They're going to take my farm license away......

I can raise baby goats, sometimes, that turn out pretty good, grow up into beautiful young lady goats and then turn out to be good mother goats.

(Ellie Mae, my yearling, is pregnant!)
I really have high hopes for Miss Daisy!
I am still in love with all those spots and those long ears never grow old!

She is quite the bully on top of the mountain.

"What you doing in there Mr Big?

You rascally rooster!"

"Whaaaaat?
You say whaaaaat??

You like my curly ears?

I know everyone does."

Duke is a studdly little fella and I have high hopes for him being a herd sire for another farm next year! His face is just beautiful!!!!

Daisy wins again!

These are my very best, sweetest babies that have ever been dropped here on the farm.

(I like Thunder's offspring)

They are so quiet and docile!

I think that means they are happy!

They haven't caught wind of what a bad farmer I am yet.

They don't know how hard it is for me to raise chickens.

If they knew what "I" did to my baby chicks they would head for the mountains.

I will tell you and you will not mutter a word to anyone. OK?

Do I have your word? OK then, here goes........

I

drowned

2

baby

chicks

in

a

water

bucket

.

.

.

I

said

you

can't

tell

anyone

or

the

officials

will

come

and

take

my

license.

s

h

h

h

h

h

!

I don't ever want it to brought up in conversation ever again.

My guilt is overwhelming enough.......

Need I say more?

ps. the picture above is Mr Big as he prepared to leave his coop
this morning to go to work protecting Sunny Morning Farm!

Now if he would just be able to warn me of the safety hazards spotted...........

Life is just "Plum" good....

I made a nice little batch of Plum Jam today.

I used the Damson Preserves recipe in my Ball canning book.

I have no idea what kind of plums these were but Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy!!!!!!

It is good stuff!!!

My Dad used to like Damson Preserves better than anything he could ever get a hold of.

My Great Grandma Ella used to always make them for him and I thought it was nasty as a child.

I am not sure why I didn't like them but I thought Damsons were something along the line of Morels or something yucky like that!

I wonder if I would like Damson preserves now??? hmmmm????

If these are Damsons, I am converted!!

This is by far my new favorite jam now.

Look how thick!

You almost need a knife to cut thru them.

I am so proud of my 9 little bitty 4 ounce jars!!!

I will be on the lookout for some more plums to make more of this delicacy this season.

On to the other itty bitty's......

Momma and all her chilluns are tucked safely in bed tonight with their father watching vigil over them!! It just involved a flashlight, a cordless drill, the removal of a few boards, Danny. Leslie, Emma and I in the dark on a chicken hunt!!

I just love how chilled out a crazy spastic banty hen and all 10 of her babies are after dark!! No wonder they fall prey to so many critters......it's like

"Oh just take me and do anything you want to me, just don't wake me!"

You chicken folks will know what I am talking about here!!!!

We did go buy us a live critter trap today and we have it set behind the coop tonight.

I am pretty certain there will be a big old barn cat in there tomorrow morning :-)))

So life for me is "Plum good" right now!!!

Banty update!

They are alive!! They are still all under the chicken coop and I can't seem to coax her out but as of right now they are all alive!!! I went down there this morning and I could still hear chirping. I went to a very small hole in the back of the old building and I placed my eyeball right up there in that hole knowing perfectly well that there were creepy crawlies on the other side of that hole. I spot a black blob about the side of the hen but couldn't see movement and I was afraid it was her dead body. I ran back to the house and got my flashlight went back to the hole and threw my eyeball back up in there and came eyeball to beak with a live chicken!!!!! She seriously could have pecked my eye out too!!!!!!! I started talking to her and she started talking back and she hopped up and a bunch of itty bitty babies run out from under her!!!! Thank You Lord!!


I moved all the goats out of that field and I have the rooster out there to try and coax her out and back up inside today! Wish me luck on that one. Poor Mr Big is just beside himself too. Probably feels like his whole family is stuck in a mining tunnel or the likes. If she keeps them under the building they may very well be consumed by a predator at night. WE WILL BE BUYING AND SETTING A LIVE TRAP TONIGHT!!!!!!! That's another good excuse for me to go back to Red Hill general Store!!!! Thanks for the well wishes girls!!

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!!

Bestest Banana Bread ever!!!

I am truly not a lover of bananas or banana bread or banana ice cream but I do love banana pudding!! I had 4 overripe bananas Tuesday and decided to hunt up a recipe for them before they went bad. I was also in a cooking mood.

I sucked it up and tried this recipe for banana bread and I knew if I didn't like it that it probably would be ate by Danny. Afterall he always places his cakes in a big glass of milk and eats it with a spoon. That was one of the hardest things for me to get used to when we got married!! Turned out his whole family does that with most every type of cake, even the ones with a thick layer of frosting!!! I also couldn't get used to the fact that he and his father took their boots and socks off in the living room and then walked to the bedroom leaving their boots til the next morning!! Blew my mind!!! hahahaha I am sure that I was just perfect and did not have any weird quirks when he married me!! teh heeeee!!

Back to the banana bread.....I am really tired of typing out the word banana too........IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!! THIS BREAD IS CAKE!!!! Yes he has ate it in milk or without!! It is very very moist and simply delicious. I am now a fan of BB!!!!! I think you all should give it a try! I was just dreaming of a nice cold slice of this slathered with a big ladle of Boiled Custard!!! YUMMO!!! I think I will be making that tomorrow and serving the BB warm with warm BC or the BB cold with cold BC, either way it will B OK in my book!!!


Well it seems that I can not get you to the link for this perfect BB that I have already told you about. Sorry but I am too sleepy to keep trying to find it. I did print the recipe off and hopefully it has the link at the top of the page. I know your mouth is watering and I shouldn't tease you like that but I did! (I bookmarked the recipe but it won't come up now????)

Goodnight!!! Sweet dreams coming my way filled with BB and BC!! I will be back tomorrow with the recipe even if I have to type it all out for you!!!

Good Mornin!! As promised last night here is the link to the best Banana Bread ever. I was so tired that I forgot the name of the recipe too....it's Banana Banana Nut Bread!!!!! Enjoy!!! I am off to have a slice with a nice hot cup of French Vanilla coffee!!

I am going to S~C~R~E~E~E~E~A~A~M~M!!!!

There is not a whole lot of things in life that brings me any more satisfaction than my own home canned foods. Such as these Dill Pickles. Especially when I pay $5.99 for 4 new short fat pint jars just because they are so darned cute that I couldn't refuse them.

I mean my pickles just wouldn't be the same in ordinary pint jars now would they?

Cukes and dill from my garden!!

Aaaaahhhhhhh they look soooooo good!!!!!

They are just beautiful, I think so anyway, Just like a jar of Vlassic's!!

I have tried to make dill pickles in the past and they always turned out slimy.

My dearest husband being the kind man that he is asked me if I thought I might learn to make some dill pickles that were in fact edible?

Stupid man....he just might be wearing some slimy dill pickles on his head in a few weeks.

Especially if I have wasted all this time on these pickles following ALL the rules to a T and they still don't come out good.

and HERE IS THE PROBLEM!!!!!!

This is what has me screaming at the top of my lungs!!!

OH MY GOODNESSSSSSSSS!!!

I am ready to give up home canning after almost 40 years.

Remember this story last week or so.

I have done every bit of research short of calling Mr Ball or Mr Kerr and picking their brains.

I know that when you have cooked and canned for as many years as I have that anyone can get lax on certain procedures and use shortcuts where you have developed them but I do not in home canning cause it is too much hard work to have a can of food sit on the cellar shelf and spoil only to be emptied out and wash the jar to refill the next season and try it again. I hate to empty those jars too. Unless I am enjoying the food out of that jar!!

Thank goodness I almost never lose a jar of food any more like I did when I was first canning many moons ago.

These pickles were processed in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes and I timed it right down to the millisecond! I took the canned quilters advice and made sure that the water was not boiling too hard but was just right this time.

The last time this happened I was using Kerr lids on new jars and some generic Amish country store buy in bulk lids that have always been perfect.

Today I had new jars and lids that were Ball and some more generic lids that puckered just the same.

I went to this blog and followed her instructions to a T about getting the air bubbles out of the
jar too! I made sure they were not too full of pickles or liquid and the lids were adjusted by hand.

I just had an idea that maybe this has something to do with the vinegar.

The only common denominator among these batches??????

The first time this happened I was canning Peach Pickles and 2 out of 6 jars puckered but they sealed. The second time was Lime Pickles and 6 out of 11 jars puckered but sealed and today

2 out of 7 jars puckered and they just came out so I am not sure if they will seal or not. 1 jar looks like it is puckered beyond the point of returning to seal!!

Of course this is not a food that can just be ate in about a week and be ready, these pickles have to sit for 6 weeks before they are ready.

I am using white vinegar and of course different jugs cause it covers several batches...........

Please, anyone
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

What am I doing wrong???

Update!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just called the Ball hotline @1-800-240-3340

and this very nice lady named Kim told me that I have been milking too many goats!!!

I have apparently developed some very good hand strength lately which is probably from hand milking!! She said that I am tightening down my lids on my jars to tight so the air cannot escape and therefor it buckles the lids!! OMG!!!! Why did I fret over this problem for so long and not give Miss Kim a call?

She also told me that the lids are much thinner than they used to be so we are supposed to only close the lid, not torque it down!!!!! I didn't know my own strength I guess. I didn't realize that I was screwing them down that hard because I knew that they weren't supposed to be that tight anymore. I remember Mama having Daddy tighten her jars down before she processed them so they would seal!! Times have changed!

Lesson learned!!

I have to go find something else to can now and give this a try to see if she is right!

Some lightweight canning????

Miss Kim, my newest friend is going to send me out some coupons for free can lids because of my troubles!!!! Wootwoot!!!

Free can lids????? Yes!!

Banty updated count!

There are now 10 banty babies out of 11 eggs!! I told you I don't know how to count! Now do you believe me? Actually we did not get a final count on the eggs prior to her starting to set them for fear of her getting upset and not staying there.... and maybe just telling me that if I thought I could do it better to do it myself. So we let her be and do her job all by herself too. She did a fabulous job too! The one egg that did not hatch had a deformed baby in it that was alive but would have been a little different had it hatched out. Almost 100% hatch rate for her that would have been about 20% had I incubated them myself!! Actually most of her eggs hatched in the last batch that 'I' turned in the incubator. Miss Fertile Myrtle! I have to say that it is so much easier for her to do them herself!!!!! I wish I had some fertilized Buckeye eggs for her to set for me. Maybe in the spring she will go broody again and I will have some at that time.

I just love watching all 10 of these little buggers running around darting back and forth under their mothers wings. I have a new respect for "Mother hens"!! She goes in a complete tizzy when one of her biddies goes more than a couple inches away from her. I will have to really work on getting some pictures of these today!! Remember these are our first "farm raised straight from our hen, hen set on the nest for 21 days until they hatched babies" for this farm!!! We are both very proud of her too!!

I hope you all have a really great day and maybe week too!! I am working on my "list" this week. The list that is soooooooo long that I may never see the bottom of it!! I have to get off here and get to scratching things off that list!!!!!