Almost a full freezer now!

Well another month closer to living on my farm full time!  The harvest continued this month in that we brought Ham and Chewy to the butcher.  I do not know what their live weights was but hanging weight (weight after being gutted and blood drained was 210 and 226).  Figuring that hanging weight is about 72% of live weight that put them both close to 300 lbs live weight.  Not bad growth for 8 months or so.  While we did not put the packaged meat on a scale that probably put us close to 300 lbs of finished pork.  The break down ended up:

46 1/2 packages ground
4 packs spare ribs
4 packs pork steak
8 pork shoulder roast
12 pagages country style ribs
23 packages of 4 chops 1 2-pack (big chops!)
4 pork ham hocks
12 hams
8 ham slices
21 packages of bacon and 5 pork bellies.

Chewy and Ham, after the processing

That is a lot of pork!!  We did end up trading some of it with my sister in law.  Roxie and Charlie had just purchased a ¼ beef but they are not big steak eaters, they mostly prefer the hamburger meat so we traded them port for beef allowing us to add a little balance to the freezer (still a lot of pork however!).  What we did not get however was lard, so will have to check on that next time I use that butcher.  We were actually looking forward to the lard for baking!

 I was also able to go back home for 10 days for hunting season this year.  First time back there for hunting in 20 years and the last time I may have winged a deer but did not actually bag one myself.  It was mostly party hunting where a group would drive the deer out of the woods were a poster was there to bag them.  This year it was mostly finding a spot, taking a seat and wait for them!  I was lucky enough to bag two deer, a 6 pt buck and a mature doe.  My brother-law Jared always was able to bag two deer for a total of 4 in our party.  As we party hunt, the deer will be processed and divided between all of the hunters, keeps anyone from having a bad year!  With a 6 way split we should each get about ¾ of a deer and since they were all mature deer that should put about 50 lbs of venison in each freezer (this is a wild ass guess by the way!).  Did I mention they are big deer up here?

The first doe of the season, hanging to cool and drain out

The 6 pointer I got on the final Saturday of the season

New for the next year with the exception of the Thanksgiving Turkey (which I plan to rectify next year) and fish during lent (also will be rectified next year!) we have pretty much produced or traded for all of our primary protein needs for the next year. In fact we will likely have a pretty good surplus as I will not be home for most of the next 4 months and our family is small for the time being.  One thing I have learned, butchering is expensive.  The pigs were really not to bad, about $330 for both of them to include the slaughter, cutting up packing and curing (of the hams and bacon).  The deer was about $90 per animal for the primal cuts, but what will cost the most is the processing for the trim and to have them make specialty products out of (I.E Cheddar brats or summer sausage).  That process will easily double the cost.  Next year I need to stick to my plan to do my own!

I had my first reminder of a Mn winter this trip back, a couple of the mornings hunting we were down to single digits and even a little below 0, and it is only the start of November! 

When checking the outside of my bee hives I got a little worried as we had our first snow of the year with a couple nights of subzero temps.  I went cleared the slow away from the entrance and actually found a couple bees frozen on top of the snow, what the hell they were doing out I have no idea! When I did clear the snow away however, I did find quite a bit of dead bees at the entrance and this worried me a little. I was not about to open the hive and lose any heat to check on them, so I put my ear next to the hive and was rewarded with a gentle buzz from inside, so I assume they made it through the first hard freeze. I guess we will see come spring time! 

Even in the snow the ladies like to get out and about.

With the changing of the seasons and the reduction of daylight hours the ladies have dropped off their egg production some, right now we are only getting about 15 eggs a day which is still much more then we will use!  I had always heard that they would almost stop laying during the winter unless you added at least 14 hours of light a day. Well, it turns out that is not the case when you have spring chicks that do not start laying until the fall.  Looks like they will lay through the winter regardless that first year.  Most of the eggs find their way to friends and relatives this year.  I will plan on selling some at farmers markets next year.

The guinea fowl joining the chickens for a stroll through the snow

A close up of the guinea with Soju in the back ground (he loves the cool air)

Some of the Roosters are getting a little frost bite on their combs, so we will stop opening the large walk in door to the coop in an effort to cut down on drafts.  I really think I may have under did the ventilation on top and next trip home if the weather is ok, I may have to try to add another vent if it is still a problem.  We will also add a little more bedding (which we have been laxing on) in order to soak up more moisture from the coop.

I also had time this trip to visit with a couple guys from the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service.  This program is geared to help farmers with practicing or adding conservation practices into their farm plans and to help offset the costs of such.  As my intention of doing the intensive rotational grazing fits into their program there is some funding opportunities that will help to offset the costs of putting a well on the property as well as the pipping needed to get the water from the well to the various pastures.  They will also help with the cost of fencing as the rotational grazing requires a bit more fencing then the typical method.  The down side is we have already missed this year’s funding and the next round does not open up again until next Aug and the funding must be secured (or at least you having been accepted into the program) before any work is done.  Meaning that I cannot do any fencing or the well until then if I want them to cost share it with me.  Also, they are not sure my cropping on the same land I will use as pasture will fit into the program; Both issues present challenges but neither of which is overly so, and will only require a little tweaking to my plan which was expected as we got closer to execution anyway!

Well this seems as good a place as any to close it out this month.  Hope everyone in the US has a good Thanksgiving holiday and I will talk to you all again after Thanksgiving!  I will leave you with a picture to look at when you are having a bad day and realize it could always be worse.  I was driving by checking out how the Maples were faring when I saw what looked like a strange leaf just hanging on the tree.  When I stopped to get a closer look, it was what looks like a shrew, that somehow fell (or was droped by a bird?) and caught its neck on the sharp end of one of the small branches, impaling himself on the tree.  Think we always have days when we can just be happy we are not the shrew!

Travis