Thanksgiving Break

Shrew on her last day.

Shrew picking a fight.

We bought a turkey The Shrew to replace our female turkeys that had been eaten by the coyotes.  The Shrew was a nasty mean bird who killed a baby turkey and would pluck the feathers off of any bird she could get near.  We decided to butcher her for Thanksgiving.  In the weeks leading up to butchering time I watched a lot of Youtube videos on how to butcher a turkey.  Finally the day arrived and Teen Son, his friend, and I got to work.  We hung the shrew upside down slit her throat and let her bleed out.  Plucked her and then cleaned out her insides.  It was not as bad as I worried it would be.  2 days later we cooked her for Thanksgiving – she was tough but delicious. 

The Shrew was a nasty bird and she was only 6 lbs it's a lot of work but not horrible.

Part of the Thanksgiving gathering.

 We went to a friends for Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful time and stayed after dark and the sheep were still out.  When we got home we all went in different directions to find the sheep, feed the cattle, take care of the dogs, put the cats away, take care of the fodder.  We found the sheep near the top of the property and they were feeling full of piss and vinager jumping, skipping, and running.  The sheep ran down to the sheep pen then turned and charged the fence to the cow pasture.  The cows didn’t like the sheep running towards them so they charged the fence.  Our young heifer, April, didn’t stop in time.  

April eating happily after she recovered.

The spot where April got stuck.  The new silver is an old gate we "fixed" the hole in the fence with.

We have a telephone pole laying against the fence and she slipped over the pole and against the fence and ended up trapped on her side between the pole and the fence.  It was 9: and very dark, the wire cutters were not where we thought they were the other cattle were mooing and stomping around us.  I turned the flashlight on my phone and held it in my mouth and got the hay and fodder to the rest of the fodder while Darling Husband took the good flashlight to find some wire cutters, and Teen Son tried to keep April calm.  Finally we got the fence cut and April free.  She refused to eat and walked with a limp but she didn’t seem hurt otherwise. 

Getting the sheep used to Tessa.

Every day of Thanksgiving Break we worked with the dogs and sheep.  Our sheep love to run and dogs even Livestock Guardian Dogs love to chase.  Luca is a really young dog to be trusted with the sheep.  Tessa a young Anatolian Sheppard is intense.  She likes to follow them at a distance of 30 to 50 feet and they like to run so she kept them running.  Every day we would put Blackwell, Hotrod, and sometimes another sheep on leads and the Guardian Dogs on leashes and walk first one dog then the other.  After a couple hours we walked the sheep without the dog on a lead.  That worked great until we added 2 dogs.  When Thanksgiving Break ended we were able to allow both dogs and all the sheep to free range.  It is so nice when things work.

A silly Pielbuey

The sheep have anywhere on the property to go so why are they stealing the cattle's food?

Introducing Tessa

I had been trying to talk Darling Husband into getting a second older Livestock Guardian Dog but he really didn’t want 3 dogs.  After our episode a few weeks ago when Teen Son swallowed the bullet Darling Husband saw one LGD isn’t going to be enough.  I found an Anatolian Sheppard that a ranch a little over an hour away from us was getting rid of.  We were told Tessa was very skittish and to come to the ranch with a lot of time to get to know her before we left. 

We were told that Tessa was food agressive but we have not noticed it.

We arrived at the ranch and were greeted by several dogs and goats.  One of the dogs ran up to Stick Boy and sat with him licking his hands and face.  We met the owner of the ranch and asked her where Tessa was.  She pointed to the dog loving Stick Boy and College Girl.  We wandered around for a while and got to know Tessa.  Darling Husband fell in love and we brought her home.

Bullets

Monday morning we had a coyote in our tenants pasture watching me take care of the animals.  I called Teen Son, woke him up and asked him to get the gun.  He had some issues finding the gun he likes so ended up putting a few bullets in his pocket and one in his mouth.  We had communication issues so Teen Son ran around in the wrong pasture for a few minutes, the coyote got tired of watching me he jumped into our neighbors pasture.  Teen son finally saw it and was able to shoot at it and scare it but it wasn’t a gun he was used to so he missed. 

Monday afternoon Teen Son got really sick feeling no fever but weird feeling and an upset stomach.  He stayed home from school yesterday.  This morning he is feeling much better, back to his cheerful self.  Then he tells me he must have swallowed a bullet because it came out in his poop.  I will be calling the Dr as soon as they open.  

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 Dogs

Luca has been with us 2 weeks now.  We are enjoying him so much.  I am amazed at how much calmer Luca is than any dog we have ever owned, even as a puppy Luca has a calm peaceful presence.  Dakota is always trying to get Luca to run and play.  Dakota really wants to play ball with Luca – Luca isn’t interested.  Very rarely Luca will want to play when Dakota is tired so Luca will grab a tennis ball and run past Dakota.  

Game On!  Dakota cannot resist the chase. 

Luca has taken over Dakota’s bed and will sometimes take both of Dakota’s bones, Dakota doesn’t mind.  The dogs are really enjoying each other.  We let them play for a while every day. 

Luca spends is sleeping in a crate by my bedroom, in the morning we go for a walk and take care of the rest of the animals.  Then Luca is on a cable by the sheep’s enclosure.  I let 2 sheep out each morning and the rest are in the enclosure close to Luca.  Some of the sheep stay close to Luca others wander off.  When I get home in the afternoon Luca and I walk around the property, I let the rest of the sheep out, Luca and I watch the sheep for a little while, then I let Luca run free until we put the animals away for the night.  I am not trusting Luca with the birds so the poultry are being kept in their coops.  

Luca

College Girl and I went to the airport to pick up Luca.  He had not been leash trained so we took the truck so he could stay in the crate he was shipped in.  We were so eager to meet him we arrived at the airport 1 hour early.  Then we waited.  Finally Luca was loaded into the back of the truck and we set off for the ride home. 

When we got home it took a while for Luca to want to come out of the crate so we just sat and waited.  After about 20 minutes he slowly worked his way out of the crate.  At first he just fought being on leash at all, he went into a death roll a few times trying to get the leash away from him. 

When he calmed down we introduced him to Dakota.  The funny thing is while we introducing the dogs to each other Sandstorm decided he needed to be in charge of the dogs so Sandstorm started following the dogs around and if they got too rough Sandstorm ran in and hissed at the dogs.

  It worked both dogs would jump – wouldn’t you? 

We walked and walked Luca around the property.  Brought him in the house to see how he would handle it and then put him in a crate by our bedroom and the cats for the night.  

Coyote Trouble

We have been having trouble with coyotes.  They got our last Red Bourbon Turkey during the day.  At 8: in the morning one was under my bedroom window going after Palm. Sheep and birds have had to be kept inside their pens unless we are going to be home and outside. 

When our first sheep were killed over a year ago I was told we should get a Great Pyrenees.  Then for every loss from coyotes I have done a little more looking into Great Pyrenees and other Livestock Guardians.  Two things held me back: I was uncertain how we would do with a Livestock Guardian Dog, and most importantly our property is not fenced.  When Tomas our Red Bourbon Turkey was taken we knew we had to do something and I began researching Livestock Guardian Dogs.  LGD are big dogs usually – I have had big dogs in the past but not giant dogs.  Many LGD’s are aggressive we have a lot of company and scouting events so dog aggression worries me a lot.  Most Livestock Guardian Dogs bark a lot, (the barks are a way of saying “I am here, don’t mess with my animals”) Darling Husband and I are not fans of barking dogs.  LGD’s often are used to covering large areas and will often roam. 

My other issue is I have always gotten shelter or abandoned dogs I have never purchased a dog.  The last time I had a puppy I was 8 or 10.  Getting a young livestock guardian dog or puppy is usually best so  you can train the dog to accept your animals, family, and property.  Many people buy and breed these large dogs for aggression and fighting instead of encouraging the Livestock Guarding characteristics then try to pass the dog off as a Guardian.  I am open to the idea of rescuing a Livestock Guardian Dog but I really need a dog I can count on to keep my animals safe and accept our company. 

I started talking to breeders about different breeds, continued my internet searches and finally decided on a Maremma.  Luckily one other members of a Facebook Group that I go to had a 6 month old Maremma for sale.  He had already been guarding alpaca’s, used to cats and chickens, and seemed perfect for us.  We got to work finishing fencing the property and waited Luca’s arrival.