Birthday Boy

Here he is... on the left. Festus is two years old today! As we speak, he's waiting for the poor unsuspecting cat to walk down the stairs so that he can try once again to kill her. Black Cat has gotten quicker as she's gotten older.... That kind of luck can't last forever.

Late Summer Kitchen

I suppose only one word describes this time of the year...'canning', or if you'd rather...'freezing'. For me, it's mostly canning... since the freezers are pretty full of pork, chicken and Icelandic cod when I can find a deal.
 The paste tomatoes are just getting into high gear, and deep inside I'm wishing for rain... or at least a cool spell, to justify spending a day in the kitchen hovering over a pot of simmering water. Until that day comes, it's tomato sandwiches with homemade mayo for breakfast... and lunch... but seriously, who's complaining?? Once I start canning tomatoes, I'm going to have to bring the pickles and peaches down to the root cellar... and right now, I've got another dinner to make! Here's hoping that everybodys problems are as life altering as mine...

Summer... no time for vacations

Another year has come and gone and I find myself doing the same things over and over again. I suppose if I expected different results,,, well, that be be the clinical definition of insanity. But alas, I've been cutting firewood, raising and butchering meat chickens, and working on the old homestead. I suppose if we're lucky we'll get another winter like last year... but luck is a fickle mistress, and I've got a feeling she's pissed off right about now. I'm not sure how older folks are going to deal with the ever increasing costs of heating fuels and electricity. While they've got my compassion, that generation is also the beneficiary of the best this economy and planet had to offer... we're left with the scraps... and to fend for ourselves. Enough complaining though, what did YOU do on your summer 'vacation' of 2012?

 

 

We had a terrific blueberry season. With seven of these cultivated bb bushes we managed to eat plenty and freeze even more!

 

 

 

 

This year I moved the meat bird operation to another area in need of 'fertilizer'. With the addition of quality bird netting and a fine job of fencing, I managed to ward off all of the red fox and red tailed hawk poaching that has troubled me in the past. I never really had a big loss... but the fox population has exploded this year and in hindsight, I'm glad I made the investment.

 

 

 

 

Most of the 60 Cornish Roasters came in dressed at 6 1/2 - 9lbs. It sure is nice to know the freezers are full.

 

 

 

 

The gardens and peach tree got off to a good start, but the early March hot spell and subsequent April hard freeze were enough to dispel any hopes of a good pear and apple harvest around these parts.

 

 

 

 

 

I've got lots of peaches canned and headed to the root cellar for Winter reminders of a long past Summer.

 

 

 

Festus took his job of protecting the peach tree very seriously this year. The little guy will be a whopping two years old on August 31st!

While it's been really dry here this summer, lots of watering... and having a pond across the road helps... has kept us growing and now canning up a storm, along with the dehydrator and a fair amount of freezing veggies, thing look pretty good even if mother nature deals us a bad hand this winter. With 7 cord of wood covered and ready... hell, I'm ready for whatever the old girl dishes out. And so is my back-up generator! 

 

Jack & Festus are already practicing their winter hibernation...

 

 

 

 

Summer takes hold

Finally, the constant rains that dominated most of May and June... with an occasional nice day thrown in just to get our hopes up... have moved North, allowing heat to build in New England.

The new batch of chickens are happy to have left the ark and walk on the dry land of Mt. Monadnock. Do you remember the smell of the inside of the school bus on rainy mornings? Well, add 75 chickens, who treat the world like their own personal toilet bowl, and maybe you can imagine what things were like around here... and I won't even mention the pigs!

Rain or not, the garden went in on Memorial Day weekend... and is really started to take off now. If we can avoid the late blight of a few years ago, we're in for a great season.

More fruit trees were planted this spring, Northern Spy Apples to be exact. The peaches, plums and pears are starting to mature, giving us larger crops every summer.

Garlic should be ready for harvest in a few days... now THAT should change the smell of things

around here!

missing time

It's been far too busy for blogging around here... planting gardens, raising meat chickens & pigs, cutting firewood... all that stuff. Our famous Narragansett Turkeys became proud parents last month. It was a very exciting time around here... (this is what passes for entertainment 'round these parts)...


It takes a long while for the little birds to work their way out of the shell...

Jack the dog was absolutely amazed that a living creature could pop out of something he enjoys eating so much... he was literally shaking during the entire process!

These two turkeys are already running around the yard, and mamma turkey laid a second clutch of eggs. Three of those hatched last week and the little chicks are in the small brooder growing like crazy.

That's a quick update... I'll post more when time allows. Until then, keep smilin'!

Live And Let Die

During these difficult economic times, we New Hampshire folks have to come together and help each other out. This Summer, when the 'out of staters' come back to their vacation houses here in the Great White North... it's going to be important that we show a little compassion. Some folks will be having trouble paying for the necessities of life... you know, the kid's riding lessons,the wife's tennis pro, the country club fees, the live-in nanny, the maids and butlers... I mean, do you know what it costs to tune up a Bentley!!

So, this Summer... whether it's at the gas station or the recycling center or the local sushi establishment... you may just bump into one of these poor folks... and this year it's far more likely they may actually speak with you... ya know, "morning"... or "how'z it going?" This is really a cry for help! You know damned well, under normal circumstances these folks would never give you the time of day... so lets all show them what New Hampshire is all about. Please consider making an anonymous donation of a million or two to help keep Buffy & Little Regis out of the soup kitchen this year.

We'll all sleep better knowing that when Summer is finally over, these poor slobs can still make it to Tahoe for the Christmas season. Thank you.

Sticky Fingers

Well, it's been a long while waiting for Spring to rear her elusive head, and nothing says SPRING in New Hampshire like the smell of boiling maple syrup. We only have a few sugar maples here on the farm... far more oak and red maple. My neighbors down the road at Delrossi's, our local high quality Italian trattoria & purveyor of acoustic guitars, banjos & fiddles, are good enough to let me tap some of their generations old trees. I boil sap the 'old fashioned' way... in a century old cast iron cauldron, with a wood fire.

It takes on average, about 40 gallons of sap to get 1 gallon of good syrup... but these old trees must give a higher sugar quality sap, because I always seem to get an extra pint or more from that same 40 gallons.

Jack has been through this before, and knows this is going to be a long day. Today, we started our fire at 7AM, hoping to get a jump on things.

Here we've got a good boil going....

The boys & I pose for a photo as afternoon passes... we ended with about 4 gallons of reduced sap by about 7:30. The next day we finished it off slowly on the big wood stove in the barn. This time around, I started with about 48 gallons of sap and ended up with a gallon and a half of dark amber syrup. The weather has been perfect lately, 20's at night and 40's during the day. Perfect temps for a good sap run. If all goes well, I'll get in 2 0r 3 more boils like this one. That should keep us in syrup for more than a year, with some extra for X-mas gifts!

Not everything around the farm is as exciting as boiling sap... but get your rest now, Jack...next month the piglets will be here!