Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[flowerbug]

Great idea - I could do that!

chewy is good exercise!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I've been busy, busy, busy! Working in the garden at every possible moment, in between all the other stuff that happens in life. Trying to get supplies to MIL without exposing her to anything is a challenge. But, we wear masks and fresh gloves when we take her groceries. Everything gets a wipe down with a Clorox wipe or a PT soaked in Lysol. Bless her heart she's the most social 89 year old that I know and this isolation is terrible for her. And - sports. She is a sports nut so she can't even console her self with a good game to watch (except re-runs)! Oh well, this tooo will pass.

I rounded up a bunch of young pigs and have them penned. The next step is to try to get them into the trailer. After that, I'll list them for sale. The reason for the trailer is to be able to social distance while selling them. I'll tell any buyers to just hop in the trailer and pick out the ones they want. They'll be a lot easier to catch in a confined space. Hope I'm not doing all this for nothing...but I hope some people want a source of pork and will help reduce the number of mouths I'm feeding.

Got a huge gift yesterday. My neighbor texted me and asked if I wanted a truck load of wood chips. (Her DH occasionally helps out a family member with his landscape business.) Well, yes! He was on his way home with them so I mowed in a spot alongside a round bale where I thought we'd put them. Well, imagine my surprise when the neighbor did not drive up in his truck....he drove up in a huge dump truck! WoW! The spot I had cleared was quickly covered along with a whole bunch of other ground! SCORE!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

 

[wyoDreamer]

SCORE! on the wood chips. That is great. I need to get a bunch hauled to our place, so I am jealous!

I'm sure there will be buyers for the pigs. Everyone is starting to panic about meat supply.

I need to get my garden ready for planting yet. DH has managed to roto-till his fields already. Now he just needs seed. I have received all my seeds that I ordered, now I just need to get the ground ready before planting time comes and goes. lol, we are both so backward.

 

[baymule]

Love the wood chips! Awesome!

Great idea, putting pigs I the trailer. Are they piglets or slaughter size? I don’t think you will have any problems selling them. The CEO of Tyson has publicly announced that there are going to be meat shortages due to no processing available and killing animals ready for slaughter now and killing newborns. They are killing layer flocks and meat chicks. This has made it to MSM, it was on Yahoo news this morning and quickly disappeared. Smart people will be all over your pig sales.

 

[Chic Rustler]

View attachment 13843

nice!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Great idea, putting pigs I the trailer. Are they piglets or slaughter size?

These are young 'uns. Two different sizes. A couple of them are in the 15-20 lb range - weaners....The other 3 or 4 are 'round 40 lbs. They'll need some feed to get to slaughter size. However, I routinely slaughter at around 60-80 lbs. It's a size that I can handle easily by myself. I have enough pigs that even if I butcher small ones - there's another one to butcher when I run out, lol.

I'm keeping several that I can butcher now and a couple barrows that are different sizes that'll grow nicely for me. I won't have a shortage of pork. If the weather is as cool as they are predicting for Thursday morning - another one will get moved into the freezer. Might be my last opportunity for some cool weather. I'm getting a lot better/faster at it now so I think I can get one done pretty easily.

Re: Butternut Squash Chili - I didn't make it this past winter - but I think I found the recipe that I previously used. If not it's pretty close.

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Chili - Damn Delicious

Slow Cooker Butternut Squash Chili - Just 20 min prep! Then you can come home to a cozy, hearty, comforting butternut squash turkey chili in the crockpot!

damndelicious.net

Of course all recipes are merely "suggestions" and are fully intended for folks to take creative liberties, lol. One thing that I did a little differently was to mash the squash when it was soft. And I'm pretty liberal with spices. My son - who eats no veggies except corn and mashed potatoes - ate some. He said "I don't think it's real chili - but it's pretty darn good!"

 

[frustratedearthmother]

DH has managed to roto-till his fields already. Now he just needs seed. I have received all my seeds that I ordered, now I just need to get the ground ready before planting time comes and goes. lol, we are both so backward.

Do you and your DH have your own separate gardens? I would so be in competition with mine if we did, lol.

I'm still working on moving the wood chips to cover the walking area around the raised beds. I've wanted to do that for years. I'm working those shoveling muscles that I haven't worked in awhile. I think it'll be ok because I'm working on retirement time - not being a 'weekend warrior' anymore!

My second planting of corn is popping up. So exciting. I haven't grown corn in so long. I'm hoping I'm not counting my ears before they happen. One row of potatoes is up well and the other is a bit more scraggly. Hope they'll fill in and give me a few 'taters!

Listed the pigs on CL earlier today. I don't have them in the trailer yet. However, we moved the trailer right beside their pen so I just have to catch 'em and toss 'em in there. Thought I'd wait and see if I get a prospective buyer before I go to that much trouble, lol.

Fully intended to butcher a pig this morning, but the weather liars didn't give me enough cool weather to get it done. Sigh... Not much cool weather left for us until late fall, early winter, or next year. It's getting hotter all the time.

 

[wyoDreamer]

So far DH has just talked about planting forage for the deer. I might bring up his chaos garden idea and see if he is willing to just toss some seed out in an area. I have some black beans and pinto beans in the pantry for him to plant, and I think he still has watermelon, acorn squash and sun flower seeds that he didn't plant last year.

 

[Mini Horses]

Huge score on those wood chips. Little doggie there, too.

I used to get peanut hulls and dump for goats & cattle to each. had to pen the goats before I dumped because they would run to the truck and get under the hulls coming out!! Almost buried one the first time. They ate them like candy.

There's a sheller about 1/2 mile from me -- need to ask for some again. Just not always any time for me to get there when they are shelling. We used to put a dump truck under the shute and when full, we'd go get it.

Free food....better go talk to them again. LOL