Homesteader

If I recall, Smithfield is owned by the Chinese. Chicken side of the operation, maybe?

On 5/26/2022 at 5:56 PM, Littlesister said:

I was looking into those yogurt makers, but not sure about how they would do. Never heard of anyone that has tried using those. 

I used to use a yogurt maker. Then a friend asked why I didn't do it in quart jars in a small cooler?  Ever since then, after cooking the milk, cooling it, adding 1/2 existing yogurt (I use Stonyfield with all the active cultures), I just pop the jars into a cooler with 110F water (an inch over the top of the jars), and let it sit for 4 hours. Put it in the refrig and you have all the yogurt you'll ever want.   I can reuse a 1/2 cup yogurt a few times before getting another small carton of Stonyfield from the store.

Bought a Nesco for $12 at our friend's garage sale. He cleans out houses after foreclosures and stores everything in a huge barn until his yearly garage sale. It was my first garage sale buying trip with my dear SIL. We laughed and laughed and bought a bunch of things for her new RV. She talked me into buying the Nesco and cooking up those seven rabbits in my freezer. Easy Peasy. 

Now I need to find a storage spot for that revved up slow cooker.

On 5/23/2022 at 10:40 AM, Homesteader said:

We keep opossums out of our beehives by adding carpet tack strips around the edges. I think they're around 3-4' long and can be found wherever carpet is sold.

I forgot to mention that the beehives are on pallets. The carpet strips are tacked to the pallets. As the opossums try to stand on the pallets, they get nailed. 

Here is a rather concise explanation of monkeypox by Dr. John Campbell, UK. He has almost 2.5 million followers and is certainly less political than our own healthcare providers. It is endemic in Africa, which accounts for most of the cases recorded around the world. It's more prevalent, and begun, in the homosexual community due to the mode of transmission. He gives many great photos of what to look for and the duration/symptoms of the virus.

Being an authentic Cheesehead, American cheese is generally not found in Wisconsin homes.      We do bring home lots of 'real' cheese and freeze it on a regular basis though. If thawed slowly in the refrig, it's not so crumbly. I have noticed that our cheese lasts longer if I bring it home already shredded. The house mouse can't cut off a big chunk of it during the night and doesn't like to deal with shredded cheese all over the countertop. 

1 hour ago, Mother said:

Might have to go with baskets or milk crates to cover plants or live trap whatever it is and remove it.  

We keep opossums out of our beehives by adding carpet tack strips around the edges. I think they're around 3-4' long and can be found wherever carpet is sold. 

13 hours ago, Mother said:

Admittedly I am probably biased because of being one of those sufferers but I see no WHO or media concern about the changes Lyme is making.   

Same here.

I got them last year. It was a few days after my mom died. I was told that stress is a huge contributor.     Our pharmacist friend said that the newer shingles vac is much more effective than the previous one. He said to wait a year between infection and getting the shot. I'll decide this coming Sept as it will be the anniversary.    DH just got the newer vac and was told that it's a two-part regimen now. 

The other half of this nasty virus is that it can break out around the eyes and people have been blinded by shingles.  

On 5/22/2022 at 7:18 AM, Darlene said:

It's easy to lay out all these plans in my mind..."I"m need to do this - I'm going to do that" and then the days fly by and I've done very little. I don't know if I'm the only one who is struggling like this or not, but all I can think of is the fact that not only will I have to finish planting all of this, but then I'll need to care for and harvest and preserve it on top of it.

One of my fav sayings is .... "The faster I go, the behinder I get." 

18 minutes ago, Mother said:

We are already having critters (raccoon we suspect) digging into the beds so will have to stop that before adding worms.  

I used to garden on those west Pacific islands when we had long projects there. They were rat infested due to our WWII military shipping containers bringing them in. All the food scraps had to be buried daily. I finally switched to covering the soil with hardware cloth as the peelings broke down. Only took several weeks and kept the rats out. You might come up with some ideas as a spin-off to what we used to do. 

Mine have always done this. All of us pass around homemade jams at Christmas time that look that way. When opened for the first time, we just swirl them around with a knife. I should have asked them in Amish country how they get everything to gel together in their country stores. 

2 hours ago, Jeepers said:

I just hope the apocalypse holds out until I can get my stuff dried. 

40 minutes ago, TheCG said:

Woke up in the camper feeling fine, made coffee in the house, drank it on the front porch while waiting on the AC guy, AC got fixed, left for work.

I heard from two HVAC guys that Freon for AC units has gone from  $125/25 lbs to $550/25 lbs. When EPA decided that Freon was destroying the ozone layer 30 years ago, they put tremendous regulations on the mfg of it. Guess what? It's now manufactured in CHINA. The replacement gas that can be mfg here in the USA has now been deemed more toxic than Freon to our ozone.  Compressors and other AC parts are generally made in CHINA also. I'm thankful you were able to get your AC unit fixed. The future looks very bleak for HVAC servicemen.  

On 5/14/2022 at 11:35 PM, Becca_Anne said:

Today we had a big item checked off our list when DH went to buy a riding lawnmower which will be delivered monday.

My rider was making a tapping noise last night so I shut it down and asked DH to check it. Turns out the belt for the mower was slowly chunking. He said to keep mowing until it broke.     Three more passes around the field and I came back in the house with a broken belt.   

And, of course its not easy to find one in stock.  What a disastrous economy we have these days.   It will arrive by Friday and I feel very blessed.     DH gets a homemade rhubarb custard pie this weekend and I get to work on filling up the compost bin again. 

Had Lyme's disease last year. Ticks are notorious for Lyme's in Wisconsin.  

I just found my old pedometer last week and was thinking about changing out the old battery.     I try not to carry my phone anymore. I get tired of being tracked all the time.   

4 hours ago, Wychwood said:

I'm trying to get my head round not going to work, it's taking some getting used to. I've looked forward to retirement for several years, now I'm here, it's going to take a while to settle into it. Whoda thunkit?

It took us about 3 months before we settled down. Now we have to keep projects in front of us for motivation. The best part was "NO ALARM CLOCKS" anymore.  

On 4/29/2022 at 12:03 AM, kappydell said:

I don't know if my doc is open to trying to get rid of the cholesterols meds - yet - but I will bne asking her you can bet.  The fewer meds the better.

Maybe she will agree to decrease the amount of the cholesterol drug in the interim and continue regular blood testing.

My honeybees get first dibs on dandelions. 

Hi I am Homey's hubby (a tool and dye maker, machinist) -

I watched the video you referenced and found it to be very informative. Sometimes the Youtube videos can lead you astray, but not this one.

I use 3 different grits of diamond with water. 325, 600, and 1200. I also just measured the pressure I use and found it to be about 4 Lbs. I also use alternating strokes with one pass per side when nearing a sharp condition. It takes time, be patient.

It's harder to get a sharp edge on cheap steel.

I took the bones from the two hams and made ham/bean soup over the weekend. Ended up with 5 quarts of soup. I'm so sick of ham that I'm done with it for the year. 

13 hours ago, Jeepers said:

They could become harder to find this year because of the bird 'sickness' going around.

DH mentioned that a large commercial turkey farm in northern Wisconsin was under attack from bird flu. Five hundred were found dead the first morning. Haven't heard anything since then.   

Last night, I canned up the last ham gifted to us at Easter time. Another 13 pints. I think I'll have about 6 quarts of ham/bean soup to can later today from cooking down the ham bone. I'm trying pinto beans instead of navy beans. Mom would roll over in her grave if she knew I changed the family recipe.

It was an easy decision ... experiment ... as I have pintos by the bucket and Navy beans by the pound.    What's killing me is my lack of inventory of empty canning jars. I stop by the charity shops on occasion and scoop up most of what they have. I also check with friends having estate sales. It's hard to compete against the Amish around here. I certainly don't want to get in a pushing and shoving match at auctions with them. 

So far, lids have been easy to find. It's early in the season. The Chinese knock-offs are hard to use and don't have much of a rubber ring to work with as far as centering them on jars. The local store said to use the Chinese jars with Chinese lids.    Cheep crap!!

13 minutes ago, Midnightmom said:

 

The one (and only) time I tried canning ham I wasn't pleased with the results - the meat got very dark. I believe it tasted okay, but I haven't canned any since. How did yours turn out? Have you opened and sampled a jar? Did it taste okay or was it salty, etc. I have a ham that I bought and I would like to jar up some of the meat instead of slicing it and vacuum sealing it for the freezer, but that one experience has put me off on the idea. BTW- is a ham shank from the store considered "cooked," or should I oven roast it before trying to can it???   

 

 

I don't mind the canned ham. I usually throw it into a pot of cooked beans or make scalloped potatoes and ham. We grow our own potatoes, so there's lots of ways to serve the two together.

I'm not sure about the ham shank from the store. It will say on the outside of the package if its cooked or not. Mine was precooked so I just cut it up in small pieces and placed in pint jars. Don't squish the ham in the jars or they might not heat properly throughout. I poured boiling water over it and pressure cooked for 75 minutes at 10 # pressure. I didn't add any spices. I do that at mealtime.

I watched a video last night on how to pressure can dry beans. You put 1/2 cup dry beans into a pint jar and finish covering it with boiling water to within 1" of the top. Add the inner and outer lids and pop them into the canner and pressure can for 75 minutes. Follow the canner mfg recommendations on water in the canner. This lady did it along with some ham she was processing. The dry beans finished filling her canner and she ended up with a few pints of cooked/canned beans. I'm going to give it a try. I seldom veer away from the Ball book. It's always tested and true.     I do like a full canner, though.