Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[NH Homesteader]

I actually thought it might be worse than that! I don't remember how much it is here, I think around $45/gallon, depending on quality and who you buy it from.

 

[Mini Horses]

Similar prices here, FEM. I did buy some for the bacon that I hope to one day cure...get that? Not this week, maybe not this month.

The pink salt is recommended if you do a "cold cure" in the smoker. I'm not gonna use it as it is just something else to find & buy. Salt will do most of the bacteria kill, which is the issue.

Did you leave the skin on? I did. Mainly because I was darn tired of processing!! Can always remove. The rind is really good cured and fried up. I may cut it loose and then cure with the slab, to get more into the actual slab as the skin does limit the exposure on that side of it. The smoking is just to infuse that smoke flavor and to dry a little more. I may add liquid smoke and dry in oven overnight.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I do smoke mine at a low heat.

But, after reducing the amount of pink salt this time - I'll probably leave it out next time.

@Mini Horses - Mine came skinned from the butcher - so I didn't have to deal with it at all.

Hmmm, I wonder how the liquid smoke would do? It sounds good! I cut my big slab into three pieces. I guess I could add some smoke to one, the maple syrup to the other and leave the third with the original cure/spice mix. I do love to experiment. And, I still have another big slab in the freezer, along with the leaf lard I need to process too. Too much stuff and not enough time - as usual.

@NH Homesteader - I bought the 'store brand' which was less pricey than the other brand. I think it was about $12 bucks for 12 ounces. They both were exactly the same on the list of contents.... pure maple syrup. I didn't see any reason to spend more money just for the name.

Oh, and I did a taste test on a spoonful....dang that's good stuff! If we had trees here where we could tap our own - I'd probably just put it in a glass and drink it, lol!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Some of the bigger manufacturers cook their syrup faster and it loses the maple flavor. Those who cook it slower... Some on purpose (some like us because we do it old school style)... So much better! Maple syrup is an amazing thing.... I like putting it in smoothies... Now I'm hungry!

 

[NH Homesteader]

I lied- DH says $45 is the price if you know a guy... $60 is your typical price. So $80 down there isn't so bad.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Maybe I should go buy more, lol! I definitely would if we ever used syrup. Sometimes I make coconut flour pancakes but we have to use sugar free syrup....not that it's real syrup of any kind... but it's tolerable.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We went to DH's mom's apartment and swam today. It's a senior apartment complex, which makes it kinda nice. The seniors that live there certainly can have their family over to swim so there were a couple kiddos in the pool, but they were mostly well behaved and it was really fun watching them. There was a two year old there that kept jumping into the pool when nobody was watching! We got to watch mom jump in after him, lol. He actually was doing pretty well at keeping his head above water, lol. They left a little later and we practically had the pool to ourselves. I got a little more sun than I expected but not too bad. We stayed in for about an hour and I never stopped moving. DH spent a lot of time sitting on the edge talking to his mom, but he did move some so it wasn't a wasted effort. We both took a nap when we got home!

 

[Beekissed]

We went to DH's mom's apartment and swam today. It's a senior apartment complex, which makes it kinda nice. The seniors that live there certainly can have their family over to swim so there were a couple kiddos in the pool, but they were mostly well behaved and it was really fun watching them. There was a two year old there that kept jumping into the pool when nobody was watching! We got to watch mom jump in after him, lol. He actually was doing pretty well at keeping his head above water, lol. They left a little later and we practically had the pool to ourselves. I got a little more sun than I expected but not too bad. We stayed in for about an hour and I never stopped moving. DH spent a lot of time sitting on the edge talking to his mom, but he did move some so it wasn't a wasted effort. We both took a nap when we got home!

That sounds lovely! How nice to have that available to you without having to fight the crowds at a public pool. Swimming and the sun wears one out pretty quickly, don't they? My DIL uses their pool to wear out her little ones so they will take a good nap.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

We really enjoyed it! I'd love to go back today, but, we probably got enough sun yesterday.

My DIL uses their pool to wear out her little ones so they will take a good nap.

That works!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It was bound to happen.... With this hot/wet/muggy/cruddy weather we're having it was bound to happen. Looked at one of the babies last night and saw that she had a dirty leg. It was almost dark so I made a mental note to give her a good look over this morning. Geeze louise - I've got at least 5 babies with various degrees of loose stool. I've been using Toltrazuril as a coccidia prevention. I've got two age groups of babies out there...the ones that got treated a couple weeks ago are fine. The older group, that I had hoped were building up a tolerance are the ones that are showing the effects. So, that's how my morning started...catching $hi...crappy babies and treating them.