December Busyness!

So far this has been a real busy month for us.   It's been enjoyable "fun busyness" for me, and "hard work" busyness for Harold!  He has been working on our old black pickup, Chevy Silverado 1993 vintage.  It had various problems, but he discovered the real problem was a blown head gasket.  Harold said he could fix this himself, and proceeded to buy $108 dollars worth of parts to fix the problem.   Now the poor old Chevy has her guts all over his shop, and he has been working for days to disassemble, clean, and put back together the engine.  He had most of the tools needed, but had to borrow a torque wrench from a neighbor.   Two of our neighborhood guys have been stopping by to help Harold and give advice.  We can't afford a new truck, and even a good used one is beyond our means right now, so hopefully Harold can fix "old blackie".  We need something with 4 wheel drive out here where we live, for winter driving.  My16 yr old car and our other pickup doesn't have 4 wheel drive.   So we really need our Silverado to be fixed.   I have confidence in Harold - he can do anything!

Here is what he is working on - looks like a confusing mish-mash to me!

Poor old "blackie" is all torn apart in his shop.

Harold is hard at work on the engine.

He is smiling anyway!  Things must be going well!

Harold took a picture of me working on the engine!  Um.......I think this photo would be considered "fake news" for sure!

Harold keeps his shop nice and warm with this old barrel stove.

So while Harold is working away in his shop, I am busy at home baking and decorating and cooking and just enjoying everything about Christmas!  I love to try new recipes, make new things to decorate the house with, and spend evenings reading from the many shelves of Christmas books I have collected over the years.   A cup of tea or hot cider, and a good Christmas story book and sitting in my comfy chair in the library - that's so relaxing!

I have 3 large shelves of Christmas books, as well as several Christmas cookbooks on other shelves.

One of my favorite things to do is bake cookies:

Here is a batch of favorite Peanut Blossom Cookies.

The house is so cozy now with lights and decorations all over.  Every year I put my village houses in the bay window.

Here is one view of my village in the window.

Here is a view looking the other way.

This year I put the tree in our dining area.   I've had this same artificial tree for 17 years now.  A few years ago I crocheted the tree skirt for it.

And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without my favorite candy!  I just love those raspberry filled hard candies.   A person can only buy them around the holidays.  So this year I bought 7 bags of them! (should last me a while!)    I remember my grandfather always had these in a candy dish at his house at Christmas and I ate plenty of them as a kid.

My absolute favorite Christmas candy!  Raspberry filled hard candies!

The remaining time until Christmas will be spent mailing out packages of goodies to family and friends, and doing a little more cooking and baking.  We usually have neighbors over for coffee almost every day, and so far the cookies and goodies have been disappearing quickly!  This gives me another excuse to bake!  Later this week I will make lefsa and pierogies.
     So many folks get stressed out during the holidays, but I try to enjoy every aspect of the season.  This coming Sunday our church is having a Christmas program.  I will be playing special music for that on the organ and bowed psaltery.  We are having a special holiday pot luck, too.  During the week I listen to my collection of Christmas CD's on the radio/cd player in my kitchen.   This gets me in the holiday spirit.  On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we will be visiting via Skype with family members who are far away, and spending time with good friends.   But most of all I will be reading about that first Christmas in Bethlehem once again, and thanking the Lord for the gift He has given to all of us - His Son and salvation!  Merry Christmas to everyone! 

The Final Word on the 2017 Popcorn Saga

I just spent the entire afternoon putting our popcorn crop into quart jars for storage.  We ended up with 38 quart jars filled to the brim, and then some in smaller jars.   That's a lot of popcorn!  We have already given away several quarts before this afternoon, and we have popped at least a quart of corn doing our testing.  The popcorn is consistently popping well with just a minimal amount of "old maids", so we figured the popcorn is dry enough (or moist enough).  Popcorn is supposed to have about 14% humidity to pop well, and how can we figure that without special equipment?  So we just test pop some and if it works well, then we call it 'done'.  I store the popcorn in glass jars as that keeps the humidity well. 

For Christmas this year, lots of friends and family will get popcorn for a gift! (psst!  Don't tell them!  Ha!)  I will present a jar full to local folks, and when I send the popcorn, I will transfer it to lightweight ziplock baggies for mailing purposes.  We will save plenty for our own use - popcorn makes great "Scrabble Food".  In the spring we will bag up some in 1 lb bags to sell at our farmer's market booth.  We ended up with over 77 lbs of popcorn.

Here is what 33 of the jars looked like:

This is what is left AFTER saving some jars for ourselves and after giving away some.  Many of these jars will become Christmas gifts, which I will package up and decorate nicely.   Our popcorn is organic, too, as we do not use any sprays here on the farm.  It's not as perfect as professional popcorn processed with machines, but I can guarantee it is a lot cleaner!

 Now that our garden harvest is officially complete, I can concentrate on Christmas baking and gift giving and wrapping.  I also have three of my Christmas accordion shows to do within the month at various assisted living centers.  I play popular holiday music and wear really funny hats to go along with the music.  It gets folks laughing and feeling good, and that's the whole point of the show.  I also want to make a good batch of that Norwegian specialty - lefsa!  My Christmas gifts this year will all be homemade or baked - I absolutely hate shopping!  The mere thought of going to the mall or one of those big box stores to fight the crowds gives me a headache just thinking about it.   Besides, most folks already have everything they need.  Almost everyone appreciates food gifts or something made with love and thoughtfulness.  And as for little kids' gifts, everything they want costs way more than my budget allows.  Have you seen the prices of toys these days?  Little ones will have to get "grandma gifts" and you know - I think they also like those better.   They get plenty of toys from their parents.   Don't you think Christmas has become way too commercialized?  I do.

Winter Came Early this Year

I haven't been here writing much lately, because nothing much has been happening.  Winter came early for us this year.   Both the snow and the cold.  We've had snow on the ground since a little before Halloween, and we've had temps in the single digits already.   Tonight we are supposed to get another inch or so of snow and the overnight low will be below zero.   And more snow is also predicted for Friday - it just keeps accumulating.    Even the lake is frozen and snow covered already:

Two Squaw Lake is already iced over and snow covered.  This is about a month earlier than usual.

Even our driveway is covered in snow:

Our snow covered driveway.   Harold has the tractor tire chains laid out (see bottom left of photo) to put on his tractor/loader this afternoon.

A person can't do much outside - except hunt and cut wood, that is!  This is the big "deer hunting time" here in Minnesota.   We allow neighborhood hunters access to our land for hunting purposes, and they stop by to visit and tell stories of their successes or lack thereof.   The coffee pot stays busy, the cookie jar needs filling and we entertain a lot at this time.  I keep plenty of cocoa and hot cider mix on hand, too, to warm up cold hunters.  Another round of folks are due to come up this weekend, so we'll be busy again entertaining hunters and friends.  Harold doesn't hunt, but we usually get a generous amount of deer meat given to us.  There's way too many deer around here, and so I don't mind when the hunters thin out the herd.   There will be less critters to eat up my gardens next spring!
    
The cookie jar was empty again, so today I made Snickerdoodles, one of my favorite cookies.   Just about everyone loves these buttery tasty cookies.   I always make a double batch because a single recipe is usually gone within the hour when guests come over for coffee!  All winter long, we Minnesotans drink lots of black coffee and eat plenty of goodies and solve the world's problems from inside our warm kitchens.

A batch of Snickerdoodle cookies cooling.

Pretty soon instead of cookies I will be making a good sized batch of Lefsa, that delicious Norwegian specialty made from mashed potatoes.

So that's what has been happening here lately - lots of talk, lots of coffee, lots of talking about the weather and deer.   Does life get any better?  Or easier?

Northern Redneck Fun

So yesterday a couple of the neighborhood guys came over to test out their wood splitting machines in a sort of contest to see who had the 'best' wood splitter.  They wanted "unbiased" wood - that is, wood that neither of them had originally cut.  They decided that Harold's un-split wood would be unbiased enough! Here were the contestants:

Neighbor Frank brought his Black Diamond wood splitter and demonstrates with a huge log piece.

Neighbor Don brought his homemade splitter he bought at an auction .

This view shows the relative sizes of both of them.

Don's splitter did a pretty good job at most everything.

Harold and Don watched the performance of Frank's splitter.

Basically both machines did about the same job at pretty much the same speed.  The only deciding factor was when Harold tested each one with a small log to cross split, instead of splitting with the grain.

Harold tested each machine with a small log to cross cut.  Don's splitter did the job in one try, whereas Frank's took 3 tries to get the job done.

 So Don's machine was declared the winner, although all the guys admitted that both splitters were pretty much the same.   The best part of all this?  Harold got his wood split for free!  As we say here in the north country:  "That's a heckuva deal, ey?" (We're close enough to Canada to add the ey after a sentence, although the Canadians spell it eh).  Harold has a wood splitter, too, but his needs a new pump and valves.  He uses the hydraulics on his tractor/loader to power his in the woods.   All the "old man" neighbor guys, including Harold, need a wood splitter!  Splitting wood with an ax by hand is for young men with young muscles!  Old guys have to split wood the smart way! 

Speaking of up north fun, Harold and I started shelling out the popcorn we harvested a while back.   We borrowed Frank's antique corn sheller.  

Getting a start on shelling out popcorn ears. 

A close up of the sheller. 

 

A side view of the sheller.

We decided most of the corn needed a little more drying before it would go through the sheller without tearing up the ear, so we will continue in a few days.  We anticipate another 100 lbs or more of popcorn this year.

Corn Husk Dolls and Other Things

One day after harvesting all the popcorn I looked at the big piles of husks in the yard and thought "I should do something with that".  Sure, I could have put all the husks into compost, but corn husks take a long time to rot and half of them were scattered all over the yard anyway from all the strong winds we had last week.  So I remembered seeing corn husk dolls in various crafting books and thought I would try my hand at making them!
     Here is what I started with:

A big pile of dry husks waiting for my imagination.

     Corn husk dolls were probably first made by the Native Americans in the northeast, but many other Native American tribes made them throughout the centuries.   The early New England settlers made them, learning the craft from the Native tribes of the area.  The pioneer ladies made them for toys for the children as money was scarce.   The Appalachian folks took the art of corn husk doll making seriously and made many intricate doll designs.   But European cultures also made corn husk dolls, and Mexican women today make especially fancy dolls, using dyes to color the husks, and adding jewels, ribbons, and silk to create intricate dolls.

     I decided to just stick to simple American folk art designs.  A little study on the internet taught me the basics of several different ways of doing this.  So here is my first attempt at corn husk doll making:

These girls are a little rough looking, but they didn't turn out too ugly for a first try! I put faces on them, but decided that my artistic talents weren't so hot for painting on faces!

The second evening, yielded these dolls:

These look a little better, and I was still trying to decide if faces were needed or not.  At least I was getting quicker at making corn husk dolls.

The third evening I was getting a little better yet:

Here is a pioneer lady with her big sunbonnet hat.  Her dress turned out a little better, too.

So here is a picture of the whole group of dolls I made.

I got bored with making dolls and decided to see what else I could do with corn husks.  I decided to make a wreath.  I do love fall decorations, and I needed a new wreath.  Being a person who likes to make "something from nothing", I gathered more corn husks from the yard.   Here is what I ended up with:

My new corn husk wreath!  I cut 1/2 inch strips of husks, moistened them in water, and tied them onto a thin metal coat hanger made into a circle.  Then I added some bittersweet sprigs from down the road, and a small ornament from a long ago wreath and some bright orange silk ribbon.   This is hanging in my living room.

I still had some corn husks left and a quick search on Pinterest gave me this idea:

I made a corn husk "broom" using a twig from trimmings off our Nanking cherry tree.  I think it looks cute next to my potato cabinet and dresses up a corner of the kitchen with more fall color and decor.

This whole experiment just goes to show a person that there is no need to spend big dollars to decorate for fall and make a home cozy.  Just using what is available and a little imagination can produce decorative items that are unique, and that you can't find anywhere else.   Besides, I really hate shopping, but I DO love to decorate for fall.   Fall is my favorite time of year - the bright leaf colors and cool temperatures and no bugs make for a very enjoyable season!

Drying the Harvest

I have trays, tables and boxes of things drying all over the house!  Some days I think I either need a bigger house, or at least a large room with tables and shelves all around just for drying produce!  Or maybe a big outdoor drying shed?  Right now I have tables full of popcorn ears, trays of beans, boxes of onions, and cloths full of herbs in various stages of drying.  Besides canning and freezing, much of our produce is preserved by drying.   The herbs are easy to dry - the method is as follows:
Briefly rinse the dirt off of the cut herbs and lay them out on a clean cloth until they are not wet anymore.  Then lay small amounts between paper towels and microwave them for a minute at a time until they are crisp and can be crumbled, changing the towels as needed.  It usually takes from 4 to 7 minutes per batch to dry, running the microwave only one minute at a time.  When the herbs are dry, crumble onto a piece of wax paper and funnel the dry pieces into a glass jar.  This way the herbs will stay good and usable for about a year or so.  I have tried larger batches in the dehydrator, but it takes almost overnight to dry them.  I have tried just hanging them and air drying them, but they lose color and look horrible.  I have tried drying in a 200 degree oven for a while, but that seems like a waste of electricity to heat up a big oven just to dry herbs.  A friend told me about drying in the microwave many years ago, and I have found that this really works the best, preserves the color,  and is quick, too.

A cloth towel full of oregano ready to dry in the microwave in small batches. 

We are starting to harvest our crop of popcorn now.  And wow - will we ever have a lot this year!!  For the past couple days I have spent 2 hours each day harvesting many tubs full of ears.  Harold and I remove the husks and lay the ears out on tables all over the house to dry.  I tried hanging some in bunches in our warm basement, but that was too much work to tie them all together in bunches and climb on a ladder to hang them from the rafters.  When the ears are dry, we will borrow our neighbors corn sheller and fill up another big wash tub full of popcorn.   Last year we got 100 lbs of popcorn, and we expect at least that much this year and probably more.   We sold, gave away and ate most of last year's popcorn, with only about a cup of kernels left.

One of many tables full of beautiful popcorn ears drying!  Some of the ears are almost 10 inches long.

We also have trays of beans drying.  Every year I grow a few different varieties of beans.  This year I grew Lina Cisco's Birds Egg beans, Jacob's Cattle beans, and Tiger's Eye beans.  The different varieties all have varying flavors and textures.   Some are good for soup, some for chili, and some make good refried beans.  Some are just good for eating as is, or in bean and rice dishes.   I usually have beans from previous years left over, so I have a good variety of beans to choose from when making recipes.   We love bean dishes - they are filling, inexpensive and good for you.

The beans on the left are Birds Egg beans, and on the right is Tiger's Eye beans.  The Birds Egg heirloom beans are good for refried bean dishes, and the Tiger's Eye beans are a South American heirloom bean good for chili dishes.  I always plant heirloom seeds and save some to plant another year.   I never plant anything GMO, and try not to plant hybrids either.  We are very much into seed saving, and you can only save seeds from non hybrids and heirloom varieties.

A big tray of Jacob's Cattle beans.   This is a very old heirloom bean and is especially wonderful for rice and bean dishes or with pasta, as it holds up well in casseroles and saucy dishes.

A Really Busy Time

October is a very busy month for us here on Honey B Farm!  Husband Harold is busy cutting winter wood, preparing the bees for winter, doing yard chores, and also working the sugar beet harvest.  When we built this house in 2005, there was a huge pile of dirt from the excavation.  It has been sitting there all these years in need of being moved - one of those things we always wanted to get done but somehow never did.  Now that Harold has a good powerful tractor/loader he is finally getting that pile moved!  We will use the dirt to fill in around the house and in low spots in the yard.

Digging into that pile of dirt from 2005!

Harold got about half of it moved and leveled out.

The tractor comes in handy for wood loading, too.  Harold usually takes the tractor into the woods, cuts down the tree and loads the cut wood into the tractor bucket to take home.

Getting the wood pile a little bigger every day!

Harold has also been busy building special winter beehives.   We will no longer take our bees to California for the winter as they come back home too late, too weak and too diseased.   We will winter the bees in our own backyard.  Harold designed very thick insulated boxes for the bees that will accommodate a heater, thermostat and thermometer.  They are about 3 times the size of regular bee boxes with thick insulated tops covered in a rubberized plastic to keep moisture out.   We discovered that the heater plates on coffee pots make a good hive heater, too.  So Harold wired up some to a thermostat and they just fit into the bottom of the hive.   He also designed new bottom boards and top covers for the hives.   If this works, we will buy more hives next year and build more of these special winter hive boxes.  We have a lot of customers who love our honey and we sell a lot of it.  Would you believe we are almost sold out already of this year's honey?

The new winter hive boxes, about 3 times the size of regular hives.  They are about 3 inches thick all around, instead of the usual 1/2 inch thick.

The winter hives are 3 inches thick and insulated.

The middle section in the screened bottom board is to accommodate a heater and thermostat.

The thick top cover has a rubberized plastic covering to keep moisture out.

As for me, I've been busy finishing up canning.   This year I canned up pears, peaches, cherries, several kinds of jellies and jams and ice cream toppings, green beans, tomatoes (both plain and seasoned), spaghetti sauce, pizza sauce, salsa, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, cuke relish and pepper relish, grape juice, potatoes and sauerkraut.  In the freezer I put carrots, peas, rutabagas, turnips, corn and apple slices.  The only thing we have left to harvest is popcorn, which we will do this next week. 
     In between all these chores, Harold has been working with the sugar beet harvest driving a truck in the field from 2 a.m. to 2 p.m. and hauling beets to the piler station.  He probably has another week to go yet on that.
     Before the heavy freeze sets in we need to dismantle the gardens, mow them down and till the soil.   So what do we do in winter?  We relax, sleep in, eat a lot and get fat!  Well, maybe not quite like that - but it IS a more relaxing time!  And much needed.

No More Pony Rides

I just love mowing the lawn!  It is my favorite outdoor thing to do! Note that I use the term 'lawn' rather loosely here.  We have a country lawn - mostly green stuff (i.e. weeds with a little grass thrown in).  Today I mowed for the last time this year.  It was a beautiful fall day, so I got out there and cut the grass really short for the last time.  I laughingly call my riding mower my horse.  I always tell my husband Harold that "I'm gonna get on my pony and ride".  Those of you who are old enough to remember a song back in 1962 by Dee Dee Sharp called Ride - that's exactly what she sang about - "gonna get on my pony and ride - ride!, ride! ride!".
     Harold usually prepares my 'steed' by filling it with gas and checking the oil and tire pressure.  Then I get on my trusty pony and ride for about 3 hours and cut grass.  I don't really know why I like to cut grass.  Perhaps it's because you can see a job done, or maybe it's because I like the fresh air.  Sometimes it can be a pain in the neck cutting grass, though.  On a hot summer day I get sunburned, the mosquitoes bug me, and I hate the wind in my face.  But I think women do a better job at cutting grass than men do.  Every woman in this neighborhood does most of the grass cutting - we all like to do that.   And we all claim to do a better job than the guys!
     The only thing I don't like about cutting grass is the preparation.  Getting hundreds of feet of garden hose out of the way, rolling up electrical cords, moving pots of flowers and vehicles, or having to mow around low spots or tractors or 'yard ornaments'.  Because we have lots of things plugged in, like electric fencing to protect the beehives against bears, and fencing to keep the deer out of the garden, there is usually hundreds of feet of wires to roll up and plug back in again.  And sometimes there is the hidden danger - a wire I missed, a metal stake, a big rock, or a really low spot that can ruin the mower.  One time I hit some kind of baling wire and it wrapped up around the mower blades into a huge mess.  Another time I hit a piece of metal garden stake and tore up a drive  belt.  Another time I hit a rock and the mower belt tore up AND I ruined a blade.  Once I hit a huge log hidden in tall grass and the mower blade got completely bent.  How many times I have ruined mower belts to these hazards (and those belts are not cheap!).  So I take extra care now to prepare the yard.
     It takes me 3 hours or more to cut all the grass.   I usually do it in one stretch.  Funny how when I am driving a car, I have to stop every hour and stretch, but on the mower I can do the whole 3 hours at one time without a break!  We could mow about 10 acres of lawn, but we only mow about 4 acres or so.   The rest of the yard is left natural for bee food (some folks call these weeds, but we call them wildflowers).  The bees are one source of our livelihood here on the farm, so we can't mow down their food!  When I see a bee on a flower in the grass, I try to avoid hitting it with the mower and wait until the bee is done gathering whatever it wants.  Sometimes I have to avoid frogs in tall grass.  A couple times I have accidentally maimed a frog and I always feel bad about that, but they often jump right in front of the mower.
     So today was my last "pony ride" until next spring, around May.   The mower will be cleaned and put away for the year.  Now I will have lots of "spare time" for other things.  Ha! Probably not.  There is always something to do here on the farm.   But I will sure miss my twice a week rides.............

Sitting on my trusty (pony)ride for the last time this year.