Take a kid fishing day

The boys and I had a great day fishing today. We didn't catch much. I caught a catfish which stung me as I tried to release it. The fish were winning the day.

We are trying desperately to contain the chickens so we can finally get the garden in. We let them free range for most of the year and then put them in a large run during gardening season. We've got them all in, but the same four chickens keep escaping somehow. I'm going to work at it in the morning after morning animal chores.

We're going to confine Carissima to her birthing stall on Sunday. I believe she is pretty close to kidding. We are sure hoping everything goes smoothly. We are not experts at this, and I would hate to have to perform any serious interventions. Well, animals give birth all the time without my help.

I just want to keep sharing and sharing how blessed I feel. Having Jenny and the boys here on the farm is amazing. What an amazing gift from God.

Seasons changing

It's steel head season. Especially now that I've filled the freezer with a deer. I'm still waterfowl hunting as often as possible too though. In fact, it won't be long until the geese and mallards will be flying over my hay field. At that point in the season I just hunt in the back of the house. It's not quite as exciting as going up to the lakes, but it's a whole lot easier.

We are having a huge blizzard right now. The highway is closed and I am snowed in. I managed to get out to town to go to the hardware store this afternoon and the roads were pretty bad. I'm not surprised that they closed it.

I nailed up some plywood over the old windows in the barn to keep the worst of the wind out from where the goats are. They seem to be keeping warm enough by curling up together. In fact, the barn cats were sleeping with the goats when I went out to check on them last night. I'm just feeding them lots and keeping them out of the wind. I've been going out every couple of hours to break up the ice in the water trough. There is no power out at the barn to hook up a heating element for the trough. If anybody knows of a solar powered heating element for a watering trough let me know.

I'm going to have to haul hot water in 7.5 gallon jugs out to the barn in the morning in the tractor. The water trough will be frozen solid by then. That will not be a fun chore in -20 windchill weather. The chickens usually do OK, although I haven't checked them since this afternoon. I may put a heat lamp in their coop tomorrow when the temperature really dips.

I have been blessed to meet a wonderful woman. She is such a gift in my life. She, and all my other great friends, are such a blessing in my life. Stay warm everybody. Winter is here.

Another work day on the farm

I work everyday on the farm, but it seems I need to dedicate at least one day a week to just getting down to it and working ALL day on chores. Today I am making goat's milk cheddar cheese, cleaning the kitchen until it's spotless, cleaning the mud-room, getting caught up with all the animal chores, cleaning the goat barn, and maybe harvesting a little. Tomorrow I'll be more focused on the outdoor work. Harvesting especially.

The animals are doing great. None of them starved while I was going through my stressed out, overwhelmed phase. The pigs are getting huge. They still have some time to go though. I'm feeding them as many garden leftovers as I can. Just trying to find what they'll eat. They loved the corn stalks.

The tobacco plants are stunted, but they look like they are healthy. Healthy tobacco, now that's an oxymoron. I should be able to process them into a usable product. I've lamented the rest of the garden enough, so I guess I'll just let it go.

I've been starting to tie steelhead flies in the evening. I'm by no means an expert at tying flies, but practice makes perfect. Fishing season is starting to ramp up. The steelhead should be moving into the smaller rivers soon. I've spent a lot of time grouse hunting without a great deal of success. I've bagged a couple. Partridge opens on Saturday and I've seen three coveys of about 20 birds each on the property. I plan on hunting for them Saturday and Sunday with Luna. I'll be sure to post pictures.

The teaching year has been going well. I am so blessed to have such a great job working with such wonderful families. I feel like I'm being cradled in the arms of a loving God. Safe and cared for. I have everything I need. I have been blessed with a life beyond my wildest dreams.

Well, back to work. :-)

Overwhelmed homesteader

Phew! Things have been overwhelming here on the homestead. Colleen and I separated a while back and this is just not a one person job. The school year started and I am back to teaching a full load - which is actually about 20-30 hours a week for me.

Between the goats, pigs, chickens, garden to be harvested, fruit trees to be harvested, canning, and garden prepping for next year I am really, really busy. I look around and I don't feel like I have time for all the tasks to be done.

My recreational and spiritual time, which are often the same, are starting to suffer. I went steel head fishing for two hours after work last night and all I could think about were all the farm chores I was neglecting.

On a lighter note, here is a picture of Luna with her first forest grouse. Fish and game lumps all of the forest dwelling grouse into one category, but this one is a ruffed grouse. She doesn't quite have the concept down, but she was definitely helpful in the process.

The picture above is of the pigs eating apples from a friend's tree that blew down in a storm. I've got bushels of them and the pigs love them.

I'm looking forward to harvesting my trees and making apple butter and apple sauce. Also...APPLE PIE!

Hunting season is heating up. It is one of the most spiritual and fulfilling times of the year for me. Of course, it is nice to replenish the freezer, but more importantly it is a time when I can get out into the woods and just focus on being in tune with the natural world in a special and intense way.

Walking slowly through the woods and looking and listening for signs of game. Calling in ducks and geese. Thanking God for the animal whose life I have taken to feed myself and my friends.

Well, looks like I have some praying and meditating to do. Find a way to approach my tasks with a little grace instead of a feeling of irritation. There simply will not be time in the day to do everything I want to do the way I want to do it. But, I guess, that is life. Time to count my blessings and be grateful. It's not what I HAVE to do, it's what I GET to do, and for that I am truly blessed.

Puppies, steelhead, and teaching

I apologize that all my posts have been about dogs, steelhead, and teaching. It's February, what can I say. Not much else going on. We will be ordering seeds tonight as well as a four tray germination heat mat. I've never tried one before, but I'm hoping it will help jump start the peppers and tomatoes. We will also be discussing chick orders, barn cleaning and restoration, goats, pigs, fencing, and of course, MONEY. Romance and finance.
My teaching week is done tomorrow and I'll have four days off for President's day. My teaching schedule is fairly light as it is which allows me to do farm stuff even during the school year. I also don't expect to be teaching in the summer. Our only income this summer will be from the farmer's market. Farming is sort of like gambling I guess. Or Russian roulette. We've never done the farmer's market gig before, but we've had so much food the last couple of years we've been giving it to friends and charity.
The dog, as you can see, is now big enough to jump on the couch. She is still quite a handful, but she is learning. I can't wait to take her grouse hunting in September. Then waterfowl hunting, which I'm hopelessly obsessed with.

The seasons dovetail into each other here in Idaho. Gardening and fly-fishing for trout in the summer, harvest and grouse in the early fall, then waterfowl, deer, and elk, then ordering seeds and starting them indoors, then Spring Turkey, then planting season, then back to summer. It works out well. I've never had it so good.

A Sunny Day on the River

It was sunny and 62 degrees on the Grande Ronde today! That's in Northern Washington State in early February! I was fishing with my sleeves rolled up. Colleen and Luna and I and two friends and their dog went down to the river to fish and relax. The puppies wore themselves out playing and eating fish guts, and I wore myself out not catching fish. Fish were caught, just not by me.
At dawn we were sitting at the bottom of the Lewiston grade waiting to rendezvous with our fellow anglers. Sitting in a roomy, old, American truck with a dog and a friend. Can't beat it. The roads were a little icy and foggy on the way there, but things had cleared by the time we reached the bottom of the canyon on the Ronde.
We saw eagles and mule deer. I really needed a day in the wild after a long week of teaching.
My friend Jamie caught these two, and three others, on a fly-rod. I tried flies briefly but didn't really have the right set up. After watching him and looking at the rig he was using I'll be going back next week with the right gear.

Steelheading is a weird obsession. You can fish all day and not catch a thing. Some days are stellar, and you actually catch a fish. Steelheading sort of falls between the end of deer and waterfowl season, before Turkey season, and around about the time you are reading seed catalogs and ordering seeds. It's a great excuse to get outside and make a day of it in the middle of winter. Sure beats the shack nasties. We should be starting our tomatoes and peppers in the next couple of weeks.

I'm back at home, the sun has set, the owls are hooting, and it's time to go.

Grande Ronde Steelhead

Went fishing yesterday on the Grande Ronde River in Washington state. It's only about an hour's drive from my house here in Idaho. The last part of the drive is down a 4x4 road that drops a thousand feet or more into the river canyon. I saw eagles, ducks, geese, bighorn sheep, and mule deer. It was a splendid morning. The drive is beautiful and the canyon is peaceful. Even on a Saturday I only saw a couple of drift boats threading through the rapids.

The steelhead I caught was about 5 pounds which is average for this river. There are a few 10 pounders in there, but I've never caught one. It was a female, so I'll be curing the eggs for bait. I've got the fish brining right now and I'll be putting it in the smoker in just a little bit.
I find my spiritual center in God's own cathedrals. "I will lift mine eyes up into the hills, it is from there that my help will come." The words of the Psalmist are constantly on my mind when I am in the mountains and canyons of the West. As I stand in the icy river, watching it flow by, I am keenly aware that the river, the fish, the canyon, the bighorns, and I are all part of God's creation. I find a deep sense of peace, I am aware of my right place in God's universe. I am filled with grace. I am blessed.

I say a prayer of thanks for the fish and the beautiful morning and a thank you to the fish as well.

duck trick and steelhead ready for the smoker

Went goose hunting this morning and ended up shooting a drake mallard. It was beautiful. Four ducks flew by my goose spread. I grabbed my duck call, gave a few quick calls, and they spun around, bowed up and came into my spread. I love it when the calling actually works.

We "wet" plucked the duck and will be making roast duck a l'orange for Christmas eve dinner. When wet plucking, you dip the duck into simmering water before plucking the feathers. After you've plucked as best you can, you still end up with a bunch of really fine feathers that you can't quite get to. The magic tool for their removal is a propane torch. Just a few quick passes with the torch will singe off the remaining hair like feathers without burning the skin. And ready for the oven.

Here is the steelhead ready for the smoker. It's smoking as I write. Looking forward to sampling some at about midnight. I was going to go steelheading again tomorrow, but the forecast is for constant rain all day, so I think I'll take a pass.

Quince jam and smoked steelhead

Colleen canned 30+ jars of quince jam tonight. I'm quite sure we don't need that many, but they will make unique gifts. It tastes really good. what, you might ask, is a quince? It is in the rose family and is related to apples. They are more well known in Spain and marmalade was originally made from quince.

While Colleen was slaving away in the kitchen, I was off steelhead fishing with a friend. Actually, we enjoy canning, so I wouldn't really call it slaving away. There was a lot of ice in the river and it was hard to find access that didn't involve scrambling across ice floes. Not wanting to get dunked in the frigid water, we played it safe and did the best we could. I didn't catch any fish, but my friend did. As he had to leave town, he gave me the fish to smoke. It put it in the rub tonight, and it will go into the smoker tomorrow. I use a rub of:

1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
Tbsp. black pepper

Lay the fillet skin side down in 1/3 of the rub. Pour a 1/3 of the rub on the flesh side, which is now facing up. Lay the second fillet flesh side down on that. And sprinkle the rest of the rub on that. The press with weight in the fridge for 24 hours. rinse. Pat dry. Let air dry for 1-3 hours. Then into the smoker at 150 degrees and apply smoke. (Thanks to Alton Brown for the recipe)

I'll let you know how it turns out.

sub-zero steelheading

Went steelhead fishing yesterday. We tried to go to the Grande Ronde river in Washington, but it had ice flows in it. We then drove down to the Snake on the Washington-Idaho border, but were unsuccessful there. It really lets you know you're alive when you're standing waist deep in a river on an eighteen degree day.

It's supposed to be even colder the next couple of days. Single digit lows with 30 mile an hour winds. We have some repairs to do on the chicken coop to make it snugger. We'll be wishing we had done that a few weeks ago.

Mostly, we'll be putting up the Christmas tree today. Warm and snug with the stove cranking.

Alder - Pit Salmon

Here is a great way to cook salmon and steelhead. It seems like more of a summer recipe, but since the steelhead and salmon are running right now it came to mind. Use a whole side of Salmon fillet.

Use the marinade of your choice or:
1 part olive oil
1 part soy sauce
fresh garlic, pressed
spices to taste - thyme, rosemary, oregano, ...

Dig a pit in the size of a large weber grill.
Salmon can be marinated or not.
Build a fire in the bottom and let it burn down to coals.
Gather a big bushel of green alder leaves.
Wrap the marinated salmon in tinfoil.
Prick some holes in the tinfoil with a fork
When coals have burned down, place half of the green alder leaves in the pit
Put the wrapped salmon side in
Put the other half of the alder leaves on top.
Let smolder for 1/2 an hour.
Carefully dig out and serve.

Moist and smoky at the same time.

Steelhead fishing

A beautiful day of steelhead fishing on the Clearwater River in North Central Idaho. Alas, no fish for the smoker. It's been an unusually warm couple of days. Who knows? Maybe that affected the fishing. In any event, we will be doing a major fall tilling and planting garlic tomorrow. We plan to sell about 6 varieties of specialty garlic at the farmer's market next summer.

taking a break

After three beautiful days in the field deer hunting, seeing but not shooting anything, I think I'm going to take a break and go steelhead fishing. Also need to put some time in at the farm. Tilling, planting garlic (already late on that one), fixing things up for winter, working on the big truck. It really seems endless. I feel so blessed to have the life I have. There is not one single thing that I do that I say to myself, "I hate doing that." I love my job, I love growing and raising food, I love hunting and fishing to fill the freezer, I love working on the house and farm, I even enjoy puttering around with the various broken machines.