Today was lovely; sunny, breezy and nearly 45 degrees outside.  So after splitting up a wheelbarrow load of firewood and carrying that in and hauling another load of donkey/goat manure out onto the garden, I resumed working on our new pheasant pen for David’s new fancy pheasants our friends are giving him.  It’s taking a long time because we needed a tight, strong outer fence (old kennel panels from the dog yard), a tight shelter, which is their shed, and three separate pens, one for each breed of pheasant.  The rooster pheasants will fight and sometimes kill each other, so they need to be in different pens.

Not only can pheasants fly, but owls will swoop down at night and pluck any pheasants roosting outside up and eat them.  So the pens also need tops!  Then there are the inside individual pens and gates…..lots of gates.  And a door from the goat barn into the pheasant barn.  Whew!  Lots of building for three pairs of birds!

Luckily, I was able to recycle the last clear Filon left over from our old greenhouse for the roof, 2″x4″s and windows from the dump and a few treated timbers from our old greenhouse.  The building is only 6′x13′, but it’s been kind of a fussy thing to put together.

Tonight after David got out of school, he hopped on the bulldozer and graded their yard before we fenced it.  There was a huge old stump in it, and a bunch of big rocks.  He dug up the stump and shoved it over the hill and buried it.  Then he filled the hole with rocks and graded the whole pen area nice and flat.  Tomorrow I’ll hook all the fence together and pound down the posts we’ll need for the cross fencing.  It’s going to get cold soon, and the ground will be freezing.

Up here in the north, you have to think of these things, for once the ground freezes, you won’t be pounding or digging posts in any more till spring.

We’re also hauling wood in like mad, carefully protecting the floor and log wall in our new porch from the beating dumping firewood on it can give.  Luckily there’s enough old OSB pieces lying around to do the job.  After all that work staining I do not want my beautiful floor and wall dinged up!  Oh no!  This time of the year I feel like having David play hooky from school to help get in the wood, but of course, I won’t.  But one can’t help feel a bit pressured this time of the year, here in the northern backwoods.

cream of wheat… can you put in in jars to keep it longer than the experation date? or a plastic container? or will it go wormy? how long does it last?

suzette stuter
reedsville, pa

Yes, you can store Cream of Wheat in jars and it will keep a long time.  I don’t like plastic because some plastics will leach odor and taste into foods.  Also, mice can and will chew through plastic to get at the food inside.  I’ve had that happen and I wasn’t very happy about it!  I’ve had it last for longer than 2 years.  Usually the only thing that will make it go “bad” is if it gets rancid.  This doesn’t hurt you but it will smell and taste bad. — Jackie