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Mar. 10th, 2020
Good Things
Mar. 10th, 2020 09:22 amI tend to want to write in the evening and *do* in the morning. I tend to have time to write at work in the morning. It leaves me a little topsy turvy feeling.
I've been quite enjoying my life in the last couple days. As my coworker said, if my animals are happy, I'm happy. The geese are in full mating swing; the 3rd cohort piglets are getting out and eating my extra eggs, frolicking in the yard, and generally being a happy nuisance. The same could be said for the cats: Demon is definitely integrated and he's keeping Whiskey on his toes running up and down the stairs. I need a little more than animals, though.
Mom was up for an extended long weekend, Thursday night until this morning. We did some farm stuff, hanging a chicken roost and splitting off the chantecler breeding group. We repotted my African violet pups for the seed swap on the 14th. She came to some yoga etc classes with me. She was at the end of her soap from last visit so we made her some more. She dug snow off the top of my trailer while I carried hay. A neighbour also came up and shot 3 100-lb (2nd cohort) pigs for me. Two were boars for dog food; the third was for my freezer.
We gutted all 3 on the Saturday they were shot and hung my pig in the downstairs fridge; the 2 dog pigs went into the snow on the deck where they've frozen and I can use the reciprocating saw to cut them up for the dogs.
Yesterday we took my pig apart: skinned, took into primals, and I cut roasts and chops and wrapped roasts with butcher twine (!!) and we vacsealed them. Overnight there was a crockpot with lard, a crockpot with pork bone stock, and a crockpot with ribs. I sent the ribs home with mom this morning when she went because we'd had skirt steak and bits and pizza (with my lacto-fermented jalapenos and some anchovies, yum!) for dinner last night. I have bacon left to cure and a shoulder primal left to cut apart in the fridge, the rest is frozen. Nice to have a freezer full of pork again, and nice to be experimenting with roasts and chops (though I really do need to do some charcuterie).
I can unequivocally say the ossabaws are amazing to eat. Even at 6 months/100lbs they're dark and well-marbled, so tasty. As mom says: "it's like lamb". Also I really won't consider a larger breed, 100lb pigs are a really good manageable size and the adults at 250lbs are good to handle with two people. I can't imagine how folks do those huge pigs.
Anyhow, because it's morning I'm talking about the farming details: lists of activities, times, weights (40kg liveweight, 28kg gutted and head off, 20kg in the freezer). But what I wanted to say is this, again and again:
I fit well into this life. It's nice to have someone else, or some other folks, around from time to time. I wouldn't want them around all the time. But I really like the way my life is now. I've worked towards this -- towards the move from the city and this farm and career path and relationship style and all these skills achieved in a precipitous learning curve -- without knowing if I would actually enjoy the result. I mean, I was really really sure but that's not the same.
And here I am, in it, and I love it. Killing is sad. Animals are stressful, relentless, and rewarding. Maintaining land and a house is not cheap in money or labour. But now that I have the time to relax back and enjoy it I am enjoying this life so much. I absolutely need more land-connected people in my social media circles, on dreamwidth or other longer-form would be especially nice. I could use more in-person folks but I am working on that in various ways.
I'm a part of the thing I think is important, which is the land.
Now to prep for Avi's visit. I think we'll be killing roosters, and maybe jarring pork stock and rooster, and maybe making soap and splitting off a couple more breeding groups.
I've been quite enjoying my life in the last couple days. As my coworker said, if my animals are happy, I'm happy. The geese are in full mating swing; the 3rd cohort piglets are getting out and eating my extra eggs, frolicking in the yard, and generally being a happy nuisance. The same could be said for the cats: Demon is definitely integrated and he's keeping Whiskey on his toes running up and down the stairs. I need a little more than animals, though.
Mom was up for an extended long weekend, Thursday night until this morning. We did some farm stuff, hanging a chicken roost and splitting off the chantecler breeding group. We repotted my African violet pups for the seed swap on the 14th. She came to some yoga etc classes with me. She was at the end of her soap from last visit so we made her some more. She dug snow off the top of my trailer while I carried hay. A neighbour also came up and shot 3 100-lb (2nd cohort) pigs for me. Two were boars for dog food; the third was for my freezer.
We gutted all 3 on the Saturday they were shot and hung my pig in the downstairs fridge; the 2 dog pigs went into the snow on the deck where they've frozen and I can use the reciprocating saw to cut them up for the dogs.
Yesterday we took my pig apart: skinned, took into primals, and I cut roasts and chops and wrapped roasts with butcher twine (!!) and we vacsealed them. Overnight there was a crockpot with lard, a crockpot with pork bone stock, and a crockpot with ribs. I sent the ribs home with mom this morning when she went because we'd had skirt steak and bits and pizza (with my lacto-fermented jalapenos and some anchovies, yum!) for dinner last night. I have bacon left to cure and a shoulder primal left to cut apart in the fridge, the rest is frozen. Nice to have a freezer full of pork again, and nice to be experimenting with roasts and chops (though I really do need to do some charcuterie).
I can unequivocally say the ossabaws are amazing to eat. Even at 6 months/100lbs they're dark and well-marbled, so tasty. As mom says: "it's like lamb". Also I really won't consider a larger breed, 100lb pigs are a really good manageable size and the adults at 250lbs are good to handle with two people. I can't imagine how folks do those huge pigs.
Anyhow, because it's morning I'm talking about the farming details: lists of activities, times, weights (40kg liveweight, 28kg gutted and head off, 20kg in the freezer). But what I wanted to say is this, again and again:
I fit well into this life. It's nice to have someone else, or some other folks, around from time to time. I wouldn't want them around all the time. But I really like the way my life is now. I've worked towards this -- towards the move from the city and this farm and career path and relationship style and all these skills achieved in a precipitous learning curve -- without knowing if I would actually enjoy the result. I mean, I was really really sure but that's not the same.
And here I am, in it, and I love it. Killing is sad. Animals are stressful, relentless, and rewarding. Maintaining land and a house is not cheap in money or labour. But now that I have the time to relax back and enjoy it I am enjoying this life so much. I absolutely need more land-connected people in my social media circles, on dreamwidth or other longer-form would be especially nice. I could use more in-person folks but I am working on that in various ways.
I'm a part of the thing I think is important, which is the land.
Now to prep for Avi's visit. I think we'll be killing roosters, and maybe jarring pork stock and rooster, and maybe making soap and splitting off a couple more breeding groups.