Processing the Harvest

OK - no talk of Leibniz and Bomber Harris, existential or ontological worries.....

But chickens - they ate my pansies in the first two big pots, and the petunias in another, in front of my house wile we were at the dentist today. My wife was very annoyed = and we have resolved to fence them a bit. I have a couple hundred foot of 3 or 4 foot tall wire so will have to snip their wings too; something I have resisted. They ate my veg garden twice this autumn - eat all kinds of ornamentals, dig in my berry and asparagus beds, just are bad birds.

Also if you remember my opossum in the hen house



(me holding him by the tail) well he thinks he is a chicken and enters through a hole in the roof wire and eats from their bowl every night -it drives the dogs mad, him inside and out of their reach. He has been a fixture for so long I am not sure of what to do with him - but it is time a couple rosters went definitely. Also the goat is back as a possible plan. I ran into the man who was going to sell it to me and he said I need to get it. And I talked to a family who kind of live a Good Neighbours leaning life and they want to go in on it with us. (tiny back garden in suburbia and 20 chickens)

 

Colne, I don't need television or newspapers to keep in touch with the misery that's happening around the world, although I do listen to the radio very occasionally. Most of what's printed is either 'yesterdays' news or lies anyway. I am of similar age to yourself and already know enough about the world that I live in, I haven't buried my head in the sand. Also, like yourself I do read books, but that is selective reading.

 

"Also, like yourself I do read books, but that is selective reading."

I seem to be on a Churchill biography/historical kick although I plan to slog through 'The Seven Pillars of Wisdom' again in a bit, I have a first edition I stumbled on at a library used book sale and it is by my bed.

And am on the Tehran meeting (Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill), wild reading as the three men planned the destinies of 2 billion people and 16 million in uniform and the largest war machines ever even conceived of, let alone actually built. Roosevelt continued his weird devotion to Chiang Ki Chek, Stalin was openly a land grabbing psycho, and Churchill; being dwarfed in the company and sick with flu, a suck up. And so the world was carved up = a Sykes Picot agreement for Europe.

And it is lovely outside; the drought continues - not a destructive one, but we are very down on the annual rain and the surface water table is lower than I have seen it since having the pond. I am thinking of trying to extend my well another 40 feet to get better water. If you recall I 'jetted' in my well through 45 foot of blue clay - arduous, but very cheap. I bought a jetting 'well point' (the end of the well casing which has the slits or holes in it that allow the water to enter. A jetting point allows a waterline to jet out of the end to melt the soil and let the point dig itself.) And by tapping into the main city water line and running a supply to where I was putting in the well I worked the casing through the clay to the aquifer with this pressurized water jet, down to the aquifer is as far as it will work - (sand or gravel which allows the flow of water). Naturally once the jetting well point enters the aquifer it stops and that is it - because the water being forced down just goes into the aquifer sand as it will flow into the well casing when pumping water from the well. So I am thinking of using a hammer driven steel well point, building a drop hammer, and driving a steel casing through my PVC casing down the 45 foot - hammer it right through the plastic well point, and another 45 foot deeper - obviously hammering through the aquifer is easy, it is sand full of water.

This is putting in the well - see the continuous 3/4 inch line from the city water going into the 2 inch well casing being jetted down? I had to lift and drop the 2 inch casing thousands of times, and it was heavy - going about, 1/8 inch gained a drop, as the water jetted into the clay. As needed - I glued on more casing or water line and went further down.




See; the clay I penetrated acts as a cap on the aquifer so all the off things are floated against it - I get some oil from the well as a light skim on the pond after pumping it up which soon is gone with the fountain from the bio filter splashing, also the water is lightly carbonated and full of iron - so I wish to go deeper to get better water. Here excellent water is about 150 foot, but I could get 90 foot (they say 50 foot is the most one can drop hammer a steel well point - and I have 45 already in my 2 inch PVC well casing. (I would use a 1.5 inch well point and steel casing to go inside my casing and drive deeper.)

So another project. I do know the harvest from us hobbyists is almost always more expensive than just buying - but I cannot help my self from growing and manipulating nature - it is what being alive is about as far as I can figure, messing about with nature as we are a fleeting bit of nature ourselves.

 

Dentist again! Friday, Monday, and today. 3 visits in 1 week and a full cleaning, exam, Xrays, 2 old fillings ground out and replaced and a crown started - all because my dental insurance rolls over Jan 1 and the $1200 of matching funds one can get per year is use it or lose it. In case interested - the USA insurance I have basically costs $450 per year and gives you two $200 cleanings and exams per year free; which pays for the insurance - then one gets all x-rays, anesthesia, exams, free - and regular dental work at a greatly reduced price and root canals, bridges, crowns, at 1/2 price till your max of $1200 is used. Teeth are expensive but I have always kept up with them even when poor; thankfully. How does it work in UK now? (my share of the fillings replaced was $106 for two and $407 for the crown - half price, the rest free (the free counts towards the $1200 - and I used it all up)) I have a top of the line woman dentist who keeps 3 chairs full, and also 2 cleaning/exam rooms. A total of five sets of top of the line X ray machines and top everything equipment. They have a hand massage woman if you wish, fresh citrus water or any kind of tea/coffee And she has 8+ techs and receptionists all going with her alone as the dentist! And she is expensive because her reputation is very high. It is an awesome place.

I remember at 12 getting braces at the University of Bologna Dental School as a topic of lecture for orthodontics. It was agonizing! My mouth held stretched open with a stainless steel clamping device wile orthodontic braces were applied and the students filed past having a look at each stage as the endless lecture was given in Italian. This was done over several trips. I remember the great big man doing it had hairy hands and arms like some primate relative - although I was focused on them closely.

And sorry for being off topic again - chickens were bad, Jack was bad a bit, I bought 150 pounds of chicken food, checked well point and steel pipe costs, picked kale to have with my Rogan Josh dinner tonight, and the day is over.

 

TOO LONG DO NOT READ:

So similarish Shiney.... My out of pocket for this year, and most years is $450 each/dental insurance - then $120 each for optical, then about $500/ month (but wife gets it through employer and only pays $38/month) for medical insurance, then $450 each per year for our personal physician - then about $600 each for the dental co payments for crowns and such and $ 35 co payment for glasses and then more here and there ($16 for flu shot, prescription drugs...) and on and on till I wonder how I do it because money is hard, never eat out or such luxuries. Then I have 9 different insurance policies on buildings (here we have flood, wind, and fire insurance as separate policies,,,,,,,,,hurricane country. And two on vehicles and a blanket personal liability insurance of $1,000,000 in case I do some inconceivable thing and get sued. (I have been sued a couple times but never had the liability insurance help. - and have sued several people too) (I own a very unsuccessful bar which used to be a pentecostal church. I owned it when it was a church too and loved to listen to the music which would go on for hours (Guatemalan preacher, Hispanic congregation) playing their music (full band equipment and lovely, very long biblical stories done in Spanish in an amazing liturgical chant, and some sort of polka music with accordion, snare drum, base and guitar to get the energy back up towards the end of the service)

And then TAXES! yearly realestate taxes are based on property value and all my bits and pieces are a terrible millstone, well over $5000 per year (way less than the insurance though)

Finally I sleep with a .44 mag under my bed and chihuahuas and Jack and Flora as security alarms - and keep meaning to get my concealed carry permit - I really need to get my wife a permit because she has a purse so carrying is easy. That is $135 for a 3 year permit, and then $50 to renew it every 3 years. No pet insurance though.

I am up in the middle of the night working out Firefox for my browser as Explorer 11 was a nightmare! But I am beating Windows 8.1 pretty well. I just kept staying and staying up trying to iron out firefox and still can only get it to work in secure mode when I use my VPN. And my tooth aches so I took an old Oxycontin left from an extraction last year, and a benzoidiazepine so off to bed.

Life is so much red tape and vast costs mitigating risk - necessary though. But interesting how it differs on the other sides of the Atlantic. My parents being in their 90's in UK do have it easy on many things though. Britain is very good to elderly if they also have some income of their own. When I get more old it will get very tough here. Probably be a bounty on us.

So here is a picture of processing the harvest to justify this post:



Heading shrimp.

 

This is a quick question to any jam person - quick because I am about to start - what do you think about adding kumquat slices (as I do with marmalade) to blackberry jam? Just for fun. I have 5 pounds of blackberries thawed and am about to begin them.

Also I was thinking of adding some blueberries too possibly - I have a last 1/2 gallon in the freezer, say adding a pound. - will it all be getting too confusing? I have a load of lemons, should I add one too? Peel zested? Juice?

 

OK - cannot find camera but latest news: Those 5 kumquat trees I bought for $5 each are calamanders! I just picked 6 ounces from one and started slicing them to find they are not kumquats as marked. Kumquats are most common here, they are cold tolerant unlike calamanders, and pithy inside, one eats them peel and all and mostly sweet. Calamanders are like tiny tangerines but sour as lemons with a satsuma flavor and very jucy. They both make excellent marmalade though. I have them sliced and pre boiling to tenderize the peel and the entire house is scented with them.

From wiki:

"
The fruits are sometimes sour and are primarily used for cooking.[5]


Foliage
The Calamondin bears a small citrus fruit that is used to flavor foods and drinks. Despite its outer appearance and its aroma, the taste of the fruit itself is quite sour, although the peel is sweet. Eating a whole fruit has a surprise with the combination of sweet and sour. Calamondin marmalade can be made in the same way as orange marmalade. Like other citrus fruits, the calamondin is high in vitamin C.[6]

The fruit can be frozen whole and used as ice cubes in beverages such as tea, soft drinks, water, and cocktails. The juice can be used in place of that of the common Persian lime (also called Bearss lime).[7] The juice is extracted by crushing the whole fruit, and makes a flavorful drink similar to lemonade. A liqueur can be made from the whole fruits, in combination with vodka and suga"

 

Well Gardner's corner just blasted my last post - odd, getting sick of me likely.

So live jam making: 6 oz sliced calandondin, 6 oz water boiled to tenderize peel. 5 lb berries, 4 lb sugar, 6 oz calamander, The C simmered a bit first to develop pectin and tenderize. See the tiny calamander -







And together, just getting boiling now - Jenny had your - I think it is 'Dance of the Goblins' with a Disney spin, on. Maybe that was what got into my machine and dropped my last post. So I am cooking it slow and think I may leave all the black berry in the jam this time - seeds and all. The Kioa blackberrys are huge, and their seeds are too - but why not.

It is simmering as I type, the jars are in the dishwasher where I cycled them through (and the dishes too) and will soon have a big pot ready for the water bath canning. It may take forever to get jelling temp though lots of liquid - I have a saucer in the freezer to try and tell if it is ready.

 

I make a loaf for a guy who has an orchard and we "trade" goods. They love a nice warm loaf and we can choose fresh veg or orchard fruit but today, as we didn't choose anything last Saturday, we had a nice jar of local honey ( twice the value of my bread) in exchange,
Jenny
this :

in exchange for this :

 

Shiney - no not censored - just vaporized when I hit post. I was taken back to my old post which then appeared twice - it reposted my previous post and dropped my current post so I had to rewrite; I blame Firefox in combination with my VPN as they together are a deck with wild cards.

(edited by me as being too off topic)

Also I like calamanders - virtually a ornamental Christmas tree with its massed bright orange fruit. They apparently are used extensively in the cooking in the East. These $5 trees (originally $20) were marked with a calamander tag from the nursery but then the great big Walmart tag saying Kumquat. I am happy with them unless they are killed by a hard freeze right away - they are not so frost hardy when young.

Beautiful loaf as always Jenny - I actually bought a bag of bread flour yesterday. I made bread for years with hand kneading - easy but it makes a mess on the counter top, doubly so as mine have so much stuff on them. Not so pretty a loaf as yours though. What ingredients should I use for a basic white loaf cooked without a loaf pan.

My jam is fine and I like the seeds - and I regret I did not use 12 oz of calamander, the citrus is there if you look for the flavor but I would like it stronger. Also every one showing pictures here have such immaculate kitchens! I look at mine and disrepair.

I was supposed to do a carpentry job today but my helper did not call - so gardening. Plant more stuff, in a moment of weakness I bought another batch of 75% off plants last evening.

Also reading of Neolithic Britain turning to Bronze and then Iron age. I had the amazing good luck to be part of an archeological dig of an Iron Age Broch in Orkney and always love stumbling on anything of those times. I used to often have a cigar in my teeth those days and the head archeologist was always after me to use great caution with ash less I cause havoc with Carbon 14. Jenny - must be fascinating to be where you are!