Applesauce and other random topics

Goose season is over here, but here as a fantastic picture of Colleen all bundled up for hunting in the pasture. The flyway doesn't go right across our land and I think I may search for neighbors willing to let us try their land next year. We'll see.



I was sick yesterday and spent most of the day curled up with the cats. This is Maggie, the princess of the house. She curled up beneath a cowboy hat. I had planned on starting on barn projects, but physical labor was out of the question. We need to shovel out a bunch of very old manure from the place where the pigs are going to go. We also need to fork out about five tons of moldy old hay from the center of the barn. There are owl pellets, cow pies, and who knows what all in this deep layer of hay. I think we are going to hire some local unemployed friends and acquaintances to help. Pay a reasonable wage in cash, plus a farm lunch. Bake up a ham and what all. One problem is that there is no easy access to the area below the loft where the hay is piled. We'll have to fork it on to tarps, drag it through a side door, and then on to the loader on the tractor. Hard, dirty, sweaty work. Then I need to put up some windows and doors and patch some holes in the sides of the barn. Lots to do before we get goats in spring.

We are starting to get people interested in pre-ordering half and whole hogs this year. Orders for eggs are higher than we can supply. We've had people ask about large orders of meat chickens, but we have to figure out how to do that legally. We will be ordering seeds on Wednesday. Things are coming along.


And finally, applesauce. We canned a batch of apple sauce from the tail end of our fall apples from the orchard. It turned out splendidly. We still have enough for another batch of apple sauce or apple butter. Canning is so satisfying an activity. We still have a bunch of frozen tomatoes that we couldn't get canned in the fall. We need to make them into tomato sauce.

We went puppy supply shopping last night. The puppy comes home on Saturday. We can't wait. It should be an interesting event introducing her to the cats.

Sick or not, I plan on teaching today.