Soy and things you can do with it....
Mood:  happy

Ok so as most people in the world know I am working on having our little farm become more and more self sufficient.  So far Michael and I  make and use our own soap, dish soap, laundry soap and such.  We raise a lot of our own meat; sheep, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese and pigeons and of course our quail.  Our Goats and sheep also provide us milk which we make into yogurt, cheese, cream cheese and of course the above mentioned soap.  We shear and spin the wool from our sheep and have future plans of weaving some and crocheting and knitting as well.  We also hunt deer in season.  We do tan our hides, just incase you wondered… Very little goes to waste here.  .

 

We can what we grow, tomatoes, peppers…and a whole bunch of other stuff.   We make our own jams, jelly and the like.  The herbs and such we raise we dry and use all year round. We have learned to cook a lot of food from scratch and not to buy any where near as much prepared food.

 

We log our wood with our own horses; we use it to heat with and sometimes cook. 

 

In the fall we plan to fire up the forge and make some new tools and maybe make a kiln so I can have some new dishes…lol

  

But in the mean time I am learning new tricks to make life a little better for us.  Because we have chosen to live in the middle of no where thinks like soy milk and tofu and such are hard to come by and a bit pricey.  However soybeans are cheap…around $9.00 for 50lbs/22.680 Kilograms….that is a lot of soybeans.  It takes only a little less than one third of a pound or 125 g of soy beans to make a little over a quart or one litter.  That mean you could make over 150 quarts or litters of soy milk for the $9.00.  We buy soy milk by the half gallon now at a cost of around $3.00 or so; cost $222.00 not including tax.  Yikes!  So I will save at least $213.00 plus I am making it myself.  It has a by product as well.   The insoluble material which remains is called okara, and can be used as an ingredient for bread making in other form of cooking or as feed for chickens, sheep, goats and alike.  So there is not waste.  Anyone who wants to try and make soy mik just drop me an email and I will tell you how to make it.

 

No on to my other favorite food of soy…Tofu…Yummy white creamy stuff you can also make yourself for just pennies really.  You need to make soy milk and than you need to heat it a bit just like making cheese.  You a little calcium sulphate-food grade of course or magnesium chloride and it sort of jelles up .  Next pour into a cheese cloth lined mold and wait. 

 

Yogurt from soy just as easy…need any help just email me.

 

I plan to use soy milk to make soap as well….I will let you all know how it works out. 

       

Mood:  caffeinated

Lately my email has been full of people wanting to know more about how to start being an eco happy homesteader….so I thought I would tell you all little about what we have done. 

So here we go…

    We decided to see what we could live with out. 

 

      We decided we could live with out eating out more than once a month; this saves gas as we live 15 miles from anywhere.

     

     We could live with out brand new cars…

     Mine will at least run on ethanol. 

     We own a lot of classic vehicles.  -A 1978 Jeep Wagener that was my dream car.

     A custom 1988 Cadillac, a 1989 Buick Le saber custom (We are selling this at the car show this September in Mammoth Springs as it has fuel injection.)

     A wonderful 1987 ford retired gas powered U-hal Truck.

    

     With out brand new furniture…If we want it will build it, buy it used or post for it on FreeCycle or trade or barter for it.

 

      Trip to the salon, not store bought hair cuts.

      Along with that no store bought makeup or lotion or chap stick….We make most of these our selves.

    

      Pet treats-We make these our selves and even sell and trade with others.

 

      Contract Cell phones….Gosh the money you can save here is amazing. 

      We have four cell phones and went from paying $152.00 a months to a scant $60.00.   

       Credit Cards-buy it with cash or don’t buy it…

 

      Mortgage, home owners insurance and the like (yes I have car insurance). 

      Car insurance, the cheapest source I could find that did not base you insurance on credit-The Hartford.  $92 per month full coverage on them.

      If you want to know about the insurance on you home and how it is a scam email and I will be happy to tell you all about it.  

 

      Mail order coffee, I will live with what I find at the grocery store…

 

      Paper magazines-I can read most magazines online for free and save the trees and money. 

 

      Incandescent lights- We chose to replace all the nasty energy consuming incandescent lights with thrifty florescent ones. 

      Cost of 22 florescent light bulbs= around $100.00 with tax in Arkansas…

      Savings about $15.00 per month in electric-over all each bulb has a life span of at least three years

      This means they will not only last about a hundred times longer than the old bulbs, but will pay for them selves very quickly.

 

      Washing our clothes in warm and hot water….we only wash in cold water now.

 

      Zip lock bags-buy a Seal-a-meal, for the money you will get more and it is more eco friendly…plus you can use it to reseal all kinds of bags.

 

      Some other changes we have made in our lives are:

 

      We reuse almost ever container we bring home at least twice. 

 

     We make our own eco friendly soap, (this saves fuel and the eco system).

     We also make our own laundry soap…

      Feel free to ask for the recipe…

    

     We make one trip to shop instead of many:

     

     We try hard t o buy locally grown meat, if beef only Angus, it’s grown cleaner and is local.

     We also raise and eat our own old world sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys, geese, quail, ducks and pigeons.

     We milk our goats and sheep to make soap, cheese and of course just for milk as well.

      We eat our eggs from our free range chickens and ducks.

     When ever possible we buy local produce or raise our own from heritage or heirloom seeds. 

     Our potatoes this year will be blue, red and Yukon gold.

     We can our produce and also make our own jams, jelly’s and wines when ever possible.

     We have our own apple tree, pear tree, prisimon tree and a small mulberry tree as well as a tom of wild Black Raspberries.

     Currently we have our own Bay leaf tree and many herb plants.  Sage grows very well here as does basil and mint.

 

     To heat our home we burn good old fashioned wood…we try hard to gather wood that would otherwise be wasted, plus it’s free….

     We have logging horses that help us and we love them and our glad that they have chosen to share their lives with us.

  

     We joined Freecycle to give away things we don't need that might otherwise go into the land fill.

     If we are looking for a part or an item we need we ask on Freecycle first.

 

     We also compost all our food waste that the animals don't eat and use only organic fertilizers on our land. 

     We raise cute little bunnies who help us with this…

  

    . Well anyway this is some of what we do…I am sure it gives you an idea or two of your own….

 

                                                                        Be Blessed

                           Shekhinah, Michael and all the kids and critters here on Mahanaim Farm

                                                          www.goldendovegallery.org  

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more chickens

My odd and Beautiful Americanas
Mood:  a-ok
Just check out my photos and my little loves...

Quail, more ducks and turkeys from eggs....
Mood:  bright
Now Playing: Feed me water me and feed me more.....

Wow our quail fun or what...Well they are alot more work than I thought, mostly because at first they did not get enough light...FYI they need at least 17 hours of light a day to lay well. they also need high protein feed about 22% or better.

I have wire bottom cages, which if you are thinking of getting this little guys you really need. Mostly cause they make a huge mess and you don't want they laying around in it, trust me on this...

We have had our first hatches from the inubator,two out of two eggs hatched, both lived and are huge considering that they are born the size of bummble bees...lol
The next batch out of five we had two live. Baby quail much like baby ducks are really, really dumb. Mind you I did all the right things and still only had two live. I deem it natural selection...She says shaking her head. The first one got his head stuck in the tiny wire that I was told was much to small for them to do that. I roll my eys...It did get it's head into the wire and got it stuck and died...One down four left.

One big dummy snaped his little neck because he got his head stuck in the quail water...She shakes her head again...Now two birds down. I thought I had it all settled...but I was wrong..baby quail can fly, well sort of and I heard a plop from the other room...Oh well two out of five I can live with that. That is where I stand today...lol
We have a good 15 getting ready to hatch so I hope to have none die this time.

Now turkeys which every one and there brother told me were so had to hatch and raise turned out to be a piece of cake. No dealths, only happy healthy little turkey people. Our first babys are a cross between our gray slate and a royal palm and I think this is a good cross, they seem very smart healthy and they are not to hard on the eyes. Out of four eggs three hatched and our healthy happy little flegged turkeys...not to bad. Turkeys need high protien food just like the quail, so we switched between flock started in the morning and chicken mash at night, along with smashed oyster shells and real live bugs from the yard. What can I say the kids love feeding them bugs and they seem to do well with our feeeding method.

Ducks still suck I can hatch those darn muscoveys or be given them , but they are heck to keep alive. Uggghhh.....I did figure out that it is btter to wet feed them. This means wetting their food and watching them to make sure they do not play in get wet and die. Yup they are that dumb...not my sweet little cambells, unless you have them in with the muscoveys....
Oh well, have to go...Have more soap to make and baby chcicks to tend...Kisses to you all...

Farm life
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: animal care
What a week...We raise ducks but bartered for more in hopes of turning over some quick cash. So now we technically have most of the endangered farm ducks out there. Sadly our van broke down the day of the swap and we never made it. Hoping next week will go better I am preparing to make animal treats and Lye soap to take with me.
The jeep may be back up and running, we have not tried to drive it yet. We have dumped a lot into it, but I think in the end it will work out for the best. Classic cars require work, so what you gonna do?
I found a newer jeep for $800.00 and have considered buying it. I could trade the Cadillac for it maybe or even the Buick, it's hard to decide.
Money as always is tight and we make the best of it all, trying to make things last as long as we can.

We acquired quail a couple of weeks ago and they seem to be doing very well. They are Cortinex Quail and lay about 300 eggs a year or so...not to shabby there, plus they go from hatch to laying in 7 or 8 weeks. They are tiny but fast and easy to raise, I give them a thumbs up. You may be asking your self what in the world are these little quail good for, well I will tell you. You can hunt them as they get flight feathers faster than bob whites. You can eat them yourself or sell them to restaurants or even sell them to a game farm...they go for around $2.00 each at hatch. You can sell their eggs for .15 each fertile or not (some people eat them. I saw fresh quail eggs on line for $9.00 for 6 eggs. I know crazy but true. They require very little food compared to a chicken and their eggs hatch at about 17 days. They do not set eggs well. So it is best to take their eggs away a few times a day. The biggest problem I can see is that they are like the size of a bumble bee when born and can drown them selves in nearly non existent water. Other than that they are great.
We have a big sportsman incubator and I am guessing you could do thousands of these eggs at a time if you had them. I have a small flock at the moment only 4 hens and two cock. I ordered another 4 hens and two more cocks but it will be a while on them. I get between two and three eggs a day from the ones I have (about 18 eggs a week) but it’s a good start. I figure I will keep a third of each hatch for breading stock. So with the 12 birds I should get 36 eggs a week. I plan to buy 6 birds from the breeder ever 2 weeks until I hit 100. With that I figure I should get 80 eggs a day or better and be fairly well set. 560 eggs a week would give me eggs to pickle for our use as well as sell and barter goods. I would have plenty to hatch and plenty to eat. In theory you could make un- believable money with them if you did it right. One of our friends in trying to talk us into raising them for slaughter, but in truth I think that is a lot of work for the return. I can get $2.00 each at the swap for the little guys with no effort, why would I want to have to clean them to make a quarter more per bird. You know…
I have about given up on hatching chickens for sale, yes there is some money to be made but people are fickle and the cost of feed high. I do better with ducks, geese, turkeys and the quail. I still want to buy Peacocks and hope to have some soon…ducks you can get $5.00 a chick all day long, geese I get $7.00 each and turkey’s $7.00 and than of course the $2.00 for the quail. I plan to get $25.00 for baby peacocks. We have talked about getting swans in the future. You can get an incredible $200.00 for each chick or $800.00 per full grown pair. For now we need to create new and better pens for our bird and get ourselves a bit better established.

Anyway have to go and make soap so I can afford to become bird rich, lol…

Oh our website is www.goldendovegallery.org incase you are trying to find us...

Big hug from Shekhinah, Michael and the kids and critters here on Mahanaim Farm.

Baby Muscove Ducks
Baby Muscove Ducks were born under there mom and we could not be happier. This is the only way we have gotten Muscove ducks to hatch...so please keep that in mind if yo are planning on getting some.
I like the cambel ducks better,I can hatch them in the incubator and from hatch to table in 5 months or less.

New babies...and baby bunnies go bye bye..lol
Mood:  a-ok
Hidi Ho boys and girls out there on the great web...we have had baby goats born...They are healthy, happy, and the mom is also doing great...
Even got to watch them born...Man what a great experence it was. We had a veiwing stand out side of the pen and about nine people watching as the event unfolded before us.
After a few pushes Purina had one baby out, a beautiful baby girl...she licked her and the baby got up and fed within 4 minutes of being born. Than she pushed the other one out and walked away. I waited a few minutes watching the baby still in the sack and waiting to see what she would do...
I gave it four minutes she did nothing so...I went in yelled up to the crowd for a towel and went into the pen. First I removed the sack from around the baby alowing it to get it's first breath of air. I watched the mom to see if she was intrested in going on from there with out me. No such luck...
I started to dry the little boy...he was just cute as a button. He stood and tryed to follow me around..I protested greatly at this point trying to get the moms attention as I am bottle feeding one baby goat in my house already. After the baby goat made noise the mom came over and took over from there....Boy was I happy to see that...

Both babys are doing well...

Time marches foward
Wow, so much has happened I almost so not know where to begin.
We have had some sad times, we lost two of our prime goats in one day.


Adam a Spanish black buck and Baby my prime Nubian doe. Adam died because he ate a rope dog toy that had apparently been buried inthe dirt from the past owner of the property. A warning to check everything on your land when you have livestock. We could never have imagined such a thing happening but it did. Apparently the rope toy got stuck in his lower intestine and blocked him from digesting food. To look at him, he looked fine, the friend who came over and did the autopsy said he looked great, good meat on him, very healthy, no parasites or anything like that. The animal had to have suffered in it's last hours horrible,again we had no idea, the day before he was up playing with the other goats. To make matters worse he was laid out near Baby guarding her I guess with her three new baby does.

Baby's death was a another story which is very said to have to retell, but I hope by posting these story's that other people out there will learn from our mistakes and have an easier time with there animals. Back to the story. when we bought Baby about a year ago from a local man we were told she was a papered Nubian doe and around four years old. At the time I had no reason to doubt the guy, she had perfect confirmation and gave great milk nearly a gallon and a half a day when in full milk. Well we started to doubt part of the story the guy told us when we could never find the tattooed number in her ear, so we found she had not been papered at all. I was hot, but I loved her papers or not so live went on. We bread her with our papered Nubian Buck Roy. She took and like I said above gave birth to three wonderful baby does. We named them death, Famine and Pestilence. As the first day passed I knew that Baby just did not seem right. I called a friend with a bunch more knowledge than myself and hoped for the best. We gave her shot after shot of goat serum, antibiotics, increased her grain feed and many other things but in the end we could not save her. About a week after she had the baby's she died. She was way to old to have been breed, it broke our heart, I still cry thinking about it. Out of the three babies death died within two days, she just never seemed right, half the size of the other two and never could stand on her own. She died in my arms. A day latter Famine died of eternal injury's as a result of her mother falling down on her. I did every thing I could for her, she two died in my arms. Pestilence in still with us, bottle feed every four hours and is healthy and lovely, the perfect little goat. Even having her does not make up for the loss of her mother. My advice to anyone out there thinking about getting goats is to get a book and learn to read there age from their teeth. having something like this happen when you have a small herd is devastating and heart breaking.

Baby ducks and why do it to your self
Mood:  not sure
Oh my G-d are some types of baby ducks a nightmare to deal with. We were gifted or cursed with 30 baby turky ducks. These things are nothing like my sweet cambel ducks. They climb, they exscape, they drown them selves. They are really bad, in 24 hours I have lost like 5 of the 30.
I tell you what I am thinking of getting my big ducks into a pen and turning the babys lose with them. The way I see it at least it might double my odds of having any live.
I have had many of the cambels born with no problems and in the future will just do them and not these other ducks.
No more turkey ducks...Yuck!!!!