Buttercup and Miss Petunia Sparkles

We've had a pretty busy spring/early summer.  I guess it mostly still feels like spring because it has been so unseasonably cool.  We were so dry for so long that now that it won't stop raining, I feel dirty for wishing it would dry out a little, but we are soaked through and through.  It has rained almost every day or every other day for nearly 2 weeks with rain in the forecast nearly every day of the next 7 days.  Anyway, here is some of the momentous things that have happened.

Our oldest daughter graduated 8th grade.  Yup, this is her entire class.  She's the short one, of course.  She won some faculty voted citizen award thingy.  I don't remember what it was, but I remember being very proud... 

This may not qualify as momentous, but I finally figured out how to grow asparagus. We have it in SPADES! Herself made a Cheesy Asparagus Tart.  It was amazing!  If that sounds weird to you, I get that; it sounded weird to me as well, but it was really good.  So cheesy, creamy, savory. She never ceases to amaze me with a wildly diverse and yet healthy menu... Who would think of such a thing?

This was truly momentous; Buttercup had her (and our) first calf!  She was born on 5-15-15 without any problems.  We voted on her name and came up with Miss Petunia Sparkles.

Miss Petunia Sparkles is typical in that, as a bottle calf, she is very friendly and endearing.  This is a shot of our second daughter brushing her.  Miss Petunia Sparkles doesn't give a toot about being brushed, she only thinks about getting fed.

Milking Buttercup has really proven to be a challenge for us.  In some ways, it seems a lot easier than I expected, and in other ways harder.  She has problems with one teat not producing that we haven't figured out, and are pretty worried about it.  But after growing up with beef cattle, her patience with me is just amazing!  She just lets me do my thing back there, and mostly waits compliantly until I am completely done before trying to move on.  She has been producing about 3.5 gallons, twice a day, and just out of 3 teats!  Herself has been experimenting with yogurt, cottage cheese, and pretty soon cheese. 

Is she not the cutest thing ever?  I was a little disappointed that she was a heifer, because now I'm tempted to keep her; if it was a steer, we would have butchered it once it got "of age."

Buttercup in the cover crop; I thought it was just too picturesque.

Sometimes we aren't able to drink the milk for various reasons, like if it gets contaminated with manure, etc, or we just can't drink it or use it fast enough.  We just turn it into bacon; the hogs don't mind if its a little "off", they go nuts!

Our second oldest is our farm-girl!  She loves this stuff, and she loves Miss Petunia Sparkles!  She feeds her almost exclusively, and I have even got scolded once for doing the morning milking without waking her up.

Sometimes farming is pretty dirty work, though.  Here is Oldest and I after Buttercup majorly  splattered us cow poo.  When that happens, you just got to grin and wear it!

Butcher day

Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, was this little piggy's butcher day.  This was the first time that I have slaughtered a hog with the intention of butchering it.  I did it twice last year, with pigs half this one's size, and just cooked the whole hog. This year, even my smoker trailer couldn't have accommodated this whole hog; it weighed in at 340 pounds!!!  That is around a third larger than the average butcher weight of 225.  He was remarkably not very fatty; he was in great shape from spending most of his life with plenty of room to run around.  I had friend James Alongi along to help, and good thing, too.  Jason Nather also swung by to chat and wound up elbow deep in pig blood; he couldn't help himself from jumping in.

Below is the carcass, ready to be reduced into primal cuts.

One side of pork belly:

I know this is a funny picture; but I included it, because it is me illustrating out loud how stinking heavy just one of  these hams were.  It was nearly everything I had to haul it across the room.

My kiddos, on the job! Pulling all the little scraps off the bones for the "grind."

Bacons and Hams brining away in the fridge, getting ready for the smoker next week.

We did something different this year, Wifey even got on board with it.  We rendered lard!  The by-productof making lard is cracklings, which I ordinarily love, but I didn't feel so great when I woke up this morning, so when I walked into the butcher room to check on them; I about lost my cookies.  The smell of the fat rendering overnight in a little room was a little overpowering for someone who is sick.

And of course, the lard, gelling nicely.  

Anyway, this proved to be a bit more difficult than I expected, but in a sense, I expected that, and didn't care.  I know I get in over my head on most of my projects, but I usually find my way out of them okay...

a horrible place to wake up...

Heh; is there anything else really to say?  So, I'll say it again; Heh.  I guess on a chilly November night, one might be looking for somebody to snuggle with, but really?