Calendula - Son may have Tourette's

[Lesa]

You will love that gadget, Calendula. We used a Champion juicer for tomatoes this year- what a joy! Very little waste and a real time saver. I ran the seeds and skins through the hand held food mill and got even more out of it. Lucky you for having made enough sauce to get you from one harvest to the other. I had to buy a few jars...Hope your chickens like tomato seeds! Best wishes for your injured girl.

 

[lorihadams]

My mom got a deal on the Jack Lalane juicer and got a buy one get one free deal...they use it for everything! They make a lot of wine and it is sooooo much easier with that thing, especially the blackberries!

I didn't have enough tomatoes to eat let alone process into anything this year.

That is a great idea about the paint ball gun!!! I gotta tell hubby that. He was at a farmer's house recently and his dogs were raising all kinds of he!! up on the hill overlooking one of his pastures so when they went to see what the fuss was about there were 3 "wild" dogs that had gotten one of his cows down in the creek and taken a chunk out of her hind leg. He got the shotgun quick and peppered all three dogs with birdshot....took them almost an hour to get the cow back up and out of the creek and into the barn to recover. It is just awful when people just turn dogs loose when they don't want to deal with them anymore. I have a lab that likes to wander but he hasn't got a mean bone in his body and he's 10 yrs old. He's gotten loose 3 times since we've moved here but we have always gotten him back in 24 hours or less and he's always in the same place on the same road on the other side of the pond .

My dad shot two dogs out of a pack of 5 that were killing calves in the farm down the road from him. He figured they were sleeping in the woods behind the house down in the holler. When he heard from the farmer down the road he called animal control and the officer that was working the case told him to shoot them if he saw them because they were really vicious when confronted together. Daddy was afraid for us to bring the kids up cause he was afraid to let them play in the yard. I guess that's just part of living in the country....I think all of us have to deal with it sooner or later.

How's the hen this morning? Is she any better?

 

[calendula]

Lesa, our chickens love tomatoes! They always look forward to the scraps.

I have a lab that likes to wander but he hasn't got a mean bone in his body and he's 10 yrs old.

There is also a yellow lab that comes to our place. Though it annoys me that the owner lets him run loose, he is a very sweet dog, and has never even looked at the chickens. If I ever get a dog, it's going to be a lab. The only time he ever annoyed me was when I had set a block of suet out on a tree stump for the birds, and he came over and ate the whole thing!

 

[lorihadams]

That sounds like a lab....Tonka always runs off when I'm out in the barn and the kids want to let him go outside and play and I don't know he is outside until I come back in and ask "where's the dog???" Then I get a phone call from the nice lady through the woods...."Tonka's here...." I gotta bring her some eggs or something

 

[valmom]

Lesa, our chickens love tomatoes! They always look forward to the scraps.

I have a lab that likes to wander but he hasn't got a mean bone in his body and he's 10 yrs old.

There is also a yellow lab that comes to our place. Though it annoys me that the owner lets him run loose, he is a very sweet dog, and has never even looked at the chickens. If I ever get a dog, it's going to be a lab. The only time he ever annoyed me was when I had set a block of suet out on a tree stump for the birds, and he came over and ate the whole thing!

LOL- a true Lab! I miss my Labs something fierce some days (at one point I had 4). Terriers are just such opposite personalities.

 

[calendula]

Well, it's been a few weeks since I have journaled...I've been going through a tough time. I don't really have the heart to write about it right now, but maybe someday. Anyway, I have been lurking here, posting occasionally, seeing what everyone is up to.

Today, I'm feeling kind of okay, actually like talking for a change.

So, I have been doing lots of freezing lately. Green beans are coming in like crazy still, so I froze several batches. Also, I have been freezing the bounty of crookneck squash I have. We have been harvesting tomatoes left and right, and using our cool tomato gadget to sauce them. It's working out wonderfully. I think we will be making ketchup for sure, spaghetti sauce, and I thought it would be neat to try making tomato paste, but I have to find out how to do it first!

I also have lots of black beans drying in their pods right now, just got a whole bunch of venison from my step-dad, and I have been working on getting my pantry shelves stocked. I am feeling really good about our food situation right now, we have plenty put aside in the event of an emergency.

Winter will be coming soon, so this is reassuring. We had a couple nights of frost a couple weeks ago, but it's been staying warm enough at night lately to where I don't need to cover everything thankfully. What a pain! But I really didn't want to lose my 'maters, there's so many of them that are still green yet, I wish they'd hurry and ripen!

I have 3 pumpkin pie pumpkins that are just about ripe as well. I plan on making pumpkin puree with those and freezing it in small batches for breads and pies.

I am looking to change jobs as well. I work about 30 miles from home in another city. I am hoping to find something closer to home so I can quit buying so much darn gas! So, I've been applying to lots of places, but still haven't heard anything back yet.

Hope everyone has been doing well!

 

[valmom]

Good to hear from you! Glad your garden has done well enough to put up beans and squash. We put in crookneck squash for the first time this year and got some, but SO won't eat them because she says they are gourds and not really squash. How do you cook your crookneck? Like a summer squash or like a winter squash?

 

[framing fowl]

Good to hear from you again.

Sounds like your garden has been a winner this year! Do you do anything special with your venison? Almost the season here and I'm hoping our neighbor gets one for us again this year!

 

[calendula]

My favorite way to cook crookneck squash is to slice it, dip it in egg, and then coat in bread crumbs with parmesan cheese mixed in. Then fry in butter. Yum! Otherwise, I just slice and fry in butter, and serve with salt and pepper.

 

[Marianne]