Chicken Processing

Well, we processed 7 chickens today.  Nikky was sick and couldn't make it, so I had to help James.  It is a very simple process and with practice we will get cleaner and faster.
I cried during the first bird... I'm sure all of you can imagine how it must feel the first time...

We set up about 50 yards down from the backyard on a little bit of a slope so the blood and water would run downhill.  On the back of the pickup, we placed a sheet of plywood covered with a plastic tablecloth for evisceration and along side the tablecloth was the tabletop chicken plucker.  We filled the crawfish boiler with water and set up pickle buckets for ice baths.
Unfortunately, the chickens weren't very close by, maybe 200 feet away.  One by one, James would pick a chicken and walk the green mile to the processing area.  I held the cone while he slit the jugular.  Each chicken bled for about 3 minutes, then it was on to the water, set at 145 degrees.  Each bird was dunked for 60 seconds to open the follicles before plucking.
The tabletop plucker is motorized.  Rather than dropping the chicken into a barrel, the tabletop plucker requires you to hold the chicken up to the spinning rubber fingers.  Since we had to hold the bird to the plucker, we had to pluck a few feathers by hand on the ends of the wings and the bottom of the legs.  I helped a little with the plucking.
James did all the evisceration.  He used to duck hunt in Louisiana, so he has had plenty of experience cleaning birds.  First he had to cut off the head and legs, cut the oil gland, sliced into the breast to pull out the windpipe, went up the bottom and pulled the guts and organs out.  That is evisceration in a nutshell.
They got washed off and dropped into an ice bath until they cooled off, bagged, then into the freezer.  James cooked the heads and feet for Tonya, the dogs got the organs for dinner.

It's gonna be a lot easier next time.

pigs, chickens, turkeys, oh my!

Yesterday my friend Jenny and I drove South to Newberry and picked up a new addition to our family, Tonya, a bred 400+lb. Tamworth pig.  We bought her from Butter Patch Farm and Dairy.  She is super sweet and due with her fourth litter on Valentine's Day.  She is expected to have 10-12 babies.  I found her this morning, sound asleep with a smile on her face, in her house on a bed full of straw.  She seems happy in her new home.

Both dogs got to take a ride in the car last weekend for their rabies shots, woot-woot!  They don't care where they go, they just love to ride in the car.  They may be dirty farm dogs, but they are always on their best behavior when we take them off the farm.

Tomorrow is D-Day for the chickens.  We have a makeshift processing facility set up outside.  Our friend Nikky is coming over to help James.  I want to be a part, but I'm not sure how much help I will be this first time.  I think I can dunk, pluck, and eviscerate, but I know I can't slit a chickens throat.  Maybe down the road.

Thanksgiving is becoming a tradition on the farm.  My Mom and Sisters party of five come from NC, James' Mom drives up from LA, and his brother and wife fly in from TX.  We all bunk in the house for a few days of eats, drinks, and games.  I can't wait!!  On Wednesday, James will smoke a ham from the freezer and I will make my Grandma's potato salad.  For Thursday, I plan to sage-brine a turkey and stuff it lightly with root vegetables accompanied by roasted acorn squash, garlic romano mashed potatoes, cornbread dressing with fresh chorizo, orange-ginger peas (Stella's favorite veggie), and fresh French bread.  For dessert, I am making a sweet potato cake with marshmallow meringue topped with drippy, gooey pralines---Yumm!  My sister is bringing some homemade quiches, Mom is making Saurkraut Balls!  We will have some great wines (TBD) and beers, maybe even Makers Mark and Eggnog.

Stay tuned, I will let you know how the processing goes...

Trouble on the Farm again

This story is now a week old, but I've been in the weeds.
James went out to feed one morning last week and something tried to get into the chicken house with the Naked Necks (meat chickens).  Seems that it dug under just enough to paw down a hen by the leg and took a huge bite out of her back.
So we brought her up to the house, washed the wound and covered it with Swat.  She could barely walk, and seemed to be in severe shock.  She has been sleeping in the bushes against the house.

Now, over a week later, Florence is doing great!  Yes, she has a name.  She will retire into the brooder house.  She probably won't lay an egg for at least a year, so she will just be another pet.  I plan to introduce her to the chickens and her new home tomorrow.

Finally it's looking like Fall

We never run out of things to do on the farm.  James' Mom was in town from Louisiana last week which gave me a chance to get outside without worrying about the girls.
The Naked Neck Chickens are getting bigger as we get close to processing time.  They should be ready by late September.  I pulled four hens and one rooster and set them up in the brooder house.  Next time I won't have to order chicks, we can produce them ourselves.  We can also get great eggs from these hens when we don't need baby chicks.  Since the fox got most of our hens from the Big House, we only get two little eggs each day.  It felt a little strange the day that I separated the five for the brooder house, "Which ones will I choose to not be eaten..."
We have also planted an orchard, a small one.  Up on the hill in front of the house we now have two dwarf sweet cherry, one dwarf black cherry, one regular sized tart cherry, one pear tree, one pomegranate tree, one fig tree, one thornless blackberry.  We have blueberry bushes in the front yard near the house.  Next year I will add to the orchard.  I found an old lady named Hazel who grows all types of fruit trees, herbs, peppers, evergreens.  Our two grapevines in the "vineyard" are doing well, we should get a ton of grapes next year!
The Big House (chickens, ducks) is looking pretty bad these days.  We need to get it fixed up before the Winter months arrive.  We also need to extend the pigs area while the weather is cool but before Winter. 
I was also able to get down there and mend some of the fencing in the pig pen while Sandy was here.  Thanks Sandy!!  The piglets should be ready to pick up in October.  We plan to get get females from Tapsalteerie Farm.  That's where we bought our last two pigs.  In addition, we plan to find a Boar to breed the females.
Speaking of the pigs,  I have been busy curing bacon and grinding sausage.  I've been playing around with all different flavors.  Bacon has been, brown sugar maple, black peppercorn mustard seed, and white pepper cumin!  Yumm!  As for the sausage, I have made chorizo, stuffed pepper mixture, French garlic, and garlic sage.  Remember all the garlic I grew last Winter?  It's all going to good use in the sausage recipes.
James tilled up the garden and we have started the Fall planting.  Cauliflower has sprouted, cabbage seeds are in, when it cools a bit more, I will plant spinach and beets.  I have 50 pots started with garlic chives, and 25 pots with Lemon Balm.  I hope to get these sprouted and in the ground before it gets too cold.

I think that's about it for now.  Well, besides being a busy Mother of two and starting back to work two weeks ago.  Come to think of it, I'm a little tired. :)  I will get some nice pics this week to post for you all.  Time to watch the Saint stomp on the Packers so I've got to head downstairs.

We Got 'Em

Last night James got the fox.  He shot him down near the pig pen.  Maybe this will teach the others to stay away from our chickens!

!!ACHTUNG!!! Yellow Jackets!!!

I was bush hogging the lower field yesterday and Beaudreaux's old paddock.  As I backed up into the first corner of the paddock I ran over a big stick.  I felt a stinging sensasion on my forearm and thought I got hit with a piece of the stick.  Then I saw and felt a yellow jacket between my eye and my sunglasses.  There was a swarm of bees all around me, I had run over the nest with a front tire of the tractor.  I shifted into 3rd gear to try to get out as fast as possible.  I left the gate open because I just needed to get out of there, knowing the main gate to the property was open and the llamas could wander out, but that was a chance I had to take as I am allergic to bees.  There I was driving laps around the property trying to get all the bees off of me.  Finally, I didn't see anymore near me, turned off the tractor and ran like hell back to the house.  Sandy, my mom-in-law, went out and shut the gate for me while I iced down the stings.
I had stings on my arms, neck, legs, back, hands, and boobs (which are already swollen with milk).  The one on the pad of my thumb was the worst.  Over the course of the next thirty minutes while I iced, showered, and changed clothes, I watched my left hand double in size.  I knew I needed to get to Urgent Care, so off I went.  By the time I got there, the swelling went from the fingertips to midway up my forearm, pain level was at a 9.  I got a shot and some meds and they sent me on my way.  I began feeling better around 5:30 this morning.
When I was a kid, I got stung once when we were visiting a family friend right over the border in Ohio.  I climbed up into the hay loft the watch Polly, the horse, below in her stall.  I was probably four years old.  I never got stung again until we moved here.  This is my third episode.  Common with bee allergies, with each attack, the body reacts worse and worse.
Curse those yellow jackets!!!

Hot as Smoked Peppers out There

I haven't been as worried about the big animals in this heat, they've seen it before.  We just make sure they always have water.  I have been worried about the little chickies.  They are only three weeks old, and at this age they can handle extreme heat and cold, but it's REALLY hot as you all know no matter where you live right now.  So I turned on Stella's Little Tikes beach ball sprinkler, I think they loved it!!

Below is a picture of some gorgeous smoked peppers.  A local organic grower down the street, Terry, grows all kinds of peppers, microgreens, potatoes, asparagus, eggplant, etc.  He sells to many of the local restaurants in downtown Greenville.  He smokes the peppers and makes his own salad dressings also, yumm!!

He gave us four different kinds of smoked peppers so we can use them in our sausage preparation!  Thanks Terry!!

Bumm-holes

Who knew that the stress of travel can cause chicks poop to paste to their bummhole and need assistance with cleaning?  Not me, folks.  I have never received mail order chicks until now, nor have I ever had to clean a 3 day old chicks bumm.  Dry feathers keep the chicks warm (they should stay in 90 degree heat for 7 days), so after I bathed their butts, I had to dry them with a hair dryer.  Some of the chicks loved the hair dryer, others, not so much.  I hope they are all still alive in the morning.  They seemed pretty dry when the sun went down.

Baby Chicks Arrived Today

I got a phone call from the post office this morning that my baby chicks had arrived.  27 Naked Neck chicks and 1 surprise freebie that you receive from Murray McMurray Hatchery.  They will stay in a box in the garage for the next day or two til their house is ready, again :)  The dogs haven't left the garage since they arrived.

And...Again...

It was a week ago yesterday that the storm hit and attempted to demolish everything on the farm.  We haven't had time to even begin cleaning up.  Last night, it came back for more.  I was at work, James had Stella in the tub when the storm rolled up the driveway.  No pictures this time because I am just to disgusted with the whole thing.  We lost another tree, this time in the llamas lower field, just inches from the fence.  I had been fixing up one of the chicken houses that got twisted up the week before.  That one flew over the truck and about 50 yards down the hill.  Inside our egg house, the hens lay in covered litter boxes and dog houses.  James said the boxes were in flight inside the house!!  Bench swing in the back yard flipped over, again.  Stella's swimming pool flew about 500 yards to the pig pen!  The reason the inexpensive blow up pool is so important to us is that we lost three pools last Summer in storms.  Literally, they were lost, only one was recovered on the neighbors property!
Now it's T-Minus 5 days till the baby chicks arrive.  We built a Super Duper Brawny Strong chicken house today, just one more wall and the roof and it will be complete.  Keep your fingers crossed!
The garden loves all the rain, but it's pretty battered from the wind and hail. 
The animals are just pissed. They are over this weather.  The dogs never leave the garage (Rowen is terrified of storms).  The llamas never leave their carport, and the chickens never leave their boxes.  The ducks may not care for the storms, but they love the aftermath...Big mud puddles everywhere!!!

Big Storm! Was it a twister?

Yesterday was Stella's birthday, the big 2.  She was sitting in the kitchen enjoying her birthday ice cream cone.  We never watch the local news, but we were trying to track the storms that were heading in from TN and Western NC.  I went out back to pick up a few of Stella's toys from the yard, James went upstairs to turn the computer off.  All we could see to the West was an ominous sky creeping closer and closer.  I went to the door leading to the garage to make sure the dogs were in there and lower the garage door.  When I looked out, I could see the gravel from our long, windy driveway flying towards the house.  Our house is covered in huge windows, so I pushed Stella's highchair inbetween the dishwasher and the pantry wall, the lights were flickering on and off, she was getting upset, no longer eating her icecream cone.  I see her watching the trees outside, they were sideways in the wind.  All we could hear is the wind and the hail pelting the house.  James could barely see out the windows of the sunroom.  "Holy Schnikies" shit started flying all over the place outside!!  My two newest chicken houses have been in the front yard, one has been housing a few baby chicks.  One house flew about 40 feet and crashed into a tree, the other flipped over, hit our house and crashed down on the satellite dish.  James ran out to catch the four chicks that were running in circles after their house flew off of their heads.  He got them all on the porch which is where they stayed until we carried them down to the egg house.

After 5 or 6 minutes of this, the wind died and the hail changed to rain.  All we saw outside were sheets of metal wrapped around trees, the roof to one of the chicken houses showed up in the back yard.  All the llamas made it to their carport.  Good thing since a tree speared through their other shelter.  That is the shelter that has the llama chute attached to shear wool.  A tree near the old farmhouse fell over the fence and flattened a storage shed that held gardening supplies, equestrian tack, and hay.  The rabbit habitat I've been building for Stella got destroyed.  Planters and potted pepper plants are gone...

 We have family coming into town for Stella's birthday this weekend, I am expecting 27 baby chicks to be delivered in 10 days, I am 8 months pregnant, it's 94 degrees everyday...

 But it will all get done.  We think we can salvage all the materials to use for something or another.  We are thankful that the house is fine, all animals are accounted for, and no heavy equipment or uninsured equipment was damaged.

Just another day on the farm, right?  Cheers

Farm Fresh Veggies!

I picked 15 zucchinis this morning.  I will head down this afternoon to check the garlic, it should be ready in the next few weeks.

What the???

As you saw in the last post, we lost a hand full of chickens to the fox.  A few nights ago we lost 5 more to an owl that broke through the roof of their house.  Yesterday, we lost another in broad daylight, which must have been a fox.  They know the dogs routine and they wait until Remus and Rowen lay down to nap, then they come through the fence.
Poor James is out there every night with a spotlight and a shotgun, but no luck.  He needs a gun with longer range and a scope.
Animals need to feed their babies, I understand, but not with my pets!!
On a lighter note, I ordered 25 Plymouth Rock chicks that should be here this week.  They are good for eggs and for meat.  The majority of these 25 will be meat chickens, but I will save a rooster and 3-4 hens for egg production and baby chick production for more meat chickens.
All the veggies and fruits are in the ground and sprouting.  The llamas and dogs have yet to be groomed...  The pig is in the freezer, now I'm shopping for a breeding pair of Tamworth pigs.  I'm having a tough time finding them.
I am looking out the window at the rain that has just started, we've had a couple of hot, dry weeks.  We have a chance of rain for the next few days.  it will nourish the farm and give us a few days to not do much :)

Not a good morning on the farm

Spring is here and the foxes are back in full force.  We lost three chickens last night...  Queenie was my oldest rooster, a docile silkie bantam dissappeared two nights ago.  I should have locked the door last night.  A Mary and Red Sonja are gone.  All of my hens that look alike are Marys.  I have mary Agnes, Mary Magdalene, Mary Katherine, and so on.  Red Sonja was my favorite chicken.  This Rhoade Island Red was the type of hen that would jump up in your lap to get some love.  She would stand there and let Stella walk up and pet her.
I let Sonja and the rest down.
My two Pyrenees are great watch dogs, but they are not fast.  This is why we need a small dog, Corgi or Terrier on the farm.

planting begins

Cherry tree in, check
Asparagus in, check
planter of peas, check

Today
Another planter of peas
Another grape vine

As soon as the garden dries out, I will plow one more time and plant everything else.  The garlic in the lower garden is looking great!! 

This little piggy went to market, and this little piggy stayed home

This morning was the morning that every piggy dreads.  James backed the trailer up to their pen last night so there wasn't too much activity at once.  Both pigs had a magnificent feast this morning!  They each had a five gallon pickle bucket full of fresh orange slices, jasmine rice, cumin-spiced black beans, grilled beef, fresh dill, the list goes on and on, plus their corn and soy meal mixture of hog feed.  The last supper.
After a few hours we went back down to the pen with a plan in place.  Open the doors to the trailer, place the ramp in front of the pen gate, remove the gate, place food in the trailer, James would be in the pen pushing the pigs toward the trailer, I would close the trailer doors behind them.  We knew it was not going to be that easy.  The pigs were scared and leary of the trailer and the ramp.  It has been raining for a week so James was trying to herd these pigs while he was up to his knees in poopy mud.  The pigs were getting stressed.  James came out and we walked away for a minute to see what they would do.  I couldn't leave James alone down there, but the baby is applying more pressure to my bladder so I had to squat and pee.    The smaller pig edged her way into the trailer to the bucket of food.  The big one got close, nibbling on the kernels of food that had blown down the ramp.  She would not go into the trailer.  We had to make a decision before the first pig walked back out of the trailer.  We decided to shut the doors.
A short 20 minute drive to Vaughn's Processing Plant in the next town over is where she is until Monday morning.  There was one other pig dropped off this morning so she has a room mate for the weekend.  The people seemed really nice there.  We backed the trailer up and she took her time walking out into the holding area where she will have shade, food, and water.
Vaughn's is a strange little place.  The shop area has reach-in freezers with all kinds of meat for sale and a bunch of odd amenities.  Toblerone, Pedia-lax, Stirrings margarita mix, and giant cans of baked beans to name a few.  I had to pee, again, so I got to walk through the back.  Not where the slaughter takes place, but the butchering.  It was clean and organized which put my mind at a little more ease.
What do we do with the piggy who stayed home you ask?  Not sure right now.  We will either get her in the trailer on another day, or find a male Tamworth to breed her with.  We planned to get a breeding pair this Summer anyway.  I put a wanted ad on Craigslist and we will see if we find a pig.  Tamworth is a heritage breed so they can be tough to find.

I handled it all much better than I thought I would.  They are not my pets, but I have gotten to know them over the past 7 months.  I know they had a nice life, they are feeding my family, etc.  I think we all get all of that.  It is still hard.  The next time will be easier.  Thank you my little piggy, for giving your life for my family...

Spring is here

The weather is in the 70's and we are finally starting to get some things done outside.  I got 1000 red wriggler worms that I dropped in our new garden spot.  Stella and I already planted our first seeds, just a few peas in a planter outside the sunroom.  I can't wait for Stella to be able to sit right outside and eat peas in the yard!  The rest of the seeds will go in towards the second half of April.  We plan to do corn, zucchini, sweet potatoes, asparagus plants (really excited about these), peas, watermelons, pumpkins, tomatoes, purple onions, and some hot pepper varieties.  My strawberry plants are popping out of the ground and the blueberry bushes are getting full of green leaves and buds.
James has built us a firepit in the backyard, something I have always wanted!!
Tomorrow I will start working on a ramp to get those pigs in the horse trailer.  We plan to take them to slaughter next week, while Grandma is in town from La.  I can load a horse blindfolded, a pig, not so much.  I think it's going to be a lot more difficult than we'd like.  With Sandy here, we won't have to worry about Stella and can concentrate on the task at hand.
We have two llamas that need sheared, another difficult task, especially when I'm pregnant.  They are such intelligent animals, you'd think they would just give in by now.  Not a chance!
Tonight, I am drawing up blueprints for the chicken tractors.  We are going to try raising some chickens for meat.  Just a few to begin with, enough for family and friends.  Then we will see how it goes.  I've never killed, cleaned, or dressed an animal.  James used to duck hunt a lot in Louisiana so he feels more comfortable than me right now.
The dogs need brushed and bathed.  Once they are clean I can shave their bellies, butts, and the backs of their legs.  Summer in SC is really tough on Great Pyrenees :(
Well, there is our To Do list, the first half at least.  Can't wait to give you more details on the broiler chicken adventure!

Seasons Changing

Recently I've been looking at the pigs and visualizing pork chops.  For the past few months, I think the pigs have been looking at me and visualizing pork chops as well!  Anyway, they are atleast 300lbs a piece right now and due to be slaughtered in a few weeks.  I bought a deep freezer for the basement and pulled out my Kitchen Aid to practice the delicious art of sausage making.  Mom was in town and we bought a pork shoulder and chicken and made about 10 lbs of sausage.  It turned out ok.  I just bought some basic casing online and wasn't 100% satisfied. 
James has been working hard on a firepit in the backyard.  I have wanted one since we moved here and we finally got to it on the ENDLESS TO DO LIST.  I can't wait to cook on it this Summer!
The weather is warming quickly, but there is still no grass.  The llamas are still on hay and searching for that first blade of beautiful green.  The chickens tend to lay less when the weather is cold, snowy, windy, etc.  So they have been laying twice as many eggs this last week.  Stella loves her scrambled eggs in the morning.
We are trying to get as much done as possible on the ENDLESS TO DO LIST before I get any bigger.  I am pretty tough but things do get a little hard when you have an extra 15 lbs and are having to watch what you lift.
So as Spring approaches I will have more stories and pictures of gardening, building, buying animals, processing animals, and whatever else may go on at Black Opal Farm.  By the way, Opals birthday is 21 February.  Happy Birthday to the best dog and best friend, you're always in my thoughts, your box is in our bedroom, and your picture sits in the living room.  Love you.

Is Spring here yet?

I love wintertime.  The trees are beautiful when they lose their leaves and sleeping through the cold days of Winter.  Apple and peach trees have those long, undulating limbs.  The only green I can see is the magnolia across the road and some pine trees.  Winter can be a tough time of year having to fight the weather each day, but it doesn't make me like it any less.
Then the day comes when the best part of Winter is planning for Spring!!  That day came yesterday for James and me.  I really started thinking about it a few weeks ago when some little green lemons started to emerge on my Meyer lemon tree.  Up til now, I have only grown house plants and carnivorous plants in my sunroom except for the lemon tree.  I have had it for about 18 months and these are the first lemons!
James is going out to scoop poop today, start tilling up the gardens, mix the compost in.  This will wake up the dormant soil a little and get some oxygen flowing under the surface.  He will also get all the nitrogen rich chicken poop out of their house for the garden as well.  Pig poop is rich in phosphate and we need to clean their pen out too, but we will save that for another day.  We still have plenty of time while Spring is still two months away...

Woke up to a Winter Wonderland

We woke up to about 7 inched on the ground this morning.  We are topping 8 now and it's not supposed to stop until tomorrow.  The dogs love it, pigs are having fun, llamas and fowl are grouchy.  Enjoy the pictures.

Snow Clouds Are Rolling In

The sun rose to meet a beautiful sky this morning.  It is 5 in the evening and looking a little gloomy.  I love this type of sky.  The snow will meet us before midnight and continue on through Tuesday morning.  Everyone has been fed for the night and now we hope that we don't lose power through the night.  One day we hope to be powered by other means, but that takes some big cash.  So for now we rely on Blue Ridge Electric Coop.  Please, BREC, help to keep the power on.  We have a fire place, but we have 19 ft. ceilings :(
I will get some nice pictures of the animals in the morning.  Stella will build another snowman.

It's Just The Cycle Of Life

I only see the pigs to feed them because they are not really my friends.  We've had them since August and I have done a fine job staying completely unattached.  I know that Prosciutto and Capicola are part of the cycle of life.  They are having a great life here at Black Opal Farm.  They have a spacious pen to run around and chase eachother, they not only eat grain and corn, but fresh veggies, fruits, breads, and meats.
The feedlots at industrial pig farms are far from our farm.  The pigs never soak up the sunshine, they are only fed grain.  The antibiotics they are given keep them healthier because of the crowded unclean living conditions they are forced to endure.  As piglets, their tails are cut off because in the feed lot it is so crowded that the pigs will chew eachothers tails off.  These pigs reach maturity in 3-4 months which is 7 months less than a normal living pig.
Yes, my pigs have a very nice life.  They are physically and mentally healthy.  Sometimes when they are playing and throwing around their hay, they make me smile.  This doesn't mean that I won't be able to eat them, oh no.  It means that I think I will cherish the meat even more than I once thought I would.  And sometimes when they are being cute, I do get a little sad that they will give up their lives for me.  Then I remember that in every bite of homemade sausage that my daughter eats, I know exactly where it came from and what that animal ate. 
Our first slaughter will be tough on me, and I know that.  The next time will get a little easier.  Thanks for listening.