Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Butchering 101


Helped butcher my first hog yesterday. He was a big one too; at least 800/900 pounds! 

One ham/leg was about 125lbs!

I'm pretty proud of myself. Not only did I not barf, but I didn't cut myself either. 




Sunday, December 14, 2014

Christmas wreathes

Walked around the farm today and scrounged up some things to make a few wreathes. 

I clipped some cypress and pine branches, and picked up some pine cones and monkey balls. At least that's what I call them. I'm not sure what the actual name is. 
I used some metallic silver paint on the decorations. This still needs a bow. 

This one needs a bow too.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Pumpkins!

Picked up a truck full of pumpkins yesterday. 
The farmer charged only $25 per truckload. I got a lot of pumpkins. 

The hogs love them!


Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Peppers!

I swear I picked a peck of peppers. Update 11/8/2014 Finally were done in by the frost last week. 

Hogs


Three of Abigail's daughters have come back with Abigail. The big reddish brown guy is a Tamworth/Berkshire mix. He's the same age, plus or minus a week, as the little black American Guinea hoglets he's eating with. 

Hambone is the boy's name. The three girls are Smaug (she's the smallest), Floppsy, and Mopsy. Cottontail is still with my friend keeping her hoglet company. 

Sunday, May 25, 2014

New Goats

So last week, we picked up Catherine's pet lamb, Lola.
We also got a 5-month Nubian/LaMancha male as a companion for Freckles.  His name is Francisco; I had him castrated this week. Helped the vet do it in the driveway. 

The other female we got didn't work out; she was too tall to keep confined. She kept hopping the fence between one pen and the other. Don't need a wandering goat eating up my garden. So I traded her for a Nigerian Dwarf/Mini-Saanen mix who is currently in milk and will be three this year. Her name is Fiona. She's the second one from the left. 

Little Fern is also a new addition to the farm. Her parents are Freckles and his sister, Frida. Yeah, I know. I sold Frida back to the woman from whom I purchased her initially. But she didn't  want any babies so I got the doeling back. Fern was born May 11, 2014. 
She's getting the hang of the bottle. Slowly but surely. She didn't run from me when I went in with her second one of the day. 

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Clogs

Picked up a pair of garden clogs from Amazon. Got a white pair for me and a black pair for the husband - mostly so we could tell our shoes apart. 
The white was TOO hospital-looking.

So I broke out the Sharpies!
Much better. 



Sunday, May 11, 2014

Sun burned, sore, but productive.


Planted a lot today. Yellow means the bed is planted either with seeds directly or transplanted with seedlings started indoors. 

Before we planted, we used the Weed Dragon to burn off all the weeds. Then we covered the beds with compost, and went over the beds with the rototiller. 

I'm beat. 

But the garden is looking great! 

I also got some herbs planted in pots and put some lettuces mixes in the cold frame boxes outside my kitchen. 


Busy Mother's Day. 



Friday, May 2, 2014

May

Got six more pullets recently. I traded them for printer ink. Barter is alive and well. 
I can't remember what the black ones are but there are two Rhode Island Reds. 

They are getting braver. The first day or two they were here, they stuck close to the coop. But today they were venturing out into the yard, scratching and pecking for bugs and grasses. 

Thursday, April 10, 2014

R.I.P. Ned

I did it. I butchered one of the roosters.


 I picked him as first because he's the most dangerous. He's attacked my 9-year old daughter on numerous occasions. So many that we've armed her with a tennis racket when she goes outside alone so she can fend him off. He's also attacked other people's children and that's really not cool. 
As he was a 14-month old rooster, he was thick skinned and rather tough. 

I turned him into rooster and rice soup and pressure-canned it. 

At least that's tasty!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Goat Babies!

Mr. Freckles and Franny are proud to announce the birth of twin girls! 

Feisty: 

And Fickle:

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Yay for garden space

Landscaper showed up today. 
Front is almost cleared out - three big bushes are gone. Next up in this area will be an herb garden. 

Monday, March 31, 2014

Started planting

A few weeks ago, we started cabbages, cauliflower, bok choy, and various herbs. Most everything is sprouting! This weekend we started 20 different types of tomatoes. 
I used cardboard tubes to make little seed starting pots and used milk cartons as individual greenhouses. Works great to keep the moisture level relatively high. 

Still haven't processed any roosters but I think I'll be doing some this week. I'm going to can them all. 

Husband's studio is still not ready because the local phone company is run by fucktarded idiots. 

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Rooster Culling

Planned to process five of our six roosters today. That's too many roosters for just 12 hens. But Mother Nature interfered again. Couldn't find a spot to set up the propane burner - wanted to set up a big pot outside and keep the water nice and hot, but too windy out there. 

It's currently snowing. Husband had to leave early...AGAIN... because of the weather. Didn't want to get stuck here or in transit in the projected 5-10 inches of snow. 

Planted more seeds today. We planted some cabbage (3 types), cauliflower (2 types), bok choy, and various herbs last weekend and we have little sprouts!
 
Today, I planted some Minibel tomatoes. They are a tiny cherry tomato that does best in containers so no reason to wait for frost concerns for those. I also planted Roselle Red Thai, which is a kind of hibiscus that had edible flowers and leaves. Sounded interesting when I was buying seeds. What I didn't use, I put into a card and will mail to my oldest daughter in Tulsa. While speaking with her today, she said she was going to try and grow some tomatoes in her apartment and I thought "Hey! I have the perfect tomato!" 

Bacon is still brining as is the ham. I think I'm going to smoke a piece of bacon tomorrow and see if it's ready. It's been about 10 days. 

The ham I think will be for Easter :-)

Friday, March 14, 2014

Landscaping!

Tuesday, the landscaper came out to meet with me and talk about what I wanted to do with the gardens. 

The one in the front of the house, where the L-shaped porch is, will be cleared of bushes and whatever else is growing there and logs from the trees we had last year will be moved to the dump area. I thought I'd save money by cutting them up myself but locust wood is like iron - and it's eating up my chainsaw. 

The other area is down in my garden where I dug out the raised beds. I'm going to have it expanded like five or six times the size I have now. All they have to do is till and dig. Then add compost. 

He gave me a great price, because as he put it to his son (son is president, dad is vice), my job doesn't require any special skills but it's work he (dad) likes doing. 

Three weeks!! 

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Chip, the Alpha rooster

Chip is a Welsummer...and he's a jerk. 


Bannister and Abigail

Bannister got out yesterday. Security has been beefed up. 


Chickens, chickens everywhere

Hello Bob. They are all fussing because I'm in "their" yard but don't have food. 

Water Issue Solved

The plumbers showed up around 5pm on Friday night. They managed to dig out both faucets and replace one with a seriously kick-ass hydrant in an hour. 
The one closest to the house, it's been broken for almost a year. Unfortunately, it was too old and rusted to fix. I was used to not having it. But I'm going to get an estimate from the plumber to see how much a brand new line would cost to install. 


Me. Freckles


Mr. Freckles is sporting a mighty beard nowadays. His coat is also super thick. The vet told me that ruminants can tolerate the cold way better than other animals because the act of digestion that their bodies use creates heat. 

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Winter

Not much going on. Both the outside water taps are screwed up so I now have to hire a plumber in order to continue providing water to the animals and eventually water the garden.

Need to send one of the hogs to meet the meat maker. The girl is going to get hooked up on a date and will hopefully provide some tasty hoglets in good time. 

My seed orders are here but nothing will be planted until next month at the earliest. Still waiting for potatoes, onion sets, shallots, blueberry bushes, and mulberry trees to be delivered come spring. 

Puppy is getting huge! He'll be a great guard dog eventually. He's only three months old, but I have high hopes.

Husband should have his show moved by the end of Feb. No not much longer now until he's home full-time.