Welcome back to the Farm Life Farm Blog. As we continue to work on the greenhouse with every free moment, the progress is apparent. I cannot believe how long its been since I worked on a post. The persistent problem remains to be energy. At the end of a workday, whether teaching or building, I don't have the energy to type. Front face has windows...yes they open from the outside The last post ended with the completion of the flat roof deck. We have since covered it with corregated metal roofing and flashing on the facia. Closeup of the flashing does not look great, but the wrinkles make it pop from a distance, especially early in the summer morning sun. This was a fairly easy part of the build. I must admit that the slight pitch did mess with my balance of the hours I was up there. Prior to the flashing, we installed wall connector flashing for the polycarbonate roofing. I have included an image below right, but it is a clear plastic thing so it does not look like much. I also tried having AI darken the image but what it created looked much like a fleshlight and ...anyway. So this is a 4 foot long piece. The back edge is a lip that I screwed into the facia board. The front edge is a 6 inch wide strip of the corrugated roofing. The roofing panels then sit on under the 6 in strip ensuring water keeps running away from the facia. we then used a single sheet of flashing, under the flat roof metal and over the wall connector flashing. This is a stage you want to take a moment and plan. every piece of the roof has to lock into the next piece and ensure that water will flow, while also ensuring that wind cannot blow the rain and snow back into the roof structure. Get the roof wrong now, and you will be fixing leaks forever. All the roofing was a four day process for us. At the end, we are pleased with the roof and think it looks pretty good, just uneven enough for Sarah and I to like it, but not so far off that it looks like it will collapse. If you remember our sawmill shelter; we built that to appear it is falling over. Sarah went to camp while I began the front windows. Probably best as this was a trial and Windows in place before leveling. error to find what would fit equally. It is certainly an idiosynctoy, but things need to be equal bilatteraly but not level or plum. The four outside windows are all the same and I did have two others I intended to add to this wall. It dawned on me as I began the windows, that the support structure for the windows was gonna take more space and wood than I expected. window framing close-up Window Framing Image The header and Sill plate were an issue as I would have liked a 10 inch header, however there was not enough room. Had I really known what I was doing, I would have measured the windows first and built the front wall one foot taller to allow for more support wood, however, the 6in header is sufficient to carry the load. The King studs and Jack studs were a bigger issue for me. As you can see in the framing image below, each window requires a king stud to carrier the roof weight and two jack studs to support the header. Therefore, every two windows has eight inches of solid wood between them. That is a total of 40 inches of sun-blocking wood over the 15 feet of front wall. During the winter, the first three hours of sunlight will be shining though these windows. Time will tell how detrimental this wood will be. I do admit, that less sunlight will be better than a building collapse. I was going to use a fifth of theses windows, but I could not get it to fit evenly without ripping boards down, which would have been an additional couple inches of wood. The center window is 3 and a half inches wider than the other four and fit beautifully. The east wall is our next mission. The west wall will have a double door so we can get the water tanks and the tractor bucket in in the future. We will also be adding a walk-through door into the "tractor doors". That is gonna be a challenge, so I am starting with the east wall and the walkway inside. Quite frankly, I am tired with climbing in and out and thought stairs would be nice. Pony Support Wall I began with the Pony wall that runs the span and is as tall as the roofing is, about 20 inches. I did the pony wall in two sections for my own convenience and due to the length of 2x6's I had. They were about four inches too short even after cutting them. The door was my next challenge. I needed the pony wall to be able to figure out where the door would fit. This is the only place along the wall the doors I have . would fit. This one is a storm door. I will install the glass once I am fairly certain I wont break it bringing wood in and out. Once the door was framed and swinging free, I started on the platform/walkway. You can clearly see the framing for the doorway platform in the image to the right. I started with that and then added a support board from the back doorway to the east door platform. With the platform being 30 inches long and the back doorway being 46 inches, this support board angles in toward the platform. Each floor joist is cut on the angle and will sit on top of the support boards. The walkway is also set about 6 inches lower than the east platform. The stairs will extend from the Walkway and Platform Framing. walkway where it meets the platform. We will then walk in the door, turn hard right, step onto the walkway, hard left onto the stairs. This is as far as we have gotten and are quite pleased with our progress. The platform will start our next post.

Our First Garden Soil Customer plants potatoes in landscape fabric "buckets" We have been composting our farm manure and detritus for five years. It is ready to bring new life to your yard and garden. This is a mix of the following: Rabbit Manure Chicken manure and bedding Horse Manure Sheep Manure Duck manure and Bedding All the uneaten hay Yard leaves clippings and rakings Our children practiced their backhoe skills for the past several years mixing the pile.

At Farm Life Farm, we strive to coast more and flap less. The farm life is hard and expensive. We are constantly trying to recreate the wheel and make a better mouse trap. I have seen some really neat mowers made for trimming around field fence. They are expensive and not anywhere near our budget. Thinking about our options, I thought, maybe, we can just rotate the guard 180° and run the guard along the fence, under the electric. Oh yeah, I should mention the reason this is a thing: Pigs and sheep and goats are escape artists. The grass is always greener on the other side. As such, they will all try to get out. In an effort to keep them in, we have an electric wire running about 6 inches off the ground to keep the critters inside. We also run a wire along the top to keep predators out. Though we do have the Parmak Fieldmaster3 powering the line, field grass does cause an issue. On dry days, the grass and weeds touching the fence causes a negligible drop in power; maybe .2 or .5 volts. This is completely acceptable. However, in the morning with dew or during rainy weather, the moisture makes the grass a true conductor. One or two sprigs touching is not a problem, but when a thousand feet of fencing is overgrown, you are gonna lose your voltage. Not only will this cause the fence to not shock your animals, it also means tons of power is being sent to the ground and wasted. For that reason, clearing the fence line becomes one of the myriad tasks that must be performed. We have several trimmers. A Shindaiwa for Nana, and two Stihl Commercial style trimmers. We keep either a saw blade or a dual-chain-head on one of them and string on the other. The brush trimmer does not have a guard, so the string trimmer was the one. As I approached, I realized that the shaft was straight, not curved like the Shindaiwa. My simple idea of loosening the clamp and rotating the guard was not an option. The guard on this thing is screwed onto a flat plate that is cast as part of the shaft. I had to get much more creative. In the picture to the right, you can see the cast mounting plate. Another detail I had overlooked was the line cutter on the guard...little black thing on the right side of the guard under the string. Being flipped around, the cutter would not cut. I grabbed the angle grinder and sharpened the "other" side of the cutter. Next step was to figure out how to get the guard to stay in place. I grabbed a hole saw smaller than the base of the shaft and cut out a circle. Then, with the Dremel tool, I carved the plastic until it snapped on. The square plate on top was under the plastic that I cut out when the guard was in its original position. The two metal arms are actually two of the male prongs from an old 240volt dryer plug. They were thick and strong and the bends were a perfect match. In the picture below, you can see the head lock hole has the plastic locked onto it. You can also see that the bolts up top in the picture to the left are not individual bolts, but a U-bolt from a satellite antenna pole. The u-bolt strap is in place, then an extra thick washer (spacer) on each side, then the arms, and finally that square metal plate. As I tightened the clamp nuts, the u-bolt strap bent to conform to the shaft. Drilling through the shaft was clearly not an option. I would have needed to tap the metal and then grind down screws so the tips would not hit the spinning head. I was not willing to invest that much time, however the angle of the tube made it impossible to clamp anything to the shaft. I began tinkering with a few different brackets and other ideas, I tried the u-bolt with a pretty good fit. As I tightened the nuts, it pulled everything together. After taking it all apart, I put the hold down arms on the drill press and made bolt holes, The top already had holes in it. The left lower bolt would not fit any other way than from the bottom. The right side is a self tapping screw. The one failure I have with this mod is the string length. The old mounting location added about two more inches distance from the head to the cutter. Now the string is 4 inches instead of 6. Not the biggest deal and with how thick the grass is, a shorter string should cut better. Not having to carefully gauge our distance from the fence saves a great deal of time. Not having the string catch on the field fence will save us money on string and save the time we used to spend on bending fence wire back into normal position. No longer having the fence grab your string and jerk you back: Priceless. close up view of the u-bolt holding our front guard together. I cannot stress that last point enough...If you have never trimmed field fence, you cannot fathom the frustration and physical pain one feels every time that string grabs on the fence. It just might be one of the truly miserable experiences a farmer can have.

There is fantastic news on the farm! We have made progress on the greenhouse. King Beam is in place Over the winter of 2024-25, we began planning a greenhouse on the hill. Sunlight all day on a fairly flat piece of our ridgeline. We looked at all kinds of possibilities. Prefabricated, hoop house, PVC structure, Walipini's, etc. In the end we decided on a wood frame Walipini. The Walipini is a north American Native idea that date's back possibly thousands of years. We began excavating down below the frost line but only made it about 2 and a half feet before hitting ledge. So we have settled on a semi-walipini. We then milled 8 inch square beams for the foundation. With the west wall the highest from ground, we needed to support that side, so we drilled into the ledge and hammered in re-bar, set cement blocks and filled them with concrete, while also bonding it to the rock underneath. With the corner posts set, we could set the beams. Beams set and pinned together, it was time to build some walls. The walls are ten feet tall and the studs are ruff sawn 2x6 white oak. We built the two side walls first. The side walls are 6 feet long. The back wall is 16 feet long and we could not manage one solid wall so we built three, about five feet long, which we were able to manuver; we put them in place and lagged them to the beams and each other. The side walls went up and were tied together with the back wall. Everything was going great. The next step was a king (or carrier) beam. Having more knowledge or better planning, we probably would have made the footprint just under 15 feet so we could have milled a solid king beam. Oh, by the way, this is the beam that spans the distance between the two side walls to support the roof. This obviously needs to be very strong as it holds the walls together and the roof up. Add snow like we had this past winter and we are talking thousands of pounds. So we took four of the oak planks, and cut them down with opposing overlaps and laminated them together with structural lag screws and wood gl. This beam took several days to build and would turn into the bane of my existence. In later pictures you will see a board about half way down the front of the side walls holding the side walls together. We did not do this last summer. We added two boards, to the front of the side walls, on an angle and used the tractor to pull the beam up the ramps. It worked great until the beam reached the precipice. In the picture of the beam, you can see where the ramps terminate. I suppose if we had screwed the ramps in above the top plate, we might not have had an issue, but I did not think of that until now. Side ramps and front brace So we would pull it up the ramps and right at the top it would catch and then spring off and come crashing down. We did this five separate times. The final attempt, the beam actually pulled the foundation off the supports and the beam landed under the foundation. We put the project on hold while we came up with a new plan. We talked and thought and thought and talked all fall and winter. Do we rent a telle-handler or some other equipment? Do we buy a manufactured carrier beam? In the end the solution we could afford was to ask for help. We put out a text asking our friends and family to join us to get this damn beam in place. All our friends and some of my family showed up. With a couple people that actually have building experience and the rest having above average intelligence, a plan was formed quickly and activated. A top plate was added and some bracing as well as the board across the front. With people below the beam supporting its ascent and one person up top at each end, Sarah motored the beam up the ramps one last time. With two of us up top with pry bars, and that front brace holding the walls together, that beam fell right into place. I must admit I was giddy as a schoolgirl to see that beam in place. With handshakes and well wishing, the crew went to sup. We had made mac & cheese, smoked home cured ham, smoked leg of lamb, potato salad, corn salsa, and hot dogs for the kids. We also made sure to accomplish our mission prior to feeding the troops. And with that, we were back in action. A dream returned. The feeling of anguish and failure evaporated in the hot spring sun. Since then, I had a week off and was able to really focus on the build. Next up was a few more corner support boards and then We went to work on rafters. We attacked the slant roof rafters first. At 13ft 4 inches, I was concerned about having enough timber. We were in fact four short. Off to the log pile where we found one large white pine and a smaller oak log that were long enough. Unfortunately, we haul most logs with a 12 foot trailer causing us to cut them at 12 feet. We chose the pine as I was soar and did not want to lug around more oak. Birdsmouth cut to sit on the front wall We moved that log onto the mill and achieved success. Five, 2x6x14 foot boards. A very slow tractor ride up the hill and onto the work table. We notched them out and started moving them into position. 16 inches on center. We pinned them in place with 10 inch structural screws, "toenailed" with 3.5 inch deckmate screws, and blocked at the half way mark and the terminal end. You can see the double rafter at the left side. That was purely a math error. We could have gone with 24" on center, Plumb cut with a toe to make it easier to mount them. Think smart kids but I wanted the extra support of 16" and did not account for some of the boards being thicker than others when we laid them out. When we got to the far end we were at 20" so we decided to add an extra. Later on, we will add hurricane straps to each rafter. In the picture to the right you can see the "toe" I left on. With the slant roof complete, we began working on the flat roof rafters. The roof is a 5 degree drop; just enough to shed water. We want a snow load in the winter as it does insulate. We also want to add solar panels to the roof at some point in the future and a mostly flat roof will be easier given it slants down to the north, away from the sun. If we did a standard pitch roof, we could not put solar panels up there. The flat roof rafters are 2x10 white pine, with 1 inch pine boards over the rafters. The steel roofing will go over that. With the sturdy base and the riser strips the steel will be strong enough for walking. At some point in the future, we might remove the corrugated roofing, add a railing, mount the solar panels off the side, and make a lookout...it is an amazing view. We will end this here and publish the post. The saga will continue in future posts. A view of the underside of the flat roof half built Flat roof fully planked. ends will be cut flush eventually

Warning: This post will describe Slaughter in graphic detail. If you do not want to know how your food gets to the table, pass this post. Another Pig hits the refrigerator. One of our last two remaining Kune Kune's has been processed. Last Friday I put it down with a distant shot from our Mini 14. I have discussed how pistol ammo has failed to penetrate past their fat layer. Kune's are lard pigs and have a thick fibrous fatty layer around their ears and the top of their heads. The Jowl is a light, fluffy fat that should not be a problem, however, with a hollow point 9mm, it mushrooms and deflects. This time the bullet did deflect and ended in the right shoulder. This does bother me as damaging meat hurts my soul. I will say, the animal was dead before it hit the ground and with little tiny legs, that is not much time. That part makes me feel better. After butchering, I found there was very little brain left. I definitely had a "where'd it go" Moment The bullet was a 5.56 55 grain Hollow point. Fired from a Ruger Mini-14. I aim for the ear. It was feeding time and separating this hog from the rest would have been difficult and frustrating, so I threw the grain and then tried to line up the shot. After several minutes, I had a clear sight line and sent it. The animal dropped immediately. 5.56 bullet Now there are several ways to dispatch an animal. Professional slaughterhouses use a bolt gun. That alone does seem like a humane practice. Put the lights out then cut the carotid. When you put this together with the rest of the slaughterhouse process, it quickly loses its humanity. Pigs go in by the tractor trailer load. They are not fed, stay corralled on cement pads and then are forced through the chutes to a dark and dank kill room, pushed along with the sharp poke of the electric cattle prod. Cortisol and adrenaline levels skyrocket. The oldest method is to hold down the animal and cut its carotid artery. This presents several issues. For this particular animal, the biggest problem is finding the carotid. with 7 inch thick jowls that wrap around and down the neck, it is very difficult to tell where the cheek ends and the shoulder begins. We don't want to damage any more meat than absolutely necessary. A perfect shot wastes no meat and I do prefer to shoot them first. We have a customer that comes out from a city for Lamb. For religious reasons, they must kill the animal themselves and use a knife at the neck to do it. For this process, we coral the animal that morning or the night before. Then catch it, drag it out to a convenient area, hog tie the animal, then hold it down and put it down. Then we put it in their big cooler and toss it in the their honda. Maybe it is all a fallacy, but I do believe that having the animal calm and relaxed before lights out is just a better choice. We all know that there are cultures that prefer to beat their food to death, believing that it is the most tender meat can be with the best flavor. That idea does not sit well with me. Most of the time, I get a clean shot through the brain. Just behind the ear is the best target. When you hit this target, the brainstem gets destroyed and the spinal cord connection is severed. Instant death with the least amount of pain or awareness. Cutting the carotid is still best practice as this will get the most blood out in the fastest possible way. This time, the bullet went in the left side of the skull. The cavitation turned the brain matter into a smoothie. Half the copper jacket lodged in the right side of the skull and the rest of the bullet took a hard right turn and landed in the right shoulder. I still have not created a dunk tank for a whole pig, and torching the hair off is an arduous task. Once again, I chose to skin the beast. Not the easiest process as the skin is directly attached to the fatty layer. Skinning is the longest part of the slaughter process. Once that is accomplished, getting the organs out goes pretty fast. I managed to protect the heart and lungs right up until I sawed the carcass in half. During that process, I cut the heart and destroyed the pericardial sack. I got curious during the slaughtering and thought I would try sawing the carcass in half and then taking the heart and lungs out of the animal. I theorized that I would be able to see in there better and would not have to contort and blindly reach. While I was correct that it became easy to get the heart and lungs out, I did not factor in how close the saw blade would be to the heart. This would not matter to any butchers as very few are placing a heart in the display case, but mixing them into the sausage grind. In our case, I promised this heart to my EMT class. I do have two sheep hearts still in the sac, so we can still see the sack in class. I was also hopeful to get the trachea all the way from the vocal cords, still connected and undamaged, to the lungs. I like to intubate and then let the students "bag the patient". The bullet destroyed the larynx but the lungs and trachea do appear in tact. This pig hung in the cooler for three full days and was butchered on the fourth. Butchery did not go perfectly. I normally view a you tube video from Bon Aptetit which shows and explains everything very well. If you are interested to see the process, here is the best video I have found. Scott Rae and the Bearded Butchers videos are also very well done. chose to skip it this time and ended up cutting the picnics too short and forgot to cut the ribs off. I am actually rather interested in eating the ribs after they cook with the picnic. In an earlier post, "Another hog hits the freezer, I discussed separating the guanciale from the skull. When it came time to saw the carcass in half, I did so prior to removing the head. It wasn't until the saw got to the neck that I realized this. I gave a shrug and left the head attached to the right half. This did make carrying it into the cooler and then up to the house on butcher day. that thing was heavy. Once I got to butcher day, I did sever the head and set it aside until the rest was done. I separated the leaf lard and packaged it in two-pound packs. In the past I have had people ask about leaf lard for their baking. I had always just threw it in the vat with all the fat. Then I had several people request leaf lard. Now we have it. Along with the leaf lard is another 40 quarts worth of trimmed fat that will become soap. As far as the waste trimmings; dog food. The bullet-effected picnic and all the blood clots and the tongue and anything that I did not want to eat will be the next batch of dog food.

Farm Life Farmstand Spring has sprung at Farm Life Farm. Our Farmstand is open! Sarah built our stand and has outfitted it with eggs and soaps to start. So exciting to see it. Dogs and Sheep are shaved. Again, all Sarah. The yard has been swept and raked and the tons of winter manure in all pens has been hauled to the muck pile. The muck pile fencing has been moved so we have more room for the compost. We will be attaching the backhoe soon. Harper and Phoebe can get up there and mix the pile to help it all break down faster. It is already some incredible garden additive and will keep getting better. Field gates have been repaired. Actually we rebuilt the gates last summer. It was the posts that failed. Of course we use logs, not pressure treated wood. We don't expect our posts to last more than a few years. We knew they were both bad but did not get to them before the ground froze. As soon as we had soft ground, we replaced both with new logs and actually scraped all the bark off below ground to help them last a bit longer. Vehicle maintenance has been arduous. I spent 4 days under the Sequoia. We now have new upper and lower ball joints, shocks, sway bar links, cv shafts, and hub assemblies. Rear suspension will be next. Gator Maintenance: Mid winter the gator turned off and would not start again. The brakes also froze so it would not move. This was in January during that bitter cold snap. I released the parking brake and put the burn barrel behind it a couple feet. At the beginning of March, Sarah exclaimed that the gator rolled away and only for the grace of god did the burn barrel stop it. She was very confused when I showed great joy at this. Once it was rolling I was able to move it closer to the house to start repair. After some diagnoses it appears that one side of the ignition coil burned out. I did get a replacement and attempted install last night after work. The plug did not fit on the spark plug so I attempted to drill it wider and it went terribly wrong. Now I am waiting for the repair boots. A litter 9 rabbits has been slaughtered with five of them sold to two customers. We have also slaughtered and butchered two lambs for the family with a third being picked up by a customer this weekend. We will be Doing two pigs next with at least one sold. on a bad note, we lost two pregnant ewes this winter. They were both at the end of the gestation and they just stopped thriving. Neither us or our vet could find the cause. Very disheartening, yet we must understand that we cannot have complete success with every animal. Our only educated guess is that we had too much sugars in the feed we were using. We have gone back to the grain we used last year. Knife sales continue slowly. We have decided not to wheal and deal with buyers on the case knives. If someone wants a deal to buy the less desirable knives, we will entertain, however the case can stay until someone really wants them. For example, I took a call from a man down south. His father had given him a case pocket knife many years ago. While fishing, three days before finding our sight, that cherished knife fell in the river. After hours of searching, he gave up and begin searching for a replacement. It had to be that knife...the yellow handle and how it feels in his hand brings back the good memories of his dad. After three days of internet searching he found Farm Life Farm. So he called just to make sure we were real people with real knives. I had his knife in the mail by the end of the day. Medical training continues: Over the winter we trained Scouts, FFA members, Firefighters and other first responders all with added training on farm-specific incidents. Sarah and Phoebe became CERT (community emergency response team) certified as well as having joined a large animal rescue team.

As I sit in the SImsbury Ambulance Training room suffering through our Annual training, I thought how long its been since I wrote an update. It has been a challenging winter. We have had more snow and cold this year. Farming is hard. Farming in the cold is harder. Morning chores normally takes 20 minutes. With the added difficulty of the weather, it is taking almost an hour right now. Water has been the biggest challenge. Our hydrant froze a couple of weeks ago. We wrapped it with heat tape, but it is apparent that the freeze is down at the plug. We have been forced to carry buckets of water out from the house. Our Boar Porky enjoys dumping his water as soon as I fill it. He drinks his fill, then tips it with his nose. I swear he does it so the little boar wont get any. We have tried all kinds of containers for the Boars water. Porky has eaten all the rubber tubs we have tried. The issue we have is the Kuni Kuni boar. He is soo short that very few tubs will work. I cut down a steel garbage can and glued a heating element to the bottom. This worked well for a few weeks, but eventually he bent the side and broke the weld along the bottom. Then we found the pictured steel feeder and purchased a small heater element . (a $200 expense for both) First we set it on the ground and attached it to the fence. The first week he pulled out the heater and used it for a chew toy. Luckily the armor on the cord kept the wires from breaking. So I attached the heater to the pan with wire clips and self tapping screws. He could no longer drag the trough away or remove the heater. Still he drinks and then lifts it with his snout and dumps it all out. Yesterday I used two 8 in screws to anchor the front to the ground. We will find out if this works. So much snow: We have mountains of snow everywhere. We don't have anywhere to put it at this point. Under the snow is ice making removal even more difficult. All of our gates were built to keep babies in, not allow for a foot of snow. The runoff and ice build up is an even bigger challenge. Our horse paddock has the hill draining at the gate. The water gets stopped at the gate and builds into an ice dam. At this time, we can only open the gate enough to squeeze through. We have chipped the ice a few times, but it keeps building up. The sheep pen is having the same issue. Specifically the boar pen gate is getting locked up by ice. A lot of chipping. Meanwhile, one of our Ewes gave birth to her first baby. The lamb is doing well and we anxiously await our second ewe to birth. Firewood became an issue this year. Last spring I had asked my son and eldest daughter to work on cutting and splitting firewood 15 minutes a day. As you can imagine, this did not happen. I also continued to place other projects in front of firewood. Suddenly it was October and it was time to start burning. December covered our wood with snow and has remained covered. We ordered two cord from a friend and one from the nuns at the Abby. The first loads were good dry wood that burned hot. With two months of sub zero temps, we burned through the pile twice as fast as last year. We then were unable to get more from our friends because their processing machine froze. We went back to the Abby and did not notice how heavy the logs were. We burnt wet wood through the coldest part of our winter. Misery....getting the fire to start and getting any heat out of it was difficult and required continual attention. Normally we let it burn down to a thin layer of coals and then refill the stove. With the wet wood, we had to continually add one or two logs. The fire below needed time to dry the new additions before they will begin to burn. If we let the fire die down, we would have to start from scratch. Sarah put out the call on facebook and found one of our firefighter friends had wood and he was able to bring it over the day we asked for it. This was a godsend as we got another 24 inches of snow that night. We have another two cord ordered from one of the boy scout parents but his main line is plowing so we have not seen that order yet. We will continue the fight and keep our animals well.

We live in a ranch and Sarah and my bedroom is in the basement. The "garage' section is open to the rest of the basement and currently serves as our project room and workshop. Given how many projects we have going, it is common to not clean up one before beginning the other. With this situation, the walkways constantly get narrower. There comes a point where I feel so anxious and claustrophobic causing a compulsion to clean. We hit that point a few days ago. For the soon-to-be-mentioned reason, I could not just straighten up; we needed real cleaning. In a moment of desperation I had dumped hot ashes in the driveway to melt some ice and offer some traction. This led the rest of our crew to believe I wanted all ashes dumped in the driveway. Our three kids and our three dogs and Sarah and I have tracked most of that ash back into the house on our shoes. It would then dry and turn to dust blanketing everything in fine ash dust. We also had returned to disorganized chaos with stuff. Tools, winter clothing, gloves and hats, scrap wood and metal, cloths that no longer fit, etc. Every surface covered. Both basement table and the workbench were pretty well useless. Just a pile of stuff. The state of the floor was bothering me. We had to wash the ash off the floor so I had ordered a commercial service mop and squeeze bucket. Once the supplies had arrived, I began clearing the floor. We had items stored under everything and all kinds of stuff on the floor. I started at the front door and began picking things up and finding better homes for them. Off the floor, onto the table, and cleaned off. I began to choose shelved items that are not weather/temperature sensitive to move out to the sheds. I then had room on the shelves for the sensitive items that were on the floor. All the buckets of screws, hardware from completed projects, two boxes of plumbing supplies, and scraps of dimensional lumber all went out to the sheds. Initially I was going to clean and mop one section at a time. I did not want to keep emptying and refilling the bucket, so I got all the floor cleaned, one section at a time. Eventually I rounded the corner into the bedroom. More clutter and mess. Boxes of old electronics and radios were moved to the garage and all the necessary items were organized and tidied. I then mopped everything twice until all the dirt was up and went out to do chores while it dried. Now I had the cleaning bug and figured I should keep going. Ammo cans organized and back on the shelves, bags of old clothing moved into Sarah's truck for her to deal with, and three bags of garbage brought out to the bins. Still, it did not feel complete. Next I attacked the workbench. All the tools had already been stowed, but cleaning had accumulated three cans of screws and bits. One of my favorite organizational activities is to sort screws. I dumped out one can at a time and sorted all the bits, then the next, and the last. Then I get to bring each sorted pile to its rightful storage bin. Now the workbench looked great, but the far corner where the tool boxes are was still not flowing. I pulled everything down and began to organized the contents of cardboard boxes and committed them to the toolboxes while sorting the toolbox contents. Doing so removed 3 boxes and made room for Sarah's apothecary supplies. I still did not feel complete and satisfied. One side of the front door has our shoe rack and coat rack and oil tank. The other side has a utility shelf in the corner with all our spray cans and spray bottles...the chemical corner. There were half empty bottles of resin epoxy to the side of the shelf wedged in between the workbench and shelf, fallen spray bottles wedged in the corner, and a stack of empty boxes to the ceiling for our knife orders. The bottom shelf is all paint and has not been touched so that was left alone with other found spray paint cans tossed on top. All the chemicals were removed and organized on the workbench. The empty and broken cans were thrown out and everything else was returned to the shelf but organized with the most common items in front of the middle shelves. Then I broke down all the boxes which allowed them to fit nicely next to the shelf. With that last section done, we now have an organized workshop that is pleasant to look at and a joy to work in.

There are a few little leaks and one big one. Our biggest issue is the easiest to fix. Neither of us paid any attention to the overall slope of the building. The center skylight (ridgecap) has a long length overlapping a short piece. We need to move the short piece above the long and that leak will be fixed. As I had mentioned in the previous post, I was fairly certain that the trusses I made would leak and they both do a little bit I will get up there with a tube of caulk. The third area is along the sides of the side door. A little bit of flashing will fix this issue. Below is a short video of the leaking. The problems have been solved with some flashing and a whole lot of caulk. The Troy-made rafters did leak quite a bit. Given that the rafters were not grooved to act as gutters like the metal rafters that came with it. We filled the gaps between the roof panels with caulk and the leaks are dry. The next challenge was around the side door. At the top corners, we had a gap between the roof panels and the door. Flashing was cut into puzzle pieces to fit the gaps, screwed, and caulked. One window went up with success A ring of caulk and a couple corner screws. The other one was glued with the caulk but only one screw. The plexiglass cracked around the screw and slid down the wall. The skylight was more of an issue. The building is not level, or square. We removed the short section and slid it under the longer piece. Though it did appear that gravity was now in our favor, however we did not want to have to do it again, so we filled the overlap with construction adhesive and screwed it together. We caulked the skylight down in a few loose spots and called it a day. Now we have moved some of our stuff and have a new dry storage shed!

Though it pains me to admit it, the AI did a really good job writing this post. I don't imagine I will use it often, however it is interesting to see what it wrote. Butchering a sow can be a rewarding yet challenging process. After a recent butchering session, I ended up with 112 pounds of cuts, 30 pounds of grind scraps, and 40 pounds of fat. This experience opened my eyes to the importance of using every part of the animal efficiently. This post explores how to maximize the value of all parts of a sow, focusing on sustainable meat usage and practical tips for home butchers and meat enthusiasts. Understanding the Breakdown of a Butchered Sow When you butcher a sow, the meat you get can be divided into three main categories: Cuts : These are the prime portions like chops, roasts, ribs, and shoulders. They make up the bulk of the edible meat. Grind scraps : Smaller pieces and trimmings that are ideal for ground meat products such as sausages, burgers, or meatloaf. Fat : Often overlooked, fat is a valuable resource for cooking, rendering into lard, or making charcuterie. In my case, the 112 pounds of cuts represent the main meals, while the 30 pounds of grind scraps and 40 pounds of fat offer opportunities to create diverse products and reduce waste. Maximizing the Cuts: Choosing and Preparing Prime Portions The 112 pounds of cuts from the sow include a variety of options. Here’s how to make the most of them: Identify the best cooking methods : Different cuts require different approaches. For example, pork shoulder is perfect for slow roasting or braising, while loin chops are great for grilling or pan-frying. Trim smartly : Remove excess fat or silver skin to improve texture and flavor but keep some fat for moisture. Portion for convenience : Cut large roasts into manageable sizes for freezing or sharing. Use marinades and rubs : Enhance flavor and tenderness, especially for tougher cuts. By understanding each cut’s characteristics, you can plan meals that highlight the meat’s best qualities and avoid waste. Turning Grind Scraps into Flavorful Ground Meat The 30 pounds of grind scraps are a treasure trove for homemade ground meat products. Here are some ideas: Sausages : Mix grind scraps with fat, spices, and herbs to create fresh or cured sausages. Experiment with flavors like garlic and fennel or spicy chorizo. Burgers and meatballs : Combine with breadcrumbs, eggs, and seasonings for versatile dishes. Pâtés and terrines : Blend with liver and spices for rich, spreadable treats. Freezing in portions : Store ground meat in small packages for easy meal prep. Using grind scraps this way ensures nothing goes to waste and adds variety to your meals. Rendering and Using Fat for Cooking and Preservation The 40 pounds of fat from the sow can be transformed into lard, a valuable cooking fat with many uses: Rendering lard : Slowly melt the fat over low heat until it liquefies, then strain and store in airtight containers. Cooking with lard : Use for frying, baking, or roasting to add flavor and crispness. Making soap or candles : Traditional uses for rendered fat that reduce waste. Charcuterie applications : Incorporate fat into sausages or pâtés for moisture and richness. Rendering fat is a simple process that extends the value of the sow beyond just meat. Pork cuts and rendered lard ready for cooking Practical Tips for Sustainable Meat Usage To get the most from a butchered sow, consider these practical tips: Plan meals around the cuts : Use tougher cuts for slow cooking and tender cuts for quick meals. Label and date all packages : Helps with inventory management and reduces spoilage. Use bones for broth : Don’t discard bones; simmer them for rich stock. Preserve excess meat : Freeze or cure to extend shelf life. Share or trade : If you have more than you can use, share with friends or trade for other foods. These steps help reduce waste and make your meat supply last longer. Creative Recipes to Use Every Part of the Sow Here are some recipe ideas to inspire you: Pulled pork from shoulder : Slow cook with spices until tender and shred for sandwiches. Homemade breakfast sausage : Mix grind scraps with sage, salt, and pepper, then form into patties. Lard biscuits : Use rendered lard in place of butter for flaky, flavorful biscuits. Pork cracklings : Fry leftover fat pieces until crispy for a tasty snack. Pork bone broth : Simmer bones with vegetables and herbs for a nourishing soup base. Trying new recipes encourages full use of the animal and adds variety to your meals. Benefits of Using Every Part of the Sow Maximizing cuts and grind leftovers offers several benefits: Sustainability : Reduces food waste and respects the animal. Cost-effectiveness : More value from your purchase. Flavor and nutrition : Fat and scraps add richness and nutrients. Skill development : Enhances butchering and cooking knowledge. Culinary creativity : Opens doors to new dishes and preservation methods. Embracing the whole animal approach supports a more responsible and enjoyable meat experience.

Processing a pig is a rewarding challenge. Those of you raising pigs for meat sales, you must send your animal to USDA certified Slaughter and butcher houses. You are gonna pay around $5.00 per pound for them to do their thing. The only legal way to slaughter and butcher yourself and sell the meat is to have the customer take part. Ultimately, the customer is buying the live animal and you then assist them in the slaughter and butchering process. The theory is that as an active participant, you saw the process and approved of every aspect of the process in real time. Of course you can process your own animal and give away meat. That is fine. I must admit that I had never pondered why it is forbidden to sell what you process but it is absolutely fine to give it away? I highly doubt that paying for it makes the situation more likely to harbor food borne illness. I have discussed why we have meat inspected when processed, but if we the people cannot be trusted to safely process meat without an agent of the government watching when it is for sale, I would think the same laws would apply to all meat. This pig is for our freezer and our family only so the USDA situation does not apply, still it deserves a mention on any post regarding slaughter. This particular animal was a breading sow named Rosie. She was a great pig, a kuni kuni by breed, and a real pleasure to have on the farm. Rosie has provided us with a freezer full of pork for about five years with litters of up to 7 piglets. One or two litters a year. This year we breed her to our Berkshire boar with 2 cross breed piglets being produced. We also did a post earlier this year about the cross breeding project. After this birthing, Rosie started to show her age. She was not moving around much and had ultimately become too fat and heavy for her short legs. One must keep in mind that Kuni's are a pot belly pig and they can get too fat to move. It was clear that our options were clear. She had to move to the final stage of farm life for a pig...the freezer. Kunis are slow growing animals. Generally birth to slaughter is at least a year. We went up to two to get them built up with enough muscle mass to make it worthwhile. Most livestock in our country is harvested around 6 months of age with many among us refusing to eat meat from an animal that is more than a year old. I have found some legitimacy with Chickens on this topic, but all of the "older" animals I have eaten have been tender and delicious so I just don't buy into this theory that older animals are less enjoyable to eat. The morning of, I found her resting in the middle of her pen. I could have rousted her out of the pen and made her walk to a more convenient spot for me, however I did like this animal and thought it would be better for her to drop her where she lay. So that is what I did. A perfect shot with a 30-30 just below the ears. During the butchering, I took a series of photos for EMT class that will show the effects of a rifle round. I also confirmed that my placement was perfect, scrambling the brains and severing her spinal cord. The bullet wound section of the skull was saved for EMT class. Getting her out of the pen was the first challenge. I did not want to drag her through the muck and I did not have a straight pull out of the pen. I had to use a winch pulley to get her out. I attached the pulley to the gate post and ran the rope from the tractor through the pulley to Rosie. We still had the muck to consider. I rolled her onto a tarp and then did some fancy rope work. I pulled the rope past the pig to the far end of the tarp and tied the ends of the tarp with the rope. I then made a half hitch around a hind leg and tied the front corners of the tarp to the rope. Back to the tractor and pulled her up to the gate. I was worried that she would roll as I pulled but my tarp hammock worked great and she slid right up to the door. I was able to move the tractor a bit and remove the pulley and pulled the rest of the way out of the pen. Using Meat hooks with the tow hooks on the bucket, I hoisted her up and drove out back to our processing kitchen. There are three ways to begin this process. First is to dip the carcass into a vat of 160 degree water to loosen the hair. After the dip, all the hair is scraped off. Option two is to use a propane torch and blister the skin, then scrape off the burnt layer and hair. The third method is to skin the animal like any other animal. I chose to skin it. I do not yet have a tank big enough to dip a whole pig and nobody in my family really likes to eat the skin so I end up cutting it off. The other reason I skin our pigs is the fat. The Kuni kuni is a lard pig. Rosie had a fat layer 6 inches thick on many parts of her carcass. To keep the skin on and cook with such a thick layer of fat is not appealing to me. Also, we use the lard to make soap and to fill our deep fat fryer. Getting below the skin is necessary with these pigs if you intend to use the fat for anything. Skinning is the longest part of the slaughter process. I hang the animal from the hind feet and begin skinning at the hind feet and quarters working my way around the animal, and from the top down. Many people stop at the neck, cut off the head, and dispose of it all together. Given that the pig cheeks are a delicacy, I skin all the way from ham to snout. As I am working, knowing that I will be disposing of the pelt, I cut finger holes in the skin. This allows me to pull the skin out effectively as I cut it away from the carcass. If we ever save hides for tanning, I will stop puncturing the skin. An important detail to focus on at the beginning is the anus and urethra. You don't want G.I. contents on your meat. I carefully cut the anus away from the flesh and reach in and either cut the connective tissue or just rip it away with my fingers. Once the large intestine is separated, I put a zip tie around it and pull it as tight as I can. Then push it through down to the pelvic cavity. Then continue with the skinning. Once the skin is free, it is time to remove the guts. Lacerate the abdominal cavity up top at the hind quarters. Make sure the intestine and the urethra and vessels are all disconnected from the frame. Now I place my hand inside the peritoneum and push the organs in, away from the peritoneum. All the intestines and stomach want to fall out and will press forward on your hand. Remember you do not want to puncture any part of the G. I. system. So keep your hand in there and carefully, and slowly, lacerate the lining all the way down to the breast bone. Prior to this step, I like to put something under the carcass to catch the guts. I have used wheel barrows, buckets, and the animal skin. This time I used the animal skin to land the yuck on. Keep in mind that there are some very delicious organs in there. What do I use? Liver Kidneys Pancreas Heart Lungs Many cultures eat the intestines as well...I do not. The liver is only delicious if you like liver or are dying of starvation. (explained in a previous post) I enjoy Liver and my daughters love liverwurst which is labor intensive to make, but worth it if you like it. I used to use the heart and lungs for Soffritto (also explained in another post) but over the past few years they have all gone to EMT Classes as they are virtually identical to human organs at a 1:1 ratio. Pancreas and Kidneys all go into my grind for sausage. The pancreas has a unique flavor which I do not enjoy on its own. Attached to the pancreas is a unique piece of fat that looks like lattice. I save this lattice and wrap a roast with it. The finished product looks amazing when presented at the table. Other oddities in the pig are the tongue and the cheeks. The tongue is gross. Many cultures find it to be a delicacy, but I just cannot eat tongue. I have added it to the grind in the past and it does good there. This time, I am using the undesirable bits for the next batch of dog food. I have had tongue prepared by others in the past and enjoyed it just fine, however having seen the tongue in action... Guancialli, pork cheek, on the other hand is quite possibly my favorite part of the animal. Tender meat with velvety soft fat swirling throughout, this is some of the best eating you will probably never experience in America. The problem with the cheeks is that it is labor intensive and time consuming to get the face meat. The skin and hair are thick. There are tons of little bone points that you must scrape the meat off of. The lips and jaw then pose an additional challenge. Still, after all the work, you will have two beautiful velvety pillows of heaven for your devouring delight. There are several ways to prepare, but I use the cheeks for pancetta (Italian Bacon) and other times I cure it like Capicola. If you are looking to learn how to slaughter and butcher animals, send us a message and we will teach you how.

A few interesting details: Farm Life Farm is not just a farm. We have a mission to share knowledge with our neighbors and clients. We are an educational farm. If you are searching the internet considering raising any sort of livestock, we can teach you how. We can also help determine if this is right for you. So many people that are squeamish or nervous, develop the ability to feed themselves after just a few hours with us. As I typed away on the chicken day post, I thought of a few things that pertain but are not directly related. When we slaughter an animal, there is quite a bit of wasted stuff. Nothing here is actually wasted. In the end we use almost everything, however the digestive system is of no interest to us. There are many people and cultures that value these parts. We choose to give the digestive system to the wildlife in our neighborhood. We have yet to see anything left the next morning. When we look at a chicken we have the following parts: Heads Necks feet gizzards Hearts/lungs Spleen Intestines At Farm Life Farm, we make every effort to use all parts of the animals we slaughter. If you make chicken stock or bone broth, you want the feet. The nutritive properties of chicken feet is incredible. They will add a great deal of flavor and nutrition. Many cultures use the feet in soups. I choose not to. We save the feet, freeze them and then add all of them to our bone broth. You can also dry them like jerky and give them to your dogs as treats. On the topic of bone broth, we actually save all our bones for broth. Whenever we butcher, the bones are bagged and thrown in the freezer. If we cook bone-in meat, those bones go in the freezer as well. When we are almost out of canned bone stock, whatever bones we have saved go into a 60 quart pot with onion, carrots, garlic, parsley, and salt. We cook it down until all the connective tissue on the bones falls apart. We strain the fluid out and pressure can it at 15Lbs pressure for 45 minutes. The last two batches, we used the bones and leftovers for dog food. We sifted through the stuff and pulled out all the big bones from the lamb and pork. All the small bones and bits of meat and connective tissues all go through our grinder on a large grind. Our grinder will pulverize an entire chicken carcass without issue. Some of the smaller lamb bones and bits of pork knuckle will grind along with all the rabbit bones. Anything larger goes to the dogs as chew toys or get thrown in the woods for the wildlife. We add cooked whole grain rice and broccoli and carrots which we also send through the grinder just for convenience. This mix is scooped into canning jars and pressure canned at 15Lbs for 45 minutes. If we have giblets, rabbit organs, or other animal organs, we will mince them as well and add them to the dog food mix. Other times, we will use fish. For example, this past summer our kids went deep sea fishing with Scouts and came home with 30 Lbs of Porgy. We have used some of it for fish sticks and more for dog food. The fish does make the dog food smell bad so my kids are reluctant to feed the dogs when it is fish food. We still feed kibble with the homemade dog food just so we don't have to calculate nutrient, vitamin, and mineral content. Years ago we had a sick dog that could not eat kibble. We would add vitamins and trace elements. Oh, why do we make our own dog food? Kibble is dead food. It is highly processed and lacks all enzymes which are destroyed in the making process. Our dogs are part of the family and I wont feed my children processed foods, why would I feed it to my dogs. The other reason is money. The scraps from our animals are already paid for. Why throw them away when the dogs are thrilled to eat it. Their coats get shiny. They have more energy. We also save the organs, but not the gizzards. I have done gizzards in the past, but it is messy and time consuming. If you have the desire, separate the gizzards from the intestines, split them open and clean out all the stuff; better yet, watch the homestead sisters on youtube. They do a great job showing how easy it is. Actually looking at their method, I just may keep the gizzards next slaughter day. The other chicken organs, we use for dog food. I used to save them for giblet stuffing, but I was the only member of the family that enjoyed it. The last two slaughters, I used all the giblets for dog food. If you want them for giblet stuffing, then vacuum seal them in serving size bags and chop them up while still partially frozen. Lets talk a bit about butchering. If you plan to slaughter and sell your birds, I would recommend keeping them whole. Remember to add the giblets to the bag as many people do enjoy a giblet stuffing. I normally keep two or four birds whole for roasting. This time, we slaughtered 9 birds and I cut all of them down to parts. The math worked out for all 9 birds to be butchered given our desire for "packs of six" for family dinners. In high school I worked at a little grocery store with a butchers counter. I worked with two top notch career butchers. Both of them taught me a great deal. Given that we would break down 2 cases of chicken each day, I did get a lot of practice. Both were named Mike, but one was a miserable drunk and the other was a really happy guy. Both of them seemed pleased to teach me. Happy Mike used to race me on chickens. Who could get the most done with the least lost or damaged meat. Safe to say I lost every day. I always start with the feet. Cut circumfixal around the joint and then break the joint and then cut through whatever tissue is still connected. I then cut off the wings and cut off the wing tips. Wing tips and feet into the broth pile. Next is the leg and thigh. Cut the skin and bend the leg away from the carcass. Cut along the bottom and go through the joint. I then bend the leg/thigh and find the joint and cut through. You can also leave the leg and thigh together as one piece. This is great if you are going to cook them on the grill or in the oven. Separate them if you are going to deep fry them. Then cut along the ribs and rip off the front half of the spine. Cut along the base of the breasts and severe the connections at the base of the wishbone on both sides which will separate the second half of spinal cord from the breast. Last time I cut the breasts free from the rib cage. This time I left the breasts on the bones. This was really just a time/shoulder saving decision. It might make for some interesting cooking options, but my real motivation was that peeling the breast off the bone is difficult. Though if you do, you can then separate the tenderloin from the rest of the breast...chicken tenders anyone, or maybe fajitas?