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1. A question about freezing chopped onions. I chop and freeze as well, but have learned to use quart bags rather than gallon (I’d actually prefer pint bags…) because I invariably wind up with a solidly frozen 1-gallon block of chopped onion. Do you have some secret to prevent that?

   1. An age old trick, chop them up and spread them out on a cookie sheet then put them in the freezer. Once they are frozen solid, put them in a freezer bag for long term. They should not clump in the bag. You can do this with just about anything you put in the freezer.

   2. Get a food saver. You can custom make your own freezer bags with a roll of food saver bags. You can have pint, 1/2 pint, any size you want. Plus it sucks the air out and keeps freezer burn at bay.

2. Nosmo, freeze the onions in a layer on a cookie sheet or tray, first, then put them in bags. They may still stick a tiny bit, but a light rap on the countertop will knock them apart.

   1. This is exactly as I do it! 🙂

      Lily

3. About tarter on dog’s teeth: One of our dogs had lots of tarter and very irritated gums. Calls to the local vets for teeth cleaning revealed estimates of about $400 to get her teeth cleaned! Appalled, we looked for alternatives and got raw beef bones. We were astonished at how well it worked!

   Just two bones in a few days cleaned up the teeth of the dog in question. The other two dogs teeth were spotlessly clean with just one bone.

   We give the dogs one bone a week, and have maintained their clean teeth since that time.

4. Getting ready for winter in the mid-south is similar but different from our northern friends and neighbors. While the activities are comparable I think we have more transition time, which makes things less stressful. This is the first year we have actually gotten all the wood cut and stacked before we need it. Major accomplishment!

   We are entering the time where our location has about 5 days of sunny warmish weather then 2 nights of freezing weather. This is the time we spread straw over the garden so the fall plants can produce for another 4 weeks until the continuous nightly freezes arrive in December. The winter plants, while not yet big enough for harvesting, are strong enough to endure the colder weather. After Thanksgiving I’ll lay another deeper layer of straw to protect them over the winter, so they’ll wake up in spring and start producing again. Mild winter is the main advantage of living in the mid-south!

   Cut back and FDed the remaining herbs, found a good sale on brussel sprouts and broccoli and put them in the FDer. Made vegetable beef soup, cream of broccoli and cheese soup and a big casserole to FD. I am still FDing various types of egg dishes, from omelets to quiches, to just plain egg powder. I can’t stand to waste things. I gave my elderly neighbors several dozen eggs and shared the soups and casserole with them.

   I’ve been working on organizing emergency animal bags/buckets for the smaller animals. One each for the big dogs, little dogs, cats, rabbits and chickens. Right now all the animal meds are in a cabinet and the instructions are in my brain; so I need to separate things by animal species and get the instructions printed out and copied.

   Received an order of deer alerts for the vehicles to hopefully avoid any collisions with deer and wild turkeys this year. Living out in the country, the wild turkeys are almost as dangerous as the deer!

   Have a safe and productive week!

5. I made a batch of chicken soup ingredients; 4.5 pounds of chicken quarters pressure cooked in the Instant Pot@ for 20 minutes, pulled all the meat off the bones and froze it in 2 cup containers, pressure cooked the bones with the previously removed skin for 1 hour. The broth was cooled overnight and the layer of fat skimmed off and froze for future use for frying eggs, etc. The bones and offal is set outside for animals to munch on. (The bones are mushy, not splinters).

6. When you harvest the deer and elk, be sure and harvest the tongue too. Most people don’t even think about it.

7. Costco has a subscription service you might want to try for non-perishables like paper products, OTC medications, dog food, etc. I have used it for a while and it’s great, especially when you don’t live close to a Costco. It is delivered to our local post office once a month on the same date. They always allow you to review what they are sending so you can delay or cancel a product.

   1. So sorry, I meant Amazon! You can order online from Costco with free shipping for many items, especially if you have Amazon prime.

8. Sure you all know about this but diatomaceous earth has been our go-to for years in keeping our animals healthy. It has a lot of useful purposes.

   Thank you for sharing these wonderful updates. I learn something new every single time.

9. My main activity this week was square bales of Burmuda hay. My husband baled last Saturday, after I had raked. I was loading while he tried to finish baling round bales. It commenced to raining. We got all the square bales home and a tarp on them that night, in the pouring down rain. We have a hard time doing hay since he works full time. So Monday, I unloaded those 200 bales in the driveway to dry for a couple days, then I loaded them all back up and hauled them to the barn and stacked them. The milk cows, goats and donkeys will have plenty to eat this winter. I think I lost a few pounds also. We had to fluff the rest of the hay for round bales after it stopped raining and he baled it one night after work. We use the round bales for the beef cows. Thankfully, our winters are mild and the cows can eat rye grass to supplement the hay.

10. After moving (escaping?) from southern California to the blessed farthest northern county of Idaho this spring, I have been a little nervous about the approach of cold weather. This past month has seen temperatures dipping down to freezing most nights with day time highs in the mid 50’s generally, a real change from what I have been used to. I am pleasantly surprised to find that the cold bothers me not at all. I know winter will be a lot colder, but it is nice and toasty inside inside my home, and when I go outside I dress for the weather. The beauty and peace of this area more than makes up for any shortcomings. Had lunch today with another couple, also refugees from SoCal, and we all agree the quality of life up here is highly enjoyable. We love the change of seasons, and the friendliness of everyone we have met. I’m SO glad to be here! A couple of days ago I picked about 30 pounds of apples at my neighbor’s orchard and will put them up on Monday. Apple pies all winter, yay! And he shot an elk on his acreage so I’m looking forward to some elk stew, too. Life is good.

11. We culled 3 chickens today two non-laying hens, and an extra rooster. Found excess fat in the hens, they are an extremely cold hardy breed Wyandottes, and I found in a Gail Damerow book that cold hardy breeds are more prone to obesity in the fall. It was news to us; something else to keep an eye out for.

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