Harvesting Service (Saskatoon) Berries, Thrifting Scores! Goats On Patrol

Harvesting Service (Saskatoon) Berries

Having two nearly recording-breaking months of rain, April and May, made for a huge amount of service berries! Dave harvested about 1 gallon so far. I bagged them in 4 - 1 Qt bags to freeze. I found lots of recipes online, you can check out my Pinterest food page, if interested (link on the right). Lots of info here Saskatoonberryinstitute.org too about the berries and benefits. There's probably several more Qts. out there. I plan on making syrup to can for sure! Maybe some mini tarts. Time will tell!

Travelog Anti-Theft Bag, $4.00

Thrifting Scores!
I stopped by Goodwill Saturday and really scored! I found 1 new, and 1 like-new, pair of expensive work slacks, perfect! $5.00 each. Then I found all of this- 

Tonka loader and recycled plastic fire truck, $3.00 each, for grandsons

New planter, $1.00, new metal cup, $1.00, 2 new non-stick cake pans $1.50 each, pitcher $4.00

Love the detail on the pitcher, new, very summery!

New corn stalk yard art, $4.00

Great in the backyard!

Goats On Patrol-
Every year the County brings in a large flock of goats on my route to work. They put up electric fencing and go to work. The weeds were about 3' - 4' high when they started. They've made good progress in the last week. I smile as I drive by every morning on the way to work! I took these photos while Dave was driving so I didn't run off the road. Wish I'd have gotten better photos, but there's no where to park. They have water and plenty of shade, and only in the 70's this week. Its a pretty great job they do, and no herbicides! They're used around Boise in different areas and it's a great program!!!

Bless This Mess Comedy Farming TV Show

Bless This Mess Comedy Farming TV Show-

I'd heard about this show coming up a while back, and watched episode two, hysterical!!! Lots of info here Wikipedia.org From there- Young couple Mike and Rio leave their home in New York to move to a Nebraska farm Mike inherited from his great-aunt, only to find it badly neglected and occupied by a senile old man named Rudy. Then there's the screaming goat and it's chicken friend, and it only gets better from there! From ABC it airs on Tuesdays at 8:30 pm central. You can watch the first 2 episodes online if you missed them at ABC.com  Six more to come (I think) as it's a mid-season replacement. I 'm happy the ratings are looking great! Enjoy!!!

Harness Driving Goats and Dogs with Carts

Harness Driving Goats and Dogs with Carts-
When I ran across the book above today Halter Goats Book  it reminded me of the photos I saw as a kid, with dogs pulling carts in the Netherlands, and also other rural areas. There's also Zonkers!

Cool stuff for sale here, photo from Fidogear.com

And then there's Skijoring!

From BozemanDailyChronicle.com Great shelter dog program there!

Think of the things you could do with 4 legged friends and some training!

Rain's Coming! 490-year-old Spanish Documents The Irish in S. Carolina in 1500's

Take shelter under Mom, from Facebook's Secret Garden

Rain's Coming!

I missed the local news the last day or two. When I opened up the Nation Weather Service a few minutes ago forecast I was shocked to see flash flood warnings all over our area today. Radar.weather.gov  

Starting tomorrow we're heading into a rainy spell. Yeah! It's been in the mid/high 90's and I am just sick of the heat!!! I had already planned to get new wiper blades all around today, since mine were shot. New ones are on and I'm ready to go, happy dance! It's been really smoky here the last 2 days, so hopefully the rain will fix that.

490-year-old Spanish Documents The Irish in S. Carolina in 1500's-
I find this a fascinating article and it ties with with other things I've read over a few decades. 490-year-old Spanish Documents Irish in S. Carolina  

This summer I also watched a few of these episodes from America Unearthed History.com It's also got some really fascinating and some episodes can be watched online fro free. I'm happy they're doing Season 2!

Beginning in 2006 the People of One Fire, a nationwide team of Native American scholars, primarily of Creek Indian heritage, began a comprehensive research program to obtain more accurate and detailed knowledge of North America’s pre-European history. Much of the work involved painstaking, paragraph by paragraph analysis of the archives of the colonial powers, particularly those of Spain. The team attempted to translate every Native American word recorded by the Spanish, while they were in the Southeast. Almost all the words were easily translated by modern Creek, Alabama, Koasati or Choctaw dictionaries. There were no Cherokee words, whatsoever. However, the words associated with the province of Duhare defied translation until this week.

While investigating the similarity of Irish petroglyphs to those in the State of Georgia, A People of One Fire member ran across this ancient Irish lullaby, called “Bainne nam fiadh:” On milk of deer I was reared. On milk of deer I was nurtured. On milk of deer beneath the ridge of storms on crest of hill and mountain.”

A check with Gaelic dictionaries quickly found translations for the Duhare words, recorded by the Spanish. Duhare can either be translated as “place of the Clan Hare” . . . or if the Duhare came from west of the Shannon River, it meant, “du’hEir – place of the Irish.”

Datha was a standard Medieval Irish Gaelic word that means “painted.” Since the Spanish recorded that he covered his skin with pigments or tattoos, as was traditional among the Celts, this name makes perfect sense.

Researchers feel certain that there was a colony of Irish folk living in what is now South Carolina, when Christopher Columbus “thought” he had discovered the New World. When and how the Irish got to the New World is another question. Most likely it was during the Medieval Period. Even if the Irish had originally known how to smelt iron and bronze, the nearest deposits of iron and copper ores were a 280 miles (448 km) away from the coast. There are no tin deposits in the Southeast for making bronze. A couple of generations of NOT making iron tools, and the people would have forgotten the knowledge.

There is a particular irony to this stark change in North America’s official history. During the Irish Potato Famine, all the ports in the United States, except Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA were closed to Irish immigration. Possibly, as many as a quarter million Irish immigrants entered the United States through Charleston and Savannah. Although most dispersed throughout the Southeast to establish farms or work on the railroads, enough stayed in Charleston and Savannah to make them, “very Irish” cities. The Province of Duhare seems to have been located near modern-day Charleston.

From- 490-year-old Spanish Documents Irish in S. Carolina

Our Winner At The State Fair! Gorgeous Chickens, Mules and Goats

All photos courtesy of Dave my hubby 

Photo by me

Our Winner At The State Fair! 

Congrats to my hubby for winning 2nd prize in his category at the Idaho State Fair!!! 

Gorgeous Chickens, Mules and Goats-

We always go to the fair each year here in Boise. When we got there it was about high 70's, nice weather. It hit about 90 by the time we left. I LOVE to see all the animals, it brings out the frustrated micro-farmer in me. We rode the Ferris wheel, ate some gyros and walked (or rather I limped) around for 2 hours. That's the longest I had continually walked since before my foot surgery. Man I was tired!

Maran rooster, I think

An Egyptian Fayoumi, never heard of those! Pretty!

Mom taking a break from the 2 babies

Pretty girl and I wanted to take her home :) 

Handsome appaloosa mule

Reorganizing Food Pantry, The Stump That Keeps On Giving, Cute Goat Blog

Reorganizing Food Pantry- As part of my Independence Days Challenge I'm getting busy! My food pantry closet is a bedroom closet we added sturdy shelves to last year, after trying a plastic shelving unit (bad idea!). It became a food storage area, and also a catch-all for extra small appliances like bread machine, mixer, crock pot, etc. We have a small kitchen and not a lot of storage there. The garage is very hot/cold, so not a good idea either. I'm starting the reorganization process to try and move towards just food. I'm a visual person, and always looking for new ideas, if you have any to share? Last night I moved most of the small appliances out and put all my used canning jars in a clear tote. They were falling out of their box before.

Ditto the food canning processor/strainer- got rid of the box, stored the strainers. More room!

My main goal is to separate the foods more, by category, and keep them easy to see. I also have some Mylar bags and oxygen absorbers, to re-package things like the sugar, and dry beans I will buy. I know some people invest in the cute chalk board tags at office supply stores, but I got sticker shock when I looked the rices up. I'd rather spend that money on something else, and I'm sure Martha Stewart (one of my least favorite ex-felons) will survive. My eyesight would be pretty bad if I don't know what rolled oats look like! My various flours are labelled with a marker on top of scotch tape, I can remove easily if needed. I'm glad I invested in some 1/2 gallon canning jars thru Ace hardware last summer. A special order item, but great for food storage! I have a lot of large misc. glass jars from family, thrift stores, but I decided to just buy bigger ones.  Six for $12.00 I think... I also realized today that I can move the bathroom dry goods to the cabinet in main bathroom under the counter, duh...

The Stump That Keeps On Giving- Poor Dave. What could have been an easy job, cutting a stump down to the ground, became a nightmare. We had the tree removed about 5 years ago, a catalpa, with nasty seed pods. We kept the stump for a birdbath base. We decided to add another veggie bed in the triangular area. So we rented a chainsaw and Dave got to work. Let's just say the home improvement store guy forgot to tell him to tighten the chain every few cuts :(  The first cut was good, partially rotted wood. After that, not so much.

We decided to quit with impending rain, and the high rental fee. Oh well. The good news- I'm having 2 tree guys give us a bid for removing the last foot, as long as we're getting a bid for the maple tree thinning. Getting that tree thinned will get much better results in our existing veggie bed, with much-needed sunshine!

Independence Days Challenge- I put some dollar store crates in my freezer so I can see what's there, and start from scratch in an organized mode. Before:

                                                                              

                                                                                 After-

I sorted things by fruits, veggies, meat, seafood etc. Lots of room to still fill it up, as you can see. The great thing- now that I have a freezer I can stock up, part of Independence Days, when I see a good deal...

Cute Goat Blog- I discovered this thru my Mother Earth News magazine, and I love the photos! Lifeatmennageriefarm.blogspot.com/