The Old Folks Home

[Athaid]

Happy Fourth of July to anyone who celebrates it.

 

[Latestarter]

Shoot back... and not with fireworks.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Went to the range yesterday so I'm capable of doing that safely, Latestarter I took my Uberti 1873 Cattleman (replica) .22 revolver 12 shot with me and had a great time. I have this groundhog spinner target that, after my years of being tormented by a groundhog on this property, is very satisfying to hit.

My "jam" just came out of the canner. It appears I may have made syrup instead.

Oh well, that'll be good on ice cream.

Thanks for the kind words about the quilt. About halfway done making the top and I'm not sure that I love it, yet. The addition of a the last few borders really helps make or break it. I'm thinking I might have made a mistake with the colorful stars and white/grey background, but won't be sure until I get the top done. That being said, it will still be nice, but maybe not wow.

 

[NotAFarm]

DS and his family from California were here Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning so today we are taking it easy....recuperating from late nights and busy days!

I have four hens trying to be broody. Since I've got 17 youngsters, from 3 weeks to 4 months old, already this year, they will not be given any eggs this time....all four have raised chicks this spring!!

Happy 4th of July!!

 

[ronott1]

Went to the range yesterday so I'm capable of doing that safely, Latestarter I took my Uberti 1873 Cattleman (replica) .22 revolver 12 shot with me and had a great time. I have this groundhog spinner target that, after my years of being tormented by a groundhog on this property, is very satisfying to hit.

My "jam" just came out of the canner. It appears I may have made syrup instead.

Oh well, that'll be good on ice cream.

Thanks for the kind words about the quilt. About halfway done making the top and I'm not sure that I love it, yet. The addition of a the last few borders really helps make or break it. I'm thinking I might have made a mistake with the colorful stars and white/grey background, but won't be sure until I get the top done. That being said, it will still be nice, but maybe not wow.

I am sorry about the jelly!

Do you use pectin? Pectin is line a jelly insurance policy.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I did, actually... 2 packets of liquid pectin. Couldn't get it up to 220F despite massive boiling got it to about 214F for 7ish minutes and it wouldn't budge.

 

[ronott1]

I did, actually... 2 packets of liquid pectin. Couldn't get it up to 220F despite massive boiling got it to about 214F for 7ish minutes and it wouldn't budge.

All might not be lost!

Two things that will mess up jelly is not using enough sugar--use what the recipe calls for unless using a low sugar pectin. Also, it can take a week for jam to set:

1. Use a low or no sugar pectin.
   One of the reasons that people often wind up with runny jam is that they couldn’t bear to use the amount of sugar necessary to get a conventionally sweetened batch to set. If you’re trying to lower your sugar consumption but still want jam, try Pomona’s Pectin. It allows you to make a spreadable jam that’s sweetened with a small amount of sugar, honey, Stevia or other alternative sweetener.
   
2. Give it time. Jam can take up to a week to achieve its finished set. Don’t declare it a failure ten minutes out of the canner. Patience pays.

I had runny jelly last year from plums. I might try them again--I do not have a good crop of plums this year but should have enough for a batch.

 

[chickisoup]

Happy holiday to all us American peeps!

We have two breeds of wild bunnies running around our woods and field (and living under our front porch) as well as the crazy snowshoe hare. They really do live up to their reputation, especially in the spring! More than once the crazy things have come running thru the yard full tilt and either suddenly shot streight up in the air, did a back flip and off in the other direction or came roaring around the corner of the house and wound up bouncing off my legs or once one scared the dickens out of a visitor from the city when it hit the lawn chair they were sitting in hard enough to know them over!

 

[bruceha2000]

Pics deleted to save scroll time. Nice shots Bruce! It sure is nice to have a plethora of wildlife around the homestead, isn't it? A major part of why I want more land in a less populated area. Love the doe with fawns.

Yeah it is, except for the ****** woodchucks. They dig massive tunnels and undermine the rock foundation of the barn

I wouldn't mind them if they would just live in the rock pile or something.

So far the rabbits haven't seemed to do any damage.

And thanks for deleting the pictures

Seems some pages are mostly the repeats of a lot of pictures in a post someone is replying to with a short comment. Especially bad when a lot of people reply to the same post in the same way. Sometimes I'll leave one or two for continuity.

 

[Latestarter]

Bruce, have you checked out any of the woodchuck "traps" on youtube? Some are pretty ingenious using 12 Ga shotguns with rat traps and monofilament string for trigger pullers I've never really had any issues with woodchucks... used to hunt them for target practice when I was younger and lived in New England... Mostly out in the middle of farmers fields. long range shooting. I try to remember to delete out the pics when I quote... Like you, sometimes I'll leave one, just to illustrate what I'm responding to. It gets to be time consuming when you have to scroll through pages of the same pics repeatedly to get to the comments...

SCG, didn't you have this jam vs syrup issue last year? As I recall, you were pretty pleased with it in the end as it turned out marvelous on ice cream... You sure it's not accidentally syrup on purpose?

Just another "excuse" to get more ice cream?

Too bad Diva didn't live closer, you two could do ice cream binges together