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My Freeze-Drying Future
Last fall, we planned on processing our ginormous (yes, that’s a real word) fence-jumping Black Angus steer. However, when the day came to load him onto the trailer to go meet his Maker, a series of unfortunate events took place, to include the mangling of several cattle panels and garden fencing. Therefore his ticket to ride went to two other smaller animals, and that beast lived to see another day. 🙁 Knowing this mammal needed to end up in our freezer, sooner than later, yet our freezer space would be limited given the other two animals, we had to come up with either another massive freezer or another plan to…
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I’m Not a Cow Person
I’m not a cow person, but we have cows — a lot of them. In fact, we just had one born on the homestead last week. Check out this momma & her calf. If I had my druthers, I’d get rid of most of our herd because we have too many for our land to support them all. But my husband keeps reminding me that we need them because they are doing precious work for us that would otherwise take decades for us to do. They are bringing fertility to the land. A lot of it.
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Beast and Birds Showdown
While sitting on my back porch this morning, I saw two large black birds standing in our garden adjacent to our hen-house. I squinted and got up from my seat to get a better look, and I saw that they were vultures, just standing there beside our well-house. I went out to shew them away and to see why they were there, thinking there were probably dead animals out there. But when I got to where they were, I saw all our birds (chickens, ducks and turkeys) alive, standing at the fence on the outside looking in at them. It was like they were having a staring contest — a…
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The Cost of Our Milk
Our kids love cereal, particularly our boys. I think they would eat it all day, every day if I let them. But I don’t. However, I’m fine with letting them drink as much milk as they want. That’s because our milk comes from our own animals. This is a chore my husband is not particularly fond of, and he often wonders if the cost of obtaining that milk is truly appreciated by all those who consume it. So, in the interest of having our kids better understand the cost of our milk, I started having them recently go out with my husband each time he milked and be a part of the process.
