Aggieterpkatie-Pics of my new rabbit-Page 38 !!!!!

[patandchickens]

What free said. Home-processed (mine anyhow) seems to be WAY cleaner and longer lasting than storeboughten... and I am by no means the most hygeinic at processing poultry!

Sniff it, and if it passes then just make sure to cook it realllly thoroughly.

Pat

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

Homegrown? It is probably fine, especially if it was also home processed (cleaner processing.) I am amazed at the fridge life of home grown poultry and other meats.

yep. but if it freaks you out at all.. i'm sure the dogs/cats would love you especially if you cooked the dickens out of it

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Thanks ladies!! I finally hope to tackle the turkey tonight. I've had stuff to do both last night and Wednesday. It's almost a joke now as to when I'll get to the turkey. I did open the fridge this morning and it LOOKED normal...as in, it wasn't green or white and furry.

It's cold again outside. We had a nice break for 2 days...it was in the 40's and I really wanted to be home so I could get some animal pens cleaned out but of course I had to work. Now it's cold again for the weekend. Thanks, Mother Nature.

Two nights ago I brought home a load of hay. Only this time I got a large round bale instead of small squares. I lucked out last year and earlier this year by getting square bales from my old work...they sold me incredibly nice organic hay for $3 a bale. It was gorgeous....Max Q fescue (the friendly endophyte type) and alfalfa. The animals LOVED it. Unfortunately they didn't have enough to sell me enough to get me through winter. All the other hay guys are selling hay for $5 to $6 a bale, which is a decent price I guess. It's just not in our budget right now though, so I bit the bullet and bought a round bale.

This bale is huge...about 1500 lbs and 6'X6'. I wanted to put it in our 8X10 metal hay shed, but it wouldnt' fit through the door. We ended up tilting the building back (like it was hinged to the ground) so we could roll the bale under it, then flip the building back down on it. It barely fits in the shed. I was hoping to set it up on it's end so I could unroll the hay from the sides, but there's no way we could have lifted it up. So, I'll just have to peel the hay off from the side until I use enough to be able to manipulate it a little better.

This weekend I need to vaccinate my girls with CD/T. Purl (Romney ewe) is due Feb 13th. June, the goat, is due in March, and Darla (Southdown ewe) isn't due until May. I'll probably boost her before she lambs since she's more than a month out.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Here's a pic of the round bale we got. I'll post a picture of it in the shed later. It's going to last quite some time with only 4 (and soon to be 3) animals! And it was dirt cheap compared to square bales...so as much of a pain it will be feeding it out, it will probably be worth it to just keep getting round bales!

 

[TanksHill]

 

[glenolam]

Are you letting them eat from it while it's in the shed or are you pulling hay off it to feed them? I know what a PITA it can be to rip hay off a round bale, so if you have a method that makes it easy let me know!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Are you letting them eat from it while it's in the shed or are you pulling hay off it to feed them? I know what a PITA it can be to rip hay off a round bale, so if you have a method that makes it easy let me know!

Well, I thought about putting it out in the pasture with them, but I'd have to put it on pallets, then cover it somehow. Plus, I'd really want to put something around it like cattle panels so they can't just eat and waste so much. It would be easier, but then I'd also have a huge yucky area of nasty hay to clean up...so I figured I may as well just feed them every day.

 

[glenolam]

Too bad goats and sheep aren't like cows - we give our cows a round bale every week or so & they gobble up everything from the nice stuff to the waste they leave skirted around them!

 

[Icu4dzs]

I was standing the round bale up on its end (no easy task I assure you) and that made peeling the hay off of it much more tolerable. Then the local farm supply store in Aberdeen started to sell round bale feeders. It looks like a big half cylinder sitting on a rack. Putting the bale in it is much easier because that is the way the bale sits on the ground. My tractor picks it up with the grapple and I just let it down in the same orientation with the tractor. Works great.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Well, I'm off to VA for the weekend. It's time for our second annual knitting weekend! My aunt hosts, and my sister and I go stay with her. We plan on doing lots of knitting and movie watching!

I know a couple of elderly ladies that do this. They watch old Agetha Christies while they knit.