Week of Camping

 This week we took Serendipity out for a spin. We've taken a couple of quick trips to shake out any problems and get the hang of the new equipment. This week we took her out for an extended stay. The DT's love camping as much as we do, but they are still on dog time. They have to potty at the butt crack of dawn.

One of our great joys in the camper is camp cooking. Cupcake picked out a Blackstone griddle, and we are getting one for The Acre next. This thing rocks. 

After hash brown omelettes, then next morning was a complete breakfast. Bacon, eggs, sausage and we can even bake biscuits all at the same time.

We had an honored guest this trip. BB1 or "Macneil" as Lawman calls her stopped by for dinner. We tried to send her home with a full belly.

Mid week, Lawman drove back to The Acre and picked a couple buckets full of tomatoes. He brought them back to the camper, and we made a whole pot of sketti sauce and canned it up. We have that much room in Serendipity.

Twenty more quarts of sauce brings us up to over fifty. That's one a week, so we're gearing the operation over to tomato soup next. And when we arrived home, after we did the laundry and got caught up, we picked four more buckets of tomatoes. We figure at least 40 quarts of soup? Tune in next week to find out.

We had about a pint of sauce left over, so we used it for one of our favorite meals, campfire pizza pockets.

The DT's thought it smelled really good too.

While we were camping, one of the family fun things to do was pan bags of dirt for fossils or gem stones. "The Boy" had to work and couldn't camp with us, so we brought him a bag home. He did good.

While we were at the local Rural King picking up canning jars, we went ahead and bought some more guinea birds. Phantom Foxx cut our crew down to four, and since we have baby ducks we thought this would be a good time to bring new guineas in to train them. But when we got them home we found all six had "pasty butt" which will kill the birds if you don't square it away. So all six got a dip in soapy water and a little Buttpaste on the bums. After the hot tub we had to dry them off. We've got quite the animal wash/dry system set up. 

The two ducks that made it grew quite a bit the week we were gone. They were not impressed with their new roommates. 

We spent one day hitting the antique shops. We found two cast iron skillets we had never heard of before, so we added them to the collection at The Acre.

Sunday afternoon, Cupcake whipped up a loaf of pumpkin bread.

We ended the week with a couple of naps. And pumpkin loaf.

K&K

Problem Solved, Problem staying Solved

We like to run the DTs several times a day. They still have that puppy energy from time to time, and if they burn it off around the farm, they are not spending all day chewing up stuff. Early in the week Lawman was running them from the house to the barn, and while at a full run, they both made a sharp right turn into the tall grass. As they did, a dozen or so wild turkey flew up from the grass and off to parts unknown. The DT's went back to the usual run route like nothing happened. 

Later that evening, we both took them for the last run of the day. Once again, while at a full run, they jumped off the trail and stopped to "alert" in an area of tall grass. Turns out, they found the phantom fox that has plagued our birds for so long. He is no longer a problem.

The tomato crop has started to trickle in. Seems like every other day we find a few tomatoes here and there. When we get a bucket full, we make sketti sauce. 

We've got plenty of basil and onions, so everything is straight from the vine to the pot to the jar.

So far we have 28 quarts, we like to think we're about half way there. Then it's tomato soup when the tomatoes come in full force.

Cupcake found a recipe she wanted to try. We had a few blueberries left so we scrounged up three cups worth and made blueberry cheesecake ice cream.

So we needed a fresh pound cake to put the ice cream on.

We used up the last of our peaches, we canned them for cobbler later this year.

And we picked a few plums to add to our Christmas jelly this year.

And to round out our week, we found BBQ seasoned flour. We are a huge fan of Big Spring Mill flour, we are lucky enough to have a local mill so we use all their products for our baking needs. 

We ended the week with some mighty fine dessert.

K&K