Animals, Animals

It has been so long...I almost forgot how to do this "blog" thing.  I was just reading through my sister Kara's blog.  She is always so on top of things.  And organized.  A true inspiration.  I thought I'd try to update all that's happened in the long months since I've blogged last.  And by "long months" I mean short months that have flown by in the blink of an eye.  Anyone else's life breezing by way too fast???

Above is the pig that we had for about 2 years...she saw 2 winters.  She is now in neat little packages in my freezer.  We are really enjoying eating our own meat.  It's the only pork I've ever been able to eat without getting sick afterwards.  This time we had the butcher make us some cuts of bacon and ham, but of course we didn't get it cured the normal way (with nitrates, food coloring, smoking, etc.)  Just good ol' side pork and fresh ham steaks.  So good.

 This spring I had a moment of weakness at the feed store and bought a bunch of little chicks and 4 ducklings.  They were so cute, but boy are they messy.  Ducks are walking squirty poop machines.  Only 2 of the 4 survived to maturity, but they are a breeding pair.  We ended up getting 3 more full size ducks a little later, and I am thinking they are all drakes.  This poor little hen duck of ours sure gets her share of matings.  We'll have to clip her wings so she stays with us this fall, and probably butcher all but one of our drakes.

We also started raising our own rabbits this year.  Here is our first doeling at about 4 weeks old.  She is now at the age I can breed her.  She is a mini-rex, not quite a meat breed, but it was what we could find at the time.  I have since aquired a few more rabbits.  Some New Zealand white, Florida Whites, and most recently an unknown breed, she looks to be a Rex with black and white markings.  She is due to have her kits on August 26th!  Our first litter due in just 8 days!  I need to build her a nesting box pronto.  Our long term plan is to raise rabbits for meat.  Rabbit meat has the most protein dense meat of any animal, and they dress(butcher) much easier than a chicken.  The problem is that rabbits are so darn cute and soft and snuggly.  I like the idea of having our own meat source in case of emergency, but perhaps we will just keep them for their amazing manure fertilizer for now.

This year also marks the start of our journey with dairy goats.  These are our first two goats.  Honey is the little girl, and the whether is unnamed because he will eventually have to turn into meat.  Right now he is just a companion for the little girl.  The reality is that it costs a lot to feed an animal, especially through the winter, so we have to get rid of any animal that is not productive in some way.

This is the first goat I started milking.  Her name is Pie.  Aila says that Pie is her goat.   Pie is a Nigerian Dwarf, so about 1/3 the size of a full sized goat.  I really like her temperament.  She gives about 1 quart of rich milk per day.  And she never makes any noise.  After milking I scratch right behind her ears and she rolls her eyes back in pleasure.

 This is me trying to make a go at my own business.  This is my self-serve stand set up next to the road.  No one bought trees this year.  I know it's been a hard year with drought, late freezes, etc... Maybe next year???

And this is Snowball.  This was Terra's birthday present this year.  She had been admiring this breed of chicken before, so I bought her a breeding trio of these bantam chickens.  They are about 1/2 the size of a regular chicken and have feathered feet.  They are really sweet.  This has been the only rooster I have never been scared of, cuz he is just so cute.  Snowball hatched out 4 chicks for us this summer and is a great mother hen.