Insulation and frost

Some frosty mornings have let us see a bit of the effect of the insulation in the roof. It isn't really clear in the photo, but you can see that the top left corner is not frosty and the rest of the roof is. That corner is the only bit waiting to be insulate!

You can also see on the extension roof that the frost has melted on the bit in the shade against the house. The fire is against that wall inside, so presumably it gets quite warm.

Rug has gone to the abattoir

You can see him here resting his head on his mum's back. She is called Mrs Suffolk as she is some kind of Suffolk cross. Her horn was broken when she came to us. He is called rug because he is the first white male lamb we have had and we are hoping to make a nice white rug from his skin!

We are looking forward to roast lamb on Friday. 

The pigs are booked in for the 1st week in February. V exciting!

Happy New Year!

Ok not the best photo, but an amazing Christmas present which is making the cold weather bearable, and it seemed kind of festive. Doug has one in blue, how sad are we :)

Skiing

Since it snowed it has been lovely skiing up at La Mongie. The depth of snow isn't amazing, but considering it comes from two falls it is not bad. It has been very cold which has kept it nice and fresh too.
We have been up every day this week. On our own and with various other people. We are going up again tomorrow at the crack of dawn (on the 1st of January!)

Change in the weather

As you can see from my Christmas message it was really sunny and lovely over Christmas. More like summer than the end of December. Boxing day was not as bad in the uk, but Saturday we had the same storm as the UK had come through and then it got reeeaaaaallly cold -5 or -6 maybe. Bit horrible while it is raining, but we were comforted by the fact that that meant lots of snow in the ski area!

Merry Christmas!

As usual we have been rubbish, and not sent Christmas cards. I was so close this year, but then didn't quite make it! At least this year we have the excuse of being busy with me working. Not a very good excuse I admit.

We tried to get Poppy to model for a Chirtmas photo, but she wasn't keen...

Anyway, sorry for not sending a card and we wish you all A Merry Christmas!

Holiday!

I have two weeks off work. Obviously I love work (thanks for giving me a job Mr Boss and getting me out of having to lay concrete!) but it is nice to spend a longer chunk of time at home too. We have lots of things we want to do including doing some skiing. 

Today we had a very useful day

I iced the Christmas cake - not sure quite how it will come out as I used some caster sugar not just icing sugar in the royal icing and not sure it was a good idea! It is a bit granually still. I have made mayonaise from the egg yolks too, to go with potatoes for dinner. Both icing and mayonaise were easier this year with the kitchen aid.

Boiled up two small pigs heads (our friend just took them to th abattoir and couldn't face processing th heads along with everything else) to make pork pies -

and pulled all the meat and some of the skin (the dog will eat the rest - which is bits with hair still on, eye lids, eyes etc) off and put it in the fridge to be minced up tomorrow.

They also gave us the guts so I made liver pate and I have put the rest in to the haggis mentioned below.

Rendered some pork fat (it will be white when cool). We are going to make soap with it. I have just ordered the caustic soda. One day we will try making our own (it is also called lye) from the wood ash from the fire, but for the first attempt we thought we would use something with a known strength.

Took some wet cured pork (the leg has been in the freezer for nearly 2 years) out of the giant pot it has been in for the last week with the brine solution and shrink wrapped most of it and put it back in the freezer. We kept one bit out to eat sometime this holiday. It is pretty huge but I am sure we can get through it somehow. Each leg weighed in the region o 10kgs. Two of them we dry cured in to ham (we still have some of one left) one was cut up in to quite small joints by the butcher and this final one I boned most of it and cut it in to five joints to wet cure and have as roast ham.

Brought a load of wood over from the wood pile to the end of the house in the trailer. Doug did an impressive job of driving the Navara, it is tricky over to the wood pile, and even more so with the trailer.

Wormed the pigs and the cows.

As well as the normal things of feeding all the animals and pickig something from th garden for dinner - kale to have with pork chips and boiled potatos

I have also started making a batch of haggis by putting various bits of entrails in a pan on the fire to boil away all evening. Finishing that off and actually making the pork pies from the boiled up pigs head is a job for another day, along with processing some plums I have just taken out of the freezer too. I think plum jelly. 

The reason for al lot of this activity is that we are trying to empty the freezers a bit so we can fit this years pigs in sometime soon. Perhaps February.