So I finally realized why I haven't been blogging... I mean, aside from having to work dawn to dark running a farm, homeschooling my children, keeping the house clean and creating nutritious gourmet meals each night. I mean aside from all that, I realized that it all came crashing down a couple months ago when I overheard John telling someone how funny my blogs are... wow. Seriously. That is a lot of pressure. I can't just be funny on demand ya know and so now and I feel all this pressure. to be funny. Ugh.
Well, after much reflection, I have decided to free myself from the pressure to write amusing and interesting blogs and just say what's on my mind. No more funny - anything funny from here on out is completely unintentional. Whew! Now that I have that off my chest, I will now blog with no pressure.
So recently we've been listening to some of Joel Salatin's Vision Quest talks (that my very excellent friend Jo gave me) and he is WonderFUL!!! Shame on you if you don't know who he is - just the godfather of all pasture based farming...duh. And naturally my kids are listening as well and absorbing every word. Like sponges. And much of his talk is about his trials with government regulators and all the obstacles he faced as the forerunner of the local food movement etc.
NOW my very crazy/funny/weird son plays Health Department Raid with his legos - see the scene I came upon when I walked into my kitchen the other day.

Ian's big goal in life is to become a lawyer so that he can defend farmers and sue McDonalds and Tyson. John and I can't decide whether to be proud or afraid for this child's future. Scary.

The other night I made roast chicken with butternut squash, mushrooms and garlic. Delish. I'll post the recipe on the website. By the way... this is a Freedom Ranger which is an absolutely wonderful bird. Yum. I love fall root veggies and gourds. And mushrooms and garlic... OK I never met a food I didn't like...except lima beans...yuck. Maybe if I put some in the garden I'll be forced to love them. Or the pigs will :)

Look what The World is Coming to an End Soon Santa brought me! A dehydrator!!! A BIG ONE!!! I asked for a dehydrator for Christmas but I was thinking the little Ronco model that holds like 10 grapes or something... not this "Store Enough Food for the End Times" model that I unwrapped on Christmas morning. Gracious! Needless to say, in the past few days all of the food has disappeared from my fridge and is now in vacuum bags in the pantry awaiting the next armageddon. I'm having an absolute ball dehydrating food but do you know how many apples I have to slice, peel and core to fill 12 shelves? I'm exhausted! Ya know... some women get jewelry for Christmas. Suckers.

So I threw everything I could find into the dehydrator and ... oh good god... is that avocado on the second shelf up? Yup. Dehydrates about the same as slices of butter. Don't do that. It doesn't work. Darn. Pigs liked it.

Apples, pears, carrots, tomatoes, oranges - oh my. Next nuclear winter comes, party at my house.