Thursday, January 5, 2012

2012 Debut

A quick run-down of the last month and a half:
-We killed three pigs and two steers for meat, and Seth shot his first buck on the last day of hunting season.  Our freezers are overflowing with meat.  Help us!  Eat it!
-Dolly, our Haflinger draft pony, became very ill and had to be put down.  We miss her.
-We made buckets and buckets of sauerkraut and fermented ginger carrots with our new shredder-grater attachment for the Hobart mixer.  Yummm...
-A new helper around the farm, Willie (formerly of Village Farm in Freedom), is giving us a hand and hoping to work with Tyler on logging with draft horses and milling lumber.
-our friend and housemate Chris Williams is splitting every last eligible stick of firewood on the farm in return for his room and board.  In his free time he is teaching himself leather belt-making, playing with Ada and baking delicious cheesecake.
-We are mostly subsisting on a diet of meat stews and sauerkraut, with eggs thrown in for variety, and are enjoying it and feeling healthier than ever.
-Seth, Ada and I moved into our New House.  We are reveling in Not Driving Anywhere for days at a time.
-The farmhouse residents (Tyler, Gib, Elsie, and Chris) insulated the ceiling of that house and have enjoyed a much-improved interior climate ever since.

Hope all is well in your lives in the new year--take care.

Ada eating her first snowball while we make applesauce and apple butter.

Our hams, bacon, and deer jerky smoking in the smokehouse, newly relocated to the farm.

The Winter CSA (this was pick-up #3) in full swing in our redecorated and re-purposed mudroom.

Harvesting parsnips before the ground freezes up.