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

[Opa]

Wednesday was spent making tomato sauce from roma tomatoes and canning it. I place the washed tomatoes on a large deep pan in the oven until they have softened. Then run them through my Vittorio food mill to remove the skin and seeds. Next was the time consuming process of cooking it down.

Since 12 of Wednesday's hour were devoted to canning, I decided to take a break yesterday and only picked tomatoes and peppers.

Today it was back to canning. Granny and I scalded, peeled, and canned a bunch of whole tomatoes. Then it was on to seeding and de-veining peppers .What I can't understand is how that Peter Piper feller was able to pick a peck of pickled peppers while I had to go through a lot of work to get pickled peppers. Don't seem reasonable to me.

 

[chicken grandma]

LOL! I have not tried peppers yet!

I have been lazy! I slice my Roma's in half, place them skin side down on a greased baking sheet, sprinkle them with a little garlic powder and bake them at 300 degrees for between 1-2 hours.

Then I just use a regular blender to blend them up with some fresh basil and a little salt, sauted onion and garlic. I freeze this sauce and it is delicious!

I think for canning one could just roast the Roma tomatoes without the other ingredients and blend the roasted tomatoes (skin and seeds included) into a nice sauce for canning!

 

[Arielle]

Our tomatos are just starting to come in-- I planted late this year. Fresh are so delishous00 my youngest loves to eat them like an apple. Hoping for a few more before the frosts come.

 

[Opa]

Personally I prefer to remove the seeds for sauce. The seed ground up by a blender or juicer does give the sauce a slightly acrid taste. With whole or stewed tomatoes the seeds aren't broken so I don't mind them.

 

[Opa]

It's it amazing how easily we allow ourselves to become distracted when working on a project? Earlier in the summer high winds blew over the metal trash can that I had made into a deer and turkey feeder .It was bent beyond repair.

After weeks of looking at it, yesterday cool morning reminded me that I needed to get it fixed.

Six 2x4 blocks that attach the legs had to be removed and mounted on a new can. The box that contains the timer, battery, and broadcaster motor need to be removed and wire brushed. An 11/4" hole drilled in the bottom of the new can would facilitate installation of the spout. I was making good progress when the phone rang.

It was my oldest son Joe. He is a salesman and spends many lonely hours driving from place to place. Oft to help break the monotony of the drive he will call. Rather than tell him that I was busy I sat down in the shade and talked with him for over an hour.

After the call and trip into the house for a glass of iced tea I was back to work. Soon the leg braces were installed, the spout pop riveted onto the bottom when the neighbor came over to ask for my help with a huge tree branch that the storm had dropped in his front yard.

The branch, while broken off, had wedge in the tree's crotch and he needed me to use my truck to pull it off. He had already affixed tow straps to it so it didn't take but a few minutes to pull it free.

Just as I commenced to work again Hope asks if I'd like to take a break and have a cup of coffee and some peach cobbler with her and Granny. Now how in good conscience could I refuse that. That would have been rude.

Back at it again and now the holes are drilled in the bottom to attach the brackets that support the broadcaster. I'm thinking I just might get this thing put back together, when Hope's youngest son and his family show up.

The two grandkids have to come down to the shop to see what I'm doing. "Opa, what's that for? Opa, see my new shoes. Opa, when can you play? Opa, can I help? Opa, will you swing me? Opa, are you really old? Opa, how long are you going to work on that? Opa, what are you doing?" I'm starting to think I need to change my name when I hear Hope call out "tell Opa that supper is ready".

Oh well I guess I can finish it tomorrow.

 

[NotAFarm]

Good Morning Sam! Sounds like you had a wonderful day filled with lots of love!

 

[1muttsfan]

What lovely distractions you get - my distraction while working around the chicken house last night was my Blue Heeler Bella poking her nose into a ground nest of hornets. Shall we say things did not go well from there on. After getting everyone out of range and brushing the hornets off her, I sprayed the nest and fled. Then realized Bella had disappeared. Since she is deaf it can be challenging finding her if she is hiding. She finally turned up hiding in the garage, poor girl. Oy.

 

[chicken grandma]

Sorry 1Muttsfan but I would rather have Opa's interruptions!

But I sincerely hope things turn out well Bella.

Once I sprayed a hornets nest a couple of times and they kept surviving. So a skunk(?) came into the yard at night and dug their whole nest up and ate them.


p.s. Opa - you are blessed!

 

[Opa]

Spent the day with David scouting the Grand river for fishing locations and found that the driest summer on record has made the section we checked, from Ionia to Lansing, unfishable from a boat. My boat draws very little water, yet we found it was much too shallow to fish. I may be forced to go back with waders. Besides not being able to use the new rods with line counter reels, and the $500 worth of new lures, I was looking forward to teaching David the drop back method of fishing.

Hopefully the water levels will rise before winter makes it too cold to fish.

 

[chickflick]

You know you love those lil munchkins bugging you!!