Sometimes I get so caught up

Some days I get so caught up in reading about other people out there in the bog-o-sphere that I run out of time to update about what's going on here. I get in a snippet and a picture here and there and just gloss over what's going on.

Life has slowed down on the homestead with the coming of winter. The garden in done producing and I'm looking towards what I'm going to do with it next year. What changes I want to make, what to plant and what not to do again. Placement changes and variety changes.

The kids are gone. The boy is back with his Mom. Teh Spawn has gone to live with her Dad. It's quiet around the house when Scott is gone to work. No one to do the chores for me. No more slave labor. You'd think with the kids gone there would be less mess. Dinners for Scott and I still have to be cooked. I still bake bread once every other week or so. The dishes still pile up. Laundry still has to be done and put away. It just takes a few days longer to get there. Two days ago it finally felt like they were gone. Most of the time it just feels like they are just in town... at school, at a friends... The atmosphere almost feels like they're going to walk in the door any time. They still have stuff and belongings in their rooms. I find bits and memories here and there. I think I just spent over an hour going through the SD card on my camera looking over pictures I've seen before when one kid or the other had  control of the camera. I found photos and vids I had missed seeing before. It makes me sad. It still feels like they are just going to come tromping through the door, loud and boisterous.

My surgery is done and over with again. Three in the space of a year. Bowel resection, removal of a cyst and my right ovary. This time it was a huge cyst and removal of my left ovary. I feel like putting in a zipper. This was the first planned one though. Waited two months for it so I could try and get through the busy summer shave down season at work. I'm back to work now. They were able to do this surgery laproscopically. Less down time. Less recovery time.

The hot flashes have started. They started in the first week after I was home. Scott shared his head cold with me. This week I've felt like I was either getting frostbite when the fever was coming on, or I was going to spontaneously combust from the hot  flashes and burn down the house. The cold is finally leaving my system and I don't feel like passing out on the couch as soon as I get home from work.

Irrigation season is over for the year. No more moving the horses from pasture to pasture to keep their feet dry. We were bringing them up onto the dry lot in the evenings and letting them out on the grass during the day. Ben gets fat just from the fart of a near by blade of grass, there was no need to leave them out full time. I went out the other day and opened the fence between the short pasture and the one out in front. The hose will stretch to the short pasture and I can water them there.

We had to sell Patches, Scott's mare. It made me so sad. The bills were pilling up, and it was looking seriously like we weren't going to be able to get out from under them in time to buy hay for all three of them. A guy from Vegas drove up and bought her. I guess his girlfriend had a horse that looked similar to Patches when she was younger, and just had to have her. More power to them. She was marked so beautifully, but she was not a good ride. I hated having to get rid of her though. She was Scott's first horse he owned. It killed me to put up the adds. I put it off every chance I could thinking there surely was a way to make it all work without selling her. I know it made Scott nuts that I kept saying I would do it, and then never followed through. I just kept hoping though.

Why her instead of one of the boys? Ben is pushing 23 or 24. There was no one in their right mind gonna pay money for an unregistered horse that old. I thought he was only 18 when I bought him three years ago, and the only reason I did was he was dirt cheap and I knew the kids could manhandle him into going where they wanted to. That and I couldn't make him spook no mater what I tried, how I hung half way out of the saddle, or what I rode him over. Apache was my other choice, but again... unregistered, been lame on and off for a while, and he's small. He carries me fine, but Scott won't ride him because he feels he's too big for the little guy. So Patches was the only choice. I knew with the pattern she had, someone would give me money for her.

Tasty Pig is back from Scarrows and in my freezer.

Tasty Pig

We've eaten the sausage, bacon, ham steaks, pork steaks, brats, and tonight I made bone in pork chops. She lived up to her name, and was mighty Tasty. I'm very happy with the way this tastes compared to what I can buy in the grocery store. Does she taste better because of all the hard work Scott and I put into the building, raising, and feeding we did? dunno, but the outcome is the same, and I'm pleased with that. 

Finally got around to smoking the trout we caught earlier in the year. It was dinner along with some of the corn put away from this year's garden. I liked it so much I took some to work for lunch the next day. I never got time to sit down and eat it, so it became dinner two nights in a row. If I hadn't made pork chops for Scott and eaten shortly after he left, it would have been dinner again. 

Smoked Trout

Scott's been talking for a while about painting one of the walls in the living room as an accent wall. We (meaning he did it) finally got around to getting it done. It's a nice sagey green. It goes with the couches and the blanket I crocheted last year.  I really really like it. 

The new color on the east wall

It's also that time of year to start heating with the wood stove. It was getting just cold enough to turn on the heater at night, but with my hot flashes I kept it off. Scott would come home to me sound asleep, the window in the bedroom open, the ceiling fan on high, and it only being 65 degrees in the house.  :)  So he got down to cutting some wood. This year I learned my lesson though. Teh Spawn was so good helping split wood last year. We split it, and split those pieces into smaller pieces. Really we had glorified kindling when we were done with it. Good thing we didn't do the whole lot. just a good portion of it. I didn't know it was going to burn so fast that small. This year, if there is any chance I can cram it into the opening of the stove, it doesn't get split, just stacked whole.

Gir and the cut logs

There is just something about the feel of the heat a wood stove puts off. It's a totally different feeling than walking into a house with the heat set at 70, or even 72. I do have to crank the heat up till it's 76 in the front half of the house to warm the bedrooms. We still need to attach a blower to the back of the stove. One of the projects still in the works. 

Yay Fire

The only time you will see Fudge let a Bastard lay next to him.

Ashley taking advantage of the heat on the other side. See the pretty green wall? Don't mind the remnants of the mess from paining

Back log of pics

It's picture time!!! All the pics I've been meaning to put up and never got around to it. My laptop won't read the cards, and I never get around to going upstairs to the big computer. 

Dragonfly on corn stalk. 

Stanley wood cutting trip

Tasty on her way to Scarrows

Jess sitting in the truck with Spook,  Ben, and Patches

Love her

How cute is this

Beating the heat

Back when they were little

Scott helping me weed

Weeding when the garden was still starting to grow

Stanley wood cutting trip

Ima good supervisor

Scotty and Mike

Mike

Scott and Mike

Me

Mike and Scott

Mike and Liam

Liam

Me 

Mike and Scott

Mike running the saw

Pressure canner at work for the first time

Spaghetti sauce

Yogurt draining out the whey

My new fav bread recipe

This is my new go to recipe for bread. I love this stuff. I've made it twice now. It was easy to make. It wasn't the sticky mess that took forever to knead as the last recipe I've been using. It made a little less bread, but the time involved that I saved more than made up for it.

Now, my mixing skills weren't as strong as his. I had to stop with the spoon and start mixing by hand a lot earlier. Most of my kneading was done in the bowl.

The first time I made it, I didn't have to sprinkle any flour on the board to knead it. The second time, I just had to flour my hands.

I love the single rise, in the loaf pan. The first time, I let it rise in an oven that had been set to warm only for just a few mins and turned off. I forgot the bread was in there and it rose over the tops of the pan and started hanging off the sides. I punched it down and let it rise again before baking. I didn't get a good dome over the top of the pan after being baked, but it was still tasty. It was still rather dense. The second time came out perfect. Almost too soft and bubbly inside.

I let mine bake for 35 mins and could have let it go another 7 or 8 mins. It was very soft inside. Spreading softened butter was enough to tear it if I wasn't careful. I used less sugar in mine, and a little more salt. I did do the half wheat/half white flour the first time.

Home Made Bread

• 5 to 5-1/4 cups flour
• 1/4 cup sugar (I used a little less)
• 1/2 tablespoon salt (I used 3/4)
• 2 tablespoons yeast
• 1-1/2 tablespoons oil
• 2 cups warm water

• Add the yeast to the warm water and stir to mix
• In a large bowl add your flour, sugar, salt, and oil
• Now add in the yeast and water. I didn't let it sit and get frothy, didn't add sugar to the water. Just let it set as long as it took to combine the other ingredients
• Stir with a long wooden or plastic spoon until it starts to come together. It will be crumby underneath. I have to get in here with my hands sooner than the video and start squishing
• Squish, knead, press the dough until it's all incorporated and all the flour and bits stuck to the sides have come together
• Turn out onto the counter or a bread board and knead for 5 mins
• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. 
• Divide your dough in half and place into two, lightly greased, loaf pans and let let rise to double in volume
• Bake at 350 for 35 mins
• Remove from loaf pans to a wire rack to cool. 

You know it's fall in Hillbilly Idaho when...

You and the spouse start fighting over who's turn it is to vacuum flies off the ceiling in the ceiling in the garage. And not fight as in," I did it last time, it's your turn." No, it's fight as in," Oh that's a whole lot of them

right there, lemme have the vacuum. You did almost the whole garage door already, let me see it for a minute." It's fly season. It's been fly season for a while. I am sick to damned death of the flies. They are Everwhere! Can't go in and out of the front door because they are swarming. Gah, now they're all over the inside of the garage. Forgot to roll up the windows in the truck when I stopped at the dairy down the road to get milk for the pigs, and Gross. I can hear the hum from their wings from five feet away. Thousands of flies. 

We have pigs, chickens, horses. There are three dairies, a milk processing and a grain processing plant, all within two miles of us. More dairies, open corn, potato, onion, alfalfa, and beet fields all around us. These are ALL going to attract flies. Even in town the flies are bad this time of year. When it gets cold they all start looking for somewhere warmer to spend the night. All around the door frame and the window frame of the front of the house. All over the inside ceiling of the garage.

Flies on the frame for the garage door

Flies on the ceiling in the garge

Every time I open a door to go in or out, and that's quite a few times a day depending on what chore or another we're doing, a fly or two gets in the house. Let the dogs in or out without knowing there is a swarm by the front door, and a few get in the house. I go on carcass creating sprees in the living room and the kitchen. They leave nasty little fly specks (POOP) all of the place. I leave partially flattened carcasses all over the place.

I try fly spraying the inside of the garage, the underside of the pig shelter, around the front porch. I have gallon jug traps out all around the house. Fly strips in the garage and in my kitchen. The time I get my favorite revenge on the disease carrying, little flying, garbage munchers is at night when the temps cool down. I take Scott's big shop vac, put this little wedge attachment tip on and go to town. When they get cold they slow down. I place the tip against the roof, or garage door, or the frame and track to the door, and slowly sweep along, gleefully sucking flies up by the hundreds. A shot or two of fly spray down the hose before I turn it off, and YAY!

Tasty has an appt at Scarrow Meats. Jalapeno Poppers. Squash bake.

Scott called yesterday and set up for Tasty to go to Scarrow Meats Tuesday next weeks. She doesn't seem to be getting any bigger, and is still just munching us out of house and home. Wilbur will stay another week or two. At least until Andrea decides to take him to her place, or start buying feed for him. Now I just have to find a freezer to put her in when she comes home.

The garden is winding down. We got a little bit of frost the other day. All the tops of the plants wilted and turned black. All of a sudden I can see everything that's hiding under there. Most of what you see is weeds. I was so good pulling weeds the beginning of the season. Not so much lately.

All the corn is done. The 20 or so ears that were still out there got ate by a skunk. I saw corn stalks being pushed down here and there. I thought it was the dog chasing after a feral cat. I've seen her tear ass off into the trees chasing it before. I heard something thrashing in the corn the other night, Ashley was still on the porch with me so I knew it wasn't her. Grabbed the big flashlight thinking I was going to scare off a cat, or maybe the coyote we saw earlier that night. OH NO! SKUNK!! Ash came with me, and I shoed her back to the porch and hightailed it myself. No way I was gonna go in there after a skunk. I thought about going in the house for the 22 and taking care of it, but it was after 11 at night, and all I needed was crazy Mrs. Shirk behind me calling the sheriff out. Besides, I'm still all high on painkillers from the surgery last Mon. Ne reason on this planet for me to be handling a gun. But I did see the skunk lean against a corn stalk till it broke over. The next morning I went out to salvage what was left, and he'd gotten them all.

Earlier this week I went out and picked all the jalapeno peppers that finally grew. Those plants got frosted the beginning of the season and I almost gave up on them. I think I missed one pepper and it's out there the prettiest red color. I made poppers out of the ones I brought in.

Jalapeno Pepper Poppers

• Half a sleeve of crackers, crushed. I used Club, it was in my cabinet
• One pkg cream cheese, softened
• half cup shredded cheese. I used Colby Jack because it's what I had in the fridge
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese 
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• Enough peppers to use all the filling.

I can't tell you how many peppers to use, because mine were all different sizes out of the garden. More if they were all small, less of they were as big as the ones I got from the store for the salsa? I sliced them in half and it filled a whole baking sheet. Not a lot of help, I know. Anywho...

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix the softened cream cheese with all the cheeses, paprika, and garlic powder. 
• I cut the top off the pepper and sliced in half. It was too much bother to core out the center. WEAR GLOVES. 
• Fill the peppers with the cheese mixture and place on a baking sheet, cheese side up. Sprinkle with the crushed crackers. 
• Bake in the oven for 15-20 mins until the cheese starts to melt and the crackers darken slightly. 

I didn't eat any of these. I don't like spicy foods, and I don't like the taste of jalapeno even if they weren't hot. I was told by everyone who had them, that I can make them over and over again, anytime They want them. lol. I know they weren't the traditional breaded and fried, but they were a big hit.  No pics. They all got eaten before I had a chance to grab the camera, but here's a shot of the empty pan :)

I made a different version of the Southern Baked Squash. My friend Lacy came over and she can't have gluten, but I wanted to do squash bake again. So we went with cheese. 

Cheesy Squash Bake

• 3 yellow squash and three zucchini, cubed. Mine here getting pretty large in the garden. You might want to use 4 or 5 smaller. 
• Half a pkg cream cheese
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• Half a sleeve of crushed crackers. I used Club, they were in my cabinet
• 1 cup shredded cheese. I used the Colby Jack I had in the fridge
• 
  
• 
  
• Boil the cubed squash 15 mins or until tender. 
• Preheat oven to 375
• Spray inside of a 9x13 baking pan with cooking spray
• drain squash, and mash until it had the constancy of mashed potatoes
• Add eggs, butter and cheeses and blend well. 
• Smooth mixture into the backing dish and cover with crackers. I left one third of uncovered for my friend
• Bake in the oven uncovered about 45-50 mins, or until the crackers start to darken, and the squash mixture is bubbly. 

Cute baby cows in the pasture next door to us

We picked the first of the five watermelon that grew this year. We had Charleston Greys. Big watermelon. Scott had to carry it in for me since it's over the limit of what the doc says I can carry. It's a very tasty watermelon. I think we could have left it out there one more week. The white rind was very thick. Most of the seeds were dark brown, but not black yet. Still very sweet though. I'm still waiting on the cantlelope to be ready to eat. 

Southern Baked Yellow Squash and Zucchini

In an effort to use up the amazing amounts of squash and zucchini I have growing in the garden, I cam across this recipe at allrecipes.com/. I forgot to take a pic of the finished results, but mine looked similar to the image at all recipes. I did change their recipe and added the zucchini and Italian breadcrumbs instead of plain. I thought it tasted good. Scott said he'd eat it again.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 pounds yellow summer squash and green zucchini, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1/2 cup dry Italian bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/4 cup dry Italian bread crumbs

Directions

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish.
2. Place the squash and zucchini in a large saucepan, cover with water, and boil until soft, about 15 minutes. Drain the squash well, place in a large mixing bowl, and mash until slightly chunky. Stir in 1/2 cup of bread crumbs, onion, eggs, 1/4 cup of butter, sugar, salt, and pepper until thoroughly combined, and spread mixture into the prepared baking dish. Drizzle the top of the casserole with 1/4 cup melted butter, and sprinkle 1/4 cup bread crumbs over the butter.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until the casserole is cooked through and the top is golden brown, about 1 hour.

Salsa success.

After the FAIL at tomato juice the other day, I did a batch of salsa the other day that looks amazing. I didn't try it yet, as I have no chips, but looks and smells are fantastic. I roasted either on the grill, or in the oven, the tomatoes, jalapenos, and the banana peppers. This made 6 pints.

• 6 cups roasted tomatoes
• 3 cups chopped onions
• 3  jalapeño peppers, seeded, finely chopped
• 3 banana peppers, seeded, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups bottled lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt

Simmered all ingredients for half an hour. I could have gone longer and let the salsa thicken some, but I like runny salsa. Filled the boiled pint jars to a half inch of head space. Screwed on the two piece lids fairly tight. Added to my water bath canner. Filled with hot water to two inches above the jars. I did have to add a a quart jar of water, just to take up space so the pints wouldn't tip over. It does take a long time for my canner to get up to steam. Once at a boil, I reduced the heat to a gentle boil and let it rip for 20 mins. After 20 mins, I took off the lid, turned off the heat, and let the water and the jars cool. After about an hour I pulled them out onto a towel on the counter and let them finish cooling over night. 

Now I just need some corn chips for a taste test. 

What kind of mess did I make? and the laziest pigs ever.

So I've been processing tomatoes. I grilled a batch, and last night I put two roasting pans full of tomatoes in the over till they were bubbling in their own juices. I did this twice. I peeled off the skins, and de-seeded. I ended up with a whole mess of tomatoe pulp  and 7 quarts of tomato juice. I tried canning the quarts tonight. Stuck them all in my big old giant pot. Took forever to to come to a boil. The whole time rocking and making horrible noises. I let it finally come to a boil, boiled for 20 mins, took off the lid, and turned off the stove. I have a lot of floaty junk in the water, and when I pulled out the jars, this is the mess I had. One jar looks like I thought they should all turn out. All the jars seemed to have sealed fine, they are all sunk in the middle. I should add this was my first practice run for the salsa and spaghetti sauce I want to make from all the tomato pulp. What is this mess, and what did I do wrong is the question for the Homesteading Today forums.

I get a kick out of watching my piggies eat. How lazy can it get?