The Best Way to Bottle Beans

Yesterday was bean bottling day. We had two pickings' worth in the fridge, minus a few that we gave away. The days have been so hot, so Russ decided we could set up the canning outside. He has two camp chefs that we got at yard sales and D.I., a turkey roaster (a large kettle on a propane fueled cooking stand), and he has four pressure canners.

He put up some shade and used a sliding glass door and two barrels for a table. Inside the house, the kids and I and my friend Kirsten washed bottles, snapped beans and loaded the bottles. (Kirsten had already snapped all her beans at her house and brought them with her ready to load into bottles.) Then we carried them out to Russ, who put the boiling water and salt in, put the hot lid on with a ring, and then processed them in the canner. Russ said with the camp chef, the canners come up to temperature much faster than on the stove in the house. We did 72 quarts all together, 18 of which were for Kirsten's family. That would have taken us two or three days on the kitchen stove and it would have made the house like an oven and too miserable to tolerate. We are sold on outdoor canning!

I Strongly Dislike Grasshoppers!

I took some pictures of our grasshoppers. They are very annoying, but I have to say that we have been lucky to still have a pretty good garden. At the mega garden, Russ sprayed the potatoes and the corn, which is just starting to tassle out. The neighbor whose house it is behind sprayed around the perimeter and in the area between his house and the garden. Russ didn't want to spray anything directly that we were going to eat (beans, peas, tomatoes, summer squash). It killed quite a few grasshoppers, but it didn't seem to really make a dent in the population. There are grasshopper problems in several areas of the state this year, and they are causing a lot of damage.

Sunflower leaf

Bean plants

This is what's left of my lettuce at the house garden. I did get to use some, but I didn't look at it for a couple of days, and when I came back, this is what I found.ZucchiniYoung corn stalksHollyhocks

Joshua is 13!

Today my Joshua turned 13. It is hard to believe he could be that old! Emily took him to Nephi and treated him to lunch for his birthday. We remembered the ice cream but forgot the candles, so he had one candle to mark one more year of his life.

Joshua is our silly boy, and our tease. He has a lot of natural talent and can play piano, banjo, and harmonica, and even a little trombone. He forgives easily and is pretty easy going most of the time. He still plays with legos, and he reads a lot. He either plays very well with the younger girls, leading them in all sorts of pretend games, or he and they are like water and oil. I'm not sure what the determining factor is for how their dynamics work at any given time. If I could figure that out, I'd really be on to something!

Joshua kisses and hugs me and tells me he loves me every night before he goes to bed, and although we joke about his wet kisses, I really appreciate him expressing his love.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOSHUA!!

Peas and Tears

Well, today was the day we've been dreading. We've almost lived through it, though. It was the first picking of the mega garden peas. Caleb is at scout camp, and Russ had to get ready to leave for work, so Emily, Hannah, Joshua, and I each took a row. Russ weeded for part of the time we were picking.Our neighbor, Pam Angus, came out to pick a few to eat fresh. The garden is behind her house on their property.

I found out a couple of days ago that two of the rows are sugar snap/snow peas, and the other two rows are regular peas. It took us a little over three hours to pick them all. We didn't start until about 8:30am, unfortunately. I usually like to start earlier because it heats up pretty fast on a July morning.

Katie, Molly, and Matthew were there, but they didn't do much picking. They were playing and hiding in the tall potatoes and corn. They also brought the kittens to the garden and were feeding them grasshoppers. Sometimes the kittens catch them on their own, but they do better if someone catches them and pulls their back legs off. Gross, I know. I only did it twice, and then I said no more. I figured it was training for their mouse catching when they get a little older. They play with the grasshoppers just like bigger cats play with the mice before they eat them.

I was in the lead as we picked down the rows, but near the end I started to get really sick of being out there in the sun picking those peas and I slowed down. Matthew was crying and saying he wanted me to take him home, and Emily was also crying because she wasn't feeling very well. She came to do her duty and pick anyway--what a great daughter! At this point we were all saying "Hang in there!"Joshua finished first, then Hannah, then Emily, and I finished last. When I got back to the house, we had lunch, then Hannah shelled peas while watching what she calls a Brady Bunch marathon. We have the DVD's. It took her 5 episodes to shell the peas she picked. I was avoiding it and doing other stuff, but when Hannah finished I thought I'd better get back on it. I shelled Joshua's peas, and it only took me two episodes. I haven't done the sugar snap peas yet, but that's how I plan to spend the evening. There is one five-gallon bucket full of those.

Provident living is hard work, but it is good for us--YES! IT BUILDS CHARACTER, RIGHT?! And all of us agree that we like to eat, so I know that later we will be glad we did it!

Our Own Zoo Part 2

We got two kittens in early June from some neighbors. Russ gave the okay...he must have been soft that day, or maybe he figured what's two more when we already have such a collection of animals! We really need cats to keep the mice down. We used to have three, but two died, and we thought it would be good to get some in training to help Tiger who has been left alone to defend the homestead. I personally wanted orange kittens because we have only ever had orange cats here. I found two brothers who fit the bill. They are so sweet! Unfortunately, the lighter colored one had some sort of accident and he is having a hard time using his back legs. His personality isn't dampened, though, and we still love him. The puppies were so excited to have some kittens to "play" with!

We got some new egg layers. These chicks were hatched at the hatchery on June 15th and came to us in the mail in a big box with air holes on June 17th. They have already more than doubled in size. Their purpose is to replenish our laying flock. These kind are called Golden Sexlink because when they are hatched, the roosters are light yellow and the hens are a darker yellow with rusty-golden markings. They are a hybrid. In the photo below, you can see a rooster on the bottom right. The ones with more color in this picture are the hens.

We got 201 hens and 10 roosters. Most chickens are difficult to sex when they are young because they all look the same. It's a lot of chickens, but the price break was good ($1.79 each) and we figured we could find people who wanted the extras. We advertised, and so far we have sold 135. We will keep 30 hens for ourselves and two roosters.

Russ sold some chicks to a man in Nephi about a week-and-a-half ago, and when he went to deliver them, the man gave him 100 feet of chainlink fencing and two turkey pults (chicks). Russ tried to pay him, but he wouldn't take it.

They will end up in the freezer, but right now they are living in a large rabbit hutch, and they make a rhythmic two-tone whistling noise. They are fun to look at!

Our latest arrival came yesterday, July 4th. He is a beautiful 4-month old Buff Orpington rooster that was owned by my friend's mother. She lives in Springville, Utah, in an area that isn't zoned for animals, but she keeps a few laying hens. This rooster was supposed to be a hen, but when he crowed for the first time a week or so ago, Dorothy realized that "Maggie" was a boy. She decided he had to go. He hasn't assimilated into our hen house very well because none of them seem to like a newcomer, so he is running out in a fenced area with the geese.

The puppies grew and two have been adopted by families.

We still have the one we call Mindy May because she hurt her leg and was limping. She's doing much better now and we hope someone will adopt her soon. The ducks also grew and this is what they look like now!

Our Own Zoo Part 1

This has been the year of animals. We used to have a lot of animals around the first two years we lived here, but for variety, this year beats them all. It started back in April. The baby goats had already arrived, but then we started an influx that has been ongoing.

Hannah's dog, Maggie, had puppies on April 19th. Two female and one male. They were so cute and had beautiful markings!

Also in April, our neighbor gave us a couple of ganders that she didn't want anymore. They had actually been given to her by another family in our ward who didn't want them anymore because they were picking on their turkeys.

We put them out in the front pasture at first, but they were so loud, they had to be moved to the back. They are great watchdogs (geese) because every time a car pulls up or someone walks across the yard from the house, they start honking so loudly that it is almost painful!

A woman that grew up in Levan and comes here part time called me and said she had bought ducklings for her grandsons for Easter. They couldn't keep them, and she wanted to know if we would adopt them. They lived in the house in the downstairs bathroom under a light for the first little while. During the day the kids would take them outside to swim in a little puddle or just walk around on the grass. They also got out the big ducks we already had to see if they would be friends. The big ducks didn't like the little ducks very much, but if they didn't get too close, they would share the puddle.Joshua found out if he separated the baby ducks on opposite sides of the yard, they would quack and walk until they found each other. It was very cute! Joshua also made an obstacle course for the ducklings in the puddle. They would jump off (translation: get pushed off) a little platform and then swim around and go up a ramp back onto the platform. I wondered how they were smart enough to do that!

Peas, Peas, and more Peas!

It's that time of year. I love the stuff that comes from gardening, but I have never really LOVED the process that leads up to it. My reward comes when I look in the freezer or on the shelves of a crammed storage room and sigh with satisfaction.

So far we have had a little bit of broccoli and asparagus, just enough to eat fresh. We have also had some spinach, kale, and lettuce, and the animals have also enjoyed the fresh greens sometimes. Nothing really demanding to harvest....until the peas came on.

This is the pea patch behind the house. Sugar Snap peas are on the right with a couple of volunteer sunflowers growing in the middle of them. They grew so much that they got all tangled up and probably should have had something to climb on. The regular peas are the two rows on the left next to the broccoli.

First picking wasn't very demanding. I picked them without help, and I shelled and blanched and froze them by myself. Not too bad. Second picking was a different story. Hannah, Joshua, Caleb, and I each invested about an hour picking (yielding probably just over a bushel or so), then Hannah and I commenced the shelling. After an hour, there were other things pressing on our time, so we took a break. I later came back and finished shelling, then I blanched and froze those peas and started on the sugar snap variety. I used a small pair of scissors and snipped both ends off each pea pod, sorting out those that had grown beyond the flatness that makes them best for stir-fry. I blanched and froze those, then I started shelling the sugar snap peas that were too large to be used in the pod. The pods are not tough at all, so rather than just splitting open, they came apart all over the place and it ended up being a real exercise in extraction to get those peas out! I actually gave up before I got to the end, and I took what was left to the goats. Then, I blanched and froze those peas. By this time, I was sick of peas!

I ended up with only 5 1/2 quart bags full of peas, both kinds combined. It took me almost all day with a few other things in between. In the early hours of the following morning (yesterday), I was lying in bed attempting to sleep while my wrist, hand, and arm were aching severely. In my half-awake state, I thought maybe I should go get some Ibuprofin, but I couldn't wake up enough to do it. When I finally did get up and start my day, I could hardly use my right hand at all--no brushing my hair, no turning on the faucet, no gripping the phone. I did turn some pancakes with difficulty. Wow, I was not expecting that. I guess my pea muscles were really out of shape!

This morning I woke up and my hand was feeling a lot better. And tomorrow I have to start all over again!