Smoked Turkey Thanksgiving #2

We have been packing and moving the last few weeks and are now settled in at the In-Laws(Tabs Side). Long story short it was a pain!

I have been wanting to cook a turkey since I never have and i figured there was no reason to only have the Thanksgiving meal once. We don't get any leftovers from thanksgiving since we go to someone elses house. I went to the store on Saturday and they had their large birds half off. So I bought a 24.5 lb bird for $9.68. Once I got home I realized that a bird that big cooked on the smoker would stay in the 40 - 140 danger zone too long. So I cut the bird up and smoked it that way. I was just so tired of getting dry baked turkeys all my life that I had to find a better way. It cooked quicker than I expected(I usually just smoke ribs and butts). The breast turned out pretty good. They were a little too smokey but with gravy on them were perfect. All very tender and moist. The legs were okay. I think i should have left them on a little longer. The skin felt crispy but was more like leather to chew. It was still way better than a baked turkey. Next time I will use less smoke and a little higher temperature. I left for church after I put it on so it didn't get as much attention as it might have needed while cooking.

House Update

Well nothing has really happened on the house building part. We are kinda stuck in the permit application phase. We are working with the builder to finalize the contract and that's not easy when you want as many things as we want yet have already maxed out the budget. We will find a way though. Hopefully everything except the building permit will get completed this week and we will just have that to wait on.

We have started packing since we have to be out of our house by the 28th of this month and it is not fun! We also have to find arrangements to keep the dogs and chickens in while we are living with Tab's parents. They are coming with us but I have to make sure whatever they stay in is temporary and yet still secure enough. With Thanksgiving coming up and hunting season being in full swing it should be a busy few weeks.

This is a veiw down the road that cuts through our property. It is an easement for the few people that live on this road. Our property is on the left side of this road.

We Sold our House!

Well we thought we sold our house in the spring and then after the bank drug the process out as long as possible they denied the buyers at the last minute. Then a few weeks later the same buyers found approval from a different lender and everything went through just fine. We have to be out by 11/28 and then we will live with family until our house is complete sometime in the spring. I meet with the lot clearer this past Saturday and we walked off the area that will be cleared as well as the driveway. I can't wait to see what it will look like after it is cleared. I doubt any of that will start for about a month.

Roostie Is GONE!

After many debates and weeks on Craigslist I finally found someone to take Roostie. He had gotten to the point that whenever I went around the coop he would puff up and try to attack me through the wire. The coop is much more peace full now and the hens don't really seem to care that he is gone. Maybe in the spring I will add a new rooster to the flock. We also plan on doing some meat birds next year!

Not sure why we haven't been posting. We will have to make some update post on our Apple orchard Trip, applesauce, apple cider and apple butter making.

Irene

It's been busy around here with all the earthquakes and the Hurricane. Last weekend we had Hurricane Irene come through. A lot of the local forecasters were forecasting that it would stay well east of us or that the wind would not be significant. There was even a local NBC forecaster who was saying we wouldn't even get any rain. They were way off. If you were around for Isabelle it was pretty much the same thing. There was a lot of rain and a LOT of wind with gust over 70 mph. There were tons of trees down all over the Richmond area. We actually got it worse in Richmond than they did in the Virginia Beach area.
There are about 9 oak trees in our back yard and 4 of them are close to the house and HUGE. I didn't expect anything to happen to them because they are close to each other and I figured the roots probably are intertwined. There are some dead branches though on some of the other trees and I was actually hoping they would blow down. Well absolutely nothing blew down in our yard. Nothing but little twigs and leaves. I guess we were lucky because some of our neighbors had it much worse. One house had a tree fall right through the middle of it. Tabs Grandfather down the street from us had a big oak fall on his house. At least he had moved his cars because that tree fell right across his driveway where he normally parks before it hit his house. Across the street from us there was another big tree that fell right across the power line and kept us without power for 5 days.

 Probably not the smartest thing I've ever done but water was running into his house so I went over in the middle of the storm and helped cut the tree.

 this is were his cars normally are

 This guy made a bad decision. I went around another way to get home.

I had hoped to make a little extra money after the storm by cutting up trees but the neighbors had so many trees down that I have spent the last week cutting their trees and hauling the wood to our future home site. We should have enough firewood now to easily get us though next winter. I haven't has a wood stove since I lived in my parents house and I have no idea how much wood we will need but I am very confident we have enough. I took 4 loads down from the storm and I already had a huge pile from clearing for the food plot.  That's not counting all the trees I will go around and cut up this winter that are down on our property from the storm. Now I just need to build one of those awesome wood sheds like they have over at Against the Grain ( http://againstthegrainhomestead.blogspot.com/2011/06/okay-wind-is-in-my-favor-today.html )

Earthquake in Virginia?!? WHAT!

If you haven't heard it all over the news, Virginia experienced the largest earthquake since 1897 on Tuesday! Not only was it the first earthquake I have ever felt, but it had to be the scariest thing that's ever happened to me. I have to say it is a very uneasy feeling to have the ground you stand on be unsteady, not to mention unexpected.

I had the pleasure of being at work when it happened. I was talking to my mother on the phone and It was weird because at the same time we both told each other we had to go. ( Of course neither one of us knew we were going through the same thing at the time) The first thought that came to my mind was that my building was about to be hit by an airplane because of the rumbling sound and the fact that I work fairly close to an airport!

After struggling to stand on this now moving surface I made it outside clear of any potential hazards and it was seriously like the world had stopped. People filed out of there offices, everyone still confused and not really believing what was going on. Some people were even yelling to me wanting confirmation that we were having an earthquake. Finally after being shaken up for what seemed like an eternity it was over and because my husband and I work together I knew he was ok, so the first thing that came to my mind was my mom!

Of course when I went to call her I got a busy signal and then just silence. Since my computer was already up I saw were people were posting there phones were out, so it made me feel a little better knowing more of what was going on. Some phone companies were out, but a majority of the reason the phones weren't working was because everyone was trying to use there phones at the same time.

Thankfully after the longest ten minutes of my life I was able to get a hold of my mom and she was fine. In the end the magnitude of the earthquake was 5.8 and there have been a few aftershocks within the past couple of days. One even reached a magnitude of 4.2 , but thankfully we don't live that close to the epicenter to have been able to feel those. Now that the earthquake stuff is over we are preparing for the hurricane that's supposed to hit this weekend!!

It's time to hunt

I just realized that we haven't posted anything in a while so here is why. It's time to hunt! I have been busy putting the final touches on our first Food Plot. I have also been checking and resetting trail cameras. I havnt seen any bucks yet but I'm happy just know there are deer around.

Here is a look at our food plot.

We ran over it a few more times with the rake after this picture so it looks a little better than this. We have limed, fertilized and seeded. Now we just need some rain!