Well, to start off I wanted to show a picture of my injured baby. While helping on a project at my parents house there was a little mishap that ended with the front right corner of my truck getting smashed. In the end the only one hurt was my truck. Gonna take $2500 to fix everything. It doesn't look like much in the pic but the hood, fender, and light need replaced. The front clip got shoved sideways so the drivers side fender is shoved out of line as well. The bumper is not bent but it is scratched so it is all going to need repainted as well.
Next up, we just sent a steer, three feeder pigs, and one of the youngest sows to the butcher shop. We are sizing down the herd of pigs as we cannot afford to feed them for feeder piglets due to the drought causing prices of the corn, bean meal, and alfalfa meal we use to supplement their diet to soar! I thought the sow was getting big even though she was only a little over two years old she was still bigger than the rest. Turns out she was over 600 lbs. live weight!! Two of the three feeders we sent were over 300lbs. live weight. No wonder they were gobbling down so much feed. I also really need to find an animal scale to weight the pigs with so I can keep from letting them get too big. Once you pass about 280lbs. for a pig the amount of feed they eat sky rockets compared to the amount of actual muscle they put on. A lot of it ends up being fat.
So, I went to pick up the meat from the butcher yesterday to deliver to the local customers I have and prepare for a trip to Columbus next weekend with the rest. While packing some of the pork chops in the freezer I snapped a pic of one of the packs of two chops from the sow we sent. They are bigger than most porterhouse steaks!!!! This was one of the middle sized ones, some of the chops are pushing one pound each!
While the kids were taking a nap today I headed out to spend some time with the cows and see how everyone is doing. I am waiting on Prairie Fire to have her calf and have been checking daily.
I took this picture just because it has most of the calves in it. It was only a few years ago that I was thrilled to have almost ten cows....now I have almost ten calves!!!
I got a close up picture of the cousins!! On the left is Precious and the right is Princess. My daughter named her.
My daughter also now wants to claim both of them for herself! So, tonight we had discussion about why she only gets one calf and I get all the rest of the cows. I explained to her that I have purchased and fed and raised all the cattle here. I am giving her one to start a herd with. I will also give my son one to start a herd with. I will run them all with my herd till she gets old enough to run her herself and the same with my son. I am going to use it to teach them how to run a business and be accountable and have responsibility as they grow up. It will be able to provide them with income and food for when they get married and start their own lives. It will also allow me to give them something financially that will grow itself over time. If, down the road they decide it isn't for them they can sell their herd, or continue on and grow it for their children!!
Here are a few more pics of Princess. That is Legacy behind her and her sister Precious in the background. Legacy is doing well for a little man without a momma. He is growing much much slower than he should be but he also didn't have any of the milk that he should have gotten. Shortly after letting him back lose in the pasture this spring he quit drinking the milk I was bringing him and he has been of a full grass diet ever since. I know he will be fine though and it will make him even stronger in the long run!
At this point she was getting interested in my phone and what I was doing with it!
She finally got up the nerve to come within arms reach and gave me a nice pose before trotting off to play with the other calves!
To finish off the night we decided to cook out on the wood fire. I was headed from the house to the fire pit to get this started and found two visitors in my lawn. They are two of my dads calves that are supposed to be in the pasture behind the trees in the background. However, due to the drought the electric fencers is not very effective due to the lack of conductivity of dry soil. So, all the calves are taking turns trimming my lawn. Apparently they feel the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. They better not get the same idea about my wife's garden that they have been walking right past!!
Lastly, a pic of dinner as I was starting to cook it. I put some hickory wood on just before cooking for some smoke flavor in the meat. Man it was awesome. These are some T-bone and Porterhouse steaks and some sausage stuffed hot peppers from the garden. It was quite a yummy supper!!!
Well, I need to get to bed. Another very hectic and long week ahead. My daughter starts kindergarten this week. Seems like it was just yesterday that I held her for the first time. Now she is starting school already and it will seam like a few short years and she will be getting married......I am so not ready for that yet!
Goodnight everyone!!
Kenny
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