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XO Mom
Heifer Diary #41
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Last night we all convened at Kawanhee Inn for a dinner dance. It was a benefit for the Weld Library and it was in every way a resounding success. There cannot have been fewer than 200 people. DS martin and DIL Amy wewre our hosts. The buffet was excellent and so was the band. It was called Chicken Pie. We all danced a lot, myself included. Only Abby did not attend. She was immersed in moving back down from Weld to DD Sally’s house across the river from me. She is now all moved.
It rained much of yesterday and all of today. The temperature is about 55F.
Yesterday when DIL Amy and the kids and her dad and Glenda and the kids arrived they had Martin’s setter, Milo , with them. Amy and I both forgot he can’t be trusted around chickens. He ran around the yard for about 20 minutes without incident, then so forgot himself as to grab a cockerel and run off with it. We screamed at him but by the time Amy got control of him the chicken could not be saved. I laid the dead bird on a bin in the feed room. This evening when Martin stopped in for supper (the rest of the family has left but he is staying over until tomorrow to go hunting) he rescued the breast of the cockerel. It looks like perfect meat. Martin did not wanted it all wasted.
While here he made a number of improvements to the lighting over at Sally’s house. Abby will not have to go in and out in the dark.
DS Max sent me the following account fromLibby MT
The deer are rutting and there are way too many on the roads. They are mule deer, and, judging by the number of them on the roads, the population seems to be much higher than our white tails inMaine . Yesterday on the way in to work I was behind two vehicles travelling about 60 when we all did a panic stop. The leading car, one of those little economy cars about the size of a VW, had hit a large buck. The woman was OK, but the damage to her car was serious. She was already on the phone and waived off offers of assistance. The buck was sincerely dead. I proceeded on with a heightened sense of readiness. I had to stop twice more to avoid other groups crossing. They are in town almost as much as the highways. In addition to this being rut season, the daylight hours have changed as summer winds down. Now when I travel in to work it is just after dawn. The deer are always on the move at that hour and wherever they are going happens to be on the other side of any given road. Their behavior reminds me of sheep. ”
Max has four and a half more weeks on this job.
Monday, October 01, 2012
It raind last night and most of today but it is not very cold.
This morning there were 22 wild turkeys in the pasture behind the barn.
I made the white meat that Martin rescued into chicken piccata for supper for Abby and me. It was very tasty. I pounded it flat, dredged it with flour and sautéed it in butter with chopped fresh tarragon and paprika. I deglazed the pan with lemon juice. Since the meat had not been aged, it was necessary to pound it to tenderize it. Very successful.
Abby made a marvelous salad with greens from the farmer’s market. She is all moved down now from the lake.
My day was wasted from the standpoint of editing. I spent a lot of time searching for a new book on cheese making that I need as a reference. What can I have done with it? I guess I will skip along to another section until I find it.
Tuesday, October 02, 2012
Every time I go into the garden with my basket I think I won’t find anything to harvest or if it do, it will be the very last things. And then like today I find that the green beens are still coming on and I missed some cucumbers and there were four more fine squashes or pumpkins. So I keep on lugging in more vegetables. I also dug another two hills of white potatoes, which was all I had strength for. There are volunteer parsnips all over the garden and I dug a couple of them although I was sure they would be woody. I just cooked a couple and they are delicious.
But the biggest surprise was the sweet potatoes. . Last winter DD Marcia sent me a few sweet potatoes from CA and DD Sally cut one in half and rooted them in a glass on my window sill. They made vines about 10 ft long. In May I rolled up the vines like wreathes and planted them on the south side of the house against the hot brick wall. They got busy and made a great carpet of dense vines. Today I decided to try digging one up. This was very hard work. The vines would have been safe for Tarzan to swing on I think. But to my amazement I found big beautiful sweet potatoes. I am just amazed. I have never grown sweet potatoes before. I didn’t think they would grow here.
About 4PM Abby came back form a shopping expedition which included a stop at the Free Store. She brought me three excellent pairs of shoes that fit, mirabile dictu.
Then she went to the barn and heard the desperate peeping of a baby chick. Oh dear. Not again. She finally found it and then spent the next half hour looking for its mother. She finally spotted a small hen wedged down among hay bales. This little hen has been trying various spots for weeks to have a nest with eggs but has been sitting on nothing, just persistently broody. She saw the chick that Abby was carrying around and instantly demanded it. It happily went under her. Abby of course provided water and moved bales so it will be able to escape. However she knew there must be a new mother with chicks somewhere and finally located it in another highly inaccessible place This hen probably has a vast number under her but Abby could not see. It will have to move downstairs tomorrow.
The weather today is very warm, about 70F and overcast.
For supper, besides the parsnips and beef liver, we had rice croquettes that Abby made from her beautiful Australian cookbook.
Thursday, October 04, 2012
It has rained all day. Everything is soggy. Abby has set up housekeeping arrangements for two more hens and chicks, as mentioned on Tuesday, and they are thriving. She is out there now topping them up.
We just came back from Weld where we checked on DD Marcia’s camp. On the way home we paused by an abandoned apple tree and she filled a large shopping bag. They seem to be a few bearing trees in Weld. I am hungry for applesauce.
Friday, October 05, 2012
We were told to expect rain but after a cloudy start the sun came out beautifully. The fall colors are lovely now in both misty and bright weather. The recent rains have brought on the grass again and the critters are enjoying it. But I am sorry to report that what I presume to be a raccoon is taking chickens. There was a pile of feathers just inside the barn door this morning. There is a crack wide enough for a fox or a raccoon but Abby says there are feathers upstairs in the loft too. I doubt a fox is going upstairs. I have a Havahart trap here but I did not get it set tonight.
Down in the garden I harvested more marigolds (calendulas) for my tea. They are coming on as fast as ever. I also picked dill and a few more beans. I am still getting things out of the garden despite it being a jungle of weeds.
I finished digging the sweet potatoes. I probably got 10 pounds total from my two vines. I can see why one is told to plant them atop hills. The tubers form so deeply that it is hard to dig them. I don’t even know if I got them all. Abby finished digging the white potatoes yesterday.
Martin sent a picture of Milo from their hunt on Tuesday.
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