WHATS UP!!!!!

A country boy can survive

Well, he did it again!  2 more!!! ~~Way to go~~

Limit here is 6 deer so he's already half done.  If he gets anymore I think we'll give them away.  He's still hoping for a big rack to put on the wall though!

Little Bitty Updates...again!

I already typed a long entry, but for some reason it didn't post.  Now I'm tired of typing so now here's the shorter version!

Thanksgiving--went well.

Black Friday sales--went extreemly well, considering!

Today- going great so far.  Hubby & son are trying to shoot a deer, Abby's asleep & me and puppy are drinking coffee & chewing on a snowman toy...you decide who is doing which! LOL

It's suppose to keep raining off & on so I'm not sure if we'll get the new chicken pen done this weekend or not...leaning toward the not, but maybe we can at least get started & finish up next weekend.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving....now I need to figure out where to put the Christmas tree!

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving this year should be a nice family day.  It will be just the 4 of us here at the homestead.  We will all be sharing in the cooking.

Thanksgiving menu

Smoked Turkey (Dad)

Cornbread Dressing (Mom & Abby)

Mashed potatoes w/gravy (Mom)

Green bean casserole (Tyler)

Crescent rolls (Pillsbury--baked by Abby)

Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Pie (Abby)

Hope you have a wonderful day of Thanks at your home!

Thanksgiving

Friday

I've been up early today.  The puppy was barking away around 6:00.  So I got up & took him out.  It is COLD here today.  The high is only suppose to go up to 50*  My son is planning on going on a hunting camping weekend again today.  They are taking our pop-up camper.  I told them they better take our electric heater & the propane one just incase the little electric one goes out. (It's tempremental)  I sure hope they will be warm enough.

We went & did our erronds yesterday.  We did end up stopping by my friend's house for a little visit.  She is so "normal" & easy to get along with.  --I have found that finding "real" not fake people in our homeschool community around here is a bit of a struggle.  Everyone wants to come off as our best, but how can you really have a friendship if you are trying to keep up a front all of the time.?

Today I plan on cleaning up the house, finishing up laundry & making some laundry soap.  For my list of extra things I had up the other day, I plan on getting to putting up our summer clothes & taking some wintery ones out.  Perhaps I'll get around and make some cookies or something too.

Well that's about it for my day!  I'm off to read some others blogs & get some more coffee!

~God Bless~

Good Thursday Morning

Today is our busy day.  We go and clean Ms. Bo's house.  Then it's off to the bank, grocery store, nursing home, dollar tree & I may run by a friend's house to drop a movie & magazine off I said she could borrow.

I try to get things done all in one whack!  Gas is a good price here at the moment, but I don't want to get too excited or spend more just because it costs less.  It's running about $1.87 here!!!  I will need to fill the car up this morning, but now $20 will get me much further.

I made some chicken stock last night & have it chilling in the fridge now.  When I get home I'll need to skim the fat off & can it.  --I can't believe all those years I threw my bones & carcass right out.  I could have saved alot by making my own stock.  I use the recipe from the Nurishing Traditions book.

All of our animals are doing well here.  The pigs are really starting to grow! 

I got a seed catalog in the mail yesterday & that kept me busy all evening long.  I just love to read & pick out a couple of new things to try for the spring.  This year we are planning on selling some of our produce.  Probably on Saturday mornings just at our house. 

Well, I best get around.  Hope you have a great day!

Holiday mode...

With the cooler weather I'm starting to get into holiday mode.  For me, that means some baking.  I made some sugar cookies yesterday that are really scrumptious!  Here's the recipe:

Classic Sugar Cookies

1 cup crisco

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 T. milk

1 T. vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 small can icing (will only use about 1/4-1/2 can)

Turn oven to 350.

Beat shortening & sugar in large bowl, beat with mixture until creamy.  Add in egg, milk & vanilla until well blended.

Put dough in fridge until oven is heated. 

Then Roll up into small balls.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet & push down slightly. 

Bake about 9-10 minutes until set in the middle & very lightly golden.

Cool & frost.

We used strawberry flavored icing & they were great! *This is also the recipe I use for cut-out cookies.  You just have to divide it up in half & wrap in wax paper in the fridge for about an hour before moving on to rolling & cutting.

My holiday mode also usually means some decluttering before Christmas time.  So I'll attempt to get to some of that today.  I'm going to make a list of extra projects that I'd like to have done & actually do them.

~Clean out kitchen drawers

~Organize under the kitchen sink

~Kitchen cabinets

~Get winter clothes out & put summer ones away

~Kids need to do under their bathroom sink

~Get porches cleaned up for winter

~Get wood chopped & stacked (this will take all of us)

Well, if I can get these accomplished I'll be pleased.  It's really not that much, I just need to get motivated!

Home processing...

Son got lucky this weekend!!!

Now deer is packed up & in the freezer! 

My brother-in-law took him hunting over the past weekend.  Tyler was the only one of them to get a deer.  We got it all packaged up & labeled.  After taking some to brother-in-law we still have a good bit.  We packed up a couple good roasts & tenderloin & a tad of boneless chunks (for dinner tonight)  The rest was ground into sausage & hamburger.

How we make deer/venison burger:

Clean & debone meat VERY well.  Cut off all the white that you can.  Then get a box of bacon ends & pieces.  In your meat grinder, put a little meat & then a piece or two of the bacon.  Repeat until all ground!  Venison does not have much fat so the bacon adds some fat & lots of flavor.  You really don't need alot though. 

deer/venison sausage: (pan/patty type)

Same thing except use a big roll of sausage to fill in for the fat/bacon.  It stretches the sausage out alot.  Now you could buy all the sausage ingredients & skip buying the sausage, but we've done this once before & we like it better & it costs less with buying a roll or two.

Tonights supper:

Venison tips & gravy over rice, cob corn, biscuits

Saturday around the homestead

My nephew had spent the night so we woke up a bit early for a Saturday.  Had coffee & hubby cooked breakfast for all of us.  (Cut up some leftover sausages & scrambled eggs up with them.  Served on a warm tortillia...yum)

Then we got around and made a quick run to Wal-Mart & then to Home Depot to get a couple of boards. 

When we got home I watered all the animals & hubby built a trough for the pigs and changed the oil in the 4-wheeler.  Then we used the 4-wheeler to drag the new pen to the back.  We then disassembled it and walked the pieces though the woods to where the pigs will be living by next weekend.  We re-assembled it & got pretty much done until we ran out of screws. 

After that hubby cut down a few small trees & chopped off a bunch of low branches with the machette.  Now we have a trail to drive the 4-wheeler to carry back water to them.  We pulled the branches to a hole to burn at another time.  We shall finish the pen tomorrow.

Since my son has been older & has out-grown me, he is usually recruted to help with these types of projects.  I must admit, it's hard work!  I used to do it often, but I've been used to sticking to the less intense type of work lately.  When we came in a little while ago I hopped in the tub for a quick bath & made a pot of coffee.  I'm tired!   It is a good tired though; Fufilling for putting in a hard days work.

We're all inside now so I best get some supper started. I had set some fish & veggies out to thaw, but---I'm ordering pizza! LOL  My son does not like the only place around here to get pizza so since he's off on a hunting/camping trip & I'm tired, pizza it is!...supreme of course!

I hope you all had a blessed day!

Roadkill Cafe...

Anyone out there need a good recipe for squirrel???

Actually this is the recipe I use for my chicken & dumplings but it was origionally written for squirrel.  So, I use about 3 chicken leg quarters in place of the squirrel.

Squirrel (or chicken) & Dumplings

Serves 4-5

Cut 2 squirrels into serving pieces (or just put in the leg quarters)

Place in a kettle, cover with 1 inch water, add 2 bay leaves and simmer 1 1/4 hours, skimming as necessary.  Remove meat & debone.  Add 1 cup sliced onions, 1 cup chopped celery, 10 medium carrots, quartered.  Season with 2 tsp. salt & 1/2 tsp. pepper; add 1 1/2 cups hot water.  Cook 15 minutes longer.  Put the meat back into the pot.  Add the dumplings (below)

Dumplings

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

4 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup milk

1 T. oil

Mix dry ingredients.  Gradually add milk & oil.  Turn dough onto floured board, roll to 1/2 inch thickness, and cut in 3-inch squares.  Place on top of ingredientsn kettle, cover tightly, cook 15 minutes.