Bacon & hams done at the smokehouse

If you seen my post awhile back when we processed the hogs you will know we already did all the major cuts of meat for the freezer as well as seasoned our ground pork to make breakfast pork sausage, we usually send the hams and bacon out to Reuben to smoke for us

Welp, we got the stuff back, so the family is back to get their stuff sliced up for their freezers

 peppered bacon

 sliced and ready for packaging

 more getting cut to size to run through our little meat slicer

 packing into food saver bags for the freezer

 ham being carved to their liking for the freezer

 mama is always happy :)

Kat took meat processing in school, we told her she better get all the meat off clear down to the bone LOL

Hand painted skull for brother's mustang hood scoop

OK so my brother has an awesome '81 Mustang Cobra that he has decked out and repainted, he finally found a hood scoop that pleases him and he brought it to me to paint, telling me just something with say maybe cobras and skulls, the interior he redid has little skulls all over it, hmmm

I have it for about 5 days and my sister calls and says she is having a gathering at her place for his birthday, oh krap, well I better get busy, may as well do that paint job for him to give him for his birthday, ok I get the news on the 20th, that means I have 2 days to do this, I better get it right!

I found a skull I liked and blew it up on my computer and printed it out to see if I had it the right size for the hood scoop, called him and asked for sure what he wanted, skulls, cobras?

He told me do whatever you want as long as its freaking cool, no worries I said, I can handle that!

 now it's time to get the layers going on! doesn't look like much yet does it? you just wait!

I only used 4 colors for this hood scoop, and since his car is blue, I had decided to do a metallic blue for the eyes, white for base, grey for the highlights and shading and black for the detail

there's the beast, isn't it just stunning!!

 it's getting there, I think it needs more detail and some scraggley hair or what used to be hair anyway

 a little more detail going on

 love the eyes

 adding some squiggles of hair

 moving around a bit so you can see the metallic in the eyes

 wicked awesome, he is gonna sooo love this!!

 dang, I like it so much maybe I will just keep it HA

all done, just clear coated it and it's good to go, not to shabby for a few hours worth of work if I do say so myself, I like to have a little more time on these kinds of projects but the party was sprung on me last minute, its all good, it IS done and in time too!

I signed it "Breezy" very discreetly

you could say he was very surprised, I think my nephew was wishing it was his LOL

he was thrilled with it!! Just look at him ~ proud as a peacock!
Now to get a photo of it on the car :)

Happy Birthday lil bro!!

Fun winter hats

Kids, like I say "you can't take em anywhere"

shopping at the mall and they found these hats, pretty neat, but ya know, neither would buy them to actually wear outside the house tee hee

Hog Butchering Day - pork sausage recipe

It's that time of year again, hog butchering day, it's always a wonderful time with family and friends processing the hogs! 

Jim and Robert skinning the hog

got smart, this time they hung it above the cart so the guts don't end up all over the ground

yes, it's messy

 time to get the hams & bacons cut off & get smoked

then the guys will cut off the chops, roasts and other pieces parts to get ready for us to wrap

 get the scraps into the grinder for the pork sausage 

we mix sage and pepper into our pork sausage mixture, always do a few taste tester patties so you know if you like the mixture before you package for freezer

 got to have a sharp knife for this job

 got the foodsaver out, getting bags marked and dated

now to get the pork sausage bagged for freezer

finishing up the pieces parts to get the rest of the sausage made

 time to make some link sausages

there we go!! 

are you sure you know what you are doing? HA HA

yup, looks like we got it! ready for baggin & taggin

BREAKFAST PORK SAUSAGE RECIPE

15-20 lbs ground up pork, including fat

1/2 cup pepper

1/4 cup sage

red pepper flakes, optional

mix all together really good to incorporate the spices

freeze in 1 lb packages, shape into patties or turn into sausage links

you can even make your own sausage from a pork roast you purchase if you don't have your own hogs to raise/butcher, just get a nice sized roast with lots of fat still on it, ask the butcher even for a fattier one

grind it up and mix in your pepper & sage to taste, same process and you season to your liking

Her first homecoming dance

The kids are growing up right before my eyes!

Chey's ready for her first homecoming dance

probably the first time she has ever worn a dress!

with her bestie Brooke and her cuz back there keepin an eye on them

and genius that they are, the kids decided since they couldn't find a zebra striped tie, they would just create one using what else "duct tape" oh yes I kid you not, that is what he made that tie from, cardboard and duct tape, genius I say! They were up in her room forever, came and showed us, we all agreed, it was perfect

its just pinned on LOL but hey, it worked

my sister and I took these photo of them, cousins and each to chaperone the other at the dance!

I think my nephew didn't stay long because it was his first dance and he found he really didn't care for school dances LOL Cheyenne however had a blast with all of her friends

Processing some pork with friends

It's that time again for pork, have to keep the freezers full

We usually do it at our place, but this time we had so many from up north that we went there to do this in his big barn, we are helping them learn the process, next weekend we will do ours down home with our family and a few other friends

 us gals wrap and label, while the guys cut and process

that was fun, can't wait to do it all again :)