Sand in my chicken shed

Last year, spring, summer, somewhere along those lines, I decided to try using sand in my chicken shed instead of wood chips or shavings. I'd been reading about it, pros and cons, and decided to give it a shot. I'm getting too old for that much dreaded, big ol' spring coop cleanout. I gotta say, I like it!

I simply go in with a little rake and modified horse poop scoop twice a day and clean up the poops. Takes me just a few minutes and the coop is sooooo much cleaner and sooooo much better smelling!! And instead of everything freezing solid once it gets cold so that I can't clean the coop til spring, the cold, frozen poops are actually easier to clean up than when they are soft. The one downside is the birds love to dust bathe in it, particularly under the roost. I can live with that!

Watering the cows....

 As I mentioned in the last post, I finally managed to get my cows out to some fresh pasture. We are having a much wetter spring than we've had in a bit, (thankfully!!) but I'm still in the whole 'water is precious' mode so I'm saving all the rainfall I can. In addition to my normal rain barrels, I have the overflow going into extra troughs laying around. I use it to water what outdoor plants I have at the moment as well as my houseplants. I am also using it to water my cows. 

We have this little tiny submersible pump that I used for my rabbit watering system years ago (typical farmer mentality, never throw anything away) and I now use it to fill a 55 gallon barrel that I use to transport water to the cows. I can get two barrels out of the 100 gallon troughs, which is nice, but I also have this big, big trough that was given to us. In wetter times it was our 'pool'. Now it catches rain overflow. I can water the cows for quite some time and it hasn't even made it more than half full yet. Every bit I can do to preserve our well, I'm on it.

More Adventures in Homesteading - Fencing Edition

 Wow, been a busy couple weeks here. Typical in the spring when the weather warms up a bit. Most of it has been all the non sexy parts of homesteading, like fence repair. We've had to completely replace a corner post set up in one pasture and gate posts in another pasture. I've also had to take down a section of fence, straighten the fence posts and re-stretch the fence, thank you cows.

We have been so, so dry for the last three years and this year isn't looking any better so far. We have a disabled friend with dementia living with us and he came with 2 horses. I already have goats and 2 cows. My pastures were sort of doing okay with my critters, but those horses just decimated things. He was unable to see that, but we did convince him to find them a new home once he realized that he wasn't spending any time with them anymore (physically couldn't) and that he was barely able to even feed them anymore. It was hard for him, which I completely understand! But, between then horses being gone and me finally being able to afford some electric fencing, I am able to move the cows to a heretofore unused part of our land. It should hold them for a month or so, especially if we could get a little rain.

The fencing was more of an adventure than it should have been though, ugh. Middle Little and I, along with Surprise, went out to do the fencing and I asked her if she wanted post duty or stringing wire duty. She opted for wire duty. Great. So I went along planting posts while she followed with wire. I'd gone out a few days before with about 20 posts that we already had (I had to buy the rest and the wire to finish the project) so I had a bit of a head start. I carefully explained how to attach the wire to the post, emphasizing that she should never let wire every touch any metal, in this case the T post next to the electric post.

So, we trundled along at our various jobs, got everything strung up just fine, went back along the fence with a few stakes to support a couple corner posts, double checked the wire making sure it was not too saggy or touching anything it shouldn't after various post moves and fence tightenings. Everything looked good so I hooked up the solar charger and checked my fence with my tester. Nothing. Well, that's frustrating. I went back along the fence, pulling grass all along the line just in case it was too much for the charger to handle, this is my first experience with solar chargers as well as checking everything out again, just to be sure. Still nothing. I though, Hmm, maybe this fence is too long for the charger, although I should be getting some sort of reading.

Next step, go back to the house and get all the stuff required to string high tensile electric and go up to the far property line to string this stuff and tie it in to some other that I already had strung in the main pasture to keep the horses from killing my fences. This wasn't too awfully bad, but it's getting hot at this point and I also had to cut through several large juniper trees to clear a path for the electric. I get that all done and have it turned on and check things with my tester. STILL nothing on the temporary fence. Ugh!

The only thing I can think to do is go back to the other side of the property and check that last 30 feet or so of fence that I had Middle Little check and I eyeballed from where I was working. I'm walking it slowly, going over it with a fine tooth comb, all's good. Then I get to the end. She has tied the dang fence off to the T post and completely bypassed the poly post right next to it. 

No wonder stuff wasn't working. I fixed that and, what do ya know, the fence works great! I really should have checked that first, of course. Oh, well, live and learn. And after all, the cows don't really seem to mind that I spent way more time than I should have getting their new digs ready.

Spring snow

 It's snowing today. It was 80 F day before yesterday. I'm not complaining, though, not at all! While the western part of the state got lots of moisture this year and the states below us got record snowfall, our area hasn't even hit average precipitation for the winter. 

We have had 3 years of drought, bad drought. Our well got a little iffy last year, had to quit watering the garden and ration our household usage to make sure we had enough for the animals, and we culled the herd hard. We've had grasshoppers in biblical proportions, three years of getting it's leaves eaten as soon as they came out finally killed my 9 year old apple tree. Sad day. And hay, that's been a challenge. My hay guy had to go buy hay. We had to look far and wide to find some, too. Our little river even flirted with drying up, it was reduced to largish puddles. 

All that to say that we are really hoping for a WET spring, even if it's snow. I'm being wildly optimistic and planted some peas, carrots and lettuce. I'm probably not going to go for long season crops but some spring greens would be welcome.

On the bright side, kidding season has begun. I have milk again! Yay! I can't tell you how much I've missed that stuff. The kids are cute, naturally. With babies and a bit of moisture, it's even beginning to feel like spring, just a little. 

So let's lift a glass of the white stuff and have a toast to more snow!

Obligatory baby pics. :D

Rendering Tallow

It's a job I tend to put off as long as possible. It's not hard, but it is smelly. I hate the smell of cooking fat. I usually try to do it outside or in the bus but that doesn't always work out. When we butchered our cow, I had to take out a couple big chunks of suet that had been sitting in the freezer waiting for me to get around to rendering it. There just wasn't room for the meat and the fat.

Naturally, the weather was a nasty mess and it was more than I wanted to do to haul two big pots full of fat out to the bus and tend to them. So, I did them in the house. Ugh. It was gross smelling. But I now have quite a bit of rendered tallow suitable for soapmaking all ready to go. So I guess it was worth it? 

To get the most out of the process, I really should have ground the fat but, again, not feeling it. So I just cut it into chunks, crumbled it up and went with it. I never weighed anything, but it was a fair amount.

There it is, cooking away. I put a bit of water in the bottom so the fat doesn't burn or catch fire or anything fun like that.  It also gives the fat a nice place to collect and solidify, on top of the water. Then I cook it for a looooong time at a medium heat, just a good simmer. Have I mentioned it stinks?

Here it is about halfway done.

And here it is done, at least as far as I'm concerned. I couldn't take the damp stench anymore.

I then used a sieve to fish out the bigger chunks as much as possible, then I poured it through the sieve lined with an old milk filter to catch all the little solid bits. I have skipped that step. All those bits will adhere to the bottom of your fat chunk and you can just scrape them off with a knife.

Here's the filtered fat.

I then put the pots out in the truck for the night to cool and solidify, Yes, the cab of my truck serves as a repository for foodstuffs in the winter when there's no room in the fridge. It's cold and dog proof.

Here's looking down into a pot after it's been back inside for an hour or two and I'm getting ready to take it out. I will say, this is a pain. When I'm working with smaller amounts, I pour it into baking pan or something that is lined with wax or parchment paper or something. Then I can pop the fat out, peel off the paper and cut it up. This was just too much fat for that technique.

And here's the finished product. That's a 5 inch thick chunk of fat sitting in my sink.

I cut it into smaller chunks and put them into plastic freezer bags, then popped them in the freezer. Now they are ready to go whenever I next decide to make soap.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Recycling is a bit difficult out here in the boonies, there's not a lot of opportunities unfortunately. We reduce consumption, especially of disposable type things, as much as possible, always trying to improve on that. But reuse, we got that!

We tend to fall victim to that typical farmer thing, never throw anything away, it might come in handy some day. And some things are hard to get rid of. We have to pay a pretty good fee to dump appliances here, even if they've already had the freon removed, a requirement. Over the last couple years, I have had two refrigerators die and two chest freezers. So .... I had the guy come out and remove the freon and tag them. Then I turned them into raised beds.

Here's the two side by side refrigerators

I drilled some drainage holes in the bottom, filled the bottom half with some old logs, a lot of old weeds (it was early spring and I was cleaning up the garden) and the top half is a mix of dirt from around the place and some homemade compost. I don't know how long they will last, but they sure work just fine for now.

Here's the two chest freezers.

On a slightly related note, I had an old trough last year for a raised bed that I forgot to put drain holes in. We have had pretty severe drought the last 3 years and that is the only bed that kept growing after I had to stop watering because our well was having issues. I don't think I want to go without drainage for the wet years, but I think I will put drainage holes in the sides at the bottom of containers from now on so I can plug them and unplug them as needed.

What are some of your favorite repurposing things you've done?

Ahh, butchering....

 So, we butchered our cow this last weekend. Ugh, what a job. But it's sooo nice when it's done! We slaughtered him 2 weeks ago and let him hang until this last weekend. We were going to let him hang longer but I think we waited a bit long for this and the weather is starting to warm up, somewhat, so we went ahead and cut him up. Since we only do this once a year, all I can say is thank goodness for youtube! I never remember all the specifics for cuts beyond the backstrap/tenderloin area. My favorite channel for this is the Bearded Butchers.

We did a lot of roasts, a lot of hamburger and some steaks. He wasn't a terribly large steer but he should last us until this fall or early winter when we'll do the other one. We'll have a bunch of chickens this summer, too, that will help stretch the beef. I'm hoping to find some weaner pigs but right now (4-H season), they're going for $200-$300, not affordable. I sure miss having some pork, though. Mmmm, chorizo, carnitas.....

Anyway, back to butchering, I obviously don't have lots of pics of the process since I get all messy and don't want to bloody up my camera, but here's our setup before getting started. We just tape a shower curtain to the table to help with cleanup, have some sharpish knives and go at it. This year we have a meat band saw as well. It's el cheapo with no identifying information anywhere, but it was still somewhat helpful. Helpful enough to know we are going to keep an eye out for a good one. We still had to cut the big sections down with the sawzall so they'd fit on the bandsaw, but that's still way better than cutting the whole stinkin' cow with a hand saw and a sawzall. I have several large cuts on my table from that dang saw. Oh well, farm table and all.

Here's in the middle of things, after a lunch break.

Then, when it's done it's clean up time. That's almost as much work as the butchering itself. We have to take the saw completely apart to clean it. Cleaning the sawzall is a bit of a chore as well. Then the grinder and all the cutting boards, knives, etc. Fortunately the table is pretty easy, just untape the shower curtain, wad it up and throw away. I'm not big on disposables, but sometimes it's worth it. I need to keep in mind over the next year to pick up a heavy duty vinyl shower curtain, then I could reused a couple times. I then spray the table down with vinegar and give it a good wipe down.

All the scraps go to the dogs. They got their daily ration and then I portioned it up and froze it. The dog food freezer is now at full capacity. The chickens got some of the action as well, as did the cats. Everyone was fat and happy. 

In a very non homesteading moment, dinner for us was pizza. Hubby ran into town and picked one up. That's rare for us, but it's hard to want to cook when you're still getting the butchering smell out of your nose and off of your hands so pizza it was.

Cheers to a full freezer!