Random Thoughts

A friend recently told me: you tell a horse, you ask a donkey, and you negotiate with a mule. Seems to me this could be applied to many relationships (alas! marriages) with just a few minor word changes.

A great job

I should have studied to be a meteorologist. You get paid a healthy salary and get to keep your job even when you give your customers wrong information a good percentage of the time.

Remember Credence Clearwater Revival?

Well, "doo-doo-doo-lookin' out my back door":

Turkeys

We had a flock of nearly 20 wild turkeys in the yard this morning. There were several young poults with them, about the age of Turk's family. I'm not sure if they were just passing through or if they came by to show off the youngsters to Turk. The turkey should have been America's national symbol. They are smart birds and truly regal. Our juveniles have learned to fly pretty well and can cover some long distances by air. The Momma hen has left them totally in Turk's care now. He doesn't take them back into their room at night on his own. We have "persuaded" them into the safe area for the last 4 nights. Turk would much prefer to move back to the tree branches to sleep. The Momma hen with the 4 little ones is doing well and they are growing. The hens in the chicken house have all managed to lose their babies. We have some hatching currently, but it doesn't look promising for them either. I think the turkey (and chick) brooding season is over for this year. That isn't a bad thing! Our flock of fowl has increased considerably this year. It will decrease by 10 tomorrow as some will be leaving for freezer camp.

Visitor or Resident?

This is what awaited me as I drove into my driveway today.

It has a broken leg. I felt sorry for it, but since we are not licensed raptor rehabilitators, we couldn't do much for it besides call the wildlife people. That was an exercise in futility. Talk about a run around. It is illegal to kill or capture these birds, yet when you have one in need of help no one will take responsibility. The game and fish department says, call the sheriff, the sheriff says call the wild life people. I guess we should have called in an anonymous tip that Prairie House was harboring raptors...that would have brought out an army to arrest us, I'm sure. Then maybe someone would have taken care of the poor thing.

It made a few attempts to fly and couldn't get lift as he couldn't put any weight on the broken leg.

I went back to check on it about a half hour later and it had successfully obtained flying altitude and was gone. Much to the relief of all of our other birds...especially the Guineas who kept screaming, "Danger, predator. Danger, predator." most of the time the Hawk was here.

Apple Pectin

Store bought pectin is probably the most costly ingredient in our home made jams and jellies with the exception of the jars. I cannot figure a way to make the jars, but in our quest to become self sufficient I decided to make the pactin. I read several differing opinions on how it should be done, whittled the information down to the main points that were common in each of them and cooked the apples with a positive attitude. The preferred apples to use are crab apples or not-quite-ripe Granny Smith apples. I had neither of those, but forged ahead regardless. I have cooked the apples, strained the apples, boiled the resulting juice down by half and now have pectin to use. According to the pectin test (drop a spoonful in rubbing alcohol and see if it makes strings or a blob...the goal being a blob) I have pectin, but it could be better. In addition to the apples, I have been dealing with Elderberries (what a pain to process!) and the last of the wild cherries. The extra juice from each of those, some added sugar and my fresh pectin should, in theory, make very nice jelly. I have it in jars....I'll let you know in a couple of days if I have jelly or some syrup for Waffles. Either way, it really tastes delicious.

Not a problem, An adventure

One of our customers, Tina, is a transplant here from England via Virginia. She is a very interesting woman with a 12 year old son. She has met some folks here whose parents planted a great orchard while they were alive, but the kids want nothing to do with it. She is so excited about all the fruit growing there. She brought us a big box of apples a few days ago that I made into cinnamon apples which tasted exactly like the ones Boston Market makes. Her son thought he could become addicted to them. Apparently she is starting to tire of picking the fruit because she decided it was time to show us where the orchard was located. In Virginia they don't have "minimum maintenance roads" like we have here. We had gotten just a light sprinkling of rain at our house. We know Bird City usually gets more rain than we do, but in a moment of insanity we said we would go help her pick fruit. She lives close to Bird City and it didn't make sense for her to have to come all the way back to Prairie House, so we followed her 4 wheel drive truck (which did not have the hubs engaged even though they should have been). She started down a road which she has taken many times, but not after a rain storm. In all fairness, the road was not marked as one of the minimum maintenance roads. Most of the people who live in the area just know that. The further we went, the more slick the road got. Eventually we were past a point of being able to turn around, and she was stuck in the mud in front of us in her pick up. Rick is stressed to the max--he doesn't do well with unplanned adventures. Evelyne said she was reminded of those days long ago when we were kids and went to Grandma's house in the winter. It seems we ALWAYS had muddy roads and often got stuck and needed to have a tractor pull us out. Tina called her boyfriend to come and help us, but he only has a 2 wheel drive pick up which won't be much help, and he lives quite a distance away. Evelyne, Tina, James (her son) and I started walking in the rain toward a farm house we can see about a 3/4 of a mile away hoping to find someone with a tractor. The road was slippery even on foot and our shoes, all caked with mud, made that squish-plop-squish-plop sound as we walked...except for Tina's. She was wearing sandals and had mud squishing between her toes. She probably should have just gone barefoot. We nearly got to the farmhouse when there were lights by the car where Rick was waiting. Help had arrived! Good thing, as it was well past dusk by now. The boyfriend is a farmer and has hands much like Dad's were--strong enough to be able to put the truck into 4 wheel drive without tools. He got into the truck and slithered it along the road for about a half mile to a graveled, maintained road. With a clear shot ahead, Rick also managed to maneuver the car to the top of the hill and across the gravel road. Both of the men were more than a little unhappy about the whole situation. On the other hand, the rest of us were still jovial and just considered it a new adventure. No one was injured and there wasn't even any property damage. Just a break in a boring, routine, Friday night. We never did make it to the orchard. That adventure awaits us on another day.

Beer, anyone?

I have a bumper crop of hops this year.

Anyone want to try their hand a beer making?

The jalapenos have also been prolific.

How about some beer with a bite and some afterburn?

Of course, its the plumber's house!

Our plumber invited us to his house for a "Pond Party" yesterday. The property has a pond now, but it didn't have a pond when they bought it. In case you don't remember, Kelly (the plumber) is the one who finally knocked down that ugly barn we had out back. He really likes to play with his backhoe...he wants people to think it is a piece of necessary equipment, we know it is a toy. He used the backhoe to dig the pond. It occupies roughly 3 acres and is anywhere from 3 to 6 feet deep, fed by an underground spring. Having the aversion to water that both Evelyne and I have, we didn't go into the pond. (There were several others who refrained as well, for much the same reason, so we didn't feel like outcasts.) There were several teenagers at the party who had a ball out on the inflatable boat (room for 8...probably holding 12), and some younger kids who couldn't get enough of the paddle boat and the canoe. Adults were bobbing around the water in inner tubes or simply lolling on floating lounges. Food was good and it seems everyone was having a great time. Kelly and his wife, Connie, built a new house using their own labor and that of friends who were willing to help. It has taken them over 6 years to finish it, but they have a gorgeous home. It has two bedrooms upstairs, and a great two bedroom mother-in-law apartment on the lower level. (originally, this was to be a "hunter's retreat" which would be rented out during dove, deer and turkey seasons...it is now actually occupied by the mother-in-law). The house has 6 bathrooms...imagine that! Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so for now you will need to use your imagination. Connie is from Tennessee. She said the next time y'all come to visit we need to take you to their house for a visit. Remind us...you will be impressed. (Especially considering this is rural Kansas!)

Amusing Turkeys

These little guys are on insect control duty in the front yard. When they see a grasshopper on a plant, they approach it much like the cats do...slowly, stalking it. At the last minute they grab it and gobble it down...yummm-snacks.

We are so glad Mark and John gave us the LIVE turkeys last fall. They have been really entertaining. Although we only have Turk left from the original trio, the little poults they produced are growing nicely.

One of the mother hens has left them to go back to being a chicken and laying eggs. The other one is staying with them and with Turk's assistance is doing a great job of raising them. Our visitors are often amazed that the Tom is helping out. What a guy!

The little ones are just now learning they can actually fly. Some of them aren't too adept yet and their landings are anything but smooth. Frequently their intended landing spot isn't where they end up on the first try, but by the second attempt they make it. The hen takes them back into their shelter at night and we close the door to keep them safe from predators. Turk is claustrophobic and prefers not to stay in there with them, but roosts on a fence just outside their door. He is always ready for them to be out before I am ready to open their door. It is so cute to see him on one side of the window with them on the other side just chatting away. They have a definite language but the humans have not been able to translate it all yet. But it took us a couple of years to learn "Guinea" so I guess we should just keep listening. They are just now starting to get the color on their feathers and we can't tell genders, but do know we have at least two little toms as they were trying to establish the pecking order a couple of days ago and then trying to fan their tails and strut their stuff. They are still too tiny to look impressive but by fall we could have quite a display. There are 3 hens still sitting on turkey eggs and two hens each with one little turkey in the chicken yard. Turk is one prolific breeder!

Funny but Sad

We distribute Government Surplus Food Commodities for Cheyenne County. Today was distribution day. Since the majority of the people who pick up commodities here are senior citizens, we try to coordinate the delivery so they can stop by and pick up the food after they go to lunch at the Senior Center. We have to keep the door locked while we are getting the food ready for distribution, as many of them feel the time frame we have set up applies only to the other people, not to them. They are chomping at the bit to get in and get their food. We opened the door 4 minutes early today. We timed the influx: within 14 minutes, 22 households had grabbed their commodities. It reminded me of an ant pile when a tasty morsel falls on to it. (I know, if we didn't let the kids put the worms and wounded grasshoppers on the ant hills I wouldn't have this comparison available in my brain.) None of these people appears undernourished. Old, yes. But starving? No. Then I remember that many of them are of an age where they can remember standing in the bread line during the depression. If you weren't at the front of the line, and the bread ran out you were simply out of luck and went hungry. I hope we never get to that point in America again.

Beef Stew

We had some wonderful beef stew tonight for dinner with beef, tomatoes, carrots, onions, leeks, squash, peppers, potatoes, herbs and seasonings. Not one of those items was purchased from the store! We are so proud. If I had made chicken or rabbit stew instead of beef stew, we could have said ALL of it came from the farm. If we keep working at it we will be self sufficient eventually. (And the way things are going with our government, we may need to be!)