Yesterday, we took a break and had a fun day with family and friends. My sister and her granddughter came up for the weekend and went to Market Days with us in College Station. Market Days is an annual event sponsored by one of the local horse clubs as a fundraiser. It's sort of a big garage sale, but everything is horse-related. Several local rescue groups were represented at yesterday's event too. Yes, dogs and cats aren't the only animals to be neglected, abused and abandoned these days. It's a lot more expensive to care for a horse than a dog or cat, so horse rescue groups are struggling to keep up as well. With the economy as bad as it is, that's likely to get worse before it gets better. The other booths were mostly show attire ...for both horse and rider. There were saddles and carriages and driving harness and artwork. There was even a singing cowgirl yesterday. I didn't get her name, but she drew a small crowd every time she broke out into song with one of the old western ballads. My sister and niece talked to her for a bit and she delighted my niece by singing 'Don't Fence Me In' ...an old western ditty our mom used to sing to us when we were little.
We had a booth next to a couple of our friends and spent most of the five hours we were there just enjoying each others company. We took a couple of saddles to sell but ended up bringing them back home. No big deal. Saddles don't eat, so they can live with us another year or two and it won't make any difference. It was a fun day. Yeoldfurt treated us all to some barbecue so us women folk didn't even have kitchen duty when we got home.
The sister and niece are still asleep this morning. I made a batch of iced cinnamon rolls and will cook up a mess of bacon and scrambled eggs in a few minutes. If the smell of breakfast doesn't get them stirring, I'll have to go wake them. They'll be heading back home this afternoon and I want to enjoy a few more hours with them before they leave.
I don't post as often as I should or as often as I'd like, but it always makes me smile to see comments from my followers. Like a neighbor stopping by just to say hello. I've had a few new followers lately which is always nice too. Like a chance meeting of a new person who shares common interests and ideals. That's exactly how a lot of the sites I follow have been added to my blogroll. They happen onto my blog and leave me a comment. Then I go check out their blog and, sure enough, we seem like-minded so I decide to follow them. I also found some of the blogs I follow by checking out the blog rolls of people I already follow. Networking. It's a wonderful way to expand your horizons.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Time for Some Rearranging
Our lives, our daily routine, are about to change drastically when Yeoldfurt starts his new job in a week or two. Ever since they offered him the job, I've been going over different strategies in my mind about how best to rearrange our responsibilities at home. Having him here all day for the past sixteen months has made me a bit ...well, lazy, I think. He sees me off to work at 6:00 in the morning and then takes care of the horses, lets the chickens out after sun up, collects the eggs, makes the coffee for the next day, makes the bed, and takes care of whatever odd chores or errands that came up. He does all this while I am at work. Sometimes I even come home to supper on the stove and laundry already done. You don't notice how spoiled rotten lazy you've gotten until suddenly he might not be able to do all that anymore. OMG!
Not that he isn't spoiled too. I wait on him and cater to him when I'm home and do my best to shoulder my share of the workload on the weekends. But things are definitely going to have to get rearranged after he starts this new job.
I'm a planner. I've been that way for as long as I can remember. To me, short range plans are three to six months out ...long range plans are in increments of ten years. They used to be in increments of twenty years, but I'm older now ...time flies and I seem to have to readjust more often! But ever since Yeoldfurt told me he would be going to work in a week or two, I've been thinking ...and thinking ...and thinking. He says I think things to death. Maybe I do. And I'm from Venus so I'm likely to change directions with my thinking half a dozen times in the whole process. It used to frustrate him no end, but I think he's finally learned to just accept it.
I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to use the two or three hours before he gets home every afternoon. Ideally, I would like to have ALL the chores done before he gets home so all he has to do is relax. We go to bed pretty early by most people's standards ...simply because we get up WAY early by most people's standards. That part won't change so we may end up with only two hours or so of quiet time together in the evenings. I would like to arrange things so that little bit of time isn't riddled with chores.
I would like to find a way to take care of all the housework and major yard chores during the week so that our weekends are completely free. That's definitely my goal. Reality, however, may be a different story.
Not that he isn't spoiled too. I wait on him and cater to him when I'm home and do my best to shoulder my share of the workload on the weekends. But things are definitely going to have to get rearranged after he starts this new job.
I'm a planner. I've been that way for as long as I can remember. To me, short range plans are three to six months out ...long range plans are in increments of ten years. They used to be in increments of twenty years, but I'm older now ...time flies and I seem to have to readjust more often! But ever since Yeoldfurt told me he would be going to work in a week or two, I've been thinking ...and thinking ...and thinking. He says I think things to death. Maybe I do. And I'm from Venus so I'm likely to change directions with my thinking half a dozen times in the whole process. It used to frustrate him no end, but I think he's finally learned to just accept it.
I am trying to figure out the most efficient way to use the two or three hours before he gets home every afternoon. Ideally, I would like to have ALL the chores done before he gets home so all he has to do is relax. We go to bed pretty early by most people's standards ...simply because we get up WAY early by most people's standards. That part won't change so we may end up with only two hours or so of quiet time together in the evenings. I would like to arrange things so that little bit of time isn't riddled with chores.
I would like to find a way to take care of all the housework and major yard chores during the week so that our weekends are completely free. That's definitely my goal. Reality, however, may be a different story.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Just So We're Clear ....
If I post something that you disagree with or you have information you wish to add because you feel it's relevant, I welcome that ....wholeheartedly.
Several months ago, I posted some information on the process of steam canning. It was a new concept to me and I thought it sounded great. The site where I found the information happened to sell a steam canner so, of course, everything I read about the process was completely positive. I posted what (I thought) I knew and the first comment I received stated that I should check my facts ...that there were serious health risks to steam canning food. Several links to some very informative sites were included in the comment. The person who commented was not a follower and we didn't know each other at all. I had no basis to either believe or disbelieve his statements. I had a knee-jerk reaction, we all do from time to time ...I went and checked out the links he provided so I could decide where to go from there.
Well, as it turns out, he was absolutely correct. Every extension office and university resource I could find warned against the hazards of the steam canning method. That was my first interaction with this particular blogger and I think it took courage for him to speak up. He didn't know me, didn't know how I would react, but he did the right thing because, well ...it was the right thing to do.
Okay, there I was a newbie blogger with mud all over my face. So I did the only thing I could think of that might make it right. I posted a comment of my own, thanking him for the information and retracting what I had said in my post. I did not want to be responsible for someone reading faulty information and possibly becoming ill because they took what I wrote as valid and factual. I ultimately removed my post about steam canning altogether because I realized that some people read only the posts and not the comments, and I didn't want to contribute to the scads of misinformation circulating on the Web.
I found myself on the other side of that coin the other day when I read a post that was actually a repost of some information that has been circulating in email for many years. It clearly stated that it was information received in email (a disclaimer?) but I happened to know the information was false and some of it potentially harmful. So I left a comment relating what I knew and backing it up with links from a reputable debunking site. I thought I was doing the poster and/or the readers a favor. I thought it would be received in the same manner I received the comment on my steam canning post. Boy, was I wrong. My comment was deleted and then reposted along with all the reasons the poster thought it was inappropriate. It was even the subject of the next post, expounding all the justifications for bashing the commenter. Wow...
Several months ago, I posted some information on the process of steam canning. It was a new concept to me and I thought it sounded great. The site where I found the information happened to sell a steam canner so, of course, everything I read about the process was completely positive. I posted what (I thought) I knew and the first comment I received stated that I should check my facts ...that there were serious health risks to steam canning food. Several links to some very informative sites were included in the comment. The person who commented was not a follower and we didn't know each other at all. I had no basis to either believe or disbelieve his statements. I had a knee-jerk reaction, we all do from time to time ...I went and checked out the links he provided so I could decide where to go from there.
Well, as it turns out, he was absolutely correct. Every extension office and university resource I could find warned against the hazards of the steam canning method. That was my first interaction with this particular blogger and I think it took courage for him to speak up. He didn't know me, didn't know how I would react, but he did the right thing because, well ...it was the right thing to do.
Okay, there I was a newbie blogger with mud all over my face. So I did the only thing I could think of that might make it right. I posted a comment of my own, thanking him for the information and retracting what I had said in my post. I did not want to be responsible for someone reading faulty information and possibly becoming ill because they took what I wrote as valid and factual. I ultimately removed my post about steam canning altogether because I realized that some people read only the posts and not the comments, and I didn't want to contribute to the scads of misinformation circulating on the Web.
I found myself on the other side of that coin the other day when I read a post that was actually a repost of some information that has been circulating in email for many years. It clearly stated that it was information received in email (a disclaimer?) but I happened to know the information was false and some of it potentially harmful. So I left a comment relating what I knew and backing it up with links from a reputable debunking site. I thought I was doing the poster and/or the readers a favor. I thought it would be received in the same manner I received the comment on my steam canning post. Boy, was I wrong. My comment was deleted and then reposted along with all the reasons the poster thought it was inappropriate. It was even the subject of the next post, expounding all the justifications for bashing the commenter. Wow...
Like most of us, I started this blog as a place to explore and share information with others. I don't have a big flashy sign on my blog saying so, but comments ARE welcome ...even if they express an opinion different than my own. That's one of the reasons I don't moderate comments. I'm interested in sharing information and not just spewing what I know. If mine were the only opinion that mattered to me, I could just stand in front of a mirror.
Friday, August 6, 2010
No Respect, No Relationship
This is a horse post because that's what we're dealing with, but the same principles apply to most other 'relationships' in life. If there's no respect, there's no relationship ...just confrontation.
The youngest horse we have right now is four years old and she was born on our place. She was taught from day one that people are a good thing. They bring you food and water and treats and they give great scratches. But she was also taught that people outrank her ...all people, all the time. Horses are herd animals and there is always a hierarchy, a pecking order, in the herd. Since the average horse outweighs the average person by at least 800 pounds, it's very important that you maintain your leadership status in the herd. You want to teach that lesson to your horse early in life. Not having a horse's utmost respect leaves you in a pretty dangerous position. But once you have established yourself as leader, you have to work to maintain that status.
We raised horses for a few years and always prided ourselves on their good manners. We handled the babies daily from the time they were born until the day they were sold and left our care. We hauled two yearlings to the local vet for vaccinations one time a few years ago, only to find out that they were short-staffed and were dealing with a couple of emergencies that day. We were there long past our appointment time and the staff kept apologizing for the delay, but there was no room to unload the two fillies. The vet happened to walk through the lobby and saw us waiting. She told her tech to get the syringes ready, she would vaccinate the fillies in the trailer so we could be on our way. The tech said, "On the trailer? Is that safe?" The vet smiled at the tech and said, "Those are Mayo horses ...it's fine." I think Yeoldfurt and I both gained a hat size that day. It was a fine compliment.
Well, here we are several years down the road and we only have one 'baby' left at home. She is four years old and, until now, has pretty much been a model citizen. But Tuesday night when I went to turn the horses out of their stalls, she decided to challenge me. This filly has never laid her ears back, never offered to kick or bite, always been soft and easy to handle. I went into her stall like I always do, petted on her for a minute and then told her, "Let's go." I raised my hand up to her shoulder, not touching her ...just pushing on the air, so to speak, toward her. Movement is pressure to a horse. Steady, rhythmic movement is stronger pressure and a horse will naturally move away from pressure. I have done that with this filly all her life and she's always just turned nice and easy and walked on out. But that night, she pulled her head up, pinned her ears back and spun away from me. Sensing aggression from her, I escalated my pressure and smacked her on the butt. A horse should NEVER turn their butt to you. You can walk behind them, but it needs to be your idea. She was mad because I wanted her to move before she was ready. Pinning her ears and turning her butt to me was an act of defiance. She didn't like me getting mad back at her and smacking her on the butt either. She kept moving but did this little humpy jump thing on her way out the gate. If you've watched horses for very long, you recognize that maneuver as a threat to kick. So she had escalated from defiance to aggression. Well, we ain't havin' NONE of that!! I have a pretty simple policy with our horses of YOU be nice, WE be nice. It doesn't take them very long to figure out they like us much better when we're nice!
I was holding a rubber curry brush in my right hand as she was leaving the stall. When she did her little humpy jump thing and threatened to kick me, I got all Tasmanian Devil on her and went after her. She got busy moving away from me then but I threw that rubber curry brush at her and tagged her on the butt. I think my aim improves when I'm ticked off. I told Yeoldfurt about it and he was as surprised as I was because this filly has never been a problem.
Wednesday night when it was time to let the horses out, Yeoldfurt went in the stall with the filly. She was finished eating and just licking her bucket. Yeoldfurt put his arm across her neck and scratched on her for minute, then asked her to move. Darned if she didn't do the same thing to him! Oh, he was mad! He chased her out of the stall and all the way down the hill. Then he came back up the hill and got the lunge whip. Properly used, a whip is not an instrument of cruelty, it's merely an extension of your arm. It allows you to increase pressure on a horse to move, but from a safe distance. He got the lunge whip and stomped down the hill to where the horses were gathered. He cut the filly out of the herd and made her move. It didn't matter which direction she took, as long as she moved. You see, in a horse's mind, confrontation is settled by one thing ...make the other guy move. The one who moves away loses. By going to her and making her move away from him, Yeoldfurt was reinforcing just who was in charge here.
In the meantime, I got the second whip and waited halfway up the hill. There were really only three of the six horses that were running, but as they came my way, the goal was for me to cut just the filly out and turn her back. He makes her run up toward me, I make her change direction and go back down to him. It took me three tries to get just her to turn. It's a hard thing to do on foot, but it was important that I let the other horses go by and turn just her. Separating her from her herd is another dominance message to her.
This whole exercise lasted maybe ten minutes but by the time we were done, the filly was looking at us with new found respect and awe. I can just imagine her thinking, 'wow, they can really move on just two legs!' But ten minutes is a long time when your dander is up and it's 95 degrees outside. Yeoldfurt and I were more than happy to go back in the house and soak up some air conditioning.
Thursday night, we started working with her before she went into her stall. Yeoldfurt made her wait until all the other horses were stalled before he went to her gate. She was antsy and aggravated by then because she's used to being number three on the list, not number six. But Yeoldfurt stood in front of her stall and made her wait until her attitude softened. If she crowded him or tipped her ears ever so slightly backward, he drove her back a few steps and growled at her. Not until she walked up to him soft with her ears forward did he allow her to step into her stall. She walked in nice and quiet, just as she should. When it was time to let the horses out, he let all the others out first and then opened her gate just wide enough for him or her to pass through. He stood in the gate and waited until she was soft. If she pushed into his space or gave him any sign of attitude, he pushed her back a step and made her wait longer. Sort of like teaching your toddler to say 'please' before you give them what they're asking for. When he stepped aside and let her pass, she walked out nice and quiet.
Tonight when it was time to turn the horses out, Yeoldfurt had me work with her and he stood by to watch. Just because she has learned to respect Yeoldfurt doesn't mean she will respect me. I have to handle the horses by myself a lot of times, so it's important that they respect both of us. The mare ignored me when I first opened her gate as if she really wasn't ready to leave. Yeoldfurt told me to just wait on her. When she finally did walk up to the gate, she wasn't pushy or aggressive. I let her walk up to me and then rubbed her face for a few minutes before I let her out. When I did move aside, she waited until I was a couple of feet clear of the gate and then she just walked out. Had she pushed past me as soon as she thought there was room, or charged out of the stall, it would have indicated she was intimidated by me being in her way ...but that she didn't necessarily respect me. Walking out quiet like she did says that she has a better understanding now and has accepted the fact that both Yeoldfurt and I outrank her in the herd.
We will continue to reinforce this deliberately for the next week or two, but I think she's learned her lesson.
The youngest horse we have right now is four years old and she was born on our place. She was taught from day one that people are a good thing. They bring you food and water and treats and they give great scratches. But she was also taught that people outrank her ...all people, all the time. Horses are herd animals and there is always a hierarchy, a pecking order, in the herd. Since the average horse outweighs the average person by at least 800 pounds, it's very important that you maintain your leadership status in the herd. You want to teach that lesson to your horse early in life. Not having a horse's utmost respect leaves you in a pretty dangerous position. But once you have established yourself as leader, you have to work to maintain that status.
We raised horses for a few years and always prided ourselves on their good manners. We handled the babies daily from the time they were born until the day they were sold and left our care. We hauled two yearlings to the local vet for vaccinations one time a few years ago, only to find out that they were short-staffed and were dealing with a couple of emergencies that day. We were there long past our appointment time and the staff kept apologizing for the delay, but there was no room to unload the two fillies. The vet happened to walk through the lobby and saw us waiting. She told her tech to get the syringes ready, she would vaccinate the fillies in the trailer so we could be on our way. The tech said, "On the trailer? Is that safe?" The vet smiled at the tech and said, "Those are Mayo horses ...it's fine." I think Yeoldfurt and I both gained a hat size that day. It was a fine compliment.
Well, here we are several years down the road and we only have one 'baby' left at home. She is four years old and, until now, has pretty much been a model citizen. But Tuesday night when I went to turn the horses out of their stalls, she decided to challenge me. This filly has never laid her ears back, never offered to kick or bite, always been soft and easy to handle. I went into her stall like I always do, petted on her for a minute and then told her, "Let's go." I raised my hand up to her shoulder, not touching her ...just pushing on the air, so to speak, toward her. Movement is pressure to a horse. Steady, rhythmic movement is stronger pressure and a horse will naturally move away from pressure. I have done that with this filly all her life and she's always just turned nice and easy and walked on out. But that night, she pulled her head up, pinned her ears back and spun away from me. Sensing aggression from her, I escalated my pressure and smacked her on the butt. A horse should NEVER turn their butt to you. You can walk behind them, but it needs to be your idea. She was mad because I wanted her to move before she was ready. Pinning her ears and turning her butt to me was an act of defiance. She didn't like me getting mad back at her and smacking her on the butt either. She kept moving but did this little humpy jump thing on her way out the gate. If you've watched horses for very long, you recognize that maneuver as a threat to kick. So she had escalated from defiance to aggression. Well, we ain't havin' NONE of that!! I have a pretty simple policy with our horses of YOU be nice, WE be nice. It doesn't take them very long to figure out they like us much better when we're nice!
I was holding a rubber curry brush in my right hand as she was leaving the stall. When she did her little humpy jump thing and threatened to kick me, I got all Tasmanian Devil on her and went after her. She got busy moving away from me then but I threw that rubber curry brush at her and tagged her on the butt. I think my aim improves when I'm ticked off. I told Yeoldfurt about it and he was as surprised as I was because this filly has never been a problem.
Wednesday night when it was time to let the horses out, Yeoldfurt went in the stall with the filly. She was finished eating and just licking her bucket. Yeoldfurt put his arm across her neck and scratched on her for minute, then asked her to move. Darned if she didn't do the same thing to him! Oh, he was mad! He chased her out of the stall and all the way down the hill. Then he came back up the hill and got the lunge whip. Properly used, a whip is not an instrument of cruelty, it's merely an extension of your arm. It allows you to increase pressure on a horse to move, but from a safe distance. He got the lunge whip and stomped down the hill to where the horses were gathered. He cut the filly out of the herd and made her move. It didn't matter which direction she took, as long as she moved. You see, in a horse's mind, confrontation is settled by one thing ...make the other guy move. The one who moves away loses. By going to her and making her move away from him, Yeoldfurt was reinforcing just who was in charge here.
In the meantime, I got the second whip and waited halfway up the hill. There were really only three of the six horses that were running, but as they came my way, the goal was for me to cut just the filly out and turn her back. He makes her run up toward me, I make her change direction and go back down to him. It took me three tries to get just her to turn. It's a hard thing to do on foot, but it was important that I let the other horses go by and turn just her. Separating her from her herd is another dominance message to her.
This whole exercise lasted maybe ten minutes but by the time we were done, the filly was looking at us with new found respect and awe. I can just imagine her thinking, 'wow, they can really move on just two legs!' But ten minutes is a long time when your dander is up and it's 95 degrees outside. Yeoldfurt and I were more than happy to go back in the house and soak up some air conditioning.
Thursday night, we started working with her before she went into her stall. Yeoldfurt made her wait until all the other horses were stalled before he went to her gate. She was antsy and aggravated by then because she's used to being number three on the list, not number six. But Yeoldfurt stood in front of her stall and made her wait until her attitude softened. If she crowded him or tipped her ears ever so slightly backward, he drove her back a few steps and growled at her. Not until she walked up to him soft with her ears forward did he allow her to step into her stall. She walked in nice and quiet, just as she should. When it was time to let the horses out, he let all the others out first and then opened her gate just wide enough for him or her to pass through. He stood in the gate and waited until she was soft. If she pushed into his space or gave him any sign of attitude, he pushed her back a step and made her wait longer. Sort of like teaching your toddler to say 'please' before you give them what they're asking for. When he stepped aside and let her pass, she walked out nice and quiet.
Tonight when it was time to turn the horses out, Yeoldfurt had me work with her and he stood by to watch. Just because she has learned to respect Yeoldfurt doesn't mean she will respect me. I have to handle the horses by myself a lot of times, so it's important that they respect both of us. The mare ignored me when I first opened her gate as if she really wasn't ready to leave. Yeoldfurt told me to just wait on her. When she finally did walk up to the gate, she wasn't pushy or aggressive. I let her walk up to me and then rubbed her face for a few minutes before I let her out. When I did move aside, she waited until I was a couple of feet clear of the gate and then she just walked out. Had she pushed past me as soon as she thought there was room, or charged out of the stall, it would have indicated she was intimidated by me being in her way ...but that she didn't necessarily respect me. Walking out quiet like she did says that she has a better understanding now and has accepted the fact that both Yeoldfurt and I outrank her in the herd.
We will continue to reinforce this deliberately for the next week or two, but I think she's learned her lesson.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Dill Pickles
Cucumbers were our bumper crop this year. We only planted one small bed, approximately 3 feet by 7 feet, but we sure have produced a lot of cukes! We put up 11 pints as Bread & Butter pickles a couple of weeks ago and are processing 9 pints of Dill pickles today. My Presto pressure canner doubles as a water bath canner but is not tall enough to process quart jars. So until we add a deep water bath canner to our cupboard, we are limited to pints for all water bath recipes.
Since I had never made pickles before, I used the book of recipes that came with my Presto canner when I made the Bread & Butter pickles. We won't know for sure how well they turned out for another few weeks as you are supposed to let pickles age for 4 to 6 weeks after you make them. We have our sample jar already in the refrigerator and will let you know if the recipe is worth posting. It smelled good and looks good in the jars, so I'm hoping.
I use three of the four burners on my stove when I make pickles. One deep kettle for heating and sterilizing my jars and lids, one deep saucepan for making my pickling liquid and, of course, the big canner. I can only heat and sterilize two jars and approximately four lids and rings at a time. So it's a constant assembly line process to keep everything hot and moving. Before I start packing jars, the pickling liquid is boiling, I have four hot and sterilized on the counter and two more in the water. The canning rack is already in the bottom of the canner and the water is hot and very close to boiling. The jars need to be packed while they're hot, so it's important to put two more in the boiling water every time two jars were removed.
This is the recipe we used today.
Since I had never made pickles before, I used the book of recipes that came with my Presto canner when I made the Bread & Butter pickles. We won't know for sure how well they turned out for another few weeks as you are supposed to let pickles age for 4 to 6 weeks after you make them. We have our sample jar already in the refrigerator and will let you know if the recipe is worth posting. It smelled good and looks good in the jars, so I'm hoping.
I use three of the four burners on my stove when I make pickles. One deep kettle for heating and sterilizing my jars and lids, one deep saucepan for making my pickling liquid and, of course, the big canner. I can only heat and sterilize two jars and approximately four lids and rings at a time. So it's a constant assembly line process to keep everything hot and moving. Before I start packing jars, the pickling liquid is boiling, I have four hot and sterilized on the counter and two more in the water. The canning rack is already in the bottom of the canner and the water is hot and very close to boiling. The jars need to be packed while they're hot, so it's important to put two more in the boiling water every time two jars were removed.
This is the recipe we used today.
Dill Pickles
6 pounds 4-6 inch cucumbers, cut in thin spears
4 small onions, diced
3 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
9 cups water
1/2 cup canning salt
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons dill seed
Combine cucumber spears in a large bowl and cover with ice. Add water to cover the cucumbers. Cover and let stand for 1-2 hours, then drain. Combine remaining ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a rolling boil.
By the time the pickling liquid is boiling, I have four hot sterilized jars lined up. Put diced onions in each jar, just enough to cover the bottom. Then pack the jars with cucumber spears. Add another tablespoon of diced onions on top of the spears, then use your jar funnel to ladle the hot liquid into the jars. You need 1/2 inch of headspace in each jar, so the contents including the liquid should be approximately at the bottom of the threads on the jar. When all four jars are filled, carefully wipe the rims with a clean cloth, center a clean, sterile lid on top and adjust the ring finger tight. Do not over-tighten. I don't know what happens if you tighten the lid too much, but absolutely everything I've read on canning cautions against it so I try really hard not to.
Bring your next two jars out of the boiling water and place two more jars in. When the second set of jars has boiled for five minutes set them up and retrieve your lids and rings. Continue this process until you run out of cucumber or you run out of jars, whichever comes first.
When the last jar is filled, turn the burners off on the sterilizing kettle and the pickling liquid and crank up the heat on the canner. Using the jar lifter, carefully place your jars in the canner. My canner will hold up to seven but I usually end up processing two batches and just split the jars evenly. For the 9 pints I made today, I processed the first batch with 5 jars and the second batch with 4 jars. Make sure the water level in the canner is approximately 1 inch above the tops of the jars and bring it to a rolling boil. Place the lid on the canner, reduce the heat slightly to maintain a boil but not boil over and start timing. These pickles were processed for 15 minutes.
These will have to age for 4 to 6 weeks just like the Bread & Butter pickles, so it will be at least September or October before we know how well they turned out. If they all turned out well, we probably have enough pickles to last us for a couple of years and we won't even plant cucumbers next year. We like pickles but 20 pints is a lot!
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Connectivity Restored
If it's not one thing, it's another these days. We have been dealing with 'connectivity' issues the past day or two, but they are finally resolved. What we initially thought was our satellite provider's fault turned out to be our wireless router giving up the ghost. I spent over an hour of phone time with Wildblue's technical support agents Tuesday evening to rule out any problem on their end, and another hour picking the brains of my geek friends in Icechat to narrow the problem down to the router. Yeoldfurt came to the rescue, he went out yesterday and got us a new wireless router. He had everything hooked up and back online by the time I got home from work. That's my 'Furt!
Needless to say, Tuesday was frustrating with all that hold time waiting for a Wildblue agent to come online and even more frustrating when it didn't turn out to be their problem. But some good did come out of it. We've been with Wildblue for over three years and have been considering shopping around to see if there might be a better deal out there. Part of our motivation for shopping around was that we had been having some connectivity issues lately and didn't yet know that our router was the real problem. But, in general, I think it's a good idea to shop the 'necessary evils' like insurance and internet providers every few years anyway. So, at the end of my conversation with Wildblue, I asked if we had fulfilled our contract with them and what the procedure was to cancel if we decided to go with another provider. The agent had been very professional and polite throughout the call and asked if she could put me on hold for a few moments while she reviewed our account options. When she came back to the line, she said they did not want to lose us as a customer and offered us two months FREE. We spend approximately $84/month for the service so two months free is a significant savings ...what a deal! Of course, the new router Yeoldfurt bought for us yesterday was $87 with tax, but we're still over $80 ahead. I guess the little bit of phone frustration was worth it after all.
Needless to say, Tuesday was frustrating with all that hold time waiting for a Wildblue agent to come online and even more frustrating when it didn't turn out to be their problem. But some good did come out of it. We've been with Wildblue for over three years and have been considering shopping around to see if there might be a better deal out there. Part of our motivation for shopping around was that we had been having some connectivity issues lately and didn't yet know that our router was the real problem. But, in general, I think it's a good idea to shop the 'necessary evils' like insurance and internet providers every few years anyway. So, at the end of my conversation with Wildblue, I asked if we had fulfilled our contract with them and what the procedure was to cancel if we decided to go with another provider. The agent had been very professional and polite throughout the call and asked if she could put me on hold for a few moments while she reviewed our account options. When she came back to the line, she said they did not want to lose us as a customer and offered us two months FREE. We spend approximately $84/month for the service so two months free is a significant savings ...what a deal! Of course, the new router Yeoldfurt bought for us yesterday was $87 with tax, but we're still over $80 ahead. I guess the little bit of phone frustration was worth it after all.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Overtime Over, Now the Real Work Begins
A lot gets put on the back burner when you work two and a half months of overtime. What has to get done, gets done ...what can wait, gets put off. Yeoldfurt took up the slack for me with the day to day stuff. Most days when I got home, he had dinner ready or very nearly ready. He usually had the outside chores done too. Most of the men I've known would complain if they were pulling kitchen duty for ten straight weeks, but Yeoldfurt was a trooper. I'm very blessed!
Now that overtime is finished, it's time to tackle the long list of things that I need to catch up on. The spring garden is done except for cucumbers and a few straggler green beans. We planted chard a few weeks ago, but grasshoppers or some other little critter wiped out all but eight of the twenty we planted. We are babying those eight plants and hope to have our first fresh chard with dinner in a week or two. The cucumbers are going wild. I picked about a dozen of the biggest ones a week or so ago and made bread and butter pickles with them last weekend. It was hard to estimate how many jars I would need as some of the cucumbers were the size of a small zucchini. I cut the bigger ones into spears and the smaller ones into chips but still had to cut the chips into quarters to fit them into the wide-mouth jars. I ended up with eleven pints of pickles from those dozen cucumbers. There's another dozen or so in the fridge and twice that many babies still on the vine. I don't think we'll need to buy pickles for several years!
We are re-working the raised beds for the next several weeks to make ready for the fall planting. The soil needs to be turned, some fresh soil and compost added, and every visible weed removed. When each bed is clean and prepped, we'll cover them with a tarp until time to replant. Covering the beds will keep windblown seeds out and any weed seeds we might have missed will hopefully be baked out by the July and August sun on the tarps. Weeding is the hardest part of gardening. Anything we can do to keep weeds to a minimum is worth it to me.
In September, we will replant with green beans, chard, lettuce, sweet peppers, hot peppers, bell peppers, broccoli and onions. I want to can the green beans and chard so the majority of the garden will be planted with those. What broccoli we don't eat fresh, we will freeze or use to make broccoli cheese soup which we will then process in the canner. What peppers we don't eat fresh, we will pickle, dehydrate or can and add them to the inventory.
I'm not a rank novice to gardening or canning, but I'm new enough to still be learn a little something with each project. What I took from my efforts in canning those eleven pints of pickles was that organization at the outset is the key. My kitchen is adequate for most of the cooking I do, but there is very little counter space. When you have very little of anything, you have to be extra careful how you utilize it. I was using three of the four burners on my stove and realized just before I was ready to start putting cucumbers in jars that I had arranged all my pots on the different burners all wrong. I had to back up a step, rearrange things more efficiently and then wait for things to heat up again. A learning process. By the time I placed the second batch of jars in the canner, I was on a roll.
I also pick up tips from others that I read regularly. Just this week, I found a useful little tip at one of my favorite gardening blogs, Country Living in a Cariboo Valley, in her post on Mulching Pathways. If you are interested in gardening or self-sustained living, check out Annie's blog. You will find her on my blog roll, or by clicking the link to her Mulching Pathways post above. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Now that overtime is finished, it's time to tackle the long list of things that I need to catch up on. The spring garden is done except for cucumbers and a few straggler green beans. We planted chard a few weeks ago, but grasshoppers or some other little critter wiped out all but eight of the twenty we planted. We are babying those eight plants and hope to have our first fresh chard with dinner in a week or two. The cucumbers are going wild. I picked about a dozen of the biggest ones a week or so ago and made bread and butter pickles with them last weekend. It was hard to estimate how many jars I would need as some of the cucumbers were the size of a small zucchini. I cut the bigger ones into spears and the smaller ones into chips but still had to cut the chips into quarters to fit them into the wide-mouth jars. I ended up with eleven pints of pickles from those dozen cucumbers. There's another dozen or so in the fridge and twice that many babies still on the vine. I don't think we'll need to buy pickles for several years!
We are re-working the raised beds for the next several weeks to make ready for the fall planting. The soil needs to be turned, some fresh soil and compost added, and every visible weed removed. When each bed is clean and prepped, we'll cover them with a tarp until time to replant. Covering the beds will keep windblown seeds out and any weed seeds we might have missed will hopefully be baked out by the July and August sun on the tarps. Weeding is the hardest part of gardening. Anything we can do to keep weeds to a minimum is worth it to me.
In September, we will replant with green beans, chard, lettuce, sweet peppers, hot peppers, bell peppers, broccoli and onions. I want to can the green beans and chard so the majority of the garden will be planted with those. What broccoli we don't eat fresh, we will freeze or use to make broccoli cheese soup which we will then process in the canner. What peppers we don't eat fresh, we will pickle, dehydrate or can and add them to the inventory.
I'm not a rank novice to gardening or canning, but I'm new enough to still be learn a little something with each project. What I took from my efforts in canning those eleven pints of pickles was that organization at the outset is the key. My kitchen is adequate for most of the cooking I do, but there is very little counter space. When you have very little of anything, you have to be extra careful how you utilize it. I was using three of the four burners on my stove and realized just before I was ready to start putting cucumbers in jars that I had arranged all my pots on the different burners all wrong. I had to back up a step, rearrange things more efficiently and then wait for things to heat up again. A learning process. By the time I placed the second batch of jars in the canner, I was on a roll.
I also pick up tips from others that I read regularly. Just this week, I found a useful little tip at one of my favorite gardening blogs, Country Living in a Cariboo Valley, in her post on Mulching Pathways. If you are interested in gardening or self-sustained living, check out Annie's blog. You will find her on my blog roll, or by clicking the link to her Mulching Pathways post above. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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