I may or may not be back over the festive season so in case I am not so I would like to wish everyone a safe and Merry Christmas how ever you choose to spend it.
Personally I have a big list of jobs for us to get done over the break (not that Hubby has any idea yet) so hope fully we will start the year with a few things ticked off the list.
We will also take some time out to be with family and friends and be thinking of those we will not see.
Today is the last Wednesday be for Christmas and is your last chance to join in with your own contribution to "A Home Made Christmas". I hope everything is on track at your place for a joyful and restful Christmas.
Until now I have blogged about a lot of different things you can make and give but this week it is all about how you give the gift.
A home made Christmas Stocking could be the perfect way.
I have made Christmas stockings a number of times as gifts for my husband, children of friends and family, and friends of mine too.
I just drew up my own pattern and made it using some Christmas fabric and ribbon. Christmas stockings can be made to any size and you can make them as simple or as complicated as you like.
This one was made for me by my mum when I was a child.
This is Hubby's one that I made for him
There are plenty of website out there for inspiration and patterns but here are just a few:
Christmas stockings are also great when it comes to presents for Santa. Depending on how big you make the stocking Santa can only leave gifts that fit inside it. This means Santa does not have to spend extra money buying enough to fill a pillowcase or Santa Sack and the bigger gifts can be given by Mums and Dads.
At our house Santa typically leaves things like chocolate, lollies, earrings (for me), CD's, Water Bombs (Hubby is a big fan of bombing people after a few drinks and here in QLD it is normally so hot no one cares)
socks and jocks and movie tickets. Basically anything that can fit.
Things have been busy here, really busy. I had my work Christmas Party, we had a birthday lunch a few days in Brisbane catching up with friends and the general bustle that is the festive season.
We have also taken the next step in our farming journey and gone through the process of having Freezer 1 (that is the name of one of our cows the other is called Freezer 2. This way we remember that they are not pets) killed and butchered for our use.
We have had some fun learning to be farmers and dealing with our 2 cows which you can read about here. But for the most part they ate the grass in the paddock and other than making sure they had grass, hay, water and mineral supplements we have not done anything else to interfere with them being cows. They were cows and we watched them being cows.
Before you read further I will warn you that there are photos of a dead cow (it is a distance photo so not gory) and the carcass as it was processed. I will also be talking about the process. If this is not for you pop back tomorrow for the last installment of A Home Made Christmas.
Freezer 1 spent the morning eating grass and doing what cows do. This was what she was doing when she died. She did not even get up. The guy who did our home kill shot her from his car so she had no stress before she died. If we had sent her away to be processed she would have been rounded into a pen. loaded on a truck, driven to an abattoir, unloaded with other animals and sent into a noisy factory to meet her fate. For us having it all done at home was the best option.
Her last morning spent eating grass.
Once she was dead the butcher proceeded to remove the feet and hide. We decided not to keep the hide as we were not sure we had the time or inclination to process it, or if we would be able to take it to NZ when we move.
Freezer 1 upside down feet removed and the butcher beginning to remove the hide.
Once the hide had been removed from the belly and legs the carcass was strung up and hoisted into the air. At this stage the hide was pulled off the carcass entirely and the head and innards were removed. We we were left with what your local butcher would buy in to cut into all the different cuts of meat you see in the shop. I also requested the tongue and the inner and outer cheeks before the head was discarded. I am not sure about tongue but I am sure there are some good recipes out there. If you have one let me know.
The carcass was divided in half and then into quarters and then hung in the cool room that the butcher left with us for 5 days.
Cut in half
Hoisting them higher so they can be swung into the back of the cool room.
In go the 4 pieces
Freezer 1 weighed in at 232 kg which is the dressed carcass as you see above.
Five days later the butcher cam back to cut it into all of the portions we wanted. As he cut it up I took it inside and used our cryovac machine to pack it all and put it in the freezer. We asked to keep all of the bones and kept a lot for our selves for Jessie and to make stock with, and we gave some to our neighbors.
The butcher charges $1.75 kg plus $25 to get rid of the intestines, head and hide. It is a lot of meat to get through so the family will be getting some too. The butcher made us our sausages, mince rolled roasts and corned meats all on the spot too so we have a good variety in the freezer.
We have sampled some sausages and steak so far and both were a hit. Over the Christmas break I want to do a cost comparison to take into account the cost of the cow and any hay purchased etc to see what the real cost is.
Overall we are happy with how things went and are looking forward to some eye fillet over Christmas.
Each Wednesday from now until Christmas I will be blogging about a gift idea that can be made at home and I would love it if you would join in each week with your own contribution to "A Home Made Christmas".
I am sure that there are great projects to make, goodies to make, bake and bottle and ideas that you all have to share. I look forward to reading all about the things you make and being inspired by your ideas.
If you are worried about ruining the surprise feel free to post about something you have made in the past, something you saw or something you have received.
When planning home made gifts you need to consider a number of things:
How long the item will take to make? How far ahead do I need to plan?
How long will it keep? What is the shelf life?
Does it need time to mature like Christmas Cakes/Puddings?
Can I make more than one at a time and give them to a number of people?
This week I want to show you some easy but somewhat time consuming decorations I have been making. I like the idea of making decorations as gifts. These are not something to start now unless you have free time on your hands. They take a little while but no more than other craft projects and I think they look great.
These decorations are polystyrene shapes that I have painted in a similar colour to the sequins I used to cover them. After the paint has dried you need to have 5 things ready, 3 small dishes (I use saucers) one with pins, one with beads and one with sequins, PVA glue and a piece of ribbon that will form the loop at the top.
The method is simple. You add PVA glue to a small area then take a pin, thread on a bead followed by a sequin and push it into the polystyrene shape. You repeat this until all of the shape is covered except the top section where your ribbon will go. When you attach the ribbon you fold it so the cut end point to either side of the attachment point. You can then use the sequins to hide where it is attached and attach it at the same time by putting one threaded pin through each side and work out from there.
Your colour choice is up to you but the pins come in a brass and nickel and I find the 13 mm the best size to use.
Over the weekend we spent some quality time with a good friend who came to stay.
As often happens with good company there was also good food and good wine too.
Lunch was a grazing platter with sourdough ciabatta, tomato and basil bruchetta, home made feta olives, dukka, dips and soft cheeses. Sort of a European/Middle Eastern ploughman's.
A fair few beverages had been consumed but since we hadd been grazing all afternoon we did not need anything substantial for dinner so I decided on sushi. I had some salmon on hand and added capsicum carrot, cucumber and avocado.
It turned out quite a few more beverages had been consumed than I thought as there was soon a wasabi eating competition happening.
No that is not avocado.
There were no tears but the eyes were watering.
Our friend T, I am sure there should be steam coming out those ears.
Yes Hubby, it was a silly idea!
Thankfully they felt they had proven their manhood enough after just one round and they left the rest of the wasabi for the sushi.
It seems that no matter how old they get (these two and 40 and 37) they still like to behave like teenagers.
The day lilies our neighbour gave us are flowering...
The calendular I grew from seed is flowering...
Stattice putting on a good show in a range of blues...
The pomegranate is putting on a good show, maybe this year I will get fruit...
These are pomegranate flowers, aren't they lovely. I think I would grow one even if it did not produce fruit.
Of the nastutuims I planted this one turned our red, I didn't know they came in red so this was a nice surprise.
This is our datura bush and it has been flowering for the last 2 months. But this week something strange and mysterious happened...
The flowers came out creamy/limey/white. Until now it has only ever had peach coloured flowers. And since this was given to us by our old neighbour as a cutting from her tree we know that the parent plant also had peach coloured flowers.
Any ideas on why this might happen?
NB: As of 09/12 the have now turned peach. I guess we have not been very observant in the past. It could also be that we have a mass of flowers all opened at once. I prefer the latter.
Each Wednesday from now until Christmas I will be blogging about a gift idea that can be made at home and I would love it if you would join in each week with your own contribution to "A Home Made Christmas".
I am sure that there are great projects to make, goodies to make, bake and bottle and ideas that you all have to share. I look forward to reading all about the things you make and being inspired by your ideas.
If you are worried about ruining the surprise feel free to post about something you have made in the past, something you saw or something you have received.
When planning home made gifts you need to consider a number of things:
How long the item will take to make? How far ahead do I need to plan?
How long will it keep? What is the shelf life?
Does it need time to mature like Christmas Cakes/Puddings?
Can I make more than one at a time and give them to a number of people?
This week I want to talk about giving your time and skills.
And so that you can hand something over on the day you can make up vouchers either on your computer or by hand. Staple a few together or pop them in an envelope and your gift is ready to go
So what will your voucher be for? Well think of what skills you have and the things your could do for your friends and family that would be of benefit to them.
Do something for someone who cannot do it themselves. Some examples are cleaning windows or the outside of the house for an elderly person. Clean out their gutters or offer to mow their lawn once a month for the coming year
For parents you can offer to babysit or have their kids stay over at your house for a weekend so their parents can have a holiday at home.
Share your skills.
If you are a good sewer offer up some of your time to give sewing lessons.
You could teach a teenager to cook a meal a month and send them off with the recipe so that when they move out in the future they have a few good meals up their sleeve.
If you have the patience you could offer to give driving lessons, or if you are mechanically minded teach someone to change a car tyre or the oil in their car.
Maybe you are a wizz on the computer. Do you know an older person who would like to learn some basic computer skills.
Do you have a farm with animals? You could collect up bags of animal manure to give to a keen gardener who would otherwise be buying manure for their garden. Offer to provide them with with a bag a month for the rest of the year.
Do you give a good massage or manicure?
For some people the gift of you time may be all they want perhaps you could offer too do share an experience that you do not really enjoy and would normally avoid (fishing/golf with your husband/son/brother). Just think how special it will make them feel to know that you are happy to put their likes before your own.
Think
about what you are good at and who could benefit from your skills.
What other skills can you think of that would make good gifts to give?
Things around the garden are chugging along quite nicely and Since this is a busy week for me the next few posts will be picture heavy.
Today is all about the edibles.
The Queensland Blue pumpkins are taking off across the lawn...
Raspberries that were planted at the start of the year are fruiting but the main crop will come in autumn.
Figs mmmmmmmm fruit of the gods, now I just have to keep the leaf eating caterpillars off. Any suggestions?
The tomatoes are coming along nicely.....
Hopefully I have provided enough support for my tomatoes...
The rampant cherry tomato patch which grows like a patch of weeds but will provide us with tomatoes daily...
We have been harvesting the first of the cucumbers...
And there are a few button squash, but these will have to go soon as they are too susceptible to powdery mildew.
And the Italian Fryers Peppers are just waiting to ripen...
We have more bananas coming along...
And even the turmeric is making an appearance.
Mmm there is more happening than I thought. What's happening in your garden?
