Daydreaming while waiting impatiently!

[tortoise]

I'm back from our incredibly non-self-sufficient vacation in Las Vegas! It was fun, but we are so glad to be home - away from the NOISE and crowds!

We came home to SEED CATALOGS! It's very exciting to pick varieties for our own use and some new varieties to test out for future market/CSA gardening. I made it through the alphabet to radishes before I was too tired and brain-fried to continue!

I am very concerned about controlling deer damage. Our garden is only 1/5 acre, and there is a lot of deer activity here. I would be upset and unlikely to continue gardening if we have a big deer problem.

I pick up my new baby doe on Monday. I need to change my young buck from his cage in the barn to a larger outdoor hutch. I don't feel comfortable putting an 8 week old baby in outdoor housing - she will get the indoor cage. My buck is in serious need of grooming - he has big wool mats on one side of his neck. He is so darn spazzy about grooming that it's almost dangerous. I know how to groom and how to restrain a rabbit.... but he still manages to fling himself out of my lap. I'm worried he will break his back and kill himself over grooming! He is docile and relaxed for other handling. I hope he gets used to it. I hope I don't have to cut too much wool off him. I don't like the idea of putting a sheared rabbit in an outdoor hutch in the middle of winter. :/ Spoiled rabbits!

 

[Denim Deb]

I haven't had a deer problem here, but I've heard that if you put up some thin, electric wire that the deer can't see, but is light enough to break if they get tangled up in it, and have it connected to a fence charger that the deer learn real quick to leave a garden alone.

 

[tortoise]

Interesting. We could do electric fence here. The Amish neighbor who plowed our garden last year said to put fishing line fence around it. Not sure if that works. There are tall wooden posts on 2 sides of the garden, not sure how we could get tall enough posts on the other sides to put up a deer fence of some kind.

 

[baymule]

5 eggs laying! I learned to poach eggs. I discovered that FRESH eggs make all the difference in the world for poaching! And for whipping egg whites too! I made a cake with 10 egg whites. Yum! It was not terribly hard to make either. (What do I do with 10 yolks? Besides feed them to the cat.)

Make Crème Brulee

Crème Brulee Recipe
Ingredients
4 cups heavy whipping cream
9 egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Brown sugar
Directions
In a large saucepan, combine the cream, egg yolks and sugar. Cook and
stir over medium heat until mixture reaches 160° or is thick
enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Stir in vanilla.
Transfer to eight 6-oz. ramekins or custard cups. Place cups in a
baking pan; add 1 in. of boiling water to pan. Bake, uncovered, at
325° for 25-30 minutes or until centers are just set (mixture
will jiggle). Remove ramekins from water bath; cool for 10 minutes.
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
One hour before serving, place custards on a baking sheet. Sprinkle
each with 1-2 teaspoons brown sugar. Broil 8 in. from the heat for
4-7 minutes or until sugar is caramelized. Refrigerate leftovers.
Yield: 8 servings.
************************************************************************
Ingredients:
6 egg yolks
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Directions:
1.

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2.

Beat egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.
3.

Pour cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture; beat until combined.
4.

Pour cream mixture into the top of a double boiler. Stir over simmering water until mixture lightly coats the back of a spoon; approximately 3 minutes. Remove mixture from heat immediately and pour into a shallow heat-proof dish.
5.

Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.
6.

Preheat oven to broil.
7.

In a small bowl combine remaining 2 tablespoons white sugar and brown sugar. Sift this mixture evenly over custard. Place dish under broiler until sugar melts, about 2 minutes. Watch carefully so as not to burn.
8.

Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate until custard is set again.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I am going to have to try that Crème Brulee sometime. It sounds so good.

 

[tortoise]

DH did not veto putting up electric fence around the garden. (yay!)

I brought home a baby doe for my rabbit breeding project. My young buck is stressing me out. He is a Fuzzy Lop (he has a wool coat like an angora). He is sweet for handling, but spazzes out for grooming. He's getting mats but he is seriously a danger to himself when I groom him. I keep telling myself he is young and it will get better. Maybe.

Crème Brulee sounds fantastic. 9 yolks! Perfect! Thanks baymule!!

Work is winding down. I'm done in 3 weeks. It's disappointing as the biz had a good first year in spite of 1) not getting into the new location until June and 2) being virtually shut down starting October. We had 98% growth over previous years after moving into the new location. It hurts to shut it down. Tomorrow will be rough. That's when painting back to landlord's white walls starts. I need to stay focused on 1) my health is not predictable 2) my son needs more of my focus and 3) my only real regret in life is working after my son was born - I'm not willing to repeat that again. :deepbreaths:

I visited a dear friend today. She sent home a huge amount of really nice baby clothes and... CLOTH DIAPERS!

 

[hqueen13]

There is a book out there on managing deer, I forgot what is called but it was really helpful for me. If you've got enough lambs, you might seriously think about hunting. If there are that many then they are over populated, which isn't healthy for them either. It gives you meat for your freezer and helps balance the herd.
Check in with bee kissed, she's the one that has used the electric wire for years, it does work. It plays upon the fact that deer can't see well at all, so the wire is invisible, and that scares them to get zapped by something they can't see. Good luck!

 

[tortoise]

It's so cold here the eggs are freezing and cracking open! Our barn cat happens to LOVE eggs. She killed a RAT in the barn, so I'm very happy to feed her eggsicle treats. I'm so happy with her. She is a one-eyed spoiled little rescue who had been living indoors; I was worried she wouldn't "mouse" for us.

DH hunts. We put 3 deer in the freezer per year - enough to keep us in meat all year. We rent a field that had extensive deer damage to the soybean crop last year. We could get ag tags for out-of-season hunting due to the crop damage, but that opens up our property for other people to hunt on and gets neighbors all upset.

 

[tortoise]

It's incredibly windy here and well below zero. DH put 2 heat lamps in the chicken coop this evening. Our roosters got some frostbite on their combs and waddles today. Poor boys. We hope they don't bleed as they heal.

I'm moving a rabbit into the outdoor hutch tomorrow too (from the barn). I feel badly for him also. But I'm not putting a 8 week old baby outside in this weather!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Oh my... I thought we were gonna have it bad by getting into the 20's tomorrow night... I couldn't do your weather! Stay warm!