Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[gaitngirl]

We got more of a light, steady rain most of the evening here, with lots of lightning to go with it. We soooo need this. I may get a 3rd cutting from my hay field after all . . .

 

[Lisa and girls]

My poor giant Itsy is on her second day of tylan. I went out this morning and she is much worse. Snotty, sneezy wheezy. I quarantined her gave her some fresh h2o with acv and some oatmeal for breakfast. Not sure what else I can do for her at this point. I hate having sick and miserable girls. She's not really eating or drinking. Hopefully tylan will kick in and she will be better in a few days . Poor baby

 

[jorey]

Good morning everyone. I don't post very often and when I do its on what I know from experience. I have a problem. I started working on a farm 2 days ago as a 2 nd job. Love it. Its what id like to do full time. The kind gentleman I'm working for said to tell him how much I want to get paid. I have no clue as what to tell him. I ll mainly be doimg the chickens, getting the eggs around for him to sell in chicago, cleaning and moving coops, ect..... I ll also be helping with the hogs and sometimes the other animals he raises. Right now we are in the process of getting everything set back up so he can go back to the 600 hens that he had and free ranges. So a lot of pasture cleaning and electronet going up. I have no clue as what to ask for wages. To me this will be a dream job. What I would love to do on my own but can't afford to. I ll go over before my reg. Job in a.m. let chickens out and then I go over in evening and get eggs and do whatever else needs to be done. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Have a wonderful day everyone and thanks :n advance.

 

[tdhenson86]

That was quite the storm that ripped through here last mogjt. The light show was spectacular and when the rain arrived it came down in torrents. I'm sure the ground under one of my apples trees will be olittered with ripe apples. I think I see a cider pressing event in my immediate future.

What do you use to press cider?

 

[Jake Levi]

That was quite the storm that ripped through here last mogjt. The light show was spectacular and when the rain arrived it came down in torrents. I'm sure the ground under one of my apples trees will be olittered with ripe apples. I think I see a cider pressing event in my immediate future.

Happy pickin !

Opa thats a Hare I could put up with ! I have debated for months on adding a pair of these little guys to the house, still bebating. They are just so darn cute !

Nice going on the milk shed Daron, keep it up. With those two kinds of milk you should be able to make some really great yoghurt and feta !

We had another shower this morn, but the big thing is with a week of warmer nights now have a couple dozen little green tomatos! More should be setting. Probably not enough for canning but at least some good ones for eating now. Last night was the warmest that we have had since the first week in June, after which it dipped down and stayed there. My sweet corn began to tassle this week too, I was worried I wouldnt be able even get any for seed. Its my own strain I have had for 18 years. Now I just call it Jakes Corn. I got it from a collector in Tulsa who went over the bridge long ago, Carl Barnes. A Pa. strain with no name. For awhile I called it No Name, but found out there was a tomator called that.

Life goes on.

Eight fresh hatched Icelandics down cellar, 3 last ones to hatch this weekend then put the incubators up til spring.

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

We used to have a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings come by my old office. They would literally go from tree to tree, cleaning out every one that had berries or small fruits. One year we were watching them out the tree right in front of our office (very close to the road). As they were taking off, a large truck drove by and I saw one of them get caught it's the airstream and go spinning. I thought the truck clipped it; it landed at the curb. I ran out and scooped it up. It was still breathing. I wrapped it in a small towel, put it in a box in a quiet corner of the office. It turns out it was just stunned. I heard it moving around in the box so I took it and released it to rejoin the flock. It was a beautiful little bird . . .

That's wonderful that you took the time and effort to rescue the bird.

Sorry to hear of all the losses and sick birds.

Yesterday I finished canning the bushel of tomatoes that I bought. I managed to get 26 pints of crushed tomatoes. I still have a few jars left from last year. I look forward to getting some fresh apples as I have not had any in a very long time.

 

[ladyrsanti]

I finally got to milk Bella in the new milk shed with no issues. She gave a big fight on the first and second day of milking. Broke the stanchion and ran out the shed. So, I have been milking her in the cow shed where I had been milking her for 10 months last year, so she was used to that shed, but not the new one. I was going to milk her in the old shed today, but my sister told me that Bella was mooing and looking inside the new shed, so, I decided to give it a try again. So happy that I did!



I milk the goat in there too.


The front of the shed. I only spent $250.00 on it.

Nice. We need more milk already. I made butter and cultured some buttermilk. The boys drank the rest. Didn't help I had made some chocolate chip cookies. I'd still like to try making some cheese, especially from this summer/Bella's-been-eating-grass-and-freshly-calved milk. Should be the best.

 

[Amastacia]

What do you use to press cider?

a veggie juicer and old bed sheet works, but is so very much not worth the effort. it took two days to get about 4 and a half gallons.

on the other hand, there are a lot of directions out there to make your own press. i'm going to get my DH to make me one for next year.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Yesterday I finished canning the bushel of tomatoes that I bought. I managed to get 26 pints of crushed tomatoes. I still have a few jars left from last year. I look forward to getting some fresh apples as I have not had any in a very long time.

Sounds good. What kind of tomatoes did you buy? My paste tomatoes haven't ripened yet - still. I'm just getting purple cherokee and striped german at the moment and canning the ones we don't eat, as we go. I'm worried this rain is going to split the tomatoes on the vine before they get a chance to ripen. Even the farm market down the road hasn't got much in yet, just some of the generic commercial varieties.

I canned four quarts last week and ran out of jars. Then I remembered the neighbor had four quart jars of mine they told me were ready to be picked up. Usually they just drop off stuff at my door, no problem....so this sounds like a trap. The thing is, if I knock on their door, they'll pull me in and I won't be seen for an hour or so. The old lady pours 10oz. glasses of juice and practically forces cookies and brownies, even if I refuse. I don't do sugar like that. When I was a kid I could metabolize it but not so much anymore. Now it goes straight to the diabetes account... and the hips I'm sure. They're nice old folks and all but I need a REALLY GOOD excuse not to go in before I even attempt to extricate the jars. I'm avoiding it so much that I went out and bought 1/2 gallon freezer tubs to process the tomatoes that came in this week. Might buy some more quart jars today when I'm in town too.

 

[gladahmae]

Went out to my mother's yesterday and made spaghetti sauce! I think we got 8qts out of the bunch. I sampled some when we were filling the jars and YUM!

It was a good day to be indoors playing with the tomatoes because we got over 2 inches of rain! There were severe storm warnings, warnings of quarter-sized damaging hail, and flash flood warnings. A few roads in Traverse City had 6in of water on them.

Peaches will be here next week, so I'll get to play with those, hopefully after the kids start school and I don't have as many "helpers." It's a messy job that I'd just as soon do myself.