Because of lots of public outcry, the NAIS, a government “wonderchild,” sponsored largely by large agribusiness type animal/poultry growers, apparently shriveled and came to a standstill last year. The NAIS is basically an animal/poultry identification system, wherein each and every homestead and individual that houses even one or two animals or chickens, will be required to register and identify each and every animal on their place. It gets even worse. What if you sell, show or give an animal away? You have to document each movement (at your expense, of course). And what if the animal dies (they do, you know!). It’s looking like they are wanting an autopsy at your expense to prove what the animal died from.

This Franken-bill is, in my opinion, only the start. The government has learned not to cause public outcry by taking giant steps. So it nibbles away at our freedoms in tiny bits that are “for our safety and own good.” They say things like “mad cow,” “bird flu” and people agree to anything.

Now they’re talking about tracking the vegetables farmers grow and sell (or give away) because of “bacterial contamination,” etc. For crying out loud!

For more information on this, check out: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-875

and on the NAIS:
http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/omni/jes/divajes_111_hromni2009_jes.pdf and
www.nicfa.org

Most of you readers know me pretty well and know I’m not highly political or radical. This stuff scares the crap out of me. First it’s your animals and vegetables and pretty soon it’ll be your children. We need to keep informed and active on this one or we’ll lose yet another freedom that will about kill self-reliant living! Gee…could that be what this is really all about?

Oh, by the way, we have our radiator fixed and a new, used fan on the way. Wow, it was hard to find parts!

Readers’ Questions:

New book

I was wondering when you are going to publish your own cookbook? I know one person asked and you said sometime next year, just wondering when next year was. I can’t wait to get one of them!

Teresa Ro
New Freedom, Pennsylvania

I have just finished the new book and we’re working to put in photos, etc., along with all the finishing editing, etc. But it’s a book on growing and canning your own food, not a cookbook (although it does have a lot of recipes on how to use your home canned foods). It won’t be too long before it is available. — Jackie

Buying wheat from the feed store

Can a person buy their wheat that they are going to bake with and eat from the local feed store?

Bonnie Plasse
Rolla, Missouri

In a survival situation, that wheat would sure be okay. But it isn’t cleaned like wheat is that is destined for your table. It has more dust, small bits of chaff, bug parts, etc. If you want cleaner wheat, buy it from a bulk foods store or bread wheat outlet. — Jackie

Autobiography

After reading “Jackie’s Childhood” in the March/April 2009 “Ask Jackie” column, my mom and I wish you would write your autobiography pre-”Starting Over”. You are an interesting person and we enjoy your writing.

Pam Ayala
Arlington, Washington

Me interesting? You should just ask my kids. They agree I’m pretty boring. I will mention this to Dave and see what he thinks. — Jackie

Canning pasta, shredded zucchini, and pickled squirrel

I recently received a free issue of BHM and was so impressed I ordered a 4 year subscription and all available back issues. I love the straight forwardness and the canning issues, I am learning a lot. Now my questions are: May a person can spaghetti, made with burger, noodles, and ingredients? And how would you can fresh shredded zucchini? And have you ever heard of a recipe for pickled squirrel? Myself and my wife love to can and when I come up with something useful I will send it in.

Conel Rogers
Makanda, Illinois

While you can home can pasta and rice recipes, such as chicken rice or chicken noodle soup, spaghetti, when canned, is a quite dense product, as you have much more pasta in it. So I wouldn’t recommend canning it. Can your seasoned sauce, complete with favorites, such as mushrooms, meat balls, sweet red peppers, or roasted tomatoes. Then just boil up your spaghetti pasta and you’re in business.

Shredded zucchini doesn’t can up very well; it gets mushy. It’s better frozen or dehydrated. Or best used fresh from the garden, of course.

I’ve never heard of pickled squirrel, but I’m sure someone, somewhere has done it. Any recipes out there? — Jackie

Growing grass for chickens

We would like to know what type of grasses chickens prefer to eat. We know chickens will eat anything, but we wanted to know if there was a type of grass or ground cover that chickens like better. We were thinking of clover, maybe vetch, or alfalfa. Also which would be the most nutritious?

Robert & Gloria Leustek
Gladstone, New Jersey

You’re right, thinking that legumes like clover, vetch, or alfalfa are both highly nutritious and loved by chickens. We are planning on turning our chickens out into our new orchard where it was planted in clover, along with the wheat and oats we harvested last fall. They will be “free ranging,” and also fenced in at the same time, being able to scratch, eat clover, bugs, and weeds at will. And they’ll stay out of my other gardens! — Jackie

Canning meatloaf

I found where you told how to can meatloaf in Aug 14, ‘07 blog. Can it be roasted or baked in a wide mouth glass jar or does it have to be cut up and put in a glass jar after it is baked?

Nancy Foster
Dallas City, Illinois

I used to just pack the meatloaf mixture into wide mouth quart jars, raw and process it that way. But now canning experts don’t recommend raw packing a dense product like meatloaf. So, instead, I make mini-loaves, just a little larger than my jars to allow for shrinkage during baking, then put them in a roasting pan, side by side and bake them just long enough to thoroughly heat them inside and shrink them down. I pack them hot, into hot jars and make a broth from the pan drippings and tomato sauce and pour over the meatloaf, leaving 1″ of headspace. These are processed (qts) at 10 pounds pressure for 90 minutes. If you live at an altitude over 1,000 feet, consult a canning book for directions on increasing your pressure to suit your altitude, if necessary. — Jackie

Canning cream soups

I was wondering if you could tell me the recipe AND how to pressure can cream of chicken (or mushroom, or whatever) soup? I’m convinced that what I can make at home will be much healthier than what I buy in the store. And I use it a lot as a base for recipes.

Sarah Axsom
Natchitoches, Louisiana

Unfortunately, this doesn’t work at home. If you make a condensed version like store bought soup, it’s too dense to home can (the center of the jar doesn’t always heat enough to kill bad bacteria), and if you use a homemade cream of whatever soup, with milk, it tends to curdle and look yucky. What I do is to can up small jars of chicken bits in broth or diced mushrooms in water, then when I want cream of… soup, I make a simple white sauce (2 Tbsp margarine, 2 Tbsp flour heated together, milk added to make a thicker soup and add the chicken or mushrooms.) It takes only a couple minutes and is much better, and more healthy than store soup. — Jackie

Growing enough to can

My question is concerning how to figure out how much of each vegetable to can and to eat fresh. Our garden was too small last year to do what I wanted. I know you wrote about this but can’t remember where to find it. I have your first CD and have been subscribing for 2 or 3 years.

Also, I feel like such a dork! I made a comment to you on line that you should write a book on dairy goats. I’d ordered the little book Starting With Dairy Goats and WOW you wrote it. I feel fairly confident with our upcoming kidding the first week of April. Now if I can just get the girls comfortable on the milk stand all is well.

Good luck with that radiator problem. My husband has a portable mill. When big equipment goes down it can be an economical killer to get it up and running smooth again.

Dinah Jo Brosius
Battle Ground, Washington

What we do is to eat all we want fresh and can the extra. Very soon you discover what you really need to grow more of in your garden so you have enough to do both. I used to alternate some foods so I had more room. Herbs, especially, I grew on alternate years, saving the room for more carrots or beans that we ALWAYS ran out of by the next summer. Of course, I expanded the garden every year until I had enough room for everything I needed and even a little room to try “exotics” we weren’t used to having in the garden.

We finally found a local radiator guy to fix the radiator; we couldn’t find a used or even after market NEW one anywhere in the country; I spent 3 days on the internet and phone. And just yesterday, we found a fan for it. (When the fan bites a chunk out of the bottom tank of the radiator, it really, really damages it!) So in a few days, Will should have the dozer back working again. Thank GOD! — Jackie

Turning jars upside down after processing

Are you suppose to turn processed jars upside down for 15 minutes or so after removing from the canner to insure them sealing?

I’ve been canning for years and have never heard much less done this. I’ve not had a problem with jars not sealing either. My friend tells me that it must be done that way.

Nancy Hanson
Washburn, Wisconsin

No, don’t turn your jars upside down to seal them. In fact, this can cause jars NOT to seal. Check all your canning books and manuals. None say to turn them upside down. Old recipes for jams, jellies and preserves that weren’t water bath processed used to say that and I suppose it did help them seal because the whole contents of the jar remained hot that way. But it’s much better to be sure your jars seal by water bathing them instead of inverting them. — Jackie

Canning butter

I tried canning butter for the first time. I noticed on the bottom of the jars the butter is liquid, the body of the jar is solid looking and the lid is sealed tight. Is it normal for the butter to be liquid on the bottom and the rest solid? Is it safe?

Colleen Lebo
Jonestown, Pennsylvania

Yes, that is normal. Mine has it in the pantry, right now. To prevent this, you can heat your butter while melting it, stirring as you do, to drive off the excess moisture in the butter. Some folks shake it as it cools to mix in the liquid so it doesn’t settle. I don’t. As canning butter is “experimental”, I can’t tell you that it is safe. I can tell you that I’ve used it for years with no problems, as have many, many other people. — Jackie

Finally I’ve gotten rid of the terrible head cold and cough. I still have a residual headache from sinus yuck, but with a couple aspirin, that’s bearable. In fact, two days ago, I climbed the scaffold and stained the whole 13′ high knotty pine ceiling in the new living room. I did find a shortcut that helped a bunch. (And when you’re as scared of heights as I am, ANY time not up high is great!) I used a roller to roll the stain on, then smoothed it out nicely with a brush. It worked well, and sure cut down the time.

Our weather turned suddenly Spring, with temperatures in the high 40s and even 50s today. Will got the outdoor bug and jumped on the bulldozer to see if he could enlarge and deepen our spring catchment basin. Last spring he made a two foot deep, one pass basin and that stayed full nearly all summer. As he plans on using spring water, drawn by a gas pump, to water our gardens via a black poly water line, he decided he wanted more available water on hand at any one time. So he spent a couple hours scraping away snow, ice and frozen ground to expose unfrozen gravel underneath. Soon, the basin was more than 30′ wide and 40′ long, still about 2′ deep all over.

But as he started scraping it deeper, there was a POP and the dozer stopped. He had hit a small stump on the side of the track and it popped off. Now a bulldozer track weighs about 500 pounds, and couple that with deep snow, slippery mud and no place to work and you get an idea of what we did for more than three hours yesterday. Working with a come-along, three pry bars and a bottle jack, we released the grease in the track tensioner to get more slack, pried, jacked, pulled and generally dinked around. But slowly the track went back into place.

I went back to the house to wash up and Will, elated, jumped aboard to continue digging out our spring. But I was just home when there was this awful screech and the dozer shut off. A fan blade had bent and dug right into the radiator! I got there, just in time to see Will finish twisting it off so it wouldn’t do more damage. Then he jumped aboard and drove “Old Yeller” for home, amid clouds of radiator steam. Not good! Luckily, he got it parked before the engine heated up too bad.

So today, he’s pulled off the cast iron “nose,” the hood, and taken off the damaged radiator and fan. Last night I shopped around online, and was horrified at the $500 plus cost of a new aftermarket one…IF you can find one. Eeeek. Maybe it can be fixed? We’ve got a couple of calls in and are waiting. Meanwhile, anyone have a good used radiator for a John Deere 1010 crawler? Bulldozers are SO wonderful until they break down! Thank God for Will and his mechanical abilities. I’d be lost.

Readers Questions:

Electric fencing for horses

We are in the process of acquiring a horse for my daughter and this horse is not use to electric fencing. What would you suggest to do to get the yearling to appreciate the power of the electric fence and how long would you suggest for him to be in the barn before we let him out in the field for we don’t want to be chasing a horse cross country if they run.

Thanks and hope you are feeling better.

Michelle Chapin
Fresno, Ohio

Thank you, I am feeling much better. I really, really wish you were going to fence your yearling in with more fence than an electric fence. While I use one for dividing our pastures and for enforcing our wire fence, I wouldn’t want to depend on one totally for keeping a horse contained. I know that lots of people do, but I’m just not at all convinced that it will always keep the horse at home, especially when it becomes frightened and doesn’t see the fence before it hits it.

If you must use only the electric fence, use the wide white tape electric wire, and use three strands of it. The white tape is much more visible and stronger than a single wire.

To get the horse used to the electric fence, first make sure it’s working strongly. Then fence off a smaller area, say 50′x50′ next to the barn. Put the horse in the enclosure and tempt it by putting some feed right next to the fence, outside the enclosure. You want it to touch the fence with its nose, which will usually happen then. I would have a lead on the horse, in case it leaps forward, through the fence, instead of backing away. After a couple tries, the horse becomes a believer. Let it free in the enclosure during the day to experiment further.

Once it is used to the electric fence, bring it out into the larger pasture and lead it completely around the fence so it learns the boundaries. Horses remember better than most people give them credit for. By showing the boundary, you will drastically cut down the running-into-the-fence accidents. Then free the horse, but stay close by with a bucket of feed and a lead rope…just in case. Always put the new horse in the new fence in the morning so it has all day to get used to the fence. Then put it in the barn for the night for a few days’ trial. If all goes well, you should be fine. Good luck. — Jackie

Goat with a stillborn fetus

I just had a disaster in the goat barn. My French Alpine (first freshening) had a breech, stillborn fetus. The little doeling was carried to full term. I do not know what caused this, but perhaps due to a slip and fall she had about a month ago? The fetus’ skin had begun to break down and even the umbilicus was no longer attached.

I am milking my doe about every 3 hours and am giving her Bio-mycin injections (4 cc’s, sub-Q, every other day for three treatments). I am trying to make sure that all the necrotized placenta makes its way outside of her body! There isn’t much milk at all (have to throw it out right now anyway).

What are my chances that she will stay in milk? Or will I have to rebreed her? Oh, and there are no vets in my area that will deal with goats. I am on my own.

S. R. Foster
Lockwood, California

You might try asking one of the vets in your area for injectable oxytocin. You give this in the muscle of the top of her butt. This natural hormone both causes the uterus to contract (helping expel afterbirth pieces/fluids) and helps encourage milk letdown/production. If you could insert a uterine bolus into her uterus (if you don’t have a vet that will do it for you), that would also help expel putrid fluids and pieces of afterbirth and kill dangerous bacteria lurking in there.

Your doe probably will come into some milk production as time passes, but as she is young, this stress may severely diminish it this freshening. Hopefully you can breed her back this fall and have a happy kidding and lots of milk next year. — Jackie

Hopi Pale Grey seeds

I have been researching for a place to buy the Hopi Pale Grey squash seeds, you wrote about. Could you please tell me where I could find them.

PS your home is beautiful, I enjoy watching all you are doing.

Patricia Treadwell
Marshall, Michigan

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds has Hopi Pale Grey squash seeds, as does Seed Dreams (gowantoseed@yahoo.com). Thanks. We love how our home is coming along but I will be glad when it gets more finished! — Jackie

Canning Italian sausage

I was interested in canning home made fresh Italian sausage (hot and sweet) but have been unable to find directions on line. I have a new pressure canner which I would use.

Sandy Barber
Deming, New Mexico

I have not had much luck canning sausage in casings but have had great results canning sausage patties. Just lightly brown them until they shrink. Then stack them in a wide mouth pint jar. Make a broth from the pan drippings and ladle that over the patties, leaving 1″ of headspace. Process the pints at 10 pounds pressure for 75 minutes. It’s best to go lightly with seasonings in sausage you plan on canning; some seasonings get stronger and sage sometimes gets bitter. Otherwise, sausages can up real nice. — Jackie

Raising chickens

I have a 12 New Hampshire Red hens that have been laying since October last year. I really want 2 or 3 of them to sit on a clutch and hatch some more chicks to increase the size of our flock. I have 3 roosters that appear to be doing their job from looking at the backs of the hens. Two questions. what do I do to protect the backs of the hens, some of them are starting to show skin? Second, do I just stop collecting eggs for a couple days from 2 or 3 of the nests and see who keeps sitting on them?

Clint Johnson
Kennard, Nebraska

Three roosters may be a bit too many for 12 hens; i.e. naked backs. But your hens are fine, as long as they don’t begin to show scratches and deep cuts from their love affairs. Yes, just stop collecting eggs from a couple of the nests. Chances are that in a few days or a week, one of your girls will get broody and begin sitting. If she has more eggs than she can neatly cover with her feathers, take a few out. Usually a larger hen can set about a dozen eggs, give or take a few. To stop other hens from trying to get into the setting hen’s nest, put a netting over the opening for a few days after the hen is sitting all the time. The others will then leave the nest alone and you should be able to take the netting down so the setting hen can get a drink or eat as she wishes. In the mean time, offer her water and food in the nest. — Jackie