A Walk Through Sam's Place
- Thread starter Doctorbrady
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Doctorbrady
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Thanks Dogdoc. I got about 2/10 of an inch of rain on the day I went out with my wife. Unfortunately that was an 80% chance of rain day, which led only to sprinkles. Nothing substantial in the forecast for about a week, and that's always iffy. If I don't get some significant moisture soon, my plots will shrivel up and die. It's been another tough year, but it usually works out OK in the end
.Lots of reptiles on your place! I used to catch glass lizards in North Florida when I was a kid. They are named appropriately, as I had many a tail snap off when catching them. I was pulling up a clump of grass from one of my plots Monday and a baby copperhead fell out of it It was an inch or two from my fingers and could have bitten me but chose to escape thankfully.
It was an inch or two from my fingers and could have bitten me but chose to escape thankfully. I let him go, he could have nailed me if he wanted to and didn't. I have always liked snakes and if they leave me be I leave them be. I have had several really close encounters with copperheads and none of them has ever struck at me. Cotton mouths are another story, they are born with a bad attitude!
Doctorbrady
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Here is a fresh scrape that was loaded with deer tracks.
Doctorbrady
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I also had an opportunity to pick a few apples last week. These are from my home trees where the drought was not quite as bad. They are not pretty, but plenty tasty.
Doctorbrady
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A few were set back for fresh eating, like this big apple. The tree this apple was grown on was hit hard by frost, so the number of apples were reduced. As a consequence, the remaining apples grew nice and big. I have avoided using Sevin in the past, for fear of the thinning effect. Now that my trees are more mature, and producing well, I think that I will give Sevin a try to keep Japanese beetles at bay, and thin heavy producing trees in favor of bigger fruit.
Doctorbrady
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Most of the apples were turned into canned products like this delicious applesauce.
Doctorbrady
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I used to use an old fashioned food mill to separate the skins from the cooked apples. I bought a Ninja blender last winter, and it makes short work of the apples, skins and all (cores are removed prior to cooking). Apple butter takes quite a bit more time than sauce, but the process is easier in the crock pot.
Doctorbrady
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Once it is thick enough to stand up on the spoon, it goes into the jars, then into the pressure canner. Her is the finished product. It is even more delicious than it looks!
Doctorbrady
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Pears will get picked this weekend, and put through the same process.
Never had any apple butter. It all looks really great though! Maybe a new entry for our Outdoor Café section?
Doctorbrady
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Simple enough. I can post something there.
Doctorbrady
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I will post my apple sauce/pear sauce, and apple butter/pear butter recipes in the Cafe section.
It is not that unusual that some scrapes are showing up. It is most likely immature bucks who are getting revved up with a surge of testosterone. Older bucks don't waste their time until does get closer to coming into heat. There were also some smaller tracks that looked to by from does. This scrape sight is used year after year, and serves as a "social scrape." Its akin to a fire hydrant in a dog park. It is hard for a deer to pass by, and not leave their mark. It happens to be in close proximity to a stand that I call "the kill stand"
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Doctorbrady
Well-Known Member
Man, I hope so! Most of the rain has continued to miss me.
