in this random rambling thread we post random pictures

[Pasha838]

Today I finally put this column. The second curve next to it is that it did not bend from gravity, it was just a curve from the very beginning. But I used it because it is oak, quite strong and good log. I did not clean the bark, because I suspect that the goats will most likely clean it themselves (and eat it). They always eat bark and even gnaw on wood. sometimes I think that these are not goats, but some kind of beavers.

The floor is reinforced concrete. Next to the pillars are the remains of absolutely rotten wooden flooring, covered with manure. To be honest, I have not yet decided what to do with it - either remove it and throw it away, or leave it until next year, removing only the manure.
Here I have removed the rotten wood floors and replaced them with new flooring for the goats to sleep on.

In principle, for the future, I'm thinking of removing all rotten floors, leaving a bare concrete floor (on which the goats constantly drop hay anyway), and making raised wooden decks around the edges and corners so that the goats can sleep on them.
The goat territory is separated from the chicken racks by such a fence. I installed these bars in the winter, but it is already noticeable that the goats began to gnaw them. I do not know how long they will last, I hope that at least a couple of years.

I no longer began to make such structures from simple boards - this is a beam of 15x15 cm, 15x10 cm and 10x10 cm.

While I'm thinking. It is necessary to place two more pillars near this iron column and the oak pillar in order to make a raised feeder there between them, and under it - place another small floor so that some goat can sleep there. Only I have not yet decided what to do - I have a 15x15 cm pine beam, but it is not new, the goats will quickly ruin it. There is also an oak growing on the site, which rather depresses my plantings of gooseberries, and I think someday I will remove it.
So I have not decided yet - whether to use a pine beam, or to dump this oak and take logs from it. Oak logs are noticeably more durable than pine logs. Perhaps today I will ask the parents what they think about this oak, cut it down or how.
I also have a few oaks on the site, I will not cut them, they do not interfere with anything. And that oak grows too close to the gooseberry plantations and oppresses them.
We love gooseberry jam, so the oak will probably have to be sacrificed. It is not very large, but it will be enough for a couple of logs.

Of course, it would be possible to buy just iron pipes or a channel, but I am unemployed and have little money. In principle, i can find some work here, but I don’t want to, I’m too lazy The work will take too much time, and I have a lot of housework to do.
Therefore, probably, I will not work, but I will simply put up either pine beams, or I will cut down this oak and take the logs.

Well, I'll think about the issue of logs tomorrow, and tonight I'll calmly preserve these cucumbers. In addition, I have apples and I need to make a compote and preserve it too.

 

[cavemanrich]

Pasha838​

Do you make your pickles in brine?? or do you prefer in vinegar??
My mom always made in brine,, and used them for pickle soup. I no longer can/preserve things, but that is how I did,,,,, in brine.
I still make pickle soup,,, but purchase my pickles from a European Deli Store. They are Imported.

 

[Pasha838]

Pasha838​

Do you make your pickles in brine?? or do you prefer in vinegar??
My mom always made in brine,, and used them for pickle soup. I no longer can/preserve things, but that is how I did,,,,, in brine.
I still make pickle soup,,, but purchase my pickles from a European Deli Store. They are Imported.

Unfortunately I have no culinary education. Whatever it is, I'll say what I know. Cucumbers here are usually "divided" into the following types:
1. Lightly salted cucumbers. They are prepared without closure in jars, they cook quickly, usually they do it in some kind of bucket or large saucepan. In no case should such cucumbers be stored for a long time.
2. Pickles. They are usually made in large quantities and in large barrels. There is no vinegar in them either, the key ingredient there is salt. But they are pronouncedly salty and not suitable for everyone. It is undesirable for the elderly to eat them, because excess salt can lead to an increase in blood pressure. They are stored for a long time, but in basements and cellars, occasionally in industrial refrigerators.
3. Sterilized canned cucumbers. This is something in between. I usually do these. The specific proportions are as follows:
for a 3 liter jar there are 50 grams of salt, 50 grams of sugar, 2 tablespoons of vinegar (40 ml).
4. pickles. They differ in that a significant amount of vinegar is added to the jar (it happens that 1 tablespoon of 70% vinegar essence per 3 l jar, or, respectively, 8 tablespoons of vinegar 9%, 160 ml). This is quite sour, but such cucumbers are usually stored without a cellar or refrigerator, they have so much vinegar that they do not deteriorate even in hot rooms. Usually such cucumbers are made if they want to take them somewhere far away on the road, but there is no refrigerator.

I chose item 3 because they are somewhere in between, they do not have much vinegar, and not so much salt. These cucumbers require boiling the brine 3 times, at intervals of 20 minutes, 10 and the third time this brine is poured over the cucumbers and the jar is closed (tightly). And it turns over after 3 minutes so that the lid is also heated and sterilized (if this is not done, there is a risk that the cucumbers will deteriorate during long storage). Only the brine is boiled, the cucumbers themselves lie in a jar and wait for it to be poured.

Well, these cucumbers are very consumed here - they are added to a fresh salad, to a meat "Soviet" salad (I don’t know what to call it correctly, this is a high-calorie salad with mayonnaise, meat and boiled potatoes), they are put on pizza, and more of them soup is cooked with pearl barley (peeled barley) groats and potatoes.

This is how I know how to make lightly salted, and salted, and pickled cucumbers, but I rarely practice this, most often I just make sterilized ones, in which there is salt (but relatively little), and there is vinegar (also a little), and the time storage is achieved by triple sterilization. The only thing is that it is extremely important to calculate the time here, because if you make a mistake, the cucumbers will become too soft and tasteless, and if you rush, they will not be sterilized and deteriorate, to the point that the jar may explode.

And vinegar is usually used here 9%, it is slightly more acidic than apple 7%. Also, vinegar essence is often sold here, actually acetic acid, 70%. It is customary to dilute it with water in a ratio of 1 + 7 to get 9% vinegar.
If more liquid vinegar is used, then it is simply added more.

To be honest, I don't have enough information about American cuisine, I only heard that they use a slightly different vinegar, less acidic. If you take the company McDonald's, where I happened to work for six months, they put similar cucumbers in sandwiches. But I don't know if it's American cuisine, or if it's a tribute to local Russian traditions. In general, food in Russia is highly adapted, to the point that when the Japanese arrived here and went to a "Japanese" restaurant, they found that it was quite possible to eat, but the local "Japanese" cuisine has nothing to do with Japanese cuisine except for the name.
There are quite funny cases with this in general, I remember I went to one city near Moscow, they sold "Italian" pizza, but it didn't look like Italian pizza at all, it was some kind of thick pie, like a loaf of bread, more like some kind of pre-revolutionary, sample of the century before last, Russian pie.

Russians don’t bother with recipes at all, we most often eat stupidly, just to eat what we have in stock. It even comes to that. that the Chinese, having opened a restaurant here, first boil rice as it should be, and then, having become infected with local habits, they begin to boil potatoes instead of rice, because Russian rice is different from Asian and it is cooked completely differently. Asian rice is most often crumbly, while Russian rice is cooked with sticky porridge, and it is customary to eat it mixed with meat and fat.

Canned cucumbers sold in local stores are also completely unpredictable, here you have to look at the jars. They can be pickled with a lot of vinegar, they can be sterilized, or they can be completely salted. Therefore, the easiest way, if you want stability, is to build greenhouses, grow cucumbers and preserve them according to a recipe that you like.

At the end of the story about cucumbers, I can voice information that there are even some hellish recipes for canning cucumbers and tomatoes using pharmaceutical preparations like analgin or aspirin instead of vinegar. I have tried them, they are absolutely bitter and tasteless, but for some reason some housewives use these recipes.

 

[pertnear09]

View attachment 3605804
Now. 60 some years later
View attachment 3605805

59 and 60 Chevys in the middle. 58 Ford wagon to the right of them and a 60 model Ford on the left. Far right is a 55 Pontiac. 55 Pontiac was my first car. Regular battleship.

 

[fuzzi]

Dad bought this new in 1954

I learned taught myself how to drive standard transmission on this baby.

 

[pertnear09]

Dad bought this new in 1954
View attachment 3606404
I learned taught myself how to drive standard transmission on this baby.

My cousin had one in around 69 or 70. It was pretty ragged out by the time he got it but he drove it for a year or so.

 

[cavemanrich]

59 and 60 Chevys in the middle. 58 Ford wagon to the right of them and a 60 model Ford on the left. Far right is a 55 Pontiac. 55 Pontiac was my first car. Regular battleship.

My first car was a 65 Mustang. 260 small 8. My second car was a 60 Chevy Belair. Same as in picture,, but green in color. Straight 6

 

[Nomadicus]

This was to be a baby quilt top. Never found anyone who could print it to fabric.

 

[Nomadicus]

 

[Nomadicus]