Pork / Mats / Steers - The Accidental Smallholder

Posted: Monday 15 October, 2018

by Rosemary at 12:46pm in Smallholding Comments closed

Monday 8 October

Wet and miserable, but at least the wind’s dropped and it very mild. Did the weekly paperwork and finalized the arrangements for the pigs and the lamb coming back.

Blizzard has a sore foot – near fore – but she let me clean it and spray it with AB  and it seems a bit better.

Urquhart is looking lovelorn. He’s spending a lot of time gazing through the fence at the ewes, who are two fields away. They are not gazing back.

Tuesday 9 October

Windy again, and so dark this morning. Not helped by the electricity being off. Dan sorted it, thankfully. By 4pm, it was dark again and raining.

The MayoMats for the cowshed were delivered today. On a pallet. Without a forklift. Thankfully, they aren’t heavy so Dan handed them off the lorry and we piled them up by the barn. Dan, Bryn and I tried them out for comfort.

The mats arrived.

Dan and Bryn, trying the new mats.

Weeded a bit of the fruit garden and planted some crocus bulbs – for the bees.

Wednesday 10 October

Aaah, back to warm and sunny. Jane was here to do Bug’s and Smokey’s feet. Bug seems a bit sore, so given him some bute.

Pressure washed the cowshed and put the first four mats down. They’ll need cut to fit round some of the odd shapes. Ordered Stalosan.

First mats down.

Thursday 11 October

Been thinking about the layout of the cowshed. We’ll need a pen of about 7m2 for Hilda, the new heifer, a place to milk, tie rings for all the cattle and the brush needs to go back up. Put in a new bale of hay – braw stuff.

Didn’t get to Forfar as planned; called the vet to see Bug. Upped his bute and restarted his Prascend. I think we’re on the last lap now, sadly.

Did more Festival stuff and Dan pressed apples.

Friday 12 October

Rained overnight, but mild and breezy with some sun. Temperature 10-12C.

Dan went down to the butcher to pick up the pigs and the butchered lambs. Once he was back, I sorted out the lamb boxes for customers and put it in the chill until tomorrow.

Steers at East Pitkerro are looking well.

Steers.

Saturday 13 October

Ryan, Brian and Dan set up the butchery station this morning. Big gazebo, stainess steel tables and the community mincer / sausagemaker. Looked pretty cool.

Ryan butchered our pig apart from the shoulders and Dan started the curing of the belly, back and gammon joints.

Dalmore pork - look at that marbling.

Sunday 14 October

Pig butchery day 2 – the community pig. The butchery station is working really well. Second pig butchered, sausages and burgers made and some salami. The pigs were fantastic – not overly fat at all. In fact, it was a struggle to get enough fat for the sausages.

Portable butchery.