Duck Door Update

Well, the duck door fix keeps the goats from getting inside... But it's big enough for Brighita to put her head through and get stuck. 

You'd think she'd learn after the first two times. Nope. She's gotten stuck at least four times. 🙄

Basically, every time we open the duck door to let them forage in the pasture, she gets her head stuck. I've taken to counting goats whenever I peek out the windows that overlook the pasture. If I don't see her, I know I have to go rescue her. 

Really, we should kick the ducks out and shut the door so no one can get back in, ducks or goats. We can open the gate back up at night to lock the ducks in. 

Sneaky Goats

Once again, the goats surprise me at how they can sneak through tiny holes. Today, four goats found their way into the trampoline. I couldn't see an access point from my window view, but once I got up close, I found the culprit. 

Yes. That little opening. 

Since they'd eaten all the chicken feed and wanted a drink, they walked out the door without complaint. 

I refilled the chick's water and feed, and once I did, the lure of feed brought our boss goat sniffing around again. 

I fixed the opening by weaving twine through the broken chicken wire and the trampoline pole. 

That ought to keep them out! Although, I've said that before... 😅

Salsa

It's so hard to find a USDA approved recipe for the kind of salsa I want. I don't enjoy very spicy food, so it's tough to know if the recipe will be too spicy with the amount of peppers it calls for. 

Last year I made "choice salsa", but that ended up being heavy on the onions and bell peppers and not enough tomato for my liking. This year, I tried paste tomato salsa. The recipe seemed to make a huge amount, so I halved it, especially not knowing if we'd like the end result. I like it much better than previous recipes I've tried, but G says to keep looking. It's not chunky enough. 

I thought the spice level was good. One resource on the USDA website said that if a recipe calls for long peppers or chili peppers, bell peppers can be substituted. So I used a quarter cup of spicy peppers in my seven quart recipe with bell peppers for the rest and the spice was perfect. 

 

Garden Update

I spent some time in the garden to pick my plethora of tomatoes. It was so nice out and Jaron stayed asleep long enough, I was able to do some weeding too.

I uncovered a patch of onions I forgot about. I don't know when onions quit growing, so I left a couple green ones in the ground.

Most of my carrots aren't peaking out of the soil, but I did find a couple big ones. A fresh carrot straight out of the ground is one of my favorite garden treats. 

The seeds on my cilantro plants are dried now. I wasn't sure if they'd fall off or stay on the plant. They stay on the plant. I was able to pick them and store them for next year. 

Believe it or not, my mildewy squash plants are still producing! I got three nicely sized zucchini and two pattypan squash. I haven't picked beans in weeks, so the beans I found were large and coarse. A few smaller ones are coming, so I picked the big beans hoping that would cause more to grow. G isn't as picky as I am about beans, and the goats can always eat them if he doesn't. 

This little guy woke up right at the end and still somehow ended up with a mouthful of grass and seeds...

Make Your Own Melties

Jaron loves melties. I finally made him a batch of homemade using pear sauce, freeze dried bananas, blueberry powder, a can of coconut milk, and dried mango. It tasted so good on its own, I could've eaten the whole thing myself. Maybe I'll make a batch for that purpose. 😅

I put the blend in a ziplock bag and cut the corner to pipe dots on a silicone mat. They ended up pretty small. Next time I'll make them bigger. 

I popped them in the freezer until my freeze drier trays were open, then used a cookie scraper to relocate them to the freeze drier trays.

They didn't puff up at all after freeze drying. The flavor wasn't nearly as strong as it was pre-drying. I wonder why. 🤔

Duck Door Adjustment

Our sneaky goats keep going through the duck door to get to the duck feed any chance they get. We've been letting the ducks out to the pasture, so it's been a daily thing lately. 🙄

G and I finally adjusted the door by screwing two thin boards over the top of the opening. Hopefully now it's too small for the goats to fit through but big enough for the ducks! 

Freeze Dried Pears

This handy kitchen gadget makes prepping pears much easier. 

I bought it for apples, and the blade is getting dull, but it's still sharp enough for pears. The tomato corer on the right of the cutting board makes cutting out the seeds super easy too. 

I packed as many as I could on the freeze dryer trays. Once both of my sets of trays were full, I arranged slices on cookie sheets lined with silicone mats and put two more loads. The freeze dryer will be active for a while!

For canning pears, I blanched, peeled, and cored pears. I ended up with 7 quarts.