My oh my what hasn't happened

A little over 60 days ago we slaughtered our pig and now slaughtering time is upon us again.  In that 60 days the whole world has been turned upside down and righted again.

On December 23rd, my youngest daughter was admitted to Children's Hospital for an infection.  She was seriously ill and had to stay for a total of 7 days.  The week we spent fell over Christmas, so she got presents from the staff and Santa.  Our other children were with their married sister for the first 3 days until she informed us she could no longer care for them.  Then for the remaining 4 days they stayed at their grandmother's house.  My husband had to make the journey himself as I could not leave my daughter's side.  Everyone was worried if she would live.  I am happy to report she made a full recovery.

On the night of December 30th we came home to an unlivable home.  The entire floor was chewed through and would not keep heat because the people we relied on to care for the animals let us down.  We all slept in the boys room wit a tiny little heater to keep us warm because the local hotel refused to rent us a room. 

The next day we over drafted by a grand to make emergency repairs to the floor and plumbing.  It took all day to close up the floor and fix the plumbing.  Then the next week to clean the house of the destruction which was wrought in our absence. 

After cleaning, our children resumed their normal activities, somewhere around the middle of January...just in time to bring home the flu to everyone.  For the next two weeks the flu burned through everyone in the house.  We are just now healing form this terrible illness now.  The flu this year brought high fevers, pain, sore throats, vomiting, the runs, weakness, dizziness, fainting spells, and general malaise.  On the second week comes the chest congestion, coughing, mucus, shortness of breath, and inability to do much physically. 

I hope we can finally get everything on track, cutting wood, butchering another pig, starting seedlings, getting chicks, and planting beds.  We have so much to do.  I hope I can keep up.

Pig Slaughtering Day

Today, we slaughtered a pig.  In case you don't know, we tend to make, kill, and process a lot of our meat.  In the winter and fall is when we kill and process most of our meat.  Today was the first day of the season we actually went out and processed any meat at all.  It also happens to be my husband's birthday.  We took pictures of the process, but fair warning, it is gruesome for the inexperienced eye.  Also, we had to move the process indoors towards the end and didn't get a bunch of shots of the actual processing beyond the cleaning.  When we do another pig, sometime this season, we will have better shots that illustrate the process better.

First you have to string the pig up by the hind quarter trotters.  We are using meat hooks and rope slung over a low branch of a persimmon tree.  This is the heaviest part of the job and you really need two people to do it.  

Here my husband is cutting the throat to help the animal bleed out better.  This was not an ideal slaughter as we had to transport the corpse of the pig to our place from another town.  Usually they are bled out immediately after the shot to the skull with a .22 rifle.  This pig was a gift to us from our daughter and her husband so we had to do the process a little different.

We let the pig hang to bleed out for a few minutes.  Sometimes it's fast and sometimes it's slow.  The longer it takes from the kill shot to the hanging, the slower it is to bleed out.

Here he is trying to cut the skin, but not the intestines.  He is very ginger in this process because a single knick to the intestinal wall will allow feces to go all over the meat and ruin it.  

Here my husband is cleaning the pig off a bit better.  We did wash the pig off before starting the process, but he felt it wasn't adequate enough.

On this shot, he has already punctured the abdominal wall, without puncturing the intestines.  Here he is gauging how far he has to go down yet.  This process takes a lot of time.  One wrong slip of the knife and all the meat is ruined.  Also, note, this is a skinny pig, which means not a lot of fat, so not a lot of room for error.

He has it cut down to the sternum now.  He is finding the intestines and where they are.  He will detach them from the back wall of the abdomen.  He is also checking all the other organs manually, but he can't see them well yet.

He has detached the intestines from the back wall and is moving them out of the abdominal cavity.  He is doing this very gently.  Again, he doesn't want anything to tear.

He is now removing the anus.  The goal is to cut it free from the rest of the animal, while keeping the intestines intact with the anus.  That way all the nasty feces inside can be discarded at once.  We do not use the intestines for casings for sausage, though we know many that do.  Our dogs enjoy the intestines.  I make country sausage which need no casings.

The anus is removed and the intestines are coming out slowly.  There is some fat attached to the back he is separating the intestines from.

Almost out!

The abdominal cavity after the anus and intestines are removed.  You may notice the big red thing in there.  That is the liver, a prized possession in our house.  

Here is the liver and gall bladder taken out of the animal.  The gall bladder is the lighter colored sack on the liver.  It needs to be removed before the liver is further processed.

Here is the liver with the gall bladder removed.  This is the perfect time to check to see it is healthy and parasite free.  It was a beautiful liver.

He is further cutting down the abdomen to make room to take out the heart.

He removes the heart of the pig.  He is checking for any abnormalities.

Here he is showing my son that the heart is very much like a human heart.  My son got a great lesson on pig anatomy today.  We also managed to throw a little science in teaching about the chambers of the heart and how a pig heart was once used in a human's chest.  This is why home schooling and homesteading go hand in hand.  You experience it first hand.  No need for dissection class when you slaughter a pig.  

We skin our pigs and save the skin for processing into leather.  This will be our first attempt at making leather.  The last time our dogs ran off with the pig skin.  The skinning takes a long itme.  

It's getting late so I start to help with the skinning.

With a rabbit, you can just slip the skin, or pull it right off.  However, with a pig, you have to slowly and painstakingly cut as you tear away from the flesh.  It isn't so bad when you have a decent layer of fat on the outside of the pig.  Then there is a huge buffer.  This pig was skinny without almost any fat.  She was only seven months old and a Red Hamp X Berkhsire Mix.  They are heritage pigs which take longer to put good fat on.

We moved indoors after that and began to butcher.  It was all hands on deck at that point, so there were literally no hands free to photograph the process.  Here's a cut of meat though.

In the end this is how much meat we got from a tiny 80 pound pig.  This is huge!  Tomorrow I will go through and further break down the meat into sausage and choice cuts.  I'm beat though, so in the freezer it goes for tonight.  

Until next time!

Where do I belong?

I have spent the first part of my life in the mountains of Appalachia.  Until the age of 6, I lived in Confluence, Pennsylvania.  We went to a little white Methodist Church, my grandmother and I, every Sunday.  After church, grandma would go grocery shopping, then she would go home.  She would have a roast or something in the oven already, because grandma was an excellent homemaker.  We would put up some of our groceries from the weeks haul, but at least half, we would repackage into new paper sacks.  One bag represented another family's food.

Grandma would haul 4-6 sacks of groceries into her big green Ford and put me in the back.  You see grandma was a land lady.  It wasn't the only thing she did, but it was one of her many businesses at 70 years old.  The woman was a brilliant business woman and financial accountant.  She would visit each of her rental properties with a sack of groceries in her hands.  She always made sure to add a bit of meat to each sack, usually a pound of hamburger, or a whole chicken.  Grandma would come in with the groceries and say, "I brought you a little something."  It was a way to break the ice since no one wants to see the land lady.  It was also a way to get in the house and see how they took care of her house.  However, grandma also said it was because she had never seen such poor people as lived in them hills.  She would remark when we left to my mother, "Take a notation of the little girl's shoe size.  She hasn't any and winter is coming."  Then the next time we came, grandma would have a pair of boots for the little girl, along with the sack of groceries.  That was how grandma was. 

Now often people didn't have the rent money.  Grandma lived through the Depression and tried to work with folks.  She often would give them two or three months to make any payment at all.  Still every month, bringing a sack of groceries.  If grandma showed up without a sack of groceries, it meant she was giving you one last warning before eviction.  She was patient.  Patient to the point of saintliness.  I remember one woman kept coming up short.  Her husband was an alcoholic and drank the money away.  Grandma had a soft spot for such women, because she too had suffered through a marriage with a man that liked to drink.  I remember this woman crying, "Oh please Mary, I can't be on the street with the children.  Please Mary, I will work for you, just let the children in for the winter."  It made me so sad to see this woman begging because her husband drank up all the money two nights before.  She didn't even have money for food.  It touched grandma's heart too.

She told the woman, "You get rid of your no good husband and I will find plenty of work for you and food too."  The woman had to call the cops on her husband several times till they kept him in jail, but she got rid of him.  Grandma kept her word too.  The woman was a seamstress.  She sewed me all sorts of handmade dresses.  For six months grandma kept this arrangement.  I would get a new dress or two every month with fabric grandma bought.  The lady had a place to stay for one more month and a sack of groceries.  Then the woman got some sort of welfare and just paid grandma rent.  After that, their lives were good for a while, until she took her husband back.  Right about when my mother was moving away grandma had to kick the woman and her husband out for non-payment of rent.  I remember grandma saying, "Now I gave you a chance.  The rent must be paid or your just gonna have to move."  My uncle Bud is the one that went with the sheriff to evict them though.  It was too stressful for grandma because she knew that woman could have had a good life without that man.

Grandma was no slacker just collecting rent and going to church.  Sundays were for visiting but the rest of the days of the week were for working.  Even on Saturday she worked.  She woke up before the sun, cooked three meals every day, changed the linens once a week, swept, and dusted, and did dishes three times a day.  She did all that and had a garden, canned, made sausage, cookies, noodles, and much more. 

After I got sick and had to have treatment at Children's, she spent money to help a friend of mine get a bone marrow transplant.  She also gave six months living expenses to a widow of a young man that died of cancer.  When she found out how dangerous cancer was because of what happened with me, she took it upon herself to try and save as many local people as she could by paying for or raising money for them to get treatment.  Back then, cancer was a death sentence unless you had money.  Even cancers that could be treated, most just died from for lack of funding. 

In the end, grandma was consumed by the cancer she fought for almost a decade.  She caught lung cancer that spread to her brain.  I begged grandma not to go.  I didn't understand why she was leaving because I was only seven when she passed.  I still remember her waking up at 2 am to melt cheese on top of crackers because I cried I was hungry.  She was my first motherly love.  She loved me enough to sacrifice, at even 70, to help me feel loved.  She was a shining example of what a woman could be.  I hope to honor her memory by the time I am old and near my grave with my life, though I feel I will fall far short. 

My First Grandchild

I have been a mother for so long it is hard to imagine being anything else.  My eldest child is 21 years old and my youngest child is 8.  The age difference between all of my children is dizzying.  I have the great fortune of finding out that I will be a grandmother and this Friday, I will finally get to see the little tyke at my daughter's sonogram.  Words fail to express the wonder, beauty, and joy I see in this future bundle of joy.  I know intimately what it is like to carry someone within for over 32 weeks and how much you anticipate what this person will be like once they have arrived.  As a grandmother to be, that joy is magnified by the lack of morning sickness, weird body pains, and fear that every little thing might cause miscarriage.  It is a joy!  I hope to have a picture to put up next week of my first grandchild while still in the womb!

Weekend Adventures #3 The Baker Creek Heritage Days Festival

I saved the best for last!

We went on an adventure to Mansfield, MO to attend the last Baker Creek Heritage Days Festival.  It was a blast.  I have a ton of photos, so please hang in there as I try to described everything.  There was so much though, I may forget something.  Please forgive me if I do. 

First we traveled from Neosho, MO to Seymour to stay with a lovely lady.  She allowed us to stay on her land and in her camper for the night so we could go to the festival.  We brought a tent, but since the weather called for the high 50's, she graciously offered us her camper.  It was very cute and had all the amenities that a home would.  She really ought to consider making some money on the side through Airbnb with her little camper. 

Here are the kiddos in the cabin the night before we went to the Baker Creek Heritage Days Festival.

This the view out the door of the camper.  

The kids woke up refreshed and happy.  They went outside and ran around a bit before the days activities started.  We were so thankful for the gift of a place to stay we spruced up the cabin a tiny bit and left a little thank you note before leaving.  Thank you again!

Then we went to Baker Creek.  The drive was short.  It's set way back in the woods.  You would never imagine a worldwide seed dealer lived that far out!  It only adds to the charm of Baker Creek though.  My husband and I loved the country drive before getting there.  

Then when you enter they have an attendant to help direct cars.  We parked and set out on foot for our adventure.  

Birds along the walkway.

As you come up the gravel path on the left are fences with various birds in them.  There were chickens, peacocks, and others.  My children stopped every few feet to talk to the animals.  It was very much like stepping into a farmer's animal yard, but without the farmyard smell.  :)

 These are the peacocks.  They wouldn't open their tail feathers for us, but they are still beautiful.

The first building you see on your right is the "Jail house".  My son, by this point, complained his feet hurt very bad and begged us to go barefoot.  We said fine, just until someone told us he couldn't.  We felt sorry for the little guy.  My sons loved the jailhouse and joked about putting each other inside of the cell.

My boys in the jail house at Baker Creek Heritage Days Festival.

When I lived with my Amish parents, this was our sink.  I want to get one of these for my own house.  I thought it was so neat to see if displayed here.

The chains on the wall were a nice decorative touch.

Another very neat item in the jail house is this old record player.  My kids had no idea what it was and why I was so thrilled.  I had to explain it plays music.  They wanted to play the music, but I felt it was more of a museum piece so didn't allow them to use it.  

We didn't come with a lot of money because most of it was spent on going to the doctor.  I was afraid we wouldn't be able to enjoy the festival without a lot of cash.  I was so surprised to find, even though I had may be 20 bucks I could use, I didn't need more than that.  Of course, your milage may vary.  We didn't buy a whole bunch of stuff.  

Next to the jail was a little barn type place and a man with toys from yesteryear.  Most of the toys looked homemade.  All of the toys I had played with as a child and was excited to see them.  They had a climbing bear, a flip game, a driving the wheel game, and some others.  Lucy enjoyed the flip game and hoops and sticks.

Lucy playing the flip game made with two tuna fish cans and a bean bag.

 Here Lucy is trying to play the hoops and sticks game, which used to be used as a sort of courtship time.

The gentleman in charge spent time explaining every game to all the children.  This eventually became the hottest spot for kids at Baker Creek as they all wanted to play.  That and they had cake walks every hour.  Again, we learned the history of cakewalks.  Lucy loved the cakewalks since she was familiar with them from church.

Here's my son playing with some other children.

One other very neat thing about the barn part was that it housed a covered wagon.  I haven't seen one of these since I was five or six so it was extremely neat to me.

The covered wagon I fell in love with at Baker Creek Heritage Days Festival.

As we mosied on down the path, on the right was a blacksmith's hut.  He was hard at work making a decorative rose candle holder.  My eldest son was very excited to see a real live working black smith in action.  He decided right then and there he wanted to be a blacksmith.

The blacksmith at work.

The blacksmith talking to my son about being a blacksmith.

After that we continued along the path.  My daughter stole my phone as I went into the apothecary shop.  Aluciana took these pictures of a small little spot I passed on my way to the apothecary.  

My husband and son looking over the bridge.  Yes, he is still barefoot and no one said a thing to him about it.

This was below the bridge.  An explosive rainbow of color in fish!  So beautiful.  Thank you Lucy for taking these pictures.

Meanwhile in the apothecary, I was busy smelling teas that cost just 10 cents per tea bag.  Yes, I bagged up a few and headed to the seed store to pay for them.  On the way there, I noticed they had a restaurant and a beautiful garden.  My children and husband caught up with me at the garden.  The gardens were so beautiful, let me just let the pictures explain  They will do a much better job than me.  

The gardens are beautiful!

This is a good shot of how it is laid out.

Lovely reds!

More of the gardens.

My daughter and husband behind some lovely flowers.

Gorgeous!  

*P.S. If you don't like a lot of photos of plants, just scroll.  I have tons.

I want to grow these in my garden next year!

So delicate looking!

These were very beautiful.  I love the colors!

Mustard greens, growing in October!

What a lovely collection!

Hibiscus!  I need to row this as the calyxes make a lovely tea.

At the center of the gardens is this fountain with koi in it.  It was locally sculpted and put in place.  It is a very nice spot to relax.

My boys loved it.  :)  Yup, he's still barefoot.

The view of the gardens from the seed store.

Inside the seed store there are a million things to look at.  Of course there were seeds available for purchase everywhere.  However, they also had a woman spinning in the store.  She educated my children about the history of the work women did, not just spinning, and how women didn't have a whole lot of freedom many years ago.  My sons really appreciated that.  

There was a theater inside where you could watch a little skit.  They had a checkers table that many guests were using.  There you could also purchase garden implements, prairie hats, books, and so much more.  I paid for my tea bags and a honey stick.  I am a sucker for sweets what can I say.  

After that we went over to the Baker Creek Restaurant.  As we waited in line, I heard my son behind me say, "Hey, you have bare footsies like me!"  I turned around and there was Jere Gettle, in overalls, a pink shirt, and bare feet, just like my son.  Jere smiled and said, "Yeah, it's better to be barefoot."  I smiled and ushered my son to our table.  I didn't want him to bother Jere while he was getting lunch.  

Our waitress was kind and invited us to get our canning jar drinking glasses and cold water from the fountain.  There was just one dish on the menu and a kid or adult size to choose from.  Today's dish was pumpkin bisque, with a spring roll, and basmati rice.  Dessert would be pumpkin spice ice cream.  

To die for!

We all enjoyed our meal.  I was watching our host and his family dine about two tables away.  Several times patrons came up to ask questions, for photos, and to talk while he ate with his family.  Each time he and his wife were patient and showed no irritation what so ever.  I could not have been so kind.  My husband and I enjoyed our meal.  

At the end, when we wanted to pay, we were directed to a donation box.  I handed my husband his wallet and he donated what he felt was fair.  I will say it took most of our $20.  It was worth it though.  After that, we headed out towards the entrance, but we just couldn't go yet.

We came across some musicians and their music was delightful.  We must have sat listening to their tunes for at least a half hour.  

We must have sat listening for half an hour!

My sons, for some reason, even though they ate not an hour ago, we're still hungry.  There was a gentleman that had beans for the price of a donation.  The remainder of our money went to this gentleman for the boys to get some beans and cornbread.  After they ate, Illyan wanted to stir the beans.

He loved helping stir the beans.  Yes, he is still barefoot and very happy.

We loved so much about our visit.  There was much more, like the bakery and their sweet samples, the tour we took, and the gourd tunnel...but I have to leave something for your family to explore!

Just go...you won't regret it!