The Chicks Are Coming! The Chicks Are Coming!!

Its almost SPRING!!! And for us that means new life. New chicks are ordered and on their way! As I've written before my hatchery of choice is McMurray. I love the flocks I get with them. Great birds and awesome customer service! But, I did go a little different. Usually I've been getting a dual purpose bird. The Orphingtons. Buff are my fav. Their beautiful and large birds that dress really well. They're also great mommas and layers! The cocks aren't that aggressive which is important when you raise a lot for meat.

This year I ordered their bargain assortments. I wanted a flock with lots of different chickens. I chose the brown egg layers. Which are Black Australorps, Lt. Brahmas, Dark Cornish, Black and White Giants, Buff and White Orpingtons, New Hampshire, Rhode Island Reds, Barred, White, Partridge, Buff Rocks, Delaware, Sussex, Turkens, White, Silver Laced, & Columbian Wyandottes, Red Star and Black Star. From this list you get at least 5 different.

Then, we ordered their BBQ special. Which are the Cornish X Rocks and or Cornish Roasters. These are fast growing with the best feed ratio.

The price difference on buying the bargain assortments vs a straight run of Orphingtons is Orphingtons: $2.06/per bird and brown eggs layers: $49.75/ 25 birds BBQ: $39.50/ 25 birds. But this way I'll have the opportunity to see the other temperaments of the different chickens. Laying and setting habits etc. Maybe I'll have a new favorite. Or maybe I'll stick with Ophingtons next year.

Our order is placed and they should be here around Valentines!! I'm so excited. Now our geese, ducks and turkeys we'll get from the local feed store. Just because theres no way I'd need enough to fill an order. We'll get maybe 4 ducks, 2 turkeys and a couple of geese. McMurray has a Barnyard combo that's a pretty good deal for a combo of turkey/ducks/geese. Three different ways. Either 16, 15 or 12. But you can't choose the breed. And I wont change my preferences. I love my toulouse geese and I favor the Broad Breasted Bronze turkey and Jumbo Pekin ducks.

Now that that's done and on their way, we have a lot of work ahead of us with preparing the garden. Maybe this will be our year!! I've tried and failed the previous planting seasons but I will not give up. My lemon tree gave fruit this year!! Tiny but yummy! Keeping out the varmits is going to be my only goal! I'm also thinking of planting in buckets like I explained here. If I can find enough buckets! I'm such a procrastinator, I should of been on the lookout all this time for buckets.

Also at the end of this month we'll be getting 3 pigs, if their ready. I'll post pics of our new arrivals!!

~*♥Welcome To My Animals Page!♥*~

Working with animals has been a huge learning experience for me and my family. Its had its ups and down, pros and cons. Ideally this would be the way for the world again, but we've become a little too accustomed to convience. The meats fresher healthier and happier. Yes we kill our animals, yes it was hard first go rounds, but I'll tell you what I've never had better tasting food! It makes such a difference having a clean animal on your plate vs whatever it was from the store. We've all seen those inside documentaries from slaughter houses. I feel bad for those animals. No chance to run and play, be petted and loved. We dont inject anything into our animals bodies, we treat naturally and lovingly as it should be. Right up to the day we... well you know...... Don't worry we're safe around here, if we're in the pig pen petting some and then go to the chicken coop and hold one, we wash our hands first.... To prevent cross contamination..... Don't want to mix pork and chicken. Thats dangerous.... Ok bad joke. Enjoy our videos and pictures and comment me with any questions. If I don't know, I know tons of people who would ♥
 ********I'm always adding new ones so be sure to check back and watch our progress**********

Food Update!

These pictures are kind of hard to make out, sorry. But if you click on them they'll get a lot bigger. *I used my camera phone*

As far as our "garden" goes.....Well, looks like we'll be eating just green beans *sad face*

Our green beans seem to be the only things popping up. Along with a couple cucumbers. Anthony actually planted this row, so I joked and said he has the green thumb of the family. He ended up replanting for us. But still no other sprouts..Hmmm. Not sure what the deal is there.







And like I said they're hard to see, but if you look closely you'll see two green eggs. One at top and one at bottom. Bad lighting + bad camera = ugh! These we're just gathered today, still living hand to chicken butt... A family of six really needs a minimum of 50 hens I think. We did well last year. Ahh there was enough even to give out. This year with half the flock, please. As much as my kids love eggs, hand to chicken butt I tell you.





Now, I finally got the call our hogs were ready!! WooHoo!! This is how we made out. Two hogs: 493 lbs of meat about 188 lbs in bone and the rest was fat. Which I opted to keep all of the fat. Yum! I make beans darn near daily around here and I love putting pork fat into it. It's a wonder we're not a lot fatter. Total for everything $531.17 that's kill fee, processing and packing fees. Not bad I say. My freezer runneth over. Well not quite it can hold over 700lbs. But still, we are pleased.


I will be dreaming of the ribs, chops, bacon, sausage.....till it gets here! To bad we won't have it til next payday. Figures we get the call at the same time mortgage is due. LOL

Did I make ya hungry??

Slaughtering Pigs

Today we took a couple pigs down to be slaughtered. Our first experience with any large animal slaughtering. Let me just say, it was NOT what I had in mind!

First, we began our day at 5:30am. We wanted to get them down to the UofA early. This is how I thought it was going to go down.....

Because we did not feed them all day yesterday, I figured all they'd need as an incentive to follow us is a little food. So, they would follow the sound all the way to the trailer. Then, they would climb right in and we'd close the door behind them. Bid farewell, blow kisses and off we'd go...... Ahhhhh NO!

We began with the female, the smaller of the two. Let's just say I now understand the whole "chute" thing, chasing them through a huge yard was tough! We ended up having to use a rope. Chutes I always thought were inhumane keepings for our animals. Too restrictive. But after having to pull and almost drag her to the trailer made me realize just how unprepared we were! First off horse trailers with no ramps are a bad idea. When we finally got her to the truck Hubby lifted her front legs while me and a friend pulled the rope.

She took us a very long hour to put her in. Second, we were on to Big Willy. This time we knew how we were going to do things. We walked him close to where we needed him and then put on the ropes. The minute he felt those ropes he fled back the other way. Dragging both men and me with him. Hubby's finger got ripped open. And let me say WOW can they squeal! I never heard such a sound! We probably woke everyone up in a 20 miles radius! After much petting of Big Willy and talking to him we got him to start walking again in the direction we wanted him to go. Put the ropes back on and boom! Off he went again! Only this time the rope slipped downwards towards his back area. A very sensitive area for any male animal. It was all so quick we didn't realize this until later. We spanked his butt and he hopped right in.... We closed the door in a hurry.

Towards the end, hearing him squeal made me cry. I looked at Hubby and said we are never doing this again. My heart broke seeing him like that. Hearing his cries. We know we made the mistake of becoming close with them, and not keeping a distance. But how can you really. Over a year with them. They become part of you.

After all that, we decided not to take the goats. We were exhausted!

I cried a little more on the ride. The kids were fine amazingly. They were real excited to see what was up next. We did prepare them for our whole reasoning for doing this. Food. Providing for ourselves. They say you should never name them, but I don't think naming them does it. We could of called them all hogs, it's an attachment.

We arrived at the UofA and unloaded them, which was easy, they just spanked them and down they went into the pen. What pros they use like a plastic oar. Not hard though. So now they are to be weighed. She was 327lbs, and Big Willy was a whopping 457lbs!! We were pleased! Especially after learning you get a 70% return on the meat from that! After filling out a form of what cuts we wanted, I asked......."So we should get back almost 600lbs right!" Ahhhh NO! Apparently, since we waited a year to slaughter we're looking at about 50- 60%, like 400lbs. Boooo! He said 6-8months old is perfect for the 70% return.... You live you learn.

On the way out we got to see two trailers dropping off very different cows. One had a huge, very angry cow. It rocked that trailer big time!! Like he knew what was coming. The other was a smaller sweet curious cow. Made me rethink the whole cow raising thing....

So, we were on the way home and I finally smiled. I looked at Hubby and he was smiling. We both agreed to continue our journey of raising our own animals. We will love them, they'll live good and will be treated well. Just next time we slaughter at 6mths. Easier to handle, less traumatic for them and of course a better return.