Spring 2020 Freedom Ranger project

13 of the 15 chickens bagged up and ready for the freezer

On June 19th, we started the process of graduting the meaties to Freezer Camp. Since there were only 15 we weren't expecting this to last a terribly long time. Especially since we have a neighbor/friend who has joined us for each of our butchering days.

This year's batch went from 30 to 15 due to a brooder fire. Then we figured out that we didn't count correctly and there was one more. However one of the meaties didn't grow nearly as much and actually appeared to be about half the size of all the other monsters. She may weigh two pounds where as the others all dressed out at anywhere from three to almost five pounds. 

As I posted a couple of weeks ago we got ourselves a Yardbird Chicken Plucker - this is a game changer!

This plucker easily accommodates two chickens

Short story - we were not able to reserve the Poultry Processing kit for this particular weekend. Which is kinda funny, because the original date was the previous week and there would be NO ONE to help check the kit out. I think since then COVID might have changed things anyway. 

In addition to the plucker we would need a vessel large enough to dunk a couple of chickens into. Using the big pot that came with the turkey fryer set up would work, but we wouldn't be able to dunk two at once. I know, minor detail - Whatever. To solve that problem I did some research and then found this behemoth:

This stockpot is 80 quarts! Everything else looks miniature

Thank you very much Amazon. This thing worked great AND the water was up to temperature in about an hour and twenty minutes. This is actually a pot for crab boils and comes with a basket that you put all the crab and other goodies into and lower into the pot. We used that for cooking the entrails (which we let the pigs have later). 

There was only one Restraining Cone, so Tom picked up one more at Wilco a couple of days before processing day.

We set up the saw horses and a piece of plywood covered with thick plastic for our evisceration station. 

Adding the plucker and the giant pot to our processing kit gives us so much flexibility. We don't have to calculate the weeks from picking up the chicks to processing day - which I mess up anyway. In the future we can just plan to pick the chicks up and then go from there. We can do two batches of chickens a year if we want and invite others to join us in the harvest. The minimum order at Jenks is 25 so there would be plenty of chickens to go around if we even had a couple of extra people coming to learn and get their hands dirty. 

There will be a second batch this year and that batch will begin on July 7th. This next batch of birds will be what is called the FryPan special. These are a heavy breed cockerel and will take 16-18 weeks to get to 6 or 7 pounds. I would be happy with a 5 pound chicken as I am having a hard time finding bags big enough for a five pound bird. We'll see how this goes. It will be a fun next project!

This little girl was just too little and it made more sense to keep her as a layer just like Cleo from the first batch a couple of years ago. I wanted to give her a name that kind of went along with her breed with is Freedom Ranger - so I said Liberty! Which was okay, but Libby is much better. After spending most of the day by herself yesterday she got introduced to the main flock earlier today. No one thought twice about her presence, she just blends right in.

Farm Life is the Best Life when you add meat to the freezer!

Gobble Gobble

Today we trekked to Cascade Meadows Farm outside of Sandy, OR to pick up six White Holland Poults. As I mentioned before we had thought about doing the turkey thing like last year, but it didn't happen. Then we thought we might get started earlier this year, but then the coronavirus changed that plan. Until last weekend I was thinking that maybe we wouldn't do turkeys this year and we would wait another year to get them started.

Once we arrived we were greeted by Jason, he is so knowledgeable and eager to help beginners in just about anything that they have to offer at their farm. Which is nice because I don't feel so bad about sending the odd text here and there if something comes up. Kirk was out working with their Dexter herd so he was unavailable for the most part. Kirk is not nearly as personable as Jason, but friendly none the less.

Before getting to the matter of the turkeys we talked about projects and stuff then the conversation circled back around to turkeys and he told us all sorts of stuff about these White Holland poults. What we have learned so far about this breed:

1. They are quite docile - well the Cascade flock is docile and friendly. We were told that they might even follow us into the house if given the chance. Yeah, that's not gonna happen. 
2. They are a slow grower. Which is to be expected as it seems that heritage breeds are slow to mature. So a fresh turkey at Thanksgiving this year is a no go. 
3. Turkeys can be quite sensitive in that new things will kind of freak them out. So you know that we'll be in there and getting them used to us and to different things until we get them outside. 
4. They are not as mean to other chicks in the same pen. This is perfect since we'll be picking up our next batch of meat chickens in about three weeks. So once the meaties are big enough to go outside they'll join the turkeys. The turkeys will probably be about a month and half old by the time the meaties are ready. 

So far they are sounding really good! 

During our visit Jason showed us the set-up that they had for their young turkeys. There were several within this turkey shelter (tractor) and it was quite fun seeing the little turkeys hopping around.

Check out this little show off...

He's already showing off to the girl who is quite unimpressed

We talked about Rex, Fiona and the kids for a little while which was nice. It was also nice to know that we are doing a pretty good job with our piggies and what to be watching for...

ANYWAY - 

While I knew that I didn't want anymore four legged creatures besides what we have, I wasn't so sure if we would be adding feathered creatures or not. It wasn't looking very positive until a few days ago. 

Now that I have seen them in action. Then next step will be to process a couple and see how that goes. I can't imagine that it would be much different than a chicken, but you never know. If they are as good as Jason has then I have high hopes that will be raising more to put into the freezer and onto our table maybe even onto the tables of some friends. 

Since we are starting with 6 poults I'm optimistic that at least one of them will be a male and we won't have to go back to Cascade Meadows to get a tom from them. It is a nice trip out there though, so it wouldn't be the end of the world. 

This might be the last thing that we add to the farm...maybe.

Farm Life is the Best Life!

Vacation

It may seem like I only just went back to work in the office full-time instead of working at home. This is true, but I really needed a break. Time to not think about anything work related.

My initial plan was to work at getting my garden planted. So far it has rained every day since Thursday. Actually, that's not true, there was a day that wasn't rainy. Oh wait, Friday. Yep, Friday morning I was able to get some plants into the garden - Romanesco and Lemon Balm. Saturday was a dreary day - good for hanging out inside and doing almost nothing. I think I may have watched several episodes of Star Trek Voyager. Yesterday Tom helped me with getting the remainder of the Salvaterra tomatoes into one of the garden boxes. We have an unintended experiment happening this year with the Salvaterra plants. There are 10 plants in the crop garden, 6 in the garden box and there is one left which will go into the hoop house. We'll see what works best for these plants.

Romanesco & Lemon Balm

Salvaterra Tomatoes in a Garden Box

Friday was a Floating Holiday for me so today is officially vacation day #1. Like I mentioned earlier, my plan was to work in the garden. WAS. It has rained off and on all through last evening and this morning so I decided that today I will make ice cream! I'm not a huge fan of ice cream, but Tom is so I thought I would get the Pampered Chef ice cream maker out and get it going again. My fear was that after a couple of years that it wouldn't do anything, it did turn on. However my mixture is still too warm to pour in so here I am on blogger instead. I could nap, but this seemed a bit more productive. 

Since I picked up another bag of russet potatoes at the food pantry at our church I may make another batch of gnocchi. The first ever batch that I made was on Saturday and it turned out pretty well. The recipe which I found on the Epicurious website was pretty easy and easily could feed us over two meals. SO GOOD! Try it you'll like it!

Not a bad first effort

What else do we have planned? Check it out:

1. Tuesday - Trek to Cascade Meadows Farm and pick up some White Holland Turkey poults. We had talked about growing our own Thanksgiving turkey this year. The craziness with COVID19 kinda pushed that idea to the back and we didn't think of it again until a couple of days ago. I don't know that happened, but somehow we got on the subject of growing turkeys. When Tom said he still wanted to do that this year I knew that I better get in contact with Farmer Jason and ask him about getting some poults. We will be picking up six poults tomorrow morning. Who knows this might turn into a thing.  
2. Wednesday - FINALLY going to get my hair cut!!! I'm able to cut Tom's hair okay, but Tom doesn't have the same kind of hair cutting skills. He has trimmed my bangs and I'm totally okay with that. Anything else is a NO. Anyway, my hair magician and I had an appointment set up for her to come her to our house. Since we made that appointment our county was okay'd to move to Phase 2. So off to the salon I go! 
3. Thursday - my special day!! I'm gonna turn double nickels! Whoa. I already have a coffee date with a good friend and then later in the day I believe we will have a small gathering, but I'm not in charge of that, so I'll find out on my birthday what is happening.
4. Friday - All things garden. I need to liberate my garlic in the crop garden from all of the Canada Thistle growing up around it. We can't hardly see the garlic right now! 

Well, I will be fitting in garden stuff here and there while we are home and not otherwise occupied. There is so much to do! I think I just need to chill out with the garden. It has been a very wet June. The garden is usually in by mid to late June anyway. If the rain keeps up like this I won't have anything out there but the silage tarp and weeds. Oh and the potatoes, sad tomatoes and romanesco. Patience...I must have patience.

This afternoon I do believe that I will take that nap. I'm a little tired from all the stuff that I think I might be up to this week.

I do like this farm life a lot. Looking forward to the day that this is my forever - who knows maybe sooner than later.

Farm Life Best Life.

Fiona and Rex went on a date - kids? what kids?

American Guinea Hogs

One of the things that I love about American Guinea Hogs is how calm they can be. They really don't put up a fuss or get too bent out of shape if something goes against what they want. Well, they might fuss a little, but that's to be expected. It was really fun to raise Rex and Fiona from newly weaned boar & gilt to now with two of the six of the piglets that Fiona farrowed on March 28th. 

Knowing that we would be selling most of the piglets in time I thought it best to handle them as much as possible. That way their new owners would have a easy time with the transition from our farm to theirs. The piglets were visited daily by both Tom and I as well as some of our friends who wanted to meet them. They were an instant hit with everyone who came to see them. I mean really, piglets are so stinkin' cute! No one can argue that! Also, Fiona was cool with us hanging around her babies and didn't get all crazy if one of them was picked up for any reason. Although there were a couple of times that they really squealed and she came to their rescue in no time flat! Note to self, be gentle with the babies. On more than one occasion while I was sitting and watching the babies she would just get up and wander off for a few minutes. Momma needs some alone time too...

At not quite two weeks old

Because we handled them so much and we were not a "threat" it was kind of easy to "train" them. Which really is just giving them a snack to get them to do what we want. At least that's what they zone in on, the snack. They're smart, but not geniuses. A little snack gets them every time!

Anyway, now that the four boys have moved on it was time to think about getting Rex back with Fiona. So yesterday, June 10th, we reunited Rex with Fiona with the kids as a bonus. This is not the first time that Rex has seen his babies, but this is his life now - no more absentee father! Since we sold the four boys last week (a week ago today) Rex has had the opportunity to hang out with Fiona and the kids a little more than when we had all six. After a while Fiona walked away as if to say "It's your turn, I'm going to go out for a while." Good Girl!

In order to get him moved we needed to spend some time getting the new paddock lined out and the fence installed which we did after dinner. It's a fairly good size area and they should have no problem poopin' it up good. Once we got them all into their new space they went right to work munching away on the grass and the volunteer squash. 

Top: Bridgette & Rex, Bottom: Fiona & Victor

Tom sent this to me. Rex "let" Fiona have pool time first

Anyway, this breed is an awesome breed! They tick all of the boxes for me too:

• Easy to handle - Check
• Gentle - Check
• Docile - Check
• Friendly - Check
• Excellent grazers - Check

Those are my top characteristic choices. We have said more than once that they complete our farm and what we hope to do which is be responsible about the food that we eat, share the experience with those around us and  be good stewards of what God has gifted us. 

Our pasture has been better than ever before. Although the chickens did do a lot of that work, but the pigs are contributing to that as well. They are good at eating up crops that we have too much of, which I plan to grow extra because they will eat squash and whatever else suits their palate. It's a good way to supplement their diet without spending a lot of money. The babies have been using their tiller/noses to root the grass and weeds that are in the driveway which is nice, but they don't do a thorough job. Their interest in a specific "job" is short-lived. I forgive them because they are cute and also, they are only 11 weeks old - their job is to grow up right now. Anything they do is instinct and they are practicing. 

If I had to do this all over again, I would have gotten pigs sooner. Actually if I could go back and do things again I would have started with chickens YEEEEEARS ago! Not so sure that pigs would have been a thought though. I always thought I would just do the chicken and duck thing like my mom. Only on a smaller more manageable scale. 

We have Mother Earth News Fair to thank for the pigs idea. Since the second time we attended the fair and we sat in on a couple of pig talks the wheels in my head started turning...

And now we are Pigs 'n Poultry Farm - or something new. Been thinking about new names lately. 

Farm Life Best Life!

When Will We Process...

Batch #3 of Meaties? The date that I had on the calendar is June 13.

Hmmmmm...

For some reason, this year's meaties are on the smaller side. I'm wondering if the Brooder fire may have made a difference in their lack of growth or if I miscalculated processing dates. 

Anything is possible.

So, just to be safe I decided to take this coming Friday off just in case we do decide to do the harvest. I also decided to go ahead and take vacation time next week. Looks like I'll be working on getting the garden planted then...but that's a different task altogether!

When we had picked up the chicks I tried to get the date that we wanted the Poultry Kit on the calendar with the Clark Conservation District. I actually received the email from one of the ladies in the office and as soon as I read it I responded with the date that we were looking at and then waited. Several days went by and pretty soon I was back at work (I had been on vacation then). Then I decided to resend my reply and see if anyone was going to answer. Well the person that responded back to me informed me that the kit would not be available the weekend I had requested and that there were no other weekends available in June. 

OH FINE. 

So now what? After a couple of emails we Tom and I decided that maybe this was the impetus to actually get our own chicken plucker. We each searched for pluckers that might be for sale on Craigslist. Nothing. Then we started to research different pluckers available to buy. There is the Featherman which is what we are used to and there is the Yardbird which I had already looked at months ago. Maybe I was just preparing myself for this situation. Tom did some research, read reviews on Amazon and then said that we should go for it. The question was where would we purchase it from? Amazon? Tractor Supply? Somewhere else? In the end Tom decided to order thru Tractor Supply. It took a couple of weeks for the box to show up at the store, but it did so off we went! It was great because we got to get away from Vancouver for a little while AND new pokemon opportunities!

Before too long we were back at home and BAM - chicken plucker!

We had an opportunity to try this out on a laying hen that had injured itself and even in our chicken ICU was not getting better. If we were to leave her out in the chicken run she would have been pecked to death and there was evidence that the hens were picking at her. However, being isolated didn't really help either. She wasn't eating or anything so the kindest thing we felt was to go ahead and put her out of her misery. It sounds uncaring, but I really wanted to try out the plucker.

It worked like a charm!

Now, when will we process the 15 meaties out in the field?

Stay tuned - an update will be coming.

And Then There Were Two

So, as I mentioned in the last post the Craigslist ad was posted and we got a response! Through a series of emails, a time was set up to meet on Thursday (June 4th) for Shauna to come and pick up the boys. I left work promptly at noon to make it home and changed before she was to show up. Shortly after I arrived home I received a text from her, she and her husband were on their way and would be arriving by 1230. Perfect!

All of the piggies were lounging and sleeping in their favorite spot by the table near the cherry tree when Shauna and Josh arrived. We spent some time chatting and getting to know them a bit. They already have one AGH which they plan to have slaughtered sometime this fall. They are hoping to grow out a couple of the boys for meat and I believe she said she wanted to breed them as well. They currently have all boys so I am guessing that they will be waiting for a gilt/sow in the future. Either way, the boys are in a really good place now and they will serve out a new purpose on their farm in Longview. 

Then came time to round up the kids and get them caught! The first couple were easy, especially since they were napping. Quite a rude awakening! Soon, there were three in the crate/cage, but after a quick look at who was left, I had discovered that Bridgette was grabbed and almost went away with the boys. So she was removed and #3 was picked up and was placed with his brothers. The last one had time to figure out that this was not a good thing and he started to run around. To his house to the yard into the field...he really tried to not get caught. He was a slippery little stinker! In a few minutes they were all rounded up squealing all the way into the cage. Poor babies looking a little downcast. 

After some more visiting and enough time for the boys to settle down Shauna & Josh left to take the boys to their new home. 

Then there were two:

 Victor & Bridgette were a little unsettled for a while. They spent most of the afternoon hanging out near Rex since we let Rex out to check things out. Fiona was happy to leave Rex with the kids and went off to do her own thing. Once meal time rolled around, they were back to normal, but better. No more chaos during meal time, just the two of them to share one big ol' bowl of tasty food - well, tasty for them at least.

We knew what the plan would be from the beginning, we certainly couldn't keep all six of the baby hogs. That would be way too much. There is already enough poo with Rex & Fiona! Add the poo of the growing pigs and oh my goodness...poo EVERYWHERE! Of course it's good for the grass and whatever is around, but too much!

I would be lying if I said that I was okay with them being gone. I missed them, more than I thought I would. Spending almost 10 weeks with the piggies gave us a lot of time to bond with them and to handle them as much as possible. Which worked out great. The next morning I sent Shauna a text to check in and see how things went overnight. She was pleased to have them with her and they did great! This news made my day! This really put my mind at ease knowing that they did well and these photos helped as well:

New digs for the pigs!

New pasture, same piggy behavior

Before they left Josh had mentioned that they created a new house for these little hogs which looks great. Certainly nicer than the Pallet shelter that Tom put together for Rex & Fiona. As you can see in the second photo, one of the boys was already in the belly rub position. 

It's a blessing to have found someone who just love the boys as much as we did. I am hopeful that they will be well taken care of and will be able to thrive. In my mind, this was a perfect match that worked out for us and for the Juve's. When Fiona has her next litter I will have at least one person who will want to buy. No rush Fiona, we are all enjoying the first litter of piggies. 

Farm Life Best Life...when pigs are born, raised and go to a new home. 

The Time Just Flew By!

March 30, 2020

The little AGH's are TWO months old! It's crazy to think that the past two months went by in a FLASH! They were just born...We watched them grow right before our eyes! Fiona did such a good job raising them up!! We were concerned since litter number 1 was not successful. In so many ways. We are better informed now and have a very suitable space for her to farrow in the future. In fact, the whole structure is still in the early stages of becoming a pig palace of sorts.

So what has been happening in the last two months?

Well, until last Tuesday (day after Memorial Day) I was working remotely. There were a handful of days that I was asked to come in to the station for specific projects. Otherwise I was home working and taking breaks to check out the kids. 

After a couple of weeks they started to explore outside of the stall that we had them set up in. THEN  they were exploring a lot of the farm with momma supervising (sort of). They explored a lot of the field next to the area where they spent the first few weeks. Then as time went on they explored further and further. This included the big garden space all covered with a silage tarp the back yard, Big Daddy's area. Their most favorite area was the Mushroom Compost pile. They would spend a lot of time playing in the mound and pushing around the dirt and stuff. They even work on a depleted pile that was next to a pile of sand. They worked it so much that I was able to shovel up a wheelbarrow load of soil for planting. 

Good Piggies!

Last week when we had a couple of days in the 80s and low 90s Tom put out a small pool for them to cool themselves in. It was a slow process of figuring out that there was water in the pool, then they slurped up some water and then figured out that they could step into it with not too much trouble. 

May 28, 2020

One of the boys decided to try out the duck's pool...

A lot has happened from the time that they were born until now. I'm back to working in the office full time - no more of that working remotely nonsense. For now at least. Who knows how things will shake out this fall. In the past nine weeks we have spent so much time learning about the piggies and momma and trying to determine which we will sell and WHEN. 

Last week it became pretty clear that it's time for the jr. swine to move on. They are getting bigger, duh. But they are also becoming harder to handle at meal time. They know the routine, but they don't allow for their human parents to get things laid out for them. It's craziness!

So, by Thursday I had drafted up an ad for Craigslist. Tom approved of the ad and then I decided to post it on Friday. Since selling livestock is a new thing for me, I wasn't sure what to expect as far as interest. On Saturday it occurred to me that maybe I should add some key words and phrases to make our ad more findable. THEN by the evening, I thought that maybe we should pray about selling the pigs and asking for the Lord to prompt a suitable buyer for the piggies.

Things happen when you pray - sometimes it takes a while. Other times - less than an hour! Yep, within an hour I had an email waiting for me to read. 

After a few email exchanges we have ourselves a buyer! AND she said she would buy all FOUR of the boys! So out of the six we are keeping the female, also know as Bridgette for breeding purposes. As well as the male who had some problems with his front legs we call him Victor. He will be our feeder pig.

The fact that they are all going together makes me so happy and thankful. They will be together at their new home together so that will be something familiar and they will get to know their new place and new routine together. Let's just hope that they the transition doesn't freak them out too much. 

This is pretty much forced weaning. We had hoped to try to separate Fiona from the brood the weekend before we listed them, but the instinct was pretty strong at that point. The babies cried and she made her way from her old paddock with Rex over to them. She didn't leave any evidence as to where she escaped. That is still a mystery. The babies also busted out and were wandering around. 

We have noticed since then that she is not allowing them to nurse nearly as much and is doing her own protest by not allowing herself to be available to them. Soon they give up and start grazing or playing somewhere together. Once that happens she pops up and wanders out to the field or goes to the front yard where the clover is nice and thick. 

Today is Tuesday so I will be spending as much time with them as I can. Our buyer had a change in her plan for Thursday and will be over much earlier than she first thought. I decided to take the afternoon off so I could meet her and to help with loading up the kids into the kennel that she will be bringing...

To Be Continued...