The Old Folks Home

[superchemicalgirl]

Good memory, yes last year it was strawberry vanilla bean. This time it is peach-cherry-amaretto. Pretty sure Diva won't let that touch her ice cream with a 10 foot pole.


As far as woodchucks/groundhogs go, I fought with one for years. It would come on the property and desecrate my garden. I was okay with it living if it stayed away from my garden, but we disagreed on that. It took us 2 or 3 years to get him (or her). It was really smart - no trap could catch him/her - and it would notice us in the house moving about (ie grabbing the gun) and start to run before we could even get to a door.

Eventually BF killed it, he snuck out the back door silently, managed to tiptoe around the entire house before it started running. He got it but not before it got back to its burrow. We smelled it for weeks. But it was the sweet scent of victory.

 

[bruceha2000]

Due to D1's emotional vegetarian bent, not only can I (nor anyone else) not eat any animal I have, she would go apeshit if I shot one of the varmints. She is less concerned with the damage than the animal causing it. I rehomed 3 chucks to the property line in a 2 week period last year. The 1st 2 were juveniles, the 3rd was an adult and BOY was s/he PO'd (and heavy). But it is only about 1,500' to the property line (no housing behind it, narrow strip then the interstate). For all I know they were 20' behind me all the way back, laughing at me. I tried to trap one this year that has pushed a stone out of the barn shed foundation wall by placing the Havahart at the opening, covered in a black plastic bag but it managed to get out beside the trap. I guess I have to create a chute. I have heard they like carrots. Last time I saw the chuck hit that hole when I went out, there were FOUR youngins following her. And those are only the "back of the barn" chucks. There are at least 3 other adults around the house.

One of my neighbors who grew up here said they used to shoot the chucks all the time because they made cattle leg breaking holes in the pastures. Now, not so much because like many places there is less farming and more housing. No one on the road is raising any quantity of food animals.

 

[chickadoodles]

Shoot back... and not with fireworks.

I can't.

Their grandma used to babysit my husbands son's when they were little. So I can only do so much.

 

[perchie.girl]

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!

we have three kinds of Rabbits..... Cotton Tails, Bush bunnies, and Jack Rabbits. The bush bunnies look like stumpy cotton tails... about two thirds the size.... Jack Rabbits are actually hares... and HUGE.. A visiting friend thought they were coyotes Black tailed Jack rabbit..... mature at about six pounds.....

IN the morning they lay in the shade in the blow sand like a lion Hind legs to the side front legs out staring Sphinx like....

deb

 

[Athaid]

Deb, was your profile pic always three red dots?

 

[Alaskan]

I am sorry about the jelly!

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

I used to make jelly with my dad's mom.

Pectin always guaranteed the stuff to not jell.

Over the years we figured out that no pectin = sure fired success.

 

[Alaskan]

Deb, was your profile pic always three red dots?

Nope.

 

[Athaid]

Oh, why is it now? Does it mean something?

 

[ronott1]

I used to make jelly with my dad's mom.

Pectin always guaranteed the stuff to not jell.

Over the years we figured out that no pectin = sure fired success.

It depends on what you are making jelly out of. Some things do not have enough natural pectin in them.

Other than the one batch of plum jelly, I have never had jelly not set(it was not like syrup, just thin). I always use pectin.

In chemistry, pectin bonds with the sugar at about 220 degrees to make the jell.

blackberries have a lot of pectin and apricots only have enough pectin to jell when they are very ripe.

My guess is that you figured out to get the jelly hot enough and were using fruit that had plenty of pectin in it. if you had nice thick jelly, there was pectin involved--a pack of pectin was not needed.

 

[Latestarter]

I can't.

Their grandma used to babysit my husbands son's when they were little. So I can only do so much.

Well then don't shoot at their grandma...

justsayin...

I used to make jelly with my dad's mom...

Hmmmm... thinking about about grandma boiling away in a pot...

nah... wouldn't want that on my toast...

Oh, why is it now? Does it mean something?

Deb is an avatar butterfly... She changes it frequently. You know, a disappointing thing about forums... when someone changes their avatar, it changes it on every post they've ever done, so there's no history where you can go back and look at past avatars. Oh, wait, I guess you can... go to their profile and scroll down. there's a photo bucket there labeled "Avatars". Whadayaknow!