Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

Visit is drawing to a close-- they're leaving tomorrow morning early to continue northward to Eugene and eventually to Vancouver. We had a lovely time together; got to know the son-in-law a lot better, and Samwise is so much fun now- he's not just a little grub anymore. Our dog was absolutely thrilled to have a "puppy" to take care of- they hit it off beautifully. Our garden stepped up to the plate and gave us veggies and fruit galore for the whole week. We are sending them off with a care package of freeze-dried fruits and veggie snacks, and spiced apple fruit leather too.

We finally got the dud eggs out from under the broody, who was still trying to hatch them, and stuck some fresh new ones under her. I keep hoping we'll get a batch of chicks this year; otherwise we'll have to buy some more, because some of them are getting pretty old now and we hardly get any eggs from them anymore.

Right now I'm pretty tired so I'll catch up with y'all later

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Sorry your visit is ending - but sounds like it was awesome!

 

[Britesea]

Whew, I'm tired! I brought in the 1 1/2 gallons of sauerkraut I freeze-dried, and now I have a full load of beets in there (cooked, peeled, sliced) I have 2 gallons of fermented kosher dill slices in the cooler to work (it's too warm in my kitchen, so I fill my ice chest with cold water, float a frozen water bottle in it, and that provides the 65F that they need for optimum fermentation). Then I have a full dehydrator (9-tray Excalibur) with sliced tomatoes. I still have enough cucumbers for another 2 half-gallon jars, but I ran out of garlic. So I will be picking up more garlic tomorrow and finish those up.

I ran an ad in Craigslist for the rental finally. I'm holding open house Sat and Sun so people can look it over and hopefully fill out applications. I need the money from the rental-- we are tapped out right now. I had to dip into the money I had earmarked for the property taxes in November to pay one of our medical bills. Thank goodness the garden is still providing lots of food and the chickens are laying and the freezer and pantry are full.

The hen that was sitting on a nest of eggs gave up and left them, BOO! We had just last week changed out the dud eggs for some fresh ones since she seemed to be determined to keep going, but I guess 6 weeks was all she was good for... sigh... now these eggs have been sat on for just long enough that I don't want to eat them, and we don't have an incubator. Guess we should buy one, but again... we are tapped out right now.

coupla photos of the Big Visit:

Samwise with Millie

Grandma with Samwise

from the left: DH, me, grandson, DD, DSil, Millie in front.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Those financial set backs can be a kicker! As for an incubator, if you can swing the $10-15 for a digital thermostat... AND if you or DH could re-wire a lamp if you had decent instructions... YOU CAN make an incubator. The rest of the parts can easily be scrounged from most homesteads. The only other thing you might want would be a computer fan (4"). Those can often be picked up free from junked computers.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Sweet family pics.

 

[baymule]

Beautiful family! That picture is one to frame for the wall. Incubators are expensive. I spent time on BYC, researching incubators. I finally settled on Incuview and I have been real happy with it. I have loaned out to friends and they had good results too. Incubator Warehouse has good prices and carries quite a few brands.

https://incubatorwarehouse.com/

 

[Britesea]

Well, it's been crazy busy for the last week. The garden is busting out all over; lots of tomatoes and cucumbers. The greens (kale, collards) all have aphids, so I need to get busy with the soap spray. I finished picking the beets and they're in the freeze dryer now. Even though I only planted ONE summer squash, it's taking over-- we are bringing armloads of the suckers in every day, I swear. Luckily, one of the ladies in the Lions club with us said she can use all we give her-- she does lots of cooking for her group in the SCA. Looks like the serrano chilies are gonna give us a respectable harvest after all which surprised me because the plants looked so spindly. The cabbages are resprouting from the roots, lol. I wonder if I'll actually get a second harvest?

We held our Open House for the rental over the weekend; several people came by and picked up applications, but only one family actually filled one out and handed it in. I ran the screening process (credit check, rental history, criminal check) and everything looked great so I let them know today that they can move in... they will be doing that over Labor Day weekend. So we will have some money, and I can stop stressing over the house.

The tom turkeys have been banished to the fenced yard connected to the coop. The one just kept getting aggressive, but only to me. I can handle him except when my hands are full of produce or tools or whatever, and that's most of the time. I managed to break a chicken egg trying to deal with his repeated attacks the last time... so he's in confinement. We put the beta tom in there too, just in case. The hen is fine so she's allowed to scratch and forage with the chickens. I just found out today though that she is an egg eater... caught her eating her freshly laid egg. grrr. Glad these guys are only gonna be around for a couple more months.

 

[baymule]

Thanksgiving dinner......yum yum!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yay on getting renters. Hope they turn out to be good ones!

 

[Britesea]

Summer is definitely drawing to a close. The days and nights are getting cooler. My freeze dryer has been running almost non-stop processing tomatoes, peppers, dill pickles and sauerkraut (yes, they can be freeze dried and still keep most of their vital probiotics intact), salad shrimp (sale at Cash N Carry), basil leaves, beets, green beans.

I planted some garlic and shallots today, and harvested a a small mountain of bell peppers and serrano chiles, tomatoes, parsley and basil. Tonight I will be making pesto and chimmichuri. The freeze dryer has the last of the salad shrimp, and some asparagus that was frozen in the spring; and when that's done, I'll put in some of the peppers. I canned up 9 pints of leftover pozole earlier. We are trying to figure out how to process the tom turkeys since we don't have any room in the freezer. I guess I'll have to can most of it, freeze dry some, and freeze a few meal size portions.

I plan on also making a salve of calendula and basil for wound care... we'll see how it measures up against my comfrey/calendula/honey salve. Basil tincture apparently can reduce blood sugar... might try making some to take on those days when I overindulge the carbs?