Canned deer

As we're about to start canning venison, as soon as the deer thaw out enough to cut up, this picture brings a smile to my face!

I got it from a friend, but I don't know where it came from before that.

Second week of December

"Hmph! If someone (hint hint) would move their smelly feet I could fit all of me on this stool! And where's MY cup of hot chocolate?"

Breakfast, using some of the eggs I dehydrated this summer, rehydrated and fried omelette-style with onions. Ham and home-grown boiled potatoes sprinkled on top.
It was delicious!

Being December the sun doesn't rise until almost 9:00 this far north.

Here's some of my completed hot pads. They were ordered by someone in Kentucky, mailed out on Wednesday and got there by Friday!

Let's here it for the USPS!

lol

Thanks, Randy, for the order!

"Wow! Not only are the feet gone, but I get this awesome cushy pillow to lay on!

Um...does this pillow make my tail look fat?"

Winter tends to put me in a baking frenzy!

Biscuits in back left, peach pie in lower left.

Peanut butter cookies on tray.

chicken stir-fry in skillet to right.

The peaches in the pie are ones I canned. The pie pan

was one that used to belong to my mom, and it's some kind of

stoneware. It sure did a good job baking the crust nicely!

Breakfast the next morning, I opened a jar of home-canned sausage.

I brown the sausages, stack them in wide-mouth jars, and dry-can them.

When I use them I either fry them as patties, or break them into gravy,

like I'm doing here. The gravy is to the right.

We poured it over leftover biscuits.
This sausage is from the pigs we raised and butchered two years ago.

Grandkids

Left to right: David, Andrew, Jonathan

Front: Anna

Who are there good-looking kids?

They're our Grandchildren!

Thanks, Amy, for sending the picture to us!

Hi Jonathan, Hi David, Hi Andrew, Hi Anna!

Lots of love from Grandma and Grandpa G.

Barbara's cat and the Christmas tree!

Barbara emailed me this picture of their Christmas tree!

At first I was looking at it thinking..."oooh, pretty lights"!

Then I looked closer and saw the cat!

There's 'Boney' among the branches!

ROTFL!

This would make a great Christmas card!

Hot Pads

Since I've had people ask, and it's easier to put pictures on here than to attach them to everyone's emails...

Here's the cloth I'm using for the hot pads:

These are rough-cut from a big piece of fabric. They need to be sized and squared, then the padding and backs cut.

Then they get sewed together with the trim.

I put my hand on the fabric to give an idea the size of the leaves.

In real life, this fabric is greener than it looks.

For this one I would carefully cut squares around the animals to make the best-looking square
for a hot pad.

Same here, I'd plan my cuts to make the best hot pad.

This one will be harder to do hot pads. I'd probably have to stick with the

ones that are more square than rectangle.

Here's some of the Christmas fabric.

The one on the bottom left is strings of Christmas lights.

It's hard to see in the picture.

And the rest of the Christmas cloth.

The bottom one is "John Deere Christmas".

Icicles and Pumpkins

The icicles hanging from the cabin roof are doing strange things!

As they get longer, they're leaning in toward the cabin.

On both sides of the cabin the tips are touching logs and windows.

I've been getting snow off the trampoline to melt.

Most of it gets used for dishes, laundry, and showers.

Some gets boiled and filtered and used for cooking and drinking.

Some hot day when we're camping in the uhaul

I'll look at this picture and laugh!


Here's the four pumpkins I brought in from the garden in early October.
(Disregard the squash on the upper left!)


Here's the four pumpkins now.
They really do ripen after you bring them inside.
They were ripening slowly in the back room, so I brought
them out and set them on the piano.
Then they ripened quickly!
In years past I threw away a lot of pumpkins that didn't make it to ripeness.
Never again!

Winter's here!

While in Kalispell we stopped to see Amy & Kevin and the grandkids.

David, holding one of the cats while up in the bunkbed

Jonathan shows how he can jump from the bunkbed to his bed.
There's a piece of pink styrofoam in the window to keep it warmer now that it's winter.


Baby Anna has fun grinning at me over Grandpa's shoulder!

Andrew shows me the carrot nose on a stuffed snowman!

Emily, at Tim's house.

We had Thanksgiving dinner there because it's a central location.

Emily cooked the turkey this year. She stuffed it with lemons, onions, and spices, and it was REALLY good! She also made the stuffing. I made the pies, rolls, and the rest of the stuff.

Nothing like looking back while in a drive-thru and seeing your son following you!

(No, I won't buy you a cup of coffee! lol)

For those down south, I know you're looking longingly at the icicles hanging from his truck.

One winter past-time I enjoy is kicking the muddy slush-blocks off the car from behind the tires!
Man, you southerners miss so much!

Ha ha ha ha ha!

I've spent much of the last few weeks sewing things for the sale.

Our solar power system won't handle things like a clothes iron, so we have this handy non-electric iron, which I use to iron the fabric I'm sewing with.

About every 6 months the propane for the cook stove runs out.

Yup. Snow's not real deep under the overhang, but the temperature was below zero.

Cool lighting in this picture of the buffalo.

Trapping season for bobcats and marten began Dec. 1st.

Steven used snowshoes to walk his trapline and set traps.

He pulls his supplies on a wooden tobaggon.

He made the bindings by braiding baling twine, and he ties them in the fashion of the Indians.

The first day he carried a hatchet to clear the trail of 'deadfall' limbs and branches.

Cold fog hung over the woods. The track in the snow is the tobaggon as it faithfully follows Steven...like it has a choice?

We have about a foot and a half of snow now.

It was warm when it first snowed, then it went below zero, followed by more snow.

That first wet snow glued the clumps of snow to the trees, and even yet the trees are weighted down with snow.