In my opinion, January and February are the worst two months of the year! I am anxiously awaiting winter to be over, but the snow continues to fall and fall and fall! Will it ever stop? It is not that I hate snow - because I don't. I get excited about big snows and snow days as much as any ten year old does!
It is just that spring is my favorite time of the year. As soon as the the new year begins, I am ready for winter to be over! I start looking for signs of spring. I love how it stays light longer in the evenings each day. I am excited to say that this past week, I found several signs that spring is just around the corner - and I'm not talking about the groundhog!!!
We had a day in southwestern PA last week that the sun actually shined! Carolyn and I went for a walk out the lane to get the mail. On the way back to our house, I walked along the side of my house where I have some of my flowerbeds. I was so thrilled to see that some of my perennials are popping up. My hyacinths, daffodils, and irises are starting to show their green heads!! I know that this is partially because these flowerbeds are right along the side of my house and my basement is not sealed all that well and makes that soil warm...but it still counts!
I also started to prepare for my garden and flowerbeds this week. I have three plastic bags laying beside the register in my dining room. I am waiting for my tomatoes, cucumbers, and snap dragon seeds to sprout. I am determined to have tomatoes and cucumbers early this year!! There is nothing better than a tomato or cucumber straight from the garden.
The last sign that spring is just around the corner started on Saturday. Butchering time has begun once again! I am sure that many of you are wondering what in the world I am talking about! In my family, we butcher our own pork and beef. We have for as long as I can remember. I can remember my uncle teasing my cousins and I when we were little about pinning a real pig tail to our rears!! Every Saturday for about a month, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, mom, dad, brothers, and sister gather in a little room in my grandparents' basement designated solely for butchering. The room consists of basically three counters, a grinder, and a meat saw.
Everyone has their own job. My grandfather and father run the saw, the other males and my sister (the only girl on that side of the room!) trim the meat, and the women package and label the meat. Someone has to run the grinder - it is usually a younger cousin. I can remember fighting over who got to run the grinder when I was little. We'd sit on the back of the grinder and push the chunks of meat to make either hamburger or sausage into it. It is definitely not as much fun now as it was then!
I won't say that butchering is fun...we stand in one spot on that hard concrete floor basically all day. It's cold and tiring. But, I still look forward to it each year. It is just good old-fashioned family time together. My uncles are usually picking on someone and there is also good food! My mom always has some sort of breakfast sweet when we first get there. My grandmother makes us a huge dinner (lunch) each week. Every year we can count on her homemade pizza one week and her amazing pancakes, homemade sausage, liver pudding (don't even ask about this!), and sweetbreads (cow pancreas) - they are actually really good - another week.
When the month of butchering is over, I have a freezer full of steaks, hamburger, roasts, steak-ums, pork chops, sugar-cured ham, ribs, sausage, and hot sausage links. I am so blessed to have good, healthy food in the freezer for my family. I know where my food comes from and I don't have to worry about preservatives, food recalls, or anything like that!
And, when we are finally done with the butchering, it's March and SPRING IS ALMOST HERE!!!
