5 Things Friday

Let's try this out. I've decided to recap the last week as a way to actually get at least one post out a week. This doesn't mean that I won't be posting on the regular ('cause I haven't), but this way I'll be sure to visit this space more than once a week.

1. Adventures in Pressure Canning - over the past couple of months I have been slowly adding canned food to the pantry. These projects are a weekend thing and I've been pleased with how most things have turned out. Last Saturday I prepped about 20 pounds of Salvaterra tomatoes to make into sauce. On Sunday I got everything jarred up and into the canner and added 10 pints of sauce to the pantry. I've really enjoyed picking out new recipes to try and getting some quick and easy, throw together meals on the shelf. So far we have enjoyed Sloppy Joes - on more than one occasion, and Chicken Pot Pie. Tom's favorite thing is the pears from our trees. I am looking forward to trying the baked beans that I did a couple of weeks ago. Since I work full-time and the weekends are full with chores and errands (when needed) and church I figured the least I could do is spend some time getting food ready for future meals. 

2. Wild Fires in the Willamette Valley and in the Gifford Pinchot. The fires actually started Labor Day weekend and have been going strong until today. Very early this morning we had a pretty impressive Thunderstorm and rain too...YAY!  Well, the rain hasn't been as heavy as it could be for September in the Pacific NW, but it was rain none the less. The air quality has improved to "Unhealthy" from "Hazardous." So being outside will definitely be more pleasant and won't be nearly as smoky. We have not really had sunshine since last Tuesday and I was getting a little depressed. The smoke settled in on September 9th and stayed. Every once in a while you could see a sun ball, but not actual sunshine. It has been a long week!

3. We celebrated our 29th Wedding Anniversary last week. We had planned to go to the Willamette Valley Pie Company and have lunch and meander our way back home. Obviously, that was no longer an option. A trip to the coast would be like staying home - air quality was just as good. So we ended up shopping for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes and then decided to have a nice quiet steak dinner at home. 

4. Turkeys! Even though the air quality has been terrible, it didn't seem nearly as bad at our house as it did at my work. So I grabbed one of my face masks and wetted it down and went to hang with the turkeys. Our White Holland Turkeys have been with us for three months and are just over three months old. They are so fun and friendly which is a welcome change from the chickens who are just looking for a hand out. The turkeys know that food comes from us, but they don't run up and beg for food...well they do in the evening. These goofballs spend most of the day free ranging and then are ushered back in to their area with the Meaties. They might get some scratch then, but if not they know that they will get some at bed time.

5. Broody Betty. Well, since we couldn't break Betty of her broody ways, we gave her duck eggs 4 weeks ago. Early yesterday morning those eggs hatched and we now have three new Magpie Ducklings! Three is the most that she has had so far so probably in about a month or two she will be getting ready to rejoin the flock and leave the babies behind. When there were two (Leona and Walter) I think she stuck with them for about two months, maybe less. When she had the one duckling I think she stuck with that one longer, just because there was just one. Well, the three will be interesting. I predict that we'll be taking over raising them after a couple of months. Until then we are going to enjoy watching Betty with her little trio of waterfowl.