Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[baymule]

The smoke just adds the finishing touch. So get out there and smoke that bacon! Just consider it an outdoor sport and drag a fan to blow on you.

I had to chuckle about your not fun bus ride. I grew up with out AC, we had attic fans. I never had central heat/air until I left home and rented an apartment. Over the years, sometimes I lived in old houses and had no AC. I survived it. I could survive it now, but who the hell wants to? I went to school in Houston and never had AC in school. The high school I went to finally got AC the year after I graduated. I can remember sitting back in my desk/seat, sweat rolling off and my shirt sticking to the back of the wooden seat, the varnish all gummy from years of sweat soaked students.

SFA is a nice campus, Nacogdoches is a beautiful little town. Our daughter got her Master's degree at SFA. Actually she got 2 degrees, she figured out a few extra classes would give her another degree, so she went for it. At 22 years old, she had 2 Masters degrees. Now she is a professor at Tyler Junior College and is working on her PHD.

 

[NH Homesteader]

Bay what is your daughter a professor of? I always wanted to get my PhD but it would be solely for my own entertainment at this point, lol. I still might someday!

 

[Mini Horses]

Found some applewood chips in a small bag this weekend...like just a few pounds, ready to go!! Will look at work schedule and see "when" I'm home a couple days to concentrate on it. Then back off that date to prep/salt, etc. Getting salt today. Should have bacon, ohhhh, before winter.... I'll get it done. Probably have another bottle of homemade wine ready to sip by then.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I had a really good day - for no particular reason, lol! Not sure why I felt like doing anything after yesterday - but I did. I treated the dogs for fleas this morning. I'm using a new spray on flea treatment... hope it works. We don't seem to have a bunch of fleas, but I've seen the dogs scratch and upon closer inspection I've seen one or two on Cowboy. That big ol' dog does NOT like being sprayed.

I took advantage of a few minutes of cooler weather and grabbed the push mower and mowed a chicken pen. We had heavy clouds and a lot of rumbling from the sky today (and the temp dropped, at least temporarily, into the 80's) but no rain. But, it made it tolerable to push a mower for a few minutes anyway.

Got after some weeds along the fence line between the neighbor and me...very invasive very tough weeds and I'm almost ashamed to admit that I used roundup.... I hate it but the weedeater won't even get through it and every time I try to use the mower the belt starts slipping and I smell burning rubber. It's not worth ruining a blade or belt. Then I spent just a little while working on some weeds in the garden... didn't make a lot of progress.. ugh. After that I got another tomato plant covered with row cover material to try to keep the stinkin' stink bugs off of my 'mater plants.

Tomorrow will be the bacon smoking day. I rinsed it and set it back in the fridge with no cover or wrap so it can develop a dryer surface. For whatever reason "they" say that the drier surface absorbs the smoke flavor better. I remember doing that the last time too.

Went out and picked a bucket of figs when I thought it was gonna rain. Every time it rains the figs split and start rotting so I wanted to get some picked before any showers. There are two more trays in the dehydrator right now. Yay - I love those dried figs - but I'm eating 'em as fast as I get 'em dried.

Not sure what's on the agenda tomorrow (except for bacon smoking). DH is supposed to meet up with one of his motorcycle buddies for lunch and I've been invited...but... might back out at the last minute. Shhhh - don't tell DH!

 

[NH Homesteader]

Hope your bacon turns out delicious! We are taking the easy way out with our bacon. We have a friend who does bbq competitions who is amazing at smoking meats. We're going to trade him some pork in exchange for doing our bacon and making a few hams into pulled pork. Yay!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Bacon, bacon, bacon! Omg- best stuff I ever wrapped my mouth around!

 

[NH Homesteader]

 

[baymule]

Bay what is your daughter a professor of? I always wanted to get my PhD but it would be solely for my own entertainment at this point, lol. I still might someday!

She teaches media and journalism. The chair of the department just quit and she is up for the position.

 

[baymule]

Bacon, bacon, bacon! Omg- best stuff I ever wrapped my mouth around!

View attachment 3579

That bacon looks GOOD!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

It really is! I impressed myself, lol! The mix of spices is really good and the maple syrup gave it just a hint of maple flavor that is just stinkin' delish!

Tired this evening even though we didn't do a whole lot. Got the place mowed again...grass is growing like crazy these days and it really needs to be mowed every 4 - 5 days. I could darn near bale it if I wait a week in between trims.