Ok, so first off, let me say straight up, that this halter would not work with a untrained horse, would not be a good idea to use it for a horse that is being tied up and might pull or fight it.. this halter is for a well broke/trained horse that you just want to have something super comfy for them and workable for the human to guide the horse around.. Most of the time It seems like I forget to grab a lead rope to make a as you go halter, and I just don’t see the point to going and getting her big heavy duty work halter..
So I make her a soft comfy but very strong! lucet easy on and off halter, love the fact that I got a big lucet just for farm/bigger critter use, and as the wool came from my amazing awesome farm sale buy so it maybe? cost 5 cents and it took another min or two to put on the horse and tie it out..
Now at that cost even if it gets dirty or needs to be replaced once a month or so, its a easy thing to do..
This was so easy, I just roasted the bones and it made one of the most flavourful amazing bone broth with nothing else added that I have ever had the pleasure of tasting..
Ok, I have been rolling this post around and around in my mind for the past week plus, and I am still not sure how to get out what I want to express but I’m going to try and see how it goes..
Now as most of my longer terms readers know, I run a very holistic based old fashioned farm, and I do alot of closed loop small farm practices.. We had cut the weeds in the pasture, I use vinager and salt or hand dig things out, we spread our own composted manure and use organic treatments to improve the soil itself, like spreading molassies water and when the cow starts milking this spring, I will be spread the correct milk/water ratio on both the pasture and in the garden.
I believe in using good feed, water, shelter, fresh air and sunshine along with commen sense as the best tools in the health box when it comes to keeping the critters healthy, but I also do believe in using modern medical help when its required, it makes little to no sense to me to nurse a animal for months with a holistic treatment, if there is a short proven treatment, a example of this would be Girl, when I got her she was lightly scouring, I could have worked every holistic trick in my books and I am 99% sure we would have been good to go and I did increase her feedings, along with a number of other old ways with her but I also put her on scour medication for the full proper typical dose..
So both Miss Piggy and Angelo were wormed before they arrived here and they have thrived, as has Tootie so you can imagine my surprise when I butchered out the piglet to see clear proof that my piglets had round worms by looking at his liver (which is why there was no liver recipe or cooking pictures shown, I burned it, as I didn’t want to compost it..
Now don’t worry, the meat was perfectly safe to eat but it really made me unhappy at the idea that the piglets had worms at such a young age, as their bedding was clean, the pen they were given was a new area that was built in the barn for them and certainly had not been used for critters for years an years..
Then I went, hmmm, I had been putting shovelfuls of dirt in the pen from day one, as the books said they would get natural healthy minerals from it, they had broke out a few times and dug in the sheep bedding pack, and I know that the sheep carry a round worm load, and they had time in the pastures digging and rooting etc, and so has their mother, which means that the odds are one or more of these exposed them at a fairly young age.
But lets think about this in a different way, I know that my land carries a worm load (its had critters on this land for 90ish years) which left me with a couple questions.. not the least of being, how was I going to treat them.
I spent a few days researching and talking to different folks about the choices I had, and some of the things they are talking about will work on a slower longer term base for my keeper pigs to help make sure that their worm load is low, clearly its never bothered them that I can see to date but treatment is still required.
So I finally decided that when it came to the piglets that I would in fact not go the “natural” holistic way, that I would in fact use a chemical wormer to clean them out, and would then use more natural/holistic ways to reduce re-infection rates.
So that’s what we did on the weekend, we carefully did weights, we measured and carefully gave out the doses to all the pigs on the farm, this means that I now have a withdrawel time frame on the pigs when it comes to safe human eating, something I admit creeps me a bit but lets face it, I at least know when they were treated and I know that they have a couple months after the time frame is done before they will be eaten, where as with the meat from the store, there is no way to know if they even had the full withdrawal time given or not.
So there you have it, I will admit to being a bit shocked at finding it and Its never a easy thing to admit in such a public way that something didn’t work out perfectly, but you know, life is a learning curve and even after days of looking, reading and research, I am still not sure what I can really change in the way I am raising the piglets, time will give me that answer..
So would you have treated? or would you have continued to work with holistic only?
The young piglet home cured ham with bone in turned out lovely, it was not as firm as a typical older pork meat would be but the flavour was excellent, and I hae a good meaty bone to make a nice soup from..
Yes, it needs a little TLC but overall its sound.. and I really like it.. so it has two seating bench’s but the front one can be removed so that it can be used as more of a hauling buggy around the farm if need, but it can seat four full size adults, so the pictures are the side view, the front view, the rear and then showing the “tunk” space in the back both inside and you could also put things on the back space as well..
Well, I have wondered if Girl was going to be a easy keeper of a family milk cow or not, and of course I still don’t have a real answer on that till she freshen’s and starts milking.
Having said that, she has always been a touch more of a fussy eater then Marty was, I thought it was because I had her alone as a calf, because she came with just a touch of sours when I got her and because my big barn has been used with critters for many, many years, I raised her for the first months in the little red shed with a small outdoor paddock with lots of thick bedding in the shed, and she thrived, but she was fairly slow to take to her match baby grain and or hay.. in fact to tell the truth I had been known to sit there and place really good bits in her mouth and then once she was a bit older we started taking her to the pasture and again would show her the good bits and at times need to put things in her mouth to try, now in some ways that’s a good thing, she will try new things fairly willingly when it comes to garden stuff and I can play around in her mouth.
But when Marty came he was older, stronger (by two weeks and well started) he was moved into a pen just across from girl(sharing a hay feeder between them) and he got to share his pen with a very very old sheep, she was already two years past her old age prime at that point and I had pulled her so she could not get bred and then with a hard winter coming on, she was kept in the barn for the shelter, twice a day warm feedings etc, so I figured part of the reason that he was such! a good eater of both his grain mix and his hay was because unlike her, he had both a bunk mate and a second cow to show him, everytime they got up to eat, so did he, even if it was to just nibble and stand with them..
But fast forward a full year and Marty still eats like a tank and Girl is now over half way though her first pregancy and she is a good eater, but this past week has been eye opening in the fact that she can be fussy, I tried to move her to a different soaked/sprouted grain milking combo and she basicly said.. NO and it threw her off her regular feeding to the point that she has a “off” couple of days, thankfully I caught it very quickly, I know my cow, she was still going really well on her hay but didn’t want the new grains, and was not drinking her correct amount of water, and it showed.. now why she decided to slow the water down, I honestly don’t know but I brided her with molasses water, warm water and she would sip and dip but not really drink.. it was enough to drive this farmgal crazy..
She would come when called but turn her nose up my offering, even walked away from fresh apples and carrots, this is a cow that will beg for apples..
So finally I thought lets see if I have any bit of her old grain mix left, and she attacked it, and I also put out a big tub of a vit/mineral/fat/molassies sweet lick, (which the horse spent the first two days licking at, clearly it had something she felt she was lacking) and while everyone from the smallest lamb to the horse are all using it, the cows both have been taking their turns on it.. its tricky to find something that is safe for all three different breeds in the pasture at this time.
After she started the lick and hovered up her old regular feed, she settled down and drank eight gallons of water and at the next feeding, repeat.. She won, I went back and bought her another bag of her regular ration, and she is back to eating and drinking like normal, even danced when she saw her morning treat of a fresh carrot..
It intersting to me how some of the critters can seem to adjust their tummies so much easier then others, Was her “off” because she didn’t want to try something new, or was it because after trying it for the first day or two, it didn’t sit well with her, I have no way of knowing that answer and I am not keen on putting it to the test to see.
In the case of Girl, I know what works at this time that’s were we are staying for the moment, I am just happy to have my bright, active, happy cow back who calls to me when she see’s me and comes a trotting.
I will be the first to admit that you can not make proper bacon when butchering out a suckling piglet but you certain can take the belly flaps, cure them and make something very close to bacon bits. I took off the rind and cured these for a four days in a wet/spiced cure and then slow cooked them off, at which point, I pulled them out cut them up and tried the first peice, it was like a very nice soft ham, I put the peices back in to cook more after they were bited/cubed, and they did firm up a bit, but they don’t want to truly crisp up like a proper bacon would.. At that point, we tried them again, they are very good, and can be used in any way you would like to use backbacon or chopped hash style bacon. I would for sure do this again, it was well worth the tiny amount of work it took..
Ok, so its still in the works stage but I have the hauling figured out and its still available and the gentleman says its in good condition, and I am very hopeful! This baby just might be coming home to the farm! Its not old or fancy but it does seem solid and would do the job I want on the farm and for the rides off the farm, It seats four and is for a single horse, I think Brandy and I would both love the idea of just taking a ride.. What do you think of it? I can’t wait to see it in person.
Just another Day on the Farm 