Dexter/Mary Farms

Rain, rain, rain... perfect time to find some deer. I ended up taking no pictures of deer though.

On the way out, Ben stuck his head out of the window.

When he put his head back in, it looked like this.

Ha ha! See y'all later!

Macy

Armies of Plastic

Hey there, moo moos!

It sounds funny, but that's how we call the newest residents at the farm. Introducing Honeybelle and Sugar Muffin! (We call them Honey and Sugar for short.)

Sugar Muffin on the left, Honeybelle on the right

They are so cute! Sugar is two weeks old today and Honey 4 days older. I bought them for $200 each and they're pure Jersey. Right now they are being fed by nipple buckets twice a day with milk replacer. We leave a little grain and hay too. They eat the grain, but I haven't seen them do anything with the hay yet. Yesterday I went out and took a bazillion pictures of them. Unfortunately, it was just about to rain so the pictures look sort of dreary, but here's a few of them.

Sugar Muffin

Mmmm!

Honeybelle

Sugar Muffin

Honey in front and Sugar behind

Honeybelle

Bacon and her piglets are doing well. She is starting to wean them and you can tell they aren't happy about that.

We still have about two years till we can milk the cows, but I can wait. Meanwhile, I'll just play with them. :) -Leigha

Piggies!

Bacon had her second litter of piglets on April 27th! Yay! She had fifteen total, but we lost 3 due to being stepped or rolled on. :(   They are cute though.

I went out back to take some pictures of them. Unfortunately, it was very bright when I did so there are a lot of lens flare in the pictures. Please excuse that.

:)   Leigha

Nostalgia

I was going through my ballet things again. Memories flooded my mind. I thought of all the times I wanted to quit, but my mom didn't let me. I thought of when I started loving it. I thought of when it just about became an obsession. At one point I was dancing six days a week. I had abandoned God and everything about him. I had no relationship with Him and didn't fellowship with His people. Of course I called myself a Christian, but I didn't live like it. True, I was only 13, but that's old enough to understand and have a relationship. I was a good kid. You wouldn't have expected that I'd drift away from anything that had to do with Him. My parents wanted to get back to church. (We had left our old church a few years before because of a change in pastors.) I didn't object, but I was against it on the inside. We tried a few different churches. Someone thought about going to my grandparents old church, Volusia County Baptist Church. When we got there I saw my friend, Haley, and Ben saw his friend, Riley. It was probably only because of them that we joined. Right after, Mom, Ben, and I left to go to Japan. We went to Yokosuka Baptist Church. The great people there had a lot of influence on me. I went to see a special doctor for a pain I had in my ankle when I danced. He said that it could be a bone that only a small percentage of people have. Sometimes the bone shifts so that it doesn't cause pain anymore, but usually you have to take it out by surgery. When we got home to the US, I had an MRI that revealed I did have the bone and it was causing some inflammation. Long story short: I never went back to ballet. But I think because of that, I turned back to God. I was hurting, and he was comfort. He did it all for a reason and I thank Him for it.

A Walk in the Park

Recently, I  went walking with Mommy, Mrs. Buchite, Ben, and Carly. We had a good time and Beresford Park is such a pretty place.

Bacon Bits

My goodness! Our sow, Bacon, was due to have her litter of Bacon Bits a week ago! The piglets seem to be determined to stay in. She is getting very big. :)

Where are you little piggies?

Hog Slaughtering, Butchering, and Eating Part 2

Caution: Contains graphic images

Just a little warning there. If you don't like blood, I suggest you not read this. You should find some way to contact me, because I'll make another less graphic post if requested.

    The day before Butterscotch's demise was like any other day. She and Frankie were frolicking around the pen and biting my boots.

I can't say I was overjoyed that she was going to die the next day. But she wasn't exactly a nice pig either. She liked to butt into me when I wasn't paying attention.

Now I have made you all feel bad with these cute pictures. Let's go to the next day. The next morning the Rogers family came. After all, she was their pig. We were just keeping her because the Rogers live in a neighborhood. Anyway, they came in that big white van of theirs. All 10 of them (although Mrs. Rogers's mom isn't technically a Rogers... but she's part of the family.) The kids are (from oldest to youngest): Michelle, Melissa, Daniel, Derek, Melody, Melinda, and Melyna. Melinda and Melyna are twins.  We pretty much got right to it. The plan was to stab Butterscotch in the chest through the heart. For the longest time Daddy and Daniel were trying to catch Butterscotch with a rope, but Frank kept grabbing it. It seemed as if Butterscotch knew she was going to die because she was very wary and quick to retreat.

 I didn't like the suspense of waiting for her to get stabbed, so I ran into the house with Melody and Melyna. Now this is the funny part. Melody, Melyna, and I are the ones who want to go into the gross stuff (for example, veterinarian, paramedic, forensic something or another). We are hiding in the house and Melinda, the one who usually doesn't like that kind of stuff is out there taking pictures. Well, I finally got my courage enough to go back outside. I was thinking I'd hide behind someone so I wouldn't have to see. They are still trying to catch the pig. They got her to take an apple, but she grabbed it and ran. Finally, I said, "Can I just go get the gun?" Daddy said it was in the safe, so I ran and got the .22 rifle out of the safe and brought it to him. I wasn't planning on watching Butterscotch die. I think Frank knew something was wrong, too, because he kept standing in front of her like he was protecting her. When Frank was just far enough away, Daddy shot Butterscotch in the forehead and quickly handed me the gun. She was convulsing and Daddy was saying, "Where's the knife?" The boys found it and he quickly stabbed her through the heart.

Photo credit goes to Melinda Rogers

 I know it sounds bad, but I personally think Butterscotch couldn't feel a thing. All animals convulse when killed and it was a clean slaughter. Daddy needed someone to keep Frank away from Butterscotch while they got the trailer to put her in, so I remember handing the things I was carrying to different people as I was walk/trotting. Poor Frank  was looking at Butterscotch, who now only had the occasional tremor. I blocked his view as they put Butterscotch in the trailer, and raked over her blood.
For about 15 minutes after that I felt like a murderer, but then I was excited about dissecting her. We put her on the drying table (instead of a regular top, it's like a screen) and skinned her. That was the interesting part. We boiled some water. There must be a magic temperature because when it's too hot, too much skin and fat comes off, and when it's not hot enough, it doesn't come off very easily.

Then you slowly and evenly pour the water over the carcass and use a knife (perpendicular to the skin) to scrape it off. it was a pretty neat experience.

Mrs. Rogers with the hot water

Then Mom did some finishing touches with a razor. :)

Then we tied up the intestines. Trust me. You don't want the poop getting on the meat.

Then we stuck a hanger through her back legs so we could hang her up to gut her.

That concludes a long Part 2. I'll post Part 3 when I have more time.

The bullet that killed Butterscotch

If you missed part 1, see it HERE. To see part 3, click HERE.