Dog Days August on the Homestead

Wanted to get a new thread going but I don't remember how to post a link to the old one. Somebody please help me out!

I am sitting on the porch enjoying the weather this morning. It has been cool the last week or so. Warms up nice during the day.

Garden is slowing down. Eggplants are still doing well as in the summer squash. Cukes, not so much. My last mater plant is quickly being overtaken by the blight but I have hopes for a volunteer Matt's Wild Cherry that has come up far away from the garden. Has lots of fruit and blooms on it and there are a cluster of the plants. Will make for good late season snacking. My corn is very late. Growing pretty good but showing no sign of tasseling yet. The second planting of beans is looking good. The cool nights have slowed them down. Praying we don't get an early winter. Have I mentioned I hate cold weather?

Had to put my best friend down. Galloway was 14 1/2. He had a good life and made my life much better by being a part of it. Still miss him like crazy. Went ahead and got a new pup 3 weeks ago today. Adopted her from the pound. She was on the urgent list. A feist mix, 5 1/2 months old. Looks like she has some terrier in her. My guess would be JRT. Smart as a whip but she has a stubborn streak. Pretty little thing.

The boys went home Sunday morning. We have cried and cried. Only had them for 1 month this summer but it was a good summer. They are growing up way too fast. Knock is as tall as me now and handsome as can be. Radar is a bottomless pit and is always set on go. Never a dull moment with him and his inventions.

Steve is doing well but still has a lot of pain in his hips. They are trying to move his appointment at the pain management clinic and he is fighting it. He has already waited for 3 months and has no script for pain meds. Doesn't rest much and sometimes it makes him sick to the point of throwing up. Please say a prayer for him. We are thanking God that his kidneys are doing so well. Kidney doc had told him he would be facing dialysis in 12 -18 months when she first saw him. His kidneys were at 37 percent output. Now they are up to 69 percent. A huge blessing.

I am doing pretty well but getting weaker. Yesterday was a bad leg day. Lots of weakness and spasms. But today seems to be a bit better. I will take it. It was such a blessing for me to have Knock here. He took most of my load off at the barn. Now back to the grind.

Our son fixed our truck for us while he was here on the weekend. Put in the new steering column and ran a new brake line. Now to get the new brake pads put on and we are good to go. Then we can bring Coffee to vet to have her put down. She is getting weaker by the day. It is so sad to see. We love her but there is nothing we can do for her. It will be a very sad day. We rescued her 7 years ago and have spent everyday since trying to "fix" her but her death sentence had already been handed down.

A man from church brought me 3 young roosters. I will butcher them in the next few days. They will taste wonderful. Strange to hear the crowing. Have not had any chickens here at the house for several years.

Hope you are all doing well.

Caj, it's so sad to have to put down our pets, no matter what variety.

I only had to do it once but that velcro puppy was such a huge part of my life (although I had her for just 7 years), and when her kidneys failed it felt like my own death sentence.

I know what you mean. We only had Ginger for 2 years but it really hurt when we had to put her down. I think knowing how bad she had it before we got her made it worse. But we gave her 2 good years at the end of her life.

A friend gave me two milk crates full of Stark's Jumbo apples and two boxes of Macintosh apples this evening. I have a lot of cleaning up to do because she is elderly and does not get them sprayed correctly so they have spots on them but we will really enjoy them. The animals will really enjoy the scraps too. I gave my friend some yellow squash and a white eggplant. She has never eaten eggplant before.

Caj, see if your local library has the book "Miracle of Magnesium" or can order it for you via inter-library loan. It sounds like you are magnesium-deficient, as are 90% of Americans these days.

My doc put me on magnesium oxide (the cheapest kind) but I found out it's only 4% bio-available. I now take a slow-release magnesium chloride and it has helped my leg muscles and cramping a LOT.

Despite my recent heart attack and hospitalization, I'm doing a few things in the garden although in general the garden is a bust this year. I've had to pay someone to mow and weed-eat when I couldn't do it, and he mowed down a lot of small veggie plants in the garden, mostly pole beans and winter squash.

I do have some late summer squash (heirloom lemon squash from Baker Creek, http://www.rareseeds.com/lemon-squash/ ) coming on, and a few tomatoes on my 2 store-bought heirloom plants. My own heirloom tomato seedlings died while I was in the hospital for 10 days and it was too late in the season to start more. Same for winter squash.

I will look into it. The MD is the culprit but some magnesium may help. I have myotonia dystrophy where the muscles tighten but have trouble turning lose. It is painful but I manage. I hate to complain when I can look around and see so many are are far worse off than me. I just count my blessings.

How is your health now? I wish I was closer and could help you out. I know you enjoy filling the pantry with healthy foods for winter. Will you be able to put anything by? I was curious as to whether or not you have cold smoked anything as of late.

This thread is sure lonesome. Everybody must be plenty busy. My garden is slowing down. I am still getting squash and eggplant but my cukes are about done. I am not going to pull them up though because I don't need the room for anything else right now and they are loaded with small fruit. I may end up getting some late cukes if the vines can hold on. My second planting of beans are all blooming. Really looking forward to those. I have a couple corn stalks tasseling and I hope they have time to make before cold weather.

Right now I am busy cleaning about a bushel of Apple's a friend gave me. I have dried a couple batches and I am going to freeze some for a friend. They will taste good come winter. We like fried apples.

Caj, I'm managing to put a few things by, despite my failed garden this year. I have 10 lbs. of pork belly in the freezer to cure and cold smoke about mid-October after my seafood trip to the Outer Banks. If we can get some good shrimp on that trip I may smoke a few of them, too.

Mmm. Sounds delish! I have never been to the outer banks but I have read about them.

Are the rest of you getting as much rain as we are? We had a downright storm Wednesday evening. Knocked down trees and blew things over. Knocked my corn flat. Luckily it was planted on the backside of the gate I had put up to tie my mater cages to. I stood the stalks back up and tied each one to the gate. I use plastic shopping bags cut into strips for tying. Looks like they are no worse for the wear. Did a number on my beans too but I think they will survive. Sure hope so. I should be picking beans in a week or so. Cukes are done. I pulled one up and need to get the other out. Looks like my squash and eggplants have caught a second wind!! We are sure enjoying them.

I tried something new yesterday and DH really liked it. I made some Apple slaw. I had never heard of it but I had lots of apples from my friend. Some golden delicious that were very tasty, so I peeled and shredded a couple, added just a bit of shredded sweet vidalia onion, a couple spoons of bread and butter pickle relish and some of the brine from the relish, some garlic powder, basil and parsley flakes and then a bit of mayo. Ate it with fried fish and fried squash. Very tasty. Think I will make some more.

I have to get back to work on a church party we are having for the kids tomorrow evening. Just a little back to school celebration. Some games, refreshments, face painting, a petting zoo and a movie. I hope we have a good turnout.

Hope you are all doing well.

Ah, so you are the one getting all our rain; drought here from June on.

The apple slaw sounds really good!

I would love to send you some of this rain. We are getting too much but the good thing is the snakes are staying up in the mountains instead of coming down for water.

I just had a nice supper. I scrapped the last of the tomatoes from my friend's plants. Just a handful of small ones. I fried some thick cut bacon and made myself a sandwich and a glass of iced tea. Mmm

Gotta get a shower and head to bed. Busy day tomorrow. Rest well.

Debbie and I are canning tomatoes today. we're having fun. I made strawberry jam for Herself yesterday, and blackberry jam, and blackberry jelly. I may do some apple jelly after we're done with the 'maters. Next week it'll be green beans, and a little sweet corn.

Nik, sounds like a busy household!

I oven-roasted another batch of tomatoes (from a neighbor, mine have late blight) with onions and garlic yesterday, and they are in the fridge along with boiled sweet corn I need to cut off the cob to can. A packed-full 9 x 13 pan of tomatoes only yielded a quart after cooking down, and will be even less once I run them through a food mill to eliminate the skins and seeds.

I just don't have the energy to drag out the canning equipment since I had the recent heart attack, and I'm out of freezer space.

Nick, how do you make Apple jelly? I have lots of Apple's right now from friends.

My way is sort of guaranteed to work but it's not really a recipe. I just "tinkered". I run the apples through the blender until they are pretty well pureed. Then I put them in a paint sprayer bag and squeeze them until the only thing left in the bag is dry pulp. I take the resulting juice and bring to a boil. Then add pectin (I know, who adds pectin to apples? I do. I told you it was hard to screw up.) and sugar all at once.Bring it back to a boil for 1 minute, then pour/dip it into my sterilized jars. After I screw down the lids I set it upside down on the counter to cool. it works pretty good. But, I realize it is pretty unconventional. The chickens
get the stuff left in the bag.

Thanks so much. When you say pectin do you mean like surejell? Also, do you peel and core the apples before they go into the blender? I know these are likely stupid questions but I won't know if I don't ask. I am cleaning apples now and would like to make some jelly.

This message was edited Aug 28, 2013 9:05 AM

Got my trash taken to the road today. I also fed the roosters and the dogs. Fed one of the cats and threw some apples to the goat and the pony. Pulled up the spent squash and clue vines and threw them on the burn pile. Dusted some ants. Picked my beans and I am cleaning some apples. I think I will take a break and cook something to eat. Hope you all are having a good day also.

Nearly forgot. I am thinking of making a deal with a friend of mine. They want a nanny goat and I have been trying to sell mine because she won't stay in the fence and I am not able to crawl around up on the hillside to keep all the vines out of the hot fence. I am going to offer to give her to my friend with a couple strings. He has a Billy so she will breed at his house. I want to bring her back here just before she has the kids and milk her after they are born. Also, if one of the kids is a doe, I will get to keep it. It will be a good deal for him because he gets a brush goat at no charge and will likely get a kid before long because she always has twins. I will do all the taming of the kid and it will keep the doe tame. It will be a good deal for me because I will get the milk and a kid. My doe is about five now so I need a younger doe. That will give me at least six months to revamp my fences. Any thoughts?

Sounds like a plan!

sounds like a good plan. if you have fence issues, you can put a choke collar on Nanny, and tie her to a pallet or a concrete block. she can still move and clean your brush, but slower, and she can't jump the fence.

Yes, suregel is pectin and that's the brand I use. I don't peel or core the apples, just quarter them and toss them into the blender.
I do peel and core the apples I am canning for pies and such. we did 14 quarts and 14 pints of those. We also froze 10 dozen ears of corn. we boil it, then Debbie cuts it off the ear. I come along and bag it up into the vacuum bags and vacuum seal it. Then I bag all the silk. It doesn't really have to be dried if you are going to store it in the freezer. I boil it with a bit of mint and alfalfa and a couple stevia leaves and it makes a good evening tea. Cornsilk is awesome for the kidneys, and alfalfa is just plain good for you.

Well, I have learned something. I though the only use for corn silk was to smoke or. LOL I got some more apples today.

I would like to make cider from my apples but I have no press. Any ideas?

Caj, Try this:
Kitchen-Table Cider Making
http://makezine.com/projects/make-36-boards/kitchen-table-cider-making/

Thanks for sending the link but my computer won't open it. Grrr

We got a load of hay today. The baling crew loaded it for us but DH and I unloaded and stacked it all in the barn ourselves. Go Us!!! Then I pulled up water from the well, fed the animals, cleaned two stalls, cooked supper and finished watching LSU win big tonight. Mercy, I am ready for bed.

Caj, then just google "Kitchen-Table Cider Making" and it should turn up.

I will go look for it. Thanks.

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