In a pickle.......

I feel like a pickle!!

I have been in so much vinegar this week that I should be pickled myself!

I made this gallon jar of refrigerator dill pickles today. They are supposed to ready to eat in a week, just in time for our family reunion!!

The recipe did not call for carrots but I just couldn't help myself when I saw a bag of petite carrots calling my name today.

These are Dill Spears from the same recipe that I made the dills this week.

These cukes were a little large for slices so I speared them and soaked them in lime and I am sure hoping they will be crisp.....fingers crossed!!

It really is hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

I am in such a habit of cranking that rim down on those jars as tight as I can get them. I am having difficulty getting it thru my thick skull that Miss Kim at Ball doesn't want me to do that any longer!! I backed these off and they did not pucker after processing them!!!

I had to make a run to Red Hill General Store today....which I am fortunate to live about 15 miles from.......to buy canning jars that they had on sale. While I was there I just had to buy this pickle book too!

Maybe I will learn something about making pickles ;-)))

I just wish I had enough time to read it.

My kitchen table is covered with October beans drying off that were picked tonight. They will be canned tomorrow along with the batch that Danny hulled tonight.

I have 10 pounds of beautiful sweet plums in a basket to make jam with tomorrow.

I have a huge watermelon that the nice gentleman at the farmers market gave me today to use for watermelon rind pickles. It had a small brown hole that looked as if a stick had poked it in the patch and he said they couldn't sell it so he gave it to me. I am hoping that we can enjoy the melon and have a good rind for the pickles too.

I would also like to try some watermelon rind preserves this year.

This is the year for me to pickle or preserve it seems!!

Most years I am so busy putting up the big stuff...bushels of beans and tomatoes at a time and no time is left for small batch canning.

Well 11 quarts of pickles at a time shouldn't be considered small batch I guess!!

NOW........

Remember Miss Carrie my banty with 10 of the cutest babies ever?

Well Miss smart*** here decided that she should be turned out yesterday to get some exercise and allow her babies to frolic in the grass.

Frolic they did too. The babies hopped around in the grass like bugs or little black grasshoppers and my heart just fluttered!!!

In about 30 minutes she took them under the chicken coop and they have not been spotted since.

Danny got down on the ground with a flashlight tonight before dark and he said he could see all the way thru and there were no chickens, only a lot of black feathers. SOBBING SOB SOB SOB.........oh be still my heart
I have been so sad all evening thinking about what I did to all my babies.

After dark tonight I remembered that I did not lock my other chickens up so I went down there and I could hear what sounded like 10 babies under the building!!!! They were just a chirping!!

I sure hope their mother is OK and she brings them out soon before some other critter gets all of them.

I made a trade with my Dad this week.

He gets a pair of banties, I have a pair that came from the incubator batch, and I get 8 Rhode Island Red laying hens!!! Good trade huh? He thinks so too. He thinks his hens are too old at age 2!! They are young in my book. My hens are at least 5 years old and I get an egg almost everyday from them!! He is getting the same but he is afraid they will stop soon and he has too many anyway. They will carry me over til my Buckeyes start laying this fall and then I can get rid of some of my old hens. I have all my eggs sold that I can spare now!!! woooowoooo!!! that has been a long time coming too. I also have 5 gallons of goat milk sold each week!!!

Finally this farm is going to hold it's own!!

hahahahah
Do you believe that one??????

Happy canning!!