Today is piggie day!  Yesterday the butcher came out and slaughtered our three little piggies for us.  Don’t worry Ali, there will be no pictures of that on the blog.  I stay in the house while all that is happening.  Chickens are one thing but pigs are just a little different.  To me anyway.  Zoe on the other hand…now that is one hard core farm girl! 

Last year we told her she could watch this year and boy did she remember that.  We had watched a video of a slaughter so she had an idea of what was happening.  I kept asking her if she was really sure she wanted to watch.  Her reply  “Yes mom.  I know what they are going to do.  I watched the chickens.”  So, she and Greg went out with the butchers.

  When they left I headed out to see how it went and the first thing Zoe said was “I got to see the brain!!”  Awesome.  What a great school day.

Yep.  And we have proof.  Toby actually playing fetch and enjoying it! 

So far the only thing he’ll fetch are his bones and eventually it turns into more chase than fetch but, we’re enjoying it!

The boys love to throw the bone for him but when Toby actually chases it they (especially Oliver) change thier minds and scream.

So they stand on the sidelines holding their bones as Zoe throws one for Toby.

Lets finish up with the chickens (since they are now in our freezer).

Warning:  If you have any aversion to butchering chickens or blood do not read further.  This is life on a farm folks.

 A little about their short life.  Broiler chickens are only around for about 2 months before they are ready for butchering.  It is crazy they grow so fast.  The chicken tractor Greg made worked wonderfully.  We moved them each day to a fresh plot of grass.  It’s funny to look at our back yard now as a super green line zig-zags through it.  Great fertilizer!  This year was so wet and cold we lost more chickens than we were expecting.  They were looking so miserable we ended up putting their heat light back in.  They immediately looked better and although it seemed silly to be babying these chickens they needed to stop dying and use their energy to get fat.

Our chickens were a little smaller than we were hoping for.  Some of it was due to the weather I’m sure and we had a little bit of a time crunch with vacations and only had a small window to get it done.  

This is the first year we have done chickens.  We were so extremely blessed to have so many wonderful helpers.  Even a family we had only really met a week before (if that).  They are the professionals butchering more than 300 chickens each year.  Talk about experience!  The Lord provides our every need…even when it comes to butchering chickens.  And given the fact our camera was (still is) missing we were also fortunate to have our very own photographer (Thank you Ruth!)

I loved how interested the kids were with the whole process.  Eager to help.

These are the best things ever.  Well, maybe not ever but they are so helpful.  Properly called Kill Cones these babies contain the blood that would otherwise be splattered everywhere.

Then off comes they head.  It takes a bit of muscle apparently.

We chose to skin them this year instead of trying to pluck them all.  Much faster and cleaner.

Homeschool at it’s best. 

At each step there was teaching and learning.  The sharing of knowledge was in full swing.

Then the REAL professional showed up 🙂  A real live butcher to show us how it’s done.

Some of the meals may be a little surprise.

Lets not forget the broth.  All in all we had a great butchering day.  One of the best things…because of all the help I was able to hang back and “manage” the happenings.  That and run errands as needed.  And let me tell you, I was SO thankful for that.  Thanks again to all the friends that made this day go so smoothly.  You are wonderful!

Well, the due date (Wednesday) has come and gone.  Still no baby.  My doctor isn’t concerned and I’m not either…just ready.  Last night I was having enough contractions to actually start writing down times but as soon as I sat down they all stopped.  But we made good use of our due date and got baby pigs instead!  At least some sort of baby came into the Thames household (farm-hold?) I guess. 

So there they are.  I believe we have decided on the names Mr. Pork Chop (left) and Smoked (right).  It was fun this year to actually be able to pick out which ones we wanted.  The person we got them from had a couple that were black and white (pink i guess) so we got one of those to make it easier to tell them apart they look so cute.  We ended up with two boys.  We didn’t plan it that way it just so happened.  I don’t know if it will make a difference.  Last year we had two girls.  If nothing else they should be bigger in the end. 

I had forgotten how cute they are at this age.  They love their house.  They completely bury themselves in the straw at night and they sleep in in the morning.  Our last pigs weren’t early risers either.  Maybe it’s just the pig way.  Works for me.  I’m not much of a (happy) early riser either.

The latest (but not last) addition to our mini farm were broilers (AKA meat chicks).  We did 3 a couple years ago as a little experiment and I was not too crazy about it.  So this year we are doing 35 (well 34 now.  We lost one).

Greg as built these little guys (and or girls) a nice little chicken tractor that we will move around the back yard each day.  About another week and they will be moved from this area to thier tractor.  (pictures of that later)

We will only have to keep the broilers for 2 months before they are ready for processing.  Still not something I am looking forward to but again, thanks to good, knowlegeble freinds who are willing to help we will try out this new adventure.  And don’t you worry…I’ll keep you updated 🙂