Friday, November 09, 2012

Makin' Bacon

Truthfully, we didn't make the bacon - the processor took care of that part.  But we have a lot of it - and more...the pork is back from the slaughterhouse!
Just one view of our available freezer space (and, yes, I know there is a chicken in the photo...it's one of our meat birds from this year)...you get the idea.

102 pounds represents our half of the pig (we split with another family).  We raised a Tamworth - a very nice heritage breed.  We used 10 bags of organic hog feed during the season, supplemented with family food scraps, organic produce throwaways, apple drops, and lots of organic milk and whey from a local dairy/cheesemaking operation.  We raised this pig to slaughter weight a full month earlier than last year, and I really believe the difference was the dairy.  Lots of colostrum milk from the birthing cows, and in the end we even got old cheese (concentrated proteins and fats!).

Feeling very thankful this day for a full larder!

Friday, November 02, 2012

Using wool

The Storm blew this little house down to the lower branches, and we got a chance to check out the building materials...glad to see someone else besides me is putting all this wool to good use...
Speaking of wool...I'm on a quest to knit down the stash - (I SWEAR no more yarn till I see the hidden corners of the house finally empty of yarn...) and I just finished one badly needed addition to the sock drawer:
I got bogged down in the first sock trying to knit with these cuter-than-heck bitty circular needles.  Saw them and just HAD to give them a try.  While they will meet the requirements for knitting while on jury duty (I think) they are just not as fast as good ole DPN's.  Once I gave up the circulars, I flew right through.  Lesson learned.
Back to the quest....