Since her birth, I’ve been working with Crystal, our little red baby burro. She thinks she’s a people or I’m a donkey…I’m not sure which. But she is totally fearless. And she’s already trained to lead, pick up all four feet and come when called. (Hey, that’s better than a lot of kids I know!) I’ll be teaching her to wear something light on her back soon too. When you work with a youngster from the start like this, they become trained so they never even know it happened.

Our Friesian filly, Ladyhawk, is also very much handled. She isn’t the slightest bit afraid of bulldozers, “helping” Will work in our fields. We have to shoo her out of the area. Nor is she spooky around chainsaws, tractors, or ATVs. That’s a good thing when you’re riding or driving on a roadside.

Besides working with our equines, I’ve been starting to set tomatoes out in the garden, in their Wallo Waters. Wow have our tomatoes every grown this year. Most are 10″ to 12″ tall already…with no sign of blossoms, which is a good thing. I’m planting them deep so they can grow roots along their stems. This will help them produce more tomatoes for us. Now if we just don’t get a freeze in July or hail, or…

Readers’ Questions:

Growing flowers and vegetables together

Due to limited garden space I am utilizing every piece of front, back and side yard to grow as many vegetables as I can interspersed with flowers. Do you know of any particular flower species not to grow with tomatoes and/or vegetables such as beans and peas? (i.e. hazardous).

Secondly due to my fault in buying a stove with a ceramic stove top, and not being able to pressure can on it, I went out and got a single unit electric burner. Do you have any hints on the best pressure canner to use on a single electric burner unit?

To support the local farmers we bought a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) share this summer and I want to be able to pressure can all the wonderful vegetables that we might not be able to eat week to week.

M. Blaney
NE Ontario

You can plant just about any flowers in among your vegetables. I probably would steer away from castor beans, as they are toxic and could possibly transmit a bit of this to your vegetables (although I doubt it). Mixed flowers and vegetables are a real big thing right now. Enjoy your mixed beds!

I’m not sure a hot plate will work for pressure canning, regardless of the type or brand of canner. I would buy a canner of your choice, then make a dry run ( empty jars filled with water) on it and see if it will get to pressure and stay there. If it does, great. Let me know! If not, you could pick up a propane table top burner unit (Harbor Freight and Northern Tool has them for under $35…I’m sure some local stores do too). This is not a camping, Coleman type stove, but a heavier very plain burner top that can sit on a picnic table, etc. These do work very well for canning.

It sounds like you’ll be busy this summer. Have fun! — Jackie

Dying chicks

My daughter-in-law and I bought chicks at the same time. Mine have been outside for about 3 weeks, she just put hers outside this past weekend. Hers are bigger than mine and look fine. When she put them outside some have died. What’s up with this? None died inside, I lost some inside because they got cold and smothered some of the little ones. Why are hers dying now? Its not cold out.

Donna Higgins
Webster, Kentucky

How old are these chicks? Even if they are feathered out, chicks can need a heat lamp, especially at night. Where yours are “hardened off” by being outdoors earlier in life, hers may be “hothouse” babies, used to warmth and a very protected environment. Have her add a heat lamp to the inside coop so they can access it if they become chilled. (Remember that when they are used to 90 degrees, even 72 feels cold.) Also be sure that the chicks have plenty of dry bedding in their coop as cool, damp earth could also be chilling them. Hopefully after a few days they should be toughened up to the “real” world. — Jackie

Canning sausage

When canning sausage (bulk sausage) do you add liquid? Do you not can bulk sausage? Or just put it in the jars and can?

Bob
Belvidere, New Jersey

I can bulk sausage (pork breakfast-type sausage) by lightly frying it until it shrinks and browns slightly, then stacking the patties in a wide mouth pint jar. You can pour off any excess grease from the frying pan, then add water to the pan drippings. I have dry-packed my sausage, but it is now recommended that you add a broth made up of pan drippings and water, filling the jars to within an inch of the top. Pints are processed for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes at 10 pounds pressure, unless you live at an altitude above 1,000 feet and have to adjust your pressure to suit your altitude; see your canning manual for directions. — Jackie

Having trouble starting brassicas from seed

My goal it to start all of my own seeds rather than buy from the nursery. I am having very good results except anything in the brassica family. They germinate, but grow spindly and do not develop. They do not dampen off; they look healthy; I use the same starter mix as for all of my seeds. What should I be doing differently?

Eileen Turner
Dodson, Montana

Usually when plants grow spindly they more light and possibly fertilizer. Try putting your brassicas in a sunny spot as soon as they begin germinating, but be sure to mist the flats often as the sun will dry the soil out quickly. A dose of liquid fertilizer, such as Miracle Gro or manure tea will also give them a boost when they are trying to start leaves. Good luck. — Jackie

Reader’s Questions:

Canning dried beans

I Need a few tips on canning beans. The dried kind, soaked, then placed in jars and pressure processed. I did some, but had to guess at the amount of beans and liquid per quart jar. Do you have specific amounts that you might share?

Bruce Clark
Interlaken, New York

There isn’t really a specific amount. You cover your dry beans with cold water by at least 2″ and let stand in a cool place overnight. Then add more water if necessary and bring to a boil; boil 30 minutes then pack in your jars, leaving 1″ of headspace. After the beans have soaked up the water from overnight soaking, they are about as big as they’ll get. You only need enough water in the jars to provide heat for processing, so the product isn’t too dense. Just make sure there is enough boiling water or cooking liquid to cover the beans completely, leaving 1″ of headspace. — Jackie

Using old lard for soap

On the subject of lard… I was given 40 lbs. of old lard last week. It really doesn’t smell bad and most of it is a pale yellow color not white. Can I use this “as is” for making lye soap? Or would I need to maybe temper it? I have only made lye soap once before and I used fresh lard for that batch.

Marcia Speltslambert
Clay City, Indiana

You can use the lard “as is” for your soap. It will be fine. — Jackie

Acidic tomatoes

How can I lessen the acid in my tomato sauce. I have tried different types of tomatoes, tried roasting tomatoes and then making sauce, added a little sugar, but always seems to be acidic.

Debra Purdy
Yuma, Arizona

Try adding brown sugar to your tomato sauce to YOUR taste. Some people are sensitive to the acid in tomatoes more than others. The brown sugar helps mellow out the acid for your taste buds. — Jackie

Gelding a horse

Here is a question regarding a horse that we adopted… He will be 2 in June and we just discovered that to geld him will be around $600 and a trip to the vet for he has not dropped either testicle. I was very upset to say the least for I know that this lady knew this for the vet told me that they usually are born dropped or shortly their after. What is your take on this? He will be two in June, how long should I wait to see if he will drop? I feel so stupid because now we are attached and money is an issue. How long can I wait to see if he will drop?

Michelle Chapin
Fresno, Ohio

I’ve seen a lot of colts that didn’t have their testicles drop until they were two or older. True it’s not as common to have a colt wait that long, but it’s not that rare, either. Usually the hot days of the summer seem to help this condition along. I’d give him a little more time and see if you’re not relieved of this worry. — Jackie

Growing roses from seed

I have a flower question. I pulled a ziplock back full of seed pods from my mothers antique Yellow rose bush. How do I start them to get my own? It is such a beautiful bush with awesome sunrise yellow roses that fade to creamy white as they age. Each of the pods seem to have smaller seeds inside.

Jennifer Joyner
St. Marys, Georgia

The easiest way to get another rose from your mother’s yellow rose bush is to cut off a sprout from the mother bush. If you look, you can usually spot a small vigorous stem coming up from the ground near the original rose. If you shove a spade between the big bush and the sprout, you will cut the root and be able to remove the sprout with it’s own roots intact. Then simply plant this mini-bush at home.

To start a rose from your seeds, remove them from the hip “pod,” place between sheets of damp paper towels and put them in a jar, in the fridge for 90 days. Then plant the seeds in pots or trays. Keep moist but not wet and you’ll soon see tiny roses coming up. Have fun! — Jackie

Broody hens

One of my Buff Orpington hens has gone broody. There was no other space, so she stayed in the coop with all the others. Another hen (or two) is not broody but wants to lie around in the nesting box, too. Every few days, there are ten, or so, eggs on the floor outside the box. I discard them because, frankly, I don’t know if any of them have been under the setting hen and might be spoiled. Is it likely that the setting hen would let the others roll some of her eggs out of the box?

Deborah McEnulty
Priest River, Idaho

Yes, another hen may be kicking the eggs out. Or the squabble over the nest box might roll eggs out. It’s common for other hens to try to lay eggs in the broody hen’s nest. To stop this, tack a piece of chicken wire over that nest box. You’ll have to offer the broody hen water and feed in the box, but with the wire over the opening, the other hens won’t compete for that box and ruin the eggs. Or you can simply move the setting hen into another nest box in another location. Do this at night, carefully first moving the eggs, then the hen. Lock her in the new box with the eggs for a couple of days until she is firmly setting. — Jackie

Keeping goats

Can you please tell me what you feed them and how much of the feed you grow yourself? I know the needs are different at different times. Have you had any difficult births and have you ever had to have a vet come to your place to assist in the delivery? If you have a breech birth do you assist in turning the kid and if so, how hard is it to do for a woman? At what age do you wean your kids?

Deborah Motylnski
Brecksville, Ohio

Right now we feed good quality hay and 14% sweet feed with a mineral salt lick. In the summer, we feed a whole lot of hand-cut forage, garden excess and canning waste, like corn cobs, husks, etc. As we improve our homestead, we will be raising more and more of all of our own feed. Each year we do better.

I have had a couple of difficult births during the many years I’ve had goats, but none that traumatic for me or the goat-mom. Kids often come back legs first, which calls for a little assist, just gently pulling the kid out so it doesn’t inhale birth fluid when the cord breaks. Most difficult births are due to two kids trying to enter the birth canal at the same time. You just have to go in and “sort” kids, guiding the right legs and head into the birth canal so it is in position for birth.

No this is not difficult for a woman; actually it’s easier because many women have smaller hands than men so they can give aid easier. It is not a “strength” thing at all.

I wean my kids when they are eating grain very well, growing nicely and weigh around 25 pounds. This is usually at about 2 1/2 months or so. Some grow slower, so I keep them on milk longer. If I have some kids I really want to be nice, I leave them on the mother until she weans them. I did this with Velvet’s triplet does last year and they are all rugged, strong and very nice. Being triplets, they were a little small at birth and grew slower, so I wanted them to have a good start in life. Sacrificing the milk was worth it! — Jackie

Canning on a flat-top stove

We are going to grow a garden this year and I would like to know if it will be ok to hot water can on a flat top stove?

Dave Williams
Edon, Ohio

It is not recommended that you use a glass top stove for canning, due to the concentration of both heat on the top and weight of the canner. However, I’ve had responses to this topic from readers who have successfully canned with one. (See the comments on recent blogs.) Personally, I’d use a small propane cooktop, just for canning. — Jackie

Planting potatoes

In cutting seed potatoes for planting, I have several with hollow heart. Is it okay to use them for seed potatoes? I did not find anything in your blogs or archives addressing this. They are
Yukon Golds and were purchased at the local farm and garden store.

Sherry Reynolds
Schoharie, New York

Yes, you can use the potatoes with hollow heart for seed. I usually cut out the hollow part, though. It is usually caused by irregular watering. Yukon Golds seem a little more susceptible to hollow heart than others, but I’ve had potatoes of several varieties with it…usually when watering has been difficult on a homestead. — Jackie

Planting vegetables in a shaded area

Our land is not very flat so we have had to improvise raised beds etc. for vegetables etc. My wonderful husband is just finishing a series of three retaining walls down the last slope to give us better access to the lower yard and for more planting area. The two smaller areas will be used for dwarf fruit trees (maybe three columnar apple trees) plus flowers etc. The lowest area which comes near evergreen trees is a lot bigger. I have three lilac bushes planted there already and would like to keep them there. The area does not get a lot of sun esp. in the afternoon. I would love to plant veggies in the area, but don’t know what to plant here because of low sun and possible deer munching. It would be perfect for zucchini because they could grow over the rock wall but I suspect there’s not enough sun. Any ideas for other plants or berries?

Donna Clements
Hoquiam, Washington

You’ll have to experiment. Many green vegetables, such as lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage will tolerate less sun than corn, tomatoes or squash. Zuchinni is a bush squash, so it won’t drape over your rock. A vining winter squash, such as delicata would, and remain less invasive than a lush grower like hubbard or Hopi Pale Grey. Deer are a problem everywhere. In Montana, though, our many deer really didn’t bother our garden. Why, I’ll never know. That too, you’ll have to just see. We had a doe that napped in our squash patch! — Jackie

Sagging house

…I have read that you have rented or lived in a few different homes, some of which were difficult to make livable. I am not physically able to do a lot of heavy work and am raising my 2 year old grandson and a teenage daughter, whew (at this age a toddler is very hard to contain). My husband works full time and has our only source of income. Our home was non professionally built by my great grandparents and we have almost 50 acres around it. The land is beautiful and something I had prayed for since I was young (God really does hear and answer prayers).

The house: Almost 100 years old, needs to be re leveled cause its sagging and leaning, needs a new roof, needs new back and front porches because the existing ones have been patched on and are in bad shape, needs new back wall, rewireing, some wire is newer but my grandpa,the make do handyman, helped with the wiring, re plumbing, the bathroom sink drains right out at floor level onto the ground underneath the house, septic tank, insulation ( there is not one spot of it)and then there are some termite damage and I don’t know how much. There are rotten boards that need replacing.

I guess my question is how do you know when to refix the existing house versus building a new one? And do you know anything about jacking up an old house and replacing seals and leveling it off? Oh,, how do you potty train a boy? I had three girls two of which are grown so raising a boy is sooo different but such a blessing (when he’s not crawling under the house with the puppies, its forbidden but he runs off fast)

Sonja Neatherland
Dodson, Louisiana

I hear you about having a little one; I had my youngest son, David, when I was 44, so I know how much running it takes out of you! We potty trained him by sitting his little potty in front of the “big” one. When we went, he came with us and sat there having great discussions…and also sometimes going potty. Of course, being a little boy, he also went pee out in the yard, in the woods or wherever he was. It took awhile before he figured it was not socially correct to take a whiz in public. But we all lived through it. The BIG incentive to be totally potty trained was wearing big-boy underwear. That did it!

As for the house problem. It sounds like you have a big job ahead of you. It might be cheaper and easier to rebuild a small, easy-to-add onto house on a solid foundation. A lot of folks have started with a two car garage sized house, then added on as the cash allowed. I don’t know your situation, so you may need to fix the existing home, instead. Start with the basics, the foundation, the plumbing that drains under the house…which probably isn’t doing the structure any good. Yes, I’ve jacked up sagging buildings. I used 6″x6″ timbers, running under the floor joists and sills, then used a bottle jack under that to slowly and carefully raise the house/shed. Sometimes they’ll improve; sometimes the damage is too great. But it’s worth a try.

The building is sagging for a reason. Try and find it. Are sills rotted out? Floor joists? Is the footing crumbled? Often you can replace the rotten area or build block and concrete support footings for the floor, which in turn, holds the house straight once you’ve jacked it up.

Of course, a professional will do a better job, but many of us have never been able to afford one so we’ve made do. And it’s amazing at what a person can fix if need be.

Always be very careful when jacking up a building; never get under it without sturdy support. That house is heavy! — Jackie

Making lemonade

Do you have a recipe for lemonade made from dried lemon peel? I have searched the web but find nothing. I would think you could but nothing is out there.

Liz Welcher
Indianapolis, Indiana

You probably can’t make lemonade from dried lemon peel; you’d have to use dehydrated lemon without the peel as the peel contains oils that would make the lemonade taste bitter, not sour. You can remove the peel from lemons, slice them crosswise, remove any seeds, then dehydrate them. By rehydrating them, then adding to water with sweetener, you would have a nice lemonade. Without the bitterness of the peel. — Jackie

Pond not holding water

We recently purchased a home with a “pond,” however it does not hold water very well. Actually, it has held a small amount in the bottom (aprox.1 foot) pretty well, but we have had great rainfall this past winter and spring which filled the pond up twice, but within 1 week the pond was back to it’s 1 foot level again. We were advised to broadcast bentonite with the last filling, but it didn’t seem to help. Do you know any tricks? The previous owner said that the pond had been “properly raked.” I
would greatly appreciate any help you might have.

Margaret Galloway
Springville, Alabama

This type of seasonal pond usually will only stay filled higher than its natural level if you pump it out (or wait for a dry summer) and install a pond liner. This is a heavy poly or rubber sheet that does not let the water escape. Many people have had great luck improving a pond on their place this way. However it is expensive to buy and install. I wish I had a magic cure for your pond! I love my water too! — Jackie

Growing vegetables in the shade

I have a section of my main vegetable garden that doesn’t get much sun during the growing season. I think it must get a couple hours of direct sun a day. The only thing that’s ever grown well there is the strawberry patch. What are some other things I could grow there? We live in northern Connecticut.

Jeanne Allie
Strorrs, Connecticut

You may have good luck growing salad veggies such as lettuce, mesclun mixes, kale, broccoli and cauliflower. These often have a greater shade tolerance than other garden vegetables. Good growing. — Jackie

Canning problems

Hello, I have 2 minor canning problems. The butter I just canned turned out ok but it has a somewhat gritty texture and a slightly different taste from fresh. Is this normal? Also I canned some smoked sausage but it got very mushy and had a bad texture. Anyway to solve this?

Jeff Schanks
Barnesville, Ohio

Did you refrigerate your butter before trying it? Canned, room temperature butter can have a gritty texture, like some room temperature stick margarine does. Or did you “cook” it quite a while to evaporate the water in the butter? This also can sometimes result in a different texture/taste. Neither is harmful.

Was your smoked sausage in casing or patties? I’ve never had good luck canning smoked sausage, like summer sausage, because of the change in texture and taste. With the patties, I lightly fry them, then stack them in a wide mouth jar to process, without liquid. With liquid, they do get mushy. — Jackie

Homemade noodles

I believe in the last issue there was an article on making homemade noodles and drying them. I have always made them, dried them and then froze in freezer. My question is,” When dried can they be stored in cans on the shelf?” I know dried noodles at the grocery stores are stored on the shelf but I am worried about Salmonella poisoning.

Rose Cafin
Robinson, Illinois

To store dry noodles on the shelf, they must, of course be very dry; in effect, dehydrated. To be absolutely safe, continue to use your noodles fresh or frozen. There is a minute risk of picking up a bacterial infection from home dried noodles, but it IS a possibility. — Jackie