Oops!

I just noticed that i haven't written in over two months. As faithful readers might noticed, i've changed the subtitle to twelve-year-old. My birthday was on  December 8. Also, we bought a bull, called Beuregaurde, or Beureguard, or something. We just call him Beu. We just got some new laying hens, even though the old ones still lay.

Two Things

     We killed the broiler chickens a week ago. If you're interested in how we kill them, go to the post called ''To Kill A Mockingbird' (I Mean A Chicken)'. There's a slight variation to the steps. We rented a plucker. The plucker looks like a big plastic can on a base. If you look inside the 'can,' you will see a rotating bottom and rubber fingers on it and also on the sides. When you start it, streams of water are shot into the container, and the bottom starts to rotate. When you stick the chickens into this, it looks as if the chickens are going to come out torn to pieces. But they will come out clean as a whistle, if you dipped the chickens in the right temperature of water, and stuck four at a time into the plucker.

     The other thing, (look at the title of this post), is that some new broiler chickens have arrived. One of them has some weird illness, and its wings are drooping and it can't chirp. It looks far all the world as if it is trying to make a sound, cause it lifts its head, strains its body, and opens its mouth wide, to the rhythm of its breath. But nothing comes out. Does anyone know about this strange ailment?

Moved The Hens

  Three days ago we moved the egg-laying hens to the back of our house so they wouldn't be so far away and so we can fill their water more easily. Here's a fact: moving twenty chicken-hearted (duh!) hens to a new living quarters is not exactly easy. Step one, run like crazy after one of the chickens. Step two, after 15 minutes, grab the tail feathers and lift it to your arms. Step three, get surprised by the bird's sudden flapping and let go. Repeat steps one and two. Step four, bring it all the way to the new area you made at the back of the house. Step five, repeat for all the chickens.

Needless to say, I wanted to wring their scrawny necks.

Got the goat

Yesterday my dad shot the goat through the neck. I don't really know what happened, except that it was a lot of work butchering it.  My dad didn't know how to butcher, so I actually had to get a wilderness survival book: "Extreme Survival" JG Press.  I don't want to write all the steps here, so search it up.  After my dad removed the skin, we took off the remaining fat and meat of the underside and stretched it out on a piece of wood to dry.  Today, we took it off and rubbed ground salt on the hide to absorb any moisture left, and also to remove the stench.

Tomorrow we'll add some fresch salt and, I hope, soften it.  I still don't know what I want to do with the skin once we're done fixing it up, maybe make some shoes out of it.

Lucky Dog Goat

   We've been thinking about slaughtering the goat since some weeks. First it was just a joke, but then my dad was looking at some slaughter company's website. Finally, my dad said we were going to get the goat, tie it up, and bring it to the slaughterhouse. Catching the goat was no problem, as you may have guessed. It was alot less nervous about us since we got it. The real problem was tying it up. It struggled and kicked. Then it turned out that the complicated leash thingy we were trying to put him in was to small for him. I had to go fetch a regular rope. Then we couldn't make it get on the truck. I had to go for the goat food. Finally we tied it by the horns, put it in the back of the pickup truck, and called the slaughterhouse. My dad learned that they couldn't kill anything right now. We had to wait until later. Like, days later. Anywho, we had to let the goat go. For now.

Green Eggs (and ham?)

   Remember the keets? Well, they've also layed eggs! We found two of them in their house. The eggs look greenish and are really small. Unfortunately, these birds are not good mothers for some reason and neither were the other layers. Or so we thought.

   One day we went to get eggs and there several hens laying. These hens usually lay were other hens have already layed, so we always check under the hens that are in the process of laying. Anyway, one of the hens, when we reached under her, went crazy and almost bit our fingers off. This was weird, because these birds aren't usually protective of their eggs. Turns out that this hen still had the instinct of guarding their eggs. Even so, that hen couldn't sit on the eggs and make them hatch, because the eggs are unfertilized, since we don't have any roosters of their species.

   But the keet's eggs are fertilized! There are some keet roosters, so the eggs could hatch. So we put the eggs with the hen that still had the guarding instinct. Now we just have to hope the hen dosen't notice her chicks look nothing like her.

Viper

   My cousins from Mexico came to visit. They came to the farm and are staying for two and a half weeks. They enjoyed gathering the eggs and watching the cows (albeit from a distance). They went into the forest an swung from vines.

   Then one day we saw the snake. Maria (my cousin) and me were going to the storage to get something when we saw an enormous snake, three and a half feet long. I took a picture, since my cousin wouldn't get thirty feet from the snake.

   Maria swore she wouldn't step a foot outside ever again. Just the next day, though, she was running outside again.

I'll Think Up A Name For You In A Second

   A friend gave us four more cats than the two we already had (we had three beforehand but the first one we had disapeared). My dad wants these cats to eat the mice so he dosen't let them eat in the house, but instead we only dump them some food in the morning so they don't starve, and we leave them water outside. The only problem is that our miserable goat loves cat food for some reason, and so when we leave them food outside he comes and eats it. The only solution is to tie the goat up until the cats finish eating or to put the food where the goat can't reach.

   Remember that the goat is lonesome 'cause his brothers where killed by the coyote. Some crazy idea came to the it that me and my brothers had horns like him and we liked to headbut. Oh oh. Almost all of us have been nearly mauled by the deranged goat. Of course, he usualy stops just before he reaches us, but now we're not so sure.

Animal Revolt

   A coyote ate two more keets today. (A keet is a guinea fowl). They havn't told me how they found out, but I think my dad just counted them and there wasn't 21. We havn't actually seen anymore coyotes since last time, and we think its becase my dad scared them away with the rifle (he didn't hit them, though)

   A couple days ago, our neighbor's cow got into our property, while our own cows escaped. We let our cows out every morning and afternoon to another area, since they have absolutely no grass were they usualy are. The new area is bordered with electrical strings. One time, my dad forgot to turn on the electricity, so the cows ran out. it took forever to get them back in. A day later or so, a neighbor's cow got into the land around our house. He got in becase the fence over the creek is loose. We had to drive the cow to the other side of the fence through the gate. 

   The hens are running everywhere. Sometimes it means they laid an egg, and sometimes it means they are trying to annoy us. By the way, if you see the picture of the keets on the  entry called COYOTE, you'll see there is a yellow bird. That is a rooster. It crows every morning. At first, the cock-a-doodle-doo sounded ridiculous, like a deranged frog trying to sing. Eventually, he got better at it.

EGGS !!!

   We finally got eggs from the chickens. We found the first eggs on Saturday. My dad was with the cows. We let them out every morning to another fenced area beside the house. Well, my dad was there and a hen came all the way to were he was, squaking his head off. My dad grabbed the chicken and walked back with the rest of the chickens. Then he saw the eggs. One was on the ground, and the other was in the nests my dad built for them. Both eggs were small. That same day, we found two more in the nest. One was small like all of them so far, but the other was bigger. 

The white ball is a bit smaller than a baseball. 

   On Sunday we found two on the nests. When we went to see the chickens that day, mostly all the chickens were outside of their area, so we grabbed them and put them in, but they kept flying out. When we couldn't keep them in after a long time, we gave up. Later, when it was dark, we went to try again. This time they were already inside. My dad wanted to look for eggs where the chickens had been, but it was dark and we couldn't see a thing, and when I just when to check some minutes ago because another chicken came squaking, there wasn't any.

   Anyway, back to the topic of eggs, even though we've had 6 eggs so far the eggs are eaten immediately for some reason. We even prepared them in a shake raw! I don't like eggs so I havn't tasted them yet. Six eggs in two days isn't bad, but they say my great-great grandfather had so many eggs he threw them in the river! Of course he had like 200 hens, and he couldn't sell many, since everyone had their own farm back then. 

Thanks!

Coyote

   My dad's sighted a coyote twice so far: once this morning, and once some days ago. The first time my mom was having coffee outside with my dad. We keep some guinea fowl

beside the house, and these are really free range, since the door to their house is always open. Anyway, my parents were outside, when the guinea fowl started shrieking like they always do, my dad started yelling like the abominable snowman, my mom almost dropped her coffee, and there was general mayhem. The reason? There, among the birds, was a big ugly coyote. He had crept up, unseen, and was now chasing a lone fowl he had singled out. The bird was so surprised, and the coyote so fast, it didn't have the time to fly up a tree like they do when we chase them. Pretty soon, the coyote was running off with prey clamped within its teeth.

   The second time wasn't so exiting. The coyote was coming for his breakfast when he saw my dad holding his rifle. The coyote was bold but not dumb. When my dad started shooting, the coyote hightailed away. My dad isn't an excelent shot, and the coyote was far away, so my dad missed. At least this time it didn't kill anything (The 'it' I'm talking about is the coyote, not my dad).

TOO CLOSE TO NATURE

  We lost all our goats to coyotes except one, strawberry, who is really lonely.  Goats are social creatures, so it tried to make friends with the cows, that didn't work.  Everyday strawberry got closer and closer to our house. 

  Yesterday my mom called us for dinner, and it was a nice day, so we left the doors open.  In the middle of mashed potatoes, the goat stuck his head in the house, walked in, and made for the kitchen!

  As I mention before, the coyotes are the ones that killed the goats.  When we found the body of the last goat to die, it wasn't that far from the house, which made us realize just how close we were to the wild. Worse, we found half of the body, which means somenthing scared the coyotes away before they could get the rest.  Either something worse than coyotes or it was my dad.  My mom is a bit jittery.

Jabberwocky (whatever that means)

Jabberwocky

Lewis Carrol   

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogroves,
and the mome raths outgrabe.

(first stanza)

  
 Yesterday, a friend gave us two rabbits, a buck and a doe, as a gift. We put them inside the barn in a cage. Today we put them in a fenced area, though it had some holes. About six hours later, my sister went to check on them. News reached us. One rabbit was dead. We hadn't even named it.
  Eventualy we pieced, together, enough information to theorize. One of the holes, we thought was to small for a rabbit to fit in, had a sort of hook pointing outward.  When it got out, no problem, but when it got in, the hook must have pierced the neck, so the rabbit  couldn't breath. This made sense  since we found the rabbit inside, but close to the hole.
  Storm (that's what my mom calls the rabbit now) was buried solemnly beside our first dead chick that we had buried long ago.
  

"To Kill A Mockingbird" (I mean a Chicken)

     We've started butchering the old broilers,the ones I said we would eat when they are 9-11 weeks old, almost every weekend since the end of April.

                                           Here are the steps from this:

  to this:

                                                         

Before you kill the chicken, do not give them food for twelve hours.

1. Catch the chicken (not as easy as it seems).
2. Bring it to the slaughter area, preferably beside a tree.
3. Put it inside the ''killing cone,'' a cone made out of sheet metal nailed with the narrow end down. Insert the animal headfirst. Another method is to hang the chicken by the feet from a tree.
4. Grab the head and cut right above, or rather below if you put it right side up, a red line you see on the neck, back and forth until a stream of blood pours down. Don't cut all the way through. Reapeat on the other side
5. Clasp by feet and dip in water 140º Fahrenheit (60º Celsius) five times
6. PLUCK AND PLUCK AND PLUCK. Include the annoying black feather roots.
7. When the chicken is completely, ahem, naked, chop the head off.
8. Remove entrails through a cut you make in the rear end somewhere (my dad does this part so I have no idea where). Cut off the feet.
9. Put in water with  a lot of ice. Later, store in freezer in a bag with the air sucked out.
10. Eat.

W A N T E D : FOUR YOUNG GOATS

The goats were not there when we checked them yesterday afternoon. They were not in their usual area bordered with some flimsy electrical strings. We went to the ends of the earth looking for them until it got dark(oh oh, there are coyotes in this part of the country). They'd probably be dead if our neighbors hadn't seen some really peculiar creatures in the runaway of their private airport. They tied the goats up in the back of a truck for the night. In the morning we went to get them. When we came back with the goats, we could not put them where they belong, so we left them with the cows. Tied.

MORE Chicks

     Sorry I haven't  written in a long time, I was busy with school and chores.  Anyway, we got another batch of chickens some weeks ago. Some more broilers which put inside in the begining(like all the others) and them put them in the small chicken house† which is where they currently are. Since the old broilers used to be there, we had to move them into the coop that the first ones were in, and then we had to move those into a new one that my dad built.

    We found some more snakes when we moved my chickens (the broilers) into the fenced area.  The day after we did that my dad found three small copperheads in a spot.  They didn't eat any chickens, so my dad flung them away.  That was all in the end of march.

  

†see picture on the second post.

Just Another Day...

 We got some goats a couple days ago so that they could mow the lawn and thus save a bunch of money 'cause we don't have to buy a big machine to cut the grass. The plan didn't work out well because we have to fence them in a small area for some weeks so they can calm down. We thought the grass would last a week, but it lasted one DAY.

 Now we have to cut the grass, collect it in a bag attached to the mower, and give it to the goats for the next couple of weeks. Also the golf cart we used to lug water around broke so we have to bring the water in a bucket all the way to the cows and the other animals. Hello! Animals should work for humans, not vice versa.

Snake Attack

Look in the corner, maybe a rat snake.

      We put the broiler chicks outside in the pen where the bigger ones were, so we put those in another one that my dad built with my brother. Then yesterday my mom called my dad. We (my brothers, my dad and I) were going somewhere when she called. She said a snake was in the pen. When we got home at eight, we saw the shape of a big ol' serpent curled up in the back of the small pen. We got a light and saw some chicken feet sticking out the viper's mouth. Dad got a stick and when he poked it, the snake started to throw up some naked chick.

      How it managed to remove the feathers I have no idea. My dad crushed its head and then beat it to death. We took some photos and investigated. Turns out it was a Texas rat snake, non-poisonous. We need to be careful.

Busy Day

      My dad is almost done with the fence, all that's missing is to run the electricity through the wires. We alredy put one of the cows in.

     When my dad moved the pen this morning, he accidently crushed one of the hens. It was alive when I checked the pen at noon, the chicken was inmobilized at the back of the coop with blood down it's back because the other chickens don't quit pecking at it. I want to kill him to take him out of his misery, but I don't know how to do it.

                                  By the way, I made the wooden fish under the plate.

As a relief from the previous paragraph's gruesome topic, I made a really good italian recipe a couple days ago, called gnocchi. It tastes great with tomato sauce and cheese. Don't eat a lot, 'cause the gnocchi is very filling. I'll post the recipe in the next entry.

C A T T L E

  We had gone to San Antonio to buy some cattle a week ago.  The cows arrived two days ago, a steer and a heifer with her calf.  The heifer is named Brenda, and her calf is Matilda.  The steer don't have a name, since its destined for the butcher's shop, actually my dad nicknamed it 'hamburger' since that's what it'll probably become.

  My dad is still fencing out an area for the cows so they are currently in the neighbor's pen. My dad is using electric wiring to fence about 2 acres around our lake, with subdivisions because we'll be doing the rotational grazing method.  

Almost An Official Farm

      We got the new broiler chicks today!  The procedure to take care of them is the same as the other ones.  A wooden chicken house (inside the shed) is were they are currently living.  The food is different than the other egg-laying chicks, since it was made to make things fat.  The chicks are yellow and real small.  We're going to eat them when they are 9-11 weeks old.  I'm in charge of them.  My dad ordered a lot of organic chicken food -one ton!- a couple days ago, it came this Monday.

Chicken House

My brother, my dad and I built this chicken house two days ago. It was pretty easy, actualy. We have to move it from one spot to nother so that the chicks have clean ground every day.

 I still don't understand about the free range and pasturing method, so my mom told me to read an article about chicken farming which didn't do nothing except muddle things up. Something about chickens and rotating houses and low fencing and who knows what and some more. SOMEONE that understand this complicated hubbub please explain. : <  ?

The beginning of a flock

   The chicks got here about two weeks ago. I think it's weird that they sent them in a box like any other package. We put them in a big metal container with  four inches of pine shavings and put it in the shed with a heat lamp (it was pretty cold, 20 degrees Fahrenheit) until it started to get warm. My dad told my brother he's in charge of 'em, although my dad's been doing most of the work.

   They're staying in the shed till they're 3 weeks old. Then they're moving into a chicken house my dad's going to build with us. I hope we'll be able to sell the eggs when they lay them.