up here in lalaland ~ Tennessee here we come!

[valmom]

Sounds like you have a lovely weekend planned with coffee, chocolate, seeing the animals in daylight, DGF is safe and sound, and not too much to do!

It is cold here, but I'm sure I couldn't handle MN winters! Once we get to single digits it is my limit.

 

[lalaland]

love the idea of sweeping the problems out the front door and barring the door!

yup, spring is coming

 

[lalaland]

I'm really felling like spring is coming - the woodpeckers, especially the pileated, are drumming, the foxes are out and about, and the chickadees have switched to their spring calls.

never mind that my last frost date is June something!

My dgf has moved in with me, and we are starting to have the first squabbles. boy do my feelings get hurt easily! got to tough it up a bit.

Last weekend I cleaned out the chicken coop, sprayed the salls, roosts and nestboxes with goat spray, put in clean alfalfa hay and powdered the girls - this after finding lice eggs on one of the girls. Yucky job, but it sure is nice to go into the coop now. Today I put de in the dust bathing area - probably should put in the pryethremim but it bothers me to use poison. I have lots of wild birds using the dust area too, I'm sure that is where the chickens picked up the lice from.

I have a few more squash, a good amount of onions, still have some garlic, canned tomatoes, and apple butter, not to mention a few potatoes from harvest last year. Am feeling good about the amount that I still have, feels about right.

Last fall someone gave me an old pressure canner, it is a really great one with latches all the way around the top. Found the website and it looks good to go, so this year I hope to can more garden things, and salsa they way I used to before I got scared off the by the gov saying you can't water bath can salsa or spaghetti sauce anymore.

Nice lazy day, haven't had one for weeks.

Pigs....am thinking about raising two feeder pigs for food this summer -m Ohiogirl is to blame for this!

 

[TanksHill]

When did the government say you cant water bath tomatoes products.... ???? I must have missed that one. Uh ohhh I feel like such a rebel.

I was eyeing my coop today. It needs to be cleaned out as well but the entire run is mud. Yuckkk!!! I think I will put it off another week or so.

enjoy your day!!

gina

 

[lalaland]

Gina, I feel for you - a run overed in mud is no fun!

Gov is saying 2 things: first, that with hybrid tomatoes, etc, the acidity level is too low so you are supposed to add acid (lemon juice, vinegar, etc) to plain tomatoes, and secondly, that you aren't supposed to use a water bath with tomato sauces or salsa unless you have added a sufficient amount of acid.

I've canned meatless spag sauce for years and haven't killed anyone yet, but....it made me a bit timid. I don't grow hybrid tomatoes, but I do grow some yellow ones that are heirloom and also pretty sweet - not acidic, so I figure those might be problematic.

I tried a couple of salsa recipes with vinegar or lemon juice, but they aren't the taste I want. This year, I'll try the pressure canner.

 

[lalaland]

PIGS!

I want to raise two feeder pigs for meat. wonder if I can do it while working full time and driving a total of 3 hours a day to work and back.

I get that I am going to need some very secure fencing. I have an area that is big enough and will have to build a shelter for them. Do pigs need heat? Can they do ok if it is, say 40 degrees?

I don't want to feed them pellets - whats the fun in that? Anyone feed them something other than a bag of manufactured pig feed? I can get grains from the feed mills.... they would have some pasture to root and eat in....garden extra's - not much in the way of leftovers from supper as there are only two of us. hmmm, maybe I can get some past dated milk from the market in town.

Also, we have a brand new vietnamese restaurant in town (oh boy, that is really exciting as in town, your choices are: bar with hamburgers, bar with hamburgers, and yup, bar with hamburgers + two pizza joints. Out by the highway you can add in KFC, and a Pizza Hut. Anyway, you can see why I am excited about vietnamese food. wonder if I could work a deal with them to pick up leftovers?

advice anyone?

I did check out storey's pig raising books, but they are big on the bagged pellets for pigs.

 

[Farmfresh]

I just add a teaspoon of lemon juice to each quart and a pinch of salt. If a jar goes bad you will KNOW it!

I have been canning for YEARS and I DO grow those new fangled low acid tomatoes as well as others. Water bath canning is safe. Just be sure have everything clean and sterile to begin with (I boil my jars) and to process it long enough. When I open a jar to use I always: 1. visually check the jar for discoloration or other oddities 2. listen for that good air swish sound when the seal is opened 3. Give the jar a good sniff - it should smell like what is in it - never stale or flat smelling, nor stinky.

Most things like your meatless sauce are heated to a boil anyway. That makes you doubly sure of safety. Water bath canning is too convenient to give it up. The government does not always know best.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

I think pigs are contagious!

Either that, or the farming version of "keeping with the Joneses" is everyone gets pigs!!

I'm in Ohio, and my four 7 week old piggies are living in a chainlink dog kennel, with a playhouse loaded down with straw for shelter, and so far they are doing OK. Even though it did get really cold last night. I just bedded them down with a lot of extra straw as a precation.

This is a temporary home until we get the hog panels/electric fence and regular hog hut up in the cow pasture. They'll be double fenced this way...if they should happen to escape Hog Heaven, they will be stuck in Cow Pie Pastures...which will enable us to get them back into Hog Heaven easier, and hopefully not be chasing them down the road...and to prevent having to call the cops on our pigs.

Funny pig story...

Several years back, E and his dad went to pick up a couple feeder piggies to raise up and eat. This was way way before me and E were a couple, and E's mom was still living.

Anyway, pigs are SMART! They went and picked up these two pigs in a truck, with a cap on the bed. They thought that would work to haul the pigs home in.

Halfway home, one of the pigs figured out how to slide open the back window to the truck cap, and he jumped out right through the screen! E said they were going about 55 mph, too!

So, they turned around to get the Olympig High Jumper....and found him rooting up someone else's flower beds!

E's dad goosed it and said, "What pig?!"

Don't know what ever happened to that poor piggie....I bet those people thought Heaven was raining pigs LOL .....hmmm wonder if that's how BBH got her piggie?!

 

[lalaland]

Quail, loved the pig escape story. How cold is it there?

and Farmfresh, you are right the gov is not always right, and sometimes is definitely wrong.

snowing to beat the band here. my boss texted me at 4:30 am to see if I wanted to stay home today with the storm. Nice!!! still have to drive out to take care of some friends animals while they are out of town.

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Well, when we first got up this morning at 7 am it was 1* and then a little while ago, the weather guy said it's up to 4*

4*! that's like a heat wave LOL