Daydream thread continues.....

Itismehonest

A succession of heavy hail storms here

rhiwfield

Made me look out of window to see the dark clouds advancing, and get the washing in off the line!

Checked the high fence and its suffering from top heavy ivy. Prefer not to cut it this time of year but its that or see the fence go in the next high winds.

No eggs here now

Davesnave

Pete nearly managed to finish the fencing at this end of the top field, but even with a light on his drill (!) he had to give up at 5.20pm. He'd put in 3 hours this pm without getting even slightly damp, which was lucky, but it's a whole overcoat colder out there today.

Hopefully he'll be back tomorrow to finish the fence and fell a couple of ash trees we have on the roadside, which are getting too large for their situation. Then we might look at a potential piggy area.

Hope that didn't turn into a cold, CTC. I too woke up sneezing etc this morning, but it just disappeared as soon as I went out to the chooks.

choille

Roof sheeting is only for kitchen section as can't afford anymore at the mo - waters pouring as it was soooooooooo wet.

Sheeting came & we got it ferried down here with local man with trailer & tractor too tight for delivery lorry to come down. Got it off loaded no bother - so am getting stronger which feels good.

Flu jab today - never had one of those before - can't keep away from the docs!

Freezing, beautifully bright day, but got into your bones it was so/is so very cold.

Went to saw mill for sawdust - lovely seeing all the trees in their gold.

alfie_1

evenog all........

bright sunny but cold day at friends 5 miles away. NO chook eggs
RUBY is so good now, i feed her and i stand there giving her a good stroke/rub/cuddle [no tether]....
LIR...:A what are the chances of you working on her for me next year [spring?] to bring her on.?? for a few weeks ? at yours ? PAY YOU
ive always got TOO close to really train my hoss's to be multi taskers. i have tended to train em to fit my needs which makes it difficult for anyone else to ride/drive..:o
and i AM going to need someone here that can give her a blast on the forest, blow away the cobwebs after "oldtimers" alfs needs she will get bored otherwise...

i am glad you are feeling stronger choille.:)
CTC... take care of yourself or you will end up collapsing in a heap of vintage kacks...;) :rotfl::rotfl:

I SOOOOO WANT TO SEE THE SHOP....hint BIG hint....:D

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Alfie no need to hint, you know you can:D

feeling a bit rought, but this cold thing hasnt got any worse, so far...

As you can see I cant sleep:rotfl:

Well had our meat back yesturday... we have a shed full of it:rotfl: as we didnt get back til late last night, we just fried up some chops and belly pork..( they were cut quite thick) youngest ate the first one, and said it wasnt any different:eek: but when hubby and I started chomping in, our verdict was totally different.

There was no 'white' gunge forming in the frying pan ( which normally happend with supermarket chops).

They were easy to cut, ( hadnt dried out when cooked)

the taste.... was def...alot 'sweeter' than supermarket bought stuff..

colour def different ( thankfully not orange due to feeding carrots:p)

The owner of the place said they were perfect, BUT we thought there was alot of fat on the chops ( leg joints are really lean) but the chop hadnt been 'trimmed' to an inch of its life, and the skin/rind had been left on the chop.

We didnt have bacon form these two, as the owner recommended we have larger pigs for that, plus they have to be cured for 2 weeks, ( and it cost alot more to be processed) so we are going to gorw on the last 2 and try that.

Sorry if the post might upset some peeps, but Just to let peeps( lurkers) know there is DEF a taste diff to the meat you buy in the supermarket...to free range meat..If I didnt rear pigs again, I would def try and source good freerange meat...

Alexelisey

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

We didnt have bacon from these two, as the owner recommended we have larger pigs for that, plus they have to be cured for 2 weeks, ( and it cost a lot more to be processed) so we are going to gorw on the last 2 and try that.

Sorry if the post might upset some peeps, but Just to let peeps( lurkers) know there is DEF a taste diff to the meat you buy in the supermarket...to free range meat..If I didnt rear pigs again, I would def try and source good freerange meat...

CTC, do you have all your costings for weaner purchase/ feed/ bedding/ slaughter /process that you could send me via PM please? I love the fact that M*rris*ns now do Berkshire pork and although I know doing it yourself should be more expensive than that, I'm more interested in having pigs to give them a proper home-reared life than the costs. I can certainly taste the difference myself.

We went on a pig keeping course in 2009 and had a roasted Tamworth shoulder for lunch, it was so sweet and tender!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

oo flip We were going to write ALL our costings down but we never:cool: as I think this first lot was more as a learning thing, to see if we could actually 'do it'

So costing points...

Well grown on weaners at auction, we paid £30 each...There were weaners going for a £1:eek: BUT!!!! We couldnt leave our hearts rule our heads, they were on the skinny side, but not only that they looked 'runty' so even if you put good quality food into them, they wouldnt really be good pigs IYSWIM .Weaners ranged from £1 to £40 each at the auction.. If you are buying privately they range from £25 - £60 each...If we were buying privately we personally wouldnt pay more than £45 each.

We bought 4, and in the begining we were going through 2 sacks of sow and weaner a week.. then it went to 2.5 sacks, 3, and I think in the end we were about 3.5 sacks a week for the 4, plus carrots:D morning and evening, and what ever else I could pick up cheap for them to have a treat..Pony carrots are £2.25 a 10kg sack and we went through 1 a week.

Abattoir costs... we paid £186.93 for 2 pigs ,
which included all the joints from 1 pig vac packed and labelled ( this was £20 extra, but looking at it well worth it ) sausages packed in tray packs ( havent counted how many trays we have but there is loads..

Found reciept so here is the total break down

Kill and Cut.....£100.
Boxes...................6.00
1/2 mix faggots.....10.00
vac pac and label ...£20.00
Sausages ( think 34 packs @ 3/4lb)...£43.43
trays and wrap for sausages .....£7.50


As you can see not cheap....

But to know how they were looked after, and fed, the amount of space they had to run around etc, to know they wernt stuck in a trailer travelling umpteemn miles, and to know it was a family run business, which cared about their reputation and the welfare etc of the animals is to me priceless..

Edit, bales of straw £4.50 each, and we were suprised, we only used 3 bales( or was it 4?), they are sooooooooooooo clean in their arc

Davesnave

If we have pigs, it will be rarer breeds , as we'd not expect it to pay any better than the chickens! :rotfl:

We'd hope to find the 'ideal' pork for us, because there's no supply of that ATM. To be honest, Pete's pork, while it's OK, is from commercial breeds and we find it a bit on the bland side. We also get some from the butcher, which is genuinely free range, but again, it doesn't really do it for us.

Did I dream it, or did you say your pigs didn't eat apples, CTC? We were hoping to use pigs to use the part of our crop that otherwise spoils, so it would be a pity if they didn't like them.

5C out there this morning and bits of sunshine, but the next few days don't look great. Then it dries up a bit and gets even colder.....:(

Woke up sneezing again this morning.....but only because one of the cats had stuck a whisker up my nose! She was trying to wake me gently.....:rotfl:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Davesnave, no you didnt dream it, they didnt eat them in the begining, but now they will eat some if we cut them up:rotfl:
But I should imagine they are like us, some people like certain foods, some dont.


I have heard tamworth are nice, so are g.o.s berkshires, but its allways the breeders that are saying it:p

If you know that you can distance yourself, and go through the whole proceedure for your own meat, its def worth doing even once for the experience...

Alex sow and weaner nuts I normally pay £6.60 -£6.80 a sack ( he taks 20p a sack off if you buy 10 sacks)