Reflections

Its New Years eve and a time of reflection. Looking back to see where I have been and looking forward to see where I want to be. Then planning the trip into next year. In our youth we have so many plans for our future and how things will be, then something happens and it all changes. In my youth I had planned on working about 20 years and retiring to the homestead and becoming as self sufficient as possible. I made 11 of those years and then got hurt at work. That sure changed the plan a good deal. Now the plans include enlisting more help to do the things that I had planned on doing myself. This new year I would like to expand my herb garden and knowledge of medicinal herbs for personal and family use. I would also like to get an orchard started for fruits to can and preserve and sell. Also would like to have fences built in order to have some livestock for meat and to sell. Not sure, maybe cows, hogs, sheep, or possibly goats. Would prefer a cow for milk and for meat. I have chickens and would like to be able to grow more feed for them instead of buying it. I really want to raise hogs to butcher for the freezer. Then my thoughts take me to a place to can and process all this stuff. I need my summer kitchen built, it will double as a green house in early spring, and butcher place when needed. I would like a gas range in there to use when the power goes off here. We are giving great thought to putting in a new heat system for the house. An outside wood fire furnace boiler unit that uses hot water to provide heat. And while we are at it maybe a geothermal cooling system. Gosh so many plans and dreams and so little money or energy. But all this is attainable with some hard work. But the first thing on the list of things to do is to get myself in better physical and mental shape. If I am to do any of this stuff I first have to concentrate on getting me healthier. Maybe the new year will motivate me to work on ME more.
So with all the reflections in my mind maybe its time to look at the seed catalogs and decide what to plant in the garden next year. We have a root cellar now so storage is not a problem for the canned stuff and root crops. I would like to grow more beans to dry. We use a good many dried beans in different things around here. Then there are flowers, I love em. I have perennial flower beds that are doing well. Although I do like the annuals for quick variety of color. More varieties maybe are in order. And I think I shall order more strawberry plants and make another bed for them. I have many plans, now if I only had a strong back to do it all. But if I were to make a new years resolution it would be to take care of me first and do the things I enjoy and not what everyone thinks I should do. I do hope your new year is filled with all the good things you need, and health to enjoy them. Till next time, many blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its the simple things

I guess it is the simple things in life that I enjoy most. Yesterday was my birthday and I had decided to visit a friend of mine in central Kentucky. My friend Rosie had broken her ankle and had surgery the same day I had elbow surgery. She has recovered fine but her incision is not closing up. The docs have left a stitch in there that is irritating it. I just wanted to visit and encourage her a little bit and I always enjoy time spent with them on their little farm. Jason went with me and drove. We had a nice lunch with Rosie and her family and I got to look at some of her painting that she has done while sitting on the bed elevating her injured foot. Such a good artist. I was like a kid at Christmas time. She had knitted me a pair of sock. I love em! That is one of the things I never learned to do well. It is the little things like this that I treasure most in life. When I have warm toes I can think of my dear friend. In the meantime her hubby Sam was in the barn checking on the animals and spoiling them like he does. He came into the room with a little lamb in his arms that had been born in the night. They had 2 ewes and 3 new babies. I was born and raised on a farm and we didn't have sheep so that is my first time in life getting to hold a new lil lamb. They are so precious. Such trusting humble little creatures. I really wanted to put him in my pocket and bring him home. But we took him back to the barn to his momma. He followed his momma a while then the dogs for a bit. Gods little creatures can sure warm your heart, much the same as good friends do from near and far. So till next time, be warmed by those you love, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Its cold, I dont want to be out there

It has been rather cold for the past several days around here. But it is winter time. The older I get the less I like cold weather. It just seems to make all my injuries hurt even more than usual. It is warm in the house, so that's where I stay if at all possible. I did go out today and let the chickens out to scratch a lil while. They didn't care much for the cold wind either. I think they were more interested in water than any thing else. It is hard this time of year to keep waterers thawed. I should have emptied my rain barrels to keep them from freezing but that never got done. So I have to break the ice in them daily to get water for the chickens.
Jason is going to be home for a few more days so we are going tomorrow to see some friends of mine in central Kentucky. We are taking my friend Rosie a dishwasher which I wish I could have gotten to her 2 months ago. She broke her foot about the same time I had elbow surgery and neither of us could travel. I think she will also appreciate a bushel of sweet potatoes and a feed bag full of turnips for her cellar. Her and the hubby are friends I met on a forum we both frequent online. And in talking to her online we found that her hubby grew up about 30 miles or so from me. It is a small world. They are such nice folks. They live the simple life very much like we do here. But they have Dexter cows and dang it I want one. I always enjoy visiting their place. And gosh, I wish I only knew half as much about herbal remedies as does she. She grows a lot of her own herbs and makes tinctures and such. She sent me some comfrey tincture for my elbow to encourage healing. The common name for comfrey is "knit bone". There have been sufficient studies done to merit its use in modern applications. I have used it daily for over a week now and my elbow is less painful and less pain makes me think it is healing better.
I also am posting a recipe at Amoy's request. That girl likes fruit and the fruit dip I have made in the past. So for Amoy and all my readers, here is my favorite fruit dip. This can also be used like a thick dressing on chopped mixed fruit as well.

Fruit Dip

!6 oz of cream cheese, softened
13 oz jar marshmallow creme
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat all smooth with mixer. Serve with fruit wedges or on top of chopped fruit. Enjoy!

Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

A late white Christmas

We had our family Christmas this weekend so both the boys could be here. It has just been a lazy day grazing on leftovers and lots of naps. A friend had given us another deer last week. It got skinned out today and cut for the freezer. It had lots of nice roast and about 15 lb of deer burger. That should do for a while. Rob and Amoy were going to try to go home this afternoon but took a nap instead. After dark it started to snow again with a big dip in temps from earlier today. I guess I missed that part of the weather forecast. So they are going to stay the night and leave tomorrow and head back home.

I am ready to just stay in for a while and rest up or hibernate as some would call it. I am working on putting all my favorite recipes in a cook book on the computer so it can be transferred to disc at some point. I am going to include all my canning recipes and if I get real creative maybe some photos. Or not. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Family and good food

That's what the holidays are for us. We had our family Christmas dinner today when we all could be together. I had roast turkey breast and cornbread stuffing. A ham fixed in the crock pot with crushed pineapple, brown sugar and pepsi cooked on low all night. We also had corn from our garden, green beans, mashed potatoes, cole slaw, gravy and cranberry sauce. I had made some snack foods yesterday to keep everyone happy while they waited for dinner. We had peanut butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, bourbon balls, cheese ball, fruit and fruit dip. Everyone ate their fill and then took a nap.
I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and went out to turn the chickens out for a bit and rake my mulch back into place that the chickens had scratched all over. We put a timer on the light in the chicken house to extend the amount of light the birds needed so they would continue laying through winter. It seems to have helped some. I life I have learned that most birds and animals have more of a survival instinct than do humans. The pullets will pick the corn out of the scratch feed when we give it to them. The corn is higher in starches and sugars that help the birds produce body heat and stay warm in cold weather. When I was growing up we always had chickens and dad would feed them nothing but corn all year long. They didn't eat much in summer but in winter they did and I never knew of one succumbing to the cold weather. And his hens always produced plenty of eggs all winter long. A well fed animal will survive the harshest of conditions where as a poorly fed one will succumb to the elements. I think that is the way God designed them. That's my take on it.
There are people in the kitchen again so it must be time for seconds or thirds. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Merry Christmas

It Christmas time already, where did this year go? Today we are just relaxing here at home, Rob and Amoy of course have to work tonight so they cant be here till tomorrow when we have dinner. I think we are having some grilled salmon and wild rice for lunch and maybe soup for supper today. I have some baking to do as well if I can ever get motivated to move. This is a good time of year for me to reflect on the past year and count blessing that have come my way. And there are too many to count. We are blessed to have good health, good food, shelter and family. So much more fortunate than many today.
We are forecast to have some cold nasty weather this weekend and hopefully we are more prepared than we were last weekend. We bought a generator yesterday and have gas for it and kerosene for the kerosene heaters if we need them. We also have propane burners we can utilize for cooking if we lose power. Which I hope don't happen of course but it never hurts to be ready.
I am off to bake some cookies and get some things fixed for us to snack on. I made some bourbon balls yesterday from a recipe that my friend Connie shared with me and they were so dang good. I will share that with you here.

Bourbon Balls

2 cups finely chopped pecans
1 cup bourbon

Pour bourbon over nuts and let stand an hour or so to absorb the liquid.

Combine 2 lb powdered sugar and 1/2 cup melted butter well. Mix in soaked pecans and stir to combine well. Chill well and prepare chocolate for dipping.

12oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 bar of paraffin

Melt over low heat. Roll pecan sugar mixture into balls about the size of grapes and dip in chocolate to coat. Place on paper lined cookie sheet and chill to harden chocolate.

Enjoy! But these are best made several days ahead of time if you can let them wait that long.

From my family to you and yours, Merry Christmas, stay safe and warm.

Stella

Observations

It has been a rather do nothing day around here.But I did manage a trip to the grocery store to get a few things to keep the kids entertained when they are here for the holidays. As you know if you have grown kids all you need is plenty of food stuff and they are happy. But I was thinking while Jason and I were in the store, there just aren't that many people buying large carts full of groceries like I have seen at holidays past. It was almost as if most folks were shopping for the usual stuff, not items you normally see in your cart when you are making a big family meal. We only have one grocery store in our county and they had bunches of hams and turkeys left to chose from. I think this was not the norm. It really got me to thinking, do people not have the money to do big holiday meals or are they just not spending it. The jury is still out on that one. In talking to several people in the past few weeks, I have heard more people say their families are not doing the gift exchanges this year, it is more important to just be with family and friends and have a nice simple meal. For the most part this has always been our way of celebrating Christmas. Just my opinion, but I do think this year Christmas will be celebrated more in light of true meaning than the commercialized one for lots more people. But around this house, anytime I can spend time with my youngins is special. They grew up to be wonderful individuals if I do say so myself. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I got to brag a little bit

As a mother I have to brag a little bit here. From previous post you know our youngest son graduated college this past Saturday at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond. We missed the graduation ceremony due to the nasty weather we had here in the east. Although we did get to have dinner with Rob and his girlfriend Amoy,(adopted daughter lol), Jason and Matt, a friend of Robs. Amoy took some good photos for us to keep and I am sharing some of those in this post. Rob now has his Bachelor of Science in Environmental Health Science degree. He has spent the past 5 years at EKU going to school full time and working part-time at Eastern State Hospital. He graduated from Oneida Baptist Institute in Clay County prior to attending EKU. It seems like only yesterday that I put this cute lil blonde haired boy on the school bus to go off to kindergarten. Gosh how time flys. Hard to believe at time that our 2 boys have grown into fine young men that we are so proud of. OK I think I am done bragging now. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Not prepared for winter

After its too late we always decide we are not prepared for winter as we would like to be. On Friday night we started getting rain and snow, then it turned to all snow and ended with about 4 inches here at our place. The temperature was not too bad at about 35 or so. It was the wet heavy snow that takes down power lines and trees, which is exactly what happened. That stuff was treacherous to drive in as well. Our son Rob was graduating from college on Saturday morning and I suggested to hubby that we go stay in the town where he was graduating, but we didn't. On Friday night we lost power and got the predicted amount of snow. When state road crews are getting trucks off the road with chains on them its not a good idea to try to travel. So we missed Robs graduation ceremony. I so wanted to be there for him, he has worked hard for this day. They did take lots of pictures for us and Josh video taped it for us to have, and Jason called and put his cell phone on speaker so we could hear them call Robs name in real time. We really appreciate them all going to the trouble for us. But later in the day when the roads cleared a bit we did make it out to Lexington to have dinner with them. That was really nice and we had a good time. Got back home last evening and still didn't have power here. So we started a fire and kinda went to bed early. The power finally came back on about 8 this morning. I could survive without electric but dang it sure is nice to have. Now to decided what is for lunch...................
Maybe a stew would be nice with some cornbread. And at the request of one of my readers here is my recipe for cornbread made with homegrown cornmeal.

CORNBREAD

2 1/2 cups corn meal(preferably home ground)
1 1/2 cups self rising flour
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda (only if you use real buttermilk)
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups water + 2 tablespoons buttermilk powder
OR
2 cups whole milk or buttermilk
2 whole eggs
1- 10 inch cast iron skillet
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In cast iron skillet put about 4 tablespoons butter and about 6 tablespoons olive oil, or you are best to use about 1/2 inch of bacon grease in skillet or any combination of the above to equal 1/2inch. Heat skillet in oven till hot.
Mix bread ingredients well, it should be the consistency of cake batter. You can adjust the milk to the right consistency. Pour batter into hot skillet, the melted grease should come up over the sides and and run into the top of the batter. This makes the crust crispy. If ya want a more tender less crispy cornbread use less grease or oil in skillet. Bake about 30 to 40 minutes till nice an brown and the top springs back when pressed. Cut in wedges or squares to serve, with more butter.
*I like the crisp outer edges of the cornbread and everyone else like the tender middle part, so we have the best of both worlds here. Also, even tho I add sugar to my cornbread, it is not sweet. The tiny bit of sugar just adds something extra to the taste as salt does any other dish.

Enjoy! Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

The holidays are closer

With the Christmas Holiday getting closer I thought I would post a recipe for fudge that a friend shared with me. I am not skilled in making fudge but this recipe is kinda forgiving. This is for a friend who was looking for a good recipe for fudge.

Peanut Butter Fudge

4 cups granulated sugar
2 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons butter
dash of salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup peanut butter


Combine the sugar and milk in a heavy kettle and bring to a boil and cook 10 minutes. Then add the butter. Cook to soft ball stage. ( she cooked hers till it would hold shape in cold water and you could take the lil ball out and roll it in your fingers like well chewed gum). When it reaches this point remove from the heat and add the vanilla and peanut butter with a dash of salt. Stir quickly and stir well. Pour into a buttered pan to cool. Cut and serve. This stuff is so good.

Enjoy! Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Getting ready for the holidays

Its about time to get ready for the holidays and start some baking or something. I think the kids might be disappointed if there were no desserts on the holiday table. I was thinking about that as I was cleaning house today. I did manage to give the master bedroom a good cleaning that it has lacked since before I got hurt 2 years ago. So it was time to move furniture and dust and vacuum all the carpet. And the empty gun storage cases under the bed were raising families. There were all sizes. I have also cleaned out closets to make room to store my moms stuff while she is in the nursing home for therapy. But such is life.

I had a brain cell mis-fire today when I sold all my eggs that I had in the refrigerator. I decided to make oatmeal soup for my supper and had to go to the chicken house and get 1 egg. That's all they had done when I went out there. The young pullets are laying really well in this cold weather. But then again it hasn't been that extremely cold here yet. A distant neighbor and family friend came by and got the eggs and I sent her home with 2 big grocery bags of turnips. I had given her some a week or so ago and she was telling me how much she enjoyed them. They are very sweet due to being grown in cool weather. Jason pulled them when he was home before the field got plowed up and put them in feed bags and set them in the root cellar. They are keeping beautifully.

A friend gave us another deer that we will be processing for the freezer and for jerky next week. It never hurts to have plenty of meat in the freezer. Also the week of Christmas we are getting our cornmeal ground. Here at our house cornbread is kinda a staple. I still don't have my hominy made yet. Been kinda busy with other things and the holidays coming up. Just not enough hours in the day. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Fix one thing..........

Just when you think you have things all fixed and are heading in the right direction, life throws you a curve ball. I had a doctors appointment today with family doc to get my meds refilled before the holidays. And as you well know when you go in they check your blood pressure, oxygen level and heart rate. Well my blood pressure was too high. The doc didn't look at the chart an notice it but I am aware it is high so now I will need to monitor it and watch what I eat. I do think it is directly related to my pain level more than diet. But I don't need this right now. Prolly a lot of it stress related too.
I stopped by a fresh fruit and vegetable stand today while I was out and got some fresh fruit. Was kinda shocked that apples were only $10 a bushel, which is cheap for this area. I got some tangerines, grapes, naners, tomatoes and apples. I stopped by the nursing home to see mom and took some of the fresh fruit to her. She seems to be doing OK at this point.
It has been cold today, so after all my errands I came home and made a pot of chili for dinner. It was nice and spicy, really warms ya up. Time to do the cleanup now. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Puttering thru winter

Sometimes I think I am just puttering thru the winter trying to make it till spring. Kinda looking forward to gardening time again. Although we haven't had any really bad weather it has been cold, at least to me. We finally got the fence put back up around the onion bed today so we can let the chickens out in the afternoons. They do enjoy being out and they just lay better eggs when they are allowed to roam a bit. And this gives Luna something to do keeping an eye on the chickens. She does keep things a lot more secure around here. She lets us know when something or someone is around.

I went out again today to moms apartment to continue the process of cleaning up and packing her stuff for storage. Not really a lot of stuff to pack, I can only do a limited amount each day. The earlier part of the day was spent taking care of things around my house and getting laundry done here. I had thought that when winter got here I would have some free time to cook and bake and do some reading. I would like to start crocheting again, it has been a long time since I did that. But there are still more important things to do before I have that free time.

Our youngest son, Rob graduates from college this weekend. I am so happy for him to have that behind him and to be able to get on with his life. We are quite proud of him and wish him great success. God bless ya Rob. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Life goes on

Life goes on in spite of us sometimes. I have stayed busy all week trying to get my moms apartment packed up and ready to move. Most of her stuff will be moved into my house and some odd things will be put in storage if she ever has a need for them later.I did manage to get my carpet shampooer to the apartment and cleaned the recliner that she wants to use at the nursing home, so thas one thing out of the way. Maybe by weeks end I will have the other stuff in boxes and ready to move the week of Christmas. This kind of work takes its tole on me physically. Does get kind a hard to keep up with 2 households. But I think I will survive.
The weather today was nice but cold. Or at least to me 35 is cold. Maybe I have become a wimp in my time. But hopefully it made for good deer hunting for the guys and gals that are out this season. Haven't heard from my bunch yet so I really don't know if we have more deer for the freezer or not. I may have to can some of the venison if we have more deer as I am out of freezer space and really don't want to buy another one right now. But I do have space in the cellar for jars of canned goodies. I will need freezer space for cornmeal when we get our corn ground into meal the week of Christmas. This has been a long season for me. Seems as tho I can never get all the things done that need to be so I can settle in for winter. But my dad always said the older you get the more there is to do it seems.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Winter has arrived

Winter has finally arrived for sure in these parts. We have had snow this week and rain galore. I don't like cold weather so I try to have an excuse to stay in most days. I got out this morning to feed the cats and dog and was pleasantly surprised at the temps. It was a good 60 degrees with a good bit of wind, almost spring like. The wind got much stronger as the day progressed. There were several trees down all over the county and some took out power lines. In our little hollow we got wind but no damage. Unless ya count the stuff that got blown about that probably should have been tied down anyway. I had a large piece of rubber roofing folded laying on the picnic table out back that was blown off and hit the temporary fence around the onion bed and broke one of the post off. So I didn't let the pullets out to forage cause we all know that is where they would go first. I also had to put the rubber roofing back over the compost and manure we had layered in front of the cellar, it was scattered about.
I went into the cellar to check the temperature and found it to be nice and cool and dry. We have many bushels of sweet potatoes stored in there and lots of jars of canned stuff. I think we are all set for winter around here.
Earlier this morning I decided to go to moms apartment and start trying to get her stuff packed and ready to move to storage while she is in the nursing home. I think she will be there for a good long while. She says she is feeling OK, but she does seem a little confused some days. I think I finally have all her laundry done and ready to pack up. Now I am working on the kitchen stuff. Will probably spend this weekend trying to get most of that done while hubby is out of town deer hunting. Hopefully he can get a couple more deer to make jerky and stew meat from. But I really shouldn't plan things as something will surely happen to make them change. Thas the story of my life. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Not much happening

Not much happening here on the farm this time of year. It was rather cold this morning. Think the low last night was about 22 or so. I really don't take the cold like I did when I was 20 for some reason. They tell me age plays a big part in that fact. But none the less even in winter there are minor things that need to be done here. We finally got some firewood hauled and put on the front porch in case the power goes off. Or even if it don't we still use the fireplace to help cut down on the power bill. A nice fire in a fireplace kinda reminds me of my youth when I was growing up in the old farm house we heated with wood and coal. The coal was mostly used when the weather got bitterly cold as it produces more heat than wood. The smell of coal smoke takes me back a few years. Strange how smells can do that to your mind. I remember when I was very young, in summer time the railroad company would come through replacing cross ties in the tracks and dad would always talk to some of the men working and tell them they could leave some of the pieces along side the tracks on the farm. Then he would put an old chain on his chain saw and cut them up then split them to use to heat water at hog killing time. I can still remember the smell of the creosote as it burned to heat the water. When dad farmed with mules, the mules knew that smell all too well and it meant they would be dragging a dead hog to the scalding platform soon and they would get jittery. Then the smell in the spring when dad would smoke the country hams with hickory. Ah such a good life that was.
My task for the day was to get moms laundry done up and taken to the nursing home for her. That was a bigger job than I had anticipated. I ended up doing 8 loads of laundry, all of which had to be taken to her and some of it taken back to her apartment till she needs it. The next several days will consist of cleaning and straightening the apartment and packing some of moms stuff for storage. Sadly she wont be able to live there anymore with her health declining. So I have my work cut out for me I guess. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

I am still alive

I just thought I would let ya know that I am still alive and kicking. Just not real high these days. But really I am doing OK. As long as air goes in and out, and blood goes around and around.
This has been a rather stressful week for me regarding my mother. She had a bad fall in her apartment and broke her right hip. And as most people know that can be very critical to an older person. The fall happened on Sunday night and she had surgery to repair the hip on Tuesday. On Friday she was transferred to the local nursing home for re-hab and will be there indefinitely. She was very confused for a few days but tonight she seemed to be doing better. This is especially hard with me being the only child. I spent the day today getting her apartment cleaned and trying to get ready to move her stuff out an into storage somewhere. It was rather emotional for me but I managed. My body is paying the price in pain as I write this post. Just need to take care of me for a bit now.

On a lighter note, we got our first snow fall of the season last night. Maybe got an inch or so total. It was pretty but dang was it cold. The neat thing was there was no snow on our little road, just on the ground everywhere else. Luna had already had a good time in the snow when I got out to see her this morning. The cats were not real sure what all the white stuff was about but they knew it was cold on their feet. They would jump from one clear spot to another to stay out of it. They were cute to watch. Later today they only had mud to play in because all the snow melted. There was ice on our back deck when I came in earlier this evening. I guess that is to be expected when the temperature is 24 degrees. I think a nice warm fire in the fireplace might be in order. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

One of those days

Did you ever have one of those days when you just wish you had not gotten out of bed in the morning? Dang, seems I have a lot of those lately. But I did get up and maybe got a few things in order. First off had to deal with nurses at a hospital that do not care what happens to patients when they leave their care. They have no consideration for the patient or family. My mother is in just such a facility after a fall and broken hip. She will require placement in a nursing home for an extended period of time, probably indefinitely. Sad part is if she had been able or so inclined to humor the staff into thinking that she could provide care for herself she would have been sent back to her apartment, no questions ask. And even with me, her only child telling them differently. But God must have intervened on my behalf and she told them she would go to the local nursing home at free will. That was somewhat of a relief. So she may get to come to the nursing home on Friday for re-hab and a long stay. One day at a time.

The weather was really warm here today, not that I was able to be out much. Then late this evening we started getting some rain. Forecast is for colder temps for the next several days. Maybe good soup weather is ahead.

On a lighter note, well kinda, when I went out to give Luna her meds today she had a "thing" on her nose. And with a little closer look, it was a tick of all things. I would have thought ticks should have been froze out in our area by now. But sure enough it was a tick that had got a good belly full of Luna's blood. We did manage to get it off with a little effort. She was a happy camper after the wrestling match. She is doing much better with her leg, not limping much at all. So I think the meds worked and she can skate by this time without surgery.

I had planned on making hominy this week but as usual it never pays for me to plan anything. Still think I might get to that project this weekend if I can scare up some help. Good homemade hominy is quite tasty and very nutritious. We shall see. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Holiday hang-over

No, not the kind of hang-over you might be thinking. Just that sluggish feeling you get from eating too much. We had a good meal so I suppose that is a plus and probably more than a lot of folks had. We stayed busy most of the holiday finishing up the butchering and getting deer meat in the freezer. So the freezer is full again and just maybe that will hold us for a while.

Luna is feeling better and not limping like she was. Am sure hoping this treatment the vet gave her works for her shoulder and leg so she wont need surgery. If I ran and bounced around like she does I'm pretty sure I would have torn cartilage too. Or worse. But she is more active than before so that's a good sign I think. The weather has been warmer during the day which helps as well I'm sure, although it has been near freezing at night. Guess cold is to be expected in December. So hard to believe this year is almost gone from us and a new one is around the corner. Maybe a long nap is in order. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella