The things I done did.

I got to can in the daylight! Talk about bliss. There is something to the saying about taking things for granted. . . 

I digress, last night I harvest a decent amount of cucumbers, crookneck squash and summer squash.

I am running dangerously low on canning jars. An added stress in my life. Wait, I promised not to get whinny about things. Let us move on. One solution to lack of jars;

A bit of airing out and sun drying. 

I decided to use some of the crooknecked squash in a relish. Sunshine is always needed in the darkest of winter.

Sunshine relish

4 lbs shredded crookneck squash 

2 large onions, minced

1 large red bell pepper, chopped

2 tablespoons canning salt

4 cups sugar

3 cups cider vinegar

1 tablespoon each celery seed,  and ground turmeric

1 tablespoon whole seed mustard

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cracked peppercorn

Directions

In a large pot combine the sugar, vinegar , salt and seasonings. Bring to

a boil. Add squash, onion and bell pepper then return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer

for about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Ladle hot mixture into six hot pint jars, leaving 1/2-in.

headspace. Remove air bubbles; wipe rims and adjust lids. Process

for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner. 

I went ahead and canned a few jars of straight squash. Just sliced summer squash in water. A bit of salt if you'd like. You really should pressure can these at 10 lbs for 30 mins. I hot water bathed for over 90 mins.

And finally some sweet pickles. I have the mixture premade so that I don't have to have a plethora of cucumbers to start canning. Just reheat the mixture if you have leftover.

2-1/2 pounds 3-inch pickling cucumbers, well-scrubbed and quartered into spears (about 12 cups spears)

4 cups cider vinegar

4 cups sugar

1/4 cup kosher salt

2 teaspoons mustard seeds

3/4 teaspoon celery seeds

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 

6 heads dill

2 medium sweet white onions, halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 12 1/2inch-thick slices (I actually minced them this time)

7 whole cloves, crushed

In a large saucepan, stir together vinegar, sugar, salt, mustard seeds, celery seeds, cloves and pepper. Bring to a boil over a high heat, stir to dissolve sugar.

Put dill and 1 slice of onion (or the minced onion) at the bottom of each of your sterile jars.

Pack spears into sterile quart (pints for me) jars. ladle vinegar mix over cucumbers in the jar, leaving 1/4 inch head space. Process in hot water bath for 5, 10, 15 minutes depending on how high you are from sea level.

The above picture was taken just as I removed the jars from the canner. The pickles will stop floating in 24 hours. I know that freaks some of you out. -wry grin-

Dill pickles

We are down to one vehicle right now. The motorcycle is firing on one cylinder at this time. Hopefully Husband will be able to get to it this weekend. Because of this, we closed shop early, so he could get to his second shift job, and I could get home.

With several hours extra time on my hands down in the hole. (Feeling so small. . . .I'd like to fly, but my wings have been so denied) I was able to process 11 pints of dill pickles. 

Unfortunately I haven't yet began to replenish my herb supply. Some of my herbs are coming up, but pickling season is now, not just next year. That means I had to buy some of the ingredients.

I had more than enough cucumbers to keep me in hamburger dills for the next two years. 11lbs.

If you don't remember or are new, I love my hand powered food processor. Makes things much easier, and less tiring. Especially when you have kids to run it for you.

My first round of slicing didn't turn out like I wanted to. Oh the despair! How could you dissapoint me so food processor? A change was made.

 

The crinkle cut cone worked wonderfully.  They will be a welcome addition to my burgers and other sandwiches. 

 

Dill is the first of my herbs to be ready. I am grateful to them for growing like they should. I must have a conversation with a few of the others. 

For dill pickles you will need;

4 quarts water

6 tablespoons coarse white Kosher salt

18-20 cucumbers, scrubbed

8 cloves garlic, unpeeled and lightly-crushed

2 tablespoons pickling spice (recipe below)

6 bay leaves

1 large bunch of dill, going to seed, washed

In a large pot, heat 1 qt of the water with salt until dissolved. Add the remaining water.

Sterilize 3 quart canning jars

divide the garlic, spices, bay leaves, and dill amongst them.

If doing halves, pack the cucumbers vertically into the jars, making sure are very tightly-packed. 

Fill the jars with brine so that the cucumbers are completely covered. Hot water bath for 20-30 mins for halves, 15 minutes for pints of chips. Ready to eat in 3 days.

Pickling spice:

2 tablespoons black peppercorns

2 tablespoons mustard seeds

2 tablespoons coriander seeds

2 tablespoons hot red pepper flakes

2 tablespoons allspice berries

1 tablespoon ground mace

2 small cinnamon sticks, crushed or broken into pieces

24 bay leaves, crumbled

2 tablespoons whole cloves

1 tablespoon ground ginger.

In a small dry pan, combine peppercorns, mustard seeds and coriander seeds. Place over medium heat and stir until fragrant, careful not to burn them. Keep the lid handy in case seeds pop. Crack peppercorns and seeds in mortar and pestle (or use the side of a knife on cutting board).

Mix together all ingredients. Store in a tightly sealed plastic or glass container.

Weeds

I have weeds! I am a human being!

Excuse my Elephant-man moment.

I was asked to post pictures of the weeds in my garden. Suddenly I feel I am defending myself against being called Martha Stewert. No, not really just whipping up the drama, it's for effect.

Weeds in my green beans

Weeds in my onion

Brussel sprouts and weeds

Dill weeds! (You knew that was coming.)

I even have tomatoes in my weeds.

Weeds and squash.

Now I hope my accuser feels better.  Otherwise I might end up in a pickle.

Oh the garden puns are bad with this one.

I get an hour, sometimes a bit more, in the garden daily. Harvesting takes most of the time, but I try to weed as I go along. All the weeds pictured above have been severally crippled. Yet there are more waiting for my attention. Sunday is my only real day to get out there.

Husband works a lot. He has many other things to take up his only day off. And my attempt to get the boys involved in the garden project gets mixed results. Some days they are on it. Especially if they find horn worms, then it is on! Weeding isn't on their bucket lists. And I don't blame them, I wouldn't want it there either. But this weekend I am picking up a year old bale (free) to use as mulch. The soil here drains way too well. I have had to water in the week between rains. I am use to heavier soil, so find this odd. The hay will help that and then I can be called names for the weedlessness of my garden. And I will accept them humbly.  

I think the lack of chocking weeds comes from the fact that the garden soil was broken by hand. I scooted along on my butt, slowly pulling out root balls and rocks. It took two months to prepare the soil. And I think it was worth it. I have had gardens with life force destroying weeds. The tedium of removing them brought tears to the eyes and blisters on the fingers. And although this took much longer than the tiller, I believe it was worth it. With the weather cooler in the early spring, I wasn't sweating and cursing. I think I will continue to prep this side of the garden in this manner, we can till the other side for the food items that can defend themselves much better. 

And I might just be a little bit gung-ho about things. My first garden after the wreck, my first garden on my new land. There is a good chance of slackness taking over. And my garden of weeds will return to its former glory. 

I expect my accuser to reciprocate. Let me see those weeds baby. 

 

A Frivolous post

I am canning 2 quarts of green beans nightly. However, I am losing quart jars at half the rate, 1 per night so far. They are just too old. I only have so many pint jars, and they are just as elderly. 

 I finally was able to harvest peas. Not even a half pint, but still I am stoked.  It took years for me to find the peas that would actually produce in Kansas drought. I will try a different pea type come fall, see how well they do. I have hope! 

Cucumbers are close to harvest,

So are some of the squashes.

Food wise, I think this winter will be vastly better. 

Husband was mowing the lawn the other day.

I of course took photos. Husband and his idiot stick. Someday we may have a tractor again. Until then, this is how we have to keep the fields cleared.

When he caught me taking his photo he informed me "it's hard work being eye candy".

Of course I don't find it that hard, but then I'm just watching. (Ewww mushy stuff!)

We keep are spirits high, even when things are difficult. We have ran into many problems, many I have kept from you. We will eventually get everything straightened out. We always do. 

Independence Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th! 

As for me, I stayed in the holler to babysit the cows, and allowed the boys to go to town to be kids and enjoy the holiday.

They really enjoyed the Internet from what I have been told. Aw well. It gave them time to be kids without responsibilities. 

Before my story continues I have to obligatory warning; do this and you could die, sayth the FDA and USDA.

I canned 13 pints of green beans.

They are a bit larger than I like to pick, but right now I can only do things when I am able to get to them. These will be put in the way back shelf, give them time to soften up a bit more, to be used last or in stew. They still pop when snapped, I didn't keep any rubber ones.

Still without propane, I had to use an open fire to can.

It's difficult and super tedious to pressure can on a campfire. It requires you get it very hot, then back off on the heat and attempt to maintain a constant temptature. I might be talented, but not that talented. I chose to hot water bath them. 

Gasp!

It takes 90 mins to do, at a hard boil. 

While the first batch was going, I harvest and started drying more spinach.

 

Without an electric dehydrator (I have one packed somewhere) I use a window frame with screen, placed on four logs, then cover with hail screen. With the moisture here, it takes two to three days for them to completely dry.

I thought I might take a bath, but the cows kept drinking my bath water.

Soon my first batch of green beans were done, and I restoked the fire and started the second batch.

Sunday I will be able to can the younger, better tasting green beans. 

What you have been dying to see.

Garden, July 1st.

Why yes, I am proud of myself. My first garden in two years. My first garden in Kentucky. 

Green beans

Forgot to get a garden picture this morning. So a feast for your eyes. My first grean bean harvest!

Supper yummy. Rinse well, cook in a bit of white wine and halved peaches in foil over a campfire. A little salt and cracked pepper to season. My preferred method for fresh green beans. Goes well with lamb or pork. 

I am very stoked about having fresh veggies again. Canning starts this weekend. 

And pretty maids all in a row.

While the fire is rolling, heating up water or food, my second task of the day after getting home from the shop is working in the garden. I am still gimpy and weeding is difficult on me, but I muster through it like a zombie stroke victim. 

More than once I have heard "What on earth are you doing?" Followed by an uncomfortable giggle lobbed in my direction.  Depending on who is doing the questioning, I will reply with a straight face a Dr Who quote, and zombie jest, or ramble incoherently about Cthulhu.  More times than not however, I peek up over the tops of my plants and demand they retrieve my boomstick, "I see deadites".  I am always greated with a laugh, and then they have the audacity to call me a dork.  I don't blame them, you crawl around on only one knee, half a butt in the air poking out above the vegetation and see how much you get snickered at. I have attempted weeding sitting down, it gets uncomfortable and I always end up back in the starting postion of the 100 meter dash. 

I have managed to trellis my peas. Which has thrilled me to no end.  Look what I did! (Feel free to acknowledge the previous dork statement) 

When we first arrived, I purchased a small packet of locally raised spinach seed. My thinking is that since they were grown and harvested here that they will do better than my seed saved Kansas seeds. I planted both at the same time. And took some pictures to prove that my assumption was dead wrong.

Ky Seed

Ks seed

(Yes I am lacking on the weed free front. See opening statement for my rebuttal) 

I have already harvest a lot of the KS spinach, eaten them and processed some into noodles. I have yet to harvest any of the local spinach and it has already gone to bolt.

I am disappointed. I was looking to diversify my spinach stock as I have been seed saving this particular type for many a years. 

Oh well. Maybe this will cheer us all up. Cucumber flowers!

Just one of those days.

I am exhausted. So much so that I am unsure if it is a good, satisfying exhaustion or not. My muscles ach, deep to the bones, my head throbs to the rhythm of my pulsating heart, my stomach too tired to grumble over a missed meal. 

My morning consist of waking the boys for school; they have to make up a month of missed school days due to snow. Getting them up to the bus on time, 

then coming back down to work in the garden. The rocks are rather thick. This land use to be a road until the 1970's, I think that is some of the rocks I am finding. Sitting, as I still have not graduated to crawling as of yet. My knee is better, however the sensation of pressure makes my stomach churn, it is a least not tired enough to cause me queasiness.  For two hours, I slowly churn the soil into rows, removing as much roots, weeds and rocks as I am allowed. Thankfully the neighbor had broken the ground of the second half of my garden, it makes working it much easier. If, and that is an if, I finish clearing a row, I plant seeds, and move on. Small Farm Girl gave me two red bell pepper plants yesterday. I am humbly grateful. 

Finally it's time to wake Husband. With him working 16 hour days, driving another 2 hours, 

he gets 6 full hours of sleep. I give him every minute of it, no matter how selfish I am feeling that day. With this new schedule, all the homestead work falls on my shoulders. In a way I am glad not to be milking cows at this point. But I am working on plans for a parlor, and soon that will be thrown into the mix. At this time the girls are allowed their freedoms, though they take too much liberty with them at times. 

Once Husabnd is awake and dressed, it's off to the shop. Business has picked up, and we are looking forward to our first open house this weekend.

Most days I watch Husband work, I pay bills, order parts, and answer the phone. There are times I have to cut in and pull a client away from Husband so that work can be accomplished. With more clients comes more busy work for me. Yet even on the slow days, I can arrive home tired. 

Returning home causes frantic hustling. The boys tend to neglect chores when left alone. As soon as I pull up, I bark orders. Fire needs to get going, dishes need to be sorted, tub filled with water after watering the garden with yesterday's water. 

As the fire heats the flywheel, and drinking water, warming to where I can begin cooking, laundry gets soaked in the tub. While dinner simmers, I start the wash process. It takes a good hour of scrubbing to get them clean, and I am fortunate that the warm weather makes rinsing the clothes fun for the youngest two boys. I find myself rushing between dinner and laundry. Folding, stirring, wringing, stirring, hanging, stirring, serving. Finally a break. We eat dinner, just the boys and I, and settle in to watch a movie before bed and waking to repeat that days events. 

What we doing today?

The same thing we do everyday Pinky. . .  

Garden June 1st

My first garden here in Kentucky, you bet I will be documenting it. 

Suck it up buttercup. (Edit)

Or; On the next episode of survivor.

Some days it feels that way, except the part where I backstab my friends and win money.  I am sitting home alone as I type this. Boys are at school, and Husband is at work orientation, finally. There is no coffe at the house, as I have stopped building fires in the morning, and I have developed a slight headache. I'm sucking it up. Actually I am taking a short break from gardening. I have spent several hours this morning weeding a mulching.

 A word of advice, gather leaves while everything is dead, it gets a bit cumbersome once things start growing again. You find yourself standing in a forest asking the chirping squirrels where the leaves are. 

I gave in, and sprayed myself in deet. The locals tell me listerine works, but I didn't have any on hand. I couldn't stand the ticks anymore. It is a daily battle, and we are losing. Every time we have an itch, Spoon! (Comic book reference) we think it might be a tick. And the majority of the time we are correct. They itch for weeks on end. I am glad I made the Goblin Spit. 

And now that the jewel weed is growing again, I will be making a lot more of it. 

Speaking of weeds, my house has bundles of early German camomile hanging to dry. I can use them in so many concoctions. And the smell of honey suckle has began to perfume the air, albeit scantly. Blackberry and raspberry bushes are in full bloom. I keep thinking about all the breads, cakes, and sauces I can make with everything. It's been so long since I have had a honey suckle cake, mouth waters with anticipation. Oh oh with a decadent raspberry sauce. . . Oh my. . .

I don't have any tomato plants yet, I fear I won't be able to get any. However I have planted onions, green beans, cucumbers, carrots, peas, lettuce, spinach, lavender, basil, parsley, spearmint, oregano, corrinder, cilantro, mustard, radish, potatoes, sweet majorum, watermelon, lumina pumpkin, winter squashes, summer squashes, pinto beans, kidney beans, black eye beans, good neighbor peas, brussel sprouts, popcorn, hickory corn, blue corn, and sweet corn. Oh and sunflowers and okra. I know I am missing a few herbs on the list, I know I planted more. Just not remembering right off the bat.  Even without tomatoes, there are so many things I can make that we might not miss them too badly. Thoough Husband might throw a hissy.  I'll have to see what I can do to get at least a couple of plants. Oh and I planted Bloody Butcher corn.

With the winter now gone, I of course feel better. One of the big things with this past winter is that I was doing it without husband most of the time. He was back in Kansas during the artic blast, he left on my birthday and came back right before Christmas. Before then he was gone a few weeks as well. I was alone, I was stressed, I was frightened, and still gimpy. I realize some women do this without a Husband, I know that some women go without seeing their men for weeks at a time. When Husband use to work motorcycle rallies, he would be gone for a month at a time. But it was different, I knew where I was with the world, I had an established home, I knew my neighbors, I had money, electricity, running water. I had a wonderful group of friends that could rescue me in a moments notice. I had my family. Not here, in this new world. Here it is all raw.

Today, I find myself more at peace with the woods. Not as worried that something is going to jump out and bite me. 

We have a few things on our to do list. For starters we need a lean to for our fire wood. We had a lot stacked in the house during the winter, weeks worth. It helped insulate the place, but we can't continue that. We are just asking for trouble. With the rainy season we have gotten very good at starting fires with damp wood. Not the most ideal situations, but it has to be done so I can cook and we can have wash water and drinking water.

We had to stop drinking the public water. It was making us sick. We boil our creek water over night, then in a make shift filter, we pour it into 6 gallon drinking jugs. We are no longer getting sick. Husband has to build a new base for my pitcher pump, and then I will be able to get water out of the cistern. 

Medium has a gift for lighting fires with damp wood. He doesn't use anything but leaves, wood and matches. Even under the threat of a downpour, he gets it going. Food is a great motivator. 

I guess I have taken up enough of your time. I will tell you about our other to do items later. 

A client just came by the shop and gave me a tip.

Dirty and tired

Hope you had a good Easter weekend. 

Ours was of course sparse. No egg hunt, but I did managed to round up a bit of candy for the boys. We cooked outside as it is now that time of year. But before an early dinner, we worked the garden.

Husband and I spent hours working the soil with a hand cultivator and our hands. We might have gotten a third of it cleaned up. Still not ready to plant anything in it yet, but it is getting closer. My hand's still hurt this morning. 

My heart is heavy this morning, but I need to wait until things come to completion before I write them down. 

I digress, after our sun burns took on lives of their own, Husband and I settled down along the Styx Creek and watched Medium and Small feed the minnows. We laughed as we watched the fish grab worms, lager than themselves, and then behave like chickens. One would "run" while a horde would chase behind. Suddenly something twice the size of the largest minnow (largest minnow would be about three finger wide and 6" long) came shooting out from under the small waterfall, stealing the worm and disappearing under the leaves. I have tried looking it up, but can't seem to describe it well enough for the search engine. I though a catfish at first, it was blue, with two white spikes on either side of it's face, yet it's mouth wasn't as flat as typical catfish. We seem to have found two of them in the Creek Styx.

(Last year's photo)

Husband got the fire going, and. I set about dinner. With no breeze to cool our sunburns, the fire quickly got me in a not so pleasant mood, yet dinner was bueatifully done. Husband quickly fashioned an oven over top so that I could bake a cake. The oven work well too well. The cake was done in five minutes, and I checked it at ten. Aw well the chared part peeled right off. The cake was a bit flat as it didn't have much time to rise. Still yummy, and the boys gobbled it up. 

Sleep came as a blessing. I was so exhausted. Having not done much manual labor in the year and a half since the wreck, this has been trying. My knee is stiff today, but not worse for wear. We are in the shop this morning, though technically closed on Mondays, Husband scheduled a motorcycle in and we have two to send home. 

I am grateful things have picked up, but it has come too late.

Still here

We finished tearing up the soil for the garden, by hand. A Maddox and a garden claw can do wonders.

And my cool weather veggies are sprouting. This in itself makes me feel better. Of course it helps that word of Husband's genius has gotten out, and the V-twin guys are starting to show up at the shop. It's still a struggle, but things are looking brighter. 

The boys enjoyed their first swim of the season. Of course the water was freezing, and I should know, I went in. There is another small waterfall down stream. husband and I walked down here to bathe. I could lay at the top of the fall, hang my head off the ridge, and wash my hair with abandonment. It was wonderfully awesome. Only words to describe it. I felt so much cleaner in the creak than I have in the tub. Chilly, but blissful.

Miss Buckets even joined in.

Watermelon seeds that were spit out last fall are starting to sprout. As well as many windflowers and wild onion.

I chased sheep around, trying to get a photo of the lamb. Turns out it is a girl.

I still am unable to run, however I did manage to get into a skip without my knee hurting.

This is Pail. She was dumped at the top of our hill. We found her during the coldest part of the winter, and I just couldn't have her freeze to death.

At least she smiles.

That's the extent of what is happening here. Besides I think I am going to change the name of the holler. The garden has taken up most of our time. Once that is in, other things can start.

Oh, and. Husband named the bull calf, Bullbo. (We had a Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit marathon)