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Monday, July 17, 2017

The Un-List.

While very little progress has been made on The List, I have been checking off items like mad from the Un-List.




House doors that have been screeching since I moved in 11 years ago?  Check!
Curling veneer on the pseudo-wood bathroom door glued into place?  Check!
Broken handle on the inside of the sliding screen door fixed/MacGyvered?  Check!
Cracked plastic bin full of bits and bobs, sorted into separate tins?  Check!
Brush Slimmie into a state of ecstasy?  Check!


Move pile of llama beans from last winter?  (crickets)
Cleaning of the duck hut?  (see above)
Weeding out the old herb bed?  (more of those noisy insects)
Finish laying the living room floor tiles?  There may be light at the end of that tunnel - it's going on 3 years, so maybe next year....




It seems that all it takes to motivate me is a little aging of the chores - anything that has been broken or neglected for more than four years gets my attention.  What little of that there is.
Large jar of gooseberry jam upper left.
Assorted jam jars of Rhubarb Ginger everywhere
else.


Also not on the list, I managed to squeeze in a little canning - I made some rhubarb ginger jam.  I was also gifted some gooseberry jam!  Since I have amassed enough canned goods to feed a family of six for four years, I am being very judicious with my canning this year - trying to wrestle with that Midwestern 1940 farm wife that I seem to channel every summer.  This year it will be a few select jams (spiced plum, if the local orchard has them), diced tomatoes and pizza sauce.  That is IT.  Well, maybe a few jars of B&B pickles...oh, and apple sauce and mincemeat....
Nice view.

Add caption
I managed to put up the fencing in the back to allow the sheep and llama some fresh grazing.  It's becoming evident that Apria's eyesight is extremely limited.  I need to lead her by voice to new areas.  It's a rather tricky maze of fence and gates, so she is not keen to make the trip too often.  That works fine, as I can feed her hay and grain separately - as long as fathead (aka Norman) does not get wind that grain is in the offing.  The Dirigible (aka Linden) is finally pacing himself.  I was sure he was going to eat until he popped.  I also managed to lose access to my laundry tree in the process, so I dragged my big drying rack out onto the deck and strung a line across the pergola.  We are nothing, if not flexible.


You'll have to bigify to see the little
scooters.
There has been morning excitement with the meandering herd of wild turkeys.  Bertie and Lovey are glued to the front window.  I managed a breath-takingly boring video of them.






Also checked off the Un-List was my first Cherry Bounce (thanks to Rain...) 
Getting ready to go into hiding
for 40 days.
Up next is homemade cassis with my black currants.  Oh.  Then there's the red currants....guess I had better add them to SOME list!

20 comments:

jaz@octoberfarm said...

i don't know that i am canning anything this year. i have endless jars of jalapeno jam (what was i thinking) and peach sauce (why?) clogging my shelves. i have a bunch of jars of 'guess what' sitting on the same shelves. i would like to think i will put up some tomato sauce but i have bags of it in the freezer from last year. i am suffering from 'out of sight, out of mind'.

Rain said...

Hi Susan :) The video wasn't boring :) I've never seen a wild turkey with her puppies...okay, I admit I don't know what the baby turkeys are called, so I'll call them puppies for now :) I don't think I've ever seen a photo of your llama! I didn't know you had one! Sorry I missed that!!
OOOH the cherry bounce...we have our fingers crossed that it'll turn out yummy! What did you use as your spirit? We used Bulleit Rye Whisky and we're leaving it be until October!

Nancy In Boise said...

Wild turkey, haha just another kind of alcohol to add to the list! Your grass looks so Lush and green!

Debra She Who Seeks said...

The chores that get my attention first are the time-sensitive ones that need to be done right now. Anything that can wait, does. Sometimes for years. The oldest chores on my list right now are from 20 years ago. I did have one that dated from 35 years ago but I actually managed to clear that one off a couple of years ago. I felt so virtuous.

Susan said...

I have the same "guess what"s sitting on most of my shelves! Mine are more the - Oh, I'll remember what this is cans.

Susan said...

Rain, they are called poults and they are so homely they are adorable! Like tiny dinosaurs. I was not able to part with my expensive stuff, so I stuck to vodka. I bet yours will be marvelous!

Susan said...

LOL! Yes, we have had so much rain that everything is overgrown and green. We're due for a dry out, so I am trying to enjoy the green while I can.

Susan said...

The only thing I have on a list of any type that is that old, is to learn to keep my mouth shut. Haven't quite been able to cross that off yet... :)

Rain said...

Poults! Thank you for the lesson! :)
I think Vodka should taste good, you'll emphasize the cherry flavour that way. Trust me Susan, we had a rough time parting with the rye. We can't get a lot of the good bourbons and ryes here in Quebec and Bulleit is one of those ryes that is hard to find. But we really wanted to see how it would taste considering the flavour profile of the rye. I can't wait to read how yours does!!

Toni said...

You are definitely making some excellent progress on the un-list!

Ginger-rhubarb jam...sounds really good. Made some strawberry-rhubarb sorbet; excellent!

Pioneer Woman at Heart said...

I love my ginger-rhubarb jam! That cherry bounce looks good too. I know what you mean about the lists. I just started cleaning down woodwork, and I starting canning season now too. Oye.

Mama Pea said...

I can't make any more strawberry jam this year (even though I have strawberries coming out my ears) because we have so much left from last year. Well, it is my hubby's favorite and I didn't want to run out. (Fat chance.) My favorite is now blueberry and I'm down to a measly 6 pints of that (probably a year's supply for me, easily) so I'd better make three or four more dozen this year. ;o)

I'm really embarrassed when I look at last year's Summer List and realize the same dahm things have been on there for 10 years or so. Glad to know I'm not alone in this arena. (Yeah, misery loves company.)

The caption for the llama picture is, "Don't you like my new hat?" Looks to me as if she's wearing some of those tiger lilies.

We don't have wild turkeys here . . . although hubby just read an article saying they are moving northward, so who knows what the future might bring?

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

We have wild turkeys around here. You see them in the fields and at the sides of the roads. One year I thought that spiced cranberry chutney seemed like a good idea. We ate maybe three or four spoonfuls out of one jar. Those other jars sat on the shelf for years. Sometimes I add things to my list that I have already done, just so I can cross them off. -Jenn

Ed said...

That's an excellent idea. When my wife asks what I did all day, I'm just going to tell her that I was working on items on my un-list!

Michelle said...

I've whittled down my applesauce supply, and am out of tomatoes, so those are on my canning list this year. I still have plenty of spiced prunes, which is good; looks like a rest year for our prune trees. We are going to be really short on berries for the freezer; Rick didn't wrestle his patch into shape and production is WAY down. :-(

Leigh said...

An un-list! I love it! I used to be a tremendous list person, but have kinda fallen away from that. And I like the idea of giving something at least four years before it becomes a "must do." I'll have to adopt that one as well.

Fiona said...

wonderful post...cherry Bounce?

Theresa Y said...

Tell me what cherry bounce is and may we have the recipe?

Susan said...

Cherry Bounce is a cherry cordial - there are many recipes online for it and your Bounce can be flavored by any variety of booze - I used vodka because I had it and because I'm frugal...basically, in a half-gallon jar you mix 2-3/4 cups of sugar with 1 cup of booze (your choice - vodka, whiskey, scotch, rum...) and dissolve as much as possible. Then you take one pound of cherries, stems removed, make a couple of tiny slits in each and add them to the sugar/booze. Add 3 more cups of booze, stir up well, cover and let sit in a sunny windowsill for one week. Then remove your jar to a dark, cool cupboard for 40 days. Set a strainer over a pitcher or container and strain the bounce. Let it set for a day or so and then decant, careful not to get any sediment into the final jar. They say to discard the fruit but...really?

Sandy Livesay said...

Susan,

Wild turkey's....love it!!! Are you planning on hunting turkey (during hunting season)? I can see one turkey named Thanksgiving, and another named Christmas :-)

There's never a dull moment living out in the country, and there's always work to be done. Prioritizing is the name game for us as well.

Cherry Bounce sounds yummy.

Hugs,
Sandy