November 25th, 2008

We've had a relaxing day in Sheridan today. Kent and I went for a walk around Veronica's property. She has ginormous spiderballs on the yard and they are awesome. We are thinking about sending a bunch home. We found a deer blood trail and tried to track it but lost the trail at the creek. Guess what? I was a better tracker than Kent today - AMAZING! Maybe he has taught me a thing or two.





I toured the Norway grocery and it is as good as its name. It has Lutefisk year round!!! There were fishballs and Norwegian candy on the shelves. They had homemade rosettes and krumkakke in the deli. I even found Kent a pair of Norwegian flag sunglasses! Maybe I'll get him to try them on! I'll upload that later if it works.

We are leaving early tomorrow from ORD so it will either be a very short night or a very long night depending on how we play it. Sounds like we leave Sheridan at around 4 to get there in time.

We have plans for Lynchburg TN and the Jack Daniels Distillery in the morning and then family reunion all day.

It was a beautiful day day 40 degrees and sunny all day.

Monday, November 24

We survived round one of the trip.

Our train trip started at 2:20 am instead of 10:30 with a couple extra stops along the way. We pulled in to Minneapolis at 11:00 am and met Linda and Tina (Uncle Ed's) at the depot. They took us back to Linda's where we visited Bob, Ed, Alice, Tina and Linda. They showed us Linda's new house and then took us to a late breakfast.

Linda and the gang kept us in stitches with tales of Ed from the younger days. Kent is still picturing the "Tripod" - why Ed doesn't need a walking stick. Unfortunately we did not get to meet the Lithuanian Sausage (Todd). Grandma and I danced in the parking lot while Ed played harmonica.

We got Grandma loaded on the plane with minutes to spare and off she went. Our trip was smooth sailing and the exit from the airport went off without a hitch. (Hopefully the rest goes as well.)

We're just getting geared up for the day with Veronica, Kent is having the best vacation of his life - Veronica has hundreds of CD's for him to download so he's in hog heaven.

No snow here in Sheridan, IL (It all melted this morning) - We had Stuffed Crust (Authentic Chicago Style) pizza last night - YUMMMMMEEEEEE and good company with our friends....Happy Monday!

Friday, November 21

After today I won't be blogging for about a week. I am going to visit a friend in Chicago and then on to a family reunion in Tennessee. I get to see my niece for the first time....I am sooooo excited. Along with that I will get to meet the other new greats Eli, Hannah, and Hadley and spend time my aunts and uncles and everyone for a few days.

Kent is coming along - thanks mom and dad - so he will get to meet all the family for the first time. Even my dad's family is making the trip up...obviously not just to meet Kent - none of them have seen Makenna either - but he'll get the whole shebang at one time - which is only fair since I met his whole family at a family dinner all at once and I didn't even have advance notice.

Thursday, November 20th

It is so cold outside that when we were doing chores my nostrils crystalized and my eyelashes stuck together! It is that breathe in and fill your lungs with minty freshness while your teeth shatter and you don't even have Scope!

The ground by the yardlight sparkled as if God had dumped a bottle of glitter on the ground. The pretty irridescent kind of glitter that you only get to use on special occasions for making your mom or dad a greeting card in school. It is times like that, just that moment, that make you stand in awe of the wonder of God's majesty.

We butchered again tonight. Kent and I brought home about 50 pounds of breakfast sausage. We are up to 75 total. Guess we'll have a lot of biscuits and gravy this winter. Hopefully we'll get done tomorrow. Only two halves left! They were frozen solid tonight so we had to stop and let them thaw.

If any of you have birthday's coming up guess what you're getting?????? That's right PORK - The other white meat!

Here are pictures of the piglets. They are starting to come when we call and are getting closer to letting us pet them. They love peppers unless they get a hot one, squash is still the greatest thing ever, and carrots....still not a favorite!

This is Molly Sue - she's the only girl in the bunch and a sweetheart! She seems to be everyone's favorite.



This is Obama - he and Molly are our little ones. He is sneaky when it comes to food. He gets the good stuff and goes to a corner so Barack can't get to it.



This is Gimlet. Aptly named after the dwarf on Lord of the Rings. We were having a LOR weekend when we got the piglets and it seemed that Gimlet in the movie and our Gimlet were similar in characteristics. He isn't as aggressive as Barack but he's a nice big boy.



Here's Hilary - while he is not a girl - I had already named him when I found out and he's so pretty with his spots that I decided not to change it.



And finally the big boy...Barack. He was picked so we could have one ready early for butchering. He should be ready around Easter if we feed him up right. By then we might be ready for some more pork....I told my dad he had to come up to butcher this guy. He is aggressive and "hogs" all the food. He is pretty amazing at opening up pumkins and squash and he's the first to come and greet us.



Well it is -1 right now and the skies are clear. You should see those stars! When you first look up there are so many in your range of vision that you get a ton of wishes since you don't see just one....

Wednesday, November 19

Today we had movie snow. The snow that gently falls and you wish a sound track was playing and you were holding hands with the one you love. It was beautiful, it was magical.

Kent brought home breakfast sausage from our pork. 25 pounds so far and that was just our share. Tonight we cut two more sides (1 pig) and it was a skinny one. All in all so far we have 650 pounds of actual meat to divide with 5 halves left to finish.

Mom says we can have Sh..on a Shingle or if we're abbreviating Sh-on-a-Sh. I guess it was funnier when you repeat it over and over and you have a crazy mom and crazy daughter talking in Alice speak.


It is 23 degrees and the movie snow has left a light dusting covering all the surfaces. I love it when it snows a little like this because it powders over the crusty brown snow that has melted and makes everything fresh again.

Tuesday, November 18

Today was Eagles Auxiliary of which I am President. It was initiation night and I had the privilege of watching my grandma walk through the ritual and become a fellow Eagle sister.

Let me talk a little bit about the great things the Eagles has done. We adopted a soldier and his troop and sent FIFTEEN boxes of goodies to him overseas. It is so exciting that we are able to do something like that. The Eagles is truly "People Helping People."

We have our annual bake sale tomorrow so I am still up baking my goodies to take for the sale. I am making:

Chocolate Chip/Cream Cheese Bars

1 roll refrigerated cookie dough
1 package cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg.

Roll 1/2 of cookie dough into the bottom of an 8x8 pan/ mix together the cheese, egg, and sugar then pour over top/crumble remaining cookie dough on top and bake at 350 for 35 - 40 minutes. AWESOME.

AND

Cinnamon Apple Pizza

1 roll cinnamon rolls
1 can (21 oz) Apple pie filling
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup brown sugar

Flatten rolls and place in bottom of pie pan or on a pizza pan.
Bake 8 minutes at 400 degrees.
Cover with apple pie filling.
Melt butter and mix with brown sugar.
Sprinkle over apples.
Bake 6-8 minutes longer.
Cool and drizzle with icing from cinnamon rolls.

EASY!!!!


Kent is over butchering the sows. They have 3 1/2 done and the same to go. Tomorrow and Thursday they should be able to get all done. Looks like we will have 50 pounds just of breakfast sausage. Yummm-eee!

Well, time to check the treats....

It was a gorgeous day today. At 11:13 pm it is still 36 degrees with just a slight wind.

Until next time....

Monday, November 17th

Tonight was the community performance of the high school one-act play that I direct. We performed "Monster Soup" by Tim Kelly. My kids did awesome. They knew their parts and weren't even nervous in front of their peers. At the end of the show they asked me if they could do another yet this year...it makes it all worth it.

To see their faces light up when they are on stage and afterward when their parents were so proud. Pretty cool.

When I got home it was butchering time. The family worked on it all night and were on the last half of the second hog. Of course it had to be Bertha. She had 3 to 4 inches of fat on her back before I could even find meat. So far they think we have probably 650 pounds of just meat. They fried some of the tenderloin and chops up tonight to test. Man was it good!

The piglets are doing well. I gave them pumpkins this morning and they were in HOG heaven!

It is currently 23 degrees with a slight wind and overcast skies. ND in November!

Sunday, November 16

Slaughter Day.

Today was the day to take care of our sows.

It started with early morning chores with the piglets. They survived the first night and were excited about their new water trough and vegetable buffet. While carrots seem to be low on the list of edible foods, Italian squash is a must have.

Aaron, Kent's brother came out to get started with the days festivities and decided to hold Obama. You could hear the squealing all the way across the farmyard. Apparently he is not as of yet tame enough to be babied. Of course I had to go and make sure Aaron wasn't hurting my little ones.

Our friends Kristina and Sam came out to help from Bismarck, Skeet, Art, Dale, Aaron, Kent and I put down seven big sows in about 6 hours. Bertha topped the scales at roughly 800 pounds with the others coming in anywhere from 400 and up.

The process gives a new appreciation for our meat sources. I can honestly say I will enjoy every bite of that pork even more so knowing what work it involved.

Last night Kent and I watched several online videos on hog slaughtering. Some of them were very informational - butchering a pig in under 3 minutes, making a hog head roll - supposedly a tasty delicacy, and the proper way to slaughter a hog - Thanks meatman! While others were disturbing in that they tried to portray the process as so inhumane and ugly. I know there are those folks out there who don't eat meat and believe that animals should be treated "humanely," they will look at some of the pictures of what we did today with utter disgust. They should know that this is part of our way of life. The days work we put in and subsequent evenings of butchering will feed our families for months and months to come. We worked hard and put in an honest days work and will reap the benefits of our labors. This is life on the plains.

My first hog slaughter. My arms are sore, my body aches, I smell of pig, and I know I am alive! I'm grateful for today's accomplishments. I spent the day with loved ones and my work has value and purpose. In looking at them all hanging in the barn and thinking back to one week ago when the same barn held our two bucks I guess I could say I'm pretty rich. Not many people can say they had their hands on seven "$$$Sowsandbucks$$$$" all in one place in a weeks time! Okay that is a little nod to my mom....very funny stuff Della!

Hope you enjoy the pictures. That's me in the red hat.

Until next time...

It was around 33 degrees and overcast with a wind that kept our cheeks rosy and our breath in the air. Occasional flurries dropped picture perfect flakes. What a wonderful place!!!!

November 15th

Saturday in North Dakota.

Woke up at sunrise to go deer hunting. We had one doe tag left to fill. Last weekend was the opener and we filled almost all of our tags right away. I have to admit that I am pretty proud of my accomplishments...1 shell, 1 shot, 1 kill. I had my buck tagged and in the truck within the first 46 minutes of the season. I was born on Annie Oakley's birthday...maybe she helped me out this once! Or maybe I was just really lucky. My big guy was a 135 pound 7 x 7 non-typical wall hanger. I thank the good Lord that it didn't take more than that as I learned this year that deer hunting is not for the semi-in shape former athlete. I have a long way to go to be ready for next season...good thing I have 360 days until then.

This morning we walked the corn and got a doe...well the Kent the bf got a doe...I just walked along. Pretty little thing - and we are thankful for the provisions nature has provided. All total we have two bucks and a doe in the freezer....good eatin'.

Once we returned to the farm it was time to help the family move cattle. We raise longhorns but the other family members have beef cattle. They are a little less well-mannered than our herd. While I am thankful it went as smoothly as it did...I'll take a big ol' longhorn cow any day!

I may be a little bruised and now reflecting back on the day I little worked over.

While we were getting the cattle moved Kent's brother informed us that the family were the proud owners of several butcher hogs that needed to be picked up and butchered this weekend.

After we got back from moving cattle we headed to Anamoose to pick up our animals. We ended up with two 900+ pound sows, 3 400+ pound sows, and 2 250+ pound sows. These ladies are massive. All total we should put 1500 plus pounds of pork in the freezer! The bonus of the day was the 90 head of piglets in the adjoining pen.

Now those of you who have known me since the early days may recall that at one time I collected pig figurines. As of this evening I have added to that collection. Five little piglets all in the barn. So cute...and so many extra chores. Not sure what I got into but can't wait to ride the pig farm wave! I'll try to put pix of the little rascals online. Looks like I will be fencing, feeding, watering and calling...listen closely can you hear my,

"Suuuueeeee!"

Gotta rest up - tomorrow is slaughtering day. Seven sows need to be hung and ready to butcher by mid-week. This may not be for the squeemish.

It was a sunny, beautiful November day in North Dakota today. 33 degrees with a covering of snow that remains from last weeks' blizzard. The sunrise this morning as we got ready for the hunt was magical - oranges and reds with just a hint of yellow. It looked like a horizontal fire warming the Winter....wait I mean Fall sky.