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<\/p>\nBecause we were in drought all summer and had been since LAST summer, everyone I knew was wishing desperately for rain. “Oh, if it would JUST rain!!!” Last fall, we went into the winter with our creek bed dry and cracked. In fact, David and I had run the four wheeler and trailer up and
\ndown, sawing up the downed trees across and in the creek, to clean it up for canoe travel and to let it flow with less plugging up.<\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, it started raining. We rejoiced! And then it didn’t stop. Because winter’s just around the corner, we’ve got a whole lot of
\npre-winter projects to get done; firewood split and hauled (dry!) onto the new porch, goat square bales hauled and stacked, manure hauled and tilled into the garden soil, lumber sorted and stacked, sand hauled onto our pot holes on the mile long drive. You get the picture. All of these require a few days of dry weather.<\/p>\n
And we haven’t had it. Rain, rain, and more rain. This morning early it started raining again, and it rained hard all day. The rain gauge read
\n51\/2 inches at five o’clock tonight, then it started raining very hard. We’re supposed to get another 5 inches tonight! Unbelievable. All the
\nrivers are over their banks, our little creek is big and the beaver ponds are running over the dams. The goats pout when they have to come outside to eat their grain in the yucky muck of their yard. The donkeys wrinkle their noses at the pouring rain and the horses have quit playing and rolling in the mud. It’s not fun any more. The only ones that are enjoying the rain are the ducks.<\/p>\n
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But the good thing is that I’m getting caught up on my canning. Our carpenter friend Tom has been over and our new greenhouse porch is now insulated and mostly paneled with log siding. So it’s warm in there and the tomatoes are ripening like gangbusters. A few have rotted, but that’s part of the game. Most are nicely red and not going bad, so I’ll make a few more big batches of tomato sauce and chili and that’ll be that for this year.<\/p>\n
And by the weekend, I’ll start canning up the apples my sister brought from Michigan. All those apple pies, strudels, coffee cakes and other goodies make a few days’ work very worth it! Apples are so easy to can; you just peel, slice, pack and waterbath.<\/p>\n
Yes, I appreciate the in-house time. But I’ve quit wishing it would rain!<\/p>\n
Readers’ questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n How do I harvest pine nuts?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n James B Wright I hope you are planning on a trip to the southwest.\u00a0 The only pine nuts I’m familiar with are the ones from the pinyon pine, which only grows there and in California.\u00a0 The pines you have in Michigan do not produce large seeds or “nuts”, nor do they taste good…..unless you are a bird or pine squirrel!<\/p>\n To harvest pine nuts or “pinyons”, most folks spread tarps or sheets under the tree when the cones are open, but still holding the nuts.\u00a0 Then with poles, you whack the cones and shake the nuts out, which fall to the ground and land on your collection sheets.\u00a0 Full cones usually cling to the tree, but if some fall you can toss them up and down in a wide basket, shaking out the nuts.<\/p>\n The nuts are cleaned of debris and roasted gently.\u00a0 You can do this in your oven at a low temperature, spread out on a cookie sheet. — Jackie<\/p>\n Sulfur bug repellent and water purification\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n I just read your column in the Nov\/Dec 2007 issue, and have two comments in response to questions you addressed. First, I enjoy your column and it is the second I read in every issue. My wife reads it first, but I read Jeff Yago’s first, sorry. Regarding using sulphur, floured sulphur, as an insect repellent. When I was young we lived in Southern Arizona and Southern Texas, and were plagued by ticks and fleas. Our dogs were medium sized, about 50-65 lbs., and we gave them about 1`\/4 to 1\/2 teaspoon of floured sulphur THOROUGHLY mixed into their food once a day. Our dogs never had fleas nor ticks. Experiment to get right dose for your dog. Too much makes them and their droppings smell terrible, so reduce it enough that the ticks stay off, but they don’t smell too bad. I don’t know if just rubbing sulphur flour on would help or not, seems it would fall\/wash off. Hope this helps. Secondly, regarding storage of water and food in vehicles in “72 hour kits”. In my experience milk jugs deteriorate very quickly, especially in high heat or wide temperature fluctuations. It is much better to use the two litre sodapop bottles, they are stronger and last much longer. But why have a “72 hour kit”? The experiences of recent events, such as Gulf coast hurricanes, our forest fires here and as highlighted in the “Lessons Learned in an Ice Storm” article, clearly show that 72 hours is just not enough. People should store at a minimum two weeks of emergency supplies, and one month is better. Water is going to be the bulkiest and heaviest item to store. Investing in a quality backpacker style water filter is cheap in a crises. Really, the difference between 72 hrs. and one month is not very much in terms of space taken up or expense, and becomes invaluable if\/when it actually has to be relied upon in an emergency. Even if people evacuate to relatives or friends homes! during a crises, it’s so nice to be able to provide something toward your own support, it’s a huge morale boost at a time when it’s most needed.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nWyandotte, MI<\/em><\/p>\n