Fillet

Fillet last Christmas.

We picked up the meat from Fillet, the first Dexter Steer we have butchered.  This is the steer I was worried about not being properly neutered so we had him butchered before he would have hit maturity, he was smaller than I wanted him to be but I felt it was time.  I had sold 3 friends ¼ his meat each and have us keep.  A week before we were to pick up the beef one of our friends realized he didn’t have enough freezer space and backed out.  That shouldn’t have been a problem because we had turned friends down of Fillet’s beef.  Darling Husband forgot to check with the closest friend that we had turned down so as I was dividing up the beef Darling Husband was making phone calls.  I had planned on 75 pounds of beef going into our freezer not 150 so I didn’t want to keep extra.  One friend came and picked up her 75 pounds and I delivered another 75 to a friend and we loaded an ice chest with the rest hoping for the best.  Yay it sold! 

Here is the break down on Fillet: We sold 225 pounds of grass fed Dexter beef at $5 a pound we earned $1125.  Purchase price is $500 + $533 for butchering and processing = $1033.  We came out $90 ahead and have 75 pounds in our freezer, except we fed him twice a day ($50 about month + $25 a month for fodder) , wormed him every 6 months kept him in water, fixed the holes in the fence he caused, hired someone to feed him when we were gone.  So I paid a little over $1000 or $13 a pound for my 75 pounds.  

Once again I am not being a successful farmer dollar wise. 

Fillet last month - he is furthest from the truck.

BUT the rewards of knowing we are eating healthy beef who lived a pretty happy life are priceless. 

Teaching my children the lessons and values we are learning by raising our own beef – also priceless. 

Hopefully as we continue our adventure we will have fenced our last pasture, be able to grow more fodder, possibly increase our cost per pound, and have a better system.  We are planning to butcher Minion in the spring he should be much bigger than Fillet was.

We had a chuck steak that we were eager to eat and so I only marinated it for about 45 minutes and it was the best steak I have ever eaten!  

Stick boy was full of questions for the butcher.

The Bridge

Life has been crazy.  Our community has it’s houses far apart and so our community does a lot of activities for Halloween.  Instead of “Trick or Treating” we “Trunk or Treat”.  When you “Trunk or Treat” you park your cars in a circle and some of us decorate your cars or trucks just like some houses are more decorated.  The kids put on their costumes and go to the cars and say “Trunk or Treat” and we hand them candy.  Unlike towns that have Trick or Treating on Halloween, we seem to need to have Cub Scout Trunk or Treating, Girl Scout Trunk or Treating, Community Church Trunk or Treating, and so on.  We also have our schools largest fundraiser the Halloween Carnival; band, Boy Scouts, individual classes, and Girl Scouts all hope for volunteers.  It’s a crazy busy time of year.  So what does Darling Husband decide we need to do?  Build a bridge! 

The cattle have eaten all the grass in the pasture we made for them and we need to fence in another area of the property.  We have 2 more areas that will make nice pastures.  One is along the top of our property, we have 5 different neighbors up there with lots of different fencing most not in good condition, one neighbor with a beautiful expensive fence who will let us attach our electric fence to his, and the other neighbor will not allow us (or other neighbors) to touch their fencing.  We will need to install several gates up there.  The other section in a triangle shaped  area that we have never used and rarely even been on it is cut off from the rest of the property by a ditch that becomes a raging river when it rains, the bottom is along the street, and the other side is a neighbors fence that looks in good condition.  We decided this will be the easiest area to prepare for the cattle. 

Darling Husband decided building a bridge and taking the cattle across it will be better than putting a gate at the street.  He found an I beam and cut it in half and welded it so the bridge will be about 10 feet wide, 16 feet long, and strong enough to drive a Mack truck across.

Teen Boy is putting nuts on the bolts while DH drills the holes through the wood.  Then I pound the bolt through the hole.  

My Posers checking out the bridge!  

  Then he got a lot of reclaimed 4 x 6’s and 4 x 12’s and we bought a few also.  Then we use ½ inch bolts and drilled through the wood and beams and metal straps.   This bridge is massive. 

We also moved the sheep’s day time area up around a few of the citrus trees and oaks and ficus tree type trees that all need to be trimmed.  We will let the sheep trim the bottoms and fertilize the plants for a few weeks.  

When I am home we let the sheep roam around and mow the lawn and eat other weeds around the house and where ever they want.  This worked great at first!  They were afraid to come close to the house, now they are eating my flowers out of the planters around the house.  I may have to rethink things – letting the sheep roam, or what I plant hmmm.  

I asked Stick Boy to walk the dog and he comes back an hour later with a skate board and 10 sticks.  

Catchin' Up

It has been a crazy time at our house.  We were in charge of the Boy Scout Garage Sale.  It was a great success but we didn’t get anything done around the property.  The ponds aerator is working wonderfully.  We have had some warm weather and we have a lot less algae than I think we would have had without it.  We have about 10 Mallard Ducks, one Snowy Egret, and one Great Blue Heron that are living here. The ducks really are enjoying our cleaner water it is amazing watching them dive.  One morning I spent about 5 minutes watching a heron fishing then I realized it was moss hanging from a tree in the shape of a heron. 

We finally got the solar charger hooked up to the electric fence but it has not been long enough to see how well or even if it works.  We are starting to be able to pet Hope and the steers while they are eating.  She still is skittish but she is getting friendlier. We have plans to put in more fencing: new pastures and finally get the property fenced.  We have an area of the property that is about an acre, it is cut off from the rest of the property by a drainage ditch that becomes a raging creek when it rains.  I think our next big project will be to build a bridge to that area and turn it into a pasture.  

We need to move the sheep’s daytime area but have been too busy and I am not sure where we are going to move them that isn't in a coyote runway that I can set up the temporary fencing around and has a lot of things for them to eat.  We have been letting the sheep roam between the house and the pond when we are home.  The cats have a wonderful time stalking the sheep.  

The Cattle and Rooster

The first morning we had the cattle a neighbors rooster went to check them out and got into a contest as the sun was coming up to see who could make the most noise. Our neighbors have to love us!

I did not get up to take a picture!

The new cattle and Onyx have been having a blast frolicking in the pasture.  Onyx is not used to having her species to play with and after a few days she couldn’t walk.  Nothing was wrong with her that we can feel.  We see no visible signs of swelling and no rocks or thorns stuck between her toes.  She is still favoring her leg but walking around and eating with no problems.  I assume she pulled a muscle playing.

The Dexters

All summer long I have been researching what cattle to get.  I do want it to be a little more scientific than Darling Husband reading (they wag their tails when pet).  We decided on Dexter Cattle.  They are small and finish well on grass.  Every website I have read on them talks about how easy going they are.  Darling Husband and I took a trip to pick up the new cattle.  After 10 hours driving, a night in one of the smallest hotel rooms ever on the hardest bed I have ever slept on including Girl Scout Camp, the best taco ever we met our new cattle. 

Rolo and Ruby

Fillet and Minion are behind the cows

Hope

Load them into the trailer we borrowed and start the long drive home at noon.  We have them all 5 Dexter in a 4 horse trailer and easily could have fit 5 more.  Every time we stopped for gas people would ask us what was in the trailer.  Going slowly through  town kids would stick their heads out the window and moo back at the cows.  We made it home without any problems and put the new cows in with Onyx.  Onyx was in heaven!