Prepping and waiting for winter

Another winter like last year would certainly make my commute more enjoyable. Probably too good to be true though...

A mild winter thus far follows a summer drought and results in hay prices so high that my shoe collecting is on hold. Gotta feed those expectant momma goats well so every week we search for usable alfalfa and grass. We are down to 2 months until the spring babies start arriving, it seems to go faster every year. Just last week we cheered in celebration of hanging up the milk lines for good as we finally managed to get all of the does dried off so they can store their energy and focus on their growing kids. Based on the growing bellies in the barn we will have plenty of multiples this year!

So the turkey newbies screwed up...we realized a couple months back that we had two males, they strutted and displayed their feathers proudly. So we assumed a lot of their girth was just that .... feathers. They dressed out at 35 lbs...each! That's a lot of turkey for a household of two, especially since we were only planning on 6 for dinner. Luckily we had the foresight to have them halved, planning to smoke some and roast some. Half went to the neighbors who kindly pointed out that the turkey leg would be plenty to feed them both. Half went in the freezer for Christmas-time. The two smallest halves went in to a brine for Thanksgiving dinner, the necks made an extremely rich gravy, they were so large I had to put them in the crock pot overnight. Here is a wing on a standard 10" dinner plate. Needless to say we had plenty of leftovers.

Post holiday pig-outs gave way to hunting and gathering mode. Spreading manure to boost next years harvest, turning over the garden and planting rye grass to serve as mulch for next years veggies. We harvested the last few carrots of the year.

The first deer hunting day of the year was a success for Rog and we quickly processed the doe for the freezer. As soon as we find some spare time we plan to load the smoker with homemade jerky and sausage made from the venison, goat meat and ground piggy-pork.

We have to take time to enjoy the few remaining pleasant nights before the winter dull settles in. We may not see the sun until May!