Easy, fast and cheap chocolate syrup

I have to share this recipe. We are a Nestle-Free home, and my kids are the persistent sort that must devour all treats in minimal time allowance. This means I am unwilling to purchase the small bottles of Nestle chocolate milk syrup or the HUGE bottle of the no name brand. Hey, I'm not happy about the sugar at all, but I hate being that mom, too. So here it is, the compromise:

Chocolate milk syrup

1 part cocoa
2-3 parts granulated sugar (to taste)
splash of vanilla

Thoroughly combine cocoa and sugar in adequately sized microwaveable container (I like a glass measuring cup). Add enough water to make a syrup of heavy cream consistency. Microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until sugar has dissolved - it will become darker, smooth and glossy. Stir in vanilla. Store in the refrigerator. Use like commercial chocolate milk syrup.

Yeah, so it's rather an unrecipe, but that's how easy it is. I like to make small quantities that provide a few days of chocolate bliss to the kids. It doesn't last long but at least I don't have to ration it.

Goodbye Summer.

This is it, the first frost comes tonight. Bummer. I was really hoping to get some tomatoes this year, no such luck. Last year, I did the blanket dance, covering the beds every night. It wasn`t worth it, I didnt get any more produce, not a thing. I think perhaps I`ll just dig up the tomatoes and take them into the barn, see if they`ll ripen in there. I read that it works. After that, I`m just going to dig it all up, dump some poo on it and not think about it until February when the seed catalogs come. By then, I`ll be over my disappointment and ready to giver another go.

The goat fence needs to be built, the swing set finished and the chicken coop winterized. Lots to do.

Much anticipated hatch produces dismal results X2

The 'bator fiasco of ought-9, I'm calling it.

The June hatch resulted in three (!!!) live chicks. All of which are from Mona, my black tailless
Araucana. Great for her little fecund self, but I had paid cash money for breeders eggs as well, none of which lived. The blame for this disappointment is placed on our ridiculous weather, mucho mucho rainage. High humidity does not bode well for hatching chicks. My three little survivors are now 6 weeks old, 1 (!!!) girl, 2 boys.

As I type, I have a peeping 'bator. Despite many operational flubs and lack of commitment to the project (the necessary manual turning of eggs was at an all time low), we managed to get living chick (s?) So far, no ducks. In fact, out of 12 duck eggs, only 2 remain at this stage. All the rest were removed for lack of progress or scary black sludgeness.

I think a silky hen will be acquired this coming Spring.
(Silkies are renown for their egg hatching prowess)

Where's My Remote Control?

The Spouse and I were having a conversation the other day about our transportation issues. The issue is: I don't drive. It may seem odd that a thirty year old woman has not gotten her driver's license, but I will tell you why; I didn't have the opportunity as a teen, I didn't need it as I always had city transit available, after I married $$$ was an issue, and I have a mental block. I'm quite terrified of the idea of driving, cars are big, they go fast and drivers do stupid things that cause accidents. I have nightmares of driving where I can either steer or look out the windshield, but can't do both at the same time. Aside from all that, I do have my learner's permit and I am trying to learn because buses don't come out to the country!

As a feminist, I have ironically put myself into a traditional role pigeonhole. Living out in the country without any transportation is a serious problem. My comings and goings are completely dependent on The Man™. He *controls* when I can leave the house. This can be a very dangerous situation. Now The Spouse just isn't that kind of guy where this is an issue. He is more than happy to take me anywhere I'd like to go. He is concerned about my mental health and the isolation I experience. He is capable of empathy, that one, highly unusual in one of his kind. More often than not, *I* choose to avoid trips to town, for the sake of gas consumption and avoidance of consumerism. So it works out to 2 trips to town a week, and the odd run into the village for things that must be done - groceries, visiting, etc... This is a system that works for everyone involved, I see the outside world as much as I need, essentials are purchased, and the kids see Nana.

The world according to men is a very strange perspective. Imagine my shock to learn that a wife who doesn't drive *CONTROLS* her husband! The meatheads with which The Spouse works have clued him in to the leash around his neck. By forcing my spouse to come home to do a grocery run removes any freedom of movement he, by rights of his testicles, should have. By 'making ' him drop me off at the fabric shop during our usual day in town , I have neutered him. This is not a phenomenon limited to girly activities. In fact, yesterday's trip to the lumberyard, being my idea, is prime example of him being lashed by my genitals. Never mind that the wood was necessary to fix the bed *his* parents were to sleep in during their visit. For the love of peatmoss! According to the meatheads, a Man™, is a completely unfettered creature. He shall not be responsible for any task other than that his Man™ boss gives him. Any and all household activities are the responsibility of a woman, unless the Man™ deems it worthy of his special interest.

I think I like it out here in the country, blissfully unaware of this bullshite.

Eggs in the 'bator!

The magical chicken making device! I love my 'bator, although it's a cheapo jobby. This is it's third run, and I've gotten it a digital thermo/hygrometer for the occasion.

I have araucana/easter egger chickens. Chooks are awesome. Friendly, funny and practical! You can't get better than a chicken. They play a silly instrumental soundtrack in my head when I watch them walk around. I have: 13 eggs from my two hens, 6 of the same breed from the breeder and 6 from his cuckoo marans, that I'm hoping to hatch. I will have fluffybutts!

We built the chicken coop ourselves with mostly reclaimed materials. The only things we paid for were; screws, a few 2X4s and the roofing, which ironically blew off in a wind storm. We're replacing the 'store boughten' roofing with the fence row metal roofing that we found on the property. It's ugly, but it's working fine. We will paint the whole she-bang (this summer?) and then won't it be a sight? The coop is 8'X10' and should hold 10-12 birds in the winter. I plan on filling it up this year! One day, my long suffering DH (who will have a clever pseudonym one of these days) will build me another coop. I'd call myself a chicken lady, but then the cats would be jealous.

Mary, Mary, quite contrary.....

Here in balmy zone 5a, we are in the height of planting season. I'm such a smarty, I have my veggie garden all in. Not that it was a very good idea. You see, our Last Expected Frost Date (bloody lie that it is) is May 10th. Chomping at the bit as I was to get my hands in the dirt, I planted my homegrown started veggies not long after that. Not a good idea. We've had a few light frosts since I put those little babies in the ground so now they are wasting precious growing time recovering from frost damage. Lesson learned, local lore before books! Seeds are fine in May (peas and potatoes are ok late April), but transplants go in not sooner than June.

The garden is rectilinear, but the rows are angled to run North-South. The beds are 4' wide and raised. My garden is HUGE. I really don't know how big it is. Last year when we started it, I think it was 25'X60'? This year, we've doubled it I think. Now it feels nice and roomy, last year it was very cramped. Mind you, we didn't get near as much produce as I had hoped even in the space we had. I had chosen open pollinated and heirloom seeds over fancy smancy hybrids, and many things didn't manage to ripen during the cold and rainy summer. Ideology be damned, I want my veg! So, this year, I have fancy smancy hybrids. here's the big list:

Beans - EZ Gold, Royal Burgundy, Derby
Broccoli - Gypsy
Brussels Sprouts - Oliver
Cabbage - Glory of Enkhuizen (OP)
Savoy Cabbage - Savoy King
Chinese Cabbage - Blues
Cauliflower - Early Dawn
Carrot - Touchon (OP), Rainbow, Purple Haze
Corn - Honey Select
Eggplant - Dusky
Onions - Copra
Peas - Super Sugar Snap, Lincoln (OP)
Pepper - Hungarian Hot Wax, California Early Wonder
Potatoes - I didn't write that down, and now I forget.
Pumpkin - Vif D'Etampes
Rapini - San Marzano
Tomatillo
Tomato - Viva Italia, Celebrity, Mosaic Mix (from Vesey's)
Watermelon - Vista
Winter Squash - Waltham Butternut (OP), Burgess Buttercup (OP)

I may have left out a few things, I am using a few things from last year...
Thistle, Oxeye Daisy and ragweed grow REALLY well in my garden. Getting ripe tomatoes is another matter altogether. This year it WILL happen!

Watch the city girl farm.... and laugh!

Hellllllloooooooooooo!

Welcome from rural New Brunswick Canada! I will be your hostess, Ohiken. Let me tell you how I came to be here.

I grew up in the city, well, that's a relative term. It is technically a city, but acts more like a small town. Having thought I grew out of the small town, I moved to be bigger city to go to university, and then changed universities and moved to an even bigger city. While working on my education, and early career, I picked up a husband, (better than the standard model, but still doesn't know the location of the laundry basket). We reproduced as expected, welcomed the Girling and priorities. We changed our lifestyle to accommodate a stay at home parent. We focused on our place on the planet, our carbon footprint, we recycled, we used cloth, we ate whole foods, we budgeted. This wasn't good enough, it got worse after the birth of our second child, the Boyling. We decided not only would living in a shack in the woods be better than one more minute of financial stress, but our children deserved a childhood with organic food and fresh air.

So, we moved across the country from Big City Ontario to Rural New Brunswick. Bought an old house on 20 odd acres. We are striving for a more self sufficient life, raising our own food and living off the land. We're not there yet ;) but we're trying.

Stay tuned for stories from our first year, and current dramas, successes and hilarious failures!