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

[FarmerDenise]

I like the way the dried summer squash turned out, expecially the zucchini. Both batches came out good. The one I steamed has a good strong zucchini taste and will be a nice addition to soup in the winter. The batch that was dipped in strong soy sauce will make a good potato chip substitue, when I have a craving for a salty snack.
Of course that only works when there are no potato chips in the house. But we only buy one or two bags a month or so.

 

[Farmfresh]

We got tickets a couple of years ago to the Home and Garden Show near us. TWO huge buildings full of gardening stuff and home repair things. My sister, her SO, me and our dad all went. We were there probably a good 15 minutes when Dad started in. "Ya all about ready to go?" ... "Ya all about ready to go?"... "Ya all about ready to go?"

I SWEAR every two or three minutes!

I finally got him something to eat and found him a place to sit and we basically dumped him. When we finally came back a couple of hours later he was still sitting on his bench - had replaced his snacks and was WHISTLING! Why he just didn't stay home was beyond me!

 

[FarmerDenise]

I just finished evening feeding. Still have to lock the chickens up. Since we were gone for the afternoon, the chickens didn't get much greens today. I just pulled a couple of stalks of broomcorn for them. They fell all over it, poor things. The little cornish crosses are growing so fast. It is amazing.
Little Susie is feathering out nicely too. I'll have to get a new picture of her. Seems like the vacation in the house did the trick.

Some of the pullets are consistently getting out of the hen yard. SO and his DS clipped their wings yesterday, but three got out again today. I'll have to catch them tomorrow and check on the wings. Or maybe we just have tho make the fence higher. I think they are flying up onto one of the gates and then flying down the other side. I'll have to watch them.

 

[Beekissed]

That's how mine get out, FD! You can fix this by stretching a piece of fencing wire across the top of your gate and stapling it onto the gate. I'd leave the pointy ends sticking up....if they can't land comfortably or see something solid on which to hop, they usually won't do it.

 

[FarmerDenise]

That's a good idea Bee, I rather do that than clip their wings any more.

 

[Blackbird]

We did that on one of our runs too, but I alwaya forget the wires there, and it catches me in the neck! We tied colorful twine on it now so we remember its there.

 

[Farmfresh]

We used to enter a lot of flowers in the fair ... It was enough of a hassle to get there early in the morning, having picked our flowers the day before or sometimes that same morning, fighting with some of the other entrants for vases

I know it has GOT to be more difficult entering flowers, than entering canning stuff. Those flowers have got to be cut fresh! I don't know how you do it. And with my luck things would be BEAUTIFUL a week or a day BEFORE they needed to go or a day or a week AFTER they needed to go - but brown or with big bug holes when I needed them the most!

At least with the canning stuff I can work over a years time!

 

[Beekissed]

I used to enter flowers but we were allowed to use our own vases. At our fair, whoever won blue ribbon in a category was the judge for that category for the following year but could not be an entrant.

I love flowers.....

 

[FarmerDenise]

I pulled weeds in the sunflower rows and gave the chickens 3 buckets of nice greens. I also gave the rabbit a bucket of greens. So I got that chore out of the way.
Looks like another one of my young chickens is not well. I put her in a large pet carrier, so she is seperated from the rest. She seems to have the same symptoms as Easter. Empty crop, thin, no appetite.
SO thinks she looks fine, but when you pick her up you can feel how skinny she is and that her crop is empty. She was isolating herself from the rest.
I think we should butcher her, but SO is hesitant. I am sure it is marek's disease. My understanding is, that it is ok to eat the meat. I would probably give it to the dog and cat though. We'll see.

 

[Beekissed]

You have to PAY to enter your stuff in the judging? That is out of the realm of my experience.....small town fairs only here in the WV hills. That takes the fun all out of it! Our blue ribbons only earn you $3 in the flower judging, $2 for red and so on. Just goes to show you.....its all about perspective, isn't it?