A Good Problem To Have

In the past week, I have been kept so busy it seems I barely have time to sleep. It's a problem.  But, it's a good problem to have.  Definitely a first world problem, and even more elite than that as I doubt many Americans have this particular problem.

You see, I have more food than I can keep up with, and I'm running like a chicken with it's head cut off just trying to preserve all this food before it spoils.

Speaking of chicken, that was the first long day of food preservation in the past seven days.  My mid-June batch of broilers went to the processor early one morning.  I dropped them off, went to work, and after my morning's work was complete, I picked them up again.  Rather than having them shrink wrapped, I told the processor to just throw them into several large bags, because I would be parting out most of them once I got home.

My plan had been to freeze maybe 10 of them as roasting chickens; taking the ones that weighed 3.5-4 pounds and freezing them whole, in individual bags.  The rest, and especially any that were 5 pounds, I would cut into boneless breasts, leg quarters, and what I refer to as "soup carcases" (the bird, minus legs and breasts, that I will toss into a pot and boil until the meat is fall off the bone tender, and then use meat and resulting broth for soups, casseroles, pot pies, etc).

Turned out that none of my birds weighed less than 4.5 pounds.  The processor had praised them, telling me I'd raised a "really good looking batch of birds", and now that I was weighing them out, I could see why he'd complimented them. Not a scrawny bird in the bunch; they were each meaty and well rounded.  A couple even topped six pounds.

It took me about three hours to weigh, sort, cut, package, and freeze 26 broilers and one rotten rooster (that I'd had enough of his shenanigans, so he went to the processor too).  And once done with that, I still had to clean and disinfect the kitchen, cook dinner, and see what in the garden needed harvesting that day.

Harvesting the garden has definitely morphed from a fun "what ripe veggies will I find today?" scavenger hunt to a flat out chore.  My back aches from bending and picking, not to mention from carrying full half-bushel baskets.  Suddenly just about everything is ripe today.  And more is ripe tomorrow.  And more the next day. And the day after that. It's hard to find the time each day to work, take care of the late-July batch of broilers (who recently moved from the brooder to the grow out pen), cook meals, harvest the garden and preserve what was harvested. 

It's hard to use my kitchen, it's so full of baskets of freshly picked veggies.  Baskets on the counters, baskets on the floor.  Baskets on the stools.

So much food!  So much fresh, healthy goodness!  I'm so exhausted!

Such a first world problem.  I'm so blessed.

The End, My Friend

August started out with problems for The Old Man, my ancient half-Arabian horse. 

While he looked good, his vitals were okay, and his activity level remained normal, he went on a hunger strike.  For some reason, he decided that, for about 24 hours, he didn't want his pelleted senior horse feed.  He still grazed, and he still gummed hay (his molars being long gone, all he could do was mash the hay into wet cuds and then spit them out), but the pellets were unappetizing.

Then, after a day of turning up his nose, he began to eat them again, although not nearly as much as he needed to since they really were his only sustenance what with not having teeth to masticate the grass and hay with.  Some days he ate 1/2 his serving per feeding, other days he ate maybe 1/4.

This went on for a few days.  And then came the last day.  He ate only a few bites of his breakfast, and the barn owner called to tell me.  I went out to check on him as soon as I was done with work, around noon.  With the exception of flared nostrils and somewhat heavy breathing, he looked and acted normal.  He didn't even look like he was losing any weight despite having cut his daily intake drastically for five days.  For good measure, I took his temperature (oh the humility!  The rudeness!  The indecency!), which was in the normal range, ruling out illness. 

I was about to go home for some lunch, with the plan of returning in a few hours to check on him, when suddenly he seemed to be having a hard time breathing.  His inhalations got very loud.  His eyes got alarmed, and his body language changed.  He went from calm to looking very agitated.  He came trotting up to me, stopped, almost lay down, then stood upright again, his sides heaving.

He paced, his breathing becoming louder and louder.  I called the vet. When he'd first gone off his feed the week before, I had told myself that if I needed to call the vet, I would be putting The Old Man to sleep.  But hearing him now, and seeing how distressed he had become, I knew it was time.  I couldn't wait to see what happened, let him go for hours and see if he got better.  This didn't look or sound (especially sound!) like it was going to go away on it's own.

The receptionist at the vet's office could hear The Old Man's breathing through the phone, even though when I called I was standing probably 12 feet away from him.  She immediately looked up which vet was on a call closest to my area, and called them.  Within 20 minutes, the familiar red truck with the white vet box pulled into the driveway.

By this time, The Old Man was literally roaring each time he tried to draw a breath.  He was also staggering, having a hard time staying up right. Less than two minutes after the vet laid eyes on him, she was retrieving the euthanasia kit (a giant syringe of the pink juice the vets use on horses) from that white box.  He was already on his knees before she even inserted the needle into his jugular.  It was clearly time to ease him out of this life.

I had no regrets about ending his life.  He was clearly in distress.  I do wish that I'd done it perhaps a few days sooner, and avoided whatever it was (pulmonary embolism?) that had made him incapable of breathing in the end. 

The Old Man

April 1984 - August 2018

a very old horse indeed

Yarn Along: August

Happy August!  (Didn't July go fast?!?)  Happy Yarn Along!  I'm joining Ginny this afternoon for the August Yarn Along.

I'm still working on my Polka Dot Party Socks.  Sock #1 is done, sock #2 is nearly to the heel portion.  While I'm dreading doing the heel (wrap and turn heels are just not my thing), I'm really hoping to get this sock finished in the next couple of weeks. I'm dying to start my next pair--pattern and yarn all picked out and everything, with a finished project deadline of early October in mind.

Meanwhile, the garden has me busy canning just about every other day.  Cucumbers are going strong, my peas are finally filling out their pods, the bush beans are ready to burst into production and I need to pull up (and can) my beets before the deer eat them all!

I'm reading little these days.  I currently have a couple books from the library; Berry The Hatchet is a light reading mystery, and Quiltmakers 1000 Blocks is eye candy and inspiration for projects this fall.  Summer surely is a busy time of year, and I'm dreaming of hours in front of my sewing machine once the garden is finished for the season.

Pickles

This appears to be a good cucumber year in my garden.  I planted several rows, as I typically do, hoping for enough productive plants to allow me to make at least a dozen quarts of dill pickles. This year, unlike most, the majority of the cukes I planted not only sprouted, but they grew.  Not only did they grow, but they have been prolifically blooming, with apparently awesome pollination rates based on the numbers of  pickle sized cucumbers I have been harvesting pretty much every other day for over a week and a half now.

Which means I've been canning pickles nearly every other day for more than 10 days now!  It takes more than a handful of cucumbers to fill a quart sized jar, so most canning batches have been in the two or three quart range.  After not picking cukes for three days straight, I did fill not just FIVE quart jars with dill pickles, but I also sliced the overly large cucumbers into rings that tallied up to 9 pints of hamburger dills.

So far I am totaling 13 quarts of dill pickles, plus those 9 pints of hamburger slices.  And the cucumbers are still coming!!  Thankfully the pickle recipe I use is pretty simple and quick, if you don't count the overnight soak in lime water and the three hours of soaking in fresh water after that.  After a few years of experimentation with different recipes, and a few adaptations of my own, this is the recipes I have come up with to make the flavor of dill pickles that my family likes:

Dill Pickles

freshly picked pickling cucumbers 3-5 inches in length
1/4 cup pickling lime
1/2 gallon water

Wash the cucumbers and remove the blossom from the end.  Put into a large non-metal bowl--metal will react with the lime.  (I use a plastic bowl, as the lime will leave an ugly but harmless film on glass). Mix the lime in to the water (be careful not to breathe in the lime; it's not good for your lungs) and pour over the cucumbers.  Make sure all the cucumbers can be submerged in the lime water; depending on how many cukes you have, you may need to mix up a bit more lime solution.

Let the cucumbers soak in the lime water overnight (or about 8-10 hours).  Drain off the water, rinse out the bowl, and rinse the cucumbers thoroughly to remove lime residue.  Then put the cucumbers back in the bowl, and cover with fresh, cold water.  Let soak 1 hour and repeat the drain-rinse-soak cycle twice more for a total of three hours of soaking in fresh water.

fresh water soak

Near the end of the third round of soaking, fill your water bath canner about 3/4 full and put it on the stove on high heat.  Also, in a separate large pan or pot, make a solution of

1 cup vinegar
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon pickling salt
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

for each quart jar of pickles you will be making.  (In other words, if I have enough pickles to fill 2 quarts I use 2 cups each of vinegar and water, 2 Tbsp salt and 1 tsp turmeric.  6 quarts would need 6 cups each vinegar and water, 6 Tbsp salt and 3 tsp turmeric).

Heat this mixture to boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, into each quart jar put

2 heads dill
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon celery seeds
as many cucumbers as you can stuff in the jar leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Let the filled jars sit in a sink of very hot water while your vinegar solution simmers.  Once the simmering time has been met, and the jars are warmed from being in the hot water, ladle the vinegar solution into the jars, removing air bubbles and leaving 1/4" head space.  Put on lids and rings, and load into your now boiling water bath canner.  Make sure jars are covered with at least one inch of water.  When canner resumes boiling, process your pickles for 15 minutes.  Remove from the canner, and let cool for at least 12 hours before testing seals.

To develop proper flavor, your pickles should age at least two weeks before eating.

Today is going to be another pickle making day; I picked 52 more little cukes yesterday afternoon.

Cartwheels of Joy

So far, this has been a difficult year to get hay up.  The fields grew really well, and quite a few were actually ready to cut before Memorial Day.  Some fields did get cut, and baled, that weekend.  Not mine, since we have not spent the large amounts of money it takes to purchase haying equipment (tractor of large enough horse power, mower/cutter, rake/tedder and a baler, plus wagons.)  We are third on the list of the family that does custom cutting and baling in the area.

Their own field was done first, in late May.  Right after that, the weather was rainy.  Next swath of dry weather, they did their next door neighbors field.  Then the weather was uncooperative--not that it rained all the time, but there was enough rain in the forecast (most of which didn't actually show up)-- that about three weeks of June went by with no one but the cattle folks making hay.  Horse hay doesn't get cut unless there are three good dry weather days forecast in a row.

Waiting. . . hay getting riper by the day

Of course those three good dry weather days for my turn came along with a heat wave.  I got a call on a Thursday morning, while I happened to be riding The California Horse.  As soon as I was done riding, and saw that I had missed a call from my hay people, I listened to the message they had left. The voicemail that went something like this:  "The weather looks good, would you like us to cut your hay this morning?"

I immediately called them back, getting their voicemail.  I left a message that, paraphrased, said "I would do cartwheels of joy" if they could cut my hay that day.

When I got home from work at lunch time, a good portion of my hay field was cut, and their tractor and mower were going round and round shearing the rest.  By the time I'd finished my lunch, the entire field had been cut.  Hooray!  Now to wait two days for the hay to dry. . .

Hay finally cut!

Get ready to sweat!

Meanwhile, that heat wave rolled in.  While the media was crying "Heat index of 105 degrees!  Don't go outside!  Stay indoors with air conditioning, and if you don't have air conditioning, go somewhere that does!  Danger!  Danger!", DH and I were planning to put hay into our barn. Because hay doesn't wait.

stacks in the loft

(picture taken at first water break)

Despite advertising my hay for almost half the going rate out of the field, I had only one taker who wanted to come out of their air conditioning to load bales right off the wagon and take them home.  So, while the media was doom-and-glooming, we were doing what farmers have done for centuries:  making hay while the sun shone. DH & I put almost 350 bales of hay into the barn during a time when most people wouldn't even open the door on their air conditioned homes to step outside.

And honestly, it wasn't that terrible.  We took breaks, we drank lots of water, we wore the lightest weight clothing we could that would still protect our skin from the rough prickliness of the bales.  Cold showers at the end of the day were heavenly treats.

I did get called out on my voicemail message though.  Mr. Hay Cutter said he wanted to see those cartwheels I'd talked about.  Hoping for the best (since I haven't tried a cartwheel in quite a few years and was incapable to completing it the last time I'd tried one,) I chose a nice level looking spot in the hay field and went for it.  I was more afraid of busting a wrist than making a fool of myself, and I can't tell you how happy I felt when my second hand hit the ground and my arm didn't buckle.  It wasn't perfect form, but I did do an actual, complete cartwheel, landing with both feet together and no bobbling, just like a gymnast!  I may have been stinky and sweaty, with hay chaff stuck to every exposed piece of skin and a face red from the heat, but I felt beautiful in that moment.  (Thanks, California Horse, for the awesome core strength I've built in the past year riding you.)

However, next time I get a call asking if I'd like my hay mowed, I think I'll refrain from mentioning cartwheels.  I'll just stay I'd be very happy to have my hay cut.  :0)

Empty field, ready to grow again.

Yarn Along July

I am joining with Ginny for this month's Yarn Along. A day late, but better late than never, right?

This past month has been about socks. I finished sock #2 of the striped Vanilla Latte socks I was making for DD2.  She thinks they are gorgeous, and still has no clue that they are for her. (*snicker*)  I plan to give them to her before she heads back to college in August for her senior year.

As soon as the Vanilla Latte socks were finished, I went rummaging in my stash and found two complimentary yarns to make my next project--The Polka Dot Party Socks from issue 27, Bloom, of Taproot magazine.  These socks will be for me, since they will be my first color work socks and I'm a little unsure of my ability to make them not too tight but with floats that don't snag on toenails.  Since they are for me, I went with rather bold colors in my yarn choices.

The heel is one that I've only done once before, and honestly didn't like at the time.  I decided to give it another try as I am making these socks exactly as the pattern is written.  I have to say, I still don't like this heel technique.  I guess I'm a gusset heel kinda gal. To me the heel looks a little funky and I may end up ripping it out later and replacing with a different one.  But, for now, I'm soldiering on with the pattern which (other than the heel) is really fun.  This is definitely going to be a bold pair of socks.

Here Chickie, Chickie

After not raising any meat birds last year, and exhausting the supply I had in the freezer, DH and I decided it was time to raise some more.  I was a little concerned about being able to use the minimum order--25--with just two of us living at this little place here now (not counting DD2 being here this summer, because she will be gone back to college right about the time my broilers get butchered).  So, I polled my offspring, and they all said they would take at least three, leaving roughly a dozen for my own freezer, possibly less if the married offspring took 5+ each.

With that figured out, and having talked to my favorite chicken processor about his vacation schedule--being retired he takes an entire month off for travel every summer, I went ahead and ordered 25 broiler chicks.  While I was at it, I also ordered 6 pullet chicks (3 buff rocks and 3 of a blue egg laying breed) to boost my laying flock.  We've had a fox problem since May, and I'm down from ten hens to just four currently.  :0(

A little over a week ago, my chick order arrived.  Except, when I opened the box, instead of 30+ chicks, there were only 22!  The packing slip showed my entire order, plus the hatchery's typical extra "freebie" chick, and supposedly an extra broiler chick, totaling 33, yet when I took the chicks out one by one to put into the brooder, there were 11 missing. 

I had what I assumed was the freebie chick (see the striped one?) and 21 of my 25 broilers, but none of my laying breed pullet chicks.  No dead ones in the box, the other 11 were just plain missing.

I called the hatchery right away--well, about a half-hour later, had to wait for 9:00 a.m. business hours to start--and reported the odd situation.  In fifteen years of ordering chicks nearly every year from this hatchery, I'd never received a box that was missing chicks.  And only twice received a box containing any dead chicks (which sometimes happens due to shipping stress and/or rough handling of the container).

The hatchery representative was very nice, took my report, looked at my account, and offered to send out replacements for the missing chicks ASAP.  Plus enough extras ("They will have to be extra cockerels, no choice of breeds" she warned me) to make enough little bodies in the box so that the chicks stay warm enough en route this time of year .

The new chicks arrived five days later.  All of the 'missing' ones from the first order, plus more freebies. 

DD2 has taken it upon herself to name the ones she thinks will be roosters, despite the fact that they will more than likely end up in a soup pot this winter.  We currently have a Leonard, a Lionel, a Pierogi and a Stuart.  Leonard and Lionel appear to possibly be Easter Eggers, with puffy cheeks that look like they will turn into muffs and beards.  Pierogi is very obviously a Polish chick due to the pom-pom on his head.  Stuart (as in Stuart Little) is a true mystery so far. He's smaller than the other chicks, and we're not sure if he's a bantam--since we've never had bantams before, we're not sure how much smaller than 'normal' chicks they are--or if he is (more likely) a brown leghorn.  Time will tell.

Now there are 36 active little balls of fluff on skinny legs living in the brooder in our garage.  They will be there for about two more weeks before getting moved to the grow-out pen outside, and then 25 will go to freezer camp (aka the processor) in mid-August.  The rest are not meat breeds, so after they reach their full growth in several more months they will either be laying hens or roosters for the soup pot. 

But that's not the end of this story.  Nope.  Because DH just happened to be on a work trip for 10 days.  During this time, the chicks arrived.  Two days after their arrival, he texted to tell me that one of the guys he works with would like to get 10 of the broilers once they are butchered.  By my calculations, 3 for this offspring and 5 for that one and 5-10 for the one with a family and about 4 for the last offspring, plus 10 for the guy DH works with did not leave any for DH and I's own freezer.  That was a problem.

For every problem, there is a solution.

After many texts between me and DH (because he was, after all, on a work trip and coordinating phone calls across three time zones while working is difficult and spotty cell service makes phone calls nigh on impossible at times), DH and his work friend, and the work friend and some of his friends, a consensus was reached.  Would I be willing to order, and raise, and take to the processor another batch of 25 broilers? The work friend would pay all expenses and all 25 birds would be claimed; I wouldn't end up with way more birds in my freezer than I had room for.

After figuring when my brooder would be ready, when is the last date my favorite processor is willing to do birds in the fall, and what availability is with the hatchery, I went ahead and ordered that additional batch of broilers.  So, I will have chicks in my brooder from June 14 (when the original order arrived) through August 15 or so (when the next group is feathered out enough to live outdoors).  The grow out pen will be in use from early July through the end of September.  

Guess I'm a chicken farmer this summer.  I did manage to get a new poultry transport crate and a chicken catcher (4 foot rod with a narrow hook on one end) out of the deal.