LITTLE EWE, LITTLE EWE
Well, the ewes are almost all grown up. Except for Madeleine who still insists on nursing at 5 months(!), and Kira who allows it(!), the baby girls are starting to look and act like the big girls.
Edna Beard (Mocha x Xavier)
Clarina and Annette (Poa x Xavier)
Madeleine (Kira x Xavier)The boys are scheduled to go in the freezer in early November, and at that time I'll break the ewes up and ship half over to Cedar to see what he can produce. I'm hoping to breed 7 this year, but I'll have to see if Clover can put on some weight before then. She's the only one who's a little thin, and it may be worth giving her a year off after two years with single rams.
TURKEY DINNER?
We slaughtered our BIG tom for Labor Day and got a taste of our first-raised broad breasted white. While we enjoyed the meat (all 22 lbs at 16 weeks), we don't think we'll raise this breed again. Part of the reason he went into the oven so soon was because he literally was having a hard time walking around enjoying life like the rest of the flock. The rest will go in November.
Hops and Grant have been busily munching all our browse in the big field. Both enjoy a good scratch, and Hops has been much more mellow lately.
Drumstick? Thigh? 10 lb chicken?
Gus's favorite part of the day. The chickens know it's dinner time when they see Gus!
The pigs have been busy taking down small saplings and rooting up their pen, but recently they've begun gnawing on much larger trees! They seem to prefer the maples - I can't blame them.
After measuring their heart girths yesterday I think the pigs are ready to go, but they're not scheduled to go until Oct. 12th. My best estimate for weight based on the measuring system is between 230 and 260 lbs! Last year's pigs were just about 200 lbs a piece, so we'll have plenty of pork for our freezer this year!
