It Was Time...

Well we finally had to butcher the turkeys.  They were getting to be too damaging to the garden produce and they especially loved cucumbers.  We had fence wire around all the cucumber plants that we could and they would still stick their necks way in the fence wire and peck at as many cucumbers as they could reach.

Then came a new problem.  We have a nice herd of good looking bucks hanging around our property.  These bucks decided that our orchard was the perfect place to rub off all the velvet off their antlers.  The kids alerted me that I might want to come take a look in the orchard the other day....and what I found was at least 2 trees snapped off within a foot of the ground, and about 8 other trees that had been badly scarred and many branches broken off (many are lop-sided trees now).   I am sure we are going to have to replant about a quarter to half of the trees next spring.

We thought our 6 foot fence was enough, we had 6+ strands of hot wire but they just jump right through it.   We could hear the twang of the wire as they jump right on through. We will have to go back and add considerably expense with 2"x4" wire mesh.    We have talked about a 6' fence around our entire 5 acres since that would make the most sense to keep all deer out of the property at all times since someday we might want a 1/4 acre of blueberries or a full acre of strawberries or corn for a corn maze etc.  That might be something we have to consider more seriously now.  It won't take long for the fence to pay for itself if we can avoid replanting fruit trees and prevent garden and landscape crops from being ruined as well.

This picture makes me sick, after all the time we took to prune, inspect, pamper these trees all year we were so upset to see them all damaged like this.  I've been cranky every since I found them this way...

Until we have a chance to protect the trees (in the next couple days) we are letting the kids camp out in the tent in the orchard (they love an excuse to camp out).....when the kids camp out the dogs stay with them.  The dogs hear the deer approaching and chase them off.  It is working well, but we really need to get those cages for the trees done before too long.

The tree in this picture is in the best condition after the damage, it only lost 2 main branches and got a few more skinned up.  It was the prettiest and largest tree we had, it is a nectarine tree.

We needed fencing to be able to surround each tree with a circle of wire mesh to keep the deer from rubbing on them.  All the fencing pieces we had available were being used on the cucumber plants to protect them from the turkeys.  It made me quite sad to butcher the turkeys, but when we thought about the reason we had grown them in the first place (for meat) we decided it was time.  They were full grown and the female, Butterball, had started to lay eggs a couple weeks ago.  At first it seemed like she might want to sit on a nest, but she was a nest deserter and never did sit on it longer than 1 day.

From two turkeys we were able to get 17 lbs of meat, that weight which doesn't include any bones at all!  I thought that was a great amount of meat from just two birds.  We are going to keep the breasts and try to marinate and smoke them for deli meat, and we will grind the rest into turkey burger.  I am excited to have a nice stash of turkey burger.  Helps to round out the protein sources some.

I am really excited about hopefully getting some red meat in the freezer this fall with the hunting tags we have for elk and deer (maybe we will even get a bear for some more tasty breakfast sausage).  We are running quite low on red meat and it will be comforting to have that replenished if possible.  We need to work on purchasing an upright freezer so we can move some of the veggies and other items we need often to the upright and store the meats and longer term storage items in the chest freezer.  

This last weekend we managed to get half of the pears canned (a few we dried too).  We have 3 more boxes to go this evening.  We move on to applesauce, pumpkin puree, diced tomatoes, salsa, a little more corn, dill pickles, and a few odds and end batches of things to close out the canning season.

We have just a few more weeks of the growing season left.  I am pretty sure I am going to try out a hoop house for a season extender to get a little more broccoli, carrots, and lettuce mature before the coldest months of winter hit.  It will be an experiment to see if this type of thing is possible with the winds we get here etc.

I am really going to miss the turkeys following us around and the cute sounds they make, but I won't miss the stress of keeping them from following people walking on the road in front of our house, and the hassle of trying to keep them out of the strawberries and cucumbers.  Oh and I won't miss the gigantic sized poop all over where they like to roost at night!  It was time for a little simplicity to or busy lives around here.  Things will get even simpler once the garden is "bedded" down for the winter too.  It will all happen soon enough I am sure.

Some of the canning so far.

Canning Season...

Last Friday we went on our almost annual trip to pick fruit and prepare for the busiest canning week of our entire year.  We were able to pick 2 varieties of peaches, nectarines, pears, and a few gala apples for fresh eating over the next few weeks.

We had a nice time on the outing, it amazes us every year how little time it takes to pick over 600 lbs of fruit.  We saved our fruit boxes from years past so they all stacked uniformly in the car and had a nice gentle ride home without bruising too badly.

We canned 63 quarts of peaches the next day.  We got all the ones that were ripe done, now we are waiting for the other half to ripen enough to can, hopefully that will be tomorrow.  The canning process goes efficiently and quickly with our skilled helpers and 2 canners going at once.  We had one set up outside on the propane camp stove and one inside.

We keep work time fun and entertaining!

Before we started the peaches we got one batch of green beans canned so we could reclaim the refrigerator space they had been taking up.  After we canned peaches, we did one canner load of corn and also a batch of dill pickles.  Oh and Mr. Wonderful didn't want the peach juice to go to waste so he canned that into a jam/jelly of sorts.:)   It tastes pretty good!

I really enjoy this time of year, few things top that feeling of being prepared for winter and tighter finances that no doubt will be coming.  Knowing we've put in the hard work and that we have healthy foods for our family is comforting.  We like that we got to make some silly memories and that the kids are learning some great skills at the same time.

Socially speaking, it can be a little hard because we feel isolated while we focus on all this food preservation (partly because we are so busy, and partly because it feels like most people don't understand our desire for doing this sort of thing), but at the same time it is enjoyable enough work, it isn't so bad. I look forward to getting back to doing a little more with friends and family soon though.  I am already brainstorming an idea for a possible fall party of some kind.  Maybe, we shall see.

No More Messy Boil Overs...

I received a really cool gift for my recent birthday from a dear friend of mine.  I had to share about it because it works too well to keep to myself.

It is a silicone lid that prevents things from boiling over.  As you can imagine, on any given day I have a few things going on simultaneously and I get distracted from things on the stove on occasion.  Just the week before I received this gift I had accidentally let a pot of sweet pickle syrup boil over (really really sugary syrup I might add)!!!!  It was a huge sticky mess!  I had to lift the top of the stove and wipe it all up from under the burners, then I unplugged the burner and took out the drip bowl and washed and dried it as well.  With that time consuming mess freshly on my mind, it is safe to say, I was pretty excited to receive this gift!

Doesn't this look daring having a pot so full?  This is a tall pot of corn I am boiling to hot pack into jars for canning.  It is almost ready to boil over now!

I placed the fancy lid over it and waited, wondering if it could possibly work with the pot this full!

Here is a close up of the name of it.  Kuhn Rikon made in Switzerland.  I really like the colors too!

Here it is starting to boil hard and the foam is coming up through the center softer silicone "petals".  The "petals" almost flap the bubble down a little like it is giving it a talking to about settling down and not making a mess.:)

Here it is several minutes still on high heat when by now without the lid we'd have had a HUGE mess to clean up without this handy lid on there.  The foam never amounted to more than this even when I left it longer.  This is going to be a very handy item to have in my kitchen for sure!

A heartfelt THANK YOU to my dear friend who thought of me and got this great gift for me.  I feel loved!

If you'd like one of these handy lids, they are available HERE and they have several sizes and colors to choose from.(I receive no incentive, I am just pleased with this item!)  I am sure they are available in other places as well.