Clean Up

The day has finally come! We are taking off the old shed and tree branches which have cluttered our yard for a few weeks now. I'm excited! The joyous thoughts of not having to look at all the stuff and having my yard back is exhilarating.

My husband, son and our friend Ryan did the honor of loading and hauling the stuff off. It was a lot of work: sorting stuff, loading the truck, strapping down the load, unloading at the dump and all the clean up of the little pieces afterwards. I'm thankful for the hardworking, strong men in my life.

1st load. Chris my son in front, Ryan in back of him.

Project wood stacked to the side to make room for loading. 

Progress 

Maxine on left, Spot on right, our ducks, staying out of the way. 

Cleaning up small pieces of twigs and old fruit. 

All cleaned up. 

My son thrilled to be doing a dump run and not sleeping in. 

Change in Project Plans

My husband is very talented, not only in graphic design but with wood also. Over the last three years he has built multiple things and began work on other projects still unfinished. You can read and view his projects here and here. All the projects have been necessary for making our home fit our lifestyle.

But as many know, even the best laid plans have to change sometimes. Concepts for several of the unfinished plans ended up changing and other uses have been found for them. Our sick bay for injured animals now houses building supplies, one of our sheds has been tore down and replaced with a larger shed, a partially finished pole barn was dismantled, our duck pond was dug up, tree stumps dug out, parts of the backyard leveled and the chicken house built last year is currently being dismantled, the materials being used for a new, much larger chicken house.

The stumps needed to go of course. They were taking up space and I was tripping over some of them. Our sick bay will go back to its intended use at a later date. The yard needed leveling because of an old raised strawberry bed and other uneven areas causing safety concerns. The chicken house is not big enough for our mixed flock; the ducks at present can't fit in there at night and winter is coming.

The shed and duck pond were a shock to me. I went away for the weekend with my son to a concert and came back to a demolished shed and dismantled pole barn, with a new shed  in the process of being built.

A friend of my husband who owns a local nursery, came to visit one day while I was away and inspected our duck pond. Her advice; rip it out and start over.

It has taken me a while to get used to all the changes. But I've come to accept them, and will be thankful when all is finished.

Old shed.

New shed, left side. 

New shed, right side. 

New shed, front view.

Site for new chicken house.

Old site of duck pond. Not sure of new location yet. 

Ducks don't seem to care about the pond. They like the shade and peaches.

Tree Care Time

Our Peach Trees have such an abundance of fruit this year, limbs have snapped from the weight. Tomorrow I plan on asking my husband to cut the broken limbs off and I will apply Tree Tar.

Tree Tar is a product which is supposed to assist in protecting injured trees from disease and rot. I've found there is differing opinions about the product. My husband believes it is necessary to use the tar for the tree to survive, others believe the tar blocks in bacteria and insects causing damage.

I noted the previous owners used a form of tar on one of the plum trees. The tree is still alive and thriving well.  My husband trimmed our apricot and our second plum tree earlier this season and applied the tar. No problems noted to date.

Full view of Peach Tree.

Close up of one of three broken branches. 

Have you used Tree Tar? What where your results?

Frugal Friday Picture

Line drying is one of my favorite frugal activities. It doesn't only save money but provides me with another excuse to get outside away from the inside chores.

Busy Canning Season

I had so much fruit this year, I've been canning and drying as much as I possibly can. It is a time-consuming and overwhelming job. When the amount of fruit is more then I can process, I give it away to friends, family and our local homeless shelter. I hate for the fruit to spoil if someone else can use it.

At present I've canned and dried; 25 jelly jars of plum syrup (I was trying for jam), 7 pints of pears in light syrup, 2 quarts of dried cherries, 19 jars of cherry jam, 1 1/2 pints of dried apples and I'm not done yet. I still have a small amount of plums and apples on the trees. The peaches on one of my trees are ready and about 1/2 have been picked. The other peaches on the second peach tree are still too green.

Today I plan on drying apples and preparing for canning peaches; hopefully I'll have enough time to can part of my peach harvest today. I like canned peaches best out of all my fruit and look forward to the end product.

The light syrup recipe I used for my pears is: 4 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar. I'll be using a medium  syrup for my peaches. The recipe is: 4 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar. I haven't used these recipes before, but I will write a review later on how well they worked.

My first batch of dried cherries I attempted in the oven. The dryness of the fruit varied and a small portion burned. The cherries I dried in my new dehydrator came out perfect. But it took about 18 hours for them to dry.

The plum syrup was my first attempt at plum jam. I looked up several recipes and none had suggested pectin. I just put the plums in a pot with sugar on the stove to cook, as suggested. After a few minutes of cooking, I  blended, put the mix in jars and canned them. And ta da, syrup. Tastes sweet with just a hint of plum tartness.

I haven't tried the pears yet. The apples turned out wonderful. Sweet and slightly chewy. I dried them in the dehydrator for about 8 hours.

To prevent my pears and apples from browning, I soaked them separately in a solution of 1 quart water and 2 tbsp lemon juice. The pears didn't brown. The apples only have a light browning on a few of the slices.

The labels are designed and printed by my husband who is a graphic designer. He wanted my jars to look pretty for gift giving.

Cherry Jam

Plum Syrup

Dried Apples

Canned Pears

Dried Cherries

Finished products

Apples to dry. 

Peaches to can. 

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I last posted. We've had many projects and activities going on lately. I keep having to prioritize my activities to keep from getting overwhelmed and losing my goal of a simpler life.

I'll have to do some extra posts to update all my readers on all the projects; canning and drying fruits, outdoor projects, indoor projects, family and of course the animals. I thought I'd start off with a post on the animals, first.

My two oldest birds, #1 and Goldie from my first batch, are no longer laying. Most people, would have put them in a pot to stew, by now. But we decided to let them live out their remaining days as pets. Our next two oldest, Rockett and Twin 1, are laying pretty regular. (Poor Rockett has never regained her feathers from her injury.) Five of my  thirty-seven new chickens have been laying for a few weeks. Little miniature eggs, they are so cute.

My turkeys are laying eggs as well. I have two females and one male. I haven't had the nerve to eat a turkey egg yet. I heard they taste like chicken eggs but I'm too chicken to try one. (Pun intended.)

The ducks are the same. Walking around the yard, hissing at everyone they see. I tell them they are just blowing kisses. We are keeping the ducks separated from the chickens most of the day and at night. The ducks wander the backyard until early evening then we let the chickens out for just a few hours in the big yard. We're usually out there at that time and can watch the ducks to prevent them from injuring another chicken like they did Rockett. It's almost like having children.

Male Turkey on Left, Female on Right.

"Can I have a little privacy? Please!"

Young chickens are laying. 

"I did my duty, now time to forage." (Henrietta)

"Blue" chicken, AKA Phyllis Diller chicken.

Rockett and her featherless injury. 

Cherry Picking Turkey!

 I thought it was funny to have a Cherry Picking Chicken, but now I have a Cherry Picking Turkey to laugh at. My turkey just flew up into the tree to have a snack.

Snack time 

Oh, Which cherry to choose.

All done snacking.