Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends

[Jena]

HI Sam,

Hope all of your colds and fevers have disappeared from your entire house and that Hope is well now too.

We are back in the doldrums here with pouring rain and misery today, but I am smiling, I have a found a job where I can work from home and it will help to drive my business forward. It is only part time but pays well and it will make a masive difference.

They say when you don't know how to move forward look back to your roots and here I am supporting a small construction firm, they lay concrete for construction companies, nice people and I worked for Hanson at one time in bricks, and then moved to smaller Brick Company that had the union flag as it's logo. so at least I understand the climate there, even if our own climate aims to confuse these days.

Tonight I am making Rhubarb pies and freezing them for winter.

Hope Ranchie is awake today and safe from all the weather she has been having recently.

Hi to Everyone else and hope you are all having a good week.

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Hello!

Today, we're doing a half day of school... I think.

 

[Opa]

Sure has been cool around here of late. The garden is winding down. I picked the last of the okra and canned it with tomatoes, green peppers, and corn. It sure will make a good starter for soup later this winter.

 

[dldolan]

I am looking at a ton of Okra, peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes just now...care to share your canning recipe?

My garden thanks you!

 

[Highlander]

yikes Sam, early start for you today!

Nothing very exciting happening in Scotland. Autumn has arrived with a vengence, might be soon time to switch the heating on again.

The rheas are growing fast. They are 3 months old now. Supposedly they are old enough now that they don't need to be shut in at night, but I think I might keep putting them in for a while yet. It will be interesting to see how they cope with winter here!

I rehomed 5 of the chicks, still have 5 left but I think I have homes for them. Of all the chicks I have ever had hatched from either an incubator or broody, these have developed the fastest. The growth of their wing feathers has been amazingly quick. Not sure why, but I guess it's a good thing?

I am now exactly halfway through my new Orp hatch. I candled last night and tossed a few but I think I have 10 or so that look like they might be doing something. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Last week in my Brahma coop I noticed one of my hens looking lethargic when I went to shut them in at night. By morning at least 5 of them were down looking very sick. I had it narrowed down to either Marek's or poisoning of some sort. I decided to concentrate on the poisoning as I figured they were too old to get Marek's. After a thorough cleaning of the coop i eventually found a very small area of mould growth on the underside of one of their feeders. It was less than 2 inches in diameter, but clearly it was enough to bring down a whole coop full of large birds. I have been treating them all week with Selenium, Vitamin E, charcoal, yogurt etc. Some have shown improvmement but I have one hen that has not shown any signs of recovery at all and I am going to put her down today. So just a word of warning, check regularly for mould, especially if you live in a damp environemnt. Even the smallest amount can have devastating effects.

 

[HarlansHollowFarms]

Vicky, good advice, I hope you hen start improving and return to good health.

Sam, glad you are feeling better. We too have had a bumper crop of tomatoes. I have canned one batch of salsa, and plan on doing a second batch today. Hopefully the weather holds for another week, as I really want to put up some vegetable juice..I have to get the turkey fryer out for the juice, I have nothing in the house that will hold 1/2 gallon jars. I just water bath my tomato creations, however I would love to get a pressure cooker....but $400.00 is a bit steep for my taste.

Jena, glad to see you back, it has been such a long time. Glad to hear about your new additions, Border Collies are brilliant dogs...good choice!

It is definitely feeling like autumn here, the other night the temps dipped into the high 30's, the days have went from hot and dry to warm and crisp. I love it!!! Now we just need a hard freeze to get rid of these blasted flies and midges. They have been so bad this year!

 

[Opa]

Quote:
It really was quite simple

I had a 5 gallon pail full of tomatoes that I scalded and peeled. To this I added 4 chopped onions, all the okra I had (about 6 cups sliced) and the last of the sweet bell peppers (about 6 cups seeded and chopped), 4 tsp black pepper, 4 tbs celery flakes. Simmer 1 hour to reduce liquid, add 2 cans whole kernel corn. Ladle into hot jars and 1 tsp salt. Process 30 minutes at 10 lbs, or process 1 hours 25 minutes in boiling water canner.

 

[Highlander]

Very quiet in Opa's place recently. Hope everyone is well and keeping busy.

 

[Opa]

It has been awfully quiet here of late. I wonder if something happened to me and no one bothered to tell me?

 

[Highlander]

I hope not! how are things in your part of the world today