Peaches All Day Long

 

When I woke up yesterday morning, I walked outside and picked peaches from our peach tree.

For breakfast we sipped delicious, creamy peach smoothies.

For lunch, I sat on the porch, enjoying the cool breezes and a glass of lemonade (the perfect palate refresher) while peeling peaches for Peach Freezer Jam. I’ve got 68oz of fresh, delicious peach jam in my freezer now. Wintertime will be much more bearable when we are enjoying the sweet taste of summer with snow is on the ground. Mmmmm!

For dinner we enjoyed a new recipe, similar to Hawaiian Chicken, but instead of pineapple, I made a fresh peach sauce. My kidlets were skeptical, but they ended up devouring everything on their plates and then asking for seconds. Very yummy!

And for dessert, I baked a Peach Cobbler, which we gobbled up while watching a movie. (Have you all seen IronMan? Awesome movie! And now one of my favorites.)

I think I even dreamed of peaches last night, too.

Sweet Taste of Summer

 

Today I noticed that our fruit trees are working hard to ripen the fruit upon their branches. With all the rain we’ve been getting (it even rained for 3 days straight with no sunshine….made me feel like we had moved to the PNW somehow) our apple trees and peach trees are beginning to give us some fresh, delicious, sweet fruit.

Today I picked my first ripe peach of the season. As I bit into it’s soft fuzzy skin, I savored the sweet, succulent flesh and enjoyed the wet feeling as the juice drizzled down my chin.

I still can’t get over the joy of being able to just walk outside my house, reach into one of my own fruit trees, free of any chemicals or pesticides, and pluck a fresh, ripe fruit from among it’s branches. This act seems like such a luxury every time, and I’m so appreciative. 

Fruit from your very own tree somehow tastes better. It can’t get any fresher, that’s for sure.

 

So, for the next few weeks, I’m going to be enjoying the sweet taste of summer, right from my own front yard.

What do you have growing at home? What is your favorite summertime fruit?

Chicks, Farrier, Fruit and an Equine Visitor

 

(Warning: Long post. Visit the potty and grab snacks first)

This is a ‘catch-up’ post. Please forgive me if I’ve not stopped by your blog in a while. I have been trying to read everyone’s posts, but I’ve not been as good about leaving comments because they take so much time and I’m sure lacking that commodity these days.

Hey! I thought summer was supposed to be laid back and relaxed…as in “The Lazy Days of Summer”???!

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The chicks are 6 weeks old today, so figured it was time for an update.

They are inside the coop with the rest of the flock, but are being kept in a quarantine mini-coop, with their Foster Mama, Mrs Cotton, who hatched out Sid’s baby, Pat Benatar.

Good thing that Pat is also a boy’s name, because it seems that this chick is going to be a rooster

I’ve compared photos of Sid Vicious as a chick and the resemblance holds true. The spiky doo is a trait of the Polish rooster, while the Polish hen will have more of a bouffant doo.

Well, out of 4 fertile eggs that we’ve allowed Mrs. Cotton to hatch out, only one has been a hen. Another reason Sid Vicious must go. He seems to create mostly males, and we don’t need anymore roosters like him around here. Why do the good lookin’ ones have to turn bad?

 

Anyway, Liza Minelli, the Black Star pullet is doing great. We like her pretty black and gold coloring.

She has a curious and calm personality so far.

And Matilda, the Buff Orpington pullet is growing like a weed. A pretty weed to be sure, but she’s a big girl already.

Because Mrs. Cotton is a low senioritychicken in the flock and will get her feathers flattened by some of my older and larger hens if she tries to act tough and protect her chicks, I’ll keep them all in the quarantine pen until the chicks are bigger and can be safely and easily integrated into the flock. They are already basically part of the flock since the only thing separating them is a wall of chicken wire.

Sadly, Pat Benatar will be given away soon, as we just don’t want anymore roosters. Mr. Cotton has been a well behaved, polite rooster, so he’ll stay, but no more roosters are permitted to call Laughing Orca Ranch their home.

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Good news. Even after those late snows and hail, and a serious lack of rain all Spring and early summer, our fruit trees have decided to give us fruit, albeit not as much as last Summer/Fall, but we’ll still have plenty for our family, just none to sell or share.

The peach tree has decided to only produce fruit on one side. And the branches on that side are already starting to sag to the ground with the weight of all the peaches. It’s weird how not even one fruit is growing on the other side of the tree, though. My opinion is that side of the tree receives the most wind and bad weather, while the other side is protected by the house.

 

The Granny Smith apple tree is producing a good amount of apples this year, too. But still not as many as last year.

 

But the Red Delicious Apple Tree is definitely making up for the low harvest it gave us last year. We only picked maybe 15-20 apples off the entire tree. I think we have at least double that amount this year, though. My mouth just waters thinking of biting into a fresh, cripsy, sweet apple, and a juicy, sweet peach in a few months!

 

 

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I had my farrier, Scott Trinka come out to give Apache a trim yesterday. Apache was a good girl as always.

It’s only been about 5-6 weeks since her last trim and her feet haven’t grown all that much, but I wanted her trimmed now to smooth out any rough edges, and give her enough time to toughen up after her trim. The reason why? Well, in just a couple weeks I’ll be taking Apache up to Northern New Mexico for our first-ever Horse Camping trip! I’m so excited! Long before I bought my first horse a few years ago, I dreamed of camping out with my horse and riding all day long, exploring beautiful places that would take too long to reach only by foot.

Anyway her feet, besides being very dry because of our lack of rain here, are looking pretty good and are ready for trail riding.

Have I mentioned how much I like my farrier, Scott Trnka? He’s been my farrier now for 3 years and he’s knowledgeable, easy to talk to, willing to answer any questions and offers advice and helpful tips, too. He does a great job with barefoot trims for me and never takes too much off the foot, so the horse isn’t sore. And he only charges me $30. But it’s no surprise he’s so good, because his family has been blacksmiths and farriers for a long time.

In fact, his brother, Craig Trnka is a Certified Journeyman Farrier and has been the President of the American Farrier's Association as well as won many Championship Farrier and Blacksmith Competitions. He’s also been a qualified judge for the World Blacksmith Competitions around the country, including the recent Hammers and Hooves event that was held near my home, that I had to miss due to participating in the ACTHA CTR.

(I think Scott thought I was nuts for wanting to take his picture. He’s such a modest guy, I’m sure he was thinking, “I’m not famous, why would you want my photo?)

 

 

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So…….we have had an equine visitor staying at our place for over a week now.

 

Do you know who it is?

She’s got a very big butt. Built like two mountains with a canyon down the middle, and a back as broad as a sofa. (I could probably use a spoon to scoop the dust out of the divet created by those two large butt humps)

 

 

For those of you who followed my blog back in February, you might remember this horse.

 

She was the third horse I rode, after being injured by Baby Doll and getting back up on her back after Christmas to move forward and past my fears. But this horse was after the sweet, steady-eddy Rosie, to regain my confidence and get more riding experience.

I rode this mare out on the snow covered trails with my Snowy Mountain Cowgirl Club friends. (By the way, that experience and the post, too, was very beneficial and an important part of my journey coming back into horses after my injuries and surgery)

Do you remember this horse now?

Old Man Winter has Paid us Another Visit

 

Yesterday, my kidlets were helping me cut down the old juniper tree that split in half and fell over sideways during one of our last heavy, wet snowstorms.

Jeremiah was a pro at using my Fiskars Hand Saw.

Jax even came out to help when he found out how much fun we were having. Who knew hard work could be so fun?

Between the three of us, we disassembled the old juniper in no time at all.

Afterwards Jenna joined us and we carried all the branches up to The Woolies’ paddock, as the goats, llamas and sheep will enjoy eating the bark and needles.

 

The wind was picking up by the time we were done, but we saw our neighbor friend Val out hand-grazing her horses and Jenna wanted to give Nadia and Yalla! some carrots, so we walked over and visited for a little while until we were shivering from the cold.

Then around 3 am I was awakened by powerful gusts of wind slamming into my tower bedroom along with flashes of lightning, and the machine-gun like sound of hard blowing rain hitting the walls of the house. Wind like that is always unsettling to me and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep until almost 5am.

I woke up feeling old, tired and sore from all the physical exertion of cutting down the tree, along with some Spring Cleaning I did in the garage and up in the barn and paddocks, too. But the day was grey, chilly and windy, so I didn’t feel bad about taking the day to rest in bed while looking out my window onto my bedroom balcony.

But I was none too happy about Old Man Winter paying us a visit today.

(The view from our house looking up towards our pasture and paddocks)

   

And I know the chickens weren’t either.

But Mrs Cotton didn’t mind at all because she’s feeling broody again and is laying on 3 eggs.

Note: I did manage to take a photo for Grey Horse Matters so she could see Phyllis Diller, our Buff-Laced Polish hen. Arlene of Grey Horse Matters was worried that Phyllis Diller wasn’t around anymore. But as you can see, Phyllis Diller is alive and well, except for looking a little damp and limp from the rain and snow. (By the way, did you notice that our hen Phyllis has grown spurs? I thought only roosters had spurs. We know Phyllis is a hen because she lays eggs and doesn’t crow, but why the spurs?)

 

Some of our early Spring flowers looked limp and sad about the snow, too.

Our apple trees are just beginning to blossom.

And our poor peach tree is already covered in lovely pink blooms……now coated in a layer of ice and snow.

This will not turn into a good outcome for our summer peach crop at all. The chances of us having any fresh juicy peaches this year are slim now. It’s such a sad situation I could cry.

 

Even worse I feel terrible for Apache because she was soaking wet and shivering when we went up to her paddock to bring her into the barn. She’s not used to our mountain weather yet, being that I brought her up from the Rio Grande Valley, and she’s mostly shed out now, too.

I meant to buy her a blanket when I ordered my saddle, but figured the worst of our winter weather was over. Poor sweet girl.

Jax had to climb up to the roof to brush the wet snow off our Direct TV Dish so we could watch TV with a clear signal.

Just think……….Last week I spent the afternoon with my chickens, reading and relaxing in my camp chair enjoying 78 degree temps. I even ended up with sunburn. And a few days ago we had thick fog and heavy rains.

Weather can always be a little unpredictable up here above 7,000ft in the mountains, but I think most folks would be surprised that New Mexico can have springtime weather like this.

Sometimes even I am, too.

Apple Harvesting

 

Our two apple trees have been producing small, but tasty fruit for about two weeks now. We’ve been feeding most of the small apples to the chickens, goats and my horse, Baby Doll, and sharing them with all the horses in the neighborhood, too.

My mare is addicted to apples now and whenever she sees anyone step out of the house, she hurries to the fence and nickers loudly for us to feed her an apple.

 

I try to sneak outside sometimes, especially very early in the morning when I’m letting the dogs out to do their business, because I want to crawl back into bed afterwards. But that mare of mine has superb hearing and she can be at the very back of our property and I can be as quiet and as stealthy as I can, and she still arrives quickly at the gate, loudly neighing and nickering the entire time. sigh. She’s a girl that knows what she wants and is spoiled enough to get it.

 

We have two apple trees, a Red Delicious and a Golden Delicious. The Red Delicious tree only produced about 40 large, sweet, bright-red apples, which have already been eaten raw or in apple crisp, or shared with some of our neighbors. While our Golden Delicious apple tree is heavy with fruit, probably at least a couple hundred. Many of them are small, although sweet, juicy and crisp.

(These are from our first harvest and we have at least a hundred more still waiting to be picked on the tree)

 

I recently ordered two new fruit harvesting tools online, from one of my favorite companies, Lee Valley. Harvesting fruit is rather new for my family, especially in these large amounts, so after the huge amount of work and time spent harvesting and processing my generous harvest of peaches I decided to splurge and get a little help this time for the apples. And I’m glad I did. What a huge help this nifty fruit picker is. I had to reluctantly donate (sacrifice) most of the peaches on the top branches of my peach tree because I just couldn’t reach them, but with this fruit picker, that’s not a problem anymore!

It slips over your broom or mop handle and comes with a good sized, sturdy muslin bag. It helps if the fruit you are picking is nice and ripe because the fruit will just pop off, unlike this apple that I picked. (haha!)

And the other tool I bought is an oldie and a goodie, but makes short (and I mean, short!) work of the apples after they’re gathered. I took the following photos, not noticing the clock on my stove, but now it’s rather convenient to showcase just how quickly this apple peeler/corer/slicer can process the fruit. It takes less than 10 seconds from start to finish!

Is that cool, or what?!

 

Best of all, it’s not only safe to use, my kids enjoy using it, so I get lots of help processing the fruit, too. My twinling Jem was the camo model in the photos above. This photo is of my silly twinling, Jax, slurping up the peelings like spagetti noodles.

I like the cool spirals that it creates, too.

 

I have one of those little, round, metal, corer/slicers, too, that I use for making apple slices as snacks for the kids or for apple pie, but I think these spirals are neat because after you break them apart the thin slices could be used to make dehydrated apples.

While my kidlets operated the apple/peeler/corer, I was kept busy preparing crock-pot applesauce. The scent of the warm apples and spice filled the air and was the perfect thing for a chilly Autumn day.

I make mine with brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, a few extra shakes of cinnamon and enough water to cover the bottom of the crock. After a few hours on high, I spun the applesauce around in the blender until smooth and very thick. And then we ate it while it was still warm. Yummo!

 

The weather was perfect for processing apples yesterday, with heavy rain and cooler temperatures in the low 50’s. We didn’t even process most of the apples in the really large basket, as seen in the 4th photo from the top, but I was still able to prepare 15 quarts of peeled, cored, and sliced apples for the freezer in less than 2 hours.

The goats, sheep, llamas, and chickens are enjoying the bounty of leftover peelings and cores, too.

While Baby Doll seems thrilled with her very own version of Equine Pasta.

And I still have a few more apples left to harvest.