Getting Ready for Winter

It’s only September but as far as I’m concerned, it’s never too early to get ready for winter. Our 8 chickens recently saw 3 more chickens and 7 guineas move in so the coop needed to be remodeled to accommodate the whole brood comfortably. The coop, by the way, is nestled inside a very roomy aviary and measures 12 ft wide by 4 ft deep by 8 ft tall. The Aviary is 12 ft wide by 24 ft long with a 12 ft ceiling. Our birds have 2 large summer roosts inside the aviary but winter here in Missouri is too cold for those. We installed 3 stair step roosts on one side of the coop and situated it for ease of cleaning and placed a single roost on the opposite side. The single roost is for our original 3 production reds - the queens of the coop. This remodel also allowed room for nesting boxes and even food and water if necessary. Since it completion, all our birds have been roosting at night in the coop and have completely stopped using the summer roosts.   

The pictures below are of the aviary and the newly added roosts in the coop. 

Outside the Aviary and inside the flight run.

Looking into the spacious Aviary. Note the summer roosts on both sides.

Blossom doing her quality inspection.

Chickens and guineas getting comfortable.

Morgan, Harriet and Blossom. The Queens of the Coop.

Late Summer 2011

There hasn’t been much going on here at Patchwork Prairie this summer as the unusually intense heat and humidity kept us from achieving many of our goals this year. Therefore, as the heat winds down we will be a blur of activity in our attempt to get all that we wish to achieve for 2011 completed. Thus far, we have gotten all the posts up around the new garden spot and completed the wooden posts and metal gate for the entrance. Next, we will be adding the welded wire fencing to the posts with chicken wire added to the bottom and an electric wire to the top. My woes with gardening in the past-included deer that ate the tops off everything I planted or pulled plants out of the ground, and rabbits that chewed on all my new plants down to nubs. I am determined to eat my own produce next year!

I am so excited about my garden spot for next year. It will consist of raised beds with a thick layer of sawdust in between the beds to prevent weed growth. We should be able to get the sawdust placed and the raised beds made and filled before the first flakes of snow stop our progress. Our land is pretty much void of top soil and this area of the country is clay, so the fill dirt is going to be coming from someplace else and amended with the compost we make every year. We make our rich compost using the waste we get from scooping the poop out of the chicken coop and duck house. We use sawdust for bedding in those areas, and the composted wood and poop combined with grass clippings, tree leaves and produce waste is fantastic for plants. That combination has yielded us fabulous herbs, which thankfully, the deer and rabbits don’t seem to like.

A few weeks ago we replaced a few chickens and added 8 guineas to our stock due to a raccoon raid last month. That raid took 6 of our young chickens. What a horrific disaster that was! It left us with only 8 chickens but thankfully, spared one rooster. Fortunately, the raiders were still in the aviary so Bill was able to permanently stop 2 of the 3 involved. I really don’t believe the one that got away will want to come back any time soon. That afternoon, after he got home from work, Bill did a thorough check to find how they were getting in. We had checked over the aviary in the spring but we didn’t see the holes created by raccoons walking on the top of the flight run. The area where the flight run attaches to the aviary was the location of the holes that allowed the raccoons to enter because the staples had popped out!

Bill now has those areas secured but then we lost one guinea last week. I’ve learned that the critter was either an opossum or a raccoon as it found an area where the chicken wire had come loose from the fencing at the ground, and took it right through the fence. Now we have those areas are more secure. We have never had much of a predator problem until this year. Those buggers are teaching us a lot related to just how cunning they are. I believe the extremely hot and dry weather we’ve been experiencing this summer is affecting the natural prey the raccoons and opossums normally eat so they are concentrating their efforts in getting to our birds. And naturally, we are learning from them and concentrating our efforts in keeping them OUT! Next year I want loads of produce to eat and can as well as loads of eggs and baby chickens to sell. It’s been a struggle this year but next year our Patchwork Prairie could actually begin to pay for itself.

Jetta

It is too hot to cook!

Why heat up the kitchen and the rest of the house when the heat index is in the triple digits here in Missouri? This evening instead of eating another salad or a cold sandwich, I prepared a delightful dish of raw spaghetti with raw marinara sauce. No really, it is very good and very nutritious since it’s not cooked. Plus, it’s extremely fast and easy to make. Here’s how it is done. You take;

½ cup tomato, chopped
½ cup sun dried tomatoes soaked for 30 minutes or you can use oil packed.
½ of a red or yellow bell pepper
1 tbsp fresh minced basil, if you have it
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 small garlic clove or less depending on the individual, minced or crushed in a garlic press.
1 pitted date
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Dash of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients in a food processor fitted with an S blade until the mixture is blended thoroughly. You may need to scrape the contents off the side of the processor with a plastic spatula a few times. I let this sit for about 30 minutes so it can come to room temperature and so all the flavors have a chance to blossom. See, easy peasy!

Then place about 3 inches of a medium zucchini or yellow squash on the plate of a spiral slicer and spiral away. You can also use a peeler and make lots of thicker fettuccine type pasta. Place the vegetable pasta on a plate and top with the marinara from the food processor. I top that with parmesan cheese and devour it with great pleasure. This can be served alone or with a side salad. Sometimes I soak ½ cup walnuts for a few hours and add that to the marinara for a more meaty texture. This sauce will keep for a few days in the fridge if needed. I rarely have any left over to store. Give it a try and leave a comment about how you like it.

Cat Rescue..... again!

A couple of months ago I saw a beautiful and well-developed adult tortoise shell type calico cat walking across our backyard. When I opened the sliding glass door to get a better look, she ran like the wind and I never saw her again. Until a few weeks ago when she appeared on our deck, looking quite emaciated with a large patch of hairless skin on the back of her neck. I sneaked around the back and took a small bowl of dry food to the deck and rattled it to get her attention. She was panting and looked very weak but got up so fast she startled me. She ate all we gave her and drank a good amount of water as well. As she ate, we got a good look at her. Given her emaciated state, we decided she had been either dumped or possibly abandoned. We knew of a family up the road that recently left the area. In addition, that large patch of bare of skin on the back of her neck, well of course, it was full of ticks.

The weather in Missouri has been wickedly hot and humid this summer and in her condition, we knew she would not last much longer on her own. We gave her for all the food and water she wanted that day and continued on day 2. She slept under the deck but came out quickly when we called to her from the patio. She was weak but still had a loud purr and definitely used it to her advantage. We also found that when she meow’s she does a cute two-part meow that really sounds like she’s saying “hell llo”. Later on day 2, we carefully removed all her 30+ ticks from the back of her neck and one toe. I then applied some antibiotic ointment to help heal and soothe those tick bitten areas. We checked carefully for fleas but amazingly, she had none!

Still unsure what to do with this gal, we continued to care for her, but outside since we have 4 cats in the house. On day 3, she was looking weaker and pretty heat stressed so we decided to bring her into the house and close her in the office in order to keep her segregated. She rested on the floor for 2 days getting up only to eat, drink or use her litter box. I watched for signs of disease like diarrhea, sneezing, runny nose, coughing, gait, eye changes and so forth, but nothing appeared. By now, she had won our hearts and we decided she could stay but as an outside cat after she was healed. On day 5, we took her to our Veterinarian in Columbia. She received a general health exam, rabies injection, worming, an antibiotic injection and blood tests for all the bad stuff cats can get like FELV, FIV and heartworm. So now, we need a name for this gal. After a lengthy search on the internet for ideas, I came up with a few names that I liked and ran them by Bill. We both decided we liked Aurora since she has so many colors on her coat.

After she passed her quarantine period, we began introducing Aurora to our cats since she is still recovering from her emaciated state, still in the house and the weather continues to be so wickedly hot that she cannot be outside in her condition. Aurora initially flunked house cat 101 by being snarly to our cats for days on end and her incessant desire to be on our kitchen counters. My bet is that she was an only cat and perhaps even abused as she has an aggressive response to feet if they pass her to fast. After a few weeks and much tolerance from Bill, my cats, and me, Aurora is finally beginning to settle into our house routine. Aurora has her issues and she still has a lot of healing, both physical and psychological, in her future but unless we are able to find someone that is willing to take a very pretty cat that has issues, she is welcome to stay with us either indoor or outside, for the remainder of her days.

We didn’t take any pictures of Aurora in her worst condition. However, this is how she is looking 3 weeks into her recovery.

Green Smoothies for Life

I can’t remember how far back it was when I first began hearing about green smoothies, perhaps back in the ‘70’s, I believe the focus at that time was as a method of weight loss. I never paid any attention to the information, because I have never been overweight. A few years ago, I began hearing about green smoothies again but this time the focus was on the nutritional benefits of the raw ingredients included in them. This time I took notice, because I am always interested in learning more about nutrition. Today with the internet, we have a huge database for learning about nutrition, so I began reading about green smoothies on my own. There is an abundance of information on the Raw Food movement if you are interested and the USDA has a site that also gives everyone information related to the nutritional content of the “raw” fruits and vegetables you decide to include into your smoothies. I’ll post a link at the end of this blog post.

Recently, I’d grown so tired of eating a cooked or cereal breakfast that I began experimenting with making green smoothies. Just a basic recipe like the one below which was all it took for me and now I’m hooked! For me, green smoothies have become a great way to include more fresh and nutritious fruits and vegetables into my diet since I have a busy schedule. Now I can get 2 vegetables and at least 2 fruits consumed in a delicious smoothie, which makes it so much easier for me to get my daily 5 vegetables which is needed according to the most recent nutrition trends. After drinking these green smoothies for a couple of weeks, I realized that I had more energy and felt more alert. Then it dawned on me, that the difference was that I was actually eating real food and not my previously overly processed or sugar laced mush.

Today my smoothie was my Basic Smoothie Recipe
• a good handful of raw spinach,
• ½ raw zucchini
• one small peeled apple,
• one banana,
• 1 cup coconut milk,
• as well as about 3 tablespoons raw Chia gel and 2 tablespoons raw hemp seed protein powder.

Chia gel is another way to supplement my diet with vitamins and minerals in a natural way and Chia seeds are known to be an appetite suppressant so I feel satiated longer into my morning – I’ll post the easy recipe and information link at the end of this blog post. My smoothies are not 100% raw but that isn’t my focus either. I want as much nutrition as I can get in a low processed smoothie that I can drink while I’m getting ready for work. My morning smoothies are loaded with vitamins and minerals, taste great and make me feel wonderful. Later in the summer, I’ll add some information related to some wonderful herbs you can add for the benefit of immune system nourishment as well. That will be a whole blog post in itself.

Since variety is the spice of life, I also use watermelon, cantaloupe, peas, a carrot, kale, dandelions greens, collard greens, spring lambs quarter shoots, cucumber, yellow squash, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, papaya, mango, orange or red bell pepper, corn, shitake mushroom, nectarine, and alfalfa sprouts. The selections are vast; however, I don’t have access to as much as some folks do that live in more temperate climates. The key for me is to use only four items excluding the liquid, otherwise my smoothie is either too thick or the quantity is more than I can consume in the morning.

I’m very aware of a growing debate over Raw vs Cooked vegetables and fruits, and the final decision lies with the consumer. In my research, I have found that there are nutritional benefits to both raw and cooked vegetables however; in some cases, the difference is minor. The key I believe is in moderation. In addition to a lot of raw fruits and vegetables, I also eat cooked (steamed) vegetables and I believe I am getting the best from my foods that my body can receive. Another interesting tidbit that I’ll include is that science has found that cooked foods actually acidify your body and, that acidic environment has been linked to cancer related ailments. Well if raw fruits and vegetables alkalize your body, then I am all for eating more alkalizing foods so I can decrease my chances of my developing cancer. With the growing disease and obesity rate in the US, it is prudent that we all become more aware of our food choices and make healthier decisions.
Jetta

You may want to visit this site to help determine which fruits and vegetables you wish to include in your smoothies.
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-and-vegetable-products/2384/2
Ex: Carrots have much more nutrition raw than cooked per this “Self Nutrition Data- know what you eat” web site. The calcium data in cooked is 2.9 mg as opposed to 42.2 mg in raw. Apples in the raw have 5.5 mg of calcium and boiled have 8.6mg.
Moutain Rose Herbs has some wonderful products and loads of information as well. For information on Chia Seeds and the recipe for Chia gel follow this link please. http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/learn/chiaseed.php
I grind mine up then make the gel. Try it both ways to find the way you like it best.

A Memorable Memorial Day 2011

It started out like a nice easygoing day. I was in the house reading a book on the couch with the cats all around me, all snoozing contentedly. I became aware that some of the ducks and geese had come back up from the pond to the duck house, situated right across from the house, as the geese were squawking their arrival as they normally do. However, something was different; the geese continued to squawk for several minutes as opposed to the usual few they normally belt out. I was concerned that a dog or fox was roaming about, so I went through the gate and out to the duck yard to see what was bothering the geese. Nothing looked unusual until I was closer to the duck house. That is when I noticed one of my Ancona ducks (Cocoa) was all by herself and was sitting with her head down and not moving when I approached. Much to my horror, I also noticed she was bleeding from two wounds on her pretty white neck. One at the back of her head that was about a half inch long and looked like a tear and the other one was about 1 1/2 inches long and looked like a tear as well.

After thanking the geese for being so vocal, I picked Cocoa up and rushed her to the house. The geese and ducks immediately went back to the pond. In the house, I grabbed a dishtowel on the way to the garage to get a bigger towel. I needed to examine her wounds and figure out whether or not Cocoa was going to live through this trauma. My heart was really racing at this point, as I feared that Cocoa’s injuries were going to be fatal. I placed Cocoa on some towels on the dinner table, where I could better see her wounds and began applying pressure to stop the bleeding on both wounds. After several minutes, I noticed that there were no more active bleeding spots, which was very encouraging since I did not want this little girl to die.

Now that I had the bleeding stopped, I needed to get the clumps of clotted blood off her so I could examine her further and decide how I was going to fix this mess. Since Cocoa was being such a good patient, I took her outside to the front of the house and used the garden hose to rinse the wound areas clean of clots. After getting that done I saw to my relief that only the skin had been torn and no muscle tissue was damaged on her neck, whew!!! Her beak had a crushing type injury so It was then I figured that she most likely had been attacked by a snapping turtle on the pond. Poor girl! I was also able to examine her left eye at that time and found that the injury she sustained to her eye last winter has caused her to become blind in that eye.

Now what do I do? I knew she needed stitches but on Memorial Day I was not about to call a veterinarian to stitch her up. That would be entirely too costly. Having read numerous articles written by homesteaders that do their own first aide on their animals, including stitching up skin tears, I decided that perhaps I could do the same thing. However, I would need to wait until my husband got home from work. Unfortunately, as bad luck would have it, he was being held over for several hours into the evening.

In the meantime, I got Cocoa cleaned up and applied globs of Antibiotic ointment to her wounds. Then I fixed a nice straw nest in a fenced area in the barn for her with food and water that included electrolytes for ducks. Next, I went online to find out any information about stitching up Cocoa. I discovered several sites that have complete instructions on how to stitch up wounds, Yeah! I used to work as a dental assistant so I’ve seen a lot of stitches, but I needed a refresher since that was a long time ago. I also found some articles related to duck injuries which reminded me that since a ducks normal body temperature is around 107 degrees, infection shouldn’t be a big concern, as bacteria do not like temperatures that high. Another Yeah!!!

Next, I gathered my materials needed to stitch up Cocoa. A common needle from my sewing kit, good and strong poly / cotton thread in a dark color since her neck is white, hemostats and bandage scissors from my first aid kit. I cut a few lengths of thread about 12 inches long and boiled them for 10 minutes to disinfect them. I then scrubbed my hemostats and scissors with soap and water, and then boiled them for the same amount of time to disinfect those as well. I got the thread out of the water after 10 minutes and placed them on a paper towel, wrapped them in another paper towel and placed those in a zip lock bag. The scissors and hemostats went into another zip lock bag.

When Bill got home, I gathered all the materials I needed and Bill and I headed to the barn to fix up little Cocoa. She was still being pretty cooperative and we saw that she had been attempting to eat and she had been drinking her water with electrolytes – a very good sign. With Bill holding her in a towel, I began by using scissors to trim away as many feathers as I could since I don’t have any clippers. I also had to pluck some feathers but Cocoa didn’t seem to mind. Then I used the information I found online, cleaned up the wound again and began stitching her up. Bill was a bit squeamish about this part and we had to take a break so he could regain his composure, LOL!!! She got 3 stitches on the longer skin tear at the base of her neck which seemed to be enough, and I left the smaller one at the back of her head without stitching as it looked like a puncture wound that may need to drain.

I was then able to get a better look at her beak. It was definitely a crushing type injury on the top with a tiny little tear. Those snapping turtles are brutal! Cocoa’s nostrils were clogged with blood so she was breathing through her mouth. I was not able to clean them out but I knew, in time, she would be able to using the bucket she has for drinking water. All her wounds got a generous glob of antibiotic ointment, more to keep the flies off her wounds than anything else. Last, I gave her a nice Reiki treatment and we put her back in her recovery area.

The next morning we found that Cocoa was still with us. She had been drinking and had eaten a little from her food bowl, Woo hoo!!! We spent the next week, twice a day, cleaning her wounds with Betadine, using the antibiotic ointment to keep the flies off and giving her Reiki treatments. After a couple of days Cocoa was finally able to get one side of her nose cleaned out in her water bucket and she was breathing more normally again. Funny, she was still laying eggs during her healing period. I told her she needed to conserve her energy, but she didn’t listen. By the way, It took about a week before Cocoa was able to get the other nostril cleaned out and I was so happy to see that!!! Both nostrils looked just fine when they were cleared.

Two days into Cocoa’s recovery, I was concerned that Cocoa could become estranged from her little pod of ducks so we set up a small area with fencing in the duck house that would allow her to be in the company of her fellow ducks during her recovery period. That really seemed to perk her up and she began eating even more. She was even attempting to squawk through her painful beak!!!

After 7 days, we took the stitches out and her wounds looked great with only some residual redness and the lack of feathers of course. For a few days after removing the stitches, we continued to treat with the antibiotic ointment, just for good measure. We also kept Cocoa from other ducks for several more days because when they breed the drake grabs a hold of the ducks neck right where her injuries were.
Cocoa had the whole duck yard to herself during her recovery period until I felt she was ready to mingle again. It was so sweet to see that Cocoa’s pod of ducks stayed nearby during her recovery. When that time came, her pod came into the duck yard and treated Cocoa no different than if she had never been attacked, and they immediately resumed their normal activities. Since her injury, Cocoa has become faster on her legs and now outruns most of the drakes. It’s nice to see that her own drake is very protective and does not allow the other drakes to come near her. It’s normal behavior, but still nice since an aggressive drake could have re-injured those wound sites. Today, Cocoa is a happy and healthy Ancona duck. She’s blind in one eye from a past injury but she lived through her encounter with that snapping turtle. It is definitely a ducks life at the Patchwork Prairie.

Cocoa with her pod. She's the Brown and white one in front. The others are Miloe the Rouen drake, Maggie the Black and White Ancona and Tawney the Runner.

Lambsquarters

Lambsquarters - Goosefoot family , Chenopodium album. Also known as wild spinach, pig weed or goosefoot.

Description: An attractive summer annual, that is upright and branched. It grows up to 6 feet tall. The stems are grooved and it sometimes has purplish vertical stripes on the main stalk. The Leaves are arranged alternately along the branches, and are covered with tiny and grainy, white pollen like substance. The lower leaves are on stalks, are triangular, and irregularly toothed making them look like a goose’s foot. The leaves toward the top of the plant do not have stalks, are narrow, and are oblong in shape. Leaves are up to 3 inches long and 1 ½ inches wide.

According to my book “Crabgrass Muffins and Pine Needle Tea”, Lambsquarters nutritional profile, for ½ cup cooked greens, includes a whopping 3.5 grams of protein, 5.5 grams of carbohydrates, 2.0 grams fiber, 324 mg calcium, 1.5 mg iron, 684 mg potassium, 40 mg ascorbic acid, and 3800 micrograms of beta-carotene, 100 micrograms of thiamine, 200 micrograms of riboflavin and 1000 micrograms of niacin.

These greens actually have more nutrition than spinach! And, since it is a close relative to spinach, it contains oxalic acid which means that it binds with some of the calcium that is in the plant, but thankfully, not the calcium in the other foods in your meal.

This is another garden "weed" I’ve discovered that is not only great tasting but also extremely nutritious. I have been watching this grow in my yard for a couple of years but I wasn’t real sure that it was actually lambsquarters since it, like many tasty weeds has a poisonous looka-like. So, I consulted my field guides, however, they didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. Then, I went to my trusted book titled “Crabgrass Muffins and Pine Needle Tea” as I remembered that it has a section that gives the poisonous look- a- likes for several edible weeds. I discovered that there is one in the same Goosefoot family but that this look- a-like has a rank odor when picked.

What I have growing here has a wonderful spinach odor when the leaves or stem is torn. To test further I took a tiny bite of a leaf and discovered that it tastes remarkably like spinach, only sweeter. That is how they taste when cooked as well. I knew then that my research paid off so I harvested a batch for our dinner. And I wasn’t surprised to find that my husband loved them too.

Steaming seemed like a good way to preserve the nutrients since boiling just pulls the nutrients out and into the water. Which is not a bad way to prepare them if you don’t mind drinking the pot liquor, LOL. To prepare them I rinsed them well under cold water, steamed a big batch for 10 minutes and served them with a little butter, salt and pepper. We later shared this discovery with our Greek friend named John and he referred to them as Horta – boiled garden greens. He used fresh lemon squeezed onto the greens, and thus we tried it as well. Absolutely awesome!!! I suppose you could dress these versatile greens with anything that you like to put on any other greens.

I now have a good-sized batch growing with my Thyme and Rosemary in my herb garden. And I've have been cutting the top few inches every week and these plants are bushing out and giving me more greens every week. I have a couple of plants that I am letting go to seed so I can insure that I have more growing next year, and perhaps in a different location so they aren’t competing for space with my culinary herbs. I think that next year I will have a vegetable garden with several wild foods as well as the domesticated selections. Bon Apatite!

Jetta