Here they are in their brooder within a brooderS

The breed was developed by crossing Barred Plymouth Rocks, Buff Cochins, and some black breasted red games, and the goal was a breed that could produce well in the bitter Midwest winters. They also do well in the heat. We got a straight run of chicks (meaning we don’t know how many of each sex we got) and will keep one rooster out of these to start breeding our own flock.

Ed’s going to be busy these next weeks because we have another 15 chicks coming in three weeks and, of course, those turkeys. We need some new mobile henhouses, because these guys are going to be pastured.

Yes, it's the size of a coffin

At least the brooder is big enough… .  If the Apocalypse comes tomorrow, we will be able to protect ourselves by climbing inside this puppy.  Yes, it is the size of a coffin (for puff balls small enough to fit in the palm of my hand).  Yes, my husband kerfed wood (cut evenly spaced lines about 3/4 of the way through the thickness of a thin sheet of wood) so he could bend the boards to have rounded interior corners.

Apparently chicks of any sort will gather into corners with such violence that they’ll smother the poor thing deepest in.  The rounded corners prevent this.  When I first saw it I suggested it was a bit on the large size.  That’s when Ed made the mistake of talking about turkeys being bigger than chickens, etc, which resulted in that turkey poult order.

Yes, it’s on wheels, which upsets both me and the chicks when I have to climb inside to feed them…and, yes, I HAVE to climb inside to feed them.  Both sides of the top lift up to open, but the side with the tall stick on it is where the heat lamp is located.   That means the lamp lifts with the top and drags something awful as it moves.  Since the lamp is is where the chicks are, I can’t get to them without getting inside.  Ah well, it wouldn’t be homemade if it didn’t have glitches and it wouldn’t be Ed-made without the quirks.

Here's where they really live...in the kiddie pool under the heat lamp.

Because it is so large, I suggested using the kiddie pool one of us bought a while back for some reason I can’t now remember.  Maybe to use as a brooder?  It’s filled with dirt and topped with wood shavings.  The little guys seem to like it pretty well and already scratching away.  I’m thinking of digging up some worms for the little guys later on today just to see what they do with them.

Here's the first one in progress

It promises to be another warm spring day today.  That means a trip to the bale store…only greenhorn farmer types would call it that.  But that’s what it is, the place where I buy the bales of straw and alfalfa I use to build my gardens.  Each time we go the employees ask me what I’m using all this for. (It’s unusual to buy so much straw so frequently.)  Each time I answer, “I’m building a garden.”  And just like clockwork they all look at me like I’m speaking French.  Oh yeah.  I’m a farmer in cattle country.

The first two Lasagna gardens finished and mostly planted

But look what I can do with straw and compost!

We did, however, have tortillas in the house.  They were not used for bean burritos or soft tacos.  They were used as pseudo-Lefse.  Lefse, for those not of Scandinavian extraction, is a tortilla look alike made from mashed potatoes, milk, butter and enough flour to hold it together while you roll it out, then grill it just like a tortilla.  When you’re done, you fill it with butter, sugar and/or Lingonberry jam, roll it up and enjoy.

Let me say it was shock when I discovered bagels (at 19, when I started at the University of Denver–a lot of Eastcoasters went there so they could spend their weekends skiing).  In the middle of that year I went on an archeological field trip with a group of led by my anthropology professor.  We toured Canyon de Chelley and the pueblos of Northern New Mexico.  It was while I was on that trip that I was introduced to Mexican food.  I had tacos, burritos and, in Sante Fe at a nice restaurant, a sour cream and cheese enchilada.

WOW!  That was it.  I never looked back.  Before long tacos were a once-a-week meal and there were green chilis in my tuna fish salad.  Guacamole is a salad.  I learned to make flour tortillas while living in Holland because we couldn’t survive without Mexican food once a week.  When I hit a new Mexican restaurant I try their chili rellenos and their Mole.

And, of course, there were enchiladas.  Me, being me, had to try making the sauce from scratch.  I discovered that using dried chilis was fussy but using fresh chilis was not only tastier but WAY fussier.  That’s when I decided this was one thing that needed to be made in bulk, once a year, and I could add both vinegar and tomatoes to the recipe to make it eligible for water bath canning.  So, once a year for a whole day I make enchilada sauce.  When I’m done the kitchen looks like a war zone–tomato, chili pulp and finished sauce splashed from one end to the other.

So here you are Amber, the recipe with ALL the instructions included (I assumed she knew you had to roast the chilis first).

Enchilada Sauce

• up to 24 chilis, your choice of heat, minimum of 8
• 2 cups tomato puree
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup of mild oil (like Sunflower)
• 1/4 cup of regular or gluten-free flour mix
• 1/4 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• up to 1 tbsp salt to taste
• up to 2 tsps Mexican oregano (there is a difference) to taste
• up to 1 tbsp ground Cumin to taste

Choose up to 24 chilis.  The more chilis, the thicker and more chili-tasting the sauce will be.  You can do this with as few chilis as 16.  Anaheims make a mild sauce.  Poblanos are traditional.  Hatch are for people who like a lot of spice in their lives.  Pick chilis that are blemish free and not wrinkled.  (Okay, if you’re getting Hatch, you take what you can get.) Wash them and dry thoroughly.  Roast the chilis on a gas stove or a gas barbeque grill or under the broiler.  You want the skin to blacken over the whole chili, so turn them frequently and watch carefully.

Once they’re blackened, put them into a bag.  Opinions differ on what kind.  I’ve always used a paper sack, not wanting to include plastic molecules in my sauce, but plastic apparently works just fine.  Leave them in the sack for about 15 minutes.  THEN PUT ON YOUR PLASTIC GLOVES BECAUSE ONLY AN IDIOT (that would be me) PEELS CHILIS WITH THEIR BARE HANDS.

If you’re planning to can this for shelf storage (you can always freeze it in the canning jars and avoid the canning process) this is the point you fill your canning pot with water and put it on the stove to boil.  Put six pint jars (it takes about a pint of sauce to make a pan of  enchiladas) in the water to sterilize and have ready when your sauce is done.

Peel the chilis over a colander set on top of a large glass measuring cup.  You want to capture as much of the chili juice as you can.  The blackened skin should strip off easily.  At the same time remove the stems and seeds.  The more seeds you leave in, the hotter the sauce.

Once your chilis are peeled and that collected juice back into them, then puree in your food processor or blender adding 1 cup of water per 8 chilis.  When you’re doing this many chilis you’ll be doing this in batches so have a big bowl ready at the side to take chili goop.  After each batch rinse the food processor into your chili goop bowl with more water.  Your goal is to have 8 cups of chili pulp and water when all is said and done.

Once you’re done pureeing add the tomato puree to the chili pulp.  In a spacious pot saute the crushed garlic cloves in the oil until brown.  If you don’t like garlic chunks in the sauce, remove them at this point.  Whisk the flour into the garlic oil to form a roux.  Cook this pasty stuff for a minute or so, then slowly whisk in the chili-tomato mixture by the cup full to make the sauce.

Add the vinegar, salt and spices.  Bring this to a boil then reduce heat and cook until slightly thickened. Taste, and dance around the kitchen as you realize you might have put TOO many Hatch chilis in this batch.  (Actually it mellows some as it ages.)  Adjust the flavor, which in my case means always adding more Cumin, to your satisfaction.

At this point pull your jars out of the boiling water, putting them upside down on a towel to drain, and add more water to the pan.  Throw the canning jar lids (not the rings) into the water to soften the rubber.  Get your handy-dandy canning funnel out and fill each jar to about 1/2″ below the jar top with enchilada sauce.  Pull those lids out of the boiling water, pop them on top of the jars and screw on the rings.  The easiest way to make sure they’re tightened properly is to over-tighten them then back off a 1/4 turn.

If you’re freezing the sauce, pop them into the freezer.  If you’re canning them, put them into the boiling water, making sure the water level is at least 3 inches above the tallest jar.  Bring the water back to a boil and boil for 40 minutes, keeping the water level at that 3″.  If you have to add water to the pot mid-process, be sure it’s boiling when you add it and add it slowly to maintain the boil.  If the water ceases to boil at any time during that process you’ll need to add the lost time to the process.

I found this very nice web page that describes water bath canning in detail for those unfamiliar with the process.

Oh, and how to make enchiladas?  For flour tortillas, you can fill them with any mixture of cheese, sour cream, cooked beans, cooked meat, cooked or raw onions and cilantro you like.  Put a small amount in the center of a medium tortilla, roll it up and fill a 5 x 10 or 9 x 13 baking dish  with these, then pour in the whole jar of sauce,  top with more cheese if desired and bake for 30 minutes until the cheese is melted.

For the gluten-free crowd you’ll be using the same filling ingredients as above but corn tortillas in place of the flour.  It’s much easier to layer these rather than roll them.  So, pour a little of the sauce into the bottom of your baking pan, add a layer of meat or cheese, another splash of sauce, more tortillas, another layer of filling and a final layer of tortillas.  Again, you should be using up the whole package of 12 corn tortillas.   Pour on the remaining sauce, top with additional grated cheese and bake for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Burtie helping me create my salad beds back in December

It’s been a tough week for us.

I awoke yesterday morning knowing Burtie was gone.  The first thing I asked Ed was if he’d seen him.  Now, the kitten had spent most of the night with us, so I had no reason to think something had happened.  Ed thought he had, but I knew.  An hour later Al stopped by to say that Burtie was in the road.

Burtie was fascinated with Trigo, their palomino and Trigo returned the affection.  I’m sure he’d gone over to visit, then decided to follow Webster across the road.  Webster, being much old and raised in the city next to a very busy street, is far more car savvy.

So here we are again, down to our usual four cats, the number we’ve maintained for the 25 years of our marriage.  That’s not enough to handle the gopher problem, especially now that Nona has decided it’s not safe to be outside.  (They must have been together as a group when Walter was attacked; she hasn’t spent much time outside since then.)

I really do need cats, working cats.  Cats without names and unconnected to my heart.  I need what I’ve always wanted for this place: a feral, matriarchal pride of hunters who feed themselves on the bounty that our acreage can definitely supply.

here's the cover for the last of my existing books...appearing soon in Kindle!

Finally.  After two and a half years editing my existing eleven books, I have completed converting them from either paper or corrupt digital formats into sparkling new files.  Editable files.  Usable files.  Files that don’t fill the page with ASCII symbols.  Thank you LibreOffice!

It will take me another week to turn Ami and Michel from digital file into kindle format.

And, a thousand apologies to all of you out there with Nooks or other epub readers.  As much as I’d like to accommodate you, our financial situation at the moment doesn’t allow it.  I’m so sorry.

Walter in his favorite pose

It is a week to say goodbye to cats. We sadly bid farewell to our beautiful Walter who was killed yesterday by either a raccoon or a domesticated dog. (Both of these animals kill just to kill, not to consume.) Walter, a gorgeous blue-eyed Burmese mix, came to us through my friend and fellow author Christina Skye, who found him in a supermarket parking lot. He had been a foreclosure pet–an indoor only cat abandoned outside. While on the streets he broke three teeth trying to eat things too hard to be eaten. When she brought him to us he weighed a third of the slim, trim, powerful 18 pounds he acquired hunting up here. And he loved it here, claiming the porch as his own territory, hunting gophers, and cuddling with us when he so chose. We’ll miss you Walter.

Here she is in her new bedroom having her first California meal

This weekend, we said goodbye to Wilma, the mother of our kittens Wilburt (Burtie) and William (Billy). She’s a calico and, try as she might, she couldn’t acclimate to our multi-cat plus dog household. She was miserable and was making everyone else miserable as well. She hated Walter, our cuddle cat, so much he stopped coming inside at all. Bless my sister! She and her husband so enjoyed Wilma while house sitting they offered to make her an only cat. She has survived the journey and is beginning to settle in out in California where she has 2500 square feet of privacy, and two properly trained people to see to her every need.

As for the kittens, I hate to say that they haven’t seemed to missed her.   And since she left I’ve twice seen Big Gray, the feral male who has made buddies out of all our male cats, close to the house.  I’m wondering if he’s now thinking of moving in…

Our Magnolia and the snow-covered field behind it

It never rains or snows in Cornville. That’s what all the locals tell us. There’s something about the configuration of the mesas and hills around us that diverts weather.

Of course, that’s not true. If you look at my posts you can see we’ve had a few really great gullywashers as well as thrilling thunderstorms. But snow staying on the ground is really unusual. Last year we had 8 degree weather but no more than a powdered sugar dusting of snow. Can’t say that this year!  As you can see from the photo there’s snow sitting on the ground and it’s been there for more than 12 hours.

Even better, the temperatures never dropped too far below 32 (0 centigrade) last night.  With the snow blanketing the gardens I’m pretty certain I won’t have lost anything.  Okay, the baby tomatoes (I dropped two pots the other day and had no choice but to plant the infants I dislodged) might be suffering, or maybe not.  Snow is an insulator.

I’m taking pictures now because the sun is struggling to break through the clouds, and the moment that happens all this white fluffy stuff will be gone.  That will really confuse Sedona.  She keeps eating it, trying to figure out what it is.  The kittens, Burtie and Billy, have already figured out what it is: cold and wet.  Billy was at the slider last night (the doofus cannot figure out the cat door–that’s ED’S cat, mind you), moving from foot to foot and crying for me to come save him.

All I can say is I hope the snow and cold weather is gone before the chicks get here.  We hadn’t counted on trying to keep the barn warm, just the brooder.  Then again, Ed’s brooder (the size of a large bathtub, built of wood with screen doors on top) is on wheels.  I suppose we could wheel it up to the house.  Then what?  It won’t go through any doors and the garage is as cold as the barn.  (Picture coming as soon as it warms up; Billy and I share a severe dislike of cold).  Mind you, I suggested a cardboard box in the basement for the chicks.

Remember Tim Allen and Tool Time?  That is definitely my Ed.  Well, I’m making him turn that brooder on its side to clean it!

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