John's Journal

We are smokin now

By admin, on December 18th, 2011

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Yesterday I smoked a 5 pound Duck. It is only about half done in the photo. It looks like Zorro was here but I just sliced the skin all over to let the fat render out. The taste was something like a chicken but different and the texture was different and it was still too fat for me. From now on it will be more sausage and less duck.

Did somebody say sausage? This morning I got up early and smoked 15+ pounds of venison hot Italian sausage. The flavor was different/better than I had expected. They will probably be eaten like summer sausage.

Off topic. This bugger has been hanging around since late summer. I don’t know what species he/she is but it is about 24 inches form head to tail. No birds or squirrels in sight.

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Accessable garden update

By jbest123, on December 3rd, 2011

This is my Grandson Dan. Sorry for the apple branch in front of his face. He is in the process of top dressing the fall leaves and decorations. There is nothing that will excite a red worm like pumpkin. There will be substantial shrinkage by Spring and I will top dress again with composted horse bedding.

The four beds are filled and nothing to do until spring.

The upper garden is filled also, while nearly. The cyclone fence in the center will be taken out and there is enough soil to fill the beds on the right.

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Making Sausage

By jbest123, on November 29th, 2011

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You can buy sausage for about the same $ as making your own. But when making your own sausage, you control what goes into it. For my first try I bought English roast (BOGO) and trimmed all the surface fat off which produced a very lean ground meat. Then I blended in a commercial seasoning kit and stuffed the casings.

This is my smoker, I have the door open because I put too many hickory chips on the charcoal and I want a thin blue smoke. The sausages on the left are summer sausage and the sausages on the right are venison hot Italian sausage. Both turned out Grrrrr8. I kept one summer sausage and gave the rest to my kids and the Italian sausage to a friend. All the sausage lasted about one day.

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Restoring a 1960 Wheel Horse 550

By admin, on October 21st, 2011

This winters project will be restoring a Wheel Horse 550. It is in worse condition than the photo shows. My Dad had one in the 60s and I inherited it and used it for many years. I caught the previous owner in several unchallenged fairy tails and bought the tractor anyway. I am sure he thinks he pulled the wool over my eyes. He didn’t know what the tractor is worth but was glad to get rid of it. The first photo is as recd. And the second photo will be as restored. John