To Rest the Eyes....

After the previous two posts, here is a post with nothing objectionable to anyone. I don't think anyway.

Mr. Precious

I love the sky... and I love clouds.

The End of the Road

For this guy anyway. He was pinching chicken feed.

No more he ain't . Sorry buddy.

Squirrel Skinning 101..

I must give a little warning before you move on. If you have a squeamish stomach.. you might just want to skip this whole post. Well, you can look at Punker Man there but I think you just might be better off skipping the rest. So if you keep reading.. I did warn you.

He smells something....

Where is it?

Ahhh. the patient. Well , this poor guy had a run in with a car or something on the road and Dad found him the other day and brought him home since he was in such good shape. I mean, normally, roadkill is a big hit or miss kind of deal.. usually it is a pretty big mess and there isn't much to do but leave it for highway dressing , but this guy.... was totally perfect. He must have been bumped but not run over. Anyway, not wanting him to go to waste... he came home to Elly May and her very sharp skinning knife.

He should have brushed his teeth or something...

The first incision in....hmmmm . we'll call him Ivan for now .

She is skinning this guy cased for mounting. Gently the knife works to seperate the skin and flesh.

Biology 101..

The leg...

The toe nails remain with the pelt.. so she has to cut through the toe bones here.

This picture is just weird. It looks like a lot of different things.. none of which I will mention here. But what it really is.. is just the tail being slipped off.

Most of the pelt is off now...the tail came off beautifully in one piece. I tried it one time with another squirrel and the tail broke.... humph.

Just like a tube...

Okay, I am sorry, I know this is really gross.. but if you were curious as to what a squirrel looked like without its coat... now you know. If we were Southern and hungry... we could fry this baby up. But we have some scruples ... it wasn't bled out properly for one. And we don't eat rodents. Not unless we are desperate. And we aren't there yet so I can hang on to my snooty scruples for now.

It looks so deflated...

The end. She did a beautiful job and it went really quick. She saved the skull for the brain as this is going to be brain tanned. First it needs to be fleshed (all the little pieces of flesh/meat/fat still sticking to the skin have to be scraped off before tanning..). But right now it is in the freezer.

Bits and pieces.

Of course I forgot to get pictures of all the food when it was finished. But that is life. It was good. And we have lots of leftovers so we shan't have to cook for a week! Yay!! Well, that is the plan anyway. It was a wonderful afternoon/ evening enjoyed with friends and family. We have much to be thankful for.

Whew... that was exhausting!

Bread , the staff of life..

I'd always had great plans for our Thanksgiving feasts. Like actually making the dinner rolls... among other things. But when it came down to crunch time.... I usually ran out of energy and those plans went out the window. BUT, this year... Elly May was doing most of the work as I was sort of side lined with health matters . Good thing too because this way we got actual , home made , delicious rolls. She spent hours making them... but it was so worth it.
The dough, made the night before. A double batch , which she decided to combine into one bowl despite some peoples voiced concerns about future rising issues and overflow. No matter, it all fit at the time.

Of course, this is what greeted her the next morning. I think it was worth it just for the wow factor. The blob is out to get you!!!

Deft hands make rolls.

Lots and lots..

And lots... of rolls.

Only so many will fit in the oven at a time , so they were done in batches.

More rising..

Think we have enough ? They were grand . And there are plenty for leftover sandwiches.

The Pie Saga

Elly May is a master pie baker. They are the best ever. Pie day was Wednesday , well , among other things. We were doing a lot on Wednesday. Well , Elly May was anyway.
Blueberry..

Ahem.. are those teeth marks? No.. it couldn't be... J. B..... we won't tell anyone. And we shall keep things pushed a little farther in from the edge of the counter in future.

You have to see this.. I could never figure it out when I made pies. I think it has something to do with straight lines . I can't do straight lines ... but Elly May does straight lines very very well.. and can weave too!

The first layer..

Isn't that cool?

It is like fabric.

The work of a fine artist.

Baked to perfection.

Apple pie.

Crust for Butternut Squash Pie. We grew the butternuts.. In our opinion , butternut makes a FAR better pie than pumpkin. But that is just our personal preference.

We ran out of milk so this ended up with some cream in it and it was very very decadent.

The finished apple.

Decorations for the squash pie.

Aren't they cute?

Ta da! Now on to the rest of the stuff.. she made a lot of bread too. More on that later.