Jan. 16, 1913 vs. Jan. 16, 2013

Dora:
Finished tieing up the sausage and putting away.
Ironed.
Read and mended pm.

Ray:
36 degrees in am, 44 degrees in  pm. Weather is Misty.
at home in am. went to woods im pm. cut 2 trees.

Note: I spoke with my parents and my brother Tom tonight about butchering pigs and what not.  My mom says, that yes, they had a smoke house and my brother Tom remembers playing in it as a kid. He said they made it into a club house at one point. Mom recalls that as children they were NOT allowed to go inside; we speculated that they didn't want the kids going in and out and letting all of the smoke out.
Tom thinks that Dora baking the jars of sausage was her baking the sausage as a way of cooking it and then taking the baked sausages and then canning them, perhaps in a hot water bath.
Mom does NOT recall them making liverworst as a child and we speculated that since liverworst is a recipe that is spiced based on the region of Germany that one is from, this liverworst recipe was probably handed down from Ella or George.  Perhaps they stopped making liverworst after Ella and George passed away and unfortunately, the recipe has disappeared.
Mom was also surprised that Ray took sausage into Mendon. I wondered if maybe the Schneider sausage had a reputation and that people had spoken for some.
Mom also remembers rendering lard. They would have built a big fire outside and put a heavy cast iron pot or cauldron on it. They would have filled it with the strips of fat and slowly cooked it down. It would have melted and boiled and any residual meat would have cooked and risen to the top. Grandpa Ray would skim it off and give it to the kids and Mom remembers this with obvious delight.  Then they would have poured the liquid fat into containers and as it cooled, it solidified. It was kept through out the year for cooking purposes and perhaps other purposes too. It had to be kept cool in the summer otherwise it'd go rancid.
My dad was also raised on a farm and recalls butchering hogs too. He said they would use green hickory sticks and they'd smoulder all day. They'd also bore several holes in the ham and pack it with Mortons Salt to help aid in preservation. He also recalls his mother canning the meat.

Cayla:
Worked today at the sleep clinic. Had a hair appointment in the afternoon so after work I went to our corporate office to drop off papers for me to get hospital priviledges. Got my hair trimmed and colored (GRAYS GO AWAY!) and then came home and fixed dinner. Ran to the grocery store quickly to pick up a few items. Put the kids to bed and chatted with Tom for a bit.