Here is my latest video:

David got busy the other day and dragged out all our outside Christmas lights. I always shop right after Christmas at the “big” stores and have picked up sets of icicle lights for $2 and others for as low as .50 a set. So we haven’t a lot of cash invested in boxes of great lights. Last year, with the deep, early snow, and everything else that was going on, we just didn’t get around to getting lights up. But this year, we do, and it’s oh so cheerful!

I’ve also been canning up the last of David’s deer. Last night, I marinated the last of the boneless meat and tenderloins and ground up the meat from the neck and shoulders. So today I roasted the pieces of meat to partially cook it and fried up the ground meat with onions from the garden. I added 3 quarts of water with some spices to the roasts, near the end, so when I packed the hot meat in pint jars, I had great seasoned broth to pour over it. The ground meat, I packed hot, without liquid, also in pint jars. Then I processed it all in one big batch in the canner. Boy does it look tasty! But I AM glad that’s finally done. It’s kind of tough when half the deer freezes solid outdoors and you have to chop it and saw it apart with a hatchet and hand saw…Not real “dainty,” for sure!

We have been having real cold and several inches of new snow every day or two. Real cold. As in below zero, cold. Brrrr. But the new snow is helping our plants survive the winter and helping keep the septic tank, which I covered with hay, and water line, from freezing. So that’s a good thing. Besides, the fluffy snow on our beautiful log cabin and those glowing Christmas lights really make it look a lot like a Christmas card.

Readers’ Questions:

Hopi Pale Grey seeds

Just a quick note to say thank you for the Pale Grey Hopi seed. You sent plenty of seeds to plant this spring and to hold some back for next year, just in case. Thank You.

Dan Jones
Chickamauga, Georgia

Glad you got your seeds okay, Dan. Remember not to plant any C. maxima squash or pumpkins in your garden this year, except for the Hopi Pale Greys. That way you’ll keep pure seed and can pass some along to other neighboring gardeners and friends. — Jackie

Cranberry juice for bladder infection

I just love your blog and of course the magazine. You stated that your Mom suffers from frequent bladder infections. My mom did to but she found that drinking cranberry juice was really helpful in preventing the infections. Maybe it would help your mom.

Nancy Hanson
Washburn, Wisconsin

Thanks for the thought. Mom drinks bottles of cranberry juice every week. The doctor thinks that she may have a pocket of infection that just doesn’t clear up completely. She has an appointment with a urologist January 19th. They had NO earlier appointments! Wow! Kids: consider urology as a career! — Jackie

Bread machines

Do you recommend bread makers? I once had one and wasn’t too impressed but did like it for the temperature. When making bread by hand I always messed up the water temp/yeast factor…I never liked the bricks that came out of the bread maker and would just take the dough out and then make it in the oven. That bread machine died 10 yrs. ago. Have they gotten any better at not making bricks? I saw one at Walmart and the container was so tiny, yet the machine huge. Or do you just say phooey on them and say don’t waste your money?

Deb
Bemidji, Minnesota

I’ve never had a bread machine, although Mom had one and really liked it because her hands had such bad arthritis that she could no longer mix and knead bread. Ilene Duffy uses one a lot and her breads turn out great. I’d say that newer bread machines ARE much better than they used to be, but with everything else, often you get what you pay for…the cheaper machines probably won’t work as well as the more pricey ones. I like the old fashioned mix and knead method, myself. It’s relaxing. — Jackie

Canning link sausage

I canned link (chicken) sausage in pint jars (dry, no liquid added) at 10 lbs for 75 min. without cooking the sausage first.They turned out well and every jar sealed.Would it be better to cook the sausage first and then pressure can it or is it sufficient enough to go ahead and can it like I did? I am looking for a basic reasonable long term storage on this item.Thank you for your time and consideration!

Pam Ayala
Arlington, Washington

I’ve canned sausages like you did, but now I’m gently browning them, then packing them hot, in hot jars. I never had any trouble raw packing them, but they seemed better after I browned them before packing. — Jackie

We had a great “vacation.” David had Thursday, Friday, and the weekend off from school. Of course, Thursday, being Thanksgiving, I cooked, cooked, and baked. That’s MY vacation; doing all that baking and cooking, which I really love. Mom eats like a bird; a very small bird. David’s often away doing young man stuff. So I don’t have anyone to cook for. When I get the chance, I go whole hog. (Look out, Will!) We had a whole lot of homegrown food on the table…the rest homemade, anyway. Boy, our garden really shined! Glazed carrots, green bean casserole, mustard bean pickles, dill pickles, bread and butter pickles, blackberry jam, and oh those wonderful Yukon Gold potatoes! Add a blackberry cheesecake, apple pie with caramel drizzles and toasted pecans, half time spoon rolls and we were too stuffed to move!

But the next day we did. David’s deer is frozen under the greenhouse, where it’s hanging, and I sawed off a quarter, brought it in to thaw over night, then cut it up, ground it with the meat grinder, and made three flavors of jerky from it. Another quarter soon followed and I’ve got THAT batch of 8 dehydrator trays finishing up tonight. Wow!

Sprinkled in with that was the trip to my grandson, Mason’s first birthday party, down at Bill and Kelly’s on Sunday, which was a wonderful day and Mom’s trip to the ER on Friday, which wasn’t so great. She’s having trouble with a recurring bladder infection which, in the elderly, often shows up with hallucinations and disorientation. Very scary for ME! But the doctor put her on a different antibiotic and she was well enough to go to Mason’s birthday party Sunday and today, she continues to improve. But I’m kind of tired.

Will and I are already picking out varieties of strawberry plants for our new bed in the house garden and some more new trees for our orchard. See. Spring is ALMOST here! By the way, Hi Andy!

Readers’ Questions:

Filling Wall o’ waters

Wall o’ water filling tip: This is not a question but we know as do you the back breaking pain it is to fill dozens of wall o waters. My husband came up with this: He used some old black 3/4″ drip line and capped one end. He then made a circle that was about the same circumference of the outside of a 5 gallon bucket, capping one end. He wire tied it and left the uncapped end extending about 1 ft. He then punched 18 holes in it at equal intervals on the circle. He attached 9″ of 1/4″ drip line to each hole. He put a hose connector and then a hose shut off valve on the extended open end. Although this was easiest to use with two people, one to hold it steady while the other puts the “legs” into each hole, it took way less time and effort than the usual. Once the legs were in the wall o water (we had the wall o water already sitting over a bucket) we moved the whole thing on top of the plant and turned the valve. It fills all the channels at the same time and takes less than a minute. I’d guess that it only took about 30% of the time it usually takes, so even though it took two people it still was a time saver. We call it the “spider.” If you’d like a picture let me know. I saw all the rows of wall o’ waters in your book and thought this might ease the pain of filling them as it did for us.

Glad you liked the book. I just read it and was humbled by how far we’ve come and how much we’ve gotten done with the help of friends and family.

Boy, I LOVE your idea for filling the Wallo’ Waters! YES I’d love a photo, and I’ll bet other readers will too. Why don’t you talk to the makers of Wallo’ Waters and maybe they’d consider buying rights so they could make and sell them! THANKS! I knew there had to be an easier way! — Jackie

Protecting food from weevils

Jason Riggs
Cleveland, Texas

Plastic zip lock bags are generally protection against weevil infestation…unless there are weevil eggs in your grains. The trash bags with a knot tied are not. Better yet, put your bags of rice/grain in plastic garbage cans, plastic totes with tight fitting lids (some aren’t). If you want to use the garbage bags, you can beef ‘em up by folding the ends of the bags back over the sacks and taping them securely with duct tape. I’ve done this and it’s worked pretty darned good. Then, in addition, I’ve placed the taped bags in a sturdy cardboard or plastic tote. No problems there. — Jackie

Storing corn

We tried to store 200lbs of field corn in a plastic tub in the basement. Condensation gathered on the lid to the container and dripped on the corn bags, which then swelled and grew bugs. How do you long term store your corn? We bought our corn at the local feed shop and I don’t know what the moisture content was. Thanks and your articles and blog are great. I am a huge fan and so is my dad.

Erin Crouch
Coats, Kansas

Do you have a problem with dampness in your basement, with other things. Like does rust form on paint can lids? I really think that probably your problem was corn with too high a moisture content, and it sounds like you stored it in the bags. I’ve always stored my whole corn and wheat “loose” in plastic garbage cans, and I’ve never had a problem with moisture, at all. I’d try it again with one bag of corn, dumping it in loose so there’s more air circulation within the container. If you still have this problem, buy your next corn in the summer, then dry it yourself by pouring a bag or two out onto a clean plastic tarp out in the yard, right in the sun. Stir it around all day, then cover in the late afternoon if there’s a chance of dew forming over night. In the morning, repeat the drying. Even quite moist corn is usually dry in two days of this treatment. Better luck next time. This definitely can be done! — Jackie