{"id":9997,"date":"2014-02-07T20:35:32","date_gmt":"2014-02-08T03:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=9997"},"modified":"2014-02-14T14:56:51","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T21:56:51","slug":"time-or-monies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=9997","title":{"rendered":"“Time Or Monies.”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that I have created my own language<\/a>, I have added another term.\u00a0 And I just thought you should know.\u00a0 It all started with the fact that the goats are due to kid this month.\u00a0 So last week I rushed around the farm tying up loose ends in the flurry of nesting behavior that always precedes kidding season.\u00a0 The new buck pasture had to be finished and the bucks released into to it.\u00a0 To start tearing up those trees, too.<\/p>\n

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Fallen trees on the fence line had to be cleared and the fence repaired.<\/p>\n

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The barn had to be loaded with enough hay to get us through the next few months.<\/p>\n

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The kidding barn needed new bulbs in the heat lamps, stall dividers, a sprinkle of DE, and fresh bedding.<\/p>\n

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Shots, hoof trims, and selenium gel for all the pregnant does.<\/p>\n

Luna found the pre-kidding frenzy to be exhausting.<\/p>\n

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I was headed down the driveway, congratulating myself on having everything done when I noticed we still had pigs.<\/p>\n

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Not only did we still have pigs, but Penny and Pushy were now so fat that we couldn’t even tell them apart anymore. The pigs were such easy keepers that they had faded into the background down by the pond.\u00a0 We were going to butcher them in the fall.\u00a0 Except that we went to the beach instead.\u00a0 Thanks, Grammie and Grandaddy!<\/p>\n

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And we were going to butcher them before we had to get another load of bread.\u00a0 Except that bread was easy to come by and easy to feed.<\/p>\n

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We were going to butcher them before we got another bag of grain.\u00a0 Except that a bag of grain lasted for a month or more since they faired just fine on barn and kitchen scraps.<\/p>\n

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Now, with a future of long nights spent checking on kidding does and early mornings spent milking quickly approaching, I knew it was time.\u00a0 But I was truly surprised when the measuring tape revealed that it was almost past time.\u00a0 Because Penny and Pushy turned out to be 256 and 268 pounds, respectively.\u00a0 I think respectively.\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Maybe.\u00a0 Eh.<\/p>\n

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Our first pig, Papa Noel, also sized out at 250lbs.<\/a> It took him 6 months for him to reach that size.\u00a0 But he was going through 50lb bags of grain as fast as I could haul them out to the barn.<\/p>\n

Penny and Pushy took a year to reach the same weight as Papa Noel.\u00a0 But they managed on a whole lot less purchased food.\u00a0 Which made them the perfect example of choosing to spend your time or spend your money when getting things done on the farm.\u00a0 Turns out pigs were the ultimate “Time or Monies.”<\/p>\n

When they arrived, they didn’t need any food except what was in the garden.\u00a0 But it did take me and the kids about 30-45 minutes to move their pen every couple weeks to a fresh spot.<\/p>\n

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Then we fed them mostly on food scraps, extra milk and eggs, and imperfect produce from the garden.\u00a0 Which didn’t cost us a dime.\u00a0 But we did spend a whole lot of time traipsing up and down the driveway with the scraps bowl.<\/p>\n

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Hog feed (out of date bread and pastries) was free if you picked up whatever leftovers were on the delivery truck and $8 for as much as you could haul away in your vehicle if you picked it up from the warehouse.\u00a0 The kids got used to spending some time after school unwrapping pecan rolls and honey buns to fill the pigs’ pail.\u00a0 The only real cost was to our feelings.\u00a0 Because a little piece of your soul dies every time you unwrap a Hostess cupcake and then have to put it in the pig bucket.\u00a0 Put it in the pig bucket.\u00a0 For the pigs.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n

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We almost decided to pay the local processor to butcher the pigs.\u00a0 After all, we had planned on finishing them at a smaller size.\u00a0 Plus, we knew one 250 pound pig was enough of a butchering project, never mind two of them.\u00a0 But The Other Half was up for the job.\u00a0 And I couldn’t figure out a way to get the pigs onto the back of the truck while he was at work.\u00a0 So we saved our money, corralled the kids as free labor, and set aside an entire Sunday for the job.<\/p>\n

Pretty evenly distributed the final back scratches….<\/p>\n

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….and belly rubs.<\/p>\n

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The Other Half took care of the hardest part and all that was left was taking the time to change this:<\/p>\n

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into this:<\/p>\n

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Don’t be fooled by the quick juxtaposition between those two photos.\u00a0 “Time or Monies” really do take a long, long time.\u00a0 Getting the meat off those pigs took so long the kids were forced to entertain themselves by identifying the different internal structures of pigs….<\/p>\n

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….and measuring the length of the small intestine.<\/p>\n

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It took 2 days to get all the meat cut up and sealed.\u00a0 Especially since the hams and shoulders were so large they had to be cut in half and were still big enough portions to feed our family of 6 with a week of leftovers to spare.\u00a0 This photo didn’t even include the 2 racks of ribs we ate the first night and the hams we set aside for friends and family.<\/p>\n

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I’m still working on rendering all that fat….<\/p>\n

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….into lard for cooking and soap making.<\/p>\n

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Of course, I’ll be storing it in some old margarita tubs.\u00a0 Because I don’t want to waste money on buying jars and I have plenty of time for drinking margaritas.<\/p>\n

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But pigs aren’t the only “Time or Monies” around here.\u00a0 We’re always having to choose between meat chickens that can be slow-growing-and-free-foraging breeds or fat-and-feed-bucket-chasing Jumbo Cornish Cross.\u00a0 Or veggie transplants for the garden that can be started from cheap seed packets in January<\/span> February (note to self:\u00a0 move Plant Seeds In Greenhouse from January to February on calendar.\u00a0 ‘Cause January is already over and I haven’t done it yet.) or bought right before planting from the local home and garden store.\u00a0 Sometimes it seems like every aspect of farming comes down to time or money.<\/p>\n

Except for when it involves time and<\/em><\/strong> money.\u00a0 Like fencing.\u00a0 And housing.\u00a0 Laying hens.\u00a0 And dairy goats.\u00a0 All of those are “Time and<\/strong> Monies.”\u00a0 Speaking of which, the pigs were done just in time for the first goat kids’ arrival.\u00a0 Triplets from Carmen.<\/p>\n

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The two chocolate females already have deposits.\u00a0 Which just leaves the little white male.\u00a0 As long as he sells when he’s weaned at 6 weeks old, he won’t cost me anything other than the time to disbud him and give him his first shots.\u00a0 Once he’s eating grain, the bills start adding up.\u00a0 So what’s it gonna be, little man?\u00a0 Time or Money?<\/p>\n

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Hmmmmm…..an enigmatic, one, I see…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that I have created my own language, I have added another term.\u00a0 And I just thought you should know.\u00a0 It all started with the fact that the goats are due to kid this month.\u00a0 So last week I rushed around the farm tying up loose ends in the flurry of nesting behavior that always […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9997"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10066,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9997\/revisions\/10066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}