FarmerDenise's journal - full on harvest time = busy, busy, busy

[FarmerDenise]

Two days of miserable heat. I was able to only do the minimum, taking care of the animals. Put sprinkler on for the chickens, give every one ice and electrolites, bring the dog into the house. In the evening at least I did strip the dried oregano leaves from the stems. I have a large bowl full, now I need to find a gallon container to put them in. I think I'll make BBQ bundles out of the stems. They should give some nice flavor, if you soak a bundle in water, then put it on the coals in the bbq.
So even though it was still hot today, I had to get some stuff done. Those cucumbers won't pickle themselves.
SO had picked more tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini this morning. I put the zukes and cukes in the green bags in the fridge with the rest of them. We both picked basil flowers and put them to dry in the storage ten.
I decided to make zucchini relish. I used SO's food processor to shred the zucchini and the carrots, but it didn't work for the onions and the green peppers. So I chopped them up the old fashioned way. I got 5 pints of relish. I usually prefer to put them in 1/2 pint jars, but I don't have lids for them at the moment. I had shredded more zucchini than I needed for the recipe, so I froze them in sanwhich sized ziplock bag, figuring that should be a nice amount to thaw for soup of frying. I also ended up with extra shredded carrots, which I will use to make carrot slaw. Then the mess that got created with the failed onion shredding, I saved also. I figure that will go into a soup. I have left over ham, the ham bone and I can add some frozen corn from last years harvest. We'll see how that'll turn out.
Then I wanted to make some fermented pickles, but I couldn't find the recipe I had from a prior Lithuanian roomate. Her pickles were so good. I decided to use one from Carla Emery's book. So now I have a gallon of pickles going on the counter.
I also sliced up a bunch of nice young zuccinis, dipped them in a mixture of soy sauce, crushed garlic and paprika and put them in the dehydrator.
My DD had contacted a contractor to get an estimate for the work that needs to be done on the bathroom. We have had problems with leaks, from the toilet and or the shower. The floor is nearly rotten away. It is something I just cannot do myself. We figure we might as well get that work done at the same time as getting the plumbing reconfigured in order to hook up to city sewer. We just hope that the settlement will cover it all.
She doesn't get paid regularly at her job and I have been living off the farm. So we are just praying that it will all work out. Because it wouldn't do to be sitting on the throne one day and the floor giving out. OOps!
My little kitty keeps jumping on me and clawing me. I think he is trying to tell me it's bedtime.

 

[Dace]

Dang you are up late! Actually I was too because DD18 had a 'few' friends over which turned into about 20 or so in my kitchen making a ruckus at 12:30....DH was not pleased! Then again he is doing a cleanse and has not eaten food in 5 days, that may have something to do with his tolerance level

Sounds like you had quite a productive day despite the heat. We are in a cool down for the weekend which a nice ....hopefully some cooler weather will head your way soon!

 

[Blackbird]

Hey Denise, could you explain the BBQ bundles a bit more? How exactly do you make them?

I have a bunch of wild oregano plants from the nieghboring herbalist that I'm not sure what to do with, and if I don't get to them soon there won't be much left.

 

[dragonlaurel]

I'm partial to the black kitties, FD. I've also had several. I adopted one who had the body style of a siamese (tall, leggy & very slender) but was jet black with orangey eyes. I named her Cairo. I say I adopted her, but I swear she was my familiar, she came straight up to me outside of a restaurant and as I was petting her, an employee came out and said "Watch it, that cat hates people, she'll bite!" I drove home with her in my lap, fed her with my own hands, and never had a problem out of her. She passed away several years later. Man, I miss that cat.

Beautiful tomatoes!!

I understand about the kitty Cairo. The universe has a sneaky way of doing things. My brother gave me a kitten when I was living in a NO pets apartment. I knew right away that she was worth moving over. She's my "old lady cat" now - 9 years later. She tries to talk to me just looking at me but I'm not as good a telepath. She's sick now and it's scaring me.

 

[Farmfresh]

Your kitty Cairo sounds like my D1's cat Mama Sita.

As I have mentioned (about a million times) my D1 is a vet tech. At the first vet clinic that she worked for (many years ago now) some construction workers brought in a black Siamese feral cat with her litter. The kittens all had the Siamese markings, but their young mama was just black only maybe a little darker black on tail legs and points. She also has one third eyelid (also black) that stays partially closed on one eye, which is probably the result of an old injury.

Since the kitties were so pretty the clinic kept the cat and her litter merely to save the kittens. All animals were tested for feline leukemia, wormed, shots etc... and each day the kittens were handled by the techs and workers to socialize them. The mama cat however was VICIOUS. She was a true wild thing - probably even born feral. She was however a great mama to her litter.

When the kitties got old enough one by one they were found homes, spayed and moved on. Finally all that was left was one vicious black mama cat. Her death day was scheduled for the evening the last kitten left.

Then a miracle happened. A client called up desperate. He had a whole litter of expensive registered Persian kittens and a mom cat that would have nothing to do with her babies. The vet suggested they see if the wild black mama would take the babies since she still had milk and the client was agreeable.

The mama was thrilled to have a new litter! Which she raised perfectly to weaning age. After that she was given ANOTHER litter, then a couple of pitiful tiny undernourished kittens. By that time this feral cat had spent the whole summer in a kennel at a vet's office raising kittens. She was starting to calm some, but was still pretty wild and mean. My daughter was starting to develop a bond with her and since there were no more kitties to raise her death day was mentioned again. At that point my daughter paid for her spaying and took her home!

Since that time Mama Sita has helped raise a great number of foundlings and babies. While she no longer supplies the milk (my daughter has to bottle feed for that) she still provides the mama love, does the diapers, gives the baths and trains her "children" for success as a cat. My daughter kept one of the "children", his name is Jack and he is a true red head down to his pink nose. He is also a MIGHTY hunter of wildlife, due I am SURE to Mama's training. There will be no wayward rodents or rabbits or ANYTHING else on D1's farm. Jack tackles the biggest! When we had a chicken die (heat) we tried (and failed) to simply pitch the body back in the woods for wild things to eat. Jack carried it back to the house and hung it in his favorite tree. As a lion should!

Now a days Mama, who is older and much kinder, comes in or out of the house as she chooses. She is still independent and will not let you pick her up, but often you will find her curled up with D1 in a chair reading a book!

 

[Dace]

Aw what a sweet story. Your DD has a way with animals, no wonder she chose the field she did!

 

[Farmfresh]

Yes, I swear she is a regular Dr. Doolittle. I actually can understand a lot of what animals are trying to tell me, but she "speaks" several languages ... including cat!

 

[freemotion]

 

[FarmerDenise]

 

[FarmerDenise]

Farmfresh, I love the story about your D1 and mama Sita! I would have done the same thing.
I always had a way with animals also. Even as a tiny tot. My mother tells this story of when I was not even 2 years old. Every day she had to go and get the day's groceries (we didn't have a refridgerator) and of course took me along. I was walking and I guess she couldn't get me in the stroller anymore. On the way to the stores we passed a house that had a mean man who kept his big german shephard dog tied up outside on a big chain. Everyone was afraid of this dog. He was known to be very vicious. He snarled and growled at anyone who came too close. He had bitten a few.
So one day my mother meets a couple of neighbors and they are talking together a little ways from this mean man's house.
All of a sudden she realizes, that I am no longer by her side and frantically starts looking for me. Then she spots me. I am standing in front of this big vicious dog, with my hand in his mouth! And he is not doing a thing. He didn't bark or growl or anything. None of the adults could go near the dog. They were afraid of startling it. They had to coax me to come away from the dog. Absolutely nothing happened.

Amazingly, this is one incident I don't remember. I have very early childhood memories. As early as 15 months old. And I often remember how old I was. I remember an incident of my father coming home and me laying on the couch drinking my bottle.

I befriended cats that didn't like children throughout my childhood. I had pet birds that weren't supposed to be the cuddly kind, but they would land on me. We let them out of the cage for a few hours every day.

I wanted to be a vet, when I was younger. Then I had to disect an earthworm in high school and realized I didn't want to kill animals, just to study them.

Now I am back to wanting to be a vet tech. And I am volunteering for our Humane Society as much as I can. Right now we are too busy with the farm and preserving our harvest. But when things slow down a bit, I'll go back and do whatever I can for them again.