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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 14, 2012 6:02:43 GMT -5
Yea, we had velvet soup for dinner last night. hehehe Mike was not impressed but he was to wiped to make any attempts to save me from myself. As I type this, the rooster lives and breathes still. I DID get all the potatoes dusted and off the dining room table though! We've got 70 lbs!!!!! The "La Ratte" and "Costco Monster" are curing! I wasn't a total bum yesterday....
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Jun 21, 2012 21:04:41 GMT -5
I finally have something to contribute to this thread.... I have a hard time believing that what I do (after commuting a long distance to a rented field) has anything to do with homesteading.
Yesterday I picked the last of the spinach due to bolting, and today I blanched and froze it.
We ate spinach for supper, and then went out and picked raspberries that we ate with whipped cream for dessert.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 23, 2012 5:49:12 GMT -5
Now THAT is what I call living. As for the traveling... I have a hard time "fixing" that in my mind as well. We are planning on putting up a swimming pool this year. Bought the pool last year. Looking for a deal deal on a salt water filter system. But I figure that a little bit of pleasure isn't going to damage the world condition that much more than it already is. =o/ Maybe the goose will save the situation by swimming in the pool?
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 23, 2012 16:14:41 GMT -5
The farm is coming right along. I'm making baskets for gophers  Attachments:
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Post by mnjrutherford on Jun 23, 2012 18:22:23 GMT -5
Today was awesome. Went with some friend dragging antique stores and a flea market in Pitt County for old knives. We had a "bad" chicken and we decided to put him down (as into a pot). My first attempt at butchering. I think I posted about it here. ANYway, the first cut was good but the second one didn't go through the skin and well, we needed a better knife. Plain and simple.
Today we pulled up 3 that all had carbon steel blades, decent bit of metal still on the blade, good flexibility, decent handles, no major flaws in the blades. While waiting for this trip to shape up, it occured to me that I could use some better blades in my kitchen in general. A friend gave us a nice bass a couple days ago and the guys were not able to dress him very well because they were using dull knives.
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Post by davida on Jul 1, 2012 22:43:22 GMT -5
We have been canning tomato juice with our new steam juicer. Thanks for the information on the steam juicer, Potter and Walk. It is an effective way to can the juice and then run the pulp thru the blender to use in a variety of recipes.
Also, watered by the light of the moon. Oklahoma has been hot and dry. I heard tonight that only 24% of Indiana's corn is rated good to excellent because of heat and drought. Most grain future prices are returning to their highs.
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edwin
gardener
Posts: 141
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Post by edwin on Jul 2, 2012 16:01:19 GMT -5
Vacuum pack and freeze peas for the winter. Looked up pea shellers on the internet. Watered our apple trees. They are old and I don't know if they could handle an entire season of drought. Fortunately immediately after a very early heat wave there was a frost that wiped out all the blossoms so the trees may be in a better position to handle the dryness.  |
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Post by davida on Jul 8, 2012 20:33:59 GMT -5
On this Sunday night, I am just taking a calm moment to think about my homestead. Today at our church, www.lifechurch.tv at week 1 of "At The Movies", the movie was "The Book of Eli". The young lady asks: "Tell me about the old days". The man replies: "People had way more than they needed and we had no idea of what was precious and what was not. We threw away things that people kill for now". As we all start a new week, may we have the common sense to understand what is precious and what is not, including what plants that I decide to "make the cut" in the fall garden that is in the planning stage. David |
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Post by davida on Aug 16, 2012 19:11:54 GMT -5
My homesteading activities include making and canning apple juice and applesauce for my 6 month old grandson with the steam juicer. The apples are from two apple trees that my son planted when he was 11 years old. Now 18 years later, the apples are feeding his son. The trees have never been sprayed with any chemicals in all these years.
Really enjoy canning with the steam juicer. The juice is ready to can immediately out of the juicer and does not require additional processing. Then we put the pulp in the blender to puree and fill the jars and process in a hot water bath for 20 minutes. The only negative is that it takes the steam juicer three to four hours to process the juice from the apples and the juicer has to be refilled with water every hour.
David
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2012 2:40:52 GMT -5
Picked 8 big, Blue Hubbard squash from 2 only plants. Surprisingly, tens of pounds can hang from a vine on a chain link fence.
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Post by oxbowfarm on Sept 18, 2012 8:43:20 GMT -5
Managed to pull all the Ray's Pepita squash off the field and till up the area they'd been on. Finished that just at sundown. Got out the headlamp and seeded about 1000 square feet of it into wheat. I wanted to be as close to our Hessian Fly Free date as possible this time, instead of weeks later like I usually do.
We were supposed to be getting the beginnings of a 2-3 day rain event so that's what pushed me to plant after dark. This is the third year of planting Hungarian Landrace which is a long straw hard red winter wheat. The big problem is that I don't have the middle seed plate for my Planet Jr. seeder so I had to tape over a hole on the large seed plate. Last year I'd tried to use the very largest hole on the small plate but got a very inadequate and patchy stand. The main issue this year is that after going out to look this morning it looks like a lot of it was seeded too shallow which I didn't see happening in the dark. Right now its been raining for several hours so I'm not going to try and do anything in the mud, but I may try and improvise a drag with a fence post and some rope after the rain stops to get some of that seed covered.
Turns out that it is impossible to see your seeder furrows with the headlamp on, so I taped it to one of the handles of the seeder to give me some angled light so I could see the previous row and make reasonably straight and even rows. I'm sure it will look pretty drunken when the wheat is up.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 18, 2012 11:04:06 GMT -5
Leo tilling in the dark (last year). Last night he quit at dark. He's the dot on the left. The other 2 dots on the right are a distant car. Leo had an idea this year about setting up a light across the field and tilling toward it. Also, I found this: www.suttonag.com/SolexPlanters.htmlreplacement seed plates. I lost a whole box of Planet Jr. Seeder plates. I found them this year.  Leo says I till like I'm drunk even in the daytime. Can't keep a straight path. Off to plant what was tilled last night. oh boy Cauliflower! Attachments:
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Post by steev on Sept 18, 2012 21:53:45 GMT -5
Planting by braille rarely looks good in the light of day. Children are good planted in the dark, veggies not so much.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 19, 2012 2:06:23 GMT -5
And if it's been awhile since you checked Ferdzy's blog, she wrote a good article on saving seed. seasonalontariofood.blogspot.com/Which I think is my number one homesteading activity of the week. Thank you Ferdzy. |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 27, 2012 23:14:23 GMT -5
Last week, I learned how to make brown gravy from scratch... I have been having a great time making gravy since then. I tried about once a year for ages to make brown gravy, but it has always tasted horrid, so all these years I have bought mixes.
Turns out that the secret for me is to brown the flour or corn starch very slowly, so that it turns brown without tasting burned.
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