Growing, and busy.

We've been rather busy this last week or two. There was a quick trip up to the property to do a little work, and to check on the status of the herd up there. There was also a certain sometwinnies birthday to plan. This weekend will be fun for them, for sure! Not to mention the preparing the garden for fall planting, and getting the first set of seedlings in the ground. The main garden is still under quarantine though.  *pout*

But, right now I wanted to stop by and tell you about our herd. We've been managing this herd for 8 years now. The first couple years we didn't really know what we were doing. We tried, but our main objective was just to lower the hunting pressure and allow the herd to come back onto the land and get all cozy. The poaching that had gone on before us was intense and I'm pretty sure not even the squirrels came onto the property. Not to mention it was mostly barren with a few pockets of hardwoods. the second year we had the fields planted and all the trees planted and as they grew the herd slowly moved back in. At first only for foraging and the herd was very small. We didn't harvest animals for the first 3-4 years. Then we started noticing the deer were finally staying year round without fail. They visited the same places, and we saw the same deer time and again. But, the bucks - not so much. They are typically travelers anyway and wary. But, as the newer generation of deer matured those bucks tend to hang around more. Other bucks start coming in more because the herd size is growing so the does need mating...all good stuff. Last year the herd was finally large enough to not only meet the demands of our meat requirements, but my brothers and my uncles as well. This year?

Our herd?

 Our herd is growing in leaps and bounds!

The fawns are numerous and we even have a set of twins!

Last years fawns have sized up nicely (top photo all the way right) and this years are beginning to lose their spots and all are healthy and happy.

 

Along with these shots we had plenty of turkey (some with the turkey and deer at the same time) and other wildlife as well. It feels great to know that we've completely changed this land. The deer that used to be here were very thin and the fawn population by this time of the year was very low if any due to high predator pressure. Turkey were non existent on this property as well. This year? I fully plan on a true turkey Thanksgiving dinner.

 

And? I. Can't. Wait!

 

See you soon!

Barbie~

Thankful trip

Now that was a wild trip!

We went to Alabama for 8 days. Maybe it was 9 days... I'm losing track now. We did a lot of work. Got the tables set up that we made out of the old metal pallets. (I forgot to take pictures, AGAIN- but I had good reasons, I promise!) Took down a third of the old barn. Reinforced a third of it and the largest and most dangerous part we will work on during the next trip. Over Christmas. We will travel back for the largest trip of the year. We always try to spend another 10 days during that time but this year we will spend a full 2 weeks. There is much to be done.

This trip was wonderful The weather was very cooperative. It sprinkled all day off and on once and it was cool but comfortable every. single. day. That is just weird. Usually we roast in the afternoon, freeze at night roast again, etc. But this trip was perfect. 

Until we got home. But that is a story I'll save for in a few minutes. The first night there we saw some of our herd of deer and knew that all was well. All of our hard work during the summer is paying off and it IS worth the trouble to both keep the deer on the land and keep them OUT of the crops. Some times it seems like an epic battle of mending fences and rethinking ourselves and our plans. Wanting to give up and either go for the crops or the deer. Both are easy enough but together it's hard to do both. Not to mention the pigs (wild) on the land that need to be controlled.

This year something is different than most years and I think it's due to the weather, but I'm no expert. The rut (mating season) has started much earlier than in previous years. Most years the dear don't begin until late December and into January. Not this year! The deer are already showing signs of rutting. Thanksgiving night I harvested a doe to find out she was in full estrus! The mating season really did change this year. How strange. The next night I had a buck stalking the area where the doe was at. He was a prime buck, and he was left to carry on his genes. A younger buck that was developing split tines was taken for our freezer.

(Time for a whine. Tune out now if you don't want to hear it or see pictures of dead deer.)
I'll save the pictures for last. Because now I'll tell you what was not so perfect about this trip. We came home after a week of working and harvesting to find our house looking in roughly the same shape it appeared in when we left. We unpacked the few things we bring back and forth. When it came time to take showers that night we flipped on the heater.... Uh... well - we TRIED to flip on the heater. It didn't work. We have two so we went downstairs to flip on that heater instead... it wasn't working either. :-( Oh no! Bad timing! I have a space heater I use occasionally so I pulled that out and put it in the bathroom, warmed it up a bit, got the kids ready started drawing a bath and the water ran and ran and ran. But, it never turned warm. That's odd. I washed my hands and the water was warm, so I went to the sink. Sure enough the water is warm there. I turned the water in the tub all the way to hot and.... dribble dribble dribble.... DOH! NOTHING! So I went to the next bathroom, same thing! OMG I feel like we've been sabotaged! At least we have one shower that is working. But - Grrr....

Our DRYER is out, too. So now we have clothes that desperately need washed, no way to dry them we are all taking turns in 1 shower using the hot water heater that already wasn't working right....

WAHHHH!!!!! Oh, and to top it off something had a try at my poor Dusty. When I got home and checked on her she had a bald spot and small cut on her throat with LOTS of feathers missing there. It looks like an animal tried to grab her by the throat. I hope she sliced it open with her claws!

OKOK, It isn't THAT bad. I have space heater for the bedroom so we are not freezing at night. I do have at least one operating bath tub. But, it feels pretty awful. LOL. It felt worse that night as we were finding everything of course. Now that I've had a day to realize the world is not ending and I can actually operate this way (Once I get my clothes clean) I'm feeling a lot better. But what a rough way to come back to the house, huh?

Promised dead deer pictures - here is what we are so thankful will be filling our freezer and our bellies this year:

Pictures of the buck will be forthcoming. Because it is the first buck I harvested my husband feels the need to put it on the wall. What exactly is it with men and hanging animal heads on a wall? BLECH! Why not just mount the antlers? Oh well. I could not convince him otherwise, so I'll show you the photo of him all prettied up when we pick him up from the taxidermist. My girls want to get in the picture, too.

So tally this trip 150 pounds of meat $3 a pound = $450 ++(Venison in stores and on menus runs much more but I would never pay for it!) ( minus - A/C bill & plummer yet to be determined. LOL)
We give  30-50+ pounds a meat per trip to my brother who is on social security and has no other income. It helps with his income then at the end of the year depending on what meat is left in the freezer we will divy it all up and give him more. This year looks plentiful so we will have more to give and we are thankful for that.

See you soon!

Barbie~

Harvest Monday 11.28.11

Blogging from the road as we travel home from the property in Alabama.
What a trip. Our week went fast. Lots of chores were done and a bit of harvesting, too.
12 gallons of pecans will grace our table and freezer this year, not including the ones that were gathered and brought to the processor. Never know- the ones you use for your Christmas pies might be ours! Check the bag to see if they came from Alabama. ;-)
We also harvested a doe. Her picture will be posted later. It was my sons first deer. As a proud parent I shall gloat a little for him. He did well and handled. Himself like a champ. He is accordingly still on cloud 9, so be sure to give him a pat on the back. He's going for a hog in 3 weeks. Hopefully he'll do just as well.
Hopefully the garden held up OK without me, I will find out in a few more hours.
'Till next time!
Barbie

Harvest - MONDAY? 1.3.11

Oh boy, not starting the New Year with a good record am I?

Well, I have no real garden harvest to report. When I got back home all my romaine heads had bolted leaving only 2 buttercrunch and 2 simpson lettuces. I also found a hole in the ground from the one onion that was bulbing. There was no other trace of it. There is a rogue squirrel that has been yelling at me from my fence and tearing up my screen. I may have to have a little discussion with him. I believe that he and I will be butting heads even more in the spring. I'll have a complete utter meltdown if my peaches disappear like last year.

I don't eat cabbage but one of the 4 heads is getting close to harvesting and I'm excited by this mainly because it's been a month since anyone ate much of anything from the garden. The only other things still green in the garden are the strawberry plants, the 5 remaining onions and a few peas.

We did harvest a doe however for the freezer. She was much smaller than most of our does and therefore a weak link in the herd. 80% of the meat was donated to the local homeless shelter so don't feel bad that we manage a herd. We are also feeding the hungry. We were unsuccessful at taking the hog we wanted and not looking to take a sow or piglet we left the rest of the pigs be. The spring looks like it will find us busy building a trap for the cretan. He's aggressive and we won't tolerate it. Being full grown and not castrated the meat will not be wonderful so we'll donate to the homeless shelter again and take only what we want - some bacon, sausage, fat back for soup and a ham for the spit. As the piglets mature to around 100-150 pounds we'll consider trying to sort out the sows we want to keep and by fall our freezer (with any luck) will be stocked, and the homeless shelter will have enough hocks, jowls and fatback for a whole year. :-) I'm interested in splitting if someone has some trained dogs to run, or for that matter the means to clean - smoke/cure a large amount of meat at once.

Plans for the first spring planting are coming along. Richard is however not cooperating with getting the second raised bed going. I'm not sure I'm going to continue to wait on him for this one. I want it finished by the end of January. One way or the other.

Linking in to join Daphne (Late again) for Harvest Monday. Make sure you stop by and see the harvest still going on, and how people are using their stored harvests now!

Happy New Year everyone!

'Till next time!
~Barbie

EEEK!

What?! You thought I left already, didn't you? Guess again! I am leaving soon though. I must be tortured for yet another business day.
But today the coconut telegraph is wired - the bird is the word, man! Word is coming down that our property is holding an impressively large herd this year. Top that with a record number of piglets born to the wild sows and you got - well you got 5 people REALLY excited about putting in a alot of work and a lot of long hours in the stands.

Last year this large record holding old old buck was living with the herd on our land:

Yes, that IS a record holding buck - we are talking ALABAMA here - not Kansas, sheesh!
Anywho - Some unknwon (not local land owning) hunter (read:TOURIST) took my buck. He was dubbed 50 cent - you know 'cuz it's a picture of only 1/2 a buck... *snicker* yeah well dry as it may be it's MY sense of humor. Check out that gnarly notch out of his ear. kewl... I'm really hopin' and a prayin' that this bucks obviously wonderful genes now live in the new years generation. I'm anxious to see this seasons yearlings to see if any of them have picked up the traits he carried. He was massively muscled, extremely fit and we could use a few racks like that around our place. Are we hunters? To a degree but when it comes to deer we are herd managers. We pick and choose very carefully what till stay and what will be taken. Barren 2 and 3 year old does must go to make way for the furtile.

It's hard to sit at work knowing full well that there is so much to be done.