Just another Day on the Farm

So my grandparents has a farm and I was raised on a farm for a certain amount of my youth, and I always loved the stories of the old farm and of course had a certain amount of O my goodness stories from our farm days as well.

When it comes to my own farming, I have learned to do a mix of things my grandparents did or taught me at a young age, a mix of things my folks did and or how I was taught on the farm and a mix of new things learned either from books, working the skills or the school of hard knocks..

I was laughing at my one sweet sheep, she has been used as a milking sheep for the house, (which by the way I have found out I milk a sheep “wrong” compared to you tube but it worked for me, so why change it if it was not broken.

Anyway, she is getting later in her pregancy, and looking mighty fine and uber healthy, I mean she has a lovely baby glow about her but she is also really starting to get pushy about getting her milking ration, she will try and go between the cows legs to get at their feed or she will just plain beg..

I will admit that I do give her treats which don’t help the issue but she is a sweet thing… and I am looking forward to making sheep feta cheese again with her lovely rich and creamy milk.

But it got me to thinking about a old story about this milking goat that my grandparents had, now they had milking cows and sold the cream for extra cash on the farm, but I have heard about the goat.. now the thing that makes this goat special is that she was never bred but still freshened each spring with the cows or as needed for new house babies..

The story goes like this.. when the goat was needed to produce milk, she would be brought into the milking parlor and her bag washed and cleaned and bumped and “milked” this was done morning and night along side the milking cows, and by day three or four, she would start to make milk an then just increase until she was bagged up and going..

Now I was raised with this story and as a child/teen and even into my twenties I would just go.. ok, so cool..

but now as a adult, I stand in amazement of that story because I don’t doubt that its true, but that it was able to happen time and again, no wonder this was the goat that stayed till old age and was treated like gold on the farm.. really its quite amazing, and who would have thought to try it the first time? The answer as I understand it was the need for goat which is easier on the tummies of the baby that needed it then cows but still it would have been a brave moment to go.. well, lets see if we can get a dry animal to start producing milk for us just by asking her nicely and putting her into the routine.

I can’t imagine for a second that she would have produced the amount that she would have if she had freshened but I don’t have that answer, she gave enough for what was needed..

I was thinking of trying a experment this winter, I thought I might take a dry unbred yearling ewe and wait for the rest to freshen and see if I can could get her into milk by just putting her into the milking rotation..  I find the need to see if I can do this but I do know that it was said the goat had kids at one time but they didn’t bred her back, they just brought her into milk.. so might not work for a yearling.. Will keep you posted.

Anyone out there having done this themselves or heard of it and how did it work for you?

My mom is a major Kijji girl, she loves that site of her’s and she does find interesting things but I am kind of the mindset if you are looking, you can always find things you want, instead of being content with what you have..

But in the past few weeks I have been checking daily for horse buggies and horse harness, and that means that I am in the livestock area of it..

Ok, I know that there is often free kittens and puppies and lots of those teenager dogs that are turning out to be bigger then they thought and that they loved as a puppy but didn’t have time for as they grew and even sadder are the middle age or older dogs and cats that are just awesome, totally trained etc but they had a new baby and just “can’t” find time to do both.. I expected this to be honest..

What I didn’t expect was there have been free chickens, free ducks, free rabbits, free pigs, free sheep, free goats, free horses of all sizes, the only thing  I have not seen in the past three weeks is free calvies or cows.. but I have seen them as low as ten dollars for a calf..

The reason’s are pretty much showing the same thing..

1) They can’t afford to feed them thought the winter and they don’t want to eat them, this would be the chickens, ducks, rabbits..

2) They can’t afford to feed them hay this winter -Sheep, goats and horses

3) They can’t afford to feed them to grow them out- Pigs, piglets, calf’s..

Now I know that you most likely had the same thoughts of either, wow the price of hay and feed is insane and this is just so sad.. and that is there in the background

But really what I am seeing is this huge gap in so many of these small backyard farmers, they put the time and effect to raise these chickens for the fresh eggs but now that winter has come, they would raither given them away then butcher them out and eat them..

A number of them say straight up, born in the backyard, (they don’t have the correct paperwork to go to the butcher) and if you are having trouble raising feed costs, you are going to have issues finding hauling and butcher costs and then you have to be able to can or freeze the meat, and if you don’t have the freezer space, that means freezer costs, as well as power costs etc.

Now I suppose that its possable that if you move the horse’s out of the question, as they are considered by most a pet, although to be honest, lots of horse’s have been eaten in their day but the size really would take it out of the home butcher realm for all but those that are very sure of themselves.

but lets get back to those smaller critters,  honestly other then that “disconnect”  that comes from never having done it, almost any regular home owner has the ability to put that chicken or rabbit or duck from pen to plate..

I think a kill cone for the birds is a good thing but lets just say that you don’t have one, go the old fashioned way of chopping block and hatched.. don’t have a hatched or a kill cone, fine, go the really old fashion way and do the swing and neck break..  Rabbit, don’t have the kill cone, or the ability to use bolt gun, fine, go back to the old fashion broom stick/break neck..

After that, you need a knife and ideally a good pair of chicken shears or as I tend to use a good pair of hand tree trimmers, and time.. some running water, ideally a bit of salt, and time in the fridge to chill and even if you don’t have a extra freezer, you can cook it off, stripe the meat off and freeze in into very small bags in the freezer part of your fridge.

If you are short on funds for feed, why the heck would you not use the meat on that critter you raised.. the one lady straight up said, I have very healthy chickens, ducks but I can’t bring myself to eat them, so they have to go..

I blame the magazines and the small homesteading books, they show these cute little critters and talk about them like they are pets, and you know what, I am guilty of it.. I name my critters, come on, my big sow is called Miss Piggy, my massive breeding male duck is called Mr. Big named after the hot dude in Sex in the City, my cow is called Girl..

I talk about them at times like they are family members (and they are) but I hope! that I also do a good job making folks understand that my critter are on a true working farm, that means I will breed you, I will raise your offspring and I will sell them, I will eat them, and if I send them for butcher, I have the choice of selling their meat as farmgate sales.

I just went and flipped though three small homestead books and I have to tell you the amount of time given in any of them on the “end” part of these critters is shockingly little..

One says ” after reaching the useful end of your chickens laying life, they make good soup broth”.. That’s it.. chapters on how to get the chicks, raise the chicks, housing, feed, breeding, outdoor pens, use in the garden etc.. and one line about afterwards but no showing butchering or how to safely and humanely butcher them out..

The next ones has a bit more, they refer their readers to books on how to butcher, saying that they do not have room to cover this in their book and so here is links to a number of good books..

They have a point, it does take a whole book to do the subject justice but they also safely and quickly took that part of the process right out of their homestead in your backyard book at the same time.. neat trick huh…

Am I the only one that see’s this “missing” peice in the puzzle?

A possable, maybe lead has been found, we will see what comes of it.. but for now.. everybody just say ….. Awe….. so cute!! Check the comment section of this post for a short video of the pony with brandy in the background, the size difference is really kinda funny..

Well, I have to admit that I love these new tattoo’s of mine, they are both pretty to me but more important they have a great deal of meaning.. I have not had a tattoo done since my angel one a goodly number of years ago..

Both of these tattoo’s hold tiny flaws (not from the tattoo artist, he was amazing!! and I even got a follow up email to check on me and that I am doing my follow up care) but both of these tiny flaws when seen by other’s eyes are in fact perfect to me, so the first one is that the today is just a tiny bit off center, I love it, because when has “a today” ever been truly perfect.. its fitting to me.. and on the tomorrow, its missing a r, which I could have changed and fixed but didn’t, for a number of reason’s but the big one is the nod to my life long battle with mild dyslexia, plus I just like that it was so balanced to itself..

So now that you know, I am aware of these two quirks, here they are.. hope you like them..