FROST

 GRRRRR

They predicted we were going to have 

COLD nights and mornings Sat and Sunday.

And we survived.

And then last night (although we covered EVERYTHING)

we got a heavy frost and it killed it all.

Lost the hibiscus, the tomatoes, the peppers,

the mangos, everything.

The dew fell, it froze, and it all died.

(The sheets were frozen...)

Darn it.

We were planning to pull everything out

of the garden and plant beans in the next

week or so anyway, but we tried to save those

wonderful black tomatoes and the peppers.

Sigh.

Tomatoes and peppers.

Hibiscus "ghosts".

Sad.

But - life continues on.

We'll just plant new tomatoes and peppers.

(The watermelon got taken out by the previous

week's cold snap...)

Meanwhile......

It wasn't terrible yesterday.

That was our high.

Today it is 67 and climbing

to 80 by Friday.

I've been running the freeze dryer out in 

the garage non-stop.

Both to preserve food, but also because it

puts off a good amount of heat, so the dogs

stayed nice and warm during these cold nights.

Sunday we finished a load of green beans.

And then put in a load of onions and

colored bell peppers.

LOTS and LOTS of onions and bell peppers!

Saturday between my classes I chopped them all.

Luckily I have my favorite little chopper

so it only took about an hour.

As it was, my eyes were starting to water.

I can only imagine hand chopping them all!

YIKES!

I bought a stack of those little pizza thingies.

It's a little white post that they put in a pizza

box so the lid doesn't crush the pizza and all

the cheese gets stuck on the inside of the lid.

But it's also handy so I can stack my trays and 

don't have to worry about them getting stuck

or crushing each other.

It's pretty nifty.

And it was like $5 on amazon.

(Stole the idea for someone on facebook...)

OK.

Well, my co-worker at the town is in the hospital

so I might need to run to the Town for a couple of 

hours - so I'd best get done here, eat some quick

lunch and get on about my day.

PIG!!!

 We FINALLY got photographic evidence

of Pig the cat.

SOMEBODY has been eating the cat food

we put out in the barn at night.

Turns out originally it was Bandit,

Rod's dog.

She just hopped right up on the table

and helped herself.

So we moved the food to the top

of one of the 50 gal drums we

use for the cow/horse feed.

Looks like he came by right after 1 a.m.

and had a little snack and then did

some hunting.

Then back again for breakfast at 5:30

before he headed to

his hidey hole under the shed.

Just glad to know he is healthy and 

doing his job.

He certainly appears healthy and happy.

Welcome to the farm Pig!

*************************************

Wounded finger update:  

I took the Band-Aid off yesterday.

It's still a bit tender, but at least its

not bleeding. It is swollen, and looks

a bit icky... but it is healing.

(It wasn't very happy when I was slicing

MORE frozen peaches last night...

but it survived...)

Thanks for asking!

Checking In

 Just checking in...

It's 10:20 pm.

I just finished teaching the 2nd class for the day.

And I still need to prep the next batch

to go into the freeze dryer.

Should only take 15 minutes.

And then.....

BED!

Speaking of the freeze dryer.

Kyle bought a bunch of large totes

and a chalk board and HE wrote the

inventory!

We are SO organized now!!!

We now have FOURTEEN bags of peaches.

And after this load we will be done with them.

Next will be ... raspberries?

And then we'll do the onions and bell peppers.

Then... I have the rest of the green beans from the garden.

Who know what's next!

Maybe some beef stroganoff!

We'll see.

It's been fun!

And it feels good to have food put away.

Although it's mostly fruit right now.

My freezers are looking much emptier

and maybe I can consolidate them and

unplug one!

That would be good.....

We Lost

After LOTS of meetings and back and

forth between the County and my little Town...

This morning at the County Commissioner's meeting

they basically said

"Yah, we hear you. But we don't care."

So...

They are taking down 146,000 trees.

Yes, you read that right.

146,000 trees.

In the "Preserve" behind our house.

(They've already done it to another 

"Preserve" in another end of our town...)

All because of a "Florida Scrub Jay" which 

is projected to be extinct in the next 10 years

DESPITE their efforts.

So they are going to cut down 100 year-old trees.

Trees that won't grow back in our life times.

Because of a bird.

Who prefers low vegetation.

Which would be ok if they were actually

just going to go in surgically and take out

the trees. (They are promising to leave

ONE TREE PER ACRE.)

(Thanks.)

But they are going in with a machine called

a root chopper - when they are done it looks

like the surface of the moon.

And THEN they BURN whatever is left.

The Town TRIED.

The County let their permit expire.

So we were requiring a new permit with

all the associated fees.

We had TONS of people show up at the meetings.

We put stories and pictures in the newspaper

and all over social media.

We had experts give reports and testimony.

And they said,

"We appreciate your efforts, but we are the County

and we don't actually need permits, and we COULD

go through meetings and compromises but we are

going to just pass an "emergency" motion and

by-pass all that and do whatever we want anyway."

And an hour later they closed the Sanctuary.

Which is basically a joke because right next to it is a

knee-high gate/fence that folks will just step over.

The woods at the end of the our street is sandwiched between

these two county run preserves. (read PUBLIC LAND)

And our woods are owned by the Town.

So they can't touch them.

Everybody will just go to our woods and access

the sanctuary from there... it won't stop people

using the trails, but the TREES!

They will be gone in weeks.

And they won't be back.

Hearts are breaking all over the county.

And County Commissioners will be needing to

brush up their resumes.

Because elections are coming.

Monday Monday.....

 Brrrrrrrrr!

We woke up to frost on the grass.

It looks like the garden was spared,

although the peas are mostly done and

ready to be replaced with beans anyway.

But I was a bit worried about the black tomatoes.

Kyle picked a BUNCH last night,

but they are still loaded.

I actually had to turn on my space heater in my

Zoom Room this morning!

It was downright chilly!

(The windchill was 35 when Rod went

out to feed!!!  BRRRRR!)

Another cold front is coming through tonight

but this one is bringing rain,

so Kyle is very happy he finished his

big job on Saturday.

Thought it might bleed over til today.

Speaking of bleed...

Yesterday I was slicing frozen peaches for the

freeze drier and on the VERY LAST peach,

yup, MEDIC - I sliced my thumb.

It was pretty deep.

No photos. 

You are welcome.

I wrapped it in a 4x4 gauze with some

triple antibiotic salve and then wrapped

the whole thing with some blue vet wrap.

Interesting side note.

My wall behind me is blue.

And because I use a virtual background,

anything blue is invisible.

So my left hand seems to be missing a thumb!

I just unwrapped it and it is looking MUCH better.

Was still bleeding like a stuck pig last night

after several hours.

I swapped out for a bandaid and salve.

The blue wrap felt like one of those

"rubber fingers" you use when you are filing

so I kept trying to pop it off.

This is better.

Now it's off to run some errands,

make dog food,

figure out food for the rest of the week

and get back in front of the zoom camera

for another round this evening from 5:30 - 10.

YUP, teaching BOTH classes this week.

CARROTS

 It appears Kyle did NOT get the carrot gene from me.

We got ACTUAL carrots!

Kyle's thumb for comparison.

And they are DELICIOUS!

Speaking of which, we are still having lots of

fun with our freeze dryer.

Earlier this week we did a load of green beans.

All those gazillion green beans from our garden

that don't actually taste very good frozen.

Turns out they are pretty yummy when

freeze dried! Kind of like a bean flavored

veggie straw. Without the fat and calories and

extra ingredient ick......

Lots of fun to munch on.

(As long as you remember to DRINK lots too!)

And then this morning I finished a load

of ICE CREAM SANDWICHES!

I took a bunch to the Town with me and

handed them out with abandon.

EVERYBODY loved them.

They were really tasty!

And weird.

And fun.

Anyhow.

As soon as I pulled them out, I defrosted

the machine and put in another load of peaches.

I still have two big tubs of frozen peaches in the freezer.

And then I want to try to do celery.

I buy celery.

I use one or two stalks.

I throw away the celery.

(once I discover its slimy gross carcass in the

veggie drawer of the fridge...)

It would be wonderful to just grab a jar

of freeze dried celery, pull out what I need,

add some water (or just add it to the recipe and

let it reconstitute as it cooks) and PRESTO!

Anyhow.

It's fun!

Beautiful Christmas Gift!

 It was supposed to arrive BEFORE Christmas,

but it didn't.

I'm sure glad it DID get here though!

Rod had this made for us!

Its a giant canvas!

I LOVE IT!

Isn't that awesome?

It looks like an old metal sign that has

been weathered for years and years.

I LOVE IT!

(Oh wait, I already said that...)

But I DO!!!

Peaches, Corn, Strawberries

 So far,
that's what we have done in the new

Harvest Right.

(It's the same machine as Gary and Lisa...)

Dehydrators make things leathery and gooey.

Freeze driers make things into styrofoam.

But dehydrated stuff can't really go back to the way

it was before....

and freeze dried CAN be re-constituted.

Just add water.

It goes back to EXACTLY like it was!

One of the coolest ones is EGGS.

In the spring when my girls are laying like

crazy and I have dozens and dozens of 

cartons of eggs on the table,

I can crack and stir them (raw) and

then pour them on to the tray,

freeze dry them and they turn into egg powder.

Then when I want to use them, just add water

and they go right back to slippery, slimy, RAW eggs!

Perfect for omelets, scrambling and baking!

It's kind of amazing!

Yesterday I did a load of frozen corn.

I just bought 10 bags of frozen corn from Walmart

and then put them in the machine overnight.

They are now little styrofoam nuggets that taste

just like CORN!

They are fun to just grab a hand full and pop in your mouth.

They are also EXCELLENT on top of my salad.

And, of course, I can add water and they are ready

to heat and serve with dinner!

I took some strawberries to work yesterday

and everybody LOVED them.

The flavor is INTENSE.

The peaches (because of the high moisture content)

are going to take a long time.

Like the strawberries did.

I put them in last night about 6.

They are just about "finished" but I'm going to

add 6-12 hours extra drying time just to be sure.

It's an option on the machine.

I'll use my moisture meter and check to make

sure they have 0% moisture, but I'm pretty

sure they are going to require some extra time.

That's fine.

They say you can't OVER dry something.

You can't go less than 0%.

But you CAN under dry.

If you package something that still has moisture,

it will mold and ruin the whole package.

Not worth the risk!

But I'm excited to taste them!

We have that whole 50 pounds of peaches we

bought earlier in the year from the Peach Truck.

I'd love to free up all that space in the freezer!

So, anyhow....

that's the state of affairs around here.

Kyle is off on a job.

Rod finished his annual license renewal class and

has headed off to work.

I just finished teaching my morning class.

We are all doing much better.

Although my chest is still a little tight.

I think I got a tiny glimpse of what Mom deals

with on a regular basis.

My heart was racing / beating irregularly and 

WOW no energy!

I was a little worried because they say a-fib is

sometimes a side benefit (ha) of covid.

But luckily its reversing itself.

But boy does it make me more empathetic to

what you are going through!

I can't imagine living like that day after day,

year after year, decade after decade.

I'm so proud of you for the positive outlook

you continue to display despite it!!!

LOVE YOU MOM!

Harvest Right

 Guess what FINALLY came?????

I got a BONUS (for being an awesome teacher... HAHAHAHA)

and we decided to use it to buy a terrific tool!

However, we got it on Tuesday and on Wednesday

we all got sick.

So it sat in the garage.

(It has to sit undisturbed for 24 hours anyway...)

We opened it up on the driveway and inspected

it for any damage (there wasn't any)

and then put it into the garage.

And there it sat on it's fancy new cart

until we were all well enough to mess with it.

We did the "test" bread run and passed with flying colors

and then moved on to a load of THREE big bags

(from Sams) of sliced frozen strawberries.

It took for EVER.

(They say strawberries are hard because of the

little bitty seeds which hold moisture...)

So to be extra sure, when it said it was done,

I added about 20 hours of extra drying time.

We pulled them out this morning.

And boy howdy are they DELICIOUS!

The strawberry flavor is INTENSE!

So yummy!!!!!

Kyle took a bag with him to work.

(He's been in So Florida all week clearing

a guy's old overgrown orange orchard..)

And I've been sneaking them while teaching this morning.

I doubt they will last long.

The machine is busy defrosting.

And then I'm going to put in a load of

frozen kernel corn!

Another favorite.

I'M SO EXCITED!!!!

Long Time!!!

 I've been sick.

Ugh.

So it was all I could do, to do those things

I HAD to do to keep my family and myself

going - and didn't have an inch of energy

for anything else.

But I'm BACK!

I still have a little congestion in my chest.

But I'd say I'm 97%.

Whew!!!

Rod has been back to work all week last week

and is feeling good.

He was only sick for 1 day and then sleepy

for a couple of extra days.

Kyle was only sick for the 1 day and took

it easy after that.

I was sick for about 3 hours.

But it drained every bit of energy!

Anyhow.

During the week I went MIA, lots happened!

We LOST the cat.

We FOUND the cat.

(Pig escaped - but when Kyle was mowing the yard

the other day, a silver streak shot out from under

the shed in the yard - PIG!!!!!)

Also missing seem to be all the RATS!

Which is awesome!

Good job PIG!

This is honestly our only picture of him.

He is VERY elusive.

But I guess his broken leg isn't giving him any trouble.

Kyle said he was FAST!

And the rats seem likely to agree.....

Anyhow.

The babies are also growing!

Fancy eye liner!

I split them into two groups since they are 

growing too large for their little home.

I would like to put them in with the big girls,

but they will make little peeping sounds and 

although they are fully feathered, they aren't fast

and they are DUMB.

So they would likely be eaten.

I'm going to give them another month or so...

and then we'll see.

It's "winter" so the predators are out in full force.

I see hawks daily.

And of course, while we were sick we were

also focused on MOM and her health challenges.

SO happy to hear the surgery got scheduled

and went well!

Looking forward to hearing she is doing better

and better and better as the new parts do their job!

More Sick...

 Sorry to leave you hanging.....

but we ALL got sick.

Kyle started it on day 1.

Then Rod followed on day 2.

I was feeling all superior.

Until the next morning when I

woke up feeling like every joint

in my body was on fire.

Thankfully it only lasted for a few

hours - I took some Ivermectin and

2 aspirin and slept most of the day

but I felt MUCH better by mid afternoon.

Except for being tired, I haven't 

had any other effects.

Kyle makes us all get up and walk

the property a couple of times every day

to keep the blood going.

We did lots of sleeping.

Not much eating.

Nobody was hungry,

At all.

I finally took down the tree today.

And made some fettuccini alfredo for dinner.

And it tasted AWFUL!

Kyle and I were both like UGH!

This tastes OLD and metallic!

Rod said it tasted fine...

so we ate it, but BOY I'm hoping

that little side effect doesn't last!

(Might be good for the diet, but yuck!)

While I was teaching tonight, Kyle went to

Taco Bell to get nachos for him and Rod and

then to the grocery store for some fruit and

cans of soup.

He ate ALL his nachos - but said they tasted

like old dairy. Like it had sat out for a 

couple of weeks.

Rod said it was fine.

Anyhow.

No pictures.

But I'll try to do better tomorrow.

Glad Omicron wasn't a big deal for us.

We were all 100% better (well except the taste thing)

within 3 days. 

UPDATE!!!

I just ate a bowl of turkey/rice soup (Campbells)

And it was DELICIOUS!

What I imagine my students look like...