OK, here is the deal. I take a lot of pictures with my cell phone. And in the last few months I've been through 3 phones. The one I was using broke. One of those old (like 2 years old) flip phones and when you open it, the screen is blank. So I dug out the one I had before that and used it for a while. Then when the contract renewed, I got a new phone. Just learning how to use it, and not so sure it takes great pictures.
Plus I have 2 computers and I tend to use both of them. Long story, but the plan is to one day migrate everything to one computer for me to use and set the other one up for everyone else. The point here being that I have pictures (and music) spread over both computers and phones and very disorganized in various files. On top of that, I have this tendency to want to go back to the very beginning and tell the WHOLE story. So I'm planning to go through things a little at a time and just start getting pictures put in the blog. I'll try to post them in the sections where they belong as much as I can, chickens in their section and turkey in theirs and so on. And eventually I'll create a section for the incubators and the hatches we have, and how I do the eggs and all of that.
Which brings me to the last problem I've run into. TIME! There just doesn't seem to be enough of it. And now with the time change, it is dark before we even get home, so I have no time to do much outside. But I'm hoping that as it gets colder and I'm able to do less outside during the winter, I'll take some of that time and organize things here and around the house.
Here are some samples.
The first is our birds before the 2011 Thanksgiving harvest.
The second is our son Gavin and the new dog, "Marshmallow"
The third is from the spring of 2010, we had a pair of geese and 3 goslings we successfully raised.
The last one is of an Easter Egg chick, spring 2010. Little fuzz ball.
Oh, and about the pictures in the header. The eggs on the left were collected all in one day in 2010, the eggs on the right are a collection before we put them in the incubator. The ones in the middle are both from the fall of 2011, on the left is just a shot of the birds one afternoon, and on the right is a great snapshot of one of our breeding Narragansett Toms. You can tell the difference between him and Stripes because Stripes has a raised section in the middle of his tail.
Well, guess the fall is here and winter is right behind it.
Today is the first day back to work and school after the long holiday weekend. And it has been COLD!!!!
Today didn't even make it to 40 degrees, and it is supposed to get down to 28 tonight and maybe hit 43 tomorrow. Wednesday could get as high as 51 degrees.
And there is a weather system moving from East to West bringing rain and possible snow to many areas. The thing here is that we don't get weather moving from East to West. Ours ALWAYS comes from the West. Maybe South West or North West. But not the EAST.
Today is November 28, in a few more days it will be December. The shortest day of the year is December 21st, and then the days start getting longer again. But we will keep getting colder for some time after that. Our real winter weather will be here in January and February. Just wondering how bad it is going to get. Have a feeling this winter will be one for the record books, just not sure exactly what that means.
I have decided to leave the pool up for the winter and see how it does. I'm thinking about using it to raise fish in and want to see how it handles the winter full of water. I still need to top find or purchase some plugs for the hose lines so I can take the pump off and put it away. I'm running the pump all night to keep it from freezing. That works for the cold at night, but when it stays below freezing for days at a time it won't. Once I got the leaves out of it, seems to have done well. The temps have kept any algae from growing and keeping the decaying material out has kept it clean.
And it is cold out, the wind isn't helping much either. The peacocks should be fine, and I covered the chicken coop screens with feedsacks so that should keep some breeze out and maybe help keep heat in. Need to get some hay in the barn for using ont he floors and keep it replenished all winter long. Still don't have any kind of water heater or thawing device for the birds. Need to get one. Guess I have tried to prepare for winter as best I can, have a plan and thougth out as much as possible. Still don't like the cold and would rather not have to deal with it. But guess don't really have a choice.
I wanted to take a moment and describe how we prepared our
turkey this year and in years past.
A few years ago someone suggested I brine the turkey. I hadn’t
ever done that before, and so I researched recipes and found one that was really
simple I liked. And now I use it just about every year, with a few minor changes
each year. So we brined the bird overnight in the fridge. In the morning we took
it out, drained it and patted it dry with paper towels. Used to think that was
such a waste of towels, but now I see how much difference it makes. This was a
27 pound turkey we were sharing with my son. He was trying his hand at cooking
for his family for the first time this year. So we cut the bird in half down the
breast bone and the backbone. Then we laid it on its side in the roasting
pan.
I didn’t even put any seasonings or anything on the bird. Just covered it up with aluminum foil and sealed the edge all the way around, then placed it in a 350 degree oven. We estimated our half at 13 pounds, and cooked it for just over 3 hours. Then I took the foil off and put it back in the oven for 25 minutes to brown the skin. And this is what we got.
It looks kind of odd because it is on its side. But it was good.
And even when we heated up the slices days later, they didn’t get hard or tough
in the microwave. We got about 2 cups of drippings that made the best gravy.
Just have to remember not to add any salt to the gravy or stuffing or anything
you use drippings in because they have salt from the brine.
Last year for Christmas we smoked 2 turkeys. First we brined
them in the same brine we used this year, then we smoked them for 3-4 hours in
the smoker. I used some pear wood we got from the neighbor to smoke it with and
it gave it a nice color and flavor. And the meat was juicy and
tender.
And before that we roasted one out on the grill. Now that was
fun! Took about 4 hours to cook it, but it turned out great. Had a special
taste, but not sure it was as good a cook as the over or the
smoker.
My favorite way to cook turkeys, that I learned from my mom, was
to create a huge sheet of aluminum foil and then wrap the bird up in it so that
it was all sealed tight. We’d cook the bird for 3-4 hours at 350 degrees. And
the birds always came out fine with no brining or anything. I’ve even had one
time when I opened the foil envelope I was looking at the breast bone! The skin
had separated and the meat was just laying on each side of it.
About the only way we haven’t cooked a turkey is deep frying
one. But this year we got a propane fired pot for just that. So one of these
soon will be deep fried. Looking forward to that, and seeing just how good the
skin is.
You work all year long raising birds, taking care of the
breeders, gathering and incubating the eggs and then taking care of the young
poults. Watching the grow day by day and then comes the time that you harvest
them and they become someone else’s Thanksgiving Dinner. And you wonder how it
all turns out for them and if the bird they ate was as good as the one you ate.
Today we got our first ever written feedback on how our birds turned out for
some one else.
I thought you would appreciate a little customer feedback about the turkey we purchased from you.
It was awesome!!!
It was so tender it literally fell off the carcass! I didn't even have to use a knife at all,honestly.
And the next day it was still moist and tender after a night of refrigeration. And it survived the genetically mutating effects of the radiation forced into it by the microwave ().
Absolutely amazing!A thousand thank-you's and that many more blessings be upon you and yours!
And yes, the little emoticons came with the message.
We thank them very much for the feedback and hope that everyone's turkey turned out just as well.
Well, it’s been a few days since the holiday and we are trying
to put things back together.
Family tradition has always been that after the big dinner on
Thanksgiving, we put up the tree and decorate for Christmas. And since this is
our first real Thanksgiving together, we decided to continue that tradition. We
got out my old tree and found room to put it up in the living room. It is an 8
or 9 foot tree and goes all the way to the ceiling. We went through all the
decorations and used the ones we wanted. The kids helped decorate the house and
Jeanne put lights up around the house.
So here is how our holiday started. The weekend before
Thanksgiving we harvested 2 turkeys. One for our neighbor and one for someone
having an early holiday with family. Then when we came home Monday night, we
harvested 3 birds. We both took the day of work Tuesday and harvested 9 more,
for a total of 14 birds sold this year. And we learned a few
things.
First, scalding a bird makes all the difference in the world,
and it has to be done just right. The other thing is that if we are going to do
this again next year we are going to have to get a plucker. And we have every
intention of doing this again next year.
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