Canning and Kit Weights

I got another 10 quarts of rabbit meat canned this evening. It is mighty satisfying, even if it is a little tedious waiting and making sure the pressure canner doesn’t drop below 11 pounds of pressure. Which it did tonight early on in the process. Well, 15 minutes in. I had to start my time over. It could have been worse. It could have been halfway through the 75 minutes. But it’s done and all 10 jars sealed and in the morning when they have cooled off, I can label them and transfer them to my pantry shelves.

It takes me less than 5 minutes to cut up a rabbit now. I intuitively know where the joints are and the best places to cut. The six rib cages I did not can. I will be doing two pots of stock tomorrow with them. I will make some into soup base and then just can some as straight stock. I’m hoping to get about 10 quarts out of it.

I picked up 25 pounds of organic potatoes the other day and I hope to get them canned this weekend, too. Then I will have everything I need for some pour and dump stews made in the crockpot. They had them for $3.98 for a five pound bag. Normally they are about $7 for a five pound bag. Potatoes, like carrots, are a food I refuse to eat unless it is organically grown. I feel a bit guilty because we still have potatoes we can dig up and maybe I might actually get to them, but I’m hoping they’ll just go in the garage and be eaten fresh this winter, supposing I ever get around to it. I did dig some up this summer and earlier in the fall, just not all of them.

Keta salmon (also known as chum, dog, or silverbrite) is on sale right now for $2.49 a pound if you buy a whole fish, wild caught, and never been frozen. A lot of folks consider this to be an inferior type of salmon. I don’t find this to be true. It is just more plentiful because it hasn’t been fished to near extinction levels. The other types of salmon are more rare and more expensive, though not necessarily better. Each salmon tastes a little different, but different does not mean better or worse. Of course I love Coho the very best, but I don’t like Coho prices.

The fish run about 6 pounds, and they will fillet, scale, and de-fin them for you at the store. So I am going down early tomorrow when they are not busy to get 3 fish and that should be a canner load. I will still come home with the part they take off when they fillet. There is still a lot of meat on the bones and it can be cooked and then scraped off the bones. It’s a bit of work, but no more so than eating the rib meat off a rabbit rib cage.

I remembered to grab the paper with the kit weights on them from the shed.

Phoebe’s Second Litter at 7 Weeks Old:

Kit 1: 2 lb 13.3 oz
Kit 2: 2 lb 12 oz
Kit 3: 2 lb 9.7 oz
Kit 4: 2 lb 7 oz (Runtilla the Bun)
Kit 5: 2 lb 11 oz
Kit 6: 2 lb 15.6 oz
Kit 7: 2 lb 11.6 oz

Total Litter Weight: 19 lb 0.2 oz

Amount Gained This Week: 5 lb 7.4 oz

Lola’s First Litter at 10 Weeks Old:

Kit 1: 4 lb 12.9 oz
Kit 2: 4 lb 10.7 oz
Kit 3: 4 lb 13.7 oz
Kit 4: 5 lb 4 oz
Kit 5: 4 lb 7.7 oz
Kit 6: 4 lb 13.2 oz

Total Litter Weight: 28 lb 14.2 oz

Amount Gained This Week: 3 lb 15.1 oz

I’m pretty impressed with the kit who is over 5 pounds at week 10. It gained about a pound this week. It is also good to see that Runtilla is closing the gap between herself and the other kits in the litter.

The 2 week olds started drinking water today. I put a couple of water bottles down low so they could reach them. So what happens? Piper and Sweetie Belle drink out of the low waters and the kits stretch up to drink out of the higher ones. Figures.

I hope there will be some breaks in the forecast rain tomorrow so that we can wash out Lola and Serenity’s cages at the very least. I always like to make sure the pregnant does get a very clean cage about a week before they give birth. I suppose if we have to we can clean them inside the shed. That just involves a bucket of hot soapy water and a sponge and then a bucket of rinse water instead of a hose. Regardless of the rain, all of the dropping pans must be sprayed out tomorrow. I’d prefer to get them bleached and srubbed as well, but it is not going to be nice again until Wednesday. Part and parcel of living in the Pacific North Wet.