Our little piglets are growing bigger and bigger. In about two weeks they will go to freezer camp. YUM! Suckling pig is big here in Uruguay (as one acquaintance put it, think roast piglet with an apple in their mouth and you’d have the right idea).
Our newest set of piglets are just as cute as the first, but their “daddy” keeps others away. There are 11 in this litter of all colors.
They are so cute and curious. And will hopefully taste great when their time comes as well!
Several people have asked about the dogs. Resi and Virkha are getting along well. Virkha is the playmate that Resi needed. Resi has taught Virkha to chase the cats, but she can’t seem to get Virkha to enjoy chicken T.V. They both will run around the pasture playing tag and latch onto sticks for toys. In the house, they both have their favorite spot to rest. They both like to shred T.P. tubes and empty water bottles. We do have to keep an eye on Virkha because when she gets real excited she will grab an acorn squash to chew.
They are entertaining to watch and a joy to have. They’ll be even more of a joy when Virkha outgrows the teen years, Resi stops trying to chew on Virkha’s ears, and Virkha stops trying to steal Resi’s bed, and Virkha’s play bark drops a few notes into a non-ear piercing decible. They’re a joy to have. Really.
It is hard to keep writing when the farm progress is not very noticeable and yet it keeps us busy. This picture is us, from our neighborhood road. The front portion with dirt is where we just finished digging out the cannel and spreading out the excess dirt. We have now broken up the clay soil, fertilized, and seeded it. This is where the geese and ducks spend their days.
We have sent many chickens, roosters, and rabbits to freezer camp. And since we still had room in the freezer, several sheep who did not respect the electric fence also went to freezer camp. Then because we were interested in selling a group of our heifers, and have yet to eat any of our own beef, we sent a steer to camp. The beef has nice flavor but not as tender as we had hoped. Jon thinks it is because we did not let it “hang” for a few days. The lamb was fantastic, since prior to this lot, we had only been eating older sheep. When I went into the butcher’s to purchase some liver for the cats, he made comment that he hasn’t seen us in awhile. This was our goal, to grow our own food.
I have been cleaning rabbit cages and worm bins, chicken waters and brooder pens. Slowly things are getting back to normal before everything stopped for harvest.
We have had several garden beds ready to plant, but without any rain we have been waiting. We took three beds and just broke up the soil, fertilized, and spread seed. We are hoping for feed for the animals. The green houses are HOT and are watered daily if not twice. We are getting tomatoes and salad green and the kale is still very hardy. We have peppers of all types flourishing. Eggplant seedlings are growing. We have yet to plant any seed boxes because of the heat, but we have the extra bales of alfalfa and the garden tools taking up space in the working green house.
When it gets too hot to be in the sun, the guys have been cleaning the bosque. They have been trimming the eucalyptus branches and cutting off any sprouts at the bottom from the main trunk. It is looking better, but I have a had time seeing progress when the branches and wood piles are scattered within the grove and not pulled out.
The rest of the huerta looks good. Between the tractor to help trim the pasture and no rain to help things grow, we actually look “neat and tidy.” I know we are a working farm in progress, and someday everything will have it’s place.
Megan has done a nice job keeping up with tanning the sheep and rabbit hides. She has read a lot about how to tan hides and there are many ideas out there. Megan has tried several different ways. Recently she read about how to preserve the rabbit feet and tail and it too went smoothly. We have finally slaughtered one of our heifers for us. We are now eating our very own home grown beef! But that also gave us a cow hide, and a decision of what to do. After talking with the guys we learned that there is no market for cow hides, there is no place that will process them, what everyone does is to just bury them in a hole with the entrails. O.K. so now what? Megan was ready to bury ours, but then the guys all said what a big hide! what a thick hide! what a shame not to do something with it! So Megan went on the internet and found a straight forward way to tan the hide, and we are off with another experiment.
Underside with the cow hair.
We’ve been told the only thing to do with a cow hide is to make a rug. We’ll see.
Winter squash cured and ready for storage. Jarradale and Cheronskya.
We have shared how the entire area is low on pasture due to the lack of rain. So we, as others in our area, have decided to purchase supplemental feed to get the animals through the winter, We purchased both bales of dried pasture (mixed ryegrass, alfalfa, lotus, fescue, st.augustine, etc.) and grain rations. Predications are that both will become scarce and expensive as winter does her thing. But, I do have to say that my eyes grew large as this truck appeared in our driveway wanting to know where to unload.
The truck with the grain ration bags also pulled in behind the hay truck.
So after unloading many heavy bags of rations into the galpon, the guys helped unload hay bales weighing about 400 pounds each.
Next came organizing the bales in the yard.
42 bales lined up in two rows, hopefully will last us long enough. After all we are a small farm.
We have been busy building animal houses and green house and have had Megan’s house on hold. Finally we are getting some work done. The windows are in and now the ceiling has sheetrock and the doors are installed so moisture will not get in. The outside is slowly getting the cement coating spread over the cement board. We are inching our way along.
We are definitely under construction.
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