...About a week ago a helicopter was hovering over my house.............
Don't piss off the raccoons.................
Posted on 07/15/2023 5:28:55 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Yummy.......I see you are an instinctive cook.....and a good one.
Yellow Zucchini and Green Zucchini are interchangeable in recipes. A Zucchini is a Zucchini, basically. :)
Although I never pick green tomatoes I just might do that this year and make some more. It was nice crunchy relish, did not process it for very long maybe 10 minutes. I could add shishito pepper too, I have oodles this year.
This was a great ‘reminder’ of things to do with green tomatoes!
I am a chutney fanatic - love the stuff. I canned a non-tomato chutney several years ago that was very tasty. With plenty of tomatoes this year, I found a green tomato chutney recipe that looks pretty good, so I will probably try it this year:
Green Tomato Chutney
https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/green_tomato_chutney/
Zucchini pickles!.....................
...About a week ago a helicopter was hovering over my house.............
Don't piss off the raccoons.................
Diana’s Summer Pasta Salad:
Prepare one 16 oz. box of tri-colored corkscrew pasta.
Core, seed and chop up two paste tomatoes. Chop up one sweet red bell pepper. Use about 3/4 of a can of medium black olives, halved, and half a brick of Sharp White Cheddar, cut into small chunks. Chop up one medium green or yellow zucchini.
Use 1 bottle of your favorite Italian Dressing (16 oz.) , a number of good shakes of Italian Seasoning and 1 Tbsp. Poppy Seed.
Keep in the fridge, covered, but let sit out for a while before serving. (I think the flavors are better when it’s at room temperature.) You’re Welcome!
Is this what one serves with roasted raccoon? Inquiring minds want to know. :-)
I took a walk to survey damage and found my Black Arkansas apple tree busted off at the graft union. It's the wrong time of year to try any new grafting so I cut the best of the branch tips and put them in the cloning tank with some rooting hormone. If I can get a couple or three to make some roots I'll stick em in pots over winter and see what happens.
On the bright side, I found a nice patch of wild grapes growing in the fence next to the hay barn. Well, maybe not wild wild, more likely a Norton vine the birds seeded after stealing from my neighbor. Think I'll give them some fertilizer and see if that helps to fatten them up next time.
Mrs. Augie thought I was nuts when I started picking them and slurping them down. I finally convinced her to try some and now she's a fan. They do have a wonderful flavor. Would be great for making wine if there were more of them. Couple days the birds will find them and they'll be poof gone.
That is a lovely picture. I am always on the lookout for pictures that would make good puzzles. Software on the laptop. I do 3 or more each day. Fast. Stole your picture. 😀
I have a chicken proof garden. It’s impeccable.
Shame about your apple tree! Mine are LOADED this season and that’s why I’ve been diligent on the watering in this drought season. Honey Crisp, Liberty, Bonnie Best and Haralson. All good for eating fresh, pies and applesauce.
Dear Old Mom has decided she’s buying me an apple peeler/corer for my birthday so I am on the hunt for the best one out there.
While I planted a variety of grapes, they’ve all converted back to the everyday purple grapes. I think rabbits did some ‘pruning’ for me a few years back and they’re all just coming up from the root stock (most likely ‘King of the North’) that the other varieties were grafted to. It’s always something! But those grapes are just fine for juice, jelly and fresh eating. Good seed-spitting practice, LOL!
One year my BIL found a stash of wild grapes near where he worked. He was a car salesman and he worked near our ‘Beltline’ which is the major 4-lane highway that goes around the city.
He made jelly from it and called it ‘Traffic Jam.’ ;)
The tree that broke came from Stark Bros. They still have it listed in their catalog. If none of the cuttings take root I’ll buy another one.
I’ve got two gala, one fuji, and one braeburn. They are all loaded. It was such a dry spring here that I started watering them the first week of May. That turned out to be a good move. The jet stream is back where it belongs now and we’ve gotten some rain - another storm rolling through this morning. With any luck I’ll have a bumper crop come fall.
SIL lost a chicken last night. The hens roost high in the rafters so whatever it was had a climb to get to them. It was eaten on the coop floor - critter could not get it out of the coop.
The coop is very secure - wire buried all around, 2x4 inch wire covering ‘windows’. We went around the entire coop looking for any place a raccoon or possum could have gotten in - nothing. The coop has an automatic door & it worked properly last night- closes at dusk when the hens roost & opens after sunrise.
My fear is we have something like a weasel that can squeeze through the wire. Never had one before, but there’s always a first time.
My new ‘easy set’ live trap is now set outside the chicken pen, baited with sardines. The sardines are in an open can, under the trap floor, behind the trip plate. The wire on that end of the trap has smaller openings to prevent ‘reaching in’. We also put in plastic tent stakes around the trap to keep ‘whatever’ from moving the trap off the bait. Fingers crossed we get the chicken killer.
Happy Hunting! :)
You should try my Crock Pot Coon and Kraut! ;)
I HAVE eaten raccoon, but it’s not high on my list. Raccoon and lower down the Food Chain (rabbit, squirrel) will be last resorts for me when TSHTF. ;)
‘Whatever’ it is dug just enough to wrangle the sardines out of the can (without moving the can) when the trap was checked this evening. SIL put 2 milkbone dog biscuits in the trap, so we’ll see if ‘whatever’ likes them.
Additionally, a large snake (Eastern Rat Snake) is currently ensconsed in the rafters - no eggs in the nest boxes. I suspect I am going to have to wrangle it out of the coop tomorrow - SIL is worried about it wrapping around her arm if she gets it with her snake pole. I had one year before last over 5’ that wrapped around the pole and my arm - not my favorite thing - at least it didn’t poop on me.
Wildlife - SO much fun! 😵💫
Massacre last night - 5 chickens. One left. The survivor has been moved to a smaller pen/coop, closer to the house. Again, no sign of how ‘whatever’ got in - had to come through the wire. It climbs & digs ... kills the chickens on the roost, no ‘feathers everywhere’ like when a fox gets in a flock. Just sickening to lose those chickens. The snake will be disappointed- no eggs.
I think I will bait the trap with raw chicken & put the trap in the coop tonight & see what happens.
My money is on a raccoon or a weasel. Do you have Fishers by you? (I think they’re more a far-northern thing.)
So sorry for your losses! This is exactly why I won’t have hens until we have a 100% safe spot for them - and then THAT’S no guarantee, either.
That said, after my Grand Speech on, ‘no pets in the house!’ from 2016, I now have two Beagles and two cats in the house. Are chickens next?
Oh, gawd, NO! They’d LOVE roosting in the beams in the Family Room ceiling!
Best of luck with this problem. Snakes! *SHUDDER*
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