Phillips Patch

Oh to Simplify

2012-01-27T19:52:00.000-08:00

I am fascinated with the thought of living "simply". Sad tough to think how much we are accustomed to. I asked my husband tonight if he could do with out the tv. "Yes" he replied. To which I flabergastedly ( a word?) replied, "really you could?". We both agreed we could. Sad though we justify keeping it because we already invested our money in it. I am however thinking now, how much time are we investing in it? I am not suggesting we tear down our flat screen tv off the wall, or throw away this computer I type on, or pitch our cell phones, but I am questioning more the use of them..... Well I will keep praying about this.... Til next time!

Sickness in the House

2012-01-25T13:47:00.000-08:00

Unfortunately sickness has hit our home again. It started Monday evening after a wonderful visit at Mom and Dad Phillips'. We came home and I started not feeling well. By 10 the vomiting started. Thankfully no one else has had the vomiting, but they have had dizziness, and muscle aches and stomach aches. Now the kids have fevers and not so fun sounding coughs. The only blessing to being sick as I see it this week is that I have allowed myself to read in my sick time. Managed to read three more books. Guess I am doing well at keeping up with my goal of reading more this year! I eagerly await feeling better now so we can take a trip to the library!!! Hope you are well on the other side of the screen. God's Blessings t You!

Winter Wonderland

2012-01-21T16:55:00.001-08:00

Well the weather where I live has not been dull this winter, or should I say Sprinter (hint Spring/Winter). We woke up to 5 degrees yesterday morning and the day warmed up enough to snow and leave us with a beautiful 3-4 inches blanketing our property. Sadly tomorrow is supposed to greet us with warmer temps (highs near 40) and rain with possible thunderstorms. Poor Hudson gets so excited as soon as he sees a hint of ice forming on the pond. He is eagerly waiting to try out ice skating this year. Every morning he looks out the kitchen sliding glass door, gazes at the pond hopeful that he will see ice, that is ready to skate on. Unfortunately we have yet to come close to having enough days cold enough consecutively to get that. :-( I am so sad when I have to break the bad news every times he gets sooo excited about the ice on the pond, that it is still not thick enough. Poor fellow.
But alas I got to enjoy watching the soft powdery snow flakes fall ever so gracefully and steadily last evening. Then I awake to see the bright sunshine radiant off of the glittery blanket that graces the land. God never ceases to amaze me. I know I say how sad it will be to have the rains come in tomorrow, but he gives us such beauty day to day. I know in the midst of the dry weather we are ever grateful to feel the raindrops cascade down our faces, or to listen to their pitter patter on the roof as they descend from above. I love to take pictures of all the variations of cloud formations. Our God is so awesome that he didn't just stop at one type of cloud, he made many types, and of course depending on the conditions colors as well. I know many will read this and think scientifically of why their are the different weather conditions, but I know in my heart that it is God that created it all.

Our Heavenly Fathers hand is at work in every rain drop that falls from the heavens, every rainbow that is painted across the skies, every dew drop on blades of lush grass, every unique snowflake that clings to the branches and blankets the earth, every breath of wind, every cloud whether they look like marsh mellows to the reflection of the sea, every grain of sand that blows over the desert plains or squishes between your toes on the beach, every bubbling brook, every raging river, every rolling hill, every mountain peak, every ray of sun that melts away the icicles, to every tree budding with new life, every tree that hold the fragrant blossoms of spring, every tree that bears abundant harvest, every tree that grasps to the last colors that paint the landscape every year, to the tree that raises it branches to the heavens as if praising the Father for it all.

So this evening we bundled up the kids and played in the snow. We laughed as we pulled Elizabeth on a saucer sled for the first, and heard her squeals of delight fill the air. We all loaded up and took a moonlight trip through the woods on the four wheeler. I thought as we all played, I hope my kids remember these times, times of simple pleasures. I hope they remember mommy and daddy racing the kids on sleds, picking out animal tracks in the snow under the moonlight, and more.......

A Moment in the Word

2012-01-19T06:51:00.000-08:00

Today I did some more reading in Ephesians. Sunday in church we touched on part of Chapter 5, I read further and felt I should post it since it correlates with my last post.

Ephesians 5: 1-20
Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed, because these are improper for God's holy people. Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person- such as a man is an idolater - has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God's wrath comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be partners with them.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said:
"Wake up, O sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you."
Be very careful, then, how you live - not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity. because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am thankful again for his forgiveness when I fail to live up to these instructions. I pray for you on the other side of the screen, May you Blessed today by the Lord. Have a great day!

Christians are Hypocrites

2012-01-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

It is a sad title for believers isn't it? Unfortunately the Lost do not understand the redemptive love of our father. Thankfully is is ever flowing. Because as believers we understand that even though we have the Holy Spirit, we are still human. That of course means we are still a being with a sinful nature. We are at constant war. The devil wants to attack us so that we fail. Fail we do at times, sometimes many many times over. Failing grieves our Heavenly Father yes, but as before his Love is constant and he redeems us, forgives us, every time we confess to him. Does that mean we should be hypocritical on purpose knowing grace is given to us? NO. We strive to please our Heavenly Father, because that is our purpose right, to do his will. Pleasing him would be doing his will. Which brings me back to the war inside us. Thankful we have the Holy Spirit within us. What a precious gift given to us by our Lord. All we have to do is call upon the Holy Spirit to be our guide. It is our ever present help in times of trial and temptation. By not utilizing this most precious tool, we often fail cause we fall back on our human nature, which of course is a sinful nature, which of course leads us to failure.
I guess what I am saying is we should be conscious how much we are watched by the Lost. If we show no light, no fruit of the spirit, if we are void of anything seen desirable of being saved, how are we to further the Kingdom of God? How are we to witness? We need to be mindful that our actions sometimes are the biggest tool to helping or hurting bringing the Lost to know our Savior Jesus Christ.
I pray that we let our Light Shine!

What Fulfills you?

2012-01-13T06:15:00.000-08:00

This is a good question I feel to ask ourselves on a regular basis. We can often got off tilt of what is good to fulfill our hearts.
Is it money?
Is it a television show?
Reading a good book?
Crafts?
Hobbies?
Sports?
Vacations?
Shopping?
Hiking?
Family?

In and of themselves there is nothing wrong with any of these things. I believe it is good to feel allowed to enjoy the blessings of the Lord. However to take the turn that the blessings of the Lord is the source we draw our fulfillment from I believe is not good. Where are we then when we feel our blessings ran dry? Where are we then if money is scarce? Or Family is lost? Our eye sight is failing? Our hands can not do what we wish? Our legs cannot take us? If we only look to these things as a source of fulfillment we will let ourselves down. Yes these are enjoyable, and yes they are blessings. But they should not be the source of where our fulfillment comes.
My fulfillment comes from the Lord. I am fulfilled with him alone. Do I enjoy His Blessings? YES! But do I rely on the blessings to know that He is Lord, Creator of Earth, Messiah, Savior to my sins? NO.
My Lord is constant. He has been and always will be Lord. He is Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. Money can be abundant at times, and lacking at others. We love our family, but our days are numbered. Our health may fail us. So many things that we tend to latch on to are temporary "fillers" to us. Again, we need to fill ourselves with the Lord, and know that his Blessings are just that Blessings. They are not a sign of how much He loves us, or how good of a Christian one is.
I challenge myself and you to fill ourselves up with the Lord, and Thank him for the Blessings he has bestowed upon us whatever they may.

"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made. The LORD upholds all those to fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes look to you, and you give them their food and the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing."
Psalm 145: 13-16

Picture Show of Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

2012-01-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

Here is A Cute of Hudson when he is helping me mix everything together!
Begin with a food processor. We were blessed with this one.
My brother and sister-n-law gave it to us, and we have gotten so much use out of it!

Here is the oats to start...

Cutting them...

Okay here is what they should look like :-)

All the dry ingredients...

Nothing better than farm fresh eggs! These are from our very own Henrietta's. ;-)

Hudson trying to open the egg...

He needed mommy's help. ;-)

Unsweetened apple sauce. This is our home processed applesauce. I do believe the apples used for this batch was given to us by Aunt Vicky and Uncle Steve. The blessings of family and sharing our abundance.

Hudson wanted Teddy Bear to see him working. awe

Cinnamon time.... Hudson put a little more in and it was good!

Adding the wet to the dry, my helper is hitting the pulse button for me.

Me trying to be creative getting a mixing shot. ;-)

I put the mix back into a measuring cup for easy pouring... I do keep a small Teflon skillet on hand to do pancakes on or eggs to help cut down on oil. I have not yet found a way to get my food from sticking to my stainless steel pans.

Elizabeth "cooking".... aka emptying my measuring spoons from the drawer. lol

mmmmm hot pancakes

To top them off, nothing better than homemade maple Syrup from Uncle Steve. YUMMY!

I have been letting the kids have picnics in the living room... They each ate 3 pancakes this morning! You can tell they love them. I actually ate mine minus the syrup to help watch points. They are very good alone.

That's all..... Oh yeah again, I freeze the leftovers as you see I make more than plenty. It is very easy to just pop them in the toaster for a quick breakfast!

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

2012-01-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

So left the last post to go make these delicious yet healthy pancakes. Well here is the recipe as promised:

1 Cup Oatmeal (I use quick oats)

1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour

3/4 Cup All Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup Brown Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 Egg

2 Cups Milk

2 Tbsp Oil (recipe calls for vegetable oil today I used coconut oil mmmmm)

1 tsp Vanilla

1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Applesauce

1. In a food processor grind the oatmeal until it resembles a coarse flour. Then add remaining dry ingredients. Measure out Wet ingredients and mix thoroughly with dry ingredients. Cook pancakes over medium heat. Store leftovers in freezer for easy breakfast in the future. :-)

For anyone reading this that does weight watchers, to the best I figure my recipes this entire recipe is 46.5 points. I take that total and divide by the number of pancakes made for total points per pancake. (Obviously try to make them as uniform in size as possible. Today I made approx. 27 3 inch pancakes which gave me about 2 pts pancakes. YAY!)

Above are some pics of me and the kid's pancake making adventure this morning!

Menus

2012-01-12T04:57:00.000-08:00

One of my goals for the new year was to start planning menus. I did get a menu planned for the entire month of January for breakfast lunch and dinner. However since the last 3 days we ave had the cold virus, I did not follow the menu to a T. It has however kept me more accountable to sticking to a plan that uses the food resources we have available at home, and helps curb my desire to "over shop" as I say to buy food that ends up being wasted. Usually that happens when I shop and see a sale and think "oh ya I can make this or that with this" and I end up not cooking that meal. So by having a menu it at least gives me a guideline and helps me prepare better too so that we do not end up eating so many unhealthy last minute prepared meals. i.e mac n cheese. This too shall help me stay on track with a healthier me. I let my weight go to wayside over the past 2 months and Christmas was NOT friendly to my numbers. SO I need to get back on track with that as well. I do not need to undo my almost 50 pounds lost. Well speaking of food... Hudson is up and wants to make pancakes! hmmmm maybe my whole wheat applesauce ones would be a good cold morning breakfast. Recipe to follow! Have a Blessed Day!

Going to Try and Start Again...

2012-01-11T14:26:00.000-08:00

So I let my blogging go to the wayside... Well I have decided that I have found some very good ideas by many bloggers, that would be too good t not share. Also I would love to continue sharing my experiences as a stay at home mom to two beautiful children. So here is to trying to continue blogging!

So first off I better bring my blog up to speed...
When I last posted we were at week 19 in my second pregnancy. Well I gave birth to a beautiful girl Elizabeth. We are so very blessed. Year ago we excepted that me bearing children would not be the plan of growing our family. However God did choose to bless us in that way by two! I will in the future discuss more about our infertility and pregnancies. In short we have 2 children 2 years apart. (We had the same due date for both... Totally God!) After my daughter was born I did have more female problems which resulted in a hysterectomy 9 months after her birth. So now we are in prayer as to if and when God would want us to look into either fostering or adoption.

Also to bring up to speed... We have increased our homesteading by starting to raise our own beef. It is neat to see how much the kids learn by having the animals. We have already raised and butchered 3 steers. We do not butcher the steers ourselves as we do not have the capability to do so here. I am sure Scott would love to have his own butcher shop here on the property (honestly I think that may be a good idea... LOL). We do continue to butcher goats here as well as chickens and rabbits.

We are in the process of building raised beds for my garden. Unfortunately we didn't accomplish to much of that this last summer and fall and winter have been extremely wet. So hopefully we can get a few rows of raised beds in for spring planting. If not we will make do again. My goal was to can quite a bit last year, but it was not the year for a great harvest from our garden. We did get a good amount of corn and pears put up, and the grapes were plentiful, but no peaches or tomatoes. We were blessed by others bounty in green beans. So we did get some put up. So again that is my goal for this year to have a increase in storage of our own raised produce.

Well There will be more to update on but this is all the time I have for now!
Til next time....

Long time no write....

2009-06-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

This will be quick... I know it has been a very long time since I last wrote. Update on the family...
I am on week 19 of my pregnancy! YAH! We find out the sex of the baby tommorow. I am very excited. Hudson is doing well. He is still working on his two year molars. They seem to come up and go back down I feel bad for him in that aspect. He can be ornery, but what toddler isn't right? Scott is doing really good in his EMT classes and has been on 3 emergency runs already. He has to have at least 6 and one being a pediatric case before he can take his test. I feel this is a great experience for him! Plus it is nice knowing he can take care of us if an e,ergency should happen. LOL He is almost halfway done with his classes! YAH!!!! We are excited that it is summer time and all that comes with it (okay maybe not mowing the grass). I am excited for the weekend trips we plan to take and for visiting with family and friends! Soon it will be time to get Hudson's "Big Boy" room ready. *sigh* As the family grows in size ( at least I am LOL) I know we are so very truely blessed. I always am thankful for the blessing of motherhood even on the difficult days. Now that I am feeling the baby move more, I get even more thankful, cause I remember when I thought I would never have this opprotunity. My God Is Awesome!!! Well that is the update for now... pictures will be coming soon and I promise I will try better to keep my blog going!

LONG TIME....

2009-04-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a very long time since I have last written on here. Well there has been a lot going on in my life since the last time. Well first our house seems to be invaded by ants. I have been warring with them constantly. My husband to the rescue (I hope) got some new ant killer products last night. They seem to be working so far for those pesky little black ants that are seasonal but ever so invasive in this house. The main ones that really bug me are the carpenter ants. We looked everywhere for a nest but found NONE. However we have quite a large number daily. But they seem to be lacking in numbers also the last two days, so maybe we are slowly killing the nest! WOOHOOO. Also, we have been continually battling Hudson allergy/asthma probs. I have to say at least he isn't having much breathing problems, it just seems to be a nagging cough. But I am starting to wonder if he has this energizer bunny cold that Scott and I have been battling for now over 22 days!!!! Isn't that ridiculous??? Some days we feel okay, but it seems to come right back. Coughing, sneezing, sore throat, and mucus. YUCK! No fever thankfully! I even lost my voice earlier this week... that was a mournful time for me! LOL However on the bright side.... we are expecting baby number 2! We feel very blessed. To think you would never have any to get 2!!!! God is awesome!!!! On that note... hope to be back soon!!!!

Hello All...

2009-03-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Hey there. I just thought I would get this picture on here even though it was taken last week. "Just to show what a cool mom I am!" LOL J/K I just thought it would be fun to let Hudson just eat his fill of jello and he did too! He really likes it! Afterward he had jello down his shirt down his pants all over the floor... what a mess! But he had fun then he got a nice fun Bubble Bath!!!

Hope all is well on your side of the screen! May God Bless You!

Til the next time....

Long Time No Write....

2009-03-11T06:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it has been awhile since my last post!!! Well We have butchered two goats since then. Suzy Sausage and Bonnie Brats! :-) It was a whole family affair which made it lots more fun! Also made it go faster than it could of been which still was a LONG day! So the goats were a boar goat breed. A friend of ours her breeding stock wasn't breeding so we got the goats for a great deal. Since they were a little older we decided it was best to make them into bulk sausage and stuff quite a bit into bratwurst. YUMMY! Scott did lots of recipe research so we could have a great sausage flavor. We were very happy with our recipes. (Even if I did accidentally make an entirely new recipe!) We made an original bratwurst recipe, Polish Sausage, Sweet Italian, and Hot Italian, which ended up being Hot Italian with Clove since I added the wrong type of clove! LOL But we all love clove flavor so we decided to keep that in the recipe! So the slaughter took place early in the week and those pictures are toward the end of the pictures. I decided to go from the end to the beginning so those of you with weak stomachs can stop when it gets to gross for you! The pictures are not too gruesome this time around. I missed on taking pictures of the gutting and skinning process. So instead of telling you the entire day I will give captions with pictures. But before I do I want to add an excerpt that I found on Cloned meat... this is one reason why I am wanting to raise our own meat!

FDA Admits Cloned Meat, Milk May Have Already Entered Food Supply
By travellerev
The FDA has admitted that meat and milk from the offspring of cloned mammals such as cows, pigs, goats and sheep could very well have already entered the food supply in the United States.
“It is theoretically possible,” agency spokesperson Siobhan DeLancey said.
In January, the FDA declared that foods derived from cloned animals and their offspring were safe for human consumption. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, asked food companies to voluntarily maintain a ban on products from clones.
The voluntary ban did not extend to the offspring of cloned animals.
So there ya have it...
Well this is mom during one of our packaging stages!

Here is one of our packages...
Mom giving the big cheese... :-) We are trying not to look as tired as we feel at this point....

This is the point where they are stuffing the sausage. I added this out of order oh well.... This is Scott's dad Terry and my dad Dennis stuffing the bratwurst with natural casings...

Here is Scott guiding the casing as his dad is pushing the sausage through the press...

Doing good....

Here is our first attempt.... I think it looks pretty consistent....

Okay I know this doesn't look good, but this is the casing around the tube that is attached to the sausage press. We bought an antique National Sausage/fruit press... we like to do things as much as the old way as we can. (well minus cleaning the casings of a hog... I WILL NOT DO THAT!!)

This starting to stretch out the casings and sliding them on to the tube...

Here is some of our tubes of meat... Hudson is looking a little curious back there... we ended up with about 97 pounds of meat to divide among us.... Again trying to get the casings started on the tube..

This is mom and me grinding the meat the second time...

First grinding... we weighed the meat prior to grinding, added the seasonings to the ungrounded meat then ground it in...

I think Terry is laughing at my dad here!

Scott cutting... notice he is cutting away from himself....

This is what happens when you cut toward yourself.... INJURY!!!

This is before we taped it back on... we didn't want it to mix with the good meat! LOL!!!

Here is some of the cuts before going into the buckets for us to weigh and grind.
Here is my dad cutting at the point where he was doing it correctly... before injury of course...

Is he hungry or what? :-)

Here are the goats before butcher day hanging after being skinned and gutted...

gutting...this is before it is hanging from the barn loft. They hosed it down and cleaned it up real good before skinning to prevent from getting dirt in the meat...Here is Hudson getting a chance to pet the goat...

Well there is another day of life on the Phillips Patch! It isn't always butchering day here! Soon it will be Fruit tree pruning and getting ready to plant the seed and possibly adding a pasture and more animals to raise up! We'll see. Til the next time...

Living Room Done

2009-02-19T04:12:00.001-08:00

So the living room is done, and I am finally
posting the pictures!
Here is a just a few. You can see the Hallway, Living room looking toward kitchen, and living room focused on Fireplace. We are very very very happy with it. It took us a long time to do, but I am glad we waited and did it this nice. If you ever want to do your flooring, you should look into Scott's Uncle he is VERY good. He also does custom carpet. Well today I work a long day, so I better get motivated to get some laundry done! LOL
Sorry I haven't been very good on my blogging! I'll try harder! Til the next time...

New Look To Our Home

2009-01-27T11:49:00.000-08:00

We finally have a new look coming to our Living Room and Kitchen. We have appreciated what we had, but were eager for a new look. We decided to go with a hardwood floor. We went through Scott's Uncle Stanley Spencer owner of Spencer's Custom Flooring. I will post all pictures of tear out, during and after soon. Today they are almost done laying the floor and then will come finishing the trim and putting the wanes coating back on and me hopefully getting some paint on the walls!!! Wow sounds like a lot huh? Busy week! I am hoping for another addition the living room (a flat screen), to give the room the feel I am hoping for. I want a room that can be both functional for TV viewing and parties, but also nice for conversation and relaxing by the fire and still having an open airy feel to it. We'll see what happens!
Hudson was sick this past week, and is almost 100% better. We believe when we ripped up carpet (even though we kept him away and vacuumed a lot), and the combination of him cutting his top 2 teeth, that he got a double ear infection and respiratory probs again. We are hoping that he either grows out of his respiratory issues or that we can manage them with medicine possibly. Of course we are really hoping for the first option. It just seems that if he gets a cold at all it goes right to his lungs. :-(
Well Pictures soon! Til the next time!

Walking....

2009-01-13T10:16:00.000-08:00

Okay so last week I did horrible at getting on the tread mil. But as soon as I am done on here I am getting to steppin! :-) I just thought I would drop a line. I am somewhat lazy today. I have been having a lot of pain in my hands, I am sure typing is helping! :-) Well I better get to my walking. As an update, no pounds lost yet, very discouraging!!!

Challenge Update...

2008-12-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

Just a side note... I manage another 1.5 mile today! I hope to keep this up an eventually add more miles under my belt!

Photo Shoot...

2008-12-30T15:55:00.000-08:00

Okay so today we ( Scott's mom & I) did a home "photo shoot"! Try getting four kids to cooperate for a pic! :-) Here are some I managed to get on my camera...

Hudson being goofy in the stairway...

Here is one I really like... He was enjoying sitting in the rocking chair like a big boy!!!

So we tried a "dress up" photo shoot. Hudson got to wear a too big for him cat costume here. I thought he looked cute trying to check himself out in the mirror!

Here is one of the first pics we took... pretty good start huh?

Needless to say... there wasn't any blood, but there was sweat (mostly moms from running after her camera every time she misplaced it! LOL), and yes some tears (from those not wishing to be photographed anymore) shed for this at home photo shoot! All in all it was fun! The older kids played a game afterward while I took Hud home for his nap... it really wore him out! ;-)
Till the next time...

Funky Egg

2008-12-30T15:52:00.001-08:00

So some of our new hens are starting to lay... well this can be a result of a new laying hen I guess... I collected this egg the other day. I called it the "Bullet Egg"! I have it next to a cherry tomato so you can see a more realistic view of its size! :-)

New Challenge...

2008-12-29T19:30:00.000-08:00

So I am starting a new challenge for myself. I am wanting to become a healthier thinner me. I started a "Plan" at The Lord's Table. I am hoping to get the inspiration I need through Scripture to help me become not only healthier but even closer to the Lord. This website helps with that. So my other goal is to walk at least 30 minutes a day on my treadmill. Scott brought it back upstairs this weekend. (Thanks for helping him Den!) I walked a mile and a half today. It felt really good! Besides I was jamming to Christian jams in the process! So I am up to sharing music to burn for some new jams... Well I am off to bed! Tomorrow is Photo Session Day! Scott's mom and I are rounding up all the kids and hoping to take group pics! This should be fun! Till the next time....

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful....

2008-12-22T07:12:00.000-08:00

So it is absolutely freezing outside! We are having difficulty keeping the fire going which is really a first and a HUGE frustration seeing as though it is so cold outside.
I am still not feeling the greatest after waking up Sunday at 12:15 a.m. puking and continuing to do so until around 7:30 in the morning! I feel decent enough at 12:00 to go to Spencer Christmas, but starting not feeling good again there. We left around 4 and I came home and slept until around 6:45. I really feel I ate a bad brat on Saturday night, cause right after I ate it I didn't feel the greatest and it got worse as the night went on. I took tums and went to bed and like I said I woke up and the rest is history. Needless to say Bratwurst and cool ranch Doritos will not be digested by me for a little while! :-) My food intake is still around ZERO anyways at this point!!!
Today I am now experiencing a sore throat which I am chucking up to stomach acids and bad cold weather! But I do feel body ache wise a ton better today! Well I off to drinking more hot fluids to get my throat to feeling better! I don't want to miss work tonight if I don't have to! Although I don't know if we'll be singing Christmas hymns like I originally planned... we'll see what the hot drinks do! Stay warm.... til the next time....

Baking Day

2008-12-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

Here is Hudson the other day enjoying his blueberry pancakes!!! He absolutely loves pancakes now...good thing we have quite a few still in the freezer!

I wanted to just pop in a quick blog for the day. Becky ~my very good friend~ is coming over and we are doing some holiday baking! Scott is hunting (pray for a nice deer to walk right up to him) and cutting wood with his dad and my dad. Well the wood has been loaded in the fire, and I have got the kitchen cleaned and ready to make it a mess again and Hudson is up and running around. I just read a devotional. So I feel ready for the day! I hope all of you are warm as you read this as there is still plenty of ice out there! I must say it is a beautiful thing to look at... our pine tree branches are "kissing" the ground and it looks lovely! Well I better go and get out ingredients! Have a wonderful day!

Deer Butchering... WARNING GRAPHIC PICS

2008-12-17T08:24:00.000-08:00

Well it has been awhile since I have blogged. Sorry! I promised pictures of deer soon. Well they are here today!!! Unfortunately they are not Scott's deer, but fortunately they are my dad's! CONGRATS DAD!!! Dad got two deer back to back one Sunday and one Monday, and this was his first time to get a deer using his bow! I am proud!!! :-) We helped dad butcher the deer, and dad was very generous is sharing the meat! I hopefully will be able to serve him a few meals myself of his prize venison! Well Below I will give a short description near some of the pics to show you the butchering. Unfortunately I had womanly duties to tend to in the house, so I missed out on a lot of the process. But I had my fair share of work too!

Well the first step to butchering a deer is well... getting a deer! That entails first of all getting your licence, and how many you get depends on the area of the state that you live!
Then after you accomplished purchasing your licence you get out all of your gear, and you go through all that jazz to smell like a doe a heat!!! LOL I don't know if that is completely true! :-) Well anyways you prepare for the trek to the woods! Then you SIT! Sit and wait in usually freezing cold temperatures! Dad did! On Sunday he sat is the cold snow/rain mix and Monday he sat in the cold snow/rain mix! But his determination proved prosperous!
So after you get your kill and track down your bleeding deer (hopefully you don't have to go far, and for those you have lost their deer in the tracking process you have my deepest sympathy as in know Scott has had to deal with that frustration a time or two!). After you get your deer you gut it in the woods and put your tag on it and take it to be checked in. After you check it in you can either one, take the more costly but oh so much easier route of having a meat shop process it for you, or you take route two and butcher your own deer! When the temperature is too warm route one is usually your only option unless you have a butcher shop with a freezer to hang your deer, and if that is the case why would you ever take it elsewhere to be processed? Well In dad's case he obviously chose route two and he brought his prizes here to our place to hang in the barn so they could bleed out. This takes much longer to do that a turkey! :-)

Okay so the deer have bleed out and hung in the freezing temperature for a few days so the meat is nice and frozen! Here is Scott starting the skinning process. We did learn through trial and error that it would be easier to skin the deer fresh! However we found it much easier to process the deer frozen!

Here you see both Scott and dad skinning...

Here is the two deer. The one to the left is a button buck, and the one on the right is a doe. Now dad killed his deer on November 30 and December 1. We butchered these the following weekend. So like I said they bleed out for a while, but since the temperatures were so cold we could wait til the weekend to butcher!

Here are the skinned deer...

Now Scott and dad got creative for the butchering... Scott cleaned and then used his band saw to cut the steaks. It worked beautifully!!!

These are some steaks from the doe...

I will say, I thought the smell was a little overwhelming. They said it was the smell of cutting through the bone...

Here is the "Butcher Block" and dad was working on cutting out the roast and separating the meat for to grind up into to "deer burger"...

Here is where I start showing the inside set up... This is my kitchen-aid mixer with the meat grinder attachment... I LOVE IT!!! I use it for this and to grind up ham for ham loaf... well anyways this is the ground venison station...

This is the other side of the counter where I have pre cut freezer paper and had the tape cut into strips ready to go for ease of use when I am wrapping the meat... We have decided it would be nice to have a freezer paper roll cutter...

Up close view. I double package my meat. I wrap it in the freezer paper and label it then I put it into freezer bags. If no blood ever gets in the bag, I will re use it since it is in essence clean. I re-use ziploc bags normally if meat was not used in them, and also onions... that smell is hard to wash out!

Here is the set up of getting ready to wash the steaks. I wash them and set them on the pan to wait and settle water out. then I package...

Beautiful steaks...

After a good cleaning...

Starting to wrap... I did them mostly in packs of 2...

Just like a present...

Voila...

Here is the meat to be washed and ground...

This is the steaks from the first deer and front quarters of the second deer...

Scott washing...

Getting ready to grind... This is day 2 by the way... we were up late Saturday and decided to finish the second half of the second deer this morning after church.

Its like a play-do machine :-)

More grinding....

Look how beautiful that meat is... much healthier than beef... although I still really like beef too!

Giving the meat a little help down...

Here I am!!! :-) I am packing the meat up in to approximately 1 lb packages. What we did is we filled up a heaping liquid measuring cup and weighed that amount of meat and it was almost dead on a pound, so I just packed up the same amount each time...

Here is meat mound...

Then I squah is down as I wrap it up...

Voila!

Here is amount of ground venison from day two... I did show the roast... somehow I missed doing that... sorry to dissapoint you!

Well all in all is wan't to bad huh? I am really enjoying putting up meat. It helps to in these current days to know we have food in the freezer! Thanks dad for sharing!

Well hopefully Scott can still get his deer for the year. This weekend is another gun weekend, if not he still has til February with his bow and a muzzle loading season too!

Well I hope not to be be so lazy with my blogging again...

Also great news..... Hudson is walking now! He still topples every now and then, but he is doing very well for just starting to walk on December 7!

Till the next time....

Feeling Blessed

2008-11-25T03:52:00.000-08:00

I am just going to write a very quick blog today. With Thanksgiving around the corner and us leaving for a family vacation, I will not be writing for awhile. I just wanted to say how very blessed I feel at this moment. My son had to be placed in the hospital Sunday morning due to breathing complications. He is 100% better now. Looking like asthma and allergies possibly. We just have to keep giving him breathing treatments for an extended period and he is to stay away from pet dander, any cigarette smoke, and high dust/pollen for at least 3 months. The pet dander of course is the larger issue with most family and friends having indoor pets. Fortunately for us I already have allergies and enjoy my pets outdoors where the dander doesn't bother me as much so our house was ready to have him home!!! I feel blessed for his recovery and prayers. Not many people knew right away because I was in the room so much for over 24 hours helping with his treatment and holding him and trying to keep him amused with all those cords hooked up to him. Besides his constant breathing treatments you wouldn't be able to hear me talk! Yesterday I took a very long nap!!!
Well Hudson is better now and I add that to my list of things I am thankful for!
Till the next time...

A Moment of Laughter...

2008-11-21T05:55:00.000-08:00

"A mother came inside after gardening and found a big hole in the middle of the pie she had made earlier that morning. She found a gooey spoon lying in the sink and crumbs all over the floor. She went to find her son. "David," she said, "you promised me that you wouldn't touch the pie I made. And I promised you that if you did touch the pie, I would spank you." A look of relief came over David. "Now that I've broken my promise," he said, "I think it would be all right for you to break yours, too."

I love laughter!!! Well I am off to a busy day. Hoping to really clean the kitchen good today to prepare for a day of baking tomorrow! Then to clean the kitchen all over again! ;-) Till the next time...

Thoughts for Today...

2008-11-20T11:35:00.000-08:00

Today it is hard for me to hear my thoughts through the unhappy cries of my precious son. Yesterday he would not sleep as long for his nap, and I feel it has utterly disrupted his entire sleeping routine last night and today. So what am I to do?
Well currently I am letting him cry-it-out in his crib while I "vent" by writing to you. I am waiting til I feel he is sound enough asleep so that I may take care of business and go gather eggs for today. Hopefully I will find them all laid safely in the nest boxes instead of on the coop floor by the waterer as I did yesterday!

Well I happened to come across a few scriptures of late that seem to stir in me and I want to share them with you...

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity on the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

Proverbs 14:1
"The wise woman builds her house, but with her own hands the foolish one tears hers down."

Till the next time...

Marcia's Mumblings #2

2008-11-19T13:37:00.000-08:00

Well I just decided to stop by and let you in on my life these past two days... not much really! I have read two books. I admit I am bad about totally devouring books! I can't help it, I get lost in the words of a good book! The last two I read were exceptionally good too! I read one by Wanda Brunstetter It was titled: "Dear To Me" and the second book I read was four novellas in one book. the title was "Home for Christmas". It was like I said four novellas that intertwinded with a similiar bond. It had to do with four children that were seperated and adopted into four different families after the death of their parents. It was their story of findind love, finding themselves through learning about their past, and most of all finding God's perfect love and plan for their lives. I love reading Christian novels. They are an uplift to me, plus a good clean story! Besdies the story I always seem to learn from them too, especially from the scriptures they use in the stories.
Well at this moment Scott is in his grandparents woods hopefully getting a shot a deer. It would be nice to stock some more venison in the freezer. Not to mention that now that I helped with the turkeys I am feeling quite the part of a pioneer woman ready to help clean a deer! :-) Although I don't know how many pioneer women really helped with the butchering? I always see them as doing the kitchen duty aspect of it. I need to finish reading Little House on the Prairie! :-) I am sure the men required some help from time to time. I wonder how much help the women got in the kitchen in those days! :-)
I am in no way comparing my husband with those that feel the kitchen is only the woman's domain! He loves to be creative in the kitchen. Especially when it comes to making marinades for meat. Much to my dismay he also can outdo me in baking zucchini bread any day. Very frustrating considering we follow the same recipe! Oh well one less dessert for me to bake right? J/K LOL
Well I am done babbling today! Lets hope for pictures of a deer soon!

Turkey Butchering Day

2008-11-18T04:53:00.001-08:00

**I will warn you, if you have a queasy stomach ~ the pictures I will post with entry may not be to your liking!!!**

Well this turkey raising business all started back in July when my father and I went to a hatchery to get some chicks, some as egg layers and some to raise for meat. I had already told him and my husband Scott do not count on me to butcher the meat chickens. Well as we were there my dad and I decided to buy two turkeys that were at a great price ( it was a one day old price for 3 week old turkeys!). When we got home, I let them know again that I will not pluck a feather. Well I lied!
Sunday November 16 rolls around and it is time to butcher our two turkeys. Well so far it was up to just Scott and possibly our good friend Rob. Well Rob had to work and didn't know when he could show up so at first it was up to just Scott. He couldn't do it all by himself. I decided instead of just taking pictures I should research this and see if I could be of some help. Well after researching some pretty informative blogs, I decided if other women could do it, darn it so could I!!! So with my ego needing boosted and my mind set.... I laid Hudson down for a nap, changed my clothes, grabbed my camera (mainly for proof I could and did do it), and went to work!

Well first thing first let me explain how we set this up... Well Scott of course did all the initial set up. Which included getting the supplies ready... He got the butchering table set up in the barn and cleaned up. He gathered pliers (for plucking stubborn pin feathers), and all his knives (which I may add that I told him he needed his meat cleaver and he didn't think he would, but guess who was right?). We also need a large metal trash can, which he cleaned and filled with water. Then he set up a fire underneath it to have hot water for dunking the birds. He also got a pail of soapy water to keep washing as we went and had a large stock pot with clean water to place the dressed bird to clean more before being brought into the house for further cleaning. Last but not least, he hung a five gallon bucket by a rafter in the barn with a hole in the bottom. You ask why? Well, when Scott went to butcher the chickens, he went to a gentlemen's farm who has butcher shop. He had a pretty genius set up for butchering, he came up with tube apparatus in which you place the birds in, and when you cut their necks off they won't break a wing as they try to flop around. So therefore Scott made a version similar for our turkeys.

Okay so here goes my picture tutorial...

So here is our "dunking tank:. We now know by experience it would be best to boil a lot of water to fill it with, then start the fire. It took way to long to heat up cold water from the well. We also add a dash of dawn dish soap to help cut the oil and musk smell. (Another trick Scott learn from his chicken butchering experience!) However I must say the first turkey we pretty much dry plucked because the water wasn't to temperature by time it was bled out, and I didn't think it smelled at all! (Much to my relief!!!)

Here is the Five gallon bucket that Scott hung to place the turkey in for the neck cutting. Pretty simple, yet very genius!

To the left is our two turkeys. I called them Tom 1 and Tom 2. I know not as creative as my goat names!

Below is our "butchering table". Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.

Here is Scott measuring the water temperature. Which like I said took a while to come up to temperature which should be around 145 degrees.

This is the first turkey to be butchered. Tom 1.

I did have to help fold the wings in to fit him in the bucket. I'll admit, I didn't think they'd fit in it!

You can see here how nicely the head fits through the hole.

*This is where the pictures start to get gross. If you don't want to learn the rest of the process look no further!*

This is where Scott stretches the neck to find the jugular and cuts it. You pretty much cut the neck all the way to almost off to cut it pretty quickly. Then you let it hang to bleed out.

This is what it looks like bleeding out.

I'll admit I did get a Lil moisture pooled up in my eyes as this was my first time to butcher anything other than a fish! It was initially hard but as quickly as the pooled I was okay. Like Scott said, we don't really like to kill or hurt animals, we just know that putting your own raised meat on the table requires it.

Here is another picture of the bleeding out process.

Scott here is using the meat cleaver to remove the head. The necks are difficult to cut through.

The head removed.

This is the neck that later we will save most of and have it cleaned to stew down for gravy.

Like I said the water didn't come to temperature right away so for this bird we decided to try "dry plucking". It wasn't really difficult. Some feathers did require using the pliers. It did take a while compared to the turkey that got got dunked...

Here I am giving my help plucking. (Which I wasn't to do!!!) :-) I did not enjoy the initial shock of oils that came with the feather removal. I was grossed out by that. But like my sister-n-law Barby told me... "Well it's a dirty job: you have to expect and ignore the grossness!" Take her words to heart if you choose to butcher anything!!!

Here we are almost completely done plucking. Which I will also note for those of you who are looking into raising your chickens or turkeys for meat, don't forget to not feed them for 24 - 48 hours before butcher day like we did! They will poop during the process! Also if you do forget, be VERY careful when removing the tail and making your cut to pull the organs out.

Fortunately Scott was very careful and we had no odor or mess to contend with!

Here Scott is removing part of the wing, that we knew we wouldn't be eating, and the feathers would not budge, so it was easier to cut it off!

We decided that the water at almost 120 was warm enough to dunk to try to get the pesky feather off. (Yes the feet are still on at this point!)

As you also can tell, butchering a turkey doesn't require a fashion show. I wanted to be warm and cover most areas so I did not get too much on me.

This is the point of removing the feet.

He had to cut around the joint and work at snapping the knew joint in two.

Now he is working on his V incision around the neck. Another reason to not feed the turkeys is the fact that they store their food in their "crops" and gizzards. It was pretty gross to see that cut into! The second time around he fortunately missed cutting into that! ( I was glad that our friend Rob who was able to make it for the second bird did not have to see that!)

Still making his cuts...

We are not professionals to sorry if out cutting skills annoy you... but this what the skin off the neck area looks like. Here you can see a little of the stored food (top left of neck). I know disgusting! But it all comes out and cleans off, and doesn't hurt anything.

Well we got that one finished, I didn't get any shots of Scott pulling the organs out. (No free hands, as I helped with that too.) So at this point Rob shows up, just in time, for Scott to "wrestle" up the last bird.

Here is our friend Rob. Looking quite happy holding Tom 2. (He hasn't gotten into the dirty work yet!) :-) At this point my woman duties call... I have to get the kitchen sinks prepared for the final cleaning. This is where I completely wash the bird down and pluck any tiny feathers we may have missed. I also used a torch lighter, which I normally use to heat my grill, to singe any of the very fine feathers. It worked WONDERFUL! I also suggest tweezers to get into the small creases and get the tiny feathers.

Before I left, I was able to get one more shot of the initial bleed out on Tom 2. He flopped a little more than Tom 1, but I handled this kill better.

Well here is Tom 1 and Tom 2 in the sinks.

As I said I had to come in to prepare the sinks, by the time I went back out less than 10 minutes later, Scott and Rob had Tom 2 completely plucked and making the cuts into it. The water as I said came up to temperature in time for Tom 2. It helped immensly in the plucking process. The guys said the feathers just seem to roll out! (Lucky Them!!!) Another thing we noted is that by dunking it, it seemed to help remove a fatty skin layer on the bird. I am curious to see the difference once they are baked. I wonder if that fatty layer will help keep the bird more moist or not.

In the end Tom 1 dressed out at an even 19 lbs. Tom 2 dressed out at 18 lbs 5 oz. Scott roughly figured we had about $25 dollars in each bird for feed. Some may say that the cost was not effective enough to raise their own. We look at it as something we enjoy to do. It is going back to being more dependant for your own food. It was a great learning experience, and one that we would like to raise our kids to experience also. Finally we knew what we fed our turkeys, that in itself means a lot to me.

Well I am definately a "Converted Country Girl". I look forward to learning more things to in a sense "homestead" our property. As I do I will do my best to share my experience here!

Til the next time....

Marcia's Mumblings November11, 2008

2008-11-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

So here I am joining the blogging world... Not sure really what all I will do with this but I hope to have it as sort of a journal and "how to" for the different adventures and hobbies we like to do here around what I'll call the "Phillips Patch"! Of course I'll be like most mothers and brag about my son. What kind of mother would I be if I didn't right? Speaking of bragging... my son is now officially one! Yet we are struggling in the last two weeks with not sleeping through the night. I am in "Trial and Error" mode with this saga! I try the "cry it out" approach which leaves me hours later with the sounds of his cries ringing in my ears. I try the "Give him water so he'll stop waking up wanting milk" approach, we'll see how this one pans out, but as of my experiment last night, that approach just makes him scream louder! *Chuckles* I can just hear advise rolling off tongues! :-)
Well I will try to get some photos of our "patch" uploaded on here and hopefully I will create an interesting place to browse!
*Till the next time..... ~Marcia

Phillips Patch

Oh to Simplify

Sickness in the House

Winter Wonderland

A Moment in the Word

Christians are Hypocrites

What Fulfills you?

Picture Show of Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

Whole Wheat Oatmeal Pancakes

Menus

Going to Try and Start Again...

Long time no write....

LONG TIME....

Hello All...

Long Time No Write....

Living Room Done

New Look To Our Home

Walking....

Challenge Update...

Photo Shoot...

Funky Egg

New Challenge...

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful....

Baking Day

Deer Butchering... ***WARNING GRAPHIC PICS***

Feeling Blessed

A Moment of Laughter...

Thoughts for Today...

Marcia's Mumblings #2

Turkey Butchering Day

Marcia's Mumblings November11, 2008

Deer Butchering... WARNING GRAPHIC PICS