I had a really good time back in May, LOVED listening to you and others talking "shop" (cattle, chickens, etc.), and there were some unique items available in the craft areas.
I think a sit down lunch would be nice, too.
Farmerjan's journal - Weather
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I think a sit down lunch would be nice, too.
Sad I'm on the other side of the country! You girls have an amazing time!
Mini Horses
Herd Master
Similar situation here Fri, except I picked them off tree & ground. Glad they were offered & didn't want to loose the source -- not that I had other plans, just not these
. They were "over" peaches! Now I have peach butter & dehydrated slices. Thankful to have & wasn't a terrible amount of work. I was home anyway. Fine once I got to doing 
That system that gave you no rain came on thru here...cooled us back off, which is great. Left almost 1/2" of rain. Just washed the dust off.
That system came through here as well, did a Red Sea move...parted and left dry ground, NOT A DROP OF RAIN.Similar situation here Fri, except I picked them off tree & ground. Glad they were offered & didn't want to loose the source -- not that I had other plans, just not these
That system that gave you no rain came on thru here...cooled us back off, which is great. Left almost 1/2" of rain. Just washed the dust off.
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farmerjan
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Sunday morning... 57 overnight...AAANNNDDD... we got some rain from last night/early this morning... Thursday night was a tiny shower and barely got the ground wet on top... Last night/early this morning, we actually got enough to see it in the rain gauge... maybe about .3 ???? I will go out and look in a bit.
I read for awhile last night and have not been outside yet. I filled chicken/turkey feeders last night, clean water in the automatic waterers, so they are set... and did not go to sleep until way late (early this morning) so am not in a rush to get anything done yet.
I did leave the mower out last night, which is not the end of the world but not the best thing for it... and it did get rain water washed... it was so dusty I was going to take the hose to it after mowing. I went up to check the heifers and then did the birds so did not get to the mowing. I honestly did not expect we would get more than a slight sprinkle again...
If it takes me leaving the mower out to get a bit of rain, I WILL do it again
This rain/front that came through, looks like it is about over on the radar... headed east, @Mini Horses might get some more out of it...
Wish I could direct some down to @fuzzi since seems she is as dry as we are... I sure wish we got more, but what we got is definitely more than what we hadn't gotten this past week... Sadly, it is not going to help the corn make much of an ear at this point.
There is nothing on the radar for at least another week.
.....Where's a tropical storm when you need some serious rain or downpours???? 
Funny thing is, the hurricane season seems to be very mild this year... Not that I want destruction... but a good old fashioned pouring down rain for a day or 2 like we often get from one... Almost scary how mild a year when they had been forecasting an active hurricane season this year.
Guess it is our turn to be very dry this year.
We are buying hay to get us where we need to be since we are making less than 1/2 of the normal 2nd cutting amount. DS will finish cutting the field across from my house probably tomorrow... so we can get it made in the next week..... I imagine he will make some more sq bales from it and then that will be the end of the sq bales unless we get some serious moisture for a late 3rd cutting down at doug's farm where we made the 900 orchard grass bales 2 weeks ago. There is a 4 acre patch of just grass hay that we will make sometime... it is on a pretty steep section so we don't work that ground or rotate it. It makes some pretty okay plain mixed grass hay and that is great. There are a couple other places we might get a late cutting of grass hay off of, but so many fields are growing a crop of weeds and junk and not much grass.
The sq bales we make are the "cash flow" ... enables us to pay for the fertilizer and all other expenses for all the hay fields; buy rolls when we have to for the cattle... the orchard grass sq bales we sell are worth 5x the value of feeding them, and we can buy some good hay for the beef cows. It takes alot more manpower to make the sq bales, so we have more time and labor in them. Plus even when sq baling, DS watches the rows and will go around any spots/sections where there are weeds or things like johnson grass so as to not sq bale that up... He then goes and round bales any of the "mixed" stuff with the round baler for the cows. A friend of DS has some nice 2nd cutting hay we are getting.. smaller 4x5 round bales, but nice hay... be good for the cows with smaller calves through the winter...making milk and the calves will eat some of the finer bladed hay. We can feed the 1st cutting we made to the dry cows that are going to calve in the spring as they do not need too high protein in the late stages of pregnancy...
There are approx 20-25 sq bales in a 5x5 roll of hay... at $10 a sq bale, that makes a roll of the good orchard grass worth $200 a roll.... if we were to roll it...instead, we can buy good rolls for $50-75 a roll that will meet the beef cows needs. Seems silly to bale hay and sell it, then buy some back.... but that is the market. DS has gotten in with several people wanting 100 to 300 sq bales of hay... he will deliver 100-200 or so at a time....and they pay extra for delivery.... you do what you have to do to make the cash flow work.
Well, the sun is trying to come out... It is cooler... 65 at 11... need to get all the dishes done and then see about getting the peaches in here and decide what to do... can you cook them down like apples for apple sauce/butter without peeling/slipping the peach skins? We quarter/cut up apples, skins and all, to cook down then run through the hand cranked mill for apple sauce, to cook down further... Takes the skins and the little seeds out.... These peaches are the size of large ping pong balls or so... If they got soft, then might be able to pit... and get the skins off... heating water to dip and then slip the skins, then pitting is going to be a real chore... I could try cutting them in half and pitting them... they are freestone, not clingstone... from the couple I ate... But they are not something I want to try to peel then slice with them being so small...
Maybe freeze whole, then slip off the skins???? Never did that... I have no idea... never worked with little peaches like this...
Well, time to get something accomplished.
I read for awhile last night and have not been outside yet. I filled chicken/turkey feeders last night, clean water in the automatic waterers, so they are set... and did not go to sleep until way late (early this morning) so am not in a rush to get anything done yet.
I did leave the mower out last night, which is not the end of the world but not the best thing for it... and it did get rain water washed... it was so dusty I was going to take the hose to it after mowing. I went up to check the heifers and then did the birds so did not get to the mowing. I honestly did not expect we would get more than a slight sprinkle again...
If it takes me leaving the mower out to get a bit of rain, I WILL do it again
This rain/front that came through, looks like it is about over on the radar... headed east, @Mini Horses might get some more out of it...
Wish I could direct some down to @fuzzi since seems she is as dry as we are... I sure wish we got more, but what we got is definitely more than what we hadn't gotten this past week... Sadly, it is not going to help the corn make much of an ear at this point.
There is nothing on the radar for at least another week.
.....Where's a tropical storm when you need some serious rain or downpours???? Funny thing is, the hurricane season seems to be very mild this year... Not that I want destruction... but a good old fashioned pouring down rain for a day or 2 like we often get from one... Almost scary how mild a year when they had been forecasting an active hurricane season this year.
Guess it is our turn to be very dry this year.
We are buying hay to get us where we need to be since we are making less than 1/2 of the normal 2nd cutting amount. DS will finish cutting the field across from my house probably tomorrow... so we can get it made in the next week..... I imagine he will make some more sq bales from it and then that will be the end of the sq bales unless we get some serious moisture for a late 3rd cutting down at doug's farm where we made the 900 orchard grass bales 2 weeks ago. There is a 4 acre patch of just grass hay that we will make sometime... it is on a pretty steep section so we don't work that ground or rotate it. It makes some pretty okay plain mixed grass hay and that is great. There are a couple other places we might get a late cutting of grass hay off of, but so many fields are growing a crop of weeds and junk and not much grass.
The sq bales we make are the "cash flow" ... enables us to pay for the fertilizer and all other expenses for all the hay fields; buy rolls when we have to for the cattle... the orchard grass sq bales we sell are worth 5x the value of feeding them, and we can buy some good hay for the beef cows. It takes alot more manpower to make the sq bales, so we have more time and labor in them. Plus even when sq baling, DS watches the rows and will go around any spots/sections where there are weeds or things like johnson grass so as to not sq bale that up... He then goes and round bales any of the "mixed" stuff with the round baler for the cows. A friend of DS has some nice 2nd cutting hay we are getting.. smaller 4x5 round bales, but nice hay... be good for the cows with smaller calves through the winter...making milk and the calves will eat some of the finer bladed hay. We can feed the 1st cutting we made to the dry cows that are going to calve in the spring as they do not need too high protein in the late stages of pregnancy...
There are approx 20-25 sq bales in a 5x5 roll of hay... at $10 a sq bale, that makes a roll of the good orchard grass worth $200 a roll.... if we were to roll it...instead, we can buy good rolls for $50-75 a roll that will meet the beef cows needs. Seems silly to bale hay and sell it, then buy some back.... but that is the market. DS has gotten in with several people wanting 100 to 300 sq bales of hay... he will deliver 100-200 or so at a time....and they pay extra for delivery.... you do what you have to do to make the cash flow work.
Well, the sun is trying to come out... It is cooler... 65 at 11... need to get all the dishes done and then see about getting the peaches in here and decide what to do... can you cook them down like apples for apple sauce/butter without peeling/slipping the peach skins? We quarter/cut up apples, skins and all, to cook down then run through the hand cranked mill for apple sauce, to cook down further... Takes the skins and the little seeds out.... These peaches are the size of large ping pong balls or so... If they got soft, then might be able to pit... and get the skins off... heating water to dip and then slip the skins, then pitting is going to be a real chore... I could try cutting them in half and pitting them... they are freestone, not clingstone... from the couple I ate... But they are not something I want to try to peel then slice with them being so small...
Maybe freeze whole, then slip off the skins???? Never did that... I have no idea... never worked with little peaches like this...
Well, time to get something accomplished.
Glad you got a little rain. Hopefully you'll get more soon.Sunday morning... 57 overnight...AAANNNDDD... we got some rain from last night/early this morning... Thursday night was a tiny shower and barely got the ground wet on top... Last night/early this morning, we actually got enough to see it in the rain gauge... maybe about .3 ???? I will go out and look in a bit.
I read for awhile last night and have not been outside yet. I filled chicken/turkey feeders last night, clean water in the automatic waterers, so they are set... and did not go to sleep until way late (early this morning) so am not in a rush to get anything done yet.
I did leave the mower out last night, which is not the end of the world but not the best thing for it... and it did get rain water washed... it was so dusty I was going to take the hose to it after mowing. I went up to check the heifers and then did the birds so did not get to the mowing. I honestly did not expect we would get more than a slight sprinkle again...
If it takes me leaving the mower out to get a bit of rain, I WILL do it again
This rain/front that came through, looks like it is about over on the radar... headed east, @Mini Horses might get some more out of it...
Wish I could direct some down to @fuzzi since seems she is as dry as we are... I sure wish we got more, but what we got is definitely more than what we hadn't gotten this past week... Sadly, it is not going to help the corn make much of an ear at this point.
There is nothing on the radar for at least another week.
Funny thing is, the hurricane season seems to be very mild this year... Not that I want destruction... but a good old fashioned pouring down rain for a day or 2 like we often get from one... Almost scary how mild a year when they had been forecasting an active hurricane season this year.
Guess it is our turn to be very dry this year.
We are buying hay to get us where we need to be since we are making less than 1/2 of the normal 2nd cutting amount. DS will finish cutting the field across from my house probably tomorrow... so we can get it made in the next week..... I imagine he will make some more sq bales from it and then that will be the end of the sq bales unless we get some serious moisture for a late 3rd cutting down at doug's farm where we made the 900 orchard grass bales 2 weeks ago. There is a 4 acre patch of just grass hay that we will make sometime... it is on a pretty steep section so we don't work that ground or rotate it. It makes some pretty okay plain mixed grass hay and that is great. There are a couple other places we might get a late cutting of grass hay off of, but so many fields are growing a crop of weeds and junk and not much grass.
The sq bales we make are the "cash flow" ... enables us to pay for the fertilizer and all other expenses for all the hay fields; buy rolls when we have to for the cattle... the orchard grass sq bales we sell are worth 5x the value of feeding them, and we can buy some good hay for the beef cows. It takes alot more manpower to make the sq bales, so we have more time and labor in them. Plus even when sq baling, DS watches the rows and will go around any spots/sections where there are weeds or things like johnson grass so as to not sq bale that up... He then goes and round bales any of the "mixed" stuff with the round baler for the cows. A friend of DS has some nice 2nd cutting hay we are getting.. smaller 4x5 round bales, but nice hay... be good for the cows with smaller calves through the winter...making milk and the calves will eat some of the finer bladed hay. We can feed the 1st cutting we made to the dry cows that are going to calve in the spring as they do not need too high protein in the late stages of pregnancy...
There are approx 20-25 sq bales in a 5x5 roll of hay... at $10 a sq bale, that makes a roll of the good orchard grass worth $200 a roll.... if we were to roll it...instead, we can buy good rolls for $50-75 a roll that will meet the beef cows needs. Seems silly to bale hay and sell it, then buy some back.... but that is the market. DS has gotten in with several people wanting 100 to 300 sq bales of hay... he will deliver 100-200 or so at a time....and they pay extra for delivery.... you do what you have to do to make the cash flow work.
Well, the sun is trying to come out... It is cooler... 65 at 11... need to get all the dishes done and then see about getting the peaches in here and decide what to do... can you cook them down like apples for apple sauce/butter without peeling/slipping the peach skins? We quarter/cut up apples, skins and all, to cook down then run through the hand cranked mill for apple sauce, to cook down further... Takes the skins and the little seeds out.... These peaches are the size of large ping pong balls or so... If they got soft, then might be able to pit... and get the skins off... heating water to dip and then slip the skins, then pitting is going to be a real chore... I could try cutting them in half and pitting them... they are freestone, not clingstone... from the couple I ate... But they are not something I want to try to peel then slice with them being so small...
Maybe freeze whole, then slip off the skins???? Never did that... I have no idea... never worked with little peaches like this...
Well, time to get something accomplished.
I had someone offer me some nectarines about that size. We grow our own peaches, so I was able to politely decline. Way to much work. Wish I had some good advice on how to work with them. The pit is probably bigger than the flesh.
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farmerjan
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Did some research and one website... Prairie Homestead I think... said to quarter, take out the pit, and put in food processor and then cook puree down.. Peeling NOT NECESSARY.... Hummm...pitting will be a PITA... but less than trying to peel the little ones...
Read another that said you can freeze them, put in a sink of warm water and peels will slip off...
Might try some of both... both said riper the better... got some with bad spots so might try cutting them , pitting and puree in the food processor with the peels on and see how it comes out...
Freeze other ones... if I can find enough freezer space... I have got to defrost the one older freezer in the house and then get the ones out in the storage shed, done... I want to replace 2 of the uprights with another BIG chest freezer... not the frost problems in them... and they do so much better with the heavy boxes etc of meat...easier for me to use small cardboard boxes in the chest freezer and lift them out... like have the ground beef all in one box, etc and so on... and the chickens do better in the chest freezer since they were so heavy... still have quite a few from several years ago... cooked one not too long ago... tasted just fine...
Well, out the door to get some things done....
Read another that said you can freeze them, put in a sink of warm water and peels will slip off...
Might try some of both... both said riper the better... got some with bad spots so might try cutting them , pitting and puree in the food processor with the peels on and see how it comes out...
Freeze other ones... if I can find enough freezer space... I have got to defrost the one older freezer in the house and then get the ones out in the storage shed, done... I want to replace 2 of the uprights with another BIG chest freezer... not the frost problems in them... and they do so much better with the heavy boxes etc of meat...easier for me to use small cardboard boxes in the chest freezer and lift them out... like have the ground beef all in one box, etc and so on... and the chickens do better in the chest freezer since they were so heavy... still have quite a few from several years ago... cooked one not too long ago... tasted just fine...
Well, out the door to get some things done....
Last edited:
Mini Horses
Herd Master
I washed and pitted. Cut up into a pan, used the hand processor, skins on. Cooked all down to thick, used a little sugar as the skins aren't as sweet. You can't even see the skins. I WB 10 min.
I WB 10 min.
Thanks for the kind thoughts. It's Biblical here, breezy, cloudy, no rain. "clouds and wind without rain".
I'm using the hose around the house, letting it trickle on each shrub for 20 minutes, then moving it to the next.
I'm using the hose around the house, letting it trickle on each shrub for 20 minutes, then moving it to the next.
