Harvesting Time Is Upon Us

   It looks like harvesting time for some things is upon us. First, before I go into that, I'll let you know how the zucchini from one of Tims' coworkers went. Tim wanted me to make zucchini bread for him to bring in, so I made 2 loaves on Monday, and Tim comes home from work only to inform me the guy is taking a 2 week vacation. It figures. It's ok, though. The zucchini bread tasted good, but it wasn't up to my usual standards. I even used my old standby recipe. Maybe I should have used the new recipe I found. Next loaves, since we'll have more zucchini. I did make the zucchini casserole with more of that zucchini. It was a big one.
   Anyway, some of our zucchini is ready to pick. I picked some Monday and dehydrated it. More is ready. Fried zucchini is good. I want to shred some and dehydrate it for later use. Tim wants to know what you do with dehydrated zucchini and I tell him the usual things I do with it. I have told Tim it lasts longer dehydrated.too. I reconstituted a slice last night to show Tim that it turns back into normal sliced zucchini. I found some recipes for pickled zucchini I think I will try.
   Thanks to the deer, again, we are harvesting some of the onions already. I am going to dehydrate a bunch of them, too. We go through a lot of onions. Since I am suppose to keep a log of how much the garden produces, I counted and weighed onions. 49 onions weighed 7 3/4 pounds. As I said, they were small onions, thanks to the deer.
   Some of the corn is getting some nice ears on them (it?). More to eat fresh, besides freeze ears and dehydrate kernels. I'm going to make jars of soup mix with some of the dehydrated veggies.
   We have one small Big Boy tomato just about ripe and another one a few days behind. Someone forgot to tell them that with a name like Big Boy, they should be big. I'm assuming we will have over 100 tomatoes ready all at one time, with more to follow. I've never dehydrated tomatoes, but I think I will give it a try. I've heard after you dehydrate them, you can grind them into powder and add it to things. I might give it a try.
   The deer are doing a good job of eating the peas. The carrots, 2 different varieties, are doing well. The potatoes are doing great. I'm sure they will be ready all at once, too. I do mention stagger the crops, but even when we do that, they all seem to need harvesting at the same time.
   Tim wants me to keep a log of how much we get from the garden so we'll know how much to plant next year. He wants to double the size of the garden. This way, we can have twice as many well fed orphan deer. At least we haven't had the sheep from behind us come over.

I Lead Such A Boring Life

   We seem to be the hang out for orphaned deer. At least our garden is. They are very well fed orphans. One of them, there are 3, has decided the best place in all of our 5+ acres to lay is on the onions. Our acres are wooded, you would think it could find a better area. Of course, with the damp ground, the onions are probably cooler.
   We also have some palm size, and bigger, toads. They like under the front and back steps. Tim is relocating them into the garden. Who knows if they'll stay there.
   Tim got the riding lawn mower working. One of our next door neighbors had it for a long time in his locked shed, because he lost the keys to the door years ago. He told Tim he could have it, and try to get it working with the agreement he could use it when he wants. We really needed a riding lawn mower and the price was right. It's so dry here right now, it's a very dusty job cutting all our grass and dead wildflowers. Tim's decided to wait until it rains to hold down the dust before he continues.
   All the cherries are pitted and in the freezer for later when it's not so hot. I don't really want to can in the heat, even though I could turn on the AC.
   We have close to 100 tomatoes on the plants, with a few of the starting to turn red. The corn is getting ears, luckily, not all at once.
   Tomorrow, I am making zucchini bread from a zucchini a coworker of Tims'. It's so big, I am also going to make the dreaded, kids couldn't stand it, zucchini casserole
   To make it these days, I cut the zucchini into bite size pieces, add homemade spaghetti sauce, cooked bulk Italian sausage, about a pound of it. Mix it all together, top with mozzarella cheese and Italian style bread crumbs doted with butter and bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes. I think I'll have to make garlic bread to go with it. Our kids couldn't stand this when I tried feeding to to them as kids. They will tell you we always had it, but it was only a few times.
   I've made bread and oatmeal raisin cookies today and all the clothes are washed and even folded and put away. Now, if I could only figure out what to fix for dinner.
   I have only 1 more baby afghan to make for my friend. I finally put up the sewing machine yesterday. I really intend to sew in the near future.
   Probably the biggest news is I stopped playing Farmville on Facebook. I could never get to my farm or anyone else's and it kept freezing the computer up. I'm not going through FV withdrawals as much as I thought I would. One of these days, I'll decide if I'll continue playing Frontierville. I could just go outside and play frontierville for real.
   On another note, I am going to start exercising tomorrow. Really I am. Really. I'll let you know how that goes. Too bad, just thinking about exercise doesn't work like exercising. I'll have to take the exercise slow, since I'm in such terrible shape. I was going to get into good shape by the time I was 40. I am a lot older than that now, I guess I should start. I hear late is better than never.

A Cherry Pitting I Will Go

   I have been busy pitting cherries. I bought an older German cherry pitter at a yard sale a couple of years ago. It was well used. I used it last year, and found it needed new rubber gaskets for the pitter and pits to go through. I was afraid I'd have to buy a new pitter, but, last week I found a place on ebay that was selling the gaskets for another brand, but they looked like the ones I needed, so, I orderd them. The came in 2 days and they do fit. Much cheaper than a new cherry pitter.
   The Black Jade Pie Cherries stained my fingers a nice black. This time around with all the Bing cherries, I wore those cheap plastic food server gloves. They made a big difference even if they are hot and too loose. Anyway, yesterday as I was pitting the last 4 pounds of cherries I discovered the cherries were so big, they wouldn't pit and wouldn't fall into the bowl. They were too big to fit through the hole the pitted cherries fall through. Most of the cherries pitted, but I knew a good portion didn't. I watch to see if the pits fall as I pit. When I was done, I cut each cherry in half to see if they were pitted or not. I don't care if they are whole cherries anyway, since they will be jam and need to be chopped anyway. I know that 4 pounds of cherries are 100% pitted. As I was finishing up cutting the cherries, I thought I probably should have done this with all of them. I know when you buy any cherry product, you need to watch out for pits. I made cherry milk shakes, ( could this be why I don't seem to be losing weight?) with frozen cherries I had bought to make smoothies before I bought all the cherries. The cherry milkshakes were very good, but there were pits. Tim found most of the pit chunks that the Vita-Mix chopped up. Every time I use the Vita-Mix, I think I should use it more often.
   The latest garden update is, it's doing really well. I guess the deer eating the tops of the tomatoes has kept the plants nice and compact, which is nice. We have lots tomatoes, which is good. I still might have to buy more. I will use the Vita-Mix when I am playing with the tomatoes.
   The potatoes are producing nicely, too. The corn has started getting ears, the assorted squash is squashing right along.
   The green beans and lima beans aren't doing as well as we had hoped. The lima beans had a severe deer problem and I don't know what the green bean problem is. What will Chip do with out his green beans?
   The onions we've had that the deer have pulled up were good. Tim is worried about deer spit on them and the wasting disease deer get. As far as I know, it's just a deer thing. Anyway, I wash the onions and peal them, since the are growing in steer and horse manure.
   Hmm, I wonder what key I hit to make the type look like this and how do I get it back to normal? Ah, I figured it out.
   I think, for fun tomorrow, Chip is getting a bath and a trim. His ears are going to get a good trimming down to ear shape. Seems big brother Jake like to pull Chip around by the ears and Chips whole head fits in Jake's mouth, so his ears are looking pretty ratty. I know why Velcro is a good name for poodles. Chip is collecting wildflower seeds whenever he's outside. I really hope Chip lets me cut his claws, too. I don't know why he doesn't let me anymore. I have never cut them so short I hurt Chip, but lately he won't have any of it.
   I am still working on baby afghans for friends of a friend. I haven't gotten anymore sewing done, but the sewing machine is out gathering dust, just in case. I think I should just but it up. The biggest news is I finally folded the towels. I'm making progress.
  

Just Rambling

   Yesterday was our 30th wedding anniversary, and we had the usual hard time thinking of something to do. We went to Walmart and got a battery for the riding mower, to Home Depot to get a fuel filter for it, to Big R, just because it's there, ( I did get some Sarsaparilla, Orange Creme Soda and some Carmel Vanilla Soda), and then we went to Green Bluff and picked cherries. I was looking for already picked cherries, and did eventually buy some, but after we picked some. We've been told by several people that this was a bad year for cherries. I didn't pick that many because I had to climb a ladder and that's really not a good place for me to be. Oh, and we bought some blueberry wine, but didn't drink it yet.
   Today, I pitted some of the cherries we picked. I have about 6 pound more to pit. My hands are stained a nice purplish black. I read lemon juice is suppose to get rid of the cherry juice stain, but I don't have that much and I was going to use it for canning. Yeah, I know, I can buy some more and just use what I have and make my hands look better, but I might as well wait until all the cherries are pitted before I try the lemon juice.
   I was going to dehydrate more celery today and freeze more carrots. I didn't get to that. I still haven't folded the towels in the basket by the dryer. I need to make cookies tomorrow.
   Our garden is growing really well. I do think it's funny (weird) that we have a white tail deer problem in our garden and on Farmville I have one, too. I guess I just can't win with that.
   I'm not making much progress crocheting afghans for my friend Terrys' friends that are having babies in Oct. I haven't made much progress with the sewing, either. I have finished 2 of my 4 library books instead.
   Chip is getting much better outside off of the leash. We think he runs like a rabbit. He's a very fast runner. Jake stops Chip by putting his front paw on Chip's back, and then he usually knocks him over. There's about a 35 pound or more weight difference between them. We're always telling Jake not to break the poodle.
   Towards the end of this month it will be peach season at Green Bluff. I'll have to get a box so I can make more Peach Butter and try making some peach preserves. When apples are ripe, I want to get some of those to make apple pie filling, apple butter, apple cinnamon jelly, and apple sauce.  That's the plan, but you know how those are.
  Anyway, it's still nice out here in the sticks, I just need to stop being so lazy.

The Stinky Stuff Just Might Work

   As you know, we planted another garden this year and have a deer problem. We saw the deer that have been eating the garden. They are less than 6 months old since they still have their spots. Did I ask them their ages, you ask? Nope, I just looked up the answer to "how old are white tail deer when they lose their spots" on the internet. White tail deer lose their spots when they are about 6 months old. Anyway, the deer looked very healthy and well fed. They should be well fed since they are doing a number on the garden.
   When we win the lottery, we will finish fencing in the garden. We would like to fence in a very large area to include the berry patch and future garden growth. I know it has to be a very high fence since deer can jump over a 9 foot fence. They can also run 40 mph and swim 15 mph. I just thought I'd throw in those facts.
   I was looking on the internet (I waste a lot of time on the internet), and found some recipes to make your own deer repellent. The deer munched on the garden the night I sprayed the stuff on, but they haven't touched it the last couple of days. Maybe it works after all. Deer aren't suppose to like stinky stuff, but then, who does?
   The stinky stuff I mixed up had a little milk, 3 eggs, garlic juice, hot pepper oil, clam juice, and a couple dashes of cayenne pepper. The recipe didn't call for the clam juice or the cayenne pepper, but I thought the stinkier and hotter, the better. I put this in a blender and blended it really well, and then poured it into the empty gallon milk jug I had finished off that morning and added enough water to make a gallon. I used hot water, not that I think it matters, but i thought it would make the stuff smell more. A couple of hours after I made it, I poured some in a squirt bottle and sprayed the plants in the garden. Wouldn't you know it, no matter where I stood while spraying it, I kept drifting onto my legs. After I had sprayed the whole garden, I just poured the remainder in the milk jug onto the most eaten veggies. I also sprayed the concoction on the berry plants and the Japanese Maple, that tastes so good.
   I think when I spray the garden again, I will just use garlic juice and clam juice. I think I will have to spray the garden once a week, or when ever the deer start eating it again. If that works, I guess it's a cheap enough fix until we can afford the mega fence. The stinky stuff is also suppose to repel rabbits, but that's one problem we don't have.

What A Lucky Unlucky Day

   Today, I had big plans. You know the kind, where you get a haircut and go grocery shopping? You see, I lead a very exciting life. I thought I'd go today because Saturday and Sunday are suppose to be really hot. It's a good thing I went today.
   As I was going down highway 2, I noticed there was about 1/8 of a tank of fuel in the truck. Hum, get diesel, not get diesel? That was the question. I decided to live it up and put $20.00 in. After I had finished, I got in the truck, pushed in the brake, and it went all the way to the floor. Not good. I left the gas station thinking maybe it was just my imagination, and turned into the next driveway off of the highway to see if it happened again. Yup, it happened again and the truck didn't want to stop. Luckily, I wasn't going that fast and the parking lot was for a foolishly built, empty strip mall and the parking lot was completely empty.
   The back brake line on the left broke. Goody. Just what we needed. I called Tim and he called the brake shop where we had the brakes fixed in January, and they called me to get my version and then they called a tow truck. It's a good thing it was only in the 80's today instead of the 90's like tomorrow and the next couple of days are suppose to be.
   The tow truck came and towed the truck to the shop, and before the truck was off the flatbed, two of the guys came out and ask what did I do to the truck? Nothing, I said, I just pushed the break pedal in. See, they said, you did do something. I knew they were joking.
   Of course, the brake line wasn't something they had fixed last time, so I had to pay for it. My fun with the tow truck and the brake job cost $200.00. There went a haircut and grocery shopping.
   It was a good thing I decided at the last minute to stop at the gas station, because the brake line would have broken the next time I tried to stop for a light, traffic, etc.
   The brake shop had air conditioning and more importantly, a bathroom. And, it was clean, too. So was the shop. One of the cleanest shop waiting rooms I've been in. They also had semi current magazines to look at.
   I stopped at the grocery store and got the basics on the way home. You know, milk, lunch meat, dog food, a chocolate mint cake. Yeah, I know, the cake wasn't a necessity, but I needed it after the day I had. I also bought a lottery ticket and a mega lottery ticket. I figured with the lucky, unlucky day I had, why not?
   I'm staying home for the rest of the weekend. I've had all the fun I can stand.

In Search Of The Elusive Huckleberry

   Last Friday, Tim and I were on a huckleberry hunt, with a little fishing thrown in for good measure. We know they are out there. If you ask anyone where to find them, they flat refuse to tell you. It's a closely guarded secret. If they do tell you anything, they'll tell you No-telum Mountain or No-telum Ridge. No help at all.
   We know where they are suppose to be found. I really think we need a berry picking guide.

We searched high and we searched low. Personally, I don't think we'd know a huckleberry bush if it bit us. We did see many pretty places. We even stopped at a little touristy, has everything store and asked. They all said they didn't know where to find huckleberries, but they were sure they are on a short tall bush. This was funny because it was huckleberry festival time there.

   Here is Tim hard at work, fishing. He says he caught a few small brook trout. I know he caught a 12" big mouth bass. I saw it break his line as he was trying to land it. It's funny, but now Tim says it was 25" and many pounds. Anyway, it was too big for the 2 pound test line.
   The mosquitoes were terrible, so I sat in the truck for awhile to get away from them. Tim said they weren't biting on the water.

   It was getting hot and boring sitting in the truck, so I went to take pictures.

   There are so many things to take pictures of up here. maybe, on day, I

I'll have pictures of our huckleberry find.

   maybe about that time, I will have figured out how to get the pictures on here right.

Darn, Summer Is Finally Here

   Well, at long last, summer is here. Have I mentioned before that I really hate hot weather? I know, I did complain about all the rain, but I'd rather have cooler, overcast days than highs in the upper 80's and higher. We got to 98 a couple of days. Way too hot. Tim, Jake and Chip say it's too hot, also.
   We had homegrown spinach with our dinner tonight. It was a time consuming process picking, washing and blanching 2 bushels of plants. Of course, there wasn't nearly that many leaves, and after it was all blanched, there might have been about a half a gallon of it. Anyway, fresh is much better than the frozen kind I usually buy. I tried to judge how much we would eat when I was dividing it up to be frozen. I came up with 5 servings for 2 people. We might have leftovers some nights, but that's ok. I suppose I could have been really accurate, and measured it all evenly, but I just don't do things that way. Tim just laughed when I told him it was harder work canning the stuff out of the garden than it was rototilling it. Physically, rototilling is harder, but canning is more time consuming and also a lot of hot work, with a lot of standing. I often think I'm crazy for doing this.
   I went cornered the market on canning supplies today, and found more screens for my dehydrator trays. I needed 4 and there are 2 in a package and there were only 2 packages left, so I figured I should go ahead and get them while they were available. If I had waited, knowing my luck, I wouldn't be able to find them.
   For some of my winter stocking up, I am going to make some of those mixes in quart jars, like the gifts in a jar things. A friend and I made some of those and some jelly for Christmas one year. We thought they made good gifts. We made a muffin mix and it called for cloves. Way too many cloves. I scooped them out of my mix.
   Since I was in the spending mood, I also ordered these clipper scissors called Scaredy Cut. They have different hair guides so you can cut the animals hair a certain length. Chip is afraid of clipper noise, but rather likes scissor haircuts, but they are always uneven. (Same thing happened when I cut the kids' hair.) I really don't think Chip cares if his hair is uneven, but I do. I try to keep his hair about a inch long, but I think it needs to be shorter in the summer, and I'll just keep his leg hair shorter all the time. Yes, I did know poodles were high maintenance when I bought him, but he's so cute.
   I still haven't gotten any sewing done, but it's still scattered all over the dinning room for when I get to it. A friend is paying me to make 2 afghans and booties for baby girls two friends of hers are having. They are due in October. More to do. At least I can make simple ones and they can be the same. I went through some of my crochet patters and finally found a nice, quick, easy bootie pattern. I'm really not making much progress making things to sell. Ok, I'm not making any progress.
   Well, winter will be here before you know it, and I'll be stuck in the house, maybe I'll get things made to sell then. Or not.


  

Summer is coming...or so they say.

   Today is July 4th, and everyone up here says today is thee beginning of summer. It was cool yesterday and today. Later this week we are suppose to be in the 90's. We had very little snow this past winter, and a lot of rain the last couple of months and everyone is worried about fires.
   Tim has been busy mowing our pretty weeds/wildflowers and it is a never ending job. One day we might have a riding mower.
   The people behind us are shooting off fireworks and setting off fire crackers. We really hope they don't start any fires. When you live in a wooded area, that is a big concern.
   The dogs are so jumpy with all the fire works going off. It's worse than the gun shots we always hear. Chip is so jumpy, the ice dumped from the ice maker and he had to bark like crazy, and then Jake had to, just because Chip was.
   It would be nice if warmer, dryer weather is in our future. Personally, I think mid 70's is perfect weather.

Just Call Me Polly Pioneer

   I have been called Suzy Homemaker and Betty Crocker in the past. I have decided lately it should be Polly Pioneer. Gardening, preserving one way or another, sewing, crocheting, spinning, weaving know how, cooking, yogurt making. I think I have too much time on my hands. No real marketable skills.
   Yesterday, I had a thought. Why it didn't come to me earlier, I'll never know. Some people are just slow, I guess. I bake our bread, and when the loaf is stale, I was feeding it to the ungrateful birds, who won't eat it. My thought was, why not make my own stuffing mix, like StoveTop, so that's what I did. I already make the usual bread crumbs with it, and I intend to make croutons, but haven't yet. Anyway, I made 2 quart canning jars of stuffing mix. I will make more of it in my stocking up efforts since I will have more stale bread. I guess we could eat it faster. With just the 2 of us, my loaves are getting smaller, but homemade bread gets stale to fast. If I make larger loaves, I cut them in half and put half in the freezer.
  My stuffing recipe is one I made up as I went. I cut the bread into bite size pieces, but you can tear it. I sprinkled ALOT of poultry seasoning, some dehydrated parsley, and some garlic powder,( because I didn't have any dehydrated garlic), on the bread and spread it out on a cookie sheet and baked it on about 300 degrees until the bread was dryed out. After it had cooled I filled a quart jar up to the bottom of the neck and added some previously dehydrated celery and onions to it and put about a tsp. of chicken bouillon granules on top, and used my foodsaver to suck the air out after I had put the lids on, of course. To make the stuffing, I will use about a cup of boiling water, more or less, and 1 tbsp. butter or margarine. I will use chicken broth instead of water, if I have any around, and mix like you do with the Stove Top. I will tweek the recipe of the fixings as I go, until I figure out the perfect amount of everything.
   Yesterday, I harvested our first spinach crop and made apple pear crisp. I was jokingly ask about spinach in the apple pear crisp and said it was on old family recipe, but the hardest part was turning the spinach into apples and pears.
    I cut the leaves off, and I hope, more will grow. I washed the leaves well and cut off the stems and then  I blanched it for 3 minutes and put it in ice water for 3 minutes and then spun out excess water with my salad spinner. I blotted a little more water off with paper towels and put it in a gallon ziplock bag, go as much air out as I could, and put it in the freezer. I need to bet more foodsaver bags, along with canning jars, of different sizes.
   The apple pear crisp was made the usual way. I had 2 large apples of some variety and 2 pears, Bartletts, I think. Anyway, It was good.
   Our garden is growing really well this year. The new crop of potatoes I planted are growing. We are going to have corn coming out our ears (harhar). Birds are eating the flowers off of the tomatoes when they are staring to turn into tomatoes.
   The deer luckily haven't eaten any of the berries, but they have walked through the garden along Rufus, the one of the many dogs that live behind us. Wht is it, that the majority of people who live out in the country feel it's alright to let their dogs roam loose?