Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[wyoDreamer]

ooh, dehydrated pears sound yummy! I love dehydrated apples! For some of them, I peel them and dehydrate the peels separately. The peels get really crispy.

 

[Britesea]

I love dehydrated apples too; I have to count how many slices I eat, because otherwise I could easily eat 9 or 10 apples' worth, and then my tummy wouldn't be happy with me.
Dehydrated pears end up being like pear flavored gummy things- incredibly sweet and chewy.

I went outside a few minutes ago, to get some feed for Titipu, and found that a young deer had chased the ducks away from their feeder and was chowing down. I had opened the gate to the yard so they would be able to go out and free range after eating their morning ration of grain, but they were all lined up along the outside of the coop looking in mournfully at this deer. I managed to chase her out with a minimum of fuss and no injuries, then slowly herded everyone back into the yard and closed it so they could get their grain. I'll have to let them out later to look for worms (it's drizzling today-- perfect for worm hunting).
I've decided I need to name one of my drakes Don, because every morning I have to get up at the "quack of Don"

I just got the cookbook "Meals in a Jar" by Julie Languille, and yesterday I made up a batch of Fruited Rice Pilaf (makes 12 meals' worth), and a batch of the Saucy Joes. We had a can of the Saucy Joes that didn't seal for dinner, and it was very good! It took forever though, to chop 16 onions, 8 green peppers and 8 ribs of celery for the batch- but it makes 16 quarts and that's 16 meals I won't have to do anything but heat up and dump on rice or hamburger buns or something (we tried it on pasta last night). I will be watching the Cash N Carry ads for sales on their large meat purchases for future, and I'm looking forward to the inexpensive turkeys this next month. (I've almost got my husband to come around to the idea of expanding our bird flock next year to include geese and turkeys- then we will be able to eat GOOD turkey)

Besides cutting up all the the veggies for the Saucy Joes, I also cut up a bunch of celery for the dehydrator, and I have a bucket of bell peppers to dehydrate also. My bell peppers this year ended up numerous on the plant, but teeny- they average about an inch in diameter. I have no idea what happened. The flavor is good, but they are so small! I guess I have to go looking for possible reasons-- could I have a shortage of potassium or phosphorus? I didn't do a soil test when I started- just dumped about a half-n-half of topsoil and aged horse manure into the beds. Oh, the variety I planted was Chocolate Bell, which can come in a miniature version-- I wonder if the nursery sent me the wrong variety? They also mostly didn't turn chocolate colored- just green and red, with a few that turned kind of yellowish with chocolate shoulders.

 

[Denim Deb]

I don't know if I should laugh or groan over getting up at the Quack of Don.

I've had stuff that's been labeled wrong B4. I'll bet that's what happened. I've even done it myself. I ended up a/bunch of cherry tomatoes instead of the paste ones I thought I kept.

 

[hqueen13]

I bet you got the wrong ones, Britsea. We had some folks that started bringing us some things from their farm to sell and they had mini bells that were about the same size and were super sweet! These were red. They would have made fabulous stuffed pepper bites, but no one got around to making them this year lol

 

[Britesea]

I think you are right about the peppers. I'm going to write a note to the seedsman explaining what happened and see what they have to say about it, because the description of the seeds I ordered were for medium sized fruits.

 

[hqueen13]

I'll be interested to hear what they say!
We had one rogue river stripped zucchini in our batch this year at the farm. The funniest part is that the seed somehow got mixed into the seed packets because there was only one!

 

[Britesea]

Today was the Big Day. I dumped Titipu outside to join the flock. She's almost fully covered with feathers so I decided to give it a try (the decision was precipitated by the aroma of ammonia rising from her tub even though I had put fresh shavings in yesterday). Things were going well until she decided to try nipping the tail feathers of the black Cayuga drake... every one else in the flock proceeded to tell her that yes, he may be a black duck when all of us are brown, but he's OUR black duck, thankyouverymuch. After a few minutes of being jumped on by every duck in the flock, things are pretty much ok. She's very definitely at the bottom of the pecking order though.

I have a doctor appointment today, to take a look at my knee. It's been hurting pretty steadily for over a month now. One friend thinks I may have a torn miniscus (?) All I know is nothing works except taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen, and that's only partially effective. I've not been sleeping well because of it. Hopefully, she'll be able to figure out what needs to be done.

 

[Denim Deb]

Hope it's nothing serious.

 

[FarmerJamie]

I will *groan* on the the "Quack of Don".... LOL

 

[Britesea]

Lol, thank you Farmer Jamie...

Turns out that I have "Plica" which essentially means a torn muscle in the the knee. Light duty, some easy excercises, and anti-inflammatories are the order of the day. Funny, I have NO memory of what I could have done to cause it.

Titipu did ok yesterday and made it into the coop with only a little help from us. She is still having trouble with the adjustment from being the only Princess Duck in the house to being the lowest of the low in the flock, poor thing. But she had a full crop when I checked on her, so she's getting enough to eat. I uprooted a swiss chard that decided to bolt- it was about 4 feet tall- and pulled some kale leaves and the ducks are happily munching on those.
We have cold rain and wind now... I'm keeping an eye on Titipu. She is standing under the coop, out of the rain-- but her feathers look wet, like she stood out in the rain for a long time. If she doesn't start preening soon, I'll have to go out and round her up and bring her inside for a quick session under the brooder lamp to warm up again.

I've got a full load of chopped onion in the dryer and everyone's eyes are stinging even though I have the air filter going on high. I still have enough for a second full load and then I need to finish up those miniature bell peppers and the 5gallon bucket of Red Delicious apples from our tree (there's more, but I figure they will be better on the tree than off it right now).

I'm so proud of myself- I've kept the kitchen clean and dishes caught up for a whole week now! Now if I could just get on top of the rest of the house, lol. Part of the problem is I have a lot of home canned foods with no place to store them. I have plans for the studio building, but I need to clean out my old jewelry-making stuff first to make room for the shelving, and I've been too busy this year, with DH's accident and several other distractions. And now winter is coming and it will be harder to do because I can't bring stuff outside to sort through it. I've got a couple of big tv's to take to the thrift shop that will clear some room to work once I do that, but with the rain....