Well, he did it again!  2 more!!! ~~Way to go~~

Limit here is 6 deer so he's already half done.  If he gets anymore I think we'll give them away.  He's still hoping for a big rack to put on the wall though!

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I already typed a long entry, but for some reason it didn't post.  Now I'm tired of typing so now here's the shorter version!

Thanksgiving--went well.

Black Friday sales--went extreemly well, considering!

Today- going great so far.  Hubby & son are trying to shoot a deer, Abby's asleep & me and puppy are drinking coffee & chewing on a snowman toy...you decide who is doing which! LOL

It's suppose to keep raining off & on so I'm not sure if we'll get the new chicken pen done this weekend or not...leaning toward the not, but maybe we can at least get started & finish up next weekend.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving....now I need to figure out where to put the Christmas tree!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Thanksgiving this year should be a nice family day.  It will be just the 4 of us here at the homestead.  We will all be sharing in the cooking.

Thanksgiving menu

Smoked Turkey (Dad)

Cornbread Dressing (Mom & Abby)

Mashed potatoes w/gravy (Mom)

Green bean casserole (Tyler)

Crescent rolls (Pillsbury--baked by Abby)

Cranberry Sauce

Pumpkin Pie (Abby)

Hope you have a wonderful day of Thanks at your home!

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I've been up early today.  The puppy was barking away around 6:00.  So I got up & took him out.  It is COLD here today.  The high is only suppose to go up to 50*  My son is planning on going on a hunting camping weekend again today.  They are taking our pop-up camper.  I told them they better take our electric heater & the propane one just incase the little electric one goes out. (It's tempremental)  I sure hope they will be warm enough.

We went & did our erronds yesterday.  We did end up stopping by my friend's house for a little visit.  She is so "normal" & easy to get along with.  --I have found that finding "real" not fake people in our homeschool community around here is a bit of a struggle.  Everyone wants to come off as our best, but how can you really have a friendship if you are trying to keep up a front all of the time.?

Today I plan on cleaning up the house, finishing up laundry & making some laundry soap.  For my list of extra things I had up the other day, I plan on getting to putting up our summer clothes & taking some wintery ones out.  Perhaps I'll get around and make some cookies or something too.

Well that's about it for my day!  I'm off to read some others blogs & get some more coffee!

~God Bless~

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Today is our busy day.  We go and clean Ms. Bo's house.  Then it's off to the bank, grocery store, nursing home, dollar tree & I may run by a friend's house to drop a movie & magazine off I said she could borrow.

I try to get things done all in one whack!  Gas is a good price here at the moment, but I don't want to get too excited or spend more just because it costs less.  It's running about $1.87 here!!!  I will need to fill the car up this morning, but now $20 will get me much further.

I made some chicken stock last night & have it chilling in the fridge now.  When I get home I'll need to skim the fat off & can it.  --I can't believe all those years I threw my bones & carcass right out.  I could have saved alot by making my own stock.  I use the recipe from the Nurishing Traditions book.

All of our animals are doing well here.  The pigs are really starting to grow! 

I got a seed catalog in the mail yesterday & that kept me busy all evening long.  I just love to read & pick out a couple of new things to try for the spring.  This year we are planning on selling some of our produce.  Probably on Saturday mornings just at our house. 

Well, I best get around.  Hope you have a great day!

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With the cooler weather I'm starting to get into holiday mode.  For me, that means some baking.  I made some sugar cookies yesterday that are really scrumptious!  Here's the recipe:

Classic Sugar Cookies

1 cup crisco

1 cup sugar

1 egg

2 T. milk

1 T. vanilla

3 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 small can icing (will only use about 1/4-1/2 can)

Turn oven to 350.

Beat shortening & sugar in large bowl, beat with mixture until creamy.  Add in egg, milk & vanilla until well blended.

Put dough in fridge until oven is heated. 

Then Roll up into small balls.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet & push down slightly. 

Bake about 9-10 minutes until set in the middle & very lightly golden.

Cool & frost.

We used strawberry flavored icing & they were great! *This is also the recipe I use for cut-out cookies.  You just have to divide it up in half & wrap in wax paper in the fridge for about an hour before moving on to rolling & cutting.

My holiday mode also usually means some decluttering before Christmas time.  So I'll attempt to get to some of that today.  I'm going to make a list of extra projects that I'd like to have done & actually do them.

~Clean out kitchen drawers

~Organize under the kitchen sink

~Kitchen cabinets

~Get winter clothes out & put summer ones away

~Kids need to do under their bathroom sink

~Get porches cleaned up for winter

~Get wood chopped & stacked (this will take all of us)

Well, if I can get these accomplished I'll be pleased.  It's really not that much, I just need to get motivated!

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Son got lucky this weekend!!!

Now deer is packed up & in the freezer! 

My brother-in-law took him hunting over the past weekend.  Tyler was the only one of them to get a deer.  We got it all packaged up & labeled.  After taking some to brother-in-law we still have a good bit.  We packed up a couple good roasts & tenderloin & a tad of boneless chunks (for dinner tonight)  The rest was ground into sausage & hamburger.

How we make deer/venison burger:

Clean & debone meat VERY well.  Cut off all the white that you can.  Then get a box of bacon ends & pieces.  In your meat grinder, put a little meat & then a piece or two of the bacon.  Repeat until all ground!  Venison does not have much fat so the bacon adds some fat & lots of flavor.  You really don't need alot though. 

deer/venison sausage: (pan/patty type)

Same thing except use a big roll of sausage to fill in for the fat/bacon.  It stretches the sausage out alot.  Now you could buy all the sausage ingredients & skip buying the sausage, but we've done this once before & we like it better & it costs less with buying a roll or two.

Tonights supper:

Venison tips & gravy over rice, cob corn, biscuits

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