The no longer try everything, but....

DONNA MCDONALD HC 86 Box 48 SPRINGFIELD NW 26763

I have enjoyed COUNTRYSIDE for almost 20 years. Way back then I tried everything I read about. Now, being older (and smarter?) I only try about half of everything I read about in the magazine! Actually, we still do much more than the average country people around here.

We have sheep (Cheviots) for meat for ourselves and our extended families. We love this breed. We have tried several others, but the good health and lack of constant medication that we had with the other breeds makes this the breed for us.

What others did we have? Suffolks, Barbados Blackbellies, Dorset, and many crosses thereof. We nearly always had foot problems with these, and they got the same basic care as the Cheviots.

Ease of lambing is another wonderful feature the Cheviots offer, but they are very nervous little sheep.

There is no such thing as the perfect breed. It's what you like and what works for you. Like our other livestock, they were available, affordable, and they work, so they're tops to us.

We also have two saddle horses. They are well broke and give us many hours of quiet pleasure, riding the mountain trails. Unlike our other livestock, they do not pay their way, but they have earned a place to stay. They are our luxury. Everyone deserves a few.

We have a sow hog we breed for a litter each year. We keep two feeder pigs for ourselves and sell or barter off the rest, which usually covers the feed for the sow and the one hog we put in the freezer. We sell the other we raise about Christmastime, to make it a little richer. One year we fed out two extra hogs and gave meat for Christmas gifts. With feed costs rising almost monthly it didn't work out too well, so we'll not do it again. With the kitchen slop and supplemental grain feeding, we raise the few hogs we keep for us pretty economically.

We have a few milk goats--a Saanen, a LaMancha, and we're thinking of buying a Nubian, due in a month, to fill in the dry spell until one of ours kids.

We never appreciated good fresh milk before, like we have this terrible winter. We've been snowed in and iced in several times. I stock up on other things, and we even buy dry and canned milk for emergencies, but nothing beats good fresh drinking milk, whether it comes from a cow or a goat.

Speaking of cows, we wanted another Jersey. We had one before, but traded off on a horse--a stallion (a mistake, but we all make them). We were thinking only of Jerseys, but the prices quoted floored us.

Then a friend from Pennsylvania called and offered us two very nice, well-bred, dehorned, halter-broken Guernsey heifers, 250 and 400 lbs., for $310--delivere. We were planning on having to spend that much on one Jersey heifer, so we took them.

We were thrilled to get two for the price of one. One cow is a lonely cow.

Actually, goat milk is very good and the cheese is super, but getting cream and making butter from cow milk is less hassle. The surplus milk is no problem: it's an asset, with hogs, lambs, calves, etc.

Each spring we buy a few head of calves, bottle lambs, kid goats, etc. to raise. I say it's for the grandkids but it's actually for me: it's medicine for my soul.

And it's usually profitable.

We always put out a huge garden, and I can everything I can get my hands on. If I can't raise it or if something does poorly for me, off I go to the farmers' market, fruit stand or neighbor's, until I get in my quota for the year.

Tomatoes are a staple to us, and green beans a close second. I always try to have a crop of winter squash and spaghetti squash to store too. They're delicious, and virtually no work once they're carried into the house to be put upstairs in a spare bedroom.

Soapmaking

We tried soapmaking this year for the first time, out of old rancid grease that I clarified with equal amounts of boiling water. Just follow the directions on the can of Red Devil lye exactly and you too can make a batch of this lovely, ivory-colored, clean-smelling soap. We had 36 bars from our turn.

We poured ours into a cardboard box lined with Saran wrap. When it hardened a little, we cut it into bars or cakes.

I'm so proud of making something from practically nothing. A bar of soap will be in each Christmas box next year.

Here are a few tips fellow readers may find as helpful as I have.

Everyone who makes homemade cheese knows how expensive a good glass dairy thermometer is, right? And they're fragile. As I had broken a few and had to wait until payday to replace them, I came up with this idea.

My thermometers usually broke from hitting the sides or the bottom of the cheese pot, so I thought cushioning would help. I covered the bottom of the thermometer with two coats of aquarium silicone glass sealer. Now when the thermometer slips out of my fingers and hits the side or bottom of the pot, it bounces.

I use white knee-highs (ladies' hose) for curd and cheese draining bags, and for jelly bags too. These are cheap, easily washed, and reusable. I always buy white to use in the kitchen: no dye.

And has anyone mentioned using an old but working crockpot in the chicken house? It keeps warm water available all day and never freezes. Mine holds 3 qts. and cost less than $3 at a yard sale. I set it on an old cookie sheet. Works great.

Golf balls make excellent nest eggs.

Old milk crates with the front cut out, leaving a lip, make wonderful chicken nest boxes.