12-24-10 Christmas Eve

Here’s how you know when kids are having a good time – I was working on some things in the back of the house and needed to ask Tori something. She and the rest of the younger kids were doing k.p. – I called her name a couple of times but it was so noisy out there no one heard me. Finally I called the home phone from from my cell phone to ask her my question! After the call ended, I heard Kate say, “Who was that?”

Tori said, “It was Mom. She needed to ask me something and we couldn’t hear her calling because we were being so noisy out here.”

Kate responded, “Oh yeah, I guess we were, weren’t we? We were talking all about Mars and space and other great stuff like that.” (They were – it’s so fun to listen to them – they all think they know something about whatever; trouble is most of what they know may or may not be correct.) (To be real – sometimes it’s not so fun to listen to – when it’s arguing. Yeah, we have lots of that too.)

A busy morning of wrapping last minute gifts, making a few more Oreo Balls, Pretzel Rods, and Buckeyes, which never seem to last long around here, and doing a little cleaning and laundry. Boys milked twice, and were home in between doing stuff here, and Dad and Levi had errands in Morton.  Jesse and Tori did an Aldi run for me for weekend supplies, which I GREATLY appreciated. Grandpa and Grandma Steiner came out for a little while; Grandpa helped Jesse with his tractor, and Grandma helped us with the candies. ASK came out for supper then, and we exchanged gifts with her and the kids after supper.  And it snowed all afternoon!

Ben was outside for awhile solo in the morning -

Such talent is amazing.(!!!)

Big helper!

Always fun to play in the snow!

It was snowing pretty hard – beautiful.

It snowed all afternoon, and was still snowing when we went to bed. :)

Jacob and Dad doing chores. I love this picture with its white/brown shades and two of my favorite men. Beautiful.

 

Fun opening gifts after supper-

 

Jewel gave Dad a gift of some stickers she had pulled out of her stash. He admired them appropriately, and then put them on the floor next to him. She promptly picked them up and added them to her gift bag. Amused, he asked her if they were for him or for her.  “They’re for me,” she said! Oh how we laughed!

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“If you don’t share your candy, then I’m not going to share mine either!”

 

 

How To Restore Ford Tractors was a hit for boys of all ages but especially Jesse – he could hardly tear himself away from it.

Another book that generated great excitement.

ASK really had to work for her gift from Ben.

 

My new blanket is SOOO snuggly.

Just what Jacob always wanted…

 

That’s it.

12-23-10 More Butchering

Nothing routine about today – we butchered in the morning, ran errands in the afternoon, and went shopping and had supper at Monical’s in the evening. Levi & Jesse milked twice and were home to help with the butchering in between. I grabbed a walk with Karol between butchering and errands; it was such a beautiful and sunshiney day. Nice to see the sun after several gray days. Due to extremely aggravating computer problems at Sears in Pekin, we didn’t get to Monical’s until about 7:30, which meant we didn’t get home until around 9:00…almost felt like vacation :) except the boys had to milk in the morning so weren’t that excited about finishing supper at 8:45. Oh well, they’ll survive. And they sure loved the pizza, as did we all!

Preparing spice packets for the sausage made the actual sausage mixing go much more smoothly. We’ll definitely do that again. (Rauhes- you might consider bringing your spices next month pre-mixed like this too. Just a thought.) We love our recipe: to 10# of ground pork, add 1/4 cup brown sugar, 5 teaspoons pepper, and 10 teaspoons salt. Delicious!

 

This part of butchering is easy: just cut the meat off.

Cutting out the loin, which we use for roast and pork chops.

All the meat except the loins is put into a tub which is transferred to the cutting table and cut into smaller chunks…

…so it can be put through the meat grinder. The Kaisners came again to help/learn; Joel got to come too.

Almost done cutting.

Mixing and packaging.

 

And of course plenty of time for fun too!

That’s it.

12-22-10 Butchering II

Routine morning, kind of, with kids again doing a partial school day. With a more relaxed school timeline I inevitably find myself directing a basement cleanup (can’t quite figure out why they can’t get it done without a drill sergeant). Got snared by a couple of ping pong games while I was down there – great exercise and fun besides. I even win a few now and then. Levi was at Precision all day, and Jesse was here studying plus a few errands. He got the hogs from Uncle Randy, and ran over to Uncle Mark’s so Lucas could show him what to do for their chores while they’re gone. Cold weather returned; our formerly slushy muddy yard was solid ice which eliminated the mud issue but certainly isn’t as nice as snow. Hopefully we’ll get the few inches that’s being predicted for this weekend. With a brisk wind, I chickened out of a walk and opted instead to watch and photograph the butchering during Joshua’s nap. After that, chores and supper, Bibletime and a few games of ping pong for Dad and I. Levi went with some of the young group to Christmas carol at the Eureka Nursing Home; the rest of us here listened to an archived church sermon before heading littles to beds.

WARNING: This post is not for the faint of heart.

Pig #1 was shot and hung before Kate got the camera (I was putting Joshua to nap).

Skinning.

Fascinated observers.

Beheading.

Befeeting (??)

 

Learning about life.

Hog #2.

Inside audience.

 

 

Dragging it into the shed.

Jesse’s going up into the attic to operate the electric hoist.

Dad’s holding the winch cable and hook as it lowers; he will attach it to the gambrel, and the hoist will hoist up the hog…

…and Dad will then hook the gambrel onto the permanent chain hook.

Two up, one to go.

 

#3’s turn.

 

Rascal watched through a crack in the trailer.

 

Dean Kaisner and some of his children joined us for the third hog.

 

Since Levi was still working at Precision, Jesse cut the third one; he did a good job (not that I know, but that’s what Dad said).

Ben and Joseph watching…

…and Ann, Astrid, Sarah, and Jewel too.

Tearing down gates.

Judah helped Jacob put them away.

Better view from up here!

 

Demonstrating where to place the bullet for a quick quiet kill. Everyone remembers our first butchering where the bullet didn’t kill instantly (won’t mention any names as to who the gunman was, but all involved persons know!); that crazy hog squealed and squawled and thrashed around horrible, and they were challenged to get it stuck to bleed right away…not a pretty sight. Littlest children were terrified, and all involved weren’t too happy with how it went that time. Thankfully I don’t think it’s ever happened that way again – killing is now quick and quiet. But how else do you learn?

Inserting the gambrel for hanging.

Ready to hoist again…

…and then camera batteries were dead, so that’s it. Both remaining hogs were skinned, gutted, beheaded and befeeted just like the first (see beginning of post) before being left to hang in the shed overnight to chill good and proper. Some major cleanup, and then everyone was in for supper - - and lots of laundry.

Right before bed – Joshua was so cute collecting laundry. He’s been plenty fussy lately, but oh he’s so precious anyway!

And that’s it.