It's snowing. My chimney is fixed. There are flashes of sunlight here and there.

I had a great talk with Tucker about stuff, was able to tap out when my emotions were big but not too big, and we had a lovely weekend.

And... I just had a really great lunch.

I have some fatty loin chops in the freezer for quick meals. I'd been eating them with a bunch ( Read more... )

Alright, mom & brother are coming up tomorrow sometime. They are bringing an order of fun sausage casings: I currently have a very practical set of hog casings sized for what most people think of as "normal" sausage, sort of hot dog to smoky size.

I've been wanting to make some nduja and some larger diameter sausages, maybe a mortadella or a bologna ( Read more... )

Now for something actually super great.

The guy came and killed/skinned/gutted 5 pigs last Saturday. I tossed a bunch of primals in the bathtub in ice to get the heat out, put some in the freezers (meat is insulative, so you can't pack too much in a freezer), and got to work. There are still maybe a dozen primals in the freezer -- mostly hams -- and ( Read more... )

Yesterday we pretty much finished rendering the soap lard, and I have a 5 gallon bucket full of it. It's a good thing I love making soap; also what an amazing object to have! Overnight last night/tonight the cooking lard from leaf fat is rendering.

21 500ml and 8 750ml jars of stock are done and in the pantry.

Cheryl has been given her meat for the ( Read more... )

Yesterday was the first field day I've led in awhile at work. I had one of the summer students with me.It got some stuff done but wasn't super productive; we're learning to estimate lengths and diameters from 7.5cm to 50m or so in various configurations which requires lots of guessing then measuring. It's easy enough to just to measure first, but ( Read more... )

Wow. Well, it's been a bit.

Josh and I didn't get a bear; we went out for a day and then came home and killed a pig (one of Penny's first piglets, Apricot's sister) and made a whole lot of sausage. I'd told him that I do have a lot of meat so I didn't feel the need to spend a lot of time looking for more and he pretty much agreed.

So that was a 13- ( Read more... )