Surviving Minnesota!

[duluthralphie]

Kind of hard to do closed pollination on canned pumpkin purée

Oh,,I thought she had the seeds... My reading compensation is not good today.

 

[KlopKlop]

Oh,,I thought she had the seeds... My reading compensation is not good today.

I am amazed they wouldn't have kept the strain going as it was a best seller... who knows maybe the old festal people kept it?

 

[duluthralphie]

I am getting sideways snow....

almost horizontal.

 

[Siggie]

Good morning chickeners.....

No school today

It's also my birthday Turning 15

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

I am getting sideways snow....

almost horizontal.

miserable rain/sleet here STILL! I would rather have snow because this stuff we are getting cuts right to the bone!!! a 2 second walk from the car to the house and you are pelted and drenched!

 

[MinnesotaNice]

Happy Birthday Layers!

It was pouring rain my way all morning. If it was any colder, I'd be shoveling snow. Just heavy winds at the moment.

The birds are still all on lockdown this morning, but I'll head out there soon. I've been having a raccoon issue and one got in the coop at a few birds last night. I was out with some friends and DH didn't close it until I got home - around 10pm. I found one bird missing it's head, another is still missing. I'm surprised that I'm only missing two. I've seen them rip through an entire coop. DH felt bad, but I'm still not sure what he was thinking. He should have closed the coops up when he got home. I'm sick of running a buffet for the predators around my place.

 

[NathanZee]

I am getting sideways snow....

almost horizontal.

The snow is practically going at a upward angle here, it's crazy!

 

[MinnesotaNice]

Don't say SNOW. I just finished up with a few chores and I don't appreciate how cold it is outside. I held strong and refused to put on gloves.

Found this on the trail cam:




Ignore the date. I haven't changed it yet. I have yet to catch a raccoon on the camera - only an owl so far. Maybe it's not a raccoon at all. I have yet to see any signs of digging or something messing with the chicken wire. No tracks either, but they would have been wiped out by the rain this morning. The ground is mostly covered by leaves anyways. No visible scat. I'm going to put some marshmallows out tonight and see if anything comes up for them. I did find my other bird.....for the first time ever, she was happy to see me. Lol

 

[Minniechickmama]

Rain here. Not too cold yet. Mid 40s and falling. I was able to get most everything picked up and at least temporarily tucked in last night and today. Still need to put away the camper and car trailer when I get a decent day. I'm baking butternut squash today to purée and freeze for winter baking. Then I will be having a hand at venison summer sausage. A good day to have the oven running.
Our local canning company used to have their own strain of pumpkins. Festal was the brand and they were a regional favorite. Maybe 8-10 years ago Lakeside foods bought them out and shut down the pumpkin line (just peas and corn now) since the already have a pumpkin line elsewhere. Lots of upset people. Many people horded the remaining stock. Local paper did an article this fall about one such lady how she makes 2 pies each year from her stash and only has a few years worth left. It's the only kind her family likes.

As far as I know the company just quit growing the pumpkins so the strain is lost.

Festal is still a brand I see around, or at least it was carried buy ShurFine stores last I checked. It gave the pies a green look after cooked though and weren't very appetizing to many we tried to sell pies to in a 4-H fund raiser. I froze plenty last year for us from my Winter Deluxe I grew from Seed Savers. I wonder if you could find that variety through Seed Savers Exchange if you wanted them? Saving seeds from pumpkins is easy so long as you keep the sub-varieties separated far enough. There are three subs of squash, so keeping those apart from the same is the big thing, then putting a cloth or something over the flowers you want to keep seed from.
Good luck on the sausage!


We had rain and thunder going through this morning, blowing like crazy. I am glad I got everyone locked in last night. My Wellies and NH boys would be hurting for certain when the temp drops tonight if I hadn't. They will all go in the hoop, once I have it winterized for them.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Oh,,I thought she had the seeds... My reading compensation is not good today.

I must be getting old too (that was what you really meant, right?

), I thought the same thing.

 

[Minniechickmama]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LAYERS!!!