Long Lake Hunt Club

Here they are before their run -


Spent a beautiful  fall day in Hamel. Anna and Piper rode at the Long Lake Hunt Club. Even though Piper was a little tubby, she did great. Like Anna says, it's so much fun when the horse enjoys it as much or more than the rider does! Now Anna thinks I should bring SueBee out next time. I'm not sure she could handle even small jumps - she's quite a clutz - but it might be fun. I have 2 weeks to get her ready...

Here they are after. Hmmm, Piper's head is quite a bit lower!


Jacky enjoys these outings also. I had to get a picture of him doing his thing...

We ate lunch afterwards at Culvers - left Piper dozing in the trailer in the parking lot. Funny, she was a lot more ansy this morning!
Took some pictures tonight. The moon was orange and partly hidden behind the clouds. Harvest Moon! Nice and peaceful, isn't it...

Work, work, work

Can't seem to find time to write a post here. I told Jacky when I got home "No tomatoes tonight, PLEASE!"
Ok, maybe I was being a little dramatic, but I need a break once in a while!
Today was quite busy again - seems like every day is like that now! Megan and Karla and Pam gone so it was Emily, Beth , Holly and me. I was appointment, again, and it keeps you from getting involved in any other projects because you have to be right there ready when a client comes in. We lost our internet this morning, and our printer cartridge. Soooo it was a little crazy and we couldn't check people out, look up refills, print labels, put in histories...the list goes on and on. We did get a computer girl come and fix things - about 4:00.
Also had a lunch and learn - with Novartis about cat pain meds. Had a subway platter, which was ok, but I had to spin pig blood which Jen brought in right when he started his talk. The blood had to be spun to separate and then boxed up to go out on UPS. Big Brown usually comes about 1:00 so I had to have everything ready.
Had the client who complained about boarding a week and a half ago, call and make another boarding reservation. I had instructions in history to not let this person board (he complained we didn't administer eye meds and the dog's eye got all goopy although it was clear we did and he got free boarding...). Mike was gone so I had to talk to this jerk. I am letting him board his dog this weekend but I told him I would keep a close eye on everything. We will also take pictures of the dog's eyes before she walks out the door. This client didn't make a complaint until 4 days after he picked the dog up and he had pictures he 'supposedly' took as soon as he got home. He is not a nice person and was kicked out of the local legion for stealing money from them....Oh well, it means a lot of trips to the clinic this weekend.
Corn and soybeans are being harvested now so allergies are crazy -in people and in dogs. I would bet fully half of all our appointments now are itchy dogs! And my coworkers walk around blowing their noses all day long too.
Looks like a young tabby cat visiting the goat barn tonight. All toes were white - I'll have to see if he stays around. Not likely though. I watched from the house so I wasn't close to him.
walked into the goat barn and smelled rotten eggs. The eggs two hens have been setting on for over 2 weeks have gone bad. At least one had exploded in the nest box. While I had the hens off the nest eating corn, I very gingerly took out the rotten eggs (one wrong move can make them explode!). Jacky took them way out in the corn field to get rid of them. The dogs would eat them if he didn't take them far away (I know! How disgusting!!)

Really enjoying reading my nieces blog while she's on global. I'm ready for another trip I guess. Life though was much simpler when I didn't have all the animals to worry about. Boarding fees alone cost about as much as the trip. Whose idea was it to keep 10 dogs???

Canning! (again)

Ok, sounds like a broken record. Same story as Saturday (if I had written a blog for Saturday). Loads of tomatoes, now corn, beans....A run to Albert Lea for more onions, garlic, parsley....I've gotten a lot of tomatoes from Lee and also our own our still coming strong. The last corn is slightly overripe but still good. However, that means the corn can't wait. The beans are getting over ripe but will have to wait a little longer. My watermelons are sitting in the garden because there's no room in the fridge. I hope I don't lose them like I did the cantaloupe. Here's what my kitchen looks like tonight -

Here's the 6 pints (only!) of tomato sauce I finished tonight.

Here's some of the purple and a regular Cascade potato next to it -

Lee and his mother, Beth, came over to pick up their buckets and brought me more tomatoes. Beth is done canning and freezing and doesn't want to see another tomato for a very long time...Lol. She had always wanted to plant purple potatoes and never had so we walked out to the garden and dug some up. I guess Lee is getting purple mashed potatoes for supper tonight!

Renaissance Festival!

Festival time again! This time Ben and Maggie were with us for a few days while on the way to Duluth so they came with us, Aren and Becky drove down from Duluth, Anna came from St. Paul, and Emma brought a carload of "Cobbers" from Moorhead. Phew! Hard to actually catch up to everyone. But it was a beautiful day - cool and breezy - and if you're wearing a full skirt , feels really good! As you can see from the photos, some of us were dressed up, and others wouldn't quite get in the mood...
Here we are in the parking lot. As you can see, we brought Candy and Magic. Lots of paperwork to get into the festival but I'm glad we did. They were such conversation starters and obviously lots of people either had, or have, schnauzers. Lots and lots of attention, and both dogs did great!

Ben and Maggie look the part, of course. They've been doing this for a lot longer then the rest of us...

Aren got his turkey leg, like always -

Here's a good one of him and Becky. Course, can't see their eyes. So I don't know what they're thinking...Maybe "What a crazy lady!"

Anna was soooo happy to have Magic with her -

Emma and Lee made quite a couple - don't you like the parasol? Emma was hot...

I guess you need one of Candy too -

Looks like I take lots of pictures of family - of course! There were a few other photos but not as many. I ran out of battery (after lunch, obviously). We did and saw lots of fun things - not the least was the free beer tasting offered by - Schell! Yep, a few of us had trouble carrying our weight but it was interesting hearing about the history of the various beers and tasting them. Some were quite different from others! We also watched a little of the sheepdog herding demos like we watched last year. Of course I enjoy that!!!! Mostly it's fun to people/costume watch see the sights. I'd like to make this an annual tradition but I imagine it will become difficult as everyone slowly leaves the area. Well, we'll have to enjoy it while we can!

State Fair

State Fair! Can't forget to put in a word about state. The day was quite warm and Emma's Dairy Goat show started at 8:00 in the morning. Lots of children and goats to be seen. I love seeing all the different breeds too. Emma did great - got third in showmanship but won the livestock interviews in dairy goat and got her chair she'd been wanting to win! Good thing too - it's her last year!

It is quite an honor to win this - every 4H-er has to do the interviews and it's a panel of judges you have to talk to. I'm very proud of Emma for winning this!

Her goat, Maggie, also did great here. Unlike at the County Fair, this judge knew all about dairy goats and breeds and what to look for. Maggie and Emma won their dry yearling class for Nubians and they were second - or Reserve Champion - in Junior Nubian Dairy Goat. The goat that beat her was an excellent doeling also. Yeah Emma! Way to go!!!

The goat behind Emma and Maggie won the Junior Does. But the judge said it was the hardest decision he'd had all day - that they were very very close!

Right after Emma finished, Jacky, Anna and I had to go help the vets test the champions and reserve champions in the swine and cattle. I've helped now for 4 years but we were very short handed this time. Mike had me lead a team (of me and Jacky) and Anna was drafted too and went with Mike's son Bridger. We had a bit of wait in the swine ring while the judge decided who he wanted. I spent the time taking pictures of the pigs...

Jacky and I had the Reserve Champion Barrow. We needed to get a urine sample and a hair sample which are tested for illegal drugs. But trying to get your animal to pee is not the easiest thing! We tried everything with our pig. Even took him to the wash rack to wet him down. Nothing worked. Then Tom came along and the mother of the 4Her said he sometimes peed when his privates were massaged. So Tom gets down in the middle of the isle and proceeds to "massage" while all these people are walking around us. Of course he was successful so I will have to remember that for next year.
Cattle were after that and Jacky and I had the Reserve Champion Dairy Market Steer. Again, he didn't want to produce for us. Eventually, after we walked him down to the wash rack and let the sound and feel of water get to him, he did go for us. Jacky caught it in the cup and was quite proud of himself. All I told him is "Don't spill it!" It could be another couple of hours before the cow urinated again. Job well done. The lambs we left to Mike and Tom so we could get home. After all, tomorrow we would be picking Emma up and driving to Mooorhead. Whew! What a week!

Canning Time!

Oh it's been a busy, busy time. We took Emma back to Concordia at Moorhead last weekend

and this weekend we took Anna to her new apartment in St. Paul where she will live while attending Grad School at St. Catherine's for Physical Therapy. But we're not bored yet. The garden is going crazy and I'm kept busy freezing and canning away. Of course the temp is upper 80's and high humidity but if you want to preserve your garden's bounty, you have to knuckle down and and sweat. We didn't even turn the AC on - it can't keep with the kitchen heat.
I think I'm finished for the day though. 6 quarts pickles and 1 pint pickled eggplant this morning.

This afternoon was tomato sauce. It really takes hours and hours to make 6 pints of sauce. Hope it's worth it!

This is one day's harvest - not today's. There's canned pears in the back, eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini. beans.

Cantaloupe, watermelon, tomatoes...I can't eat all of this! Sooo I have to start doing something with all this food. It will taste good in the middle of a Minnesota winter!

Here's my freezer stuffed with beans and corn (and full of beef underneath).

Tomato Sauce - the making of....

                                                       Bags and bags of tomatoes...

After picking, we need to put them in boiling water to loosen the skins and split them. This only takes a couple of minutes.

Then we carefully dip them out of the pot and place in the sink filled with ice water to stop the cooking and continue to loosen up the skins.

Now we take the cooled tomatoes and put them through my tomato processor to get rid of the skins and seeds. It works great! Here you see the cooled tomatoes on the right and the seeds/skins/bad tomatoes on the left.

Here is the processor with the skins/seeds coming out the front into the green bowl and the tomato sauce coming out the left side.

From here I have to saute onions and garlic in olive oil. Then add celery and carrots. I add the processed tomatoes as well as parsley from Emma's herb garden and oregano, bay leaves and pepper. I simmer it all for about 2 hours during which time it reduces to about half the amount and thickens up the finished sauce. I have to add lemon juice to acidify the sauce so I can process it in a boiling water bath. The pints are processed for 35 minutes.

The finished product - 6 small pint jars of heaven! Which my children will all want to take home with them...