Last week Thursday I got home from work and decided to feed and water the birds, when I noted something amiss...
One of our ducks was missing! It was the drake Blue Swedish, the two hens were still sitting in their normal spot next to the stable. I started walking around the farm looking for the duck or for a bunch of feathers indicating that something had snatched it up for lunch.
I combed the place and couldn't find anything, no duck, no feathers, no nothing. Nikki had seen a yellow lab in our yard the week before, so my working hypothesis was that someone's dog had nabbed it. Nikki and I went up to Chippewa Falls this weekend, so before we left I set up my motion-activated deer scouting camera on the fence near the duck's wading pool hoping to get some photographic evidence.
My sister-in-law Jackie took care of the farm in our absence and had some further information on our return. On Saturday afternoon she saw 4 large dogs down by our woodshed, which is where I killed the chickens the weekend before. My guess is that it was these dogs that grabbed one of my ducks. The scouting camera was full of pictures, so I am going to get those developed tomorrow. It will probably just show our dog, Cash, running around, but maybe I'll get lucky.
Hearing that we have 4 dogs running around together in the neighborhood is a little worrying, I don't know if they are from an area farm or if they are wild dogs in a small pack. I hope to see them myself soon so that I can see if they have collars or if they are obviously feral.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Monday, September 10, 2007
Wow, it's been a while
Sorry I haven't updated the weblog in so long. Let's see, what is there to report?
The Garden Share program was nearly a complete success, the last week got cut off due to severe punishment from Ma Nature. We had a month of heat and drought, followed by 2 weeks of non-stop rain. Between the weeds and the slugs the garden took a beating and we just didn't have enough stuff to put together a box on the last week. I probably could have assembled enough produce to make it, but it would have been pretty sorry looking. We are nearly recovered now, the late cauliflower and broccoli are getting ready to harvest and there a few other late season veggies around. I've got 13 qts of tomatoes and 7 of salsa in the root cellar already, and hope to get 5-10 quarts of tomato sauce put up before too long.
The chickens, ducks and turkeys are doing well. I sent 4 chickens to freezer camp on Saturday, was hoping to get 8 done, but the hornets found me and so I quit after 4. Some of them were still a a little small anyway. Really big drumsticks on them, though.
The big news is that we took the pigs to the butcher this morning. It was a lot of work getting them into the truck, I ended up taking them in two trips. Pepper, which is the pig Nikki and I are keeping for ourselves was by far the biggest, weighing in at a whopping 280 pounds! She gave me a hell of whallop when I was loading them up, I was closing the tailgate of the pickup when she gave it a mighty shove that sent me flying about 4 feet backwards onto the ground, then she had the nerve to stomp on me as she jumped off the truck. I also had to basically pick up Apple and throw her into the truck because she would not climb the ramp for a bribe of any type. Moving 236 lbs of wriggling pig is a bit of a chore. So I am little bruised and battered, but the job is done.
I will be picking up boxes and boxes and boxes of pork on Wednesday September 19th for all of you that ordered a pastured pork half. I will be emailing all of you that information as well as what it's gonna cost you to get some meat.
Cheers!
The Garden Share program was nearly a complete success, the last week got cut off due to severe punishment from Ma Nature. We had a month of heat and drought, followed by 2 weeks of non-stop rain. Between the weeds and the slugs the garden took a beating and we just didn't have enough stuff to put together a box on the last week. I probably could have assembled enough produce to make it, but it would have been pretty sorry looking. We are nearly recovered now, the late cauliflower and broccoli are getting ready to harvest and there a few other late season veggies around. I've got 13 qts of tomatoes and 7 of salsa in the root cellar already, and hope to get 5-10 quarts of tomato sauce put up before too long.
The chickens, ducks and turkeys are doing well. I sent 4 chickens to freezer camp on Saturday, was hoping to get 8 done, but the hornets found me and so I quit after 4. Some of them were still a a little small anyway. Really big drumsticks on them, though.
The big news is that we took the pigs to the butcher this morning. It was a lot of work getting them into the truck, I ended up taking them in two trips. Pepper, which is the pig Nikki and I are keeping for ourselves was by far the biggest, weighing in at a whopping 280 pounds! She gave me a hell of whallop when I was loading them up, I was closing the tailgate of the pickup when she gave it a mighty shove that sent me flying about 4 feet backwards onto the ground, then she had the nerve to stomp on me as she jumped off the truck. I also had to basically pick up Apple and throw her into the truck because she would not climb the ramp for a bribe of any type. Moving 236 lbs of wriggling pig is a bit of a chore. So I am little bruised and battered, but the job is done.
I will be picking up boxes and boxes and boxes of pork on Wednesday September 19th for all of you that ordered a pastured pork half. I will be emailing all of you that information as well as what it's gonna cost you to get some meat.
Cheers!
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