Smokin'

This weekend was days off for Dave so we had to get our sausage processing and smoking completed. In total we processed around 300 pounds of meat. Dave started Saturday morning solo while I was running our garage sale for the second weekend in a row. 

This year we were able to afford to pitch in with Dave's parents on a 1.5 HP grinder which was such a much faster and easier way to process in comparison to the hand grinder we used last year. Pretty sure if we didn't have it we would have been grinding meat for two days! 

This was just ground and stuffed into 1 or 1.5 pound chubs. That is Dave's
icehole cooler he loves. We prefer that brand over the Yeti's or any others because
the space inside the cooler is actually what they advertise.

Pork anyone? Thanks to Dan's Processing here in Alice.

The boys grinding while the girls were garage selling.
The house we live in has this great enclosed patio that we always use. 

This is the Digger recipe. We made three different seasoning types this year.
Digger was Pop's recipe, we made Herschaps, and a spicy garlic. 

Our little smoke house that Dave built last year to keep in our backyard.
Once we move to Orange Grove we will have a bigger one. 

Saturday night Kai came to help us stuff the last two batches.

Trying out the breakfast sausage recipe....AWESOME! Dave took my advice
and backed off the sage this year and it is amazing!

After Sunday morning breakfast we thanked the Lord for his resources and being
able to smoked another two batches of sausage. Dave and I hung meat in the rain but we had
to get it in there. 

Even though we didn't have a guaranteed place to hunt this year we managed to get by with the help of friends and family. We are truly blessed to be able to put as much meat in our freezer as we have this weekend. IT is gonna be a long day for Dave as later tonight he still has to wrap the two batches in the smoker and smoke the salami.....our first time trying it so hoping it comes out pretty good!