Reflections of katlupe: September 2012

Friday, September 14, 2012

Preserving Garden Produce

Hot Peppers from my garden!

Many people believe they are doing the right thing when they put up all their produce in the freezer every year. Mention canning, and I can see their eyes rolling into the back of their heads! "Too much work," they say. Well, of course it is work. Of course, on the other hand, so is having to replace all the food that was lost in their freezers due to power outages or freezer malfunctions. Or due to someone not noticing a plug that had come out of the wall socket until it was too late. I have seen all these scenarios mentioned on my homesteading forum in the past. If it can happen to a homesteader, it can happen to you.

Cubed pumpkin from the garden!

Turning your home grown or locally grown produce into food for the winter is as easy as a matter of processing the food by cleaning and cutting. That is by far, the hardest step in the process. Once you have done that, it is a simple process. If you have children or a willing husband, that makes that step much easier. It goes much faster when you are talking while you are working! If you can get together with a friend or relative who also has food to can, it will be fun to do your canning together. Or take turns going to each other's house to help with their canning. So much easier that way!

Green beans ready for the canner!

During harvest season, I have a rule: to work on plain produce. No meat and no soups, stews, casseroles, etc. Just get the fresh produce canned as quickly as I can, since it is usually on going from the garden and I am trying to keep up with it. I have stopped making jams and jellies due to the amount of sugar in those products. We do not eat sugar anymore, and I can not see any sense in wasting time making them. I can some berry juices and other fruits without sugar. Then we add whatever sweetener we want when we drink or eat it.

The finished product always warms my heart!

There is nothing I love more than seeing my pantry shelves full of my own home canned food products! This year I have gotten way behind on this due to some personal stuff going on in my life. I can promise you, I won't be behind for long! I will catch up and start adding to my supplies before long.

Ball Wide Mouth Lids

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Can't Keep Every Stray Animal

Someone dropped this guy off at our homestead!

Recently we had a stray duck show up at our homestead. I would have loved to keep him, but had no safe place to keep him. He was so friendly and followed us around like he was one of us. I knew we could not keep him though. I asked one of my homesteading friends if she would take him and she agreed to. Now he is happy at her home and living with other ducks and even got to "know" one of the females yesterday!

Getting to know the new flock!

I wrote about him on my new blog in this post Taking Our Stray Duck To A New Home. It was a beautiful drive to my friend's homestead. I didn't mind it at all. It is important for you not to keep every stray animal or bird that is left off at your home. Unless you really want it! Every extra mouth to feed costs money. Every extra critter is more time devoted to each one. Some critters are messier than others. Birds, especially chickens and ducks, like to hang around at our door, and they certainly leave a mess. Our dog, Nikita, hates to walk in mud, let alone bird poo!

Sights along the way!

Anyway, I was fortunate to have a friend willing to take on another duck. I appreciate it very much!!!

Saturday, September 01, 2012

Spammers Will Not Get A Link On My Blogs

A busy street is like Spam on the internet!

This post is for my fellow bloggers, are you getting a lot of spam in your comments? I mean now the spammers have become enlightened in a way. They now actually read your blog post! Yes, they do! Then they try their best to write a comment based on what you wrote about. The only thing is that it doesn't sound sincere. Even more so, when they add their dirty little link to the comment, or try to include it in the comment, it makes it sound like if your readers will click it, then it will follow your blog post. Delete! Delete! Delete!

Spam in my inbox! Yuk!

Or how about in your "contact me" email inbox? Yes, that is where I am getting mine. These emails invite me to write for or ask me for help, and leave their link for me to contact them back. Only thing is their links contain a junk site, with the word, credit reports or online dating, or something else like that. I delete all of these emails. If anyone really wants to get in touch with me, I'd much rather they go through my Facebook page, or find me on Blogfrog at The Redhead Riter's Witty Community. I am always there.

Special message for spammers who send me spam!

Why they do this is to get you to click the link and they get credit for bringing you to their site or the site of their employers. It does not matter that you will not buy or join the site, just that they got you there. My new rule is that I do not click their links or allow their comments on my blogs. I delete them! I wish I could delete them from my life for good. But this is the best I can do.

Pages