Opening Day

Today was the opening day of gun season for Whitetail Deer here in Ohio.  This morning at a quarter 'til five my grandpa, a couple of his old buddies and myself headed south to Knox County.  We've got a family friend down there with a farm that my grandpa has been hunting for years.  For the past few years I've made the day trip with the guys to try my luck in the deer stand too.  I've not done so well.....until today.  The only deer that crossed any of our paths today ran right into our lap.  After a few shots and a little help from my grandpa that doe was soon in the back of the truck and on her way to the butcher.  Wednesday I go pick up the meat and add it to the other treasures in our deep freezer.  Most of the rest of the week calls for rain, so today was likely the best day to be spending in a tree stand all day.  The cost of a deer tag and meat processing ran me around a hundred bucks.  For about $100 I got some meat in the ice box and some priceless memories with my grandpa.  Not a bad deal.

Charlie Brown Christmas

Go Buckeyes!!!!

Anything productive I intend on getting done today will have to be done before noon or more likely, tonight after the Bucks stomp the Wolverines.  Animals need fed, and I'm going to make some tailgate foods for the game so this morning won't be overly productive either. Oh well.  I'm making chicken wings (that came from our birds) and I'll likely make up some pizza and maybe some chili too.  Maybe we'll call Frank and Mandy to come too.  Frank is a Michigan fan and will likely need consoled after it's all over. I'll be here for him, that's what friends are for.  Tate asked if I could make some homemade bread with dipping oil too. i think i will do that too.

The other night i went to Wal-Mart at midnight to get a Christmas item that cannot be named.  Imagine so many people in that store that you couldn't walk....now give them all carts.  EEEK!!!!!  I was like a mercenary hired for a job and sent into that war zone alone.  I went straight after the item I was hired to get and got back out of there unscathed.  Back home by 1:30 AM.  So now that Top Secret item is hidden somewhere here on our property.  The point of all of this is that I  realized how much I dislike going out into all of that garbage.  I'm not for that.  I'm learning more and more how much of a homebody I really am.  It's funny for me to think back to when I was about fourteen and I wrote an essay once about "Who Will I Be When I'm Thirty?"  In that essay we were to describe what kind of job we would have and where we would live, what we would drive, etc.  I wanted to be rich, I think every young boy thinks he's going to be rich someday, and I wanted to drive a Mercedes and I wrote about how I'd live in a nice house in a big subdivision.  I wanted to work in the city and where a suit to my job every day.  I mean isn't that what we are told is the picture of success?  Fancy cars, big house, a job where no physical work is required.  A job where you won't get any dirt under your fingernails.  Now that's the picture of success.  Man have my priorities changed.  I no longer care if I'm ever rich.  In all honesty, I almost hope that I don't end up with enough money to be considered "well to do".  I'm learning to be content with what we have as long as we are healthy.  I still have dreams of being successful, but it's a completely different picture.  I hope to earn a living from home that we can live off of. I dream of being debt free, not by simply by out earning my spending, but by cutting back our expenses and by spending our money with purpose and by diligently paying down our debts.  I hope to walk closer with the Lord each day.  Most importantly, I hope to teach our kids that success, real success, is a much different picture than what is painted by television and movies and most of the world for that matter.

Happy Thanksgiving from Red Rooster

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!! I'd just like to say thank you first to the pumpkin donors.  I've collected thirty-one pumpkins in the past few days.  I have no idea how many we'll need to supplement feed for the birds during the winter, but even if we have way more than we need what's left can go on the compost pile and create a little soil for the garden.  We had a  great Thanksgiving and wish that you all had a great one too. 

Each bite a memory...

So, I'm sitting here at work eating my lunch, some white chili that I had made the other night, and as I stared down into the bowl it occurred to me that the majority of what I was putting into my belly was grown right in my own yard. Everything but the Northern beans and the spices lived and died at Red Rooster Ranch.  The chicken in it ate our bugs and grass.  The chicken broth had been canned in our kitchen from birds we raised.  The potatoes grew big in our front yard and waited patiently in our basement for their moment to shine.  The onions too grew up right there in the yard, just down the row from the zucchini that didn't make it this year.  Tate and I planted the garlic last year on Columbus day and then pulled it and dried it on our front steps.  Let me tell you, it was pretty gratifying.  Each bite was a memory really.  Memories of warmer weather and of spending time in the garden with my beautiful wife and our kids.  These, I think, are the things that matter most in life.

How Great Is Our God!

I got up this morning and went out to do chores like I do every morning.  It might seem stupid to some, but those few minutes it takes to do my morning chores are one of my favorite parts of the day.  It gives me a minute to wake up and to think about the day ahead of me.  I talk with God a little and thank Him for the blessings that He has provided for me.  It often hits me the hardest at that time how God's awesome power is revealed to us in His creation.  I look around and see how awesome nature is and how intricate and detailed it is and wonder how we don't just fall down and worship the Creator of it all.  A video I once saw at a men's retreat by a pastor named Louie Giglio was so awe inspiring that I came home telling everyone I knew that they had to see it.  The video was about God the Creator and His sheer magnitude.  It was crazy.  You can google it and find the video online to watch.  Type in "Louie Giglio" and "How Great is Our God" and you should get some links to it.  When I got home from the retreat and the images and facts of that video faded I quickly started forgetting how I felt toward the Lord.  Isn't that just like us?  Haven't people been doing that forever? Yes.  Over and over again in Genesis and Exodus, God saves His people from trouble and they bow down and worship Him and then a few pages later they are right back to their old ways.  Sound familiar? It sure does to me.  That's one reason I like blogging on here.  It keeps a record of what's going on around here.  I can look back and see what we've come through, how God has blessed us, and remember how we felt as we were going through that time in our lives.  I try to keep a journal too, a place where I write down more personal thoughts and prayers.  Unfortunately, I have not been great at being faithful in writing in that journal.  Hopefully I will be able to get into a better rhythm once I'm working from home.  I think that is one way that we grow in our faith, by keeping a record of  thoughts, fears, struggles and blessings and then looking back on it to see how God was with us through it all.

The birthday kids...

My great grandma came over with Gram and Pop the other night to see Micaiah and I got a few pictures of the birthday kiddos.  Pictures like this one are a necessity.  I mean think about it, you've got a picture of a woman and one of her grandkids that are literally almost one hundred years apart in age.  Priceless.  I know that Kennedy sure does love her "old grandma" as she likes to call grandma.  We all love "old grandma", she's pretty special.  Becky and baby are both doing pretty great here at home.  We've been sleeping quite well for having a tiny little guy sleeping here now.  He eats like a total pig.  We are pretty sweet on him.  

What else is going on around here?  Well, I tried to put Sugar the Sheep and Nemo together in the same barn.  The key word here is tried.  Sugar was not having it.  She's not that friendly.  So now Sugar is back in the backyard and Nemo is still in here chicken yard home.  I'm going to have to come up with another housing option for one of them for the winter.  I'm not exactly sure what that is going to be yet.  I could potentially put one of them out in the hay barn for the winter, but that is an awful long walk hauling water buckets in knee deep snow every day for just one animal.  I have a little brainstorming to do on that one yet.  

Our laying hens are doing quite well right now.  Everyone looks happy and healthy.  They should be starting to lay in about ten days or so.  I can't wait.  We've not been buying eggs from the grocery store often.  Even the best ones you can buy at the grocery are garbage at best.  You just can't beat farm fresh eggs for taste and nutrition.  I read in one of my periodicals that eggs from pastured hens have something like half of the cholesterol and twice the Omega-3 fatty acids of conventionally produced eggs.  Not to mention the added vitamins and minerals of pastured eggs.  You just can't beat 'em.  

We are looking for extra pumpkins leftover from fall decorating.  We can't use pumpkins that have been carved, but if you have whole pumpkins that aren't rotting yet please don't throw them out.  We'd like to use them for winter-time feed supplement for the hens.  The pumpkins are a good source of beta-carotene for the girls and any free supplement you can provide is good.  I'm also anxious to see how the color of the yolk is affected by the addition of the pumpkin to their diets.  In winter, the color of the yolk loses some of it's bright yellow, almost orange, color because of the loss of beta-carotene in the diet that is provided by the grass consumed by pastured hens.  Please keep your eyes and ears open for free pumpkins we can have.  Please let us know if any are available.  

Another thing I'm going to experiment with is planting a living fence.  I recently read an article about growing hedges to use as fencing.  So this morning I went for a drive around the block to a spot that I know has Osage Orange trees growing along the road and collected a pile of hedge apples.  I'm going to follow the directions the article gives to save the seeds from the hedge apples, and plant some next spring.  I'm not sure what my exact plans are yet with the whole hedge idea, but I'm interested in it none the less.  

Old-timers used to use Osage Orange hedges to fence in livestock before the invention of barbed wire.  It's thorny and you can grow it tight enough to keep animals contained.  The article says that in four years you can produce a hedge that is "horse high, bull strong, and hog tight".  Anyway,  it sounded neat and so I'm going to play around a bit and see what happens.  Also I know that Osage Orange is the most naturally rot-resistant wood in North America.  Fence posts used to be made from Osage trees that were cut down, and it is said that Osage fence posts have been known to last in the ground for fifty years without rotting off. 

The Buckeyes are getting ready to play which means I've got to go now. 

The Whole Team

POOPED!!!!

MICAIAH CAMDEN DRENNEN

Micaiah is pooped right out.  At 3:46AM he made his debut weighing in at 8lbs. 13oz. and standing 22in. tall.  Mom and baby are both doing great and we're all trying to catch some sweet, sacred sleep.  

"Why is it sooo cold out here?"

       "Where am I?"

"This isn't soooo bad."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!

TONIGHT'S THE NIGHT....

Tonight is the night.  Well, tonight or at worst by early tomorrow morning.  We just got back from Becky's doctor appointment and the doc told her that he wants to induce her tonight or in the morning.  I guess Labor and Delivery is backed up right now, but that they should be cleared out by 8:30 this evening.  Becky is supposed to call tonight to see how they're doing and they'll tell her to "come on in" or to "come in at 7 AM tomorrow".  Either way there is a pretty good chance that this little boy is going to be born November, 16th.  That is significant because November 16th just so happens to be my great grandma's birthday.  She'll be 93 years old tomorrow!!! Wow!  That's pretty much how we do it in my family.  Everybody is born a significant day. 

For example:  My dad was born on his mom's birthday.  I was born on my great grandma Obermiller's birthday and also my gram and pop's anniversary.  My daughter Kennedy was born on my birthday.  My sister, Jenn, was born on my grandma and grandpa Mason's anniversary.  So, if this baby is born on Grandma Miller's ninety-third birthday it be no surprise.  It's just what we do.

I think we are all set and ready to roll.  Becky's friend Mandy came over this morning and helped with some last minute cleaning and straightening.  Again, we've got so many people behind us it's just amazing.  Well, I'm outta here for now, but I'll update as soon as I have anything newsworthy.  Adios!

                          

CATCHING UP.......

I haven't had a lot of time to write as of late so I'd like to take this evening to catch everyone up on all that has been happening around here.  Today, bright and early, Becky's mom came over to help clean the house.  I thought she was just coming over to help out with laundry, but man did she work.  Looks like she scrubbed the kitchen floor, did laundry, did dishes, straightened up the mud room and tons of other things.  Thank you!!! Thank you!!!  It was a huge load off.  Later,  my aunt Dorothea brought over pizza for dinner.  It was great!!!!!  We are pretty lucky to have family that is here for us any time we need anything.   

Last weekend Becky and I got up early for a Saturday and headed down to a little Mennonite grocery store called Planktown Market.  I had never been there before, but Becky said she used to go there with her grandma and mom when she was a little girl.  It was pretty cool.  They had like seventy-five different kinds of deli meats and cheese, every kind of canned goods, bulk bags of sugar, flour, oats.  All kinds of stuff that you don't see in the everyday grocery store.  We bought some yeast and some kielbasa and sauerkraut.  We'll definitely go down there again.

After we left Planktown Market, we headed to Wellington to pick up some hay for Sugar and Nemo for the winter.  We picked up the twelve bales of hay and hurried back to the house.  It was about one when we got back and Becky's cousin was playing volleyball in Norwalk at two so I hurried up and unloaded the hay into the barn.  Throwing twelve bales up overhead by yourself is a workout let me tell you.  Holy Smokes!

We went to the volleyball game, which was nice because we got to visit shortly with Becky's uncle and aunt who live in Toledo.  The volleyball game was pretty fun to watch as well.  It was two Division I schools competing-those girls could play!!!

After the game was over (Becky's cousins team-Toledo St. Ursula won by the way) we went to my mom's for Spaghetti and meatballs and then I headed off to the Western Reserve football game.  It was freezing, but bundled up and toting my Thermos full of coffee I managed to survive.  The Roughriders, as you all know by now, did not fare so well.  They had a great year and finished the regular season 10-0.  This was the first time since 1984 that Western had advanced to the playoffs.  Roughriders everywhere, young and old, can hold their heads high.  I can't wait 'till next season to see what they can do.  GO BIG BLUE!!!!

Tomorrow we don't have any major plans, but there is still a lot of work that needs done around here.  I've got some clean up to do outside still, and with the weather expected to be nice and warm on Saturday I need to attack that first thing.  I'd like to pull some more vines off of the barn and burn them.  I also need to get the garage cleaned out enough that we can park the van inside during the winter. 

Well, I'm getting tired and I'm going to get to bed, but I will try to post again tomorrow for everyone. Good night all.

Chicken Noodle Soup for the Pregnant Soul

Where do I start?  This is the first real post I've had in quite sometime.  It's been so busy around here.  Everyone is busy I know, but I feel out of breath most of the time.  HAHA!!! Oh well. I can't complain too much, God has blessed us so much to have these five soon to be six kids, and we have family that will jump in a pull your slack anytime you need help.  For example,  today Becky went to her OB/GYN for a regularly scheduled check up, and once again her blood pressure was sky high and she has had quite a bit of swelling and water retention.  The doctor said in not so many words that she needs to stay laying down on her side and that's pretty much it.  Well, Becky called me and gave me the update and I told her she should call my mom and fill her in because she'd want to know.  Not an hour had passed from the time I got off of the phone with Becky, I don't think, when my  mom called me to let me know that dinner would be taken care of for us pretty much each night this week.  Both grandma's and my great aunt stepped up to help us out.  That's a huge deal.  Not having to worry about cooking and all of that this week while Becky is laid out is a huge load off. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! 

Well not too long after Becky got home from the doctor's office this afternoon she started getting sick.  Obviously the flu or some flu-like virus.   Yuck!!!  Another thank you for the dinner's this week. I love you guys.  So I'm making some homemade soup for Becky for lunch tomorrow.  Hopefully she'll be able to keep some soup down by lunchtime tomorrow.  You know, I always thought that we ate chicken noodle soup when we were sick just because it was easy on our stomachs, but I've recently learned that there is much more to it than that.  In the book Real Food by Nina Planck, it talks about chicken noodle soup and how we eat it traditionally when we are sick for reasons other than it's ease on our upset stomachs.  Nina Planck says this in her book about chicken fat:

     "Poultry fat is as diverse as poultry and the foods they eat.  Mostly monounsaturated- and thus fairly heat-stable- poultry fat is suitable for cooking.  Duck and goose fat are traditional in Jewish kitchens and justly honored by French cooks, especially for roasted potatoes.  Chicken fat- schmaltz, the Yiddish word for fat- is a staple in Jewish recipes, including the chopped liver and crispy gribenes (chicken skin fried in chicken fat).  I once met a man who grew up eating homemade gribenes at the movies.  (Think of them as kosher pork rinds.)

     Poultry fats also contain a few saturated and polyunsaturated fats; again, the diet of the bird affects the composition of the fat.  Pastured chickens and poultry fed fish oil or flaxseed oil have more polyunsaturated omega-3 fats, while tropical chickens, like pigs, eat saturated fats in coconut oil.  Typically, chicken fat is about 40 percent monounsaturated oleic acid, which lowers LDL [the bad cholesterol].  Goose fat is mostly monounsaturated, too (56 percent), as is duck fat (46 percent).  Turkey fat contains 38 percent oleic acid, 22 percent polyunsaturated fats, and 22 percent saturated palmitic acid, which lowers total cholesterol and LDL.

    We have seen that saturated fats fight infection.  All fats, particularly chicken fat, also contain palmitoleic acid, an antimicrobial monounsaturated fat.  That's why chicken soup- not skinless chicken breasts- is known as the Jewish penicillin:  those pale yellow droplets in chicken broth boost your immunity.

     So the next time someone eating a poached skinless chicken breast tells you that your choice of beef, bacon, or roast chicken with the skin will send you to an early grave, this is your reply.  First, explain that beef contains stearic acid, which lowers LDL, and that pork and poultry fat are mostly monounsaturated, just like olive oil.  Second, say that natural saturated fats- as opposed to industrial saturated fats, or trans fats- are good for you anyway.  In the heat of a dinner party debate, you will probably remember only one good thing about saturated fats.  Make it this one: they are powerful immune boosters.  Once upon a time, I used only olive oil.  When I added butter and other saturated fats to my diet, I stopped getting sick.  And yes,  the chefs and food critics are right:  my cooking was much tastier, too."

I am finding this book to be quite great.  Again, I recommend it to all.  As for me and my house, we will all be eating some homemade chicken noodle soup tomorrow.  I do NOT want to get sick!!!!

TGIF!!!

Well I can't speak for anyone else, but I for one, am so glad that the weekend is just a few hours away.  I don't know why this week has seemed so long, but it sure did.  I'm actually writing this entry from my computer at work while I eat my lunch.  Our evenings this week have been busy and exhausting, and I just haven't had the energy to log on after the kids were in bed.  Anyway, it's a cold one today and supposed to be even colder tomorrow.  Western Reserve has it's first playoff game tomorrow night.  I'll be there.  Better figure out what layers I'm wearing to the game before I go to bed tonight.  They host Jeromesville- Hillsdale at 7 PM. Gotta go. deliveries to make.

ELECTION DAY

Well, as I sit at the computer tonight I'm not only trying to put my thoughts on this page for you all to read, but I'm also trying to sort out in my head who I'm voting for tomorrow.  I don't know!!  I am so sick of all the negative ads that have been running non stop.  Thank God that tomorrow is Election Day and soon all these liars will be fairly quiet for a little while.  It is so incredibly hard to know who to vote for.  I'm currently checking out an informative website that is supposed to be non-partisan and is just a tool for informing the public on who is running for what and where they stand on the issues.  The name of the site is www.Ohioroundtable.com .  When you go to the site you will have the option of going to either AP Roundtable website, which deals with political issues on a more national scale, or to ivoter.com.  Ivoter gives you a place to put in your address and then it shows you what races are going on in your neck of the woods.  Once on Ivoter it has links to each candidates website where you can then go find out where the candidate stands on important issues in Ohio and a little bit about their values.  I urge everyone to get out and vote tomorrow.  It's a privilege that we Americans often take for granted.  I know how frustrating it can be and honestly sometimes I wonder if my vote even matters anyway with all of the corruption that is in our government, both here in Ohio and those who represent us in Washington, but the right and privilege that we have to vote really is our voice.  We must speak at the polls if we want this country to go in a positive direction.  Again, I strongly urge you all to make it to the polls tomorrow and vote and please, please, please do your homework and be an informed voter. 

Now for some lighter topics,  Pop and I finished my truck on Sunday and I got the drive shaft put back on the truck and test drove it.  Ran like a champ.  Whew!  That's one less thing I'll have to worry about with winter just around the corner. 

Becky is getting closer and closer to her due date all the time and this week she is now only working half days and her sub is covering the afternoons for her.  Friday will be her last day until she comes back after having the newest Drennen boy.  She is very tired and sore, but all in all she's hanging in there quite well. 

I"m reading another book right now.  It's amazing how much I love to read these days.  I used to hate it when I was in school, but I thoroughly enjoy it now.  Anyway, the book I'm reading is called "Real Food- what to eat and why" by Nina Planck.  It's great!!  She talks a lot about the chemistry of our foods.  By that I mean she talks a lot about vitamins and minerals and things like Omega-3 fatty acids, and Conjugated Lineolic Acid and a number of other things.  She tells you what those things do for your body and shows you the difference between traditional foods and the foods that we more commonly eat today.  It has really been eye opening to me.  I'm about halfway through the book and can't read it fast enough.  I just finished a section on real meat and the author refers to probably a dozen studies that have been done over the years showing that eating meat and particularly red meat isn't as bad as we've been led to believe.  Studies are showing more and more frequently that it is the diet and living conditions of the animals that is changing the nutrients in the meat for the worse.  Cows don't eat corn in nature.  God did not  design their digestive system to handle tons and tons of grain. I had better step away from this conversation until another day.  I was about to be on a runaway train with the whole corn fed vs. grass fed cattle debate.  So far this book has been very informative and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about the foods we eat and the health consequences associated with them. 

Until tomorrow.....