Sliced meats

More than once the words "I wish we had a meat slicer" have been muttered by Dan. We long ago stopped buying grocery store lunch meat since most of it is some type of 'loaf' and chock-full of nitrates, chemicals and other artificial additives, and way too much salt. Unfortunately, we both really love meat sandwiches. Now that we're raising broilers and pigs it seemed to make sense to go ahead and purchase a slicer. Dan set out to find the perfect one. We didn't want a home-grade kitchen slicer as none of the reviews make them out to be quality appliances. We (Dan especially) does not purchase items made in China for a variety of reasons. This drastically reduced our options. After much research, Dan decided on a restaurant-grade Bertel brand made in Italy. The downside is that Bertel's run about $1400 new. So, he's been watching eBay for a used model and lo and behold, a Bertel finally appeared. On the last day there were still no bids. He waited until the last few minutes (yes, he's a sniper!) and placed his bid. The slicer was ours for a fraction of the cost of a new one!

Today we cooked two broilers on the rotisserie of our grill. One for dinner and one to slice for sandwiches. As for dinner, we all agreed it was the best chicken we've ever eaten. Ever. Period. After dinner he brought out the new toy, er I mean slicer. He started slicing beautiful pieces of chicken breast. Next he scoured the fridge for a block of cheese to slice. It sliced up beautifully as well. I foresee lots of sandwiches this coming week.

Here is our behemoth slicer in action....

Egg count

28 large eggs and 31 smaller eggs = 59

Baby bunnies!!!

We've been expecting doe #1 to kindle her babies any day now.  Yesterday she started pulling fur in preparation of her delivery.  However, this morning we still had no babies.  I went back out to check around 9:30 and we had little, pink, fuzzy balls in the nest box. 

I ran back in the house and grabbed my Storey's Guide to Raising Rabbits book to see if there was anything I needed to do.  The book said now is the time to give momma a treat.  I ran inside and grabbed a carrot and gave it to her.  She immediately started munching.  The book says while momma is preoccupied with her snack, you can move the box to see how many babies you have (but don't touch them with your fingers so you don't leave your scent on them).  I nudged around and counted 8 babies, which is perfect because that's how many teats momma has.  Then the book said if momma didn't cover the babies with the fur she pulled to do it for her so the babies stay warm. She didn't very well, so I covered them up. Lastly, it says momma needs lots of peace and quiet, so I'm trying to stay away to give them some privacy.  I've checked on them a few times today and each time momma is laying outside the box.  I'm afraid she hasn't nursed them, or isn't sure what to do.  The little babies are active though.  Eyes closed, they are crawling over each other.  It's nearly 100 degrees heat index outside, so Dan thinks momma might be staying out to keep them from getting too hot.  We'll just have to let nature take it's course.

Momma preoccupied with her carrot...

Close-up of babies...

Mmm... blueberries

Last year we planted a few blueberry bushes.  Most have withered away, but this one is not only healthy, but is producing fruit for us this year.  Now, if we only had about 20 more plants like this!

Chicken processing day

Today we processed 18 Cornish Crosses we started raising just 7 weeks ago. Cornish Crosses are your typical American chicken you find in the grocery store. I'm truly amazed at how fast these birds grow. With that said, I don't think we're going to raise them again. We had no issue with the birds, only an internal struggle as to how humane it is to raise them. These birds are bred to put on weight quickly. Which they do. But, by about 4-5 weeks we noticed they had a hard time walking. It's because their bodies are growing at a faster rate than their legs, muscles, heart, etc. can keep up with. It's really kind of sad that the desire to free range has been bred out of them in order to give us those beautiful big breasts and legs we desire. We've found another breed that grows at a slower, more natural rate. We're looking forward to experimenting with this breed next.

However, these birds are raised and we are quite sure they will indeed be tasty! The last time on butchering day, we went to the coop and grabbed two birds at a time, which put stress on the birds not being processed and wasted time. So, Dan built some transport crates to load up all the birds at once and carry them over to the processing site. This worked really well:

I should also mention that we processed one turkey that had leg issues. He was healthy as could be, but he was born with splayed legs (they grow out instead of down) and we just couldn't bear to watch him grow like that. And the other turkeys were starting to peck at him. Poor little fella!

We also processed our rooster, Big Boy. After deciding to keep one of the Barred Rock cockerels, we read they can be very aggressive. And indeed he was! The Ladies particularly didn't like him and the Girls that were raised with him only tolerated him. We decided to process him while he was still fairly young. We're going to replace him with a more docile breed that will be raised amongst all the hens, so hopefully they will all get along.

Egg count

Ladies: 24
Girls: 16
Total this week: 40

Green eggs and ham

Well, not really the ham part, but we do have a green egg!  We recently got our first egg from one of our new Ameraucana layers.  They are nicknamed an Easter Egg chicken because they naturally lay eggs with a green and/or blue hue.  I'm not entirely sure how nature does it, but it's pretty amazing looking.  Here are three little eggs from our new layers, all with distinctive hues.