If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.

Friday, November 29, 2013

Winter is setting in!

Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all through the house
Nothing was stirring not even a......oh wait.....
something is stirring
be back in a minute!

OK.  I'm back.  Where were we?

Oh yeah the day after Thankshitting.  Now I remember.  I think I still have a piece of turkey stuck in my teeth.  Or is that a wood splinter?  Can't tell.

Turkey day is over.  Sad to say.  I didn't get to gorge myself with beer, then turkey, then beer and then pie and then more turkey then more beer and finally more beerkey and pie like I wanted to.
Big thanks to the brother in law and his wife for hosting a ginormous feast!  Wish I could have stayed longer.  I'll repay the favor on Christmas (prime rib and ham)

Oh well.  We had to eat and then skedaddle up to the hospital.  My father in law had surgery last Saturday and they haven't been able to ween him off the ventilator.  It's been 6 days now.  We took the mother in law up some thanksgiving food from the feast and said hi to a very knocked out father in law.  I hate to see him like this.  I hope they figure out the meds and the procedure very quickly.  The surgery was a success.  He had bladder cancer and after several months of chemo they went in and removed the bladder and while in there also removed his appendix, lymph nodes and repaired a hernia.  Reports came back that all the cancer is gone.  Thank God for that!  Now we just gotta get him woke up.

On a lighter note I will be headed out today to look at a firewood cutting job.  Responded to an add  I seen for firewood, you cut, you haul type deal.  I think the guy had some logging done and wants the tops cut up.

The wood stove is doing an amazing job of heating the entire house.  It has been cold here.  Lows in the teens and highs in the 20s and low 30s.  The stove keeps the house around 70-74 degrees.  Last year while trying to supplement our heat with just the fireplace we never seen anything over 67.  What a huge difference and all the work I put into it has all been worthwhile.  The gas valve on the furnace is in the off position.

Last weekend I finished processing the last of the venison we brought home from deer camp.
Dad and I had cut it into one inch chunks and I canned it last saturday.  Canned venison sounds weird but it is quite good.
I start off by chopping some onion and garlic and browning the meat in a pot.



I have my pressure canner ready as well as all the jars, lids and bands sterilized and waiting.
The blue pot contains beef broth set to boil.
I add the browned venison to the jars with a portion of onion and garlic.
Then pour in the boiling beef broth leaving one inch head space.  Use a wooden spoon to release any trapped air bubbles in the jar and then wipe off jar rims and put on lids and rings.


Place in pressure canner and once the pressure reaches 10 lbs start the timer.  For my altitude it is 10 lbs for 90 minutes for quarts and 75 minutes for pints.


Finished product was 7 quarts and 10 pints.  It so amazingly tender and just falls apart when pressed with a fork.  


I smile everytime I open the pantry and look at the shelves.  I did a great job of putting away a ton of food this year from canned tomatoes to salsa, pickles and peppers, plus all my dried peppers and chipotles and now adding venison to the shelf!  It's food hoarding and I love it!

My next project was to build a heater system to keep the waterer in the chicken/duck coop from freezing.

I had momma pick me up an old cookie tin from the thrift store and all I did was drill a hole in the side of it and put a string of Christmas lights inside.  Push the plug through the hole and put the lid back on.  Plug it in to  the outlet in the coop and set the water jug on top.  The lights put out just enough heat to keep the tin warm and the water from freezing.  Pennies to operate.  A few dollars to build ($3)


The weather has been quite cold recently.  Looks like winter is here for good.  


Coming home form the hospital the other day I saw a beautiful sunset so I pulled over to the side of the road, even backed up a little, and snapped this picture.


I had to get that tree centered in the pic.  If you click the pic it is much better!

That's all I got for now.  I may dig the old Arctic Cat out today and begin tinkering with it.  I have to have some sort of project going!



Cheers and stay warm!
-Bushman


3 comments:

  1. I guess seeing your father in law beat cancer trumps drinking yourself stupid and eating until you explode. I guess. Really, glad to hear it, though!

    Also, that canned venison looks amazing.

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  2. Sounds like you have had a very positive/progressive autumn! I've never had canned venison... the only deer I eat is jerky. When my dad would take myself and my brother hunting, we would always come home with a kill but I never ate it. I've never been a big fan of venison. Maybe it was just cooked wrong for my liking.

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  3. Wow, you have been busy! Just slowing down myself--or rather finally online again after a bit of a break--and thought I would drop in for a quick visit. Blogging seems to have taken a back seat for me lately. Hope to get back and read more of your adventures soon! Card coming in the next week or so. Merry Christmas!

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