Working With Hands

Despite not feeling myself yet, and still having laryngitis, I made Wild Black Raspberry Jam - 7 pints.  I could have simply told them to freeze the berries, but I was destined to have more jam this summer than last.  Last year I made jelly with the berries, but it requires a lot more berries.

If you have never picked wild berries, you have no idea how much work it is.  My son went out there, with a sweat jacket on (to fight off prickers  and mosquitoes) in 80 degree weather, and picked a quart by himself.  I didn't take a photo of them, but they are smaller than what you buy in the store. Much smaller.  After he came in, my husband went back out with two of the girls and brought more in.

I had 8 cups of wild black raspberries, and there are more out there yet.  I lost my jelly recipe, so I still need to make grape, candy apple and other jellies, to re-stock our supply.

I cannot wait to have a root cellar.  We do not have a basement in this old farm house either.  Storage is a problem for this sort of thing.  Then there is the septic and the buried propane tank.  If we keep this place, it will be interesting as to where we dig for the root cellar.   The couple that originally built this old farm house did not have kids.  It was simply the two of them, thus no root cellar.

After canning the jam, I retreated to my bed to sleep off the allergy medications - blech!  Then I somehow managed to finish off my very first Granny Square hand towel.  This was meant to be placed in my "store" for sale, but I loved it so much it went right into my bathroom.  I plan to add some to the kitchen too.

And speaking of "hands" and work, my daughter came in form the chicken coop.  She has been introducing the barred rocks and Lola (tetratint) to the red hens.  

With two roosters for each group of hens, they don't get along in the coop.  We talked about letting our other rooster roam free, but the kids all squawked about his safety at night.  So, they volunteered to place a red hen in with the others ever night and watch them.  

The other day, while they were all outside free ranging, we kept hearing the roosters crow.  They were having a "crow off" and crowing back and forth.  Wish we got it on video.

To our surprise, on June 27, 2011, the barred rocks/Lola started laying eggs.  We got our first two from them, and they are smaller of course. 

I'm glad we got the different chickens, even though it's a tedious task to get them to get along.  It's nice to look out and see them roam.  One day, we actually had a driver stop on the 2-lane country highway, and watch them peck the ground.  They were intrigued at Mazda, and his brilliant colors.

You can't really see the gorgeous green in his tail feathers, but he's a pretty handsome rooster.