The People of the Mountain Homeplace : Heritage Days 2012

The Mountain Homeplace in Paintsville had their annual Heritage Days Event this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and we were happy to have a part in it again.  Here is the ad that ran in the paper twice a week for the past month:

This is a pretty big ad in the paper, measuring 8 1/2" x 7 1/2" and, yes, they used Christina's picture from last year as the top picture in the ad, which was pretty cool!

I am going to use this post to introduce some of the "Interpreters" at the Mountain Homeplace this weekend.  It was fun to be among them.  I'll do another post showing some of the scenery and grounds of the Homeplace at a later time.  Here are the folks who made this weekend happen:

Bobbi-Jo cooking in the kitchen:

Wanda helped in the cabin:

 

Esta Moore demonstrated old fashioned doll making:

Debbie Connelley with her 150 year old spinning wheel:

Wayne Whitaker with his grist mill:

The Bruno children demonstrated cow milking and butter making:

Betty Lemaster and Jane Boggs took care of most of the talks in the church:

Eddie Castle worked as the black smith:

 

For some reason I was more enamored with the chair maker this year compared to last year.  Terry Ratliff makes and sells his hand made chairs and other wood items for a living.  These are high quality durable chairs made completely by hand.  I think they are beatiful in their simplicity, but I doubt I will ever have a set of them unless I build them myself.  One of Terry's simple homemade kitchen chairs like the one below sells for $425! 

Here he is splitting white oak wood during a chair making demonstration.  I thought it was fascinating:

Christina spun on a spinning wheel and worked the loom:

Christina's friend, Kalen Stephens, helped in the weaving room:

 


 

Here is a neat shot of one of the spinning wheels in action:

 Lisa did most of the talks at the McKenzie Branch one-room school:

Simon worked in the barn shelling corn and telling about the animals:

Matthew could only make it on Saturday this year.  He helped out in several areas including the Sorghum press, the small grist mill, and the barn:

Here are a variety of other good shots of the Mountain Homeplace people enjoying the work and fellowship of the weekend:

 

 

 

The Return of Our Pork - Boxed and Vacuum Sealed!

Today we got the pork back from the two hogs we took off on July 19th.  In the past we have home butchered our hogs, as well as sometimes hiring a professional butcher.  With this being the middle of summer, paying a butcher won out this time!

The advantages of using a professional butcher are numerous:  no work on our part (and with large hogs like these there is an enormous amount of work involved), they have the facilities to keep the meat cooled compared to the summer heat we would face outside at our homestead, the end product is vacuum sealed in neat packages instead of wrapped and taped in paper on our dining room table, the sausage is already  ground, mixed, and packaged, the fat is already rendered into lard, as well as the ability to have a large amount of the pork cured instead of the limited room refrigerating hams in the wet brine solution that we have used for curing.  (Someday we will make a way to cure and smoke a larger amount here at home.) 

The only disadvantages to using a professional meat market is that often times they are not honest nor "professional", we don't get the "scraps" that the dogs love so much, and the price can run into a lot of money that could be saved doing it all ourselves.   I believe we have found a remedy to the first disadvantage I mentioned because the butcher we have used the past couple of times seem to be very honest and of good character.  It is a meat market run by a conservative Mennonite family with a good reputation for integrity and customer service.  The scraps we probably won't miss too much.  The money; well, I guess with all the work that is involved someone deserves to be compensated fairly (even though it hurts my wallet).

We did get a large amount of pork back from these two hogs.  The numbers are a bit staggering, but we have a lot of freezer space and we will not have to buy any meat for over a year.  We've got 146 pounds of ham and bacon cured and smoked, 123 pounds of sausage, another 236 pounds of fresh pork in the form of tenderloin chops, sliced picnics, spare ribs, and roasts, as well as 13 quarts of lard!

The prices have increased a little since we last used them a year and a half ago.  They charged $30 a piece slaughter fee (up from $25), $0.42 per pound  processing (up from $0.35) for 505 pounds, $1.00 per pound for curing (same as before), and only $0.30 per pound for sausage (which was a discounted price since we got so much).  That all comes to $455 dollars for the meat.  It was more than I wanted to pay, but I'm not complaining.

I've taken some pictures, but I'll come back and post them later.  Right now I need to help put it all away in the freezers.  Thank you, Lord, for your blessings on us!

Here is what our hogs looked like on our dining room table packed in 15 boxes and 13 jars of lard:

And now I'll give you a visual taste of a small part of our pork:

Open the boxes:

Vacuum Sealed Bacon:

Boston Butt Roasts:

 Picnic Shoulders:

 Sausage:

Tenderloin:

Ham and ham steaks:



Ride 'Em!

Simon and Christina have been going to Stunner Stables for a few weeks now to learn about horses and have been taking riding lessons on horses already broken while waiting on Gracie.  We have Gracie there for full-time training and she is coming along very quickly!  Will, the trainer, says that Gracie must have been ridden in the past because of how well she has done.  Wednesday, July 4th, Gracie was ready, as well as both Simon and Christina!  The camera was in order being the first time the children got to ride Gracie.

Here's Gracie in her stall:

Getting saddled up:

 

Christina's first time on Gracie:

 

Simon's first time on Gracie

I wish the pictures came out better.  Gracie was moving and the lighting wasn't very good.  As a matter of fact, there were some torential downpours of rain while they were riding Gracie.  It's nice that the barn is large enough that they have plenty of room inside to ride no matter the weather!

Here is Gracie in the wash room after a good morning of riding:



I'm sure we will get more pictures of Gracie being ridden in the future.  Soon, Christina and Simon will be coming to the barn on Tuesdays and Thursdays and ride the same time as all the other children.  They are looking forward to that as well as to the time when they get to go on their first trail ride!

Family Camp 2012

Yesterday, we once again headed to Camp Nathanael to partake in their annual Family Bible Conference.  This year we only went on one afternoon, but still had a wonderful time!  The Stephens family accompanied us and here are some of the gang waving at the folks on the hay ride going by.

The swimming pool was again a great hit, especially for Simon, Isaac, and Timothy:

The giant water slide is always exciting! 

The others walked around and enjoyed the nature center while we were at the pool, but didn't get any pictures since I had the camera. 

After activitiy time there was the wonderful supper and fellowship, and the evening was topped off with a concert by a very good Bluegrass Gosple group named Mountain Faith.

God's blessings were abundant, as always, and we thank Him for everything!