pictures of pasture for Jonathon

Beans, beans, and more beans...

Those of you who know me best, know that not all of my decisions are 100% reasoned out.  But when I'm being generous to myself, I refer to myself as "Impulsive". I was perusing the aisles of Sam's Club the other day, and saw a 40 pound bag of beans.  "Hey," I says to myself, "I could can those, and they would last forever!"  What I should have said to myself would have sounded a lot more like: "Keep walking, Jack, you've got enough projects!", but alas, in the cart the beans went.

Anyway, this is what 40 pounds of beans canned looks like: (Who knew? They SWELL!)

At final count, there were about 120 pints, and I think 21 quarts of beans.  I had been planning building fence all weekend, and still did get a lot done, but I just squeezed it in between trips to the shed to check the canner.  I also had some good and cheerful helpers, though!  Couldn't have got it all done without my kiddos...

in which I chronicle the advent of a bunch of chicks!

This winter, I actually did a lot of research to figure out which incubator (I hate doing research, I'm much more impulsive than that) and came up with the GQF 1588 Genesis Hova-Bator Incubator. If you like, you can see it on Amazon here. We are really impressed by it; we put in 15 chicken eggs and 5 duck eggs, and all 15 chicken eggs hatched! From what we have read, a 100% hatching is pretty rare.

We even had cousins here for the advent; my girls were babysitting them so that my Brother in Law could help me build fence. My nephew, the boy in the red and blue, who just turned 4, said excitedly "They are really turning into Fluffy-Fluffs!!"

The duck eggs still won't hatch until next Saturday; they take 28 days, instead of 21. After that, we will put in our turkey eggs we have been collecting from our turkey hen. We currently have 14, but are hoping for more.  Below are some more pictures of hatching; we had to actually help the very first one that "pipped" through his shell.  All his little buddies had hatched and he still wasn't able to break through because the membrane had hardened around and on him.  I managed to pull it off of him and he seems to be doing well.  They looks so dead-like when they are first born; they wobble about 4 steps and just crash and fall flat and sleep for about 2 minutes, and then repeat that over and over.

This is the guy that got stuck...

Alive! But just barely, it seems.  They fluff up quickly under the lamp, though.

In which I chronicle the advent of a bottle lamb

Last Sunday (01/19/2014), I came home from church and inspected Dottie, our new mama ewe, her 5 day old lamb.  I noticed right off that Dottie obviously didn't feel good, so after consulting my dad, I raced off to town and bought penicillin and wormer in the hopes of saving her. It did nothing for her and she died later that evening.  Herself and I caught the little lamb and brought her inside the shed and put her in the crate; I had some milk re-placer that I used for the hogs so stuck a feeding tube down her throat and gave her some just to keep her in calories until I could get some real formula for her.

After that, I spent hours trying to get her to take the nipple from a bottle; it was quite foreign to her, and the milk just trickled in for several days until Wednesday, when she truly figured it out.  Now that she knows where the milk comes from, she knows who her mama really is: ME!

Christmas break, part 2

It is soo nice when there is nasty weather around Christmas time, it is a naturally slow time for us, and it turns into a VERY slow time for us! (work wise)  I get to soak up some days at home, get some stuff done, hang out with my kids, etc.

Here are my "Curly-Cuteys;" rag curls are a Christmas eve tradition by now, done by family friend and hair specialist Haley.

Below is our first turkey butchering; the oldest boy and I raised them, fed them, and butchered them together.  He did a really great job of being responsible for them when they were alive and was super interested and helpful in the butchering and the processing of this first one as well.

I smoked it last night, but alas, it did not turn out that great.  It was pretty dry; I don't know what I did wrong... But it may have been a little tough naturally; his name was "Blinky" because he could only see out of one eye, so maybe he had a hard time foraging.

Christmas Break 2013

During this break from school, with all the kids being around and without as much direction as they are accustomed to, I felt that they needed some encouragement to get along with each other, as direction-less children often lead to conflict.  We packed up and headed to Panera Bread for breakfast that first Saturday morning, and they suffered through Daddy lecturing on and on and on and on and on about being Generous, about being Selfless, but mostly about being Respectful Of Each Other.  I told them that any time we hear angry yelling, hitting, or arguing, that was an indication of 2 people handling conflict incorrectly.  The correct was is to state: "It feels you are being disrespectful toward me because..."  To which the answer is ALWAYS: "I'm sorry that you feel that I was being disrespectful; I will stop doing...", even if they feel that they weren't being disrespectful.
The reason for that is because the point I'm trying to get across to these kids is that it is really about how our actions make the other people in our lives feel, not our intentions.  I know, this seems a little elemental, but in our house there seems to be a lot of conflict. We look at friends and family who have similar sized and aged kids as we, and are rather amazed at the lack of conflict in their home.  I don't understand this; is it me? Or is it just my DNA structure that I have passed down to my kids, the DNA that doesn't mind conflict?  Anyway, this is my experiment, it seems to be going well the first 5-6 days.  The nice thing of it is, the lack of structured days allows those who don't catch the vision to sit in their chairs quietly for a period of time, or in extreme cases, in their room for extended lengths of time.  We are usually busy enough that neither one of these two options are very viable...
Mostly, I posted this to look back and see; to be able to remind myself of doing this, and to gauge the effectiveness.  At some point in time, my kids will read it and roll their eyes and say "Oh yeah, I remember THAT Christmas break!"

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...