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Yesterday after work I noticed Callie was going to kid that evening and sure enough, she now has a little buck. Today after work hunny and I were to go pick up 1100 lbs dressed out of pork we had processed, located an hour away. I actually got to leave an hour before scheduled cause I had all my stuff done. Came home to check on the new baby goat and was greeted by Penelope who was in active labor. Within 45 minutes she had a little buckling and then a doe. So much for leaving the house early, . . . got to have priorities and my babies come first.

Tomorrow I will be making my Mayhaw jelly and also start canning up some pork. I'm surprised we found enough room for it all really, but the frozen heads got put in a cooler to thaw so I can start making scrapple and head cheese, probably on Fri along with some of the lard that still needs rendered and canned. Need to make extra room in the freezer. I for see all those canning jars I found in the gardening shed used or at least the majority. Yeah, I'll be busy for the next few day, but Thurs I'll be heading over to help DIL some. Son had left for training on Tues so hoping I can entertain Sweet Pea for momma to get some rest while newest one naps. :)
 
Just got back from berry picking. 5 gallons Mayhaws & only about 4 cups of blackberries. None of the mulberries were ripe yet but plenty red ones. If I didn't need to go to bed for work soon I'd make a BlackBerry cheese pie. . . After work project :).
How about a recipe for that blackberry cheese pie? I love anything blackberry. I planted some blackberry plants last year. They aren't doing anything yet, maybe still too early. Wasn't sure if they'll grow at our elevation but thought it'd be worth a try.
 
Yesterday after work I noticed Callie was going to kid that evening and sure enough, she now has a little buck. Today after work hunny and I were to go pick up 1100 lbs dressed out of pork we had processed, located an hour away. I actually got to leave an hour before scheduled cause I had all my stuff done. Came home to check on the new baby goat and was greeted by Penelope who was in active labor. Within 45 minutes she had a little buckling and then a doe. So much for leaving the house early, . . . got to have priorities and my babies come first.

Tomorrow I will be making my Mayhaw jelly and also start canning up some pork. I'm surprised we found enough room for it all really, but the frozen heads got put in a cooler to thaw so I can start making scrapple and head cheese, probably on Fri along with some of the lard that still needs rendered and canned. Need to make extra room in the freezer. I for see all those canning jars I found in the gardening shed used or at least the majority. Yeah, I'll be busy for the next few day, but Thurs I'll be heading over to help DIL some. Son had left for training on Tues so hoping I can entertain Sweet Pea for momma to get some rest while newest one naps. :)

You make my canning efforts look quite sorry Danil. :)
Have a great time with the family, they grow so quick it's easy to miss these years.

How about a recipe for that blackberry cheese pie? I love anything blackberry. I planted some blackberry plants last year. They aren't doing anything yet, maybe still too early. Wasn't sure if they'll grow at our elevation but thought it'd be worth a try.

Blackberries are only just breaking buds here AD.
 
How about a recipe for that blackberry cheese pie? I love anything blackberry. I planted some blackberry plants last year. They aren't doing anything yet, maybe still too early. Wasn't sure if they'll grow at our elevation but thought it'd be worth a try.
My favorite is blackberry wine, but may have to try the pie one day! I got six or seven thornless blackberry plants from Lowe’s a few years back. They were labeled raspberry but those places don’t know what they have... every season the plants send out runners starting new plants and the buggars multiply like crazy. I have a whole patch of them now. My favorite thing about them is they require almost NO maintenance here in Ga. I have to weed the area occasionally but the plants are tough and really don’t need anything. My kind of plant!
 
How about a recipe for that blackberry cheese pie? I love anything blackberry. I planted some blackberry plants last year. They aren't doing anything yet, maybe still too early. Wasn't sure if they'll grow at our elevation but thought it'd be worth a try.
Will type out recipe when I get a chance to get on the big computer instead of this tap tablet. It's pretty darn good, but best when cold in the fridge.
 
I'll be canning a lot of it for two different reasons. . . One because I would like some extra room in the freezers. The garden is in and should be producing a lot in a very short time. I want to be able to have the extra room for both storage of some veggies and also enough room to lay on cookie sheets to freeze layered out so they don't all stick together. I much prefer eating frozen veggies verses canned as a side, but if used in a soup or casserole veggies in jars are fine.

I also don't like all my eggs in one basket. . . If power went out for a long period of time, I'd be screwed with 3 big freezers and two refrigerator freezers packed to the brim and hurricane season is right around the corner for us. Yeah, we have the propane generator and also back up gas generators, but even with the great flood of Harvery, my boss and so many others are still not in their homes because of damage to them. It's easy enough to move lower shelves in the stockroom up if needed, but I can't pick up a freezer and most likely the energy to fuel the generators would run out eventually. It was weeks before trucks could get thru. . .

ok maybe even a third, 1100 lbs of meat is a lot! And don't get me wrong, I love pork and it is all vacuum sealed, but not so certain we could actually consume that amount before it became freezer burnt. . . .

I'm not too certain I would be able to financially afford to can like I do if I lived in another country like the UK or Australia. . At $20 or $30 bucks a case I'd have to go back working full time just to afford jars, but then I'd not have as much time for growing and canning. Have I ever said I am happy I was born in the USA. . . .
 
Blackberries are only just breaking buds here AD.
I checked this morning and the blackberries are starting to bud, same with the raspberry, blueberry and the fruit trees. The grapes aren't yet. Maybe they take longer to bud? So far it looks like everything survied the winter. We're down to just one patch of snow by the cabin.
 
I know I'm easily pleased, but I love going out and seeing the first buds breaking. I have a Kiwi vine and the buds are just starting to open, the Fig still has tight buds and while I was out for a walk this afternoon, I noticed catkins on some trees and there are a few Cherries blooming.
 
I know I'm easily pleased, but I love going out and seeing the first buds breaking. I have a Kiwi vine and the buds are just starting to open, the Fig still has tight buds and while I was out for a walk this afternoon, I noticed catkins on some trees and there are a few Cherries blooming.
Spring is my favorite time of year too. We're still a few weeks away from any blooms on the trees but everything is starting to bud. Many of our medows are covered with wild onions and the breeze has a strong smell of onion. Of course the bears like the onions too so we need to be careful.
And what's a "catkin"?
 
Here ya go... Catkin.:)

Catkins.jpg
 
Today was my Nana day which I so enjoyed. I got my garden weeded and baby goats butts cleaned along with two loads of laundry done before I left but after gathering all the extras I was taking I was about 20 u muted behind schedule and I hate being late for the time I wanted to be there. Poor little momma was exhausted being up with Pumpkin most of the night. Told her to take a nap, I'm here to entertain Sweet Pea & that is what I did. .only for the grandkids will this Nana run and act a fool! After an hour and a half nap, momma came out with Pumpkin and I got to hold that sweet babe. Sweet Pea is still in the learning stag. . . No she's my Nana. . . Does my heart good, but she still needs to know I am both of their Nana and forever will be.

Tomorrow I will be start boiling my pork heads and I now have the next two days! We thought we were going to have to help move son 1 on Sat but he called last night saying that he got a moving crew to come and didn't need help until Sun! He wanted to help save our backs and necks. . . God bless him! They live at the beach and next house at the beach, which means a lot of steps and it is a two story house. . . Did I say God bless him for thinking about our old body parts that are already saying snap, crackle and pop. Unfortunately I think all the boys inherited their dad's back and neck.
 
Have you tried the powdered butter before? I’d be interested to hear how it tastes.
Not yet but I am very curious to. I usually buy butter and wrap and freeze, but it won't keep as long as I want it to. I will let yall know how it goes.
 
Not yet but I am very curious to. I usually buy butter and wrap and freeze, but it won't keep as long as I want it to. I will let yall know how it goes.
I freeze butter sticks all the time and and have not noticed any degradation. Loss of power would change that.
 
Had a pretty productive week or so around the house. A few weeks ago, we got some great wood furniture for a song, and now (last weekend) finally moved it where it needs to go. A great new king-sized wood bed in the guest room, and a new dresser and bureau for our bedroom (put the old bureau in the guest room). Also a great baker's rack for our entry hall (which has been a godsend place to put stuff when coming in, going out). All for $175 (and it's all beautiful stuff, Facebook yard sale site).

Got a stainless steel secondary fridge for the kitchen ($100 from a Facebook yard sale site), so now have two stainless fridges there. This one, we use mostly for drinks, so can just direct guests there without seeing all our leftovers, hehe. But nice to have the extra freezer space, and a free fridge shelf if we make a cake, etc.

Got a stainless steel in counter dishwasher unit for free, from some friends in the remodel biz. We'll be putting that in the shop, to use for potluck events. Got enough fans to fill out all the barn stalls missing them (or where the fans had gone bad), as barter towards some tack we were clearancing out (from a friend who was running a barn that is now being sold).

Last weekend we got the tractor fixed and only cost us $80, and it runs like new now. (bad ignition wire unit). He'll even help us replace out the hydraulic on it (which is a nuisance, but too much to fix normally). I managed to figure out something for our main AC unit, so got that working...still need a guy out for the secondary one though....

And moving the tractor allowed us to use the shelter for a hay bale for the horses out there. (to keep it dry). Also fixed some bad fencing.

We also sold off more tack these past two weekends, more than enough to pay for all of the above, so that was good.

Productive, but man, we are just TIRED this week.

Didn't get to redo my EDC and GHB though. Really wanted to do that this weekend, just no time, so next weekend's agenda.

Next week's project will be to rip up the carpet in the dining room, and replace it with tile or laminate, depending on pricing. Eventually, I'll remove every damn scrap of carpet in this house. After this, I'll have just bedrooms and the living room left to do on that.
 
Only have carpet in bedroom, and no padding in there. A breeze to take care of.
 

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