Good thing I live off the road

The other night I was wakened by the chickens in the big hen house squawking at three am. I got up got my headlight on and my rifle and in my night shirt and barefoot I dashed out to the Hen House ready to kill any varmint trying to do harm to my chickens. I opened the door to the coop and saw feathers on the floor I then pointed my light around the inside of the coop and counted chickens they were all there and no varmint! I must have been quite a sight with a battery powered headlight strapped to my forehead, rifle at the ready dressed in my pink night shirt and bare feet! Oh ya I would have struck terror in anything out there. I think the chickens were in a state of disbelief that this obviously insane person invading their house at that awful hour. I live off the main road and it was a dark night, thank goodness. I don't usually show off my night dress to the public, I wouldn't want to scare folks driving by and have an accident :)

The drought goes on, still hand watering the garden and trees, looks like a long, hot, dry, Summer this year. Some folks have taken to hauling water to their cows already as the streams are drying up and the ponds are getting low.

It is hard to see neighbors worrying about their stock and livelihood, sometimes life can be cruel.
I'll keep on watering and hoping for rain. I guess I will get back to painting the porches; there is always something to do around here at least it keeps me from running a muck on the roads and frightening the horses :)

When A Goat Gets Your Goat

We had a whither (altered male) goat that was getting to be a nuisance. He would butt every body and even take on the humans with a challenging stance and try to head butt them. He wouldn't let the female goats eat in peace he would run from one dish to the other chasing the other goats away. His most despicable behavior was to the goat kids he would butt them and harass them so they were constantly running away from him. We tried to isolate him, but he would always figure a way to get out. We tried tethering him which improved the situation somewhat but he still was not controlled enough to stop some of his aggressive behavior. So we changed his name from Justin to Stew and took him to the Butcher.

Tuesday morning we took Stew to the Butcher. This is the first time I have taken any animal to the Butcher. Did I feel bad, sad, guilty? NO, I did not feel anything as he got put into the holding pen. Stew got slaughtered that day and was hung in the cooler for a few days. We picked him up on Saturday and brought the meat home and put it in the freezer. Sunday for lunch we had Goat Steak. So what does male goat steak taste like? Actually not a strong flavor at all, there was a slight flavor that reminded me of Lamb, but much milder, luckily I like the flavor of Lamb. The flavor wasn't strong, nothing like I expected. So later he will be tacos and burritos :) That little mean so and so is going to make some nice meals. Out of that little pygmy goat we got 25 lbs of meat.

After this experience I am thinking that having a goat butchered once a year would not be a big a deal or maybe raising a Lamb for slaughter instead, I like Lamb more than Goat, either one would do.

In Memory Of Times Past

I decided that this year I would explore the world of canning, preserving and freezing.
I have not had the experience of doing it myself, as a child I was around and under foot when my Mother, Aunts, and Grandmother were canning, but I was to young and distracted to be taught much about the process. I did get to pick the produce and fruits then lug them into the kitchen. I also got to scrub the jars and get the old labels off of them.

There always was a whirl of activity in the kitchen during the harvest. The fruits each had their time to be put up; the vegetables had their time also. The first usually were the peaches sometimes strawberries, the women made jam and canned peaches in syrup. The apron and kerchief clad women where busy, peeling, cutting, boiling the jars, cooking the fruit,ladling the fruit into jars, fixing the seals on the mason jars and then immersing the jars into the water bath canners. In good years there would be two canners going at the same time so there was a cloud of hot steam in the kitchen and sometimes a Lilt home perm couldn't take the heat and humidity and drooped.

There always was chatter, lots of gossip, and I knew when it was getting good, I would be sent on an errand for something sure to keep me busy because the item wasn't where I was sent, just so I would be out of listening range. Upon my return the someone would announce "watch out little pictures have big ears!" and the subject of the conversation would be abruptly changed.

So, this year in memory of the women in my family who canned, gardened and kept house and home I choose to learn to as they would say "put up" or can some fruit. I bought a box of peaches (my trees are to young for fruit) and following a recipe I found on line I "put up" eight jars of peach jam. It wasn't as much fun as when the "Ladies" were here, but their presence was strongly felt through an occasional tear for times long lost.

I still had peaches left so I made a peach pie, tomorrow I will get more sugar and spices and "put up the rest of the peaches. No sense wasting any good fruit :)I can those women now "you didn't get enough supplies? What were you thinking? Tsk, Tsk, better get organized if you plan to do much of this, dear me. :))