The clouds cleared for a couple of days and brought us cooler temperatures. The night skies have seen the return of stars so bright and numerous it looks as if someone peppered the sky with twinkling lights. Even in darkness there is beauty.
The cooler temps have brought back winter with its frozen ground and we are now attempting to catch up on our winter work. Winter is when the majority of our wood gathering and hauling takes place. It is also when anything from the outside can be brought in on our ice “super highway”.
Dear hubby and Caleb have been busy hauling logs from a blow down area and even had some help from poppa Fred. Cati is in helping a friend of mine who was in an auto accident and the rest of us girls are busy cleaning pens, animal care and doing repairs. The sawmill will be up and running today and that will provide lumber for the many repairs to animal pens that the flooding took out. There’s never a dull moment around here and thankfully the days are growing much longer quickly so we can work by sunlight versus lamp light.
I’m impatiently waiting for the new kids to hit the ground. We lost a couple due to the ice and wet conditions. Poor goats I wish I could find a way to keep them from falling on the ice.
It’s chilly this morning at 21 degrees and the humidity is high but the fire is warm and my coffee seems to taste particularly good this morning. I will chalk it up to being in better spirits due to the weather not being so gloomy. It’s a short respite though as warmer wetter conditions are in the forecast.
Hoping to butcher one of my older hogs soon as it’s no longer servicable for breeding. Here’s a question for you all and please give me some feed back. Would you all like to see more detailed pics or perhaps a video link to YouTube of the entire process? I’m never sure how much of “farm life” I should show-there’s the ugly side of it that while informative can be quite graphic. Please give me your feedback and I’ll proceed from there.
The family is rousing and I’m sure will soon be looking for breakfast as they start their day so I’ll bid you all farewell for now and leave you with a few random pics as I usually do. God Bless and keep you until next time.
My friend Kimberly and Cati taking selfies
offgridalaska 
Well Early, in my opinion, if people are going to live out in the middle of nowhere definitely need to know the steps of processing and animal. Most don’t really know (I don’t think). If they don’t learn a simple thing as getting urine or feces on the meat will ruin the meat. If people aren’t knowledgeable enough to know that, they could eat meat that could make them very ill. So if you are going to show how the steps go, you should show them all, or don’t show any. Then when you say for people to not watch if they are squeamish, then that is for them to decide. But watching would let them know if living off grid is for them or not. Only my opinion. Glad you all are having a few nice days.
Thanks Cathy!
Show the whole pig butchering proccess.
Thanks for your input Randy-I’m thinking I will
I’m interested in seeing the whole thing, all I have butched so far is chickens and turkeys although my husband has done a lot of moose and caribou, still neither of us has done pig.
I’ve decided to do a video-actually several. They will by no means be professional but will give you an idea of the basics. Thanks for your input I do appreciate it!