Happenings on the Homestead

Weekend Coffee Share

Hello there Adventurous Friends & Family, greetings from South Dakota.  Happy New Year!  I made it till 10 pm & watched the ball drop in New York City since it was midnight there.  Kevin & I had a quite Christmas day at home due to the weather but was able to venture out a little on New Year's Day.  There were no resolutions made or words chosen this year, just some time spent enjoying the outdoors.  Thinking right off the top of my head, if there was a word for me this year, it would be "be".  I'm just going to be me.  I do have some hopes for the year & we'll see if those hopes are fulfilled throughout the year.  Having said that, January is walk your pet month.  My 1st hope & good intention is taking Rose on a walk everyday this month other than just our usual walk around in the yard.  It's a plan of action & motivation to get me up & out to get rid of cabin fever.  How you doing this 1st week of the year 2023?  Here's some of the things that's happened around my place, grab a coffee or your favorite beverage & walk with me...

The snow had a hard crusted top layer,
Kevin told me to walk soft so I 
wouldn't fall through.

* Sun - I started reading Blue by Danielle Steel. Moma sent me the book in a Christmas goodie box with a note telling me it was a good book to read.  The book starts off a few days before Christmas.  I washed sheets & hung them on the line to dry, made a blueberry cobbler & a grouse bake to have to eat on for a few days.  I used a chicken recipe & substituted the grouse meat to make the meat veggie casserole type dish.  I helped Kevin prep meat to make jerky, my job was tumbling the meat in a bowel to distribute the spices then put the meat in Ziplock bags to marinade overnight in the refrigerator.  We went for a truck ride up to the pond to take Rose on her 1st pet walk of the year. Kevin rabbit hunted along our walk, he got 4 rabbits, we talked on the ride home that we would make rabbit dumplings.  Kevin got a deer in the evening with his bow, we'll grind most the meat after it has cooled for a few days.  I completed & checked everything off my holiday weekend to-do list. My legs ached at bedtime from trudging through the snow.  I started watching the Candy series on Hulu, seems it's about a murder based on a true story. 

I dusted the frames, cleaned the glass &
 put in the new pictures of the Grands
that I got for Christmas.

* Mon - Why did the alarm go off at 5:30 am?  Neither of us had to work.  We cooked the marinated meat to make the jerky.  The meat was elk, grouse & mule deer.  A friend gave us the elk meat, Kevin brought in the grouse & deer.  We sampled the jerky as it cooked & that was enough for my morning snack & lunch.  The jerky took longer to cook than the directions suggested.  Our favorite was unanimously the grouse.  I watched you tube videos from The Frugal Cottage & A Charming Abode.  There were ideas for getting budgeting back to the basics living.  Will the 2023 decorating trend be Granny Chic & did you know garment bags can be used to store wrapping paper, wreaths & other seasonal decorations?  We took Rose for her pet walk out at the lake, there were ice fisherman.  We went to Lions Club meeting, dues were due, the meal was at #3, there was good conversations, good laughs & I had leftovers for lunch. We noticed fog rolling in on our way home.

6 degrees during Rose's pet walk, everything
was covered with a layer of frosty ice, didn't
know it was called hoarfrost till we moved
to the midwest, it's refreshing & energizing
walking in the early morning, hope I can
keep it up.

* Tues - Kevin made pancakes for our breakfast topped with blueberries & our homemade blueberry syrup.  I added peanut butter on mine for protein.  I packed lunches & snacks.  Kevin got leftover bagel bites, blueberry cobbler, jerky & Christmas candy. Mine was my leftover nacho tots from the #3, jerky & a blueberried pancake since I only ate 1 of mine for breakfast.  I packed us water to drink throughout the day.  I took Rose on her pet walk & got my household work done before going to work; cleaned up the breakfast stuff, sorted all the laundry & carried it downstairs, washed a load & hung it on the line to dry, vacuumed & dusted the living room.  I read The Frugal Girl while finishing up my morning coffee.  I enjoyed her Five Things Frugal & Meet a Reader.  It was an exceptionally busy day at work because it was a day after a holiday.  We had leftover grouse bake & salad for supper, finished up the blueberry cobbler & had a couple of little torte cakes from a meat & cheese sampler Daughter sent us for Christmas.  Kevin had brought in the trail cam a couple days ago, so we looked at the pictures to see what critters had been in our backyard.  There were deer, pheasants, grouse, cats & a dog.

* Wed - Kevin said everything was still frosty outside as he left out walking to work before daylight. I need to get back to walking to work but I don't like walking home in the dark when I can't see the icy spots & potholes.  I took Rose on her pet walk before doing my morning housework.  I cleaned up the dishes from supper & breakfast, it was dish drainer jenga.  I folded & hung clothes on hangers & put them away, washed towels & hung them on the line.  I dusted in the bedroom & took the kitchen trash out, it was stinky.  Hustling around in the house & up & down the stairs got my heart pumping giving me a little workout.  Sometimes I can get more done during a time constraint than I can having the whole day. I read about how Far Side of Fifty's granddog gets in some extra exercise &  Knit by God's Hands favorite things.  There was a recipe for vegan burgers that sounded good. We ate up the last of the grouse bake for lunches.  Kevin put rabbit legs in the crockpot during his lunch break, he then fried the rabbit for supper & made french fries using carrots, sweet tators & regular tators.  He brought in leftover chicken soup from the lunchroom & we each ate a small bowl of that.  I finished watching Candy.  I felt like I was starving at bedtime, so I snuck & finished off a box of crackers. I try not to eat anything after supper, oh well.

We liked the sweet tator fries best, maybe because they
were different, the carrots needed to cook a little longer,
the rabbit was tender & spiced perfect.

I'm warm all bundled up.

 * Thurs - All the frost was gone off of everything though still plenty of ice & snow.  The road was busy getting the kids to school as I took Rose on her pet walk, I slide on the ice crossing the road, I didn't see the deer anywhere.   Rose was cold & ran straight to the fire to warm up as soon as we came back inside.  I read about how Frugalwoods does their Christmas gift giving.  I washed a load of pants, my jeans had a hole in the knee, not for fashion but from being old & plum wore out thin.  I'll make those into shorts & get me a new pair of non-holy jeans.  I folded towels & socks & put them away, tidied the kitchen, carried up the meat grinder & gathered a few things to get ready to process that deer Kevin got over the weekend.  I went to write a check for the water bill, where was the bill?  It will show up, if it don't, I'll pay it in the office next Thursday along with taking care of all the vehicle insurances next week.  I picked up a few things at the grocery store after work, spent $44.30, we always need butter. The dry beans were on sale, so I got a pack of pintos & a pack of great northern.  My car didn't need any gas since I've been working in town less than a mile from home & not drove anywhere else.  Kevin usually takes me to work on the snowiest days & we've had a lot of those days these past several weeks.  Kevin made mashed tators to go with leftover soup for supper since he got home from work before I did.  He cut up the tenderloin in the deer, I assisted with getting containers, cleaning up & making cookies.  The pull apart ready to bake kind of cookies, no gathering ingredients, no mixing & no dirtying up more dishes to have to wash.

Rose says "I'm going to lay here & warm, you
can go do your thing".

* Fri - Kevin cooked some of the deer tenderloin for breakfast with eggs.  My worn-out teeth could not chew up the meat even though I've spent a lot of money to keep my teeth fit.  A bridge collapsed a couple years ago & my insurance don't cover implants; I'm making do with those back missing teeth for now.  That's one of the reasons we grind most of the deer meat because sometimes it's hard to get even the best cuts of meat tender for us cooked well-done meat eaters.  I wanted to take Rose on a longer pet walk, but the roads were just too icy.  I can only walk like a penguin for so far & for so long being pulled in every direction by a leashed very strong 12 pound furbaby full of energy & raring to go.  I read 3 things Runs for Cookies likes about her winter exercise.  I was off work for the day & Kevin come home early to work on getting the rest of the deer meat fixed.  One of his coworkers was out with her sick mother so Kevin was on call & planned to go back to work later in the day.  I washed Rose's blankets, cleaned her bedding & feeding area & cleaned the bathroom while Kevin cut up the meat.  As soon as we were done grinding, Kevin was called back into work to clean up a puke pile.  I cleaned up the grinder.  The trick to cleaning it, is wash & rinse immediately before any of the little meat particles dry.  I guess really that is the trick for cleaning any dish. We got 35 one-pound packs of ground venison from 2 deer, if we counted right.  Pizza for supper, early to bed for reading, watching shows on Hulu & relaxing.

This is one of Knit by God's Hand favorite Friday funnies,
I've been in the Atlanta airport feeling like I've done a 5k 
then was told I was in the wrong line, it was funny reading
this but it was not too funny that day in the airport.

These are some of the things that's been going on in my neck of the woods, how has your week been?