A Good Start

To say that we've been busy would be an understatement. 

We've been spending a lot of time at Jason's parents camp. Our latest crazy is to "paint" strawberries with marshmallow fluff and toast them over the fire. Stomper loves them!!

Last week we had Vacation Bible School at our church (sort of like a day camp..but shorter) which kept me well occupied. We all has so much fun! I cut Stomper's hair funny for funny hair day and dusted it with cornstarch. Then in the afternoon I buzzed all his curls off. He looks so grown up with no hair!

We bought a park pass to the state parks. We plan on spending a lot of time at the lake this summer. Next Tuesday we will be headed up to the park for their Owl Walk. Stomper loves owls, I think he'll get a kick out seeing and hearing some live ones. Our good friends also have a park pass and live only a few miles away so last Sunday we invited them to come with us to the lake. We were the only ones at the beach due to the rain. Not sure why people don't swim in the rain, maybe they are afraid of getting wet?

Today I sent Stomper with Jason's parents to go camping during the bi-annual family reunion. We will head up on Friday. It will be a good way to start my vacation, For the next six weeks there will be no daycare, we aren't sure what we will do with our time! 

I have a few posts planned. I hope to work on them tonight and tomorrow. Make sure you come back for: Slip n Slide, a Cake with a Surprise, Grilled Salad, and a Broiler Update!

Not What We Were Expecting

ex·pect  (k-spkt)

    v. ex·pect·ed, ex·pect·ing, ex·pects

1.

a. To look forward to the probable occurrence or appearance of: expecting a telephone call; expects rain on Sunday.

b. To consider likely or certain: expect to see them soon

 

We are firm believers that God will supply all our needs. This winter we realized that the family on a whole needed a break from daycare. We all needed a chance  to recharge and reconnect with each other. Financially it seemed impossible. Taking six weeks off from daycare meant six weeks of no income from that source. Dad and Jason would work their jobs, of course, but the income from the daycare pays for a lot of necessities.

On faith Mom agreed to shut the daycare down for the summer. We know that God supplies our needs, but still it is hard to trust.

We are a family if six carnivores. Granted we eat other things, but we love our meat. When I plan the weeks menu I first think about the meat and then what to eat with it. In case you haven't notice from your most recent trip to the grocery store, meat is expensive, especially the red kind. We buy all our ground beef from BJ's Food Club, we know it's not the best meat, but for the money it keeps us well fed. I figure that we eat about twenty pounds of ground beef every three weeks. Some of the meat is eaten by daycare kiddos, but most is by us.

Our big meat expenditure is one of the reasons that we are growing our own food; including our meat. Our broilers will be ready soon for eating, but that doesn't cover the burger we eat. Trusting God is hard, but we trusted that He knows we love burgers on the grill, meatloaf, and tacos so he would provide.

Do you remember the deer? The day after we processed the deer (Wednesday) Jason called the dispatch center for the sheriff department and told them he'd like to be on the roadkill list. The next day he got a call. "Hey Jason, do you want a moose?"

Yes! A moose! A seven hundred pound cow had been hit and her spine broken. Jason and a buddy went to the scene and collected the moose.

The freezer is full! Not only with ground moose, but steaks too. God has fully supplied our red meat for the next six months! We are so grateful for God's provision. We've been passing out moose meat like candy at a parade, and still our freezer overflows!

I saw recently on either facebook or pinterest a little saying: "God promised to supply all our needs, but it may not look like we were expecting."

Thank you God for being greater than my expectations!

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny for a Yarn Along .. a little reading, a little knitting, a little photography..

Wow, it's been quite some time since I've posted a Yarn Along.

I have been reading, a lot, mostly due to the fact that my asthma kicked in again with a vengeance which meant I spend a lot of time sitting, but with out room to knit. So I've been reading, right up to when we bought the lap top. Now I've been wasting countless hours playing The Sims 3. 

This is what I've read:

The Second Short Life of Bree Tanner, Ship Breaker, and Acorna Books 1-3.

It took me a long time to get through Ship Breaker, I'm not sure why. It is a post apocalyptic book. It's good, but not awesome. The first few chapters were my favorite and then it got I don't know .. blah. Not a book I'd recommend.

Bree Tanner was all right. It doesn't have chapters so its hard to find a stopping place. I won't be reading that one again either.

Acorna though, perfection. I was in the library a few weeks ago and I was thinking about sci-fi. One of my favorite sci-fi authors is Anne McCaffrey. She wrote the Dragon Riders of Pern series plus the Rowan series so I thought I might read them again. Sadly, they didn't not have the book I wanted to read, but had another series she co-authored with Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. The series is about a woman/alien named Acorna. It is fast paced, filled with interesting characters, and holds your attention. Acorna is well thought out and the supportive characters have depth. I am definitely recommending this book.

I do manage to knit a few rows here and there. I am nearly done with the hedgehog part of my hedgehog/squirrel. The squirrel still needs a tail, which I will finish as soon as I purchase a pom-pom maker. I learned how to crochet while making the hedgehog. I had to ask my Mom for help (who has crocheted in the past) to figure out I was supposed to do after I slipped the stitch, but after that it went great. It is looking really, really cute. Stomper is going to love it Christmas morning!

Around Here

It is raining here, again, for the millionth time. We are stuck indoors more than we are able to go outside it seems. When we do go out we get work done. The turkey house is done, finally. The plan was to move them in today with our six new laying hens. However, no one wants to get soaked, so they will wait for a sunny day.

The garden went in last week just before this last batch of storms. Despite my trying to keep the tomato plants to a minimum there is twelve in the garden. Partly due to a misunderstanding at the nursery. What my  Mom thought was cherry tomatoes is, in fact, low acid tomatoes. If the ran stops I will snap a photo of the garden and tell you what we planted.

Come back tomorrow for a Yarn Along post and my Christmas Prep KAL update!

Deer Meat

Ten years ago I was a nanny in Boston trying to become more "civilized". My boss, a "civilized" person liked to eat "strange meats" like organic ostrich and buffalo burger that she bought at Trader Joe's. Not to be outdone by a "flat lander" I would regale her with tales of eating moose, bear, and deer that friends and family had shot. What could get more organic than wild life I thought. I told her about the year my Dad had hit a deer with his car one year. That fall we ate like kings. The freezer was full even if the car was smashed. 

We were watching North Woods Law awhile ago and someone from Massachusetts had hit a deer. The warden comes up the car and says: "If we find it do you want the deer?" the lady laughed it off like it was a joke. To clarify he added, "I have to ask, because most locals would take it." She chuckled and I'm sure she was thinking that us "Mainers" are crazy to eat road kill.

Well, if it destroys your car, its fair payback to eat it.

Jason happened to be in the right place at the right time and was able to get a deer that had been hit by a car. Both legs had been broken and it was really young, but free meat is tasty meat. He brought it home and we processed it. A very small portion we cut into small steaks, but the rest we ran through our grinder. Of course Stomper felt he needed to help. We are looking forward to the day when he really can take a turn at the crank.

Now the freezer is full, we are going to eat like kings.

Christmas Prep KAL

Polished up the squirrel as far as I can go with out a pom-pom maker. I have tried making pom-poms with out one and they don't come out too good. Eventually they fall apart. I knit up the body of the hedgehog over the week-end, but I need to spend some time with youtube to figure out some of the crochet. I know the basics of crochet, but I'm not certain what the pattern means by sl1. I'm sure I'll get it once I take the time to learn.

No photos of the knitting today, just this one taken from last week-end of my little guy on the 4-Wheeler.

Making any progress on your list?

Memorial Week-End

The last few weeks we have felt a little like Noah. It has done nothing but rain, rain, and rain. It wasn't even the sort of rain that we could play out in. In fact, a few of the days we turned on the pellet stove.. in MAY!

 

Stomper was getting a little stir crazy so during a break in the storm we took a walk in the woods. It is nice being able to get him out from beyond the daycare fence and let him run wild for a little while. He found sticks to pick up, trees to shake, slugs to poke at, and of course space to run. And run and run and run. Seems like its his only speed these days, it makes it very hard to take his photo! 

 

Memorial Week-end we went up to the family camp in the woods. It rained, of course, and was so bitter cold. I was wearing a hat, a cowl, fingerless mittens, and several layers of clothes. We were wishing for a wood stove, but we managed none the less to stay warm.

 

Then finally, on Sunday, the sun came out!