Our Crazy Busy Summer....AKA Preserving the Harvest

It has been more than 2 months since I last had time to blog.

Please forgive me.....AGAIN

  So today, I thought I'd share with you what has been keeping me from blogging! 

I'm telling you, 

I have been crazy busy!

Maintaining our garden

as well as our family relationships has been challenging to say the least. We are still going back and forth between our country home on weekends and our city digs during the week. 

2 homes in 2 states is just too MUCH!

  Of course, my heart is AlWAYS at HOME!

I'm a country girl at HEART!

Even though we couldn't watch over the garden as diligently as we would have liked, we managed to harvest quite a bit of goodness to fill our freezer and pantry!

Zucchini Bread!!!

We had a pretty nice strawberry harvest this year. 

I froze many of them, after we ate our fill, of course.  

I also made a small batch of jam.  We are not big jam/jelly eaters, because of the sugar.  But the grandkids always have to have pbj's when they come over.  I personally don't like the taste of pectins in jam.  I have made pectin-free jam before by literally cooking the jam to death over the stove. 

But here is a trick worth sharing.  I happen to have this high end bread machine that makes pectin-free jam, and it does all the work.

Really! it has a jam setting!  I bought this machine a long time ago for baking bread after my old welbilt machine died.  However, I rarely, if ever bake bread in it.  Usually, I just mix the bread in the machine and then bake it in my own pan.  But this jelly setting is SWEET!

 When the jam was finished, 

I put it into hot jars and gave it a water bath.  Wala!

 We had quite a few wild black berries on the homestead.  I made a few more jars of bread machine jars of blackberry jam and I made some blackberry vinegar! This is going to make a yummy vinaigrette.

preserving herbs is a never ending job!

I have found that there isn't a better place to bond than in the garden.  This is true for grand kids as well.

This boy is quite the foodie.

His mama has introduced him to lots of veggies.  He will try almost anything.

 After spending the morning in the garden, we made lunch with all the goodies we picked.  He had beans, zucchini, fresh potatoes and kale chips.  Also, he requested some pickled beets.  He loves pickled beets!  Crazy, I know for a 5 y/o to request beets.  Of course he had watermelon for dessert.  He was one happy boy.

We were able to spend some time swimming and picnicking with kiddos on weekends.  So much fun!  

Check it out......3 more reasons why I don't have time to blog!

The Good news is....

I'm home right now.  

I'm trying desperately to get all our food put away.  

Right now, I'm up to my elbows in tomatoes.  I usually can tomato juice, tomato sauce and salsa. 

 This year, I'd like to give ketchup a try.  I'd like to find a recipe that i can pass off as store bought.  If you could help me out with this, I'd be forever grateful!

Until next time....

Keep it Simple.....

Tammy

New Man on Campus

I've got a new man running around the ol' homestead!

Scrapbook page from 2009 of our Homestead

I can promise you, 

a new man was NOT something I was looking for.

But Hubs had other plans.

Don't you just love how husbands volunteer you for things he's conveniently forgotten to discuss with you first?!  

Sunday afternoon, I saw a truck pulling into our driveway.  

I Went outside to check it out....

...And there he was.....

Already making himself at home with my girls!

Yep, it was a rooster.
And not just any rooster.

A Rhode Island Red.

A friend of a friend had 2 roosters that didn't get along.

So Hubs was so kind as to offer one of the boys a place to stay.

Kind of him, eh?

I didn't want any roosters.

I don't think the girls did either. (they told me so;)

Life was good without a rooster.

The barnyard was quiet all summer

with the exception of some

"I just laid an egg"

cackling.

And the 

"Hawk Alert"

ruckus.

We've had a variety of roosters over the years.  

And I've had a few favorites.

 Here's my very first rooster (above), many years ago.  He was an independent agent.  He kept to himself, usually outside the fencing, and yet somehow he still seemed  able to maintain his harem.  His name was 

Eugene... often referred to as Eugenious

Oh, did I tell you he was named after my favorite chicken dinner at a local restaurant?  

Don't hate me!  

Take this handsome fellow......

his name was Cham

(he was named after my ornery grandpa, whose nickname was Cham)

I'll give you one guess how he got that name?

And then there was this guy.....

his name was Nutsy.....because....

Well, he was nuts!

Let's just say his elevator didn't quite go to the top!

...very entertaining!

This big old boy was our own

FOGHORN LEGHORN.

But unlike the original Foghorn,

he was a beautiful 

White Jersey Giant.

But if there is one thing that I learned very quickly,

it was that 

where there's a rooster.....

There's always going to be trouble!

Take this Auraucana,  he was a bully!

In fact, he killed our beloved

Polish Silver Crested Rooster, (dopie) Opie.

Opie was handsome (but not very smart) and that nameless Auraucana knew it!

And then there was this guy..

..he had a mean streak too.

He took out his frustrations on anyone who dared to enter the chicken coop.

Can anyone say

Chicken soup!

 So all I can say is....

This rooster better be well behaved.

So far, so good.

The girls are keeping him in line.

He's outnumbered you know, 29-1.

In our coop, the pecking order is apparent when it's time to roost.

The old girls get the top rung. 

Younger/new girls can fight over the lower rungs.

So far, Mr Roo hasn't made it passed the bottom rung. 

I watched tonight when I put them to bed.

He tried to move up the ladder,

but girls just pummeled down to the ground.

If you'd like to read the story of how we got to be chicken people, you can check out our story, here.

The place where our chicken love began

So now begs the question...

What shall we call this new man on campus?

If you have any catchy names for this guy 

PLEASE leave me a comment.

I'd love to hear all your ideas.

 'Cause frankly,

I'm just plum out of ideas.

This post is linked to

Barn Hop #81

Enjoying the Homestead

A look  in the opposite direction.  Our little table blends right in with its surroundings. The cornfield behind us (on the right) is a great place to see deer at dusk.

A view from the table looking out across the garden and the field across the road
 where we often see deer coming out to feed in the evenings.

We have a field that we refer to as our garden.  Adjacent to the garden, is the chicken/turkey yard.  In between is a strip of grass and an old wooden table.  

During the summer months we spend a lot of our evenings in the garden and just sitting at the table...talking, enjoying a cool drink and being entertained by the chickens.  We also enjoy watching the wildlife.  Here's a 

look at a typical evening.  

(click to enlarge)

The Oriole family that has a nest over the chicken yard keeps busy feeding the little ones.

Hubs sampling some berries

Runaway Chicken- She is an escape artist!

 Josie entertains herself by chasing butterflies...

 or chewing a stick!

What a cutie!

It's difficult to see, but there are several deer grazing in the corn field at dusk.