White Christmas 2010

We got a RARE snow on Christmas Day and the day after. 1963 was the last time we had a white Christmas. Snow is always a treat but to get it on Christmas is special indeed.


Some years we don't even get a snow; but to get enough to build a snowman is rare indeed.

It's Finished!

Melissa has been working on a quilt and today it is finished! It looks great! Check it out!

Makin' Bacon!

Last year we grew out a pig and had her processed but we chose to make our own bacon. We made up our rub from salt, brown sugar, and honey.

And then we rubbbbbed it in!

Then we bagged it up and refrigerated it for seven days; turning it each day. Then you take it out, rinse it off good and let it sit uncovered for 24 hours in the fridge and you got bacon! We cut it into one pound pieces and froze it. We got ~16 pounds of bacon from our pig.

Stud

This is our Hereford Bull, Samson, or Obeast as the girls lovingly refer to him. He is a fine specimen and gets along good with our girls. We have the cows in the pasture closer to the house so we get to see them more. He was so posed for this picture I couldn't resist!

New Residents

We picked up these two porkers on Sunday afternoon up in Pickens county. They are a cross between a Hampshire and a Yorkshire. The black and white one (Templeton) is a barrow (a fixed male) and the pink one (Buttermilk) is a female. They are VERY tame piglets. The kids are having a great time with them. They were born on October 1st so they should be ready for the freezer by March 1st or a little later. Our thinking is that we are going to grow them both out and sell one and see how much of the cost that covers for both of them. In a perfect scenario,
the profit from one would cover the feed and processing for the other and you end up with a free pig in the freezer. According to estimates, we would have to raise 7 pigs and sell 6 of them to have a totally free pig. We'll see how two goes for now.

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Have a blessed day counting your blessings and enjoying your friends and family. I hope your house is smelling as good as ours does. We cooked one of the hams from the pig we raised last winter and it looks and smells great. Of course I had to break into the browning bag and do a little "quality control" and it tastes pretty good as well. Only a few hours now until the festivities begin. Friends, Family and food. A great trio for my favorite Holiday.

I went deer hunting for a few minutes this morning. I looked to the west as it got daylight and it looked cloudy-dark and then it started to gently rain so I decided to head on back to the house. Hopefully I'll get another deer or two before the season ends.

We hope to pick up another piglet this weekend. I've been talking to a guy who has some that should be ready to go. we'll get some pictures of that and some other stuff around here we need to catch up on and put them up this weekend hopefully.

Meat Chickens - Cut, Scald, Pluck, Clean

A couple of weeks ago it was time to process our meat chickens. This was our first ever attempt at growing chickens to eat. We have had layers for egg production for a few years now but this was totally different. Layers don't usually lay their first eggs until they are around 17 weeks old. These girls were ready to be processed at 7 weeks! So it's a fairly short deal start to finish.

The first step was to put them upside down into the cone and slit their Carotid arteries so they just slowly pass out and die as opposed to chopping their head off and then they, yes they really do run around like a chicken with it's head cut off! Next after they have peacefully slipped off into never never land they go into some 140 degree water for 60 seconds to loosen the feathers. Then they go to the plucking table where the feathers are removed.

Next the head and feet are cut off and the evisceration(removing the innards) begins. The livers and gizzards are put into a separate bag and the chicken is ready for the freezer or frying pan.

We were painfully slow as this was the first time but we got faster as we went along. Next spring we will get more broilers and hopefully be even faster yet.

Eating chicken that you grow yourself; that you feed healthy food; that you don't feed antibiotics and hormones is a very rewarding and delicious experience.