Baa Baa Black Sheep

We went and picked up our little black lamb today.  When we got him home, the cows were sooooo nosy, they wanted to check him out.  The two sheep didn’t seem to care, so our little lamb has decided to hang with the cows and did so all day.  He is very cute, but like all animals destined for the freezer, once he hits the “teenager” stage, I am sure we will be happy to see him go.

Yesterday when I went down to check on all of the chicks, I noticed the ducks and geese were filthy.  They are “fowl” after all, but they were really gross.  We took them all upstairs for a spa treatment, we washed them off and the Jackson and I used the hair dryer to dry them before bringing them back down.  Mike made a rally nice wire mesh floor so that they are not sitting in their bedding which they instantly soak the second it is put down.  They are much nicer once they are out on the grass and pond, we may do one last set of ducks and geese so I can get a few more breeds but then hopefully they will raise their own young and our basement will be a peep and quack free zone.

I also butchered six chickens today.  Last night Jackson and I weighted a few to see how they were doing, and man oh man are they big.  They are ready to butcher as “fryers” when they reach 4 pounds, ours were already 6!  We have 7 left (after selling some to a friends) and we will do those next week.  Tomorrow I will piece them out, not sure what I want to do with them, I really hate plucking, so these will definitely be skinless, but I may grind them up to make chicken sausage and chicken patties using some of the pork fat from the freezer for added moisture. 

Tomorrow will be a catch up day and then we hope to till and do some planting over the weekend.  Our fruit trees and bushes are looking good and our new grass seed has sprouted.  Things are starting to get very green around here which is good.

Enjoy!