Squash & Meat Casserole

Since I canned some of our squash this summer, I have been thinking about ways to use it in different recipes. I haven't looked in any of my cookbooks yet, just tried to come up with a few on my own. This one turned out to be pretty good, and it was fun because almost all of the ingredients came from here or were made here.

 

I started off with three left over biscuits. That sounds really appetizing, doesn't it? I crumbled them in the bottom of a small, cast iron dutch oven. 

I love this pan. I have a larger cast iron dutch oven, but this one is great for small casseroles or baking a
tenderloin. We have bought most of our cast iron cookware from KaToms Restaurant Supply. They carry the entire Lodge Cast Iron line which is our preference.

I drained a jar of squash and layered it on top of the biscuits.

Then browned a package of ground chevron seasoned with salt, pepper and minced garlic, and layered it on top of the squash.

Next I mixed one cup of milk with three eggs. I would normally only use two eggs, but our pullet eggs are still pretty small, so I used three. I had to guess at these amounts since I hadn't made this recipe before.
Then I put 'some' large spoonfuls of salsa on as the next layer.

I decided to grate some cheddar cheese on top. Oh, about that much.




I baked this at 350 degrees for an hour. It looks and smells great. We both agree it tastes good too. It has a little too much bread for our tastes, and I think it could use a little more salsa, but it is well worth eating.

When I make an item like this, I think about what came from here and what I bought. To make this meal I bought flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, shortening, cider vinegar, rennet, pepper, minced garlic and onions. So when I think of what I need to stock up on, these are the items I get because I use them regularly. The ingredients that came from here are the squash, butter on the biscuits, ground chevron, salsa (except for the onions) and cheese. All of this means we canned the squash, made the butter from our goat milk, raised and butchered the goat, made the salsa out of homegrown tomatoes and peppers, and made the cheese from our goat milk.

As the years have gone by, we have been able to produce more of our own food. This has been a long term goal of ours and each small step we make at achieving this goal is an accomplishment that we enjoy and appreciate very much. There is always something new to be learned every single day.

Until next time - Fern

Radio - Become a Ham, Part 2

Hello, Frank here.

In the last post, I gave you a lot of information, websites to go to, places to get free test data and sites that you can pay for. I know a man that came to one ham radio class. He wanted to get his technician's license and he had some questions. He got his questions answered, never came back and passed the technician test a week later. He used the No Nonsense Study Guide, Technician Class that I gave you in the last post. 

In that technician's guide on pages 6 & 7 it starts dealing with Ohm's Law. People that have a fear of formulas and math, lots of times will quit right here. There are only two formulas used for the technician's license. The first one is in the picture triangle, which is V over I times R. The V means voltage, the I means current or amps, and the R equals resistance. In the electronic world, we are going to substitute the letter E for the letter V. Therefore, E equals voltage in place of V equals voltage. So in your mind, or on a piece of paper, draw it out and substitute an E for the V. Now you  have E over I times R.

Look at that triangle again. If you are looking for voltage and you have current, which is I, and resistance which is R, put your finger over the V, which is an unknown and you have I x R = V.

Or in the electronic world  I x R = E and E = voltage. Let's say you have a given of voltage and current and you are looking for resistance. Put your finger over the R, which means resistance. Now I am going to drop the letter V from our discussion and call it E. Now you have the E on top and the I underneath which means you divide E by I, which equals R. This is how this triangle works.

I mentioned there are only two formulas. The first one is E = I x R and you have the triangle to look at. The next formula is P = E x I. A new symbol - P which equals power or wattage or watts. So, power equals current

times E or voltage. This is the formula that you will use the most. Make a triangle, put the P on top and the I and E on bottom, and you can use the same technique to find the unknown. In most of the ham radio world the E will always be 12 volts or 13.8 volts. Those two numbers are interchangeable. The reason is, your car has a 12 volt system. But, when you are driving down the road, it is actually producing 13.8 volts. When you buy a power supply to put in your house, it will convert 110 volts AC to 12 volts DC. But in reality, it will be about 13.8 volts. 

Now, a little exercise here. Your power supply is putting out 13.8 volts and you have a 30 amp power supply. How much wattage or power will it produce? You cover up the P on the triangle. You have I x E. I is 30 amps. E is 13.8 volts. You take those two numbers

and multiply them. You should get 414 watts. So that means if you have a 30 amp power supply at 13.8 volts it will easily push a 100 watt radio. Easily. Here is where I like to use the 80% rule. Never use 100% of any piece of equipment. So 80% of 414 is 331 watts. Okay, let's go back to our 3rd and 4th grade math. Anytime you hear the word of, it means multiply. The 80% rule is actually 0.80. Drop the percent sign and move the decimal two places to the left. Now you have 0.80. Okee-dokee? I know I could hear all of you say 'Okee-dokee'.

These are the only two formulas you will use for math to get your technician license.            E = I x R and P = E x I. Draw a little triangle with a T in it. Put the formula in there with the E on top, with I and R on the bottom. 

Draw another triangle with a T in it. Put a P on top and an E and I on the bottom. You don't really have to draw the triangle, just put a big T with one letter on top and the other two letters on the bottom. Learn how to use these formulas, they will come in handy all through life. I have taught kids for years to use what I call the 'T formula'. 

Now, these two formulas will give you the answer to any mathematical question on the technician exam. Sometimes you have to use one or the other to find an unknown so you can apply that unknown to the other formula. It's not tricky, maybe unknown to you at this time, but once you do this a handful of times, it's really pretty easy. And, yes, on the test, you can use a calculator. A basic four function calculator.

When I took my technician test, I asked for a piece of scratch paper. And once we all started, I wrote these formulas on the top of my piece of scratch paper. I also put other things on that piece of paper, that we will discuss later. Primarily having to do with decibels. Remember, as long as you start with a blank sheet of paper. That's your piece of scratch paper. You can put anything on there you want. But again, the only two mathematical formulas that you will use are the two we have just discussed. E = I x R and P = E x I. Also remember, V or E = voltage. I = current or amperage. R = resistance. P = power or wattage.

The man I mentioned earlier that came in and had questions he needed answers to? He walked out with the two formulas and a week later, he passed the test. The No Nonsense Technician Guide is a great way to study for the technician's test. And if you want a place to take free practice tests, I would recommend QRZ.com. Remember that you can use a four function calculator. No computers. No cell phones. But if you can push the multiply button and the divide button, then take the given information and you will have the answer.

Next time, we'll talk about what milliamps and kilowatts are and what they mean. Don't worry about the math. One other thing. Always think safety. This is a great hobby, but you don't want to fry anybody's brain. And it may be more than a great hobby when the electricity goes off and stays off. Just food for thought. So. Think safety. If you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. 

Now, go get a piece of paper and draw two triangles, put a T inside each one. Put an E on top, an I and R on the bottom in the first triangle. In the second one, put a P on top and an E and I on the bottom. Get a pencil with an eraser, a four function calculator and practice some of these questions on pages 6 & 7 of the No Nonsense Technician's Guide. If you find yourself whining, then quit whining. Go in the bathroom, look in the mirror and remind yourself that God has a sense of humor.

We'll talk more later. 73, Frank
 

The Tin Whistle Review

When we moved here we were glad there is a little branch (not enough to be called a creek or a crik) that runs through the backyard. It does not have running water in it all the time and sometimes is just a rather muddy place. We found out pretty quickly that we wanted to be able to drive across it without leaving a big muddy mess, so we had a culvert, or tin whistle put in. But it wasn't tin, it was rubber type plastic.

There are occasions, about once a year, that we get a really hard rain and the yard floods. You can just barely see the tip of the culvert in this picture. During one of these floods when the water was up over or around the culvert, we went outside to check things out. Just about that time, the culvert came floating up out of it's place and started heading toward the yard fence. We were able to 'catch' it and steer it up into the yard where we hoped it wouldn't move anymore. We put it back in place, but after another heavy rain, it came out again. That's when we decided we needed a heavier metal culvert.

The one we got was too long for us to haul on our trailer, so we had it delivered. Meanwhile, we added another small section of fencing across the yard to separate the chickens' side of the yard from the garden. Because of this change in the traffic pattern through the yard, we also decided to change the location of the culvert by about 10 feet. This change in location was possible because we had removed a scrubby tree that had grown up not far from the grape vine.

Is this starting to sound like one of those country stories? Turn left on the road next to where the old barn burnt down.......

Well, after we got the new culvert in it's chosen location, we piled up the gravel that had been on the previous culvert on top of it because we were expecting another big rain storm. This time, the culvert stayed in place. The diameter of this culvert is larger, so it will be able to handle a larger volume of water before it goes up and around or over, causing the gravel to wash away. We decided to leave the gravel piled up on top of the culvert until we could deal with the small stump left from removing the tree because it is now in the middle of the driving area when you cross the culvert. That was a while back.

We tried several different ways to deal with this small stump, but none of them worked. In the meantime, it quickly grows a tremendous clump of little sucker trees from the roots. They come up everywhere. Well, today we decided we had waited long enough to be able to use the culvert to cross the branch and we would just deal with the stump later.  So, Frank got the tractor and went to work.

Before

 

During

 

 

And after

Well, now that we finished that chore, it is time to mow again. We do the fine work around the house with a standard push mower and the rest with the brush hog. We haven't ever talked ourselves into a riding lawnmower. We always think, why? we have the tractor.

Before

 

During



After

With all of the rain this summer, for which we are truly grateful, we have had to mow more often. It always looks nice when we are finished. 

The kittens are enjoying the short grass and we are enjoying using the tin whistle instead of hopping over the branch (which right now is more of a twig without water). Now it's back to canning and working the garden.

Until next time - Fern

Our Labor on Labor Day

Since this was a 'day off' from work, we had a lot to get done. Even though Frank has a sore back and seems to be coming down with a cold.

 
I started a batch of chevre cheese in the morning.

After milking the goats and feeding the chickens, dogs and cats, I picked the garden while Frank got the salsa, jars and water bath canner ready to go. We canned 7 pints of salsa that I had put together a few days ago.

I hadn't picked the green beans in several days and was really, really surprised at how many there were. Time to can green beans. There is also okra, tomatoes and a few squash to do something with.

We got the salsa canned, made a squash/meat casserole for dinner (which I will post later), fixed bacon and eggs for lunch and mixed up a batch of bread.

In the meantime, we had two quarts of store bought cream in the freezer that needed to be used, and plenty of milk in the frig, so we made up two batches of ice cream (which I will also post later).

While the bread was rising and the last batch of ice cream was working, we stopped to have a bowl of ice cream with peach butter. We are really enjoying the peach butter. I hope making it will be an annual event.

After that short break it was time to snap the beans and get them ready for the pressure canner. We ended up with 16 pints and some left over, which is great.  There will be another batch to can tomorrow after work. We are glad for the harvest.

 
The bread is always a welcome treat. Hot from the oven with homemade butter. We ended up having bread and butter for dinner. We had already had the ice cream in the late afternoon and decided to save the casserole until tomorrow. We had to wait for the green beans to be finished in the canner so we could go do the evening chores for all of the animals.
 

So, after the chores, we worked the cheese and have it hanging to drain, set the green beans out to cool with the salsa, and cleaned up the canner. It has been a long day, but very productive. Frank ran into a saying a while back somewhere that is very appropriate for our times. We have it hanging on our refrigerator. "Every day now your options diminish. Get it done!" We don't get things done everyday, but many days we do. Another saying I have come to repeat lately is, "There are not enough hours in the day or energy in my body to get everything done we need to do." But for today.......Whew! What a day! That's what we celebrate on Labor Day, right? Good old hard work and the intrinsic satisfaction that comes with it.

Until next time - Fern


P.S. When I got home from work today, Frank had the canner, jars, rings and lids ready to can the remaining green beans. There were only 10 pints of bean, so we canned 6 more pints of squash to fill up the canner. 

I have started freezing my okra again for now. I wash it, slice it, coat it with a mixture of cornmeal, seasoning salt and pepper and put it in quart size freezer bags. Tonight we put up 4 quarts. As soon as we get the green beans and squash out of the canner, it is time to go do chores.

Enjoy the blessings of work.

Labor Day Isn't About Labor Anymore

With all the things that are happening in these days and times, I got to thinking about Labor Day. What is it really? Why was it ever started? In honor of labor? Working? 

According to Wikipedia: Labor Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September, that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. It also goes on to say that this holiday came about as a result of a union strike, and became nationally recognized in 1894. Now it has become a day of barbeques and marks the end of traditional summer vacations.

How Stuff Works says: For a lot of people, Labor Day means two things: a day off and the end of summer. But why is it called Labor Day? Labor Day is a day set aside to pay tribute to working men and women. It has been celebrated as a national holiday in the United States and Canada since 1894.

A day set aside to pay tribute to working men and women? Do you know anyone that treats Labor Day as a day for tribute to those who work? I don't. Workers usually use it as another day that they can labor. Maybe not at their 'paid' job, but there is always work to be done. We have plans to get as much accomplished as we can today so we don't have to squeeze it in during the evenings when I get home from work.

There are many people these days that have been laid off and can't find a job. There are many more that are under-employed and are really struggling to make ends meet. 





There are others that just don't work and some that never have. This number appears to be increasing every year. There are those that have worked very hard so that mom can stay home and raise the children. That is very hard work in and of itself, and is the most important job of all. There are those who are unable to work due to accident or disability that would give anything to be able to do so. And there are others that do what they can to get around working and let those that do work pay their way. This group also appears to be growing larger every year.

Labor Day. It obviously doesn't mean the same thing it did when it was first conceived and instituted as a national holiday. It saddens me to think of the diminishing number of people that do  work, having to support those that won't. Isn't there a name for that? What will happen when there aren't enough workers left? What will happen when the workers just get tired of working hard every day for everything they have when the folks down the street are living a higher standard of living and never work a day in their lives? What will really happen then?

 

Labor Day. It has really given me more to ponder this year. Now more than ever. I pray for this country and all of it's inhabitants. 





The time will soon come when we all will have to labor for every meal we eat. For by the sweat of our brow shall we eat bread. Because if we don't labor, we won't eat. I am truly grateful we have been given this time to increase the effectiveness of our labors. 

Blessings to you all, 

Fern