Farm Day!

I got to go up to Nettie's house outside of Woodland and learn how she makes her Dilly Beans. I got to try them from Lisa a couple years ago at June Faire.

I helped with picking all the ripe things in the garden. Seeing the chicks and the ducklings. Turning around to find that I was being stalked by the young turkeys, they're curious birds. Meeting the sheep and the goats.

Then we worked on the dilly beans! Once you fill up the jars with the beans and onions and garlic and spices, you put them jars in the sink that has been filled with hot water. That way when you add the hot brine it doesn't break the jars. We ended up having to make a second batch of brine to fill all the jars. You pop the lids on as soon as the jar is filled with brine and you don't have to process the jars.

While the jars were cooling down we tried to go pick blackberries but where she thought they were plentiful, they turned out to be gone. The deer probably enjoyed them. ;-)

It was a lovely day spent talking and working together. I look forward to going up and visiting again. She was so generous that she sent me home with a bag of frozen blackberries so I can still make jam. I had brought a few jars of canned stuff, one of them some duck broth. There were some jams and some canned soups - turkey and chicken.

First - Brandon's birthday socks. I likes them and wears them to keep his feet warm. They're house socks.

He's shy of the camera, but has some incredible bat wing ears

I turn around and the turkey is just there!

Nettie feeding some of the goats and sheep

Can you find the four chicks in the photo?

He likes having his photo taken

This is his girlfriend, she doesn't mind either

She's preggers

He's all alone and used to having the other chicks with him. So he started calling for them. 

There are the Yoda ears!

Everybody out of the pool! The young ducklings