Catching up, updating, and a better mouse trap

A lot has been going on so it seems like we should have a catch up day. Thanks to everyone who has commented recently on here and also over on 'the facebook.' We've really been working hard here so apologies if I haven't gotten back to you. I've really enjoyed all the feedback - thanks!

This pig need to become bacon. Soon.

I loved some of the suggestions from the "11 Things They Don't Tell You About Farming" list. I especially loved J's suggestion about her favorite pair of work gloves, B's hypothesis that eventually you will go insane, and this extremely astute observation from F, "That city folks cannot believe it is possible to get some much done before breakfast and not consider it work." Exactly!

I also want to thank everyone who for their excellent suggestions about the mice in my truck. Especially about putting mouse traps IN something... you know me. If I just used those snap-traps I'd end up with springing them as I was roaring down the freeway.... But it gave us a great idea and my husband found these these "Kill and Seal" traps. What a great idea! And they work. We are racking up the bodies with no danger to over interested barn cats... or me.

I have also taken everything out of the truck including the floor mats so there is no where to hide. Every morning my best mouser and I check out the truck. He can smell them in there so we will keep up with our mouse eradication program until my truck is safe!

In other news, it looks like we are on the upside of all the summer foolish frustrations. We got our Pepper all fixed up and she has the pep back in her step. Actually she has been on a rampage and fortunately for us is directing all her new found energy toward chasing Nicholas around. It took a couple days but she has fully recovered from her dental surgery and is back to eating dry food - even tho we primarily give her canned. What a relief!

Our Pep - back to being aloof and dismissive. Yay!

Our big lesson learned was never to second guess our intuition. The ONLY sign that something was wrong was that Pep started sitting with me. After 8 years of treating me with casual disregard she was always on the couch with us. That was it. No pain behaviors, no pawing at her mouth, no problems eating, nothing. We are glad we took quick action and that Pepper is now tip top...and back to largely ignoring us.

I canned my first batch of tomatoes yesterday so there is no doubt that we are over the summer hump and clearly into fall. And it could be an early fall - today it was in the 50*'s when we got up and we won't break 80* until next week at least. It's been an odd year.

My tomatoes are off the hook. Time for canning!

So I'm off to do more weeding. That is mostly under control and I have been keeping up with it. I also have to harness our huge jalapeno pepper haul. Wow! We even went and got one of those jalapeno racks. How fun is that? We'll letcha know how it works.

We still need to butcher one of the pigz - soon. So that is our update.

Happy Wednesday everyone! Are you feeling caught up?

Editors note: It's been a while since we've had any affiliate links to my Amazon store - so there are a few in this post. I really love ordering stuff from Amazon - they have great systems, have terrific customer service, and have never done me wrong. The best is that I don't have to drive into town! This saves me a ton of gas money since we live so far out. Ordering things like that jalapeno racks is awesome. Delivery was really fast and I got just what I wanted. Do you need anything from Amazon? Canning supplies, back to school stuff, or whatever? You can support this blog by just clicking one of these links. Or using the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. This gets me a tiny percentage of the sale and doesn't cost you once cent more. If you like this blog, or if I've helped you at all in your farming efforts, just make a purchase from Amazon from one of the links, my store, or the black Amazon search box on the right side of this page. I never know who orders what so THANK YOU for your purchases!