Jay's Jammin

Very methodicly I called every orchard within 250 miles to detemine where we could get picked and pitted tart cherries for our jam project this weekend. The one that met the requirements was only 50 miles away! So we loaded up Mike & Darlene’s (guests from NY) van and took off. Only to discover that only u-pick was being allowed. So Momma, Darlene & Mike got busy. Because the staples in my arm precluded reaching out I assumed my supine supervisory position in the van & closed my eyes to their shenanigans. It worked, they picked 14 lbs in 1/2 hour!!

The Ghost is back Jay went into the hospital for observation, breathing problems, last night and his post has sat in limbo for a few day.  His eye sight went haywire again so bear with me while I finish this for him. 

The above picture is Mike rinsing and separating pitted from none pitted cherries.

Here Dar is at the new cherry pitter and Momma (me) is at the stove with the wooden spoon.  Everyone works on a project like this.

Tart cherry jam with just a touch of almond flavor was the results.  Forgive me but in all the confusion I forgot to note how many jars we put up. 

The second half of his project was Tart Cherry sauce and they certainly look good too. 

The apricots are due in the next couple of weeks so he has to get better real quick.  Thanks for allowing me to haunt the site again.  MOMMA

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The credit union called today. The financing was approved, so we close on Thursday. Called the roofer and the deck contractors and arrange meetings on Wednesday and Fridat. Still waiting for the plumber to call back.

Found a bee keeper to come out to trap the hive that set up housekeeping in our wall. Clark is a hobbyist now taking over his father’s trade after retiring early from an auto plant. We met at our family doctor’s office and got to talking and he mentioned he was a beekeeper, so we got together today. He started the set-up you see here. The process will take about a month

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First use of a gift from friends Dar & Mike & kids. Smoked chicken parts and sliced porato. It turned out pretty good for a first try,As a matter of fact it looked so good, I had it on my plate & in my mouth before Momms could get a picture!
I had start using it because they also sent enough wood chips to smoke two cows, fourteen chickens and six turkeys!
Now I have o find a dessert recipe that I can smoke for their next visit.

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That time again, The reason for my blog name.The first JAMMIN session is complete. Three batches of strawberry jam and two of rhubarb & strawberry. Picked by young & tireless teens(not ours).

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Like our Brandy, the author of this blog has dug in his heels and refused to move.  Despite encouragement it seems that if it isn’t his idea than it don’t get done.  So my friends I am ghost writing this entry.

The four inch black pipe to divert rain water away from the house had laid like this waiting for willing hands and idle shovels to bury it.  As a birthday gift and to keep the blood from pooling in his eyes Jay received those helping hands from eldest son, Wes and daughter-in-law Deb.  The path of the pipe was marked out and the two of them started digging.  Roughly 30 feet later this is what they had.

The great team of husband and wife took a few minutes to rest after covering the pipe up to the last few feet to allow the addition of an elbow with a grate in it to be purchased to finish it off. 

Yesterday Jay cut, adjusted, and added the elbow to the end and we did a partial cover up.  He said we would have to wet the area down, add some more dirt, and raked it out smooth.  Then the job will be done.

He also has managed to try out the new lawn sweeper, which does a great job of cleaning up the cuttings.  Yesterday he cut grass again so the sweeper will be working again today .

Last but not least a quick look at the barrel garden.  Looking pretty good but we could use a little more rain to help them along. 

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On Saturday with Momma on the spading fork filling more of the the barrels with wood chips and granddaughter Courtney on the handcart, we were able to get them up to the mixer to finish filling them with plant mix. 

On Tuesday Momma filled the last three, Cindy wheeled them to the mixer and I finished filling them. I then lined them up along the patio.

Today I put up a window shelf for Molly in the bedroom because she is getting too big for the sill. Because of the setup in the room Mary had to move the bed from this ---

to an angle like this--

to allow me to get into bed.  The space between the window and the bed---

was tight in the first place and once I put the shelf up the adjustment became apparent.

This is known as Pet Spoilage!  (Typed by Momma)

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Finally the barrels are painted with the help of my wife because I lost my vision again.  Now we have to set for loading the barrels with wood chip filler and growing mix.  The growing mix is based on Mel’s Mix from Square Foot Gardening.  The mix is 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 sphagnum peat moss.  We had to build a mixer to blend this.  This is mixer we made using a pickle barrel we bought from a farmer in Birch Run as the tumbler:

This is cart modification that I made to move the barrels around to fill them and then place them in their final position.

Then just when we were ready to start work loading the barrels we discovered the tractor wouldn’t move unless the drive shaft to the mower was connected. If you have never seen a 65 year old blind grandpa and 71 year old grandma laying on a driveway trying to connect a drive shaft, well we are not going to show you now because there was no one to hold the camera.  However here is a picture of the tractor with it’s rear on jack stands.

More adventures to follow!  (Momma is typing for me.)

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...are very small bugs that eat up days when you don’t pay attention to what you’re not doing. I will admit I’m not good at keeping up on my blogging, but I’ll try.

On the truck front, it’s been repaired & only for $3500! Best part was we had to pay $38 to replace the tire because the insurance wouldn’t totally pay for a new tire. They did cover the differance of $132!

Had the family up for Christmas Eve dinner.

Almost all barrels primed,2 to go.

Assembled new lawn sweeper & have nothing to sweep! Guess I’ll have to plow drive again,we had 5” of snow last night .

Time to start thinking about ordering seeds.

On the health front Drs. Muhammed, Hukill, and Ross say my potassium, blood pressure and eyes are maintaining proper levels.But Dr. Bayasi says Ive lost some lung capacity & Dr.Robbins says my hearing is down 20%.What’s that, you say?

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The buns came out pretty good,nice & tender. Then, just like Mom’s they got tough, but still nice & tasty. Now to find newer recipes that come out a little softer.

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We ran low on bread this morning and with Cindy & David coming up I decided to make bread. Never having made real bread I dug out the old (1950’s )reissued Betty Crocker cookbook,The big Kitchen Aid mixer Tried something new.I picked that book because it had the recipe that my mother (Reita) used when I was a kid. That’s when I discovered we only had 1 bread pan, so I decided to make buns. As you can see, I’m not good at portion control. Oh well, now we wait to see how they turn out. Waiting with butter and home made jam in hand.

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THE WRECK...Sitting in Hank Graff Chevrolet body shop this morning. Preliminary estimate is $2,000.00. I don’t think so. too much hidden damage to be cleaned of mud. But at least it dosn’t look too bent. We shall see.

THE RENT-A-WRECK Sitting in our driveway Monday evening.
Farmer’s Insurance worked fast. The rental is a ‘99 Buick LeSabre,loaded,for about $20 a day. Nice car, but it can only carry one barrel at a time.
On the health front I had an appointment with the nephrologist yesterday & he says my kidneys have stabilized & my potassium is under control.Now to work on blood pressure levels.

The penguins were a hit,now i go to assemble the baby one that Momma drew freehand.

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What an exiting day! Left on one of our multi-stop trips today to the eye doctor, lunch out, Sam’s Club, Pet Supplies Plus, and Wes’ house. Watched the Lighted Christmas Parade, had refreshments back at the house, and headed for home. In a snow storm, with an inch on the ground and more on the way.

We almost made it halfway. I-69 was down to 2-tracks in one lane. We went over the white line and the front tire caught the… All she wrote. Spun out, took out a small tree, blew a tire, bashed a fender & god knows what underneath. But, we were not hurt. Oh a sore shoulder for Momma and a slight headache for me. As you can see, all it did was open the word gates for me.

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Assembled these visitors from the South today.Momma has been cutting them out & painting them for 2 weeks.
Still priming the barrels.

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create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

From ***Daves blog. This was done in three long trips many years ago. Driving a load of portable toilets to Phoenix & hauling back sodium nitrate to Utica, MI (about 35 years ago). A meandering round trip to Hendersonville, NC in 1976 in an old Champion motor home, which I let my oldest son drive through West Virginia before I realized it was all downhill going South. And I didn’t know the brakes were crapping out! The last was a flying trip to FL for my mother’s hip replacement surgery. I flew to Orlando & then drove to Zephyr Hills. I found driving through miles of orange grove at 3AM in the summer can be nauseous from the citrus oil.

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Did I mention that I have this mountain of wood chips from some trees we had taken down last fall? We used some as mulch around some of the trees,but there is a lot left. I have been chipping some for composting today & also did some branches Mary brought back from the trip to the mailbox. I put the chipper up on ramps to give more clearance under it so I don’t have to rake stuff out so often.
We cleared a table in the hobby room so we could start on some yard art work for gifts. Traveling tomorrow.

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