Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

Well, we finally got around to having Alexander The Drake for dinner. Very tasty, but just a little tough for roasting... I'll try a pie or stew for the next one.

We had temperatures down to -13F during the last cold snap, so today it feels positively balmy at 40 degrees.

I've been scrambling to finish Christmas gifts- not sure I'll have everything done in time. I'm making handmade baskets with bath fizzies and exfoliating shower scrub, but the baskets are taking a while. I can only make one basket a day or my hands punish me half the night. The slippers I'm making for DS are half done, but I ran out of yarn and won't be able to pick up more until tomorrow.

'Nuff said... I need to get back to work

Look what my ducks gave me! I wasn't expecting eggs until spring because of the short days, but the darlings came through for me anyway. These showed up on Friday, then I found one egg on Saturday and Sunday, and then 2 again this morning. The down side is because I wasn't expecting them, I had not set up any nest box for them. I have one now, but they still insist on laying their egg smack dab in the middle of the coop, and of course by the time I find them they are filthy.

wow, has it really been this long since I wrote in this journal?

As soon as I finish eating I'll be going out to the garden. Yay! the soil temps are finally good enough to start planting the cool weather crops! I took a chance on the favas and they are all breaking ground now. Hopefully we won't be getting any more freezes (had one night last week that went down to 24). I'm eager to get the peas, turnips, radishes and brassicas planted. Still have a month before I can plant things like green beans, tomatoes and peppers. This will be the first growing season with free-ranging ducks on hand; I'm hoping they can keep the grasshoppers in check. I'm tired of losing so much of my crop to the greedy little buggers!
The hazelnuts, currants and gooseberries are all leafing out well, the apples are blooming. I got 10 free raspberry canes and planted them last weekend and so far they are looking good.
I may have to buy at least some seedlings from the nursery again this year... at least on the warm weather crops; I've lost all the melons I started, and some of the chilies I always have trouble with planting seeds indoors; once I get them into the garden soil everything usually goes well.

Got some good deals on stuff I can dehydrate or can yesterday- scallions and basil and carrots (the family adores dilled carrots!) so I'm going to be very busy this weekend. On the down side, the same cut of pork that I bought two weeks ago has gone up 40 cents a pound.

We got rid of all the extra drakes, so now we have 3 hens and 1 drake (re-named Lucky, of course). I got 4 quarts of pulled duck meat out of 5 drakes! The girls give me 3 eggs each morning(in the nest box now, though it took almost a month for them to start using it). Honestly, I don't know how they can keep up that kind of production! Lucky takes his job seriously- he searches out treats for his ladies, and stands guard while they scarf it up; he's not nearly as fat and sassy as they are now!

I've got an order for 10 Silver Appleyards and a couple of Cayugas this month from Holderread's. They are about 5 hours away so I decided I wanted to drive up and pick them up myself, instead of them having to be on the road for a day or two. Of course, now that I've committed to that, I get a phone call from the Veteran's Clinic telling me I have an appointment for lab work the morning of the same day! AANNDD it's election day, so I'll have to somehow find time to vote, too!

The Gods of Poverty apparently heard that we got a tax refund, because I got a call from my renter that the toilet backed up. After cleaning it out, we find that we need to spend $500 getting the pipes re done because the house has settled enough that they no longer have enough slope to empty properly

Well, time to go do something, even if it's wrong! See you all later!

Isn't that the way things always happen?

The gods of poverty.....now I know who always comes after me when I have a little extra money and have to spend it to fix something.

I tell ya... they have NO mercy.

I finally got the guys building a couple more raised beds for my garden. It's amazing how many excuses they can come up with.
The local Grange Co Op had a Mother's Day sale going now till next Sunday, so I went in today and picked up some herbs to replace the ones that died over winter, and some celery, jalapenos, and cauliflower. Then I went over to the lumber store and bought the rest of the wood we need to finish all the raised beds. This week the boy and I will go pick up more pine needles from the local Post Office (they are so happy we are removing them, and it helps us too!) to cover the weed blocker, then place the beds and then fill them with half topsoil half 4-year-old horse manure from the Rescue. Can't quite finish all the beds yet, because the lumber store didn't have enough of the angle braces I'm using to hold it all together; I'll have to wait for their reorder to come in. Thank goodness I still have some money leftover from the plumbing project to do all this!

I got one bed planted with kale, with garlic all around the border to help chase off aphids. Two more beds have been prepped and are ready for planting; peas in one and the other one with a selection of cool weather greens (spinach, lettuce, cornsalad, miner's lettuce and arugula), radishes and turnips. I'm also trying something called Rat's Tail radishes for the first time this year. The part you eat is the large seed pod, which supposedly is good in soups and stir-frys. At last, I won't have to give up on radishes just because they've bolted!

Dinner tonight is white chili using the last of the turkey, and sourdough chocolate chip cookies for dessert.

Dang, I just thought I was hungry before.... Those cookies sound GOOD!

Today was catch-up day inside the house *bleah* but at least it wasn't a beautiful day outside to make me feel even worse. Cleaned out the fridge, did a bunch of laundry, cleaned the kitchen (been letting things slide in there) and the bathroom.

Those sourdough cookies are easy- and the sour tang marries nicely with the chocolate!
Sourdough Sugar Cookies
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup granulated sugar (I usually reduce this to about 3/4 cup)
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons cream
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
12 ounces chocolate chips
Pinch of salt

Mix sugar, shortening and cream. Add eggs, vanilla extract, salt and sourdough. Fold in flour and baking powder. Add chocolate chips. Drop teaspoonfuls of dough on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes.

They sound good!