Hunting for hay

Greeting all: A few weeks ago I spent about an hour on Kijiji hunting for hay at reasonable prices. I am out of touch with hay costs apparently because I was very surprised at the cost per small square bale, anywhere from $3.50 to $8.50 a bale plus delivery. Wow! i say again ... Wow! Definitely need to be on the ball next summer for sure. We are looking for about 100 small square bales and I don't want to pay $1000 for them! I guess I'll need to get a scythe handle, put my blade on it, sharpen it up and start cutting by hand.

We'll need straw for bedding as well, again, about 100 small square bales. I see straw runs about $3.50 to $5.50 a bale. Not as much as hay, but still an expense.

Lesson learned, pay attention to prices for forage and try to get a much a possible for the labour it takes to harvest it. The same goes for straw. Can you say "hot and sweaty?" I can, it's been a long time since I did any serious hay or straw, it should prove interesting to say the least.

Till next time
Margaret & Ken

To be thankful for

A Happy Thanksgiving to all of you .
We had a wonderfully full day this past Thanksgiving weekend. Had our Grandsons Aidan and Jude stay the weekend.Jude learned the art of making pumpkin pie from the pumpkin out and apple jelly from the apple peels and cores. We enjoyed 4 types of squash for our Thanksgiving dinner this year and Jude has become an avid seed saver .Labelling the containers he scraped the seeds into. Most of our dinner was vegetable in manner with the exception of a lovely turkey with sausage stuffing .Oh and cranberry sauce made with help from Jude .We ate our fill and then went for a  2 hour walk in the fields , the bush, through a corn field and finally home. It is hard for this grandma to climb fences with skirts on . But it made everyone laugh.
A good day had by all
Until next time
M

Recipes and menus

I have had a comment asking if I would be willing to share recipes . Absolutely.If there is recipe or a food item any of you would like to know how to cook in period style please ask. Cooking has remained very much the same in the past couple of centuries. The variety of food has decreased unfortunately as we have become accustomed to wasting a good majority of the beasts that give their lives to sustain us . But preparation is similar. Methods of cooking has changed , by that I mean the appliance we use. You will be pleasantly surprised...macaroni and cheese anyone?
So if there is a food item you would like the recipes for please feel free to ask. I have done much research in this area in particular. Not that any of you who actually know me would be surprised.
Until next time
M

A most enjoyable luncheon

Last Saturday we had a most enjoyable luncheon with our friends Mr and Mrs B. This was a prearranged luncheon  in full Victorian fashion and garb.Mr and Mrs B arrived at the appointed hour and were beautifully garbed. we knew then this was indeed going to be a day to remember.
After a short visit in the parlour Mr Cook took Mrs B's arm and we entered the dining room . We dined Al a Russe with a meal of 10 courses.Every item was triple researched to ensure authenticity.
The Menu
Soup of finely chopped vegetables
Salmon cakes with a mayonnaise dill sauce
Beef Pie
Chicken ragout in a puff pastry
Creamed celery
Steamed cucumbers in a cream sauce
sweet potatoes
glazed carrots
buns
apple tartlets
steamed carrot and apple pudding with a brandy sauce.
The meal was enjoyed by all .
After wards we took a turn around the grounds and discussed our plans for a apple cider bee for next fall.
A most enjoyable visit which we hope to enjoy again soon
Mrs B presented me with a lovely gift of home made preserves and other beautiful items.
How wonderful it is to have such beautiful friends
Until next time
Margaret & Ken

Fall weather has arrived and Henry is leaving us

Our Grandson happily took home cabbage,egg plant, squash,tomatoes, zucchini, and an ever prized first pumpkin. He was indeed a happy little boy. When he arrived home he presented his Mother with a lovely savoy cabbage in its entire beautiful leafy brilliance.
The nights are cool and the woodstove now feels welcoming instead of smotheringly hot. Our trees are turning wonderful colours and I look forward to my favorite time of the year. A time to put down everything we can to enjoy for the winter months. A time to relish the smell of the wood stove as we stand outside in the cool weather.Smells wonderful to me .
I look forward to hand sewing and long stewed meals. As we prepare to hunker down for the winter. We have decided to add on to the chicken coops and runs this fall . In order to ensure lots of excercise space for our ever growning flock. Speaking of chickens , sadly we are losing our origional Henry. Our Beautiful Bard Rock rooster is old and dying . he follows me around like an old man and has lost his shine.I am sad that he will be leaving soon , but he has  had a wonderful long life . He is 4, has had his own personal harum and has lived an entirely free range healthy life. For a mistake he has done very well indeed. I say "mistake" because I had ordered this lot of chickens from the hardware store in town. I asked for a dozen chickens. When they arrived they were all a few day old chicks, I soon discovered that one of the "chickens" was indeed a rooster. jokingly my next trip into the hardware I said to the clerk. " I seem to have a problem with one of my chickens" He said "oh what is the problem?" I said "t has a penis"
He asked me if I wanted to return the bird and I declined. Henry has been a fantastic member of our chicken family and has been a wonderful protecter of his many ladies. I will miss him indeed.
Our runner ducks are turning beautiful colours, there heads are turning greens and purples. And they are developing lovely wing feathers of assorted colours ..we will have to take photos.
Well I will go for now , we are working on the cold cellar this week so wish us luck .
Until next time
Margaret

We are so blessed

There are some people you meet who you soon learn are just meant to be in your lives. I could hardly wait to write this to you and tell you how blessed we are . We haven't written much this summer.Partly because we have been so busy and partly because with the humidity in the air we could not get our laptop to connect properly. But we are not at home today, in fact I am sitting at a Tim Hortons writing this.
We are on our annual treck to the Windsor, Lemington area to get , sweet potatoes , apples and any other deals we can find to get us through the winter months. And to make up for the fruit trees will not give us fruit this year. We found some beautiful apples at $10 a bushel , and many other delights. Still havent found sweet potatoes.
But let me tell you why I asked to stop here and write this..
We stopped at a garage sale sometime last year and met a lovely lady named Sue. We bought many lovely items and could not get over how inexpensive everything was. We chatted about our love of history and soon learned Sue was a lover of history too. So we told her about our little lifesyle experiment and directed her to our blog page..
Today we stopped at a garage sale again , and you guessed it , over came Sue and her Mother welcomed us by name and we continued with the conversation we had started last year. We were a little surprised that we had been remembered and that they were following our blog.But not only that , Sue has created a beautiful memory book with each of our blog additions in it . A beautiful antique book . She has followed us right along. Imagine how touched I felt looking at this book and hearing her words.
Sue and I will start writing to each other and hopefully she and her husband will honour us with a visit.
Margaret

Ken here, I'm all about buildings if you haven't guessed by now. I'm also about dreaming and making the dreams happen. We have been blessed this year with chicks from our own birds and some lovely kittens as well. I have been cleaning up areas on our property with a mind to get some major capital projects completed. The challenge here is to build the things we need built for as little money as possible, none at all is the ultimate goal. I have now collected most of the mareials for these building projects and have spent less than $300. This will give us an enlrged storage area for Margaret's catering equipment and all of our camping gear etc. It will also finish our west walkway, a step for the green house, a new vestibule for the chicken coop (cuts down the wind in the winter) and a foundation for the garden shed. I'd like to get all of this done before the snow flies (read "must" get done). We also have to get our cold room finished so we can store all of our vegetable wealth. Sounds like a lot of work and it is but it will be well worth it in the end.

We will live off the fruits of our bounty, chemical and corporate free, all the while building and planning for next year. Speaking of next year,Next July we are holding a weekend event to showcase what we are doing and to teach others what a modern Victorian lifestyle can look like. We will have other like minded people join us to teach their skills so keep next July in mind and we will follow with the date. Sorry I ust cannot remember what we decided on .oops!

That's all for now,
Margaret & Ken

We think we can add pictures

Greetings all, we recently moved  up to the 21st century with a couple of Samsung Galaxy SII smart phones. Victorian? Most definitely not. Victorian in spirit,very much so.They  loved new technology. We are going to try and upload pictures to the  blog with  our  spiffy new tech. We have taken quite a few pictures and want to share them with you. Wish us luck as we endeavour to make our available for all to see.
That's all for now,
Margaret &Ken