Good Times

Wow! What good times we've been having over the last week-plus! Bluegrass, farming, bluegrass, baptism, bluegrass, battles, bluegrass, Martin and Lewis, bluegrass, Larry-Boy, bluegrass...and, oh, the laughter!

Eight members of a family of nine (first child is out on his own, now) followed us home from church in Georgia over a week ago, and since then, the laughter hasn't stopped.

My father had asked a few weeks ago for Keith and our three eldest kids to sing and play--"perform" sounds too professional--at a revival service at one of his churches last Monday. Since this family was here at the time, and they are so talented and fun to play with, the dad and one of the sons took Keith's place, thus adding a bass that we wouldn't have had. The performers worked a lot that Monday, and had a great time that evening. The folks seemed to enjoy it, too. Sadly, my father was sick and unable to attend. (He's fine, now.)

We've had a lot of cold rain over the last week, so not as much outside work was done as we'd hoped. However, the yard got mowed; a bit of fencing got done; and we had delicious meatballs and a couple of awesome apple pies. And, as Keith blogged about, Ribeye was slaughtered. The kids were also able to have a few battles using some improvised weapons and shields; mighty warriors, they are!

We also went to a fall get-together at a friend's place, complete with fire, chili, and a good bit more bluegrass. Can't get too much playing and singing time in!

One evening, we had a fire in our fire ring and enjoyed a very casual dinner outside.

Two days ago, Keith's brother was baptized, so we all (yes, our guests, too) attended the service. It's not the kind of service we've come to so appreciate and love, but we're glad we were there and that he has made that step. Afterward, we all went to his house--his family of five, his mother, the six of us, and our eight guests--and ate lots of good food. (We helped with the food effort.) Then, of course, there was more bluegrass.

Yesterday, we cleaned up the berry patch. We had let that go badly; Keith was afraid we'd have to start over next year. However, with the large workforce we had, we made quick work of reclaiming it. I was very pleased to see how many of the plants have survived. We also chipped some stuff up for the compost (Keith built a pallet frame a few weeks ago for a compost pile.)The two older boys (one ours, one of the visiting family's) split wood for kindling--we used our fireplace for the first time this season; a fence repair was made; progress was made on moving the water at the barn to a cow-proof spot; a delicious soup was made for lunch by the visiting mom; and we had the first meat from Ribeye.

Throughout the days, we've watched a couple of episodes of the old Martin and Lewis TV show, but they're quoted so often, that Dean and (especially) Jerry seem to be with us throughout the days. So does Larry the Cucumber; he shows up anytime, anywhere.

Anyway, we've had a great time and have gotten a good bit of work done, much of which would probably have been left undone for many more weeks (okay, even months).

And now, I'm going to close and enjoy some more bluegrass.

Mary Susan

Steer story

Yes we have be negligent about posting. Oh well, we've also been busy. For now I'll limit the update to how our first steer slaughter went.

Last year we purchased a steer with another family. The goal was to raise some clean beef, take it to a local meat processing facility and pick up the packages for freezing. Well, the more I considered that plan and the more I investigated those "clean" USDA approved processing facilities the more I became convinced that we needed to process the beef here on the farm. The horror stories of tainted meat, suspiciously short packaged-to-hanging ratios and filthy facilities were more the rule than the exception. Also, I couldn't get a meat processor to age the beef as long as I wanted. The longest I could find was a vague promise to hang 14 days if space was available otherwise the rule is 7-10 days.

The only problem to processing the beef here in Tennessee is that we don't have a predictable, long-enough stretch of cold weather and I would therefore need a walk-in cooler. We are thankful that we were able to purchase a used unit from a restaurant that had closed. It is a small 6'x6' unit that fits nicely in our basement.

This Saturday turned out to be perfect weather for slaughtering the steer. We headed out to the pasture a little after 7:00 am, the temperature was just below freezing and there was a heavy fog. On hand were the co-owners of the steer and a dear family from Georgia. In the photo to the left you can just make out the kill site in the distance. We used a Winchester .32 caliber rifle to put the steer down. What a joy to face this task with friends and family - everyone eager to help and learn. This type of fellowship is particularly sweet to me.

We used the old Ford tractor to tote the steer carcass from the kill site back to the barn where water and electricity were handy.

Once we got him to the barn we cleaned him up a bit with the hose and then proceeded with the rest of the slaughter.
I'll pause here to recommend a pretty good source of information. We had read plenty of information on how to slaughter, but I tend to be very visual and hand-on, so I bought a set of DVD's on slaughtering and butchering from AskTheMeatMan.com. The quality of the DVD's were fairly good, but not great. I am confident, however, that the whole process went much smoother as a result of having watched the video several times.

Our inexperience did show in our efforts and the time it took to complete the task. However everyone was well pleased with the day. Having all the extra hands around was a real blessing, and the children all eagerly participated as directed. From kill to heading back to the house with the beef quarters took approximately 2.5 hours.

I wish I had access to some scales so I could report the hanging weight of the carcass. I'm guessing somewhere between 500 and 600 lbs.
The boys are in the process of curing the hide and I'll try to remember to post on that effort once it is complete.

Next step, butchering! As a footnote, we enjoyed the hanging tender for dinner this evening.
Keith

Quick Update

All our laying hens are now dead--and even the rooster. We actually had a chick born as a result of the rooster's presence; the chick is also dead. This has happened over a number of weeks, all to predator problems that we have not been able to bring to a halt. And our dogs are less than worthless in the effort; they would help the predator(s), if they thought they could get some chicken. I'd like to think that we'll never again have dogs (or any critters) on the place that are not working and contributing to the farm in some way. The three dogs we have now are a liability. It's looking like the two cats may be, too.

We have a small batch of broilers again, but even the chicken tractor was attacked: a hole was actually torn in the chicken wire! Around six chicks were killed. This happened a few weeks ago, and thankfully, we've had no more successful attacks on the broilers. We have more broilers on order; we're going through our first batch (processed July 4) very quickly. The broilers we have now and those on order are not Cornish cross.

It appears that one of our cows that is expecting will be delivering fairly soon. We are also hoping to slaughter a steer soon, one we own with friends. We had thought about doing it this weekend, but Keith wants to wait until the weather is a little cooler.

The garden has been mostly cleared off, now, and a compost pile has finally been started! Of course, we still have turnip greens in the garden; they often last through the winter here. And my mother was not quite ready to do away with the tomatoes, even though the tomatoes we're getting are quite small--still, they are far superior to what we can get at the grocery store, and even to some we can get at the market. (Also, I think the market will soon be closing down for the year; probably at the end of this month.)

We made apple cider last week--very cool and very good!

We've been blessed with many guests over the last few months. I cannot say enough about each of them; they are such precious gifts to us and enrich our lives in innumerable ways.

Our children amaze me with their character. The Lord has truly blessed us with and through these arrows.

Mary Susan