Our "New" Truck

We bought this old, '92 Dodge diesel truck this summer.  It's been a work truck it's whole life, but it still has some spunk left in it.

After a bit of body work and some spray paint- thank you tremclad

It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself!

I even covered the windows and stuff this time!

EDIT:  I knew someone would ask, lol.

Ok, so a long time ago we had this van, and it had some scratches on it, and Husband kept saying he was going to fix it, and I kept saying it was going to rust, and two years went by, and I was right.  It started to rust.  So I got fed up and went and bought the factory colour match touch up paint.  I sprayed the rusted spots, and a few other knicks and scratches while husbans was at work.  He was not impressed.

The problem with the colour match paint, is it matches the original colour, not the sun faded, weather beaten colour your car becomes after ten years or so.  We drove around in a spotted van for a couple of years after that.

Then a few years ago we bought this beat up old Ford Ranger- Barney.  It was already rusted up, and it was just a farm truck, didn't spend much time on the road, just hauled manure and firewood.  But I knew from previous experience, if I waited for husband to do the body work there would be nothing left but a bucket of rust.  I also knew that matching paint wouldn't match.

I started with a can of black spray paint.   Most of the rust was on the edges, so I gave the truck a bit of a trim.  That didn't look too bad.  But then there was a bit of rust here, a bit of rust there...  Hmmm.  Mom suggested camouflage.  Ok then.  I bought a variety of greens, cut some pine branches, and went to town.

  A liitle green here, a little black there, cover up the rust, let it dry, start again...

I worked on it a bit at a time, over the course of a couple of weeks.  We used the truck nearly every day, so it was usually an end of the day touch up thing.  And I never covered the windows.  I can't find a picture with it finished. :-(

At any rate- everyone who drives the truck likes to complain about the little bit of over spray on the windshield.  Whiners, the lot of them, lol.

The body work is still not done, but Barney still lives on carting manure.

(Did you know, if you edit a published post it takes the post down?  Hmmm.  Will it now publish as a new post?  Or will it go back where it was?...)

Garden Update VI

Green beans in the greenhouse yeilded half a bucket more of seed beans!

I picked 5 gallons of ripe tomatoes on Sept. 22nd,

but unfortunately over half of them had some sort of tomato blight fungus on the bottoms.  I cut and froze what was salvageable from them, and the chickens got the rest.

 The Purple Cherokees are producing ok.  Not as many tomatoes as some of the others, but not bad.  They were only a few days earlier than the rest as well.  The worst thing is, with their odd colouring, I don't really know when they're ripe.  I don't think I'll be planting them again next year.

There were two heads of cauliflower in the greenhouse, and one weird 'head'.  I'm really not sure what happened to that one.

And just a bit of broccoli.

More tomatoes to ripen, swiss chard coming on again, and brussel sprouts almost ready!

Soil Ammendments

In the spring, Husband scraped up all the loose hay, muck and manure from around the barn into a big pile.  the critters have been climbing it all summer, especially the billy goats and the calves. Boys, playing king of the castle.

Now that rich, black, composted soil is making it's way over to my garden.  It's a beautiful thing.

A Yummy Surprise

Graphic image will follow.

We went out for dinner Saturday night.  Just Husband and I.  Bought diesel.  We were headed home and I was trying to figure out the fuel mileage when Husband swerved, and cussed, and "What the hell was that?"

I didn't see a thing.

He flipped around and headed back.  Somebody hit something.  Another truck was pulled over beside it.  We pulled in behind them.

Blood and guts were all over the highway.  Hot and steaming.

Yogi should know better than to play in traffic.

The people from the first truck were just curious onlookers.  We got to bring Yogi home.  He was pretty beat up, probably got hit by a tractor trailer,  a car wouldn't have been able to keep going after a hit like that.

His jaw was smashed, hanging out of his mouth.  His upper body was very limber, lacking bone structure, shoulders seperated.  His belly was ripped open, half of his rib cage missing, stomach contents spilled all over.

We tossed him in the back of the truck.

  

I gutted him (what was left) when we got home.  I couldn't find his large intestine, only one lung, no heart.  I sliced the pelvic muscles open.  The bone was already smashed.  Removed his penis.  I couldn't find the large intestine.  The boys strung him up in the garage.

It didn't dawn on me until the next day when I was skinning him- there was no large intestine.  There was no ass.  His entire rear end had been ripped off.

We'll get the meat off his legs, one side of his back (steaks) and front shoulder roasts for us.  Bits and pieces here and there for stew meat.  But a large portion of this little fellow will be going into doggie stew. 

Thanks to Mother Earth for this bountiful harvest.

Jam Slam 2011 - Choke Cherry Jelly

The choke cherries were abundant this year!  Without even really trying, I picked 4 L.  My heart wasn't really in it, because the choke cherry jam I made two years ago is mostly still sitting in the basement, too sour for anyone to eat.

#3 and #4 found a huge choke cherry tree, absolutely loaded with choke cherries- it practically looked like grapes hanging off of it- and I didn't even take a picture.  It's right on the edge of our back yard.  I don't know how we missed it, except that maybe it hasn't fruited before now.  It's pretty funny, really, considering I've been marking these tiny little bushes all over the place, and here was this gold mine right behind my house.

So I picked the cherries and left them sitting in the fridge.  It was hot and dry, there was work to be done.  So they sat.  And sat and sat and sat.  Waiting for a rainy day.

It finally arrived.  And, amazingly enough, the cherries were still good!

I cooked them for about 15 minutes, with a bit of water to avoid scorching, and then mashed them some.  I left them sit in a strainer to drip over night.

The next day I boiled the juice, 2 cups, with one package powdered pectin, and 5 cups of sugar.

The result was 4 half pints of choke cherry syrop.  I know, the title says jelly, but if I'm being honest here, it's really more of a syrop.  Way too sweet.

The first batch, 2 years ago, I mashed like crazy, and got a lot of pulp into it, making for a very sour jam.  This year I held back, and have just juice.  Next time I'll try for a happy medium.  Live and learn.

Brrr...

Temperatures are dropping again. I really can't complain- it's October already!  We've had great weather this summer and fall.  The best since we moved up north.  But all good things must come to pass, so these cooler days are a friendly reminder that winter is not far away.  And I don't like to be cold.  And I don't like to work outside in the cold.  So I best get my ass in gear if I'm going to make it into hybernation before snowfall.

We have four wood stoves, which each will hold different sizes of wood.  This is the sunroom wood pile.  It's almost done.  The lean-to is full, but I like to have an extra row in front that we use through the fall.  The sunroom is where we enter the house.  The stove is small, the box about 12"X12" square, and 18" deep.  I prefer the wood for it to be very dry pine.  it's the first fire we light in the morning, to take the chill off as soon as we open the door to let the dogs out.  We let it go out in the afternoon, except on the coldest days.

The real heat source is in the basement.  We have a wood oil combination furnace.  The box is 20"X24" and 24" deep.  We cut the wood for it much longer than the sunroom wood.  The basement holds 6 rows, 10'X8'.  I need another 2.5 rows right now.  We drop the wood in through the window and down the slide.  We also keep a pile of 'over-nighters' under the basement stairs.  Very large pieces that won't burn up over night with the dampeners turned down low.

Then there's Homework House.  It was the trailer and add-a-room we built for f-i-l, but he went to live with Husband's brother in the spring.  It's now Homework House because #1 uses Dragon Naturally Speaking to do his homework, and it doesn't like the background noise created by little brothers. 

It's also really nice to have a clean work space available, with all the supplies they need, and not have to worry about getting them off the kitchen table for supper, or canning, or company dropping in.  They take their back packs over after school, and they can work for a bit, take a break, and come back and find everything the way they left it.

The wood for this stove is dropped in from about a 12" diameter hole in the top.  We cut it at about 10" long.  We have room for almost two more rows in the lean-to, and three rows in front.  Since this is the first year, and it won't be burning all day long, we don't know how much wood we'll need here.

The garage stove is similar style, but smaller.  We use the little stubbies like these for it.  The pieces we cut off the ends of other wood.

The Littles and I have been busy the past couple of weeks cleaning up branches and dead trees in the pasture, and clearing the trail from my parents place to the spring.  There's enough dead fall and dead standing wood to keep our fires burning for at least two more years.  We just need to get it cut up and brought up to the house!

Pickled Beets

The best beet year we've had so far!  After washing them down with the garden hose,

they get a second wash in the kitchen sink.

Cooked in a pot of water for several hours,

then back into the sink.  The skins slip off easily with some cold water and a little rub.

Into a clean pot, with the bigger ones cut into bite size pieces. 
Add the brine:
2 cups of water
2 cups of vinegar
2 cups of sugar

Let them cook and reach a full roaring boil, about 20 minutes.  Then into hot sterilized jars.

Lids and rings, wait for the pop!