The Old Folks Home

[7 Biddies]

"Some of it's magic, and some of it's tragic, but I've had a good life, just the same."


What a great quote!! Describes my life to a T. I looked it up, but couldn't find it so have to wonder if it's your own?

 

[Arielle]

Wow, that quote hits a note!!

RE: Pears. We had huge old pear trees as a kid. I always let them drop and collect them every day. We made relishes and pickles. Not sure why we didn't think of making sauces; perhaps it was because we had gallons of applesauce already put up.

ANyone canning?? Anyone can chicken?

 

[Wisher1000]

My quote came from a song, He Went to Paris by Jimmy Buffett (yes, I am a parrot head) that was on his album 'You Had to Be There' (1978) and if I had quoted it exactly I would have credited him. The actual line ends with "I've had a good life all the way" but since I have a lot of living to do, I perfer my version.

I love me some Buffett!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

SCG,

From where in Maine do you hail? I spent all my summers at the south beaches when I was a kid. Still have warm memories of those days. Also flew up there a lot when I worked for NE Airlines; Bangor and Presque Isle in December ain't fun!!

I LOVE Maine!!

Right now I'm in central Maine, kinda near Augusta (Disgusta). Lived for a bit in Lewiston when I first got here. I love Aroostook County and wanted to live in Caribou when I first moved here. I love the desolation. I love the wilderness, the lack of humans, but I don't love the cold, worse so than here. BF is from Presque Isle.

Wow, that quote hits a note!!

RE: Pears. We had huge old pear trees as a kid. I always let them drop and collect them every day. We made relishes and pickles. Not sure why we didn't think of making sauces; perhaps it was because we had gallons of applesauce already put up.

ANyone canning?? Anyone can chicken?

I'm canning a ton, working on apples right now. Just did some chicken stock, but froze the chicken. I can't wait for the cranberries to come out, I have a recipe for apple cranberry jam that I want to try.



Thanks for all the anecdotes, guys! I'm loving them.

Todays "mishaps" - power went out at 1 am, which wakes me up (it's too quiet). I have eggs in the incubator ready to hatch on Thursday so I get out of bed and take them out to the coop in the wind/rain to go under a broody. Thankfully I had a few to choose from. Try to go back to bed. No go. Start to worry about whether work has electricity or if they're on contingency. Start to worry whether my flu vaccine stock is ok or not (it's refrigerator). Figure I'm the only pharm manager in today (the rest are at a conference) and I'm not getting any sleep so might as well just go in. Can't take a shower, of course, cause no power. Get halfway down the driveway to find a tree has fallen into driveway, blocking it. Drive back to house, find sawsall, cut tree up, drag tree off driveway, go to work. Good thing I decided to leave early.

 

[Stumpy]

The only thing I've "canned" this year was fig preserves and strawberry-flavored fig preserves. We didn't pick a single blackberry this year and our muscadine crop was a bust, but I don't really mind because last year's crop was great and I've been too busy anyway.

SCG, sorry about your power -- I hope it's on now -- and the tree.

I had to take the dog out at about 3:30 this morning, and the coyotes were really making a ruckus. It was another beautiful, low-humidity day here. After returning from taking the dog to the vet and a little grocery shopping, I got to work on building another raised bed. I had some salvaged timbers and planks on hand. I got all of them cut to length, nails removed, holes drilled, and loaded in the truck to drive around to a relative's fenced-in area. I'll be planting strawberries.

While I was working on this project, I let the chickens out to free-range in the yard. Henry was in such a crowing mood. I kept thinking, don't you know that sounds like, "Here, predator, predator, come and get me!"? Sure enough, just moments after I got them back inside, I saw an eagle circling overhead.

Speaking of rooster behavior, has anyone noticed owls answering your rooster's crowing? I noticed it about 5:00 a.m. the other day.

 

[mickey328]

It's been canning frenzy time around here for the last month or so. Did meat for the first time this year...5 qts of beef roast and 6 of chicken, 14 pts of ground beef and 8 of beef stock. 9 qts of spaghetti sauce, 17 of tomatoes, 14 of tomato juice, 2 pts, 12 half pints plum jam, 14 pints of carrots. Did 9 pts of cinnamon applesauce and 6 of caramel/vanilla applesauce today (just took the last batch out of the canner) and have 2 batches of apple butter in the crockpots cooking down now. Have some nice looking potatoes and sweet potatoes I'm gonna do up as well...haven't done them before either, LOL. We work goofy hours so it's a very rare day that we have time to actually cook and eat a meal together, so I'm wanting to have lots of components in jars so we can just open some and heat and eat. After all the "fresh" stuff is done, I plan on doing some soups, stew and chili for one jar meals as well.

So....SCG...anything interesting happen today? Sorry...just couldn't resist...sheesh what a day! Hope it got better and is running well now for ya

 

[Stumpy]

Mickey, wow -- you've gotten a lot of canning done. Do you use a pressure canner?

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Mickey, wow -- you've gotten a lot of canning done. Do you use a pressure canner?

He and/or she would have to with canning some of the above, like meat and non-acidic veggies.

 

[mickey328]

The older I get the more I realize the stuff you buy pre-processed isn't hardly real food. Plus it's expensive. So I really decided this year to get with it...I already had most of the gear so why not make use of it??

I use a pressure canner for low acid foods...vegetables and meats. I could use it for everything, but it takes so much longer by the time you lock it down and get it up to pressure and then let it pressure down on its own (I learned the hard way not to do a quick release...it blew all the liquid out of the jars) When I do meat in a quart jar, it has to process for 90 minutes...which translates to about 2.5 hours per batch. I find the water bath quicker...once it's boiling you can set the timer and when it's down to about 10 minutes, I get the next batch ready. Then I lift out the rack, take the processed ones out, pop the new batch in and crank up the heat to bring it back to a boil.

 

[Arielle]

I think I am going to ask DH for a pressure cooker for Christmas; Oh, I was going to ask for an SOP . . . hmmm, the pressure cooker for my birthday !


SCG--sorry about the tree down. A PITA. I've had small ones down that my truck could climb over, out of deperation of course, a need to be to work on time and no chainsaw. Let DH cut it up later. My poor truck, all the things I made it do!

DH had a question--I don't--he does. WHen processing a chicken, is it prepped in a hot water bath before being defeathered??