Merry Christmas Everyone!

Just wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! This is going to be a very busy (pre) Holiday weekend for me- The colt goes to his new home, I have ewe's I need to get in the barn to start preparing for lambing, and I have Christmas shopping to still do!

Madison (crazy sheep) lol. Is my first one due to deliver, she is due Jan. 9th. So stay tuned!

Blessings,
Momma Farmer

Christmas is for the Birds!...

Raising a hog is a great way to put food in your freezer... But I have come across one small problem. What on EARTH do I do with 69lbs of fat!?? Most people cannot even comprehend what 69lbs of fat looks like! To put it in perspective lets just say I could sculpt a beautiful black Labrador retriever out of it and put it in my front lawn as a decoration!

SO this year I am trying something new... I'm rendering Lard. Of course I had no clue on how to actually do this so I had to turn to my trusty Internet for answers. Oh the wonders of lard... I never knew it had so many fun uses! Candles, baking, frying, hand cream, soap... etc. But I wanted it for one thing- Winter bird food!! Did you know that when you purchase "suet" it is made from bovine fat, and the term "lard" is specifically from swine? Maybe I'm just a little behind on my terminology, but I never knew that! I had always referred to the greasy stuff you hang on your feeder in the winter as "Bird Suet".

Here is how rendering lard works:

First, I had to cut up the fat into small 1" pieces...Which is no small feat, it is frozen solid and slippery!

Next I added those pieces to my crock pot and added 1 1/2 cups of water...

My first perspective on making lard was WAY off base! I thought you heat it up, it all melts like butter, and within minutes you were good to go! Yeah right... Those fat hunks contain all of this weird "fibrous" material (kind of like if I whacked off my left thigh and tossed it in a pot to cook- It has substance).

Rendering lard takes FOREVER! It takes over 8 hours to make lard. Once it starts to slowly thaw and cook down it starts to look like and have the consistency of rubber fish! (Picture taken after 4 hours of cooking- It sure isn't getting anywhere fast!)

After 8 hours- You can see it is starting to really break down now! (OK, with the help of my fork stirring it! lol)

I'm sure you are *supposed* to cook it down further, but my patience grows thin and I can't wait any longer!!!! I then strained it through a cloth & metal strainer into a glass bowl...

The material that's left in the strainer makes for a high fat / protein meal for my outdoor barn cats!

Here's a picture of the liquefied product:

And after I refrigerate it overnight...

Next, I scraped it into a larger bowl and added- Bird seed, peanut butter, and oatmeal (instant- Apple flavor!)

Stir-

Then I took bailing twine from my hay bales and made string loops to hold the mixture...

Next, I put on rubber gloves to ball up the mixture. I found that using my bare hands just doesn't work. Lard has such a low melting point, I cannot ball it up with my bare hands, it just turns into a gloppy gooey mess! The gloves make it so the heat of my hands doesn't interfere as much. Besides, who wants that greasy crap all over your hands!? lol!

I don't have a picture of me actually "making" the balls- but I'm sure you can figure it out! :) There was NO Way I was going to get my good Canon D20 all covered in lard!

Here is your final result- I then place them in the freezer to harden. (I would just put them on my covered porch to harden, but I'm thinking my cats would eat them!)

And here is the finished product in action! Talk about a *lot* of work for an item you can purchase this time of year for roughly around a buck a piece. But hey, what else would I do with all of that fat?! Each ball lasts roughly 3 weeks.

Merry Christmas Everyone! :)

Momma Farmer

"Madison" - Our Sheep on Crack!

We received Madison from a loving family just this past summer. She is an older ewe around 5 years old. The reason the family was re homing her was because Madison had always lived with her momma, and her momma was getting quite up there in age (around 12+yrs old) and the owners were worried her momma would not last another winter. Because Madison's past owner did not have any other sheep, she was worried what would happen to Madison once her momma was gone. So, I offered to give her a home. The owner told me that Madison had never been breed. I figured I would give it a try, and see if she could fit with the program. If not, she still always had a home here.





On a beautiful summer day we took the horse trailer and drove 2 hours down south to go meet and pick up Madison. Her owner had told us that she was a "hair" sheep and that she shed her hair naturally, and prob. didn't need shearing. That was cool with me! One less sheep to shear!! Yipppeeee!





We got there, met the family, took a tour of their farm, and met Madison - Great people by the way! Madison was a little "wilder" than we were accustomed to but we didn't think much about it because all of our sheep are handled to the nines, so they are like dogs. Unlike most people's flocks. Let me say, having tame sheep really makes herdsmanship MUCH easier.





So we loaded Madison in the back of the trailer and closed the door. While we were saying our goodbye's to the owners, Madison starting to BAAAA. (Really loud) No biggy, we were used to that- Try going out to eat while out of town with a sheep in the trailer and have the darn thing BAAAAA the whole time your in the restaurant eating!





While we were standing there chatting, Madison decided to jump up into the manger of the trailer! That one threw me for a mental loop! I had *never* seen a sheep launch itself into the hay manger 4ft up! So there sat the sheep, BAAAA-ing away inside the trailer, standing in the hay manger- all you saw was legs when you looked in the window!





Our ride home was interesting. I was worried that the darn sheep would fall out of the hay manger and come crashing down on the floor of the trailer while we were flying down the highway! I spent my whole ride home in the truck looking out the side mirror- trying to see in the trailer windows to see if she was up there again. And of course, she was... I swear she rode the entire trip home up there!





We finally get home. She's still BAAAA-ing away. (At least my non-farmy next door neighbors are used to us and our quirks!) I ran in the house to get the wormer and vaccines ready. Whenever any new sheep come here- they get vaccinated, wormed, and hooves trimmed. I had our 1 yr old baby in his stroller so we could get Madison out of the trailer. To keep the baby occupied I bent down to give him some toys. While doing that I heard this HUGE crash and saw a flash of sheep out of the corner of my eye!





It was my husband's doing (Isn't that always the case! lol)... He decided not to wait for me, and opened the emergency escape door on the trailer just to peek in and check on her. Well she was like a bull in a china shop!! As soon as that door creeped open, she rushed my husband and came flying out the door! Almost knocking him to the ground! No small feet given my husband's 6ft 2", and 250lbs!





So there was our new sheep... Running wild around our front yard! Great, now what do we do?? I tried grain... I laid the pan down figuring she would go for it. Yeah right, that didn't work!
This cracked out sheep wasn't having anything to do with ANYTHING I tried. She ran around and around our barn. Every time we came within 2 ft of her she shot off like someone stuck a lit rocket in her butt. Around and around she went, we went one way, she went another... This went on for almost half an hour! LUCKILY, it was dinner time on the farm and my existing flock of sheep heard our "not so kind" words and started Baaa-ing. Madison heard the other sheep and ran down to the pasture fence to be with them. That's when we were finally able to catch her!





To this day she is still a pain to catch. She is afraid of the world, it's not her fault- It's her breed. Every time we have to do hooves, and worm our flock we spend half an hour chasing her around the pasture. And every time we wonder when we are going to use catch chutes, or dogs to help us...

And you thought sheep were innocent "Lambs of God"!

Every year we rent a ram for breeding from a local farm. We rent a ram instead of having our own to eliminate inbreeding. Sure, we could get one years use out of our own ram, (as long as we don't breed it back to it's momma!) but that would be all. Or he would be breeding back to his offspring. Funny, I would imagine inbreed lambs taste no different than non inbreed lambs... lol! I guess my conscious just keeps me from doing it.

Anyway, (I do have a point... somewhere...)

The ram we rented was named "Mr. Nibbles" - no, we didn't name him! We picked him up from his owner's farm and he was in our care for the duration of three breeding cycles (ewe's ovulate every 17 days)- roughly 3 months. He was a really nice ram!... BUT... For some strange unforeseen reason Mr. Nibbles hated our sheep shelter! I don't mean had a little dislike for it and wouldn't use it, I mean downright was at WAR with it! He would ram his head into the shelter as hard as he could! It wasn't the fairest of fights, the sheep shelter never fought back!

He did two things that year...

First, he gave me beautiful lambs! A huge single lamb out of Pebbles (which was my daughter's market lamb for 4H) and a black ram lamb and a black ewe lamb (Elizabeth) from Brownie.

Second he gave me a new sheep shelter! Because the one he destroyed...

um... he destroyed!! :)

Sheep, Sheep! Everywhere a Sheep!

Our main project on our farm is breeding and raising sheep. We have been breeding sheep for 3 years. Our flock consists of a registered Natural Colored (aka:Black) mature Rambrulet ewe (named "Brownie")., 3 of her offspring: 1 black yearling ewe ("Elizabeth"), and two black 3yr old wethers ("Roy & Oliver!").

There's also "Pebbles" a mature Hampshire ewe, and new the three newbies' we just added last year: "Daisy" our Suffolk 2 yr old ewe, "Iris" a mature Hampshire ewe, and last but not least- "Madison" a Barbados (hair sheep), cross... hum, how can I explain Madison??
If you have ever wondered what a SHEEP ON CRACK acts like??? Come on over! That's Madison!!!

Oh the sheep stories I could tell! You just wait! You will soon learn that all the crazy stuff happens to us!

We raise sheep for meat. They are breed at the end of summer and lambing for us starts in Jan. So they are at market weight by the time my daughter shows them at the county fair in July.

Horses,... The OTHER white meat!

Na... we don't eat our horses! Made you think though huh?!

Currently we have 4 horses:

My 6 year old 16hh APHA Paint gelding named "Ice" (Iceman Zippeth)

My daughter's 6 year old 14hh grade black breeding stock paint mare named "Jewel".

My husband's 6 year old 18hh bay roan Clydesdale gelding named "Rick"

And our newest addition, Jewel's baby- a (now) 6 month old black grade colt named "Leggs". Who is now waiting to be delivered to his new home! And no, we didn't breed her- she came to us that way. (Below is his baby pic, he was only 1 day old!)

The horses are nice "pets" to have. Expensive... but nice. There is nothing more breath-taking than watching a big Clydesdale do a high stepping trot across a fresh snow covered field. It almost makes every dollar you cork into them worth it.

Don't get me wrong I love all of my horses dearly but unless you own horses and keep them on your own farm you don't realize how much they strain your time, and your wallet. Funny, up until I started raising livestock as food I thought horses were the next best thing to gold. Now I just scratch my head as they sit here day in and day out, year after year without "real" purpose (other than the occasional ride) soaking up the finances.

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I remember when I first got into horses years ago. I bought my first horse when I was 27, and spent a whopping $350. on him. He was a 2 1/2 year old grade gelding I named "Dudley" aka: Duddy. That horse was the love of my life! Before I had this farm I used to board him at a local barn for $210.00/month. (I wish it was that cheap to have them at home! I don't know how those places do it!) It was only for about 3 months until we bought this place when he came home. I sure did miss having an indoor arena!

Duddy didn't come to me without problems. He had a club foot on one back foot, and DJD (Degenerative Joint Disease) in his other hind leg. I was aware of his condition prior to buying him through the vet's pre-purchase exam. The vet said he was sound enough for the light riding that I did. (I'm a two speed kind of gal- walk & stop!- I ride maybe 5 times a year) Over the years his conditioned worsened. I did everything I could for him. I had numerous x-rays done on his legs, he was on joint supplements, pain killers..etc. In the pasture he would lay down for hours on end. Everyday I would go out into the pasture to check on him. One of the commands he knew was "Duddy Get up!". It was hard watching him rock onto his rump with his front legs outstretched holding up his weight trying to stand up. As the years past, winters were the hardest- he would continuously go lame.

In the last few years I had him I stopped riding him. He and I resorted to going for walks together down the road. He was like my big over sized dog! It was so peaceful walking him on a quiet country road listening to the sound of his hooves on the pavement and feeling the sun on my face. I always kept him groomed like the finest show horse around and his bay coat just gleamed in the summer sun.

I knew we had come to our end in the winter of 2006. Duddy's legs had become so painful that I couldn't pick his feet anymore. He couldn't even lift a front foot- because it put too much weight on his failing back legs. Every time we had his feet trimmed it was a 3 person job. One to do the trimming, and two to hold up his hind end. No small feet given he was a 1100lb 16hh horse. He never protested though, he knew we were only trying to help. But that was when I knew it was time. I have always said when his quality of life goes downhill and living becomes no fun anymore it's time to go. So I called the vet. and scheduled the euthanasia.

What the Hell is a "Show Chicken"?

Did you know people have chickens that they keep neat and tidy and "special" just for showing?? Yepper,... and we fall into the category of those people! My older daughter (13yrs old) loves chickens. She has cages and cages of "special" show chickens. She has three chickens that are purebred: A male and a female Black Rose Comb, and one male Buff Catalina. And countless other chosen mixed breeds that she keeps in special confinement just for the summer county fair. These show chickens get bathed, clipped, polished and handled all the time. Whatever happened to just tossing them some seed and letting them eat bugs?! lol.

Wait until I show you a picture of the new chicken house we built for our "normal" chickens- I swear they live better than me! ;)

I am finding that I like chickens less and less. I'm starting to feel they are nothing but pocket book drainers. They eat like it's going out of style, poop on everything, the roosters crow constantly, and you can't eat them if they are running wild (they are WAY too tough). And to top it off, the special show chickens need more electricity than the other farm chickens during the winter. They need heat lamps on their cages to keep their combs & waddles from freezing and falling off. Now she wants to get into chicken breeding... ugh. more chickens.

*sigh* It's amazing what we do for our kids.

Welcome to the Farm!

Welcome to my place! This is where I will talk about my various trials, tribulations and joys of hobby farming.

I moved from the "City" (with a whopping population of 90,000 people) roughly 7 years ago to a small 7 acre hobby farm just 10 minutes outside of town. Talk about having your cake and eating it too! I can have all the critters I want and still go shopping at the local Gap!

I hope you feel welcome here, and Thank You for stopping!

I would have never thought I would miss a PIG!

In the past, I have never really been a pig lover. Because I grew up in the city I had never even really SEEN a live pig until I moved here. Even then I had only seen them at the county fair.

This past summer I was up for a new adventure and decided to try raising a pig. This (was) "Swine" - pretty original huh?! lol. He came to me as a 40lb feeder pig from a livestock auction in southern Wisconsin. He was an affordable investment ($12.00). And he wouldn't take long to get to butcher size, I figured he would be gone around deer hunting season.

At that time I knew absolutely nothing about pigs! The first thing I did was ran down to my local Tractor Supply company and purchased a book on raising swine. I read the book cover to cover and learned a great deal on how to care for him. Other than castrating him, he was pretty much low maint.

Castrating him???? Say WHAT!? *I* had to do this?? Yikes! Can't I just use a rubber band to get them off?? um.., that would be a big NOPE. I had to cut "them" off. Did I mention I'm a WOMAN? lol. Some things in life I feel are best left to men!

My first learning curve- How to lop off a pig's manhood. Note to self- NEVER chicken out till the damn thing gets over 100lbs and you have to use 4 people and ropes to hold him down! Yep, I was too scarred to do the job. I was afraid that I would do something drastically wrong. So I kept putting it off. When the time came, I used Lidocaine to numb the "area" and gave the pig a sedative (which didn't seem to help much!- You can't imagine how much strength and squeal a pig has! When your coming at him with a knife!) So there I was... scalpel in hand... I made my first incision, exposed the first testicle, did the deed and proceeded with the second testicle. All while shaking like a leaf! After everything was said and done I was pretty damn proud of myself! I couldn't believe *I* had actually done it! I am woman hear me roar!!!! Or at least keep your testicles away from me! LOL!

Anyway, Swine turned out to be an awesome project. He ate all of the leftovers that were in the fridge. And all the fallen apples and pears off the tree, in addition to his normal feed. I was amazed at all he would eat. I even found a place for random chicken eggs I would find - Yep, Swine ate them with a smile! And there's nothing like listening to your pig snore when your doing a barn check at night. Talk about crack you up! The thing snored so loud when he slept you could hear him outside the barn!

Swine ate, and ate, and ate... He knew exactly when it was feeding time - he would start to do the "I'm hungry" grunt. He also loved water! We learned right away that pigs need a special water er (kind of like a gerbil water er- a long bottle with a special nipple on the end) Because he was notorious for flipping over his water bucket and playing in the water.

On the day he was brought into butcher we tried to guess how much he weighed (above photo was from the day he was sent off) I guessed 220lbs, my husband guessed 260lbs. My husband was supposed to take the trailer through the weigh scale but he forgot (ugh!) I can tell you though that his hanging weight was 291lbs! Hanging weight is his carcass weight minus skin, head, guts, feet. So his live weight was prob. around 350lbs! Oh my gosh!!! WOW!

He gave us a great yield- His box weight (the amount you eat) was 275.5 lbs. So there was only 15.5lbs of scrap (bones, etc.) Not bad if I do say. He gave us: 42lbs of ham, 31lbs of bacon (side pork), 23.5lbs of ground pork, 41.5lbs of pork chops, 22.5lbs of pork steaks, 17.5lbs of roasts, 8.0lbs of spare ribs, 5.0lbs of country style ribs, 12.5lbs of hocks and 69lbs of fat.

Processing cost $158.04 (Kill & Cool & Cut & Wrap hog) We then took our whole hams and side pork into a different butcher shop for smoking and curing, cutting & wrapping. That cost us an additional $93.00. It would have been cheaper to have it all done at one place, but the place that did the hams couldn't get us in until the end of Jan.! But the hams/bacon we could bring in anytime.

Now that Swine is gone, my fridge is being over run by leftovers. I sure miss having him clean up around here! But come spring, we will do it all again... Is it a bad thing when all I want for Christmas is 2 bottles of Lidocaine for castrating??? LOL!

Raising your own Beef...Is it cheaper than buying?

( 6/21/12 UPDATE: Statistically, this story gets quite a few views from readers looking to raise their own food.. If this doesn't contain the information you are looking for regarding cost of raising livestock as a food source, please refer to my entry titled: "The Numbers Game Again" May 7, 2008. That will give you a more factual look at what it takes to raise your own food vs. commercial buying. Thank You! Happy Reading!)

Here is our latest project! Meet "Stew 2" a (now) 2 month old Holstein calf. This photo was taken when he was a week old back in Oct. This is our second go around at raising our own beef. (of course STEW 1 was the first! lol!) How we do it to keep the cost down is that we go in three ways with a single steer- we split all of the expenses (purchase price, feed, etc.) between our family, my parents, and my husband's parents. Then we split the meat after processing. It makes it more affordable for everyone that way.

In order to determine if raising beef is more economical than purchasing I keep a notebook of all expenses. So far, I'm going to say it's by FAR cheaper to purchase it prepacked in your local grocery store than to raise it yourself! lol. But... and that's a big BUT- The quality is incomparable! Your backyard beef is a heck of a lot better than some old ground up cow you find in the cold section of your local store.

To give you an idea of what this little adventure is costing- I will give you the run down!

We bought Stew 2 when the market was high (unfortunately) and we paid $148.40 for this bull calf from a local livestock auction on Oct. 1, 2007. He weighed 106lbs. Then we had to purchase a 50 lb bag of milk re placer, and a new calf bottle and nipple to the tune of $76.85. Then came the calf starter (grain), at 2 months of age he eats roughly 50lbs a week- we have purchased five 50lb bags for him, each bag costs $10.49. And of course he had to be "banded" to become a steer. We had to purchase another bag of emasculator bands- $2.50, and a Tetanus shot- $5.00. Don't forget the hay! So far he has eaten roughly 1 small bale- $2.50. There you go! You do the math! Were talking around a $300.00 investment so far! Yikes!