Pendergrass Ranch - Big changes!

[PendergrassRanch]

Sorry about your chickens

Nice addition of the goose, but I'm glad he's at your house. Too many bad experiences with geese attacking/chasing me to ever be comfortable with one around.

I was afraid of them when I was little for that very reason. This guy is SO freaking sweet its rediculous. He just hangs out when we were out there working, he lets you walk up and pick him up. I totally love him

This is what he did while we worked on the gates today

These little bearded ladies were pissed that we succeeded in keeping them out of the back yard

My loverboy. The chain was a joke, he is never in chains! LOL

 

[Alice Acres]

I still see the "evil eye" in that goose! I get twitchy just looking at the photo!

Nice job with the chicken wire... Cute bunch of chickens too.

 

[Bridgemoof]

I love the barnyard picture, very colorful!

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Well we had quite a day today!

Saturday my good friend and I made the drive to my hometown to pick up the two bucks for dog food. They were a PITA. First we had to corral them. I don't know how this place keeps these huge animals in with that short fence. Shockingly they weren't able to jump over it. They were quick but we were quicker! LOL The first one we tricked by pretending we were feeding them and grabbed his horns, snapped the collar on him and hauled his butt out. The second one had to be corralled into a smaller pen, then we cornered him and hooked him up. The DID NOT WANT TO GO ANYWHERE. We pretty much dragged them into the trailer. They weighed probably a little more than us girls so it was fun

So it POURED rain on sunday. POURED BUCKETS. Our property and every other property was just one huge puddle. The seasonal creek was about to go over and it was just raging! Drew and I put on our boots and dug ditches for a couple hours.

Gunner had a blast though

Fonzie the silkie thinks he is immune to rain.

We had HUGE puddles that were deep. My boots go up to my knees and they were almost swamped a few times.

Then, around 1 pm...HEAVEN! The skies cleared and we got to work processing those bucks.

We have never shot a goat before so I researched the best way. We put them out with a single .22 bullet in the soft groove behind the horns. Worked so well, I was waiting for kicking a maybe a little gasping but they just kicked a couple times and that was that. We hung them up and bled them out. Skinned, gutted and in the freezer within 2 hours. I picked as much stuff of the heads as I could so I can boil them later. I'll have my cosmetologist sister pick me up some hair bleach for the skulls. The dogs didn't eat yesterday so they had a gorge meal tonight. Everyone is happy

The horse is a cannibal. He was nibbling on the nose!

We had processed in the barn where the gambrel was, then tossed it all into the wheelbarrow and finished it in the garage.

OH and Sprocket got a new harness in the mail

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Lets see some before and after pictures here. lol

Before

Before

After

After

hahaha btw the horse is too funny and the Silkie in the rain.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

I love the silkie! What is with those birds---mine are always wanting to play in the mud and they look the worst of all the birds when they do.

I am a little sad about those goats. I know, I know---I will be eating one in a few months and they were going to get buried and wasted. They are just so cool looking. I am not a horn person and I actually looked those up after you posted on them. I need to stop looking up goat breeds or I am going to end up with one of each. Gotta say, you are tougher than I. Clean a fish, do some chickens, but I don't think I could stay conscious for a goat. How did you learn to do that?

 

[PendergrassRanch]

I love the silkie! What is with those birds---mine are always wanting to play in the mud and they look the worst of all the birds when they do.

I am a little sad about those goats. I know, I know---I will be eating one in a few months and they were going to get buried and wasted. They are just so cool looking. I am not a horn person and I actually looked those up after you posted on them. I need to stop looking up goat breeds or I am going to end up with one of each. Gotta say, you are tougher than I. Clean a fish, do some chickens, but I don't think I could stay conscious for a goat. How did you learn to do that?

Thanks Straw for those photos I don't miss those goats, I think I messed up my knee while moving them. I'll be boiling the skulls someday this week whenever I have a day off.

PP - I would actually rather process goats, than poultry. Poultry guts STINK so horribly LOL. The goats are pretty much like a deer and I have done about 10 deer this year I learn best by DOING so I just DO it. I look up most every on the internet and then just apply it to what we are doing. I find anatomy fascinating so its kind of fun. I don't really care for the actual killing part but it has to be done. I am very pleased with the way we did it. They did not suffer at all and it was a very clean and quick process.

I don't know what is wrong with chickens. I understand ducks liking the rain but every single chicken I have is out there, in the mud, in the rain, just getting SOAKED and loving it. I said today that I should lock them up for their own good!

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Pearce - Me too. I see nothing wrong with killing and eating or turning them into dog food but I myself would have a hard time doing it to bucks with horns that big. Almost makes me sad. Those horns....

But I bet the dogs with be quite happy and in the end I might end up happy. haha

Pendergrass - Messed up your knee? eee that's not good. And I agree. Poultry stinks but deer really doesn't. Never done a goat but done deer and they're not bad.

btw You may need to give some more info on the killing because I'll be raising some of the Kiko bucks for slaughter and there's no way I'm sending it to be killed and slaughtered.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Pearce - Me too. I see nothing wrong with killing and eating or turning them into dog food but I myself would have a hard time doing it to bucks with horns that big. Almost makes me sad. Those horns....

But I bet the dogs with be quite happy and in the end I might end up happy. haha

Pendergrass - Messed up your knee? eee that's not good. And I agree. Poultry stinks but deer really doesn't. Never done a goat but done deer and they're not bad.

btw You may need to give some more info on the killing because I'll be raising some of the Kiko bucks for slaughter and there's no way I'm sending it to be killed and slaughtered.

Goats are pretty much exactly the same as deer. Same size, same shape.

I still can't believe the killing went so smoothly. I held the horn tips steady and stood behind the goat so he didn't back out. Drew aimed and shot. They just went stiff and fell over. No sound, a few kicks, thankfully not facial movements. Bleh, I hate it when chickens blink and move their mouths! Lol. We work in a good team. I cut the hook hole thing in the hind legs, he hooked them up and pulled the rigging tight and hoisted them up. I bled them out, which again, was a lot easier than I thought. They have less blood than I thought too. Skinning is seriously the hardest part. I can do it, it's just so tedious.

I wanted to do a photo tutorial but our barn is so messy it's not photo worthy. I did fun a great website that I was reading last night. I'll go find it

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Here is the great article I read. This was pretty much how we did it except we used a real gambrel not a t post. Whatever works though!

http://m.ozarkjewels.net/site/class...http://www.ozarkjewels.net/homebutchering.htm