Raising livestock is an enjoyable task. Knowing that our family will have a self-sustaining food source is a powerful feeling. Knowing that the food they eat is nutritious and natural brings a great degree of accomplishment and pride to my soul. Part of raising your own food is transforming a living creature into food. This is a process that takes a lot of preparation and a touch of skill. Of course the goal is to cull the animal as quickly as possible. None of us want to see an animal suffer. The first bird I ever slaughtered: Did not go so well....I held the duck in place and attempted to cut its head off. Unfortunately my aim was terrible. I ended up slicing two arteries in my left index finger...it still does not bend properly. After this terrible event, Sarah and I created a much better method. I am going to describe our "chicken Kitchen" and all its components. Then I will go over the process of processing the birds. It all starts with the killing cone. You can buy killing cones on the internet or at your local seed and feed store. If you happen to keep rolls of flashing around, you can create one in about thirty minutes. I found a template on Pinterest and had 20 inch wide flashing in the shed. I cut it out according to the pattern and pinned it together with rivets. You could use self tappers or drill it out and use little nuts and bolts. I suppose you could even use glue. Any which way, I had rivets and used that. I also added a little extra flashing to the top of the template. This made for a larger area to screw it into the tree. I chose to only attach it at the top. When I first cut the neck, I lift the bottom of the cone out to direct the blood into the pan. At some point I am going to add another piece with a groove in it to run from the bottom of the cone to the pan. As you can see in the picture, blood currently runs down the board its attached to and often times misses the pan entirely. The next piece to this puzzle is the dunk tank. There are several ways to pluck a bird. Of the options, heating the birds has been our best option. We do not have the money to buy a bird plucker and I just haven't had the motivation to build one, though I do have the washing machine parts to build it. To buy one, you are looking at $200-500. I made a small drill-powered plucker years ago after seeing something similar on "Alaska: The last Frontier" Our dunk tank is simply a thirty quart stock pot, turkey fryer base, and thermometer. The temperature needs to be between 160 and 180f. We soak the birds for 1 minute. If the water is too hot, you will cook the skin and the feathers will never come out. Trial and error has found that One Minute is the right time. When we work together, I will kill the bird and leave it in the cone until Sarah is ready to scald the bird. She then scalds and plucks while I dress the birds. At the beginning, I would recommend to the novice to do one bird at a time. If you leave the birds too long, they begin to stiffen which makes plucking more difficult. Also, the water temp being above 160f kills microbials on the bird. Next is the Plucker: Our Plucker was a fun project to build. I made a wooden frame that would support the drill and the plucking cylinder. The cylinder is an 8 inch length of 6 inch PVC with matching end caps. Threaded rod runs through the center of the caps and has lock washers and nuts on both sides of the caps to lock it into the rod. The fingers are 1.5inch pieces of black rubber bungee cord. On the inside, I put a screw through the bungee and glued them in place. We have a large alligator clamp that we put on the drill trigger while we are plucking. FARM LIFE FARM PROCESSING TABLE Next up is the processing table. We have a small table visible in the lower picture that we move to the right side of the processing table for finishing up the plucking. The right side only matters as the ground slopes down to the right and we don't like to stand in mud. The plucker works well but does not get all the feathers off. So Sarah cleans the last bit off at the small table and hoses off the birds before moving them to the processing table. If you look closely at the sink, you can see that we have a splitter. The hose comes in under the sink and runs into the splitter. The right side of the splitter goes to a shower head for the sink. The left side goes to a length of hose long enough to get to the dip tank and the plucking table with a spray nozzle. The two grey food tubs are about two feet long and 10 inches deep. We bought these at Restaurant Depot a few years ago. These bins are great if you will be processing animals. Once the birds are bare, I gut them on the processing table. At some point we will do a video of the process, but there are myriad videos on youtube. That is the equipment. Lets run through the process. Collect the birds. We lock them in their coups every night. It has an auto door that we turn off the night before slaughter day. We have run around with a net and caught them in the past, but having them all locked up certainly simplifies this process. We put them in a dog crate and bring them out back. Kill the birds. I grab the birds out of the cage by the legs and swing the bird three or four times by the legs in a long fast arc. This causes blood to rush into their heads and calms them . Place them in the cone Reach into the bottom of the cone and pull the head through. I used to use a machete, but now I hold the head and cut through the neck and direct the blood into the pan below. Cut the head off completely I also hold the bird in place for a minute until it stops thrashing. A few times, the bird has flew out spraying blood everywhere. Then we have to fight off the dogs...no fun Scald the birds We dunk the birds neck first into the hot water and hold it submerged with a garden hoe. One minute submerged has proven to be perfect. Pluck the birds Over to the drill plucker and run the fingers over the birds from all the angles. move the mostly plucked birds to the small table and clean off the remaining feathers. Scrape off the leg scales If you scalded the birds properly, scratch the scales where the scaled leg meets the feathers. the outer scales will separate and you can scrape them off. Scrape off each toe and the nail cap. If you do not want the feet, simply cut them off where the feathers meet the scales and add to your scraps bucket. wash off the birds You do not want feathers in your meat. A quick spray will wash away the hangers-on. Move the bird to the processing table I make a slit at the breast and pull the "tubes" out of the neck. push the esophagus and trachea into the cavity and swirl your finger around inside the thoracic cavity to break the connective tissue free from the tubes go to the rear and make a cut between the cloaca and tail cut the other three sides of the poop shoot and separate it from the connective tissue. Be careful not to puncture any part of the digestive system. cut a big enough slit to fit your hand into the abdominal cavity and pull out the guts. If you will be keeping the vital organs, the liver will come out with the intestines. Cut the liver away from the intestines and carefully cut the gall bladder off of the liver. If you happen to puncture the gall bladder, wash it off immediately. I tend to just throw away any livers that get bile on them. Reach in further and pull out the heart, kidneys, and lungs. wash the bird off inside and out. Move to the grey bin for further butchering. That is the chicken processing process. I am going to do another post with how we use the scraps for dog food and other details.

Our last project update included the first three quarters of the shed build. I was wrong about the roof panels all being present. I was also wrong about donning the roof being easy. The 11 roof panels were all present, but the ridgeline parts were not all there. What it should Look like As you can see above, the roof is made up of about 3 foot square sections and then a series of ridgeline sections. Below I have outlined the bottom square sections in red, one ridgeline piece with a skylight blue, and the triangle sections for the roof above the side door in yellow. The first issue we had is that we did not set the bottom panels correctly... They were supposed to be flush with the rim of the walls. We put them up with a four inch overhang. We had all 11 panels in place and secured before we noticed the error. As we collected all the ridgeline pieces and mentally prepared to redo the bottom panels, we realized that not all the Ridgeline panels were present. Luckily we have clear corrugated barn roof panels. Given that I did not want to redo the roof, Sarah and I moved the corrugated panel in place and found it covered the ridgeline gap perfectly. At that point we decided to keep the panels as they were and have more light come through. We used a full sheet for the Ridgeline and a few scraps for the missing pieces around the side door. In the end it does not look perfect, but it is complete and functional. The full length of clear Ridgeline lets in a lot more light than the little skylights would have. We probably should have taken a few extra minutes to clean off the debris from the panel. Lets hope the next heavy rain will clean it off. The other topic I had mentioned on the last project update was the gable on the far end. The gable end in the above picture is a solid piece. The opposite gable was two pieces that had to be screwed together. Well we only had one half so I used that as a template to make a new gable out of wood as pictured below. You can see that the rim of the back wall has about 8 inches of flat and then the center section with the 8 screw holes is beveled on the outside at about a 30 degree angle. My first plan was to hold the gable flat against the bevel, screw it on, then push it up to bend that plastic down . Unfortunately, attempting that proved folly. The wall began to buckle about a foot below the rim. We had to take it off and cut it to match the angle of the plastic. The end sections are on the inside of the plastic wall rim and the center section is on the outside. In the end, it is a cob job...we did not want to spend any more time than absolutely necessary on this. I could not be happier with the skylight however. The only concern still hanging is whether or not the roof will leak at the trusses I made out of wood. The way the roof is designed, the metal trusses are gutters as well. The edges of the roof panels fit into the channel on the trusses. Any rain that flows down the side of the roof section drips into the channel and flows out the end of it like a gutter. I was not willing to take the time to router a channel into the wooden trusses so they are seated flush on the truss. I am assuming that rain will leak through. We did not have a tube of caulk or I would have just sealed it while I was already up on a ladder. Now we are gonna wait and see what happens and seal whatever needs sealing after the next rain. As far as a review of quality and whatnot: I would consider buying one of these sheds. It is really important to have a good foundation to put it on. Of course we do not. I had described our base in the last post but to recap, it is pallets with 1 inch thick live edge mill scraps over the pallets. We "eyed' the level and went with it. The floor panels that come with the kit are maybe 8mm thick and cannot support anything without a solid base. Building the shed becomes much more difficult when it is not on a perfectly flat and level surface. I actually needed Sarah to push the side door assembly in with the tractor and we secured it with wood deckmate screws and washers. There is still a gap to the right of the side door. The only instruction manual we can find is for their new model. Our shed is old...maybe more than a decade. One of the biggest changes is their attachment method for the side door assembly. We had to find something that worked and did. Once the shed has the roof on, it does become quite rigid. Even without the instruction and without a flat and level base, the shed goes up in a few hours. at 144 square feet and a 7 foot side wall, there is tons of space for stuff and things. We will see how it holds up through the winter.

Today, we have good news everybody! Projects are getting done! Our Horse shed is complete. With the exception of that one triangle missing from the overhang. The right side of the shed now has a small corral for catching our ruminants when we rotate our livestock or separate moms from babies. Back to our Horse barn. We had a slightly larger version of this pallet barn down at the old family farm. Recently we were asked to get all our stuff off the aunt's property. Luckily we built with deckmate screws. Ten years later, we were able to easily disassemble and rebuild at our farm. The right stall is 8x8 and the left is 12x8. We were able to salvage almost everything. To support the pallet walls, we added blocks between each pair of pallets to screw them together. with studs running vertically to support the walls and roof at each joint and in the corners. The rafters were from the original barn and went up quite easily. We had been planning to re-roof the old barn with live edge boards from our saw mill. Once we began building, we decided to use the plywood siding panels that were the old shell as the back roof section as nobody can see it and used the live edge for siding. and the front roof. Given the live edge is fresh and will shrink as it dries, we will run battens over the gaps next summer. We could not be happier with how it turned out. We also could not be happier that we were able to reuse everything from the old barn, including the screws. Lifetime Plastic Shed Lifetime 8x18 shed is being built We are gratefull for the gift and were expecting a few complications. The walls went up quickly without complications. As we began to assemble the trusses, we realized that we were two rafters and a gable end short. Using the front gable end as a template, I cut a new one out of a piece of ash we had cut a while back. I also made two rafters out of scrap wood and got them in place. The gable end is heavy and I have not had a helper to get it up. I am hopeful we will have this shed finished in a weeks time. The base, which I did not think  to take pictures of, are pallets with 1 inch ash planks. It does appear that all the roof panels are present and should go up easily with a helper to hold them while they are attached. I did have some time to try on my own and I found my arms are not long enough. I believe firewood was the next topic in the last post. We have managed to whip up a pallet wood corral. Another pallet project with the left over siding panels as the roof, we can cover 3 cord at the moment. As we fill it, we will add another section. Sarah and Nana went down to the Abby of Regina Laudis and brought home 1.5 cord while I was working the ambulance. I arrived home to find a beautiful stack of firewood in our new wood shed. Wood Stove and pipe have been cleaned and repaired. The collet where the stove pipe meets the wall was crumbling and the pipe would not fit and leaked. With some Hydraulic cement and a number 10 can, I refurbished the chimney inlet. Yes, a number 10 can...Have you ever seen a can of crushed tomatoes at the grocery store? That 10oz can is a number 1. The number 10 can is what restaurants get their crushed tomatoes in and it holds about 12 cups or 6lbs. As I wondered the farm thinking about how I was going to re-do the cement around the inlet and ensure that it was perfect to accept the stove pipe. In the scrap pile, I had a stack of number ten cans. It looked about right, so I tried it. It just so happened that the last time I had made sauce, I had lanced the lids with a side cutting can opener. These openers cut off the rim and bevel the edges. The bevel was the magic. The stove pipe slides in perfectly and makes a nice friction lock. So now I had my inlet template. I filled the inside with cement and then set the can into the cement and smoothed the edges on the inside. I then added cement to the outside rim and beveled it and smoothed it out... Quick note on Hydraulic cement...This is basically portland cement without any aggregate (sand and rock). It sets very quickly, maybe 15 minutes work time. TO give a smooth finish, smooth it out with a trowel or your hand as best you can. Then take a wet cloth or paper towels and rub the setting cement smooth. The next exciting change we made was to raise the stove off the ground. I had some old cement pavers which I cut down with the angle grinder and raised the stove with a 3 ton car jack. The Allnighter stove is around 500Lbs so lifting it is not easy. I placed the jack under the front portion, blocked it, moved to the rear, back and forth until all the blocks were in place. Once they were in place, I moved the jack to the center, jacked up the entire stove and got everything lined up. One might think that I could have just jacked the hole thing up and placed all twelve blocks in place. In theory that would work, but that one chance that it slips or you weren't perfectly centered, this could have gone all bad. If 500Lbs fell off and landed on me while I was home alone...or if it missed me and slammed on the concrete floor. Neither of theses were stories I wanted to tell. Specifically the stove crashing and cracking. The Allnighter is no longer made and an incredible stove. As an irreplaceable appliance, I could not risk it. The extra 20 minutes were well worth it. With a good scubbing of the pipe and inside of the stove cleaned out, we are ready to go. I also ascended the roof and swept the chimney just to make sure we were good to go. Then there is the greenhouse. No progress yet. Not necessarily due to inability but due to lack of time. The water heater and fireplace water collar have not been done. That is both a time and money thing...the on demand heater is about $2k and that is not in this fall's budget. We do have all the bits for the stove water heater, but I do not want to cut into the baseboard heater system until we are ready to replumb for the on demand. The slaughter will happen soon. The last batch of chicks are just about chickens and we will be moving them to the freezer in the next week or two. The pig as well. Then there is the knife store at Farm Life Farm. I have been spending time on duty photographing and listing more of granpa's knife collection. I believe there are now 650 knives on the site. We are about half way through. I never thought I would go into the retail business, but I clearly am. I would also like to advise you that stamps.com is not the usps.com . Stamps.com is a pretty good website and easy to use, however there is a limit of 10 labels per month and the prices are a little bit more. Usps site takes an extra minute to get the labels done but there is no limit, prices are better, and you can order supplies direct. I was hoodwinked by google into stamps .com. I should have paid more attention but happy I figured it out.

Sill plate and Rim Joist Insulating: RIM JOIST INSULATION WITH FOAM BOARD AND SPRAY FOAM Last winter, our children were cold. Picture this...a raised ranch. The basement level has our bedroom and the Wood Stove on the far left (the D side for the Firefighters in the group. ) The Kids rooms are at the opposite side of the house on the main floor. (A/B & B/C sides) Nana stays in the living room right above the wood stove. She is always hot and keeps the oil baseboard heaters set to 60f. So when it is cold, my room and the basement is 80f and the kids rooms on the opposite side and up one floor is always really cold. Last year we let them run a small ceramic heater and a big infrared heater in the other bedroom. My plan was to pipe a hot water jacket from the wood stove into the baseboard heater system. We then decided to hold off on that until we replace the oil boiler with an on-demand propane water boiler. I also had planned to insulate the rim joist. We had bought a bunch of 2 inch foam board and spray foam for the greenhouse. Given that project remains foundering, we decided to use some of that material to insulate the rim joist. Years ago, I worked for a company called Dr. Energy Saver out of Seymour CT. This is a division of CT Basement Systems...All things basementy...what we did was make homes more comfortable and energy efficient. The basic idea is that every hole in your house lets air out or in. The cable company drills a hole to run a wire into the house, air leaks around the wire. We had ways to seal off any room or situation. What is the sill plate and rim joist? This is where the wood meets the cement. The house foundation is poured. The sill plate is the board that rests on the cement and the rim joist is what the floor joists are attached to. Now, no matter how well the concrete was poured, it wont be perfectly level. There will be gaps between the sill plate and the concrete. The rim joist is then just outside of that, covered with insulation and siding, but leaking just the same. Air leaks through this part of the house, unless the house has been encapsulated in spray foam insulation. Lets talk a moment about fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass is an excellent insulator when encapsulated...It has to be covered by wall on both sides. Many houses have fiberglass insulation stuffed into the floor joists and open to the basement. We had this, with the insulation stuffed into the cantilever of the first floor. It does not do anything for your house if you have soffit and a cantilevered first floor. So, in the pictures, you can see the foam board block cut to fit in between each set of floor joists. Then I sprayed foam around the edge to ensure an air tight seal. Prior to this, cold air from the outside would waft into the wall from the rim joist and travel up, being pulled into the living areas of the house by the hot air moving up and escaping from around the windows and ceiling lights. With the flow of air stopped, the warm air in the bedrooms cannot run away as quickly as there is no cold air "chasing" the warm. The next step is to remove the soffit, pull out all the useless fiberglass and fill the spaces with foam blocks and 'picture-framed' with spray foam. As they sit now, air will travel into the soffet and into the floor keeping the floors freezing cold and allowing more hot air to escape throughout the house. The other step in warming the kids bedrooms is to cut floor registers. I have ordered 4in x 10 in floor registers with fans built in. With the basement sealed off, heat from the wood stove will move to the far side of the basement and get sucked up into the bedrooms. I have faith this will warm their rooms and cool mine. Let me end with an anecdote: While I was doing the job, we kept the stove going as foam works better warm. We filled it at 9am and let it burn down throughout the day. At bedtime it was 74 in my room. It was 45 outside overnight and we were at 70 in the morning. In the past when we failed to start the stove on a 50 night, it would be 64 in my bedroom in the morning. That alone is worth the energy and misery to insulate. This is a simple project that anyone can do. The money saved from the energy saved will make it a worthwhile project, not to mention actually being warm and comfortable in your house.

I feel pretty good today and want to ruin that. I figure, the best way to ruin my mood is to list all the projects that we have not completed this summer. Then maybe improve it again by running through what we have done. Not done: Greenhouse Currently my biggest failure. Probably wasn't a good plan to begin this project with a broken shoulder. There is something truly humbling about failure. The last workday on the greenhouse we were attempting to get the king beam in place. It did not work, however our last attempt did snap the rebar and knock the frame off the supports. We will get it right...someday. plastic shed We were given a 12x15 plastic shed. We have completed a pallet platform to build it on, but we have not erected the shed. Firewood Not a single stick is stacked. Wood Stove Our all nighter needs to be cleaned. the stove pipe needs to be cleaned stove pipe needs to be secured to chimney in a manner that will better facilitate cleaning during the burning season. water heater stove pipe attachment We have all the fittings and copper tubing and valves and pumps to create a baseboard heater bypass so we don't need the oil boiler. On-demand water heater We need to buy a propane on demand and install it. Horse run-in shed. With the horses kicked off the Aunt's land, the horses need new shelter. Slaughter Pigs and sheep need to get off the hoof and into the freezer. Chickens are about a month away from slaughter size

Upcycled Pallet Bench A friend of mine has a dream of a usable back yard suited to entertaining. She also has a desire to make things out of recycled materials with a rustic look. One day, while visiting, she pointed to a pallet she had found and asked if we could make a bench. I said sure and began designing this bench. We made two, with two more about half done. The hardest part was making 10° cuts on the rear of the seat to attach the backrest. My friend is a physical therapist and had a goniometer, which is a protractor-like instrument with a stationary arm, fulcrum, and movement arm, to measure joint angles. Goniometer After marking the first line with the protractor, I cut out the wedge and used it to mark the other two boards. I cut them with a reciprocating saw and a 9in demo blade. The legs and armrests were made from other pieces of scrap wood. I am on the last day of my Ambulance tour and will be completing the benches tomorrow morning. The next step in this project will be a 12x 12 cement patio. a pallet table, and a rolling house for her pizza oven. We will do separate posts in the future for those elements.

Sarah Receives her Neckerchief and Wood Badge Certificate A proud day at Farm Life Farm. For those of you that are ignorant to the ways of the scouts, Wood Badge was created in 1919 by Lord Baden-Powell , the founder of Scouting, who organized the first course at Gilwell Park . The Wood Badge program was designed as advanced leadership training for Scouters, drawing on Scouting's best traditions and modern leadership principles to develop more effective Scout leaders.   This program has evolved over the past 100 years into a modern advanced leadership training program for the principal adults. The training is long and involved, with several full weekends of training followed by several projects. Sarah completed the following projects to earn her merit: Knot tying rack She created a two-foot tall rack out of wood and PVC pipe with Knot examples glued to the header. knot rack stays local and scouts are encouraged to work on knots during free time. Fire Safety Training As a certified Firefighter, Sarah has the necessary knowledge about fire behavior and safety. Sarah created a training program at the Bantam Firehouse and organized participants from multiple Troops. Extinguisher use was just one aspect of her Fire Safety Program. CPR Training Scouts work through the different aspects of CPR at different stations The next project she organized was CPR training for both Scouts and Scout Leadership. As an experienced EMS provider and CPR Instructor, Sarah has a tremendous store of knowledge. The Wood badge project allowed her to get more scouters trained. She also organized a retraining schedule to ensure her efforts continue well into the future. Storage and Forgotten supplies After many camping trips with her Troop, Sarah realized that there was a consistent pattern of Scouts forgetting important gear She also noticed that many scouts were not packing correctly for their camping. Though the Troops already have excellent training for how and what to pack for a camping trip, you can only lead a horse to water. You cannot forcefully submerge its head until it drinks. Sarah created a system of labelled storage boxes. The "Incidentals" box Spare clothing of various sizes Towels Sleeping bags First Aid Box Bandaging, splinting, and various medical supplies Rope box Ok, the ropes box is just for the knot rack, but she did take the time to get rope and store it in an organized fashion. Why projects? There are many methods for proving ability. The wood badge uses these projects as their method to test candidates abilities by organizing and executing projects that will benefit the troop and have a lasting effect on scouts and leaders alike.

Sauce is not a simple matter for some of us. There are so many versions to be explored. Bolognese, gravy, marinara, meat, etc. There is the family recipe that must be kept true. There are internet recipes and advice on every cooking website. Here we are discussing our Farm Life Family recipe. This is basically my mother's mother's (gramma) recipe with a few minor alterations such as not using tomato paste. I still do not understand tomato paste. Growing up Italian, making sauce was a ritual. It was a right of passage to be allowed to help at all. The family recipe was taught by grandma shortly after learning to walk. Your age did not matter...this was a serious job. Some of my earliest memories of childhood at grammas was standing on the highchair stirring and skimming the sauce. Grammas was a meat sauce; not a gravy. Maybe we should take a minute and run through the terms: Marinara: A quick vegetable only sauce. The term Marinara originated with fishermen that would whip up a quick vegetable sauce on the boat or shore. This term came from the people making it, not what they put in it. Zuppa Di Pesce: THe above Marinara with seafood. Bolognese: A slow simmered meat sauce with gound meats in it. Ragu: Another slow-simmered meat sauce but this time with Whole meatballs and Sausage and things instead of ground meat. Also referred to as Gravy and meat sauce depending on where you grew up. Anecdotally, I have found the term Gravy used a great deal with New Jersey Italians I have interacted with over the years. Today we are discussing the Traditional Italian-American Meat Sauce. It is rare that I will make a pot of sauce for just one meal. I make gallons at a time and pressure can everything. Our children are then able to make dinners in our absence with us knowing that there is nothing but wholesome goodness in there. Our vegetables, our meats. The fact that there is meat in the sauce is a constant. Exactly what meat is subject to change. This batch contained lamb shanks, homemade sweet and hot sausages, and the family favorite, meatballs. Last batch, I used beef shanks and Ox tail with the sausages and meatballs. This batch of meatballs was beef and rabbit meats. I start this process with the meatballs. I do apologize, but I do not have hard measurements for you. I was taught measurements such as a pinch, a handful, it looks right, and my favorite...Enough, but not too much. Very helpful right? I can tell you the quantities I used for this batch, but you have to play with the amounts of everything to match your pallet and pot. 13Lbs Beef Bottom Round: ( I just cannot buy ground meat at a store. I worked in a butcher shop as a teenager with true professionals, all of which took quality and safety as paramount objects. Still, the ground meat, as in all butcher shops, was made with the bits that were trimmed and the oxydized meats that could not stay on display. All ground to order, but still you did not know exactly what pieces were going in. If it did not look lean enough or too gray, run it through the grinder again and it would appear "red-er" with less notable fat and oxydization. Do not misunderstand, there were no safety issues like in the 1850's, but still. I will never forget how the first butcher I ever worked with would get a gleam to his eye when someone ordered a pound of 90% lean ground beef. He would always say something like, "would you like to choose a steak here in the case for us to grind or would you prefer the house grind?" With the prior being full steak price, they would almost always choose the house. He would then say to me, "You know what to do" and I would run the 80% lean through again to look leaner. He had made it clear to me at the onset of my employ that this was his one untruth, his one thing he would not be completely honest with the customer about. Though looking back on it, it really wasn't dishonesty, it was just not full disclosure. He felt that a customer had to pay for what they wanted. There was a reason the house grind was $3/Lb and our least expensive sirloin was $7/Lb. He explained how he hated wasting the meat and simply could stay in business if he ground a seven dollar steak and sold it for 3.. Ground meat was the leftovers. Now I go to the grocery store or restaurant depot and see ten pound tubes of ground meat. No country of origin, no piece list of what they ground. It just isn't my favorite. So I get whole cuts and grind them myself from known farms. (As a side note, beef calf costs more than doubled a couple years ago and we could not raise a cow this year or last. Our last cow was three years ago and we just finished eating him a few weeks ago.) Ground meats are also the most dangerous things we can buy. There is just no way of knowing exactly what is in there. The USDA monitoring has improved the safety, but it remains a crap shoot . My g ramma and her sister both would insist that they go back with the butcher when they ordered ground meats. Back in the 50's through the 80's, neighborhood butcher shops were a still a thing. You would pick a steak and have it ground at full price of course. Somewhere in the mid to late 80's, as the family stores were being pushed out by our mega markets, this stopped being an option. Now we have ground meats pre-packaged or pre-ground in the display case. The package is filled with nitrogen to stop the chance of oxidization of the meat, increasing the visible shelf life. Prior to this procedure, meat did not need an expiration date as you would see a piece of gray meat that you just did not want to buy. Ok, I will climb off of the ground meat soapbox. 6 LBS of ground Rabbit: We raise rabbits and harvest them on a regular basis. Rabbit meat is delicious, with a texture and appearance similar to ground chicken, and a mild flavor. To be quite honest, our family would prefer just rabbit meatballs but Nana will not eat them, so we meet in the middle with a mix. Eggs: (I use three duck eggs for this amount of meat) It would be four or five chicken eggs depending on their size) Breadcrumbs: about four cups. I use homemade crumbs from our bread. Onions: 2 large (I actually ran them through the grinder with the beef) If chopping by hand, you want a fine dice so they don't fall out when you are rolling them into balls. Garlic: two whole bulbs carrot: 4 medium (also run through the grinder or a fine dice) Parsley: A ton of parsley. about three handfuls finely chopped Basil: just about the same as the parsley Marjoram: a small handful grated Romano: three cups (Parmesan will do fine) There are two methods for mixing the ingredients. the first is to simply put everything in a mixing bowl and mix till combined. The proper method is to mix everything but the meat until well blended. add the meat to the mix and fold it in just till combined. This will make the most fluffy meatballs possible. If you prefer your meatball chewy-er, (like the frozen meatballs at BJ's. Costco, or Sam's Club) then use the first method and mix like you are making sausage. Next, you must decide how to cook them. I fry them. Gramma fried them in olive oil. We have a Bayou Classic fryer which is loaded with beef and lamb tallow and pork lard. You can also bake them at 375 degrees. Now I mentioned earlier that I pressure can my sauce. With that in mind, I fry them at 350-375 quickly so I get a nice hard crust but the inside is still underdone...they will finish in the sauce. If you are not canning, add your balls to the sauce about 30 minutes before it is done. You can also drop the raw meatballs into your sauce and cook them completely in the sauce. This removes the precooking step, but also removes the outer crust. Again, it is just a personal preference. I can tell you if you drop them in raw, do not stir for at least 20 minutes so they have time to firm up, otherwise you will be making Bolognese. As a note, there is only one tray pictured while I made two and a half trays with the 20Lbs of meat mix. Now onto the soffritto. (vegetable mix) I use the classic Italian mix. Onions (3) Carrots (4) Celery (1 head) Technically garlic is not part of the soffritto as it is too delicate and is not added at the initial stage. All are diced to a medium dice and added to the pot with hot olive oil. We sweat the veggies until soft and translucent. Garlic: Two whole bulbs pealed and sliced thin. Parsley: a few handfuls of chopped parsley Basil: Just a bit less than the parsley Sweet Paprika: just shy of two tablespoons Marjoram: just shy of two tablespoons Marconi Pepper: Just one whole pepper slit down the center. I would use more, but our girls don't yet like spicy. (this is the classic long thin Italian pepper. Red Wine: 2 cups for this much sauce. We used the family wine as a child. The making died with my great uncles and I now buy wine. This time I had a blended red from California...any dark red will do...no Chablis. The process started with the sweating of the soffritto. I then add the remaining herbs and let them sweat a few minutes. I then move the herbs to the outer rim of the pan and place the lamb shanks on the high heat to brown. Once they have been browned on both sides, take out the shanks, stir the veggies and move them back out to the side of the pot and brown the sausages. Once the rest of the meat is browned, pour in the wine. Allow it to reduce for just a minute or two. Now it is time to add the tomatoes. In a perfect world, this post would have started a day earlier with the processing of a tub of tomatoes. Blanching, and peeling, and crushing. Unfortunately for the recipe, My girls have been devouring our tomato crop before they leave the garden. It also would take several cubic feet of raw tomatoes to make 12 quarts of crushed tomatoes. For this round, I used Sclafani Crushed and Isabella diced tomatoes, two number ten cans of each. The diced pour out clean, but the crushed tomatoes leaves a bit in the can. I like to wash down the sides and pour that watery mix into the pot as well. The sauce needs some water for the slow simmer. I then add all the meats, except the balls, and keep it on medium heat, stirring often, Once the simmer starts, I move it to the lowest burner and simmer on low, covered, for three or more hours. I know it is done when the shank meat falls off the bone. When the sauce is cooked, I then scoop out all the meat. Of course sauce was gonna be dinner, so a smaller pan separated enough sauce and meat for dinner, including the meatballs. An hour before dinner, I added those meatballs to the dinner pot and simmered to fully cook them. The last ten minutes I add the other meats that are fully cooked just to heat them. Canning time: I add meatballs to fill the quart, wide-mouthed mason jars, add an inch of water, then fill them up with sauce. In the past, I added the watered down sauce to the jar first, and place the meatballs into the jars, and then top off with additional sauce if necessary. This is a much faster method. The way I did it this time caused the need to push the balls around to remove air pockets. It took an extra minute per jar. One jar I did not get all the air out and the lid blew off during the canning process covering the other jars with sauce; what a mess. Sausage links are added to other jars and filled with the same inch of water and sauce. The sauce jars without meats, I use regular mouth jars as there will be no battle with balls when its time to reheat. What about temps and times? This has been a lot of trial and error. Meat free marinara can be canned in a water bath as it is high acid. When I add meat, I see a clear need to pressure can them. The internet says quart jars get 70 minutes at 10Lbs of pressure. I have attempted 45 minutes at 15Lbs and we lose a lot of sauce to boil over at the higher pressure. One note is that not all pressure cookers have the ability to adjust pressure 3-piece canner weight. 5, 10, or 15 pounds This is the weight on my presto canner. This is an internet picture of a replacement that is available. My smaller pressure cooker has only a 15Lbs weight. I use the smaller for three wide mouth pint jars or 4 regular mouth pint jars. The large unit will hold 7 quart jars. Someday, I hope to own the giant presto canner that will hold 14 quart jars. The meat free sauce still has meat juices and fats. Marinara can be water bath canned if you can assure the acidity is high enough. I always pressure can everything and we do can quite a bit of foods. For the quarts of sauce only, I used 10Lbs of pressure for 45 minutes. I also have rarely canned anything for over forty-five minutes. Again, this is not the recommended time, but I do like to experiment. After a decade of jarring meat sauce, I find the 45 mins of actual pressure time has been sufficient. The one time that I only went 30 minutes, half the jars pressurized on the shelf with dangerous bacterial growth. One of the best things you can know is to store your canned foods WITHOUT THE RINGS. Years ago, we had made a batch of dog food, We apparently did not can it long enough. At that time, I stored with the rings on so we could double stack the cans. About a month later, we heard an explosion. Not shake the house loud, but clearly something went pop. The smell; any other EMT's out there...something like UTI mixed with GI Bleed and a week of decomp. And then the mess. Botulism and chicken bone bits all over everything. It took hours of gagging to get that cleaned up. Since then, we have had a few cans go bad. Without the rings, the can off gasses as necessary. A slight whiff of an odor the first days that slowly increases until you know to go looking. Not having the rings on in storage also makes it easier to "spot check" every month or so. I simply grab the jar by the rim of the lid and lift it up off the shelf. If the lid comes off, it goes in the trash. Just that simple. One final note...skimming. As the meats cook, their fats are released. most of those fats and oils float to the top. Depending on how fatty your meats are will decide for you if skimming is necessary. I want fat in my sauce. So much of the flavor is provided by that oil. Still too much of a good thing is often not a good thing. When it appears that there is a layer of fats/oils covering the entire pot, consider skimming by sinking your ladle just below the surface of the fat. Work slowly and gently so you do not just mix it back in. The method we used in some of the restaurants I worked in was to bring the pot into the walk-in (or in your fridge, and allow the fats to solidify. Then lift it off of the pot. In this method, you are going to remove 96% of the fats. If you are concerned with the amount of fat you are eating, consider this method, but remember that our bodies do require fats and lamb fat is one of the best sources for your body. Children absolutely need fats to properly develop.

Native Live edge Gate Three years ago, we had whipped up a few gates out of some birch trees that fell in a storm. Like most property owners, trying to maintain a farm takes tremendous time. . Birch Limb Gate Those gates lasted four years and looked great for the first two. Year three they appeared weathered and worn, but still functioned. By year four they were destroyed. We expected this. We liked the look of the limbs with the silver birch bark. We also knew that the oils in the bark would lead to rapid wood decay. It happened. I went to open the gate and realized it was no longer stable. The bottom limb was in contact with the ground causing it to rot even faster. The rest of the gat was rotted, just not as much. Suddenly our paddock gates were not a someday project, but a to-day project. We had a decision to make. I could have easily cut down a few small trees to rebuild the limb style gates. But we had done that several times over the years. I also did not want to take the time to fell, buck, and notch the limbs. We also have a saw mill with piles of "first cuts". Off to the piles I went. Finding some nice wide boards, I began laying out the new gate designs. As you see in the gate below, the bottom boards natural taper matched the slope of the ground. Knowing that Sarah loves the natural flow of the live edge boards, I made every attempt to keep them full thickness for the aesthetics. She also dislikes wasting materials, so the hinges and field fencing from the old gates were re-used in the new one. The field fencing also served as the template as it was the correct size for the fence opening. I made the gates in reverse, placing the top and bottom boards face down on the ground. The "face" by the way, was the side I liked the best; totally subjective. I placed the fencing over them, accounted for the ground slope, and then placed the vertical boards over the fencing. Everything was screwed together with tan deckmate screws from the backside. The ends and center were necessary, but the gate just looked empty so I added the two slant pieces for looks more than anything else. They do add some strength but it was not necessary. Now we have beautiful gates for our upper and lower fields. They function well and should last us for many years to come.

Kuni Kuni- Berkshire crosses resting with mom and aunt Farm Life Farm has successfully cross bred a kuni kuni sow with a berkshire Boar. Last year we purchased a Berkshire Boar as breeding stock. We really do like the temperament of the kuni but were having issues with buyers as they do not make the best pork chops. I mean the flavor and texture is fantastic, however the size of a kuni chop is not of a size that most Americans want to buy. This past winter, our oldest sow had a successful birth but we were not aware she was pregnant and we did not have the coup set for birthing. The piglets were exposed to the cold and we lost all three. This was a terrible failure on our part. We then gave her some time for recouperation and tried again. This time we were prepared and had the sheep shack converted into a pig birthing suite and nursery. Ok, all we really did was add a couple block boards to a corner and a heat lamp. Two weeks ago, momma gave birth to two perfect little critters. They are both doing well and appear to be healthy and happy. We cannot wait to update this post as they grow. The things we are interested to find out: temperament We are hopeful they will be like their mom, the Kuni Kuni; calm and sweet and not looking to destroy everything. fat content Kuni's are a lard pig meaning they create a very thick and heavenly fat layer. Several inches thick. This was one of our reasons for starting with Kuni's. Sarah makes soap and we are able to render about five gallons of lard for soap making. Not including the leaf lard which we keep natural for hunters to use in their venison sausages. Will the mix provide the same amount of lard? rooting Over the past five years, we had the kuni's root down to the grub layer. They would turn over the grass and eat all the grubs just under the surface. Our Berkshire Boar roots. Like properly roots. two or three feet down he digs, completely changing the landscape and creating new "points of egress" from his pen. What will these piglets do? size the year-old Kuni's are around 150 pounds. Our berkshire is 350 pounds of pure muscle and just about a year old. How quickly will these piglets grow. How big will they get? Aggression Our chickens tend to wander into the sow pen. The Kuni sows do not care. The chickens sit on the kuni's. Over the past year, three hens and two ducks flew into the boar pen. Man that animal can move...pounced on them and devoured them while they were still squawking. We are very interested to see how much these piglets will want living chicken for a snack. About a year ago, we went to a friend's pig farm to get that Berkshire. As we stood trading stories and techniques, his dad (forty plus years of pig breeding under his belt) asked what we were breeding him to? I said a "Kuni Sow...what do you think?" His reply, "it'll probably kill her but they're your pigs." I explained that we already had a four year old Kuni sow with three litters already. His face lit up and he smiled, "oh alright. my son said you knew what you were doing. I wasn't so sure for a moment there." The cost of raising a kuni to harvest size takes a year at the least. the Berkshires are market ready in about six months, meaning half the feed costs. The berkshires grow fast and big but they are difficult to manage. Smart and powerful, the berkshire, especially with his active seed, boar spends all day testing the fence and trying to get to his girls. Nothing sinks fear into my soul like Nana exclaiming, "the pig is out again." To be quite honest, the last time he got out, we were able to get him into the sow pen. We scooped up the piglets and pushed mom out of the way while the kids chased the boar into the field. Mom and babies are now in the boar pen and the boar has a 2 acre paddock. Someday we will get him back home. Until then, 7,000 volts and plenty of forage has him content. Well that and the cattle panels we now have separating him from the girls. In the end, will this be a good plan that produces good quality meat with the least amount of energy on our part? I am not certain. Sarah is not certain. We will be patient and see what happens with our piglets. We will offer a new post on this topic in six months. I normally go manic with research. Blogs, scientific journals, white papers, and youtube videos. This time the only research I did was to ask google if they can crossbreed. Google said yes. Though that is rarely an acceptable answer to me, this time I went with it.

I still need to get better at photos and video. Many things need improving here at Farm Life Farm. A quick list of upcoming and ongoing projects. Organize all the "stuff" (much more on this later) Cover the Brooder Pen Build greenhouse Dig out the muck in the low spot of the lower Paddock Remove felled timber from hill Fell the three trees interfering w our starlink. Build the barn put up 3 cord for next winter Build enclosure for the 3 cord of fire wood The list is not in any particular order as a myriad variables affect our daily lists. For example, today was going to be an organization day. We would like to have pushed that off until the greenhouse was complete, but the matriarch has voiced a concern: She is overwhelmed and we must remove that burden from our geriatric charge...and she is not wrong, it looks like Sandford and son around here. Stuff: Over the past two years we have been scrounging for material to complete our building projects; 40 pallets to build a lunging ring for the horses and 20, 55 gallon barrels for the greenhouse heatsink, Large fiberglass tubs for the fish in the greenhouse, buckets and baskets to use for the hydroponic/aquaculture system. Roofing metal, windows and metal to make a gutter system. Have you ever left something out by the road instead of throwing it in the trash? We are some of those that stop and pick it up. Collecting the material has not been the issue, storage has. We have not organized. We have barrels and pallets and the other items scattered everywhere! A smarter team would have organized areas for everything and disseminate items as they were acquired. Now not only is Nana all sorts of bothered by the "mess" but we have lost track of what we have. I had gotten the pallet pile to forty several weeks ago, then yesterday I realized we had two more stacks of pallets in other places hidden behind other things. Barrels and windows were another overreach. I kept looking at the first stack (6) of double-hung windows found roadside as I collected more. Some went on the back trail, some up top where the greenhouse is going. We now have enough windows for the greenhouse sides: I mean we don't need any siding on the two sides of the greenhouse with enough left over for the barn. Not really a problem now that I think about it. At this point, the front yard looks good and will be beautiful again if we can get the grass to grow. Back yard is now clean and organized except for the girls "outdoor kitchen" that they did not put away. Brooder Pen: Brooder Coop We have the large laying hen pen that shares a fence with the meat bird pen. There was a 6ft x 4ft spot where the two pens meet. We put a front wall on and a little coop in. Last year we had thirteen poult turkeys. As we discussed in the predation post, the ravens had a meal. So, now we have ten chicks that just hatched and four 45 day old chicks in the primary brooder hutch. They are ready for fresh air and sunlight, but they must be protected. We had done nets in the past but that gets destroyed each fall/winter. Soccer net is difficult to get in place and a misery to take down when it is all tangled and ripped. Sarah Decided that a wood roof would put an end to our cover concerns. With the mill, we have piles of first cut boards. We kept the live edges and placed them with gaps big enough for sun and rain to get through but close enough to keep out the predators. Scraps of chicken wire were put up to fully enclose it. Chicken wire is nearly invisible on our brooder pen

Dissection Day At the Simsbury Ambulance EMT class Heart and Lungs are hard to get. If you wish to procure them from a Slaughter house, you must fill out copious paperwork with the USDA IF you can find a "meatman" that says yes. In my early Teaching career, every single slaughterhouse, meat market, and butcher shop said no...They wanted no part of giving or selling organs for medical specimens. Because of this "ban on consumption". collecting samples is impossible for an EMS Instructor, high school A&P teacher, or a college professor. I teach at a university and the faculty heads have not been interested in pursuing the process due to the assumed difficulty. Meanwhile, at Farm Life Farm, we can harvest our own. For the past five years or so, I have been harvesting heart/lung/great vessels from our sheep and pigs to bring to EMT classes for inspection and dissection. Pigs are my choice as they are just about a 1:1 size ratio to humans based on body weight. Sheep are slightly smaller but mammals just the same. This is now a highlight of my classes and has developed into a great training session. We begin with a viewing and palpation. We let the students feel the tissue and get a good look at it; stick their fingers into the Aorta and follow it back to the valve in the Left Ventricle. We go over the anatomy and emphasize the lung lobes and the four chambers of the heart. About half the time I am able to keep the larynx in tact. I can then show our EMT students how we intubate and where the tube actually seals at the vocal cords. If not, we simply place the endotracheal tube into the trachea. We then ventilate with the BVM and practice ventilations. I have found no better way to prove how little volume it takes to begin visible inflation. This moment provides clear insight into why we work so hard not to over-inflate the lungs. When they push a full 1,000mL of air into the free-to-expand lungs, the heart that is already surrounded by the lungs. disappears, completely enveloped in pressurized lung tissue. Normal lung function deteriorates rapidly when we stab the lungs simulating the pneumothorax. Practicing BVM ventilations offers a real experience for the additional difficulties the pneumo brings to the party. The next step is to dissect the lungs. We cut sections apart and look at the bronchi and bronchioles and blood vessels. It is impressive how intimate they become with the tissue. Even those that are squeamish or disgusted at the onset become determined to understand what every little tube is and color difference mean. These are moments that remain in an instructor's soul. Moments when you clearly got through to them and have an entire class engaged are magical. Experienced Responders Explore the heart and lungs The heart is next. We start with the pipes in and out and the four chambers. Repeating the route of travel our blood takes through the two systems. a syringe of warm water injected into the vena can be pumped out with some manual compressions. I then cut it in half and allow the students to inspect the heart  valves and chambers. I use this to re-enforce the concept of two separate pressure systems between the lungs and the body. We dissect the coronary arteries and look for signs of atherosclerosis. (My animals are pasture raised and eat all natural diets. There is no plaque, unfortunately. I should isolate a pig and feed it an American diet with snacks and McDonalds and soda. Though Peta would probably sue us. We finish up the event with time for the participants to do any final investigations while I meander to field additional questions. Oh, I almost forgot. Have you ever tried to guesstimate how much blood is in the puddle next to your patient? Probably not if your office is not a van with a bed and flashing lights. In this training, we inevitably have a puddle of blood sitting on the table at different stages of coagulation. We can play the price is right and then pour/scrape it into a graduated cylinder and see how much it really is. This is such a great event. I wish I had the ability to make this sort of thing standard practice. The educational experience cannot be compared to a video or pictures or even silicone replicas. There is nothing like the real thing. A moment with me on a soap box: Every EMT class should have a dissection day. What is such a common foodstuff in the rest of the world remains both criminal and taboo in our country. And I mean both as separate but equal impediments. In the very near future I will be sharing a souffritto recipe that has been in my family for many generations. While I do understand the concern of gastric aspiration pre-mortem, and the rare instance of heavy metals toxicity, I also understand that like virtually all of what our government has told us since 1903 has been scripted propaganda and cultural control. Fluoride was proven beneficial with one short term study in one small town. This ban was similar with no call from the public. The fact should be that a teacher certificate or an EMS Instructor certificate is all that a slaughterhouse needs to hand them over. The complete, unequivocal ban goes so far above the possible health risk that I cannot logically understand. Sadly this will remain a very unique opportunity afforded only to those students of the operators of Farm Life Farm.