Chuck & Tbone turn 6 months old!!!

Chuck and Tbone our steers are now 6 months old and doing awesome!!!  They are super healthy and eating like champs.  If you guys don't remember, Tbone & Chuck are our beef cross steers (can't have babies) that we are growing for meat for our family.

 

Chuck scratching his head on Tbone

 

The boys have done a super job with keeping the pasture down this summer.  They have also been getting a daily ration of grain to help keep them in good condition.  Chuck and Tbone will be with us over the next 5 months for winter.  Once the spring arrives we will retape them to see how big they have grown and decide what will be done next with the boys.

 

Today I tape measured them to see how much they weigh.  This is where it gets tricky.  There is 2 ways to measure. The first way is just to measure the heart girth, which is around their body behind their front legs and then from their take that number to a chart I found online and convert it into pounds.  This chart is for beef cattle so I know that it will be a little off since my cows are beef crosses.

 

The chart shows the following weights:

 

Chuck (brown & white) 436 lbs

Tbone (black) 390 lbs

 

The second way to measure is suppose to be a little more accurate.  You still measure their heart girth, around their middle behind their front legs, but then you also need to measure from the front shoulder all the way back to the tailbone.  Once you have these figures you need to do a little math. 

 

Math is heart girth X heart girth X Length.  Once you have this figure you divide it by 300. You answer is how much they weigh in lbs.

 

Using this measuring method the following weights are:

 

Chuck (brown & white) 378 lbs

Tbone (black) 341 lbs

 

I measured them this morning before they had their grain and had been out in the pasture all day so I feel that it was a good measurement.  The only problem is the cows look big to me.  Now if you know me well, you know that I have NO perception when I look at something.  Meaning I can look at an animal and have NO idea what it weighs, same thing if I look at an empty room, I have NO idea if a certain piece of furniture will fit.  So with that said, I think the boys weight are somewhere in between both these measurements. 

 

Chuck (brown & white) approx 400 lbs

 

Tbone (black) approx. 370 lbs

 

Here is a pic of Hailey standing next to the boys so you can get and idea of how big they are now.

 

Chuck with Hailey

 

The top of the cows back comes up to Hailey's shoulder, (she is standing downhill next to them)  So that makes them approx. 3 1/2 ft tall right now.

 

With the cows getting so big we have done some renovations to the barn so they can't go into it anymore.  The reason for this is that 1/2 of the barn floor is on stilts, because the lay of the land, and we are afraid that once they get too big they will collapse the floor.  They do have another smaller shelter they can go into that is on the ground to help them stay warm and dry but they aren't happy about it because they want to be with the goats, who they consider as their herd.

 

Jamie has built a half door on the goat barn so the goats can still get in and out but the cows can't get in at all.

 

New door to keep the cows out

 

We still have a door that goes all the way to the bottom so the goats can't get out too.  The doors have been working out nicely.  I close the door that goes all the way to the bottom so the goats don't bother the cows while they are eating.  Once the cows are done eating I open up that door and close the half door so the goats can stay in the barn and not be bothered by the cows if they want.  This was also done so when kidding time comes for the goats the babies will have a safe place to go to get away from the cows.

 

Chuck & Tbone peeking under the door to see what's going on.

 

Jamie also built an outside feeder.  The feeder is for them for now but will be used by the goats too once the cows are gone.

 

New Outdoor Feeder

 

They still have their separate personalities too.  Tbone, the black one, is not very interested in people unless you have food for him,  He will run when he see's that red bucket and will stand by the hay feeder mooing for some hay.  He does like to have is head and chin scratched but most of the time he likes to just hang out and watch what everybody is doing.

 

Chuck on the other hand loves people,  he will be the first one to come up to you if your out in the pasture.  He loves to have his whole face rubbed, especially his cheeks.  He will stretch his head out really far so you can rub all of his cheeks and neck.  He loves the grain too but is a little more patient for his turn.  He also loves to moo.  He will greet you first thing in the morning to say hello and will moo for hay also.

 

I know that your not suppose to have favorites but I clearly do with these two boys.  I think I like Chuck so much because he is so laid back and relaxed, where Tbone is a little more hyper and unpredictable.  This makes me nervous.  I know that these boys are big and will get even bigger and for me it makes me nervous to have a hyper animal that big around.  For this reason I am trying to convince Jamie to have Tbone be the first to go even if he is a little smaller than Chuck.

 

We still haven't decided on what we are going to do.  We hope that once the spring arrives one of them will be big enough to send to the butcher.  I would like to send one in the spring and then keep the other one for another year, which will help with the pasture for the summer but then we would have to pay to feed it over the winter.  Jamie is still deciding.  He is thinking about maybe selling the second one after the summer to get some money back on what it cost us to raise them but I think we should keep it and butcher it since he has told me that one should feed our family for the year. This way we wouldn't have to worry about any beef we would eat for at least 2 years.

 

I will do an update on them in about 3 months just to show you all how well they are and how much more they have grown. 

 

Here are some other cute pictures of the boys.

 

Tbone peeking over Chuck's back trying to figure out what I'm doing

Chuck, my cutie -you can see he is missing a little piece of his ear, we are not sure what happened but it healed fine and doesn't bother him at all

Chuck scratching and yes their tongues feel like sandpaper

Tbone's sweet face



Pork is Delicious

We have gone through more than half of the pork we got back when we had the pigs butchered back in March and of course there is NO bacon left either.

 

With all the talk of the increase of prices for pork meat, really any meat because of the drought and feed prices going up, we decided it would be best not to wait till the spring to raise another pig.  We have decided this time to raise 2 pigs again but we are going to keep all the meat for our family.

 

Two weeks ago we went ahead and found two pigs, to pick up to raise for our meat.

 

 Pigs the day we brought them home, 2 1/2 months old

 

Pigs enjoying running in their pen

 

Both pigs are girls this time.  They were born in the middle of July so they are now just 3 months old.  We butchered the other pigs at 7 months old, so we will have these girls with us at least until February/March.  That will bring them up to 7/8 months old or 250lbs, which ever comes first.  We will be checking their weight every month like the last pigs.

 

We do not have names for them, not sure if we will name them either.  I just call them girl piggies for right now when I talk to them.  I am trying to spend a little time with them each day to get them used to us.  One of them let me touch her on the snout yesterday, so I'm sure with another few weeks they will be letting us touch them.

 

Here are some pictures of them that I took today at 3 months old.

 

Girl pigs

Girl pigs eating grass

 

 

 

 



Spicy Pickled Eggs

Spicy Pickled Eggs

We have been getting lots of eggs here.  Almost an egg from each hen a day, so that makes 6 eggs a day.

We usually don't cook eggs for breakfast except on the weekends when we have extra time.  Even then it's not many because Drew still doesn't eat them and I will only eat them scrambled.

With so many eggs I have been looking for other ways to use them up.  I have frozen some for when production goes down.  We have also given some away to friends.  Some of our friends eat them and some of them hatch them since our eggs are fertilized by our rooster.

I decided to try to make spicy pickled eggs.  Bonus part is it used up 4 dozen eggs I had in the fridge.  The recipe below is for a dozen hard boiled eggs but I just doubled the recipe.  I also have 1 hen that lays small eggs, that's why I was able to use 4 dozen for a double recipe.

Step 1 is to hard boil your eggs, let cool and then peel them.

Peeled, hard boiled eggs

Step 2 is to prepare your broth

Here are your ingredients. Combine all of these in a sauce pan:

All ingredients simmering

 

1) 2 Cups of White Vinegar

2) 1/2 Cup of Water

3) 1/2 Cup of White Sugar

4) 1 teaspoonful of salt

5) 1 teaspoonful pickling spice

6) 1 teaspoonful red pepper flakes

7) 4-5 cloves

8) 1 Cinammon Stick

9) 2-3 Habanero Peppers (orange color) cut into rings (discard stems). Include the seeds as well. BEWARE: the oils from the surface of these can really burn. I usually use the grocery bag they come in to hold them while slicing and cleaning. Wash your hands with soap and water after handling them.

10) 2-3 Green Jalapeno Peppers cut into slices

11) 1/2 Red Pepper cut into strips

12) A few rings of a freshly cut White Onion

Allow all ingredients to simmer on the stove for at least 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally while simmering.  You can also double this recipe and use more than a dozen eggs.

 

Step 3 is Combine Eggs and Broth

 

Remove the broth from the heat and scoop some of the peppers/onions into a Quart sized Mason Jar. Add 3 eggs. Scoop some more of the peppers/onions/spices into the jar. Add 3 more eggs. Continue to add the peppers/onions/spices and eggs. When done, pour the remaining broth into the Mason Jar, using a funnel if you like, to within a quarter inch of the top. You may have some leftover broth, depending on the size of the eggs and peppers, etc. If you are short on broth, just top off with vinegar.  Also if you would like your eggs to taste a little bit spicier you can take a toothpick and push it through the center of your hard boiled egg before you put them in the mason jar.  This way the spicy pickling broth will penetrate the center of the egg faster.

Hand tighten a lid and ring on the Mason Jar and let it cool. Then place it in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. This is a long time to wait try them but I'm sure Jamie will love them since he likes anything spicy.

I will make sure to let you all know how they taste.

How to Freeze Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potatoes

A friend of ours had given us a large bag of sweet potatoes.  We actually have just started eating sweet potatoes.  Jamie & I like them but not the kids so much.

So I decided to freeze the sweet potatoes.  I found a really simple recipe where I didn't even have to blanch them first so I decided to use that one.

First you take the sweet potato and peel them.

peeled sweet potato

Then after peeling the sweet potato just chop how you would like.  I chopped mine two ways. The first is for fries and the other is in cubes for roasting.

Sweet Potatoes for fries

Sweet Potatoes chopped in cubes for roasting

Once everything is chopped or sliced then you just soak them in water and lemon juice.  The ratio is 1 quart of water to 1/2 cup of lemon juice.  Once they have soaked for 5 minutes, you put the sweet potatoes on a dish towel and pat dry.

Now all you have to do is package for freezing.  We have a vacuum sealer that we use for all our packaging for freezing.

Sweet Potatoes ready for the freezer

We ended up with 5 packages for fries and 6 packages for roasting.  I'm sure they are going to taste yummy later on.



Garden - 1st month

Garden all tilled and ready for planting

It seems as if updating this blog is getting harder and harder each day since this is such our busy time of year.  So I'm going to try not to do weekly updates anymore, especially on the garden.

So this will be my first update on our 2012 garden.  Hopefully I will do this monthly unless I get lots at harvest time and then I will post pictures of all the veggies.

This year we were a little late with planting the garden as our tiller wasn't working very well. So we needed to wait to get that fixed and then finally get the planting done.  We were able to get everything planted by May 1st.

We have planted this year:

Sweet Corn

Cucumbers

Pickling Cucumbers

Summer Squash

Zucchini

Watermelon

Green Beans

Radishes

White Onions

Red Onions

Green Onions

Garlic

6 types of Lettuce

Mesclun, Microgreens, Giant Caesar, Simpson Elite, Grand Rapids & Black Seeded Simpson

6 types of Tomatoes

Big Boy, Lemon Boy, Better Boy, Red Beafsteak, Huskey Cherry Red & Sweet 100

7 Types of Pepper

Green Bell, Red Bell, Yellow Bell, Jalapeno, Banana, Cayenne & Thai Hot

We also have planted some herbs including Cilantro, Basil, Parsley & Dill

Garden at about 5 weeks after planting

Here are some up close pictures

Zucchini

Banana Peppers

Tomatoes

Hopefully we will get a good harvest this year.  We have also gotten extra seeds to try to do a second planting on some things.

 

Jamie Got His First Turkey!!!

Jamie, Brad & Turkey

It is turkey season right now here in TN.  Jamie has only gone out a few times but hasn't gotten anything until this weekend. 

Jamie's friend Brad came visiting for the weekend.  He is also a hunter and likes to turkey hunt.  Jamie & Brad went out Saturday on our property.  They heard a few turkey's but none close enough to get.

Our friend Jeff was nice enough to let Jamie & Brad come hunt on his land and they headed over around 4:30am to get settled in the spot that they had picked out the evening before.

From what I know, Brad was doing the calling and Jamie was prepared to do the shooting.  Brad spent over an hour and half calling this tom (boy turkey) in and finally Jamie was able to shoot and kill it.

I was doing chores when Jamie sent a picture of him and the turkey to my email.  I was so excited for him to get his first turkey.

The turkey is a wild Eastern turkey.  It weighed in at approximately 20lbs.  The beard is 9 inches long and the spurs measured almost 1 inch long. 

Jamie & his first turkey

Jamie and Brad headed home and since Brad has gotten turkeys before he showed Jamie how to butcher it.  The turkey is obviously a wild turkey, therefore most hunters only take the breasts from a wild turkey as any other meat is just too tough to eat.

Brad & Jamie butchering the turkey

Brad & Jamie butchering the turkey

Below is a picture of the two turkey breasts.  As you can see the meat is much darker than what you would see in the grocery store.  Brad suggested marinating it in Italian dressing and cooking it on the grill.  Jamie trimmed the excess fat of the turkey breasts and sealed them up with the vacuum sealer.  We have the breasts in the freezer to try some night for dinner.

Wild Turkey Breasts

After taking the breasts off the turkey, Jamie cut off the beard, tail fan and feet and also a part of a wing.  Brad showed Jamie what he needed to do to dry everything out to make a mount to display the turkey parts on the wall. 

Turkey parts drying out

Hailey & I also took some feathers that we may try to make some earrings with.

Jamie and Brad did go out hunting the following day hoping to get one for Brad, but no such luck.

I'm sure Brad will come back to hunt for turkey's again, he is already hoping to schedule a trip here for deer hunting later in the year.

I know Jamie had a great time having Brad here.  He is such a great guy.  The kids loved having him here.  We also all went fishing together.  I'll be posting about that later.

Brad was also very nice and got a gift for us.

present from Brad

I've been waiting to find something perfect to put on the wall that you see when you walk directly into our home.  The sign Brad bought was perfect in size and also in what is says. Thanks again Brad. I love it!!!

I want to say thank you to Brad for coming to our home and having a great time with us and helping Jamie get his first turkey and thanks to Jeff for letting the guys hunt over at your land.



The Pigs are Gone!!



Girl Pig



Boy Pig

Well not really. They aren't living outside in their pen anymore.  They are in the freezer!!

A week of so ago we had our friend come to help us load up the pigs and take them to the butcher.  Well that didn't work out too well.  They weren't used to eating where we wanted to load them so they wouldn't follow the food and then of course the pen was way too big so they would get spooked and run off.

We decided to make a smaller area for them to eat in for a few days and try again.  They started to get used to going in and out of the pen and when both were in there we decided to enclose them in so we knew they would have to get on the trailer the next time we tried.

Thankfully we went down to the barn quite a few times Sunday to check on Priscilla because that night they decided to try to root under the fence since we shut off the hot wire so they could turn around without getting shocked.  Since we were in the middle of Priscilla giving birth Jamie tried to barricade it with anything he could get his hands on.  This was what it looked like the next day.

Pigs in the small pen

They were not in this pen for long and the next evening we were finally able to load up the pigs and off to the butcher they went.

We were able to pick up the meat 2 days later.  The boy was smaller than the girl so we had the boy butchered for us. The boy pig ended up with a dress weight (decapitated with skin & insides removed) at 161lbs and the girl came in at 181lbs. With the girl being bigger, she was butchered for our friends Rob & Wendi. They decided to share their pig with a mutual friend Brad.  So their pig was split in half and then each half was butchered for each family. 

This is what we got for meat

Fresh Pork Meat

We got our meat package for a family of four. So each package of different types of meat will feed a family of four for one meal.  We got the following:

22 1lb packages of sausage

5 packages of spareribs

12 packages of pork chops

2 packages of pork shanks

2 packages pork should roast

5 packages back bone meat

7 packages ham steaks

2 packages ham roasts

5 packages shoulder steaks

2 long sides of pork belly

2 short sides of pork belly

This is what they got for meat

Fresh Pork Meat

Rob & Brad's meat is also packaged for a family of four.

Each family gets

12 1lb packages of sausage

6 packages of pork chops

2 packages pork should roast

3 packages of spareribs

3 packages of back bone meat

2 packages shoulder steaks

1 large ham

1 long side of pork belly

1 short side of pork belly

Jamie has cured and smoked all of our pork belly into bacon which is delicious.  We have also already tried our pork chops and pork shoulder steaks which came out great.

Money wise we worked it out to be approximately $1.92lb for the meat which includes costs for feed and processing.  We are very happy with the results money wise and knowing where are food has come from and especially the taste.

I'm pretty sure we will be doing this again.

The pigs were 7 1/2 months old when they went to the butchers.  I was okay with seeing them go as I was finished with taking care of them and ready for a break.  Break meaning only having to take care of goats and chickens. I haven't seem to have any issues eating the pork either as I did in the beginning with the chickens.  I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact we sent them to the butcher instead of doing it ourselves.  Hailey is a little sad as she liked the pigs and says they had such cute eyes but she didn't seem to have any problem eating the bacon. So I'm sure she will be fine.



Can't Always Have What You Want.

It's funny how in different parts of the United States there are different foods and types of foods.

Since moving to TN there are many foods that we can't get here that we used to have in MA.

Drew's favorite is Ellio's

Yummy pizza

Ellio's is just frozen pizza but it is something that Jamie & I had when we were growing up and of course our kids love it too.

I looked every where for it when we moved to TN and not finding it I looked it up on the computer.  I found out that it is manufactured in MA only and sold only in New England.  Can't even have it shipped to us.  When we went back to MA in January we actually had a cooler with us and stocked up on it, bringing back 12 boxes with us.  We are down to our last box.

Another food we love is Yasou dressing.

Salad dressing

This dressing is an oil based dressing with seasonings.  It is the BEST dressing to use when you are making greek salads.  Jamie & I eat alot of salads and used to love this dressing.  It's another product only manufactured in MA and sold only in MA.  Of course we stocked up on this too bringing home 15 bottles.  This went fast though and we haven't had any in weeks.

The last thing we brought home with us was Ah-So Sauce.

Ah-So sauce

This sauce is what is used to make Chinese spareribs like you get at Chinese food restaurants.  We like to make Chinese style pork chops with it.  We also cut the pork chops up small and cook with the sauce and put it in pork fried rice.

We don't have this often, so we still have some in the cabinet. We had brought home 4 bottles with us.

These are just some of the foods we love and can't have anymore all the time.

We also miss the restaurant the 99.  That's not down here in TN either. Also the restaurant Christo's which was one of our favorite when we lived on the south shore.  I haven't seen Chinese Sausage here either. We still haven't been able to find a pizza place that makes pizza like you get on the south shore in MA but we are used to that because we never found a great pizza place in western MA.

We will always stock up when we visit MA.  If anyone is coming to visit we would LOVE for you to bring any of this to us.  We would appreciate it very much.



Peepers

Yes they are chicks, but we call them peepers while they are little because that is the sound they make.

1 week old peeper

As many of you know last year was our first year raising meat chickens and learning how to process them ourselves.  We got 5 chicks to start with from Tractor Supply to make sure we were able to do it.  We then ordered two sets of 25 meat chickens from McMurray Hatchery.  The ones we bought from TSC and the 1st batch from the hatchery were Jumbo Cornish Crosses, which grow quickly and are ready for butchering usually at 8 weeks.  The second set of 25 was Cornish Roasters, which actually was a mistake. We were suppose to get the Jumbo's again.  The roasters take a long time to grow. Ours from last year took over 4 months to grow to butcher size.  On behalf of McMurray hatchery, I did call and told them of the mistake and refunded my money less shipping right on the spot.

We actually still have some chicken left from those 50 birds in the freezer. Mostly legs and thighs and a few whole roasting chickens.  Last week was the first week that I had to buy store bought chicken breast.

Having raised our own chickens really makes me question what they do to store bought chicken.  The size difference is unbelievable.  I know that my chickens are fed very well everyday while growing and then once big enough to go outside they also get all the food they can find for themselves including their feed every morning.  My home grown chicken breast is half the size of store bought.  I've always known that store bought chicken had hormones in it but I never really understood it until raising my own. If I can avoid putting processed or hormone injected chicken in my families mouth then I will. So with that said we decided to get some more meat chicks this year.  We decided to only buy from Tractor Supply this year, as the birds we got from them last year grew very quickly and tasted great. 

Two weeks ago, I went into Tractor Supply and they had received some chicks. I went ahead and bought all of their Cornish Cross chicks, which were 13 of them.  This is all we will get since we will be having so much meat for the pig that is going to the butcher today.

1 week old peepers

Since we didn't get the chicks shipped directly from the hatchery, the chicks at TSC were already about a week old when we bought them.  They already had grown their little wing and tail feathers.

Hailey with a peeper

Of course Hailey loves having the little chicks.  Within a few days I caught her putting all of them in a different tote to bring outside.  She thought they needed some sunshine.  She is too sweet.  So now when Hailey has time she takes some of the chicks outside to play in the sun and grass.

The chicks are now 3 weeks and we have moved them to the big chicken brooder for some more room and they are loving it.  Spreading their wings and laying down stretching their legs out.

3 week old meat chicks relaxing

This chicks should have about another 5 to 6 weeks and they will be ready to be processed and go into the freezer.

Here are some pics that I took yesterday.  I think the chicks are funny looking right now. They still have some fluff on them but feathers also.

Meat chick, 3 weeks old, a little funny looking

Meat Chick, this one is pretty cute



Cooking Like a Mad Woman

This past week as been really busy with cooking.  Over the weekend we sent 10 more chickens to freezer camp. We are running out of freezer room so we had to make our chicken stock right away instead of freezing the bones.  So we went ahead and made 11 quarts of chicken stock.  It will be used for chicken noodle soup and I think I may start cooking our white rice in it also to add extra flavor.  We eat alot of white rice in the house.  

Saturday afternoon I took a real good look through of the garden and found LOTS of veggies.  I used up most of the pickling cucumbers to make another 12 pints of really dill pickles for Jamie.  We are also starting to get our tomatoes so I think I may make tomatoe sauce later on today and can it for future use.

I also thawed out some of my goats milk and made a batch of Chevre.  I think I may try flavoring it this time will garlic and see how that tastes.  I am going to share this batch with my neighbors.

We also tried a new recipe of stuffed zucchini, its wasn't bad but a little bland.  I think I may make it with sausage next time instead of ground beef.

I really love having the garden but its lots of work trying to preserve everything.  I know that when the winter rolls around I will be happy to have it all in the pantry.