Sausage Day

We have officially designated the day after Thanksgiving to be Sausage Day.

So yesterday morning, while we waited for many pounds of meat to thaw, Mick developed his recipes for breakfast sausage, rosemary goat sausage, offal sausage, summer sausage and bratwurst, and he set out all the non-meat ingredients.

For each sausage, we combined all the ingredients in a large bowl.

The offal sausage includes organs from two goats and many birds as well as ground beef, some pork sausage, and plenty of spices.

Then Mick fed each sausage mixture through our grinder twice until all was ground and mixed.

The second grinding of the rosemary sausage.

Mick used a silicon spatula to help feed the meat through the hopper.

While helping Mick grind the summer sausage, I illustrated the advantage of a silicon spatula over a wooden spoon for helping the meat along through the hopper.

My favorite part of the sausage-making process (I was quick to remind Mick of this part if he seemed to overlook it): sampling the final product. Every single one we tried yesterday was phenomenal, first try! He did a great job with the recipes.

After being ground and mixed, the summer sausage will cure in the fridge for a couple of days before it is stuffed and smoked.

After grinding, the sausages waited in the fridge until stuffing time. Here, the breakfast and rosemary sausages wait their turn.

Then we stuffed the breakfast, rosemary, and offal sausages. Here are the breakfast sausages. Don't they look delectable?!

Mick cleaned out the stuffer after we stuffed the offal sausage.

Happy Sausage Day!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving morning we enjoyed a hike;

feeding apples to birds, branches to bunnies, and pine boughs to sheep;

and a breakfast of potato pancakes.

Then our preparations began.

Pumpkin pie (with oat flour in the crust);

leftover pumpkin pie filling in a ramekin;

and the pumpkin guts roasting on the cast iron griddle.

While we waited for the pie to bake, we shared a Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

Bare Tree Autumn Ale, vintage 2010.

Beautiful head! and a delicious, smooth beer.

Roscoe thought he might get a treat.

See his tail go back...

... and forth.

Then, "Can you jump?"

Yes, he can!

Off to munch his bone.

Gerard surveys the scene from his new favorite perch.

The pumpkin pie is done! (and tastes delicious)

Mick mixes the sourdough rosemary bread dough.

Gerard moves to his second favorite perch

and waits for an opportunity to escape outside.

Mick kneads the rosemary bread dough.

And tosses it! (for extra rise?)

The dough is ready to rise and waits in the oven, and we all took a nap.

Gerard tucked himself amongst my sweater and Mickey's jacket.

Roscoe curled up on his cushion next to the fireplace.

All of Thanksgiving dinner in the oven! (minus dessert)

-dressing

-goose

-sweet potatoes

-rosemary sourdough bread

Happy Thanksgiving!

Aerial Photos

When we first discovered our property for sale, a real estate agent sent us an aerial picture of the property with the property lines superimposed.

Last year, we discovered that Bing had a more recent aerial picture of the property that showed some of the changes we had made. This picture must have been taken sometime fall, 2010. It includes:

1) the vineyard to the left of the driveway between the forest and the pine grove

2) the garden beds to the right of the driveway between the forest and the spruces

3) the white shed north of the garden just inside the wood line

4) the clearing in the woods right at the top of the picture as Mickey began to make way for our home

Well, we were quite thrilled today to discover that Google Maps updated their aerial photo sometime this fall! Actually, I (Sarah) remember the day because the neighbor's horse shed (the purple roof just to the right of the driveway at the bottom of the photo) only spent a day at the bottom of the pen before it was moved to its current location elsewhere in the horse pasture. This was early October 2011.

This picture shows the orchard to the left of the driveway and the pasture fence to the left of the orchard. You can also see the sheep and goat - the white critters in the bottom left corner of the pen. As for the white critter just below the fence, this was also the day the ewe escaped from the pen.

The north part of the photo shows the cabin roofed and partially shingled, the back yard in progress, the new garden beds (the brown rectangles at the bottom center of the picture), and the birds in their pen (the white blobs in the oval towards the bottom right of the picture).

So while it is relatively disconcerting that such high-resolution pictures are available for the world to see (thanks, Big Brother), we are enjoying seeing our home from the air!

Fall, Frost, and Snow

Our giant sugar maple (just off the northwest corner of the driveway) started turning color at the top and worked its way from green to brilliant orange and yellow.

I (Sarah) tried to take a lot of pictures this fall but they didn't come out looking anything like the real thing so eventually I gave up. It was so beautiful!

We were pleased with how well our Maximilian sunflowers did this year! I remember not being convinced they were going to survive by the time I planted them.

They form part of the hedgerow west of the vineyard.

I was quite surprised early one Sunday morning to find a sizable flock of turkeys making their way up Clinton Street.

While wild turkeys roamed, the domesticated wildlife stayed warm and comfortable at home.

Heidi and Marty were very kind to visit several times and help me out while Mick was gone. One of the projects Marty got me set up for was washing the logs. It was hard to feel like it made a difference - until I looked at a side-by-side comparison.

Doesn't she look like a professional beer drinker?! :)

And while Mickey was off in the California desert, we had our first hard frost.

It was a bit surreal to talk to him, sweating in the desert, while I was bundled up in multiple sweaters.

I thought the frost on the garden beds looked like snow.

The air was so crisp and clear and refreshing that morning.

Sometimes I had a hard time getting myself moving those early mornings to feed the animals before work, but once I was up there, I loved it! What a beautiful and enlivening way to start the day!

With the days growing shorter, I mostly found myself on the hill at sunrise and sunset -- which, it turns out, are my two favorite times of day.

I love the last few seconds of a sunset when you can watch the sun move.

It amazes us how far the sun travels from north to south! In the summer, the sun sets quite a bit behind the trees to the right of this picture.

Evening comes quickly after the sun sets.

Quite the harvest moon!

Then we celebrated our first snow last Thursday.

We loved how the weather map followed the rivers and the lakes and the terrain. You could map out the bodies of water from where the snow turned to a mix, and you could give a pretty good guess to the shape of the Pennsylvania hills too.

All that blue turned into some accumulation in the village.

The hill was quite the winter wonderland!

And so fall begins the transition to winter. Can you imagine living without seasons?!