These 3 are not good pictures of Tad or the dog, but they are cute of Nathalie and K under the couch.

Tad had insisted that they could not both fit under there with him sitting on it (what does he think he weighs anyway??)

Yeah so he wont like me for these some day. he ate something that settled badly and then swam, came home and changed to pjs and sat here. I made him a bed, just like my mom always did just in case.

See, the basket is not only a kitty trap, he moved it here himself. And hung out with Tad.

Such a thoughtful kitty!

Hog butchering

We butchered a hog! A very good friend of mine raises hogs, I do not have the space right now. we bought 1/2 hog from her and butchered it a few Sunday's ago. I do not share photos of other individual's property so none of those here, but these are our processing photos.

We brought the meat home in coolers, the man who was helping us taught us a lot and helped us do the big cuts. He let Tad do much of the butchering.

They were cracking up here because I told them not to. Nathalie's outfit is something I will always think was cute and she will someday hate.

Again, letting Tad do much of this work. he butchers goats, rabbits and chickens unattended and processes them himself. Nathalie can also process rabbits and chickens.

This picture is oddly striking to me. Those are my bare hands, handling organic pork that I was raised to not eat (not the organic part, the pork) because it would send you to hell. How wrong that was!

"Mama please smile."

"Okay that was a good smile."

"No, I did not look homeless Tad. You are on crack."

We bought a vacuum sealer, something we often considered but never bought. The bags can be cut open and reused later, washed first obviously and here in Ak-I can recycle thin plastic.

Plus-it does this! No freezer burn here.

"Mama, I need a picture of the head. can you open it?" Yes, that is a hogs head. we used some of the meat, some dog treats were made and the head was cooked for the chickens to enjoy. I do not feed raw pork due to risk of trichinosis though the dogs eat all other meat raw. Also, note, do not feed bear raw as it too carries this parasite.

My favorite picture of the day.

"I is just gonna shut my eyes as I is getting NO treats."

"Can I has a treat??"

Nathalie is cutting up some of the skin here to dehydrate for Bully later.

You can see bully here in the bottom right, begging and Nathalie giving her the eye.

"Do we cut the skin off our ham before smoking mama?"

Yeah, clueless here.

"I am a zombie and I stole someone's heart."

"Look, I am making the heart beat and it squeezes out congealed blood!"

"The apocalypse is coming! And I am still smiling..."

Budding artist maybe?

Wow.

Typical, my girl loves mustaches.