Thekla McDaniels

I add clove to apple butter.  Whether or not to add cardamom would depend on if you like it!  Cardamom is an odd spice to me.  Some foods I enjoy with it, and in some foods it just tastes wrong!😊

A few more

Our feed store delivers in 55 gallon barrels.  They unload the barrels into the shed , and I leave them there.

It’s great not having all the trash build up… the feed sacks I mean.

I used to have bajillions of mice, which would have been a problem because the lids on the barrels don’t necessarily fit tight, unless I put the clamp on, which I don’t want to bother with!

The barrels are rotating stock.  They arrive full and depart empty so there’s no point trying to adapt them for a tight fit.

I had some half grown cats show up a couple years ago.  I fed them and tamed them and they stayed and multiplied.  They’re all neutered now (5 of them!).  They keep the mice out of the house and all the outbuildings.  YAY.  

I used to keep the cat food in a high quality Brute trash can with lid that latches down, but the cats took the lid off at their convenience.

The cat food is now stored in the house.  For now, things are working.

May Lotito wrote: Oats cost $12 in a 50 lbs bag from feed store so it's very economical if I just broadcast a large area.

12 bucks per 50 pounds?

Lucky you!  $29 for 50 pounds seed oats in my region!

I looked up “ha-ha” recently because one is mentioned in a Jane Austen book and I had no idea what it was.  What I find astounding is that these things were built in pre-industrial times.  No tractors or earthmovers or trucks, just teams of animals and equipment they can pull.

John F Dean wrote:How come I can’t remember my passwords, but I can remember all the words to Rommie Hawkin’s “Mary Lou”?   Yes, I know.  I need to change my passwords to the words of Mary Lou.

That’s a good idea.  I have a hard time with passwords.  I think I could remember them if I made an effort, made a memory tag of some kind, but it seems like so much work!

A song might do it!

It’s not the best photo, but it’s the only one I got….
I have always heard that a preying mantis male could not copulate until his head was removed by the female.  But as difficult as the shadows make it to view, looks like a copulating pair, male still has his head.

Another idea.  Saute and use it instead of pasta with your favorite pasta sauce.

I don’t wring the moisture out of sautéed or steamed greens because the vitamins and minerals travel with the moisture.  If you want the greens to be dryer, save the moisture you wring out to add to broth soup gravy etc.

Thank you!  I will give it a try.

And as a bonus, there are several other sourdough cookie recipes!

And I think it’s fast growing… which in my mind equals capturing CO2 and sequestering carbon while enriching soil!

I have also heard you can make “maple” sugar, same genus after all.