Bringin' Home the Bacon

It's been a whirlwind around here. Last week ALL the children went to VBS (vacation bible school) from 8 am - noon. It was sure quiet around here in the mornings! Our neighbor was volunteering there and offered to take the children... so I pondered... thought awhile... lamented on HOW I'd live without them for 4 hours each morning... and very ENTHUSIASTICALLY said YES!!! They loved every minute of it. The only complaint was from Levi saying they made him sit too long to listen to the bible story. Hmmmm... I told him that was O.K. and he needed to learn to sit and listen to get ready for preschool next year. He was fine the rest of the week.

While the children were gone I enjoyed cleaning up the home school books, doing a little furniture re-arranging, making some yummy summer salads (Rajan's Bean Dip and Cabbage Salad), and a very enjoyable ride on Doug's Harley Davidson with Russell the Muscle! We were able to skip out one night and enjoy some nice back roads and beautiful country scenery while Donna had the children for her 'swap' night. Last week must have been our lucky week because then my neighbor and friend, JoAnna, offered to watch our children for an evening. So we took her up on the offer and went out for dinner to celebrate our first pay check. We ate at the Texas Steak House and Saloon... or something like that. A very nice evening - that's for sure!

Levi had his first set of swim lessons. I just realized I didn't take any pictures of it! I guess at 103 degrees my brain just doesn't function at it's top performance... Go figure! He did great - by the end of lesson one he had his face in the water doing front crawl, which is referred to as "reach and pull arms" and "straight long kicking Superman legs!" No wonder I couldn't teach him myself - I didn't know the correct 'terms.' Levi proudly notified me that only "Miss Shelly knows how to teach me to swim, Mom," as I was trying to teach him in our neighbors pool. I have to give credit where credit is due. He now jumps off the diving board, does a frantic doggy paddle for a breath of air, and dunks his head in to swim the 4 strokes to the edge of the pool. I must say, I'm one PROUD Mama!

Our excitement was at a high on Tuesday evening. Russ and I went for a short walk on our land while the kids watched a movie. Lately Russ has been seeing a lot of Cotton Mouth snakes so he brought the 30-30 just in case... 5 minutes into our walk as we were leaving the pasture area for the woods we noticed something that we thought was a black doberman dog up ahead in the trees. We quickly realized it was a wild boar. We both hunched down while Russ levered a round into the chamber and quickly fired off a shot at our moving target. The boar faultered in its step while Russ shot again. The pig went off to one side of the path while the rest of the pigs ran the opposite direction. We carefully moved closer to check out the pig. Turns out the first shot blew off it's bottom jaw and the second a piece of its tail. It was now just standing by a tree broadside to us so Russ finally had a good shot at it and dropped it. It was really exciting! I've never been with a mighty hunter at the moment of the kill before. I said, "Way to go Hun! Now THAT'S bringing home the bacon!" Russ picked it up just to check the weight... we think it was about 80 lbs.

Once we were sure the Boar was dead we rushed back to the house, rounded up the kids along with some sharp skinning knives, gloves, rope, our neighbor's tractor, our 4 wheeler, and headed back out there. Russ hung the boar off the front end loader of the tractor and WE... yes! I really was pumped and had to be in on the action! WE skinned the pig and gutted it right there.


Of course I took advantage of a 'teachable moment' and we all examined the large & small intestines, kidneys, liver, stomach, lungs, heart, and rib cage. Earlier this spring we studied the human body along with all those parts. It was cool to actually SEE them. And being the expert skinner that I think he is... Russ did very precise cuts in the skinning and cutting so there was no messy bloody parts. We left all that 'stuff' out in the woods for the vultures and brought the hog home. The next day when Russ went out there all the 'stuff' had already disappeared!

By now it was getting pretty dark so it was nice to have the lights from the 4 wheeler to guide us. Russ set up a surgery table in the garage and we cut up our pork! Too bad we don't have the experience of a butcher... but I think we did OK. We got both ribs, two nice size ham legs, 2 small tenderloins, and a bunch of other meat that will be DE-LISH-US in the crock pot with potatoes and green beans. So we left the meat in a cooler with ice and salt overnight. The next day I put my hairnet on over my curlers, along with my flowery apron, cleaned off the meat, and froze it ... just kidding. I FELT like I was in a Little House on the Prairie story but I didn't really have the hairnet, curlers, and apron. I cooked the rack of ribs in the crock pot and YUMMY... it was good! Levi wasn't sure about it, Jessica was even less sure but tried it anyway, and Katlyn gobbled it right up!

We can say we pretty much have hormone free, organic pork now. I was a little worried that the meat would be too tough but it turned out beautifully. Today we finished up some left over Enchilada Casserole and Beef Dip and both Katlyn and Levi tentatively asked if they were eating our dead pig. I assured them this meat was from a dead cow instead. I've tried in the past to be a vegetarian and lasted 3 whole weeks. I don't believe giving up meat is for me, especially when we have all these delightful and tasty animals on our land for my Mighty Hunter Man to shoot. But don't get me wrong... we try to limit our meat consumption to about 3 times a week and eat other things like beans, lentils, etc. the rest of the time. If any of you have some great bean or lentil recipes I'd be thrilled to try them.

Work is slow right now. Yesterday Russ just got his new (used) tractor and already has it all tuned up. The temperatures have been in the 100's and we've gotten used to sweating when just walking outside. But every day is clear blue skies.

We re-visted Shannon Oaks church this past week. It's the first one we visited that our friends, Doug and Betty Sue, attend. It's looking like that'll be our church. We haven't decided for sure but it's the closest to all that we're looking for in a church. They have 'life groups' on Sunday evenings (basically several children eat together and do bible study) while the children are taught bible stories and songs at the church. Then on Wed. nights there is bible study for men, women, and seperate activities for children. It's been very nice having all our evenings free but I am missing being part of a women's bible study. I'll likely join one once we settle into school late in August.

Next week I plan to visit my family in Canada and spend most of the week at my sisters cabin(s). They are next door to each other. Russ will not make this trip... hopefully he'll be too busy turning out parts. Otherwise he'll just do the other 100 things on his list.

Have a Happy 4th of July!