Life on the Ranch

     Another thing that California lacks is Oklahoma-style auctions. We went to a big estate auction this past weekend. There was a major amount of stuff at it and we ended up being there until 6pm or so. We loaded up several trucks, a few cars and a trailer with all of the stuff that we and our friends bought.     Now, if you have never been to an Oklahoma auction, you are missing out. We brought home a cabinet that was FULL of canning jars (over 200 of them!) for only $2. I bought 2 rolls of 4 foot tall chain link fencing (about 90 feet of it) for only $2. My son bought a dump trailer for the lawn mower that Grandma passed our way for around $30 (normally trailers for these mowers go for about $150). Here is a pic of the trailer being put to use:      I have also been wanting to get a dehydrator of some kind to make some things with all of the cucumbers that have been coming out of the garden. Well, you guessed it, I found one at the auct...

     Last year was the first year that I tried my hand at canning pickles. They tasted good but, they were soft. I was hoping to make a crunchy dill pickle like those refrigerated Claussen pickles that my dad used to buy. Well, this year I made sure that we planted pickling cucumbers. And, I read lots of recipes and instructions about how to make them.      We have successfully made some good pickles this year now that we have cucumbers coming out of the garden on a regular basis - we are averaging 15 to 40 cucumbers a day!! I think the main difference is #1 - the fact that we planted a pickling variety and, #2 - we are presoaking the cukes in a cold water bath for hours.      The simpliest recipe, and the one that reminds me of those Claussen pickles is this one: Refrigerator Pickles Ingredients: - Pickling cucumbers - as many as you want to deal with - garlic cloves (one per jar) - dill seed - white sugar - pickling salt - white ...

It is so fun to have a garden! Here are some updated pictures from my morning stroll around the place. This first picture is one of the best sites to me, as I am a green salsa eater - tomatillos. These are a relation to tomatoes but are a little different. The green fruit grows inside a papery husk. This is the key ingredient for Salsa Verde! mmmm!!  A green bell pepper in this picture: Chili peppers - I'll have to try my hand at making chili powder! Suriyah, my daughter, has been keeping a close eye on the cucumbers and, there are little ones growing!! Woohoo!! See the start of a little cuke in the picture below? Recently, my nephew was able to get a whole bunch of 5 gallon buckets. And, he says he can get me an endless supply. So, what does a gardener do with a bunch of 5 gallon buckets? Expand the container garden. We will see how the tomato plants in the buckets produce compared to the one in the ground and the other ones in the freezers.