Sky Number 1

Absentee Again!

I am at that moment when I realized that we are over a week into April and I haven't updated since December!  January was slow, but things have been swinging since February.  We have hatched biddies right and left, and had three kids and four piglets born. The hubby and I cleared an acre of land off for our ever expanding garden area.  We also burned off a seven acre lot in preparation for pasture or corn.  Between the day to day chores, and homeschool, 4-H, and ball, I have kept busy!

Homemade Bacon

The past two weeks, plus a cold snap, gave my husband and me ample opportunity to stock our freezer.  We had two young pigs that we had bred ourselves that we dispatched and put away.


My husband likes to cure and smoke meat, and his bacon is something to eat.  After two weeks of preparing it, I finally got a taste.  It was divine.  I will have to ration it out, or it will be gone in no time!

December Snowfall

Snow is rare in my neck of the woods.  When we get snow it is usually in February or March.  So it was a bit of a shock when we got some last week.

I woke up to few inches - just enough to dust everything.  A few hours of sun and it was gone.  It was pretty while it was here, though.

Early Turnips

I walked down to one of green fields, and ended up picking some fresh Turnips.  I also found a timber rattler, but that's a different story.

Homemade Yogurt

I have seen several recipes online for homemade yogurt and have always been tempted to try it.  But with milk hovering around the 3.50 a gallon mark, I have never done it.  The other day, however, milk was a dollar a gallon.  It was now or never.  I came home, got out the crock pot, and picked out the most scientific sounding recipe.

The milk did it's thing, and with very little help from me, turned into actual yogurt.  I must admit I was a little shocked it worked.

All said and done, I ended up with two quarts of the thickest, creamiest and yummiest yogurt ever.  I also ended up with two quarts of whey, which went straight to the freezer.

Cooler Weather

It seems like it took forever, but the temperature here finally dipped into the fifties.  It only lasted overnight, but it felt awesome. We opened all of the windows and enjoyed actually using blankets the other night.  The weather has been very reminiscent of last year, when it was hot enough to get tomatoes in November.  

We have a pile of branches that came off the trees that came down from Irma, and then from Nate. Add into that some pines we cut down from a pine beetle infestation, and we have a big pile that needs burning. It has been to hot to burn, but the cool weather gave us the opportunity to go light it up. Of course, we had to break out the marshmallows.