CeeLo Green and Market Lambs, August 2012

CeeLo Green immediately adopted the three remaining lambs after the four oldest lambs and LuLu went to the market. Geukes Market in Middleville has a distinction from the State of Michigan for being a humane market. The receiving area is clean and comfortable for the animals, there is always fresh water, they do not accept ill or injured animals, and their method of dispatching the animal is quick and painless. Bob took the four largest, oldest lambs and LuLu to the market. The two largest lambs will be for the wedding, the two smaller lambs will be sold to friends, and LuLu will go to Mel Trotter ministries as stew meat and burger. LuLu is the ewe that had mastitis. It was Paul Shetterly's opinion that we not rebreed her but send her to the market. Paul also took the other two ewes to his place for breeding. They will stay there and I will get several lambs in trade for them in the spring. Bob and I decided to get lambs from Paul to finish out instead of breeding our own. Hopefully this will mean getting more sleep in February during lambing season and not having to worry about castrating, worming, tail docking, or medication administration. CeeLo has resumed his debugging duties and the three lambs have graciously accepted his attention. We decided not to tell CeeLo that his new friends will be making their own trip to the market in about a month. Best to just wait for an opportune moment. Carmen

Second batch of meat chickens, August 2012

Brian the Chicken Guy, brought his chicken processing operation to the house and processed the second round of meat chickens. He has a small trailer that he loads with his killing cones, propane tank, water dunk tank, table, and defeathering tumbler. Quite the operation. He was able to humanely dispatch, defeather, and process the 25 birds in a little less than two hours. Amazing considering it would have taken Bob and I at least 6 hours to do the same job. His feather remover tumbler thing is pretty slick, removing all the feathers in mere seconds. That probably was the worst job when we did our own chickens, removing the feathers. Feathers seemed to be everywhere, the birds never were completely defeathered, and the question always was if they had been dunked long enough in the hot water. Too hot, the skin tore. To cool, too many feathers remained. Arghh! Did I forget to mention the smell of warm feathers and chicken manure? As Brian was processing the chickens I made a single cut down the back bone, opening the carcass so it could lay flat. I then vacuum sealed the chickens. Sandi was unable to assume her duties as chief carcass cutter, something about being out of town for her mother's birthday. What some people will do to get out of a little honest work. At any rate, her knife wielding skills were sorely missed. Brian did have miserable weather to work in. It rained the entire time he was processing the chickens. How nice to have him come to the house though. The stress on the chickens is nonexistent and we don't have to scramble to get them to him and then pick them up. I can say this as I watched him work in the rain through the front room window of the house. Nice and dry. I think I'll make a pot of coffee while I wait for Bob to bring me another batch to seal and freeze. Carmen

Bug's horn sites are infected, August 2012

I knew it. Bug's dehorning sites on his head are infected. In other words, green pus is pouring out of his frontal sinuses. Sigh. Thankfully the scabs came off the burn sites creating an opening for the pus to evacuate from. I called the vet and they suggested using a dilute Betadine solution to irrigate his head, twice a day. The finishing touch is to spray the sites with the blue antiseptic/fly spray. Initially I got a lot of drainage out of the openings. This must have relieved the increasing pressure in his frontal sinuses. He was not excited initially about having this wound irrigation done, crying desperately. After several days he seemed to almost enjoy the procedure, realizing the pressure in his head was going to be reduced by the process. Dahlia's dehorning burn sites did heal nicely, no sign of infection there. Once again, it is imperative to properly debud the kids in the first place. You think you are burning the buds long enough when in reality you are not. It is harder on them to go to the vet and be dehorned than it is to burn the buds adequately in the first place. Did I mention that I am the one to take them to be dehorned, care for the initial burn sites and then the subsequent infections. Did I mention that? Carmen

Potatoes and Salad Greens

Bob dug the remaining potatoes yesterday and stored them in the empty stall in the barn. They will cure in the dark, warm barn for several days and then be moved to the root cellar. The crop is huge and the potatoes look great. We ate a couple that had been missed ad subsequently run over with the rototiller for breakfast yesterday..delicious! After the potato plants were pulled I weeded and rototilled the rows, prepping for planting salad greens. Bob put down organic fertilizer along the rows. The rows were marked, staked, and planted with mixed greens, arugula, spinach, butter crunch lettuce, and kale. I must say, this area of the garden looks great! Weed free...amazing for this time of year. I'll have to get a picture for posterity!

CeeLo Green, Cuban Cock Fighter

Bob found a picture of a chicken that looks like CeeLo in his book about Cuba. The chicken in the book was a champion cock fighter. CeeLo will never be a cock fighter but, Bob thinks the title will give him stature amongst the other chickens. For now, he continues to roost in the spare stall at night, and follow the lambs around during the day. eating bugs and enjoying the protection afforded by the lambs. We haven't broken it to him yet that his new found friends will be heading to the market soon. Better to let him think that he is a cock fighting chicken for now.

Bug

Bug remained droopy after his dehorning until yesterday. I finally caved in and gave him his own grain bin. Violet was pushing he and Dahlia out of the way at feeding time. Their heads are still tender from the dehorning and they can't push their way in to get their share of the grain. I was also concerned that Violet would make herself sick eating too much grain. Violet, who usually gets shoved aside, is enjoying the turned tables, shoving the others put of the way without difficulty.

Season of the Tomato Worm

It is the season of the tomato worm. We are picking and squishing tomato worms everyday. They are disgusting, fat, green worms that squirt green juice when you step on them. They also cling to the tomato plant and then your fingers when plucked from the plant. I have resorted to wearing gloves when picking the worms off the plants. That way, if they curl around your fingers, you can't feel their small legs grasping your skin. I do derive great satisfaction from stepping on them. Green juice squirts like a stream of water from a hose! Ha! Take that you, you...sorry, I got carried away. At any rate, I think we are keeping ahead of them. The plants are large and lush with fruit. Carry on worm crushing troops...continue the good fight...the thrill of the hunt. Accept nothing less than complete annihilation. Geez...