Garden Prep & Anniversary

Well, the gardening at the Country House did not go as I had planned for last weekend. But, we got a little bit done. We're trying to do a 40' x 100' (or thereabout) w/raised beds. But, since we aren't at that house all the time, the weeds & grass (especially the Bermuda) takes over! So, I decided to kill a whole plot in one big bed (no photos). This is in addition to the raised beds that we had already started, that now have grass growing all over them (another project for another day)

We got the plot tilled & then started putting newspaper down with the intent to wet it after it was on the ground. However, the wind picked up making it impossible to keep the paper in place. So I filled a 5 gallon bucket w/water & soaked the newspaper before laying it on the ground (down & up & down then down & up & down). Very hard on the lower back. It's times like this that make me realize I'm no spring chicken anymore. Thank goodness it wasn't cold. We then added leaves & horse poo & straw & wet it all down with the sprinker. We got about a 14' x 30' portion of the plot done before we ran out of leaves. We'll just whittle away at is as time & weather allows. I'm not planning on planting anything for a couple of years. Just trying to prepare the soil so that little to no till is needed in the future. Still on the lookout for wood chips to use in the walkways.

And .........

We celebrated our 31st Wedding Anniversary Tuesday! I originally thought this year was going to be 33 years. But, as the date grew nearer it was obvious that is was ONLY 31 years (we got married 11/27/81, the day after Thanksgiving that year).

I am married to an amazing & talented man who can do just about anything he sets his mind to. He's a wonderful cook & he always helps with the cleanup. He can build stuff, fix stuff & he helps me with all my crazy projects. I am lucky to be his wife.

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!

Chicken Processing (new for me)

DISCLAIMER ... This post is a fairly graphic post comment wise, not too many pics though. Regardless, consider yourself forewarned if you decide to continue reading......

A couple of weeks ago I received an invitation to help process chickens.

Turns out the land where the chickens are raised & the home where they are processed are only a couple of miles from my City House! The guy (we'll call him KC) that sent the invitation is a firefighter who actually lives even more 'in town' that we do. But, he has a firefighter buddy that lives on the property where the chickens are raised. The buddy (we'll call him Jack) has 3 jobs so he just mainly provides the residence for the birds. The chickens are raised in a paddock/coop, that is moved daily so they have fresh grass/bugs as well as fresh water & supplemental feed available.

When KC got them as chicks it turns out that he had gotten a few too many roosters & needed to thin them out a bit. I think they were 16 weeks old & looked to me, in my uneducated mind, to be "good sized" birds.

Eeek, what have I gotten myself into? I have trouble handling a store bought raw chicken w/o feeling squeamish. What was I gonna do with live, running around, then caught & put in a cage, then killed, then defeathered & then properly gutted chickens???!!!

Well, I took the day off work & drove over to meet KC by 8:00a. Another couple & their Mom showed up, as well as another lady (EM) that I had met at a gardening class earlier in the summer, with her 11 yo grandson. There were 12 birds to be processed & the couple had brought 6 additional ones they wanted to process. We gathered the birds & put them in a big dog cage that was in the back of KC's truck & drove them to the processing facility which was right across the road at Jack's parent's house.

KC had set everything up for processing. There were the cones on a rack to put the birds in upside down w/their heads through the bottom of the cone, w/buckets underneath to catch the blood, after they had been killed. Then there was the hot water to 'dunk' them up & down in until their feathers released easily. Then the 'plucker', which is a 1/2 barrell w/ rubber nibs in the side & on the bottom are more nibs on a stainless electric 'turntable'. Then a stainless table to 'de-gut' (not sure of the proper term here).

We started w/one of the larger birds. KC showed us what to do at each step. Take bird from cage, put in upside down, properly slit their throat, hold their legs until they die, hold them by their legs & dunk them in & out of the hot water until feathers released easily (maybe 8-10 times), turn plucker on & put bird in until all feathers are plucked, rinse, take to table, cut off head & feet, run fingers around to loosen skin at neck to make insides easier to pull out, cut out/off glands at butt, cut hole above butt, widen skin with hands to loosen everything & pull all innards out, keep liver (handle carefully cutting away the bile duct), gizzard & heart. We tossed the intestines for KC to use in his compost pile. Then reach inside bird to remove lungs, rinse bird & put in in ice water bath until ready to wrap/bag. Here is the only pic that would cooperate. This is the cone killing station.

I took several pics with my new stupid phone. Even though they all look fine once I transferred & adjusted on my PC, when I add them to the blog they are all upside down, except for this one. Oh well.

All morning long I helped w/various things like putting ice in the coolers, then filling them w/water. Running the water hose for rinsing & the plucker. I then stepped in and carried a few birds to the cones. Next, I stepped up & killed a few chickens by slitting their throats & holding their legs until dead.  Then I moved on to the dunking booth, what a great workout! We got to where we were doing 2 at a time & those things were heavy, at least 15 lbs. Dunking all the way in/under water, then out, then back in ... at least 10 -15 dunks each time .. until the feathers were easy to pull out. I then ran the plucker & watched very closely as all in attendance learned how to de-gut them.

I just couldn't bring myself to do the de-gutting part. I listened & learned but didn't want to touch them. All I could think about was what those store bought birds feel like, all slippery & slimey. Blulch - that's my gagging, almost throwing up sound. Yet, strangely enough, watching very closely while the others did it, didn't gross me out.

The grandson of EM was very interested & had helped in all the steps that I had. He then wanted to de-gut. His grandmother gave the approval for him to handle the knives & with close instruction from KC ... he DID IT!!  Remember, this is a city kid that had never killed anything in his life. He was also proud of himself, as we were of him.

Everyone had to leave but there were still 2 chickens left to process. So, I asked KC if I could help with the last 2. I went home & got my knives that I am used to. With only KC & myself left, I processed 1 of the birds from start to finish. When I got to the de-gutting part, the part that I was dreading most, I found that the bird wasn't slimy AT ALL & very easy to handle. I even got the bile duct cut away without ruining the other inner parts. The only scare I got was when I was holding the bird to cut the hole by the butt hole, the thing made a duck call kind of noise & sounded like it was still alive! Although I knew that couldn't be the case, it was just weird to hear. Turns out I had left too much of the neck attached & it was just releasing air while I was holding tight while cutting the back end.

I helped KC clean up & then helped him wrap up each of the birds. They weighed from 3.5 - 4.5 pounds after processing. KC then gave me one for my 'labor'. The bird is in my freezer & I will soon make chicken & rice plus chicken stock. Maybe even can some chicken soup from bone broth. Those posts will be coming soon.

Anyway, it was a very productive day & I'm glad I got to know KC. It turns out his wife makes bread from scratch & is willing to show me how she does it. They own a Country Grain Mill & are willing to let me 'try before I buy'. He recently sent me another email that he was having trouble w/about 5 or 6 other roosters & wondered if we want to come help. Heck yes! Greg doesn't believe I had my hand up a chicken's butt & I don't have pictures to prove it. So, when KC is ready, we will hopefully be in town to help.

Note: As a bonus, it turns out that EM is a Thrive consultant & is willing to come to my house for a Thrive party, which I hope to host in December. If  anyone wants to come, send me an email. I've been wanting to try some of the freeze dried meats & other hard to preserve items they offer for long term food storage. Yet another post in the future.

Roll Reversal

Not really reversal, but doing opposite things today. Greg & I pretty much share doing everything around our houses - cleaning, cooking, yard work, etc. It's just that days like today we are interested in doing something different than the other.

It has been a great weekend weather wise. Almost a fall like feel in the air, especially in the mornings. Yesterday morning I went to a couple of Estate Sales & then came home to make Hunter's Pie . It's leftover ribeye steak, onions & carrots simmered in a seasoned gravy made w/beef stock, wine & tomato paste & then baked in a pie crust. I made the pie crust myself! Not too pretty but it was tender & flaky, a delicious recipe that I will make again. Actually I did make one that I put in the freezer, more of a beef pot pie. That reminds me, I need to go wrap it in foil.

Anyway, I wanted to be outside today & Greg wanted to cook. After a hearty breakfast (grits, sausage & toast), I went outside to get to work. It was such a beautiful day, even with the sound of jet engines flying close by. There was a Blue Angels sky show at our local beach which is only about 5 miles, as the crow flies, from our City House.

Greg started on his meal which pretty much took all morning to prepare & all day to cook. It's spaghetti & meatballs. But instead of the traditional red sauce it is more of a stock sauce made w/chicken stock, canned tomatoes & other vegies. He made the meatballs with pork & beef. The beef came from my friends at Serenity Acres Farm. It's primarily a dairy goat farm but they also raise grass feed Angus Beef cattle to sell the steers as breeding stock. When they have an older heifer that is no longer 'producing' they have her slaughtered. Instead of having all the various cuts of meat, they take it all & make ground beef. So it has all parts in it, yes, even the filet mignons. It is easier for them to sell & boy is it delicious.

Here's a before & after shot of the meatballs.












After they were browned, he refrigerated them while the stock was cooking. The stock cooked ALL day, reducing by about 1/2.

While he was cooking I got started. I first planted some key lime seed & some peach seeds. We'll see if they sprout in a few weeks.

I then tackled one of the raised beds at the end of our driveway. I may have mentioned these beds before but they have some of the richest dirt I've ever seen & they're full of earthworms. I generally start many of our transplants there before moving them to the yard or pots. Anyway, I had a a couple of sweet potatoes sprout a few months back. Instead of adding them to the compost bin I decided to cut them up & put them in one of the raised beds. Here's a shot of what it looked like in late June.

Those vines kept getting bigger & bigger & spread everywhere. However, they were starting to turn a bit yellow so I pulled them all out & then dug for sweet potatoes. Here's my haul:

Not enough to put away for months, but there's enough to bake a few baked ones plus enough to make a few sweet potato pies. Those 2 rows of tiny ones at the bottom of the pic are from the runners that had spilled out onto the ground.

I then took all those vines, plus the compost from last week & put them in the compost bin.

This is an old picture, but the bin on the left is now finished. I put material (kitchen waste, leaves, grass clippings, etc.) in it all summer. I'm just waiting for it to 'compost' to use in next years spring garden. I've now started filling the 2nd bin which I will do throughout the winter, into spring. Then I'll start filling the 3rd one next spring while using the 1st one & the 2nd one will be composting. And then the cycle will continue.

I also got the rest of my seedlings put in the ground & even some in buckets.

Then I decided to cut up some red potatoes that had starting sprouting. I had planned to put them in the ground but didn't cut them up early enough to let them cure. Guess I'll be planting potatoes Monday or Tuesday afternoon.

Lastly, I got everything fertilized. Something I neglected to do regularly in my spring garden. Here are the 3 raised beds.

This one has romaine lettuce & 3 different kinds of beans, plus I planted some spinach in between the beans today.

Although it doesn't look like much, this one has onions, garlic, 2 different kind of carrot & leeks. The leeks aren't doing well & the carrots are sketchy. The garlic is under that netting to hopefully keep the squirrels at bay. They keep digging the garlic. They don't eat it, just dig it up & leave it exposed. The netting, by the way, is an old bath scrubbie thingy that had stretched out too much to bathe with anymore,  so of course I saved it for another use!



This last bed has chinese cabbage, copenhagen cabbage, brussel sprouts, broccoli & cauliflower.

I had also started some lettuce from seeds. I separated them & I've decided to grow them indoors on my grow rack. I have three different kinds.

Bibb

Gentilina

Buttercrunch

Near the end of the day I made a blackberry pie with the rest of the homemade pie crust which we had w/vanilla ice cream. That's a stretch for us, to have dessert with any meal. IF we have anything sweet, it's usually as an afternoon snack. But boy it was good. I'll just have to work it off tomorrow, planting those potatoes.

I've had a full & productive weekend. I love it when I get a lot done & don't feel like I've wasted time. Hope everyone else had a good weekend as well.

Here's a picture of Greg's spaghetti & meatballs (also had parmesan bread). Along with that pie. (Note: I'm no food photographer .... lol) But, both were delicious!



Productive & Destructive Weekend

The Productive part ...

Saturday was a pretty slow day. I went to a couple of estate sales but only found an old nut cracker for $2. I stopped by to say hello to Stephen, he was very busy so I only stayed a short while. I then went to Ace Hardware to purchase some new jars & lids, as they were having a sale & I had a $15 coupon.

I stopped at the grocery store on my way home and purchased 2 big london broils (BOGO free) so Greg could make jerky in the new hydrator on Sunday. When I got home I cleaned the Excalibur. The guy that sold it to me said he made cookies in it (huh?) & the film of stuff was cinnamon. Do you know how hard it is to get the cinnamon out of all the creases & crevices ... very hard. I got most of it out & all the trays washed.

Sunday has not been a slow day. We were up at dawn. I cooked breakfast while Greg prepared & put the jerky on. Then we went to Lowe's to purchase me a new sprayer (bugs are eating my cabbage & broccoli) that I could put my concoction in & hopefully stave them off. Lowe's had their canning supplies 1/2 off but, not my 2 nearby Lowe's, they don't even stock it. The Lowe's near our Country House stocks them but of course, we aren't there this weekend.

I was running out of room for storing supplies so Greg put another shelf together for me & I spent the afternoon organizing while he used the nut cracker to get me some peach pits to try & start some trees from seed.

He didn't like the cracker (or actually the peach pits was what he didn't like). Said they were hard as heck. All I need are a few for my experiment, so told him to only do a few of each kind I had.

Now on to the destructive ....

A few weeks ago our refridgerator started acting up. The fridge side acted like it wanted to be a freezer. Greg talked w/GE & they had him re-set something & it seemed to fix the problem until yesterday, it started acting up again. Frozen milk is hard to pour.

Around the same time we noticed the fridge problem we realized the bottom, smaller oven, that we use a lot, wasn't working on convection. So Greg removed the convection thingy but didn't remove the knobs. So, when I went to bake potatoes, of course I turned the lower oven on & KAPOW! The open wire end with the doohicky on it was touching the side & blew the doohicky off. Anyway, a new convection thingy arrived last week & Greg installed today (after replacing the doohicky) but while do so, accidentally broke the thermostat controller. So, now it doesn't work at all! Have to order that next week. He usually fixes things, not break them.

Our City House has 2 AC units, one for the living area (including kitchen/office/den) & another for the bedroom side. When we got back from Lowe's we noticed that the living area of the house wasn't cooling off. At first, we chalked it up to 2 dehydrators running. Man, that Excalibur can put off some heat! But, after they were off, it still isn't cooling down. It's not horrible, as long as we don't move & are under a ceiling fan. At least the temps are scheduled to drop a bit next week & the other unit works so we will not suffer in our sleep.

When it rains, it pours. Oh well, we got jerky & I got my supplies organized & stored away, with room to spare!

I wanted it soooo bad.

I had a very busy day on Thursday so I couldn't do my usual routine of checking Craig's List while having my morning coffee, meetings stood in the way.

So, after my last morning meeting & realizing that I didn't have lunch, I went to an Estate Sale near my office & then stopped at the grocery store on the way back to work, to purchase lunch.

After I got back to the office & while eating my lunch I hopped on Craig's List & started typing in my search list. When I got to the 'Ds',  I saw a (rarely used) nine tray Excalibur Dehydrator for $75 & it had just been posted late the night before!!!! I immediately called the seller & left a message. Wish I had checked 1st thing in the morning, dang it.

After lunch, went to several meetings (I hate Thursdays) & had still not heard back from the seller.

Before I left for the day (around 4:30p), I decided to check Craig's List to see if it was still listed. Image my surprise when I checked the listing .... Oh my ... the seller had left a message ... on the posting ... that he had accidentally deleted the lady's message that called around lunchtime ..... & to please call him back if I was still interested!

I immediately called ... so excited .... & told him that I thought that I was the person he had posted the note to .... & that I thought he was close by ..... & that I could come after work! He stopped me then & said ....

"Well, let me tell you what happened ... about 5 minutes after I posted the note, I got a call, thinking it was you. But, it wasn't you, it was some other guy also very interested. I told him if I didn't hear back from you in the next couple of hours, I would call him back. And, since I didn't hear back from you (until now), I just called him about 15 minutes ago .... & he's on his way to pick it up."

My stomach dropped & I thought, OH WELL .... HELL, another opportunity lost. And, to add insult to injury, he got another call while I was on the phone w/him. I said - "That is probably from the "other" guy ... Thank You ... call me if he doesn't show ... Goodbye".

I fretted all the way home but just told myself that I would eventually find what I wanted ... at a good price ... eventually ... maybe ... probably not.

You see, I am NOT a lucky person. But I had done almost everything right this time - whine whine. Why did he have to delete my message, why? why? I tell you, if there are 100 people at an event & 99 prizes are to be given away. Guess who will NOT win. Yep, moi. That actually happened once except the ratio was about 100 people & 75 prizes. But, the point is ... I . never . win.

Fast forward to 3 hours later ...... I get a call from the seller that the other guy NEVER SHOWED UP! So, if I wanted to pick it up between 10 & 2 on Friday, he would be available!

I played hookey from work this morning & went to get it ... I wasn't taking any chances. She's a beauty! Only used 10 - 12 times. Seller had just moved to a smaller place & didn't have room anymore.

I think Winn Dixie has London Broil on sale this week. I think it may be a jerky kind of Sunday.

I am sooo happy! WOO HOO! Could my luck be changing? Maybe I should play the lottery this weekend?

Update: Got it home & turned the temperature dial on & NOTHING happened! I panicked & tried to call the seller he didn't answer! I think to myself ... Oh boy have I screwed up.

I then remembered that the plugs on the island where I had put it, aren't working. So I moved it across the kitchen, thank goodness it's not heavy! Plugged it into a known working plug & still NOTHING!

Got on the Excalibur website to see if there was anything mentioned about NOTHING happening. Nope, not a word.

So, I looked at the prices of new motors, not too bad, none were more than $40. OK, I think to myself, I paid $75 plus $40 plus shipping would still work out to less than $150. Still a bargain right? ... I'm trying to convince myself.



I called Excalibur & the customer support rep asks exactly what model I had & what the problem was. I said "It doesn't do anything when I turn it on". He then told me I would need a new timer. "What?" I say. "I didn't turn the timer on because I wasn't planning on using it." He said ... "The timer is actually the on/off switch."

Sure enough ... duh. IT WORKS!!! Yeah! .... I need an instruction manual & a drink.

She's mine & I shot her!

Since getting my CWP a few months back, I have been looking to acquire my own pistol. Greg has plenty to choose from but I wanted my own. My wrists aren't strong so I didn't think I could handle a glock or 9mm & I wanted something that I felt comfortable with, without too much kick.

Well he brought home a surprise for me last week!

My very own Ruger SR-22! We took her to the Country House this weekend & I got the chance to shoot this afternoon. On my first shot, I didn't have my left hand (thumb) back enough, so I got what I deserved, a slight scrape across the knuckle. Enough to make me remember that my left hand was there to support my right, not be involved in the actual firing. So I moved it down & continued to fire all 10 rounds in the magazine. She needs to be sighted in a bit but otherwise, I think I'm in love.

I already own a Ruger 10-22 rifle which I've shot a few times & feel very comfortable with.





This target pic is the first time I shot the rifle. Fired 30 rounds. The first shot is the upper & the next 29 are the big, bigger & bigger hole, in the middle. They called me "Dead Eye" all weekend after that.

Beginner's luck, hasn't happened again. But, you can call me Ruger Woman from here on out.





Fall garden & this week's bargain(s)

Well, as usual I hit a few Estate Sales this past week. I got a mini crock pot & coffee grinder. I will use the crock pot for cheese waxing when I make hard cheeses & the grinder for smelly things like dried onions, celery & garlic. I had stopped at another sale on my way home Friday & saw a potting bench that I thought I would like. But, they wanted $40 & weren't willing to come down yet.

I have been wanting one for quite some time. I could have asked my husband to make me one but he's got so much going on & it isn't a priority right now. To start plants, I usually pull out a garbage can & put a small plywood table top & have a small rolling shelf I put things that I reach for as I go along. The garbage can is just low enough that it strains my back. A full morning or afternoon of potting makes me reach for the Advil.

Anyway, I had to run to the grocery store this morning so I decided to run by the Estate Sale. The company that put this one on usually has everything 1/2 off on the last day. It was still there! So I got it for $20.

She isn't the prettiest thing in the world but it's the PERFECT height and will definitely work until I get a pretty wooden one in the distant future. Sure wish I had had this a few weeks ago when I started my fall sets.

Speaking of which, here's what I use to start my seeds:

Paper towel or toilet paper rolls cut in approximately 2" lengths. I use take out containers from fancy restaurants or Fresh Market to hold them. I put as many will fit without crowding, and then fill 3/4 w/potting soil. 

I then put seeds in & cover with more soil. I put the clear lid back, label on & place on the bottom shelf of my grow shelf that husband built me earlier this year. Once sprouted & after the 1st true leaves appear, I transplant to 4" pots that my FIL saves for me. I keep them on the grow shelf until they get a few more leaves & they start to look like they're true plants. I then start conditioning them by placing them outside each afternoon for about an hour.

I left them out for about 3 hours yesterday & about 4 today. Taking in & out is really a pain. So, I think I'm going to leave these on the patio table under the umbrella until ready to plant. They get a bit of morning & afternoon sun but are fairly shaded during the day.

Here's what I've got for my fall garden that I will plant in 2 weeks. Broccoli, Cauliflower, Brussel Sprouts, Romaine, Copenhagen Cabbage & Chinese Cabbage.



I've got waaay to many plants for my little city garden so I'll be giving most of these away. Plus I'm going to plant peas, beans, carrots & other lettuces directly from seed.

This will be my 1st fall garden ever! Wish me luck.



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

Summer Camp

Or maybe a bit of Fall Camp, for adults.

I am heading to WV this week for a retreat. I had been looking to attend the Heritage Harvest Festival in Monticello or the Mother Earth News fair in PA this month but ran across the retreat at CITR in WV this weekend. And, instead of sitting in lectures & listening to HOW to do stuff, I actually get to DO the stuff at this one! Cheese, bread, preserving & goats are what I've signed up for.

It starts on Thursday afternoon but I'm heading up on Wednesday due to trying to get out of our fair city to an obscure airport sometime takes ALL day. So I'll arrive in WV on Wednesday evening a & meander my way to Gandeeville, WV on Thursday morning. There's a couple of stops along the way that I am looking forward to.

Anybody else going?