We woke up Friday morning and started to get things ready for the butchering.  I could sense that Jim's anxiety was up there.  We have never done this before.  But, if we want to have a hobby farm and be homesteaders and raise our own meat, we have to be able to do this kind of stuff. 

I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the whole thing or if I was even going to get my hands into it, or if I would be taking any pictures.  I did take some but daughter Erin and Lauren took most of the pictures.  I thought of the chicken butchering post over at Coal Creek Farm where I learned a lot about butchering. 

I wasn't attached to these birds, I wouldn't allow myself to get attached.  Jim on the other hand did get some what attached even tho he tried his best not to.  These were his rooster-boys as he called them.  We really didn't have much choice but to butcher them.  We just couldn't keep a rooster let alone 9 of them.

We ended up skinning and plucking the birds.  I know I'm a wimp cause I wore gloves, but I just couldn't quite get myself to do it all bare handed.  Jim and I ended up gutting the birds together.  I dug out the insides while he handled the knife.  No pictures of that...and to think I hated biology when we had to dissect a frog.

Well, this one is where's Reese?

Hey, there he is...Sitting almost at the top of one of our Austrian pines

Grandson Reese wanted to show us that he could climb this tree.  Reese loves the outdoors and was such a big helper to grandpa getting all the mulch and compost down around all the perennials.  Jim also burned the asparagus cuttings and all the clippings from the apple tree.  There's nothing left to do in the yard other than wait for the snow to fly.

What a fun busy weekend it was.

Friday was butchering day and I'll leave that post for tomorrow.

I wish everyone who is celebrating today a Happy Thanksgiving.

The wood has been stacked just waiting for a fire to be lit.  So tonight we put one going to take some of the dampness out of the house since it's been raining most of the day.  It's almost too hot to even sit by it to enjoy.

Emily if you don't like the snowflake I put on it I can take it off.  You can't really see it very good but it's easy to remove if you don't like it.  It will be going out in the mail probably by the end of the week.

I'm so excited I have a 5 day weekend.  I have Thanksgiving off and I worked it out so that if I go in tomorrow I won't have to go in on Friday.  I'm not sure how much I will be posting over the long holiday weekend.  Family will be starting to roll in tomorrow night so you can just imagine how busy it'll be around here.  I have been baking rolls and tomorrow the oven will be going when I get home from work.  There will be pies to make and I'm going to do something different this year and make my mashed potatoes ahead of time.  Once again The Pioneer Woman comes through and I found a wonderful sounding recipe from her Tasty Kitchen website.  I'm not sure that I'll put in the pimentos that it calls for tho.

So what are your plans for Thanksgiving.  Doing any cooking? 

The pies I'll be making...That's right, PUMPKIN!

Have a good one!

We worked out in the yard over the weekend.  Cleaning out the gardens and adding compost to them, basically getting them ready for when it's planting time again.  Mostly Jim worked and I took pictures.

And, harvesting the last of the onions that we planted late in the season.

But, somethings not right here when we're bringing out the snow equipment and I'm seeing those wonderful SPRING flowers all over the yard...those wonderful dandelions.

Jim went to the other side of the yard and she wanted to go and see him in the worst way...She stayed put but kept her eye on Jim the whole time just itching to take off after him.

My wonderful hens are getting so big.  I can't wait until they start to lay those eggs.

Last summer Jim and I went for a drive to see if we could find my great grandfathers headstone.  Over the years I have heard tell of where it was and have wanted to go see it.  It didn't take us long to find where it was in the cemetery.

Looking at the headstone something just didn't look right with it.  It seemed to me that it should be standing up instead of laying down.

So, Jim pulled it up and lo and behold it was the kind that should be standing up.  The cemetery is right next to railroad tracks, so Jim went and found some rocks from the railroad bed and brought them back to fill in the hole that the headstone had made.

After fixing this headstone up we decided to go and visit the other cemeteries that our grandparents are buried in.  It took us a while to actually find both of Jim's sets of grandparents.  As we were looking for the grave sites, Jim in one part of the cemetery and I in another.  I spied this deer by Jim.  I yelled to Jim to turn around but not so loud that it would scare the deer off.  They stood staring at each other for some time.  The deer started to walk slowly towards Jim.  I wasn't too sure what that deer had in mind.  But, eventually it took off and we found both the grave sites.

They are sinking in the ground and next spring we plan to go back armed with the correct tools to raise them up so that they won't have a chance of getting buried again.

Good Mood Gig from SAM-e

I love this blog...It's one I go to everyday.  Suzanne McMinn from Chickens in the Road.  This blog is one of the few blogs that really got me to think that I could have chickens.  So, I'm posting about this little contest she's in.  I'm leaving the badge on my sidebar where you can vote from now until December 7th.  You can vote everyday.  So why don't you help Suzanne out and vote.

I started reading her blog awhile back and have been hooked ever since.  She has really good recipes like this one here that Jim and I made awhile back.

So come on and help her out.

We had lunch with this strapping young man who is exactly like his dad in soooooooooooo many ways. 

Can you see if I have anymore gray hairs on the top of my head?  Let me explain....On the way to Grandparents day I looked at the sheet that told us the times each grade ate lunch.  Now, I KNOW he's in 1st grade, but for some reason Kindergarten popped in my head and I did a gasping for breath type of panic.  The time for the Kindergarten lunch was exactly the time we were in the car driving to the 1st grade lunch time.  I freaked out and yelled "We're LATE!"  Jim just looked at me like I was nuts but calmly said "No he's in 1st grade.  Unless he flunked Kindergarten and is repeating it again, which I don't think he did, he's in 1st grade".  By the time we got to the school my blood pressure was down and my breathing was back to normal.

As I was having my HUGE panic attack this thought went through my head...Oh my goodness, this poor child is there waiting for his Grandparents and they didn't even show up.

It's really funny how young children look at adults.  We both got asked from the other kids if we were his parents...or are we his Grandparents.  Some parents do go and eat with their child.  I'm not really sure what Grandparents are supposed to look like.  I'm guessing some of the kids didn't quite think we looked like Grandparents enough.

Next year just so I don't go through this again I think I'll get there really early.

Jim and I met the Pioneer Woman and Marlboro Man.  My hubby puts up with a lot and taking me down to see The Pioneer Woman was one of them.  He didn't mind tho, he found a couple of books and a seat on the other side of the store and settled down to read until I was ready to go.

I met the Pioneer Woman while Jim took pictures.  She's as wonderful as her blog.

Note the youngest son behind Marlboro Man checking out the cowgirl.

The night got pretty long for these little guys.