Tackling the Jungle, Part II

This is what I started with Sunday....there's shed behind all that. no really, there is! Took me an hour and half, whacking through the overgrowth slowly, revealing t-posts, a roll of fencing, and some old feeders and shovels I haven't seen since spring, but I found it!

Well...I found PART of the shed anyways! Not all of it...oh no, that's gonna take a bit longer to get to! But, hey, I'll take what I can get :P It's too hot to get as much as I want done...wait...scratch that. There's too many WILD CRITTERS to get everything done! Stinging, biting, jumping, moving, rustling in the leaves, scaring the beejeebies outta me critters!

I stuck with it, hot or not, through the first buzz by a wasp....the frog who poked his head up and gave me a scare because my first thought when all I saw was his eyes was SNAKE....yeah, okay, I can hang in there...but when the little green lizard abandoned ship (his home on a tall weed) by jumping on my arm THAT WAS IT! I was done for a while! I cleaned up what I had, and called an end to the days work!

A girl can only handle so many surprises I tell you....I was never a fan of toys like Jack in the Boxes. Things should not just jump up outta no where and spook you like that! BLEH! UGH! Makes me shake off imaginary bugs as I think about it! Just YUCK!  I'm not gonna be too happy with the cold weather, but you know, once winter gets here at least most of the random wildlife will go away for a while...and I am already looking forward to that!

Goose Palace...or is it Goose Jail?

I'll let the geese be the judge - I intended for it to be a palace of sorts, but I am sure they think they are in jail. Until today, I had been locking them up in a tractor at night (for safety's sake) and letting them roam about during the day.  Which is all fine and dandy except for a few minor issues...

The geese have to be put up when company comes over - they don't attack people, but they DO make stupid choices. Like walking in front of tires - ON MOVING VEHICLES! And my all time favorite is how they flap up into truck beds and poop - A LOT! Yeah, no, can't be having that happen to my company.

Then, last night, they decided they wanted to lead a merry round of chase through the property instead of be put up.  Yeah, once again, NO I said! That's it, enough with the niceness, they had to go on lock down!

So up I got bright and early and off to Home Depot I headed - I had almost everything I needed EXCEPT a little bit of cheapy plastic fencing....

Part of a tank of gas in the lawn mower (had to clear the way since I am over due for a date with Murray), 15 t-posts later, 2 50 foot rolls of cheap plastic fencing, 98 out of 100 zip ties, an old table and slightly holey tarp, one of my old step in posts for electric fencing, and 2 bungee cords scrounged up from the depths of the shed and VOILA! Goose Lockdown Facility is complete!

Of course, in the midst of my morning of outdoorsy fun, up wanders and stranger....apparently, my moat only stops vehicular traffic, but bold morons on foot will wander past it...bless his heart, he was lost looking for the neighbors house....and he found me. In all my glory, sweaty, nasty, smelling rank and ripe, fighting with a t-post....bet that's the last time he braves a driveway like mine on foot to ask for directions! Come on people, there is a REASON for the moat! All I need is an alligator or 2.....

Anyways, geese all got a wing clipped this afternoon - and tossed out into their new jail, with their pool freshly filled and everything. So far, they haven't figured out their little lean to shelter thing, but they HAVE figured out where the gate is....and they have spent most of the day standing there and waiting for me to open it...yeah, NO I said! There they are and there they shall stay! The goats were glad to see them on lock down I think - I bet they were tired of being harassed by them, and I KNOW the horses were glad to have their bossy goose antics locked up...

Let's hope they stay put - I love my geese, but they have to do geese things in goose territory and leave the other critters and visitors alone!

Visitors at the Door....

Lately, I've had some oddball stuff pop up at the front door....I guess since I cleaned the windows the other day (the illusion of clean is always priceless to me) the locals feel the need to stop on by...

Apparently, we have "door frogs" and not tree frogs out here...this little fella likes to hang out at night...

And someone REALLY needs to explain the concept of "camo" to this moth....I don't think the neon orange is helping him hide at all, but I suppose taking up residence in the house is helping him...

I wonder what will pop up out there next - a girl can only take so many of these surprise visits you know...

Tamale Fest 2013

At least once every few years I end up spending a week making tamales - oh yes, a WEEK! It's not a fast process....not particularly challenging either, but very tedious and time consuming.

This year, I had a pal with a freezer full of beefiness and I myself had some pork, and why not combine it and split things? So....

Sunday, I picked up 16lbs of mostly beef, I pulled out 17lbs worth of pork (and that was just sheer luck that the trimmings off of the last hog sent to the butcher were that much, nice equal amounts).

Monday, I set everything in a bath of baking soda and water in the fridge - first it helps to thaw the meat before you cook it (especially when my pork was a huge frozen brick of pork) and secondly it helps knock off the freezer burn....Monday night I pulled it out, rinsed it off, and made a bath of vinegar and water to aid in tenderizing things....

Tuesday, I boiled it all afternoon with spices and seasonings and what not.  Okay, that sounds more official than it is lol :) Every stock pot full of meat holds about 10lbs of meat, into each pot goes a handful of salt, a handful of oregano, 4 - 5 ancho chiles, 2 chopped onions, an entire head of chopped garlic, and a generous pinch of cumin. Once it was falling apart when I poked it with my spoon, into the fridge to rest a bit.....and cool off!

Wednesday morning, everything is drug back out and allowed to warm a tad (so I don't freeze my fingers off) then you gotta scrub up and dive it! All the meat needs to be picked apart and shredded into medium sized chunks...and I am VERY picky on my meat! I HATE WITH A PASSION to bite into the following things: gelatinous, cartilaginous, hard, boney, odd, unidentifiable, chew bits! Picky, I know. But come on now, who wants to get a bite of something they can't identify??? DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR BROTH/STOCK!!!!

Oh yes....all that juicy brothy goodness from the stock pots...SAVE IT!!!! You are going to put some back into the meat, and SOME is going into the masa! Why buy beef or chicken stock for making your masa when you will have a pot (or 3) full of it??? Strain the chunks out (onions, garlic, pepper seeds, etc) and bottle that liquid gold up for later!

Once done, the 3 pots are now down to one BIG GIANT pot of meat shreds....add about 2 handfuls of chili powder, a touch more salt and cumin to taste if need be, and for a pot this big, about 4 cans of red enchilada sauce, and some of the stock off of the meat...personally, I have found mixing the mild half and half with the super spicy enchilada sauce is PERFECT!

Then, once it is all mixed up, put it into smaller pots - you are going to simmer it down a short while, and it's REALLY hard to get that canning pot to heat it up enough! It took me over an hour and a half to shred everything up and then I still had to do that part....let it simmer nice and slow for a while for the chili flavors to combine into the meat, then back in the fridge....because you will need a rest and the meat needs one too! It has to soak up all of the juices....

Now, it's Thursday and I am waiting on my masa flour and assistance to arrive....today I will be throwing together masa, wrapping up tamales, and getting them steamed....the steaming takes ages as well, but is crucial to cooking the masa so it's not squishy ucky...

So yes....there is a very good reason most people don't make tamales once a week LOL....I suppose you could do a much smaller batch, but then if you are going to drag out the big pots, and pans, and all....and get messy and dirty too (I always smell like a giant taco for 2 or 3 days at least)...then why not do a whole bunch at once? They freeze beautifully and taste even better!

My wayward son has returned...

Well, 2 beings have returned today :)

Mr Farmer is home from being gone for what feels like FOREVER for work! AND....look who popped up this afternoon outta no where!

Yes, hiding under the dirty old rabbit table/stand is the freaking potbelly pig! He walked off about a week or 2 ago (not that I was complaining) and VOILA! Like magic he popped back up outta nowhere today while I was out there working on stuff!

He must have smelled the "BBQ' - I'm not actually grilling, but I threw a TON of nasty stuff on the burn pile when I lit it last night....I'm sure to the pigs nose all he smelled was food cooking and not the funky fridge stuff that needed to be thrown out and set on fire....

I swear, if we get ONE morning that is around 70 degrees at like 6 am...he might just be sausage before it's all said and done this summer...otherwise his day waits until winter...

Culling again....

It's getting close to fall, close to when most other people will be breeding their goats for the first time this year, and not just myself, but many other breeders will be culling the herd. When it gets close to "breeding season" you start noticing all the flaws in your goats more so, mostly because you are looking to see what buck will compliment what doe and so on.

Well, I have decided I have one runty one that has to go - she's well built structurally, just tiny and a hard keeper to boot. I don't want anymore hard keepers that's number one. The fact that she just refuses to grow is number 2. I don't know what it is, maybe she is anorexic, but dammit, she just WILL NOT eat! She never wanted to finish a bottle as a baby, she never shows much interest in ANY food - just hangs out with the others, playing and goofing off while they chow down!

So, TC has been benched if you will....

She isn't gone yet - oh no - I have someone ALLEGEDLY placing a deposit on her and wanting to come in 2 weeks to get her....we will see. I never really believe it until I see it with stuff like that. But she is on her way out at least.

Also...I have 3 milkers that are good milkers, pretty decent BUT:  One has bad feet, the other has small teats, and the last one is just a rotten turd. IF they are not bred and come back open when I send off for bloodwork and pregnancy tests in another week or 2, then THEY are out too! I REALLY wanted to retain kids from them, as I know structurally and personality wise I get improvements in their kids with my bucks...BUT...the plan is all 3 MUST go eventually. If they come back open and not bred, then that means I must wait another 5 - 6 months before they kid...right now we are about 3 1/2 months out from kidding.  I can do 3 1/2 months...I dunno if I can do twice that much time. SO....we will see with them.

Needless to say, the "market" will have some decent goats on it soon - not super top of the line awesome, but not totally bad or sickly either...just kind of a pain in my butt and not right for me....

Cicada Killers? Killer Hornets?

Oh yes, I THINK that is what we have here! Now ...I'm no entomologist, but here's the deal....

Two summers ago, when we moved in, we killed ONE giant hornet looking thing in the house with wasp spray. ONE, that's it and I never saw any more ever again. The end right? WRONG!

Last summer, I never saw any of these things - I really was thinking that one big, HUGE dead bug (who was still in my window at that point) was a freak one time occurrence, I should have taken a picture of it there. Because it was not a one time thing and now I can't get a picture of a live one!

This summer, a few weeks ago, I noticed I had one circling the house every day at about noon. It would buzz on by, then disappear. I was a tad bit freaked out - this thing was HUGE! Like a killer bee the size of a hummingbird huge! BUT...I was willing to let it go since it seemed to circle and leave - I was on their flight path I figured, but in no danger right? WRONG!

Look at these things:  This article describes them and has some pictures....nasty things!  The other article I found adds a few more details that I think to be true - we have one that has started slamming into the windows of the house...I'm pretty sure he knows it's a window now and is trying to get to me and kill me not cicadas!

I had 1 attack me, dive bombing me, a few weeks ago, I saw one attack a goat last weekend...these things mean BUSINESS! The good news is, they live in the ground...I'm hoping the recent rain ha drowned a few of them at least, I'm tired of sharing my home with killer bugs!

My date with Murray...

Actually, it kinda sounds like a man, but it's just the mower :)

I like mowing - I really do. Except lately I have been getting attacked while I am on the damn thing! Apparently, the bugs here do NOT like the fact that I mow! I mean, look at the "lawn" - ankle deep in grasshoppers, wasps, and GIANT hornet things!

A little over 2 weeks ago now, I was dive bombed by a GIANT stinging thing! I almost ran into the damn house with the mower, while my husband watched no less! Honestly, I don't think he was paying any attention...but still. I was swinging at it with a towel, no hands on the wheel, not even thinking to break, and almost ran into the house!

So....2 weeks go by and it looks like this again:

Not good, not good at all! ANYTHING could be hiding out there! So back out I go, for my date with Murray...only this time I KNOW to watch for the giant hornet stinging things (which I have potentially identified and are another post yet to come).

I head on out, and when I near the same spot as the last attack I see them, TWO of them, waiting on me! I swerve around them, avoid them, and safely manage to finish the job! I actually waited until it was almost dark last Saturday to finish!

And the freaking GRASHOPPERS! THOSE damn things! I SWEAR, they all run towards the stuff I haven't mowed yet, slowly growing in numbers as I circle round closer, closer, and ever closer still to the middle then BAM! THEY HIT YOU! Actually, they hit ME! They ALL come flying out, jumping at me ambush style when I get to that last few patches that need to be mowed! I HATE the jumping bugs almost as much as I loathe the stinging bugs! Seriously, I could do without them....

Then, there's the small, innocent, STUPID frogs! I have no idea how many frogs I have killed, but it's not my fault I swear it! They just jump out in front of me as I mow! Frogs and field mice....I've killed a few these last couple months and I wasn't even trying - it was accidental frog slaughter I promise!

The sad part is, both times I have mowed lately and wanted to get "after pics" it has rained :( So, before I could even enjoy my manicured lawn for a few days it has already sprouted back up! Looks like this time, I may need to get out there again in one week and not my usual 2 weeks :(

Really, I think that is my most favorite part - how it looks when it's all done. Nice, even (mostly, I miss stuff), bright green and pretty....sure, riding the actual lawn mower is entertaining as well....it beats the heck outta pushing one that's for sure! I do use the little push mower to get up around the house and all. No weed eater for me - that's one piece of junk I can NOT conquer! So, the closest I am gonna get to weed eating is pushing the little lawn mower around stuff. It's not my fault I can't figure out how to work that stupid thing, but I just am incapable of running a weed eater.

Anyways, that's my dates with Murray - my lawn mower - he makes every other weekend entertaining thats for sure!