I been trying to figure out why my compost tumbler didn't do well composting. The one I have is like a 35 gallon round poly barrel style that is on rollers so you can just roll it in the cradle to turn the compost. This is what I did. When I got the tumbler I cleaned out the chicken house which I had used to raise meat birds in and put a lot of the manure along with the bedding, which is straw into the tumbler. I added a couple shovels full of dirt and compost from the woods to get it started. Then I waited. I went a couple days later to turn the barrel and could not move it. It had compost tea dripping from the drain holes in the ends. I opened the lid and the ammonia smell would burn your eyes. I put the lid back and thought, ah heck I will get Rodger to help me turn it later this evening. Anybody that knows me knows I am scatterbrained at time, so I forgot. For about a week. When we finally did go back to turn the barrel the "stuff" was a wet soggy solid mass in the bottom of the tumbler. No way could we turn it. So all to do is leave it sit till it rots down. A couple weeks ago I went out to see if I could get the mess loosened up to turn. I used a fork and got the mass broke up and the barrel turns now. Now looking back I know what I should not have done. Don't put chicken manure in a compost tumbler. I am thinking the ammonia from too much manure was so concentrated it killed off all the good bacteria that should have turned the whole mess into compost. Now next time I clean chicken houses the manure is going straight to the garden and get scattered raw. The bedding and a small amount of the manure will go in the tumbler. The things that go in a compost tumbler should also be layered in there. We mixed the material the first time around. Yep the older I get the more I learn.
I went to feed my baby chicks this morning and found one that had a dirty butt. This usually means the bird is sick. I alas try to keep a bottle of Sulmet (antibacterial) solution to mix with their water. But heck no, I didn't have any. I try to keep this stuff on hand as it is great to give lil chicks that have been stressed from shipping. And the nearest store that would have it is about 30 mile away. So off I went to Jackson to get Sulmet. While I was at the farm store I picked up a couple packs of vitamins to mix in the chicks water. When I found that I didn't have Sulmet this morning I just mixed about a tablespoon of peroxide in the water tank. I have used this in a pinch in place of Sulmet before. Although it seems to work better for bigger birds than for lil ones. But now I have the Sulmet for the lil babies and this should keep em nice an healthy till butchering time.
OK off to finish baking peanut butter cookies and finish the laundry. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Finished up pears
I had to be up early and moving this morning. I took my buddy Gene to the doc to get his labs drawn and we had a quick breakfast at the local DQ. Now I remember why I don't like to eat out. Tasteless food, greasy and the service was shabby at best. All the employees are very young people and I don't think kids these days have much of a work ethic. They think its an annoyance to stop their chit-chat and wait on customers. I will say they need to stay in fast food and not wait tables and depend on tips. Am thinking most of em would go home broke at the end of the day.
We ran a few errands for Gene while we were out and then I got him home. He still gets tired pretty easy but other wise is doing well. I came home to finish cooking my pear preserves and get the pear butter canned up. I usually try to cook the pear preserves about an hour at night then let them sit overnight and another hour the next day and then can. It just seems to make them taste better. I ended up with 8 pints of preserves and 7 pints of vanilla pear butter. I guess my next project will be to make pumpkin butter. As you know pumpkins, cushaws, and butternut squash are all in the squash family. So I use cushaw to make pumpkin butter. The pumpkin butter is a method I think and not so much a recipe.The first real step in any butter is to make the puree. But for the "method" rinse the cushaw to remove dirt. Slice in rounds and carefully peel off the rind, cut in 2 inch uniform cubes. Place in pressure cooker with about 2 inches of water and cook for about 20 minutes at 10 lb pressure. After pressure goes down, drain as much liquid off as possible. Use a stick blender or any method you choose to puree the vegetable. Now you have puree. To the puree, add 1 cup sugar for each 2 cups puree. This can now be added to a slow cooker or crock pot and let cook on low over night till thick. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of ground clove to taste. When the butter taste to your liking let cook another hour. Ladle into hot jars and put lids on and seal em up. I usually can mine in pint jars due to the fact we can eat a smaller jar before it gets moldy after opening. Here is another recipe you might enjoy and a good way to use some of the pumpkin butter.
Pumpkin dip
2 cups or 1 pint of pumpkin butter
8 oz pkg softened cream cheese
vanilla wafers or gingersnaps
Add softened cream cheese to punkin butter and beat well to combine. Serve in a pretty bowl with gingersnaps, vanilla wafers or even snicker doodles on the side. A nice addition to the holiday dinner table or to keep hungry guest happy till dinner is served.
I had a good laugh today at Luna's expense. She encountered what must have been her first tarpine. I heard her barking like she was serious about something, so I went to investigate. She was barking at the turtle shell. She would reach out an claw the ground near it shell but not touching it. Then she missed an flipped the shell over and she nearly knocked me down trying to get back from it. She would look at the shell and look at me, as if to say "I know there is a lil animal unner that lid, I seen em go unner there". She entertained herself for an hour with the tarpine. I think she finally gave and decided it was a lost cause and left him be. But she was totally befuddled.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
We ran a few errands for Gene while we were out and then I got him home. He still gets tired pretty easy but other wise is doing well. I came home to finish cooking my pear preserves and get the pear butter canned up. I usually try to cook the pear preserves about an hour at night then let them sit overnight and another hour the next day and then can. It just seems to make them taste better. I ended up with 8 pints of preserves and 7 pints of vanilla pear butter. I guess my next project will be to make pumpkin butter. As you know pumpkins, cushaws, and butternut squash are all in the squash family. So I use cushaw to make pumpkin butter. The pumpkin butter is a method I think and not so much a recipe.The first real step in any butter is to make the puree. But for the "method" rinse the cushaw to remove dirt. Slice in rounds and carefully peel off the rind, cut in 2 inch uniform cubes. Place in pressure cooker with about 2 inches of water and cook for about 20 minutes at 10 lb pressure. After pressure goes down, drain as much liquid off as possible. Use a stick blender or any method you choose to puree the vegetable. Now you have puree. To the puree, add 1 cup sugar for each 2 cups puree. This can now be added to a slow cooker or crock pot and let cook on low over night till thick. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and a touch of ground clove to taste. When the butter taste to your liking let cook another hour. Ladle into hot jars and put lids on and seal em up. I usually can mine in pint jars due to the fact we can eat a smaller jar before it gets moldy after opening. Here is another recipe you might enjoy and a good way to use some of the pumpkin butter.
Pumpkin dip
2 cups or 1 pint of pumpkin butter
8 oz pkg softened cream cheese
vanilla wafers or gingersnaps
Add softened cream cheese to punkin butter and beat well to combine. Serve in a pretty bowl with gingersnaps, vanilla wafers or even snicker doodles on the side. A nice addition to the holiday dinner table or to keep hungry guest happy till dinner is served.
I had a good laugh today at Luna's expense. She encountered what must have been her first tarpine. I heard her barking like she was serious about something, so I went to investigate. She was barking at the turtle shell. She would reach out an claw the ground near it shell but not touching it. Then she missed an flipped the shell over and she nearly knocked me down trying to get back from it. She would look at the shell and look at me, as if to say "I know there is a lil animal unner that lid, I seen em go unner there". She entertained herself for an hour with the tarpine. I think she finally gave and decided it was a lost cause and left him be. But she was totally befuddled.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Pear preserves and vanilla pear butter
I finally had the energy today to get started on the pears and get them peeled. I decided to make pear preserves from some of them and vanilla pear butter from the rest. I posted the pear preserve recipe last year about this time. So here goes for the pear butter.
This is not really a recipe but a method in my opinion. Use peeled chopped pear and add half the amount of water as you have pears and simmer till they are tender. Drain the water from the kettle and use a stick blender or any method you choose to puree the fruit. Put back in kettle and add half as much sugar as you have pears. Add in roughly 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (or to taste) for each gallon of pear puree. Keep in mind the vanilla will be a little more noticeable after the butter cooks down. It does concentrate the vanilla flavor. Put in crock pot with the lid ajar over night to cook down and thicken. In the morning ladle into hot jars and seal. You can water bath these for 10 minutes but I don't water bath. I good project for a cool fall day on the homestead.
It has been really nice and cool today. The highs this week are supposed to only be in the low 70's and upper 40's to low 50's at night. No A/C needed here this week. The leaves are changing too and you can feel fall in the air especially after the rain we had this weekend. So tomorrow morning I will finish up the pear butter and preserves and get those canned up. Then when I get another power surge maybe I can work on the cushaws and get those canned.
I have been going full throttle all summer and when I have a day with not much to do I get a feeling I'm forgetting to do something. Maybe I just work better under pressure. As the old saying goes, "squeeze me hard, I'm good under pressure".
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
This is not really a recipe but a method in my opinion. Use peeled chopped pear and add half the amount of water as you have pears and simmer till they are tender. Drain the water from the kettle and use a stick blender or any method you choose to puree the fruit. Put back in kettle and add half as much sugar as you have pears. Add in roughly 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (or to taste) for each gallon of pear puree. Keep in mind the vanilla will be a little more noticeable after the butter cooks down. It does concentrate the vanilla flavor. Put in crock pot with the lid ajar over night to cook down and thicken. In the morning ladle into hot jars and seal. You can water bath these for 10 minutes but I don't water bath. I good project for a cool fall day on the homestead.
It has been really nice and cool today. The highs this week are supposed to only be in the low 70's and upper 40's to low 50's at night. No A/C needed here this week. The leaves are changing too and you can feel fall in the air especially after the rain we had this weekend. So tomorrow morning I will finish up the pear butter and preserves and get those canned up. Then when I get another power surge maybe I can work on the cushaws and get those canned.
I have been going full throttle all summer and when I have a day with not much to do I get a feeling I'm forgetting to do something. Maybe I just work better under pressure. As the old saying goes, "squeeze me hard, I'm good under pressure".
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Fall clean up, planting wheat
It has been a busy day around here today. First off Rodger got our garden spot turned for next year. He also got the ground ready to plant the wheat Deb sent me some hard red winter wheat and we now have that sown. Hopefully we can harvest some about July of next year. The only thing left in our garden is the green beans that remain that I will pick when they dry for seed. And the sweet potatoes need to be dug. I finally got finished with all the apples. I did put several bags in the freezer to make fried apples. Really tasty with a hot biscuit and butter when the snow flys.
I did get my baby chicks last week and never got to post a pic because I had computer issues. So now ya can see my babies.
So far, healthy happy lil birds. Butcher will be the weekend of November 6th.
I gathered up all my used flower pots and took them to the greenhouse area. As you know the plastic did not last thru the summer on the green house. I am thinking about maybe getting some of the clear fiberglass green house panels to build with next year. But in the mean time all my pots are in one place. I will get a tarp and cover those for winter. The plastic I used this spring literally disintegrated. It has taken me all day to get most of the things picked up and put away that we have used all summer. I do still have some buckets that are scattered about to get later.
The weather today was wonderful to work outside. Temps in the 70's with a lil wind and leaves falling. It sure looks like fall out there.
Tomorrow I will get started on the pears and get those taken care of. I guess I need to find my recipe for pear butter with vanilla. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I did get my baby chicks last week and never got to post a pic because I had computer issues. So now ya can see my babies.
I gathered up all my used flower pots and took them to the greenhouse area. As you know the plastic did not last thru the summer on the green house. I am thinking about maybe getting some of the clear fiberglass green house panels to build with next year. But in the mean time all my pots are in one place. I will get a tarp and cover those for winter. The plastic I used this spring literally disintegrated. It has taken me all day to get most of the things picked up and put away that we have used all summer. I do still have some buckets that are scattered about to get later.
The weather today was wonderful to work outside. Temps in the 70's with a lil wind and leaves falling. It sure looks like fall out there.
Tomorrow I will get started on the pears and get those taken care of. I guess I need to find my recipe for pear butter with vanilla. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Oh my lifes a cluster
First of all I have had a hard time logging into blogger to do my post. All to find out my computer has a virus and I am not sure where I got it. But don't panic, ya cant get sick from reading my blog or posting a comment. Its just my computer. But Jason is working on that as we speak and I am using his puter now. Oh well such is my life.
But with all that said, Rob was here for a couple days and he finally got his college diploma in the mail. So proud of him.
My lil boy is all grown up and now has a big boy job waiting for him in Nevada.
I got out today and checked on my cabbage plants to see if they were still living and gosh they look good. So sometime before winter I should have more cabbage.
My friend Deb sent me some hard red winter wheat seed today so we can plant a lil patch of wheat for bread. After supper Rodger got the turning plows on the tractor and turned what will be our garden for next year and enough ground for the wheat. As soon as he can get it disced up and ready the wheat will get sown to come up an then go dormant over winter. Then it springs to life in spring and we harvest wheat about July next year. Pretty cool eh?
Today about noon my baby chicks called from the post office to let me know to come get em. The lady at the post office knows us personally and when she was calling to tell me the babies were there she just held the phone down to the chick box and if she hadn't said anything I would have just went up there knowing the chicks had arrived. Kinda cute, and the company had sent 52 chicks and only 1 had died in route. I always order from Marti poultry and have alas had really good results with their chicks. So I now have 51 healthy happy well fed lil chicks in the brooder house. So I will be butchering again the weekend of November 6.
Maybe I can get pictures of the lil birds and post them tomorrow so you all can see the lil babies.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead
Stella
But with all that said, Rob was here for a couple days and he finally got his college diploma in the mail. So proud of him.
I got out today and checked on my cabbage plants to see if they were still living and gosh they look good. So sometime before winter I should have more cabbage.
My friend Deb sent me some hard red winter wheat seed today so we can plant a lil patch of wheat for bread. After supper Rodger got the turning plows on the tractor and turned what will be our garden for next year and enough ground for the wheat. As soon as he can get it disced up and ready the wheat will get sown to come up an then go dormant over winter. Then it springs to life in spring and we harvest wheat about July next year. Pretty cool eh?
Today about noon my baby chicks called from the post office to let me know to come get em. The lady at the post office knows us personally and when she was calling to tell me the babies were there she just held the phone down to the chick box and if she hadn't said anything I would have just went up there knowing the chicks had arrived. Kinda cute, and the company had sent 52 chicks and only 1 had died in route. I always order from Marti poultry and have alas had really good results with their chicks. So I now have 51 healthy happy well fed lil chicks in the brooder house. So I will be butchering again the weekend of November 6.
Maybe I can get pictures of the lil birds and post them tomorrow so you all can see the lil babies.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead
Stella
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Making apple sauce, apple butter
I still have the bushel and half of apples to work up in the next few day before they start to get soft. When I did my cellar inventory yesterday I found out I only had 4 quarts of apple sauce left. So I can use more of that in the cellar. I can get to the apple sauce point and then put some of the sauce in a crock pot to cook down over night into apple butter. Very easy and no constant stirring.
Not much else done today, just kind of chillin out and getting the house cleaned up and laundry caught up a bit. Rob is home this evening and am thinking the best plan is to just visit with him and lil Abby. Amoy had to work and didn't get to come up. I still also have pears to peel and make into pear butter and pear preserves or honey. Maybe I should just get busy instead of doing inside stuff.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Not much else done today, just kind of chillin out and getting the house cleaned up and laundry caught up a bit. Rob is home this evening and am thinking the best plan is to just visit with him and lil Abby. Amoy had to work and didn't get to come up. I still also have pears to peel and make into pear butter and pear preserves or honey. Maybe I should just get busy instead of doing inside stuff.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
Monday, September 20, 2010
Dried apples, doing inventory
I got out this morning and got the apples out of the dehydrator and got those bagged up, vacuum sealed and ready for storage. They were nice and dry, an good for snacking. Now I need to find a good fried apple pie recipe in one of my old cookbooks. I also have had some lil dried apple fritters at a state park lodge here in Kentucky and they were delicious. Just wish to heck I knew how they made those. I think I could figure it out if I had them again. They had cooked dried apples on the inside and a crunchy batter like coating on the outside. And deep fried, so good. Good project for this winter, figure out how they make those lil treats.
I did inventory in our cellar today and ended up with a total of 1015 jars of various canned stuffs. It did shed some light on our food supply as well. Of those 1000 or so jars, less than 100 are meats. My math came up with the fact that we could use 2.7 jars per day and have enough to last one full year. But my bunch are big meat eaters and with less than 100 jars of meats canned, we could only have meat about every 4 days or so. Now that don't take into account the amount of stuff in the freezer, nor the amount of the jars that are beans. But I do know I need to can juice, fruit,and more meats in order to have a well balanced diet. Just something else to ponder if you do a good deal of home canning to provide for the family.
When Rodger got in this evening he stopped to check on the pullets in the building and found 3 eggs. So I know I have at least 1 new pullet laying.
These are smaller than a normal egg due to the fact that it is the pullets first eggs. They will be normal size in a few weeks. These girls are only 5 months old, so they are doing good. It is also nice to say I have not bought eggs from the store in several years. We alas manage to have a laying flock.
Rodger took some pics of his drilling crew at work today. Jason (oldest son) is the one in the middle. It only takes them a few days in our area to drill an oil well in. This well will be in eye shot of the oil company office.
Around here oil field workers are called oil field trash, but not in a bad way. It is one of the better paying jobs in this area.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
I did inventory in our cellar today and ended up with a total of 1015 jars of various canned stuffs. It did shed some light on our food supply as well. Of those 1000 or so jars, less than 100 are meats. My math came up with the fact that we could use 2.7 jars per day and have enough to last one full year. But my bunch are big meat eaters and with less than 100 jars of meats canned, we could only have meat about every 4 days or so. Now that don't take into account the amount of stuff in the freezer, nor the amount of the jars that are beans. But I do know I need to can juice, fruit,and more meats in order to have a well balanced diet. Just something else to ponder if you do a good deal of home canning to provide for the family.
When Rodger got in this evening he stopped to check on the pullets in the building and found 3 eggs. So I know I have at least 1 new pullet laying.
These are smaller than a normal egg due to the fact that it is the pullets first eggs. They will be normal size in a few weeks. These girls are only 5 months old, so they are doing good. It is also nice to say I have not bought eggs from the store in several years. We alas manage to have a laying flock.
Rodger took some pics of his drilling crew at work today. Jason (oldest son) is the one in the middle. It only takes them a few days in our area to drill an oil well in. This well will be in eye shot of the oil company office.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.
Stella
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