Babies are here!

What a fun treat it is to have baby goats to love! We found the mother, Rosemary, just after she delivered the last kid early in the morning. We helped her clean two of the kids and promptly warmed them with towels and a heat lamp, while Nathan made a stop at our local feed store for milk replacement and bottles. 

Our little mother had triplets, which is quite a demand on her milk supply. Now we have the adventurous task of bottle feeding them to supplement their diets. The kids (the human ones) just LOVE this task, and get in all the cuddles they can with these gorgeous babies. 

They are named Nutmeg, Star Anise, and Kabob. Two girls, one boy. We are delighted. 

They already have distinct personalities emerging. Are you familiar with the characters from My Little Pony? 

Nutmeg is like the pony Rainbow Dash- daring, adventurous, smart and confident. She likes to explore the pasture and isn't afraid of anything.  

Star Anise is like the pony Pinky Pie- social, silly, a bit hyper, and super friendly. Everyone adores her, and she loves to seek out affection. She's genetically special for three reasons- blue eyes are rare, she's naturally hornless, and we adore the white star on her head. 

Kabob is like Fluttershy- timid, quiet, and still. He's also the runt and struggles to latch onto teats or bottle nipples. We had the sad job of force-feeding him just to keep him alive the first few days. Luckily today he started latching on to his mother's teats much better, so we are hopeful that he will survive long enough to introduce solid food. From there he has a much better chance of survival. 

Look how beensy he is! Not even as tall as my boot!

We get to feed him every 4 hours, which is a sticky mess for both of us. At least he's growing and healthy by all appearances, even if he is much smaller than the other two. 

Our children just LOVE playing with the babies each day or watching them frolic around the pasture, skipping and dancing through the fallen leaves. It's so comical to watch, and we all spend happy hours just hanging out in the barn and playing with the goats. 

Our animal count is as follows:

1 dog

2 cats

4 rabbits

3 grown goats

3 baby goats

30+ hens

40 incubating eggs, due to hatch any day now

Sarah and Matthew pointed out that our place is becoming more and more like a petting zoo. The past few days have been busy with friends visiting to play with baby goats, and this weekend we are hosting a simple picnic lunch for several of Nathan's coworkers who are bringing their children over for an afternoon of fun in the country. 

I should say NATHAN is hosting a picnic this weekend, not I.

I am booked from 9 am- 7pm entertaining at birthday parties and then face painting for my favorite client. She throws the biggest party I have ever seen. It's just like a private State Fair in her backyard.

Seriously. This party is legendary in the Austin area.

It's one of my favorite gigs of the year, and she always books me a year in advance for her Halloween Bash. I'm really looking forward to it!

The next few days are packed for us, with a Halloween Spooktacular at Nathan's work place, our church Trunk-or-Treat and Chili Cook-off, and our annual neighborhood hayride. I'm so thankful we have the chance to create such fun memories with our family!

Inferno

Billowing black clouds enveloped me in hot waves the moment I opened the door. The blast of heat stunned me for a moment and made the skin on my face tingle uncomfortably.

My barn was on fire. 

I had never seen anything like this before. Long fingers of dancing flames clawed greedily at the walls, the posts, the pine shaving bedding on the barn floor. Flames climbed hungrily to the ceiling. Smoke was escaping through every teensy crack, vent, or window, choking me with greasy fumes. Several chickens escaped out the open door into the fresh cool air, squawking in terror. Through the smoke I could see dead hens lying on the ground inside the barn.

All of this was registered in my mind in a flash, but it felt as if time had slowed down dramatically. 

My heart leaped into action, surging energizing adrenaline through my veins. I dropped my basket of eggs and ran frantically for the garden hose, which was located far away on the other side of the yard. I was wearing my favorite white skirt, and it severely impeded my rapid sprint to retrieve the hose from our garden plot. With a growl of frustration, I gathered my skirt in my arms and held it high above my waist, allowing my legs to freely move in long strides. I didn't care if anyone saw me flashing my underwear to the world. 

I threw the hose over my shoulder and hauled it quickly to the barn before racing full tilt to the faucet and turning it on full blast. All I could think of were the new chicks that were supposed to hatch today, and the dedicated broody hens who had sat so faithfully all month on their eggs. They were trapped in the fiery furnace that my barn had become. 

Spraying water deep into the burning recesses of the barn, I thought this fire must be an electrical fire. I was too scared to step into the barn since water was now covering the ground... I didn't want to have any chance of electrocution. Some flames were too far back inside the barn for me to reach. I didn't know where to shut off the power, and needed help.

Once again hitching my skirt high, I raced to the back door of our house, threw open the door, and burst into a quiet scene of domestic bliss.  We had several friends over for a lovely Sunday breakfast of homemade crepes. I must have looked like a crazy lady as I half-gasped, half-shouted: "Nathan! The barn's on fire! Please help!" Without waiting for a response, I dashed away again to renew the battle with the flames.

Nathan barreled full speed around the corner of the house in his Sunday suit, coming to the rescue. Friends watched helplessly with me while Nathan manned our only hose and fought the flames. 

After several minutes of nervous effort, the flames were finally extinguished. The hot wood crackled and steam billowed from the stall walls. Left behind was a smoking barn, covered in thick soot from top to bottom. The wood floor was completely burned through, and wooden stalls were eaten by the flames.

Garden tools were completely destroyed. Have you ever seen a melted leaf-blower? Let me tell you, the puddle of melted plastic looked neato-frito. Water pipes suspended from the ceiling were melted and draped across the stalls in sagging black arches. 

My seedling flats full of over a hundred plants disintegrated in the heat. Not a leaf was left. The grow light hung crazily at an angle over melted plastic trays. Sigh. I had nursed those seedlings so carefully every day for 6 weeks, and they were gone in an instant.

With a sudden stab of apprehension, I remembered our batches of new chicks and incubating eggs. We had eagerly awaited the hatchlings for weeks. I thought perhaps I could wash the soot off the eggs and save the hatching chicks, but the moment I touched the clutch of eggs I knew it was too late. The black eggs were hot to the touch and burned my fingers. My heart broke when I saw little beaks sticking out through the first holes in the shells. They were taking their first breaths of air when the fire happened. I mourned their deaths and felt a terrible accountability to God for these lost lives. My heart was weighed heavily with their deaths. 

Later, when the smoke had dissipated, we came back to begin the cleaning. 

See the black stump in the top of the picture? that used to be a large wall support and a wooden wall....

Pictures were hard to take inside the barn- the black soot soaks up all the light from my flash and doesn't reflect anything back. The only thing you can see here is the ceiling fan- everything else is coated in soot.

Luckily most of our adult birds escaped into the yard and were only scared, not damaged. 

At first I felt tremendous loss with this fire, but the Lord quickly showed me the blessings and tender mercies that occurred.

First off- it was a miracle that I discovered the fire in the first place. I don't normally go out to the chicken coop so early in the morning and it would have been hours before I went outside if I followed my regular pattern of behavior. If the fire had burned much longer, it would have caught our house on fire since the buildings are quite close to each other. I'm so thankful the fire was contained to only our barn!

Second- There were three large plastic containers of gasoline stored in the barn, less than ten feet away from the fire source. (You can see one of them in the first picture, it's red.) By the time we reached them, the plastic containers were hot and bubbled from heat. They were melting. If the flames had burned just minutes more, we would have had a serious explosion on our hands!

Third- The barn floor was covered 6 inches deep with pine shaving bedding. Have you ever watched pine burn? It's extremely flammable. Here we had a perfect tinderbox waiting to feed the flames. We should have lost our entire barn with this stuff on the ground. Miraculously the water pipes melted and leaked water all over the ground, wetting the bedding and confining the fire before the flames could get out of control. There shouldn't have been water in those pipes because we had turned off the water supply to the barn years ago.

It could have been devastatingly much worse, and I was left feeling extremely grateful for the hidden blessings that I saw. The Lord is good and watched over us even in this unexpected mishap. Once again, I was powerfully reminded of the transitory state of life and our possessions. Once again, I treasured my children more today and held fast to the things that are eternal.

When a sweet friend learned that my seedlings burned, she generously gave me over a dozen tomato and pepper seedlings from her own garden to restart our garden. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. Life continues, and we are rebuilding our barn.

Even when surrounded with ashes, life is still beautiful. That is the wondrous beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It allows us to feel peace regardless of any earthly setbacks. We are still happy, and I treasure the comfort I find in the Savior.

Glimpses of our farm

Yesterday I followed Diego around the property while he toddled around exploring for flowers, chased a few butterflies, dug in the dirt, and tried to stalk a song bird. Since a friend asked for pictures of our property, I carried along my camera and documented a few of the places Diego went. 

First we collected the mail. This is what the road in front of our house looks like. I think it's so peaceful and quiet out here! Little one lane roads have such charm. It's perfect for biking with our kids. 

This is the gated entrance to our driveway. Most country properties out here have gated driveways to keep in the livestock. I LOVE the way it keeps away any unwanted solicitors. In our city house we were bombarded with door-to-door salesmen several times each week. Now I don't see any. Score!

Here is one of the children's favorite climbing trees. (See the chair left behind from the last child's play?) They hang from the tree like monkeys, or sit up on top and straddle it like a horse and pretend it's a giant dragon giving them rides to a far off castle. This tree gets more play than any other tree on the farm. Diego always climbs on the chair and tries to reach the tree, but he's not tall enough yet. 

This is the view walking back up our driveway. The trees shade our property nicely, cooling the yard several degrees in the summer. Most of the yard near the house is under a canopy of leaves, so we spend a lot of time there. 

This is one of the many flowering bushes on our farm. It smells just like a rose, but I'm not sure what it is exactly.

Part of our front yard.

This week we counted 49 new fruits on our apple tree.

I love all the different flowering plants we have this time of year. There are different flowers on vines, bushes, grasses, and trees. I love the spring in Texas! The wildflowers are everywhere!

This is a view of one shaded area of the yard. Several clusters of trees completely shade an acre or so of our farm. It's a delightful area to play. My hope is to put picnic tables here and install a couple zip lines for the kids.

This is my favorite tree- The Grandfather Tree. Last year Daniel climbed this tree and became tightly wedged. It's too far from the house for anyone to hear his calls for help. He had to sit there until I found him. It didn't take long for me to find him, but it was pretty funny discovering him trapped in a tree with a cat who climbed up to keep him company.

These are some of the wildflowers who populate the sunny parts of the yard in our fruit orchard. They dot the landscape anywhere there is sun. We also have white and purple wildflowers. It's lovely. I love seeing a field of flowers nodding their heads in the breeze. 

Shots of more trees...just cause I like them so much.

This is the view out of our dining room windows. Diego loves to watch out this window for the school bus and wave 'hello' to the Big Kids as they come home.

Often while we wait for the school bus to arrive, I take Diego out to the tire swing. He loves singing our "Swing Song" while we sway slowly in the shade. It's a song my grandma always sings when she pushes children on the swings. I like passing the tradition on to my own children. 

This is what we see when we recline on the tire swing and look up. 

So. There is a wee bit of our farm. I love it here and feel contentment every time I step outside to listen to the birds. 

There is a special peace that I feel around big trees, and a unique joy that fills my heart when birds fill the air with song.

I wouldn't trade this little patch of earth for anything. 

A new morning routine

Each morning this week, my sweetheart and I have worked side by side in our garden before he headed into town for his 'real' job behind a desk as a software engineer. Each day, the sun beamed on us brightly and the trees overhead were filled with songbirds welcoming the new day in song.

It was so unbelievably peaceful and rejuvenating. 

I've decided it's the perfect way to start a day. 

We worked together in the soil preparing garden beds and seeding the pasture with hardy grasses. Nathan built watering troughs and inspected water lines. We cared for fragile seedlings, 'spring cleaned' the chicken coop, fixed fences (again!), and collected eggs together. Our hearts felt full as we worked with animals and plants alike. 

I love partnering with my sweetheart on projects. There's something magical about working side by side with the one you love, creating something that was only imaginary until your hands started to work. It's very bonding and rewarding, don't you agree? The joy I feel is so....so...REAL. 

I've been thinking about the principle of work for a few days now. I think work is a spiritual necessity as it trains our spirits to overcome the body's natural laziness and be increasingly self-disciplined.

I found a wonderful quote by Elder Neal A. Maxwell that says, "There is something holy about work; even in times of plenty, it is a necessity. While work is not all of life, it nevertheless can keep us mindful of our blessings." 

I've noticed that I'm always much more aware of and grateful for my blessings after I've been working hard. I feel a deeper joy in appreciating what the Lord has generously blessed me with- even little things that normally are taken for granted, such as abundant clean water to wash up after a messy hour in the garden, or warm sunshine on my back, work gloves to protect my hands, or even my soft bed when I'm ready for an afternoon nap.

We always head outside to work after our big kids have already caught the bus to school, so we bring Diego outside to play near us. When we have lots of work to do and little time to keep an eye on him, Nathan straps him into a baby backpack. He is cheerfully carried on Daddy's back as we make the rounds checking fences, checking the orchard, caring for animals, etc. Usually Diego is perfectly content to take in the view from his high vantage point. Every so often we let him down to explore and play.

He tries so hard to be helpful, imitating our actions by digging with a miniature shovel or carefully handling tools. It's very endearing to watch his chubby little fingers hold a heavy hammer and clumsily try to tap in nails.

He also loves to explore the seed pods left clinging to the tips of last year's weeds in the pasture. 

As I watch Diego's efforts to duplicate my actions and build something useful, I wonder if God feels the same way about my attempts to create a garden. I'm sure my untrained efforts to build a successful farm look clumsy to the Creator of the entire Earth and its complex ecosystems.

I think part of the deep satisfaction I feel in gardening must come from the fact that I'm creating something useful and beautiful where there previously existed only weeds and barren ground. Does our soul feel accomplished when we try to imitate our God through creating a beautiful space with purpose? I think so. 

In other news, our fruit trees in the orchard are starting to bud. Yay! Check out the baby leaves on our new pomegranate trees:

The beensy leaves are so exciting to see! The signs of life surrounding us are exhilarating!

I wondered today if this is a bit of the joy Adam and Eve felt as they worked in their Garden of Eden. What a happy existence it would be, tending a perfect garden and watching the fruit of your labors come to harvest.

We really are so happy on this little plot of land. I never regret moving to the country!



PS- Sarah is learning how to edit photos this week. I heard her giggling as she worked on her first picture. This is what I discovered when I checked her project:

Definitely a keeper.

Our first livestock

This week we brought three Nigerian goats to join the farm.

Aren't they cute?

Nathan found these goats on craigslist. Surprisingly they were free (goats normally cost $150 per head) to any good family that would keep them as pets. These were bottle-raised pets from a small ranch nearby. It was a perfect fit for us- we want live lawn mowers to keep down the weeds and poison ivy. And boy howdy, do these girls LOVE poison ivy! They snarf it down like there's no tomorrow. 

You'll have to imagine the comical way we transported these new friends to our house. We have no truck. (I can hear the local ranchers saying, "Gasp! How is that even possible in Texas? Shouldn't that be illegal?") 

Yep, it's the sad truth. Our trusty minivan is put through a lot of abuse as our truck substitute. (We've filled it to the ceiling with loads of compost, landscape rocks, fruit trees, boxes of chickens, furniture purchases, etc.) This was the first time we tried moving livestock in our Toyota Sienna. 

We took out all the van seats and lined the interior floor and sides with a ginormous tarp to protect the upholstery. The children were delighted at the prospect of riding in the van with goats. They went along with Nathan to act as a barrier between the driver and the livestock. (I could just imagine these goats trying to clamber into the front seats and causing all sorts of problems on the highway. Not happening.)

We had dinner guests arrive the same time Nathan drove up with his van load of goats. Let me tell you, there's a fantastic way to make a great first impression! (Just in case you can't tell, I'm dripping with sarcasm here.) 

As soon as the door opened, goats streamed out into the yard, bleating in panic and confusion. 

We had a lively evening chasing goats together to round them up into the pasture. The goats promptly discovered several weak spots in our fencing that needed to be immediately patched. Nathan repaired fences as the sun set while I served dinner to our guests inside the house.

The next day I ended up chasing goats twice as they broke though a gate and headed for my new fruit orchard. It was only after an hour of frustrating attempts to outrun and outwit the little goats that I had the brilliant idea of letting our Great Pyrenees farm dog, Bella, do all the hard work. (I have no idea why I didn't think of that before.)

She was very eager to help (being a natural herder helps a lot!) and made short work of it all. The goats thought they were scheduled to be Bella's dinner and were suddenly very eager to return to their pasture. Bella was invaluable in herding these rascals back to their proper space. Her position on the farm just went up a notch. How does one promote a dog?

Each morning before he left for work last week, Nathan and I spent each day working together strengthening fence lines to protect our orchard and vegetable garden.

Now that the fences are reinforced and gates are secure, the goats are happily mowing down our pasture.

Sarah bestowed them with new names: Paprika, Rosemary, and Cardamon.

Each day after school, our Littles eagerly pull on galoshes and tromp outside to the pasture, where the goats come running to greet them. Our kids love petting and brushing the goats or having races with them across the pasture. They have become delightful new friends on the farm.

Homesteading updates

As we begin to approach our two-year mark living in the country, I wanted to evaluate our progress in the homesteading goals we wrote when we first moved to the country. Here is the four-year plan we made, along with our progress report:

Year One-

-Move onto our new property. CHECK

-Give birth to our new little boy. CHECK (I didn't plan on postpartum depression, extreme sleep-deprivation, and exhaustion with this one....so I went into 'survival mode' and ignored our homestead plans for almost a year. Now that I'm out of the "new baby" phase, I'm quickly catching up with our plans for the property. I'm on fire with progress this month!)

-Repair the house and make the necessary improvements. CHECK, CHECK, CHECK, and still more to do. (Finish remodeling the garage into two additional rooms, demolish the badly-done extension that is literally rotting away and falling off the rest of the house. Oy.)

-Start our large chicken flock, including guineas and roosters this time. CHECK and CHECK (FYI- guineas are pretty annoying. And our guinea likes to scratch off the gravel on our composition shingle roof. I'm not sure they're keepers. We are slaughtering our last guinea during our next butchering day.)

-Incubate eggs so we can perpetuate the flock sustainably, without buying chicks online. CHECK,  CHECK and CHECK.  (We prefer letting a hen hatch the eggs rather than incubating them indoors. The hens take such good care of the chicks, and greatly reduce our workload regarding chick brooding/care.)

-Begin the compost pile so we will have soil amendments for our veggie garden. CHECK (We have several piles going. It's so nice to use rich homemade compost this year in our orchard and veggie garden!)

-Fence in the garden plot. CHECK

-Plant our herb garden this year. -we're working on this one now-

-Begin vermicomposting with kitchen scraps. CHECK (Sarah LOVES searching for worms in the pasture and relocating them to our compost bin. She'll spend hours at a time happily digging in the dirt hunting for worms and carefully cradling them in her hands as she carries them to their new home.)

-Raise enough meat birds to produce the meat our family will eat this year. CHECK and CHECK

-Slaughter the birds and preserve the meat in one long weekend. CHECK (One long weekend didn't work- we do several smaller batches instead. It's much easier to process the meat on a smaller scale.)

-Participate in 4-H so our children can learn how to work with livestock. -NOPE, the meetings in our area are only on Sundays, so we won't be participating in 4-H. Boo hoo.-

-Continue studying permaculture techniques to implement in our farm design. CHECK



Year Two-

Amend the soil for garden beds. CHECK (Double digging a garden is back-breaking work, just to warn ya. But you'll LOVE the results! I love our garden bed!)

Plant one vegetable garden bed this year, 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. CHECK (I even edged our garden with large limestone blocks this year- it's lookin' good! It finally looks like a real garden instead of a random patch of pasture.)

Begin planting fruit trees for our orchard. CHECK (2 figs, 2 pomegranates, and 2 peaches are planted. We're still looking for 2 persimmons and 2 jujubes.)

Expand poultry flock to include ducks and geese, which will live in pools made in the fruit orchard area.     -Our goslings will arrive in April!-

Expand herb garden to include medicinal plants. -working on this one-

Improve the barn so it's ready for livestock.-working on this one-

Reseed the pasture so it has a healthy ecosystem of grasses. -working on this one-

Build a beehive and begin beekeeping in the pasture. NOPE (Maybe we'll get to this next year after we help friends with their bees to gain hands-on experience. And after I conquer my huge fear of flying, stinging insects. Maybe.)

Raise meat goats to keep brush and weeds under control in the pasture. (We are hoping to buy three goats this spring after we repair the pasture fences and install gates.)

And looking ahead to the next couple of years:

Year Three-
Add another vegetable garden bed, 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. 
Add domesticated grape vines to the property 
Plant native berry bushes, including blackberries and blueberries.  
Add some dairy goats or a Jersey cow so we have our own milk supply, then we can produce home made butter, cheese, cream, yogurts, kefir, etc. with farm-fresh milk. 

Year Four-
Add another vegetable garden bed, 100 feet long and 4 feet wide. 
By now I'm hoping our food production will be largely self-reliant. Unless calamities occur to set us back, we'll be using plenty of veggies from our three large garden beds, fruit from our bushes, vines and trees, eggs and meat from our chickens, milk from our large livestock (either cow or goats), and sweetener from our beehive. It is presumed that we will preserve the harvest each year with canning, dehydrating, and freezing so we won't have to buy much produce during the extremely hot or cold months of the year.

Wildflowers in the country

This afternoon my children disappeared.

I looked all over the house and couldn't find a sign of them.

I checked outside, but the swings were empty and lifeless. 

The trampoline was abandoned and lonely. 

The cats and dog looked at me questioningly.

Dinner was ready and cooling on the table.

I called and called for our children. There was no answer.

Becoming impatient, I rang our loud dinner bell vigorously. 

Still there was no answer.

Where were they?

Fighting the urge to yell and feeling waves of anger tickle my soul, I searched on foot.

I began to trek around the property, peering in chicken coops and barns. 

Finally I found them, all singing joyfully and marching together through the back corners of our large pasture.

When they saw me, they all squealed in delight and ran towards me with their hands full of blossoms.

They had spent an hour collecting beautiful wildflowers and crafting a custom bouquet for me!

Our cooling dinner was forgotten and we exclaimed in delight over our beautiful blossoms. 

I felt like a queen being gifted with rare treasures. 

The flowers were so lovely and colorful.

I delighted in their fragrances and scooped my children up in my arms. 

We hugged and laughed together and gloried in the wild jewels of our earth.

I am so thankful we live in the country where flowers can be freely picked without messing up a landscaped flower bed or angering neighbors. 

I had been experiencing a stressful day earlier that afternoon.

This bouquet completely changed my outlook. 

How lucky am I to have such thoughtful kids!

We laughed and rolled in the tall pasture grass together. 

Our dog Bella eagerly joined in the fun, rolling luxuriously in the grass over and over again. 

 How thankful I am to be alive and able to find joy in Earth's bounty!

Life certainly is a treasure!

 I hope you have a chance to enjoy your Littles today!

Pitbulls, Possums, and Inspiration

 This week was great. 

In my effort to focus more on creating neat memories with our family, I made this sign to welcome our kids off the school bus:

They thought it was so neat! All the kids on the bus were looking out their windows trying to read the sign. Matthew was beaming when he stepped off the bus. I like how the gate to our property makes a perfect billboard space. 

This weekend I had the privilege of filling in for our Relief Society president while she was out of state. I had mixed feelings of inadequacy and honor to fill that position. Just my luck we had an emergency needing urgent attention....what an initiation this was!

In the end, I was very thankful for this opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and grow in new ways. I was taught so much during these past 3 days of time-consuming service. 

I learned a few things-

1- I never want to be a Relief Society president! It's exhausting! How does anyone do this full-time?

2- My heart changed as I helped a sister bear with her heavy trials. I couldn't remove the trial from her life, but the Lord wanted me to provide spiritual comfort. It was humbling to be serving His child during this difficult time in her life.

3- The Lord truly steps in to make up the difference when we serve Him. It was incredible to feel Him guiding my steps when I felt like I was fumbling through the dark due to my inexperience.

4- My respect for our current president increased by leaps and bounds (which I didn't think was possible- I already nearly idolize this woman) as I grew to understand  the physical and emotional demands she deals with every day....but she never shows that burden to others. She is unfailingly cheerful and patient with everyone. Boy, do I have a long way to progress!

Later that day I attended the General Relief Society Broadcast. I look forward to this all year long! I love feasting on the words of Christ. I felt so inspired to become a better person. I felt so loved by the Lord and encouraged in my journey to be more like Him. It was a memorable evening for sure.

In other news, last night we were awoken (again) by frantic squawking from our chickens. 

Nathan ran our to investigate.....I always think it's slightly funny when that happens. There's never time to pull on any clothing other than a pair of galoshes. Are we officially country bumpkins if we chase off predators across the pasture in our unmentionables and boots? I used to mock that behavior in hillbilly movies. Life is ironic, isn't it? It's a good thing we can laugh at ourselves I suppose. 

The predator was too fast for us, but not fast enough for Bella. 

We heard the bones crunch. There's officially one less possum in Texas. She's such a great farm dog! 

Speaking of dogs, I forgot to share my pitbull story here. If you know me on Facebook, you've already heard this, so I won't be hurt if you leave now.

Our neighbors own pit/lab mix and he keeps coming into our pasture and killing chickens. This has been going on for a looong time. This week he was back again. He tried to run home with a rooster in his mouth, but I caught up to him. 

He wouldn't drop the bird even after I kicked him in the ribs. The bird was still alive and I wanted to get it safely away before those canine jaws squeezed the life out of him. There were no rocks or sticks within reasonable distance, and kicking hadn't worked, so I punched him as hard as I could on the head. 

That worked.

He dropped the bird in shock and I rescued it before taking this dog back to its owners (again). 

The good news is the rooster is fine. The bad news is I really hurt my hand and had to wrap it up over the weekend before I could get into the doctors office for x-rays. 

The good news is everyone at the doctors office was impressed and thought I was gutsy and sassy for punching a pitbull in the head. The bad news is I had to tell our neighbors we were buying a gun just to shoot their dog the next time he comes over. I felt terrible saying something like that! 

I hope your weekend was lovely! Aren't you excited to welcome October into your lives today? I'm so excited! Pumpkin soup is simmering on my stove....yum!

Scenes of Slaughter

Okeedokee- In a nutshell, here is Slaughtering Day at the farm:

The night before the scheduled slaughter I very wisely spent an hour catching the loose birds (who roosted in the trees or on the barn roof) and tossing them into the enclosed stalls of the barn. This way they would be a piece of cake to scoop up in the morning when it was their turn to meet the knife at the slaughtering cone. 

There was a lot of squawking, chasing, and frustration. Roosters don't like to be caught. 

After lots of time, sweat, and exertion, I finally had all the birds confined safely in the barn. I was scratched and tired, but thankful that I had remembered to catch them all when they were lethargic and slow-moving. I couldn't imagine trying to catch them during the day when they were alert and energetic.

 I mentally patted myself on the back, imagining how easy the butchering would be in the morning.

Morning dawned bright and warm. We planned on butchering 20 roosters, followed with a BBQ picnic of fresh chicken cooked Peruvian-style with spicy cilantro sauce. We had scheduled enough time to clean up and shower before company arrived for lunch.

Nathan and I set up the back patio with all the necessary slaughter supplies: a work table draped in protective plastic, knives, work gloves, coolers filled with ice, a garbage bucket for the entrails, and a propane stove heating our largest stock pot filled with boiling water. 

As we finished our preparations, I heard a terrible sound. 

Dozens of wings were flapping and a hundred feet rustled the leaf litter as our flock stampeded out of the barn. One of our boys had forgotten to close the barn door behind himself after fetching tools for us. Oh. My. Goodness.

I frantically ran to the barn in an attempt to stem the flow of poultry streaming out of the building, but I was too far away. As I rounded the corner of the house, I saw 50 bright-colored poultry tails disappearing into the brush of the pasture. 

Oh I was hopping mad. I was torn between laughing at the irony of it all or crying in frustration.

As a family we tried to corner some roosters and catch them for the slaughter, but the birds were too skittish for us to get close. 

I'm sure it looked extremely comical. 

We'd all stealthily flank the flock to trap the birds against a fenced corner of the yard. We'd close our lines as we approached closer, making a human fence to ensnare the roosters. When the flock panicked and tried to flee, we'd all attempt to catch a bird as they ran though our legs or flew over our heads. We usually ended up  on the ground, with handfuls of feathers and scratched arms.

We spent an entire hour chasing birds before we caught our first two roosters (actually our dog Bella helped us and pinned down these birds.). We were out of breath and smudged with dirt and we hadn't even begun our butchering.

I could see my well-oiled plans for the day slipping away.

After this shaky start to the day, we managed to process only 7 birds that morning. It's better than nothing, but it also means we need to do another slaughter morning to dispatch the rest of the roosters. Ug.

We've slaughtered chickens before, but this was the first time we tried scalding and plucking them so they'd look nice on the grill. I definitely decided I prefer our old method of skinning them clean. Plucking takes for-ev-er to get the teensy bits of feathers off. Skinning is so quick and easy in comparison. 

Some friends came over to learn the process and slaughter one of their own hens.

Maggie stayed perched a careful distance away from the butchering table while she encouraged her sweetheart to do the dirty work. I understand her reticence...butchering is always emotionally hard the first time.

Here's a quick look at lunch: chicken coated with seasonings and butterflied before grilling over coals. The sauce was epic. Jalapenos and cilantro pureed together with other seasonings in a creamy sauce. Oh my. I might never go back to Texas BBQ after tasting this Peruvian beauty.