Merry Christmas!

To everyone who is still showing up here to read, even though I haven't written much this month:  

Merry Christmas!

We've been busy, and having a blast!

• Oldest daughter Kirstin is here for the holidays.

• We butchered a hog and held a pork roast for our regular construction crew all on the same day (the 22nd). It was ridiculous to do the butchering, process all the meat, and prepare and serve a meal for twenty-some people on the same day, but we did it! The freezer is now full to the brim with pork! 

• We'll be having Russell and his wife Iris, and Rachel's boyfriend Brandy here for Christmas dinner tomorrow - featuring another home-grown and home-cured ham!

• Once Christmas is over we'll turn right around and pull down the decorations, so that we can reconfigure the house/bodega into mostly-bodega, as the container of donations should arrive within the next week or so. 

•  ALSO, we're going to have to butcher our bull almost right away . . . basically as soon as I can arrange for someplace to store a very large amount of meat!  The bull keeps breaking out and wandering off, and we don't have a good way to both contain him better and feed him, so his time is up!

• In addition to all of that, the construction on our house has also been progressing. Did I mention that we were busy?

The pumpkin bread is baked, hams are brined, and this morning (Christmas Eve, for heaven's sake), out of necessity, I canned 20 pints of pork broth (because I can't justify sticking anything into the freezer just now, as I'm trying to make room for the influx of beef). The fridge is already full to overflowing with leftovers from the party this weekend plus three 13 x 9 pans full of raw pork being turned into bacon.

So, that's all I'll write for now . . . I have stuff to do!!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!!!!