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...

Barn Swallows

Ooh, been so busy lately. Today was actually a pretty slow day at work so I was able to catch up, or start catching up on a few things. I did spend a few minutes watching and taking pictures of a family of barn swallows outside our front window. They made a mess of the window, but I figure we can clean up after they fledge. You can tell they aren't far from leaving the nest! Actually they have left for flying practice and then come back for meals and sleeping.

My new camera does a pretty good job! I have to show this last picture. When I started clicking the shutter to take the picture, I had a perfect line up of orange mouths. But by the time the picture actually took, the parent was in the middle feeding someone. When the picture was done, the parent had already left - fast work! And hungry babies to feed!

Had dog training class tonight. This is my first class which is taking another 4 weeks to get ready for the Canine Good Citizen Test. Everyone is doing great and I am very proud of all of them. I think they had fun too. My new class which met Monday for the first time will be a challenge - at least some of them. I have a 6 year old lab and a 4 year old Airedale Terrier - same owner. Totally out of control and well established bad behavior. I had to put a training collar on right away so the Airedale wouldn't eat the 'poochon'! I guess the poochon is a cross between a poodle and a bichon frise. I will have my work cut out for me and I know I don't get paid enough for this! But I do it so the owners and dogs have a better life together.


Airedale Terrier



Poochon

Busy surgery day tomorrow. Dental on a 3 pound papillion, glucose curve on a diabetic cat, OFA xrays for registration of a registered dog, scraping the corneas (on the eyes) on a cat, a finally a pyometra (infected uterus on a female dog).
Won't get much else done I guess but it's job security!

Thursday

Long day. Started at 5:30, work at 7:15, finish work at 5:15, start last dog training class at 6:15 and end it at 8:15. Home at 9:00 and the girls weren't home so animals weren't fed and put up. Jacky putting up our first corn so I went out in the near dark and put away the animals for the night. Got on the computer and Ben was on so spent a few with him (he was ready for bed) and girls came home (Anna from Mankato, Emma from Lee's house). Phew! and tomorrow is my long day...
Last day of training went very well. I had everyone fill out an evaluation form and looked at them tonight too. Everyone seemed to enjoy the .8 weeks of class. I know they've made a lot of progress but they also have a ways to go. All the feedback was positive and they are almost all going to come to my 'extension' classes. I'm adding another 4 weeks to get ready for the Canine Good Citizen Test, hopefully middle of September. We start that next Wednesday night because I'm starting another "Dog Manners 101" on Monday again for another 8 weeks. Also 3 of my students from this class recommended me to friends so 4 dogs in my new class are there because of these first students. I hope I'm deserving of this! We've had a whole lot of fun and sometimes my insights into the dogs have surprised the students, and even me when they turned out so true!
Tomorrow will be a super busy day - and ACL surgery, an entropion surgery (where the eyelids are turned in and the eyelashes rub on the eyeball), plus a cat neuter and a dog spay. I'm also trying to fix the boarding mess my coworkers made in the 4 days I was gone (just Saturday, Sunday, off Monday for Livestock interviews in Owatonna, and Tuesday my day off). I came in this morning and they're like, "Lori, you better look at the boarding, I think we're over booked!". Well, yes and no and it took all morning to straighten it out. We are quite full with a waiting list. and one of my regulars went somewhere else because we had no room. Another regular called today and expected to get in this weekend. I forgot to call her back but I really don't know where I'd stash her dog....
Better get to bed. Hopefully will talk to you tomorrow.

County Fair Time!

Busy, busy week. Emma's last county fair as a 4H-er. It's hard to believe the years and years of showing at the fair are almost over.
Emma has done very well. Her drawing got Grand Champion in Crafts and Fine Arts. She can't show it at the state fair because she will be back at school! Her lambs both got purple ribbons and 1st and 2nd in their weight class! - and 4th and 7th in the state fair line up. They were fantastic! Out of about 60 lambs I would guess. Very very competitive. This is only the second year Emma's done lambs too...

Ashley is next to her in yellow with Emma's second lamb. They are put in a class based on their weight and Emma's were only 2 pounds different. Obviously you can't hold two animals at the same time so another
4H-er is allowed to show one of the animals. Way to go Emma! Fantastic job!!!!
That was Wednesday night. Thursday night was Goats. Wish I could say the judge was ok but he was horrible. Not anything new in 4H. Sometimes I think they just put a warm body out there. Emma had the only Nubian Dairy goat.They put all the dry yearlings together and Maggie was 5th out of 6. The judge's reasons and the goats he put ahead of her made no sense whatsoever. Emma will be taking her to State Fair and I hope this judge is watching when "Maggie" does well there. Emma did get Grand Champion in Senior Showmanship. Great Job! She also won the Goat Interviews, Senior division!

More to come on the Meat goats. Tomorrow is the last how - Llama show at 9:00. So to bed!