Grateful Happy Sad Proud

That’s a lot of feels for one week!

My 51st birthday happened last week. (WHAT??? Say it isn’t so- I don’t feel 51 anyway. Maybe a strong side of 49, but not 51!! Haha)

I am very GRATEFUL for all the thoughts and well wishes that came my way. It was a day I paused and reflected, ate good food and drank cheap wine. I worked all day and talked to many family members in the evening, played with the puppies and snuggled with the ducks. Overall a quiet but lovely day enjoying the gifts from the fam💖

I am HAPPY that I went to the airport and picked Zoe up after her week back in Ontario. It was only one week but it sure is quiet when she’s not around. 

I am SAD that my beautiful, fun, lovable Winnie went to the butchers. Winnie was purchased for meat. This was always the game plan. What I hadn’t counted on was how much I fell in love with him. But I have been concerned over the past few months with his aggression towards the other two pigs. I am also hoping Ellie is pregnant and felt she needed a safe conflict free space. 

I learned a lot through this process.

First: I have provided my pigs a great home. The butcher, Steve, loved the set up, shelter, forested area and size of their space.

Second: Winter is not the time to butcher an animal. Too much of his fat stores had been used to keep warm and foraging was reduced by the amount of snowfall we had this year leaving me with a pig on the small side. 

Third: I am PROUD to say that I am an excellent sausage maker. I made sausage pattie’s since neither Zoe or I like the casings for links and I made:

Greek with sundried tomatoes, black olives and feta cheese (yummiest of yums!)

Salt and pepper(tried and true delicious).

Maple breakfast pattie’s (with our own freshly boiled maple syrup.)

Hot Italian (not my favourite but a classic nonetheless.)

And sweet Italian which I made into meatballs. 

I enjoyed a sample plate for supper! (note the mushrooms on the side - I ate a lot of mushrooms while Zoe was away!)

I loved the experience of raising Winnie as a loved member of our family knowing we were giving him the best life we could, and in return he would give nourishment to us. 

Progress Feels So Good

I had a great week. I went back to basics and wrote a list. The past few weeks have been hard to find my rhythm so with a list in hand I got busy. 

Dad helped me lay the floor joists in the barn but I have not progressed any further. One of the things holding me back was the barn cats. They access the barn from underneath and come out in this dirt floor section. To ensure they still can get in and do their job I had to create a cat door. It could have been so simple, but I did not like the idea of cutting a hole in the wall so…After weeks of thought and contemplation (fancy words for procrastination) I built a “hut” and attached a cat flap. I then enlarged an already weakened part of the floor, screwed the hut on top and…voila. A cat only (no weasels or others allowed) entrance. 

I am closer still to reaching goal #5. I split the wood that I had cut from two apple trees, two spruce trees and one birch tree. I now have one quarter of the wood I’ll need for next winter haha!! A long ways to go but I have never had this much cut by the first week of March so I am really happy and positive I will meet this goal. 

Finally, I took advantage of our above zero temps today to tap the maple trees. If you recall from previous years, this is a “for fun” project that has never been very successful starting with the fact that I have only four maples that are large enough to tap and ending with me properly identifying maple trees. But I love doing it and this is the act that heralds in the season of growth and harvest for me.