Shorts weather

Last week was gorgeous!  Upper 60's to lower 70's and sunny.  I can take this in mid-February.  Some of us even cracked out the shorts...

This week is supposed to be in the 40's and 50's.  It's not the same as 70, but not too shabby!

Red the pig

This past weekend, Dan butchered one of our five pigs. We get a lot of questions about why we raise our own animals and whether or not it bothers us to butcher them. Our answer is always the same. No, it doesn't bother us because we know they had such a good, happy life with us. God put animals on the earth to feed us, and we're okay with that. Pigs are very unique though. Unlike chickens and turkeys, pigs are very social creatures and are on the farm bulking up much longer than any other animal. This allows us to be around them more and learn their personalities. And do they ever have personalities. Red, the pig just processed, was no exception. ***WARNING*** If you just purchased pork from us this week, I'm talking about the meat that is now in your freezer. If this bothers you, I'd stop reading now. Red was a Red Duroc pig; therefore his name. Red was the only male amongst the group and probably the sweetest. He was definitely a gentle giant. Even though he was larger than the girls, he was always kind to them. He was one of the first to let us scratch his head and when he was little he liked being around us in the pen so much, he'd be right on our heels and nearly trip us. It's reasons like this that I like raising and processing our own meat - knowing that he enjoyed us as much as we enjoyed him. Granted he never knew what his fate was, but on the flip side... he never knew what his fate was. We go through life knowing we'll encounter difficulties and ultimately that one day our life will be over. Red, and all of our animals, don't know this. They just have one happy day after another and one day it's peacefully over. If we could only be so lucky! Here are a few pics from processing. Nothing too grotesque, but again, if this sort of thing doesn't settle well with you, I'd stop scrolling now.

Goldilocks

Somebody has been lying in my bed... and here he is!

Winter wonderland

Saturday afternoon I walked the property looking for pretty winter landscape photos. Here are some of my favorites...

Wet face

Samuel was most inquisitive as to why I was so close to him with the camera.  I was trying to get a picture of was his wet face.  I'm not sure it will show up, but his face is wet from his hair to his chin.  Sometimes his fingers don't actually make it into his mouth and as a result, he ends up sucking/licking the palm of his hands.  Then he smears it all over his face.

More around the house

For anyone who has seen our prior houses, this one will look much more subdued.  We generally like very bold and saturated wall colors and this house is very neutral.  When we bought the house I thought I didn't want to paint because I liked the neutrals.  I still do, however, I've recently dug out the color deck and have started perusing. We'll see what comes of it.  As you'll see below, I still need to get a lot of pictures/decor hung on the walls, but his will give you an idea of the house and layout.

Hallway to mudroom and garage

Outside Samuel's room - hall to garage on left and hall on right leads to kitchen / other side of house

Samuel's room

Center hallway looking down toward 2 bedrooms

Front door (can't get a good pic)

Cool vanity in center hall half bath

Kitchen - from breakfast room

Kitchen - from center hallway

Kitchen - from other side of breakfast room

 

Breakfast room & family room

Family room fireplace

Family room

Master

Master bath

Living room from front door. Master bedroom to left.

Dining room on right, living room on left.  Stairs up to 2nd master suite.

43 days til spring!

We're being doused again with another round of snow.  This storm came up much quicker and not nearly as much hype as the one earlier in the week.  Last night the weather forecasters said 2-3 inches for our area.  As of right now I'd say we have a good 4 inches.  After it stops, I'll venture out and  get some pics.

Piggie shelter

When we moved the pigs to the farm last September, we didn't build them a housing structure.  We intended to butcher them in December, so we figured they wouldn't need one.  However, it's been so darn cold and we haven't had the right mix of day/night temps to yet.  We've been really worried about them with the nighttime temperatures getting so low.  So, Dan and Danny built the pigs a windbreak.  This weekend, they'll add on to it, so they have protection from the wind on all sides.  This is their makeshift housing at the moment...

Sausage-to-be

Dan ground up some pork and made breakfast sausage.  Pure, non-chemical laden sausage...

Icy sunrise

We had a gorgeous sunrise shining through the icy trees this morning.  It was a little hard getting pictures from the glare, but think you'll get the idea.

Ice storm

Tuesday morning we started getting hit pretty hard with freezing rain.  It continued most of Tuesday and into Wednesday it turned to snow.  It continued snowing all day Wednesday.  We ended up with about 1/2 - 1 inch of ice and about 2 inches of snow.  Not horrible, but a downside to living very rural is that no one is in a hurry to clear our roads.  The road we live on is a narrow, hilly, gravel road that is privately owned (i.e. the property owners maintain it... not the county), so it doesn't get cleared at all. Ah, the joys of country life!

Pink = gotta go!

We have 100 pink flags around the property. They look like this...

These flags indicate stumps, and stumps in a pasture are a nuisance. The stumps were left behind when a previous owner of this land sold all the best trees as timber. They prevent Dan from brush hogging or mowing the pasture to make way for large animals, like our future cows and sheep. So, the stumps have got to go. Danny has been going around the stumps prepping them for removal; clearing small trees, thorns, etc. Then he places a flag on them to indicate they're ready to be removed. So far, Danny's placed 100 flags, which also happens to be all the flags we have. Unfortunately, we have at least 1000 more stumps to go. Maybe. I don't really know. I just pulled that number out of my head. But I do know we have a lot more to go. And when I say 'we' I mean 'Dan'. Regardless, Dan ordered 200 more flags so they can keep prepping since it takes longer to actually remove the stump than it does to prep for it. Maybe the new flags will be a different color so we can have a lovely rainbow of colors on the hillside. Wouldn't that be nice?

Drooling and disheveled

But happy as a clam and that's the only thing that matters!