Harvest journal: we still have apples

Apples. Lots of apples. What to do with apples? After using buckets and buckets for cider, storing some whole for fresh pies when we have visitors, we still have apples. What we discovered was in short supply was apple butter. We now have that too.

Gently mounds and doesn’t run. Not too jellied. Perfect.

Apple butter starts easy: just quarter apples and toss them in a pot with not quite enough water to cover them.

I cheated and added the peels and cores from a batch of apples I put in the dehydrator.

Once dried, these will either be snacks or will go into sausages.

Cooked until reduced by half. There still is too much juice here. We passed the juice through cheese cloth, boiled it a bit more, then canned it. Apples are rich in pectin. This cooked juice will go into next year’s jellies.

I spent a couple of hours putting the cooked apples through a food mill. I set up my laptop and watched a movie while going through the mechanics of separating the pulp from pips and peels.

I ended up with about 20 cups of pulp.

The used parts went to the chickens and ducks…they loved them!

To 10 cups of pulp I added about 2 1/2 cups white sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, a tablespoon of cinnamon, a half teaspoon cloves, a quarter teaspoon allspice and an eighth teaspoon cardamom. The spices mix into the pulp better if the spices are first mixed with the sugar. A splash of vinegar adds bite. The pulp/sugar mix then gets gently boiled until it “plops,” getting apple butter all over your stovetop. This takes about 4 hours. 20 cups of pulp made a little more than 8 pints of apple butter.

Michael would have felt neglected if I chopped all those apples and there was no pie at the end of the process.

I emptied one bucket. That last bucket may need to go out to the compost heap…it’s time to work on some construction projects for a change!

We need to get the wallboard in the addition up and taped before the Grand Girl arrives in December.

Harvest journal: Day of the Dead

Irene dresses for Halloween as she goes forth into the world and is social. The rest of us have no cause for costumes. As Halloween always has been one of my favorite holidays, I’ve been trying to figure out how to resurrect a ritual. It took Uncle Ron going the way of the dinosaurs to kick me into gear.

Ron the Irreverent became godfather to our eldest daughter.

Holidays are our means of marking time and remembrance. This year we added a hajj to our local dearly departed on November 1, which is All Hallow’s Day. We started preparations yesterday (All Hallow’s Eve), by gathering offerings. The idea is to eat and drink with friends and family one more time. Our locally planted loved ones liked cookies, so that is where I began.

Black walnuts from our back yard. Who knew they are better dried in the shell for two or three years than fresh off the tree?

Michael magically retrieved a hunk of steel from his stash, which is perfect for cracking those hard shells. I remember my grandpa sitting and picking black walnuts from their shells. I don’t remember how he cracked them. Never inside, as my grandma would not have appreciated walnut shells all over her floors. I snuck a few as I cracked them and instantly flew back to my grandma’s kitchen, snitching a bit of brown sugar fudge.

We sat and ate chocolate chip and oatmeal walnut cookies with Bucka at the Northern Wisconsin Veteran’s Memorial. I feel his presence more here at The Land. He put his mark on this place more than any headstone could mark him.

Klink and Harriette were partial to cookies too, but reveled in the naughtiness of drinking wine. Harriette would have been mortified by drinking in public. Klink had a second glass.

We brought camp chairs and made a picnic. We went to the Kozy Kafe in Grantsburg afterward for something warm, and because it was their favorite hang out. I had a burger in memory of my dad.

Our last stop was at the Cushing Cemetery to bring Ralph and Nonie some Manhattans and a few cookies. We hope to park ourselves not far from them when our time comes.

Now that we are back home warming by the fire, we will raise a beer to Uncle Ron and make some popcorn dressed with Parmesan cheese.

I hope some day this one will come and pour a libation on our graves.

Construction journal: metal on the Duck Mansion and other delayed maintenance

The snow from October 12th melted away and we were gifted several days of 50° weather. Maybe 4. We used them to get started on putting metal on the Duck Mansion. We finished today, working in 32° for a good time.

We started on the East Side, as it had the fewest cuts and shows from the road. The South Side was the trickiest, given the two windows and a door. We will put metal on the doors and drop-down window some other year.

The colors don’t match on all the sides as we used some metal we bought for the house but then didn’t use as our color scheme has changed. Just as well as we learned you have to buy enough metal to finish a project as dye lots change over time.

The North Side doesn’t show from the road. We cannibalized metal left over from the roof of the Mansion as well as some pieces they gave us to protect metal to finish this side. Michael fell in love with the Munchkin Blue and now is threatening to side our next project all in blue. Ee. We are counting on some of that driving rain to clean the metal for us.

We delayed putting metal on a little too long, as the plywood began delaminating. This has been the wettest year since 1968.

We also finished the entryway platforms for Irene and the door into the addition. We hadn’t been using the addition door (someday to be the living room door) as 18” is more of a step than my knees like. We had fixed Irene’s particle board steps a number of times as they also succumbed to too much rain and snow.

The platforms are made from 2x6s rather than particle board. Hopefully they will last until we have the wear withal to put in cement walkways.

The chicken coop still needs metal, but it isn’t going to get it this year as it isn’t falling apart yet. The garden may not get turned over this fall. We are hoping to be gifted at least one more day with temps above freezing as we have 5 drakes who need to go to Freezer Camp. They will be roasting ducks, but are still growing out their pin feathers. We got them late as we had our last snow on May 19th and couldn’t rotate the adults down on pasture as soon as usual. We needed their space for the babies, which put everything behind. Now we are fighting cold on this end.
Weather is always a moving target for farmers…even for those of us who practice unsustainable farming!

Season journal: “Eat. Food.”

That is the Grand Girl’s mantra every morning. Seems to be the theme of this blog. Good rule to live by.
Our last snow was May 19. First snow is on October 12. This gave us about 5 months for spring, summer and fall. The snow came early this year, but it did not catch us unaware.

End of September and we picked all the ripe tomatoes and harvested the cabbages.

Cabbage, apples and onions made a wonderful base for kielbasa. The pickles remain crisp. I have been eating fresh tomatoes with every meal.

A dozen quarts of tomatoes will keep us in spaghetti sauce all winter.

We cleared out the garden four days ago. Fried green tomatoes are one of Irene’s favorites.

We love our ducks, but we can only keep so many in their winter quarters. They will not go to waste as we plan on making sausages from the old hens, keeping the new drakes for roasting. I hope to have sufficient down for a Grand Girl blanket by the time I have space to set up the sewing machine Michael inherited from his grandfather. Michael recently read an article saying Americans eat about 220 pounds of meat annually. I checked our harvest records and we eat less than half the average…and we eat a lot of meat!

We lucked into a sulphur shelf when we went for compost for the garlic garden. Perhaps we eat more mushrooms than average?

The mushrooms dried marvelously, along with parsley and thyme snipped two days ago.

Garlic safely tucked in for the winter. The raised bed gardens will have to wait until next year.

We have been treating the Blue Hubbards like foundlings and leaving them on doorsteps.

We have to enjoy fall colors while they last.

Even though we squeezed tons of apples, we have tons left. We will dry them. We will eat them raw. We will make apple butter.

And we shall eat pie. No wonder I can’t seem to lose weight!

Snow. Not the accumulations or blizzards hitting Montana and North Dakota, but snow nevertheless.

We still have any number of items on our winter preparation list. We may have highs in the 40s and some sunshine next week, but the wood bin is inside and hauling wood is a daily chore. We have started lifting weights again, despite the rush to beat the snow. It feels good and hopefully will allow us to take up the race with grace when spring rolls around.

Grandmother journal: becoming Booma

Michael’s family abides by the tradition that the eldest grandchild carries a duty to name his or her grandparents. Michael named his mom’s parents “Bubba” and “Gumpy.” My eldest named Michael’s parents “Summa” and “Bucka”. My parents became “Nana” and “Abuelo”. Now the Grand Girl has dubbed us “Booma” and “Boopa”.
I just spent two weeks with the Grand Girl, as her Momma had a business trip and Da is in school. My first morning there I awoke to a little voice singing “Booma Booma” in the next room.

I got her out of her crib, changed the diaper and we went back to sleep for a bit. Having this experience with one’s own child is pretty special. Doing it again with the Grand Girl takes things to a higher plane.

My Girl didn’t leave until later in the afternoon so I got to spend a little time with them as their own family.

The GG loves putting her fingers in the mix. Makes everything taste better.

Matt needed to do school stuff the next day, so I went shopping with the GG, stocked up on groceries, and then we went to the hardware store to find anchors to hang an art installation.

So many things to look at!

Installed! The moss balls were very happy to be up off the floor.

Our two weeks whizzed by.

We made enchiladas.

We made pizza.

We went to the park.

We cleaned up.

We played with the neighbors.

We took a 6 hour car ride to go see Nana in New Mexico.

We went to another playground.

We ate plums at the neighbor’s ranch.

We played in the garden.

We found stuffed animals everywhere.

We visited for a while before going back to Colorado.

We marveled at how amazing it is to have daughters, grand daughters and great grand daughters.

We reveled in the loot Momma brought back from Italy.

The Grand Girl may remember none of this (she is only 2), but the important thing is that she feels safe in my lap and she knows we love her. It takes time and energy to make anything grow. Becoming Booma (and Boopa) is one of our most precious projects.

Vintner journal: going to press

We have apples this year!

Zeke picking a Northwestern Greening.

We also have friends who have an apple chopper and press they were willing to lend us.

The wheelbarrow contains about 2/3 of the NW Greenings. We used all the Harralsons from one of our four trees, which was about twice the amount of apples shown here.

Yesterday brought sunshine in what has been a long stretch of rain and we used all that time to process about 8 bushels (or 80 gallons) of apples.

Things learned: the grinder liked apples cut in half better than in quarters; the chute I made from aluminum flashing and a 1x4 helped direct apples from the grinder to the bucket; adjusting our 3 foot high table to 2 feet high was good for the press but low for grinding; it worked well to line the bucket with the apple bag rather than transfer ground apples to the bag as it sat in the press; it is important to level the apples before pressing; and this is at least a two-person job.

Michael has been dreaming of making hard cider for years. We are rather excited to begin making that dream a reality.

A split round block sits on top of the apple bag.

Blocks are added as the screw mechanism presses that round block down, releasing juice from the ground apples.

Having the press clamped to a table allowed us to place a 5 gallon bucket, which held a colander dressed with cheesecloth, under the spout.

We made about 8.5 gallons of juice in 4 hours. We hope to be more efficient in the future.

The final task was to crush and add Camden tablets to the juice to kill any natural yeast. Sometimes the natural yeast tastes good. Sometimes it doesn’t. Using known yeast provides a more reliable result.

Michael started brewing with a wine project while I was in Colorado playing in yeast with the Grand Girl.

Pizza dough. Yum.

Michael harvested the rhubarb…it needed a haircut!

Chopped, sugar added, and bagged.

Pink!

The bubbler on the top let’s you know the yeast is working, releasing the gas without exposing the brew to outside air (or yeast).

Transferring to a bucket without the rhubarb in it. Very pink!

Both the rhubarb and the cider should be drinkable in about 3 months. Expect updates around Christmas!

May we all be this pleased.

Fishing journal: new lake, different fish

Just after Labor Day, some friends and their relatives came to visit. When they heard we only had canoes, they decided to bring their bass fishing boat. Instead of taking them to the lake that has no bass, we decided to expand our horizons.

The result of our recon mission might look paltry, but only if you don’t know what it’s like to fish in 25 MPH winds in a canoe. It’s a wonder we caught anything!

Big Trade Lake is beautiful and big enough for a boat with a motor. The wind died down once our visitors arrived.

Michael caught bass.

Kenny caught bass.

Jim caught bass. All the guys caught fish and us gals came up empty.

The next morning Michael and I cleaned fish while Kenny and his crew went out on the lake once more. This time, his sister Becky reeled in the prize.

A 34” Northern Pike is nothing to sneeze at.

A wolf in fish clothing!

The fish was large enough to fillet out all the Y bones for which pike are infamous.

Fillets to feed a small army!

This fellow should chase tomatoes sky high next spring.

Mrs. Beasley and Boyo, smoking on the back steps after gorging on fish livers.

The rest of us took the fish, but Tara took the cake. So good to share the bounty with friends and family.

Foraging journal: Zeke the puffball pigdog inspires pasta

When we first arrived five years ago, we found giant puffballs along our driveway. No such luck this year, but Zeke sniffed out a Purple Spored Puffball on August 24th.

Puffballs like sandy soil…just what we have along roadsides!

We have been gathering them ever since.

Cleaned and ready for processing. Not as readily edible as potato chips. Then again, I wouldn’t eat potato chips I found on the roadside.

Puffballs lack a pleasant texture. They are mighty like savory marshmallows.

Into the dehydrator they go! Dried, they can be pulverized to hide their texture and release their incredible mushroom flavor.

We have made “mushroom soup” from the dried slices by rehydrating the slices in broth and placing them in a blender, but we usually then have to use them in wild rice or risotto as they still suffer from texture problems. Michael came up with the idea of blenderizing them dry and using them to make pasta.

I researched pasta recipes and settled on 10 ounces of flour, 2 ounces of puffball powder, a teaspoon salt and four duck eggs.

Mixing by hand. Better than Playdoh!

Kneading until it feels wonderfully springy and doesn’t tear. Working on the dining room table let me use my upper body weight to manhandle the dough.

We do have a pasta machine. We invested after rolling and cutting noodles by hand.

Michael turned the crank while I fed the dough through the rollers.

We chose a fettuccine width and one click less than the thinnest noodle setting.

We cleaned a space in the addition to dry noodles.

We figured out width and depth settings by trying different settings and then boiling small batches.

With just a trace of olive oil, the puffballs made pasta worth eating. Yum! Michael has gone from a puffball skeptic to looking forward to having them as a regular resource.

Working together (rolling pasta works so much better with extra hands), thinking of unusual uses (we found NO recipes online for mushroom powder noodles), and enjoying the results of our labor simply eggs us on (pun intended) to new heights of gustatory adventures.

We will leave the table dancing to the Grand Girl.

Construction journal: it’s the little things…

Somehow I no longer feel badly about taking two months to get the railing and gates made for the deck. Today it took Michael and me all day to put flashing under all the addition doors.

Michael is beginning construction on a staircase up to the doorway into our section of the addition. Before he got it firmly in place, I suggested we finally get the flashing added under the door to protect the wooden sill plate from backsplash. We should have put the flashing in BEFORE the siding, but we aren’t that smart….

The first piece went in pretty easily, as the wood under the door was flush with the cement block. I did have to slice the flashing so that we could fit it around the bottom lip of the siding. Having had success, I confidently cut another strip of flashing for the next doorway.

Irene has had “temporary” steps to her door for over a year now. They had grown over with grass and took some muscle (and a shovel) to move them so we could get the bottom of the door flashed. The step-down means there hasn’t been much backsplash, but we hope to give her a better entryway next year.

True to form, there was a nailhead in the way of sliding this section in the same way as the first piece. After trimming the initial piece way too much, we cut a second piece, located the problem nailhead, and managed to trim away just enough and not too much. Getting this piece to lie flat was more challenging as we had added a board under the sill to support the sill lip. Who knows why we had to do this for this door but not the first one? Maybe it’s because we got better at installing doors as we went along…. The first door pictured is the last door we hung.

At least there was no bottom channel to contend with on the deck door…only the deck! Michael crawled underneath and prodded the flashing around the board we added under this door sill as well. We had to sneak the flashing under the siding and back up and around boards.

No wonder it took us all day! Okay, maybe half a day. I walked Zeke and Michael fed and watered the birds. He made bread and I made breakfast and dinner and washed dishes. We took the recycling into town when we went in to buy feed. You know, all the regular stuff that needs to happen in addition to construction.

Harvest and construction journals: first of the tomatoes and last of the deck work

We have been racing the rain, and won by golly!

So the tomatoes are still a little green…didn’t want them bursting in the scheduled rain. They went well with our morning duck eggs.

Snow on May 19th means we are just now getting our first tomatoes. We will not make 70° today. Even thought we have plenty of green tomatoes, they have been slow to ripen.

The deck is done! Now I can play with a full deck…

Michael and Matt laid the last of the deck flooring in June. It has taken me two months to get the rails and gates cut, assembled, and installed.

One of the challenges was designing posts where I couldn’t use the deck foundation posts.

These are bolted to the face board. Michael drilled and bolted while I held them in place. They were a little wobbly until I tied them together with railing. Figuring out how to cut 4” posts on a table saw that only reached 3” high was interesting. Matt figured out about marking the guide rail so I could tell where the end of my saw blade came. I didn’t overcut any of my posts!

I’ve gotten better at using clamps to hold things in place while I drill then screw them. Because I’m driving a screw at an angle, the boards tend to “walk” unless there is a way to block them. Having them not flush with the top of the post creates problems down the line.

This is the gate to nowhere. Eventually, it will lead to either a ramp or stairs. We have to figure out what we can install without hitting any of the sewer or electricity that runs on that side. We want something so we can reach the window to replace it (and then maybe wash it occasionally). The blue thing is part of a pool noodle I attached to the jamb so the gate doesn’t rattle in the wind.

The final piece was installing a gate and railing so that we can easily get in and out of the yard, but Zeke and the chickens can’t.

We left the yard side wider so we can still get a washer up those stairs if need be!

Now that the outside work is done, I hope to clean out the work space so I can complete the finishing work in the bathroom, and then Michael and I can get the last of the wallboard hung in the addition. I only have two weeks before I leave to babysit the Grand Girl in Colorado.

We will have to find some projects to work on together while her dad is in school and momma is away on business!

Fishing journal: getting ready for winter

Summertime, and the fishing is easy. Michael and I ventured out on an afternoon when Irene had other places to be, freeing us from dinner prep obligations. (Not that I didn’t make dinner, but we did eat after 7 pm and it did involve a slook of green beans. It’s what goes from garden to plate these days!)

New dock at the public landing at our favorite lake.

This is an afternoon lake, so we didn’t get on the water until about 2 pm. We were off by 5, and caught 44 fish. It was a good day.

27 crappies and 17 sunnies

We had an osprey buzz us a few times, and then saw a bald eagle swoop over and land in a tree. He’s the smaller of these two birds. We think the larger bird was a golden eagle. If so, he was well outside his usual territory.

Our luck catching fish meant we had fish to clean the next morning. Our chickens love the fish livers.

Ten meals ready to be bagged and frozen.

The eleventh meal we had immediately! My beer batter has been improved with the addition of Wimbi (millet) flour…a delicacy we find in the Cities.

Having a freezer full of fish allows us to explore some lakes we haven’t fished yet.

We did find a lake full of yellow bullheads. We caught a fish nearly every time we cast, but they were all 5-6”…not worth cleaning so they went back to grow some more.

We would like to find a lake with eelpout, a type of freshwater cod.

Any excuse to get back on the water!

Livestock journal: getting ready for winter

We have had some overnight temperatures below 50°. It’s time to start preparing for winter. The first step this year was getting straw for winter bird bedding. No one had small bales locally, so we trekked to our favorite provider in Almena. We were floored by the destruction we saw on our way out.

Limbs down and trees uprooted.

Huge brush piles on the roadside.

Swathes of broken trees.

The roads were mostly open, but so many buildings had been damaged…including at the farm where we buy straw. But in that inimitable resilience of farmers, they were working to salvage what they could, conducting business as usual, and pleasantly helpful. We got our straw, paid a fair price, and came home to our own farmstead.

Checking our load on the way home at a convenient Lutheran Church parking lot. Every day I rejoice with in the beauty of Wisconsin.

Unloading at home.

We moved the chickens from their summer digs to the winter coop that same day. We only have three old hens to teach the new chickens the ways of being “upstairs.”

We have more roosters than hens this year. Luck of the draw!

We will let them out of the gated yard soon and see how the roosters treat the hens. We want one who will call the hens over when he finds something tasty, will protect them from the cat and other predators, and who will not beat up on them. Longfeather was such a good rooster. We still miss him. He is pushing up garlic. Fluffy, on the other hand, was a terrible rooster. He became sausage. We need a good rooster.

One who will know enough not to harm this chickadee. Longfeather was always such a gentleman with her!

Dog walk journal: Zeke!

By popular demand, I am putting the dog back into my walk.

Contemplating the new green in late May.

Inspecting the cabbage in early June.

Searching for mice in roadside clover.

Checking the river level.

Snuffling August wildflowers.

Pooping.

Eating poop.

Earning an ear rub. Chronologically out of order, but a good ending to any walk.

Garden journal: hot August nights doing their thing

We have been having temps in the mid-80s, which is better than the 90s we had in late July, and much better than the overnight temps in the 50s we had a few days ago. This is corn growing weather!

Our heirloom blue popcorn started to tassel and form cobs this past week.

The heirlooms grow so tall!

If you look closely you can see the wooden support grid Michael made for the popcorn. We have had some amazing storms blow through…which lodged the corn when it was about half as tall as it is now. Michael stood it back up and built the grid between stalks. It seems to give the stalks sufficient stability to withstand wind and rain.

This is Michael in the garden less than a month ago.

Some parts of the garden have been more successful than others. The onions will be huge.

It will be time to harvest them soon.

The garlic is small this year. Snow in May didn’t help.

The cucumbers are going into full production. We still have peas, which is unusual. They don’t normally like warm weather.

Michael made me a cardamom black currant coffee cake for my birthday. Yum! We will have elderberries and apples for jelly fodder this year, but the plums and apricots suffered from the late spring.

The milkweed is just a bonus. Michael tended this patch of black raspberries and we had several quarts over about a month. Never enough to make jelly, but plenty to eat with cereal or ice cream.

Michael has done most of the gardening this year, as I’ve been doing some work I may actually get paid for…eventually. I have to support our unsustainable farming practices somehow! It does mean the weeds have gotten a bit out of hand.

Quack grass. I hate quack grass. It will grow right through onions and potatoes. Grrr.

The pickles will be ready by tomorrow. Pickles. We love pickles.

There is always more to be done here than there is time to do it. In a way, this is a good thing. We are never bored! And we can go at our own sedate pace, knowing that things will all work out, one way or another. In the meantime, we really are having fun. Every. Single. Day.

Dog walk journal: birds and beasts

I walk the same two paths from my driveway almost every day, either west to the river or east toward the sun. Every day brings something new. I haven’t had time to update for a while, so I’m catching up on sharing the wonders of my morning walks.

The egg fell from the nest. So small! About the size of my thumbnail.

The vulture flashed by as I was admiring the light on the weeds.

The vultures migrate south in the winter, so seeing them means warm weather.

Everyone looks for nesting sites.

Ms. Snapper’s journey from the river to lay her eggs was successful. Late May/early June is time to play Scout and help the ladies cross the roads.

Having a Baldie swoop down is a bit unnerving.

The eagle had been lunching on a coyote that may have been hit by a car the prior winter and landed in the ditch.

I found these remains on the road after the eagle buzzed me.

This box turtle didn’t make the crossing. Zeke found her in the tall grass.

I’m continually amazed at how many creatures show up for our walks and are unfazed by Zeke.

This Sand Hill Crane danced across the road several times, serenading us all the way, before wandering off into the woods.

I’m just as happy I saw Mr. Bear before he saw us. I decided West was a better direction this particular day.

Even bright red, the deer next to the tree in the lower left quadrant is hard to spot. Zeke didn’t notice her until she bounded up the hill.

I’m in the midst of writing an appellate brief, which makes my dog walking time even more precious.

Sharing the walk is the best part.

Fishing journal: raising them right

Lilith loves fish. The natural thing was to take her fishing. We invited her parents, Auntie Sister and Nate too. We have gathered enough equipment over time to outfit everyone. We attached an extra seat in our canoe for Lilith. She got the life vest for her birthday

Caravan time!

She didn’t tip the canoe or fall out. Really good for a two year old.

She did wander around a bit.

I caught fish while Michael kept us in motion. Lilith wasn’t sure she liked being so close to the first fish when it splashed her. She became more comfortable once she got to pet the fish…and even gave one a kiss.

Dad helped her get fish up to the cars.

Not bad for a short outing. The sky opened just as we got home. Thank you Lilith for saving us from a soaking!

Grand Girl journal: Lilith is 2!

The GG and her chauffeurs arrived safely on June 21st. As a growing girl, Lilith headed straight to the refrigerator. 

She can name all the letters and colors. The numbers are coming along.  

I saved making her cake until the last moment. My excuse was that I needed help cleaning the beaters. 

Blowing out candles is a skill.  

She got to practice the Happy Birthday song as we celebrated all weekend long!  

She has made friends with Zeke and learned fairly rapidly that he might nibble a bit, but won’t really eat her.  

We took her out in the woods to find wild things. 

More strawberries!  More strawberries!

We’ve been doing the crosswords together. 

She has been helping finish the deck. 

She is very good at handing out screws when asked.  

Every evening she helps put the ducks to bed. 

Someone has to make sure there is feed in the buckets!

I didn’t even lose babysitting privileges when I shortened her bangs!   

She’s a keeper!

Construction journal: playing with a half a deck

Our latest project: a continuation of the East Side deck: 

A week with extra hands yields great results! 

Michael broke ground on the deck on May 31st. 

The new post hole diggers work well...as does Michael! 

My brother Daniel and his wife Jeni arrived on June 4th. Not all the post holes were in, which was fine as Daniel had some great ideas to modify our initial plan, making life easier.  

Posts set; Dan and Jeni attaching joist supports.  

Joists on joist supports!  

Starting to lay deck floor.  

We ran out of 2x4s before “we” got all the flooring laid yesterday. The deck was mostly built by Michael, Dan and Jeni. My role was to keep everyone fed: 

Duck legs (and wings) braised in red wine with wild rice pilaf and sautéed wild nettles. 

Seared duck breast with salad and Michael’s whole wheat cheese biscuits.  

Grilled teriyaki fish and zucchini planks with salad and mung bean noodles. 

We did eat some other lovely things, including our home made sausages, but we had all been working so much we didn’t pause to take photos: 

Was this the sausages or the roast pork?!? The pay is lousy around here, but the food is good. 

We will finish the deck over the rest of this summer, as we also work on finishing the wallboard and flooring in the addition. The deck will help with next year’s project of replacing windows. Dan and Jeni return to their home today, Wednesday. Michael is due to go and help our daughter and son in law move into their new home starting on Sunday.  

The Grand Girl settling into her new space.  

Then we get to see that GG and her folks for her birthday on the 21st. I hope to have adequately cared for garden and house so everyone has a place to land.  

Harvest journal: old chickens; new sausages

Our hens have been dying out from under us, which we haven’t grieved over, as we have been getting 1-2 eggs a day from 18 hens. Our lone rooster wasn’t fertilizing the eggs we did get. We inherited a couple of old roosters several years ago, who didn’t mesh well with our flock. We cooked them for a full day: still inedible. What to do? What to do? 

The rooster, a giant Cochin, still had his spurs, but lost his toenails. One of the black hens also had a spur. Usually hens only have vestigial bumps.  

We bought a sausage stuffer and casings. We already had a meat grinder, for making venison burger. 

We froze the boned chicken in strips, bought pork fat from our local butcher, and had my sister send us fresh sage. 

While the boys were grinding, I was rinsing pork casings.  

Of the 8 chickens we harvested yesterday, two had health problems that rendered them inedible. The other 6 chickens gave us 12 pounds of meat. We added about 3 pounds of pork fat to the boned chicken. 

We tried a dried apple/onion/sage mix first.  

I twisted off the sausages as Michael turned the crank.  

And there they are!  Sausages. The tomato/garlic/wild rice/pepper flake combo look meatier than the apple/onion version. 

As beginners, the entire process, from harvesting the chickens to having links in the fridge, took two days of pretty intense work. We were required to sample them as we went along. They are some of the best sausages I’ve eaten...and we live in sausage country!  Michael and I are so excited by having options for recycling old hens and the occasional tough bucks that come our way. 

Poetry journal: to the sea, to the sea, to the beautiful sea

Springtime comes and all daylight hours cry for attention to all that could not be done in the cold. Soon I will post progress of gardens and other projects. Today, as I travel to pick up one brother from the airport (free help with construction projects!), I post a poem sent to me by another brother:

Finding one’s way

Incalculable machinations

below the surface of the sea

another world not betrayed by the churning above

And in the odd, off-handed, unguarded moments

a turn

letting go-

leading to that true path

Intentionality overrated

When all the while

a wonderous, hidden ocean of wisdom

alive with countless creatures

knew what to do

Courage unscathed by hominid humming

Divinity at work in the simple will to live, to flourish

to breathe the air bound in the currents

Death only affirming continuity

That pearl of great price

floats like a beautiful dream

in the black abyss

-Crick

I hope to lure The Fab Five out next summer so they can all play with us on our farm.  I am rich in brothers!!!!   

Sisters too, as my baby sis sent me bountiful sage for our planned foray into sausage making. 

Desert sage: naturally dry enough to survive mailing without moldering.  

I have a roast in the fridge, basking in a dry marinade made with bay laurel sent by my older sister.

The pay is meager, but the food is good. 

Rolled omelet with wild oyster mushrooms, asparagus from the garden, cheese (we DO live in Wisconsin...) and whole wheat biscuits, made with...cheese!!!