Finally Started - February 12, 2024 @goldenoakfarm

in #homesteading9 months ago

Frosty morning crop Feb. 2024.jpg

It was a cold frosty morning when I pulled the shades up at 7AM on Monday morning. I got busy and got my post up, a load of dishes done, and laundry started. Then I got the call that the solar people were cancelling, lack of techs. Bet there were a few hangovers from the Super Bowl.

I pointed out we had a big storm coming in Tuesday and they would not be able to get on the roof if they had to. But they moved it to Thursday morning anyways.

Chicken - 30 breasts crop Feb. 2024.jpg

My general helper was coming and no solar freed us up to do errands. My local coop was having a big sale on chicken breasts so I planned to stock up for the year. I ordered 30 breasts, completely forgetting it meant freezing them all… Gotta love brainfog….

Chicken - 1.5 lb breast crop Feb. 2024.jpg

These are frankenbird breasts, just ½ of a full breast weighed 1.56 lbs. It’s taken a lot of getting used to, as our heritage birds breasts, both sides, made a lb.

Chicken - washing crop Feb. 2024.jpg

So we got them washed and pulled off any excess fat.

Chicken - ready to package crop Feb. 2024.jpg

While my helper was washing, I was making vacuum seal bags and labeling them.

Chicken - packaging crop Feb. 2024.jpg

We each had a sealer, the white one made for meat. But the black one got the job done. Once they were sealed, I made extra large bags and we put 8 or 10 in each bag and sealed them. This would protect the bags with meat throughout the year. We finished about 2PM after thoroughly cleaning and disinfecting the area and equipment.

Starting garden plans crop Feb. 2024.jpg

The original plan had been to do errands and then make garden plans. So we got started on that. She drew the New Herb and I drew the Big and Small gardens.

New Herb plan and order crop Feb. 2024.jpg

Because the New Herb didn’t require the program on the computer, we started that one first. I had marked up the Strictly Medicinal catalog on plants I wanted to grow so we used that to fill in the holes in the beds. We also consulted the starting chart for herbs and the inventory list for herbs.

We’d almost finished when she had to leave at 4PM. She expected school to be cancelled on Tuesday due to the coming storm, so she said she’d come out if she could get here and we could work some more on the plans. So that’s Tuesday, a storm of plowable amounts and garden plans and seed orders.

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The day was very productive, I must say with you buying, washing, sealing and refrigerating the chicken breasts. You got a very good bargain for them.
I hope the storm is mild.

Oh! No fun! You’re expecting a storm. Hope it’s much weaker than expected.

So much food for the whole family. This is good prep for when the supply chain gets disrupted in the future.

Yup, that's the point...

I’m glad that your helper is very useful. Also, I’m glad that you’ve got a lot of food. I like that!