Making Butter :O)

I was just in the kitchen making my weekly batch of fresh butter and thought it might be interesting to post the butter-making process on the blog. (What? You mean you're not interested??? Hmmm, better scroll down and read something else then.) :O)

So it all starts with fresh milk....yep, as Rachel puts it, "right outta the cow." :O) Let the milk set long enough for the cream to settle at the top...normally I just leave it in the fridge overnight. Then next morning, I skim the cream off the milk. Usually in the half gallon jug like you see in the picture below, there is about a 3-5 inch layer of cream...sometimes more, seldom less.

The above picture is what cream I got off of less than two gallons of milk. I let it set out on the kitchen counter for about 12 hours....it all depends on the the temperature. The warmer it is, the quicker it's ready. More often than not, I will skim the cream off the milk in the early morning, then it's typically ready by that evening after suppertime. You'll know it's ready when it's just a bit soured. You learn to judge when it's "ripe". :O)

When it's ready, make sure it's in a jar big enough that it's about half full. Put the lid on good and tight, find a comfortable chair, then shake, shake, shake. And then...shake some more. :O) It takes about 15 minutes (sometimes a little more). This is where the size of the jar comes in handy...you want enough shaking room so that the cream really sloshes hard against the jar. That's what makes the butter. At one point in the shaking process, it'll get a heavy feel to it while you're shaking. You're getting close then. :O) You'll know it's done when you see the butter floating on top.....here's a picture to show you what I mean.....

Scoop the butter out of the jar and plop it into a bowl. What's left in the jar is buttermilk and makes awful good biscuits and cornbread. :O) Put the buttermilk in the fridge and use it rather quickly because it doesn't seem to keep as long as store bought cultured buttermilk.

Here's a picture of the butter I just scooped out of the jar...

The next step is to turn on a steady trickle of cold water. Put the bowl under the water, scoop up the butter with your hands, and sorta knead the butter in your hands while holding it under the stream of water. What you're doing here is squishing all the milk out. Do this until the water runs clear. If you leave even a trace of milk in the butter, you'll have quite a nasty smelling and tasting butter in a few days. Been there, done that....once. Ew! So once the water is clear, you're finished and all that's left now is to squeeze the water out of the butter. At this point, you can salt it if you like...sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. The butter is good and soft at this point, so you can easily stir in salt with a spoon. Put your butter into a little bowl, dip a finger in and get a little taste. Nothing beats the taste of fresh, homemade, creamy butter. :O)
Oh, there is one final thing.....grab a hot, fluffy, right-out-of-the-oven homemade biscuit ....slather on some homemade preserves...smother it in a big ol' glob of your freshly made butter...keep a napkin handy...and oh my! Yum. Yum. :O)

By the way, I'm on the lookout for a butter churn. :O) Sometimes the shaking gets to be a little much if I have alot of butter to make. Anybody know where I can get one?

A Fall Tour

Can't make it to Tennessee to see the leaves this year? No problem! Sit back and relax...I'll take you on a tour. :O) (You can save on gas this way.)
Quite a few of the trees, mostly walnut (which you'll see in the foreground of the picture below) have already lost their leaves. The picture below was taken from on top of the hill behind the house. You'll notice the house as the tiny speck in the middle, near the bottom of the picture.

You can see how dry things still are here. :O(

Below is a view of the really old house on our property. From what we hear, it was originally used for sharecroppers. It's in pretty bad shape now. You can stand on the inside and look at the outside without using the window. :O) Get the picture?
Here's another tiny view picture of our house, in the bottom right corner.
We're setting out hay for the cows now, but they're just sorta picking at it because there is still some grass in the pasture. But it won't be there for very much longer...we've had some heavy frost that is sure to kill what grass is left.
And last but not least is a picture I think is pretty. It was taken at the bottom of the holler in front of the house. We have a trail that goes to the top and this is the beginning of that trail.
And so, that's the end of the tour. Wish you could all see the leaves in person...a picture rarely does the scenery full justice, but it's better than nothing. :O) I'll be back again soon! Y'all be good.

Finally. Batteries for my camera :)

The batteries in my camera have been dead as a doornail for a few weeks now and I have felt so lonely without it. I love taking pictures. My kids have felt quite liberated with no flash going off in their faces! BUT....today I got new batteries and I am ready to start clicking! :O) You can tell from the photos below...taken as soon as I got my batteries home...that they were thrilled beyond measure to have their camera-fiend mother back to normal! (Had it not already been dark outside, I'd have taken alot more pics...those will have to wait til tomorrow...the leaves are gorgeous!)
Poor Jacob...he's still petrified I'm going to show up at college one day to get a picture of him with his professor.

I was quite fortunate last week to get my hands on a bushel of pears from a friend. I've spent several days getting them worked up. Let's see, I have 15 jars of pear butter, 8 jars of pear preserves, and I-don't-know-how-many quarts of cooked pears for pies, dumplings, cobblers, or just eating. :O) They are sooo good. Below are the preserves (I did have 10 1/2 jars of preserves, but 2 1/2 got gone within just a few days)....
and the pear butter....
Now y'all be honest...I bet you've missed seeing pictures of my canning ventures, haven't ya? Go ahead...admit it. ;O)

Don't know what the weather is like wherever you are, but here we have suddenly exprienced winter. It's been c-c-c-cold! This morning we even had a few snow flurries and some sleet....no accumulation....just enough to make it feel even colder!

Anyway, no need for a big long post today. But rest assured, now that my camera is back in action, I'll be back soon with pictures! Tootaloo!

Happy Birthday!

Today is Matt's birthday! When he woke up this morning, he asked me what I was going to do for his birthday. I said, "Honey, I'm going to treat you to one hour of physical therapy!" After all, there's no better time to start physical therapy than on one's birthday, right?! :O) We'll have a bigger celebration this weekend.

Today's therapy was pretty much to get the preliminaries out of the way. We were hoping he'd only have to go to one or two sessions, and then do the rest of it at home. But, it looks like he'll be going twice a week for a little while anyway. They measured several things today....they measured the distance he could turn his head to the right and left (there was about a 10 degree difference), and they also measured the strength in his right and left arm...there was a huge difference there...almost half, in fact. His right arm is alot weaker than the left....all because of those herniated discs. They did a little bit of traction to see if it would ease the numbness and tingling in his arm....so far, it didn't. They gave him some exercises to do at home with a strict warning not to do more than they gave him. He goes back Friday for more therapy. We're hoping/praying it'll help.

I still don't have batteries for my camera so sorry, still no pics. I'm hoping to get some tomorrow. I've got to get fall pictures before the leaves all go away! We're still having very chilly mornings....down in the mid to high thirties with frost. The days are just beautiful and up in the 60s or so.

Hope to be back posting in a few days with some pictures. A blog can be rather boring without them, huh? :O) (Don't answer that!) See ya soon!

Doctors and Apples and Pears :O)

Matt's visit with the spine doctor went well yesterday. He was pleased to know that the injection had helped with the pain. He was not so pleased to see that the weakness/numbness in the arm and thumb were no better upon examination. He recommended that since the injection did lessen the pain, now would be a good time to try some physical therapy along with a prescription anti-inflammatory (meloxicam). He started the meds today and will begin therapy on Wednesday morning. He'll go back to the doctor in about 8 weeks (early December). The doctor said that by then, Matt will know if he's going to be able to just "live with it" or if it's time for surgery. Matt's feelings? "I ain't getting cut on until I just can't stand it anymore." :O) I agree. The doctor said that if he does have the surgery, it won't just be a cut and dried procedure where they go in and fix one disc. Because there are "multiple levels of problems, it would be a more complicated procedure." (translated longer recovery time and possible loss of neck movement) So we won't even think about that unless it just has to be. He's still able to work (praise the Lord!) but then again, because half the plant is still shut down, he's just not having to do alot of work at all. Business is so bad that they're even extending the shutdown, unexpectedly, for another week. Yay for Matt...bad for business. Still, we're thankful for a little extra downtime so these discs can hopefully have more time to heal.

We've been blessed with apples again! It's been a wonderfully cool and rainy day here so we've all been inside peeling apples. (and doing a little taste-testing too! They're yummy!) I'm making more cooked apples for the freezer. We were also given some pears, and as I write, I have some pear butter in the making. :O) Between the apples and the pears, my house smells wonderful! :O)

Wish I could post some pictures but the batteries are dead in my camera, so it'll have to wait til next time. So until then, y'all be good! :O)

Just a quick howdy-do!

Well, all is well at the Ferguson Farm and we hope things are fine with you too. :O) Matt is still feeling better, sleeping better, and hurting less....three things we are most grateful for. He still can't do as much with his right arm as he wants to, but perhaps with time....

Not much else new here. Still no rain. Below is a picture of our "pond"...I guess you can still call it that. It's really more like an algae puddle. :O) They're saying we might get rain Thursday and/or Friday. Sure hope so.
Oh, and we're sure enjoying big bunches of turnip greens lately. I've been stashing some away in the freezer too.
Lord willing, I'll be posting an update about Matt Thursday or Friday after his doctor's appointment. He says as long as he's feeling better, he's not going under the knife. :O) Can't say as I blame him. Soooo...that's all for now folks! Be back in a day or two!

Back at work!

Matt went back to work this past Tuesday. He has done better than I thought he would. He says he does hurt more at work, but things are slow now so he isn't terribly busy. Bad for business but good for him right now. Half of the plant will be closed for 10 days, starting today, so that'll make things even easier. It was a good time for him to try going back to work. Next week is his appointment, so I'm anxious to see what the doc says. Still has alot of weakness in that right arm.

Onto other news...we did get some rain this week. It rained slow and steady almost all day Wednesday. What a blessing that was! The ground just soaked it right up. Our front pond is SO low now, even the dogs are "catching fish"! Now THAT'S low! Not sure what the weather forecast holds but I hope it includes alot of water! :O) It seems the fall leaves are all of a sudden getting just beautiful! Reds, yellows, and oranges everywhere! I love this time of year! Hope to post pictures next time.

School is going great. We're taking a day off today! Yippee! (Yet another advantage of homeschool! You can plan your own schedule!) So with that in mind, I'm off to enjoy the weather, the beautiful scenery, and my good family. Wishing y'all well! Until next time...

We're Still Here!

Well, I haven't updated in a little while. I've sorta been waiting around to see what was going to happen with Matt before I blogged. But since things just seem to be sorta dragging along, I thought I'd just go ahead and blog anyway. :O) Matt had an epidural steroid injection this past Wednesday. He got some relief on Thursday morning...and it last until about Thursday afternoon or evening. Not exactly the results we wanted. Nonetheless, he is still going to "try" to go back to work next Tuesday...just to see if he can handle it. He'll be back at the doctor's office on the 17th of this month and we'll see what's what then. So that's the short version of where we stand with that situation.
Fall is definitely here in Tennessee. The leaves aren't really changing yet but it won't be long. We're certainly enjoying much cooler weather. We've been down in the high 30s two nights this week. This morning, we have a nice toasty fire in the woodstove. I love it! I'm definitely a fall/winter kind of gal. We've gotten no relief from the terribly dry conditions here though. The creek has been nothing but a dry creek bed for quite some time now. Even the old timers around here say they have never seen it dry for this long. Remember I told you we were having to pump water out of the front pond because the cow pond was dry? Well, now even the front pond is almost dried up. It's nothing more than a big puddle. So, Jacob is making trips to the river (which is just about 1/2 mile down the road) to get water. I sure am thankful for a big ol' 17 year old boy who doesn't mind a little work...especially since Matt's out of commission right now! Jacob's really been a huge help. With water supplies drying up, I feel sorry for all the wild animals. Last night we heard a bobcat...I'm sure all the animals are on the lookout for water. Have you ever heard a bobcat? To me, they sound just like a woman screaming! That can be a little unsettling at nights. :O)
Below are a few pics we took yesterday. You'll be able to tell how dry it is by looking at the pasture.




I'm looking forward to the first frost...our persimmon trees are loaded this year! I can't wait to make some persimmon butter.
We're still trucking right along with school. We're already about 9 weeks into the school year...halfway through the first semester! Yay! I've noticed this year that the kids (especially the girls) are much more independent with their work now. That's a good thing.
So I'll be back with an update soon. Y'all take care!