Sally, you are really lucky. Yes, the manure around here is stinky! I got a kick out of the guy with the gardenless compost. You surely must be salivating over that pile!!
Holly, people are just amazing. Barns generally are associated with animals. Did that guy come from a city?? Did he expect you to shush your animals?? I'm getting a mental picture of this.
The bottom line for this is that in order to keep peace, I am willing to move it, but only once. With both of these grumps claiming parts (some the same) of my 4' X 4' space, it is just too ridiculous. I'm going to continue filling it until some resolution is found. I'm just not sure about how to get a peacable resolution. Gee, that whole christmas tree is sitting on my deck just waiting for it's next life as garden food!
Composting: What does or doesn't work for you!
stormyla............The waring parties need a survey. Send them both a pure and simple registered letter stating you will move your used space that they feel is on their property when they initiate a survey to claim that which they think is theirs. The proof or cause of the fact proof is their game....not yours. Their differences with each other is their problem not yours. Their being no survey stakes to resolve this pleasantly put them on the defensive. When they have to spend their bucks for this difference of opinion they can resolve easily because you are so agreeable to or with them.
Stormyla, Don't remember where he came from but he was recently divorced and needed an inexpensive place to live back then there was an old mobile home on that property. Back then my barn was built from corrugated tin, scrap pallets and green sawmill oak. I think the real problem for him was that I started work at 6:00 in the morning so about 5:00am I was down in the barn feeding, watering and milking the goats. He didn't stay very long. LOL
Not only do I have a Christmas Tree to be recycled to new life I have two trailer loads of greens still down in the old corral waiting to become pine-needle mulch. I've got a chipper shredder I got from Josh (it was left in his garage) in the barn waiting for a warm day. I'm going to run everything thru it and spread it under my junipers. I'm sorry to say that I also have a large pile of juniper branches to run thru the chipper. Someone visiting the neighbors brought a good size travel trailer up the lane and in the process of parking it took out a huge chunk of my hedge.
Stormy,
I agree 100% with doc! If they are so upset--let them pay for the survey and then no one can dispute how many inches or feet your pile is, or isn't on their land.
I think, if they have someone install that split-rail fence--thye will HAVE TO have a survey! No professional installer with put up a fence just because the owner says--"The posts go here!"....
BTW--I love split-rail fences--they look so unintrusive and rustic. They visually define a property without totally fencing something out. I have these fences on one corner of my back yard--as do all the other houses around me.
In the early years here, you could tell who had dogs--they had a wire fence all around their property...
Sally,
This would be such a good time of year to dig in my kitchen scraps as my S.E.M. is hibernating---except I cannot did anywhere. Everything is frozen! So, I just keep dumping in the SEM...
Gita
Gita..............note to ones self! Dig pit holes for winter garbage overflow next fall. Or.....clean out the composting container so that there is space for the winter garbage next winter.
I did not take my own advise this year..................Goodness my composting container is maybe going to fill up. This is however the first year we have had so much frozen and snow covered ground for so long a time period. It is good for all of our flowers and shrubs as compaired to temperature swings including alternate thaw outs and freeze ups.
I have not been out to my sheds and back yard since the week before Christmas. With tempertures like this week there is "0" no melt off. DC will be having cherry blossom time before I see melt off if it keeps building up. I guess we can atribute this to global warming. LOL
doc--YEAH! You know--all that hind-sight being 20-20.....
My Comoster (here referred to as S.E.M.--if you remember) is almost full--and I produce at least one shoe-box sized plastic container-full of veggie scraps a week!
The cooking bug gets me this time of year--whether I need it or not.
Just made a HUGE electric skillet-full of Beef Stew!
I had a shopping (blue) bag full of peels and ends and such. Luckily--a woman I work with has a pet rabbit--and I am now bringing all the, more serious, scraps to her twice a week. She loves it! The rabbit loves it! So--All is well.....
Here is the Stew in the skillet skillet--almost done cooking....LOTS and LOTS of root vegetables!
It was pretty good! First time I ever made it. Wanted to as a result of Jill's article yesterday....
HAR HAR............We cubed about three pounds of pork, added half a bottle of BBQ sauce, some apple vinegar, some brown sugar, some soy sauce to taste, a whole fresh pineapple (small) and some onion and green pepper all slow cooked eight hours, and thickened with corn starch..........served over rice. Made up three frozen meals to tuck away and one to eat yesterday. I guess that is leaning towards the South Sea Island sweet and sour creations. The original meal had ginger in it which we are not fond of. It is really no more than a sweet and sour stew. When I the chef I get it all together and work with water, apple cider or pineapple juice to find the sweet and sour ballance....then thicken it with the corn starch.
Once you have this put together and understood one can go anywhere with the makings of this stew. You could even find some fancy names for your creations.....to me it's simple sweet and sour stew with the meat base of choice. I even did this with venison at the hunting camp and the guys loved it.
doc--
YOU don't like Ginger??????
You will need to try my home-made Cranberry sauce! I am famous for it--and, yes! One of the "secret ingredients" is fresh Ginger...also orange zest, lots of apples, whole cloves, etc...
I was using it before it became "chic" to use it. Now everywhere you see recipes for Cranberry sauce or Chutney--it calls for fresh Ginger......
Want me to bring a jar for you to Jill's Seed Swap? I make jars and jars of it around Th-Giving--and then, usually, give most of them away. There is a woman at work who BEGS me for a jar of it--because her elderly Dad loves it so. This past year--she offered me $$ for it. I refused, of course! MY pleasure--to have someone love something I make so much!
Just 5 min. ago--I had a call from my daughter's Husband--begging me to make a new batch of my Split Pea Soup. He thinks it is the most outstanding, best SPS he has ever, ever eaten. I will--except there is not an inch of room left in my 19 cf freezer. But--I will do it..... My daughter hates peas!
I LOVE sweet and sour too.....especially on Pork!
G.
Winter is for soup and stew!! Everyday I eat a serving of one of my "Soups of the week" and one of the defrosted ones from the store of those still in my freezer from last spring. Some of every week's soup automatically goes into the freezer. Stews usually don't make it to the freezer.LOL!
Does anyone else have baggies full of asparagus butts, shrimp shells and pork bones from the summer in their freezer?? Into the pot they go! This time of year, the bones and shells come out of the freezer and get converted into bouillion and consume which goes back into the freezer in ice cube trays which then end up as frozen cubes in more reused baggies!! Even my root vegetable scraps become vegetable bouillion before getting scrapped. Lots of peels and scraps to be had for compost with soup making.
It's cold enough outside and in my garage to put the scraps in reused ziplock bags and just let them sit until it's warm enough to get to the composter. I was doing this until DSO put the composter together. Gita, Can't you put some of it inside of the bags of decaying leaves that are hiding under your bushes?
Doc and Gita, your stews sound wonderful and are putting me in mind of making a sauerbraten. Gita, Is your cranberry sauce recipe on DG? What about the split pea soup? I make a fresh pea hommus and often make split pea soup.
Relative to my crabby neighbors, I doubt that they would use the same surveyor. The branch off loader makes Sally look like a spend thrift. She mooches effort and items off of everybone until they get her #. I believe she had her property surveyed several years before I moved here.
The one behind me will probably get around to a survey before he gets the fence done, someday. He will certainly have the fence built professionally as he does nothing himself. The property line markers that he removed were from the survey that the prior owner of his house had done as well as some of the cheap neighbors' markers. His property is very deep and runs behind all of mine and much of hers.
stormy--
Depending on when your properties were, originally, developed------
I am still th original owner of my house/property and I know (approximately) where the original property surveyor steel spikes are buried in the ground.
If anyone needs to re-survey the property lines--they just come with their metal detectors and find the spikes in a matter of minutes. It's no big deal any more.....
I do have my Cranberry sauce i can post. My Split pea Soup is so simple! I do not have it typed into my documents, though.
Here's the Cranberry sauce for you. Gita
GITA’S CRANBERRY SAUCE—PLUS
(Measures given are all “ballpark”—this makes several medium jars-full)
Approx. 3lbs. apples (any kind)-peeled, cored and very thinly sliced.
Three bags fresh Cranberries—washed, picked over and coarsely chopped in a food processor (about 5 seconds). Process until “broken up.
Three cups sugar and 3 cups of water
***Note: since all items are in three’s, if you want to cut the recipe down, or increase it-- just do it in thirds of everything.
One full teaspoon whole Cloves-wrap in a gauze sachet for easy removal.
One full Tbs. orange zest (about one large orange) peeled with a potato peeler and then slivered and chopped into very small strips.
Zest of one Lemon—done the same way—NO white pulp—it is bitter!
About 2tsp. finely chopped/diced fresh Ginger root.
1/3 cup Cherry or Blackberry Brandy (optional) but it is yummy.
TO DO:
Using a non-reactive, 6-8 qt. pot, add sliced apples, the water and the cloves sachet. Cook/simmer over low fire until it resembles chunky applesauce—stirring now and then…about 30-40 minutes.
Add the sugar, and stirring often, simmer until sugar is dissolved.
Add crushed cranberries. Bring back to a gentle boil. Lower heat way down and simmer, covered, for about one hour--stirring often so it won’t burn.
Add the orange and lemon zest and the chopped ginger.
***At this point, you can taste for sweetness and adjust to your taste. ***
Simmer another half an hour or so stirring occasionally.
When Sauce looks dark red, and all uniform in texture, remove from heat and add the Brandy. Mix in well. Let cool down just a bit.
Using a ladle, carefully, pour the hot sauce into clean jars and seal them immediately. I find the small Salad Dressing jars work best, but any ones will do. Allow to cool down a bit, label with the year (yes!—se note below!) and then refrigerate.
***Note: I have found that, kept in a refrigerator, this sauce lasts for years and years without losing any flavor! HONEST!!!!!
Gita, You are so wonderful! Thank you. I know what you mean about it lasting and lasting. I'm still using mine from Thanksgiving. Homemade Cranberry Sauce & Pure Peanut Butter on Multigrain Bread is one of my favorites!!
I have been using my ice bucket for kitchen scraps for a while now and boy does it work nice. Bigger than what I had been using so I don't have to empty it quite so often, nice in this colder weather.
Stormyla, I don't have any ice cube bouillon but I use that trick quite a bit. When my children were very young I would make baby food and freeze it in ice cube trays, perfect serving size for babies. Just one or two depending on age worked so well and if we were traveling I would pop them in a plastic container and just let them melt, so handy. Ric saves chicken scraps. We buy 40 pound boxes of chicken breasts when they go on sale and then he de-bones them before we freeze the chicken. All bones, fat and scraps go into the freeze for him to make chicken broth.
. I usually get the bones out of the roasted turkey the same night and at least put the bones into the stock pot and refrigerate that before cooking stock. Hey, I could start off that stockpot with celery and onion scraps as I make the dressing...
I'm not so dedicated as you folks. I rarely buy canned broth. But I do have dry bouillion and soup base in the cupboard. Soup base is pretty good stuff. Penzey's is really thick, like a paste. Maybe they have gelatin in it??
Wow, from compost to property lines to Good Eats. Lol All good advise and good Ideas!
Was it Robert Frost who wrote the poem about fences? When the current neighbors moved in it was total disruption, at that time we were thinking about building a new garage which was next to the property line. The property on our street was never surveyed, they just walked it off and drove in metal stakes. Over the years the stakes disappeared and neighbors just respected the imaginary lines.
When it came to getting down to building the garage I hired a surveyor didn't want to have any disputes with the nutty neighbor, we found out that 2 large trees, one that I was thinking of having cut down was not ours. Cutting it down before the garage was built was ideal, but paying for the job expensive.
The garage went up, and in a few years I had the privacy fence installed where we sit out and a rustic wooded picket fence to the end of the property, where it meets up to the other neighbors, who also put up a privacy fence before we did. Now if I could just put up a sound barrier for all the fighting and swearing that goes on : ( .
Compost:
I am sure my compost pile is frozen solid, I had to bring in my locking lid bucket off the deck to thaw so I can dump it, as that was getting to full too. I keep a small cotainer under the sink for the daily scraps.Cuts down on runs to the main compost pile in the back yard.
Cooking:
Have lots of bones in freezer + broth. Made a teriffic bean soup with the glazed spiral cut ham scraps from Christmas, it had a sweet smokey flavor.
Gita, did you make dumplings on the top of that stew, looks yummy!
lady,
No dumplings. I think what you are seeing is quartered, red potatoes....
It tasted good! A bit on the sweet side as I used a lot of root veggies--and they cook sweet....
Maybe a shot of cider vinegar would have fixed that....
Gita, I saw the potatoes. I use the recipe on the Bisquik mix box for my dumplings, they sort of steam cook on the top of the stew.
Sometimes I'll cook a pot of stew at the office for lunch, my boss always asks if I am making dumplings, that's his favorite part. I use a big Iron dutch oven, it is well seasoned with stew broth, everyone at work feels it's the pot that makes the stew so good. LOL