Lavender Love

Folks that know us, know we've wanted lavender amerucauna chickens for a while now. In the spring we ordered a batch of hatching eggs, but none of them hatched. After we hatched the guinea birds, we thought we would try to hatch another batch, to give the guineas someone to grow up with, and maybe show them how to come back to the coop at night. Ricky Raccoon took care of trying to train guinea birds, but we had already ordered another set of hatching eggs. We put them on three weeks ago, and this week three out of nine hatched.

First out

Three of nine made it. They are our special forces birds

They lay blue eggs, so we are excited to have them added to our flock. We have had a few visitors to The Acre as well.

Jerky or smoker meat, we have plans for you

Deer have been grazing in the yard, it seems earlier than they usually come around, we are thinking there may be far too many deer around this year. We guess Big Man will have to do something about that.
There was a special event this week too. Every July we have to have our vehicles inspected, and we always go to see Derrick Lancaster's outfit on Radford Road. Each time we do, Big Man smokes a pork shoulder and makes a pulled pork BBQ treat for the guys at Total Car Care. It is well received each year.

Eight hours of slow smoke over maple wood

Then soaked in home made bourbon BBQ sauce

We canned a few things, if you can imagine that.

Another batch of bread and butter pickles

Six more pints of collards

Another picking of green beans from Pop's garden

Fourteen quarts later, not a bad day

And our garden started to come in. We've been living off Pop's garden (see above green beans) but now we started getting squash and beans.
Pop's shared a picking of corn that became ripe this week, so we had corn on the cob with the smoked ribs Thursday.

First corn of the year

First squash from our garden. Fried for Cupcake

Saturday night we fried up some Kimmie Crack (fried squash) and we made a special treat, a fresh red raspberry cobbler.

And on a berry note, we are still getting a few straggler strawberries from time to time.

And last but not least, we tried something new this weekend. Home made ketchup.

First picking of tomatoes, mostly from Pop's garden again

Sliced and cooked down in cast iron

Hand blender, smooths them up nice

Store bought? Not in The Acre

We know, we know, you're tired of hearing "it's better than store bought". But it really is. We canned our ketchup in pint and a half jars, so we have six pints of ketchup ready for whatever we wanna put it on.
We ended the week with chicken wing Sunday.
K&K

Problem Solved, Problem Staying Solved

Last week we shared our killer raccoon pictures. He was too sharp to go into a box trap, so we borrowed a foot trap from Brother Kevin, and went old school mountain man on him. It was a success.

He met a killer's fate. Problem solved, problem staying solved.
It was another busy week when it comes to prepping for winter. First off, we started getting cucumbers from our garden. Cupcake came home from work one night and said "lets make a batch of pickles". So we did.

Our yellow cucumbers have yet to come in, so we started our stockpile with green pickles. We also went berry picking every night around the house. We found all the berries we could pick, and we would gather about a quart every night.

Except Saturday. Saturday we took a drive and hit the mother load. We must have picked over ten pounds of red raspberries, mixed with a few handfuls of blackberries.

There was some cooking going on too, if you can imagine that. Big Man had a brisket soaking in buttermilk for the standard ten days, then he washed it down and rubbed it with a dry rub for two days before a slow maple wood smoke. It almost fell apart when it was sliced, which was a good thing, because Big Man had his knife so sharp he nearly sliced the tip of his finger off. There was a "discussion" of going to the emergency room for stitches, but Big Man put his foot down, and it was not spoken of again.

Monday was a washout around The Acre, so Big Man made a batch of home made bourbon BBQ sauce. A quart over two gallons turned out, using our home grown tomatoes, onions and herbs. We canned it to keep, but next week is vehicle inspection week, and that means one lucky fix it shop will have a lunch treat of Big Man pulled pork BBQ soon.

We also got behind on picking and eating our collards, so we picked about a half of a bushel and canned them, so they wouldn't go to waste.

And speaking of canning, Pop's shared a huge picking from his garden over the weekend.

We ended up with a dozen more pints of squash relish, and 18 quarts of green beans.

We are on our way to our goal. We hope to surpass our target of 60 quarts, you can never have enough green beans or squash. Or collards.
We ended our week with chicken wing Sunday.
K&K

"He Needed Killin"

In the olden days, before police were a 911 call away, people took care of problems themselves, usually at the business end of a gun. When word did reach the law, the typical reason for a shooting was, "he needed killin". We fully support the old ways here at The Acre, and are working on that very thing.
Larry, Moe, and Curly were too stupid to go back into the coop the first day they did manage to leave it. We moved their food and water out into the fenced in run, and after a day without food, they came outside to eat, but they refused to go back into the coop at night. The next morning we found blood, feathers and no guinea birds. We knew we had a predator in the hood.
The next night, we lost two grown chickens. They were locked inside the new hen house, so we were baffled at first, but since Big Man was a detective, and he has all day to investigate and postulate, we figured the bad guy got back into the covered run, then went through the chicken door to get the birds. Modifications were made and box traps were set to catch the critter, but we had no luck. Big Man set a trail camera near the run, and we got proof of our prey.

And he needs killin.
When we were not involved in tracking killers, we were canning. Pops came through with a large picking of green beans this week, and we did a canning Saturday. We have twenty quarts in the pantry right now, we are shooting for 60 to get us through the winter. We will keep you posted.

We also did another batch of squash relish. We got another six jars of relish, which is awful good on beans, and brats, and just about anything else we like to eat around here.....

Big man did a smoke this week. We had a tip of a beef brisket rubbed down, and he added it to the weekly rib smoke. We keep the brisket on hand for eggs, or collards. Cupcake suggested we make Sunday breakfast gravy out of chopped brisket, so next weekend we will report on results.

This was the best smoke ring to date, Big Man seems to get better at it with each smoke. And what's a smoked meal without a home made pie? We are still getting rhubarb and strawberries, so Big Man whipped up a fresh from the garden pie.

We ended the week with chicken wing Sunday.
K&K

Love Ya, Peach.....

Anyone who knows Cupcake will appreciate the title, but we also canned peaches this weekend. We found peaches on sale for less than a dollar a pound at the local Wade's store, so we bought two baskets full, all white peaches. At least they were supposed to be, we found a half dozen or so yellow peaches in the bunch, but we didn't complain.

Pop's garden is kicking this year.

 It is by far the prettiest garden around, which is a good thing, because our garden got stunted early in the season, and has yet to produce anything but collards, peas, onions and strawberries/rhubarb. With the call of Ball and Kerr in the air, we were getting the itch to start canning. Pop shared some of his beans and squash with us, so can we did. First off, squash relish. We take fresh squash, and grate it, then we took a few onions from our garden and grated them into the squash.

After the grating, we sprinkle canning salt on the mixture and let set overnight in the fridge to draw out moisture. Then we whip up a syrup made with sugar, vinegar and pickling spice. After it gets happy on the stove, we fill our jars and water bath for fifteen minutes.

We put up six half pints, two jelly jars and a decorative jar with the first batch of squash. We did another batch on Sunday, five more pints.
Cupcake is still getting herbs from her herb garden on the back deck, we dont believe we will have to purchase basil or oregano ever again.

Big Man went "old school" on meat this weekend. He has been working on smoking every kind of dead animal he can get his hands on, but before the smoker came along, he was a master of the grill, and he worked his magic on a couple of ribeye steaks.

It was so good, he got a new shirt to wear when he's doing his thing with dead animals.

Big Man is confused about why he can only wear it at the house.......
We went all out Sunday morning. After our family breakfast we cleaned up the kitchen and got to canning. We canned green beans in the pressure cooker, another batch of squash relish, and 16 quarts of peaches. We are a well oiled machine when we get things to can.

We also found a neat gadget this past week. An electric fly swatter. If you didn't know, chickens attract flies. Well, the hen house does anyway. This swatter does not mash the fly against the wall/table/shoe, or whatever you catch the thing landing on like old school swatters. This one you swing near the fly, and when it takes off you catch it in mid air, with a hearty ZAP that brings a smile to anyone's face.

Big Man is convinced it is also a good tool for keeping rogue wives in line, and for some reason, that makes Cupcake laugh out loud?
We ended out week with chicken wing Sunday.
K&K