Monday, December 31, 2012

Reflections



Today is a day to reflect back on the past year so that tomorrow, we can sit down and put together our goals for 2013.  

Here were some of our blessings and adventures in the past year:
  • Bought a new to us truck to help with the move & replace my old Subaru.  We bought it off of craigslist and it had a bad tranny so we bought it without even test driving it!  Luckily everything turned out good once we had a new transmission put in.
  • We bought a house in the Northwest, sight unseen so I could go back to college and finish my degree and be closer to family.  The great thing was, when we got here, it had a secret room nobody had told us about!!!  A pantry!  This is half of it, the other half has deeper shelves.  It's about 4' x 10'.  Now I just need to fill it with jars!

  • We had doves nesting in the grape arbor.  Loved listening to their cooing.
  • Bought a small motorcycle & took a 2 day safety class.  It will be my summer transportation around town.  SO MUCH FUN!
 

  • loaded two trucks and two utility trailers and moved with 2 dogs from East of the Mississippi to West of the continental divide!


  • Went to my brother’s wedding and got to meet my new sister-in law for the first time.



  • Celebrated our 13th anniversary!
  • Did a batch of 30 broiler chickens.  We learned a lot, but next time, we'll do cornish cross rather than broilers.  We weren't satisfied with our ROI on this project.

  • Started Crossfit.  Very challenging and I'm getting stronger!

  • My sister visited for Thanksgiving!  We had a wonderful visit and we had fun visiting a Japanese garden.


  • We ended up with 7 thanksgiving turkeys due to a craigslist adventure, 4 Royal Palms are still out in the pasture and 13 free laying hens from another craigslist adventure.

  • Made butter for the first time in my great-grandmother’s churn.

  • Got to spend Christmas at my folk’s with the whole family. We saw a bald eagle setting in the cottonwoods in the back yard, went moonlight sledding, and spent plenty of time with friends and family!

 May your 2013 be blessed with mistakes, adventures, good food, good friends, fellowship, love, laughter, and opportunity.

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Welcome & food smoking



Welcome to Provender Place!  Here I’d like to share wholesome food, a few of our adventures, our urban gardening, the poultry, and nourishment for the soul. 

Today is cold and the snowflakes are so fat and lazy, they don’t seem to want to fall to the ground, just swirl softly through the air.  So I think this afternoon, after a lunch of beef and veggie stew and a nap, is the perfect time to organize our smoking project for next week.  I have two turkeys, a rack of ribs, some almonds, and some jerky I’d like to smoke.   And anything else interesting you may suggest!  I’ve got a book about smoking and a couple of websites to check out so I can make my ingredient lists for the brines or rubs.  Then I’ll write down the times so that everything can be ready at the same time.

What are some of your favorite smoked foods/ rubs/ techniques?  Oh, and anybody smoked cheese?  That might be another fun one to do.