Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The Fruit of my Labor
Our strawberries are doing very well this year. I guess that is what happens when you weed them and water them and mulch them and...
Look what I canned!
I wanted to label them as "Deer" from my hunting trip to Roswell.
Actually they are chicken feet. I thought you might like to know how to can them yourself.
First you need some chicken feet. Although I have 16 chickens of my own, we were not ready to slaughter any of them yet. However, one of my co-workers slaughtered 16 of theirs over the weekend. I appreciate that they prefer that nothing goes to waste, even if they don't want to eat it. Once you have the feet, they need to be cleaned. Don't be too picky, just get the big stuff off.
Then dunk them in 190 degree water for 45 seconds. One minute cooks the meat and less than 45 does not loosen the skin.
Now you peel them. Use your thumb nail to get it started and just peel the top layer off. Sometimes the pad is worn through and you will have to cut it off, if this is happening to your chickens they might be spending too much time on a hard floor. I use some tongs to pull the feel out of the scalding water and after the skin is off I use it again to squeeze the outer layer off of the toe nails. Some people suggest you cut the tips of the toes off, but I think that is harder than popping the nails.
Next you can as you would normally. I looked in the Cooperative Extension Service Guide to Home Canning and used the processing time for bone in chicken meat (65 minutes).
Actually they are chicken feet. I thought you might like to know how to can them yourself.
First you need some chicken feet. Although I have 16 chickens of my own, we were not ready to slaughter any of them yet. However, one of my co-workers slaughtered 16 of theirs over the weekend. I appreciate that they prefer that nothing goes to waste, even if they don't want to eat it. Once you have the feet, they need to be cleaned. Don't be too picky, just get the big stuff off.
Then dunk them in 190 degree water for 45 seconds. One minute cooks the meat and less than 45 does not loosen the skin.
Now you peel them. Use your thumb nail to get it started and just peel the top layer off. Sometimes the pad is worn through and you will have to cut it off, if this is happening to your chickens they might be spending too much time on a hard floor. I use some tongs to pull the feel out of the scalding water and after the skin is off I use it again to squeeze the outer layer off of the toe nails. Some people suggest you cut the tips of the toes off, but I think that is harder than popping the nails.
Next you can as you would normally. I looked in the Cooperative Extension Service Guide to Home Canning and used the processing time for bone in chicken meat (65 minutes).
Now that's some good shootin!
This weekend I took my older boy to a gun show. It was pretty lame. Lots of empty booths. I only found one gun I was interested in, and it was out of my price range. I can't believe how much people want for junk sometimes.
It wasn't a total loss. There was booth that would let you shoot airguns on a little range. This is my target
You may notice that it is sideways, because that is how they mounted it at the range. 5 shots decent group. This was off hand (no rest).
This was my boy!
It's a little hard to see but there is a hole at the top of the target. I tried to explain a "sight picture" to him. When his first shot missed by 5' I though he might not quite understand. His second shot missed by about 10". I looked through the sights and lined it up and then had him look, to try and show what it should look like. He missed the paper just a bit high. For his fourth shot I tried to steady the gun and he punched that high hole in the paper. For his last shot I lined up the sights and used my hand to hold the butt in position ( there was a sand bag for the forstock). He hit the bull. Some may say that was cheating, but I think I showed him a good sight picture, and he had something to brag about and feel good about.
It wasn't a total loss. There was booth that would let you shoot airguns on a little range. This is my target
You may notice that it is sideways, because that is how they mounted it at the range. 5 shots decent group. This was off hand (no rest).
This was my boy!
It's a little hard to see but there is a hole at the top of the target. I tried to explain a "sight picture" to him. When his first shot missed by 5' I though he might not quite understand. His second shot missed by about 10". I looked through the sights and lined it up and then had him look, to try and show what it should look like. He missed the paper just a bit high. For his fourth shot I tried to steady the gun and he punched that high hole in the paper. For his last shot I lined up the sights and used my hand to hold the butt in position ( there was a sand bag for the forstock). He hit the bull. Some may say that was cheating, but I think I showed him a good sight picture, and he had something to brag about and feel good about.
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