Homestead mailing list

["SISU!" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

Today, I am boiling rabbits....have boiled 7 so far, and have 4 to go.
I like to boil rabbit as I don't eat much fried food, and I can boil and
debone, repackage, and have ready cooked packages of meat to add to
whatever I am cooking during the week.  I also freeze the broth for
later use.  As usual on rabbit boiling day, I will be having rabbit and
dumplings for dinner.  I'm babysitting tonight, so we will see how well
the rabbit goes over with the kids who happen to be teenagers and into
hunting.  Their mentality is limited to venison as food, so we will see
if I can expand their horizons a bit.  I hate the smell of boiling
rabbit and chicken, so I have all the windows and doors open to air out
the place.  I am in between batches of pears at present, hoping that I
will be able to get the last batch into the dehydrator before I start
deboning the rabbits.  The house smells like a weird cross between
rabbits, onion, pears, and cinnamon.  Yup, now you see why the doors are
open!
Outside, I finished re-erecting my bottle tree in the garden.  I had it
in another area, but a storm sent it crashing down and broke half of my
bottles.   I got a new post, drilled the holes yesterday, and erected
the tree today.  There's something about a bunch of glass bottles in the
winter that looks really cool when everything else is dead and brown.
The next project I want to start is to take those old tires I have
accumulated and make a curved border edging from the treads to define a
new herb/perennial bed inside the garden fence.  It shouldn't be that
hard to do, but our sawzall is busted and you have to hold it a certain
way to make it work, so it will be tough on the old arms to cut those
tires up.
I still haven't finished the chicken coop or the chicken moat either.
I'm constantly distracted by other things that are having to take
priority.  I haven't been able to mow in a week or so either, so the
grass is getting tall.  I am procrastinating in hopes that I'll only
have to do it one more time.  I'll use the bagger and bag up the leaves
and grass for the compost.  It'll be a 3 day+ chore, and it is supposed
to rain either today or tomorrow. I just can't seem to get motivated to
do it.  I want to do garden planning, not mowing.
While I was out in the garden this morning, I was showered by a leaf
rain.  The wind was blowing at a good clip, and it was simply beautiful.
 I just stood there and took it in for a moment.  Where has 2006 gone?
Ron and I have been working on trimming out the canoe.  We have a
timeshare over in Helen, GA and our week is coming up on the 3rd.  We
hope to have the canoe ready to launch by then so we can practice all
the new strokes and techniques we have learned.  The lake water will be
cold, but as I see it, that's just motivation not to screw up!
The canoe is looking good, we have finished the seats and are cutting
and installing the outerwales and scupperplates tonight.  After that, we
install the center thwart and the fore and aft decks and slam some
varnish on it.  We named it "EarthNSky", and even put the name on our
paddles.  It definitely should grab some attention at the lake.  I have
pictures of the canoe and the process of building it, if anyone is
interested.  Ron has also posted pics in the photo album of a yahoo
group called "woodstripcanoes", I think.  Since we will be on flatwater
this time, hopefully there will be no more mishaps.  I *still* have a
hematoma on my arm from the May trip when I got that hairline fracture.

Well, that's all for now..it's time to pull rabbit meat off the bone.

Bev
--
BevanRon of EarthNSky Farm   NW Georgia USDA Zone 7
34.498N 85.076W    Bev is Earth, Ron is Sky