So some other things happened in addition to the games.  This is a photo I took of a rainbow driving home from work just before they started.

On February 3, I decided to make some pemmican.  I had already made some venison jerky using a recipe from my dehydrator cookbook.

I searched for a while for a pemmican recipe.  There really aren’t recipes for it.  It is just dried meat, dried berries and rendered fat mixed together.  Some recipes mention nuts as well.  As a guide I used a recipe from first nations.org.  I used some of our blueberries that I dried and the beef tallow I had rendered. Here is the jerky and berries in the Cuisinart.

And with the melted tallow mixed in and pressed into a paper lined pan.

Because I used spiced jerky there is more flavor to it than tradition pemmican.  But I like it.  Tom won’t try it ,but Greg and Sue tried some at the Boles and said they liked it.

The poor croci are trying to bloom on February 11.  I tried to tell them to wait a bit.

Here are two of the cows on February 13.  They are liking their hay.

On February 14, we decided to look into the collapsed tomato hothouse.  I took the plastic off (the pile in the back of the photo), and you could really see the damage.  Fortunately, the collapse came at a seam between the hog panels.

Tom used the bucket of the tractor to push in the outward bulge and lift the center.  It is much better now.

The plan is to put posts in the middle at the seams to support it better.  But it does seem like it will be useable this year.  I was thinking we were going to have to build a whole new one.  Tom has been noticing collapsed hothouse in the area from the snows, including one of a friend of ours we call Idaho.  It is so sad to lose a structure you put so much work into and need to grow your food.

In other good news, the frostbit portions of Big Orange’s comb have mostly fallen off.  He looks much better now.

On February 15, I decided finally to make some turnip wine.  I had heard about this and have been fascinated with the idea.  Our turnips did not overwinter well in the ground, but our rutabagas did so I used them and this recipe.  Apparently this is a traditional British wine.  This is the cut up rutabagas and ginger about to be boiled.

And here it is in the bucket.  It is still fermenting well in the bucket ,and the plan is to rack it off on Wednesday.  We shall see how this turns out.

Meanwhile, Tom has been altering an old horse trailer.  Here he is cutting off the roof.

The next day he is hauling the roof away.  The plan is to try to make a field sheep shelter with it.

I had mentioned our abundance of eggs.  So on February 16 I made some pickled eggs.  I love pickled eggs!

Here is Tom the next day still working on the trailer.  He is welding sides, flooring and a back gate/ramp to make it a heavy duty utility/motorcycle trailer.  He is reusing almost all of the parts he has taken off of it.

Here are some of the sheep after I got off work Saturday morning.  It is raining, and they want in the barn.

You’ll remember I had a rough night and fell asleep on the couch.  Well, Tom made us a lovely dinner of Lentils and Spicy Sausage.  Even he liked it despite the lentils.

You will also recall that I took a stab at making Venison Bratwurst yesterday, the last day of the Olympics.  Here is the video of me doing the first coarse grind of the ingredients.

I do not have a sausage stuffer (a problem I will solve quickly) so I had to improvise.  I cut off the bottom of a plastic bottle and attached that to my grinder minus the plate.  It worked OK.

And here are the bratwursts.  They are varying sizes due to the learning curve with the janky stuffer.

Now they are hanging upstairs where it is relative cool.  Wednesday we will smoke them.  I will let you know if they turn out or not.  I did fry some leftovers for dinner yesterday, and they were good, just a little too salty for my taste.

Tom went to a gathering of his family to celebrate a very belated Christmas and his parents’ wedding anniversary.  I opted not to go, worrying about being immunocompromised with a large group of people indoors eating.  Tom said they were understanding.  I hope so, and I hate to have missed it.  But Tom participated in the White Elephant gift exchange and came home with a lava lamp.  Pretty cool!!!

Today I felt kind of lost without turning on the Olympics first thing upon waking up.  But I did wake up to snow.

You can actually see the strings on the front of the barn meant to scare away eagles.

Tom keeps working on his trailer.  It is really coming to together quickly.  I am so impressed with his ingenuity and skill.

So these are some of the things we accomplished on top of watching the games.  Today I cleaned and refilled the hot tub so at least we have an extra storage of clean water with the upcoming freeze.  And I made bath bombs.  Grilled halibut and salmon is for dinner.  Onward and upward.  Maybe there should be farming Olympics?