Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[frustratedearthmother]

Sorry about the little doe. All you can do is the best you can do. Hope you are feeling better. African dust? Doesn't this happen often? So you got some exotic pollen up your nose, different dust bunnies in your lungs, maybe residual camel dung dust too. With your luck, the camel dung dust brought the kookamunga crud worm eggs and your goats will come down with east coast African squirmy wormies that do not respond to your futile efforts to eradicate them. Now that I have cheered you up, I'll go now.

Huh? It must be the drugs.... LOL! Thanks for stopping by!

At work this morning and wondering why.... dizzy and lightheaded and coughing camel dung out of my lungs! Eating a piece of toast so hopefully that'll get my equilibrium back after inundating my body with drugs...ugh.

Better get to it.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Made it through the day! Long day at work trying to catch up - but I'm almost there. I was working so hard my boss had to remind me to go home, lol! I hate to have work waiting on me...ugh.

Came home and was tickled to see the mama doe AND her buckling come bouncing out of the barn. The little guy looks like he is doing well...I think his name will be Freckles. I'll try to get a pic soon and you'll understand why. So, I hope that since this has been a buck year that things will change next year? Or did I say the same thing last year? I dunno….

I've been milking mama out on the ground to keep her production up. Maybe shoulda saved some colostrum - but I've got some in the freezer. I'll keep milking her - I can use the extra milk now that the little guy (remember Cowboys "boy") next door has discovered how much he loooooves goat milk. He comes up to me and says, "please may I have some more goat milk?" I just can't say no - nor would I want to! It's nice to be able to give them some payback for all they do and just for being good neighbors. I'm giving them at least a gallon a week so the extra milk will come in handy so I can make some cheese and yogurt.

I didn't elaborate on the steak I made yesterday but it might well be the very best steak I have ever cooked - and pretty high on the list of best steaks I've ever eaten. I used the reverse sear technique and I will never cook a steak any other way. I did it in the oven since it was raining all day - but it can be done on the grill.

I want to try a sugar-free version of the blueberry cream cheese dump cake I made yesterday for dad. I think I'll use coconut flour so it'll be very low carb. Or I could just make a crust less, sugar free blueberry cheesecake. Sugar free cheesecake is actually pretty tasty if you use Splenda (or it's equivalent) for the sweetener. I usually use Truvia for coffee, but for baking Splenda does ok. I don't use many substitutes, but every now and then ya just need a little something, something. And, DH can eat it too.

Bound and determined to butcher the extra quail this weekend - and the one last meaty pullet. I tossed the other three pullets out with the layer flock. They are not anywhere close to being a true meaty having taller more streamlined bodies. My Orpingtons are heavier than they are - so hoping they can figger out how to lay an egg, lol.

Speaking of Orpingtons - since I had them separated I decided to leave some eggs laying around out there and one (maybe two) have decided to go broody. Hope I get a bit of hatch from them - they are such pretty birds. Decent layers and make a decent carcass too. Gonna try not to ever do meaties again!

Feeding is done and I need to get out and milk. Looks like it's about to rain - again!

 

[framing fowl]

Intrigued on what the reverse sear technique is for steak. Is this steak from the grocery or grass-fed?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I highly recommend trying it! It wasn't any harder than cooking steak any other way - in fact it took some of the guesswork out of it. This article gives you a timetable that works practically perfectly!

https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/03/how-to-reverse-sear-best-way-to-cook-steak.html

It was grocery store steak.

 

[sumi]

Thank you for sharing that! I had a look at the page over my coffee earlier this morning and I think I'm definitely going to try this. I've always had trouble getting steaks "just right". As a result I'm not a huge fan of them, but this looks and sounds great!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Weird on the meat birds. We had some like that once. Not very helpful! This is the first year we haven't done CX and I don't miss them at all!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Thank you for sharing that! I had a look at the page over my coffee earlier this morning and I think I'm definitely going to try this. I've always had trouble getting steaks "just right". As a result I'm not a huge fan of them, but this looks and sounds great!

The only thing I did a bit off-recipe was that when I seared them - I seared them in butter that I had pre-cooked some garlic in. Love me some garlic/butter flavored steaks. The only seasonings I used was some kosher salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Can't rave enough about the texture, tenderness and flavor! OH - and I used rib-eye steaks....my fav.

Weird on the meat birds.

It is weird! One of them even has a lot of buff-colored feathers... I dunno. But, they should start laying soon - so they get a reprieve. If they're poor layers they'll still butcher off "ok."

Was counting pigs this morning and couldn't figure out where the other pig is - DUH! He's in the freezer, lol!

 

[Mini Horses]

It's so nice to have neighbors who will do or help with butchering -- pig in freezer! Where I am most frown when you mention butchering even a chicken, would never participate, but would gladly eat if you didn't explain origin. Yeah, even gardens are sparse in the landscapes.

Not everyone wants to do these things Riding home yesterday it crossed my mind that I remember things WAY, way back when that's what you did. Actually, to live. It's still hard to change my lifestyle -- especially when I have been fully exposed to the modern day type. I find solace in being able to practice self preservation. Sure do enjoy my AC, frig & freezer but, not the grocery store so much.

ETA: I think I'm too deep into my "gonna retire, prepare yourself" mode.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It's so nice to have neighbors who will do or help with butchering -- pig in freezer

It really is! He's hunter, not a raiser of animals or even a gardener. But, he can butcher out a hog in the blink of an eye. When I do one I'll do it differently because there is a bit of waste with his procedure - but with plenty of meat on the hoof it's not a big deal.

I'm vacillating between wanting to retire and wanting to have mo' money, lol! If I could just do both....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Meet Freckles