Thankful for the Wreck

Well, any crash you can walk away from is a crash you can learn from! I’m thankful for the lessons that we learned back on October 9th when Erica had a mishap down the road from our house while driving my car.

She and Matthew were helping our volunteer fire department deliver soup bean dinners that they had sold as a fund raiser. I was pleased that they were giving their time to contribute to a noble cause, not expecting anything unusual to happen.

Erica had the cell phone we had given her last Christmas and used it to call home. On the other end of the line Lisa heard that there had been an accident. Erica said that she and Matthew were both OK but the car was "in the ditch". We do have ditches alongside many eastern Kentucky roads, and then we have DITCHES! What Erica was talking about, however, stretched the limits of what even we hillbillies would consider a ditch!





In this next picture you can see the road and the tree. Erica was actually driving toward the tree, the opposite direction the nose of the car is now pointing. She was looking over her shoulder at a trailor she thought might be the one they were supposed to drop off a dinner to when the passenger tire fell off the side of the road. She over corrected and wound up spinning out of control and leaving the road tail-end first, narrowly missing that tree.



It’s difficult to tell how steep the incline is in these photos, but the back tire was actually off the ground with the car delicately balancing, feeling like it was about ready to over-tun onto it’s top. They safely climbed out the open window on the passagener’s side and made the phone call.



This particular "ditch" required assistance from a wrecker to get my car out:



Amazingly, the only thing that was really damaged was the muffler! That’s one tough Ford Taurus.



Why, you might ask, would I be thankful for a wreck? This week of Thanksgiving I am counting my blessings, and it is sobering to think that our soon-to-be Thanksgiving celebration could have been dramatically different from what it will be. One or both of my two oldest children could have been spending this holiday in eternity! What if the car had hit that tree, or rolled over further down the hill, or if another vehicle had been at the same spot on the road at that time? I believe that there was Divine intervention during that moment, and the grace of God allowed no one to be harmed! There have been several instances over the years when Guardian Angels were involved with the protection of my family, and this was certainly one of them! I’m sure there have been many more that we do not even know about, but when we do notice such a blessing, it is easy to be thankful.

I’m also thankful for the calmness and peace He allowed Erica and Matthew to have in the midst of this accident. I’m thankful that neither were injured at all, and I’m thankful that the repair bill to the car was so minor. I’m thankful that this incident did not create an undue fear in Erica or Matthew about driving in the future, and I’m thankful that they are both such good drivers. I’m thankful that they were wearing seatbelts. I’m thankful that we got to meet some neighbors that we had not known previously (from the trailor).

A bit more than a month later Erica had her 18th birthday. She had wanted a car all her own for some time, and if we did the wish thing while blowing out the birthday candles, she may have wished for a Pontiac Grand Am the last couple of years:



This year she did not have to make such a wish because a few days earlier, we found this for her to drive:



It’s a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, pretty close to what she had been dreaming of.

I know what some of you may be accusing me of, but I assure you, buying this car for her is in no way related to any thought of keeping my Ford Taurus safe!

I actually just wanted to bless her with a nice gift, just like my Heavenly Father enjoys giving good gifts to me.

May each one of you reading this experience a humble and thankful heart toward Him this Thanksgiving, and always!


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3 comments
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blessedx4 on November 24, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Grace be to God for allowing them to not be injured. Yes, it seems their Angel was working over time. I know this will be on your mind this Thanksgiving. Teen drivers do wonders for your prayer life. LOL!! I'm glad your car escaped injury also. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Blessings,

Tiffany
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Schatzi on November 27, 2009 at 9:30 pm
Praising God with you…I can see from the photos that this could have been far worse…. "Thank you dear Lord for protecting these precious children. Thank you for keeping them safe and calm during this time … we thank you for all the other times that you watch over them and they didn't even know it but you do … we praise you for your mercy, grace and protection over this family … in Jesus name Amen!"

Have a blessed weekend.
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Call of the Land on January 18, 2010 at 11:52 am
I thank God that no one was injured!
Connie

Thankful For the Hunt

The day began just as most Sundays do around our house. I woke with the dawn to open up the chicken coop while everyone else slept in a bit longer. It was a cold November morning and there was a thin sheet of ice on the lid of the garbage can I use to hold the cracked corn we feed the chickens. I felt good this morning and I enjoyed watching our growing flock of 32 birds as they each aroused in turn and made their appearance from the coop. Some hens jumped out immediately and went for those golden specks of grain that they so enjoy, while the roosters chased them around and did everything in their power to make them temporarily forget about their breakfast.

When my fingers and toes began to feel numb from the cold I headed to the house. Sometimes I nod off back to sleep in my recliner at this point, but I am always more pleased when I spend some time in God’s Word. I was blessed with about an hour of quiet prayer and Bible reading before my growing family of blessings began to arouse from their warm beds. Things tend to begin moving pretty quickly on Sunday mornings after everyone gets going; breakfasts, showers, baths, find matching socks, “where’s my shoes”, get the diaper bag together and Timothy ready, move the car that is blocking the van, warm up the van, and off to church.

We had a nice worship service and a nice long visit afterwards with the folks who lingered. It was almost 2:00 by the time we got home so our Sunday dinner wasn’t finished until about 3:30. It was time to feed the pigs and it had become a pretty nice afternoon. Matthew and I had a thought about this being the last weekend for modern gun deer season. Maybe we would take our guns with us to the barn and then keep on going up the mountain after chores? Would there be any use to try one more time?

Personally, I did not grow up hunting and my only hunting knowledge comes from books and videos. The last few years the idea of deer hunting has really grown on me and I have tried unsuccessfully several times. I never had a “real” rifle before; just a muzzle-loader and a .410 shotgun shooting a rifled slug. I had seen deer, and even fired at them once, but to no avail.

I set out several months ago determining that this year was going to be different! For one thing, we now know how to dress a deer and fix it all up for the freezer. Previous years we would have had to call for help, but we successfully butchered a deer last month that we traded a feeder pig for. This year we would also have better tools to dispatch a deer with. I had traded some goats for a nice Marlin 30-30 rifle, which is a good deer rifle for our kind of terrain and brush. My other ace in the hole was that Matthew was now more interested in getting a deer and he knows how to shoot!

So we expected to get a deer the first morning of modern gun season last Saturday. And we expected it that evening. And again the next evening. As well as several more times through the week. I’m not sure how many times we went up in our hollow between the two of us. Sometimes I went by myself, and sometimes Matthew went by himself, and a few times we were both in the mountains at the same time, but at separate locations. With our expectations so high, each successive unfruitful outing felt like a sledge-hammer blow to our hopeful, but fragile, dream of shooting our first deer.

I saw two deer at the clearing one night, but it was too dark to see them except for their white tails bounding along the trail. I also startled a deer behind the school house one evening as I was heading to feed the chickens down in the ravine. Matthew saw three deer one evening and one was a nice sized buck, but he wasn’t able to get a shot off at them. One morning he did get a shot off at one and drew blood, but it ran up the mountain. Matt tracked it up the mountain all the way to the top of the ridge and from there he could see the deer going up and over the next ridge. We had started to wonder if that would be the closest thing to bagging our first deer either one of us would get this year.

Going up in the hollow to hunt one more time this particular ordinary Sunday afternoon was almost an after-thought. Our hopes had been all but shattered by this time. Still, it would be an enjoyable way to spend the last hours of daylight on this nice Sunday evening, I thought. One thing I’ve re-learned this week is that it is easy to feel close to God sitting in the peaceful woods, still and quiet, listening to a multitude of forest sounds as unseen birds and small woodland creatures scurry and scamper through the crisp, crunchy fallen leaves. The darkening scarlet sky and the setting sun which changes the colors and shadows of the forest hues points toward a Master artist! A cool gentle breeze in my face whispers to me that God is real; He is here. Experiencing God’s nature allows one to recognize the beauty and majesty of God’s creation. Not getting the hoped for deer was disappointing, but spending these hours in the woods this week have not been wasted.

Still and quiet I sat under a half-fallen pine tree waiting and watching for the elusive deer to move into my view. I must admit that I had dozed off to sleep in this peaceful wonderland that I call home on this early Sunday evening. My ill-timed slumber was shattered with the crack of a gunshot not more than 150 yards further up the hollow where Matthew was staked out!

As I arrived past the clearing on the fern trail, this was the scene:



He had pulled off an expert shot from the hill above the clearing to the hill on the other side of the gully leading to the fern trail. The deer had stumbled down the hill and fallen near the creek. Since it was trying to get up Matthew decided to put one more bullet through the neck to be sure that it would not run off like the deer a week earlier had done.

We used his 4-wheeler and a rope to pull the carcass up to the level fern trail. We loaded it on the back of the 4-wheeler and then joyfully transported it down to the house to gut and hang.




We were primarily interested in the meat this animal would provide for our family, but the fact that it was a trophy buck was an extra blessing! It was a 9 point with the inside rack measuring 12 3/4 inches!



Hanging the carcass on the swingset and going through the gutting process was a memorable family experience:





Admiring his work:





The triumphant hunter, Mathew the Mighty, with our 9 point buck hanging to cool:




Needless to say, we are very proud of Matthew and of this accomplishment. I am pleased that he recorded our first deer kill at Pure Water Hollow. I’m sure there will be many more to come in the future.

Both Simon and Christina are waiting in the wings for the year when they will have a chance to bring in some venison for the family table, and one of these days I’m sure I will get one, too. We will give God the glory for providing both the wild game as well as the domestic animals for our sustinance and well-being. It all comes from Him, and I am thankful that He is allowing us to benefit from such abundant blessings!

Every day we are thankful for so many things at Pure Water Hollow Homestead, but this past week I was especially thankful for the hunt!

God bless, and may everyone have a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday this week!


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3 comments
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jrejhkids on November 24, 2009 at 11:09 am
I enjoyed reading your entry. I can picture some of the area now as I have been back to Kentucky. I took my son back to Berea for college in August.

He has also seen different areas of Kentucky and sent us pictures. He went to Stinking Creek for a field trip. The pictures he sent are beautiful.

It is wonderful how God provides more than we need. I love seeing the beauty of God's handiwork.

Have a great week with your family.

~jrejhkids
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Purewater on November 24, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Hey jrejhkids – Good hearing from you again.

If it was the Stinking Creek in Knox County, that was the country my father-in-law was born and raised.

Small world!
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Schatzi on November 24, 2009 at 3:03 pm
Wow, now that is excitement around your place…say congratulations to your son..and next time it WILL be you!!!

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.

Connie

All is well

This is just a quick note to say that all is well at Pure Water Hollow Homestead.

Fall is such a beautiful time of the year here, but there are also so many things to accomplish before the snow starts flying. We have been hard at work in many areas, and we have also been enjoying some quiet, peaceful moments as well.

I don’t have time right now to update all that has been going on, but you should know that the Lord has been taking care of us and blessing us everyday. Perhaps next month I will get a chance to do some deep, contemplative writings about some Pure Water Hollow happenings. I do so enjoy writing; I just wish I had the time to put into it what I would like to.

Until then, may God continue to bless!

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2 comments
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hopefulheart77 on October 28, 2009 at 7:29 pm
God bless you too!
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sassyfras on October 30, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Be looking for your updates. I always love reading about your homestead.

An Update – or – Some Random Thoughts On A Rainy Fall Day

The last two months of summer passed in a blur for me, and now I look around and fall is here! I do enjoy the fall weather, even though sometimes my allergies do not. Today is a very rainy day with a flash flood watch in effect, so there won’t be much happening around Pure Water Hollow outside today. I am amazed at how dark it is outside as I sit in front of this bright glow of the computer monitor! Every now and then I hear a deep rumble of thunder. Days like this always seem to put me into a reflective mood, and sometimes I feel like writing.

I did go out to open up the chicken coop this morning, getting rather damp in the process. I waited later than usual, giving the rain a chance to slack up a bit, which it did. When it is pouring out, there is no use in opening up the coop since they tend to stay put in the dry coop anyway. But they do prefer to get out of the coop if it is not raining too hard. The coop is up on cement block pillars, so when they exit they can still stay dry and scratch around in the dirt under the coop.

I threw some corn out in the yard and some under the coop. It is interesting to see which chickens prefer to eat out in the yard, and which ones want to stay dry. The Light Brahmas all stayed under the coop in the dry with King Arthur, but Abe Lincoln and the hens that follow him around didn’t seem to mind eating out in the drizzle. Some of the hens stayed in the coop and others came out, went back in, and came out again. I guess they couldn’t decide what was best. They liked the protection the dry coop afforded, but they also wanted those golden grains of corn that was without.

Sometimes I’m like those hens that can’t make up their minds as to what is the best course of action. I just passed through such a time, concerning buying some land down the road. It just about drove me crazy, going back and forth about the benefits of having the property compared to the sacrifices we would need to make to purchase it. Plus it was going to be auctioned off at the courthouse, so I went through days of waffling in my mind concerning how much my high bid would be, if indeed we wanted to bid on it.

The land was just a mile from our homestead and consisted of two tracts of land, one for 56 acres and one for 73 acres, more or less. Unlike our homestead, much of this land was flat enough that we would have been able to clear it and have some wonderful corn fields and hay fields. It would be some major work, but I could definitely see the wide open corn fields! This property also contained much saleable timber that could be logged and sold.

I wish I had counted up the hours we spent in researching the deeds and the possible liens against the property, hiking over the property, and talking to various county officials at the offices of the circuit clerk, PVA, and county attourney as well as to neighbors who knew more about the property in question, and to a couple of other attorneys who knew about the case.

The day of the auction, there were still some troubling aspects about one of the tracts of land that we could not resolve; we could not find anywhere in the records about three of the heirs, two who each owned a 1/10th share and the other who owned a 1/5th share of the land. If they have retained their interests in the land it would mean that this tract of land would only contain a 3/5th ownership at the sale.

After much prayer for wisdom and guidance, I came to the conclusion that the land would be a valuable asset, at the right price, even with the questions about the one tract of land. We went back and forth in our minds about the amount to bid, similar to the chickens going in and out of the coop. We came up with a figure that we could afford, but we hoped the price would not even go that high.

To make a long story a bit shorter, we did not get the property. We did not even place a bid. The bidding started out at $5,000 and there were several folks bidding against each other at those low bids. Most folks we had spoken to speculated that it might go for $20,000, but before too long the bidding had risen above $30,000 and before much longer the amount was more than we were willing to bid.

It was interesting to see the serious bidders gradually fall away as the amount continued to raise. It finally came down between two older gentlemen. One was a fellow who had already bought 10 years of the delinquent tax bills on the property. He stopped at $68,000 and the other fellow got it for $69,000.

After the auction, we spoke to the gentleman who was out bid. He had done much more research on the property than we had done, and he said that there is $200,000 worth of timber on that property, but if they can’t find who owns that 2/5th share of the ownership (that we had also discovered) they will never be able to log it. He also told us that the access road into the property is not a public road, and if they can’t make a deal with someone, the property is really landlocked. He seemed to think there would need to be more legal actions filed and thousands of more dollars spent, and still might not ever be completely figured out.

We are satisfied that the Lord kept us out of a big mess we could have made for ourselves. Nonetheless, it was a fascinating learning experience, concerning not only the legal workings, but also in the spiritual realm. God allowed us to stay in His "coop" of protection and at the same time gave us enough sense to keep out of the rain. How easy it is to over-rule His best plans for us and go our own way, following our own wants and desires. Sometimes those golden grains of corn are not worth getting soaked over!

Now we can re-focus our attention back to the things that we need to do right here on our own property at Pure Water Hollow. There is much I would like to do before winter.

I could catch up on so many things that have gone on these past two months, but since I am not planning on spending all day here on the computer, I will limit my thoughts to just a bit about the hogs.

Our hog lots need to be adjusted some before winter. We already put down concrete in the pig sty in lot number two in an effort to give the pigs a dry place to sleep. The previous occupants of that lot had dug such a hole in the sty that it had become a constant pond of soupy mud. We need to put the self-feeder under a roof in that lot and also fix up a waterer. We also need to tighten everything on the feeder and make sure it is in sound condition. I then plan on moving the feeder pigs in that lot by themselves, so they can have access to all the feed they want as they grow to butchering size. Currently they are all in lot number one together with Nellie and Sally. Nellie and Sally tend to eat all the food and I’m concerned that our feeder pigs won’t be as big as they should be come December.

In the front lot will be our two future mama sows and the new boar. We don’t want them to get too big, too quickly, so we will have them in the lot where we can feed them rationed amounts. Right now the new girls are in the barn, but they will enjoy being in a lot with more dirt.

We purchased the two new girl pigs on August 12th for $50 a piece from a friend. They were born on April 8th, so they were already 4 months old when we got them. We have named them Crimson and Scarlett. The boar we are going to keep with them was born June 5th. I think the children have named him Boris, but I’m not sure if it will stick. We plan on letting them breed and see if they give us a couple new batches of piglets this spring.

We are keeping Sally and Nellie just until we are sure that Nellie is not bred. If she doesn’t have any sign of milk by the end of October, we will know that she was not bred.

There is much more to do before winter, and there is much more that I could catch up on that has happened these past two months since I last recorded anything here. But alas, my desire to reflect and write at this moment has begun to wane.

It is still raining outside, but there is much to do inside the house today and everyone else is now working on various chores. It is time for me to leave this computer and see what I can do to help.

Hopefully I will be back here to update again before another two months blur by me.

God bless,

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2 comments
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Schatzi on October 1, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Just checking in to see how everyone is doing at Pure Water Hallow Homestead? Hope you have all had a blessed summer.

Connie
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MRS C on October 28, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Ah yes, there is nothing like a rainy day to motivate us to slow down and ponder over things… I greatly enjoyed your blog entry and would like to encourage you to update us more. You have a talent for writing (second career??) and I loved reading about your homesteading efforts! A great motivator for those of us who are new to this… We hope to see you blogging more… Happy homesteading!

2009 Peach Harvest

We picked three 5-gallon bucketfuls of peaches today from the one Elberta Peach tree in our front yard, and have another bucket of recently fallen ones! Until today, we have just been picking a few to eat and collecting the fallen ones that were good. Lisa made a wonderful peach cobler earlier this week. I think it is my favorite dessert, especially when it is with our own peaches! (My favorite dessert is usually the one that is in front of me at the moment.)

Now we need to get working on the job of peeling, slicing and canning these peaches. Last year we had many more peaches because we had 2 trees that had bumper crops, but this is a good many in it’s own right.

We were able to can so many last year that Lisa was still making peach coblers in late spring, and we still have a few jars left now! The other tree in our front yard, closest to the road, had so many peaches that every limb on it broke by the time they were ripe! That tree had no peaches this year, of course.

Down on the riverbank we have 4 other peach trees that have produced peaches for several years now. This year the Mother’s Day flood ruined most of the peaches and the ones that survived got taken by the wild. We had ripe peaches on the tops of the trees (the parts that were not submerged in the flood), but the last time we checked on them they were all gone! All that were left were some gnawed on seeds beneath the trees!

We are thankful for the abundant crop of healthy peaches the Lord gave us on this one tree. It is really a wonderful blessing to have such sweet, delicious fruit from our own land!

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2 comments
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jlgoinggreen on July 25, 2009 at 7:53 am
I love peach cobbler! Bummer about your other trees, but like you stated, at least the Lord provided if only from one tree. I pray you are able to make these last at least till the winter this year.

God Bless,

JEN
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CedarCityMom on July 28, 2009 at 9:07 am
Hello, been awhile since I've stopped by…. looks as God is still sending emence blessings your way!

May God send many more!

Jessica~CedarCityMom~

Pure Water Hollow Chicken Operation Limping Along

I tell you, I am getting frustrated with our chicken losses! The coons are not bothering us as much now, after catching and taking 3 of them off, but we are still losing chickens from both feathered predators as well as metal ones! Most of our predator problem is now coming from the sky, but it really saddens me when we loose a hen by getting hit on the road. During the past 33 days we have lost 5 of our good McMurray laying hens, 3 to hawks most likely, and 2 to the road. A Partridge Rock hen and a beautiful Light Brahma hen have been hit on the road in front of our house! Two Black Giant hens and our largest, most beautiful Buff Orpington hen have turned up missing during the day, and we are constantly spotting hawks flying around. This morning a Blue Jay flew over the lot and all the chickens made the alert sound and disappeared under cover, so I think they know what is going on. Just yesterday (the 21st) was when I lost the last Black Giant and we lost the Buff Orpington on Sunday (the 19th). The other Black Giant hen was lost back in June, but I am furious to loose 2 good hens in just 3 days!

If the hen losses are sad, then our chick losses are downright chilling. I hate to even admit these numbers. In the past, we have had chicks hatch off and we let the mamas free range with them all day long and we close them up in a cage at night. They usually loose one or two chicks that way, but the vast majority survive. We have never before had crows that would come and steal the chicks away, but that is what is happening this summer! Unlike the hawks, they can go down to a lower branch and just drop right down and snatch a chick before the mama can do anything. Ok, here is the disgusting number: we have lost 14 chicks this summer during these past 33 days. And I’m afraid we will loose more! Right now we still have 17 chicks that we are trying to keep safe.

As a result of all this carnage, I am keeping most of the chicks caged (but they have a way of getting out somehow), and I am keeping the hens in their lot later into the evening now. I really like letting them all free range starting sometime in the afternoon, but between the road and the sky, it seems to be too dangerous. This means I will have to feed them a bit more.

One of the reasons to free range is how much it cuts down on the feed bill. (I also think they are happier and healthier and lay more eggs when they free range, but not if they don’t survive.)

Cost Analysis:
We have quite a few chickens, but I can make a 100 pound sack of cracked corn last for almost a month feeding just the 2 dozen or so coop chickens. The cost for that bag has been about $11.30 for the past year now. (I remember when it was just $7.30, as well as when it skyrocketed to $15). That comes down to about 38 cents a day to feed the coop chickens.

Unfortunately, our numbers of layers have gone down by 5 now, but we are still getting between 6 and 10 eggs a day, even with some of them in molt. We are down to just 12 mature laying hens in the coop now, with 2 others raising chicks. We also have the 7 pullets in the coop that are not yet laying and 2 roosters. So, for less than 40 cents a day we are getting enough eggs for a family of 7 with enough left over to sell or feed to the hogs. I figure it is coming out to about 4 cents per egg right now. or 48 cents a dozen, but in the spring we were getting many more eggs for the same feed money.

Where we are probably not making much money sense is feeding our "meat flock". We need to have several more serious butchering days like we did earlier in the summer when we butchered those 7 roosters. We have a flock of 11 birds still in the ravine lot, 8 waiting to be butchered, and we are still raising 9 roosters in the duplex lot for meat, as well as 2 Light Brahma roosters that are ready. Those in the duplex are not yet full grown, but they will be to a good butchering size by fall. Those in the ravine lot are just costing us money in corn. The meat will be valuable, but I don’t know if it will be much of a bargin if we keep feeding them! So between them and the chicks, I go through another 100 pound sack of cracked corn pretty easily.

Keeping all the chickens shut up most of the day, I will probably need at least 3 sacks of corn in a month, feeding them twice.

Current Count:
So even after our recent losses of those 5 hens and all those chicks, here is the tally of the birds God has entrusted us to care for. I already mentioned the 19 birds for meat, and the 17 chicks that are still alive. In the hen department, we still have 4 Light Brahma hens, 3 Black Giant hens, 3 Partridge Rock hens, 2 Buff Orpington hens, 1 Black Australorp hen and 1 Game hen, for a total of 14 hens. Our pullets are 3 Rhode Island Reds (still not sure if these might be cockerals), 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Black Giant, and one Buff Orpington/Black for the total of 7 pullets. In the rooster department I am still keeping 2 Buff Orpingtons, 1 Black Giant, and 1 Light Brahma, a total of 4 roosters. So if I add all that up right, we still have 25 chickens that we are caring for as well as 17 chicks. We also still have 3 geese and 2 ducks (having lost 1 goose and 2 ducks earlier).

In conclusion, I know I need to keep better watch on our poultry. We also need to get the butchering done so we can save on feed and also open up some more cages to keep the chicks better. We are thinking about putting a scarecrow by the chickens to fool the hawks and crows and I am planning on sitting back there with a shotgun to see how many crows I can kill. I am thankful for the poultry we still have and want to take good care of them!


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2 comments
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Glory Farm on July 22, 2009 at 9:18 am
Crows took out all 24 of my friend's ducklings. I didn't realize they were so nasty.

Rhonda
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jlgoinggreen on July 22, 2009 at 10:38 am
Thanks for posting all this (very useful to a newbie) information. These are things that the books I've read do not mention. "Real" life on a farm. Things I really need to prepare for. My dh (after a lot of explaining) has finally convinced me to allow my son to get an air rifle. After reading this, everything he told me makes sense. I guess my son will be making good use of his air rifle.

I will be praying for your family and your chickens safety.

God Bless you and yours,

JEN

PS- Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving your very helpful thoughts.

Farewell, Rufus

We finally decided to sell our big boar, Rufus. He has been with us since he was just a wee little feeder pig back in the fall of 2006. Today, he weighed in at 925 pounds and he was just as gentle as when he was 30 pounds! It was difficult to part with him, as he had become sort of a pet.

He did not want to leave us, either, which made it even harder emotionally. He volunteered to walk up into the hog trailor on his own, since we had fed him in there several times. When I started down the hill with him, however, I did not think I would make it to the house! He had reared up on his hind legs and had his front feet and head over the back tail-gate/ramp, trying to get out. This gate is a good 4 feet and I would not have thought such a massive short-legged animal could raise up that high! We fortified the back of the trailor with some cattle fence and headed on down the road for the hour and fifteen minute drive. Rufus remained standing for almost the entire trip, making the trailor sway back and forth and from side to side as we drove down the highway. He also did a number on the rails of the trailor, but we finally made it to our destination, more or less in one piece.

I didn’t realize we would be parting with him before he even turned 3 years old. I thought I had read that they are productive breeders for 6 or 8 years! That may be true, as Rufus was still very willing this morning to get at Sally. As it turns out, it just makes good business sense to get rid of him now instead of later. Even though our sows are also huge, it seems that his weight in addition to their own, has gotten to be too hard on their back legs.

We will have to sell off his two sows, Sally and Nellie before too long, also. This last time Nellie did not get pregnant at all and Sally only had 6 piglets. 6 is a drastic drop from the 14 she had last time. Sally and Nellie have just gotten too large as they are each 700 – 800 pounds. The last time they farrowed we lost several of the piglets to getting squashed by the big mama sows. Thankfully, all 6 of this last group from Sally have survived with no problems, but we have decided it would be all around better to start with new stock.

It is a tough choice, but we must look at it somewhat from a business perspective. With decreased or non-existant litters, the expense/benefit ratio begins to outweigh heavily to the expense side in keeping 3 very large hogs. It sounds cold, but every animal we keep here must have a positive contribution to our homestead that at least equals the expense of keeping them. If not, we are being poor stewards of the resources God has entrusted us with. Lately, Rufus, Nellie, and Sally have not been carrying their weight around here. (pun intended)

Right now, Sally is still allowing those 6 piglets to nurse from time to time, and I have decided to just let them nurse for as long as Sally will let them. I figure that is free food and nourishment and will allow these piglets to grow faster and healthier. Come December at least 3 of them are going in our freezer, 1 is going to a friend, and 1 will be the replacement for Rufus. (I’m not sure what we are going to do with the sixth one yet.) We also plan on soon getting two new girl feeder pigs that are of a different bloodline from ours to eventually replace Sally and Nellie.

We are planning on keeping Nellie until we are reasonably sure that she is not bred. She has been with Rufus continually and we have seen them breeding, but the earlier times this year have not taken. Maybe she is pregnant now? The gestation period is about 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days, so if she is not showing any signs of being pregnant by the first of November, we will take her off to the stock sales. We are thinking about keeping Sally that long also, just to keep Nellie company. They will be 3 years old in September and have literally been together their entire lives, being litter mates. I would hate to sell Sally and then have Nellie go into a depression.

The Pure Water Hollow pig operation will continue. We will just be in a transition period for a bit of time. If we were a ball team we could say this will be a "rebuilding" year for us. I guess it is actually just routine homestead life!

We continually thank God for the lessons He is allowing us to learn about hogs and about life. We have learned much, and continue to learn that we need to learn much more!

On a side note:
We saw our first black bear in our county on the return trip home! It was a medium sized bear and it was running in the grass along the roadside! It stopped, looked around, walked a bit, turned around and ran some more. It was looking for a way to get into the forest but a fence was in it’s way.

We had time to pull off onto the shoulder along with a couple of other vehicles to watch the bear. It was just like in the Smokies! The bear finally got to a break in the fence and disappeared into the woods.

We had heard about black bear sightings ever since we moved here in 1993, but this was the first one we have seen ourselves. This one was about 10 miles from our home, but there have been folks tell us they have seen black bears as near as the hollow next to ours!

It was really neat to see a bear, and I sort of like the idea of them being around. They are fascinating animals. But when I think with my common-sense business brain I realize that they are not a healthy addition to a homestead raising chickens, geese, ducks, goats, and pigs. I guess until they open a hunting season for black bear, that expense/benefit ratio doesn’t figure too well for black bears. I’ve read that bear meat is very good!


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1 comment
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sassyfras on July 21, 2009 at 2:57 am
Was reading your post this morning, took me back to when My hubby and I had our first group of pigs. It was hard to part with them, because they were our start on the farm. He was a big pig !!!! LOL anyway thanks for taking me back to a time and feeling that I had forgotten. Oh, and as for the bear, we just got back from the smokies and saw one. I don't thank I would want one even 10 miles away…..LOL

First Home Piglet Castration

Our most recent batch of piglets are 6 weeks old today. Sally only had 6 this time around and 5 of them were males! Since we are raising most of these piglets for meat, castrating the males is a common practice.

I have seen many castrations done with our previous litters at our local high school via the ag department. It is a relatively simple operation and the ag teacher has even let some of his animal science high school students take a try at it. Several of them have performed the procedure with no problems.

It is one thing to watch, but a whole ‘nother thing to do it yourself! We have recognized for some time the benefit it would be to have the knowledge to perform this operation "in house". If we are going to continue in the hog operation business for the long haul, it will not always be practical to have to rely on someone else. We are all about learning, here at our homestead, and the best way of learning is by doing. Yesterday, the ag teachers came over to Pure Water Hollow to help us out with the castrations. (They perform various services like this to the community all the time, usually bringing students with them.) What makes this a red letter day for our homestead, is that I "cut" a piglet for the first time. Since he is still living today, I want to say that I have performed my first successful pig castration!

Of the 5 male piglets, we decided to keep one in tact to replace Rufus as our daddy boar. (Rufus has just gotten too big, and the piglet production has greatly decreased, so we are going to go with new, younger pigs for future breeding.) So that left 4 piglets to cut. At 6 weeks old, they are getting a bit large, but they are still small enough to castrate easily. (The big pig operations usually do this before they are two weeks old, sometimes even at just one day old! I think that I prefer to wait until they are closer to being weaned, between 3 and 6 weeks old.)

Simon and Matthew caught the piglets for us, and Matthew and I took turns holding the piglets up by the hind legs while the castrations were being performed. We watched and listened as Mr. K, the ag teacher, did the first three. They were fighting us and squealing more than previous litters. I think it was because we have not spent as much time with these piglets petting them and playing with them, so they were not as comfortable with people as some of the other litters have been. The piglets were drawing their testicles up close to their stomach, which made it more dificult. Mr. K said another reason it is easier to do this when they are younger is that those muscles are not as strong so they can’t pull them in as much.

After observing the first three, it was my turn to try. The hardest part was finding the testicle, since this one was drawing his in, too. You have to press your thumb and finger in his groin area pretty hard and feel around and get behind the testicle. I wasn’t pressing hard enough for fear of hurting him. (I don’t know what I was thinking. This was a castration!) Mr. K found it, got his finger behind it, and this was the place to make the incision. The scalple easily sliced through the outer skin and the first testicle was exposed. Next, I sliced right into the testicle which makes it expand and "pop" out. Then you can grab hold of it and gently pull it out until the cords and tissues attached to it are exposed. These get scraped with the scalple until they break and the testicle is loose. If you make a clean cut here, they can bleed too much and end up dying. Using the same initial incision, I tried to push the other testicle up to the slit. Again, Mr. K had to press on the piglet to manuever the testicle in position. With it in place, I cut into this one and repeated the procedure just like the first. I then washed the incision with a betadine solution, and gave it a shot of 3cc of an antibiotic Mr. K brought. I thought I had depressed the syringe plunger all the way, but Mr. K saw that there was still some medicine in it. The plunger had stopped, and I’m not sure why I could not press it in anymore. Mr. K got the rest of the medicine to go in, and I guess I could have done it if I hadn’t been scared of breaking it.

The 4 patients just laid in the stall for a while at first. Later that night, they were up and walking around, and today they seemed to be as normal as before their operation! We let them out of their stall and they ran arround in circles and wrestled with each other and played! They seem to be as good as new, and they can now enjoy their next 4 1/2 months of life, eating to their heart’s content and growing to be over 200 pounds of pork flesh. I guess that sounds sort of cold, but it is their purpose in life. We will give them as happy and healthy of a life as possible and then we will thank them, and the Lord, for providing meat for our family. We plan on butchering them the first or second week in December, when they are 6 months old.

There really is not much to cutting a piglet, and it is no big deal to many folks. For us, however, it was a significant step toward becoming more self-sufficient, which is a goal of ours here at Pure Water Hollow. I am thankful to God (and to my ag teachers) for the experience.

Goodbye Champ; Farewell Mammoo

Well, we finally did it. Our homestead now has two fewer dogs.

After asking around for quite a while trying to find someone who might give Champ or Mammoo a new home, we finally decided that the animal shelter would be our best option. We hauled them off this afternoon to the holding facility in our county for dogs and cats. They will be taken to a shelter up the river a few counties away on Friday. Perhaps they will be able to find a new home for the dogs.

They were both good dogs in their own ways, but they each had some problems that we were no longer willing to live with. The aggrevations had finally become more than we could bare, and none of us were enjoying them as pets anymore, either.

Champ, the chocolate lab, eats more than all of our other dogs and he never has been a guardian dog. His insistance to "play" with anyone who went outside 100% of the time drove us crazy! He would never give us break, always dropping a ball or stick in front of our feet for us to trip over. He also had serious odor problems. How he could always smell so badly was a mystery. And also he was a prime suspect in both a duck and a goat kid murder. He used to go crazy when the ducks were splashing in the pond and we actually caught him with a wing of one of the Rouens in his mouth! If he killed the kid, I think he was just playing with it and killed it by accident. The final mark against him was that he was showing some aggressive signs toward some people. He has never bared his teeth and growled toward us, but several times he has toward our visitors with no reason; even after we had told him they were ok. I have been afraid several times that he was going to attack. He is a purebred chocolate lab, so maybe someone will take him.

Mamoo was one of our Great Pyrenees. She was a good guardian dog when she was not obsessed with the cars in front of our house. But most of the time, she was not concerned with anything going on in our hollow. She just wanted to chase nearly every car that passed by our home and she was constantly in the road! It has gotten so bad that we think some people are purposely speeding up or honking their horns before they get to our driveway to lure her out, just trying to hit her! We don’t want to cause a wreck, but we don’t like our other animals being in danger from angry drivers either.

We have tried everything we know to break her of this, even using a shock collar for several weeks until she had burn sores on her neck! We tried tying her up each evening, but she would bark all night and chase the cars as soon as she got off. She used to mainly have this problem at night, but for the past many months it hasn’t mattered what time of the day it was. If she wasn’t sleeping, she was likely in the road jumping up at and chasing the cars. It is sad that she had made herself such a nuisance. She is such a beautiful dog that maybe someone will take her.

I think the family will be able to enjoy our other two dogs a bit more, now. We still have our other Pyr, Chief, and also Luna, which was the surviving puppy of Mammoo. Mammoo taught Luna to chase cars, also, but she isn’t as bad. I don’t know if she will chase any cars at all if Mammoo is not around. They are both good dogs and they do pay attention to our hollow. They earn their keep by patrolling the hills at night and keeping the deer out of our gardens, as well as guarding our house.

We do love dogs, but sometimes too many dogs can be a problem. When they start causing trouble and getting on everyone’s nerves, action must be taken for the good of all. I just hate making those tough decisions!

Chicken Moving Day/ Chicken Update

Yesterday was a chicken moving day at Pure Water Hollow.

First we moved 7 cockerels. They moved from their lot to the pot, you could say. We had never butchered so many all at once before, but it went pretty well. Matthew did most of the slaughtering and we all helped with the plucking. Matthew also did one of the eviscerations all by himself, with Lisa’s guidance. He also de-boned and fixed three of them for dinner with stuffing and potatoes. (That is one boy who is never going to starve with the skills he is learning!) It was a delicious meal! The other four are for the freezer.

We also moved 6 Australorp hens and 5 Dominique hens from the main coop out to the ravine lot. They have started some feather picking again. De-beaking them seemed to solve the problem before, but I think their beaks are starting to grow back out now. We are either going to sell them or butcher them, but for the time being we will keep them down in the ravine lot. By the way, I caught a mama and baby raccoon on Father’s Day morning down at the ravine lot. I think they have been part of the predator problem. They are now out of the way but I decided to reinforce the ravine lot anyway. The coons were reaching through the 2 x 4 welded wire fence and killing chickens so I have put chicken wire around the bottom three feet of the lot.

By moving the Australorps and Dominiques out of the main coop, that made room for our surviving pullets. We moved 8 pullets from their small duplex to the coop after the sun went down. They are all around 11 weeks old, so I hope they are big enough to be with the mature chickens. They seemed to be doing fine this morning. Two of them are full-blooded Buff Orpington pullets. It is sad that only 2 out of 9 chicks survived, but I am thankful for these 2 anyway. Another two are from Black Giant hens. One appears to be a full Black Giant and the other is clearly half Black Giant and half Buff Orpington. The other four are Rhode Island Reds. One or two of them may be cockerels. I’m still not sure yet. 8 other of the chicks are definitely cockerels, so I have kept them in the duplex to await their sale or their butchering day.

Today is the one-year anniversary of getting our chicks from Murray McMurray hatchery. We have enjoyed switching out our old game mixed chickens with chickens of definite breeds. We still have 5 Light Brahma hens, 4 Black Giant hens, 3 Buff Orpington hens, and 3 Partridge Rock hens. Currently 2 of the Black Giant hens have chicks and one of the Partridge Rock hens has chicks. On June 21st we set eggs under another broody Partridge Rock hen and also under good old One Feather. She hatched and raised the Black Giant chicks and raised the Rhode Island Red chicks that we just put in the coop, but she was ready to try and hatch out another clutch. She is the only game hen we still have. We have set the timer for the new chicks to hatch on July 13th.

So, you can see, our chickens have been a big part of our summer activities so far, and it looks like a trend that will continue. We still have several more that we will be butchering before too long, and there is more work to do on the chicken lot, etc. I believe that they are worth the time and effort we put into them, however. Chickens are fun to raise and we enjoy the eggs and meat they provide!