skimming off the cream . . .

This dial-up has got to go. I just took a small nap while my picture was loading!

Update on some things around the Fout home.

Thanksgiving was a wonderful time spent with family and friends. My brother, sister, and mother came over for our very first Thanksgiving together.

We looked at a house again today. Everything was going well, the house was FULL of character, outbuildings, creek, woods, and it was even snowing making our visit seem unbelievable. When we left I decided to drive down the road opposite the way I came as is my usual habit. You know, look around the neighborhood a bit. Low and behold, a turkey COMPLEX right in the back yard! Of course, not really right in the back yard, but close enough that each spring and summer we would be up to our ears in FACTORY FARM FRESHNESS. And then on a positive note, a home we looked at a few months ago has drastically come down in price. It's an Amish home that needs work . . .bathrooms, plumbing, electricity . . .but is sitting on 21 acres and is in the most beautiful surroundings possible. I am hoping to go see it again now that there is snow on the ground.

The picture above is of a weekly ritual now, the transferring of milk from the container to gallon jars for the refrigerator. Each week we pick up 10 gallons from a Amish family farm. We bring it home, along with twelve dozen eggs, and sometimes other items, and start the process of skimming off some cream for our coffee, and then filling the jars to be stored. The nice part about the weather being cold is that we can use our mudroom as a refrigerator. We can set the milk, or any other item that needs to be chilled, out in the room without any worry of it spoiling. When working with the milk I have developed an efficient system. I dip a half gallon jar into the container and then strain the milk into gallon jars. I think it is God's way of preparing me for when we get our own cow.

And can you notice the small green shell on the table? That was the shell from my first and only shot at a deer this morning. Several of us when out hunting and there was only one deer seen, and one bullet shot. It was my first time hunting and my first time shooting at an animal. Kind-of exciting I might add. A year or two ago I would have never believed I would have been doing this. :)