Cool Jelly

Wild hare tonight. I made jelly from store bought juice.
All it takes is 11 ounces of frozen juice (I used grape), 4.5 cups of sugar, 3.5 tbsp (1 3/4 ounces) of pectin, and 3 cups of water. Put it all in a pot, boil and stir, boil and stir. Jar it all up, and boil it in a water bath.
Then as Aunt Shirley says, "... take the jars out of the water, tighten the lids, dry off your jars & let them cool that way." She sits her's on a folded towel or something like that to cool.

Getting Ready for Next Year

I just grew corn this year. Okra was planted, but went to feed the local fauna rather than any gumbo or corn meal. Fall planting was not accomplished, but in the next week Pearce and I hope to get work done prepping for next season.
Also, there might be an interesting experiment or two going on. One to do with water and year round growing and another to do with growing my favorite legume.

TTFN

Buckhead Chicken Farming

Yes, the chickens have teak furniture in their yard. I never thought I'd envy a fowl like this before.

A Little Gender Misidentification

SMRR, LOOKING FOR IMMEDIATE HOME OUTSIDE THE CITY -- Single, roughly mixed race (black AND white) Polish tophat rooster, in current discernment of gender and sexuality, previously known as Zsa Zsa, now Liberace, looking for legal residence,which is not here if s/he keeps up that damned crowing. S/he's not at all good at it yet (kind of "ruh ruh roo"), but that seems to be the direction this is headed. Exotics come straight run, so I had a 50/50 chance of this outcome, but I'm still disappointed, as s/he's gorgeous and a real piece of work from a personality standpoint. Also, the feather hat is a knockout.

Ansley Park: A Chicken Story

With the happy additions to the chicken yard yesterday, I also have to mention the untimely passing of the second of the two Beatrice. Beatrix (of course we have no idea whether she was B1 or B2), was one of my team of prodigal chickens, the wanderers who never wondered why a chicken should cross the road, but just did so with total chicken abandon -- pecking, scratching and always clucking around. B2 (or not 2B, that was always the question) was discovered lying peacefully in the chicken yard, an apparent victim of Sudden Chicken Death Syndrome, like her teammate B1 (or B2, depending). Both Bs served well and truly as chickens, and we will miss them. Of our original January 2011 team, only Mahalia Jackson remains, but the new varsity egg team is going to be really strong. Cosette and Marie Antionette, our new Cuckoo Marans, and Zsa Zsa, our Polish tophat, will begin laying in about two months and are going to be big contributors to our production. Susan B. Anthony, Frida Kahlo, Charo, Isabelle Allende and New Ophelia round out the roster as solid performers. None has the wanderlust or imagination as the Beatrice, though. May that peripatetic pair live on in our totally entertained imaginations in greater chicken glory.

Della Wager Wells