I really tried to keep up with this blog. The closer I get to retirement the more hopeful I get that I will be able to update here more often than I have this past year. So much has happened in the past few weeks!
We are officially done raising meat chickens for the year. We thought that the chickens would be ready the week before Halloween, but as it turns out, they were still too small and just not great going through the process of processing them. After processing 8 of them, we called off the rest of the day and had our helpers go home. We were disappointed that we had to do that, but honestly, how long would we have to grow these guys out? Nearly a month later and so many days of listening to the meaties crowing at all times of the day - we finally went through the whole flock and graduated them to Freezer Camp. As it turns out, the extra month really didn't make that huge of a difference. They were still on the smallish side and they did not do well tumbling in the plucker. Smallest chicken was 3 lbs and the biggest just over 4 lbs. I guess we got spoiled with the Freedom Rangers as we had many 4 pounders and an occasional 5 pound bird. Definitely going back to them next year!
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These terrible birds all bagged up and nestled into the freezer.
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The last bird that we processed this past weekend was one of our turkeys that we acquired in June. At 5 months old he was still a little on the smaller side, but since it's just Tom and I it's actually perfect. Not much difference processing our big ol' turkey (big compared to the chickens). We were ready and not ready to take care of the deed. The plucker seemed to be an inadequate size when we thought about it, but turns out it would have worked just fine. Anyway, We don't have restraining cones big enough to accommodate a turkey so we had to hang him by his feet. HOWEVER, we didn't have any kind of rope or twine to wrap around his legs. So zip ties would have to do, BUT we didn't have any large sized zip ties so Tom connected to small ones together and we tried to make that work out. THEN how would we hang him? We didn't have a hook so after some thinking Tom came up with a tie down strap that has a hook. SCORE! After he got that situated and got Carlos on the hook he slit his neck. As soon as he started flailing a little he fell down. UGH. So Tom ended up holding him while he bled out.
The rest of the process went okay. We ended up hand plucking him since we weren't sure we could run him in the Yard Bird. He is now aging in the fridge after swimming around in a salt brine for a couple of days. We'll see how he roasts up for Thanksgiving dinner!
The other day I got a couple of photos from Tom while I was at work -
The only girl from Fiona's litter in March farrowed late on Monday. Sneaky little Bridgette getting knocked up at four and a half-ish months old! Little Missy is doing great! The piglets are doing great!
The funny thing about this - I had the thought that she might be pregnant since she didn't have a heat cycle since the end of July. Tom hadn't mentioned anything since the summer and I wasn't going to say "You know, I think Bridgette is preggo." He was kind of dismissing my concern over her and her litter mate "gettin' busy." Last week as I was observing Bridgette's body, it seemed to have changed a bit. For starters, her teats were looking a little more pronounced and I'm sure that Fiona wasn't like that at all. So, I decided to keep all of the information to myself. Then, late last week I arrived home from work and Tom was getting dinner prepped and he looked at me and said "You know, I think Bridgette is pregnant." My response, "I know."
HAHAHAHAHA....I had a moment.
So now that we were on the same page we were looking at her over the weekend and her lady part was looking rather swollen. I thought maybe another week. Tom concurred. NOPE let's say Monday evening. Then Tom figuring it out Tuesday morning after all of the piggies were set free from their house. Even Bridgette went sauntering out as if nothing happened.
We are very excited that she has a healthy litter of 3 girls and 2 boys. They seem small, but then I think Fiona's March litter were just as little, I just don't remember. They grow so fast!
This weekend I'll be spending a lot of time with the piglets and lil momma. I just love those wrinkly little bodies!
On top of going to work and doing the farm thing, last week was National Collection Week. So, each day I left work an hour early to go home and eat dinner and then go and sit at the church waiting for people to come and drop off their filled shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. My role each year is being a host and interacting with the donors whether they are groups or individuals. This year was different due to COVID and everything had to be done outside. No non-volunteer people were allowed into the building. We were running a curbside drop-off. for the rare occasion that there was more than one donor there was another host who would take care of the ones that I couldn't get to. Numbers were definitely down, but that just made each box received even more special. In the end we received over 15,000 filled shoeboxes. It has been said that each box reaches 3-5 people with the gospel message. You do the math! That's a lot of God's love working through the hands of the people who packed each and every box this year.
So I might be tired, but I have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. Our farm, my upcoming retirement, and my friends and family.
Be blessed during this holiday season!
