Today was the opposite!  We have a number of large spring cleaning projects we will be tackling in the coming weeks, the most pressing of which was the barn.  For some reason, our animals were not big fans of their hay this year, and more than the normal amount ended up on the floor of the barn.  We think we have figured out the problem and next year we should be fine, but it made the barn clean out extra labor intensive.  Thank goodness Mike is a master on the tractor.  In the short video below you can see the technique he mastered.  He would push the waste materials forward, then drag them backwards to break them up before lifting them and taking them to our compost heap. Looks like we will have more than enough fertilizer for the garden next year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNROa1vBIT8

We got 12 Rhode Island Red pullets (all females) and 4 Buff Orpingtons in a straight-run of both males and females.

The Reds are exceptionally good layers and are very tolerant of New England winters.  The Orpingtons are one of our favorite breeds, but slow and friendly and thus susceptible to local predators.  We got a straight-run because we hope to get some roosters out of the mix.

For the next week or so, we’ve set them up on a storage container in the house.  We’ve move them outside when they outgrow this space, which won’t be too long.

These guys are all for egg laying or roosters.  Our meat birds will be coming later.

Last year, January 27, 2011. The ducks and geese were keeping one section of the pond clear, and the snow was piled 2 feet high.

This year, January 16, 2012. Our pond only froze completely within the last week or so (last year it was frozen by mid-December) and there’s not a bit of snow to be seen.

And because the kids got new ice skates from their grand parents for Christmas, we went out to test the skates on the ice today at lunchtime.

*I wrote this post on January 16th.  Wouldn’t you know it, it ended up snowing overnight into the 17th.  It’s not all that impressive, just a couple slushy inches of snow, but our drought is officially over.

Happy New Year!  The past two weeks have been pretty intense for our family, a fitting end to a very intense year.  All is well, but does anyone else feel like they need a vacation to recover from their vacation?  I have been enjoying reading all of the many posts around the blog-i-verse that are all about recapping 2011 and setting goals for 2012.  As much as I want to do one as well, I just don’t think I have it in me.  So, while I spend the next week cleaning, cooking, and getting our lives back to something resembling normal, please enjoy a big smooch from all of us via Big Momma, one of our two Dexter cows.  When we first got her she was quite to bossy lady, but dare I say that she has begun to mellow just a bit and was so excited to see us back home that all she wanted to do was kiss all over us? Or, maybe I still smell like molasses from the million, billion cookies we have baked recently, your guess is as good as mine

PS-A little package of farm-made soaps and salves to the first commenter to correctly ID the quote that is the title to this post.

Yesterday we butchered our six New Holland White turkeys.  It was a glorious fall day so we decided to work outside in the sunshine by the kids treehouse instead of at the grow tunnel.  We were able to get through all six turkeys in about 2.5 hours with both of us working together.  For the first time since we moved here, all three kids were big enough to play around us and/or help us, which was really great.

We started this summer with 17 turkeys.  We lost a couple as chicks, then a huge sudden rainstorm this summer took out five poults (yes, they really are stupid and unfortunately drowned before we could move them to a different spot, despite having part of their pen covered).  When we started letting them out to free range, we were down to ten.  One drowned in a bucket right after Hurricane Irene and we lost three to the fox.  So, not the best ratio, and we hope to do better next year.

We raised New Holland Whites this year, a very popular heritage breed.  They are smaller than commercial turkeys, but supposedly very tasty.  Prior to butchering, we put them in holding crates with just water so they can empty their digestive system as much as possible.  We do not have a killing cone, so this year we used a sheet with a corner cut out and some duct tape to provide a secure and sturdy support for them.  We slid them into the case then taped it closed.  We then hung them upside down from a beam.  Just like when we butcher chickens, we slit the jugular to allow them to bleed out a good bit before cutting their heads off.  Once they have ceased flapping, we scald them in a 30 gallon galvanized trash can that we sit on top of the heating unit of a turkey fryer.  We found that heating the water to about 140F and putting in some dish soap works best.  It is works well to slosh the turkeys up and down a few times, pull them out, and repeat this until the feathers wipe off easily, usually about three times.  Then we pluck them, submerge them into ice water, and gut them.  Once this has been completed, we sit them in the fridge over night.  The next day or so, we clean them thoroughly, making sure to remove all feathers and tidy up loose skin around the neck or body cavity opening.  Then, they get pieced or left whole, depending on our needs for them, wrapped in plastic, and placed in the freezer!  It is a pretty efficient process and it will only get easier as our gets get older and become more helpful!

We can’t wait to have a wonderful home-grown turkey this Thanksgiving and hope you and your family are able to enjoy the day with some locally grown food as well!

For the last several years our pigs have been breaking out of their original paddocks and free ranging for their last week or two (last year almost a whole month). They tend to turn sod, eat the grass and love to search our woods for acorns. Sometimes it makes us stressed out when they break loose (they never wander too far), but at the same time it’s somewhat fitting and a good fall tradition (we consider it own own version of pannage).

Flip over to Flickr to see more pictures of our free range pigs.

Enjoy a short clip while you’re here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCNINBgOWDk

Our pigs after a mud bath

Some signs of the times. With pork prices spiking (“like copper a few years ago and gold”) thieves have taken to stealing pigs.

Here’s a story from Minnesota that has been reported in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal:

For the moment, as worried hog producers around the region pledged to strengthen their security systems and considered offering rewards to solve the string of cases, investigators in Iowa and Minnesota, which are among the nation’s top hog producers, were left with a tangle of complicated questions.

Was this all the work of a single roving band of pig thieves, or were they isolated incidents with separate culprits, all driven by the high price of pigs (which are going for about $200 apiece right now, and were even higher last month)?

And who would have enough experience with 270-pound pigs (a group that would not, for instance, simply march out of their barns with a whistle and a “come here, boy”) and sufficient equipment (at least a large livestock trailer) to pull off such heists?

We usually raise a couple pigs a year, so we’re not at the scale of these guys (some would say “factory” farms), but it’s still disheartening when people steal someone’s livelihood.

“My guess is that they’re bacon and pork chops already.”

We’ve enjoyed our pigs this year.  They go to the butcher in a week, so they, too, will soon be bacon and pork chops.

I had seen this scarf tutorial at the Purl Bee last month and really wanted to make something similar.  A few years back, I had been given some oat colored llama fiber.   I had cleaned it then sent it to the mill to be spun into yarn.  It is SOOO soft and I had been waiting for the perfect project.  I decided to use hand spun yarn from our sheep for the colored portions of the scarf. A few days before Irene hit the Northeast, I dyed two 4 oz bumps of Leicester Longwool roving (from our two ewes Clementine and Clarabelle) a nice shade of orange and marigold yellow, respectively, using Greener Shades dye.

During the week without power, I spun and plied the roving into yarn.  It felt amazing to be able to craft the old fashioned way with no use of electricity.  The colors were so vibrant and I couldn’t wait to work on my scarf.

With all of the yarn ready, I cast on.  I used the Purl Bee tutorial as more of a “suggestion”.  I used 40 inch Addi Turbos in size 7 and cast on 415 stitches.  I knit for an odd number of rows with each color, always alternating in the oat colored llama between the orange and yellow.  I knit mostly in the car or while outside with the kids.  It knit up very quickly and before  knew it, I was binding off.  My scarf ended up being about 8 inches wide and pretty darn long, likely somewhere between 100 and 120 inches.  I haven’t measured the length to be sure.  I added on fringe at the end because I like the way it looks and feels.

Unfortunately, we are in the middle of a tropical air flow and it is super humid, so no pics of me wearing the scarf.  It is super warm and soft and I can’t wait to wear it this fall.  The sheep were shorn this past weekend, so looks like there will be no shortage of wooly projects to keep me busy this winter!