More About Us

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Believe it or not, we are not fancy people... we never were... humorous maybe, but not fancy. 

As a couple, we believe in traditional gender-roles, where the female is in charge of the household, garden and the nurturing duties and the male takes on the maintenance, large machinery and discipline duties.

Please notice - we did not say that these are one's job(s) and not the others... merely that we are in charge of a certain area.  Many, many times, one partner needs the help of the other... be it in the kitchen or in the barn... and most all the time when it comes to making decisions involving the kids.  As parents to the children that call us theirs, we try to stand united, with consistency being the backbone of the way we go about basing our decisions.

A Note About Child Rearing

The decision, to spank children or not to spank, is and should be left to the parents.  Studies have yet to establish that one is better than the other.  It has been proven, however, that consistency is the key.  If we, as parents, react one way to a child's negative behavior, we need to react that way all the time... be consistent.

If you're wondering if Carol and I spanked our children or not, we can say with all honesty, we did not... not once.  We wanted to... many times, but... again, we needed to be consistent.  It worked for us. 

There is no rule that says you need to do what your parents did.  If you choose to spank please, PLEASE remember that a spanking is to get your child's attention.  There's a saying, "the first swat is for the child, anything after that is for you."  And if you use a belt or 'switch' on a child, you should be put into jail.  Just because your folks may have done it to you, doesn't make it right.

 

Things We Do - Retro/Old School Style

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Many of the things we do... I mean the non-traditional things are food or beverage related... we do these things because it saves us money and/or it's better for us.  We like knowing what goes into our bodies.

Years ago, there was a television campaign that promoted more natural food products.  The point they tried to make was that if you can't pronounce all of the ingredients, maybe you shouldn't eat it.

Our point is - look at your food, read the labels and find out if your eating as healthy as you could be.  If you don't like what you see, start making meals from scratch.  Try it once-a-week. 

Short on time? Watch for Rachael Ray's 30 Minute Meals, on the Food Network, for ideas.

Country Kitchen

Carol is the person in our family that has been able to exercise the most creativity, when it comes to doing things the 'old fashion way'.  We're talking about canning, pickling, cheese making, baking breads and making dozens of great tasting meals from scratch.  It's extremely rare to see fried foods in our house... there are alternatives to frying.  There's a reason why we have most of the family holiday meals at our house... it's the food.  And yes, she loves to be in her kitchen. 

We don't cook on a wood stove mind you, but appliances that produce lots of heat is very important.  Carol has a dual-fuel Frigidaire Pro Series stove and a Jenn-air gas grill/cook top.  We had electric for years, but found that one quality gas appliance will allow you to cook more efficiently... and by having the two cook tops, Carol can keep the preserving process going, even while cooking dinner.

Please don't think we are wealthy.  Yes, we have brand name appliances, but we found them after looking for the best deals possible.  The Pro Series cook-unit we found on eBay... we saved nearly $800 on that deal and the Jenn-air cook top retailed for nearly $1100. We found it at Home Depot for under $240, on clearance.  There are deals out there... be diligent in your pursuit to find them.

Another investment into you kitchen should be, without a doubt, cutlery.  I swear, Carol feels the world got a little better when she bought her Chicago Cutlery set.  There is a clear distinction between chopping and cutting. Once you experience the smooth cutting action of first-class cutlery, you'll never use another cheap knife again.

Canned Goods

In 2007, Carol put up 160+ pints and 30+ quarts of food.  That was all produce from our garden and her mom's overflow of tomatoes.  She didn't have a pressure canner then (but she's was working on it) and will be trying that in 2008 with meat and more variety of vegetables.

2008 brought even more canning of pickles, sauces, jellies and vegetables to the cupboards.  She had 176+ pints, 53 quarts and about 150 freezer bags full.  Not to mention the dozen or so meat rabbits, the turkeys and nearly 200 chickens that were butchered here on the farm.  Carol was able to can many more things after she purchased her pressure canner.  We even have canned meat sitting on the shelf.

Breads

Yes, we eat homemade bread daily.  Sourdough was the most popular, until she lost her started yeast.  Since then, Carol has mastered many types of yeast breads, including buns, specialty breads and pizza crusts.  If you have a good recipe for her to try, please send it her way.  She is always looking for something new.

Cheese

Carol makes mozzarella and ricotta cheese from-time-to-time when we get fresh milk from our friends organic dairy farm.

Pickling

coming soon

 

Wine Making

We make gallons and gallons of wine.  At any one time, Rich has 5-10 batches going in his wine closet.  Some wines are average tasting, while others are exceptional.  Since we grow most of our own ingredients, the average cost of a bottle of wine that we make is less than $1.00.  Some home wine makers will tell you that most homemade wines are of the same quality as a $12-15 bottle of commercial wine.

The government permits US citizens to make up to 100 gals of wine as individuals or a maximum of 200 gals per household of two or more adults.  Each gallon will fill five .750ltr wine bottles... do the math and you'll soon realize the Feds allow each of us to make nearly 10 bottles of wine for each week of the year.

If you would like to give making wine a try, but don't want to spend much money just to see if it's something you want to continue doing or not... make an inexpensive wine.  If you taste the potential of this type of hobby, then invest a little $$$.

One of my favorite recipes is made from frozen grape juice concentrate.  Here's the recipe:

Welch's Frozen Grape Juice Wine (American Concord)

• 2 cans Welch's 100% frozen grape concentrate
• 1-1/4 lbs granulated sugar
• 2 tsp acid blend
• 1 tsp pectic enzyme
• 1 tsp yeast nutrient
• bottled water to make 1 gallon
• wine yeast

Bring 1 quart water to boil and dissolve the sugar in the water. Remove from heat and add frozen concentrate. Add additional water to make one gallon and pour into secondary. Add remaining ingredients except yeast. Cover with napkin, fastened with rubber band, and set aside 12 hours. Add activated wine yeast and recover with napkin. When active fermentation slows down (about 5 days), fit airlock. When clear, rack, top up and refit airlock.  After additional 30 days, bottle it.  You can drink it immediately, but will taste better after six months.  [Jack Keller's adaptation of his friend's recipe].

The next question should be:  "Where the heck do I get the equipment and ingredients?"

Go to the supermarket to get the juice and sugar. If you buy bottled (not distilled) water by the gallon, you are already half-way there... you now have the container, the juice and the good water.

Now, look for a winery in your area.  You can get the rest of the ingredients there... the cost of the acid blend, pectic enzyme, yeast nutrient and yeast should cost around $5.  Except for the water and juice, you will have enough supplies to make several more batches of wine. 

If you don't want to spend the $1 for an airlock, you can make one out of a balloon.  First, rinse the powder from inside of the balloon, then before it's time to fit the "airlock" poke several holes into it with a pin.  The holes will be large enough to allow the yeast gas to exit, while prohibiting air from entering and reaching the wine.

If you don't have a local winery, you can order winemaking supplies online at Leener's.

Recycle, Reduce, And Reuse

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Compost

We compost most of our waste from the kitchen.  To learn more about composting please see our composting page.

Manure

Our rabbits produce a very rich fertilizer for my gardens and a lot of it.  We also use llama manure.  Did you know that rabbit and llama waste are 2 manure products that can be placed directly into your garden?  There is no need to compost them first.

Recycle/Reuse

We recycle everything we can in our area.  Plus, we also reuse old wood to build pens, cages, etc. 

When dropping off your recyclables at the local center, look for used glass wine bottles and gallon jugs for our winemaking.

Reduce

We try very hard at Coyote Ridge Farms to conserve resources so we can lessen our potential carbon footprint on the planet.  You, too, can reduce the waste you create.  Sometimes, less is more.

Instead of using a conventional sprinkler to water your garden, do what we do.  We switched to soaker hoses. They not only reduce the amount of water we use (which saves $$$) but they also reduce our need to pull weeds... if you don't water the weeds, they won't grow as fast.

Coyote Ridge Vineyards

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In the spring of 2007, we planted nearly 1200 grape vines (551 vines of LeCresent plants, 551 of Breanna, 51 Marquettes and 5 vines of the King of the North variety) on 2 acres, just south of the house.

Over the winter, we lost almost 900 vines.  Although we may have lost more then most vineyard owners, a 50% loss was not unusual for 1st yr vines.  It seems that losses varied greatly, depending where the vineyard was placed, with regards to windbreaks.  It was a tough loss, just the same.  We went nearly 6 weeks without rain during the summer of 2007 and watered 3x/week for 5 weeks.  Keeping them alive during the drought, just to loose them in the winter was heartbreaking.

In 2008, we planted an acre of Marquette vines and replaced some 100 vines that we lost over the winter. We couldn't afford to replace all of them.  Carol planted 5 Summerset Seedless vines, to see how they grow in our soils

You can learn more about grapes, our vineyard, and wine making at CoyoteRidgeVineyards.com.