Month: July 2012

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15 Years Ago Today

15 years ago today it was wet.  Warm but also wet.  Today we are something like 12-18″ behind on rainfall.  Isn’t it interesting the cycles nature goes through?  Averages average out.

Like the rainfall, our marriage has seen various patterns.  There are times when it’s easy to be in love with her.  There are times when it’s work for both of us.  We have been through the worse of “better or worse” but the average is pretty high.

I’m very thankful that she married me 15 years ago today.  My, how things have changed.

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Chicken Processing Knives

I got an email from a reader who corresponds with me fairly regularly.  In the email he was sharing what is going on as he starts.  He has a 3 piglets in Premier fence and 101 chicks.  He asked a series of questions including this one:

What tools do you recommend for the dirty work, knives, shears, etc?

We use victorinox knives.  A boning knife for killing, evisceration and foot removal and a 6″ skinner for cut-ups.  As much as I like that victorinox skinner I have an old Dexter knife that is better.  I think Salatin uses a smaller poultry knife for evisceration but we just use the boning knife throughout.  We originally got this from Grady’s post on knives.

You also need a good cleaver.  I said a good cleaver, not a cheap cleaver.  I had a neighbor who gave me a collection of knives and saws.  He was in his ’80’s and his parents had been butchers.  I’ve got some pretty neat stuff.  My cleaver is an antique…and it’s awesome.  If you can’t find an old one, buy a high-carbon steel one.  Don’t skimp here.  You’ll need this when you butcher your pig and quality matters when you’re splitting your hog.

I’m still looking for a good set of game shears.  A friend suggested Cutco but I haven’t really looked yet.  I just use my cleaver.  The friend was helping me clean a rabbit at the time and swears by game shears.

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School’s Out For Summer

It’s time for our planned summer break.  The broilers are all in freezers or customer bellies.  Just pullets and a few turkeys on pasture.  Our daily workload has dropped significantly.  Now all we have to do is feed and water in the morning, milk the goats and just check everybody a couple of times and we’re set.  Well, we have to soak the hog wallow a couple of times too.  This accomplishes two things; drains the hot water out of the 100 yard long hose so they will have cool water to drink again and gives them a cool place to pig it up.

Now, when I get up before the sun I don’t have to spend 15-20 minutes moving chicken tractors, feeding and watering.  I just open the chicken house door, feed there, water the rabbits, shower and head to the office.

We have waited all spring for this day.  We partied like it was 1999…well we watched the new True Grit and ate pizza after the kids went to bed.  Now we’ll tick off the days till we get our last batch of broilers mid-August.  We’re thinking about scrapping our big order for fall Cornish Cross chicks and ordering a variety of alternative broilers just to try them side by side.  We thought Kosher King, S&G Heritage White, Freedom Rangers and Moyer’s K-22.  Let me know what you think in the comments section.  Also, give me suggestions for alt. broilers just in case I am missing a good option.

Just a side note, I took a hog panel off of one of the hoop chicken tractors to give the pullets a bit of extra shade.  They seemed to appreciate the shade, I appreciate how many different ways I can use those chicken tractors.

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Quarts of Berries, Gallons of Lotion

We have been picking dewberries for days now.  They are not quite the same as raspberries.  Aunt Marion set me straight on which berry is which.  I keep a volunteer patch near the beach at the pond.  Apparently I keep poison ivy there too.  We are beginning to cultivate this volunteer stand…meaning I mowed through the middle of them last fall separating the brambles so we could really get in there.  This year I’ll mulch them and yank the poison ivy.  Pretty good picking for so little rain.

You know the best part of picking berries?  Eating them.  Most of our berries go to the freezer for later though.  We get about a quart a day which we promptly wash, spread on a cookie sheet and freeze.  Then we use a spatula to pry them up and pop them into a freezer bag and use them later for smoothies or forget them till spring and mix them 50/50 with strawberries in jam.  Maybe toss in a couple of mulberries too.  Mmmmm.

So, trying to put a positive spin on everything, you know the best part of poison ivy?  Hot water.  It feels great.  Soon the poison ivy will clear up and we’ll be left to enjoy the fruits of our labor.