Independence Days Update: Mac the Marshmallow
Sharon January 19th, 2010
So the big event around here was the arrival of our Great Pyrenees puppy, Maccabeus. He arrived along with six inches of snow the same color as he is yesterday. He’s a very sweet dog – he already loves the kids and wants to be with them. He’s very nervous, and a little sad because despite being six months old, he’s only just been taken away from his Mom. He’s clearly looking for her everywhere he goes. He is beautiful, affectionate and while a little nervous about the unfamiliar surroundings, astonishingly relaxed around people and animals.
The fly in the ointment has been Mistress Quickly, who has always been fairly mellow about other dogs, but is officially NOT PLEASED about Mac’s arrival. He is already twice her size, so he mostly ignores her growling and snapping, but she’s convinced he’s a threat – every time one of us goes to pet him, she puts her body between him and us. We’re working on reinforcing her positive behavior, and on softening her attitude towards him (there was a temporary truce when we did a little joint training, in which both dogs realized they had common ground – they both like cheese 
.)
So between Mac the Marshmallow whimpering at night without his Mommy (I finally slept downstairs with him, and he wedged himself between the sofa and me to get a Mommy substitute) and Mistress Quickly asserting herself as boss, things have been a little hectic and dog-centered around here. We’re still figuring out how things are going to work, but it is, at least, exciting.
I’ve also got a line on a couple of possible bucks for our girls, which is really exciting to me. We have to work out timing and details, but it looks like our goat situation may be set to expand fairly soon, and, yay! no more “drive thru goat sex!”
Not too much else going on her, except that Mom was visiting and we were able to borrow her BJ’s card to actually get a couple of things that we can’t get as cheaply anywhere else. I don’t think it is normally worthwhile to pay for a warehouse membership for us – we get most of our bulk materials elsewhere – but there are a few things that are a better price, most notably the pull-ups Eli has to wear to school and the dog food that Mac has been eating (we’ll shift him gradually over to our food, but we do *not* want a giant dog with an upset stomach!) . So we did a little stocking up.
It took me a few days to really recover from last week’s workshop, and I’ve been focusing on the book as much as anything else. I still haven’t finished my seed orders, which are one of the pressing issues for this week – since I want to do a lot of stratified things this year, and am planning on going to market with my plants, I need to get organized ASAP. Otherwise, not so much going on here.
Plant something: Not this week
Harvest something: A few leaves of kale out from the snow during our thaw last week, as well as milk and eggs. Got 5 eggs today (we don’t light) as well as finding a broody cochin hen, so spring will actually come!
Preserve something: I made some applesauce out of apples that were failing.
Waste Not: Nothing new
Want Not: Added more pull-ups and dog food to our reserves as well as a few other odds and ends (worcestershire sauce, old bay seasoning, nutella for the husband ). Also picked up more cat food earlier in the week.
Eat the Food: Roasted vegetables wraps, stir fried kim chi and lamb in garlic sauce were highlights.
Build Community Food Systems: A possible new project came my way, but has to be tabled until after the book. Otherwise, nothing new.
How about you?
Sharon
- Independence Days Challenge
- Comments(23)
Plant: No
Harvest: thyme, rosemary from pots, sage from outside
Preserve: dried orange peel
Waste Not: discovered what the smell in the storage room was from – our visiting chipmunk had been drinking out of shelf stable milk individual packs, very neatly but left-behind dregs had fermented; mostly finished unpacking from our holiday trip and sorting accumulated laundry; worked on budget with partner; made broth.
Want Not: A couple of good housekeeping/homesteading books at a clearance warehouse; bulk FT/org coffee, caf and decaf;10# onions; some divider boxes for organizing problematic kitchen drawers; replaced a worn out nonstick pan with enameled castiron and got a great small used castiron frying pan; some catsup and raw honey for my true love and triscuit for me; updated storage log.
Community: Monthly meat/cheese farm delivery pick up
Eat: egg salad; smoked fish with loose sushi; roast chicken with root vegetables; chicken, root vegies and rice; chicken shreds and chopped roast vegetables tossed in parsley noodles; green and white pizza; oatmeal with dried fruit including home-dried strawberries.
Photos of Mac the marshmellow please!! He sounds adorable.
Here’s my update for the week. I’ve slight modified my format to link to my bigger goals of Independence and Self-Sufficiency, but I remain true to the cause
http://agoodhuman.wordpress.com/2010/01/18/independence-days-loving-the-rain-and-howling-wind/
Awww…I want a Mac the Marshmallow. I’m trying to soften my hubby up about getting a dog.
I posted my Independence Days on my blog.
I haven’t commented on these before because I’m too lazy to type it up (typing is probably my least favorite activity), but I’m trying to avoid going out to work on my aquaponic room;p. Plus I’m trying to be more involved in things. So here goes.
Plant something: A few beets, broccoli, and lettuce seeds into the empty spaces in the greenhouse.
Harvest something: A little lettuce and turnip greens, also from the greenhouse. Milk from the goats. A few eggs from the quail. I was getting a full round (about 30) until about three weeks ago, then they all started to molt and I was getting about 5 a day. Most of them are completely feathered again and starting to lay. These little buggers seem to do everything at high speed!
Preserve something: Nope.
Waste not: We are now “preprocessing” everything we can through the pigs before it goes to the compost:).
Want not: Ordered 5 pounds of tomato powder,as well as smaller amounts of lemon, chicken and beef broth, and worcestershire powders. Made an order for a bunch more trees (fruit, biomass, and animal feed). Our little sow went into heat yesterday so we put her in with the boar. which means with any luck we’ll have piglets in the spring. Maybe that should have gone in plant something. lol
Eat the food: Nothing new, but one of our favorites is sandwiches with bread made from our wheat, homemade mayo (our eggs), mozzarella from our goat milk (even made homemade rennet this year:D), and sometimes I’ll roast up a brined goat leg. Yum! It’s even better with tomatoes when they are in season.
Build community food system: The main things that are grown for sale in our town is alfalfa and beef. We try to buy our hay locally and purchase from the local store (even if it’s just marked up w-mart stuff). Other than that community in general is a weak link for us here. All town activities are centered around church. Plus, I am part Hispanic and have walked in on more than one unpleasant conversation about Mexicans. It makes it hard to build community. But that’s a different topic and I should go do some work:).
We recently got an Australian shepherd puppie how is obsessed with using us a a replacement for his mom.
This week I barely accomplished anything on the list. No planting, only a few herbs harvested, no preserving. I think I wasted MORE than usual because I was helping to clean out my grandmother’s home. (She recently passed away). While I made an effort to give as much as we could to family members and then to put the next tier in an estate sale pile and the rest went to Goodwill, I still saw bags and bags and bags of trash leave for the dump. It pained me.
On the positive side–I picked up 15 pounds of pinto beans to add to storage. I ordered a case of local cheese with a friend. I tried to order a case of locally made salsa, but apparently the owners aren’t filling orders now. I organized the milk co-op. That’s about it. Not much of a week, but we made it through.
I’m too tired to correct my grammar and punctuation today. Next week will be a bit better.
Here’s to hoping next week/this week is more productive,
Gabrielle in East TN
Plant: nada
Harvest: Beets, cauliflower, cabbage, parsley, chard, chickweed, miner’s lettuce, cilantro
Preserve: nope
Waste not: the usual, kitchen scraps to chickens, weeds to goats.
Want not: no stocking up this week
Build Community food systems: not this week
Eat the food: Highlights were homegrown meatloaf, homemade cinnamon raisin bread, and bubble and squeak
6 mos old and already twice her size?! oi.
Oops, I just accidentally posted this on last week’s Independence Days.
Aww. Poor Mac, missing his mama. When we brought our kitten home two years ago at the end of November, he’d get cold in the very early morning, after an early breakfast of cold canned food, since we turn the heat off at night. So after he ate, we’d go back to bed and he’d stretch his tummy across my neck until he warmed up. He also liked to curl up in the hollow between my neck and the side of the couch where he and I slept for the first few weeks, until we were ready to bring him into the bedroom with the dogs. He still likes to sleep on my shoulder, but I finally had to tell him, no more stretching out on my throat. There’s a whole lot of difference between a fluffy three pound baby, and a hefty 12 pounds of adult cat, and I need to breathe! …
Plant: nothing
Harvest: local eggs, vegetables from the farmer’s market
Preserve: Nothing.
Waste not: composted vegetable scraps, as usual. Saved some for making stock. Husband replaced the leaking hot water valve on the kitchen sink, which was a relief, since we’d had to keep it turned off for several days, or it ran nonstop. Which was a reminder that not having hot running water in the kitchen is a real pain. Cold water doesn’t cut through or wash out grease, so even rinsing dishes became a nuisance, and washing them became a production. I can live just fine without a lot of modern conveniences, but please, please, leave me the hot water.
Want not: No — been buying lunch out too much this week instead of bringing it from home, and need to get back with the program.
Community food systems: I’m the one who organizes and places the egg orders at work and collects the money every week for our local farmer. Wrote up bi-monthly cooking column. Told a friend she could cook with chicken fat, instead of throwing it out, and it would make her vegetables taste wonderful (pretty funny to both of us, since I’m vegetarian and she’s not. But now she’s excited about the possibilities).
Eat the food: Pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin quick bread, home fries with cabbage, spaghetti with home canned sauce.
It might still be winter, but there are tiny little green things coming up inside! The peppers planted last week are just starting to come up – it’s looking like I’ll have 30-40% germination. The old lettuce seed seems to still be viable but slow to germinate. After about a dozen seeds sprouted in two days, most of the rest are moseying along. Spinach, on the other hand, looks to have at least 90% germination, possibly higher. It’s a miniature forest of two leafed plants in a tray!
Plant: I couldn’t wait for another 3-4 weeks for baby greens so I soaked and started mung beans. Bean sprouts by the weekend, I’m hoping!
Harvest: Nope.
Preserve: Dried some soured pumpkin puree ;P but since it’s a small additive to the cat food I make, it’s still usable. Steeled myself to check on a bag of small cabbages harvested back in September and found them to be mostly and in some cases completely salvageable. All the red cabbage got turned into future sauerkraut, the green will go into this week’s soups. Took at look at what pears remain and the verdict wasn’t so good. Might try making pear puree this week. At the last food preservation class, we worked on prepping fruits and vegetables for drying. I’m hoping to get by Cooperative Extension sometime this week to pick up my share. Dried bananas and strawberries (also apples, pears, raspberries, peppers, parsnips, zucchini and raspberry leather), mmmmmm. Oh, and more kefir.
Waste not: All the peels, cores and seeds from various fruits and vegetables that were prepped at the food preservation class were bagged up, taken home and frozen to be taken to my chicken wrangler for her girls on the next egg run (except for the banana peels that went into compost). Other organic matter is saved in buckets for future compost piles.
Want not: Made another two week batch of cat food and replaced a 8-cup glass measuring cup that shattered when placed in very hot water (not Pyrex obviously) with a Pyrex one. Also took advantage of the 50% off one item at JoAnn’s and bought another skein of the same yarn I’m making a scarf out of. Finished the seed order but haven’t placed it yet. That’s on for this evening.
Community: I brought up budgeting with another of my upstairs neighbors and briefly explained the outline of doing one. We’ll see if it’s taken to heart. Looks like garden planning for both the house and the church is going to move up the priority list since I’ll be off doing mission work during the growing season. Everyone seems a little panicky that I won’t be there to help supervise. I’ve spent a lot of time calming people down and getting them ready to take notes. My other upstairs neighbor and I spent some quality time at the local brewery poring over our garden porn and creating our seed list (while enjoying a very fine, locally produced beverage or two). I used the opportunity to discuss gardening with friends who stopped by to chat and saw the catalogs. I’ve noticed that most of the people in my social circles have come to accept my urban farming efforts as normal. Sometimes they even start conversations about planting seasons, food preservation or something along those lines with no initiation by me. Yay!
Eat: Dug some slightly freezer burned salmon out with the intention of making salmon cakes but ended up just baking and eating it. Chopped up some stored turnips, cabbage and brussels sprouts plant leaves to add to my breakfast soups this week. Tried a recipe for whole wheat sesame crackers and decided that the recipe needs tweaking before trying again. Nice flavor but too dense. Made chickpea salad from ingredients at hand and cooked up some stored oat groats. Found a recipe for a potato tortilla – more a frittata if you ask me – that included potatoes, onions and eggs but was further enlivened with chopped ham, sun dried tomatoes, home brined nasturtium seed and garlic. Also went out too many times this week and have leftovers to consume – perhaps that should go in Waste not!
Kerri in AK
I’ve heard that wrapping a ticking clock in a soft blanket for young dogs helps them make the transition away from their mothers; it mimics the sound of her beating heart.
I’ve been really bad about keeping track of Independence Days stuff lately with all the busy-ness around here, but here’s what I can remember off the top of my head.
Plant something: My hubby planned to transplant the tomato seedlings into buckets but opted not to with a week of cold, rainy weather heading our way. So, nothing new planted. All the seedlings are doing great, though.
Harvest something: Purple cayenne, broccoli leaves, rapini leaves.
Preserve something: 3 kinds of kimchi using cabbage, carrots, black Spanish radishes from CSA
Waste Not: Sifted through all the contents of last season’s buckets from the garden. The clay balls went back into their bag for re-use in hydroponics. The roots and plant debris went to the compost pile for cover material. The soil, coconut coir, peat moss, and vermiculite that was left was all mixed together for this season’s planting.
Want Not: Got cereal on sale with coupons.
Eat the Food: Kimchi, Hakurei turnip Korean salad with spicy red pepper sauce, guero escabeche & homemade vinegar… Mostly ate fresh produce from CSA.
Build Community Food Systems: Nothing new but may get to salvage lemons from someone planning to prune their tree soon.
I’d love to hear more about the decision to get a great pyrenes…I hear so many different things-like the need to get them young and keep them with their intended herd to get he protective benifit and if they are focused on the herd they are not so family oriented. I realize every dog will be different but I would like to find out more as they are on my want list for next year.
Kris
Well, at least the temps got more seasonable – actually a little warmer than normal – but it has been foggy for several days. My DH says it’s like living in Seattle without the high prices. For me, the consistent foggy, near-freezing mornings are energy draining. Plus, now that it got a bit above freezing for awhile, there is a nice layer of mud on top of the still-frozen ground. No desire to go into the garden.
Plant: no.
Harvest: no, though I did notice a few collard leaves that look semi-edible after a few mornings of near 0F lows. Maybe I’ll get them later today. I did get some of the leeks, radishes, and Jerusalem artichokes out of the root cellar for use in cooking in the last week, does that count?
Preserve: no.
Waste not: I started running some of the paper I would have recycled through the hand-cranked shredder and collecting the shreds for later use in the worm bin, compost pile, or the to-be-built humanure toilet. The goal is to reuse all the paper in this way and send to recycling only glass, metal, and plastic, and minimal amounts of those. Set aside cardboard for mulch liner. Ripped the mailing labels off the padded envelope that some of my seeds came in and set aside the padded envelope for re-use.
Want not: finished my seed ordering for this year (at least that’s what I think right now). Ordered and received another 25 pound bag of wheat berries and 5 pound box of raisins.
Build community food systems: writing article for our Zen Center’s newsletter on seed-starting using minimal resources and money.
Eat the food: stored butternut squash, seeded and peeled, cut into chunks, the chunks lightly coated with olive oil, dried rosemary and dill sprinkled over, and the dish baked for one hour. It got good reviews at a potluck lunch. The stored radishes and J-chokes were included in stir-frys. The leeks were included in leek-potato soup. I got lazy one morning and made a loaf of bread with only white flour – a good opportunity to notice how much better the bread made from a mix of home-ground whole wheat flour and white flour is. I have been making all of our bread the last several weeks and grinding flour for most of the loaves. I’d bake them in the sun oven, but this has been an unusually cloudy winter to date.
Plant: more sprouts (lentil, mung, sunflower)
Harvest: chickweed (there is more -kale, etc – to harvest, but I didn’t get down to the garden)
preserve: roasted some naked pumpkin seeds and put them in a jar – does that count? also kombucha.
waste not: more mulching with newspaper and spent brewery grains. I finished up the last of a bag of cranberries and fed the soft ones to the birds.
want not: picked up 2 shirts and a dishpan from thrift store.
build community food systems: Shared info on making sauerkraut and kimchi with friends. They asked me to do a public workshop next month on lactofermentation. I plan to bring my cabbages, radishes, salt, knives, cuting boards, bowls and tampers and we can make a jar of kim chi.
eat the food: pumpkin seeds (from godiva pumpkins), lots of kim chi (in miso soup, and pancakes! and as a condiment in sandwiches), sweet potatoes, misota radishes (from root cellar), tomatoes and applesauce (from freezer), potatoes, and beets from root cellar, peaches from the freezer, sweet meat squash. No special recipes – everything from the garden seems to taste good in its natural state with minimal cooking and spices. made a nice blackbean soup and added burdock instead of carrots and blended it all together. Did I mention that DH cooked my saved seedstock of black eyed peas on new years day?!? I need to label things better. Oh well, it brings good luck.
Plant: Nothing, thank heavens. This is Maine, and we shovel this time of year. I couldn’t bear actually planting something now. I ordered seeds. That’s a form of planting, isn’t it?
Harvest: The kale is under 3 feet of snow, and the perennial vegetables won’t even poke up til the end of April, so this category has to be the first delivery of seeds. They are sitting by the door of the west porch waiting to go out into the cold storage [when I have the energy to get through all the cardboard insulating against the west porch door. I've shoveled snow for 4 days, and I haven't the strength at the moment.]
Preserve: As usual, I cook lots of food on the weekends, and set it in the cool pantry to reheat during the week. My husband just arrived home and I hear him in the kitchen heating his plate in the microwave.
Waste not:: I have no qualms about the composter. We make an effort to make sure our microorganisms have as good a mix of nutrients as we do for ourselves and our animals. Sometimes it gets stuff we could have eaten but won’t. They will grow us lots of good food in the summer. They are part of the family. There does, however, seem to be a skunk living under it this year. Live and let live. He’ll eat bugs come spring.
Want not: I just keep buying beans and grains. We have lots, but who knows? In the long run, we will probably need them. They are in the cool pantry with all the dried vegetables, the winter stored vegetables, and the weekly reheatable menu items. I keep well stocked with duck, cat, and parrot food, also, in metal trash cans with bungies on the lids to keep out rodents. And bird seed.
Build community: We had a hay delivery last week from Jerry. He dropped it off and got away before we had a chance to say hi. Saturday we are going to Snell’s, the farm market that decided to open 2 days a month in the winter. We can get all kinds of local winter vegetables from them now. The dairy said they are going to carry some winter vegetables, too. And I ordered our yearly pork and chicken from Suzan. I teach piano, so I connect with the music, education, and church community through my students. I’ve become quite the hub for this. We’re filling the bird feeders 2ce a week. Birds are our neighbors and we care for them. The Jays are the cops, and they let us know when something dangerous, like hawks, are around. Crows are cleanup for duck food spills. Wild Turkeys clean up old bird seed. The rest are just for beauty and companionship in the frozen winter. My husband says our house is insulated with a warm down blanket on the roof. I imagine that I sleep curled up under a bird’s wing. The comfort of wild folk is beyond language.
Eat the food: Tonight the ham [sorry, Sharon], baked beans with squash and onions, beets, cabbage, and kale. And hard cider. This morning it was duck egg custard with hammered [in a baggie] roast nuts and peach/raspberry compote. Lunch was chicken and smashed potatoes and some veggie, I forget which, for me and heated frozen homemade stew for my husband at work. It is all out in the cool pantry from the weekend cooking, so hungry us can heat and eat during the busy week. If nothing else goes right, food is it. It’s Thursday. I have to get meats from the freezer tomorrow to start thawing for the weekend cooking.
Good God, Sharon. You must get the most sensuous comments on the internet. I have just reread them from this column. Warning: never read the Independence Days comments between meals, or you’ll get very fat.
You’ve got a real Studs Terkel thing going here. I just love reading everybody’s food. There is no way I could be the only one to salivate over it. I think you’ve struck gold.
1. Plant something: Planted some Rhubarb and a raspberry bush in some pots, and put the pots on my wagon to wheel them in and out until spring, when I can plant them
2. Harvest something: Sprouts
3. Preserve something: Nothing
4. Reduce Waste (recycle, reuse, reduce, repair or compost something): Made some magazine holders out of Cereal Boxes; Made a lamp and a candle holder out of a thrift store candle holder; Used some found oldK’Nex boxes for tool boxes at work (they really do make great toolboxes for some of the specialty tools I use like drain kings. No toy pieces though.
5. Preparation and Storage: Getting my seeds together both the seeds I order and the Seeds I saved from last year
6. Build Community Food Systems: Got an idea to turn a trailer I have into a mobile garden to demonstrate the ease of planting in a raised bed and shared with other community garden members
7. Eat the Food (cook or eat something new): Used some pickled onions in a salad
In the last little while (3 weeks since I reported in?)
Plant something: kale, favas, peas, 2 kinds lettuce, beets, leeks, all in flats
Harvest something: Chicken and duck eggs, the year’s first goose egg, kale, chives, dandelions, garlic
Preserve something: re-pickled some beets
Waste Not: converting pallets to seedling flats. The plastic ones we’ve had since 1993 are dwindling away through brittleness (solar exposure I’m sure). We like the wooden ones! Also did maintenance on house (interior paint) and all the kerosene lamps
Want Not: rebuilt potting shed, added pump to send greywater to hill on other side of creek, where we contemplate putting in favas, then barley, then maybe sometime do a hopyard there. Currently the hill is drought-prone, needs feeding
Eat the Food: potatoes, applesauce, pureed tomatoes, winter squash still rolling out of the cold room and Mason jars and onto plates. Hand grinding of grain rediscovered
Build Community Food Systems: someone made a suggestion. We’re thinking, we’re thinking!
Another member of your family!
Mac reminds me of 30 years ago when we got our Sam. He was used to sleeping in a heap of 6mo old siblings. It was me who went to him the first few nights because our 2 year old slept by my wife. It was summer and the window over the river was open, and even with me on the sofa beside his box, he whimpered when he heard the owls. He was OK after he scrambled up to behind my neck.
He grew up to be a big brave boy, and I am sure you will have the same terrific family dog that we had. Strangely he died within a day of my dad, but they were both very old fellas by then.
Puppy tip: Try NOT to comfort your dog, you’ll reinforce its fears by rewarding his anxiety with attention. I know how hard it is but it definitely works. When the dog starts sobbing, act cool, calm and collected, even ignore him. When the dog starts to really weep, tell him off. I sound heartless, but the logic behind it is that when the ‘alpha-dog’ doesn’t seem to be bothered -even a bit cross- there is much less incentive for the puppy to be scared. (btw I also tried the ticking-clock-in-blanket trick which worked a charm.)
Good luck!
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I’m too tired to correct my grammar and punctuation today. Next week will be a bit better.
You may be one of the biggest losers on the net.