The Freezer Has an Echo

Opening our deep freeze lately tells a story.  In the compartment to the far right which you can't see, it is full of chickens we butchered early this summer.  The chickens will last us until next summer.  However, as you can see below, the two beef compartments are empty.  There is 1 two-pound pack of ground meat - the last of it, two briskets, and not much else.  The deep freeze is so empty it has an echo.

Fortunately, we are blessed to have two bulls in the pasture.  With the Covid-19 craziness, people have been concerned about disruptions to the supply chain and lack of supply of beef.  As a result, many locals are having their animals slaughtered to have provisions on-hand in the event of an emergency.  Months ago, we called to get an appointment to have our two bulls butchered.  We found it was a four month waiting list!!  Anyhow, December 19th was our date.

The first step was separating Rosie and Clarabelle from the two bulls, Aussie and Clarabull.  The two bulls are not halter broken.  Clarabull does not have a halter on at all.  Getting them into trailer was going to involve trickery, deception, slight of hand, and raw will.  

We lured them to the gate with buckets of sweet feed.  They walked to the end of the trailer and stretched their necks out.  The bucket was placed just out of reach.  Coaxing the bull with a taste here and there, we got one foot up, then another and then pushed from behind and pulled from his halter until Aussie was up!

Clarabull required a bit more time and effort.  He fell getting in the trailer, but we were finally successful.

We closed the divider in the trailer to push them all the way to the front.  They finished off the sweet feed that we used as a lure to bait them into the trailer.

My best guess is that each bull weighs about 750 pounds, but I can't tell for sure.  Their weight sure made the truck sit down in the back, with the weight of both bulls on the tongue of the old trailer.  The trailer looks rough, I know.  It is a 1978 model that belonged to my grandfather.  I have been patching up rust holes in it with Bondo and fibreglass patching kits.  I will soon sand, prime and paint it.  I'm thinking about a navy blue color.

We drove through Jennings, Mermentau, Midland and Morse and arrived at Elliott's Slaughter House.  It sits in the country in the middle of pasture lands, rice fields, and crawfish ponds.  We watched a crawfisherman in his boat baiting up his traps.

The building itself is unimpressive.  It is a plain, white cinderblock construction.  Nothing fancy about it.  What we did notice is that on a Saturday morning, IT WAS PACKED with people.  The parking lot was full.  The interior had a line of people buying fresh meat.  You can't get it much fresher than this.

We unloaded the two bulls into the corral.  The attendant filled the water trough.  These guys will be butchered on Monday.  The meat will age for a while in coolers, and then they will grind and cut up the meat.  We will be called when it is all packaged and labeled and we'll go pick it up.

Here is a photo of the Cutting Instructions that they get from us.  I'll explain further below:

First thing is that when you bring an animal, it is ALL YOURS.  You can have everything you want, except the moo.  This sheet shows you what we get:

We want everything cut to 3/4 inch thickness.  For the front: We want the neck and chuck steaks made into ground meat, we want shoulder steaks, seven steaks, rib steaks, short ribs and brisket.

For the back: We want 3-4 lb roasts, T-bone, sirloin steaks, round steaks, shank.  We want them packed 2-3 steaks per package.  We want ground beef in 2 pound packages, the tenderloin whole.  We want the flank/skirt steaks for fajita meat.

For the debris:  We want the liver, but no kidney.  I'm not interested in the "Rocky Mountain Oysters."  We do, however, want the fat for soap-making and the bones for making beef broth.  We opted to not get the hide.  I'm sure that the items we decline, they will have a market for it all.

Upon getting a call in a couple of weeks, we'll journey back to the slaughterhouse and pick up the meat.  It will be all packaged, labeled and frozen.  We'll carry it home and re-fill the freezer.  The deep freeze will no longer echo, but will be full of grass-fed, hormone-free, fresh, natural, non-medicated beef.  The good stuff.

If We Make It Through December

Around 1976 we moved from a house in town to a house that sat on 5 acres in the middle of some piney woods.  It was quite a change for us.  We had room to roam, build forts in the woods, ride a mini bike on trails we made, dig sassafras roots and make homemade 'root beer,' hunt and fish.  It was a neat childhood.

In town we walked to school as we lived right across the street from it.  However, when we moved to the country, we rode the bus to school.  We'd wait at the bus stop in front of the house.  Mrs. Pitre was our school bus driver.  She had an 8-track tape player on her bus, and she introduced us to classic country music - Ronnie Milsap, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Charlie Pride and the list goes on and on.

I remember a Merle Haggard song we learned on Mrs. Pitre's bus, "If we make it through December."  Merle sang, "If we make it through December, everything's gonna be alright, I know."  Good memories.  Windows down in the bus, with a breeze blowing through your hair as you were heading home in the afternoon.  Merle Haggard blaring as we sang along.  Getting dropped off and hearing Merle's voice trailing off as the bus drove out of sight, "If we make it through December we'll be fine." 

Speaking of December, even though tomorrow it will be July...  Above is Aussie.  He is Rosie's bull calf.  His Daddy was a registered Jersey bull from Australia.  We also have Clarabull.  He is Clarabelle's bull.  Get it?  Well, beef prices are very high in grocery stores due to processing issues caused by Coronavirus.  I had a gentleman that stopped in our driveway this weekend wanting to buy one of our bulls.  I had to tell him they are not for sale.

Because... I asked Tricia to call and make an appointment for them at the slaughterhouse.  I was surprised to learn that the soonest we could get them in is December 23rd!  All the slaughterhouses are that backed up.  I assume with high beef prices, everyone is taking their own animals to the butcher shop.  Our freezer will be just about empty of beef by that time.  I know it is a long way away, but like Merle sang, "If we make it through December, we'll be fine...."

Water Everywhere!

The water trough in the bull pen has been a source of trouble for us lately.  First, the baby goats have been sticking their heads through the 4X4 hogwire to drink water and have been getting their heads stuck in the fence due to their horns.  Tricia was having to go out several times a day to rescue the goats.  They aren't very bright.  They wouldn't learn a lesson.  Using a chicken wire frame that was part of an old brooder and a rusty piece of corrugated tin, I built a temporary barrier that has kept the kids out of the bulls' water trough and thus, out of trouble.

Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I come home to what you see above.  Nope, it didn't rain.  The bull named Astro (because he was born on the night that the Astros won game 6 in the World Series),used his head to knock the float valve out of the trough.  The float valve is fastened to the trough with some wing-nut bolts.  After the bull drinks, the water automatically fills until the float valve closes and stops the water flow.  Bulls are notorious for rubbing their heads on everything and apparently he rubbed on the float valve until it was loosened.  Then he hit it with his head until it was laying on the ground with the water running wide open.  All day long!

We weren't home today as we were moving Benjamin into his college dormitory.  When we came home, we found this.  The water must have run all day as the pasture is flooded all the way to the fence toward the south and west.  I hate to see our water bill this month!  I quickly put the valve assembly back on the trough to stop the water.

Astro stood there in the mud seemingly proud of his handiwork.  I was not too impressed.

Bulls are just a nuisance to have on our little pasture.  When they get this age, they begin using their heads to destroy anything in the pasture.  Unfortunately, this also means us!  They will come up to us, lowering their heads and will push us or hit us.  Today while putting the float valve on the trough, Astro came up behind me and rammed me with his head.  I had to hit him in the nose to make him stop.  Then I yelled for Tricia to distract him by feeding him some sweet feed so that I could re-affix the valve to the trough.  We not only have Astro, but we have Aussie and Clarabull.  Astro's mischief today made me all the more determined to go ahead and get an appointment scheduled for him at the slaughterhouse.

We were previously waiting until the quality of the grass diminishes before sending him, but I believe we'll go ahead and take him.  He's plenty fattened up.  Then we'll move Aussie and Clarabull into the 'bull pen' and wean them both.

Thoughts on a Thursday

This afternoon was a busy one.  When I got home from work, I weeded the three rows of green beans.  All the weeds were thrown over the fence and the chickens and goats happily disposed of them for me!  This green bean experiment may be an exercise in futility.  I was told by a master gardener at church that you aren't supposed to plant green beans until mid-August as green beans don't like hot weather.  Since our spring green beans didn't produce well due to excessive rain, I'm hoping that these produce.  If not, I'll plant again in a month.

I moved the cows to the next paddock in the pasture.  Every two days I move them into the next paddock and close off the one they were just eating on.  This gives it a little over a week to "rest up" and re-grow.  The paddock on the right below has been eaten down.  The side on the left has tender growth.  The cows recognize the sound of the electric fence reel.  They equate it to fresh grass and come running.

Then I walked out to the barn to get my small animal trap.  Last night I spotted a possum in the yard, but by the time I went inside to get my rifle, the possum was gone!  I'll set the trap in the yard and hopefully catch him.  I baited the trap with dog food and will check in the morning.  I hope I don't catch our cat in the trap.  In the past I've caught many possums, but have also caught the neighbor's cats from time to time.

While I was at the barn, Oreo's two baby twins, Salt and Pepper, were playing in the wagon.  I tell you, these goats get into everything.  They were playing in the wagon!

Pepper figured the wagon was as good a place as any t take a nap.  Salt was too antsy to rest.

As it turns out, it was a good thing I went back out to the barn to get the trap.  I discovered that after we separated the bulls from the mommas, Clarabull had escaped and had rejoined the herd in the pasture.  It is a good thing we noticed or we would have gotten no milk at all tomorrow!  Crisis averted.  We captured the escapee and put her back in the corral.

An Update on Clarabull (Clarabelle's bull calf)

Three bulls on the pasture now.  Astro, and then Rosie's little bull and finally Clarabull, Clarabelle's little bull.  Clarabull likes running in the pasture, kicking up his heels and chasing the chickens.  We enjoy watching him from the backyard while he puts on a show for us.  He started out as a little weak fellow, but now he is strong and healthy.

Even though we rarely keep bulls on our pasture for longer than a year and a half, we don't want horns on them.  Horns can be dangerous.  They can gore other animals and can gore you!  We wait until about 7-14 days after the calves have been born and then de-horn them.  It was time to do this for Clarabelle's little bull.  Although we won't go through all the steps, by clicking on this link: DEHORNING CLARABELLE, you can see step by step how we dehorned Clarabelle.

Clarabull was not too happy about the procedure.  Here he is with his duct tape protective covering.  This keeps the de-horning paste from getting in his eyes or on other animals.

While it may look silly, it serves it's purpose.  Dr. Naylor's De-horning paste is a caustic paste.  At night, we trim the hair down to where we can see the horn bud, we apply a nickel-sized amount of De-horning paste over the horn bud and the put a ring of petroleum jelly around the de-horning paste to contain it.

The duct-tape protective cap will stay on until the morning.  In the morning, we take it off, wash off the area around his horns and hopefully, the horn buds will not grow.  In a month or two, we will be able to tell if the procedure was successful.