Fencing project...

 I don't know where this bucket came from, but we use it for clips and markers.

 

 

 Fencing supplies

 

Black Swallowtail

photo by: Kenneth Dwain Harrelson

 

 Rubber Rabbitbrush

 

 Steel H-braces should last a long time

 

 Fencing completed with white sage grouse markers.

 

The men have been working super hard these past weeks on new fence.  They've been tearing out very old woven-wire fence in order to put in 5 barb fence that will not only keep livestock in or out, but is also beneficial to wildlife.  The smooth wire on the bottom will allow antelope to duck under the fence without being hurt and the white markers you see on the fence are there to protect Sage Grouse from flying into the fence and being harmed.    This is a big project that will be worked on over seven years, and we are pretty excited about it.  We live in an area where there is a population of Sage Grouse that has been diminishing over many years.  There has been much debate about why, but our state is taking  a pro-active approach to protecting the birds in case the federal government would list them from being "protected" to "endangered."  In that case, our ranching situation could greatly change.

My job is somewhat small, but still important.  I help with clipping wires onto the steel T-posts.  It's one of those "up and down" jobs where I stand upright for a short time and gradually go into a squat in order to clip each of the five wires down on the post.  And let me tell you, there are a lot of steel posts to clip.  I don't do this job alone, and in fact, I decide when I've had enough of the job as my 56 year old hands and knees tell me it's time to stop.  I also help with putting the sage grouse markers on the fence.  That is a much easier job that just requires walking the fence and pushing them on in between the fence posts.  It's like putting the last finishing touches on a Christmas tree. We will work for the remainder of this week on the project and then the men will start on building a shed.  There is a lot more fence to do and I think they hope to move to another area to fence, but at the moment, the rattlesnakes are worrisome since there is tall grass in the fence line that they want to remove and replace.  It'll cool off soon enough this fall and then they will commence on that project once again. 

As I walk along out there on the prairie, I am reminded of how very blessed I am that God transplanted me and put me here.  It is a hard land, a land of extremes, and a rugged place for man and beast to live, and yet there is a beauty in it all.  I love this place, I love this land, I love all that I am surrounded by, and I know that it is all a gift from The Creator.  I say to Him, "Thank you, from the bottom of my heart."

Thanks for stopping by today!  I have been quite absent from the blog lately, but there is so much to do right now in the last days of summer and the beginning of fall.  They are days that seem so full.  The garden is ripening and requires  attention and canning projects.  Salsa is the "product of the day" out here.  The DILs and I have been putting up a beautiful salsa recipe with all the tomatoes and peppers.  I'll share it below.  It's really so delicious.  It reminds me of the salsas that are served in authentic Mexican restaurants. 

Salsa 

10 cups chopped tomatoes
8 jalapeno peppers chopped (or as many as you like)
3 cups chopped onions
1 cup chopped green peppers
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup chopped cilantro (opt)
1 1/3 cups vinegar
1 can tomato paste (6 oz)
1 tsp. cumin

1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
3 Tablespoons pickling salt
3 Tablespoons brown sugar

I blitzed tomatoes in the blender, then did the same with the onions, peppers, garlic, vinegar.

Simmer all ingredients for 1 hour.  Try to cook off as much water as possible.

Ladle into hot jars & seal.  Process in hot water bath for 10 to 15 min.

Cherry hand pies...

 

 

My tiny cherry tree -- only three feet tall -- produced about a cup of medium, tart cherries,

just enough for two hand pies.

While watching The Great British Baking Show

(Pie Week)

I pitted the cherries and then took out a crust I had saved in the freezer.

The pies went together easily

and the results were "scrummy"

as Mary Berry says.

Hubby and I split one pie for dessert

and split the other pie with Morning Coffee.

A surprise summer treat!



Happy LOVE Day....

Sweets for the sweet.

I baked the favorite sugar cookies with red-hots

for our kids and grandkids.

Grandpa Jim brought me the flowers.

I hope you are feeling loved today.

 God loves you!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. 

Outdo yourselves in honoring one another.

~Romans 12:10

(Berean Study Bible)

Whole30 recipes...

 This dish began as a crock pot pork loin which was delicious, 

and then the leftovers turned into 

Pork, Green Bean and Potato Hash.

 Lime Chili Shrimp Fajita

Osso Buco and Cauliflower "Rice" & Mushrooms

 

My "Take A Stitch Tuesday" for last week.

Running stitch, round and round my hoop.

Hello Everybody!

Hubby and I have knocked out over 10 days of Whole30 and we're feeling GOOD!  I've been working at collecting a group of tasty recipes that will conform to the rules of Whole30 so we can have some good things in our dining rotation.  I must say that we've been eating like Kings!  I want our foods to be tasty and mostly easy to make, and I think the recipes that I'm sharing here are all of that.  

Starting at the top:  The Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin.  There was a recipe I found online, but the only part I kept from it included the loin and the cooking time.  Otherwise, I did this:  Salt & Pepper a small pork loin and sear it on all sides in a skillet with a little olive oil.  Cut an onion into chunks and put it on the bottom of the crock pot along with chunks of  carrots, celery, and a couple cloves of smashed garlic.  Roll the seared pork loin into a mixture of course salt & pepper, garlic powder, and rosemary.  Lay the coated loin over the veggies.  Add about 1 cup of water down the side, put the lid on, and let it cook on LOW for 4-5 hours.  I served it with green beans sauteed with onions, water chestnuts, garlic and slivered almonds.

The next day I made a hash with the left-over pork starting with olive oil in my cast iron skillet, the pork pieces, onion, some left-over potatoes,  green beans and a clove of minced garlic.  Add salt & pepper and some smoked paprika at the end to your taste.

The Lime Chili Shrimp Fajita recipe was a hit too.  We both gobbled down an entire pan of this.  Since we are land-locked prairie savages, we don't have access to fresh shrimp, but I do buy frozen, raw shrimp from the local stores and it's just fine.  (What do we know anyway?)  The seasoning in this recipe is really great and I think you could make it with chicken, pork, or beef.  Even though it's a fajita recipe, we did not use tortillas because that's against the rules.  But you can use tortillas if you want.

Osso Buco is SO good.  We are cattle ranchers so we are blessed to have our own home-raised beef.  I know that "real" osso buco is made with veal shanks, but we don't butcher veal so instead, I subbed in beef shanks.  The servings are much larger than veal shanks, and I would venture to guess, every bit as tender.  This is an Ann Burrell recipe, so you know it's good.  The only things I did not follow  in the recipe was the fennel and the tomato paste amount.  I did not have fennel so omitted it and I probably only used 2 -3 tablespoons of tomato paste in my recipe.  

OnlyDaughter gave me a cauliflower "rice" recipe and we made that to eat alongside the Osso Buco.  It was delicious.  I can't find the link to the recipe, but I'll tell you how it went.  I didn't fuss as much as the recipe said (as is my way).

Cauliflower "Rice" & Mushrooms

1 - 12 oz package of frozen riced cauliflower (4 c.)

half of a medium onion, chopped

1 container of mushrooms of choice, sliced

olive oil or coconut oil for sauteing, about 2 T.

2 T. cashew butter

1 small clove garlic, minced (or powdered garlic)

Grated Parmesan cheese (if not restricting dairy)

First saute the onions in oil until beginning to brown.  Add mushrooms and brown them along with onions.  Remove from skillet.  Add a little more oil to skillet and then add riced cauliflower.  Saute a few minutes until tender.  Add cashew butter and minced garlic.  Stir in well and then add mushrooms and onions back in.  Stir  and heat through.  Add salt & pepper to taste.  If you want to, add a few shakes (or grates) of Parmesan cheese.    It's pretty darn good good and seems a lot like rice.

I hope these recipes might be helpful to you if you are working at eating healthier.  Even if you aren't trying to eat less carbs, these recipes are so delicious and well worth trying out.  I hope you do.

Today I'm starting the 2nd stitch for TAST.  It's the buttonhole stitch.  I think I'll do some buttonhole flowers.  We shall see what I come up with.

 

It's snowing today -- a very wet snow.  Heidi the German Shepherd and I went out walking this morning and got quite wet, but it was so warm it didn't matter to us a bit.  We were dressed for it.  I think we reached 34 degrees today, but it's going to fall as the day progresses and we will be back to single digits for a high temp tomorrow.  Bummer.  How's the weather where you are?

Whole30, a beginning...

Hey! It's the new year!  A new beginnings!  And it's time to kick-start with eating better.  Hubby and I are taking on the challenge of Whole30.  In a nutshell, you CAN eat meats, eggs, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, and good fats.  What you can't eat is sugar, grains (so no breads, pastas and etc.), legumes (including peanuts) and no dairy except for ghee or clarified butter and lastly, no alcohol or tobacco.  Really, it's not bad unless you are addicted to sugar.  I thought I was pretty good about being on the low end of sugar consumption, but I'm feeling the lack thereof.  Honestly, I feel pretty good overall, and I'm thankful that we are allowed fruit.  Fruit never tasted SO good!  We've been eating an orange a day and sometimes share an apple or a banana.  I know that the first week of something like this is hard, hard, hard.  You want what you should not have.  But we are strong, and we can do this!  Whole30 is not meant to be a lifetime eating plan, but rather a kick-start way to learn to choose better foods, to eat less processed foods and sugar, and to be more conscious of what you are eating on a day to day basis.  We plan to carry on with this plan longer than 30 days and may modify it a tiny, tiny bit.

One delicious idea that I came up with is a spin-off of my old recipe that I called, Fried Apples which had a bit of sugar and plenty of butter.  Here's what I'm doing now:

1 apple, chopped
handful of walnuts, chopped

1 t. butter
2 T. raw, unsweetened, shaved coconut (opt)
Cinnamon and nutmeg to your taste.

Melt butter in a non-stick skillet and add everything, including spices.  Saute until apples are tender. If you like your apples really soft, just put a lid on it after a few minutes and turn off the heat, letting apples steam-cook.   EAT!  Enjoy! because you will.

We shared this recipe and had it alongside our scrambled eggs for breakfast.  It was so sweet and warm and spicy.  I would like to do the same with bananas next.  Kind of a Bananas Foster minus the sugar and alcohol.  I would add vanilla extract to it though.  And I can imagine this recipe with frozen peaches too.

If anyone out there has a favorite recipe idea within these guidelines, please share.  And speaking of sharing a good recipe, I have one more for you.  It's called Egg Roll in a Bowl and it's really quick to make and very delicious.  I've made it many times before ever starting Whole30 and I like to add ground beef to mine as a variation.  This recipe calls for powdered ginger, but I like to grate fresh (frozen) ginger into my recipe.  A tip I learned a while ago is to peel raw ginger with the side of a spoon and then cut it into 1/4" discs.  I freeze them and take out a disc whenever I need it and use a microplane zester to grate it.  It's so fast and so much tastier than dried, but dried ginger will work fine too.  I also like to use the frozen ginger discs in tea and to flavor kombucha.

Here's to eating well in 2018!

Winter birds, Winter Solstice...

 

It was a dark-ish day here so please forgive the less-than-perfect light in my photos.  

There are a few birds that stay here for the winter.  These are tough ones:  the majestic Bald Eagle and the petite Redpoll.  Out on the prairie, the Bald Eagles are numerous in the winter months where they sometimes nest in January and February and then leave in spring.  They spend their time eating mostly jackrabbits and roadkill.  The Redpolls, on the other hand, enjoy seeds and so they are happy to entertain us at the backyard feeders.  The grands like to get close to them by just standing still out by their feeder and letting the Redpolls feed above and below their feet and even at eye level.  That is an amazing feeling -- being so close to a beautiful, wild bird.  We have no chickadees here this winter.  Sometimes they come, and sometimes they just don't.  I've seen a few Sharptail Grouse around  -- another year-round bird for us.  I heard from my father-in-law that he saw a Snowy Owl north of us about 20 miles.  Quite a sight!  I've only seen one in my lifetime and I'm half tempted to drive over where he saw the owl with the hope of maybe seeing it.  There's a chance!  Others in the area have reported sighting him too. 

The weather here has gone from very mild to very cold in just one day's time, and as I type this at 5:00 pm, it is already down to just 6 degrees F.  Chilly!  Colder temps are in the forecast.  There's an inch of snow on the ground and I'm glad for its covering the dirty brown beneath. Thankfully, our wood supply is ample and I'm keeping a fire in the wood stove.  My latest aromatherapy is to put anise seed stars into my kettle of water on the wood stove.  The wafting scent is sweet and spicy.   I find the stars for very little cost in bulk at my health food store.  Winter love!

It's Winter Solstice today, the longest night of the year.  From here on out, we get longer days -- that's the way Hubby sees it.  He's always positive.  Will you celebrate the Solstice?  I did by getting my wool pants out and taking a mile walk up to the mailbox.  I might make us a little mulled wine to sip by the fire tonight and light the candles.  Doesn't that sound nice?

"He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter."  ~John Burroughs

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/wint

Summer goodness...

 Lemon Rosemary Zucchini Bread

This recipe is so magnificent!  I found it on Simply Recipes, where I find lots of delicious recipes.  I constantly refer to it when in doubt about how to fix something.  The flavor combination in this bread is excellent.  I hope you try it, especially if you're loaded with zucchini like I am.

 

A spade 'o spuds!

Do you see my broken spade handle there?  The spade is perfectly fine, but it needs the right sized handle to replace the old, broken one.  But guess what?  The new handles, this size, are hard to come by and they cost more than a brand new garden spade! Do you ever find this as frustrating as I do?  It used to be that we would replace handles on everything, and we still do, for the most part, but on occasion, the new shovel is cheaper than the handle.

About the potatoes:  I dug a spadeful to check on them and see how they are coming along.  Quite a nice bunch of medium sized red spuds.  And no scab so far this year!  We dined on a nice skillet of fried potatoes this evening along with our green beans with onions and walnuts.  So good!

A bowl o' beans!

The green beans are prolific right now.  Every few days, I can go pick another bowl of beans that feeds us at least twice.  These are the nicest beans I've grown.  They are slender and tender and just the way I want my green beans to be.  Of course, if I don't stay on top of picking them, they get  F A T  and tough, which I do not like at all.  The variety I'm growing this year are from Renee's Garden Seeds and they are called, Rolande Bush French Filet Beans.  They are definitely a "do again" in my garden.

 

A remuda of horses

On the drive to town last week, I took the short cut on the gravel road.  It's 35 miles of winding gravel road and just 10 miles of paved road into town this way.  It's the scenic route, for sure.  See what I met at one of the car gates?  The neighbor's horses all standing together swatting flies.  Pretty, aren't they?

A herd of ewes

This morning we moved the ewes to greener pastures.  Can you see the green pasture they are going to graze?  It's our hay field which is coming back nicely due to some recent rains.  We won't hay it again, there's not enough there, but we will graze it this fall.  Lucky ewes!  It doesn't look like many sheep now since we weaned the ewe lambs off the ewes two days ago. All the sheep got wormed and checked -- poor teeth and poor bags and any other undesirable features were marked. Those ewes will be culled.  There are 50 ewe lambs and they just got their tags -- red this year.  Each year we put a different color in the ewe lambs ears so we know their age.  It won't be long and we'll be turning the bucks into the mature ewes for breeding.  Time sure does fly!

Yesterday we bought a box of Colorado peaches.  Oh my, but they are juicy and delicious.  I had one for my breakfast this morning and this afternoon I made a pie.  Such summer goodness all around me.  I hope you're enjoying the goodness all around you.

"We might think we are nurturing out garden, but of course it's our garden that is really nurturing us."  ~Jenny Uglow

Happy Mother's Day and a recipe

Happy Mother's Day to all you mamas out there!  It's been a nice day in my neck of the woods with a little lawn chair sitting, a little iced tea, and a little book and magazine reading.  I did also do a little mowing with the rider, but just a little bit.  I'm trying to be more restful on Sundays.  However, I know several mamas out there who are "on duty" this fine Mother's Day.  They are nursing sick children, feeding hungry babies, disciplining unruly toddlers, and moving college students home from school.  A mom's job is never done, really.  We must always be able to see the good and be thankful for each day and each duty and each Someone that God gives us under the sun.

Today I'm sharing a picture of my flower patch and my lawn chair sitting spot along with my rhubarb patch.  It's growing beautifully.  We had a nice thunderstorm overnight and it was just the thing for the rhubarb as well as all the other green things growing.  I also want to share a recipe with you for Rhubarb Salsa.  I know!  Can it really be good?  Yes!  It's fabulous!  OnlyDaughter brought some out a couple days ago for us to try and we all loved it.  I insisted that we make another batch so we did and we tried it out on the rest of the families here.  Even the kiddos liked it.  I'm sorry I don't have a fine picture to show you, but we ate it all up!

Rhubarb Salsa

Serves: 4-6 persons

 

The rhubarb replaces tomato in this unique salsa. To balance the tartness, I've added some honey and the kick of a jalapeno will bring it together for a surprising burst of flavor!

 

Ingredients

• rhubarb (1 to 1½ cups) diced small
• ¼ cup of sweet bell pepper, diced (I used red and orange)
• 2 tablespoons of diced white or red onion
• 2 tablespoons of diced scallions
• 1 jalapeño, seeds removed and diced (used red pepper flakes)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of cilantro, chopped
• 1 tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons of honey (raw if you have it)
• kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat 2 cups of water in a saucepan to boiling. Blanch rhubarb by placing in the boiling water for 10 to 20 seconds. Quickly remove the rhubarb and place in a colander. Run cold water over the rhubarb to stop the cooking process. Blot the rhubarb with a paper towel to dry.
2. In a separate bowl, combine the bell pepper, onion, scallions, jalapeño, and cilantro. Add rhubarb and mix ingredients.
3. In a small separate bowl, dissolve the honey in the lime juice and apple cider vinegar. Drizzle this dressing over the rhubarb salsa and stir. Add the salt and pepper. Mix well.
4. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

This recipe comes from Simply Fresh Dinners 
so if you want to see a beautiful picture of the salsa, you can click over there and see how wonderful it is!  I wanted to tell you that I didn't have jalapeno so I used red pepper flakes.  I didn't have scallions either so we added a little more onion.  I had lemon juice instead of lime juice.  I also threw in a tablespoon or so of diced Hatch chilies from my freezer.  So you see, you can fiddle with this recipe to your tastes as I always do as I did.  We at our salsa on corn chips and later that night I had it on my tacos.  Scrumptious! 

Some of my fondest memories are picking rhubarb at my Grandma & Grandpa's farm.  It was a prized fruit and Grandpa took good care of it making sure to heap on the decomposed horse manure every fall.  We kids would eat the picked stalks raw, dipped in sugar.  (We also ate crab apples and choke cherries fresh -- SOUR!)  Do you grow rhubarb?  What are your favorite rhubarb recipes?

Potatoes and Pie...

 One of my favorite seasons 

is Rhubarb Pie Season.

Do you know it?

We only have it for a short time in spring

and early summer.

Such a treat.

I make a rhubarb custard pie (recipe below).

It's our fav!

My tulips are blooming like crazy and it's been so windy that I decided to cut a few and bring them indoors to enjoy.  I think the snow and early rains have really helped to bring up the tulips varieties that I haven't seen in a long, long time.  It's exciting to see old friends that I planted years ago.

Today Peach and Toodles helped me plant potatoes.  It's so nice to have littles, who are closer to the ground, put the potatoes in the hole I spade open. 205 hills of potatoes planted!  I had scab on my potatoes last year so one of the ways I am going to try to avoid it is by planting a variety that is scab resistant.  I planted Red Norland.  I'm waiting a little longer to put in the rest of the garden veggies and flower seeds.  We could easily have a frost yet this month.

.................................................................

Rhubarb Custard Pie with Crumb Topping

1unbaked pie crust
4 cups chopped rhubarb

Put rhubarb into crust.

Custard:
Beat:
1 1/4 c. sugar
3 T. flour
2 eggs
Pour this custard over rhubarb. Spread evenly.

Topping:
1/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. flour
1/4 c.  butter

Cut in butter into flour and sugar so it resembles small peas. 

Sprinkle over top of pie spreading it evenly to the edges.
Bake in a 350* oven for 1-1/2 hours. Pie will be dark golden in color and have a dry crumbly top.
Cool and serve warm with ice cream or whipped cream and coffee.
 

Thanks for stopping by!

Spring snow...

 It snowed all day yesterday.

Heavy, wet stuff that melted at first and then accumulated.

We received about 6" on top of the slop

 which amounted to .6" in the rain gauge.

The low temp last night was 25*.

Brrrr!

 I spent most of yesterday indoors sewing.

I made these stretchy headbands for the little girls using

girls' tights and made clip-on flowers from silk and cotton voile.

Headbands     Flowers

(I didn't cut my flowers as fussy as M. Stewart did)

They turned out quite springy.

This is my second time making this Dutch Almond Puff.

It is so delicious and feels very fancy, but it's easy to make.

I spread mine with apricot jam and then drizzled it with a glaze and sprinkled on nuts.

So good with coffee or tea.

I found the recipe on Bonnie's blog:

Danish Almond Puff Pastry

(Thank you, Bonnie!) 

Danish Almond Puffs

 Cut together until it resembles a coarse meal:

1/2 cup of butter 

1 c. flour

Add 2 Tbsp. cold water

Mix into a dough.  Then press into two 3x12 rectangles on an ungreased baking sheet. 

Next boil:

1 c. water 

1/2 c. butter

add 1 tsp. almond extract

Remove from heat and add:

1 c. flour

3 eggs one at a time beat them in.

Beat until smooth.  Spread over the pastry rectangles and bake at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.  Combine:   2 c. powdered sugar, 4 Tbs. cream, 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/8 tsp. salt.  Beat the frosting until smooth.  When the pastries are out of the oven spread jam down the middle.  I use raspberry jam and caramel apple jam.  The when cooled drizzle the frosting on.  If you remember sprinkle with ground nuts. 

Know well the condition of your flocks....

 A skillet of pullet eggs frying for breakfast.

Two of the eggs were double-yolkers!

I'm getting 17 pullet eggs each day now and collecting 27-29 eggs a day.

Really.  Too many.  It's give-away season.

 A fall prairie bouquet.  Grasses, sunflowers and Queen Anne's Lace.

I made my favorite Gingerbread Cake today.

It feels like fall when I make it.  

It is deep brown, and rich, with earthy-warm spices.

Very good with hot coffee or tea.

 We brought the ewes closer to home.

It's time to turn in the bucks.

 

 I love this photo of the sheep going through the gate.

We turned in ten bucks today.

In five months we will have lambies.

 ..............................

Today was one of those Indian Summer Days.

Hot.  90 degrees.

This evening after shutting the chicken coop, 

I took the dogs for a walk 

and the wind came up all of a sudden -- strong and cold.

The cold front is moving in.

Tomorrow's high is said to be around 50 degrees.

We will be working cows outdoors

all week and pregnancy testing. 

We welcome the cooler weather for working livestock.

 ...................................

23 Know well the condition of your flocks,
And pay attention to your herds;
²⁴ For riches are not forever,
Nor does a crown endure to all generations.
²⁵ When the grass disappears, the new growth is seen,
And the herbs of the mountains are gathered in,
²⁶ The lambs will be for your clothing,
And the goats will bring the price of a field,
²⁷ And there will be goats’ milk enough for your food,
For the food of your household,
And sustenance for your maidens.

Proverbs 27:23-27

Corn!

Sweet Corn is ripe and being picked daily at one of the the local farms near our HomeTown.  This is the best sweet corn -- tender, white and yellow corn that is juicy and sweet as can be!  The farmers have a roadside stand where they sell it out of the back of a pick-up truck by the dozen.  Today JJo went to town and called to say that they were still selling corn and how many dozen ears did we want for freezing?  JLynn wanted 7 dozen and JJo and I each wanted 4 dozen. 

I went about shucking the corn outside in the sunshine, and then moved my work indoors.  I use my German grandma's recipe where I cut all the raw corn off the cob first and then boil it with salt, a little sugar and water.  I cool it and then measure it into freezer bags.  It's so simple!  And it's so wonderful to enjoy the taste of delicious, fresh sweet corn when winter rolls around.  I sacked up 29 cups of corn today into 2 cup and 3 cup bags.  There's still time to freeze more corn and still time to eat more corn-on-the-cob until it runs out! 

On another note, I'm happy to report that I'm now getting 6 pullet eggs as of today!  They're kicking it in gear!!  Yay for new laying hens!  They also enjoyed nibbling on the discarded cobs today.

The first pullet egg is laid!

 I don't know who did it.

It could be this lovely pullet hen...

 ...or one of these white beauties.

One thing is sure, it was a perfect, tiny, white egg 

that could only be laid by a Pearl White Leghorn.

All the other hens are either brown or green egg layers.

My dear mother-in-law used to ONLY ever buy Pearl White Leghorn chicks.  She knew their reliability and egg-laying efficiency.   I think she was very frustrated with me when I brought home brown egg-laying chicks after she retired from taking care of the chickens.  I remember one time in particular when I asked her to gather the eggs for me while I was gone, and do you know what she did?  She brought in only the white eggs and left all the brown eggs in the nests.

Isn't that hilarious?

It is noted on the Murray McMurray Hatchery website that the Pearl White Leghorn is hands-down the best egg layer.  They start laying earlier than other breeds -- around 4 to 4.5 months of age -- and they lay eggs longer than the other breeds do.  My mother-in-law knew that they were high-powered egg layers and that they performed well in harsh, cold climates as well as hot climates which is what we have here in The Land of Extremes. They also eat less feed than heavier breeds which makes the feed to egg ratio a little more economical.  I'm excited to have the Leghorns back in production this year and the evidence of their productivity is already showing itself since our first egg came at about  4 months of age!

Last year I bought several different varieties of hens:  Buff Orpington, Barred Rock, Rhode Island Red, and White Rocks.  I had a American Auracana left over from the year before.  I have to say that this year was our worst year ever for egg production.  It seemed that they were poor, erratic layers.  For a few weeks we would get lots of eggs and then the next week we'd get half that amount.  It's  very frustrating when you are trying to feed three and sometimes four families with the eggs!  This year I have 22 Pearl White Leghorns and I anticipate 22 eggs per day when they all start laying which should be very soon!  

Have you ever noticed when buying "organic" or "free-range" eggs that they are always brown?  It is a misconception that the "healthier" eggs are always brown.  My white eggs will be every bit as "country fresh" and "free-range" as any other egg that has ever been produced here. 

Do you eat free-range eggs or farm-raised eggs?  What do you think of the comparison between eating a farm-raised egg verses a factory-raised egg?

One more thing to share and then I'll let you go.  Last week I learned about the best way to  hard-boil farm fresh eggs.  First off, I have never been able to make pretty deviled eggs using my home-raised eggs.  My wise mother-in-law always said to let them age a week or more before hard-boiling them for an easier peel. Well, who has a week to wait for that?  So I did a little looking around on Pinterest for a method to make the best hard-boiled egg with ease-of-peeling qualities.  And the verdict I came to was to steam the eggs.  Here's the link from Fresh Eggs Daily.  It worked for me beautifully!  I hope you'll give it a try, particularly if you use very fresh eggs.  OK, that's it.  May your eggs be perfectly cooked, however you like them!  By the way, how do you like your eggs?

Chokecherry jelly...

It's been a few years since I've had any chokecherries left on the branches for a batch or two of jelly.   Every year it's a race with the birds to see who can get to the chokecherries first.  This time I picked my chokecherries a little earlier than I would like, but hey, I have birds to contend with!  The whole time that the grandkids and I were picking, the robins were really giving us the dickens!  They twirted at us quite a bit, telling us to get out of their chokecherry bushes and to leave  their berries alone.  I was so proud of the kids for sticking with our chore.  It takes a long time to pick a single gallon of chokecherries because they are so small.  

After picking the berries, the whole jellying process had only just begun.  We sorted through the chokecherries for stems and leaves and then washed them, picking through them some more.  After the wash, we poured the chokes into a big pot with enough water to just cover them for the boil.  We simmered them to get the cherries to release their juice (maybe a half hour or so).  I like to give them a little squish with a potato masher as they soften.  After juicing comes the Big Squeeze.  I poured the hot chokecherries and juice through a colander lined with a clean tea towel which was placed over a gallon ice cream bucket.  After the berries cool down a little, I wring the tea towel over a bowl to collect every drop of juice I can get.  Then I hang it from the cupboard door to let it drip a little more over the bucket.  The juice goes back into the big pot along with lemon juice and the pectin.  It gets stirred and brought to a boil.  Then the sugar is added and two more minutes of boiling and Viola!  jelly!

The girls were excited to lick every sticky utensil we used.  Then it was time to sample it on bread.  I'm only sorry I didn't have a fresh loaf to smear the jelly on,  but our store-bought bread worked just fine.  It was tasty if I do say so myself.  

If you have chokecherries nearby that you can pick, you might like to try this recipe from a Ranch Mom.  She has some nice step-by-step pictures to walk you through the process on her blog.  I liked this recipe  better than anything I've ever tried before.  I think it's the lemon juice that makes all the difference.   And maybe because she's a ranch mom!  

Choke Cherry Jelly

Author: Kay Schrock

 

Ingredients

• 3.5 cups chokecherry juice
• ½ cup fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon butter or margarine
• 1 pkg dry pectin (1.75 oz)
• 4½ cups of sugar

Instructions

1. Pour juices in kettle.
2. Add pectin, stir.
3. Bring to a boil, add sugar.
4. Boil and stir for 2 minutes.
5. Remove from heat, skim.
6. Ladle into jars.
7. Process in hot water bath for 5 minutes.
8. Cool undisturbed for 24 hours.

Farewell fair June...

 Pronghorn (antelope) buck

Lots of new babies on the prairie.

How can it possibly be the last day of June already?  It's been a dozen days since I posted here last, and I can hardly believe how the time has flown by.  We've been busy with cows and calves and bulls.  The men finished AI-ing 200 head of cows and we've worked every single bovine animal on the place these past couple weeks.  All the calvies and yearling heifers got shots of pink-eye vaccine and all the critters got poured with insecticide.  The bulls were turned out with the cows and now every bovine is out on summer range.  It's a good feeling to have all our livestock processed, checked, doctored, vaccinated, and turned out.  Today I spent the morning checking our cow bunches to see that the bulls were still in their proper pastures with them and to take note of any problems.  Thankfully, there were no issues today.

The main issue on the ranch and for many surrounding ranches is water.  We all have some.  Some of us have more than others.  But the water we do have is far from fresh and so it can take on a life of its own and make livestock sick.  Some of our neighbors have been losing cows and calves to polio which comes from water that is high in nitrates, sulfates and TDS (total dissolved solids)  among other stuff.  So far, our stock is faring well, but we did take some water samples of our main reservoirs to the feed store to get them tested.  Our vet recommended we test our water before we have a problem.  Good advice.  We are very lucky (blessed) that we have lots of water tanks that have water piped to them.  Again, the water is pumped from a very large, deep reservoir which we rely on heavily, but I think the fact that it's moving water may help.  That and the fact that it is cold and deep.  I could be very wrong about that, but it's a hunch.

If you look closely at the legs of some of the bulls and cows in the photos, you'll see that they have mud-crusted legs.  They've been wading out into the water for a drink.  It's not the greatest situation since they can get bogged down and not be able to get out of that mucky mud. These cows and bulls DO have water tanks to drink from besides the stock dams, but sometimes they enjoy wading out into the water on these hot, hot days.

I've been dragging the hoses around the yard a lot lately, trying to keep the veggie and flower gardens watered down.  Since water is scarce, we are limiting our watering on the yards so our lawns are really bad.  Each family has a "little patch of green" as my mother-in-law used to say, but the majority of our lawns are brown and dried up.  It's kinda sad, but it's life on the prairie.  Our average annual rainfall here is just 11 inches, so we expect to dry out by mid summer most years.  Fires have been popping up all around our area.  Our two sons here wear pagers for our local fire department.  Whenever clouds come over and lightning starts popping, we all watch the skies for smoke.  But it's not just lightning that's starting fires.  Just yesterday a semi truck was going through our area with a flat tire, driving on just the rim, and he evidently was kicking up sparks as he drove.  The back of his truck caught fire and someone got him stopped.  NumberOneSon went to the fire.  They got the the semi truck unhooked from the trailer just before the fire hit the propane cooling unit and a big-cloud-explosion happened.  Thankfully, just the trailer was lost and the fire didn't spread.  With the combination of heat, dry grass, and the winds, it's rather scary when a spark hits the ground in any form.

July is a month of celebrating in our family.  Several birthdays as well as Independence Day which is a Big Deal in the little cowtown we call our hometown.  The grandkids are looking forward to the Parade and the Carnival and all the rodeo hoopla.  We'll be having a family gathering on the 4th of July at OnlyDaughter's home with everybody bringing something yummy to share.  I'm bringing a new-to-me recipe that we tasted at a wedding last weekend.  It's Frito Corn Salad.  Get the recipe here!  It's not a waist-slimming salad, but it is delicious! 

I hope you've enjoyed June.  I have.  Now on to July!  It's summertime now!  How's your tan?