CHICKENS:

I’m so excited, we are one week away from processing our chicks! Actually there is some excitement and there is some anxiety as well. We’ve decided to attempt the processing ourselves so we’ve been reading blog posts and watching YouTube videos for the last week, trying to learn about every aspect of prepping these birds for the freezer.

One of the biggest helps so far is a video by Joel Salatin. While not the best camera angle on whats going on, there is a decent breakdown of the stages, time-frames and so-on that one will only learn from actual experience. Ready or not, we’re giving this a try either later this week or early next week, so wish us luck! I’ll be sure to document as we go and update everyone next time.DAIRY COW:

We have three dairy cows right now. Sarah and Calfeine are Jerseys and Beasley is a Holstein. We were blessed to get milk from Sarah for the last 11 months – her milk production went down enough lately that we have dried her up until she calves again. We are planning to sire her and Beasley in the next month which should give us some late spring/early summer calves! On another note, the grass has pretty much stopped growing around here so the challenge to make it through the winter without buying extra hay has begun! I’ll keep you all updated as we should have some “Mommas-to-be” cows soon!