Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Britesea]

thanks @farmerjan !

I'm hurting tonight. I somehow cut my index finger on my right hand while planting onions today- maybe a sharp piece of wood in the soil? It didn't hurt at the time, but I noticed a little blood on the finger. Then later, after washing and treating that finger, I ran a fairly large splinter under the nail of my left middle finger- looking at the nail it looks to be about 1/8" long, and it hurts! I've got some of my black drawing salve on it, hoping it will maybe help draw the splinter out.

Keto pizzas tonight- fathead pizza dough, homemade marinara, homemade mozzarella, and bought pepperoni, with a sliced cucumber on the side. No dessert though, since I hadn't made any before I messed up my fingers and now it hurts too much to work in the kitchen. DS is gonna have to do dishes tonight.

 

[Mini Horses]

Food sounds good. Not the fingers...ooops

Who made the mozz?

I'm hoping to do some in a couple months, after weaning some of these goat kids. I really want to make a couple rounds of cheddar this year. Have the milk. Need the time.

 

[Britesea]

@Mini Horses I made it this week with the raw Guernsey milk I bought. I skimmed it first to make butter. It didn't turn out quite as smooth as the fresh cheese I see in the stores, but it tasted good and melted just fine. The chickens and the dog have been enjoying the whey since I didn't have enough to really do anything with

 

[flowerbug]

i know i like to get my hands in the dirt, but when i garden i usually wear gloves for protection against minor cuts and scrapes. saves a lot of wear and tear. hope you can get that spinter out of there! they sure can hurt under the nails.

 

[baymule]

That fathead pizza is good, keto or no keto!

 

[Britesea]

Very filling too! I've got a recipe that makes 6 crusts about 4" across, and we find one each of those is ample with a side salad or other vegetable. So I freeze the other 3 and we have another almost instant meal that way.

The splinter is still in there, although when I changed the bandage I was able to pull a tiny bit of it out that had lifted up from the nail... so it appears the drawing salve is working! There is no obvious sign of infection either- no redness, only the slightest bit of tenderness if I press on it. I wear rubber gloves when I'm washing dishes, so I'm able to do kitchen work just fine now.

DH decided he wanted beef last night for dinner instead of the more "traditional" Easter meats. I found an older butcher-wrapped Eye of Round steak in the freezer-- cooked it up in the Instant Pot with onions, garlic, beef broth and a splash of red wine, then thickened the juices to make a gravy. That got served with some awesome Garlic Mashed Cauliflower, steamed asparagus, and peas (DS doesn't care for asparagus). Dessert was no-bake coconut bars with a dark chocolate topping. The only complaint I got from the guys was that there wasn't enough beef! (It was a 1 pound steak, and being round steak there's almost no shrinkage, so they're just being greedy, lol) Quarantine cooking seems to be working just fine for me!

 

[Britesea]

Splinter is visible, but I don't feel anything except if I press hard. No swelling or redness, so I guess from now on, I just wait for it to grow out along with the nail? We'll see.

After seeing all the news about Smithfield meats closing down, and farmers breaking eggs and dumping milk, and crops rotting in the fields, I can see that we are about to have major food shortages. So I took a substantial amount of money out of savings and went shopping for long term stores. Tonight we are full to the rafters. I bought canned goods, and meat and produce to freeze, can and freeze dry.

The next thing I want to do is get a Simple Pump for the well. ( https://www.simplepump.com/ ) Has anyone here installed one? What do you think of it?

 

[Britesea]

Managed to finally get the splinter out! I put some more H2O2 on the finger and watched it bubble for a bit. Glad to finally get that out.

I spent some time working on cutting and prepping about 10 lbs of round roast for freeze drying. Not much fat to trim, so that was a lot easier. I cut it up into about 1/2" dice, so it will both FD quicker and rehydrate quicker. I like to brown the meat, and then finish cooking it in the instant pot before I freeze dry it. Makes for quicker meals.

After cleaning up the kitchen, I went out to the studio and worked on transplanting seedlings from peat pots to 4" pots. They desperately needed some fertilizer, some of the leaves were turning yellow. There just isn't much nutrient value in those peat pots, their main benefit is that the medium is sterile so there isn't any diseases. After repotting them I gave everybody a quick spray of worm casting tea. Even though I bought it last summer, I figure it's still good?

Canning the corned beef the other day made everyone hungry for corned beef, so when DH found a package at the bottom of the freezer that I missed, he pulled it out. It's defrosting now, but I think I'm going to have to put it in the instant pot still partially frozen.

 

[baymule]

Smart you! Stocking up now because there may not be anything or very limited quantities later. I think we may be looking at this virus for a long time. A vaccine may take 18 months or more to get to market. In the meantime, who is going to raise what we eat? Who is going to process it and who is going to get it to the grocery stores? People can't work if they are sick, how long will herd immunity take?

 

[Britesea]

Well, the only way to get immunity is to catch it and get over it, so hiding in our houses is just prolonging the whole process. Unfortunately, herd immunity won't work 100%. Some people, the ones most susceptible, will probably die. I don't want to be one of those that die, and of course neither does anyone else. But you know? nobody gets out of here alive. As well as getting food stores and other preparations in line, DH and I have been making sure everyone knows each other's jobs, so that if one of us dies the others know how to do things.