I think we are officially empty nesters!

I guess that fact just occurred to me today after I had dropped Rob and Amoy off at Matt's house for their continued trip on to the airport. Both our kids are officially gone from home now. And they have been for a while. Dang I am getting slow in my old days. Technically we have been empty nesters for about 6 years. That was when Rob went off to college. Gosh how life changes as you get older. It is wonderful having lil people in the house and watching em grow up, then the first day of school, then off to college or away to a life of their own. I have to brag some here. I do have to say I have 2 wonderful sons, not the typical boys that worry their parents with all the things boys can get into, just 2 fine young men. Kinda makes you a lil proud and sad at the same time to know ya babies are all grown up. Sigh........its been great.
Any way, after I dropped off Rob and Amoy I had to make a stop at the big grocery store. And trust me I knew damn well better than to get anything that needed to be stored in the freezer. All 3 freezers are full to the gills. But bein a dumb ass I am, Kroger had Italian loaf bread on sale, the 10 for $10 deal, ya know I had to get some, but only 5. We really don't use that much bread. It was a challenge just getting that amount in the freezer. But my point is, every time I go to the store I get sticker shock. As you prolly already know we only grocery shop for things we need to stock up on about every 3 months or so. I found the price of sugar is way up, butter is out of sight, coffee is ridiculous, salt is about the same, and Pepsi products are too pricey. But if ya have an addiction ya in real trouble. I was by myself and had time to just plunder the isles of the store a bit and look at "things". Ya know, I didn't see many things that I need or want that I cant make myself. I did look at canned veggies and fruit. How the hell do people live that don't raise this stuff? Not to mention the low quality of store bought canned stuff as compared to home canned. It scares me to think how the other half lives.
I do have to tell ya, Rob and Amoy will be moving into a house this coming week and they are all excited about planting a lil garden stuff in the back yard where the property owner was starting a garden. What ever they raise will be a big savings on the grocery bill. They are talking about getting a small freezer too, which will help a lot. I am glad some of his raising has sank in.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Thanksgiving is done for this year

We had our family Thanksgiving today as we usually do. And as always I fix too much food so we have leftovers for a few days. I don't mind really as it keeps me from having to cook for a couple days. I roasted a 20 lb turkey and most of that was eaten. Then had prolly 10 lb ham, well the butt off a country ham cooked in pineapple, coke and brown sugar. I will be eating ham sandwiches for several days and still freeze a lot. All the kids were here which is what its all about. We have to get up early tomorrow so I can take Rob and Amoy to catch their flight to Nevada. Then it will be time for me to hibernate for a couple weeks. Then the guys have black powder deer hunting and around Christmas we will butcher the hog. After that I am done for the year. No one will see me till spring. I really wont have any reason to go anywhere. I hope.
The weather has been pretty nice here this week, all be it cool. We are supposed to have rain starting on Tuesday this week. I don't like cold and rain combined. Sure makes the body hurt a lot. As if being on my feet cooking for deer hunters, standing butchering chickens and then doing Thanksgiving dinner didn't help. I think I need a message or a hot tub.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Finally done with chickens

On Friday we finally got finished butchering chickens for the year. We got 30 Cornish cross done and in the freezer. All but 10 of them were left whole so we can cook those on the rotisserie. The 10 are cut for frying. The bony pieces were cooked down for stock and that along with the thighs were canned. We got those done about 10 pm last night. I am really glad to have my mother in law come help and the kids helped as well. It was freezing cold out making it hard on my sore stiff joints. That made for a really long day. I did manage to get a tutorial video done for my friend Deb so she can have some chickens whole for roasting when she butchers some of hers later. Hope this lil video helps someone a lil bit.

Now the freezers are full and the pantry stocked, I think we are set for winter. Tomorrow we are doing our family Thanksgiving dinner. The kids are here and Jason's buddy Josh is coming down to eat with us as well. I should be able to get some rest next week if all goes well with all the butchering and dinners behind me. I still have some hobbies I want to learn and work on this winter. But its time for bed now. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Happy Thanksgiving

Just a short post to wish one and all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Even with the state of affairs in our country we still have a lot to be thankful for. I feel so blessed to be able to have an abundantly stocked pantry with all the gifts God has given me. And for my family and to have all my kids here for this holiday. Such a blessing to have family and friends, good food and make fond memories. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.


Stella

Gosh its been a while

It has been 4 days since I last posted on my blog. And that is not like me at all. No I didn't skip the country or run away from home. As a matter of fact I finally got back to my house on Monday evening around 9 pm. I left my aunts house in western Kentucky and stopped of in Lexington to pick up Rob and Amoy to bring them here for the Thanksgiving holiday. When we got home Rodger and Jason had gotten all the deer skinned out and ready to be trimmed up and put in the freezer. So I came home to find 6 huge pans full of deer meat in the summer kitchen. And dang that was a lot of deer meat to work up. I am guessing around 350 lb or more after it was all trimmed and packaged. So I got started on that Tuesday morning. Rob and Amoy had to go to Richmond to take care of some unfinished business from their old place. I trimmed deer meat. I really didn't know I had that much stuff in my freezers. While I was in western Kentucky the local Kroger store had turkeys on sale for 37cents per lb and I got 2 big ones. I intend to smoke the legs off them later and save the breast to roast. But I had forgotten that Rodger and Jason both got a turkey and a ham each from their company. So I now have 4 turkeys and 2 large country hams in the freezers plus 2 turkey breast that I had gotten on sale earlier. Well this is all good except for one thing. I didn't have room for the deer meat. Not to mention I still have 30 more chickens to butcher this weekend. So Rodger and Jason had to make a quick run late this evening to Richmond to buy another freezer. I sure had not planned on that. And we still have Petunia to butcher in late December. But this is a good thing, at least we have meat in the freezer that will last us a year or more. Tomorrow we will finish grinding the deer burger and get it frozen. Then I need to cook something to take to the family Thanksgiving dinner at Rodger's sisters house. Again I think I need to clone me to get all this done. As of right now we will be butchering chickens on Friday. They are huge now and will make great birds to do in the rotisserie. I just hope the weather is nice and not cold like they are predicting it to be. Nothing like trying to cut up chicken with frozen hands.
So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

Life away from the homestead

Sometimes you have to be away from your own homestead to get a clear picture of how good you really have it. As I have posted before I have been across the state visiting and helping my aunt this past week. It has really been a lot of hard work cooking for a large group of hungry hunters. But it is also very satisfying to see them leave with a good hot meal and having had a good time hunting and visiting. I have had a chance to learn to prepare larger dishes than what even I normally do. My aunt and uncle, Ann and Lewis Drake have several businesses that they operate here in the area and online. The major business is their gun business which deals in antique and collectible fire arms. They also have some really nice hand made furniture that they sell on their website as well. You can see all that here at www.drake.net . Then Uncle Lewis' daughter who maintains the website also has her own jewelry business. Lissa makes beautiful custom silver jewelry. Her jewelry can be seen here on her website at www.HappyGoLickyJewelry.com . She has some really pretty jewelry that is reasonably priced just in time for the holidays. So if you have a hunting enthusiast or jewelry lover on your list, have a look at all the cool things both sites offer.
My aunt also runs a hunting lodge and does the cooking for the hunters during the deer hunting seasons here. A local guide service houses hunters in her lodge but if you are hunting in the area you can contact her directly and reserve a room here. I do know the food is great, not just because I helped this year but she is also a great cook and believes in making sure you leave with a full belly. You can email her at the www.drake.net and make your request known.
As for me, this chick will be heading off on Monday to my homestead and on the way picking up my youngest son Rob and his gal Amoy to have them home with us for the Thanksgiving holiday. I am really looking forward to seeing them for a while as they are still living in Nevada. I talked to Rodger yesterday and he said my Cornish cross were not ready to butcher yet so he was going hunting in Scott county with Josh this weekend and Jason was hunting on the farm. So I will be butchering chickens the weekend after Thanksgiving. And we will have our Thanksgiving dinner that weekend as well. So I still have lots to do when I go home before I can hibernate for the winter. Later in December we will be butchering Petunia. After that hopefully I can hole up at home and not have to go anywhere else. So till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead on the road.

Stella

Staying busy

Well I have survived almost a week of what seems like non stop cooking. My aunt and I are cooking for all the deer hunters from one of the local guide services here in the area. This area of western Kentucky is well known for its trophy bucks. Being near the Land Between the Lakes region and bordering on Kentucky Lake makes for some great hunting. The guides are taking the hunters in areas where there are a lot of bucks that will score 180 plus on the B and C scale. Several have been taken this week. We are feeding between 20 and 40 men per day here at the lodge. And gosh do they ever like to eat. I am kinda glad it is only one meal per day. I am not sure I could do 3 per day. But they all leave with full bellies and a lil bag of cookies to take to the stands the next morning which makes em really happy.  But I will be heading home in a day or so. Not sure if I am leaving here on Friday or Saturday. Most likely Saturday morning so I can get home and get some rest before I start the chicken butchering process on Sunday. And life goes on. Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella