Some work is hard and tedious on the farm. That is okay, you get all done and stand back and admire your work. Well, what is harder than doing work the first time? Doing the same work over again. This is our beautiful woodpile for next year.
We had it all covered and aging. It is up against a fence that is the pig’s walkway to their extra pasture. This morning when we went out to feed he pigs, we say that the ground had given way from moisture or a gopher and even the bricks the wood was sitting on rolled over and the most of the woodpile fell down into the walkway, blocking off the pasture from the pigs.
We are pretty sure it happened in the night while they were sleeping so neither of them were hurt or killed. That was a blessing. But now we are stacking the wood up in our wheel barrels and moving the stack over to the woodshed and the pallets next to the woodshed. (I am just sure we have handled this wood way too many times.) Double work, but it has to be done because the next storm is coming and we have to protect it from the moisture.
Guess what, today we put the trim up on the doorway going down the hallway. We started it yesterday but because of unevenness, (Is that even a word?) we had to make adjustments. It looks pretty good and has needed done for 4 years. Yay!!
We think we are finished milking Missy at night. We did not milk her last night and she was full this morning but not engorged and no signs of Mastitis. We did not milk tonight so we will see how she will be tomorrow. We went and visited the farm where we are going to take Missy to get bred at the end of the week. It is a cute, small Dexter bull named Ferdinand. Apparently, he gets his ladies to go down the hill so he is taller than them and is successful with his task. We shall see. Pretty exciting, actually. The family at the farm are wonderful and we are so pleased to be able to do this.
Nutritional Education
While at the farm today, the lady asked if we make our own ham and bacon. We told her no because we have not been successful in that yet and do not want to use nitrates so we are open to knowing how it is done from anyone who has done it. We used all the ham pieces for roasts and made pulled pork. It is hard to go wrong with good pork, but it would be nice to have a ham, even a small one. We start on the process of harvesting one of the pigs tomorrow. I understand for some people that eating pork is offensive and for that I apologize. Pork is a wonderful source of protein. A 3 ½ ounce serving has 30 grams of protein. We will only need one pig every other year. We will have poultry (chicken and turkey), beef and hopefully, sometime we will have lamb. We figure one cow will do us for three years. Then we will also have salmon and while fish that we will order from Wild Alaskan Company. Then we will grow most of our vegetables and we will be set.
I live in Canada and my butcher does not smoke the bacon. He just cuts it up and sells as is. After so many years eating the bacon from the super markets that was smoked it was difficult to get use to eating this type of bacon, but I wouldn’t go back. There is also a meat called pork belly [which tastes like the bacon] it’s in a slab type and it’s wonderful. Have the butcher cut the bacon for you but not smoke it. Then look for recipes in how to smoke bacon without nitrates. Do it at home , I’m sure there’s a way. Don’t forget about ground pork for homemade sausages. yum
You can probably find a recipe without the nitrates if you search for one.