Well, Hammy Fae Bacon went to Hog Heaven this morning. I was not present for her departure...she has been a bit too much of a pet for me and I didn't think that I could stomach the mobile slaughter truck. I know that her death was swift and she is now wallowing in that great mud puddle in the sky.
We sold her "on the hoof" (which means alive) for $350 to a local gal. It was a steal for the meat. Her "hanging weight" (after they gut and cut off the unusable parts) was 322 pounds. That's a little more than a buck a pound. I usually sell my butcher hogs at $2.25 a pound on the hoof. It just didn't make sense to try to sell her that way. I don't know any family that can afford to spend 800+ dollars for a hog. I try to balance our profit with keeping a reasonable price available to local families.
As much as I was sad to see Hammy go, it sure was a nice quiet feeding time tonight without her there. That pig was the noisiest gal I've ever met...and pushy too! From the minute you walked out to the shed, she would bark and squeal until you put the grain in her bucket. RIP Hammy Fae...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Consider the Following
When you are drilling posts for a fence and you live on a solar system, you have to bring the generator out to the pasture to plug the drill into. It won't run happily off of the house system (for long).
When you need to fill a trough, you have to connect a pump to the water tank in order to pump the water through the hose to the pasture where the trough is.
If you want to make grilled cheese sandwiches, you have to wait until the generator is on before you start the electric skillet or you will be in the dark pretty quickly.
When you need to fill a trough, you have to connect a pump to the water tank in order to pump the water through the hose to the pasture where the trough is.
If you want to make grilled cheese sandwiches, you have to wait until the generator is on before you start the electric skillet or you will be in the dark pretty quickly.
The Horses Have Landed
We have finally managed to bring the first of the livestock out to the new house. I cannot begin to explain how nice it is to look out the kitchen window and see our horses wandering around their pen. It has been too long without them.
Over the weekend, J and I put up a "temporary" fence of t-posts and hot wire so that we could bring them out here. We brought Tuscon and Honey. Belle is still at the other house, as she has no inclination to ever load in a trailer, regardless of the bribe or the threat. She will be going to a friend's house tomorrow, so we don't need to bring her out here anyway.
Over the weekend, J and I put up a "temporary" fence of t-posts and hot wire so that we could bring them out here. We brought Tuscon and Honey. Belle is still at the other house, as she has no inclination to ever load in a trailer, regardless of the bribe or the threat. She will be going to a friend's house tomorrow, so we don't need to bring her out here anyway.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Butchering Turkeys
We planned to butcher our five Broad-Breasted Bronze turkeys just before Thanksgiving so that we would not have to put them in the freezer. This meant giving the birds four or five days of rest between butcher and T-Day. Today (four days before Thanksgiving) was the day.
It was not a small affair. We had several people involved in the process. I bartered with our friend for the use of her plucker and scalder. She got a turkey out of the deal. I also sold the remaining three turkeys...most of which we delivered the following day. One family wanted to see the process, so they came out to our place for the event.
Because we are between farms (moving), we had to transport the birds out to the new house in two dog crates. They weren't hard to catch at all...I opened the crates and threw feed in. The turkeys ran into the crate without a second thought. There were a couple of chickens who got caught in the mix, but they managed to get out. We divided the birds up into the two crates and were on our way. They weren't too happy about the transport, but they settled down quick enough.
When we got to the new house, we set up the scalder and plucker. It was interesting to do this on the solar system...we used the generator to run the scalder as it takes 1500 watts. The plucker wasn't bad so we just plugged it in to the regular system. In addition to the plucker and scalder, we had a table with a butcher block, some knives and kitchen scissors. We also had a small garbage can with a bag. And off in the dirt, we had a chopping block.
We decided to use the 22 for the initial kill. I was concerned that the neck of the bird would be too difficult to get through with an ax. As much as I understand that I am killing an animal, I do not want the bird to suffer in its death. So I picked a bird out of the crate, brought it over to the dirt, and prepared for the shot.
We knew from the chickens that we needed to make sure to pin the wings down tight so that the bird didn't flap too hard after death and bruise the meat. One of the guys in the group offered to hold the bird. When the shot went off, the bird went wild. J and I were both yelling at the guy to hold onto the bird and he was standing there stunned. The bird, having been shot in the head, was dead but was also acting as a morbid sprinkler, dousing everyone within ten feet of it in a splattering of blood. J eventually grabbed the bird, but it had flailed around for quite awhile...bruising the meat pretty good. It was not a graceful event.
From there, we held the bird (still twitching) on the chopping block and with several not so graceful swings, the head was off. At this point, most of the blood was out of the bird (and all over us), but we held it a bit longer to bleed out the last of it onto the dirt.
Once it had slowed to a drip, we took the carcass up to the deck where the scalder and plucker awaited. We dipped it into the scalder, holding tight to the feet and swishing through the hot water to make sure it penetrated the feathers and loosened the pores holding the feathers. Counting slowly to 30, we moved it to the plucker.
Now, with chickens, all you need to do with the plucker is drop the bird in and watch the feathers fly. Not so with a turkey. We had everything running just right in the plucker - the water spraying, the drum rotating - but the minute that huge bird was dropped in, it stopped. Over and over again, the turkey would catch its feet in the space between the drum and the wall, stopping the drum from moving. Over and over again, J would reach in and pull the turkey free, allowing it to tumble again for a few more rotations. When the feet didn't get caught, the bird tended to stay in a single position, thus leaving large portions of the feathers intact. After about five minutes in the plucker, we called it good and hand-plucked the remaining feathers.
From the plucker, we went to the butcher table. This process was almost exactly like the chicken, only with larger tools. The gutting was the same, although we found that turkeys have two intestinal tracts that dead end into what looks like a dual colon system (I still need to look this up on the internet for confirmation). But when it came to cutting the legs and the neck, we needed something a bit larger than the kitchen scissors. We opted for a pair of anvil loppers. I did prefer doing the legs without the loppers, just to keep the bone from being cut into a sharp edge, but the neck would've been impossible without something pretty strong.
After cleaning the bird, we dropped the bird into a water bucket that had iced over that morning. It was perfect for cooling the birds quickly.
Once we had been through the process the first time, the other four went more smoothly. There were only a few variations on the theme. At one point, J was holding the turkey while it was shot. He lost his grip on the wings and I thought I'd just reach in and grab them for him. Um, not a good idea in hindsight. It was as if I had shoved my hands into a mixer and the attachment was beating my fingers to a pulp. I gave up quickly and spent several days after that with bruised fingers.
Another time, we had the eerie experience of the talking dead. One of the beheaded turkeys began calling out through its severed windpipe from the plucker...it would spin around and wail in this hollow voice. We had this happen with chickens a couple times, but the turkey was unearthly.
We also learned that giving the turkey about a minute and a half in the scalder and cutting off the feet ahead of time really helped with the success of the plucker.
We ended up with five cleaned, fresh, turkeys - one 17 pounder, one 19 pounder, one 20 pounder, and two 21 pounders. I sold two for $3.00 a pound and one for $2.00 a pound (only because I was afraid we might not sell it). In the end, we had more people interested in fresh, organic, free range turkeys than we had turkeys to sell.
My thoughts for next year...promote the turkeys before we purchase the poults. Ask for people to put a $5 deposit down to reserve a turkey for Thanksgiving at the time of poult purchase. This way, I have covered the cost of the poults and know approximately how many to buy. If people back out over the summer, they lose their five bucks and I gain a free turkey.
I also think I'd like to try a heritage breed next year. While the Broad-Breasted Bronze were easy-going brids and gave us a ton of meat, I think it's unreasonable to expect most families to want a 20 pound turkey for Thanksgiving. Ours barely fit in the oven! With the heritage breeds, we will get the same quality meat but at a smaller size - something closer to 15 pounds. I can also promote the "natural" breed as opposed to the meat specific breed. And they are prettier too.
It was not a small affair. We had several people involved in the process. I bartered with our friend for the use of her plucker and scalder. She got a turkey out of the deal. I also sold the remaining three turkeys...most of which we delivered the following day. One family wanted to see the process, so they came out to our place for the event.
Because we are between farms (moving), we had to transport the birds out to the new house in two dog crates. They weren't hard to catch at all...I opened the crates and threw feed in. The turkeys ran into the crate without a second thought. There were a couple of chickens who got caught in the mix, but they managed to get out. We divided the birds up into the two crates and were on our way. They weren't too happy about the transport, but they settled down quick enough.
When we got to the new house, we set up the scalder and plucker. It was interesting to do this on the solar system...we used the generator to run the scalder as it takes 1500 watts. The plucker wasn't bad so we just plugged it in to the regular system. In addition to the plucker and scalder, we had a table with a butcher block, some knives and kitchen scissors. We also had a small garbage can with a bag. And off in the dirt, we had a chopping block.
We decided to use the 22 for the initial kill. I was concerned that the neck of the bird would be too difficult to get through with an ax. As much as I understand that I am killing an animal, I do not want the bird to suffer in its death. So I picked a bird out of the crate, brought it over to the dirt, and prepared for the shot.
We knew from the chickens that we needed to make sure to pin the wings down tight so that the bird didn't flap too hard after death and bruise the meat. One of the guys in the group offered to hold the bird. When the shot went off, the bird went wild. J and I were both yelling at the guy to hold onto the bird and he was standing there stunned. The bird, having been shot in the head, was dead but was also acting as a morbid sprinkler, dousing everyone within ten feet of it in a splattering of blood. J eventually grabbed the bird, but it had flailed around for quite awhile...bruising the meat pretty good. It was not a graceful event.
From there, we held the bird (still twitching) on the chopping block and with several not so graceful swings, the head was off. At this point, most of the blood was out of the bird (and all over us), but we held it a bit longer to bleed out the last of it onto the dirt.
Once it had slowed to a drip, we took the carcass up to the deck where the scalder and plucker awaited. We dipped it into the scalder, holding tight to the feet and swishing through the hot water to make sure it penetrated the feathers and loosened the pores holding the feathers. Counting slowly to 30, we moved it to the plucker.
Now, with chickens, all you need to do with the plucker is drop the bird in and watch the feathers fly. Not so with a turkey. We had everything running just right in the plucker - the water spraying, the drum rotating - but the minute that huge bird was dropped in, it stopped. Over and over again, the turkey would catch its feet in the space between the drum and the wall, stopping the drum from moving. Over and over again, J would reach in and pull the turkey free, allowing it to tumble again for a few more rotations. When the feet didn't get caught, the bird tended to stay in a single position, thus leaving large portions of the feathers intact. After about five minutes in the plucker, we called it good and hand-plucked the remaining feathers.
From the plucker, we went to the butcher table. This process was almost exactly like the chicken, only with larger tools. The gutting was the same, although we found that turkeys have two intestinal tracts that dead end into what looks like a dual colon system (I still need to look this up on the internet for confirmation). But when it came to cutting the legs and the neck, we needed something a bit larger than the kitchen scissors. We opted for a pair of anvil loppers. I did prefer doing the legs without the loppers, just to keep the bone from being cut into a sharp edge, but the neck would've been impossible without something pretty strong.
After cleaning the bird, we dropped the bird into a water bucket that had iced over that morning. It was perfect for cooling the birds quickly.
Once we had been through the process the first time, the other four went more smoothly. There were only a few variations on the theme. At one point, J was holding the turkey while it was shot. He lost his grip on the wings and I thought I'd just reach in and grab them for him. Um, not a good idea in hindsight. It was as if I had shoved my hands into a mixer and the attachment was beating my fingers to a pulp. I gave up quickly and spent several days after that with bruised fingers.
Another time, we had the eerie experience of the talking dead. One of the beheaded turkeys began calling out through its severed windpipe from the plucker...it would spin around and wail in this hollow voice. We had this happen with chickens a couple times, but the turkey was unearthly.
We also learned that giving the turkey about a minute and a half in the scalder and cutting off the feet ahead of time really helped with the success of the plucker.
We ended up with five cleaned, fresh, turkeys - one 17 pounder, one 19 pounder, one 20 pounder, and two 21 pounders. I sold two for $3.00 a pound and one for $2.00 a pound (only because I was afraid we might not sell it). In the end, we had more people interested in fresh, organic, free range turkeys than we had turkeys to sell.
My thoughts for next year...promote the turkeys before we purchase the poults. Ask for people to put a $5 deposit down to reserve a turkey for Thanksgiving at the time of poult purchase. This way, I have covered the cost of the poults and know approximately how many to buy. If people back out over the summer, they lose their five bucks and I gain a free turkey.
I also think I'd like to try a heritage breed next year. While the Broad-Breasted Bronze were easy-going brids and gave us a ton of meat, I think it's unreasonable to expect most families to want a 20 pound turkey for Thanksgiving. Ours barely fit in the oven! With the heritage breeds, we will get the same quality meat but at a smaller size - something closer to 15 pounds. I can also promote the "natural" breed as opposed to the meat specific breed. And they are prettier too.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
The Last of the Piglets
Well, Mouse found her home today. I was thrilled to find someone who felt like she would work for them. The guy that bought her (for $50) had a sow that had only two babies in the litter. One baby died and he was trying to find a buddy for the baby so he could wean it. This baby is only four weeks old, but he says Mouse is actually a little bit smaller than he is (Mouse is almost 8 weeks old).
Ruby is now left with two - Frieghtliner and Oreo. These two girls were definitely the pick of the litter. They are the biggest, strongest, and most well-adjusted piglets of the bunch. Ruby seems to be doing ok. I'm watching her milk supply as I don't want her to be in pain with engorgement...but honestly, I'm not sure what I'd do if she were engorged. There is no way she is going to let me milk her.
Of the two piglets, we are hoping to find a replacement for Hammy. I will watch to see who has the best temperament, who fills out the fastest, and who has the nicest conformation. You want a pig with a long back and an "open" belly (where it looks like she could house a lot of piglets). The piglet that doesn't stay with us is earmarked for a friend who is buying her at butcher age.
Ruby is now left with two - Frieghtliner and Oreo. These two girls were definitely the pick of the litter. They are the biggest, strongest, and most well-adjusted piglets of the bunch. Ruby seems to be doing ok. I'm watching her milk supply as I don't want her to be in pain with engorgement...but honestly, I'm not sure what I'd do if she were engorged. There is no way she is going to let me milk her.
Of the two piglets, we are hoping to find a replacement for Hammy. I will watch to see who has the best temperament, who fills out the fastest, and who has the nicest conformation. You want a pig with a long back and an "open" belly (where it looks like she could house a lot of piglets). The piglet that doesn't stay with us is earmarked for a friend who is buying her at butcher age.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Battery Bank
My dad and J have been working together to get the solar system and battery bank up and running. It has meant a lot of long nights for J and a lot of phone conversations with Dad. I would like to include more detailed information about what they have done, just for those people who might be using this blog to figure out some of their own solar systems, but for the moment I'm going to write it how I understand it. Always feel free to contact me if you want all of the excel spreadsheets, scientific graphs, and research articles (thanks Dad!).
So, when we bought the house, the sellers added eight new deep cycle batteries to the battery bank. That's almost $1000 in batteries. We thought it was great that they were willing to do that. The thing is, they chained them into the system without removing the old batteries. Not so great.
The problem is that when you put old, tired batteries together with new batteries, the old batteries slowly kill the new ones. I'm sure that it isn't premeditated, but the old batteries can't help themselves. So when we would start up the generator (or when the solar panels were charging up the system), the old batteries would take all that they could handle and then they would say STOP. Well, the new batteries weren't getting what they needed to keep a good charge and were slowly getting weaker and weaker. Batteries don't like to sit without a charge...so the longer that the new batteries sat without a good charge, the worse they got.
The solution? Remove all of the old batteries and try to revive the new ones. It seems a little counterintuitive to remove half of your battery bank. But under these circumstances, the old batteries were holding something like a 60% charge and the new ones were doing very little, if anything. Now that we have removed the old batteries, the new ones can give us a lot more than 60%...thus, we are actually better off with half the number of batteries in the battery bank (under these circumstances). We will find other uses for the old batteries. They will work fine for the fence charger or other small projects around the property.
So, when we bought the house, the sellers added eight new deep cycle batteries to the battery bank. That's almost $1000 in batteries. We thought it was great that they were willing to do that. The thing is, they chained them into the system without removing the old batteries. Not so great.
The problem is that when you put old, tired batteries together with new batteries, the old batteries slowly kill the new ones. I'm sure that it isn't premeditated, but the old batteries can't help themselves. So when we would start up the generator (or when the solar panels were charging up the system), the old batteries would take all that they could handle and then they would say STOP. Well, the new batteries weren't getting what they needed to keep a good charge and were slowly getting weaker and weaker. Batteries don't like to sit without a charge...so the longer that the new batteries sat without a good charge, the worse they got.
The solution? Remove all of the old batteries and try to revive the new ones. It seems a little counterintuitive to remove half of your battery bank. But under these circumstances, the old batteries were holding something like a 60% charge and the new ones were doing very little, if anything. Now that we have removed the old batteries, the new ones can give us a lot more than 60%...thus, we are actually better off with half the number of batteries in the battery bank (under these circumstances). We will find other uses for the old batteries. They will work fine for the fence charger or other small projects around the property.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Five More Gone
We sold five more piglets today. That leaves us with three - Frieghtliner, Oreo, and Mouse. It's pretty funny to look at these two towering giants next to the scrawny little runt. We expected to end up with Mouse. Even though I priced her at $50 instead of $75, she just doesn't look that appealing. Especially next to her siblings.
I went to the house to meet the buyer this morning. I had a plan...and generally speaking, it worked the way I planned it. I knew that I could catch one piglet in Ruby's pen, but after that it would be game on and I really didn't feel like playing a game of chase with a 500 pound angry mother. So I poured a bunch of feed into the adjacent pen where Jaws and Hammy are.
The piglets run under the fence between the two pens all the time. We joke about how Ruby uses Jaws and Hammy as babysitters, but it's actually quite miraculous. Not all adult pigs will tolerate piglets that aren't theirs, especially when they are eating out of the adult pig's bowl. But Jaws and Hammy couldn't care less.
Once the piglets were all in the second pen eating, I went in and grabbed each one by the hind leg (one piglet at a time) and handed them over the fence to the buyer. He then put them into a large dog crate that we were letting him use to transport them home. The first two went off without a hitch. But when he opened the door to put the third piglet in, the other two bulldozed their way out. These piglets may only be two months old, but they are seriously strong creatures. It took all of my strength to hold the bigger ones by the hind legs and there is no way I could have held them around their middles.
So, once again, I caught the piglets and handed them over the fence. Ruby was upset, but it seemed to me that she was more upset about not having food than about what we were doing to the babies. When we had three in the first crate, we locked it. We put the other two in the second crate. There were a couple of narrow misses, but we managed to keep everyone in the cages once they were in.
We carried the crates to the back of the truck, he strapped them down, and away they went. Goodbye Angelina, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, Two, and 3-D.
I went to the house to meet the buyer this morning. I had a plan...and generally speaking, it worked the way I planned it. I knew that I could catch one piglet in Ruby's pen, but after that it would be game on and I really didn't feel like playing a game of chase with a 500 pound angry mother. So I poured a bunch of feed into the adjacent pen where Jaws and Hammy are.
The piglets run under the fence between the two pens all the time. We joke about how Ruby uses Jaws and Hammy as babysitters, but it's actually quite miraculous. Not all adult pigs will tolerate piglets that aren't theirs, especially when they are eating out of the adult pig's bowl. But Jaws and Hammy couldn't care less.
Once the piglets were all in the second pen eating, I went in and grabbed each one by the hind leg (one piglet at a time) and handed them over the fence to the buyer. He then put them into a large dog crate that we were letting him use to transport them home. The first two went off without a hitch. But when he opened the door to put the third piglet in, the other two bulldozed their way out. These piglets may only be two months old, but they are seriously strong creatures. It took all of my strength to hold the bigger ones by the hind legs and there is no way I could have held them around their middles.
So, once again, I caught the piglets and handed them over the fence. Ruby was upset, but it seemed to me that she was more upset about not having food than about what we were doing to the babies. When we had three in the first crate, we locked it. We put the other two in the second crate. There were a couple of narrow misses, but we managed to keep everyone in the cages once they were in.
We carried the crates to the back of the truck, he strapped them down, and away they went. Goodbye Angelina, Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dumb, Two, and 3-D.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Two Gone
Our friend picked up her two piglets today. I was sad to see them go, but I am glad that they are going to a good home. They will be well cared for and that makes for better meat in the end. Chou Chou was one of the piglets to go. She and Standard will be buddies from now on.
It's amazing...Chou Chou is almost as large as the average piglets now. Of course, she hasn't caught up to the biggest girls in the bunch, but it has gotten harder to pick her out of the crowd. I'm so glad that just a little extra was all she needed. We stopped bottle feeding her about two weeks ago. She's been doing very well, holding her own and eating lots of grain.
Now we just need to find homes for the other six.
It's amazing...Chou Chou is almost as large as the average piglets now. Of course, she hasn't caught up to the biggest girls in the bunch, but it has gotten harder to pick her out of the crowd. I'm so glad that just a little extra was all she needed. We stopped bottle feeding her about two weeks ago. She's been doing very well, holding her own and eating lots of grain.
Now we just need to find homes for the other six.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Leaking Pipe
Last night I kept hearing this sound. It was like the whirring sound you hear in the walls when the power is on. Only in our house, there isn't much in the way of power running at night. So this sound was out of place.
I mentioned it to J and he investigated. We decided that it was localized to the area around our bathtub and toilet. We suspected water so J turned off the water to the house. The sound disappeared. Hmmm...so J decided to look under the house. When he did, he found that the bellypan under the bathroom had been cut and then duct-taped back in place. He removed the tape and a rush of water came out.
Someone had tried to fix a leak in one of the pipes. Only it didn't look like it was working. They had obviously cut out the broken pipe, but instead of replacing it with a new length of pipe, they used several couplings in a row to span the gap. This meant that there were at least six new joints where water could leak. And that's just what it was doing. When J turned the water on, the leak was spraying out under the house. We guess that in the last three weeks we have probably lost 1500 gallons to the leak.
J fixed the leak properly and the problem was solved. So glad to have a hubby that can fix things. A plumber would charge a heck of a trip charge to come out here!
I mentioned it to J and he investigated. We decided that it was localized to the area around our bathtub and toilet. We suspected water so J turned off the water to the house. The sound disappeared. Hmmm...so J decided to look under the house. When he did, he found that the bellypan under the bathroom had been cut and then duct-taped back in place. He removed the tape and a rush of water came out.
Someone had tried to fix a leak in one of the pipes. Only it didn't look like it was working. They had obviously cut out the broken pipe, but instead of replacing it with a new length of pipe, they used several couplings in a row to span the gap. This meant that there were at least six new joints where water could leak. And that's just what it was doing. When J turned the water on, the leak was spraying out under the house. We guess that in the last three weeks we have probably lost 1500 gallons to the leak.
J fixed the leak properly and the problem was solved. So glad to have a hubby that can fix things. A plumber would charge a heck of a trip charge to come out here!
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