A Spontaneous Day....

Off.  There is nothing like a spontaneous day off - for whatever the reason.  For me, it was a cool, cool night, followed by that brilliant blue sky that is typical here when seasons start to shift.  I call it Maxfield Parrish Blue.  The day started out like any other - then I just got a bee in my bonnet and decided that I needed a mental health day.

The best thing about a SDO is that you don't have plans for it.  It just unfolds in front of you.  Sort of.  While I can be spontaneous, there is, after all, The List.  So I got to tick off a couple things from the list, which was very satisfying.  And I had some one-on-one time with the dogs, goats and sheep (not at the same time, of course.  That would NOT have been relaxing.)  Cats choose their own one-on-one time.  Usually, when it is not convenient for you.  But one does not rule cats.  Cats rule everything.

I spent a little time in the kitchen...


I turned these.....



into these.

 I spent a little time doing something creative....

It was time to lose the silk forsythias.

I spent some time on the Ratz War....

The Pearlies show off the new metal-clad entrance
to the chicken coop.



The Ratz had gnawed through half of a 2x4 to
gain access to the coop.  The bottom section will have
to be replaced, but it should throw them off until I
have the time and materials.

 I did some gardening-type stuff...

Hog Panel = Grape Trellis

It was, all in all, a glorious SDO.

What's been cookin' and what's comin' up.

Besides the usual - tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes - I made the delicious vegetable gratin that was on Tom's wonderful blog, Tall Clover Farm.  It was amazing!  Notice, I used the past tense, as I have et it all.  I added some chopped kale - I caught my neighbor throwing it to the chickens, silly person.  He grew it then refused to eat it.  So far, I've canned diced tomatoes, salsa, heirloom tomato sauce and ketchup.  I am working on another batch of heirloom sauce and will tackle the half-bushel of tomatoes I felt I HAD to pick this past Saturday, during the week.  I usually raw pack whole tomatoes as it's easier and I can use it in everything.  I do go through a lot of canned tomatoes.  Since someone asked about my ketchup recipe, here it is.  It's from my favorite canning book, Growing and Canning Your Own Food by Jackie Clay:

          1 Gallon chopped, peeled, cored tomatoes
          1 Cup chopped onion
          1 Cup sugar (I use brown sugar)
          1 Tbsp. canning salt
          1 Tbsp. paprika
          1-1/2 Cups vinegar (either white or cider)

          Spice bag:
          1-1/2 Tsp. celery seed
          1 stick cinnamon
          1 Tsp. mustard seed
          1/2 Tsp. cloves

     Combine tomatoes and onion in a large pot.  Simmer until tender.  Puree in a food mill.  Cook down until thick and reduced by half, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.  Add sugar, salt, paprika, and spice bag with spiced tied in it.  Simmer 25 minutes, stirring frequently.  Remove spice bag.  Add vinegar and simmer until thick, stirring frequently.  Ladle hot ketchup into hot jars, leaving 1/4 inch of headspace.  Wipe rim of jar clean; place hot, previously simmered lid on jar, and screw ring tight.  Process for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.

*Note:  This book gives you recipes to can EVERYTHING.  It also has great tips on growing fruits and vegetables.  And it is spiral-bound, which I find to be a very good thing.  The only drawback with this book is its lack of an index, which leads me to a lot of page flipping, trying to find a recipe.  I was forced to litter the top with sticky notes.

I also -- are you sitting down? -- made a GF bread that I LOVE!  (Kim - take notes...)  Kay told me about it and, figuring that she isn't even on a GF diet so it must be special, I bought a package.  It's Bob's Red Mill  GF Hearty Whole Grain Bread - it's packed with goodness:  buckwheat, garbanzo bean flour, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, cocoa, whole grain sorghum flour, molasses, caraway seeds, teff - I tell you, I baked this baby, cooled it, sliced it, slathered on some mayo and topped it with a thick slab of heirloom tomato.  Heaven!

I dug up one planting of my fingerling potatoes and was disappointed.  I believe that the combination of my straw experiment (FAIL) and the prolonged drought conditions made for a poor showing on the tater front.  Next year, it's all dirt and hopefully we won't repeat the drought.  I still have two more fingerling plantings, one purple and another Yukon Gold.  I took all of the little rejected fingerlings, parboiled them with garlic and then smashed them with a little butter and Asiago cheese, spread them on a foil-lined pan and roasted them for a half-hour.  Knock me flat and lift me up!  That was a little bit of heaven. 

My poor Pearlies spent the entire night on the roof again - in the rain.  I will now have to come up with some way to afford them shelter, the little nuts.  Then they all (except for Lonesome George) went into the coop, ate breakfast and went to sleep.  LG somehow always misses the fact that the rest leave and then he carries on for the longest time until one of the group gets tired of hearing him and sticks its head out and peeps at him.  He runs to join the group and then peace descends.  Oy.

What's coming up?  A very special anniversary!  I slipped yesterday when I was writing the post --  my computer hiccuped and it was accidentally (and very briefly) posted, then deleted.  I didn't mean to tease you, really I didn't.  I am planning something BIG to celebrate my 500th post!  With the way I carry on, it won't be long.....

Monday Musings.

I went to open a can a couple of days ago and it took me forever to locate my can opener.  I realized that I haven't opened a 'can' can for months and months.  All this cooking from scratch and putting up my own has just crept into my life and taken over!!!  What a nice thought.  I just had the last of my chicken and rice soup this past weekend and will have to can some more.  There is nothing like it - just the right amount of seasonings, you can make it ricey-thick or brothy-thin.  I have the comfort of knowing that, if the zombies take over everywhere else, I will be just fine for quite some time.  And I have to agree with OFG on who the real zombies will be/are.

Another topic high on the Musing List is that there seem to be either Givers or Receivers in the world, but very few who can both give and receive.  I have friends (you know who you are) who are very happy to give me almost literally the shirt of their back, but, when it comes to receiving anything in return, you have to chase them down, tackle them and force them to take it.  I mean, really.  That comes to receiving compliments gracefully - something with which I am completely uncomfortable.  You know the type:  "That shirt looks wonderful on you!"  "What, this shirt?  OMG it makes my arms look fat!"

Back in the OL (Other Life) in Ohio, I ran with a wild crowd.  It was not unusual for us to gather for unfettered nights of ....bowling.  Now, these people were very serious about their bowling.  I found that being serious about bowling was sort of an oxymoron, but they tolerated my flippant attitude and complete lack of talent and athletic ability.  I imagine it was because I was always the one who had everyone over afterwards for food and drink.  However, one night shines out in its own fabulous light.  The night I won a prize for my bowling.  Not only was it a prize, but it was the only such prize every bestowed by this particular bowling alley that we frequented.  I won the "Worst Adult Bowler" prize!  It was a bottle of Cold Bird.  This, for you wine aficionados not familiar with the more obscure vintages, is about seventeen levels below Cold Duck.  Which is about twenty levels below Asti Spumanti.  Which is about another fifteen levels below cheap bubbly wine.  You get the picture.  I wore this badge proudly.  But it became a game to see who could get rid of the bottle by foisting it off (unbeknownstly - word?  should be) on someone else in the group.  We referred to it as "Pass the Bottle".  That bottle of rotgut made the rounds for over a year.  It was slipped under dog beds, left in the back seats of automobiles, disguised as other objects that were not as disagreeable - at one Halloween party, the passers had wrapped it up in swaddling cloths and left it, to all intents and purposes a small, stiff baby, on the hosts bed.  Sadly, it was accidentally dropped on a patio during a rather rambunctious summer cookout, and that was the end of that.

Oh, great. Just what I needed.

Something NEW to obsess over.  While I was at the wool fest, I was very proud of myself - I put both hands in my pockets and only picked up yarn for my mom's birthday (thank you, Melanie -- she loved it!) and then just looked.  After all, I have the mother of all stashes at home - not to mention two friends who produce amazing yarn that are within a 20 minute drive.  I was further laden with a quickly thawing gallon of home-pressed apple cider with which Melanie gifted me!  That kept at least one hand busy.

I was almost home-free, working my way toward the exit when I uttered (to myself) those fateful words -- "Oh, there's a little building I haven't seen.  I'll just give it a quick walk through before I leave."  Ha.  I made a quick circle and then, in the final space on the way out I saw it.  As fate (oh, fickle fate) would have it, I had chanced upon her website on Friday and spent a good half hour talking myself into and out of buying one of the "Hip to be Square" looms.  I was so nostalgic for those wonderful potholder looms.  But, to be able to a) make potholders to one's delight; b) to reuse sock bits doing it; c) and make a rag rug from said recycled-sock-potholders?  Could I resist?  I did at the time - the shipping charges always get to me.

Pile 'o potholders

Sigh.  There was no shipping cost barrier at the wool fest.  I walked out with a loom and a big bag of sock loopies.  Then, when I finally got home, I spent a half hour of time much better spent on my "list", making a potholder.  Well, two.  Then I made another in the morning.  And I started another during a break from putting up my goat fence.  Then I finished that one and started another before bed.  Aiiiiirgh.  I did manage to keep myself from sneaking it into the office.  Sure, I could have made my own loom (I used to have one that I made many, many years ago) with nails on a frame.  But this loom has very nice, smooth eye screws that don't snag every last piece of material until you want to say lots of bad words loudly.  It is, quite frankly, mindless fun.  I find that I like mindless fun.  Especially when it means that I will end up with a cool rag potholder rug.  And it has made me think of other things I can create - with my Flora's lopi that I will be getting back from the mill; with the big pile of t-shirt strip balls that I have in the closet; with the spools of silk threads I've been hauling around for a coon's age.  The possibilities are endless!

I am finally winding down the canning process.  Last night I made six half-pints of tomatillo salsa.  There are only apples to go - and maybe a pumpkin or two.  And that's it.  Really.  Honest injun.  I swear.

Tomatillo salsa

This is fun!

Thank you for the idea, Carolyn  - I love haiku(ing) 'tho I wouldn't quit my day job...

Chickens lay few eggs
Must I send in a masseuse
walk on chicken backs

Family fun is not
birthday full of miffs and sniffs
orphan status optional?

Beans and greens get cut
Pressure not just in canner
Ears coming out my ears


Although rain threatened all day yesterday, it didn't fall in earnest until last night and into this morning.  Thankfully (this is Scrappy talking) there was a let-up just as I let them out in the yard.  As soon as they came in, it started up again.  After a weekend of everything out-of-sync, it was a nice feeling to be in rhythm with nature again for, even as I am Princess DeNial, daughter of the Queen of DeNial, I am facing up to the fact that I may be gluten intolerant.  And, even though I am facing up to it, I have already worked out in my fevered mind ways of sneaking in bits of the bread I love.  Cripe.  Isn't it funny how, when you know you can. not. have. bread/chocolate/dairy/etc.  it becomes the only thing you want?

I noted in my daily egg-laying journal, my hens have produced 8 eggs every day for the past four days.  I would be thrilled with this if I had 8 hens.  But I have over 20.  So, I am not thrilled.  I've checked them for parasites, I've upped their feed rations, I've cleaned their nesting boxes out every other day.  Ergo, the masseuse crack.  Heads will roll if the eggs don't.

I did a lot of pressure canning over the weekend - 12 pints of green beans, 6 pints and a quart of mixed vegetables, with 3.6 dozen ears of corn to go.  I also dried six zucchini squash, four yellow squash and a large bunch of Swiss chard.  I doubt if this will end anytime soon, as the beans, squash and chard are going gangbusters.  Wish I could say the same for the tomatoes.  Plenty of fruit on those miserable plants, but not a blush of color on most of them.  My next indoor project is to catalogue my canned goods.  While I can feel the first stirrings of tomato-mania in my heart, I need to come to grips with what I already have.  I need to battle the seasonal "Channeling of the Prairie Housewife" (the one with a family of 8).  I may need an intervention.