Month: June 2010

June 30, 2010 – Advances in Cat Feeding

highhopesgardens June 30, 2010

With Claire’s recent departure, Martin has assumed the pet feeding duty.

Martin started feeding the cats, and immediately started making changes to the routine.  He added a new bit of technology.  Evidently he was not impressed with Claire’s dump a half pound of cat food out in a pile and run technique.  Martin instituted some new cat feeding technology – single serving cat feeders made out of an old board and tuna cans.  Although not totally apparent in this photo, four tuna cans are screwed onto a board, so all four cats can eat at the same time – portion controlled.

one year ago…”Lake Shetek State Park”

June 28, 2010 – Cherry Pie

highhopesgardens June 28, 2010

Ya’ll saw the cherries a few days ago. Here is one of the finished products from blue-ribbon pie baker Linda.

cherry pie

She’s trying to pass pie-making down to children, but nobody quite has the knack yet. I think Martin may end up with the best chance to master it.  Claire has been posting various Indian sweets on her blog, so I thought we’d fight back with the heavy artillery!

one year ago…”Pipestone National Monument”

June 27, 2010 – Garage Progress

highhopesgardens June 27, 2010

The garage tearing down continues. It’s been a pain through the rain – another downpour in the middle of the night.

Here’s how the garage looked late last night – down to pretty much a skeleton.

There was great progress this afternoon – the rest of the sheeting off the roof, the rafters removed and the front and backs felled with the push of a hand after a couple of strategic cuts!  It was satisfying to watch them fall en masse.

It’s starting to look pretty wide open as only the walls remain

one year ago…”20th Anniversary Trip to Dayton House in Worthington, MN”

June 26, 2010 – On-Farm Chicken Processing

highhopesgardens June 26, 2010

Today was the second time we used the new plucker to move chickens from the chicken tractors to the freezers.

I won’t go into all the steps of butchering chickens, but will show what the chickens look like after they are scalded and through the tub plucker. We did 39 chickens in the morning – we had hoped to get going by 6 am, but the rain didn’t stop until 8 (now rain 23 of 26 days in June). We were through by 11:30. It seemed to go better than the first time. We broke in Emma on the eviscerating line, and Martin caught chickens, turned the plucker off and on and ran bagged chickens to the freezer or refrigerator. Emma and Linda cut up 20 for quick meals of chicken breast or other parts and we sold a few of the rest. Still have about 50 to do later this week.

one year ago…”Birthday Trip to Omaha Zoo”