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

[FarmerDenise]

It'll definitely have to be a female dog.
I used to have a Norbottenspitz. My DD brought her home when DD was around 17 or so. She found her. THe kids said they looked for the owners, but didn't find any one claiming the dog. I told DD I was not ready for a dog and she needed to find the owner. She looked well cared for. I figured someone must be missing her.

Two weeks later the dog goes wild barking in the middle of the night. I check around the house and don't see anything. I talk to the neighbor (who is no my SO) the next day and he said his female roommate had heard noises at her bedroom window. We checked the window and saw footprints. The dog got to stay. She protected the chickens, killed rats, sounded the intruder alarm a few more times and was my buddy. If I had my "druthers" I would spend the $1000 or so that it costs to get another just like her. Apparently she was true to her breed. She only weighed 25 lbs. But nobody got onto my property unnoticed, she would definitely bite and she was good with the chickens. I could pick her up too. She became best buddy with an unwanted cat I adopted, so the two kept each other company when I was at work. I miss them both.

I was supposed to go to DD's tonight. I need to get my sewer hookup going. She is having a hard time dealing with it. So I better go at it. I ended up starting a batch of apple sauce late in the afternoon and decided I wouldn't be able to make it to DD's tonight. I got two nice big jars of apple sace in the canner right now. I also decided to can up two jars of rather liquidy tomato sauce. I just hate to waste the hot water bath on just two jars.
I'll add more tomatoes to the tomato sauce pot tomorrow.

Now I nearly got dinner done. Fried pork chops, yellow zucchini, tomato salad and potatoes. I had hoped for enough apple sauce for desert, but I only got the two large jars. Guess we'll just have to have fresh apples for desert again or FIL's storebought peach pie

I am making apple jelly too, using the peels and stuff from making apple sauce. I still have to put that mess in the jelly bag tonight, so it'll drain.

 

[FarmerDenise]

I've been keeping busy around the farm. We are supposed to be getting some rain possibly this weekend. So I have been picking tomatoes and making tomato sauce. I picked about 1/2 our popcorn, all the dried luffa and dried blue lake beans. I also picked a lot of Bell peppers and Gypsy peppers. I vacuum sealed stuff I had in the freezer including dried stuff, so there would be room to put more stuff in it. I also filled a wheel barrow with more sunflower heads. I put figs that I got from a neighbor in the dehydrator. Today I also put a whole bunch more apples in the dehydrator. The last batch I made came out so good, I wanted to make more. I also want to give some to the friend who let me pick the apples from her tree.
Friends came by today and bought some eggs and peppers form us.
I had really hoped to get the gypsy peppers into the dehydrator today also, but I ran our of time. I did harvest more popcorn though. Hopefully I'll be able to freeze the fresh cranberry beans tomorrow. SO went grocery shopping yesterday and bought a bunch of meat that he wanted me to food savor tonight. I told him I was just too tired. I have been on my feet all day processing and harvesting food. So fortunately he decided to marinate one of the steaks for tomorrow's dinner and the rest to make beef jerky.

He's been doing target practise with his bow most of the afternoon. Then his son came over and they talked about doing stuff around the farm. :/ Stepson did go and change the waterers for the animals and changed the rabbits litter box.

The dog kept waking me up last night. Every time she would jump at the bedroom window, we felt we had to go out and check. I'd put on my shoes and coat. The coat has my phone, a flashlight and two bullets for the gun in the pockets. SO and I'd grab our guns and go stand inside the enclosed porch for a little while, to see if anyone was out there. We'd also watch the dog. And we would listen for any chicken noise, just in case something was bothering the chickens.
Now we are wondering if the dog thinks this is a fun game. She jumps on the window sill, we go out and "play with her", walking around the farm. She scatters the rats everywhere, while we shine our flashlights at any noise.

Now I will go and sort through our home made raisins. Some of our grapes were on the vine a little too long, so I let them dry out completely. The little stem remains on the fruit, so I am taking it off and at the same time making sure the raisin looks good (no mold etc). Raisins are pretty cheap to buy, but since these were drying anyway, I figured I might as well try it out. I also know for sure how they were grown. No pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilizer or unwashed hands on these sweet treats!

 

[Farmfresh]

I make my own raisins when I have a good crop from my seedless Reliance grape. I think they taste far better that store bought! I always pasteurize them after they are dry for a few minutes in a hot oven to help them keep better with out those preservatives.

They ARE a little worky, but worth it for the results I think.

 

[keljonma]

FD - that would be awful if your dog thought this was a game. It could mean a lot of missed sleep for you and SO.

This year we were supposed to get our first harvest from our Reliance grapevine. However, Frances, our Delaware hen, got to them first. She ate them while they were still green.

 

[Farmfresh]

I have bird problems with mine as well. They are grown over an arbor that shelters an old porch swing for shady swinging. Neighborhood birds seem to LOVE the Reliance! They don't bother the Niagra or the Concord at all. Go figure.

 

[Dace]

Your sleepless nights do not sound fun! Ugh!

I wonder if the dog is also on edge because of the intruders?

 

[lorihadams]

Your dog likes to "play" at night too?

I have 3 labs that drive me crazy....we're just lucky that our neighbors aren't too close! Honestly, I have gotten to the point that I sleep through it all now. I'll get up in the morning and hubby will ask me what all the commotion was last night with the dogs and I look at him like he's on crack! I slept through it again......

My parents have grape vines, don't know what variety, but the turkeys wreak havoc with them........she actually has pictures of 6 or seven of them trying to balance on the top of the vines with their heads buried in them!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I don't know what kid of grapes we have growing, since they actually are the neighbors grapes. On thier side the grapes are pretty much covered by blackberries. On our side they get the sun and do very well. There are several different varieties. The birds beat me to many of them. They are too far off the ground for the chickens to get them, we keep the chickens inclosed in the summer anyway.



Today I focused on getting things harvested, that should not be rained on. They are predicting p to 3 inches of rain. So I have boxes and baskets filled with tomatoes, bushel baskets filled with corn, broom corn hanging from the rafters of the dog pen, sunflower seed heads on a table in the dog pen, bags and flats filled with dried beans and I cannot even remember it all. I also had to remember to bring the chicken feed inside, because once that gets wet, it's nasty.

I also went to DD's house and fixed a leaking shed roof. I store some of my belongings in there and don't want those to get wet either. In order to climb up onto the roof, I first had to cut back a whole lot of blackberry vines. The shed is right next to a fence, so I just climb it to get to the roof. I just put some sail cloth over it and then some old tin. I hope it stays put. I fastened the sailcloth to the trunck of a tree and the tin is being held down by some of the branches of the tree.

Now I get to strat processing all that stuff we picked over the last few days

Anyone want a couple of boxes of tomatoes?
Our freezers are full!! We don't have a deep freeze So I'll be canning and dehydrating, and shelling and and cleaning and .... trying to do it all before it spoils or goes moldy.

We found ot for sure that our black silkie is a boy. He crowed. We have been letting the chickens out early in the evenings and the silkie has not been going out. The other evening he was making noises like (s)he layed an egg. I go that can't be right, because we didn't get any small eggs that day. So when he crowed this afternoon. I said there goes another bird for dinner. SO want to keep him as a breeder, I go for what. We only need one rooster for that. We don't need a little silkie, who won't even be big enough to take care of most of the hens. I say he's dinner.
SO keeps putting off the butchering. He doesn't want me to do it, because he "knows how". And he's done so many game birds. Well I just want it done. These birds are getting to be as big as turkeys and I really don't see the sense in caring for them any longer. I want to eat them.
Well it's about time for us to eat some dinner and then shell beans or something.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Since everything is in that needs to be- you can enjoy the rainy day. Processing tomatoes. Hope you get a good night of rest.

 

[FarmerDenise]

The rains didn't come til last night. We used the reprieve to really get everything harvested. It feels good. Once they predicted gusts of wind up to 60 mph, we had to make sure things were tied down or brought inside. Haybales got covered, sunbrellas closed and layed down, animal enclosures covered with tarps or their winter covers. Summer's flimsy bamboo privacy fencing taken down and put in the garage.
We fell into bed very tired last night, but feeling good about what we had accomplished.
We had planned to start processing all the produce we had picked over the last week, but we really need a day of rest.
So we built a fire in the enclosed porch, sipped some coffee, took pictures of the newly created pond and the wet chickens, made sure all animal pens were staying dry, checked the feeders and waterers, encouraged the dog to go out and potty. She only went out, if one of us went out, and came back in as soon as we did. At one point we were standing in her covered pen watching the rain and she went to the door to get back into the porch. My white comforter has muddy paw prints and a dog curled up in the middle.

SO is taking a nap and I think I will too, right after I put another log on the fire in the porch. It keeps the chill out in there, so we can go out later and hang out in there or even do some work, like shucking corn or shelling beans.