Polar Vortex

Mick (and me, vicariously) enjoyed a snow day (technically a too-cold-to-set-foot-outside day) as the polar vortex dramatically swept through last week.

 

 

Fried fish!

 

 

Gerard found a cozy hideout, as usual.

 

Our star candle made a dramatic statement about the whole affair.

 

I really do love the view from our porch!

Old Christmas

Happy Old Christmas!

 

Seems that until a few hundred years ago, the Julian calendar was in vogue.  The Julian calendar was tied to the cycle of the sun, but it overestimated the length of the year so that by the sixteenth century, the calendar was ten days off from the sun.  History credits Pope Gregory XIII with what I consider to be a fairly ingenious solution that adjusted the length of the year, added leap year every four years (except for three out of four century years), and skipped the missing 10 days.  The Gregorian calendar of 1582 is apparently so accurate that it is off by only three days over 10,000 years!

 

Well, the English certainly weren't going to let the Pope tell them what to do! and while much of Europe adopted the Gregorian calendar shortly after it was introduced, England held out until the middle of the eighteenth century.  By the time the British government finally adopted the Gregorian calendar, the British people "lost" eleven days.  (Apparently this caused some confusion and suspicion amongst citizens who suspected the government was robbing them of eleven days.)  A tradition developed in England that has persisted to the present of celebrating Christmas on December 25 according to the Gregorian calendar, and celebrating old Christmas on January 6, the Gregorian equivalent of the date that Christmas would have been celebrated according to the Julian calendar.

 

 

What does this have to do with us?  Well, we find it a terribly convenient excuse to extend our Christmas celebration, and have incorporated Old Christmas, Old New Year's, and Old Twelfth Night into our winter traditions!  This year, we celebrated Old Christmas Eve and Old Christmas on the nearest weekend (January 4 and 5).

 

 

Christmas Eve included egg nog.

 

 

And chasing the turkeys off the porch.

 

We notice very little variety in Gerard's celebration of the various holidays.

 

We finally got to have that fish soup we had wanted for Christmas Eve!

 

Mick cooked the fish with cream sauce and herbs and (of course) butter.  It was exceptional!

 

Not a bad view!

 

Old Christmas morning we picked up some sausage, ham, and bacon.

 

 

It didn't take our new girls too long to make themselves at home. We plan to breed one of them with our Guinea boar and see what results. They are all Duroc-Tamworth cross.

 

 

The turkeys took advantage of the open truck bed while we were situating the piglets.

 

 

Once we were satisfied that the animals were appropriately settled, we returned inside for old Christmas.

 

 

I found that Gerard had changed up his holiday activities a little, possibly hoping to catch some of the excitement outside.

 

 

Happy Old Christmas! :)

The Evolution of a Ham

November 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

January 2014 

(We actually waited the "proper" amount of time before indulging.)

After being smoked, Mickey stored the ham in ash to help preserve it, so the ash needed to be scrubbed off.

It won't fit in the pot!

 We never understood the concept of boiling hams, until Mickey made traditional-style hams -- dry and salty.  He boiled the ham for some time with various herbs. 

Then transferred the meat to a roaster, with a glaze, to finish in the oven.

A delicious success!

Snow Days!

Three days into 2014, the Cincinnatus superintendent tops Sarah's list for Person of the Year: two snow days in a row!  While Gerard didn't seem to notice, we humans enjoyed the extra time together.

While Sarah was at work, Mick did some school planning, heading up to the loft when he needed a break. 

Screwing down the last piece of loft flooring!

Flooring in the home - DONE!!!

 Gerard especially likes the piano in the loft (which Mick and some friends moved a few weeks ago). 

We love the floor (pre-finished oak).

And we now have such a lovely extra space to enjoy!

We can vouch that it is a great location for a movie night.

Indoor work done, Mickey and I went for a walk.

Emptying the contents of our mailbox.

We also took a planning walk through the area we are designing as the secret garden.

  

I am especially grateful on days like this for such a warm and cozy home!

 

Maybelle and the sheep, on the other hand, neglect their cozy home and don't seem to notice the snow at all. 

The goats, however, won't leave the shelter for anything!

Really, they don't budge until they're SURE it's suppertime.

Did someone say suppertime?! said Agnes.

Franklin persevered through the snow to proudly display his stuff. 

 

 

...not like Abigail noticed.

 

They teamed up, though, when it was time to raid the porch. 

Rebecca, Amos, and Susie emerged from their shelters about the time they suspected ought to be suppertime.

Mickey plowed the driveway.

 

Franklin wasn't sure what to make of the noise from the Kubota and waged a bit of a "gobble-war" with it. 

Clove took refuge under the solar panel until it was time to head home for the evening.

A cozy coop for the fowl.

Here's to Snow Days!