a couple in minds ;)

The joys life brings you...

Ugh!!! Where should I begin? Well, last week, Saturday-ish. I switched my dogs food from raw to kibbles. Théo (our Mini Aussie) started refusing to eat. After talking with his breeder, we came to the conclusion that he was protesting against his new food he didn't like. On Wednesday, he got sick in the morning. Add that to the fact that since he wasn't eating as much as he should, his stomach was upset. On Thursday morning, he got sick again and there was bits of blood in it. I tried feeding him dehydrated pork liver that he refused! Somethings was wrong, really wrong as Theo normally inhales his food. Took him to the vet right away. Once there, he had 2 explosives diarrhea entirely made out of blood. 24h later, after a night at the vet and a huge hole in our bank account, a new diet and some meds, Theo was home with a pancreatitis. He is now doing very well and happy again.

On the day Theo came back home (Friday), our new little bull calf was delivered to us. Our plan for him was that he would "service" Faith this summer and give us meat by the end of fall. His plan for us was to get out of the trailer, get scared, jump the fence and run away in the wood. Here goes another hole in the bank account!

Since then (today's Sunday) there is (hopefully) a little guy running, being afraid, hungry and thirsty if not worse because the poor guy is injured and bleeding and I could see that the coyotes were tracking him as well.

I've been tracking him for the past 2 days in the area without any luck (so far) until our neigbour found new tracks yesterday. So, I'm going back out there today armed with hope and Theo to try and find him.

So, a very expensive 24h for us. Hopefully we'll find him today, alive or dead but at least we'll know. I truly hope he's still alive, doing "well" in the wild or that he may have joined one of our neigbours cattle and he's just blending in, getting food everyday. Time will tell.

March 23... I must admit I kinda forgot about that blog (sorry!). Good news is, Chester is back!!! After a total of 5 days looking for him, deep in the snow (the story began at the beginning of March remember!!!), with blisters on both my feet, he just showed up in the field with Faith!!! So we're happy to report that Chester is back, safe and sound with us! Happy ending, YAY!

BBQ Butt Roast

We have lots of pork… I mean, LOTS OF IT so here is another recipe involving pork. I swear, at some point, I’ll post other type of recipe involving other meat but now, please bear with me!!!

I decided to make a pork roast for dinner as there was a beautiful butt roast sitting in the freezer waiting to be cooked. For the initiates to pork, pork butt is the front shoulder, not the back of the pig at all. Tim, being tired of my usual Mississippi Roast which is fantasticly delicious if I may say so myself, asked me to do a BBQ type roast so I found this recipe just for him! A BBQ Boston Butt roasts…

Easy to make, I have all the ingredients on hand and it looks delicious. Here are the ingredients needed:

1 4-5 pound pork roast (I used a butt roast from one of our pigs that was in the freezer),

2 medium sweet onions (I used regular yellow onions),
1 can of pineapple (didn’t used it because I didn’t have some in my pantry… We’ll see the end result but I’m guessing it will only be less sweet.),
1 tbsp of each: Chili powder, paprika (I used smoked paprika), garlic powder, salt, celery salt (I used celery seeds) and basil,
1 tsp black pepper,
¼ cup apple cider vinegar,
2 cups of BBQ sauce – optional (I used about 1 ½ cup of BBQ sauce I had in the fridge).

Here are the instructions:

1- Slices your onions and put them in the bottom of your slow cooker,

2- Put the roast on top of the onion (mine was frozen when I put it in the slow cooker, I always do it that way and it’s always delicious),

3- (This is where you add your pineapple if you used them),

4- Mix your BBQ sauce with the apple cider vinegar and pour on top of your roast,

5- Mix your spices and pour on top of the sauce,

6- Put the lid back on your slow cooker and set on low for 8-10 hours.

7- Once cooked, shred the roast with 2 fork to make pulled pork and top with BBQ sauce (of sauce from the roast) if you want.
 

See, I told you it was easy to make! I’m going to serve mine over mash potatoes with steam and then grilled carrots.

 

 

 

Is the cow pregnant?

When we first decided to have a cow, we had in mind of getting milk at some point. So, 2 years ago, we decided it was time to go shopping for a cow! We’re only 3 in our family so a big Holstein was out of the question because of the amount of milk per day they produce so we opted for a cute little Jersey! Like the one that did the ad for the Hershey Chocolate bar “back then” (gosh I’m old!!!).

We visited 2 farms: a “regular” milk farm and an organic milk farm. We found our little brown pearl at the organic farm. The owner told us there were 4-5 cows ready to go. She left us to go get something in the house and came back with a list of the cow that was ready to go. She gave us the name of each and every one of them. Faith (her name) was the one we chose!

Faith moved with us about a week after our visit at the farm. She was very quiet on her way home and already very friendly with us, the birds, the dogs and Justin. We halter broke her as soon as she was here, gave her bath, brushed her every day so that she could get use to us as much as possible. We didn’t want to have a dangerous and mean cow around us. She was so friendly that when she escaped (more than once) she was always ending up at our neighbour’s place, more specifically in their garden (!!!) and they would walk her back in the field without any problem (other than eating their salad!!!).

So, in 2015, Faith was over a year old and it was time for her to meet a man! We contacted someone who had a little Dexter bull and the gentlemen move in with us (with Faith) from spring 2015 to fall 2015. He was a very good and gentle tenant except for a few fences he broke when tried to reach grass on the other side.

Not being there with them 24/7, we don’t know if love did his magic but we noticed that Faith was not in heat anymore! And mostly, she wasn’t trying to escape each month to go meet a man!!! I think she looks bigger than she was in the spring, her belly is much rounder on the side and Tim said that he doesn’t  know if it was a bowel movement or not but he felt something moving in his belly . Fingers crossed she’s going to give us a beautiful baby in March-April 2016!

 

Pork chops à la Annette

So, as I previously mentioned, I'm really not a pork chops fan. Because we're raising pigs and because we have about a ton of pork chops in the freezer, I need to learn to love them.

My friend Annette gave me this easy to make and absolutely delicious recipe. Here's what you need:

- 1 pork chop/pers

- 2-3 tbsp of pesto/pork chops *

- Herbes, whichever you like, I used Rosemary, Thyme and herbes de provence

- Salt/Pepper

*Here's a link to another post about a pesto recipe I did. Easy and delicious: http://ballycanoelowelandfarm.blogspot.ca/2016/01/pesto-more-pesto-please.html?m=1)

 

First, sprinkle your spices on each side of the chops and then coat your pork chops with pesto and grill them in a pan for about 3-4 minutes/side in oil.

Once they are grilled, take a cooking plate and pour some apple cider vinegar in it (enough to cover the bottom of the plate, about 1-2 millimetres). Put your chops in it and cover with veggies. I used steamed carrots and potatoes and I sprinkle more spices on top of the veggies and salt & pepper.

Put your plate in the oven at 400° for about 20-30 minutes depending on the thickness of your chops.

While your pork is in the oven, cook some rice and then, voilà! You have a delicious meal in you plate in no time! I must admit that since I've made this recipe, I don't think I'll ever want to eat my chops another way!!! Thanks Annette!

 

Regrowing green onions

I tried this last year and I'm doing it again this year being more careful this time. Regrowing stuff! I started with green onions because it's easy and because we put green onions in almost everything.

Easy like I said, just make sure you leave 2-3cm of the onion from the roots when you cut it and put the stem in water, change the water 1-2 time per week (I also "clean" the roots by running water on them to remove anything that can collect in there) and set in a indirect sunny spot somewhere in your house and voilà! You will have green onion growing back from the old one.

 

I notice that after regrowing the same onion 2 times, it has a tendency to grow thinner... My guess is that the onion get "tired" at some point and can't produce bigger "green". I think it's normal but all in all, you can regrow your onion 2 times which is not that bad considering the fact that it's not like it's hard to take care of and it doesn't cost anything to do it.

Last year, I tried regrowing lettuce and it worked well but I didn't continue to do it because we weren’t eating enough lettuce and I ended up "loosing" them.

Other easy stuff you can regrow is: leeks, celery, pineapple, garlic, garlic sprout and even mushroom (got to try this one this summer).

Italian pork chops inspired by...

Inspiration can come in different ways. This one came in my inbox!

I got inspired by a recipe my friend posted on her blog (here's the link: https://ruralcanuck.wordpress.com/2016/01/15/italian-baked-chicken-breast/)

As we didn't have any chicken in the freezer, I decided to use pork chops instead. So, following her recipe, I coated my chops with homemade pesto (click here to see my recipe: )

Because there was 1/2 tomato left from yesterday's dinner, I had all the ingredients in hand to do a delicious dinner. Then I came home to this! Someone ate my tomato today while I was at work!!! So I used 1-2 tbsp if canned diced tomatoes... Hopefully, it will work out!

Then I added cheese and popped everything in the oven at 400° for 35-40 minutes.

Pesto!!! More pesto please!!!

I love pesto! And it's so easy to make.

Here's what I do to make my own pesto, and don't be disappointed because I'm not reinventing anything here!!!

Here are the ingredients I use (sorry, no quantities as I eyeball everything depending on the amout of pesto I want to make)

- basil leaves

- roasted almonds (optional)

- parmesan cheese

- olive oil

- salt/pepper

- garlic (that I forgot to put in mine!!!)

I roughly chop my basil leaves and then I grate parmesan cheese and my garlic. Since I don't have pine nuts (because it's too expensive) I normally use roasted almonds and I grind them. Once all this is done, I blend everything with olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. And that's it! You have a delicious homemade pesto!

Enjoy!

Winter VS water

Ahh! Tis' the season! Winter, snow, sliding, walks in the wood, fire in the stove that smells great, building snowmen, outstanding Hydro bills... Winter.... Oh, and of course the "best" part: hauling water to the animals!!!

Since we don't have running water in the barn, and since the animals still need to drink (!!!) we need to carry water from the house to them. That means, on a normal cold day, 2 pails of hot water. Enough to melt the ice in the barrels. But on a freezing cold day (like the one we had last year) when it was - 1,000,000° (windchill excluded!!!) 2 wasn't enough. We (and by we, I mean Tim) had to make 3-4 trips. Really painful!

So everything starts in our bathroom where I fill up the pails with hot water...

Then, I take them down the stairs (it feels like a "reverse Kill Bill")

And then Tim takes them outside to the animals (under the supervising warch of Theo).

Tim is doing the hardest part of the job so why am I complaining you'll ask me? Because sometimes Tim isn't there and I need to do it. I have a really bad back so it is painful for me to do that. Walking with the pails on ice and snow kills me!

Finally arriving at the barn and realizing that you dropped almost half of the water when walking because you slipped or fell, and you need to go back home, take your boots off, go up the stairs again, fill the pails again, go down the stairs, AGAIN, put your boots on, go out and hope not to fall or lose water again... Priceless!

But those birds, cow, goat and pigs need to drink too and we love them so, putting aside all of my complaining, we do it as often as we need to.

Green tea body scrub

Something easy that I love to do is make body scrubs. They are easy, you probably already have everything on hands to make it and there is are so many options that you can tweak the recipe you will decide to do.

This one was made for my mother in law. I decided to do this recipe because I already had everything home to do it, no need to go to the store!

Here are the ingredients required for this scrub are:

3/4 cup of white sugar

1/2 cup of coconut oil (I used Nutiva coconut oil from Bulk Barn)

1 bag of green tea

1 tsp of Matcha green tea powder (from Bulk Barn)

Put the sugar and tea in a bowl, mix well and then add the coconut oil. Room temperature is fine, you don't need to melt it before. Using a fork, mix all the ingredients together and BAM! You're done!

It fit in a small 250ml Mason jar I had on hand. If you want to make a bigger batch you can always double or triple the recipe.

How cute is that!!! Last Christmas, I made some Vanilla Chai sugar scrubs and they were a success! 

I also noticed that since all the ingredients used are edible, you can keep a little portion of the scrub with your beauty supply and use it on your lips as a lip exfoliate... And you know what, it taste delicious!!!

So go ahead, be crazy, try new "flavours", use different types of sugar, salt, epsom salt (but don't use this one on your lips!), oils (grape seed oil, olive oil, etc.), add mint, rosemary, pepper, lemon peel or any essential oil you love. The sky is the limit!!!!

Pho. Delicious and comforting!

I decided to make a Beef Pho soupe for my Quilting Club ladies (which doesn't involve quilting in any way!!!). We're just a bunch of friends meeting once a month to eat, talk, drink wine and have a good time away from the men!!!

I found the recipe in the St Lawrence News and I linked the recipe here: https://www.ontario.ca/foodland/recipes/saigon-beef-pho

Ok, this one was calling for a beef broth that I didn't have and, to stay in line with my "using everything I have home" I used a duck broth that I made the week before and that was sitting in the freezer. Except for some veggies, I had everything on hands. So I didn't made the beef broth but starting from the duck broth, I fallowed the recipe.

It was a big success! Everyone liked it and I'm glad I did it because I always thought it was hard and long to do but it wasn't, like, at all!!!

Here's the "before adding the broth" part of the soup, I made sure the beef was going to be covered by the broth by putting it on the side and by also "tucking" it down the bowl so that it'll have enough time to "cook" by the time I serve the food to everyone. Then, once the broth was in the bowl, I added the rice vermicelli (that's why you don't see it in this picture).

One is added the broth and the rice vermicelli, I served everyone and the meat was cooked perfectly (still pretty raw on this picture but trust me, it was cooked by the time we started to eat).

I really recommend that you try this recipe if you feel like having a great "meal soup" that smells fantastic and taste delicious! Bon apetit!

A walk in the woods

We went for a walk in our wood at the back of our land yesterday. Weather was fantastic, only -3° and sunny. Here are some pictures I took. Hope you'll enjoy them as much as we enjoyed taking them :)

Here is a panoramic view of the back of our land. Skating rink in the winter, swamp in the summer (great for duck and goose hunting!!!).

Another view of the back of our land.

Justin and his "banana" which is basically a piece of ice he carried (and ate!!!) the whole time we were walking!!!

My 3 men ❤️

Theo being all intense and focus on something... Probably nothing, he was so excited to go for his 1st walk in our wood.

He also found something that smelled SO good he had to roll in it but forgot that ice + side of the hill = slippery so he slipped & fell while doing it!!!

A picture of Tim pulling Justin on our way back home.

It was a great afternoon and I wanted to share it with you! You're welcome ;)

Laundry soap

Being at home gives me the time to do more homemade stuff. It has been a while since I've done this recipe for laundry soap so I decided to make some yesterday. Super easy to make and cheap.

Here's what you need:

- 1 bar of laundry soap ($1.19/290g)

- 3 cups Baking soda ($3.97/2kg)

- 3 cups Borax ($5.58/2kg)

First of all, you need to transform your regular baking soda into washing soda. Easy peasy! Just take the amount of baking soda you need, spread it on a cookie sheet and put it in the oven at 400° for 30-35 minutes stirring occasionally. When the time is up, you'll see the texture of your baking soda will be more "soft" and more "powdery". A good hint, you will probably sneeze from just going through it with a spoon!!!

Then grate your soap in a big bowl. I use the tiny grating side of my regular cheese grater. You want it to be as small as possible to help it dissolve in the water. Then add your washing soda, Borax, stir and voila! You now have homemade laundry detergent! I put my detergent in an air tight container like a Mason jar.

Also, I use regular white vinegar as a laundry softener. Sometimes, I add about 8-10 drops of essential oil to it just to give a hint of smell to my clothes as the detergent and the vinegar won't leave any kind of perfume on your clothes. During summer time I use citronella essential oil to help repelling the mosquitos and the rest of the year I use lavender only because I love the smell of lavender!

On the down side, because of the grated soap, this detergent works better in warm or hot water (at least for us during winter time) as our water comes from an underground source and is SO cold.

The break down. Keep in mind that I'm not good with math so the amount may not be exact but it came down to something like $3.30 for 1.3kg of detergent. Considering the fact that you only use 1 or 2 tablespoons of detergent per loads, I think it's pretty cheap.

So here you go, try it and see for yourself, it's cheap, efficient, it works well and soft enough for babies clothes.

Food stuff from scratch

So I decided to empty my freezer & pantry before buying anything else from the store (except for veggies & fruits and special items like milk, yogurt, etc). I mean, no meat as we are raising chicken, turkey and pork. We have lots of chicken breast, turkey meat, porck chops, ground pork, pork roast, sausages, bacon, etc. If beef is needed I might buy some but I'm trying very hard to use what I have here.

While cleaning my freezer and pantry, I realized how much stuff I have at home and how much stuff I don't need to buy (I found something like 6-7 packs of rice, lots of barley, frozen meals that I made couple of months ago, etc). So clearly, I don't really need to go to the store.

As I've never been good at making something without all the exact ingredients needed in the recipe (which made me buy stuff at the store "just in case there is none at home") it's a big deal for me to come up with something to eat since then but I'm sticking to my idea!

So, with 1lb of ground chicken some spices, bread crumbs, parmesan cheese and eggs, I cooked us some delicious chicken nuggets! I found a recipe on Pinterest that was easy to make and I was able to use what I already have here. Here's the link: http://natashaskitchen.com/2014/11/19/baked-chicken-nuggets-recipe/ and here are my chicken nuggets!!!

There was also 3 small portions of frozen french fries (in 3 different bags) that I bought (clearly more than once!!!) "just in case there is none at home" So, I used them too.

In the end, for 1 meal, I used 4 items that I already had in my freezer + some stuff from the pantry!!! YAY! I'm sticking to my idea!!!

I think I'm doing pretty good so far, the Ministry of Finance (aka hubby) could hopefully tell me if I'm wrong or not by checking the amount of money I didn't spend at the grocery store lately comparing to "before".

2016

2016! YAY! New year, new projects, new ideas and of course, resolutions!!!

As far as this Blog is concerned, I'm going to try to be more present in 2016. Inspired by my friend's Blog (go check it out and subscribe: https://ruralcanuck.wordpress.com) and her good tips on how to blog, I think I can do it, write 1 or 2 articles per week... Let's try that!

As far as eating well is concerned, I'm going to keep you updated on how we're doing, what we're eating, how I'm doing it and what new am I trying.

Farm stuff, hopefully hubby will keep you updated if not, I'll do it... Let's just say having a new laptop would help me a lot (wink!!! wink!!!) but if not, I'll still do it :)

So here are the big idea for 2016. Blog soon :)