Funeral and lots of work

Funeral

Aunt Reva passed away Wednesday.  She was 90 years old.   We took mom to the funeral on Monday and stayed for the wake.  I already had Tuesday off, but I did make arrangements at work (since I am still acting TA) to take Monday off for the funeral.  Was good to see some of my cousins again.  Some of them I don't think I had ever met before.  Joe Smith was there, I don't recall ever seeing him before.  He lives in Colorado now.  He came in Saturday for viewing and funeral.  The funeral and afterword pretty much ate up my Monday.

Front drainage tile installed!

I finally got the front drainage tile installed!  I have had the front yard dug up for almost a year now, so it was about time to finish it!  I really needed the backhoe for this job.  As you saw in a previous post, I dug the rest of the drain line a couple weekends ago, but this weekend (Sunday) I dug out the line from the house to the drain line (there are 2 connections from the downspouts and sump pumps to the drain line - one at each end of the house).   I put the tile in and placed some fittings to try to work out if I needed anything else - I did!  I needed more tile!  I wanted to get 2x20 ft lengths, but TSC only had 100ft lengths.  I also bought some work gloves, an outdoor thermometer, and 9 fiberglass electric fence posts.  More on the fence later.   So here are the pictures of the project:

After using the backhoe to dig the ditch for the far end of the house.

Connecting up the sump and the downspout

All set up to start backfill!  

Looking out toward the far end of the house

Looking down from the corner toward the "Y"

The "Y" joining the two sides of  the drains

Looking toward the end of the drain line

After back-filling on Monday morning

Looking up toward the house.

After Monday morning - looking down to the end of the drain

Finally all done!  Looking down to the drain end

Smokey is checking it all out!

Last of the Veggies?

I got down to the paw-paw patch before I left and harvested some Brussels sprouts!

Only 2 of the 4 plants seemed to have any on them

This is cool - this and one other came off of an early plant that had sprouted out!

And still more broccoli!  Fantastic!  I think I might have harvested a couple pounds.  They are smallish heads, but they seem tender and I ate one and they taste good!

Sauerkraut canning

We got up to the farm afternoon on Saturday (I had to be in at work Friday because I am acting TA so I wasn't able to head out early - and its too dark now to head out afterwork Friday!)   The ground was a bit wet so I didn't think it would be a good idea to start work in the drainage project.  I did see some electric fence down due to deer damage, but there is really nothing for the deer to harm inside the fences so i let the fence repair wait until later.  I checked the kraut and found a scum on the top and I freaked a little bit - BUT... it was fine, not mold, I think, but smelled like the kraut.   I cleaned off the scum and proceeded to can the kraut!  Woohoo - 19 quarts of kraut from 41 lbs of cabbage!  Nice!

Deer fencing issues

I found the fence around the elderberries torn up a bit, but not too bad.  Had to replace a couple of posts, but all in all a quick and complete repair.  However, the fence over by the grapes and orchard was in bad shape.  The wire was actually broken!  I bet some deer got caught in it and freaked out when he got shocked.   Bedsides the broken wire, there were several posts broken and the new fiberglass posts that I had just installed a couple weeks ago had the insulators/wire holders torn off!  The fiberglass posts fared better than the original posts though.   I decided to change the outline of the fence a little bit to surround the grape vines as well (and maybe make it a little easier to mow).  I needed more electric fence posts which I picked up Sunday morning on our trip to TSC.  I had to re-arrange the wires a bit so they wouldn't short out on the metal parts, but it is working now.  All the fences are back on.  I do, however, need more deer-pops now!  Sorry. I didn't get pictures, but its really not that exciting. :)

Sauerkraut!

I finally got some time to can the kraut!  I checked the small crock and found that it had gone bad.   The big crock was fine, so i went ahead and canned that up!

I got 13 pints.  This was the early cabbage.  I have more left, but i want to explore other recipes besides kraut!

A piano, tomato sauce and kale

Kale for dinner

Last night we harvested a bunch of kale and actually ATE IT! LOL.  I think it was the first time this YEAR that we ate any kale directly as a green for dinner.  We braised it like usual.  It was delicious.  Cooked with our own potatoes and used our tomato liquid from last years canning instead of chicken broth! :)

Tomato Sauce Canned

Katherine processed the tomatoes that I brought back last weekend into a thick sauce.  This time she canned in the pint and a half wide mouth jars.  Here is a picture:

Sauerkraut

I checked the sauerkraut - it smells ok.  I think that the large batch is ready to can.  I am concerned about the smaller batch fermenting correctly  The cabbage was so dry that there still isn't water over the top of the cabbage.  I didn't see any mold in either though so i am going to let them go another week.

I am thinking of other ways of using the cabbage instead of sauerkraut since we don't seem to be using the sauerkraut that we have.  I did see a recipe for canned "un-rolled" cabbage rolls that looks good.  I may try that.

Hot Water-heater issues?

Katherine pointed out some vibrating pipes this morning near the hot water heater downstairs.  I did some research online and tried a few things - flushed all the toilets, lowered the temp in the heater (I should have done that long ago - it was way too hot!), but the pipes still were vibrating.  I decided to go ahead and purge the water heater.  I read the manual and proceeded.  It was pretty straight forward.  So far so good, no more vibrations observed today anyway.  I keep going down to check though, just in case.

Piano delivery!

Katherine has arranged for movers to deliver her piano today.  She and Ken prepared a spot for it downstairs last weekend,  Katherine got this piano from Ken's mom who is moving to Frederick soon.  

The movers!

In place!

With Ken Sherrfey, the original user

More food processing! Cabbages, Peaches, Elderberries, Tomatoes, Cukes

Elderberry Syrup

Katherine processed the elderberry "2nd"s into elderberry syrup.  Recipe is basically the same as for the jelly except that she used the 2nd's and only added 1/4th the pectin (she actually used 1 pack of the "no sugar needed pectin" to 4 times the juice they call for - so that would be 12 C of 2nd's).  Turned out very nicely!  Canned just like the jelly too.

She got 10 pints of syrup from 12 C of elderberry "2nd's"!

Salsa

We made another 12 pints of salsa from the tomatoes that were ready yesterday.  Again we used the Mrs Wages salsa (medium) mix.

12 Pints Salsa

Pickles

We did up the cucumbers using the Mrs Wages Kosher dill mix.  We "chunked" the cukes instead of making them as spears or sliced.  I like them this way - I guess they would be called "salad" pickles.

Total of 13 quarts of  Kosher Dills!

Corn

Most of  the corn is now off our patch.  We still have some to harvest from the patch over at mom's.  I want to try to dry and can some of the remaining corn.  We got a total of 30 pints frozen from our local patch.

Most of the corn has been harvested from my local patch now - about 30 pints frozen.

Kale, cabbages, broccoli

The real disappointment of this harvest is the Kale and Cabbages.  Besides getting a late start due to the heavy early rains that made many of the cabbages rot out (and removed needed nutrients from the soil) they were attacked by the dreaded cabbage worms!   I only have 2 broccoli plants that have produced anything - and then just enough for Katherine and I to eat at dinner!   The kale was so filthy with bugs that I only gathered enough to freeze 3 quarts!  I went out and sprayed 3 gallons of BT on the whole patch!  I trimmed a lot of the Kale leaves that I didn't harvest and threw them away.  

Kale in foodsaver bags - freezing them first make it easier
to vacuum seal moist/wet veggies.  

I did harvest what cabbages that were ready - many were split!  Sheesh!  Can't catch a break! 

After cleaning and shredding I only got 13 lbs of cabbage.  I used this to start a batch of sauerkraut.

Kraut in the crock!

Lid on and the water seal set!

Now just to do the peaches and the tomatoes... lol

Katherine will probably do the tomatoes as juice.

peaches are for jam!

Farm maintenance & more harvest

Cleaned up more around the red barn.  Sawed some small stumps to make sure the lawn mower wouldn't hit them.  Removed the brambles (and a small tree) from inside the building too.  Did mowing all the way back to the woods in back and to the stream/drainage ditch on left and right sides.  Eventually, I want to clean up the entire right side (as you face the front of the building).

I mowed around the elderberries using the riding mower.  It has been dry enough that i didn't get stuck at all!  I spun a bit, but didn't get stuck.  I started cleaning up around the elderberries with the string trimmer (the riding mower doesn't get very close).  I stopped by the front patch and harvested the remaining cabbage.  Here is a pick of our last cabbage (in PA anyway):

I need to harvest the dill (and dry it) and the beets.  I grabbed a small head of cauliflower too.  Looks like there is one more that I will get later when I harvest the last of the beets.  I should start on harvesting tomatoes too.  Maybe I will get to plant cover crop (I think just the vetch on the front patch - no clay there and seems well drained).  Note that I can plant vetch in early spring, since fall planting doesn't do much - just sprouts, develops small plants and goes dormant until early spring when it does its real growth. 

OK, back outside.  Its about 4:15pm now - it gets dark so soon now! :(

Back in.  About 7:10 pm now.  I picked and pulled all of the tomatoes in the front patch.  Also did many of the tomatoes in the big patch - it got too dark to do them all.  I also harvested all of the beets from the front garden.  Front garden only has kale and some brussel sprouts now (and dill).  Here is the harvest tonight:

I also picked most of the eggplant from the big patch.  Too dark to take pics though.  I did get some pics of the work i did around the red barn though!

Did up the cabbage as sauerkraut.  Got about 19 lbs!  I am waiting for the water to render out a bit more.  Then I will put a plate on the top and weight it down with another croc full of water.  I will put the plastic wrap on top like last time since that seemed to work ok.

Farm status

Drove up to farm early(ish) this morning.  Got here around 10:15am.  Forgot to bring the pumpkin that I processed last night.  Mowed around the paw-paw patch (the paw-paws themselves didn't need it).  Also mowed around the persimmons - was able to mow a lot of the brush area because its been so dry.  I am tempted to run the tiller over some of that area to smooth it out and maybe add some dirt so it doesn't get so wet.

Anyway, I surveyed the place - the radishes are up!  Here are some pics:

I went to Kellers and got some fuel and a sandwich.  Also stopped at HT Market and got some candy and apples.  After we got home (Smokey is with me) I ate the sandwich and WAY too much candy.  Napped for a while then went out to work on clearing around the red-barn.  While over there I noticed that the rose hips are ripe:

Maybe I will pick some tomorrow.  I worked on clearing the trees i knocked down last week.  I got the chainsaw chain into the dirt a couple times so thats going to need sharpening.  I dragged off a bunch of the trees and brambles near the big field - maybe I will burn those some day.  Didn't finish.  Still pretty tired.  I want to pick the cabbage and start another run of sauerkraut before I leave this weekend.  I am thinking of sending Seth a text message asking when we can arrange shipping my backhoe.  I really have lots of ideas of using it!  Just tonight I was thinking that the grounds around the red barn need to be smoothed and re-graded. Also, the bridge i waned to cross the streams is possible now!  I think I have enough long logs for the spans and with a backhoe I can put in posts much more effectively.