The Turkeys are Here!

Our long awaited order of turkeys arrived today! We decided to go with a heritage breed this year in hopes that we will be able to breed them next year. Last year all of our turkeys were killed by a neighbor's dog, so I am really thankful that we can try again.

These are Narragansett Turkeys, a dozen of them. The hatchery also put 7 chicks in the box...to help keep the turkeys warm. Turkey poults are very delicate, so they will be in the fish tank brooder in the house for a couple of days so we can watch them very closely.

Once out of the box, we dip their beaks in the water. Their water is a mixture of water, apple cider vinegar, molasses (for an energy burst plus trace minerals), and an herbal mixture that prevents coccidia. This should get them off to a great start.We moved the chicks to another brooder so that the turkeys do not have to compete for food. That empty brooder sure got full!The Narragansett breed is hundreds of years old, are good foragers, and good mothers. The toms are about 28 pounds and the hens are about 15 pounds when grown. We're praying that we have some that look like this by the end of summer.....And some that look like this come Fall.....Then next year about this time we hope to have some that will hatch out their babies so we can do it all over again!

God's Creation - PLEASE READ

Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the AWE of God's creation! This is not "mother nature" or ...*choke* "mother earth*......

We are plagued by frogs. Well, not really plagued .....I love our tree frogs, our bullfrogs, and our toads. I love all amphibians..they are "skeeter eaters"! I just don't always love hearing their lovesick cries outside our bedroom window at night.

Night after night this poor boy wafted his serenade into the air and it fell onto deaf ears.

Finally this week, his call was returned. I thank our Creator that the courtship of toads is no longer than a few days! Aren't they a cute couple? Note the egg string draped across the oak leaf in the pond....

And today look at what is going on! The eggs are beginning to hatch! Don't they look strange? In all the years that I have had this little water garden....I have never seen tadpoles at this hatching stage! They don't even look like tadpoles, do they?!?!??!

But please remember, they are baby toads. Do they look like toads? No. Neither does a human baby 4 days after conception. But our Creator sees the creation. These ARE baby toads.

To our eyes, less than a week after the egg is fertilized, all we see are these little blobs. Our Creator sees the truth and knows each of us. Some of these tadpoles have died, some are not developed right, some will mature into tadpoles but not make it all the way to being toads. Some will be mature toads and next year will croak and call outside our bedroom window. God sees them and knows them.

Tomorrow is my oldest son's birthday.

It is also celebrated by many as "earth day" by folks that worship the creation rather than the Creator. The same folks that would try to put me behind bars if I squished these tadpoles..

......would be totally supportive if back in 1986....I made the choice to squish that tadpole growing in my womb.

How many?

I have been asked several times how long does it take to process a chicken, how many can you do in a day, etc. Today I found out. I can do 23 in one day.

I spent the day processing some chickens for a friend today, her daughters' 4-H project. In all fairness, they did come in and help with #10 and beyond....so I guess I can't claim the whole batch. I started the job at 10:18 this morning and we were done at 4pm.

I still have 4 of our own in the finishing cage, they will wait for another day. My back is done for the day.

Not a bad sight for a day's work....

This little piggy went to the freezer and other happenings...

Last month we aquired 2 pot bellied pigs. These were the same pigs that we castrated a couple of weeks ago.

One night last week we had a hard freeze and due to unforseen circumstances, we lost one of the pigs. What a shame, he died during the night and we had to bury him.

Today we butchered his counterpart. I really wanted to scald and scrape him, since we were planning to use him as our whole hog Hawaiin BBQ....but after trying to scrape for a while, I decided to skin. We are firm believers in using every part of the animal possible when we butcher, so losing the skin is bothersome to me.

The heart, kidneys, liver, head meat, and feet all went to the dogs. Good stuff for a growing pup like Aegis. We kept the carcass whole and vac sealed it for a future BBQ.
I butterfly'd the carcass so it is grill-ready.

Today was the last day for the corned beef in the brine. I cut each brisket into meal-sized chunks and trimmed the fat. Here it is all ready for the freezer.

Bob's got the smoker going and the other pieces are in the smoker being turned into Pastrami. They will smoke for at least 8 hours.

Lessons learned:

Potbellied pigs are NOT the same animal as a regular farm pig, I won't make that mistake again.

• they gain way more fat than muscle for each pound of food compared to farm pigs
• they should not be castrated in the same way you castrate farm pigs (ours healed well w/o complications, but we were blessed)
• they can not tolerate low temperatures at all w/o additional heat
• they could be a good homestead pig if you take extra precautions

Preserving meat continues...

I know, I know...this is just not the right time of year to be doing all of this. My internal calendar is way off, I know. But there are things that have to be done, and if I happen to fall behind or get off schedule, it doesn't change the fact that it needs to be done.

We packaged the venison from last Fall and put it into the freezer. I usually do this and wait for the sales on pork butt in the Fall, then we start making sausages and make a nice Christmas basket for friends and family. Last year pork never went on sale, things got busy, yada yada....and now here we are less than a week before Easter and I am just now preserving meats that I usually have done 5 months ago!

Today we made another batch of bologna but this time I did something different. Instead of forming it into rolls, I used my loaf pans. After all, bologna should be shaped like bread, right??

I also made a couple of pounds of peppered bologna, including an outter coating of fresh ground black pepper.

It will be finished tomorrow, I can't wait to see how it tastes!

The corned beef is still curing. I think today is day 5...or maybe 6. It is just not done yet. Maybe in another day or 2. Once the four briskets are done, we'll smoke 2 of them and turn them into pastrami.

Speaking of smoking, this is some of the wild hog Italian sausage we made in the Fall. Bob had his smoker running over the weekend and we smoked a few pounds of this. It is SO yummy, and look at that beautiful pink smoke ring.

Corning Beef ... day 2

This morning we flipped and rotated each of the briskets, then refilled the ice packs. The milk jugs in the picture are filled about halfway with cold water and used as weights to keep all the meat submerged in the cure.

The easiest way to moniter the temperature is to put a thermometer probe in a big section of one of the briskets. You want to maintain the meat between 35º-40º. 3 gallons of ice lasted overnight, and still maintained the temperature of the meat. Once it is checked in the morning, the lid is closed and not opened for another 12 hours. In the evening I'll check the temperature, the condition of the ice, and flip and rotate the meat again.

The process takes a long time (5 days minimum), but the end product is so wonderful. It is also much less expensive to make your own corned beef than it is to buy it from the store. Here is the breakdown:

• 47 pounds brisket @ .99 = $46.53
• 2 pounds tender quick @ $3.28 = $6.56
• pickling spices and other seasonings = $1.00
• Total = $54.09

2 of the briskets will be kept as corned beef, the other 2 will be smoked and become pastrami.

The result is 47 pounds of corned beef and pastrami at a cost of about $1.18/pound!

Actually, it's not just the savings that makes curing and smoking your own meats worthwile. The flavor is so much better, you can control what goes into it, and you teach your kids a valuable life skill.

Corning Beef ... day 1

Since we had such an early kidding season, we are having a late meat curing season. Today we started working on whole briskets that will be cured and turned into corned beef, then we will smoke 2 of the corned beef briskets turning them into pastrami. It takes about 5 days to corn the beef. I'll keep a diary of their progress here..

First, everything has to be sanitized. The buckets and coolers all must be scrubbed, then soaked with a bleach solution. You do not want to attract any uninvited guests to dinner!

Here are the basic ingredients I use for my corning cure. Tender Quick is the cure itself, then I add pickling spices, allspice berries, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, brown sugar, garlic, and a couple gallons of water. The cure is all mixed in a sanitized 5 gallon bucket and placed into the fridge until well chilled....The star of the show of course is the meat. Four whole briskets totalling just over 47 pounds.I arrange the very cold (nearly starting to freeze) meat in the bottom of the sanitized cooler...Then add the brine....

Enough cure is needed to keep the meat submerged.The meat is weighted down with bags of ice....this not only keeps the meat submerged, but also keeps it cold.Twice a day I will take out the old bags of ice, refill them....then turn the meat over and replace the ice bags.