Final update on Sausage & Bacon 2.0

As you know from last week's post, my pigs were delivered to the slaughterhouse last Tuesday evening, and were scheduled for the big day Wednesday. I was called Wednesday morning to verify which two were mine (they kept calling them "The little ones" since all the others were ENORMOUS) and get a list of all the meats I wanted. It was 7:30am when he called me and not only was I half asleep, but I was sitting in the parking lot of my daughter's college waiting for her to get done with her class so I could take her to high school (she's a dual enrollment student), so I wasn't really thinking about all the meats I wanted.

I assured him I was a newbie at all this and asked for his suggestions. Overall, he helped me compile a good list of things we like to eat and told me the meat should be ready for pick-up on Friday. By the end of that day, when it was all but too late, I realized I'd forgotten one item... BACON.  LOL.  You'd think after naming them Sausage and Bacon I'd at least remember to order up some bacon. Sheesh!

Friday, after I'd finished my normal end of the week errands, I call the slaughterhouse to see if my meat was ready before I went over there ("You have the two little ones, right?"). The meat was ready so I went on over. The slaughterhouse is only a few minutes from my home; I pass it every day taking my youngest daughter to school. When I got there the men told me that while, yes, mine were much smaller than the other, the meat appeared good looking and healthy. I asked the weights of both and it turned out my pigs yielded me 162lbs of processed pork. Wow! Girl pig produced 56lbs and Boy pig produced 106lbs. All of that for $108, $40 of which was the kill fee. Not too shabby!

Today I'll be cooking up our first taste. I have a shoulder roast in the Crock-Pot and I'm looking forward to the freshest pork I've ever eaten. A week ago these pigs were being petted and talked to and not worrying about where their food comes from.

I thought I'd feel bad when we took them for slaughter, but I didn't. I worried my youngest daughter would be upset, but she wasn't. I knew my older two didn't care since they hated chasing the pigs around the property when they escaped their fence. LOL.

I am, however, glad that I gave these two pigs a happy life while they were here. I petted them, scratched behind their ears, fed them fruits and veggies along with their grains, talked sweetly to them and scolded them when they escaped. They foraged for grubs and acorns while snacking on anything green they found. Overall, they lived a happy pig life with us and now they will serve as sustenance for my family.  I'd say that's way better than any pig from large companies who keep their pigs in pens barely big enough for them to turn around in.

Oh, and while my pigs might have been "the little ones" after seeing the giant hogs there barely able to hold themselves up, and then seeing how nice my meat looks, I know mine produced leaner, healthier meat than those others. Even if it meant less pounds of meat.

My deep freezer is now half full of just pork.

The hubby has been looking forward to
fresh ribs.

Finally, I'm glad it's over. This was a great experiment to see if we could manage raising our own meats in a happy and healthy environment, without our kids or myself getting overly attached. Monetarily, it was well worth the trouble though. I'll add a P.S. at the bottom of this post after tonight's dinner to let you know how the meat tastes. The hubby is already talking about doing it again, but I warned him that the next time the pen better be built better than Fort Knox because I don't want to have to chase pigs again. We'll see how that goes over. ;)

P.S. The roast was delicious! Even my 10 year old thought it was super tasty. The meat was lean and tender and had a yummy aroma. Definitely some good pork. :)

Good-bye Sausage & Bacon 2.0

Today's the day we deliver our two pigs to the local slaughterhouse. Tomorrow is the big day. When I called weeks ago the man told me they were so booked up that the next available day was three weeks away, and that's the one I snagged. When he called today to verify that I was bringing in two pigs, he told me they'd call me after the deed is done to tell me their weights (and thus the cost of the slaughter since it's $0.42/lb hanging weight, plus a $20 kill fee each).

Now, I wait for the hubby and our friends to get home from work so I can get a giggle out of these two men wrangling these two giant pigs up. I'll let you know how that goes. LOL!

As a side note: I bought just enough pig feed to last us to the end of today. So they will get one last meal on the ride to the slaughterhouse and I'll be out of feed. You can't time it any better than that!

Since this is a new adventure for us, I don't know what to expect. I don't know how much they weigh, but I'm guesstimating that they're about 400lbs together. I suppose we'll find out after tomorrow if I'm close or not. I have ideas on meat cuts I want, and we will totally request sausage and bacon on that list. However, I imagine we'll be quite sick of pork by the time my deep freezer is empty again.

Fingers crossed for a smooth delivery this evening and some tasty pork after it's all over.  :)  Stay tuned for more updates in the next couple of days.

Jumping into raising pigs. Not how I planned it!

Pigs. Hmm. Where do I start? How about, I had an idea that we should raise a couple of hogs for the freezer. How hard could it be, right? I found a seller of cute little baby pigs.

My BFF and I drove an hour away, with two dog crates in the back of my minivan, and cash in hand, to buy two female piglets. I had an old chicken coop that we weren't using any longer, and planned to put a fence around that spot for the the pigs to grow nice and big. We made it there and back with two little piglets squealing the entire way. Once home, the kids were amazed, but I reminded them (and still do) that these are for food, not pets. We named them Sausage and Bacon for just that purpose.

Two days later, Sausage and Bacon 1.0 escaped and were never seen from again. *Sigh*

Two days after that, my husband and I went back to the same sellers and bought two more female piglets. This was quite reminiscent of my first batch of chicks (the ones a cat ate two hours after I bought them). We did things a bit differently with Sausage and Bacon 2.0. They managed to hang around.

These two have grown and grown over the last few months. I fantasize about my deep freezer being full of delicious, fresh pork. And then it happened...  My husband looked at the pigs, and then at me, and said, "I think that one's a boy."  Damn it!

I wasn't planning to be a breeder, just an eater. Geez! From my research though, it looks like Boy Pig may be infertile.

Oh, and in case you don't know, pigs really, really LOVE escaping their pens. These two have slipped out no less than 4 times in the last few months. Once the neighbor behind us found them and trapped them in his barn before coming to see if they were ours. Thank goodness he did or they wouldn't been gone like the other two. Now that they're bigger, they're easier to wrangle and are happy to come to us when we have food. Not so happy when we try to put them back in the pen though. You'll notice all the concrete blocks around the bottom of the fencing below. They root, root, root until there's a big enough gap to push the blocks aside and out they go.

Boy Pig is friendly & always up for some
petting.

Much bigger now

Girl Pig is the troublemaker. She's the one I've caught rooting out the most. Boy Pig prefers to stay put, but will follow girl pig anywhere.

Sooooooo, at this point, I'm more than ready to take Girl Pig to the slaughter house, but she needs to get a bit bigger first. Boy Pig is a good size, but he's super friendly and easier to handle. And I won't even get into all the information I've read about meat taint in males. UGH!  I just wanted two girl pigs to put in the freezer.  *Sigh*

Stay tuned for more piggy updates to see if they make it to slaughter this summer.


UPDATE: Sooo, Girl Pig escaped yet again. UGH! Ticked me off enough that I finally called the slaughterhouse, but they're so busy (he said he does 200-300 heads a week!) I had to book a day. They now have a going away date of April 22nd. This meat better be the best meat in the world for all the trouble these two have been.

Eggy Updates & 2014 Canning

Eek! I just realized it has been FOREVER since I last updated. So here we go....

My chickens are doing great. I'm covered up with an overabundance of fresh eggs & every few weeks I have to give all my local friends and family a shout out to see if anyone needs some. Last week, I have over 15 dozen eggs sitting in my fridge. And that was after I'd already used 2 dozen eggs for a recipe. Luckily, after my shout out I managed to sell or trade 11 dozen in two days.

I didn't do a garden this year, but I did plant a lot of veggies in pots on my front deck. I've harvested a few handfuls of green beans and my banana pepper plants are covered up. I did a bell pepper plant for the first time and it had two baby peppers on it. I noticed the other day that one of them is missing. :(  I don't know if it was a bird, squirrel, or it just shriveled up and fell off. I figure I'll be lucky if the other one survives. My tomato plants grew big and tall, but produced nothing. *Sniff, Sniff*  However, my mint grew like crazy & smells so good. :)

On the upside, I'm getting pretty darn good at canning this year. I started doing a little last summer, just some hot water bath items, but over the winter I broke down and bought myself an All American Pressure Canner. I finally used it for the first time a few weeks ago for green beans and they turned out beautiful! I love it! I'm addicted now.

Last year I did pickled beets and sauerkraut in the summer, then made applesauce and apple butter in the fall. However, this summer I've canned green beans, strawberry jam, blueberry jam, whole blackberries, dill and bread & butter pickles, and whole kernel corn. Here are a few pictures of my yummy bounty. :)

Whole Blackberries in Simple Syrup

Strawberry Jam

Green Beans

Bread & Butter and Dill Pickles

I promise I'll try to update more regularly.  :)

DIY Chicken Feeder

Up to now I've been using a DIY chicken feeder made from a Tractor Supply bucket and a large flower pot plate/bottom.  It worked out well, but eventually got on my nerves with the amount of space it takes up, the heaviness of it when it's full, and the constant need to shake the food down.  So I've been looking for a while at other options in DIY feeders and came across this one on Pinterest.....

http://pinterest.com/pin/95631192058204649/

I thought it was neat, and didn't look like it would take up a lot of space in my small coop.  Sunday we went to Lowe's with the idea of making one for ourselves. While looking at the suggested 4 inch plumbing pieces I decided that was far too large a size for where we wanted to put it, so we went down to the 3 inch versions.  However, they didn't have the Y-adapter in the 3 inch size.

Then I saw it...  A three way adapter! I call it a W-adapter.  LOL. How perfect could that be?  Chickens could eat out of two sides at once.  I could still place it against a wall--saving coop space--and more than one hen could eat at a time.  Yay!

We snagged a 2 foot long pipe, the W-adapter, and caps for the top and bottom.  Brought it all home, put it together, attached to the inside of the coop, and filled with feed.  It took the hens a few minutes to discover there was food inside, but after that they all had to check it out.

The next morning when I went to let them out of the coop I heard happy munching from the new feeder.  The sound of another successful DIY chicken project.  :)

I wish I'd thought to take pics of all the parts before we put it together, but I didn't. Bad blogger, Me! However, here's a pic of the finished project inside the coop.  It took a dozen pictures to get one without the hens standing in the way... surely wondering what the heck I was doing.

So there it is, my new DIY PVC chicken feeder.  It cost less than $30 to make, which is more expensive than the bucket method, but it takes up less space and *should* be less hassle to deal with.  Fingers crossed anyway!  :D

New layers in the coop.

As you may recall, back in April I purchased six new chicks to add to my coop of three Rhode Island Reds.  The fluffy chicks quickly grew big enough to go into the coop with my older hens.  Up to now we've just been waiting until the egg laying began.

And now it has!

Out of the six Barred Plymouth Rocks, three are now laying daily.  I did a happy dance the first day when there was a new egg in the nest.  Each day a new one arrives I celebrate.  All the work and waiting is starting to pay off and I couldn't be happier.  Each egg is like a new gift.  :)

Before:

After:

EGGS!

The top two eggs are from my Rhode Island Reds, and the rest are from the Barred Plymouth Rocks.  You can't tell too well in the picture, but there is a little color difference (the BPRs are lighter) and size (the BPRs are smaller).  However, they all taste the same!  ;)

Soon the other three will start laying and I'll be collecting approximately nine eggs daily.  Since my RIRs are a year older than my BPRs I'm hoping when one breed starts molting the other will still be laying.  That way we'll always have eggs.  At least that's what I'm hoping.  Who knows what the chickens will think of that.  LOL!

Growing potatoes in a trash can.

The first time I heard about someone growing potatoes in a trash can I scoffed.  "In a trash can?"  The horror!  It wasn't until later, after reading a magazine article on it, that I came to consider growing my own potatoes in a trash can.

I followed the instructions, watched, waiting, and then wowed when I saw the first sprouts of potato life.  I'll never forget the question my little sister asked when I told her about my glorious potato plants... "Was it a CLEAN trash can?"

*Smacks forehead*

I assured her that yes, they were clean trash cans (new ones, at that), but in the end what difference did it make when you're filling it full of dirt?  LOL. 

Here's how it goes:

• Drill drainage holes all over the bottom of a trash can, or barrel.
• Place a layer of shredded newspaper in the bottom.  This helps hold the dirt in.
• Add a 2-3" layer of dirt.  I used regular old topsoil.
• Place your seed potatoes on top of the dirt and cover with more dirt.
• As the sprouts poke their heads out of the trash can of dirt, add more dirt.
• Keep adding dirt until you get to the top of the trash can.
• Once the potato stalks are above the trash can, be sure to stake them so they don't break off.  Apparently this ruins your potatoes beneath.

Seemed easy enough, and so far it has been just that.  Come late September/early October I'll turn the trash cans over and dump the potatoes out for harvesting.  The trash can on the left is full of red potatoes and the one on the right has russet potatoes in it.  I'm looking forward to seeing how many come out of there.

Let me know if you try your hand at growing potatoes in a trash can.  I'd love to see what your results are, and I'll share mine once harvest time rolls around.

A week in the coop.

A little over a week ago I finally broke down and put my six young Barred Plymouth Rock chicks in the coop with my three Rhode Island Reds.  I read all the information about integrating new chicks into a preexisting flock and the dangers and precautions to be taken.

I expected the worse, but hoped for the best.

A week later, I'm happy to say that all the chicks are still alive, not having been flogged or pecked to death by the hens.  And all the hens are still laying every day, not having been flustered into non-production status by the wild youngsters running around.

This is my first time being able to see the establishment of a pecking order when adding young ones.  It's quite odd to see the big one just go off an peck at a passing little one.  For no good reason other than to just say, "Hey, you little squirt, get the heck away from me!"  LOL.

The little ones haven't ventured too far from the coop.  On some days they don't even come out of the coop.  And when a hen comes inside, oh boy, you better watch out.  The little ones squawk and clamour all over each other to see who can get furthest into the corner, as far away from the hens as chickenly possible.

I'm hoping they'll all settle down soon and get to liking each others' company.  :)

Building a Chicken Playpen

Since the weather is getting nicer and the temperatures are warming up, it's time to start getting my newest chicks outside for a few daylight hours each day.  They need to start getting the hang of sunlight and the fluctuating temperatures in order to be ready for when the big day comes that they'll be outside permanently.

So in honor of spring arriving tomorrow, Tim and I spent a few hours this weekend making a chicken playpen.  It's a portable fencing unit that's lightweight enough for two people to move from one spot to another.  Not only will it be useful in getting the chicks out in the fresh air, but I'll also use it to direct my older chickens in their natural garden tilling duties without me having to be right there watching them the entire time.

Since other people might like to know more about this project, I took a few pictures for you.

First off, here is the list of supplies:

10 -- 2X2s, 8' long
1 -- roll of plastic poultry netting, 36" wide, 25' long
8 -- 2" inches
2 -- 2" hook & eye closures

All of this was under $60, and we only used a staple gun, hammer, and nails to put it all together.  This is also one of those project that can be expanded to as big as you want just by adding another panel.

First, we used five of the 2X2s to make ten 4' boards.  Then the other five boards were cut to make ten 3' boards.  Once nailed together, this gave us five panels at 3' wide and 4' tall.

Next up, we added the plastic poultry netting to one side of each frame using the staple gun.

After that, we put all the panels together on the long sides with two hinges each.  And then the last panel will receive the two hook and eye closures.

Lastly, we stood it up and had a pentagon-shaped portable chicken play pen.  Yay!  It's tall enough that the outside cats can't get in, and big enough to give the chickens an area to run, play, and scratch in the sunshine. 

Later today, I'll be putting the same netting over the top that I used last year on the chicken coop's run to keep any hawks from swooping down and swiping my babies when I'm not looking.

The seeds have arrived. It's garden time!

This year I'm going with organic and heirloom vegetables for our family garden.  I'm hoping for a healthier and more bountiful crop, but we'll have to just wait and see on that.

My mother suggested a company that she orders from yearly called Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and a high school friend suggested Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.  So I checked them out and ordered.  I placed a hefty order with SESE, but they had run out of pinto beans.  That's when I popped over to Baker Creek and ordered from them.

In just a few days I had received my beans from Baker Creek, and yesterday (a few more days later) my order from SESE arrived.  Woohoo!  Everything arrived safe and sound.

Now, if only my garden area was ready for planting. Eek!  It's okay though since there are still a few weeks left before it's planting time here in North Georgia.  That gives me more time to put the chickens back to work and then pull out the heavy-duty garden tiller.  Then it's on!

Come on Mother Nature!  Be kind to this country girl.  I would truly appreciate your assistance in growing enough vegetables for us to enjoy fresh out of the garden AND can/freeze for the future.  *Fingers Crossed*

Pictured above are my seeds of:

Bolita Beans  --  From Baker Creek
Green Beans
Beets
Carrots
Sweet Corn
Bell Peppers
Banana Peppers
Jalapeno Peppers  -- we're going to try our hand at salsa making
Glacier Tomatoes
Cherry Tomatoes
Pickling Cucumbers
2 types of Lettuce
Onions

All of these are veggies that I know will get eaten.  I may also get some sunflower seeds, but haven't decided on that yet.  Oh, and I'll be getting some potato clippings.

Above all this, I typed up all the details of the seeds from the companies, including growing times and company item numbers so I can keep up with what grows well for us and what may not.  This will make it easier to reference back to next year.  I'll be keeping growing notes and actual sprouting times.  Maybe, just maybe, all of this will help ensure some good crops.  :)

Natural Garden Tillers

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in North Georgia. We had sunshine, a light breeze, and temperatures up in the 60's. It was exquisite!  I took this opportunity to spend some time out in all the natural glory.

Since we still have some work to do in order to clear off our new garden location I had the girls outside with me to move wood from the trees Tim cut for me.  We had moved about 6 wheelbarrow loads of firewood when I decided to take a break. We brought out chairs and loosed the natural garden tillers...

Chickens!

Our girls have their coop with a permanent run, but they have pretty much cleared out their run over the last year, so we extricated them and relocated the ladies to the garden area.  Since we have cats running about and didn't want the hens to roam away from home, as well as no fencing around the garden, we sat out in the sunshine and supervised the small workforce.

They scratched and dug for an hour, coming up with bugs, worms, weeds, and even one nasty large grub. (YUCK!)  All gobbled down with gusto.  In the meantime, the dirt was being loosened, leaves and twigs kicked to the side, and some very happy chickens had a new area to explore.  Oh, and let's not forget the deposits of garden-friendly fertilizer, a.k.a. chicken poop!

I'll bring them out a few more times before it's time to plant the garden, but really don't think my three girls can completely clear the large garden before planting season.  I'm thinking of installing a temporary plastic fencing so I won't have to watch them so closely, possibly allowing them to "till" longer during the day.

Now next year will be an entirely different story.  We'll have a workforce of nine hens (fingers crossed) and no trees to clear ahead of time.  Woohoo!

My Rhode Island Reds

This time last year Tim & I dove head first into raising chickens.  We had been talking about it for years, but never did it.  One day we were in Tractor Supply picking up a 50lb bag of dogfood when the girls noticed all the adorable, fluffy chickens peeping away in the middle of the store.  Tim looked at me, I back at him.  I gave a shrug; he asked, "Well?"

We left the store with 6 yellow, chirping Rhode Island Reds, chick feed, a starter kit, and three uber excited girls.

We were chick owners for approximately 1 hour before we made a terrible mistake and left the chicks alone for 5 minutes.  That's when one of our outside cats decided they would make a tasty treat.  Oops!  *blush*  I went the very next day and picked up 6 more chicks.

A few days after bringing home the second 6 chicks, I found one croaked over in their water.  I removed it from the brooder and placed it in a box to be disposed of after the children came home.  Tim happened to be home from work that day and texted me later while I was at school pick-up.  The chick was alive!  He heard it cheeping in the box, all alone.  I had him give it feed and water, but to keep it away from the others.

It lived for another 12 hours before it really was croaked over the next morning.  Weird!

At this point we were down to 5 chicks.  Several weeks passed, we built a coop and run, and finally they were big enough (and the weather warm enough) to move into their new home.  Hooray!  And then it happened. . .

One morning I came out and we were missing a chicken.  We found some feathers and possibly blood, so we figured a creature of the night had taken it.  Three nights later it happened again.  :(  That's when we decided to lock them in the coop at night instead of allowing them to roam free.  After that it was all good.

The three hens left started laying, and we've all been happy ever since!

It took a lot of trial and error, but I believe we have finally figured out this chicken stuff.  So much so that we picked up 6 Barred Plymouth Rock chicks just over a week ago.  So far no water croakers.  *Fingers Crossed*

The land I'm working with.

A little about my land to better understand our homesteading attempts.

I live in north Georgia, at the base of Fort Mountain.  We live outside the city limits, though in a neighborhood.  Luckily, neighbors aren't as close here as they are in the local subdivisions where people only get small lots of land around their houses.  I have several acres of mostly wooded land to work with here.

When we first built our house almost 16 years ago, we were young (only 19 at the time) and our only concern was having a home of our own to raise our unborn daughter.  We weren't considering that our future would consist of a desire to raise farm animals and grow vegetable gardens. However, it all worked out in the end.

Our house sits on 2 acres of land, with another 4 acres of family land connected.  That's 6 acres to grow and raise anything we want.  It may not be as big as some people have, but it seems to be suiting our needs quite well.  :)

We have a wood-burning fireplace in the house and feed it regularly through the winter with wood from our land.  Trees need to come down to make room for gardens, the chicken coop, childrens' playsets, and just the routine cleaning up of land.  It has been 16 years and we're still not out of trees.

The ground consists of a layer of beautiful black topsoil, full of organic material, and then the awful layer of slate rock beneath.  Close to the house it's hard to plant things due to the removal of topsoil when they built the house.  Further away from the house, where the bulldozers never went, the land is fertile.  It has taken us  few years of trial and error, but I think we finally found the perfect gardening spot.  I can't wait to see what comes from it this year!

*Pictured above: My oldest daughter lounging in the backyard hammock last summer.*

Welcome to Crazy Homesteading

Welcome to my new blog, My Crazy Journey to Homesteading.  If you read the "About Me" page you already know why I created this blog.  If you haven't read it, now's a good time to do so.  :)

I will be using this blog to document and discuss things like raising chickens, what to do with all those fresh eggs, gardening, hopefully canning fresh vegetables from my garden in the fall, and many other topics revolving around my humble homesteading attempts.

Feel free to comment, converse, tell me about your homesteading actions, or just read and wonder where my sanity went.  I won't mind.  Considering I'm a writer of vampire stories in Small Town, Georgia, it wouldn't be the first time I've been looked at fun.  ;)

At some point, when this blog gets off the ground more, I'll open up for small advertising banner spots.  However, that won't be for a while yet.