Pickle-licious

Yes, I have been away from blog land this last week...Hubby is home and well...you know! We have just been enjoying family life! Of course that doesn't mean things have stopped around here! I will admit, with full blown Texas summer here, the outside stuff has been limited! I have been doing some much needed home improvements and  well...making pickles!

I did not get a whole lot of cucumbers this year with the heirloom variety I selected  but I have a lovely friend who brought me a whole bag of cucumbers from her garden! Sigh....I just love successful gardening friends!

So I have pickled,pickled and pickled some more! Not only cucumbers but a few other things too!

We have sweet relish, 8 day sweet pickles, bread and butter pickles,  dill relish..I don't think I am happy with the dill relish but I will give it some time to "season"....yellow squash pickles and last but not least a hamburger dill pickles! Oh , I left out the pickled jalapenos! Those are like candy to us down here! Too bad I forgot to get those in the picture! Now let me see...what else can I pickle.......!!!

Blueberries

Yes,it is that wonderful time of year again ....blueberry season! I went last Friday,by myself because The Boy was away at church camp, in the blazing heat and humidity to a nice farm in the next community down the road. Ahhh....what a mother won't do for her child! You see,the only reason we have to have blueberries is because The Boy requires homemade blueberry syrup! To expect him to eat a waffle without the coveted blueberry syrup is...is...a travesty! How dareth I even cook him delicious, slow rise , sourdough waffles if there is no blueberry syrup!!!!! Sigh....I guess if you don't have an only child you don't realize how spoiled they can get,lol!

So I drag myself out of bed an hour early so I can leave in the early morning hours...I am doing all the morning chores because, remember, The Boy is at camp. I want to get there early before the day reaches the point where I may spontaneously combust  in the heat! Actually, I think the only thing that stops this phenomenon is the fact that the air is 98% water! So by 10:30 I can't take it any more and go to weigh in...12lbs! That's a lot of berries! Good,I can make a double batch of syrup and freeze some for smoothies and baking. I made a double batch of jam last year so we don't need any more this year.

I take out the berries for syrup and put the rest on baking sheets and freeze them.I like to freeze everything possible this way,I hate a big frozen lump of fruit! As my payment I picked out all the biggest ,fattest ,tastiest berries and ate them on the spot! Hey,I am the one who put in all the work here!

Then I put them in jars and stick them in the freezer.Yes,I freeze in jars because I don't like plastic in,on,around or near my food if I can help it! You may think I am crazy,that's OK there is a club if you want to join.....Anyway, here they are frozen little blue marbles of goodness...I got a dozen jars!

And here is The Boy's syrup,that I actually had to do twice because I had one of "those" moments and didn't boil it long enough the first time and had  a nice,sweet blueberry juice instead of syrup!

Now his Royal,Spoiled Rotten, Pickieness can once again feast on waffles! Really, I am just teasing about The Boy,well...not about the syrup thing that is true,but he is a super good kid and I gladly make him his blueberry syrup! Seriously, what fun are kids if you can't tease and aggravate them!

I have mention before that we live in a really old house,103 years of really old! I have also mentioned it needs 103 years worth of work!!!! I haven't posted much about it because I / we haven't been doing any work on it lately. Thanks to my friend TEXAN, I discovered this oil rubbed bronze spray paint that I just love! We have the old doors, with the old doorknobs, with what was once brass face plates.

This paint is perfect for making them look better but still old!

I was telling Hubby about this and he said he would sand blast them a little before I painted them, he has this handy little sand blaster.

I said I didn't think so! Not because I think this is a bad idea! On the contrary...it is a great idea but....

Right now someone else is using his sandblaster!

Some little birdie thought this glove was just the perfect spot to raise a family!

I don't know what kind of bird this is, she flies away when ever I open the door to the shop, but whatever she is she is very small ! These eggs are the size of  jelly beans! Not the name brand jelly beans either, the cheap, small, dollar store jelly beans! These babies are going to be tiny!  Hubby may be a rough and tough oil man but he would never scoop out this little birdie family...gotta love a man like that...sigh!

Three Question Wednesday

Do chickens even realize when  they have laid a tiny little egg like this?

Do they hang their little feathered heads in shame while the  other  hens cackle and laugh at them?

When this happens do they secretely look for a little blue pill for natural chicken egg enhancement?

Suumer is here..ugghh!

The dog days of summer are here in South Texas...sigh..I am not ashamed to admit I am not a hot weather person!  I know,I know, I live in the wrong place! I have to live where Hubby's job is...even though he works in China he is stationed out of Houston. So I spend my summer days hiding indoors...in the lovely air conditioning..only venturing out into the unbelievably humid mornings to tend to critters.Then I repeat  the same routine in the evenings, always wet with sweat and needing a shower! Me and The Boy are sweaters,we sweat enough for two or three people! That probably has something to do with us not liking the heat..hmm....maybe that  whole sweating thing was too much info.....anyway..Most everyone's gardens around here have gone to weeds, including mine. No one wants to pull weeds in 97% humidity! Sadly, I did not get the tomato harvest I had dreamed of. Unlike last year, where we had heat wave and drought, this year it was too much rain for my tomatoes..the plants turned yellow and tomatoes rotted on the vine or just fell off. Gardening is a cruel hobby! The only good thing about down here is we get two gardening seasons,so I will try again in the fall. Gardening is an addiction you know,no matter how bad Mother Nature slaps you around,you still come back for more!

Last year I had some Butterfly Weed planted around and had a lot of monarch caterpillars come to feast on them.This year the plants didn't come back,maybe because of the freaky cold we had this winter. In one of the raised beds I have some parsnips going to seed and guess what I discovered!

The caterpillars are back!  These little plant munchers never get picked off! I counted 8 all together...

They are welcome to eat until they are full and feel the need to make their cocoons...

I have been out of blog land this last week....I have the blahs...nothing new, nothing happening ...same ole same ole! You know how it gets! I need a vacation to get me out of this blah routine! I am figuring it is not going to happen so ....I will just have to get over it I guess,lol! Farmers rarely get vacations," because who would take care of the goats!?!?!?"

***correction..after further research those maybe  swallowtail butterfly caterpillars...regardless they are welcome to stay!*****

The Nibletts...

......or why so many of my clothes have holes in them!!!! The Nibletts, as they are called together, Hoss and Tube sock when they are individuals,are Nibbles'  boys..

They are some kind of clothing piranhas! Tube Sock is the worse!

His only goal in life is to devour clothing! Seriously! I don't care if you sit out there in the goat pen all day,every time you look down he will be attached to some article of your clothing gnawing like his life depended on it! He takes after his momma,that is how Nibbles got her name after all!

He never tires of it! Oh,and heaven forbid you have some sort of draw string on your clothing! He will have it slurped sown like some sort of goatie spaghetti!

Let me tell you, if you have never retrieved four inches of drawstring off your pajama bottoms out of a goats gullet...well..think warm,wet and cud covered...oh yeah and a big ole bunch of eewwww!

I sure am going to miss him when he has to go to a new home...sigh!

The Donkey Days of Summer

 Many of you know Clyde. He is half of the Dirty Donkey Duo, Bonnie and Clyde, that live here on our farm. Clyde is actually a white donkey,most of the time you can't tell this fact about him! His favorite past time,besides treats,is rolling!

Clyde-Hyde,as we so affectionately call him , is a non- recovering treat-aholic.You can  read about poor Clyde's addiction here.

He will always come up,no matter how far out in the pasture,lookin' for  his treats! He enjoys a good scratchin' too! I think Donkeys are a little like goats in the fact that they are born itchy! They love to get scratched!

 His big ole rubbery donkey lips start flappin' looking for more treats!

This is Clyde-Hyde's look of " I don't believe you don't have any more treats woman!"

He gives me a few big sniffs,just to make sure I am not holding out on him!

Then he resigns himself to some good ole head scratchins'!

Really ,who couldn't love that sweet , homely ,dirty donkey face!