Pesto (updated for Sandy)

Made Pesto yesterday. Very easy. Toasted pine nuts, grated parmesan cheese, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt & pepper Plus a splash of lemon juice. I made two batches & froze one for later.

The one on the left was made first. Already darkening.

Update:

Pesto Measurements

1/3 c. pine nuts (or any kind you have on hand)
1-2 cloves garlic
2 c. washed dried basil (packed very tightly) I used just a bit more because that was what I had picked.
1/3 c. olive oil
1/3 c. parmesan cheese (+ a bit more if you really like parmesan)
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 t. lemon juice

Pulse nuts & garlic until crumbly.
Add next 4 ingredients & process until desired consistency. I added a bit more oil at this point.
Stir in lemon juice.
Can be frozen.

We did go to the country last weekend, but the guys moving the buildings only got 1 moved. They were supposed to arrive around 4:00p but didn't get there until after 6:00p. So, they just left it & came back on Monday to unload & level it. The other building still sits on a broken trailer waiting for them to fix the wheel so they can eventually move it (if we're lucky) .

The Crepe Myrtles are doing great, one even decided to go into full bloom!

I'm taking another vacation day today & will be making eggplant parmesan. Might even head over to a couple of nearby Estate Sales.

30 More in the Ground (Plus Gladiolas!)

Last weekend wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. We arrived at the Country House Wednesday evening, July 3rd. With no plans for picnics or barbeque's the next day, we sat on the back porch a while before retiring a bit late, for us at least (it was around 10:30p).

We got up early the next day & headed to Lowe's to pick up posts, lumber & screws for fencing on either side of the gate. Once back we set about setting the posts on either side. Once we were at the gate to start work, we weren't sure if we could get both posts in because one side was exceptionally wet. We measured & set the first one. Since we were only going six foot out we decided that we could, in fact set the other one.

Once that was done we set out to plant the 30 smaller Crepe Myrtle trees we had brought with us. These are from the same Mother trees that FIL had grafted his from. We had dug the holes two weeks prior & some had caved in a bit & needed to be dug out. Easy compared to digging from scratch. We got them planted in about an hour & making the wells around each since we were on the ground anyway. Next, I got leaves & compost & commenced to put in the wells around each tree. Greg unwound water hose to lay along side. He secured the hose with some stake wires & drilled a tiny hole in the hose at each plant. We hooked it up to a timer to run 15 minutes 3 times a week. We should be able to remove the hose & reuse in the garden area by this fall.

Looking out from the carport.

Looking back down old driveway.

From old gate.

They are about 1/2 the size of the In-laws trees but they were free & things are now starting to look like a homestead with defined spaces. I want to plant some fruit trees in that large field this fall. Thinking about peaches, plums, pears & maybe an apple, if I can find one that grows in the area. Oh, and a table grape vine as well.

The weather was quite nice for July 4th. Not too hot with a steady breeze. After lunch Greg decided to go ahead & mow since rain was predicted for later afternoon. I decided to clean house a bit. It gets very dusty with farmers in the area plowing & cars & tractors riding the dirt road that runs along side the property. I shook rugs, washed rugs, swept, vacuumed & dusted, glad to have that chore behind me.

We got up the next morning & worked on the fencing, trying to decide what to do as we worked. We finished what we set out to do, that weekend, but realized we put the boards too close together. We'll space them out when we put in the next section. The gate is a crooked as we are having a time swinging it open across the drive because the drive is higher in the middle. We'll find a solution for that in the future.

As we were riding to the gate we looked to the side of the drive, about 1/2 way & saw something bright red in the woods along the fence line. Since it was about to rain we decided to high tail it to the house & come back later.

After the rain, the ditch by the gate.

Later, we stopped by the red sighting & realized the red was gladiolas! There were only two blooming but there are hundreds in 2 or 3 different spots.

There is an old well head almost directly in front of these in my Dad's field. There used to be a house there years & years ago so we guessed whoever lived there must have planted them. There were also yellow buttercups in the wooded area but I didn't get a pic of them.

So, in addition to passion flowers, we also have buttercups & gladiolas!

We got a solar driveway light put up as well as a game camera. We've seen bobcat, hog & deer tracks along the driveway so we are hoping to catch a picture of something or another.

As we were leaving on Sunday we noticed these mushrooms growing in the side of a tree. They are about 5 inches across.

We've also been finding rusted junk treasure here & there. I can't wait until we live there!

It is now Sunday, July 14th & I canned peaches (8 pints), made peach jam (12 1/2 pints) & peach butter (7 1/2 pints) yesterday all.day.long. The jam didn't set very well but it's thick enough to use as an ice cream topping. The butter came out perfect. I don't like to peel peaches but I love the end products.

Today, I got tired of jockeying all my bags of frozen vegetable pieces & meat bones & meat pieces so I've got 2 large pots of stock going. I am taking next Friday off so I'll probably spend the day canning the stock.

That's all I've got for now. Have a great week everyone!

The past few weeks

I have been a bit busy the past few weeks.

In addition to learning how to process chickens I went to a cheese making class with a few of my city girlfriends. I have transplanted lettuce plants, planted more garlic, fertilized my garden & went to several estate sales. And I've made more pepper jelly & tried my hand at monkey butter (thanks to SciFiChick for that last one - it's delicious). Greg brought home his label maker from work to make it easier to label my jars. You get tired of writing the same thing over & over for each jar but I definitely want them all labelled as I don't want to guess what's inside, much less the date it was processed.



Label

Pepper Jelly & Monkey Butter








And I made meat stock. I took kymber's advice & just threw in all my meat bones (beef, pork & chicken), vegetable pieces that I had stored in the freezer & even added crock pot juice. You know, the extra juice that is made when you cook a roast in the crock pot. I never use it all to make gravy & used to just throw it out but decided to freeze it for stock. I had both beef & pork juice. I threw it all in my big stock pan & cooked it for about 2 hours. I then strained it & put in my big crock pot with the bones, with the lid ajar, for about 4-5 more hours. I strained again & pressure canned. What I got was 7 pints of a wonderfully aromatic & tasty meat stock.

Meat Stock

I was also able to stop in & say hello to my friend Stephen last week. I had a cup of coffee with him which was delicious. He says it was delicious because he adds egg shells. Huh, who knew? Anyway, he's such an easy person to talk with & we seem to get along well. We discussed his writing style & mine. His is much more 'sit down & let it flow' all at one time. Mine is more of the write a few lines, save, walk away, come back, write a few more lines, rearrange, walk away, come back proof & then publish. Unfortunately for him he is constantly interrupted which breaks his rhythm. I hope he gets some time to himself because he writes beautifully, from the heart.

This past weekend I took a basic pistol safety course through one of our local gun shops. It's the same shop  that I got my CWP from a few months back. This course was an all day class, with classroom time in the morning, a short break for lunch & then about 3 hours of range time at a FOP range & then back to the class for our test which we all passed, yeah! The range was pretty cool as we got to try several different types of hand guns. There were three different sections on the range.

1) Shoot at metal targets that pinged & either 'went down' when hit or flipped around to the other side. We used a 9mm on that one.
2) Basic target w/a long barrel .22.
3) Don't remember what they called this one but firing a .380 or a .40 cal ... shoot from hold down position - bring arms up, aim & shoot 1 shot to the middle, down, then up to shoot 2 shots to the middle, down, then up again to 2 shots to the middle again, down then up for 1 shot to the head.

I did best on the last one, I chose the .40 cal & hit all but 1 shot within the rings. The weather was the only bad thing, damp, windy & cold. But, all in all it was an enjoyable day.

I helped Greg inventory his today. I created a spreadsheet with the makes, models & serial numbers. He took pictures & got them stored on hard drive & thumb drive & will be printing a copy to put in a safe place.

And last but not least, we have been busy off & on, moving my In-Laws vacation trailer from it's current home to our country property. It's more work than you think & I'll post more on that later.

I'm off to try a new Cabbage recipe along with Sea Bass & Asparagus that Greg is cooking for our Sunday night dinner.

In case I don't get the chance to post again, I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Lessons Learned

Well, I made it to the retreat & home again w/o incident. A good time was had by all.

I was a bit worried before I left for several reasons but one of the main ones is that I don't get along well with many women. The women I've met though this blog are the exception ... I guess it's because we are all discussing like minded goals & aspirations.

I do have close friends & family whom I love, & the women that I have come to know through this blog are amazing. So, I don't dislike women, I am just not drawn to them. My husband is my best friend & I wouldn't change that for the world.

Also, I am not a chit chatter, especially about mundane crap like shoes & purses & other silly things. I dress nice, when I have to, wear makeup, when I have to & mind my manners.

I also must mention that I don't have a whole lot of patience either. If someone annoys me I walk away rather than say something 'not nice'. And, I get annoyed easily, especially the older I get.

This past weekend was a test for me. There were 61 attendees at the retreat, 57 of them women plus an additional 10 or 12 instructors or moderators. The age range was 23 - 70, with the median age around 50. I was prepared to pretty much stay to myself if I found that I couldn't tolerate ... whatever. I was pleasantly surprised that for the most part, everyone attending was as focused as I was on learning the things that were being offered.

There were 4 or 5 younger women (age 23 - 27). Each had come with a mother, or were there w/a friend who had come with their mother. They were lovely young women & truly interested in all the activities. It was very refreshing & gives me hope about the future. They even put their iPhones down while eating & during conversations!

Yeah, there were a couple of Hazels in the crowd, but for the most part the others were easy to talk to & not overbearing with their opinions. I just steered clear of the Hazels. My cabin mates were an eclectic mix with great personalities to match. I even met a couple of women that I think will become long term friends, we had much in common.



Sleeping quarters

I guess what made me open up my mind while there, was the side conversations you would hear while going through the day. Simple things like, types of goats, whether you milked, types of chickens, cows, gardening topics, etc. Talk even turned to WTSHTF, how many months of food were stored, Bug Out Bags, etc. There was also conversations about concealed weapon permits & types of guns.  Hmmmm, I thought.

There was plenty of discussions about books, excercise routines, sewing & other things like that, as well. But it all seemed, to me anyway, that it was centered around one common goal & that was Self Sufficiency. By choice now & necessary when the time comes.

It was a bit surreal knowing you were pretty much surrounded with that many like minded strangers individuals in a foreign setting. It felt good.

I learned a LOT & what I liked about this specific retreat was that the classes were taught by real women. Some had been doing whatever they were teaching, for years while others were fairly new & were just good at it. Also, for the most part, it was hands on which is what I was looking for.

I helped make apple butter, biscuits & pie crust. I learned what I was doing wrong w/my biscuits (cutting them too thin). I hope to never buy another can of biscuits or pie crust again.

I have dabbled in dehydrating, water bath canning & pressure canning, but I needed to make sure I was doing it right by actually participating, while a knowledgable person looked on. So I took  dehydrating & pressure canning classes. I felt reassured & most certainly learned many new tips & techniques.

I took soft cheese & hard cheese making. I didn't learn much in the soft cheese class, as I had already made mozarella using the same recipe, but learned a lot in the hard cheese class. I plan on making Romano as soon as my husband builds me a cheese press.

I loved the bread making class & I hope to never buy dinner rolls again. Another goal is to cut down on the amount of bread we buy.

But, I think my favorite class of all was the Goat Husbandry class. The teacher, Shelley from Twiggity Dairy Goats, has been doing this for a couple of years & you could just feel her excitement & love of her goats. She & her husband brought 2 Nigerian kids, 1 adult kid & a Mini Lamancha. We loved them all. We learned how to select a good dairy goat, preventative maintenance, how to look for signs of trouble, how to administer shots, how to trim hooves & how to milk!! Shelley is an excellent speaker & you could really tell she loves what she does. They also brought Cheddar & Queso cheese as well as samples of milk to try. It was wonderful!

We ended with a party at the CITR farm on Sunday afternoon. I've been following this blog since the beginning of the year & it was nice to see all of the animals & understand the layout of the farm. There was a swap table, coffee roasting, yarn spinning & soap making demos, lots of food, hay rides & pony rides. The weather was perfect! With a glass of wine in hand it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon.

I had a great time & the lesson I learned was to keep an open mind, you never know who you might meet & what you might learn.

WV sunrise on my last morning