Today was a good homesteading type of day.
It was only 20 degrees this morning when I went out to open up the chicken coop, but it later got up to 60! After feeding the chickens I went to town to pick up some shelled corn for the pigs and cracked corn for the chickens.
This afternoon we decided to butcher the remaining market hog that we still had. It was a warm day, but it is supposed to get back down to 20 degrees tonight with some snow, so we decided that the carcass would cool OK overnight.
Last month was the first time we butchered our own hogs here at our own homestead, but we had a fellow helping then. Today, we did it all by ourselves and everything went very well! Matthew knows what he is doing very nicely and the rest of us helped, too. (Erica stayed in with Timothy, but the other 5 of us worked and watched.) The carcass is hanging on the swing-set much like the pictures from the hog butchering post last month. We did make one improvement, though. We used a metal rod through the back legs with some weight lifting collers tightened down to spread the legs far apart. We tied the rope to this rod and used the 4-wheeler to hoist it up into the air. It worked very nicely.
I gathered 10 eggs from our chickens later in the afternoon. In the hen department we have 5 Jersey Giants, 5 Light Brahmas, 3 Partridge Rocks, and 2 Dominiques in the coop lot. We also have 4 Buff Orpington hens with a rooster down in our ravine lot. I have these separated out now so that we can get pure bred eggs that will later hatch off into more Buff Orpington chicks. (We also have another 10 hens from trading that are problem pickers which we will most likely be doing away with.)
Just before dark a few fellows came over and bought 3 of our piglets for $120. The piglets are getting pretty big and very much worth $40 a piece. These men live over an hour away from us but they say that no one is raising pigs over in their neck of the woods and were happy to find us. We still have 4 to sell. These guys said that they will likely be back to buy them in a week or so after they get some more money, but they will understand if we sell them sooner.
Over all, I thought this was a very nice homesteady type of day. Like everyday, this was a day that the Lord hath made. I did rejoice and was glad in it!
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4 comments
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sassyfras on February 22, 2009 at 6:16 am
We haven't done our own hogs. My hubby and his dad use to do their own when he was a boy here on this same farm. We did just get ours back from our butcher, he done a fine job. Do you smoke your meat or brine it?
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Mom2FarmGirls on February 22, 2009 at 10:33 am
Hello,
I have enjoyed reading your blog and seeing your pictures.
I was wondering where bouts in Eastern Ky. you lived. I am interested in buying some pigs but wouldn't want to drive to far.
My e-mail is mom_2_girls@att.net
Thanks,
Michelle
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Purewater on February 24, 2009 at 7:41 am Sassyfras asked if we smoke the meat or brine it. Last month we did not attempt to cure any of it; we just kept it all as roasts.
We are going to try to cure one of the hams from this hog. Everything we have read is that you have to cure it either with a dry solution or wet brine and then smoking is optional. We decided to try a simple wet brine of salt and brown sugar. (6 1/2 pounds salt, 2 pounds brown sugar, in a bit more than 3 gallons water for a 15 pound half ham.) We have never done this before so we'll see how it turns out!
Mom2FarmGirls: I sent you a message.
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CandyFoote on February 28, 2009 at 9:45 am
Hurry over to http://www.homesteadblogger.com/RachelsReasoning/
Today is the last day to enter her contest.
The prize is one of my ebooks!!
~Candy~
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