Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[hqueen13]

True. I have done crustless quiche before, but I find it lacking. I liked the replacement of the potatoes. I wonder if you could put quinoa in it instead?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I have baby gooooosies! Eight hatched, one died but another one hatched to take it's place...so that means I have 8 again...as long as nothing else changes. The other goose and gander are penned off separately and they've got a bunch of eggs, but she's not brooding them - yet. If she doesn't start pretty soon I'm gonna pull 'em and incubate 'em. I've got 4 in the little incubator right now, along with some quail eggs. I candled em yesterday and they're all viable - for now. I sure hope I can sell some of the little buggers - or I'm gonna be eating a lot of goose before long.

Speaking of eating poultry - there are now five less mouths to feed at my house. (well, except for the 8 new geese and the 26 meaties - sigh...) Anyway - butchered 4 roos and a crazy hen this morning. Tried out my new plucker and I gotta say it beats hand plucking or skinning any day. There's a bit of a learning curve with it though.... the hen plucked perfectly. She was young and smaller with smaller feathers. The roos did ok until we got to the last one - a Red Dorking. They are really beautiful birds with loooooong flowing tail feathers and big ol primary wing feathers too.... guess what got wound up around the shaft of the plucker???? Ugh - had to take it apart to get all the feathers out. Note to self - either never, ever butcher a Dorking roo again - or pull the long feathers out before trying to pluck him. I vote for never butchering one again. BUT, I may try an experiement. Dorkings are big ol meaty birds with a breast that goes on forever. They're really loooong bodied and they make a really pretty carcass. So, I'm thinking I may hold back one or two of the Cornish x's and cross them with a Dorking. I know you can never replicate a meatie as they come from the hatchery - but I'm all about experimenting - so I'll give it a go.

The meaties are doing really well. I give 'em a feeding early in the morning and then they roam the yard the rest of the day eating clover and resting under a shade tree when the sun is too bright. I don't give 'em any more feed until bedtime. They're growing like gangbusters, but they're active and moving well.....so much better than confining them and keeping the groceries in front of them 24/7.

I did a little more planting today. I put in another batch of potatoes and some Argonaut squash. Has anybody else tried Argonaut? It is a hybrid winter squash and it's about the only hybrid I'll grow... but man oh man this is wonderful stuff. It gets huge - and when I say huge I mean HUGE! A couple years ago I had one that topped 30 lbs...and they keep pretty well too. Best of all - they're tasty and delcious!

Zucchini has sprouted and some of the yellow squash, but I haven't seen any of the white squash pop up yet. Most of the tomatoes have come through, but I haven't seen any of the peppers break the surface yet. Peppers like it warm, so I'm hoping they will pop on up pretty soon...if not, may have to try again with them. I've planted Rattlesnake pole beans and some yard-long beans too. Noticed today that the Rattlesnakes have sprouted, but havent' seen the others yet. Had real good luck with both of those last year. In fact, I'd have to say that the yard-longs beat out the Rattlesnakes in production. They have distinctly different tastes and I love them both.

I've got some daylight left - so I needa get back outside.

 

[Denim Deb]

I got some sausage and cream cheese yesterday. I'm going to be trying that casserole soon.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hope you like it - I'm about to make another one for next week. Have onions sauteeing and just because I have them, I might add some cherry tomatoes.

 

[Denim Deb]

Maybe tomorrow or the next day. I'm wondering about putting some fried potatoes on the bottom.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

This basic recipe is so versatile that I think you could do whatever you want with it and it'd still be tasty. Mine is out of the oven and I ended up adding sauteed onions and asparagus to it. I didn't know I was almost out of peppers...

Wormed some goats today. One of the baby geese had splayed legs so I fixed her up and she's moving good now. Worked in the garden as much as possible before I had to go on a rescue mission.

DH and his buddy went on a motorcycle ride today and DH left his lights on when they went into a restaurant to eat lunch and guess what???? Dead, dead battery. They tried to push start it, but this is a good sized touring bike and they just couldn't get it going fast enough...poor babies. So, then his buddy tried to plug his bike into DH's bike through their power outlet ports and WHOOPS - he blew something out on his bike.... geeze louise! So, I had to get the trailer and drive 30 miles and pick 'em up. We had a heck of a time getting two BIG bikes on a trailer that isn't all that big. Man, oh man..what a mess.

We got back to our house, unloaded DH's bike and they went off to deliver his friend and his bike to his house. What a day! Needless to say I didn't get as much done as I had planned...but whatcha gonna do?

Guess I better go get stuff ready for work tomorrow - ugh! (not really - I love my job!)

 

[Denim Deb]

Not fun at all! Hope today is smoother for you.

 

[hqueen13]

There are days I don't mind being in the office... like if it's 45 degrees and raining lol
Glad you're getting lots done! Send that warm weather north!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hq - that is exactly how I am, lol. I'm very lucky that I accrue lots of PTO so most of the time getting an afternoon off here or there isn't a big deal. Right now we're working on a HUGE annual report that the DOE totally changed up, added more requirements and gave us 1/3 of the time to complete it as usual..... But, we are a good team here and we all gang up in my office because it takes us all to make sense of it! We laugh and giggle and act silly - but we get it DONE!

Woke up to drizzle this morning, but garden needs it so it's a good thing.

Lost one of the baby geese... and I mean lost...disappeared...I'm sure some varmit enjoyed a goose nugget... Poor baby.

Red's foot is marginally better, Lil Bit's appetite sucks. She's getting every other day iron shots and B-12 and vitamin gel every day - she does not like me anymore, lol. I don't care either cuz she's usually underfoot constantly...now she's just a little standoffish and I like it that way!

I started three huge pots of chicken stock last night from the ones we butchered on Saturday. I put lots of onions and garlic in 'em and put 'em in the oven all night at 200. They'll stay in there until I get home today and somehow I'm gonna find the time to can 'em... I hope. I could freeze 'em, but the point is to clean out the freezers for the new meaties - not add to it!

Time for me to get busy. Co-workers will be here shortly and we'll jump into our report.

Hope everyone has a wonderful, blessed day.

 

[Wannabefree]

i had a wonderful blessed day in spite of everything that went wrong I hope you did too!!!!! Love ya sis!