rachels.haven's Journal

[farmerjan]

Ambitious.....but then you are young and in great shape and trying to work off "stupid Mass idiot laws and rules"........

I am waiting for the surveyor to put in the pins at the property I am "buying" .... and the owners are going to put in t-posts alongside so we both know where the pins are. I will be fencing it also..... yep, a lot of work.... but I will be doing some field fencing (woven wire) and might go with the 4" stuff to keep the chickens and such out of the roads ( it borders 2 but one is gravel so not too crazy)..... will see after I get it, and probably won't do anything until winter when you can see the contour of the property, and my ankle will be well healed and before I do the knees..... There are some trees I want to remove, yanking out the boxwoods behind the house that have grown for 40 years unshorn or shaped that are huge and are too close and too dark..... and all that I will be able to see better when there are no leaves on the trees and the sight lines for the property lines are easier to see.

 

[rachels.haven]

I don't envy you there. That's going to be a lot of work. Necessary, but a lot of work but if anyone can do it, you can. The stuff I'm doing myself is kind of a drop in a bucket. I'm pretty sure I only got 166' of that really long boundary marked. We will probably wind up paying someone to mark it eventually if we stay so I can finish things and none of this that I'm doing now will matter, but whatever (markers may be more like 300' apart now that I've reached the "straighter" part, which is less good for us). I got to throw T posts across the creek and pound a line of posts in an old, now forested cow field (sad). I wish I could bring it all back to farm field, but that may not be for me to do here. I'd probably have to battle the state to do that and moving is easier.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

We will probably get that chainsaw then (more stewing must follow though-pricy). I don't like being trapped in our driveway and there are a few more behimoths set to fall soon.

Stihl makes one that costs far more. I guess the up side of the battery saw is very little maintenance and very easy to start Still need to put bar oil in it and sharpen the chain but not much can go wrong with an electric motor. On the flip side, my Echo Timberwolf was $399 at the local dealer, figured I'd rather buy it from someone that can service it rather than Home Depot.

Miss @rachels.haven,

Sorry to just be commenting -- I have been embroiled with my water line for a week and am now trying to catch back up on BYH.

Have you bought a chainsaw yet? If not, have you looked at the battery powered one that Dewalt makes? Ace hardware sells it for $229.00, which includes a charger and one battery. I currently don't own that model yet, but I plan to buy it for my wife soon. I own a number of Dewalt tools and have been happy with them. I also own a Stihl gas powered chainsaw and am happy with that. Anyway, that price should be less of an "Ouch!" for you.

Senile Texas Aggie

 

[rachels.haven]

I went ahead and bought the chainsaw from home depot. It should arrive soon. I totally would have considered the one from Ace. Dewalt is a decent brand, and that's not a bad price. I take it the size isn't too intimidating or hard to handle, but still big enough to get stuff done.
We might have a couple of bigger gas powered chainsaws from the last owner. I think they are stihl, but a lot of the stuff he left is too worn and on its last legs (hope he was better off), so I assume one or more of them may not work or may just barely work. I may still take them in before I get rid of them and see if they run, and if they do learn about them too and see which ones I like better.

Bailey got snapped by a 18" snapper this morning. Husband asked not to have to eat it so it was removed out of the barnyard for now. I deeply do not like big snappers where my kids play barefoot. Made husband duck enchiladas with homemade sauce instead for now. There is more enchilada sauce where that came from.

Someone gave me 5 sexed month old female pekin ducklings that they bought for their daughters to play with over quarantine than realized they were in too deep as they ballooned in size. So now I have 7 females+5 new females+2 drakes. No more ducks. Really. We don't even like duck eggs.

 

[Senile_Texas_Aggie]

Bailey got snapped by a 18" snapper this morning. Husband asked not to have to eat it so it was removed out of the barnyard for now. I deeply do not like big snappers where my kids play barefoot.

Huh? What is a "snapper" -- a snapping turtle or something else?

 

[rachels.haven]

Yep, a snapping turtle. Small by southern standards, but big by here. They are EVERYWHERE.
Our town considers them sacred and innocent. I think they might be yummy if brined (the turtles, not the towns people).

 

[Baymule]

Bailey got snapped by a 18" snapper this morning. Husband asked not to have to eat it so it was removed out of the barnyard for now.

No more ducks. Really. We don't even like duck eggs.

This made me laugh! Husband asked not to have to eat it........he knows you oh so well! Maybe you should have just found a good recipe! You could have boiled the duck eggs and chunked them in the soup! LOL LOL


Creole Turtle Soup

Your hardest task will be to find turtle meat. My first advice would be to cruise the Asian markets in your town, if you have any. Or, if you have the funds, you can actually buy wild snapping turtle meat online. It'll cost you, but the tub of meat is enough for several meals. More likely, however, you will be substituting. Alligator is the closest thing to turtle in my experience, and frog legs come pretty close, too. Barring those options, I might use a combination of chicken thighs, pork shoulder and clams. (I've never done it, so you'd have to come up with your own ratio.) You can skip the clams if you think that's too weird, but remember that turtle does have a seafoody taste. Once you've cleared the meat hurdle, everything else is easy.

Prep Time20 mins
Cook Time3 hrs
Total Time3 hrs 20 mins

Course: Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: American, Cajun
Keyword: Creole, soups, turtle
Servings: 8 people
Author: Hank Shaw
Ingredients

• 2 1/2 pounds turtle meat on the bone, or 1 1/2 pounds boneless
• 4 bay leaves
• Salt
• 1 cup flour
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 celery stalks, minced
• 1 green bell pepper, minced
• 1 1/2 cups minced onion
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 18- ounce can crushed tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tablespoon sweet paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, or to taste
• 1/2 cup dry sherry
• 1/3 cup chopped parsley
• 2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• Grated zest of a lemon
• Black pepper
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Instructions

• Start by making the turtle stock. Put the turtle meat into a large pot and cover with 8 cups of water. Add the bay leaves and about a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil and skim the scum that floats to the top. Drop the heat to a bare simmer and cook until the turtle meat wants to fall off the bone, about 2 to 3 hours.
• Remove the meat from the pot and pull it off the bones. Chop as coarse or as fine as you want. Strain the turtle broth and put it into a pot set over low heat to keep warm.
• In a Dutch oven or other soup pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat and stir in the flour. Cook this, stirring almost constantly, to make a roux the color of peanut butter, which will take about 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add the green pepper, celery and onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the chopped turtle meat and stir to combine.
• Stir in a cup of the turtle stock at a time until you the soup is the consistency of gravy. Add the tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, cayenne and paprika. Add more turtle broth until the soup thins a bit. It should be thicker than water, thinner than gravy -- like chicken and dumplings if you are familiar with that. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are soft.
• Finish the soup with the sherry, parsley, lemon zest and hard-boiled eggs. Add them all, stir to combine and simmer for a minute or two. Add salt, black pepper and lemon juice to taste. Serve alone or with rice.

Turtle Soup Recipe - Creole Turtle Soup | Hank Shaw

A classic turtle soup recipe done New Orleans Creole style. This is an old school turtle soup recipe, done with snapping turtle.

honest-food.net

 

[rachels.haven]

Yeah, I kind of wonder if I shouldn't have put the bucketed turtle in the bed with him. It was kind of stinky. But I was mad. It bit my dog. Maybe he would have let me eat it if I didn't. My "look what I caught and is your dinner" vibes were probably too strong...I guess.

 

[Baymule]

We have alligator snapping turtles here, nasty, you sure don't want to tangle with one of them!

 

[rachels.haven]

Just caught another turtle. This one was bigger and meaner and heavier. He almost did not fit in the 5 gallon bucket. This one got dumped somewhere of my choosing. Maybe he'll get squished. That's kind of a lot of turtles in one day.