Bitch Barn Bonfire

 We got out and enjoyed the winter wonderland this week. Well, mostly the weekend. The DT's love them some snow, so we decided to go down to the BB and let them run and jump and play. We had a small brush pile in the fire ring, so we went ahead and lit it to keep us warm while they did their thing. 

Lawman recently added a new batch of dye to the ponds, and had a little on his gloves. When he petted Augustus, there was a transfer. Cupcake said he looked like he had a jailhouse tat.

(He bit a cat in Reno, just to watch him meow)

Willow wanted to swim, but had to settle for a stroll on the ponds.

The ponds got another inch of ice from last week. Lawman went down to do his "Grumpy Old Men" ice fishing, and found it more challenging than he expected.

He took a wooden tomato stake down to punch a hole in the ice. That was a big no-go. So he got the bright idea to take his shotgun out of the saddle bag and punch a hole in the ice that way.

The wooden stake was still not effective, so he pulled out the machete he keeps on the wheeler.

Once he got the hole, he used his brand new ice fishing pole. The fish didn't want anything to do with him. Maybe blasting a hole above them before trying to catch them was a bad idea? There seems to be a learning curve.

Earlier in the week we found a couple of bags of beef bones, so we put on a big ol batch of broth for a couple of days, then canned it up.

Five gallons and a pint is what we ended up with. We cant wait to start making soup.

We kept "steak and tater" night alive.

And Cupcake wanted some fresh baked choco chip cookies for dessert. And not that frozen from a tube cookie stuff "Cookie" passes off as home made, either.

Then Cupcake wanted Rubens for dinner, so we food processor'd the leftover steak and made them on the Blackstone, topped with out fresh canned kraut. 

We ended the week with naps, and going to bed early.

K&K

Cold Outside?

 It's been a little chilly around The Acre this week. Probably your house too? We don't know.

Anyway, the ponds froze over for the first time. We've had a little ice along the edges before, but this is the first time it's gotten cold enough to freeze spring water ponds. Lawman says he's looking forward to scratching off a "to do" from his list when he chops a hole in the ice and does a bit of fishing this coming week. 

Because it was so cold, we didn't get out much, so not much to report this week. "The Boy" tried his hand at cooking again this week.

He still under the impression we have a house cleaner. The running joke around the house when Cupcake cleans up after him is "We love you Berta, you're just like one of the family."

Berta whipped up a batch of baked sketti over the weekend. 

And Lawman used left over steak from 'steak and tater night' for another egg casserole Sunday morning. 

Our neighbor lady across the street found us a table for the living room, we picked it up over the weekend.

We took advantage of being forced to stay inside by catching up on naps.

K&K

In-Laws Coming Over?

The big news this week was weather related. Doom and gloom was predicted, everyone made the mad dash to the store for bread/milk/toilet paper/beer. About the only thing we needed to pick up this week to prep for the storm was vodka. But it's not for drinking. Our new batch of vanilla beans arrived and we needed to get soaking them for this coming holiday season. It's only ten months away, time is a wastin. 

So we stopped at the Class six store (civilians call it a liquor store) and picked up a few bottles of vodka so we could get the beans going. The girl who rang us up asked "In-laws coming over?" It's funny because it's not a worry here at The Acre. Lawman's inlaws chose poorly years ago. It's not a thing.

A new thing we started this year is peppermint extract. We will advise how it turned out when peppermint extract season rolls around. We look forward to the reasearch.

Because the snow was coming, we did a 'before and after' set of pictures. 

More of a 'before/during' since it was still coming down at press time.

As is tradition around The Acre during snow storms, we prepared for big hearty meals to get us through. The night before we had steak and tater night.

Sunday while it was snowing, we chopped up the leftover steak and made a big ol pot of veggie/beef soup with our home made tomato soup as a base.

The grilled cheese came about from watching food related shows on the TV. We found a tub of pimento cheese with jalapeno peppers, so we slathered that on with cheddar cheese and dropped it on the Blackstone.

One other meal we whipped up on the Blackstone this week, spicy noodles. We cooked down the veggies and the chicken on the griddle and added the sauce and noodles later.

We had a chicken we slow cooked in the crockpot one night, that means we had chicken bones left over. And the last trip to town to do our trading, we found a pack of pork bones. All week long we slow cooked the bones of both, then canned it up in the pressure canner. The leftover veggie/beef soup got canned up with the pork bone broth. We don't like to waste anything around here.

We got four quarts of chicken broth and four quarts of pork bone. Two quarts of soup.

Cupcake whipped up a batch of 'Christmas crack' to snack on while it snowed.

We spent the rest of the storm snacking on cracker crack and watching the snowbirds visit the feeder.

And naps. We managed to squeeze in a couple of naps.

K&K

 

Snow Dance

 Cupcake has been doing her snow dance, and it paid off this week. We missed over a foot of snow, the first inch of weather was in the form of rain. But it changed over to snow around sun up. It's hard to say who was happier, Cupcake or the Dudley Twins.

Getting the pups to come inside was the real task this week. They love them some snow. And, it's pretty to look at too.

We did take a break from all things snow for a new dish or two. First, Lawman saw a recipe for an omelette bunt dish. We had plenty of country ham left over so it was a win/win.

And since the Blackstone arrived, we've dubbed Saturday night "steak and tater night" and in the spirit of not letting anything go to waste, we used the new food processor to slice up the leftover steak and had fajita's on the Blackstone Sunday night.

We did spend a little time shopping this week, so new equipment updates to follow in the next week or two. 

We ended this week with two naps.

K&K