No Ice...... but still can go fishing! :)

The weather has been unreal for the last couple of weeks. All of our snow has melted, all of the ice is gone and the weather was in the 50's yesterday so we went out and did a little fishing on the Missouri.

 

I think that Dane caught this right after Clint told him that there wouldn't be a fish there! :) First fish of the day!

 Then Clint hooked up with a nice brown!

 Kimber was more interested in the bait!

 Sweet moment!

 Kimber will always pose for a picture! :)

More meat! :)

We have literally been processing meat with Dane and Kimber since they were born... there were many days of wearing kiddos on our backs while grinding and stuffing meat. Days past, when Clint has told me that we were doing 75+ lbs of sausage, visions of long days kid wrangling and sausage making come to mind. Trying to keep kids happy, keep the process going, maintain a sanitary sausage making process, and keep the raw meat in the kitchen all made for a little bit of mama stress! :) But, I must admit that yesterday was actually awesome! Clint had it set up well and had everything on hand that we needed. The kids are finally old enough to contribute to the process, and it went remarkably smooth. Here are some pictures from the day.

Clint was cutting the meat into chunks and Dane is putting it through the grinder for the first grind.

 Then Kimber jumped in to take a turn! Daddy's girl for sure!

 First grind is done!

 Then we mix in the spices and put it through the grinder the second time. The kids are so great that they were able to help Clint stuff the casings while I kept grinding. Made the process so much faster!

 Kimber needs a little more leverage, so she actually gets to STAND on the kitchen table! Breaking all the rules! :)

 Then it's time to cut the sausages, bag them, and vacuum seal them. We actually finished at about 3:30 and were able to take the kids on a bike ride afterwards! :) What a great day; and now we have lots of delicious sausage to show for it!