{"id":787,"date":"2010-03-23T11:58:42","date_gmt":"2010-03-23T17:58:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/?p=787"},"modified":"2010-03-23T11:58:42","modified_gmt":"2010-03-23T17:58:42","slug":"a-bulldozer-is-a-wonderful-thing-when-it-doesnt-break-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/2010\/03\/23\/a-bulldozer-is-a-wonderful-thing-when-it-doesnt-break-down\/","title":{"rendered":"A bulldozer is a wonderful thing…when it doesn’t break down"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weather was great over the weekend, so Will fired up Old Yeller, our trusty crawler, and went to play in the dirt. Our spring catchment basin had turned out great last year, both for wildlife watering and for watering our gardens and orchard. So, as we had the room (old gravel pit), we decided to double the size, then have our friend, Dale Rinne, come over with his backhoe and dig it deeper, too. In preparation for Dale’s work, Will had cleared the area north of the existing basin, so Saturday, he set about to scrape and dig as much of the gravel away from the area as he could.<\/p>\n

Our culvert, which is the overflow to the pond, is still frozen, so the water level is quite high right now. But Will wanted it all ready for Dale, and we knew the culvert would thaw soon. All went great until “POP” a rock got in the track and dumped it in a pile next to the dozer!<\/p>\n

Now a 1010 track weighs about 500 pounds, and will pinch your fingers off in a heartbeat if you aren’t careful…and sometimes even if you ARE careful. As the track tensioner is powered by grease, you open a relief screw and the grease is supposed to squirt out, releasing the tension, making the track much easier to fit back on. But it was stuck! Even shoving against it with the tractor bucket wouldn’t work. To make a long story short, David, Will, and I worked for nearly 6 hours on it, when it FINALLY broke loose, shooting the grease in a heap under the dozer. We got the track back on and in a few minutes, Old Yeller was back in working order. But it was nearly dark. Oh well, another day. So today, Will went back, leveled off the temporary bank, and tidied up the surrounding area to wait for Dale.<\/p>\n

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When we finish digging out the pond, we plan on naturalizing the whole area, complete with wild fruiting trees like elderberry and mountain ash, wild flowers, and clover for the deer. The southern edge will have a gentle slope so the birds can bathe and frogs can sit in the sun. We’ll put in a small dock on the east side so we can station our water pump for the gardens. It’s going to be a thing of beauty, as well as function. Much better than an old, overgrown, rock-strewn gravel pit! (Oh yes, we will be using those piles of large rocks for a foundation wall on the sloping south side of the house, as well as retaining walls and other projects. Waste not, want not!)<\/p>\n

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Readers\u2019 Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bulk canning lids, freezing celery, and chicken litter<\/strong><\/p>\n

A response and two questions: When looking for bulk canning lids, it doesn’t hurt to ask if a local retailer will give you a price break for buying in bulk. I asked at our hardware store last year and bought a case for $.20 less per dozen than the individual price. I wasn’t able to find any deals online since you always have to pay shipping and the lids are heavy.<\/p>\n

I’m enjoying reading your new canning book. I was a little disappointed to discover it doesn’t have an index, but it’s been pretty easy to find things in it since it is in alphabetical order. I’m going to try growing celery for the first time this year. Can you blanch and freeze celery? I can’t imagine I’d use that much at a time that I’d want to can it, but if I could freeze it like I do with green peppers, I could add just a little bit to a recipe when I need it.<\/p>\n

Also, last year I tried to save some money by getting wood shavings from a local lumberyard to use as chicken litter. It was cheaper than the bagged wood shavings, but the pieces were much smaller and seemed to pack down and get wet much faster than the commercial shavings. I also worried about using small pieces when brooding chicks, so I waited until they were older. Do you buy the commercial shavings, use your own wood chips, or have another idea to save some money on chicken litter?<\/p>\n

Carmen Griggs
\nBovey, Minnesota<\/em><\/p>\n

Yes, that’s a good idea, asking your local merchant. I’ve done that with success, also saving about a quarter a box, buying a case, which was special ordered before canning season.<\/p>\n

Yes, you can blanch and freeze celery. It works very nicely. I can up a whole lot, too. I put it in both pints (for stews and cream of celery soup) and half pints, to use in casseroles, stuffing, etc. I do use a lot!<\/p>\n

Sometimes I’ve bought commercial wood shavings for poultry bedding, but I also use a lot of our own chips, made with our little chipper. I only use chips for the chickens made from dry branches and small dead trees, however, as the green chips don’t absorb enough moisture. Baby chicks will eat sawdust bedding and sawdust is often pretty dusty for an enclosed winter coop, so I don’t use that. — Jackie<\/p>\n

Need recipe for hot pickled sausage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Have any recipes to pickle hot sausage?<\/p>\n

Ron
\nCenterview, Missouri
\n<\/em>
\nHonestly, Ron, I’ve never pickled hot sausage. Any readers out there with great recipes for Ron? — Jackie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather was great over the weekend, so Will fired up Old Yeller, our trusty crawler, and went to play in the dirt. Our spring catchment basin had turned out great last year, both for wildlife watering and for watering our gardens and orchard. So, as we had the room (old gravel pit), we decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,8,13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/JackieClay\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}