Can You Can Can?

We tried a new venture this week--preserving food in cans :) Well, technically Buck and Gabby worked on this most of one day, while I worked on school and other household tasks. They had success with about half the jars, the others didn't seal (so they are in the fridge). Pickle party! Also, jalapenos and perhaps even some okra (which may end up being a Christmas gift :) It's kind of a long process with a lot of steps, but it's not as difficult as I imagined it--maybe because I was not directly involved in that round of the process :)

The next day, we still had two flats of tomatoes to take care of. My online research indicated that we should not risk the boil method for tomato products, since the acidity level is not high enough to kill botulism should we not be quite as successful in our canning methods as we'd like. However, we're new enough to this that a canning machine is not on the horizon. So, Caelan hauled tomatoes in from the flats outside and plopped them in the boiling water for a minute or two, then transferred them to the ice bath. Gabby then peeled the tomato skins off and made me a stack for chopping. I chopped and pureed in the blender, then we put all that back into a pot--into which Caelan added the chili starter packet and other required ingredients--and let it simmer :) Hours later, it was cool enough to put into freezer bags--two. That's it! All that work and we got two gallon freezer bags of squashed up tomatoes :)






I also made a pot of chili with random things like sausage I had defrosted, green chilis from the deep freeze, fresh tomatoes from the porch. I liked it, and I think the kids liked it. We were hoping the chickens would provide us with a third egg for cornbread to go with the chili, and just as Caelan was mixing up the batter--whew! Graysen came in with a still-warm, freshly laid round of protein (and then he washed his hands--I hope.) No eggs today yet, but we've had three per day for the first two days.

So, after about 36 hours the chickens were released from their confinement. I guess they had to learn where their new home is located for nesting by not being allowed to leave from it. There is much to learn. I'm reading "Chickens for Dummies" and assigning applicable pages to the kids to likewise read and learn. Today they gained knowledge about chicken structure and personality. Apparently the color of the little skin patch over the birds' ears indicates the color of eggs they will lay. Who knew? Probably everyone but me ;)

Chickens don't like rain and mud--we've got both, lots, for the first time (maybe the second) all year. So, I don't know if they are exactly happy, but they seem content hiding under the shelter. We gave them half a watermelon yesterday (I think it had worms in the rind, so I opted to not serve it to our family). The birds hollowed the thing out! Buck came home and wanted to check on them--as the kids had easily 30 times during the day--and was impressed that they were all out and about. He was even more impressed when he went to check on them after dusk and they'd all made their own way back inside the shelter. All Buck had to do was shut the little door; no chicken wrangling required :)




Gabby got a few great pics of them during their first taste of freedom on our farm . . .



I still haven't figured out the chickens' names. I think when it is dry and we don't have to wade through inches of mud, I'll go up and spend a little more time with our flock. It is fun to see what they're up to though!

Here is the vole Graysen caught . . . so we set out traps to keep them from stealing our beans. The traps killed one or two voles the first day. The next day Graysen found one whose (ew) nose was nipped off by the trap. I'm glad it didn't bite him!! We had to have a talk about picking up injured animals. I had him drop it in a ice cream bucket and then Buck had him toss it over the fence into the pasture. I don't expect it survived very long, but we didn't know how to end it quickly. We may have to research better :( Anyway, while he and Brennen were taking care of that task--these three deer were just watching them to see what they were up to. How fun (mostly) is our wild kingdom? :)



Oh, I nearly forgot! The boys and Buck built this handy dandy step to help everyone reach the eggs inside the coop. Pretty smart!