Bacon....Part 2......The Soak and Smoke

After 9 days of curing, the bacon is ready for the next step.

First, the excess cure is rinsed off the meat.

Rinsing the salt from every crevice and fold is important so that your bacon isn't too salty.  Once it is well rinsed under running water, then each piece is placed in very cold water to soak for an hour.

Then it is rinsed again, patted dry, and on to the smoker...

This year we're using a mixture of apple, pecan, and hickory.  We cold smoke for anywhere between 8-12 hours....then the meat is chilled and allowed to rest.

To be continued...

We Make Dirt

We are getting closer each day to new baby goats.  Tina is due in 19 days....

and is now in the day spa.  This prompted me to get things ready in the kidding barn.  Or at least start to.

The monster goats (last years' babies) have only been evicted from the kidding pen for a couple of weeks, so it's not near ready for newborns.  Layers build up quickly and everything has to be scraped down to the dirt.  Then we sprinkle lime on the dirt, add pine shavings, and then the goats drop hay and poop.  When it needs to be raked out it looks like this...

As we clean the kidding stalls, we move all of the bedding behind the barn to compost.

After raking leaves from the driveway and patio yesterday, the garden spot looked like this...

Behind the kidding barn looks like this after cleaning the barn and letting the bedding compost for a few weeks...

The top looks like hay and pine shavings, but just below the surface is rich composted material full of worms...

Lots of worms....you can not grab a shovel full without getting a half dozen worms...

Here's the garden with a new layer of compost....I'm adding a depth of 6-8 inches to the entire area.

I got about half of it done before it got dark; and it will have a few weeks rest in the garden spot before we start planting.

Pork Chops and Bacon Part 1

We finally stopped procrastinating and got one of the pigs butchered.  I had underestimated his size a bit and he yielded about 150# of meat on the bone.  Not bad for a pig that had such a rough start.

Since we have a fridge for chilling meat, I like to take a bit of time to make nice cuts.  After all, the pork from these 2 pigs will need to last us a year.

Here are just a few of the cuts from the front quarter....

But probably the most anticipated part of the pig is bacon.  We love bacon and since we've been making our own, I can't stand anything that comes from the store.  Besides the belly, I also use the flap off the ribs.  You have to be careful so that you can remove the bacon but still leave some meat on the ribs for a good BBQ...

The result is a pretty nice slab...

We harvested 20# of bacon from this pig....now the curing begins.  First I weigh the bacon in 10# batches.  It's just easier for me to do it 10# at a time....plus you want to be sure to get your curing salt mixed in well.  I use equal parts dark brown sugar and kosher salt along with 2 teaspoons of pink salt.

Mix this very very thoroughly then apply it liberally to 10# of meat.

You need to get it into every crevasse, over every inch.

Then continue working 10# at a time until it's all coated with the cure.

Place it in a non-metallic pan, cover and put into the fridge.  Every day I will rotate, putting the top meat down to the bottom and the bottom slab up on top.  The meat will cure like this for about 5 days before smoking.

To be continued...

Dealing With The Cold

Yep, I'd say it's safe to say that winter has hit.  Oh my do I ever hate the cold!

One of our projects for this year is to buy and install a wood burning stove...unfortunately it's not budgeted for until the end of Feb.  Until then, our kerosene heater does pretty good at keeping us warm.

The bucks have even learned to get along during this cold snap so they can keep each other warm...

Last year we installed frost-free hydrants, but with this extreme cold they have frozen at the juncture from the well.  Since 4 of our does are in milk, water is even more important.  The goats' water buckets only have to be broken up and a bit of warm added, but when I'm late getting out there persistence pays off...

The Rhode Island Red pullets were just moved from the brooder a few weeks ago, but seem to be doing pretty good despite the freeze...

Even the 2 mutt chicks are doing well...

The does are enjoying an extra feeding of alfalfa pellets every day to help keep them warm...

We did manage to get one of the pigs butchered, I'll be spending the day doing the finer cuts and wrapping the meat.  About 150# of meat from pig 1....pig 2 will wait for a warmer day.

Glamorous & Romantic Homesteading is NOT

Part of my silence over the last few months has been my reaction to the increasing number of "homesteading" blogs, magazines, articles, facebook groups, etc. that speak of the notion that you can have a milk goat or 2, grow a bountiful garden, have a handful of laying hens....and viola you are sustainable.

Horsehockey.

To buy pullets and raise them for the required 6-8 months, then maintain them for 2 years to get between 250-300 eggs (if you're lucky), after building a coop, fencing, etc...is not sustainable, and it is a far cry from the romantic notion of hens scurrying around your feet as you gather baskets full of eggs.

As far as milk goats are concerned, there is a huge commitment of time and energy that goes into a goat to get that first drop of milk.  There is a reason that dairy farmers never take vacations, never have a day off.

Homesteading is hard work.  It means no days off, even when you are sick.  If you want fresh milk year round, then you have to milk year round.  Every day, twice a day. The animals must be fed, watered, given shelter every day 365 days a year and many times that means cold and achy fingers and toes or working outdoors when it's almost too hot to breathe, sore back muscles, and sleepless nights.  It means putting a bullet into the brain of an animal you've raised to put meat on your table.  It means a never ending list of projects that there's never enough time or money to finish.  It means picking caterpillars off your cabbage plants and praying you get every one.  It means all night canning sessions to get the harvest up before it rots.  It means watching the weather forecasts every day so you can be prepared to dig a drainage ditch, put out extra hay, build another shelter, or put up shadecloth.

Think it all sounds hard?  It is.

But it also means kicking up your heels and celebrating that first egg from those pullets you've worked so hard to raise.  It means watching newborn kids stumble and hop for the first time.  It means you can create a Thanksgiving meal at the end of the harvest knowing that you worked all year to get the food there, and that God's blessings were upon you.  

The homesteading life is relentless.  It is simplicity in a very raw form.  It's not about being sustainable or self sufficient.  It's about working harder than you've ever imagined for tiny rewards that make it all worthwhile.

It's a lifestyle.

It's Penciled In

I think we are finally going to get the pigs done. 

Bob got the chain and the hoist back up in the trees.....

Tonight they got a couple of big buckets of yummy treats and goats milk....

Cold weather is moving in, it's time to get this job done....

Making bacon in January....a first for us.  Usually this job is done by Thanksgiving....but then life doesn't hand you a script, right?