If you can, can, can!

Last summer I learned how to can.  I made pickles, dilly beans, pickled carrots, and pickled beets from produce picked from my garden. 
This year for my birthday I received a complete canning kit for water bath canning.  I was so excited!
I usually get about one batch done a week, which is to say, I get one load of cans in the canner each time.  Most of the time I'm canning a couple of different things.  For instance one day I did beets, carrots, and green tomatoes.  Another day I did pickles and beans... you get the idea. 

Unexpected Garden Pests

The other day I was sitting outside reading, enjoying rural bliss.  I let the chickens and ducks out to graze and roam the yard for the afternoon.  It was getting late and I began to debate when I should put them in for the night.  I figured I would let them enjoy their freedom until it got a little darker outside.  And then I stood up.  I looked over at the barrel garden and clustered around the base of it was my little flock enjoying a free cucumber buffet!  I ran over to them yelling, "GET OUT OF MY PICKLES!!" and waving my hands like a maniac.  The simply stopped pecking, looked up, and blinked at me a few times and then continued on with their delicious treat.  "Shoo! Shoo!"  Blink.  Blink.  Nom.  Nom. Nom.  I immedately decided my quandary was over and now was exactly the right time to put them away for the night.  I lured them back to their kennel with some chicken feed and locked the gate. 

The Barrel Garden

Waaay back last winter before I'd decided to move in we discussed a garden.  Big beautiful vegetable garden that would provide us with pounds and pounds of fresh produce that we could eat and pickle.  It would be wonderful.  Growing our own food would be so exciting and save some money at the grocery store and it'd be so healthy!
But there was a caveat.  The septic system.  It needs to be replaced.  The property is set up so that the place I envisioned my garden would probably become a main thoroughfare for equipment.  I did not want to spend all the time it takes to make a garden only to have it be trampled by machines and men.  I imagined backhoes and work boots stomping all of my almost ripe produce into the ground within a matter of seconds.  That simply would not do.  I needed to think of an alternative.

Look at them boots.

I grew up in the suburbs.  We were far enough out that other towns thought we were country but we weren't really.  Five years ago I moved north to a much smaller town (about 8,000).  I lived in town for 4 years.  Last year I moved to a town so small it didn't even have a population on the sign.  It didn't even have its own zip code.  I lived in a house with a big yard and I bought 3 ducks and the landlord who lived on the same piece of land had chickens and planted me a big beautiful vegetable garden.  That summer I learned how to pickle and butcher ducks. Now, I've just moved to a slightly larger town with about 400 people, a bar, a gas station, post office, bank, and a school.  We live about 3 miles out of town... actually in the country. 
With the exception of a few years in high school this is what I've always wanted.  We don't have the big farm with rolling hills and a huge pasture that I've dreamed of since I was a little girl but it's close.  We've got about 4 acres and about half of it is trees.  There is probably enough space to keep 1-2 horses but for now we're starting small.  There are some young raspberry bushes and sapling fruit trees already on the property.  We decided to add a blueberry bush and a cherry bush as well as a few perennial flowers this past spring.
We made a barrel garden and bought some ducks and some chickens.  At the moment, between us we have 2 dogs, 6 cats, 6 ducks, 6 chickens, and a horse.  It's simply wonderful.  I'm finally truly happy with my life and I'm looking forward to what the future holds... it looks promising.

Little House on the Prairie