Small Pigs

I love small pigs. They taste good.

So far I've had 3 slaughtered & butchered, and we've been eating parts and they've been very tasty.

I've slaughtered and cleaned a 4 week old piglet... all by myself.

Then I cooked it.

Then we ate it.

Then we ate some more of it the next day, tasty.

Then there was soup that the ill little Prancer puppy got all better with, mostly.

I was going to process a piglet a week... but cuteness factor still is tough to get over. It's going to be 3 weeks later in two days... I NEED to get the piglet done!

One of Piggins piglets, 7 weeks old. One of the 3 remaining gilts, not the gelded boy. Oh so plump! Will it be the tiny one? The smallest of the litter, yet not a runt? No. I have other plans for her. Will it be the one with a lot of white on the front? Probably not, unless I catch her and can't catch the other one, the plump one with lesser white and a black spot within her white markings along her bellyside. Either/or are plumpy and ready, I believe. But I need to do the deed.

Truffle Dog!

Runt & I just returned from the Oregon Truffle Festival Truffle Dog Training Seminar in Eugene, taught by Jean Rand with her black Lab, Gusto, and Jim Sanford with his Italian truffle dog, Tom. I was in Jean's group.

I can't believe I actually did it!!! I didn't wimp out! I followed through! I survived!

I'm NOT surprised at ALL that Runty found a wild truffle by himself during the field trip after a bit of training. I knew he could! Actually, he found about 10 small white ones. I'm so impressed, Good Boy, Runty!

Dang camera batteries died, so I have zero pictures! Seriously bummed about that. Anyone have pictures they want to share of the event?

Will write more later, the food was pretty dang tasty! I could easily get spoiled!

The first lunch was in a ballroom at the hotel, Valley River Inn.

I didn't have a menu, so I'm guessing what the dishes were. I do know they were all GOOD!

Ice tea with lemon.

Selection of rolls and butter.

Salad: Lettuce leaves and wedge (butter? bibb?) with avocado vinaigrette dressing. Tiny bits of diced green, yellow & red bell pepper added color and taste. Very nice!

Squab breast with black truffle sauce.

Squash, beet, parsnip(?), shallot(?) with white truffle(?) sauce

Strawberry Shortcake with white truffle(?) whipped cream

I think I remembered it all...

Sebastopol Geese

I have eleven geese now. That’s about nine too many. I think I have 4 pairs, and 3 extra males. I need to get out there and seperate them into breeding/nesting areas and sell the extras. They interfere with each other, and most of the other animals here. If the Muscovies try to breed, the geese run over and disrupt them. Yelling and pecking and pulling the drake off the hen. They have tried to do that with the turkeys, too, but I think the turkeys fought back.

Update 3/15/08: Well, I HAD eleven geese, now I have ten. I don't know what happened to the other. Coyote? Drive-by? hmmm. I was also incorrect on who was what. I have three males and seven females, very nice! As of today six females are setting and one has just started laying. I also have lots of eggs in the incubator. Can't wait to see how that turns out.

Update 4/19/08: Well, the lots of eggs in the incubator didn't survive being out in the cold garage with freezing temperatures. The geese setting in the barn managed to hatch out four goslings, which I promptly sold. They kept trying to share nests, and the eggs managed to get broken or weren't kept at an even temperature, so they didn't hatch. Now I need to clean out the stinky geese nests and see if they will try it again. This time, the incubator will be inside the warm house.

Muscovy Ducks

I like the Muscovy duck. They are a beautiful duck to look at, once you get past that red caruncling they have on their head They have pleasing personalities and it is interesting to watch them interact with each other. They are very quiet and not nearly as messy as they could be, and can be quite prolific with the ducklings! They like to perch on the fence or fence posts. They fly very well, especially the hens. They also taste very good! I have a problem eating a nice bird, though. It’s easier to just sell it than utilize it for what I bred it for. If they were mean and nasty, we’d be eating them every day! I need to get better at harvesting my duck crop.

The Critters get a Toe Job

Geronimo needed his shoes pulled and a trim, and the Burros needed a trim, so I gave my shoer a call. I managed to find the one dry area around the barn under the lean-to and lured the three of them in with fresh hay. Rain and muck everywhere... but at least we were covered, dry and not sinking. C. showed up around 10am and started in on the horse. Geronimo fussed quite a bit at first, but settled down by the second hoof. After each hoof C. would rest a bit and tell a different story. We discussed his Haflinger mules, how to rope a Llama and the different behaviors among horses, mules, burros and hinnies.
Geronimo's farm job is to eat as much grass as I can grow. He is also to carry me on my inspection rounds of the property and fence. Jenny and Paco, the Burros, as well as Bramble, the Llama, investigate and run off Coyotes and other four-legged predators. They also do a wonderful job eating blackberries, thistles and other weedy brush. Bramble earned his name because he is usually dragging a long strand of blackberry vine around with him that gets tangled in his hair. He is getting much better at standing still while I untangle the thorns. He really does not like it when I am working around his hind end. Lots of tail switching and foot shifting going on.

Storm of December 2007

The storm started with high winds and lots of rain. Trees were blown down, power went out, land slid and it flooded. The whole county has been affected. As the community was cleaning up from that, a few days later a landslide came down on the highway at MP 67. It carried a mobile home along with it, as well as burying homes up to their eaves in muddy debris. I have a friend that used to live in one of the houses now buried. She moved away many months before, though. The highway has been closed for many days as ODOT and others work to clear the mess. They have been hauling the muddy logs that came down to the little league park and chipping them. Last night, there were two mountains of chips! Our fields flooded and water came up to the small house connected to the trailer. The main house and the barn were not flooded. Our fields are still flooded, and the Canadian geese are trying to make themselves right at home. I wouldn't mind, except for the risk of disease being introduced to my ducks and other birds, but they eat the available grass and poo everywhere. My poor horse, burros and llama would prefer their green grass poo-free.
They have been working on the culvert from the hill road to the hwy. all day today. I was hoping they would install a larger diameter culvert, as the one in use now seems to have problems getting blocked.

The Girls are Back in Business!

Yipee!
The husband complained when he had to actually purchase eggs at the local store.
I think we have purchased a total of 6 dozen eggs in the last six years or so.
I get about a dozen eggs every two days now from the hens. It's nice to have an egg glut! We went without eggs for a few months as my older hens were going through their molt and weren't laying. My other girls were just pullets, and hadn't begun production yet. Then one day I found an egg. The next day there were three eggs. The next day I found another nest and I had a total of 8 eggs. We had quiche for dinner! The following day, another nest was discovered and the first green egg of the season appeared. I think it's one of the new girls.
Several of the red mixed hens share a dog house that was vacated because of the flood. I discovered this when I was awoken one morning by the cackling of a hen that has just laid an egg. She was quite proud of herself and wanted everyone to know. I looked out the window and saw her emerging from the run with the dog house in it. Later in the day I checked it out, and found a few other eggs, also. Some of the other hens are being proper and using the chichen coop with the built-in nests that the husband built. I've seen a speckled hen and one of the banties, and I believe a black Muscovy hen has claimed the far right nest. I surprised her this morning as I was checking the nests.
The other area that is producing is a crate in the barn by the saddle. The girls line up for that one. They also go behind it and lay their egg in a depression in the sandy dirt floor that I just lined with fresh hay. I will have to get a few more crates put out for them. They love the hay I just got from Sue. It smells so good! When I put clean hay in the nests, it seems like they can't wait to get in there and lay an egg!
My chickens are Americana, Speckled Sussex and a combination of the two. I also have a few banty's running around, as well as some Cornish cross.
Here's a question I have... After the hen lays her egg, why do you think she cackles about it? It seems to me that making so much noise is likely to attract a predator (me!) to the egg and endanger the hen.