Potatoes

 My potatoes did fairly well this year considering how wet the conditions were. My family always looked forward to the new baby potatoes which usually were ready by mid July. We'd just boil them and season with butter and salt. In my opinion, potatoes don't get better than that! Too bad you couldn't keep them that size all season. :) They also make delicious potato salad which I enjoyed making a few times this summer.

 Not having very dependable storage/cellar this year I was trying to decide how I wanted to preserve the remainder of my potatoes for winter.  I ended up making Twice Baked Potatoes, fries, and hashbrowns.
I saved the med-large potatoes for fries and the small ones for hashbrowns.

I mixed flour, paprika, garlic powder, italian seasoning, and salt in a zip lock bag and then coated the fries before cooking them in olive oil. Some batches I omitted the flour and just sprinkled the seasonings on top of the potatoes while they were cooking in the frying pan.

I cooked them until just about done and then placed them on a cookie rack that was set inside a cookie sheet so any excess oil could drip off. I stuck the whole tray in the freezer and after they were hard removed them from the rack and placed them in a ziplock bag to freeze.

Hashbrowns

I cook them in olive oil and sprinkle salt over top a few times.

I spread a paper towel over the cookie rack to absorb any excess oil and also keep the hashbrowns from falling through. I let them cool like this on the counter, put them right into a zip lock bag, and then into the freezer. To cook I heat them up in the frying pan with a little bit of butter and then add rosemary and garlic powder.

From the summer...

I loved having my garden right next to the house this summer! Back in Alberta it was about a mile away and usually required opening and closing two or three gates each way if we had cattle out grazing.

Tackled the garden shed while Mom was here. We pulled everything out, washed it down, and then I sorted through the contents.

I like before and after pictures so here is the result. :)

Well...it's a deep subject...:D

The lid of the well which I had to dig out so I could fill the inside with pit run.


These lines and wires were difficult to work around.




Borrowed my neighbour's tractor so I could move the pit run closer to shovel in.




Dad came over to help. There were several important wires in this spot so he put a stryofoam barrier around them and filled in the area with sand rather than the pit run.


Making progress...


Filled in at last!


Insulating the outside.


The other well is underneath the corner of the pumphouse. It is covered with stryofoam to help keep it insulated. The wires for the barn and house water travel through here so it is very important to keep it from freezing. There is a heater down inside hooked up to a temp sensor which regulates the temperature.



Completely finished...yay!


The sensor is hooked up here and keeps the well temperature between 8*C and 9*C.

Brief Update

Can't believe four months has already passed since I've moved up here. I love it up here and am happy to call this cozy little place home.

Summer is over...the little we had of it! Overall the weather has been cool with an excessive amount of rainfall. The yard kept me busy with the lawn and grass around yard needing to be mowed about every 5 days. The flowers thrived and the yard looked beautiful all summer. My garden did great and the produce was abundant. Mom came over for a couple weeks and canned the purple beans with her pressure canner (and also tended my flowers and washed the trailer windows...thanks, Mom!) I've been canning pickled carrots and making and freezing fries and hashbrowns. The herbs did well and I dried parsley, oregano, basil and chives which hopefully should last me through until next summer.

The well below the pumphouse collapsed not long after I moved into the trailer. Thankfully it wasn't the water source for our house and chickens but the water we use does travel there from the other well and then into the barn so it needed to get filled in to prevent any further possible damage. It was a big job and Dad was able to come over and help with part of it. Last week I finally finished insulating around the outside so the project is complete. My neighbour was able to come over and get the temp sensor set up for the well since it had snapped when the well collapsed. That was a big relief as now I don't have to worry about the well water for the barn and house freezing.

Sure is starting to feel like fall with high temps in the single digits (*C). The area here is so pretty with the leaves changing and beginning to fall.

Now we are heading into the last week of our second chicken cycle and things are going good so far. :) I'm really happy with how this cycle has gone and chickens are doing well. Tomorrow we are going to weigh chickens by hand again to see the adjustments we need to make in the computer for the scale. The scale wasn't working the last cycle so I ended up having to buy a new one from Mackay's in Saskatoon. We weighed them at two weeks and made the necessary adjustments so we'll find out if the percentage is still set right.

There is more to post about but this will have to do for now as I need to go check the chickens! :)