Meat!

The meat is here. Yay!

 From this.

 To this.  All this, steaks, roasts, ribs and 96 packages of hamburger at 97 cents a pound. We still had a pound of store bought burger in the freezer and that was $3.76 a pound. Wow! We are happy.

 Ok, so this isn't meat, but I know how much you all like dog pics. Relaxing together by the stove. Is that a "Red Shoe"?

Heide staring at the flames. I told her not to do that cause Mick did and it gave him scary green and glowing eyes.

Missing chicken update and cow pics

Yesterday Gramma and I had to go down to Stillwater to the eye doctor. We usually go to Forest Lake, but I need a special test every so often and the thing they use is only in the Stillwater office. Anyway we were gone most of the day, so we left the chickens in the coop. When we got home I went to check for eggs and there was an egg outside the coop on the barn floor. Every once in awhile one of the young hens will do this instead of in the box. Well, I  thought "How did we miss this egg last night"? Brought it in and told Gramma and she said that maybe the missing hen laid it. This morning I went down and sure enough there was our lost girl, in the barn. We are happy.

 Jack and the girls.

 Here's Le Beef getting his daily minerals.

 BurgerBoy doing what he does best.

 Pregnant Rita getting fatter.

 Rhoda taking it easy.

 Here's Red Cow giving me her "Get outa my face" face.

And here's our main boy, "Frank the Tank". Nice bunch huh? Oh yeah.

Jerky and Stuff

Jerky time!

 Here we go. Lovely venison.

 The secret ingredients.

 All mixed together.

 Ready for a 24 hour soak. Doesn't look so appetizing like this does it?

 Into the drier.

 3hrs and 10 minutes later, jerky. Yummo. Due to the fact we only got one deer and Ted took some of the meat for grinding, no one gets any this year. Sorry.

 Here's a weird egg we got the other day. All finished except for the very end. Strange. One of our hens has gone missing. Checked everywhere, even where Ethel was found, but no chicken. I suppose a fox, or coyote, or wolf, or bobcat, or some other varmint got her. We'll look some more, but I don't hold out hope. Oh well, such is life in the country.

Here's a pic of a non-digital thermometer that "was not" put in a freezer. I win.

Cow Shed II

 Here's  pic of the horses and cows all getting along. In the background you can see the cow shed.

 This is what Gramma and I did today. We're pretty tired and sore. More work than Gramma figured, but I couldn't have done it without her.

Now the cows have a nice shelter from the wind, rain and snow. Oh yeah, that first pic? All done. The last two days Aksel has decided that it's fun to chase cows. What a stinker. So tonight we seperated them again. Oh well we tried. Two weeks till meat. Yummo. Stay tuned.

Horses and Cows Together

Well we opened the gates and let the cows and horses be together. The Farmer Daughter was kinda worried that the horses might chase the cows, especially Aksel the delinquent.

 But as you can see they seem to be getting along just fine.

 I even saw Aksel and little Burger Boy smelling each other, so I think it's gonna be ok.

SusieQ brought Gramma and I a couple of new chickens. The one on the left is Murphy and the one on the right doesn't have a name yet. No eggs so far, but that might be because they're too young yet. Later.

Cow

Brown cow.

 Tomorrow brown cow goes in for processing. I asked Jess and Ted to come and help me get the cow in the trailer. Well Jess got here and said "Let's do this." So, because she is the "Cow Whisperer" we had her loaded in no time flat. Wow! Thanks honey that was awesome. Ted and Sue and the kids got here and he didn't even have to get poop on his shoes. Lucky dog. Looking forward to tasting the "Grass Fed Beef". Anyway, it was nice to visit with everyone. Mary and Russ each had some kind of handheld game things, so the visiting with them was limited, but it's just nice to have them here. Ted got some venison and Jess got a bunch of food for her piggies. Gramma and Ted and I went to Uncle Lennart's funeral yesterday. It was nice to visit with relatives that unfortunately we usually only see at these times. Was a bit shocking to find that cousin Greg has a pacemaker. The good news is, I seem to be the only one without lots of gray hair. Even my younger cousins are pretty gray. ROFLOL

Just thought I'd include a shot of my Sweetie and her companions. Ain't they cute?

As Per Request

Here ya go.

 One old man making a Snow Angel.

This is why I don't do this anymore. Hard to get back up and I think I hurt my neck.

Bye.

Still Snowing

It's a little after six and still snowing. The weatherman said we could get as much as 5 inches up here.

This was about 1:30.

 This was about 3:00 before I went hunting.

This was at 5:30 when I got back from hunting. I drove down to the mailbox and when I turned around and drove back up the driveway, I could see that the undercarriage of my truck had dragged in the snow all the way down and I know that it's at least a foot off the ground. Guess what I gotta do after hunting in the morning? See Ya!

First Snow

So what's going on in your world? Here's what's happening in ours.

 Three or four inches so far. Gramma and I got the snow plow on this morning. Whew!

Haven't got any more deer yet cause all I see are fawns. Oh well, still a day and a half to go and the snow changes everything. Later

He shoots-He scores

Got a nice big doe tonight just before dark. The old .06 still shoots straight and so does the "Old Farmer". I think I see jerky in my future. We are happy.

Birthdays

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Happy Birthday Jessie and Russell!

We love you.


Gramma and Grampa

Deer Season

As you all know, deer opener in Minnesota is an important holiday just like fishing opener. Here's some pics from my stand.

That's my food plot just past the birch trees, looking north and a bit east.

Mrs. Benson's shed and the hay field to the east.

West toward the house.

Southwest toward the road and the pasture.

This is looking northwest. Neither Ted or I got anything this weekend. All we saw were small ones. The weather was fairly warm, but the wind was horrendous. Deer don't move much in heavy wind. There was very little shooting compared to years past. Very windy again today, so I don't know if I'm going out this evening. Couldn't go this morning cause I had a P.T. (personal torture) appointment. Elbow is getting better everyday. This is the 50th anniversary of my first deer hunt and my first deer. Wow, I'm old. Anyway I hope to get a chance at one and there are 14 more days, so maybe I will. Ted is going to try to get back up a couple more times, although he is a busy guy. Maybe the wind will die down. Cross your fingers, or your legs, or your eyes, or your tees, or your bridges, or whatever it is you cross and wish us luck. Thanks. Later.

Cold

This is in response to some recent thermometer pics on some blogs I follow. I win. Had to chop ice in the stock tanks this morning. I know my sister will remember back when we were young we would chop ice in the stock tank until it got so thick we couldn't do it anymore, so we would carry buckets of water out to the horses several times a day. Gosh that was fun. Dang horses.

Arm Update

Went back to the doc today and got the cast thrown away. YAAAYYY! That's the good news. The bad news is, on Monday I start physical therapy. What it should be called is "Physical Torture". I've done this a couple times now and I don't like it. The "Therapists" are usually young, nice looking with great smiles that they keep on their faces while pushing, pulling, twisting and overextending the affected appendage. These are not really fake smiles, but you know they are laughing hysterically inside at your suffering. I have to go cause I promised Gramma and the doc, so I will and I'll try not to cry, though it won't be easy. Wish me luck. Yes, I know these aren't pics of my arm, but it's all skinny and the skin is flaking off, so who wants to see that? Not me. Twin fawns. Cute. Bye.

Animals

I thought I would remind everyone that Gramma and I share our lives with some pretty cool and sometimes goofy critters. Look closely at the pic on the top of my blog and then look at these.

 This is what happens when it rains. They like to roll in the mud. And you thought we got rid of the pigs.

I thought I better get a picture of Jack's comb before it freezes and falls off this winter.

 Here's the whole gang, except for one. Just gave them some treats. They like meat the best. I don't know how they know the difference but they always go for the meat scraps first.

 Here's the black cows. That's "Frank The Tank" laying down. Big boy.

 Brown cow. She goes in the freezer in December.

Red cow.

The two buddies relaxing on the couch. Sorry, no cat pics this time.  Later.