Welcome

Things have been a bit busy around here lately.
A buddy of mine decided that he wanted to butcher some pigs but needed a place to do the initial kill/skinning part. So I said why not use my big shed. We ended up buying 5 big pigs and spending a weekend killing, cutting, grinding, and packaging. Also a better part of the next week with the brining and smoking of the hams and bacon.
Not a bad time for my first ever pig butcher. But I think if we do it again we will do less than 5 at once.
We took 2 and gave half of one of those to my folks.
The chops are devine. We made maple flavored breakfast sausage and I made a bag of it last night with pancakes, it was eat till you can't move time.
This weekend we picked up 3 more goats. Got a call from my buddy (it's good to have friends) saying he saw an ad for 8 or so locally. I told him to come on over, threw Tammy and Chris in the truck, made room for the buddy and off we went.
He bought a nice little doe on her first pregnancy. Ours are a bit older and bigger. 2 have papers. They are Nubians but aren't as noisy as Bev. We'll see how they freshen and then make some culling decisions. I have my doubts about the 2 saanens Tammy brought home, they have been here a while and don't show any signs of being pregnant. Bev is a nice little goat but her udder is so lopsided it is hard to milk with the milker. Misty is such a bossy thing, she has the whole herd in a constant state of fear. So there are animals we can do without if we get some decent producers in.
The plan is still to use the milk to grow out some calves. Hopefully the market will come around a bit. Feeder prices are kinda low at the moment, but so is everything at the sales barn.
The feedmill is another story...certified oat seed is $7.75 a bu. Hearing some horror stories about seed corn prices as well. Alfalfa seed is $150 a 50 pound bag and up. Fuel prices are down a bit but most fertilizer prices are way up. I hope to get away with not using any of that stuff for the time being though.
Headed to Jungs next week for the annual "blow your paycheck" day....Well not really a whole paycheck but I'm sure we'll spend a bunch, plus we should hit the Golden Corral for lunch. Going with the folks so it should be a fun day.
Got a big bag of potting soil, getting the jars put away so I can get at the plant starting shelf, have to inventory what seeds we have left before we head to Jungs. Still plenty to do inside if the weather won't cooperate outside.
sammyd on 02.16.09 @ 03:54 AM CST [link]