Well I must say the weather has been a little on the warm side despite the cool mornings but the sunshine has even been brighter than ever. I played pickle ball for 2 solid hours in the morning from 8-10 and then worked outside the rest of the day until dusk, wow what a fantastic day for working outside as there was very little humidity. We eventually shut the a/c off by evening as a front moved into the area with cooler temps and a brisk breeze.
I'm going to reflect back from when I was growing up on the farm and what we did every year for as long as I can remember on this Thanksgiving Day; we butchered at least 4 to 5 large hogs which started before day break and usually lasted well into the late evening hours by the time the last hog was processed, sausage made and the hams and shoulders prepared for curing. It was a busy fun time that saw me with lots of hard work around the many fires we needed for heating clean water, heating the scalding tank, fire under the many huge black kettles that cooked the meat for the pudding mixture, cooking the fat meat for the lard which we used for shortening or grease and the fires under other kettles for various procedures in the butchering operation.
I usually spent the evening before heading to a small bridge with a steady stream of water and a couple 55 gal barrels for transporting water back to the farm for the butchering which takes lots of water. The water was picked up from the stream bed using a rope and bucket and it was usually so cold the water that splashed in the truck bed froze on contact. It also used to snow that day or the day afterwards it seemed every year. The fresh pork liver was our Thanksgiving Day meal which was delicious and fresh meat was distributed to all of our helpers which was George and Clarence Sine and Miss Beulah plus Nannie(grandmother) and the Bucher Boys, Brian and Pud. We killed the first hog just at day break and then every hour or so another one.
We shot them in the head between the eyes then bled them out with a butcher knife to the throat. I know it sounds gruesome but that was the humane way of butchering our fresh meat that would last the year out. The meat was so good and of course I always loved the cracklings which is like the pork skins or rinds you buy in the store. The fresh heart was delicious when pulled right from the black kettle and cut up and sprinkled with rock salt. Such were the times when we seldom bought meat at the store. Later in the year we would cut the hams curing with salt, red and black pepper and brown sugar. Delicious to say the least. The sausage was filled into the cleaned intestines and hung in the smoked house and also stored in freezers. The fat or lard was stored in cans and kept in the cold smoke house for use throughout the year.
Well Wednesday here in Seminole was gorgeous and I got a lot of yard and garden work completed before dark after a great two hour work out on the courts. I mowed all of the yards and them mulched up a couple wheelbarrow loads of grasses, weeds and debris from the shrubs and mulched all of the rows in the garden. I also sowed some bush and pole beans turning the ground over with a shovel. I fed all of the seedlings and then transplanted some lettuces as well as tomato seedlings in to 6 packs for future transplanting. The yards are looking good and the zoysia grass is running and will soon cover the area where the St.Augustin grass died this summer. The Crepe Myrtle tree is looking good and the trunk of the tree is expanding as well. The bug man came during the afternoon as Nancy saw two small ants in the house and we known she gets livid when that occurs so he spread more ant killer granules around the house at no charge as we paid them a hundred bucks earlier during the summer to kill the ants and they guaranteed that would occur. I think I'll contract with them to come once a month while we are gone next summer to spread the ant killer mixture around the outside of the house.
Nancy had some yellow squash that needed eating so she fried up a couple which is always a treat for me and we garnished them with ground red pepper and fresh basil, yeow where they ever delicious and then she pan fried some ground venison for burgers, Oh My what a feast. This meat was processed by Caleb(who killed it) and myself in the mountains and then we froze it and kept it frozen until we put it in the freezer here in Florida. I would never eat beef again it I could get this meat in its place it was that tasty and since we processed we didn't need to worry about bone chips which sometimes happens when butchers process deer. After the clean up we settled into the Fox Cable News until 8'ish then I headed to the shower and watched some Discovery Channel before reading the last hour until 10'ish. It was lights out for me until Nancy started her snoring around 3'ish which kept me awake the rest of the night, LATER
