Rural Gardening: October On The Homestead, 1 by CajuninKy

CajuninKy wrote:
Wow! Had a lot of catching up to do on this thread. You guys have really been busy. I was keeping a list of things I wanted to reply to so this post will jump from subject to subject. Please bear with me.

I tried draining my cheese in a pillow case but it must have been a high end pillow case ( given to me ) with a really tight weave. It wouldn't drain. Ended up draining the cheese in a collander lined with coffee filters. I put a saucer on top and weighted it down with a gallon of water. In the morning it was perfect soft cheese. I flavored it with green onion and it was delish. The second batch I had cheesecloth for that a friend gave me. It had been her mother's who had passed away. It worked fine. I lined the collander with the cheese cloth and used the saucer and gallon of water again. I flavored the cheese with lemon basil and garlic. It was OK but I had let the milk sour so the cheese tastes more like sour cream. It would be fine if you are a big sour cream fan which I am not. I would like to try it again with the lemon basil and garlic but with fresh milk.

That big water tank sounds great. I'd love to have such an opportunity. We have a nice little creek in the front yard that I dip water out of for the chickens and dogs. I can use it for the horses in a pinch. But it has nearly run dry on several occassions this summer. We have a hand dug well we get our drinking water from. It is plumbed to a pump in the cellar and is run to 2 outside spigots and a spigot in the cellar. The house is plumbed for city water. If the electricity goes out we can drop a bucket down the well.

I hope you guys can beat the wind turbine thing. That just stinks. I hate polotics.
We don't have any of that to deal with here that I am aware of. Our terrain does not suit it. But we have our share of troubles with the coal industry. I know it is a vital industry and I would not like to see it end but I know there has to be a happy medium somewhere in the mix. It is devastating the inviroment. Money is the bottom line and has been since it's inception. Most of the owners have never lived here and don't care what havoc it reeks as long as they get their money. They have desecratred the mountains and robbed the people and the shame of it is that the people, for the most part, don't see it. They still think the company is their friend. The mining has changed the land so much that flooding is a horrendous problem. When homes do flood, people want retribution from the government when it's the coal company's fault. Some people do sue the companies but they don't want the companies to stop mining. You can't have it both ways. The industry needs to be revamped.

Jay, so good of you to help the needy. It will come back to you in blessings. We had some apples given to us and I dried most of them. I have some sliced to fry with sweet onions and bacon. Mmm These apples were an old variety called Black Wallace, I believe. I think we will be able to get some more of them.

My garlic did OK but stayed small. I have to get mine planted for winter. I have some elephant garlic to plant this time around. looking forward to it.

That pantry is impressive on several levels. 1) It is so organized! 2) It is so full. It looks like my Mom's pantry. Being a Sr, they get commodities from several organizations and she stock piles it. She doesn't hoard it up. She is very free with it. Every time she comes here she brings a car load. She does the same when she goes to her twin brother's house and her friends and family are always fed from it. She has her faults but she is a very generous person.

We are working on our winter supplies. We have several cases of propane canisters and we bought another camp stove. We also bought 2 more kerosene lanterns. That makes 4. They burn a long time on a small amount of fuel. We have 2 kerosene heaters. We were given a large generator that DH has to do a little work on. Saved us a ton of money and we are sure thankful for it. Wouldn't want to lose 500lbs of pork. That's a great idea about charging the batteries in the solar yard lights. We have lots of those in the yard.

A great way to insulate the windows from the cold is with bubble wrap. Especially if it is encased in foil. But if you leave off the foil you can still get some light which is also important mentally in the winter. You can buy big sheets of it at UPS or Walmart and with clear strapping tape you can custom fit it to your windows. I'd love to get some plastic around my front porch but I don't see that happening. It would sure make it nice for dipping animal feed in winter. I keep it on one end of the porch in barrels but the wind is cold zipping through there.

Hot bricks is a great idea. I wonder if hot rocks would do the same. We sure have a vast supply of those in nearly every shape and size. I get cold when I sleep and it's really tough on my joints and muscles so I have experimented with different ways to keep the bed warm. I have a regular innerspring mattress. I put several cheap dollar store blankets on the mattress under the bottom sheet. then I put on another blanket under the top sheet and put the comfortor and other blankets on top. It helps a lot. We were given a case of disaster relief blankets. They can't be washed so you can't use them like regular blankets so I think they will be good for putting under the sheet.

I tried a bit of winter sowing last year and didn't have a great success but I think I will try it again. What kind of planting medium do I need to use?

That chicken schooner looks like a great deal. But we have predators so it might not work here. I also could not find the door on it. You'd also run the risk of having it roll down the hill here. The only flat spots we have are the driveways. LOL

We don't have mice here. We have Rats!!! They give the dogs a good fight.

Congrats on the hens! If I don't miss my guess that is a Gold Sex Link. I have 8 of them coming on. They are great layers. What does your roo look like? I'd love to see pics of your flock. And already getting eggs! You are very lucky the move didn't shut down production. They must like their new home. Mine are starting to pick back up after molting. Got 8 eggs 2 days ago. It's still sporadic. I am killing roos one by one as I want to cook them. They are free range so I don't have to feed them. I killed Old Dumplin by mistake. I prefer to think he commited suicide. He had been rather glum lately. I believe it was the chill in the air that had him depressed about the coming winter. He lost a spike from his comb to frostbite last winter. I was running him back up the hill with a BB to his hind end. I always gave him a big head start. But he decided to turn around just as I pulled the trigger and his head was where his hind end should have been. He got hit right in the head and it killed him dead as a hammer. He was 3 years old, a pleasant fella and I hadn't planned to eat him but I surely wasn't going to waste all that meat. He weighed at least 10lbs. I knew he'd be tough as an old shoe and I figured I'd have to cook him for 3 days but 1 hour in the pressure pot had him as tender and a young fryer. He was delish! So the other old geezers better step light!

Sounds like your CSA has been a success even though you has setbacks. Did it do well enough financially that you will continue it? What kind of snake was in the barrel?

I'd better get off here and onto my day's To Do list. It's a long one as usual. I try to let it warm up before I go out. Won't have that luxury before long.

Gonna eat this roo next if he tries to jump on me again.