I got called over to check out the skunk, from the living room window.
When I got to the camera, I could tell something had his attention.
Oh, that’s what it was…
Checking each other out!
Then I saw the other one…
And my husband kindly shut off the TV so the camera could focus beyond the reflection. :-D
The skunk continued around the back of the house, closely watched by the deer. The deer hung out under the crab apple tree until something else startled them.
So beautiful.
The Re-Farmer
While checking around the yard, to see if any other branches came down during the gusts of high winds we had yesterday, I came to the remains of our straw bale.
Beep Beep and her boy, taking advantage of something warmer than the ground! :-D
Smart kitties.
The Re-Farmer
During the summer, as my mother’s grapes ripened, I gathered them and froze them. I didn’t even bag them; just put them in bowls and stuck them in the freezer.
We’ve been nibbling on them, little by little, ever since. ;-)
I had originally planned to put them through the juicer, but for the amount we had, it just didn’t seem worth the effort. So I went back to something I wanted to try, earlier.
Making jelly.
This is a new thing for me – we made jam, when I was growing up, never jelly. I got the recipes and instructions from my copy of the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving (affiliate link). It’s a great book for small batch canning, with recipes that are easily modified for quantity. I’m rather pleased with how it turned out!
The frozen grapes made for 5 cups. The first thing I had to do was extract the juice. For this you need a large, stainless steel saucepan (you need room for the boiling liquid to expand), a jelly bag or a colander or sieve lined with layers of cheese cloth, a deep bowl, and a way to hang the bag over it.
Grape Juice for jelly
That’s it! I used a large measuring cup as my bowl, and let it hang overnight. The 5 cups of frozen grapes yielded just under 2 cups of juice. I then put the pulp outside for the birds. :-) To make the jelly, you’ll need a stainless steel saucepan – this will bubble up a lot, so have one big enough to give it plenty of room – sterilized jars, rings and lids, a spoon to stir with, plus a cold spoon to do the gel test*, and a canning funnel. 
Grape Jelly (based on Old-Fashioned Jellies, pg. 120, in the cookbook)
2 cups juice
1 1/2 cups sugar
(ratio of 3 cups sugar to 4 cups juice)
After this, you could can them, as per your canner’s instructions. I don’t have a canner, but the 2 cups of juice made barely 1 1/2 pints of jelly, which were left to cool overnight. They will be kept refrigerated, instead.
* Sheet test for gel
Dip a cold metal spoon into the boiling soft spread. Lift the spoon and hold it horizontally, edge down, and watch how the mixture drops. When the mixture reaches the gel stage, it will begin to “sheet”, with the jelly breaking off the spoon in a sheet or flake, rather than pouring or dripping.
We taste tested the jelly this morning.
Now, this is where I admit, I don’t actually like jams or jellies. I find them too sweet, and the texture off-putting.
I love this jelly! Using our own grapes, this jelly has a sweet-tart flavor that is just awesome. It also gelled really well.
Obviously, the flavor will always depend on the type of grapes used, but using grapes that had been frozen first would have changed the flavor was well.
I am hoping that, next year, I’ll be able to free up our grape vine from the spirea it’s surrounded by, and be able to trellis it, for increased productivity.
Over the years, I plan to get more, and different varieties, that can grow in our climate.
Next year, I invest in canning equipment. :-D
The Re-Farmer
While out and about this morning, the kittens were out in full force. Including Doom Guy, who can’t seem to figure out that, if he wants me to pick him up, he has to be in FRONT of me, not behind…
I’m going to have little puncture marks, all up the back of my legs, thanks to him. :-D
Yesterday, I was able to clean up the platform to the clothes line. The line itself needs a bit of maintenance before we can use it. A bit more, if we want to set up three lines again, instead of the one that’s left now.
Whoever rebuilt this platform did a good job of it.
The original platform doubled as a dog house. On the side, where the mock orange is growing now, there was an opening, and we kept it filled with straw for the dogs. I even remember being able to crawl into it, myself, for some canine snuggles!
The cats can squeeze under the stairs. At least, the smaller ones, can. I don’t think Rolando Moon could fit through there. Nor the skunk.
Of the stuff that was on the platform, I’ve only kept the bin, as a potential shelter for the cats in the winter, and a piece of eaves trough that I am wanting to re-purpose, but doens’t fit anywhere else right now.
I noticed, however, that there is stuff underneath, so I used my phone’s camera to see what it is.
???
Why is any of that, there?
Who thought it was a good idea to shove it under there?
The only way for any of this to be there is by pushing it through the opening under the step.
How am I supposed to clean that up?
The Re-Farmer
This is what we see, in varying configurations of floofs, when we look out our bathroom window. :-D
The Re-Farmer
What a gorgeous day we had today! We actually hit 19C!
I don’t expect we’ll hit above 10C again, for the rest of the year. It’d be nice, but I’m not going to count on it!
Which meant a final run around the yard. I took out the string of lights that wasn’t working, then hauled away a few more loads of pruned and cleaned up branches from the spruce grove; what hasn’t been cleaned up are in piles that can stay the winter. Mostly, I wanted access to the larger, less noisy, wheelbarrow! The straw around the old dog house I prepped for the cats to use over the winter had settled, so I added three more wheelbarrows of straw around the outside. I also finally cleaned up the platform for the clothes line. Some of what was on there went to the junk pile – we won’t be able to get that hauled away this year, unfortunately. There was a plastic bin under the bench seat on the platform that had some plant pots in it, sitting in half frozen rain water. The pots went into the shelf we’ve left by the sun room – that thing has been too handy to haul away. The bin itself was put back under the bench, but on its side, so it won’t collect water. Bricks that had been lying around went inside it, to ensure it doesn’t get blown away. One more little shelter from the weather for the cats, though they also go under the platform itself.
The tools and equipment have been put way, but into the sun room, not the garden shed. That shed will need to be hauled away with the junk, after we clear it out of whatever is not broken in there. I’ve put the garden hoses in there, but I hope to replace those next summer.
It looks like getting the trees done will have to wait until the spring, after all. The pump for our well has been making some strange noises when it first turns on, but I’ve never been able to get to it to record it, before the noise stops. We’ve been listening for it, as it doesn’t happen every time the pump turns on, and it seems to make the noise only after the pump has not had to turn on for several hours. So, mostly, when the first shower of the day is started. Before contacting the plumber I emailed my older brother about it. From the description, he says it sounds like the foot valve is letting water slowly leak down. If it has long enough time to leak, when it turns on again, it will make the grumbling noises we’ve been hearing, as it tries to prime itself.
If that’s what it is, it’s a job for the plumber, because fixing it would require taking the pipe out of the manhole outside.
I’ve asked the girls to let me know before the first one of them showers tomorrow morning, so I can go downstairs and start recording when the water is started, and hopefully catch the pump making the noise when it turns on. Then I can call the plumber, play it for him, and it will give him an idea of what it is.
This is one of those things we can’t take a chance on. If the pump goes, we have no water. Better to have it fixed now, before winter gets here! I’m just hoping we can pay for that, and still be able to get me to a dentist. :-(
Renting a wood chipper this fall is also out the window.
*sigh*
Once it was dark enough, I went out to check the lights again. One string shorter, but all are working!
I’m really happy with how the whole fence line is looking. After I took the broken string of lights down, I took the time to cut away the small underbrush I’d left behind, since I was focusing on getting the fence itself clear of the big stuff. There was enough of it to be in the way while walking back and forth, with the lights.
That done, I spent some time walking around, just enjoying the warm and peaceful night in the yard. Gosh, it is so nice! I really missed this, when living in the city. You can actually see the stars, and it’s so quiet. Even when being chased down and having my calves tackled by a Doom Guy. :-D
I played around with the “pro” settings on my phone to try and get some photos. Here’s one of them.
You can actually see a star next to that moon! I’ve resized the image, and some of the detail is lost. The lights on the bottom right are the solar lights I’ve got on each side of the vehicle gate into the yard, and you can see the moon reflecting on the metal roof of the garage.
Anyhow. As for as outside the house goes, we’re ready for winter.
It’s been a good and productive day!
The Re-Farmer
While working in my office this morning, our Mama cat started getting all agitated, and going up to the window. That’s when I realized I was hearing a low growling noise from outside.
This is what we saw.
It’s a dad-cat standoff!
No wonder our Mama wasn’t happy!
I’ve never seen this cat before, though I think the girls have.
This is the one that showed up in the sun room, one day. :-D
It should be interesting to see how things pan out with these two, over the winter!
The Re-Farmer
Heading over to my crochet corner, I noticed something odd on the bird feeder.
At first, I thought it was Butterscotch.
Then it looked at me.
Why, hello, Rosencrantz…
or Guildenstern.
All the birds were on the ground while she was up there, and she was VERY interested in watching them.
Guildenstern (or Rosencrantz) wasn’t quite sure what to make of me. Normally, she runs off as soon as any of us comes near. Which means this is probably the best look at her I’ve ever gotten!
Of course, as soon as she was on the ground, all the birds were on the feeder. :-D
Such a pretty kitty!
The Re-Farmer
After coming back from checking the new Christmas lights I’d added to our fence line yesterday, I noticed the outside cat food bowls were empty. I went through the Old Kitchen to take care of that, and disturbed the pile of kittens, sleeping on the swing bench.
This is what I saw when I opened the door to the sun room, plus The Outsider, who jumped down when I opened the other door to get the photo.
It occurs to me that I have not seen Corvo for some time. Also, it’s been quite a while since I’ve both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the same time.
It’s getting cold enough that, along with the food, we’ve started to put warm water out for them, too. They seem to be liking that!
We’re going from highs of barely above freezing, to 16C tomorrow, then right back down again. One last day to get that last of things finished up and put way outside. I don’t expect we’ll get another warm day like that again until next year.
I wonder how many of the cats we had over last winter will come back this winter?
The Re-Farmer
Some time back, my older brother and his wife generously passed on items to me that used to belong to my brother’s late MIL. Among them were outdoor LED Christmas lights, and a timer. Today… er… (glances at the time)… yesterday, I took them out to add to the stings of white lights we already have at the fence line near the gate.
I had two areas I was considering to put the timer. One was in the garage, where the main power cord is plugged in. I figured, if I were able to get the timer to sit at the window, I could set it to turn on from dusk until dawn.
Turns out, I can’t do that.
The timer’s plug in area is slightly recessed and rectangular in shape. The power cord’s plug is round and rather large. It doesn’t fit into the space.
The other possibility was to put it between the new strings of lights and the set of white lights I was adding them on to. This way, the white lights would be on all the time, while the Christmas ones would only turn on at night. I even had a clear plastic bag to put over the timer to protect it from the elements, while still allowing the sensor to detect light levels.
Nope. I could plug a string of lights into the timer, but the timer’s plug has three prongs, and the light strings can only accept two prong plugs.
So I just added them on, as is.
It turned out to be 4 strings of lights in total, already plugged into each other. Which was just fine by me! I strung them out and affixed them to the barbed wire with zip ties. Though they had power running to them, there was too much sunlight for me to see how they looked. I waited until dark to go back and see them, since there’s too much brush in the way for us to see them from the house.
So… they look just fine…
Except for the gap.
I did test these in the house a few days ago, when I was deciding what to do with them. They were all working fine. I was all set to put them up in the sun room and had even started to unroll the bundle a bit, before I realized I didn’t have a way to affix them the way I had in mind. Finding an entire string of lights out was a bit of a surprise! Checking it out with a flashlight, I could see nothing to tell me why it wasn’t lit.
So I’ll be going back tomorrow with something to cut the zip ties, and remove the string that’s not lit up.
I was rather impressed by how much the white ones light up the area around them. I definitely want to pick up more of those, when I can.
Yeah, I know, it’s not even Halloween yet, so it’s early for Christmas lights. I figure, better to get them up now, before the snow arrives to stay. :-)
The Re-Farmer
