Farm Fresh: December projects

I didn't take any pictures of the guinea butchering. After 5 hours of sad work all 15 were in coolers.  I let them rest 48 hours and then froze leg and breast meat and canned the rest of the meat (5 quarts) and all the broth (12 quarts).  Two mama rabbits kindled this week and have about 10 kits between the two of them. One lost 2 and the other 1, I think all 3 of those just had birth defects. They are both experienced mamas and did a great job making warm nests in the nest boxes. 

 We made a trip to Amish country and bought about 6 bushels of apples and apple seconds. 36 quarts of applesauce canned this week another couple dozen to go.

 Since it worked so well last year.  We are making apple cider vinegar again with the peels and cores. We have also been dehydrating a lot of fruit. The kids eat it up so fast it is hard to photograph it.  The kids helped peel and set apples on the tray for making a big batch of dried apples. They already gobbled down the first 2 quarts. This one will probably be gone by tomorrow.  I did a big batch of dried bananas.  They had a bushel box (40 lbs) of organic bananas at our discount grocery for only 5$.  They are already all gone! The kids ate them on their cereal every morning and we made a couple batches of dehydrated bananas and poof - all eaten up.

 We are working on getting the basement storage organized.  I ran out of space for all my jars and many boxes were on the floor waiting for hubby to come up with a shelving solution.  The previous owners of our house left these big shelves. The spaces between were too big so hubby ordered 2 more shelves from u-line and tightened up the spacing.  He also turned them upside down so there would be a lip all the way around to keep the jars from sliding off the edge. Brilliant.  They are sturdy and each shelf holds about 75 jars.  I was able to move all my "big quantity" storage items up onto these shelves. Tomato sauce and stewed tomatoes on one shelf, grape juice on one shelf, salsa on one, more applesauce coming to fill that shelf, and then all the extras of those that didn't fit on the bottom shelf.  One shelf of empty jars... in case I need more shelving.
Now I just have all my soups and meats are on the other small set of shelves and jams and relishes on the wall shelves.  It finally fits!

 Awhile ago I did a big garage clean out and set-up some shelves out there for our cold storage and animal supplies.  I also decided to keep any unbound bales of straw or hay in this XL rubbermaid box so that the dogs would not lay in it and make a mess (spread it around the garage)... Umm. Yep. My dogs are too smart. Always surprising me with their problem solving.

I also decided to do a kind of "sewing advent" for December.  I never have time for sewing in garden season. Yet I have a big pile of knit fabric and patterns from my very kind SIL who shares her extras with me. The kids each picked out the ones that they wanted for various items of clothing. So far I made 9 pairs of leggings and 4 t-shirts. (Took this picture just before wrapping things! shhh).  Not quite up to date (13 done on the 15th), but a lot of progress. Yesterday, I cut out 4 more pants (boys this time), a couple knit dresses for L, and a sweatshirt for A. Hopefully I can catch up this week.