Just another Day on the Farm

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/10/22/163257176/despite-protest-college-plans-to-slaughter-serve-farms-beloved-oxen

Dh and I had a interesting talk about this very subject and I wanted to share where we came down on it.. This is clearly a very personal subject to us, given that Girl is both family milk cow to be and draft animal.

So DH’s points are

• Didn’t see the logic in putting down the healthy male, he could be used/retrained as a single ox.
• the collage has been presented with a cost nuetral solution with the other one going to the sanctuary.
• The Sanctuary is better Public Relations,  he see’s it as Morels vs Public Relations

Now I see if different, I don’t think that healthy ox should be put down either, i believe that he could be retrained as a singe ox with little to no issues, but as for the other guy, I don’t think that a injury that can be managed is a good life, and I getthe collages point about not passing the buck in terms of his health care etc..

However that is where we also got non-PC, I say if you are going to put him down and the choice is between eating him or rendering him, I say, eat him..

So we took this to our own farm, if Girl needed to be put down at the age of ten to twelve, we both agreed that we might not be able to eat her ourselves at that point but we would certianly have her butchered after having her humanely put down, even if it was to feed the hounds/purrpots, we both really didn’t like the idea of wasting her well-raised humanely treated meat by putting her into the rendering system.

It was interesting to ask about Brandy, know I have and will eat horse meat, but idea of eating Brandy if something happened to her that meant she had to be put down gave me the same feeling as I got at the idea of Girl, I think it a waste to go to the render, and i could use it for the hounds/purrpots but I don’t think I could eat it myself in my current living conditions, by which I mean if I had a choice, I would not..

I hate to say it but Miss Piggy falls into the same way, I am attached to that big gal, just as much as I am to Girl or Brandy.

So where are you coming down on this “Hot Topic”

Thank goodness for big old dog crates, they have so many uses, right now they are holding a three week old piglet, who now has the name of Beaker, you see while he is better in the sense of not being so hunched over, he is still struggling to go #2, he is just a touch down overall this morning, and while he did eat a little, he is not as fast as normal, got stepped on by Miss Piggy and he once again dug himself into the bedding within min of being up, while the rest of the litter had breakfast and played but then he started shivering in his bedding and that was the end of that..

I caught him and he is now set up in the house with infloor heating, lots of fresh hay bedding, and he will have a number of soft warm meals prepared for him, and I will be able to track his poo’s, I hope to have him back out an with the litter in 24 to 48 hours, faster is better as I don’t want Miss Piggy to lose the milk on his teat, because then he will need to be in for at least a full week till properly weaned and back to the litter he goes.

He is a very unhappy tike at the moment but I know that its the best thing we could have done for him was to bring him in and be able to give him full time care/watch, he is sure a grunty guy and as you can imagine the Black Goddess (who adores baby anything) is trying hard to make friends and guarding his crate from the rest of the hounds.

Now I have to admit that Miss Piggy is a sweetheart of a pig, and I really don’t worry about her near as much as I do angelo when working in her pen as she has much better training and manners then he does, but I am still aware that with littles ones that even more care is required.

I decided that I wanted two things from the off-piglet, first being a temp, which required making him a pig in the blanket and taking that temp.. O MY GOD< can he scream and he got Miss Piggy so worked up in the pen next to us, that she was biting the 2 by 4th, she made this high grunting and all the other piglets went from their creep pen back to her and then she just paced and I swear piggy swore at me..

Needless to say, no temp, and he didn’t seem to mind the olive oil that he got put down in the back of his mouth, but when I checked his tummy, we were back to screaming.. its got movement and softeness, and I was able to check all his joints etc.. everything looks fine and boy is he a stong one when you are holding him.

I put down the warm, wet mushed cooked potato’s, cooked mixed garden greens, cooked chopped hard boiled duck eggs, some heaping spoons of yogurt and olive oil and everyone loved it, he had a couple nips so I guess he forgave me, I had to bribe Miss Pigggy and she was still giving me piggy dirty looks when I left.. I had better bring her a apple tonight to win back her sweet look..

I know that I have talked about this before in regards to other livestock but today its about my little piggy in the litter.. now, this is a big strong little boar piglet and yesterday, everyone was up and doing really well but this morning, when I put in their big armful of fresh green hay, which both Miss Piggy loves but so do the piglets, they started nibbling on it by a week old and so they get just as excited about it as their momma does..

Seven were up and rooting, quick little movements, straight backs and little wee grunts.. number eight was still sleeping.. hmmm  lifted head, and got up slowly.. this was not typical, clean eyes, clean nose, clean mouth, coat shiny and looks good.. walked slower and stiffer then normal, slightly hunched back with a bit of a swollen belly.. hmmm, slowly moved over and went #1, ok, then strained for a bit to go #2, but this was little, walked another few feet, then strained again.. hmmm, think I might know what at least part of the issues is..

Took a little nibble here or there and then was the first to dig in and snuggle down into the bedding to go back to napping.. everyone else is still up, eating and playing..

Close eye will need to be kept on this tike and plans are in the works to give a helping hand, I am going to cook up some cut up but with skin on potato’s, leaving them in the soupy/startchy water, till just warm, then I will dump in a goodly amount of yogurt and make sure he gets a good feed of some extra fiber, some warm in the tummy and some extra goodies in the natural bactera, the cow’s milk that the yogurt is made of will help make him a touch loose, which is just what we need at this point..

And then we watch and wait, and see how he does, keep you posted..

Wow, that’s all I can say, wow.. according to the province my house, farm and outbuildings have increased in value to the tune of 92,000 over the past four years.. now what this will really mean is that I will soon be seeing a increase in tax’s to go with..

I guess “if” you wanted to be silly and use your the value of your property as a way to get lines of credit etc, then its a good thing in that regards..

Speaking of silly, is the idea that just because they decide that is what its worth, that you could in fact sell for that amount..  Do I feel that we could sell right now and get the same amount we paid for it, yes, I do and perhaps even a bit more IF someone wanted to live and farm the way we do, but for alot of folks, my hugelbeds would just be a messy looking mound, my many small pastures are meant for folks that do things by hand, not for folks with tractors etc etc. If you don’t want the fruit tree’s, you are for sure not going to understand all the wild food forest plantings.. but if you could find the right buyer, I do honestly believe that you could get a little extra for all the many things we have done to improve the farm in this way.

I truly find it amazing that because my farm is farm rated and because we are in the middle size, not really a acreage, but not truly a typically 40 to 80 acre hobby farm, we get a higher rating on it per acre in value..hmmm

I think I will just enjoy my land and my home, and prepare myself for a increase in the property tax’s..

Well on tonights ride, I got to have a bit more of a challange then I expected.. I started out just fine with grooming, tacking and didn’t do much ground work, perhaps I should have but you see a storm was moving in and I didn’t have long for light anyway, all I wanted was a short ride and to do a few drills etc..

It started out great, until I thought, lets take that though gate, and she refused on the first pass, I pushed the issue and she was great, though the gate, though the correl and into the back corner, we were doing awesome and then we turned the corner of the big barn, sheep, big flappy blue tarp, huge gust of wind though the corn and pigeons went up and she spooked, and went sideways, I reacted and turned her to go behind the barn and out, she wanted to go the other way.

I said, no, she said yes, I said no, she crowhopped, I said no, she said, yes, I said no and she bucked, twice with a sliding crowhop and a butt turn, now I have been worried for as long as I have had her, what am I going to do if and when she decides its time to challange me and give a little buck, I was truly worried, did I still have the skills need, did I still have the balance, I could really hurt myself if I ended up on the ground..

First rule, as far as I was concerned was unless unsafe to do so.. stay on the horse!

So here is what I learned..

I won the battle, I didn’t even come close to getting bucked off (not that she was really trying, she was just testing me) I had the knowledge and skills and while we might have done a few more kiss your butt cicles then I want to admit to get control back and to get her back though the different pastures, I did keep control..

Second, when that happens and I was young, it was just funny or even a bit exciting, when it happen at 39, it gives you butterflies in the tummy, and for me at least, shaking hands and legs as I was trying to calm myself down, I rode her out till I got to where DH was and had him take the bridle, while I did breathing until both myself and brandy were centered and then I road her around the pasture and dismounted and worked her on the ground for awhile and then we just sat together

So that was written last night, this is a crossover post, I have had a bit of time to think about it, and I still can’t really seeing it going different then it did, I can work her more about the pigoens, I can proof her a bit more on the flapping tarps, and I can work on the fence line  with the corn, the great thing is, I don’t feel the need or urge to say, well, I could be more careful, that thought really is not there..  What is there is that we can get though it together.. we are a team and its all about leadership and trust.. I lead, she trusts me, I trust her that on movement, feet placement, that’s her job, working together we will keep each other safe and sound.

So if you ride, did you noticed a big difference in how your body reacted to a little buck?

http://canadianbrandygirl.wordpress.com/

Ok, I take way to many photos of Brandy and want to blog about her far to much on the main blog LOL, I don’t want to take away from a good mix on the regular blog so here is my heads up that I have created Brandy her own blog spot so that I can blog about her lots without feel guilt 🙂

Don’t worry I will continue to post about her on this blog as well, keeping you in the loop on fun stuff and in terms of small farm use etc..

Everyone had a great day!

I am well aware that come very early spring, I will have more milk per day on the farm then I have ever had and I will be honest, when I was getting a gallon of goats milk per day, I struggled to find enough uses for it in the house but given that Girl will most likely give me around six gallons, I am planning on feeding skim milk to the different critters to help cut feed costs and are going into it knowing this.. X amount to the calf, X amount to the house and X amount for critter use..

I have not had pork that was raised on fresh milk in many, many years! but look forward to finding out if the real thing is still as good as my mind remembers it..

I can’t wait to introduce my hubby to homemade cultured grass-fed butter, because honestly there is nothing quite like it.. I have already decided that next year will be year of the cheese, when if I mess up making a cheese, it won’t matter, it can go to the pigs or the chickens and there will be lots of milk the next day to try again.

Everyone on the farm is dry right now, and there is no where local to me to get fresh bottled whole milk from a small dairy, I am craving it to the point that i am darn near ready to drive to kingston and pick up a couple bottles as that is the closest small farm dairy that I can get to.. I have one ewe due in Dec and she is a very heavy milker, even if she has twins it won’t be hard to get a pint a day off of her in the first part of her cycle, but that is still a long ways off..

Do you ever get this same craving when your milking critters dry up for the year?

Well, was I in for a surprise when I went to do my morning barn chores, as I walked in, movement caught my eye, it was dark and it was moving and I thought ” Rat” with it quickly turning to O, piglet! and then as I walked down the main walk way, I say five of them had got out and were exploring the inside of the barn and all where running back for the safety of the momm’a pen, they were kind enough to show me how they got out as they got back in.. its amazing how small of a space they can sneak under, I have placed and nailed a board there and hope that it will fix it.

We spent time on the past weekend set up not only a extra play area but also with their own food and water for creep feeding, its not been going so well, they root and they play but they don’t eat the feed, but I have noticed that they are very interested in any “real” food that is being given to momma, so today it was a nice baked off sqaush and they were right in there nibbling away.

I can’t get over how well they are all growing, I have been blessed with very healthy piglets, while there is a fair diffence in size from the smallest to the biggest but the overall growth has been outstanding.. I am ideally going to try and take a new video each friday as they are going up for the next while.. Enjoy..

http://youtu.be/Y0Yl22XjVhU