Fun with Lilacs!!

Lilac Jelly

4 cups lilac blossoms, green parts removed

4 cups boiling water

8 tablespoons lemon juice

2 packages powdered pectin

8 cups sugar

First, pick all the flowers off the stems...don't leave any of the green or the bugs...

Rinse lilacs and place in a large glass or stainless steal container. Cover with boiling water, cover with a lid and let sit for 24 hours. This will make a nice lilac infusion which smells nice but doesn’t look anything like you would expect. It is murky and either greenish or brownish.  Ours looked like iced tea...and when we tasted it with honey...well, it tasted like tea without the bitterness.

Strain the lilacs, squeezing out the excess water, and discard. Add lemon juice to the infusion, stir in pectin and bring to a boil, stirring frequently.

Add the sugar all at once and bring to a rolling boil. Boil for one minute, skim and pour into jelly jars.  Finish with a 10-Minute Hot Water Bath.

I have read some websites that had their greenish liquid turn vivid pink when they added the lemon...mine didn't :(  I'm not sure if I have defective lemon juice or not...because other websites said nothing about it turning pink.  I actually was hoping it would turn out purple...but it now looks like "tea jelly."  I'll add finished pictures once it cools!  8 half pints and 2 quarter pints done!  We are well on our way of 800 canned.

Lilac Sugar

Make lilac sugar: This is the simplest thing to do, and flavored sugars are always a fancy little treat. Pick some lilac blossoms, clean and not buggy, and sprinkle them in a jar of white sugar, making a few layers, then cap the jar and forget about it for a couple of weeks. For a fancy tea party make little open face sandwiches with a sprinkle of lilac sugar and a few blossoms chopped into cream cheese, and a few petals for garnish, or use the sugar to make shortbread cookies.

Pictures of this once it has sat for 3 weeks and I can take a picture!!

It's....ARTISIAN!

You may have remembered my summer of jelly canning craziness....yes? So I was talking to a friend about some of the unique jellies that I want to try this year.  Another new friend was listening in...and said "What about doing some NORMAL jelly??" 

My friend explained that I canned over 300 jars of "normal" jelly last year and probably still had about 1/2 left after all the Christmas gifts...I loved the stunned new friends face at the number of jars of jelly we did!

So I was relating this conversation to my DH tonight as I was starting to prepare my "fruit" for my first jelly of this year (Stay tuned for the post tomorrow...or the next day...or...) and bless his heart.  He said, "Last year was "normal" jelly...this year it's ARTISIAN jelly."  SMOOCH!  Doncha just love him?!?

What a crazy day! (From 5/12)

Another HOT one!  We're still working on getting the garden in.

We had a wonderful, unexpected blessing.  Yesterday, I was totally upset because the chickens were coming in the garden behind us and eating the things that we had planted.  I even threw my hand shovel at one of them (Don't worry, I have poor aim!)  Shortly after, I sat down totally defeated and trying to figure out what to do...then my Man, who gets emails from Freecycle, said there was a lady in Gahanna that had lots of rolls of  chicken wire left from their Easter pagent at church to give away.  Man emailled back and said that we would give them a great home and we'd love to exchange some eggs for them.

I had to go down to town for yet...another....doctor's appointment, so a time was agreed upon.  What a wonderful Godly lady!  We spent time talking in her driveway and laughing.  Mainly we were giggling because I brought down the little car...Man TOLD me to take the van...but gas is over $4 a gallon so I insisted that however much would fit in the car.  When the nice lady, Mrs.M, saw my car she said, "Maybe you should come see how much I have!"  Gulp!  But I was determined to prove that my car is truly "the little dump truck" as Dad calls it!  Well, we put roll after roll into the car and they kept fitting in there!  Once they were all in, I laughed that it looked like the old wire curlers that my mom had.  She agreed and added, "If the Jolly Green Giant had a wife...these would be her curlers!"

You judge for yourself!!

So...I'm a little behind...

But it's not all my fault...mostly mine...on the 9th, blogger went down for 3 days...and of course it was then that I had time to try to get back on track.  8 days have gone past, but I will try to get you updated and do better for the next 48 days.

Right now I am importing 1756 pictures off of my camera, because each time I go to take a picture, I have to delete an older one.  It is just slightly annoying most of the time, but I have missed a few cute shots because of it.  (and it is REALLY annoying to my DH when he wants to take a picture!)  And you think I am kidding about the number, but no, really it's 1756, and 5 2o second videos of my Boy's Stormy dog that we lost just over a year ago.

May 6th...today was gym day for Boy.  I can't remember what else we did, probably not much since I can't remember it.  I've had quite a few not so great days with my TN, so I spend quite a bit of time laying on my bed wishing the pain away.  Sorry to complain...but it is the truth.

May 7th...I think this was the day the garden got rototilled..WOOHOO!  Soon onto planting.  I can taste those fresh tomatoes already.

May 8th, Mother's Day...spent the morning straightening up the house and yard.  Mom, Dad and my sister came over for a Mother's Day / Birthday Picnic.  My dad & sister's birthdays were in April and this was the earliest I have had them out.  We had hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill...first time this year!  And corn that I processed last year, "angel eggs" (we don't call ours devilled eggs), brownies and chocolate cake made with duck and guinea eggs (They are great in baking, guinea eggs are not yummy hard boiled.) Missing my grandma!

May 9th...off to the doctor.  My family physician is very careful and thoughtful.  I really appreciate her.  She increased the diabetes medicine.  And we did a strength test in my legs to assess if there has been any improvement (no) so still dealing with degenerative disc disease, then she is still positive about the Trigeminal Neuralgia, but is sending me off to a neurologist for his specialized input.  She is slightly concerned that there may be something we are missing since I have continued nerve issues in more than just my face.  So I'll be going through tests to rule out other possiblities, namely MS.

May 10th...Boy broke his front (permanent) tooth, so today we spent waiting...for 2 1/2 hours...to get worked into the dentist.  They took an xray.  And decided that it isn't broken so bad that it is affecting the nerve, and his big tooth hasn't completely moved down, so we will wait...and we will just have crazy pictures until braces and stuff are done then they will cap it once it is in it's perm. place.  I was able to get a bit of laundry done today and started on another of the 101 in 1001 goals.

May 11th..High Day in Nikiverse...TODAY IS MY COUSIN, BFF'S 40TH BIRTHDAY!!  LOVE YOU! My sister came out and she and my son mowed 4.5 of our 5 acres.  They only left the pasture right behind the barn because there are fences down that you can't see and would ruin the mowers.  They both spent over 6 hours working on it...and it was HOT today.  85*  Boy the yard looks great though!  And Man got our tractor going again.  The poor thing has died and been "beyond repair" so many times!

May 12th...another hot one.  Boy and I spent most of the morning working on getting the garden in.  We came up with a really neat system so I didn't have to bend and really overextend myself.  I had his little kid shovel and would step it into the row, tilt it, he'd drop the seed behind the shovel blade as I lifted it back up and the seed would be in.  He did all the bending and we got lots of rows of beans in, in record time.  We noticed that the potatoes that didn't get dug this year have started volunteer plants.  WOOHOO.  Tomatoes are starting to get in and the tomato cages placed from the start.  Last year, my health went south about mid summer, and the tomatoes got big with no supports and were sprawled all over the ground.  What tomatoes the chickens didn't get, we had to dig under massive vines to get...because the rows were also too close so there was just one large area with vines over every inch.  Not this year!

We have both plants that we have gotten from the garden store and some that we started from seed.  Unfortunately, I started them late this year so they are very small...still I am thinking this will be good because maybe it will extend the season.  We'll see.

May 13th...gym day again.  Sold out of eggs!  I sell about 8 dozen at gym each week.  It was in the mid 80s again today and very sunny.  Gym was at the park and the kids played soccer.  Boy LOVES soccer.  He had a great time.  I got to spend time talking with two of my favorite friends from gym. 

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

OK...recurring theme....boy was today busy!!

I push mowed...um....an acre ish of our property.  It was getting long. Boy worked (cough) on his school (I don't think he did much since I wasn't in here watching him.  Then I spent 20 minutes talking to our delivery guy.  He is going to hook me up with some animals!  WOOHOO.

Danny and Iona took a two hour tour of the neighboring farmland...in other words, Iona broke her cable (how???) and Danny took off with her...just like Stormy used to.  One of the caretakers of the local Christian "camps" conference center (which is really big and about 2 miles away) drove up with "Do you have a white dog?"  "Two that are missing, actually."  "Great I have them in my van."  SHEESH!

Boy and Man took a break to go fishing down at our neighbor (and friends) pond.  They have 3-4 year old fish that need fished out.  They got about a dozen BIG blue gill.  You may say...blue gill don't get big....yes, if they are fed for 3 years they do...and they were hitting their lines within 10-20 seconds!

Then I took Boy down to one of the nice metro parks with his buddies (and their sisters and mom) and the boys made Mason Bee Houses and learned about bees.  The funnest part was when his buddy broke the drill bit into his house and the lady running the workshop said "Well, that one will have to stay filled because I don't have any pliers."  My ever prepared farm boy piped up "I Do!!"  Her face was classic...I wish I had taken a picture!  Then Boy went home to spend the night with his friend (I'll pick him up at gym tomorrow.) and since I was in town, I went over to our favorite Mexican restaurant and pick up chicken chimis to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. 

After returning home and stuffing ourselves with chimis...we prayed for our nation as it was also the National Day of Prayer.  I know I forget to pray for our leaders and the folks that got this country into this mess.  I find it hard to pray for our president as I have ZERO respect for him, so it's a little like praying for our enemy , it's a hard thing to do.

Then back outside. I spent an hour picking up sticks and litter from the garden, getting ready for tilling tomorrow (Hopefully) if the rain holds off.  And got the burn barrel going.  I mowed around Ionas opening in the barn until it was completely dark and I couldn't see anymore.  Finally I gave up.  We don't get these nice days much lately so I want to use it all up!  They are calling for another 5-7 days of rain.  Good for mid season gardening...not so much for trying to get the garden in. 

Then Danny Dog got a bath, followed by my shower.  Now I am updating you...and soon..SLEEP!

Tomorrow is another busy day!  I'll try to update some pictures this weekend.

Love ya!

May 4th!

Finally...no rain...at least so far.  I've collected 24 eggs, and 2 duck eggs.  Boy just came to tell me he found a big nest of them in the grain barn breeze way.  As soon as he brings them in, I'll "float" them to find out if they are good....

Did you know, if you put an egg in water (it has to be over the egg), if it lays horizontally on the bottom that it is freshly laid (within a few days).  If the end tips up a bit, it is still good, just older than a week.  These are the ones best for hard boiling (Fresh eggs are very difficult to peel, you need it to be a week / 10 days - store eggs are almost always this old)  If they float...throw them out!! Don't crack them either!

Later today, Boy has his Dualathon.  I think they run a mile, bike 2 miles, then run another mile.

I have optimistically changed my clothes around from my winter to summer clothes.  Culled out clothes that I haven't worn or don't fit.  I'll take them with me to church with me tonight for the Grace Clothes Closet...and will be accomplishing one thing on my 101 list...woohoo!

More updates later!

May 3rd

Today was a busy day....Boy went with his 'girlfriend' and her family to the Aquarium today.  So we were up at the crack of dawn....

I did Boy's outside chores...in the rain...ok...enough with the rain....

I planted another 8 crowns of asparagus for next year.  Did you know that asparagus needs to be cut in the first day after it has emerged?  It does...too much longer and it becomes seed.  A well maintained asparagus patch can last about 20 years!!  We've eaten at least 3 meals with asparagus...and have frozen one day's worth.

I found a new hiding place for eggs.  1 1/2 dozen today...and 5 duck eggs.

The baby chicks are getting bigger.  They now have their grown feathers.  I could take the heat light off of them, but am going to wait a few more days as they are calling for a few more really cold nights.

The kittens are doing well...I put them in a rabbit cage so the big chickens would quite eating their food before they got to it. 

All the rain has made the barn really wet and soggy.  There is a leak in the roof...somewhere up there and there is a pond in the middle of the barn.  There are a few more "ponds" in various areas of the farm yard as well...not exactly where I wanted the pond....but the ducks are loving it.

I am on waiting lists all over the county for animals.  On a waiting list to get 4 turkey poults (babies) next week.  On a list to get 2 beef calves (bottle babies) in July.  Just missed my chance to get a few squealers (baby pigs) yesterday...snap!  Back on the hunt.  Looking for a few reasonably priced goats, a dairy cow (Hopefully in milk, if not, at least bred...sadly, both are expensive and difficult to find),  and a mower.

Tomorrow I will be researching moveable electric fence to put the plans in motion.

Haven't been getting as much done as I would have hoped because I still have frequent "attacks" that seem to take me out...or at least leave me with a doozy of a headache!

Off to go pick up my Boy from his friend's house and hear all about the aquarium.

Why #62 was changed on the list

Originally on my 101 list was "Put up a Martin House." In doing some research, I've discovered that the Martins are not actually quite what I've been lead to believe....

#1 Martins fly and catch insects during the day....mosquitoes fly at night....so really only the mosquitoes that are not wrapped right actually get caught by Martins.

#2 Martins DO catch insects during the day...but the majority of their diet are the beneficial bugs of the garden.

#3 Martins catch honeybees....OK...no Martins on the Wallace Homestead!  We like our bees!

In exchange, I have changed #62 to hang two bat houses. 

#1 Bats DO fly at night...and eat those pesky skeeters!

#2 Bats do not eat the beneficial garden bugs.

#3 Honeybees are safe in the hive at night.

Happy May Day!

Happy First Day of May!

Well, we're off to a good start at least.  Today was warmish...and only some sprinkles...waiting for the storm to go through tonight and then they promise a few days of no rain.  That'd be nice.  I'd love to send some of this wet to Texas where they need it.

This morning was a nice morning at church, followed by not much of anything.  I was hoping to go down to a really great friend of my's Surprise 40th Birthday Party, but alas, I had a pretty good attack and had to sleep it off and missed it.  Dang!

We got 25 eggs today, and we ate eggs and asparagus for breakfast...both right from out of the yard!  I looked into getting a few cows today.  Still waiting to hear from the one guy and the other I haven't emailled yet as he has two bottle babies and I'm waiting to hear from the one with the cow already in milk....We had a big wind storm three nights ago (60-70 mph winds) and so today I walked around the farm and found a big tree down on one of the few fences that didn't need repaired (of course-grin) and another down out by the chicken house.  No animal losses-Thank you God for watching out for our critters.

We've been wondering why cars slow down in front of our house....first it was because of the potholes that would take out your front end...now it's because either they are watching the ducks playing in the makeshift pond at the end of the driveway.will get a picture of that tomorrow!...or because the ducks think they own the road...and...take...their...time...crossing....  I think I am going to have to go to a sign shop and get a duck crossing safety sign to put up!

Tomorrow, I plan to post why I removed the Martin House from my 101 list.

Quick Saturday Updates

So here it is the end of April...obviously it wasn't this month that I posted faithfully as promised in my 101 list...May...May will be the month!  (Oh, and there are updates on the 101 list-I'm slowly working on it as health allows.)

I wanted to do a quick list of what is going on here at the farm, in our little world, etc..(my BFF did a bulleted list and I thought...what a great idea!)

• Boy's play is today.  It is so cute.  He ended up being "Fozzy bear" from the Muppets.  I've had several mom's tell me that they knew he wanted to be Elmer, but that he was the perfect choice for Fozzy...."Hey..Ker....mit! Wakka, wakka, wakka"  They did it yesterday for the video cameras...today for an audience.
• My parents are back from their winter hideaway.  Glad to have them home.
• Easter was a quiet affair this year, because I got signals crossed.  So Boy cooked his first holiday meal and did a great job.
• I've had 3 more doctor appointments since I last posted.  Still have TN.  Still have depression aggravated by having TN.  Went to see another Dr last evening...changed meds yet again.  I'm sure they will figure out the right cocktail soon.  Another appointment next week (?) to be referred out to the neuralogist (sp?) as the attacks are still doing a number.
• We have two ducks sitting on nests.  They were the from the clutch of ducklings from last year.  We still have two drakes, but "Duck Stew" is going to be going to the processor soon along with a few of the hens.  I've never had duck, but have heard that Muscovy is the least 'greasy' of the ducks. 
• We are now getting about a dozen and a half eggs a day...along with a few random guinea and duck eggs.  But it is an egg hunt on a daily basis.  They have picked a few odd places around the farm that they all seem to like to lay, so we have to check the corner of  Boy's club house (horse stall), in the rabbit nest boxes (that are in storage), the corner under the rabbitry, oh and 2 out of the 12 nest boxes.
• We still have both kittens.  I took them out of the chicken brooder and put them in their own cage.  We I went back later, I apparently didn't latch the cage well because they were both gone.  After hunting through the barn (in the dark--only with a headlamp) I gave up and went to check on the baby chicks....only to find the kittens in the sleeping pile of chicks...Oh well!
• The garden is about to go in.  We've been working (in between the periods of pouring rain) to get all the stuff yanked out.  I'm going to try a different method of planting this year.  I was told by a local, that if you till the soil, it restarts the horseweed (otherwise known as ragweed!),  So at least in the tomatoes and peppers, I'll only till the rows where the plants are going and leave the rest untilled.  
• The root veggie patch will still be completely tilled.  I've chosen a new area to add corn.
• We are about to add some bigger animals.  We will be using Joel Salatin's model to have moveable pastures to grown broilers (chickens), a dairy cow and a few mowers (goats).  Possibly even a "salad bar beef" (Grass fed meat) cow, and a few pigs.  Also, we are scheduled to go look as some meat rabbits. (New Zealands this time.)
• This week will be getting the rabbitry bleached and sanitized for the new rabbits.
• Both the push mower and riding mower refuse to start and have taken the last spin, so we are looking for a cheap mower until the animals can get the fields under control.
• We have gotten a set of solar panels that we are excited to figure out!
• I have found some crazy ideas on the internet that I am going to see if I can make work here.  I'll keep you updated on this...but one of them involves lots of pop bottles, another a bunch of cans!  Good thing we like soda pop!
• We watched a DVD the other night, Food, Inc that reinforced our position of eating locally and in season.  I am still going to the grocery store...and I know our sodas are not healthy or local, but that seems to be the only thing I am buying there anymore.
• I changed the 1001 cupcakes on my 101 list to 800 jars canned.  And I have some unusual recipes for new jellies this year!

Well, my bulleted list is just as long as a regular post. And I'm not done!!  No, I'm not wordy at all!!  :)  I WILL POST EVERY DAY in May!!   Even if it is only short.  Tune in.

Really...we aren't cat people....

So I'm driving home in the dark last night...going down our country road.  There was a car ahead of me and I see him swerve.  So I slow a bit down and then see what he was trying to avoid.  Two very small crawling things in the road.  VERY SMALL.  I missed them and then stopped.  Wrestled with myself...look into my feeble mind  "we are NOT cat people.  Boy and Man are very allergic to them...Man worse than Boy.  We do NOT need another mouth to feed.  But they are so small..and it's supposed to get down to 35* tonight...I can't believe someone would dump kittens on a country road...we do NOT need cats...well maybe one as a mouser in the barn might be alright....no one is taking cats...if they go to the pound....I could put them on Craigslist.  No Cats!! " Meanwhile Boy is sitting there "Mom, what are you doing?  Why are we just sitting here? Where are you going?  What's that?  Mom?!?  A cat!  Another cat!! Can I keep them??"

The black one is "Tom" and the Honey-colored one is "Molly".  We put them in a box in the chick brooder last night to keep them warm.  The box seemed to come up to the mesh, but this morning we found Molly..

Sleeping with the chicks!!

More BEEZZZZZ

This morning, my DH said that he thought all my bees were gone.  Couldn't hear anything.  Bummer.

Then they left for the first fishing trip of the spring/summer and left me home with my cold.  Yes, isn't that fun!  My new anti-seizure meds lower my immunity and make me more likely to get...well....anything, it seems.

Anyway, as I lay on the couch feeling like a slug...I though..let's go check on the bees.  There are some flying in and out....ones with "saddlebags".  When a bee is heavy with pollen, it is all on their back thighs looking like yellow, orange saddlebags.  They are neat to see and the color seems to depend on what kind of pollen they are finding.  The weather channels pollen report says there is no pollen currently...my bees do NOT agree.

So, let's crack it open and take a look.  Crack is literal, because bees make a glue that glues all the wood together and you have to use a tool to break the seal.  The top "hive body" is basically empty with a dozen or so bees....hmm....I'm not so sure about this...

Bottom body....full of bees!

I was slightly impressed with myself as I had only planned to peek, so I didn't take the smoker or my veil.  And I sat down with a chair and went through each frame pulling it out to look for the queen.  I couldn't find her, so I may need to find me a queen soon.  I'll give it a few more days and check again.  There were a few clusters that she may have been in. 

With no veil!  There was buzzing in my ears and them flying all around me.  I kept calm and just slowly went about what I was doing being VERY careful not to kill any of them.  That's what sets off the alarm that makes 'em ALL mad.  Danny, the dog, was not as successful as I think he was stung a few times for sticking his nose where it didn't belong.

I tried to get a picture of a "saddlebag'ed" bee, but it was quick to get busy loading it into the hive.
And what we always want....

HONEY!!!

So now I am back inside, reading some of my bee books and getting excited and wanting to make bee soap (honey soap) and candles, and eating bread made from our fresh ground wheat, eggs from the back yard, and honey from the front yard.  WHAT FUN!

My 1st Pie.

I wasn't going to make a big deal out of this, but both Boy and Man told me I HAD to take a picture of my first pie for the blog.

I dressed up left overs to make chicken pot pie....