Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[troyer]

Hello my fellow Michiganders! I'm new to officially being a BYC member, I've been referring to it for years lol, but just joined. I just wanted to say, HI and give a quick intro. I am the proud mama of 22 beautiful Pullets, I also Have 26 Ducks and a Pig named Bacon! Hello to you all and I look forward to this journey, learning and sharing information with everyone!

Welcome to the Michigan thread!

 

[1muttsfan]

HI Chik-Inn, welcome to the Michigan thread

We got mostly only lots of wind, rain all passed us by again. Cold too this morning, upper 50's.

 

[Sally PB]

Lots of molting going on right now, white Chantie feathers everywhere!

Yup, some molting going on here too. More feathers in the coop/run every day. The white Chantie feathers from Snowbird look like... well, snow. I love it when his feathers catch the sunlight and shine.

Spent the best part of the day looking at used cars, Ford Focuses. We only test drove two, and I was the second one was going to be it: a stick shift! yay! But DH had reservations about the clutch. So on we go.

 

[Folly's place]

Sally, I'm loving your rooster's name, and decided that mine needed a better one. He's now 'Cloud', best I could come up with, but better than 'Ben'. His spurs are now trimmed, much better.
Mary

 

[saysfaa]

Major sticker shock in the grocery store yesterday. It shouldn't have been because I've been in for bread and milk and whatever is far enough on sale so I've seen the increases. But we've been eating from the garden mostly. And bulk staples from the Amish store. The prices just haven't registered completely. This time we stocked up the college bound kid. I'm glad he mostly cooks for himself rather than opening boxes and cans. This is the 15th straight year we have had at least one kid in college full time. One year there were six of us in college. And one kid might benefit from the college loan giveaway. We filled them up with food periodically and usually gave them gas money to cover visits home but didn't give them much other help. Four graduated without debt, one paid off his debt within six months, one might still have some debt four years after graduating. It can still be done via keeping costs down and jobs.

A bit of silver lining to the sticker shock in the grocery store is it made processing the fruits and vegetables more satisfying. We thought we lost both zucchini plants to squash bugs and squash borers and we have but we've also gotten "one last" zucchini about eight times. We nursed them along with surgery, picking the bugs and egg cases off, burying the secondary roots, and watering. We ate about half and I dehydrated the other half.

Most of the rest of the vegetables did well.

I found another apple tree in the pasture! Whoo hoo! I picked what I could reach off five of nine trees I know about. And picked up most of the windfalls under the two that tasted better this year - different trees than tasted best last year. I'm about 80% sure the bear is eating them too. I know what deer scat looks like; that was not deer scat.

Anyway, I don't think I got a single salable apple but I'm don't care. I didn't give them any input other than pruning and I grew up eating the unsalable fruit and vegetables. Just cut out the bugs and bruises and deer/bear bites; the rest is just as good as the pretty ones. I got three or four grocery bags full. Half are dried or applesauce. Half the scraps went to the chickens and half are soaking in jars for apple scrap vinegar for cleaning. Later, I will save out some less buggy/bitten scraps for apple scrap vinegar for cooking.

I'm pleased the apples are twice as big as last year. It might be because it is a bumper year for apples but I think it is mostly because I seriously pruned the trees last spring... I cut back half of the trees by a third, the other half by less than that but still quite a bit. I still have at least one that hasn't started to ripen.

The wild grapes look good but aren't quite ripe. Maybe I will prune some of them too next spring.

I can probably still get a few more pickings of blueberries too. I may have to go north a ways to find a u pick still open.

The Baby Golds should be ready soon.

 

[Sally PB]

apple scrap vinegar

How do you make this? We have wild apple trees, lots of less-than-perfect apples, and I could make a lot of vinegar this way.

 

[Sally PB]

@aart, I'm so glad they featured your hoop coop/tractor on the opening page. That build is an inspiration to me, and I bet it is for a lot of people.

 

[aart]

This is the 15th straight year we have had at least one kid in college full time.

Holy Progeny!!!

@aart, I'm so glad they featured your hoop coop/tractor on the opening page. That build is an inspiration to me, and I bet it is for a lot of people.

So that's where all the clicks came from!
It was a fun build, never really got tested as the people who bought it let it rot in a field after a year or two. They also had it on long pasture grass, so the aprons were 'too difficult too deal with'.

 

[Sally PB]

It was a fun build, never really got tested as the people who bought it let it rot in a field after a year or two. They also had it on long pasture grass, so the aprons were 'too difficult too deal with'.

Aw, what a shame! I hope someone sees it, makes one, and posts about it here on BYC.

 

[saysfaa]

How do you make this? We have wild apple trees, lots of less-than-perfect apples, and I could make a lot of vinegar this way.

https://www.theprairiehomestead.com/2015/02/how-to-make-apple-cider-vinegar.html

It is apple scrap vinegar instead of apple cider vinegar only because you don't actually make cider from the scraps. It is essentially the same thing, though.

Short version is fill a glass jar 3/4 full of apple scraps (peels and cores and such), cover with sugar water (1 T per cup) leaving a inch or couple of inches head space, cover jar with a coffee filter or something similar held on with a rubber band or string tied around it.

Set it in a warm dark place for two weeks. Stir occasionally if you want to, skim and discard any green-brown scum.

Then remove the apple pieces and leave it along another 2-4 weeks. Or longer if it doesn't smell right yet.

Edit is fix typos and grammar