Pumpkin Time

Now that Halloween has passed, people are looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas and getting rid of their pumpkins. The garden center was ready to offload the bulk of their pumpkins and squash. We were the happy recipients! 

G brought home a huge truckload. Jaron enjoyed handing us pumpkins to toss out for the chickens and ducks. 

Some of them are baking pumpkins, so we saved a bunch to cook up later. The rest are in a heap for our animals to enjoy. 

Fire Cider

I still have a little fire cider left from last year, but it's time to make another batch. This time, I'll follow the recipe more closely. 😅 

It says everything should fit in a quart jar. And all the solid ingredients did, but there's no way four cups of apple cider vinegar will fit in there too. 

I cleaned out a half gallon jar for the two week fermenting period. Once I strain it, it can go in a smaller jar. 

G brought fresh horseradish root home from the garden center. I used up my frozen fresh ginger. Dried turmeric. Two spicy peppers from the garden, can't remember the specific variety. Not cayenne though. The rosemary came from our garden, but it already dried out, so not fresh. 😅 We had some fresh parsley on hand, so I added that to the mix. The only thing I didn't add was whole cloves. 

Ugh, I'm so irritated with myself. I ran out of ground cloves when I last made gingersnaps, so I ground up my whole cloves to be able to finish the recipe. A few days later, I discovered a half full bag of ground cloves meant to restock my baking container. At the time I thought, oh well. But now that I need whole cloves for a recipe, I'm annoyed. 🤪

The fire cider needs to be shaken every day, so I left it on the counter so I remember to do it. 

Goat Feeder Modification

The goats continue to waste hay. Likely a neverending problem, but I'm not ready to give up yet. The tray underneath is doing its job, but it piles up so quickly! 

I screwed in three more cross pieces to make it harder for them to pull the hay through. They can still easily get food, but hopefully now more will stay in the feeder with each mouthful. 

I also added a few more cross pieces on the side. 

 Not pretty, but it'll get the job done!