Canesisters

[canesisters]

HELLO ALL! Missed you guys!

I took a month off from 'media' when I realized that I was spending WAY too much time staring at screens. It's been a wonderful month of quiet reflection, reading, prayer and spending time with friends (who I had seldom contacted outside of FB!)
I can't wait to catch up on all that you all have been up to!!!

Debbie

 

[NwMtGardener]

nice to see you again! Always important to stay in touch with the real world!!

 

[897tgigvib]

:bouquet

Here's Cane!!!

 

[so lucky]

What??? You mean people can communicate without being plugged in? What is this new form of communication?
Welcome back, Cane. Glad you are OK.

 

[Nyboy]

Glad your ok missed your sense of humor !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Thanksgiving

 

[baymule]

YAY!!! Canesisters is BAAAACK!!!!!

 

[canesisters]

So.. what have I missed?

It has been amazing what I've gotten accomplished over the last month. I had a stack of books in the 'I'll read these as soon as I get time' pile. And when I hit the bottom of that pile I had to go get some new books. It's been years since I've had several going at one time. Good for the brain, I think.
I also learned how to make pasta from scratch. That was an adventure. If you love the taste of tomatoes, add some white tomato puree to the pasta and enjoy with a nice, rich tomato sauce, mmmm. And have you heard of congee (sp?), another discovery in November. It's a thin rice soup that is eaten for breakfast. It' looks pretty icky but is SOOOO good.
I also tore up the spare room (guest room no more) and have turned it into a work room. All ready to start seeds LOL.
Out in the garden I raked most of the back yard and piled the leaves on Mt. Rotmore II. Then decided that I should burn the leaves.. You wanna guess what happens when you light off a GIANT pile of leaves that is piled on a very large pile of sawdust/chicken poo??? It smokes and smolders for DAYS and you lose most of your compost because it is now ash. Once that pile of sawdust got going, even hosing it down all afternoon couldnt stop it. (maybe all that reading wasnt so good for my brain after all because that was a really stupid thing to do.)

In the chicken coop : The 4 chicks from Memorial Day are mostly grown up now. The 2 girls have started to lay the most beautiful dark, chocolate brown eggs (thanks to their Marans daddy). The 2 boys however decided that, for whatever reason made sense in their little rooster brains, the 2 speckled Sussex hens were no longer part of the flock and they attacked them any time they so much as peeked out of the coop. When I realized what was going on, the boys were moved to the tractor. Its WAY too small for such LARGE birds to spend extended amounts of time in so now there is a little yard attached to it. Im trying to decide between processing them in their teenage stage and getting it over with, but not getting much meat from them or trying to hold off till they stop getting taller and taller and start putting on some weight. The lower part of the tractor is 24 tall, and their combs are only about an inch from the top. BIG boys.
If I can figure out how to make their little yard secure enough that they can use it even when Im not home to watch them, Ill probably let them go till theyre a year old. The Jersey Giant in them makes them mature super slow, at 6 months old, theyre just starting to look like those long legs might fit one day.


OH! Almost forgot! I finally got a new camera too! So picts soon.

(edited to fix spelling.... )

 

[897tgigvib]

You ashed Mt. Rotmore II? I visualize some of it partially burned.

Experience here. Ashed compost can develop unusual ph readings. I use plants such as Huechera to test ph, but Looking into a meter, maybe even today. Some of it will go alkaline and some can go acidic. It is not ruined completely, but you'll have to start over with the microbes.

I'm still working on lowering the ash percentage in my soil. Got it pretty well lowered last year, but 2 thirds of the south bed soil goes to the berry bed and then gets built up anew, and the east extension needs another percentage reduction, soil to around the grapes and new soil added and topped. Neverending. But should be less soil hauling this year than last.

 

[digitS']

Everyone sits and tries to come up with something that was different between October and November . . . . . wheels turning, eyes shift . . . if contrasts don't work, how about comparisons . . . crickets. Eyes rotating and expressions of desperation cross faces!

Nah, nothing has happened at my place, Cane'.

Congee? Are you making it yourself? Yes, I've eaten it - lots of sweetness. I think if the idea of stirring baked beans into a bowl of rice appeals . . . seems like there was a bit of fruit in there . . ? I can imagine that the amino acids are balanced a bit for more complete protein.

You aren't trying to get me off on new food experiments are you?!! I've just about killed everyone's interest in pumpkin pie over the last few weeks! Yeah, me trying just about everything I can think of to do with a jack o'lantern pumpkin has continued apace!

My computer is misbehaving - since August. Right now I'm on Chrome and just checked Firefox website to find out what to do about malware! This machine is so dodgy it is now allowing pop-ups that I have to go into the The Task Manager to get rid of . . !

New seed catalogs are showing up . . . I can't believe how much Johnny's has grown since I first looked at their catalog . . . 40 years ago!! Good Heavens! Somebody just hit me with a shovel and toss me in Mt. Rotmore!

Oh, there's Marshall . . . make up something new , Marshall!

Steve

 

[canesisters]

Yeah Marshall, just part of it got burned... But I'm sure the heat didn't do all my tiny little buggies any good.
I'm hoping that the good soaking may have done the center some good, since it had gotten dry. I'm supposed to go pick up some of that magic pure bunny/donkey/chicken poo sometime this month so that will get things going again.

Steve, the congee I make isn't sweet at all. I take about a cup of brown rice and about 3 cups chicken broth/3 cups water and put them in the crock pot. Once it gets boiling, I toss in a frozen chicken leg, some diced onions and a little minced garlic and set it to low overnight. The next morning I fish out the chicken bone (the meat has long since fallen off) and divide all that yummy goodness up into a bunch of containers. For the next week I grab a container on my way out the door and heat it at work - add a little soy sauce and dive in. The article I read talked about adding fermented vegetables.. and all I could come up with was sauerkraut. That was ok, but the kraut totally overpowered the taste of everything else. I've also tried adding a heaping tablespoon of pumpkin to an individual serving, yum-o ....