A Little of This and a Lot of That

The ranch remuda hasn't had to work too awfully hard lately. The cows are all processed and most are out on the desert permit for the winter. Randyman runs wells every other day which takes several hours. As usual, I am left to my own resources for entertainment.

It’s that time of year and this is my week for canning soup. Canning meals last year was an immense help for the days I wasn’t feeling well enough to fix dinner. Each year seems to get a little tougher, so this year I am hoping to get a lot more prepared in advance. Even though there was just Randyman and myself, I cooked a 16 lb. turkey. With some of the leftovers, I made a Turkey version of Chicken Tortilla Soup and canned 14 quarts of it.  A quart seems to feed two of us just fine. We bought a 20 lb bag of potatoes so I canned 7 quarts of potatoes and 7 quarts of Ham&Potato soup. There are still a few potatoes left over to be used up some other way, maybe steak fries or something. Nothing will have a chance to go bad or go to waste. BroccoliCheese soup was made and frozen, all that needs to be added is the milk & cheese when it's re-heated.

The rest of the left over turkey will be made into Pot Pie and Tettrazini.  Pretty good eats, for a minimum of effort.

Two of the roosters got canned today, which leaves 'Mr T' as the only man of the coop again. I am glad because having the other roosters around was making him mean and I don't like roosters that attack. I'm not ready to put him in the stew pot because he is such a big beautiful thing and should sire the best babies for us. It isn't much fun culling chickens as I have to skin them and clean them myself, then cut them up and part them out and can them. Meatie chickens I freeze whole but the dual purpose or laying chickens get canned as there isn't as much meat and it's so handy to have chicken on hand that is already cooked and shredded for casseroles, enchiladas, soups, salads and sandwiches.The dogs help with the clean up, as they take the heads, backs and innards away for me, so all I have to dispose of is feathers. It's ok to feed raw chicken with bone to dogs, as the bones are soft and they do fine chewing them. It's when the bones have been cooked that they are dangerous because they splinter and can puncture intestines and/or choke on them. Since these weren't meatie chickens, I can them with the bone in, except for the breasts. There isn't a ton of meat on them and trying to debone before canning is a lot of work. After they are canned, it's easy to pull the meat off the bones and use it. I save the backs and feet from the meatie chickens we eat, to use in stock. The feet are cleaned by peeling off the "socks" and it makes amazing broth.

I managed to get the chicken coop cleaned out and bedded for the year. I put deep shavings inside under the roosts. The chickens will pretty much keep it all stirred up and it will make good compost next winter. The old stuff I cleaned out got dumped in the garden and the moisture from winter will do its work and it will be ready to till up and plant next spring. Used straw and hay goes in the outside chicken run where they will have fun scratching and picking through it. This breaks it down so it will compost well too, along with keeping things from getting all muddy, so I can walk in to gather eggs without sinking. In early spring I will clean again and it will all go in the garden.

I took the last of the soaps off the racks and they are ready to sell. One batch is Cracklin' Birch and it smells GREAT and very Christmasy. Kind of a spicey, evergreeny smell. The other is a nice Apple scented soap. Homemade soap makes great stocking stuffers and Christmas gifts, especially in a gift basket with scrubby, bath salts, moisturizer and maybe a candle, wineglass and a bottle of wine. A great way to pamper someone. No, I don't sell gift baskets, I'm just making a suggestion of what would be nifty to have. To check out my soaps, just click the link on the word soap. The page will show what I have in inventory.

I have a good deal of sewing to get done before Christmas but am having problems getting some of the things I need online. In addition to that, I need to make clothes for myself because I have virtually nothing to wear and we are heading down to visit family in January.  Anyway, I've been getting a little uptight about things and feeling a little helpless, so I decided the best thing to do today was go hang out with the sheep and dogs.

I opened the gate and as we all filed out, Cletus took the lead, the sheep walked single file behind him and Bruno brought up the rear. As the sheep picked a spot to start grazing, the dogs headed South and did a quick check thru the willows and the creek bed. Seeing nothing of interest there, they headed back and took up positions quite a ways out in the tall grass, where they could keep an eye on things.

 I never get tired of watching them. They spent a bit of time observing from their different vantage points, then simultaneously walked a little closer to the sheep and sat together...

...it wasn’t long before they relaxed...

...and then began a little horseplay.

 I honestly don’t know how people can get by with just one LGD. These guys are so attached to each other and play so hard and so often I’m afraid sheep would not fare so well if I had only a lone dog with that much energy. I don't know how I used to get along without them, as their affection for me and attentiveness has brought me immeasurable joy.

It really amazes me what voracious eaters hair sheep are. Even Thing1 and Thing 2 are enthusiastically consuming  grass, weeds, thistle and whatever else they come across. They've gained a LOT of weight since they were born just a couple of weeks ago. I grunt to pick them up anymore. Their little backs are already getting broad.

It was a beautiful day. After a couple of hours I figured I had best get back to the house and get some chores done. Cletus escorted me past Bennie-the-bull and got a drink before heading back out to the pasture to join Bruno in babysitting sheep. 

I returned to the house much less anxious.

Randyman had to  go to Burns and was gone for the day. I had to feed alone, which isn’t all that bad as long as I am mobile. The hardest part is getting the sheep back in their little corral, so I can get into the hay bales unmolested. I still have to go thru the sheep corral twice with buckets of grain for EmmaLou , which rarely goes well for me as they are always quite certain it's really for THEM. Next, I have to get grain to the steers. Actually only one steer is being grained now and finished as we can’t afford to feed out and butcher two, so he has to be separated until he is done eating his grain. This turns out to be the easier job. Moe, the big steer, has figured out how to open and close gates. We found him in with EmmaLouMoo several times before we found out he was actually lifting the gate handle with his mouth and pushing the latch back to open it. We've had to put a lock on it. There is a small alleyway leading to the steer pen, with a swing gate at the end of it. I found that if I go down the alley and pour his grain in a feeder inside there, he will come eat it while I exit the other end and push the gate closed to keep steer #2 out, because Moe can open the gate and let himself back out to eat hay with #2 when he is finished.

So, you ask, do I feel bad that we will be processing him?

Let me highlight a few points.

1. He was destined for the freezer from the very beginning, this is one of the reasons we breed our cow, to provide both meat and dairy for us.
2. He has had a really great life for a steer. He’s been well fed all his life, all his needs have been met, he even got to roam the ranch at large all summer with his buddy.
3. His last moments in this life will be as pain free and anxiety free as is humanly and humanely possible.
4. He has chased me out of the pen more than once, demanding his grain and does not hold an ounce of concern or affection for me. He is just a big, potentially dangerous, greedy steer.
5. My family needs the meat.

So, yeah. I really DO feel bad...but I’ll get over it. Probably with a nice steak.