I've opened a shop on Etsy

Hello to everyone today!

Just a note to let you know that I have opened a digital scrapbook shop on Etsy, you can check it out HERE -  Etsy is like Ebay in a sense but I found I like Etsy much better!! It caters more to the home made items and more for the crafty kind.

I know I don't talk much about my business on here as this is the" fun" blog, a way for me to almost keep track of things as they happen, a journal if you will, but today I decided to share with you what I do in my spare time when I am not gardening or remodeling the house/grounds here.

Some of the digital kits I have made, I love the vintage era and do a lot of scrapping of my genealogy research so this first kit really works for that type of thing

then a little brighter kit

all kinds of fun kits you can use to make digital scrapbooks, invitations, posters, t-shirts, greeting cards

you name it, you can create it, so stop over to my Etsy shop one day and check it out, I also have a blog for the business HERE where I give away freebies from the kits I design

Yard work after the drainage ditch & sewer lines redone

You all know how much of a mess we had during the drainage ditch around the house work was being done, huge mounds/mountains of dirt, well that all got put back together, now to wait over the winter for it to settle then in the spring we can fill in and level off and get some grass seeded

oh yes, quite the messy yard right?

what's even worse, is the guineas we have think roosting on the front deck railing is a good idea, I do not!

they leave me little presents I don't wish to receive!!

 yup fall is here,everything is messy now

the water lilies are starting to die off as are the other plants in the pond

you know how you get one project done then immediately there is something else that needs done? well this time around it was the sewer lines, we had to dig from the basement all the way through the pasture field to get the old clay tile out and redo it with new good stuff, I worked and didn't get photos of the process, but you can see the finished area

at least another thing checked off our list!

so . . . the neighbor was going to haul his old farm truck to the scrap yard, wondered if we needed a pickemup truck - heh heh heh so we got it from him, now you know why this is called the "redneck" place, all my co workers got to calling this truck "Laurrie's redneck truck"

 don't you just love the duct tape?

 hey for scrap price, I don't think hardly anyone could get a truck for $500 these days!

well it may not be pretty but it runs!!!! and this old hillbilly is happy to have a truck to haul tons of plants around (and rocks, and dirt and well you get the picture it hauls anything!

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