Been canning bunches, Patrick has been doing quite a bit of it, and has made so many different kinds of pickles it's boggling my mind! We tried some of the pressure cooked corn (canned it) and it's yummy! I've ate plenty of sweet pickles, we sampled the ones that didn't seal that we stuck in the fridge. The salsa, a pasta sauce and a pizza sauce we made were great! We simply chowed on some of the salsa, and used some of the others for Lasagna. MMMM MMM good! (Yes Jared, I'm thinking "spaghetti" when you get home!) :-)
In fact, we ran out of canning jars, and resorted to finding some in the garage. They were dusty, dirty but they cleaned up just fine. Glad we have an 'extra stash' even if it takes some elbow grease to get 'em clean!
Got some rain (finally) and more is coming. Had a freakish wind on the tail end of a storm the other night and it blew some branches down and rocked the house. Just glad it didn't last a long time, otherwise much more damage to the trees, house and anything else not secured down. It even flipped the old rabbit hutch and blew the hay contents out in a line. Kind of weird!
My dishwasher is toast. I don't mind doing them by hand, but at the height of canning season, it's easier to just stuff the dirty dishes and all the spoons, pots, pans, etc into it and let it do the work. Pat looked that model up online, ha ha--the parts cost more than a new one. Oh well. I'll check the 'used store' for another one when we get over to the "big town". ;)
Daisy is doing great since her accident, which is a big relief for me. Finding another cow that is like her or Dolly is hard. Now I just need to work really hard on getting her bred.
Oh, I forgot, she has a 'new' foster calf on her. His name is PeeWee (his name when we got him, Pat calls him Chuck [steak]). He was a milk replacer bottle baby, and about a month old when we got him. He was a twin and he's an Angus--so will have plenty of meat in time. Here are some photos next to Bratman, the Jersey foster calf that lost his mama and we put on Daisy (he is Ann's calf, this saved her from bottle-feeding him). Bratman (appropriately nick-named) is a month older than PeeWee.
PeeWee has been here since July 12, here's a "see what real milk will do for a calf" series of photos thus far:
The day after we got him, with Bratman. See his ribs and how boney he is? He looks more like a Holstein bottle baby at this point and only weighed only about 50#, Bratman for comparison weighed about 125#. (And Bratmans' daddy is a Miniature!)
About 10 days after he came here, nursing. He's slowly starting to fill out:
August 12, after he'd been here a month (yes I took his ear tag out, served no purpose here):
About 10 days later filling out even more:
Bratman will be going home soon, and PeeWee still isn't taking all of Daisy's milk. So once Bratman is gone, I'll milk the leftovers' PeeWee doesn't drink. I'm sure in time he'll take it all, they all do!
On another note, Daisy managed to step on my foot/pinky toe Friday (the 22nd). Woo wee the neighbors heard my sailor mouth that I can have.....I don't think she broke it, but it's still sore. There is a couple of blood blisters on it, one on the bottom of my toe. And it turned a deep purple, but now it's a light purple. Blech I can wear my shoe if I don't tie it and often kick it off at work. I know its healing, but it slows me down, and that is aggravating!
Talked to Jared online last Friday, was good to talk to him. Kyle and Sammi started college again, haven't talked to them to see how things are going. Chandra and Tracy have been swimming at the lake, and he's walking and likes to climb stairs. ;)
And that's the update for now.....will try not to be so sporadic!
Janene, it's always good to hear from you and get an update from a real working homestead/farm. There are many miracles of science but it's pretty difficult to beat mother's milk when raising a calf, don't you think. It sounds like your garden has done well this year and to run out of canning jars is a good thing, right? I believe we are headed into some times that will require us to be frugal with food and water. I didn't get much stored up this year as the extreme weather here decimated the gardens. After the third event that destroyed my garden I decided just to focus on fence building and garden irrigation development. I did get some harvest but just enough to eat fresh.
ReplyDeleteAppliances just don't seem to last as long as they used to. You are right about costing more to repair than replace. I've replaced my dishwasher four times I think over the course of 30 years. It doesn't seem possible that I've lived in this old house for 30 years. I use my dishwasher a lot. I use the full dry cycle as well. I'm convinced that dishwashers not only are good for washing the dishes but are more importantly sanitizers which will keep the cold and flu germs eliminated from the household.
Bradley, my grandson that has lived with me for five years, now lives with his Dad and family in Texas. I'm kind of going through withdrawal after having him under foot for five years. This definitely has been a year of challenges and sudden life events.
Have a great preserving the harvest day and Labor Day weekend.