Life on a little urban homestead in the making, with ideas for self-sufficiency, Permaculture, DIYing, organic gardening, food preservation, Chicken keeping, cookery, crafts, thrifting and more...

Oct 13, 2020

First Mountain Snow & Garden Clean Out, The Case Of the Flying Chicken, Autumn/Halloween Decor, Herb Crusted Pork Loin Roast Recipe


First Mountain Snow & Garden Clean Out
Well it's that time of year, our first Mountain snow storm came! We had over 1/2" rain in 12 hours last Saturday. Much cooler temperatures this week. Frost forecast tomorrow night and 37 degrees predicted. No more 80 degree weather! Dave and I went out Thursday night into the veggie garden. He picked all the squash and peppers, I picked the tomatoes. I found that with heavy rain sometimes tomatoes and things will actually crack and didn't want to lose anything. The green tomatoes I'll either leave on the counter to ripen or will go in a batch of Chow Chow, the rest will be used for various projects-


The giant Italian peppers are so huge that they never had enough time to turn red, but they'll be delish anyway! Those are really great to either freeze and use for pasta sauce later or stuffed and roasted like these Stuffed Italian Frying Peppers-


BIG!


The sweet Gypsy Peppers, basically like pepperoncini peppers, will probably be used for Chow Chow and/or frozen with some tomatoes-



Will pick mini pumpkins tonight-


I harvested my last little Lavender re-bloom-


Dave said it's always depressing to tear up the summer garden, and yes it is, but less weekend work coming up. No more watering/weeding and mowing will wind down. The chickens had a great time realizing that there is a lot more open space and started chowing down on some of the squash leaves. 



The Case Of the Flying Chicken-
There's Sunny, one of our younger hens, who apparently can fly even with major flight feather trimming! I kept finding her on top of the garden fence and/or in the main part of the garden. Safety-wise we have several dogs on the other side of our neighbor's 6' fence. I decided to ask Dave to help me add an upper level of spare chicken wire. I think once she gets bigger we can take it down- 


So far it's worked! What a trouble maker! 



Autumn/ Halloween Decor- 
Autumn decor is up, and comforter on the bed! I had a cough/cold for almost 2 weeks and would have gotten it all done earlier otherwise. Luckily real rain feel this weekend! Dave and I put up some corn stalks on the front of the house to start. He got them free from a local community garden. When they harvest the corn they give away the stalks, win win! 


He also put up all our fun Halloween stuff outside-


Not sure if trick or treating will happen in Covid times. We may host a party here for our Grandchildren and their parents. 


I did the inside and much of it thrifted (of course!) -












I added a few things to my home office as well!








Herb Crusted Pork Loin Roast Recipe
When we went grocery shopping I found pork loin roasts on a buy one get one free! Basically $2.00 per pound, score. I bought two and froze one. I used one for this nice recipe I wanted to try Herb Crusted Pork Loin Roast  I didn't have grainy Dijon Mustard so I used 1/2 Dijon and 1/2 Spicy Deli mustard. I thought straight Dijon might be a bit too strong. I also omitted the salt as mustard is very salty as it is. I think some people over-salt, and if you do, bummer. If not, you can add some on your own portion. My roast was thicker and took almost an hour longer, so adjust time as needed. I baked some Acorn squash with a little butter and brown sugar to go with it. Perfect Autumn meal! Pork was juicy and excellent flavor. Just make the rub, spread it on, pop it in the oven, set the timer, walk away! Easy peasy. 

8 comments:

Goatldi said...

I laughed (with you of course) about the famous flying chicken . Years ago when we first moved onto two and one half acres on the "golden westside" as we called it we first added chickens to our farm. We had a lovely coup that Geoffrey built with a nice yard and pretty much adequate fencing height. For all except two Rhode Island Red sisters who kept scaling it even as every new 3 foot wide piece of chicken wire was added to the fencing. Finally they met their Waterloo at about 6 feet if I remember correctly. It was most certainly a health hazard as there was a trio of English Setters just waiting on the other side. Livestock always a challenge and often cheap entertainment!

House and festive décor look great.

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks, I've just never had them jump that high! Thanks it's fun to bring nature in

Judy said...

I got a kick out of your chicken story so funny. I know your wanna keep them safe. I have 7 girls I'm always checking on them and lock them up at night. Your decorations are all gorgeous everything looks so nice and festive. I also enjoyed reading about what you made for supper looks so yummy. Im gonna have to make that for supper soon.
Thanks for sharing
Enjoy your day.

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks for stopping by Judy! yes chickens can be a handful sometimes!!! Thanks and most of my decor is thrifted too, so that's a great way to save :)

Debby said...

Everything looks so nice. I haven't done any decorating yet. I don't know what I am waiting for.

Nancy In Boise said...

Thanks sometimes it's like waiting for inspiration!

Cockeyed Jo said...

We don't cut the flight feathers on our free ranging chickens. But they are so bottom heavy that they can't fly up more than 5' unless chased by a dog to get into our garden. They actually will shimmy their fat butts under the garden gate to get in.

Nancy In Boise said...

Yes I hear you joe! Most of mine could jump a bit but these newer hens should be in the Olympics!!!

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