Snow and a finished object! Woo hoo!

 We woke up to a bit of snow on the ground this morning. 

Just a covering. ... 

Yeah, and the lighting was funky this morning. 

I feel so bad for the chickens. No matter what this season they can't have a dry coop run. 

My weekly trip to town was today. I would have gone yesterday, but I didn't want to deal with potential crowds. 

When I came back, I had lunch and took a quick cat nap.  

Then I played in the kitchen for the afternoon. 

I made a "sweet" cheeseball for my hubby.  

He said he liked this one better than the one I made for Christmas.  Woo hoo! 

And I just realized I didn't take a photo of it. 

I did take a photo of the cheeseball I was re-tweaking. 

I mixed the cream cheese for both cheeseballs until it was light and fluffy. 

While I was being all domestic and making and baking I was watching a garden show on Amazon Prime. 

I thought the closed caption caught was funny. 

Banana bread was made, too. 

In mini loaf pans because they are so fancy and pinky up. 

Yum!  It is tasty! 

This is what the front yard looked like this afternoon. 

My back yard. 

There was something pretty going on with the sky.  The sun kept trying to peek out and I thought it would win.  It did not. 

This evening I finished up the project I've been working on.  Could you tell from yesterday's photo what the project might be? 

It is a kitty cat. 

Maybe not the best lighting for her. 

Let's try this one. 

This is the biggest plush toy I've made with the chenille-type yarn. 

It was not easy to work with as you might think it will be. Especially if you have to unto stitching when you are sewing parts on.  And she's supposed to have a donut treat.  I'm not making one.  Maybe down the road, if I saw a color yarn I thought would go well.  Right now the local walmart has white, pink and green yarn of this type. 

But I digress.  

I'm happy it's done.  I have a grand plan to make a second one. Both will be gifts. 

Nap-attacked

 Both yesterday and today I was nap-attacked and wound up taking naps that were at least an hour long.

Change in the weather?  Or that I "peopled" on Friday and it wore me out?  Maybe both. 

We are continuing on our trend of weather that isn't acting like it should for this time of year. 

This morning it snowed. 

Big fat, wet-looking flakes. 

By late afternoon it was mostly gone. 

I was having a chat with one of my friends and she mentioned chili.  Suddenly that was all I could think of eating.  It sounded so good.  I didn't want to make a whole back of chili.

Then I remembered I had canned up some chili and put it up in the pantry. 

Woo hoo!  Canned foods for the win!

But, really, though ... today has been a really quiet day.  I did a little knitting.  Tidied up the kitchen. 

Went out hunting this afternoon. 

Not even a squirrel. 

Hunting season is coming to a close very soon.  I'm grateful I filled my antlerless tag, but this could be the first year since my first year hunting that I don't get a buck. 

Then I did a little stitching this evening. 

Can you guess? 

Oh, earlier today my husband and I figured out the yardage on one of the skeins of yarn I got from Temu. 

It's disappointing. Course now I don't remember the yardage for a single skein. 

I think for the entire 5-pack it's more than 600 yards. Not enough to do a sweater, right?  A person would need 10 of these skeins, or two packs, minimum to make a sweater. 

Sooooo ... I need to find a pattern that I can make with two colors. Not necessarily striped. Something to look for in the new year. 

Speaking of new years ... It's so close to the start of the new year.  Can you believe it? We are one week from Christmas. 

Remember this yarn?

I need to get my butt in gear and start making the gift I had planned to make with it. ... Only I can't find this yarn. Where did I put it? Ugh ... 

There's something else I want to make and have complete by next weekend. Cross stitch and the other things will be put on hold until I get these projects complete. 

In addition to wrapping up an issue.  We have a deadline on Friday. And making plans for the Christmas weekend, the big meal and all. 

Now, for something different

 Tonight I worked on a quilt square. 

I am a pinner!

This is the sixth out of 12 squares. I'm halfway there!

The rest of the squares will have the bear paw-looking bits turned inward. 

After spending so much time lately on cross stitch and knitting it was nice to work on something different. It took a long time and I made a boo boo towards the end, despite having the pieces all laid out. 

Earlier today I was half-watching the birds while I was feeding my sourdough starter. 

I finally figured out a way to have suet out for the birds and the squirrels aren't knocking the holder down and taking off with the suet cake. 

I also put out some dried pieces of bread for the squirrels and the blue jays. 

The blue jays liked the bread.  I'm sure they would have rather had corn or some kind of seed.  Beggars can't be choosers. 

I managed a photo of one of the squirrels enjoying the bread, but the window was all steamed up so it didn't turn out. 

Yup, it was a happy crew out there. 

My sourdough starter ...  I'm struggling this time around. 

It gets a lot of the "hooch" going.  Which I read is okay. 

It's not behaving like I expect it to. I don't see the massive amount of bubbles or growth.  I've been reading a bit on The Pantry Mama's website.  I feel so invested in this now.  Maybe it's the time of year?  Not as much wild yeast floating around? 

And then I ask myself "Why am I doing this?" Cause I read that sourdough can be better for you than regular white bread and I want to test this out. 

Oh yeah, and I managed to eek out another ornament this evening. It took like no time at all. 

Adventures in sausage-making

 A week ago, or so, my hubby said to me something along the lines of "Hey, you wanna try making our own venison sticks?" 

"Sure!" I said, "That could be fun!" And we have all the equipment for making venison sticks.  

Venison sticks ... the whole family loves them.  

And, if we make them ourselves we get to control the amount of seasoning and heat in them.  

See, my boys like the venison sticks with more heat in them than I do.  I have a delicate palate and stomach.  So, not as much jalapeno's and peppers in a batch for me. 

Well, we got everything ready for making venison sticks.  The venison was mixed up with seasoning and jalapeños and peppers from our own garden. 

We made a trip up to Fleet Farm to get some casings and we were set. 

Until we discovered our meat grinder didn't have the proper plate for running meat through that doesn't need to be ground. 

Ugh! 

We made calls to all the stores we could think of that might have these plates.  No luck. 

My hubby did some research and we ordered a sausage maker off of Amazon.  Surprise, surprise, it showed up in record time and we made some sausages!  It was a smaller batch, just to get the hang of it.  

Then it was decided we needed a bigger smoker so we could smoke a larger amount of sausages at a time. 

Back to the drawing board. Sort of. 

It was decided to try a propane smoker.  

Someone has been having fun seeing all that the smoker can do. 

The results have been delicious! 

This is a portion of what we have craft (created?) so far. Yum! Gallon-sized bags with pounds and pounds of delicious venison sticks in each one. 

Friday afternoon activities

 I had a little mishap this morning.  I hoped it wasn't going to set the tone for the day. 

My creamer pitcher fell out of the cupboard and landed on my butter dish. 

I've had that butter dish for at least 10 years. Perhaps the universe was telling me it was time to get a new one? 

Then I decided I would make a loaf of bread.  I have a breadmaker I picked up second-hand.  I hit start and I could tell the paddle wasn't moving.  *sigh* I dumped the dough out, knead it by hand and tossed the breakmaker in the garbage.  It will be a while before I decide to get a new one. 

Things could only go up from there, right? 

Well, yeah ... 

This afternoon I decided to make an apple crisp and make a batch of lemon curd. 

I think I missed the boat on the meyer lemons.  I LOVE meyer lemon curd. 

Lemon curd with regular lemons is *almost* just as good. 

Seedling check-in time. 

No peppers yet.  I know, patience.  I have them on a heat mat and it is set to 80 degrees. 

Almost all the broccoli sprouted. The cabbage and cauliflower is about 50 percent germinated. 

Those broccoli babies are so cute!

I lowered the lettuce plants today. 

When I looked at them this morning I noticed some sun scald on a few of the leaves. 

These babies were planted 17 days ago and sprouted about two weeks ago. 

I have two more shelves to fill up.  Well, technically two-and-a-half shelves.  I'm still reading and watching videos about soil blocking. I'm definitely feeling more confident about this seed starting method.

I'm pondering garden plans, still.  Coleous in the planters out front.  A butteryfly garden on the side. ... Morning glories in front of the solar panels. All possibilities are being considered.  Nothing set in stone yet. There is still several feet of snow on the ground. 

This is the first year I seem to be on the ball when it comes to cold stratification. 

I purchased a few new packets of flower seeds that I have struggled with the last several years. 

These are some seeds that I picked up this week.  I'm also going to try growing "fancy" radishes. I've been seeing a LOT about starting leeks and onions at this time of year, so I picked a packet of those up too. 

Poppies, morning glories, four o'clocks and a few other flower seeds are currently sitting in a container out in the garage. I'm going to do a bit more reading before I start these flower seeds.  

The poppies, however, I'd love to be able to start sooner than later.  One of my fondest wishes it to be successful with poppies. 

Coming to the end of the season

Last Wendesday we woke up to no power.  Actually, the power went out right after we went to bed Tuesday night.  I fretted a bit and was up and down a bit.  I think I annoyed my DH because I kept getting up and walking through the house.

Our house gets *really* dark when the power goes out.  Goes to show how much stuff is softly illuminated nowadays.

Thursday is kind of a blur. I don't remember anything significant from that day.

Friday I cleaned out both coops.  Cleaning the big coop takes a lot longer than cleaning our little one.  I had to find a new spot to start dumping the litter.  I found a spot but it requires rolling over some fallen trees.  If I remember, I need to get out there and move the trees out of the way.

I also canned some green beans for the first time and blanched some cabbage for the freezer. Freezer space is now at a premium so I decided to put my big girl boots on and pressure can some beans.  For the record, it was not nearly as nerve-wracking as some have made it out to be.

I got to use my fancy hot plate again. I'm still thrilled to bits that I have it.  I'm also learning how to get things ready so water doesn't take too long to heat up.  I'm used to canning outside on a camper stove, so things heat up really fast.  Using my hot plate isn't as fast as my camp stove  BUT I can now pressure can to my little hearts content indoors.  I love the stove that I picked out when we bought the house, but yeah, I didn't really think it through regarding pressure canning.  I keep reading you can pressure can on glasstop stoves but I'm leery.  This stove has to last me a good long time. Again, thanks to my MIL for getting me a hot plate for my birthday.



Cabbage is one of the easiest things to preserve, in my opinion. You basically, cut it, blanch it for three minutes and then bag it for the freezer.  We didn't plant much cabbage this year and the four bags full of cabbage is plenty for soup this winter.

Saturday we went and got the last of the wood we purchased. We managed to cram the last of it into one load.  It was a beautiful day and I mostly puttered around the house and tended to the ladies and gents (chickens and roos).

I also spent some time out in the garden and dug up some carrots and beets.  I was so proud of some of the beets I pulled up -- until I turned them around and saw that critters had been gnawing on them.

Boo!  I lost a lot of beets to critters.

I haven't dug up all the carrots and beets yet.  Figured I'd so some more this weekend since I don't have to worry about losing those crops to frost.  Saturday night I cleaned my harvest so I could pressure can Sunday. 

I don't mind canning and saving the harvest. I just wish there wasn't quite so much chopping that needed to be done.

In the end I wound up with a decent amount of jarred food.  Not a ton but enough to make me happy. 

If you look at the beans you will see I used my fancy blue jars.

Next year I NEED to plan the garden better. I'm not gonna lie, thanks to the weeds taking over the garden I lost a lot of produce before I even got out there.

This weekend we thought we lost one of the Americauna chickens. My son had put the girls to bed Friday night and didn't do roll call. Saturday morning he was upset because he thought we offed her because she developed a limp.  We called and looked for her but she never appeared.  Figured a hawk got her because she couldn't run fast.

Well, as I was picking up the yard I over turned a box and *BAM* there she was, under the box.  I think she tried to sit on the edge of the box and managed to flip it over on herself.

Lesson learned.  Don't leave boxes in the yard.

I'm just glad she's safe and sound, and still with us.

School is still going well for my son. He must be enjoying it because there is no complaining and whining in the morning. The school bus is still a success. He loves it. I do pray it stays that way.  I know he feels more grown up and responsible.

The evenings are getting more chilly so we've been running the wood stove. I've missed it a bit. The fires make the whole house feel more cozy.  I'm also getting pretty darn good at getting it started.  No more waiting for my man to come home and light a fire.

Friday I started listening to "Beautiful Creatures." I'm enjoying it immensely and it is really helping the commute go by.  As I told my one friend, I've been a good girl and I haven't read about the book to see what's going to happen. Then I found out it is the start of a series.  Oh boy, I can see myself falling down the rabbit hole.  Once the weather changes for the winter I can see myself getting lost in books again.

Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. The smell of wood smoke.

2. Having a good book to listen to on my way to and from work.

3. Things are starting to settle down into a routine. (Ha! I may have just jinxed myself)

4. Something really awesome is happening for one of my friends.

5. Carmel apple season.  

Epic wood project done!

Why do I feel like snickering at that title? :-)

Way back when, in January or so, we ordered a whole mess of wood to split and have ready for the upcoming winter.  The family started splitting it on weekends and it became the "thing" we did on weekends.  After a while it became a bit of a slog and a lot of times it felt like it would the project would never end.

Guess what?

Hurray! It's done! Wood won't need to be split for quite a while.  By then, my son will be old enough to do the majority of the work.  Just kidding ... or am I?

Today was the first day I was able to let my son sleep in a bit before going to daycamp.  Naturally he woke up early and then was promptly crabby about what I made for breakfast.

At about 8:30 a.m. the FedEx man delivered a package which turned out to be an early birthday present from my MIL.  She checked out my Amazon wishlist and ordered me a Cadco PCR-1S professional cast iron range.

I am so stoked! I immediately called her up and thanked her.

To back track a bit, I wanted one of these for canning season.  I have a glasstop stove and even though *they* say you can pressure can on glasstop stoves, I'm pretty leery about doing so.  If my stove broke I would be hurting.

I shared my good news with a canning group on Facebook and someone asked how the canner fit on the hot plate. I took a picture and shared. 

Now I feel like I can pressure can and water bath all the canning things!  I've already run it through it's initial heat up to set the sealant.  Hmmm, what to make on its maiden voyage?  Stay tuned!

Since I had a work-at-home day I let the chickens and other fowl out early this a.m.  They had a fabulous day.  I told my DH that I felt bad for the turkeys because a few times today they were up on the deck making their little barking sound.  It was as if they were looking and calling for their missing flock member.

My DH watched the white turkey jump up on one of their new roosts he put up a few nights ago.  Apparently turkeys are not very graceful getting up to higher places and he has theorized that might have been what happened to our male bronze turkey, he injured himself trying to get up on the roost.

This photo was taken earlier in the week but I didn't have a chance to post it.

Elvis is still brooding.  Feels like she's been like this forever now.  I pulled her out of the coop and set her out in the yard.  Buck immediately tried to make hearts with her.  Elvis freaked and ran over by Brewster, who tried to do his dance of desire and impress her.  It was comical, actually.   Then she ran around the coop a few times and dashed back in.

So that is all the excitement in my neck of the woods today.


Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. Early birthday presents and receiving my new hot plate.

2. No more wood splitting.  Woo hoo!

3. How easy it is to get the guineas tucked in for the night.

4. Sleeping with the windows open.

5. Hamburgers made on the grill.  Yum!

The canning season has started

Yesterday I started processing about 125 pounds of ground beef.  Yes, you read that right, 125 pounds of ground beef.

There was a good sale on ground beef at one of the local grocery stores this past week and DH thought it would be good to put in a bulk order and rotate out the freezer stuff.  I don't think either one of us had any idea how much ground beef was in the freezer.

In preparation for this I had picked up eight cases of pint jars from Menard*s last week.  I have some home stock but wanted make sure I had enough jars.

Yesterday morning started with a bit of a bang of sorts.  I woke up at 5 a.m. to my son being sick in the bathroom.  Poor guy.  He spent most of the day in bed. 

Anywho, after I got him taken care of and the mess taken care of it was almost 6 a.m. and I decided to start the project. 

My DH helped when he could.  He had his own projects to tend too.  The morning flew by.  I had both of my pressure canners going. I have two 16 quart pressure canners. They hold 10 pint jars at a time.

Once 1 p.m. rolled around my feet had started hurting and time started getting really slow. My kitchen was a disaster.  It's interesting how this took up ALL of my counter space, my table and the rolling cart I have.

I didn't even eat supper.  I nibbled in between loads.  About 8 p.m. I  started wondering if I could even get this done in one evening.  I posted something on the FB canning group I belong too and one person tipped their hat to me for this most ambitious canning project I have ever done.

I decided that I would probably be up til 1 a.m. finishing this up and I think my guy was ready to stay up with me.

However, about 11 p.m. both the canners were winding down on the current loads, I had 25 pints left to go and was starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. (I couldn't believe how long this had been going on.) I opened one of the canners and discovered that it had boiled nearly dry and the bottom of my canner was warped. 

I threw in the towel and told my guy that I was done.  D-O-N-E, done for the night.  NO way was I going to get it done.  I was also peeved over the fact my canner ran almost dry.  I had been loading more then the recommended water amount too.  Grrrr.

This a.m. the alarm went off (because it's Monday even though I don't have to be at work) and we ran to town real quick and picked me up a new canner and came home.

While jars were processing I worked in the garden and I wrapped my project up by removing the rings, washing the rings and washing all the jars that I could.

This may not look like much since I have the jars back in the cases.  This is 108 pint jars, seven quart jars and there are five jars still sitting on my table waiting to get cleaned.  Total is 120 jars.

I don't think I will ever do a processing job as big as this again.  I forgot that from start to finish it takes about two hours for one canner load.  I usually do more water bath canning so I forget that pressure canning takes so much longer.

I think I want salad for supper tomorrow.

Seriously this is going to save us SO much time over the next year and will greatly simplify dinner meals. 

In other news this weekend, we had family out at the homestead which was great like always. 

Afterwards the family decided to go cruising around and checking out the local lakes. My GPS died on me even though I put fresh batteries in it.  There are a lot of little lakes around and so many roads going all around them.  It would be very easy to get lost.

We stopped at one and let my son throw a line out. He caught a few little sunfish. None big enough to be keepers however.

Today was a hot day.  The animals were feeling it.  My DH caught the two Reds snuggling next to each other during a dust bath.  They looked so ridiculous.

While I was working in the garden my DH looked up how to tell boy and girl turkeys apart.  Looks like we have one of each for the bronze turkeys.  The white turkey is a boy too.  He's the tallest out of the three.

Mr. Turkey decided to show off a bit today and fan his tail out.  My goodness he's pretty.  His neck has also started changeing color.

So now we have a breeding pair for turkeys.  To keep or not?  I have a feeling we have two new pets and breeding stock.  Unless they turn into real jerks.

Tomorrow it's back to the grind.  Such a shame since the weather has finally turned nice and I want to do a ton of things at home and outside.

Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. The epic canning project is DONE. 

2. Being able to sleep with the windows open.  That is so nice.

3. Getting to eat meals outside.  I've missed that.

4. Things are starting to come up in the garden.

5. Being able to spend time with family. It's not easy to coordinate all our schedules so I'm always happy when it works out.