Pests

I went out and picked 3 quarts of strawberries day before yesterday and I'll head out again, in between rain drops. While I was out, it was apparent that my "critter" had been back and was feasting on my berries. I took the time to look harder for tracks and scat (poop). Of course, the grass is getting higher by the minute, but I couldn't see anything. I did notice that the berries eaten, were mostly the ones hanging over the side of the bed, so I'm back to thinking it was a porcupine or rabbit. I was asked if it might be my dogs, but I offered them a choice berry to see if they would eat them and the little darlings turned their noses up at them.
While I'm out, I will pick the first batch of brocolli. It isn't much as the plant are way to small to be producing right now, but I'm hoping they will keep producing if I pick what's there. It's still to wet to do much of anything, so I'll get my berries and broc, maybe a few herbs and head back in before the thunderstorm hits. Honestly; the ground everywhere on the property squishes. It's fully saturated at this point.
In other news, I did my first attempt at making jerky using a press/gun. This method uses ground meat (which I got on a fantastic sale), you spice it with a per bought packet and extrude it through the machine and it makes really cool uniform jerky sticks. NOTE TO SELF: DON'T EVER DO THIS AGAIN! After a full 24 hours at the reccomended temperature (very high), I now have wonderful dog treats (not jerky I would eat) and a very, very (VERY) messy brand new Excaliber Dehydrator. Ok, "some" of this was MY fault. I neglected to use the silicone trays I got for jerky, although, now I know why they are so important. I also should have kept the heat on high or medium high as I "hard cased" the product (that's when the outside cooks hard but the hard case protects the inside from cooking). The last mistake I made was the "fantastic" bargain meat. It had WAY to much fat content for this project.
Well, experience is priceless! Live and learn.