a trashy corn crib

My brain oftentimes gets distracted from important things by thinking about animals. As we were returning home today from Rogersville to open a checking account at Eastman Credit Union (the nearest Chase branch out here is two hours away in Knoxville, but up until now, we've been able to do all our banking online -- unfortunately, smart phone deposit amounts are limited, so we needed to buckle down and sign up with a local bank)... wait, what was I talking about again?

Oh right, animals. So, I saw our neighbor's chickens running around as we turned on to our road and decided that today is as good as any to get cracking on cleaning out the corn crib for our future layers and broilers. Some previous lazy inhabitant of our farm decided at one point to use it as a trash receptacle, so I started the arduous task of bagging up someone else's nasty bits.

I didn't find anything exciting except a vintage soda bottle that I think I'll use as a flower vase. Lots of weird, creepy toys, pacifiers, dolls, shoes, neck ties, sweaters, purses, games, rusty hangers, sheets, cushions, literature, books, magazines, canisters, plastic sheeting... you get the picture. Nothing salvageable because everything was breaking down into a big pile of, well, broken stuff. I'm sure that chickens couldn't give less of a shit about garbage in their coop, but you probably know me well enough by now that no chicken coop of mine is going to be filled with trash. Especially because I'd like to try the deep bedding method of dealing with chicken waste/manure.

Also, it was a beautiful, bright, relatively warm day and I've been dying to get started on organizing either the barn or corn crib. I thought it was a good excuse.

Our other dog, er, I mean cat, decided to join me.

Honestly, I just have to call him and he comes. Like a dog.
I even have a leash for him that he really isn't bothered too much by.

SLOBS.

SLOVENLINESS.

The view on my way back down the hill more than made up for bagging trash, though.

A certain monster greeted me upon my return.

listening to Imagine Dragons helps me make good pulled porkies

Admittedly, I'm a total Top 40 lover. So, I like Imagine Dragons and all their top 40 awesomeness (I'm told that my understanding of Top 40 might be a bit skewed these days), and it helped me to make some pretty fucking dynamite pulled pork today. My crock pot might have had something to do with it also, but I attribute the awesomeness to the recipe I followed on Pinterest. So yea, pulled pork, homemade rolls, fresh slaw, and some previously prepared mashed potatoes made for some killer dinner fixings.

Beginnning.

End.

But before I made all this pulled pork awesomeness, I took the Nap of All Ages earlier this afternoon. It helps to have a giant puppy dog to keep you company.

Take one part comfy bed + one part sunny window + one part St. Bernard = bliss for 45+ minutes until I had to make dinner. This was actually the best nap I have ever experienced and I am an experienced nap taker. A GOOD DAY.

roasted celery soup kinda blows

My roasted celery soup was less than magnificent. It's just that I had a lot of celery sitting in the fridge (because you can't buy just one stick of celery for, say, making pot pies or some other casserole concoction that only requires a little bit of celery -- no, you have to buy the whole bunch), and being the frugal person that I am, I know that soup is usually a good way to use up extra veggies. However, while French onion soup is a fabulous way to use up onions and is no way overpowering with all the onion-y-ness, too much celery is all bad.

Jay and I both choked half a bowl down, but the rest of it went in the trash (I can't compost it because of the dairy and fat contents, and I have no livestock yet that would happily take it). However, my slaw and homemade bagels with honey butter at least provided us with some needed calories and nutrition.

That's about a 1/2 yard of compost that I put dow a few weeks ago. You can't
see it from this angle, but Taco was pretty loaded down with the other cubic
yard I had in her yet to be put down.

We got all fancy with the laser level a while back and marked out the first of my on-contour garden beds. So far, I've dumped 1.5 cubic yards of mushroom compost on this one bed at about 6" deep, and I estimate that I'll need another yard or so to finish it off. I'd like to have two more beds of the same length for springtime planting, so I'll likely need a total of 7.5 cubic yards of material.

At $30.00 per cubic yard, that's $225.00 for all three long beds, which is a little pricey, but I'm hoping that this initial investment will pay off in the long run.

I probably would have gotten away with not using the rotting logs to hold up the bottom half of the beds (you can see we're on a slope), but it satisfies my inner OCD to have it there anyway so that I don't have to continually scoop up compost that shifts down the hill. I might end up covering the beds with some sort of plastic or other material to keep the nutrients from draining away. 

This was obviously before I shoveled compost and got it all in my hair.

Sandy!

No, we're not under siege by Hurricane Sandy. But I thought she presented a good opportunity (as in, being stuck inside all day) to get my shit together and start riding this bloggy train again.

It's rainy and windy, and I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of snow thus far despite it being quite chilly out, but I'm counting my blessings because all this weather enabled me to discover homemade bagels. I am also making roasted celery soup, and while I think it will also be good, roasted celery soup feels just kinda blah compared to the culinary excitement that is homemade bagels.

Before.

After. I didn't take a picture of the finished soup because, well, it just looks like pureed celery.
Although it is a lovely shade of celery green. Ha.

That's some wasabi sesame seeds on that thar last two. Totally unnecessary but a lovely addition nonetheless. 

We also attended the Fall Festival in Sneedville ahem, over four weeks ago and were pleasantly surprised by the amount of energy there despite our county's less-than-6,000-resident population count.

That lady in the overalls right there? She was from Virginia and sang
Coal Miner's Daughter during the karaoke hour better than
Loretta Lynn herself. It was a tear-jerker, I tell ya.

They take a potato and put it in a special spiral cutting mechanism to make
the most delicious fry ever. ONE FRY from an entire potato.

More spiral fry.

I also made homemade pizza for the first time oh about three weeks ago. It was delicious, but the mantra of less is more definitely applies to pizza. Too many toppings weighs it down.

Pepperoni, jalapenos, and red onions are delicious but weigh too much for this poor crust.

Someone discovered the sun spot in our bedroom.

We went on a tour last Saturday of a nearby farm (the pictures from which you can see on the Meetup group website here). I learned a lot about what we want as well as don't want to do. And now I want Chocolate turkeys and Silver Fox rabbits (in addition to our other choices of Highland cattle, St. Croix sheep, Ossabaw Island hogs, and Ameraucana and Marans chickens).

Lately, we've also:

- found a source for my beloved mushroom compost and started building spring garden beds

- erected a crude but hopefully efficient leaf composter (think welded wire in a circle stuffed with leaves)

- started hunting deer with the start of bow season (I should clarify that I merely sit in the hunting blind with a good book and take naps while Jay does the actual hunting)

- started knitting again (I'm determined to finish the scarf that is my first knitting project that I began at least two years ago)

- started sewing again (just a pillow so far -- don't get too excited)

- enjoyed a visit from my parents, which included the gift of a fabulous barn quilt that my talented artist Mother created that we hope to hang on the barn in the spring

- had business cards printed for my photography (need to drum up some wedding and portrait income)

- organized the wood shed (the number of liquor, wine, and beer bottles in our recycling area is not shocking at all, no)

- organized the guest cabin (my bro-in-law should be on his way out here soon!)

- and about a hundred other things that I'm failing to remember at the moment

So yea, there you have it, folks: a small glimpse into what we've been doing for oh, the past 30 days or so. And to ensure that I continue riding this bloggy train, I'm going to do a post every single day. YEP. You can hold me to that -- even if it's just one picture, it will be something at least. You can come break my legs if I fail miserably.

we have green lights out in garden crazyland

I went to a seed swap last weekend. I met some super cool folks. Feasted on some delicious grub. Shot the shit. Greedily traded seeds and gardening super secrets. Thus, my freaky gardening head was reared, and now my seeding obsession cannot be tamed.

(I also met a movie star at the seed swap, which is ironic considering that I just moved from movie-star-laden California and had never even seen one before -- ok, I saw Drew Barrymore once, but that was in Vegas.)

Unfortunately, it is now early fall and I'm way behind in terms of seeding a fall garden. But this does not deter me, NO. Instead, I went off the deep end and ordered Christmas lights to keep my seedlings warm in the depths of freezing temperatures. Green Christmas lights, to be exact, because plants cannot see green light so this way, they will be warmed against the Fall frosts and Winter chill but not be thrown off by unwelcome nighttime light and do strange things like flower before I'm ready for them to.

When temperatures are predicted to be too low for my garden's comfort, I have a long piece of visqueen at the ready to tuck my plants in and keep them warm. What a way to baby something that you're just going to chow down on in a month or two. Poor unsuspecting plants.

Also, I've talked about the rocks before. Now you can see the fruits of my laborious labors. All those rocks are being used elsewhere now as decorative garden bed edging. Because we can't have haphazard garden edges now can we?

camera dump day #1

You know how some bloggers like to have Wordless Wednesdays, Scripture Sundays, and all other manner of catchy blog post titles? Well, I'm doing Camera Dump Day.

Buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia): pretty, but
sitting on a slobbery dog toy of all places.

Haven't figured this one out yet.

Had some babies in the house recently. Plentiful kid fix.

I'm thinking that I won't need four pairs of Chanel heels anytime soon. Two may
be right, though. Storage space at the holler is somewhat of an issue.

Yar.

squirrel stew for the haters

Our water tank was low, so don't make fun of our paper plates and bowls
(or my watermelon car air freshener -- I love those things).

People, if you make squirrel stew like I do, it fucking rules. (I get my killer soup/stew making skills from my Ma.) I would challenge anyone to think it's anything but rich chicken.

Crock pots can be evil devices in that whatever you're making can slowly become a gross blob of unappetizing slop, but do it like I did, and you'll be up to your ears in delicious, hearty, mouth-watering stew that you can't quite get enough of. Make some fresh, crusty bread and maybe whip up a quick side salad, and you have a well-rounded meal fit for royalty.

Just be sure to check the liver of every squirrel you kill (to make sure that the meat is fit for human consumption) because as I like to say, burgundy is just dandy, but anything else doesn't belong anywhere on your plate (you heard that here first).

Before doing anything, FREEZE THAT MEAT for a couple of days -- it needs some chilling to tenderize it a bit. Then throw on some tunes and thaw it enough in either hot water or the microwave so that you can separate all the leg and back strap pieces that you previously froze together. Try not to cook it at all if you use the microwave.

Turn up the volume, and PARBOIL THE MEAT (allows you to strip the meat off the bones and also get rid of any remaining fur). You will need:

- The front and back legs as well as back straps of five squirrels, give or take.
- Half a very roughly cut large, white onion.
- Some sort of citrus juice. I threw in a dollop of frozen, concentrated orange juice.
- Lots of salt and pepper.
- Enough water to submerge the meat in whatever cooking vessel you're using.

Boil those fuckers up on medium-high for an hour or two. Drain. Compost the cooked onion. Remove any remaining fur from the meat with some disposable vinyl or nitrile gloves (it comes off a lot easier after parboiling), then using your fingers, extract the meat from the bones, discarding any really icky looking pieces that you don't think you'd be down for eating.

Taste one of the pieces you saved. Realize it tastes pretty good, and then realize again how good this will be in stew.

THROW EVERYTHING IN A CROCK POT AND COOK ON HIGH FOR EXACTLY EIGHT HOURS. You will need:

- About a half pound of bacon, sliced (I've been told Benton's is the bomb, but I just used a supermarket brand).
- The other half of that large, white onion, finely diced (more if you're an onion freak like me).
- 1 carrot, peeled and diced (I just put that in there for the color -- carrots are kinda iffy for me).
- 1 celery stick, diced (eh, more if you want, but celery is a weird vegetable).
- A few garlic cloves, minced (maybe a few more, especially if you married someone of Italian descent like I did).
- 3 small red potatoes, peeled and quartered (potatoes are the blood of stew -- even more so than meat, and this is not up for debate).
- Half a lemon, squeezed.
- About 6 cups of chicken or whatever stock you have on hand (water will do in a pinch -- just add more sea salt).
- Lots of sea salt and even more fresh ground pepper. DON'T BE SHY. Under-seasoned soup/stew is the devil.
- A spicy seasoning like Tabasco or Dave's, unless you're a sissy. Don't be embarrassed.
- A bit of cornstarch for thickening at the end. You'll have to use some judgment here.

Throw everything but the cornstarch in the crock pot. If you see an ingredient in your cupboard or pantry that you think might be an asset, don't be afraid to use it. Malt vinegar, mustard, honey, herbs, mirin, and/or that sad bottle of some sauce in your refrigerator that needs to be used before it goes bad, DO IT. Taste and go, folks. When in doubt, add more lemon or salt. Lemon and salt make everything better.

The squirrel meat will start to fall apart at about hour seven. This is muy bueno.

Just before hour eight, toss in some cornstarch to thicken it up to stew level. Also, add a fat patty of butter at the very end of everything. Sneak it in there if your husband protests at the idea of butter in soup/stew. Squirrel meat needs lots of fat -- don't question my authority on this.

Consume. Revel in the idea of eating squirrel meat. Throw the finger at the doubters. Then invite them over for dinner sometime. They will thank you for it.