Further exciting and unappetizing projects from Elly May

When there is a spare moment it is time to drag out frozen squirrel carcasses and try out the new fleshing machine.

A fleshing machine saves HOURS. I helped her flesh a squirrel once and it took ... years. Okay, maybe just hours, but it was so tedious and I was so bored. Snipping away with our sister Violet's quilting scissors (Shhhhhhh.. we washed them up and decided she wouldn't want them back anyway so got her another pair... they were nice and sharp.. and what she doesn't know can't hurt her right? You aren't reading this are you Vi??? If you are, sorry. We really are.)

ANYway, the fleshing machine works great!

Aren't you all jealous?

Just in case you were hungry after that last post.... FOOD!!

Elly May has been on a mission to accomplish bagels. And I think she has.
From start.... to finish.

Beer braised short ribs . Mmmmmm. They were the best I've ever had . Home brew is definitely a good idea.

We haven't had hot dogs in .... a very, very, very long time. But wonder of wonders, they are now making grass fed, no nitrate hot dogs. A friend found them at some organic market and gave them to us for a treat. And what a treat it was! Not that we are going to be eating a lot of processed food .... but every once in awhile, these sure are good! And to be cooked over actual , wood burning flames... mmmmmm

Sandwiched between airy , nutritionless, white bread.... Divine.

We have FINALLY found a way to deal with all the gazillion pounds of hamburger that come with getting a whole beef. You see, certain menfolk around here aren't crazy about ground beef, be it in hamburgers or tacos or meatloaf... or in anything for that matter . But when you get a whole cow, most of it is ground beef. So you have to get creative. Elly May decided to try jerky . And it is great! And those picky "I won't eat ground beef " people will actually eat it! Yay!

As warm weather has set in, (well, mostly, it is kind of June gloomy out there right now) we have dug out the ice cream maker and started experimenting with various mixtures to freeze up into iced delights. First off... was chocolate. Because chocolate is the most important flavor there is. It just is. And I despise chocolate ice creams that have all the color but none of the flavor of chocolate. So we set out to make killer chocolate cream. And we did. But I don't have any pictures of that. Only the butter pecan . And it was good. Very good. But I still like my chocolate macadamia nut best.

Made with organic sugar and raw milk and cream from 100% pasture raised cows (Go Organic Pastures!!! we love you !!!) . Also fresh egg yolks from our chickens . So this is really a health food right?

Elly May's Latest Projects

Elly May has been very creative of late. And busy.. you know, aside from keeping us all fed and taken care off and the household running and all that little stuff..

She figured out how to braid leather for dog leashes. She is selling these....

And what do we smell??

Her "babies"

Where are they?

Aaaahh... there is the little guy. She is raising dermestids. Little beetles that eat flesh. Isn't that lovely? Why? you may ask, would a nice girl want flesh eating beetles? Well, to clean skulls of course! Didn't you know? Museums use them all the time. But you have to have a lot of them so they can get the job done in a reasonable amount of time. So she is breeding them to get her numbers up to something worthwhile. It kind of reminded me of how Robinson Crusoe saved the oats each year and kept replanting them and replanting them until he finally had enough for another crop and a loaf of bread. That took a lot of patience and self control. Not that flesh eating beetles are in the same category as oat saving so you can eat bread... but.... it sort of seemed similar.. sort of ..... maybe...

Until you have enough to clean a full skull, you can keep them alive on things like chicken bones , hamburger patties.... hot dogs... only ours can't have any because we don't have any either. So there. Tough luck guys. They have been breeding wonderfully and she has a lot more now than she had when I took this picture. Well, the picture is actually of the larvae... not a beetle itself but both the beetles and the larvae eat the flesh. They are rather interesting to watch. They move really fast and they don't like light so you have to look quick before the run for cover. We'll see how long it takes for her to get up enough for an actual project...

To be continued..

The Ick Factor

I was passing by an area by an orange tree outback recently and got a whiff of something none too pleasant... Hmmm... smells like something died... Then Elly May comes in the house and starts pulling gloves on and asks all excited like if I want to go do a photo shoot... "What did you catch?" .. Back tracking.. A while back, we decided to get some new rat traps to attempt to make a dent in the plague like numbers we seem to have around here devouring our fruit and so forth. So Mom found this one that actually zaps them with an electric current and they die instantly .. or so it says. Well.. it had been sitting out there a loooooong time and no results. BUT , apparently someone decided that peanut butter smelled too good and wandered in for a closer look. Last look he ever took. We'd given up checking the thing since it didn't seem to be catching anyone but the smell did catch our attention the other day. Thus... .. the photo montage... If you are squeamish.. I suggest you skip. I know I say that a lot but I'm just warning you ahead of time. There is no blood but it is kind of icky .

It had become quite aromatic by this point. I think it had only been in there a couple days at most.

I am dead...

Fly eggs. Isn't that lovely?

Very... hmmm. then when Elly May chucked it... (tossing it fairly vigorously...) the tail skin slipped off in her hand. Yes... she had gloves on but still.. that is ..... well.... gross. And sort of nauseating when you have the whole dead rat smell to go with it. .... and the fly eggs too of course... mmmmmm..

Random Things...

Field peas make lovely greens for flower arrangements. So if you have some on hand....

This time it is Santa Cruz Lager. A very dark beer.

All the goodness dripping down.

It is almost like molasses.

Chillin the wort. This time I sped up the process by pouring several cups of salt over the ice. It chilled down in no time!

Elly May working wonders in the kitchen. This is a maple/rosemary chicken. You had to be there. Mmmmm.

I think Elly May has had snake on the brain lately. Mom was not pleased.

This one was more to Mom's liking.

It was a dinner party for Passover. We don't eat this much sugar usually... at least I don't think so.

More chocolate!

Stepping outside. The roses are all in full bloom. This is a David Austin rose by the name of Legendary Gold . It is breathtaking and one of my favorites .

Almost there!

He was cold so he wasn't moving around much. When he finally got heated through and through... he took off .

My back would hurt doing this .

Oh look , he is actually smiling for once in his sad , depressed , bored "why do you people do this to me" life .

Just because.

Just thought I'd share our skill and diligence as housekeepers. Actually, it is the latest green technology in moth catching. You should try it sometime.

Them Thar Snake Skins..

Are finally done. Aren't they purdy?

She did a gorgeous job. Now they can be made into various things. Like a belt.... a choker necklace... wrist band .... We'll see..

Snake Skinnin' X 3

Elly May has been building up a collection of dead rattlesnakes in her freezer over the past year. They were mostly gifts from a friend (don't you wish you had a friend like that? ) who had run ins with them on the farm where he works or at home in a shed . Anyway, she gratefully accepted them all and stashed them away for when she had a spare moment to skin them out. That happened the other day. After a full morning of canning applesauce and running some errands, the snakes had defrosted and everything was ready. Oh... I should say.. again.. if you are squeamish you may as well stop right here because I know for a fact, you will not like the pictures in this post. Don't say I didn't warn you.

What are we doing?

The work table .

The specimens.

Exhibit A. He was a baby... and it looks like he killed himself.... hmm.... This one is kind of unusual because it still has its head. Normally we get ones without heads and sporting some wounds from things like hoes and shovels and so forth.

Mmm... ouch

This guy had been ready to shed ... so underneath his dull exterior was a brilliant green.

His skin was soooo thin and delicate. It was very hard to get it off without tearing. It did tear.. but most of it is still salvagable.

So pretty.

It looks like there is another snake laying down the center of the skin.

Fleshing...

Stapling to the board so it can cure.

Okay.. this is actually exhibit C... somewhere along the line I lost the one of B... hmm.. I'll find him later . This is a really large Red Diamond Back.

He suffered some... uh... blunt force trauma...

Slitting up the belly.

Just because I thought you might like to see inside..

Notice the drool laced over his face...

The big ones peel so easily.

We have some concerned onlookers.

This is actually fat deposits. I've never seen anything like this . At first we thought it was intestines but they aren't . If we could have found the blow torch we would have checked to see how well snake fat renders but alas.. we couldn't find the torch..

Another site of blunt force trauma... normally they aren't that bloody inside..

Just in case you were interested in what the innards of a snake looked like..

Fried snake anyone? Elly May said it looks like this dude had more meat than a squirrel. Of course that isn't really saying much..

Almost off..

Isn't it beautiful?

Laying out the skin..

What are you doing over there?

Fleshing..

This is what she is taking off . Just in case you were curious.

Just a change of scene in case you were getting squeamish.

Staples work much better than tacks... you just have to clean the stapler really well before you return it to your mom's desk drawer....

Painting on the tanning solution. Snake Tan.

Now in case you were still interested in the anatomy of a snake ... here is a quick peek.

This seems to be inside the trachea.. we think...

Snake heart. Kind of small... hmm.

Liver.

Empty snake... Sorry for the gore. I forgot to get a picture of all the skins drying on the board. Well, I'll get one when they are finished. They have to have a few more applications of the tanning solution. And they have to dry. But other than that... that is it. See, snake skinning isn't all that hard. ;-)