Christmas in October

All year long we have been saving our extra fruit in the freezer. Cupcake found a recipe for "Christmas Jam" and wanted to try it, and since we hate wasting anything it fit right into our wheelhouse. We had blueberries, raspberries, grapes, goji berries, ground cherries, bush cherries, cherry cherries, a couple of plums, persimmons, pears, peaches, strawberries, viking berries, and a couple of slices of pineapple thrown into the mix. We steamed the fruit down into juice and did our magic.

It made three batches of jelly, or 17 jars.

For other goings on this week, the burn ban was lifted Friday evening. Cupcake has been adding sticks and whatnot to the burn ring ever since the ponds were finished but we couldn't light it for fear of Lt. Walters writing us a ticket. Friday night we were free to burn baby burn. And we did.

After we started the fire, we decided now was as good a time as any to do some campfire cooking. We hopped on The Silver Hornet and loaded up our fire pit racks, cast iron skillets, pre-made taco fixings and made campfire burritos Friday night.

Then Saturday night we stayed home and had date night by the campfire with deer chili.

With cherry pies for dessert

Of course we had regular inside meals too. This was Thor's Day red meat offerings. We only documented this because it got to be Thursday and we realized he had not yet taken any pictures for the update.

One thing we did do this week was see a sink organizer on the Face Place that we had to have, so we checked the interwebs and found one. We recommend one for anyone who hand washes their dishes.

One tidbit to end the update this week. Lawman has had the metal detecting bug for a while. He bought a cheap starter unit last year and tinkered around the property with it. Once he got pretty good at identifying good targets (after a LOT of shell casings, nails, wire and beer tabs) he invested in a mid range unit. He's found several coins in the yard, even in places he has already checked with the first unit.

The letters appear to be bronze plate, probably from an old temporary grave marker. The quarter was a 1966.
He swept the creek bed thinking he may find a gold nugget or two, but so far only fence wire and nails. He's all caught up on the show "The Detectorists" and is keeping his eyes open for magpies while he's out.
We ended the week with baked spaghetti. And a nap.
K&K

Wonky Buck Down

 We've had a wonky horned buck around The Acre all summer. It's horns were growing down and toward it's face. We knew we had to eliminate him from the gene pool before we had ten years of wonky deer roaming around. So several of us in the neighborhood were gunning for him.
The Boy was leaving for a football game Friday evening when he spotted wonky in our garden enjoying our beets and peppers.
He grabbed his bow and stalked wonky within a few yards.

Last meal gave him heartburn (see what we did there?)

So in celebration, we had fresh deer gravy for breakfast Sunday morning.

Cupcake was gone on another whirlwind adventure for HCA this past week, so Lawman had unsupervised free time, so he got caught up on a few 'to do' list items. First on the list was a new light fixture in the master bedroom closet. The original stopped working a while back and we made due with a battery operated motion sensor light. But we needed a real light.

Then it was smoker wood

And just before Cupcake came home, Lawman whipped up a fresh pumpkin roll for her.

Pop's beef critter came home this week, so we took a few packages of hamburger to get us through the winter.

Friday, Cupcake made it back home and the guinea birds welcomed her home. They saw her at the kitchen window washing dishes and came to visit. Because nothing says "Welcome Home" like a sink full of week old dirty dishes after flying across the country and sleeping in hotels.

The weekend we decided to stay in. Saturday night we made a from scratch batch of tomato soup.

While we were shopping at BJ's, we found a fresh pack of baby back ribs. We seasoned them up with Lawman's meat rub (Giggity) and vacuum sealed them until Monday.

We ended the week with a pot roast in the crock pot. And a nap.
K&K

Deez Nuts

We did some harvesting this week at The Acre.
Cupcake reminded Lawman we had a row of peanuts that needed pulling. Lawman had forgotten all about them. We pulled half of the plants and were surprised by the number of nuts per plant. We are looking forward to roasting a few over our new fire pit, seen below. Next year we open a new garden for root based plants, and we are going to add peanuts to it.

Lawman found a use for several of the large rocks left exposed by the pond construction. Inspired by the Ancient Aliens show, we decided to leave our own megalithic structure behind.

Lawman put the new wood splitter to use and prepared us a little fire wood to burn in the new structure.

We are under a burn ban currently, so it may be a while before we can use it. But we need to let the nuts cure a while before we roast them, and the upper pond is still a foot or so away from being full. A little rain should solve both issues at once.

Pop killed a beef critter this past week, so we both cleaned out our freezers to make room for fresh meat. Lawman found a couple of deer back straps that he didnt want to waste. He worked them up for a pot of deer chili, and cut out a few slices for deer gravy on Sunday morning.

Fresh from the garden jalapeno and sweet peppers

Three gallons of deer chili is a good start to the season

Gravy fixins

And speaking of deer meat, we don't know what kind of flowers our neighbor lady plants in her yard, but we need to inquire. She has three bucks come into her front yard, in the middle of the day, every day, to snack on whatever it is she has planted. We need some of it down by the ponds.

Back to the harvest part of our week.
We dug our potatoes with the use of The Silver Hornet this weekend. Then we went over and dug out Pop's potatoes. We keep busy.

We only had about half of what Pop planted, but it will be enough for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
We are not sure you'd call it "harvesting" but we boiled the bee comb from last weeks honey raid and used it for homemade lip balm and deodorant.

Cupcake has been saving her Chapstick containers for just such an occasion. The recipe for both is very simple, and we're not sure why everyone wouldnt make their own lip balm. Next year we double down on the hives.
A couple of food related pictures from the week.
While cleaning out the freezer, we found half of a pork loin and half of a brisket we had saved. Lawman rubbed both down with his home made meat rub (Giggity) and we smoked both for dinner this week. Then we sliced the leftovers with the new meat slicer. Pork loin for sandwich meat, and brisket for homemade Rubens.

And we bought a new ribeye at BJ's, so Lawman sliced them up into steaks and got them ready for the grill in the coming weeks.

Non food related pictures to finish out this week.
First, we seem to have a broken washing machine. Every time "The Boy" loads the washer, it fails to start up and wash his clothes. Any tech savy readers have an idea whats wrong with it?

And Cupcake has the Granny Arlee touch when it comes to Poinsettias. Both can keep them alive all year. We are prepping to move these to the basement in hopes they bloom by Christmas.

We ended the week with bakes spaghetti and a nap.
K&K