Thanksgiving and Papa's Days off.

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Sunday and got in the Thanksgiving mood by making hand turkeys. We all made one. So we had a hand turkey family!! We have a 3 gallon bucket of mixed pea's and beans and that is what we used for decorations. They are very easy to make. You get some colored paper and trace and cut out your hand. Turn it over so you can't see your trace line, slather with glue and add beans, peas or some people use different kinds of dried pasta. Even E had a great time doing this. With Baby R's it took both Papa and I to get a trace of her hand and then I just put glue on it and dumped a bowl of beans and peas over top. Waited a little bit and tipped it back into the bowl to get the extras off and it was done. I figured that was what she'd like to do with them. But I didn't want her eating any. E put the entire bowl she had one at a time on her glued hand in a big pile and yelled DONE!! So I dumped the extras off and let her do it again.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Papa's last boss, his wife and his daughter. We had a great time. Ate extremely well as per normal. Our one lonely turkey was great, breast nice and juicy just the way Papa likes it. We did not weight him, we forgot, but he weighed considerably more then E. (And he BARELY fit in my huge turkey roaster, we had to tuck the wings in as I cooked him breast down.) She is 20 lbs so we assume the turkey was late 20's early 30's. I made the best pumpkin pie ever, from the pumpkin J and I did, and a pretty good apple. After the meal we taught them to play Pinochle, which my team actually won!!! Gasp. I must be having a winning streak as that was 2 games, on two different nights, that my team has won. Both times we won by about 500 points!! YAHOO. The kids read books with Amy and watched us play. J and L had a cute discussion over supper about who's muscles where bigger which we all got a kick out of. Baby R loved the pumpkin pie and cranberries.

We moved the pigs again. Papa took the boys outside to make a pig run. We needed to move them about 200 feet so he made a pole and wire run from one area to the other. This worked great and the pigs are now in the under cover area where our cow spent last winter and what we've had so far this year. They will stay there now until butchering day. Which, being under a roof should be fairly easy to hang them. They are totally enjoying it (we poked holes with a rock bar and filled them with corn and they are happily turning it upside down.) but poor Bindy was really horrified!! PIGS in HER covered area. She stood a ways off and stared at them. She refused to go get a drink all day (it's by the pigs). She was so nervous milking that Papa only got 2 gallons that night and I got 2 the next morning. She heard the pigs 'whoof' and just about scared the daylights out of me. Her whole body did the lift up and move inches trick!! While I was milking. Now that's she's gotten used to them a bit she tattles on them. One of them got out yesterday and she bawled and bawled until we got it back in. Now the entire strength of the fencer is on the pig pen. I doubt they'll get out again. This morning I got about as much milk as I normally do so she has adjusted well. The plan right now is to butcher at least the biggest 3 between Christmas and new years. Maybe the biggest 4. We already have a line on Berkshire wieners for April and we are looking forward to trying the breed.

We loaded up the kids in the back of the Travelall and went and got a load of poplar from the back. 30 minutes and we had a truck bed trailer loaded and unloaded. I love being prepared!!! Because our weather this year is so mild we have not been burning any pine unless we need to start a fire. So we have been going through more poplar then normal. Which is fine with us as we have TONS of the stuff split and stacked.

Turkey Butchering day.

It was time. The turkey was big and fat. Thanksgiving was coming. The bird had to die. LOL. We borrowed a huge pot essentially. In German it's called a maul groughpen. (my spelling) It has a metal bottom piece that holds a huge metal bowl. Under the bowl there is a door where you put a propane torch and this heats up the bowl and you can cook with it, render lard or scald birds. With big gatherings they make soup in these things and it's amazing how many people you can feed with 20 gallons of soup!! 20 gallons is roughly what it holds. It's perfect for scalding turkeys. We only had the one so Papa just held it. But if you had more then 5 turkeys you'd really want a dipper on a board, lever style. As it was it took both Papa and I to get him out of the water that last time. We set the kids in front of a movie, with Baby R in her exersauser and headed out to butcher him. I had set everything up in place during nap time and so all we had to do was light the torch and start. Papa lit the torch and killed the 5 roosters someone gave us. Then while the water heated for the turkey I split the breasts open on the roo's and took out the breast meat. The rest of the bird went to the pigs. (we had the breasts for supper the next night with friends. YUM) By the time I was done the water was about to temp and Papa went and caught the turkey. I thought it would take a bit but Papa just walked in, picked him up and walked out. We have a stump with 2 nails in it and Papa put his head in between them and handed me the turkeys legs. CHOP went his head!! Back went Momma!! I just about landed on my rear!!! The turkey flapped his wings after he died and I was trying to hold him still and getting pulled and pushed and manhandled by a dead turkey. Papa started yelling "LET GO" and I finally heard him and dropped that big old turkey!! We think he weighed between 25 and 30 lbs dressed out.

Funny things Kids say.

We had oatmeal for breakfast the other day and J pips up "I feel just like Moses." I stared at him "WHAT??" Oatmeal to Moses. What a jump. "Look" Says my creative son. He has just a thin layer of oatmeal in the bottom of his bowl and he took his spoon and took a scoop of oatmeal right down the middle. Sure enough I thought. Moses parting the red sea. Or in this case J parting the oatmeal sea. LOL.

On the way to the baby shower the other night we pulled into the church parking lot and L says "Are we going to a WEDDING??" (we had a lot of weddings this summer). So I explained that it was a party for a new baby. Well he comes back with "A Baby wedding??" Of course his brother thought that was hilarious so we all giggled about it for a bit. After that there was no going back. Baby wedding was the joke of the night.

E loves our friend Becca. Us ladies had girls night a few nights ago and Becca's husband Blair was here with the kids and Papa while we were out having fun. They all had supper together and E just could not understand why Becca wasn't there. "Becca??" she'd ask Blair. "Becca's at girls night with Momma" he'd say. "Becca??" she'd ask again. LOL. I guess she asked him so many times that he finally asked L "Where is Becca??" L knows this answer already from listening and parrots "At girls night with Momma" Then Blair asks J, "At girls night with Momma" I guess after that she quit asking.

What a couple of weeks!!!

And no I'm not complaining.. at least I don't think I am? :P For several weeks there while Papa started his new job he took our Travelall to work which leaves me with out a vehicle. That's fine for a few weeks as we tend to do our shopping together as a family anyway. My once a week trips to town to go the library or park or grandma's house (or all 3) as well as the little bit of food shopping I do alone are not that necessary in the grand scheme of things. After about 2 weeks of this solitude we priced out the cost of fuel for the Travelall verses the cost of insuring the Toyota Station Wagon and the Wagon won. Hee hee I get my truck back right?? Well not so fast. First we had to get it insured. Not normally a big deal but they have different hours then we do and we both have to be there to sign the papers and it takes awhile so it can't be done on his lunch break. 3rd times the charm as they say. Then we have to have the time to go and GET the car. It's not far away, just behind the house down the road Papa built 2 years ago. But we can't do this in the dark so we have to wait til Papa has a day off. Finally we are about to have our day and it snows. OK. Not a huge deal. Right?? Well the snow was like snot. NASTY. Slipping and sliding. Me pushing and Papa driving, Papa pushing and me driving (and Papa yelling, he hates being stuck). The kids had a great time. They sat in the sled all the way out there (Baby R was sleeping) then sat in the backseat while we pushed and drove, spun and pushed. When Papa did a bit of yelling L very calmly told me and Papa when he got back, that "God doesn't like it when we yell." Puts a whole different spin on it. Our place is pretty flat but we had a very slight incline that the blasted car just could NOT get up. Finally Papa went to the house to get the Scout to pull her up and came back with a set of chains instead. This actually works great and we've done it lots. You don't put the chains on the car (they were for our old Datsun and don't fit anyway) you lay the chains between the tires. It's a rear wheel drive so the chains give it the OOMPH it needs to go. Well 10 chain moves later!! WE ARE OUT!!! Papa pushed the electric fence down and I kept on driving. Got thru Bindy's pen and parked her some place FLAT!! LOL. Then the next morning, hopeful me, is wondering why on earth Papa has taken the Travelall to work again. The car is there, the car is insured. The car needs fixing I find out that night. All and all I think I was with out wheels for almost a month. Last week we went out for the 1 time Thursday, Friday a friend surprised me with a visit and Saturday we had B&B over for supper and games. Sunday we had church here and this week it's been insane!! Monday was a sisters baby quilt giving day, Tuesday was HOME, Wednesday was Bible study in the morning then shopping for a baby gift for tonight's Baby shower, Thursday was Girls Night (and the 1st time I had left Baby R with anyone ever!! Papa watched the kids and had a friend for supper and a movie). Today we went to the neighbors for an hour this morning and we have the Baby shower this evening. And tomorrow I'm suppose to get ready for our belated Thanksgiving on Sunday and we are butchering the one lonely turkey after Papa gets home from work (in the dark). J and I are going to make Pumpkin pie from a pumpkin instead of the normal can:) Today I'm cleaning house and catching you up while mentally steeling myself for bringing all 4 kids to the baby shower. Which would not be a big deal normally but I'm feeling very peopled out and that tends to make us all cranky (OK OK I confess mostly it's just me who gets cranky). We'll go and have tons of fun I'm sure but it's good to be prepared. (if only in your head LOL) Which reminds me I need to check the diaper bag.
Well the baby shower was a blast!! The kids had a great time with my cousins kids, Baby R met a baby 2 days older then her and about 11 lbs heavier and several inches longer (but is not crawling and has no teeth.) Amazing how different kids are. I got to hold new baby Tanner!! Congrat's T &L!! What a little sweetheart. He has great hair!! :)

WOOOMFFAA!!!

I heard the above noise this afternoon, coming from our bedroom. The kids were all suppose to be asleep so it took me a minute to give it a name. Baby R sleeps in a playpen in our room. We have a neat playpen that has a bassinet on the top. She has been pulling up on stuff lately but not enough that I was worried that she'd try and stand up in her bassinet. Well. She did stand up holding on to the edge of the playpen. The WOOOOMFFAAA was her hitting the floor. She didn't even cry. When I ran in and looked her over before picking her up she just gave me a little "ha ha" giggle and smiled at me. She was fine. Needless to say Momma spent a bit of the afternoon taking the bassinet out of the playpen and cleaning out the bottom so she could be in the whole playpen instead of just the top. Crazy kid. Believe it or not she is my 1st child to get out of a playpen. LOL. Ever. And she's only almost 9 months. My heart wonders what else this 4th child will teach me. I find it amazing that each child is so different and each one comes with their own personality, troubles, and strange habits. E for example is a daredevil. This sweet, 20 lb, 2 year old who looks like she should be dainty and feminine totally enjoys climbing way above her head, getting thrown into water and couches, getting swung around hanging upside down, and a number of other bizarre things the boys never did like. She LOVES it. I wonder what Baby R will do next. Kids are so much fun... they sure keep you wondering and praying.

Day out; Christmas Shopping and Date.

Papa and I fled the nest the other day. We try and do this atleast 2 times a year. We left the 3 oldest children with a friend, her husband came after work to milk the cow and tell the kids hunting stories, who babysat them in our home and took off to the city for the day. 12 hours later we returned triumphant. All the Christmas shopping is done for the children except the stockings which I will probably do later by myself. Papa got new boot liners, that nasty rat ate his other ones and we both got new gloves, we picked up 5 new movies; The Borne Trilogy, X-men and something called Get Smart Again?? (which Papa picked out and will not tell me about.) Papa got a headlamp for work, he needs hands off light for working under trucks. This light has come in very handy at home as well as it enables him to work outside after dark, about 5pm.

We started a new Griggs Tradition last year, making a Gingerbread house with the children, so we picked up a massive Gingerbread house kit. With 5 pairs of hands it tends to go quickly and we thought the more square inches the better. I put the box where the kids could see it and then sat back and watched their reactions. They were in awe!! LOL. All 3 of them on the floor staring at it. So I grabbed my camera. One year in the future, when the kids are old enough to really build, we plan on forgoing the kit and using graham crackers and making a village.

Papa and I took Baby R with us and she was wonderful all day. We went out to eat at our 'once a year' spot and she sat happily in her car seat and ate bread and crackers while we feasted on Seafood. Scallops and Bacon (Papa's), Crab and shrimp stuffed mushrooms (mine), Seafood linguine(Papa's), and my Seafood mixed grill!!! YUM!!! We almost never order something we can make better at home. So we almost always go for seafood. We can make seafood at home but we do it very rarely as it is pricey. But, for instants, we have only ordered steak 2 times in our marriage that I can think of. And both times it was me and both times was for a Christmas Party where the boss pays the bill and it came with a TON of seafood:):) It was a wonderful meal and a wonderful day. We arrived home late, tired and just about DONE our Christmas to buy list.

The kids had a great time with B&B and talked about it and made momma and Papa moose calls for days afterward. We have been offered a babysitter for the day again and I'm hoping we will go again later in the year and have another day out on the town.

Teeth and Crawling!!!

Well Baby R has finally joined the toothed among us!! Lol. She got her 1st and 2nd teeth today!!! She wasn't fussy or anything I couldn't even tell she was getting teeth. I did my tooth check this evening and there they were. She got the bottom right and the top left. The two don't even meet! Strange child. (normally they get 2 bottoms or tops together; not one of each.) Hopefully she gets the rest of her teeth so easily.

Baby R has been getting places for some time. On her belly going backwards or in circles. But Thursday night she went forwards for the 1st time. B and I both saw it out of the corner of our eye then Friday and Saturday she went several feet forwards several times. She does it half on her knees and half on her feet. Really cute. Looks a bit like she is swimming. She also recently figured out how to sit up after being on her belly and how to pull herself up to stand on her knees. It is amazing how fast these tiny little babies learn and develop. God truly is a miraculous God for creating us so perfectly. Baby R is pretty tiny for her age (almost 9 months) at just 14 lbs and 26 inches long. She has a bit of hair and a wonderful beaming smile. You can tell even at 8.5 months that she puts her heart into things; like her smiles. She is our happiest baby yet and I often wonder if it's her personalitly or just the baby stage. I think it's her personalitly and hope she will always be a happy child/teen/adult.

Anyway Papa and I are going to watch a movie. So goodnight all. Have a great Monday. May God bless you and keep you!!

PIGS!!

This picture is our pigs about 2 months ago. I really should go get a new picture of them in the snow.

We enjoy raising pigs. With proper care and management they don't smell, are fairly friendly and always happy to see you, never mind the hams, bacon, sausage and other wonderful things we make from them. We get our pigs around 6 weeks old and normally train them to electric fence first and then to 1 or 2 wires as they get older. This makes it much easier to get them into the bush as we can circle the whole area without having to try and make paths through the willows, prickle bushes and small poplar trees that make walking through hard. Making electric netting fences though the bush is annoying, frustrating, irritating and often painful. If we HAVE to do this we try and do it as a team, one hauling fence and the other fixing it.

Our pigs normally have names. Strange habit I know but everything around here gets some sort of name even if it is just 'the fat one' or 'our lonely turkey'. One year they were Red, Miss piggy and Snarky. Red was well; red. Miss piggy was sweet as can be. Snarky was just that Snarky. You never knew if she was going to leave you be or try and eat you. This year the pigs names are Ham, Bacon, Pork, Chop, Sausage, and Wilbur. (Not that we use these names to call them, it's hard to teach them with 6 of them together.) Wilbur is our dog pig. Acts just like a friendly mutt but is still a pig and will still be eaten. We recently rented "Charlotte's Web" and watched it with the kids. They loved it and it gave me the name I needed for our most irritating pig. Pigs are great, little piggies are cute and sweet, medium pigs are helpful tillers and handy slop eaters, big pigs are annoying big slobs that try and bit me (just me they all love Papa) and they are FOOD. Once they get to be big pigs I'm finished with them. They get to that "I'm bigger then you are and I can push you over and steal all the food you have" stage and they are ready for the oven. I know I'm a terrible person I eat pigs I raise and I LIKE IT. HA. Take that piggers!! Anyway Wilbur loves Papa. He has big floppy ears and he follows him around grunting and begging to be scratched. When Papa stops and scratches him he rolls his eyes back in his head and grunts with pleasure. Sometimes he even rolls over and lifts his legs so Papa can reach his belly. Like I said. Dog Pig. I bring them milk every morning and slop as well and I all I get is bit and chased around while I try and pour over, around and though 6 very healthy happy HUNGRY piggers that all know I have something very good in my bucket. I once, notice I said ONCE, tried to bring them 2 buckets of food at the same time. Note one in each hand. BAD idea. It is very hard to fight off 6 pigs, one who has his head in the bucket that is crammed between your knees so he can't tip it over, pour a bucket of milk in to their dish and keep your balance while trying not to get too close to the electric fence you know is HOT behind you. When they are little and sweet this is not a problem, when they are big and strong and weigh about as much or more as you do this is a very bad idea.

We got our pigs in late July this year and still have them. We are going to feed them for another month or so and then butcher them. They are out in the bush right now in the front by the road and love tilling the ground up, mostly moss where they are at the moment and flattening piles that came from the Cat work Papa did a few years ago. We have pulled most of the trees out of these piles for firewood or burn piles and hopefully the pigs will flatten them enough that we can finish the clean up job next spring. We find they love to eat small this years poplar sprouts which grow very fast and can reach a height of 4 feet in one summer. After the pigs have been in a area we find that they have left about 18 inches of these small trees and bitten off the rest. Either to eat or to make beds with. Between the pigs and the cow, who loves these trees when small, we have no need, yet, for a goat. We'll have to see what happens in the area we cleared this spring this next summer before we'll know for certain. The pigs have one more job to do before the big B day and that is Bindy's undercover area. It is full of bedding and cow mess and we want them to till it up so it can compost better. I bought 2 bags of whole corn the other day and my next job is to take Papa's big pry bar and poke holes in the mess and drop the corn into them. This way Bindy can not get them. The mess is warm because it is composting and the seeds will grow, we hope, enough so the pigs will find them and love them and want more and therefore turn the whole "mess" for us. I'm looking forward to this, though I have to say I'm not sure if it's because then the mess will be turned (it doesn't smell but this will make it more useful next summer) or because that means the pigs will soon be dead and my 'pig freezer' will be full again. Or simply because I enjoy watching pigs till up and this will be right outside the window where we can watch them. Another bonus I just thought of is that then I will not have to go far for water or milk for them. My arms will enjoy the break from hauling 5 gallon buckets of water and feed. And I'm sure the little Griggers will love to watch out the window as well. Speaking of little Griggers, J loves B day and looks forward to it. He loves to help with all sorts of chores and is looking forward to helping with butchering. We will likely have a whole crew of people helping. I have 4 couples who either want to help with butchering or want pork or both so we will hopefully have lots of help. We bought a meat band saw this summer with a grinder and will do it all ourselves. The people who are getting pork can either butcher with us here or bring it in to the local cut and wrap place. We hope to borrow a stuffer and make our own sausage as well. What a blessing it is to have people around us who have some of the same goals we do and are willing to share tools to make life easier!!! And to teach skills to those of us who want/need them.

Meatballs!!

I have a meatball recipe that I sort of made from 3 other recipes and I promised Di that I would post it. Sorry it took so long Di. I normally use ground pork and make meatballs or loaf or cheese cups out of it. We really love this over rice with the tangy sauce. We like it best with pork but it's great with hamburger too. I never measure anything after the 1st few times I make something. This is great anyway I've ever made it. Except burnt. LOL. That only happened once and we had people over!! ACK. Do not over cook!! LOL.
Meatballs
2lbs pork sausage or hamburger.
2 eggs
1 cup Cracker crumbs or oatmeal. I almost always use oatmeal.
1 tbsp Seasoning Salt
1/2 tsp Pepper
1 tbsp Italaino seasonings. (or 1 tsp of each powdered onion and dried oregano if you don't have an Italaino)
1 tbsp minced garlic. ( I buy jars of it as it's easier and we go though a lot of it)
Thaw meat and mix everything together. Then form into meat balls or loaf or cheese cups. Cheese cups are muffin tins with a bit of meat mixture on the bottom, then a chunk of Cheddar cheese, then more meat mixture on top. Very good. Grease your tins well and expect to let them soak after. Bakes up in about 20 minutes at 350F. Loaf takes about a hour and meat balls about 35 minutes. Can be done ahead of time and frozen or kept cool until baking.
Sauce.
1/3 cup ketchup
1/4 cup corn syrup or brown sugar
2 tbsp Soy sauce
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard.
Throw everything in a small pot, mix and heat until thin. This keeps really well in the fridge for ages. We eat this meal mixed all together on a plate with rice and kernel corn. Be easy with the sauce as you do not need much. Papa loves this as meatballs as it makes it crunchy. This is making me hungry!! Maybe I'll have to make meatballs this week. The longest part of this meal is the shaping of meatballs. I often grab a melon baller and use that as a measure. Enjoy!!

Nov 16th Update!!

We are blessed here at the Griggs household. No one is sick, everyone is sleeping well, well fed and fairly happy. We have gotten a bit of snow these last few days which makes me think of winter projects and Christmas. The firewood wall is pretty much finished. We need one more big pine and a few boards put up on the side of the addition to hold it up and a tiny bit more poplar brought in from the back which will hopefully get done this week. We brought another hay bale home today so we have enough hay to last til mid January. Papa is loving his job and working great hours. We are having supper together every night and he is still getting 8 or 9 hours of sleep every night!! Praise God!! The boys go outside to play in the snow almost every day now which they love and I love as it gives me time alone with E as we are working on listening and following directions. E is almost fully toilet trained. As much as she can be without doing it all alone and that will come as she gets older. We are working on attitude and obedience and it seems to be sinking in. Baby R is scooting around backwards and getting caught in all sorts of places. She has learned NO and I think she is ready for crawling in that regard. I think she will figure out forward this week as she is on her hands and knees a lot and is really trying to GO GO GO!! But gets very upset that she can only seem to go backwards. L is talking up a storm and I've actually had to tell him to be quiet and eat at meal times which is usually reserved for J. L is also singing which is neat to hear and loves to draw on the chalk board in the living room. He draws very well for his age even if his people are heads with arms and legs (normal for a 3 year old). J is missing the active outdoors life we've had all summer and is finding it hard to be inside, so I'm sending him out weather permitting. I got to go to the library on Thursday and have been happily reading books in my spare time. I want to get yarn for L's big Afghan so I can work on that this winter as well. (I've made them all a baby afghan, Baby R's is the one in the picture, and now am working on twin sized afghans as they get bigger and have bigger beds.) Papa is designing a twin 4 bed bunk bed for the kids room, so we can have even more room in there for things other then beds, which we hope to get done this winter. Baby R needs a cross stitch wall hanging with her name and birthday and teddy bear ( I've made one for each of the kids) and today Millers lent us a cheese press!! Which I'm excited to try out. I rearranged the kids room a bit this week and now we have a bit more room then before. I need to go though the kids clothes and take out too smalls, add bigger stuff and pack up what ever is not needed or too small. What a job that is in such a small space. I'm not looking forward to it but I should just do it and get it over with. It won't be as bad as I'm imagining it to be. I hope. :) It's getting harder and harder to fit all our 'needed' stuff into our small living area (we keep out of season stuff in a shed out back as we simply do not have the room inside). I was recently told that this would make me so much more gratefully for our house when it is finished which I think will be true. All and all we are extremely blessed, loved, cozy, well fed and warm. God is good.