Norris Family Blog

Garmon Hog Killing

When Brent's family was here over the Thanksgiving weekend, Kyle had just gotten over being sick with the 'croup'. A couple days after they went home, I became sick. A dry, hacking cough without a fever were my symptoms. Wednesday, I was staying inside and mostly laying on the couch when the door bell rang. It was Stevie Garmon and he wanted me to dig a small hole for them to use as a firepit to scald hogs. I dressed and drove the tractor to their farm, dug the hole they needed and watched them set up the tub for the water and the platforms to stand on by the tub. I went home after that and took more medicine, then took some NyQuil at bedtime.
This morning, I felt better. Linda fixed us toast for breakfast before she left for work at the school. We were watching TV again and the news said there had been a 50 car wreck in Nashville because of freezing fog. I looked outside and it was real foggy in our area too. About 9 AM, I drove the Mule up the highway to Garmon's farm and checked out how the hog killing was going. Stevie would shoot the hog in the head and when it went down, Tony would stick it in the neck with a knife and cut the juglar vein. They would let the hog bleed out a few minutes, then hoist it up with a tractor front loader and haul it over to the scalding pit.

Four guys use a home made sling to pick up the hog and place it in the scalding pit, then turn it over a few times as it remains in the pit for about 10 minutes. Then they lift the hog out and pull the hair off by hand. What hair that remains is then shaved off with sharp knives. The hog carcass is then hauled over to their new butcher shop Jones Ridge Meats.

Inside the butcher shop, the carcass is lifted up with an electric hoist and split open, cleaned out and the head removed.

After a few more procedures, the two sides of the hog are ready to hang in the cooler where it is left overnight to cool. The meat is easier to cut and trim when it has cooled to around 55 degrees.

They planned on killing 6 hogs today and more on Friday and Saturday.

Posted by Dave at 8:15 PM
Categories: Current Events

Burkesville Christmas Parade

I went up the road to Garmon's farm to check out how the hog killing was progressing. They had finished the slaughtering and were rendering the lard outside in three kettles over open fires. The liquid was then poured through a cloth to strain out the impurities and into a bucket to cool. Inside Jone's Ridge Meats, Stevie and some of the ladies helping, were grinding sausage and packaging it into 2 lb rolls, then putting those in the freezers.

After returning to the farm, Stacey, Linda and I moved firewood from the wood shed to the back porch and stacked it for use in the racks. We also took the Christmas Tree from the storage building to the house before unhooking the trailer from the Mule. We took Daisy a run before leaving to go to Burkesville for the Christmas Parade. The parade began at 5 PM with Mrs Nancy Buchanan serving as the Grand Marshall for the "Story Book Christmas" themed parade. Mrs Buchanan had been a librarian and volunteered for numerous functions in Cumberland County.







The parade had lasted just over an hour, the temperature was near 60 degrees this year and there was a large turnout of spectators watching. People on the floats threw candy and we were given free cookies and there was free hot chocolate being offered around the Courthouse Square as we watched.

Posted by Dave at 8:00 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Christmas Decorations

Linda started bringing the Christmas decorations from the storage building to the house Sunday while the temperature was still in the 60s. Stacey and Linda put the Christmas Tree together and decorated it with hundreds of lights and ornaments.

As the week went on, Linda brought out more and more decorations.

Posted by Dave at 6:00 PM
Categories: Current Events, Farm

Christmas Shopping

We chucked another log on the fire in the wood stove and loaded into the HHR. I drove to Columbia and entered the Cumberland Parkway for the 45 mile ride to Somerset. Nearly an hour later we exited the parkway and began our Christmas shopping. We made it through several stores and then I lost interest and remained in the car while Stacey and Linda shopped till they dropped. Not really, but Linda did finally get tired and wanted to eat, so she picked Frischs' Big Boy Restuarant. We went inside and ordered our usual sandwiches. After finishing those, our waitress asked if we were ready for desserts. I saw a table with a big piece of pie and asked if those were coconut creme pie, the waitress said they were coconut creme, so I ordered Linda a piece of pie (her favorite is coconut creme) and I ordered myself a piece of hot fudge cake.

After the dessert, we paid, left a tip and then I drove home. We unloaded our purchases and took them inside. The stove needed more wood, so we threw on a couple more pieces and the fire restarted.

Posted by Dave at 8:00 PM
Categories: Current Events

Basket Ball Games

Stacey and Jason were talking on the phone, then Stacey asked about us going to a Cumberland County basket ball game. We decided to go, so around noon, Stacey and I went to town and stopped at the school. Stacey went inside and purchased three tickets for the game that night. We also went to the drive up window at the bank. We returned to the farm and kept the fire burning in the wood stove. It hasn't been real cold, but a wood fire feels good and saves us money on the electric bill. Linda came home from working, we loaded in the HHR and rode into town and to the school. We said hello to a few people, then chose our seats in the bleachers. It was about 10 minutes to game time when we saw Jason coming up the stairs. Stephannie stopped to talk a few minutes later. The girls game was played first and Cumberland County's girls didn't do too bad. Both teams had spurts of good and bad play with the Clinton County Girls Team winning by 5 points.

The boys' game began 20 minutes after the end of the girls' game. The Cumberland boys played terrible. Clinton's boys looked great. By half time, the Clinton team had a 39 point lead. Stephannie and Tommy came past and asked Jason if he was ready to leave. They all left, then we checked with Stacey and decided to leave too.

Posted by Dave at 9:00 PM
Categories: Current Events

Beautiful Day

We had a really nice day. The weather was nice with a high temperature of 65 degees and sunny. Stacey and I were outside a lot, we went to the Tastee-Freeze and ate lunch and drank milk shakes while setting outside. When we returned to the farm, we took Daisy for a long run and talked to the loggers.

Posted by Dave at 7:00 PM
Categories:

Season's Activities

Julie came to the back door early Friday afternoon, then Kyle, Pauline and Brent with their pooches. Linda and I were surprised they had arrived a little after 3 PM and Pauline said she had stayed home during the day with Julie, but that Julie was OK now. We went to Albany for pizza and then stopped for groceries before returning to the farm.
Saturday morning we had toast for breakfast and the kids had cereal while we watched a movie. Then I reminded everyone we were going to Burkesville to hand out Christmas presents to the underprivileged kids. We quickly dressed and headed into town. The church group from Louisville had already delivered their load of presents to be passed out. I estimate that they bring a thousand individual gifts each year.

They helped a little by going to a few houses and giving the kids their presents, then they headed back to Louisville. All of our family joined with several others from Burkesville and handed out the gifts and sacks of food to the needy that had signed up with various organizations. Around 2:30 PM, we took what gifts hadn't been picked up and moved them to another building, then we said "Merry Christmas" to the others and went to the farm. Linda and I took Julie in the Mule and let Daisy run, then gave the dog some food before we went back inside.

Sunday morning, the kids were upstairs when I took a picture of Brent and Kyle playing with a small wind up car on the tile floor. Pauline loaded the car and Brent drove them home in the early afternoon.
Monday, Stacey and Linda did a little bit of shopping for some items to take to the Home Makers Christmas Party. I made a quick trip to town while they were gone, then we had chili for lunch when we all returned. I sliced the ham while Linda prepared a broccoli salad to take for the dinner. Linda and Stacey went to the party early and picked up Regina on the way. I waited till almost 6 PM to make my entrance. After a few minutes of talking, I took everyone's picture, then they gave thanks and we all ate.

I returned to the house while Stacey and Linda remained for the Dirty Santa gift exchange and to play Bingo for small gifts.

Posted by Dave at 9:00 AM
Categories:

Gift Exchange

Stacey called Jason and asked if he wanted to go eat with all of us. He did, so we planned on picking him up at 5:30 PM. We drove the HHR and Jason was ready when we pulled into the driveway. He came out with Stacey's Christmas gift and hopped into the car. I didn't say where we were going, just drove towards Albany as everyone chatted. We crossed into TN and then stopped at the Farmhouse Restaurant We went inside and Jason and Stacey took their presents in with them. The waitress told them that they shouldn't have bought anything for her and we all laughed She took our orders and headed to the kitchen to turn the orders in to the cook. Jason gave Stacey the present he had for her and watched while she opened it. Stacey then gave Jason his presents.

After a few minutes talking about each others' gifts, the waitress brought Jason's and Stacey's dinners. They began eating and teasing Linda and I about, "Did you order anything?" Our orders came about 5 minutes later for some reason. We all enjoyed the food and it worked out fairly well because it gave Stacey and Jason more time to eat and talk.

After paying and tipping the waitress, we loaded into the HHR and rode back to Burkesville in a misting rain. We dropped Jason off at his house, then we went home.

Posted by Dave at 9:00 PM
Categories: Current Events

Christmas At The Farm

Frinday morning, Brent's family arrived. Linda began things by getting the kids to decorate an edible tree. It is an ice cream cone with green cake icing and candy for ornaments.


We kept the kids busy during the day, playing and riding in the Mule. Maxx Lobo arrived around 4 PM. Maxx had flown from California to Nashville a few days earlier and then drove to the farm to visit.
Linda fixed a quick breakfast of cinnamon rolls and then everyone began opening the presents.



After the presents had been opened, everyone began playing with one of their gifts. Maxx and Brent built some 'experimental' vehicles while Kyle and Julie painted with water colors. Linda and Pauline then started making a banana pudding and other stuff for dinner later.


Maxx, Kyle, Brent and I took a short trip down the road with the tractor and Mule. We used the new chainsaw to cut a downed tree into pieces for firewood. Then we sat a large box up for a target. We began shooting Brent's 22 rifle and adjusting the scope until we had it hitting the target. Then we switched to shooting the 30/30 carbine. It made a lot louder noise and kicked harder. Kyle would walk back and forth with us to the target to see how close we were hitting to the center. Dinner was almost ready when we returned to the house. Pauline and Linda had done a nice job and all the food was great. We enjoyed the rest of the day playing with the kids.
Maxx was flying back to CA on Christmas Day, so we had breakfast early, then we all said 'good bye' and he left about 9:30 AM.

We went outside in the afternoon and finished cutting the wood and loading it on the black trailer. We used the Mule to pull the load to the shed where the firewood is stored and unhooked the trailer from the Mule. Back inside, we ate leftovers for lunch, then Pauline and Brent took their kids and dogs and headed home just before dark.