Love Is In The Air

   Huck and Tom have been in rut for the last couple of months and the time has come to put them to good use. The smell hasn't been that bad around the farm, but when you get close to them you can really smell them. Along with the musk smell that comes from their glands, they also urinate all over their front legs and face. This must really turn on the ladies.
   A doe goes into heat every 21 days and last for about two days. Sometimes they are subtle about it and sometimes not so much. Montana is one of those unsubtle does, she yells at you when you go out to see her and when you let her out she runs right to the buck pen and yells at you to let her in. Sally and sugar will just go up to the buck pen and shake their tail back and forth as to say " I'm ready". Katy was a little more difficult, she didn't have much signs at all other then standing next to the buck pen.
   If you put a doe in with a buck and she is not in heat, she will have none of his antics and start head butting him. But, when there is magic in the air and the time is right, she will stand still and let the buck do he is job. So far all the does are breed and we are waiting to see if they cycle again. If all the does took, then we should have a bunch of babies running around the farm early May.

Vegetable Garden 2013

    With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to share this year’s harvest. We had some successes like the carrots and broccoli; we also had some failures like the squashes and tomatoes. We did get some squashes and tomatoes but they didn’t do as well as last year. One of the problems we had were insects on the squash plants. By the time we got them under control, half of the plants were gone and I had to replant. Every year we learn something new and get better at it.

Broccoli
   This was our first year growing broccoli and we couldn’t be more pleased with results. I had a big spot in the garden were I planted tomatoes last year and instead of have to can bags and bags of tomatoes we decided to plant broccoli. I planted seeds directly in the ground and not starter plants. The broccoli grew well like this and made it easier on the roots not being transplanted. The first harvest we ended up with a decent crop, what we didn’t expect was how well the plants did after the first harvest. It seemed like every time I went out to the garden, I was bring back a bag of broccoli sprouts from the off shoots. Once fall came, I pulled some plants up every day to feed to the pigs. None of the plant went to waste, we even tried baking the leaves like kale chips and they were good.

Carrots

    In the early spring I planted the seeds directly in the ground. I’m not sure if I watered them enough or what, but most of them didn't pop up. I sent a email to Johnny Seeds, where I got the seeds, about my problem and they sent another packet of seeds to me free and without questions. That’s why I like dealing with local companies. The second time seemed to work a lot better; of course I made sure to water them better too. Once fall came Miss E and Mr. T helped me with the harvest of the carrots and the beets. They had a blast pulling the carrots out of the ground and making a big pile for them to admire. We ended up with about 125 lbs. of carrots. They kids love eating fresh raw carrots from our own garden.

Basil
   Basil was the only herb we tried growing this year. I tried making my own plants inside but failed due to lack of sun light. Luckily for us, a friend of ours had a bunch of extra plants and was able to give us some. We grew them in one of those patio boxes that holds water on the bottom. The plants did ok, but could have done better if they had more sun light. Mr. T helped with the harvest, we would have been lost if not for his dump truck. We store the leaves in the freezer. We found that this is the best way to keep the flavor strong.

Potatoes
   I planted the potatoes in the same place as last year, and just like last year we had the same great results. I was able to keep the bugs of the plants long enough for them to grow well. I tried not mounding the plants, and didn’t notice that much difference in the ones that were mounded. When harvest time comes everyone gets involved. All the kids put on their boots and gloves, and come out to help. As I dig up the ground they look for the little buried treasures and put them in the bucket. It’s a lot of fun. We ended up with about 150 lbs. of potatoes this year.

Lettuce
    This year I tried a type of lettuce called Tropicana from Johnny Seeds. I loved the way they came out. I planted the seeds directly in the ground and just watered. It’s a leaf lettuce that grows in a tight bunch and does very well here. I tried growing them in the spring, summer, and fall; and they grew well in every season. We’ll continue to grow them next year.










Garlic

   We tried growing garlic in old tires this year and it worked well. I bought some hard neck garlic from a local produce shop and put them in the tires with some dirt last fall. As spring came the garlic started to grow. Once the main stalk turned brown we pulled up the garlic. Each plant had five big cloves on them. It worked out so well that I made a spot in the garden to plant some of the cloves in the ground this fall. We’ll see how much we get next year.













Peppers
   When I went to the nursery to buy some jalapeño plants, I came across some habanero pepper plants and decided to buy them along with the jalapeños. They both did well in the garden and were able to harvest a lot of peppers. I tried making some pepper jelly with the habaneros and even though it came out well, the smell it made in the kitchen was way too hot to bare. I pickled the jalapeños and gave away the rest of the habaneros at work. They are way too hot to do anything with.

Pigs' Last Day on the Farm

I loaded the pigs on the trailer this morning and gave them a ride to the butcher. I'm happy to report that it was very uneventful, unlike last year. I didn't feed them the day before, so when I put a pile of apples and some grain in the back of the trailer all but one of them walked right in. The last one needed a little nudging with a piece of plywood and of coarse, she was the biggest one. I'm trying a different butcher this year and so far I'm impressed with the service and price. We can't wait tell Friday when I pick them up.

Fried Apples

   There is nothing like taking a healthy food and making it completely unhealthy. We were able to pick some apples at Uncle K and Aunt V's house this weekend and wanted to try making something other than apple pies and applesauce. Inspired by our trip to Legoland this summer, we looked up the same recipe they use for fried apples.

   You take some apples and peel them, then slice them up into fries. Then you toss them in corn starch and put them in the deep fryer, my favorite kitchen device. After a couple minutes, take them out and sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar mixture. Then enjoy them. 

I can’t say what they taste like cool because they never make it that long.

Cookin' Roosters

   This spring we hatched our own chicks in hopes of replenishing the chickens that eventually die or get eaten by predators. We thought the ratio between hens and roosters would be around 50%, but it seems like we have a lot more rooster than hens. Every time we think “that hen will be a neat to have in the flock” the hen turns out to be a rooster. We only need one rooster in the flock, and only one rooster crowing all the time. So what to do with all these roosters?

   There was a time when thinking about butchering a rooster was out of the question, but after raising meat birds and other animals its gotten easier to deal with. The reality is that our family is going to eat meat; it’s hard enough getting the kids to eat as it is and taking meat away would be even harder. If we are going to eat meat I would rather know that the animal lived a good life and had a quick death, not lived in a confined little area and never seen the light of day. It’s not easy to do, but some animals are born on our farm and some animals die here. I don’t think I would want it any other way.

    I only butchered two of our roosters, I’m waiting tell the rest get older to make sure they are roosters. I also did two roosters for someone that I sold six chicks to this spring. Someone else heard I was butchering roosters and asked if I would do four of his roosters as well. We ended up with eight roosters here waiting to be butchered, that’s a lot of crowing going on. I butchered them the same way I butcher the meat birds, so there was no problems to speak of. I bag them up, and gave the other people their roosters back to go live in their freezers. After a couple of days we roasted one of them to try it out. We found that it tasted great, but was a little bit chewier than a normal meat bird. We’re thinking that we might make chicken sausage with the rest of the roosters in the chicken coop. I also butchered one of the turkeys to see how big they were getting, 17.5 lbs. He is living in our freezer right now, but we’ll see him again on Thanksgiving.

Turkeys

   The turkeys are about four months old now, and are starting to get to a good butcher size. Raising them has turn out to be pretty easy to do. We started them in a small brooder, which was four foot by ten foot, then put them in a portable garage tent that is ten foot by ten foot. We used an automatic waterer and an automatic feeder, which helps in the day to day chores of taking care of the animals. For the front of the garage tent that they’re in now we used a pallet that is on its side which allows air and light to get in. I cut out an opening for me to get in and out, and then screwed a piece of plywood to the front as a door.

   The double breasted bronze turkeys having been growing faster than the Narragansett, and are a lot easier to take care of. Because of their size, they don’t fly, the Narragansett turkeys do fly. I found that out the hard way.

   My wife called me one night and said that one of the neighbors called. They said that they heard a weird bird noise coming from the woods and upon further investigation; they thought it looked like a turkey. Knowing it could only come from one place; they called my wife and asked if we had turkeys. I assured my wife that he will be alright through the night and that he’ll probably be waiting for me in the morning by the tent. The next morning, as I was walking to go milk the goats I saw him by the tent waiting to go back in. I tried to grab him but he didn’t want any of that, so I milked the goats and went inside to eat breakfast. After breakfast me and the kids tried to catch him. We chased him all around the yard diving for him a couple times and cornering him, but he always got away. He finally flew up into a tree; about thirty feet up and stayed up there for awhile. We all went inside and left him alone for awhile. After lunch, I went to go check to see if he was still up in the tree. He wasn’t there, but I could hear him all the way down the driveway making his funny noises. I walked down the driveway listen for him, and found him standing on a mound of dirt at our neighbor’s house. I tried catching him but he ran, so I chased him. I chased him through a creek, through tall bushes, and through the woods all a long dive left and right for him. He finally ran over to another neighbor’s house where he flew up another tree. My legs where all cut up from the thick brush and diving after him, so I wasn’t going to give up now. I threw sticks at him until he flew down. As he was flying down I ran as fast as I could to try to catch him in the air, but all I did was roll my ankle. As I was chasing this dang turkey, the neighbors beagle was barking at us but didn’t go past his electric fence. Once the neighbor realized that the dog was barking at something she came outside and asked me if I want her to bring the dog inside. I said no, and asked her to take the collar off so he could help me. She did, and I chased the turkey towards the dog. As soon as the dog got close to the turkey, the turkey just sat down as to say, I had enough of this. I quickly picked him up and thanked the neighbor and walked back home with my trophy, bloody legs and all.

   The reason he got out in the first place was they roost up on top of the pallet I use for the front of the garage tent. When he got down, he just flew down the gap between the pallet and the flap for the door. I stapled the flap to the pallet so I don’t have to go through that again. The Narragansett better taste really good or we will just raise double breasted bronze turkeys next year.

Homemade Chicken Plucker II

   After last year’s failure at making a chicken plucker, I decided to try again this year. I went with the tub design, sometimes called a whiz-bang plucker. I’ve been working on it for awhile; slowly gather parts and looking up ideas on the internet

   First thing I started with is a squirrel cage that came from an old furnace blower. Someone gave it to me a long time ago and I’ve used it in different projects along the way. I used it to hold the plate up and give me something to mount the motor to. On one side of the squirrel cage I attached a 16” pulley that I had to order. On the other side, I took the original pulley off and used it as a template. I routed out a circle in a piece of plywood that was the same diameter as the pulley. Then I attached the pulley to the piece of wood with some screws. Using the pulleys edge, I used the router to cut the piece of plywood in a perfect circle. This will make sure the plywood is balance and won’t vibrate when spinning. I reattached the pulley and plywood back on the squirrel cage.

   Next I mounted a motor that I had kicking around the shop on to the squirrel cage . It happened to have the right pulley on it already. You want the plate to spin around 190 RPM, and most motors spin at 1750 RPM. I had to buy the belt that goes in between the two pulleys. Once the belt was attached, I used a piece of wood cut in the shape of a wedge and slid between motor and squirrel cage to adjust the tension of the belt. I then bought a plastic 55 gallon drum, that happen to hold Mnt. Dew before I got it. I cut the bottom off and cut then cut the top third off. To install the rubber fingers, which I ordered off EBay, I drilled 13/16” holes in the bottom of the drum and on the side of the drum. I then pulled the fingers through the holes and they stay there because they have a grove in the end that the edge of the barrel slides into. 
The fingers are ribbed to pull the feathers off as the chicken spins around barrel. Once all the fingers were installed I screwed the bottom to the plate which also helps hold the fingers in as well. I then used laminated plywood I had in the shop to build a box around the motor and squirrel cage, and then wired the motor up to a switch and then a plug. I turned the motor on and used a power planer on the plastic edge of the barrel to make sure it was perfectly round and centered. Next I attached the barrel on and used 2 x 4’s and plywood to support it. Put some old wheels on I had from an old barbecue and some legs and handles, and I was done.

   I had 47 chickens to process this weekend and hadn’t tried it out yet. We are going on vacation soon and had to process them before we left. I was very nervous after last year’s failure and didn’t have a plan B if this didn’t work. After dipping two dead chickens in some hot water to loosen the feathers, I put them in the plucker. Turn the switch on, and after thirty seconds of spinning around the birds came out with no feathers except for a few pin feathers on their tails, which is normal. I was very excited that it actually worked the way I planned it. I was able to process 24 birds in about four hours on Saturday, and finished the rest on Sunday in the same amount of time. I might make a few adjustments later on, but it worked out great and can’t wait to see if it will handle the turkeys this fall.