Day 4&5 of 365 – Livestock management

Day 4 & 5 of 365 – Now we are talking the business of farming.

Yes, I did skip my daily blog yesterday, on this public holiday that remembers the victims of the Cassinga Massacre. Approximately six hundred people were killed in 1978 when the South African Defence Force attacked South West Africa’s People Organization (SWAPO) camp that was located at Cassinga in Angola.

That is not to say we do not work, but the work was more like visiting old friends. We have a new bull, who has already made lady acquaintances, and there does not seem to be any animosity between Borris and Ganamede, our existing bull.

An introduction to our herd

Mable of course, in all her maternity glory, was seemingly shy to nibble on the Salt Bush treat I brought her, opting to approach the nibble from behind. I’ve extolled the virtues of Salt Bush before (Kapps Farm Spring Plant Sale 2-3 October ), and happy to share that if you are in the area, you can pick up a few plants at the Luv Earth kiosk at Finkenstein, as well as some of my farm fresh health conscious produce.

After bragging about a lively Sourdough starter on day 3, it has gone a bit flat, so I have juiced up today’s feeding with half cake flour and half brown bread flour. Let us see if that does the trick.

Today was a full-on farm production day, working the sheep. I am going to cut the verbiage short and leave it to the video clips to explain. Let us just say, the day ended with animal medicine having to be applied to my heel – Subpoena is merciless on ticks!

Hope your weekend ahead is tick-less. Ciao for now.

Day 3 of 365: I love it when a plan comes together

Day 3 of 365 is again such a satisfying day. After 2 welcome days of cloudy cool respite, it is nice to see the sun again. But more importantly, considering we are truly off grid, rather an anxious time to recharge the solar power batteries.

Thanks Clinton from https://ellies.co.za/, your technical advice perfectly balanced the need for power, with the cost of additional batteries.

Gratitude number 3: (1 being the beautiful morning; and 2 being we still have power): My sourdough is catching fire!

This sourdough is eager!

I may not even need to wait 2 weeks to start using “it”. And there we arrive at the first point where I ask for your friendly suggestions. I recently joined a sourdough social media group, and I hear you are meant to give your starter a name… any ideas?

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So far, all fun and games, but lest we forget that the farm must pay for itself, I spent some time in the office, creating our very own QR code business cards. Going paperless for the networking required.

Gratitude number 4 – QR codes left, right and centre. Although irrelevant seeing as you are already on my blog, but here is one you can forward to your friends and contacts to direct them here too.

And that, as they say in the movies, is a wrap. Till tomorrow.

Day 2 of 365 – Much ado about nothing

Not much to report on this second day of my sustainable living adventure. It was more about establishing a home office for those Teams meetings. Luckily the connectivity held out for the afternoon meeting.

But, my timesheet cannot go one day without producing some output, so celery salt is in the making. See you again tomorrow.

Day 1 of 365 – a new start”er”

I cannot pretend that today is a completely new start to a new life. We have been chipping away at this dream for five years already. I can pretend it has been a tough weekend farmer existence, but that would be a lie. It has been a cherished existence, sacrificing a few creature comforts and big city lights entertainment, for the sake of living off the land.

Today being 1 May 2023, you can work out that the start of this journey pre-dates COVID. It has been in the works for long. COVID simply advanced our game plan, leading to my new full time living off the land occupation.

https://youtube.com/shorts/SUhHJhnC4J8

You may or may not have raised similar existential questions during COVID. If you did, were you able to make much progress?

Enough of the philosophical musings already. Let us get practical – day one starts with a starter.

How to make a sourdough starter if the friendly baker who used to share his starter with you, is a 2-hour drive away:

Start with a complicated list of ingredients.

And then follows a complicated assembly (not…)

Hopefully I see you with a freshly baked sourdough loaf in two weeks’ time.

Tomorrow will bring a different experience, prior to locking myself behind a Teams meeting screen.

MythBusters : preserving eggs through water glassing

I know, not a particularly sexy heading, but one that needs to tell the reader this is going to be an observable fact based scientific minded post. One that is important for any self-respecting #livingofftheland #sustainableliving #endoftheworld survivalist.

Let me first create the context: Chickens lay eggs. No new science behind that statement. A less known fact is that chickens are seasonal. I have found autumn to be the time in the year where the speed of egg production drastically reduces from the usual 36 eggs a week, to a mere 18 if you are lucky, sometimes even less than 10 eggs.

For baking, this is not too drastic, there are egg replacement baking products, or you can even substitute egg with a tin of mashed butter or broad beans. That does tend to make rusks a bit stolid. (Stolid is defined as impassive, emotionless, and indifferent. Which is not completely incorrect description for such rusk experiments).

For frying eggs, that is not going to work.

[enter left stage] Behold, water glassed eggs.

A dearly learned lesson, which has an apt idiom “make hay while the sun shines”. In times where egg production is at a high, preserve for the low season. Same goes for all manner of farm produce.

The recipe is not complicated at all. My experiment notebook goes into the finer detail.

So preserving is one thing, and leaving a jar of water glassed eggs in a dark cool place is all good and well, the real proof in the pudding is subsequent application.

[enter stage right] My able-bodied camera assistant (thank you Samuel) can verify that there is simply no indication that the egg is not fresh. No smell, no discoloration. The white is simply a little more runny than usual, and this was 9 months after preservation.

Videographic experiment evidence

The daughter of my able-bodied assistant can verify that a 9-month water glassed fried egg is perfectly good.

Lastly, baked goods. That is probably the best lifesaving reason to preserve eggs. As was the case with me this weekend, for how would you make hot cross buns during easter, which is in autumn, where it would be wrong to assume you have eggs in the hen house. And now I shall step on to the next experiment – [evil scientist laugh reverberating in 3D, aka Pinkie and the Brain Pinky and the Brain (1995) (imdb.com)] ……….. cryogenic application of water glassing.

What shall we tonight Brain? The same we do every night Pinky …. TRY AND TAKE OVER THE WORLD!