The Old Folks Home

[Athaid]

Oh wow, awesome. I hope it's contagious.

 

[Wisher1000]

Okay, Old Folks, after looking at videos and images of garlic, I concluded that my garlic is diminutive and the presentation was repulsive. I could not do anything about the size, but I could improve the look.

So, here is the 'before' photo....

And here is the 'after' photo....

This one's better....

In the spirit of full disclosure, these bulbs are what grew from some tiny, tiny cloves from the bulbs I planted last year. I did not harvest them at that time because the leaves were small and died off early. They came back up after I had removed the larger ones and thought I was done. I will plant these this fall along with some Elephant garlic and (hopefully) some "Vacationland Hardneck."

 

[ronott1]

It is too hot here to do outside stuff after 10. We hit 80+ at that time. Woodland skipped the heat last week but we stared a heat wave yesterday-High of 103. We will be up to 110 for two or so days next week. Over triple digits for 6 days at least.

So I ground up some sausage yesterday and then formed patties this morning. They are in the freezer hardening up and will then be vacuum packed and kept in the freezer.

This is a Country style sausage recipe that I combined and adjusted from several recipes last decade--well decades--ago.



Recipe:

Country Sausage

Adjust spices by weight of meat For Each Pound:

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar
½ tsp black pepper

¼ tsp red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp crumbled sage

1/8 tsp thyme
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tbl water
1/8 tsp ginger






Grind Pork using coarse plate. Add spices and water. Knead until well mixed and grind a second time using the fine plate. Shape into patties and use at once or freeze on waxed paper in storage bags.

 

[bruceha2000]

We have a little over 7 acres. One of the roads that ends on our property is a community of mainly 60's and 70's ranch-style houses, the other is manufactured homes on pretty good sized, individually owned lots - not really upscale, but not lowlifes, either. Most of my nearest neighbors have told me that they actually like hearing roosters - though I don't imagine they'd like them right under their windows at 4 in the morning.

The picture I posted of Syd was taken at the end of our driveway; the For Sale sign is our neighbor's. He has about 4 acres, and is asking $200,000. The house is no great shakes, it's all about the land. Anybody that buys thinking that they are going to divide and develop are in for a rough ride . . . . I just hope they don't give us one.

What is the zoning in your "neighborhood"? If it isn't "minimum 4 acres", I fear for your solitude. And even if it is, people find a way around it.

Quote:

I'm surprised the cows didn't eat it. The goats love it.

 

[Bunnylady]

Quote:
Officially, it's R - 15, but as you said, there are ways around that. However, anyone intending to build here has to get past fun things like a county water system that is already at carrying capacity, no sewer and land that won't pass a perk test, land that technically falls under the definition of '"wetland," easements dating back decades, etc. Grease the right palms, and you can get past almost anything, of course, but how much can you reasonably expect to build on 4 acres? We have had some apartment complexes and town home developments that have been built close to here in recent years, but they are all on the main road; they don't have to weave their way through a quiet neighborhood to get to it.

 

[perchie.girl]

Quote:

Officially, it's R - 15, but as you said, there are ways around that. However, anyone intending to build here has to get past fun things like a county water system that is already at carrying capacity, no sewer and land that won't pass a perk test, land that technically falls under the definition of '"wetland," easements dating back decades, etc. Grease the right palms, and you can get past almost anything, of course, but how much can you reasonably expect to build on 4 acres? We have had some apartment complexes and town home developments that have been built close to here in recent years, but they are all on the main road; they don't have to weave their way through a quiet neighborhood to get to it.

Here you can get about ten houses per acre... If you make the roads fire lanes and have the houses share property lines.... Which means no parking on the street and one side of the house is ON the property line to the next.... you have to pay home owners association dues because they take care of the front yard and you have a rec center with a pool.

Thats a hundred houses for ten acres and they get about 400K each... maybe more if its a good location. so Its a good trade off for the developer to jump through hoops...

I hate the city any more. From the asshats that drive to the regulations and snoopy neigbors into your business.

 

[chickisoup]

Bunny,
you make me feel better about living up here in frozen land. Our 65 acres might be mostly pretty worthless but we are surrounded on 2 sides by literally thousands of state owned forest and national forest lands. On our southern property line we have one really nice neighbor and one idiot (we REALLY should have bought that little chunk when it was up for sale with nothing but a trailer on it) and a little bit of our western side is bordered with a large wet, marshy woods with a potato field on the other side. We are also far enough away from any large lake or civilization of any real sort to make us totally undesirable for development. Oh, and best of all our house is a 1/4 mile off the end of a 1 mile long, gravel, dead end road. Now, if global warming would just make it up this far so we weren't buried in snow 6 months out of the year we would be perfect!

It also would be kind of nice to be able to get a cell signal so we could dump the lousy phone company. I love the freedom of our well and septic. That is a stickler for new builds where there are no city services. We are the land of John Muir, Aldo Leopold and the birthplace of Earth Day and GreenPeace after all so the environmental regulations are insane. Now new constructions can no longer have septic systems, only holding tanks. Another barrier. Our "back forty" has been declared a protected wetland so we can't even put in a new road back there.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Thanks for the laugh, Wisher. Your pictures sure look like a garlic makeover. The before is hideous, the after is passable for cute.

I'll send you a few cloves to try this year. They have to cure for probably 3 weeks or so before mailing or they'll get damaged. Remind me if you haven't heard anything by September.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Got my next quilt top done today:





Next is quilting it. I'm doing it online as part of a quilt-a-long so the hardest part is waiting for the next installment to be posted.

 

[drumstick diva]

beautiful, cheerful design - nowadays I really need CHEERFULNESS