Whirlwind Weekend

Well it has been a few days since either Amanda or I have last posted. While there has been plenty to post about it has been a bit of a struggle to find time to actually make the posts, but I have finally found a spare moment.

We did in fact butcher Albert on Thursday. Butchering an animal is an experience, at least for me, that forces you to think about life a little bit. I will not go into details on here, but needless to say he made a delicious meal and was not as tough as I thought he would be. Below is a picture of what he looked like coming out of the oven.

We cooked him really slow and with plenty of liquid and spices and he turned out great. Amanda and I are excited to see what a younger bird will taste like come next fall, but it will be a bit of wait until then.

Saturday ended up being a very successful day for me out on the farm. Amanda kept busy getting things ready for the Christmas play at church and then cleaning up around the house for our annual Christmas party on Sunday.

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts the sheep have been making short work of the west facing wall on their sheep pen. So first thing on Saturday I went out with the Kubota bucket tractor, propped up the corner and restacked the bales. I had to get Amanda to come and help me because we needed to make the sheep stay in their house while I drove the tractor into the pen. Everything worked out alright and, while maybe looking slightly less elegant then when it was built, the wall is now up again.

I also managed to pick up some re-bar which I pounded through the bales at the edge of the wall and down into the ground. This, plus the chicken wire Iwill add should keep it stable against the sheep. The water bucket was also remounted off the ground to make it easier to pick out the pen for filling. Before the only way to get to it was to lean over the fence and dangle your feet, or lift it with this hoe thing(Randy keeps telling me the name, but I forget), but now you can reach it just fine.

I also managed to raise the fence height on the duck pen as some of the ladies have been escaping. While they don't run away, it would be nice if they would stick around. Unfortunately on Sunday another one was out, so apparently my solution did not completely work, but I will be adding some chicken wire so that 'might' keep them in.

Also spread some 'fresh' straw around the duck pen to clean it up a bit as it gets kind of messy in there. When I say fresh I mean it was part of the wall the sheep knocked over, but it was a whole lot cleaner then what was in the duck pen.

Did a few other things around the farm on Saturday, but never managed to get any work done on the main outer fence for the sheep. The biggest concern will be when the coyotes are around.

Well that is enough bloggin' for now. Take care and Merry Christmas!