Colowyo - grudgingly settling in :P

[Wifezilla]

LOL

I grew some nice mold on my carved pumpkins this year. Live and learn is right!!!

I also have some pumpkins to cut up and bake. Abi and I got some last week at King Soopers...organic pumpkins. The long island cheese pumpkin was HUGE!!! Took me forever to cut up that sucker.

I have 1 pie pumpkin to cut up and 2 huge ones we left uncarved but did use for halloween decorations. I think I see some squirrel nibbles on it so I need to act quick.

 

[urban dreamer]

We made pear jam again yesterday.
CJ made the first batch and it is slightly more set up than the last batch but not by a whole lot. I made the second batch and it is totally set! Yay!
I also processed and canned some pumpkin so we'll have that to use for stuff.
I had made pumpkin butter the other day, but it grew mold so that is going out the door (apparantly you need to either can or fridge it and not just leave it on the counter )
He also made Mountain Dew Jelly (thanks for the instructions! )
Tomorrow I will make canned potatoes, again thanks for the advice!

Oooooo! Was it good?

lol, i dunno, haven't tried it yet! will have to tomorrow!

You didn't lick the pot?

 

[colowyo0809]

Lol I wasn't home when he made it or i might have
I am putting it in the fridge so it will be nice and cool when I eat it.

I came home last night and opened the fridge and what do I see? Homemade gluten free pumpkin pie made from my canned pumpkin and home whipped cream! Do I have the best man or what?!!? how sad that i'm all excited over pumpkin pie?

so, this morning I am going to try canning some potatoes, hope it turns out!
Yay!

 

[Wifezilla]

Sad? LOL

That's awesome

I love cooking for hubby. He is so appreciative.

 

[hillfarm]

Now that's a good man. Mine got over being a tater head this weekend. Came home last night to fire in the fireplace candles and a movie. He even rubbed my feet. It was a great apology.

Enjoying the cold rainy weather and sitting at my desk. Love reading your journal.

Wishing I had a peice of that pumpkin pie right about now.

 

[colowyo0809]

Now that's a good man. Mine got over being a tater head this weekend. Came home last night to fire in the fireplace candles and a movie. He even rubbed my feet. It was a great apology.

Enjoying the cold rainy weather and sitting at my desk. Love reading your journal.

Wishing I had a peice of that pumpkin pie right about now.

lol, men are fun!

forgot to put in as well, I got two SS Books in the mail!
Gene Logsdons The Contrary Farmer and The Complete Idiots Guide to Self Sufficient Living! I love this book, and had to buy it because I checked it out from the library and almost started highlighting in it immediately!

 

[colowyo0809]

So, I baked some pumpkin today, so tomorrow i'll puree and crock and can it into butter!

Went out and bought four bales of wood chips, and put three of them on the floor of the coop. That puts a nice deep layer on the floor (and I also piled some on top of the two next "boxes" {buckets actually} to keep the broody warm ). Put the fourth into the brooder section and then discovered that I had one in there! Well, now I have two for next time!

There is this new store between where I work and where my partner works called In Season that sells produce and such harvested/raised locally and in season Kinda pricey, but then quality generally is! So, I bought a package of ground chicken and a jar of pickled beets (i haven't had these in ages!). I also plan on buying beets (they had them there and at whole foods and the ones at whole foods were grown just up the road and organic!) and making my own pickled beets. I think I'll try it with the golden ones as well as the red and see what happens. our beets didn't do squat this year (although that could be because we didn't water very well? )

Went to the library and checked out Rabbits for Dummies, The New Complete Guide to Beekeeping, and several book on raising cats and dogs naturally ( I wanted them for the info on raw diets {I got suckered in by that lovely thread!} )
We also went to a thrift store and found four more jars and a whole bunch of bands for canning! Score!

Ginger, the mille fluer bantam cochin, has been faithfully sitting on her nest since the 22nd. I candled them yesterday while she was off eating and near as I can tell, out of the six she has, four are viable. Since none are showing obvious signs of rot, i decided to leave them all there for added warmth and such the other four, however, all seem to be doing good and proceeding like they should! The funny thing is, only one egg is hers! Today is Day 16 and they should start hatching anytime in the next three to seven days, depending on. Apparantly large fowl take 21 days, and bantams a day or two less. So, we will start paying very close attention on Tuesday to what is happening in the nest, especially with foxes around! Now I just need to figure out what to do to keep them safe, and feed them! I just realized we don't have any chick starter!

Aight, thats enough. Need to go cut the pumpkin and fridge it til tomorrow!

 

[Ohioann]

If you have access to leaves in the fall bag them (dry) and save for litter in the chicken house. The birds love to dig through them and they break down very well to make great compost material when you clean the house out. Here in Ohio we get lots of leaves in the fall. We use them right from the yard and also stack bagged leaves around the outside of the house for winter insulation. Also if you use a paper shredder that makes great litter too but you can't use too much at a time because it will mat.

 

[freemotion]

Ummm......I could be wrong, as I don't can sweets much at all....but it is my understanding that it is not safe to can pumpkin in a puree'd form, as there is not enough movement/circulation to reliably get the center hot enough, even in a pressure canner. :/ Don't mean to be a party pooper, just want you to be safe.

Beets do well with fermenting for pickling, no canning required!

 

[urban dreamer]

Matthew, you ok? I haven't seen you on here or Facebook in a while (mabey I just missed you?)