Rendering Beef Fat and Soap Making

The other day I posted nose to tail eating, and making the most of all the different cuts of meat that come from an animal. 

One of the thinks I asked the butcher to do was to save all of the fat and mince it for me.  He wanted to know what I was going to do with it as no one has ever asked him to do that before.  I told him I planned to use some for soap making and also for cooking.  
Mum said that she didn't think she could be bothered to render the fat for use and to make soap but it really wasn't that much effort at all.  Plus we were paying for it and we already had the other ingredients for making soap so it will save us money by not having to buy soap in the long term.

These days most people buy vegetable oils for cooking but historically animal fats were commonly used for cooking.  And when I say historically I am not talking even 50 years ago.  As a child (I am in my 30's) I grew up on a farm and I remember my mum pouring the fat off the roast each week into an enamel mug which lived in the fridge.  This fat was later used to cook other dishes.  The fat carried forward the flavours of each dish into the next.

All of the fat from our cow was minced and bagged up and it spent a few days in the freezer before we had time to process it.

Bags of frozen minced fat

The process of rendering is really very simple when you have a slow cooker.
You just fill your slow cooker to the top with the solid fat, set it on low and wait. I have seen instructions to add water but I don't bother.

Frozen fat into the slow cooker

As the fat renders the volume will drop so you can keep adding more fat as there is more space.

The fat is beginning to render

As the fat melts all of the meat bits will get cooked as well.  You are going to need to strain all the meat bits out at the end so if you can skim some off the top as you go this will speed up the process.

Meaty bits floating to the top

After straining all of the meat bits out of the fat I was left with a clear yellow oil which I divided into plastic containers. 
And what to do with all those meaty bits?  We didn't want to waste them so fed them to the chickens and they loved them.

The rendered fat ready for chilling

Once the fat cooled and set it changed to a pale cream colour.  Well made tallow can be stored at room temperature without spoiling but in our hot Queensland summer I was not willing to take the risk so I have been storing them in the freezer.  It doesn't freeze but it is easier to have it in there so we can use the fridge for fresh food.

With so much tallow the plan had always been to use most of it for making soap but I wanted to see how tallow one batch of soap would actually use up.

The ratios I used are:

1.5kg Beef Tallow

198g Caustic Soda

450ml Water

Essentail Oil 

Processed at 55 degrees centigrade with the essential oil added once trace was achieved.

I will not give any instructions about the process of making soap here as there are other blogs and websites that explain the process in enough detail to make it safe.  

I like to pour my soap into silicone molds as it is so easy to get them out.  You just peel the molds away, cut the larger block into portions and leave the soap to cure.

I ended up with 24 bars of soap and these are now curing.  They smell divine and I might have over done it with the essential oil but the last batch I made had no fragrance that was noticeable to this time I was a bit more generous.
I used a blended fragrance called Romance blend which I have had sitting around for years and it really need to be used up.  It is a blend of Cinnamon, Clary Sage, Patchouli, Sandalwood and Ylang Ylang.

Once it has cured and I have given it a bit of a test I will be giving some away so stay tuned.

What kind of soap do you make?

Home Grown Beef - Nose To Tail Eating

At the end of 2014 Freezer 2 finally went in the Freezer.  After all of the problems we had which you can read about here and here and finally coming up with a solution and sending her off back in October.  She has been processed and packed tightly into our freezers (and Hubby's parents freezer where we have stored some sausages and mince).

One of our freezers packed with beef.

All of the meat was vacuum packed and labeled for us with the cut of meat and the weight.  Some had a price on it (what the butcher would normally charge) but most didn't as we were paying a set price of $1.75 per kilo regardless of cut.

Now before you faint in disbelief at the price let me qualify that $1.75 per kilo is the cost we paid the butcher to process and pack the meat.  We paid $0.50 per kilo to the abattoir and $30 for having her picked up.  Then there is the cost of purchasing her in the first place and the cost of the hay and mineral supplements that she has consumed.  Once we totaled up all of the costs we worked out that our actual costs were just over $4.00 per kilo.

This is still very very cheap for grass fed beef where prime cuts like Eye Fillet retail for approx AUS $40 per kilo and cheaper cuts like good quality mince and chuck steak retail for approx AUS $8 per kilo.

In total Freezer 2 weighed in at 380 kg carcass weight which means the whole animal as it would hang in the butcher (no head, skin, intestines, feet etc).  This means you pay for all the weight of the bones, the organ meats (tounge, heart, liver, kidney,) and I also asked for all of the fat since I was paying for it.

We were really happy with the meat quality and it has been amazing eating so far.  The meat has really good marbling (the inter-muscular fat) and is tender and very tasty.

All the veins of fat in the beef  (marbling) means that when it cooks the fat slowly melts
out keeping the meat tender and juicy.  Plus you know that the fat is where the flavour is.

Because the meat is all vacuum packed we have been able to sell some of the meat to family and friends but when ever we ask them what cuts they would like they all reply "Some rump steak, mince and sausages".  
The mince and sausages are easy to offer up as there is plenty of them since they are made from off cuts and a mix of other cuts, but a cow has only 2 rumps (in terms of cuts of meat) and we paid a friend who helped us renovate with one of them.
This means we are having to educate people on the other cuts of beef they are not so familiar with and how to use them.

So What Do You Do With 380 Kilos Of Beef and Beef products?  

Well that is is too big of a question to answer here so I am going to do a series of posts to cover off how we like to use the different cuts and to encourage you to try cuts that are not only great value for money but extremely tasty too.

I am also going to share with you how we plan to use some of the other bits and pieces.

So what are the cuts of meat you are not sure what to do with?  Are there any cuts you love or avoid?

Farewell Freezer 2 (Finally)

After more than 3 months of waiting today we finally said farewell to Freezer 2. I am not going to go into all the details but in the end we were not able to have her killed at home due to the unprofessional unreliable home butcher.  
This for us was really disappointing as we wanted to have her under as little stress as possible right up until the end.

In the end we sent her off to a family owned abattoir and her carcass will then go to a local family run butcher who will do the processing.

Today I had the job of moving her from our place through the neighbors paddock to their stock yards and loading ramp.

Hubby was at work and I was a bit worried that she would play up or get freaked out at being lured into the yards and then run away leaving me chasing her around the paddock and us both ending up stressed. 

But I needn't have worried.

With a wheelbarrow full of cut grass positioned just inside the pen and some broccoli plants, that refused to do anything other than grow leaves, tucked under my arm Freezer 2 calmly followed me from our place through the neighbours paddock and into the yards.  I then left her there for a few hours with the wheelbarrow of grass and a trough of water.

When the truck finally arrive to pick her up the driver took one look at her and said " Gee she's fat" he then asked me if I wanted a hand to load her.  I said that I would try and get her on myself since she knew me.  I calmly got her into the loading chute and then she just stood there like a stubborn old mule.  I got her moving forward towards the ramp after a bit of pushing and then she got stuck in the gateway between the chute and the ramp.

Yep her great big fat stomach was keeping her from moving easily up the ramp.  So I whacked her on the rump with my hand to try and get her moving but she was just standing there like a stubborn mule again.  I got the cattle truck driver to come and have a look to see if she really was too fat and he told me that she would fit even though it was a bit of a squeeze.  So I went around to her side and got her to move back a few steps and then got her moving forward again this time keeping her moving all the way up the ramp and onto the truck. Whew job done.

I have to say there were a few moments there where I really did think that we were cursed and that this would just be another failed attempt to have her killed.

Once she is killer her carcass will be sent back to the butcher where she will be hung for up to 2 weeks.  The butcher will then cut her up as per our specifications, pack, cryovac and freeze all the portions for us.  

The big benefit of this is that it will last well without getting freezer burn and can go into our freezer and be left there as it is packed.  With home kill meat it would get packed by us and stacked in the freezer unfrozen so we have to keep rotating it while it freezes so it all freezes evenly.

So now we just have to wait and see how much she weighs in at as a carcass. We are guessing at over 300kg but will wait and see.

I will post an update of how we get the meat portioned up and how we deal with such a large quantity in another post.

For now I am just glad this stage is over.

Collecting And Using Animal Manure

When you own livestock you have access to a very valuable commodity.  Their Poo.

I doesn't matter if you have cows, horses, donkeys, alpacas, sheep, goats or chickens they all poo and if you can collect it you can use it to add fertility to your garden.

We like to collect lots of cow poo out of our paddock every few months and fill one of our compost bays. When we last filled up the compost bay it took about 8 wheel barrow loads to fill it.  We then give it a good water an leave it to break down for a couple of months making sure to keep it damp.

The bay to the right currently has a mixed compost in it and to this we add the chicken manure from the chicken house.  We use a layer of wood shavings under their perches to collect all of the droppings on. When we clean out the chicken house we add it to the compost pile and give it a good mix.

Mushroom compost in the left bay
Cow poo in the center
Mixed compost in the right bay

Different types of manure need to be treated differently.  Here is a bit of an overview.

Although lower in organic matter than other traditional manures, alpaca manure has a lot of value in the garden. It does not need to be aged or composted before use and you can spread it directly onto garden plants without burning them. Best of all, it does not contain any weed seeds

Sheep manure is referred to as cold manure because of its low nitrogen content. This makes it an excellent addition to any garden.  Sheep manure can also be used as organic mulch. Because of its low odor, sheep manure can easily be used to top dress garden beds.  It is high in both phosphorus and potassium, essential elements for optimal plant growth.

Horse manure is a good source of nutrients and a popular addition to many home gardens. Composting horse manure can help your compost pile become super charged however horse manure may also contain more weed seeds. For this reason, it is usually better to use composted horse manure in the garden. The heat produced from composting can effectively kill most of these seeds as well as any harmful bacteria that may be present.Fresh manure should not be used on plants to prevent the possibility of burning their roots.

Cattle manure is basically made up of digested grass and grain (depending on what they are fed). Cow dung is high in organic materials and rich in nutrients. It contains about 3 percent nitrogen, 2 percent phosphorus, and 1 percent potassium.  It’s usually recommended that it be aged or composted prior to its use 

Using goat manure in garden beds can create the optimal growing conditions for your plants. The naturally dry pellets are not only easy to collect and apply, but are less messy than many other types of manure. Goats not only produce neater pelletized droppings, but their manure doesn't typically attract insects or burn plants as does manure from cows or horses. Goat manure is virtually odorless and is beneficial for the soil.

Chicken manure for vegetable garden fertilizing is excellent, but there are some things you need to know about it in order to use it correctly. Chicken manure fertilizer is very high in nitrogen and also contains a good amount of potassium and phosphorus. The high nitrogen and balanced nutrients is the reason that chicken manure compost is the best kind of manure to use.  But the high nitrogen in the chicken manure is dangerous to plants if the manure has not been properly composted. Raw chicken manure fertilizer can burn, and even kill, plants if used. Composting chicken manure mellows the nitrogen and makes the manure suitable for the garden.

Do you collect poo from your animals?
How do you use it?

Feeding A Cow On The Cheap

Back at the start of July our cow "Freezer 2" was supposed to have been killed and be in the freezer but this did not happen.
We had planned to have her in the freezer before we ran out of feed which we knew was inevitable due to the lack of rain.  We also knew that because of the severe drought affecting much of Queensland buying feed would be very expensive (between $16 and $22 per week).  At that sort of cost it basically ruins any saving we might have made from raising our own meat.

So for the past 6 weeks we have been cutting grass from the roadside to feed to our cow.  We feed her 2 wheel barrows of grass a day and she has not lost any weight/muscle mass by the looks of things.

Setting off to cut grass

Hubby does the whipper snipping and I do the rake up

We cut a few days of grass at a time and store it in the neighbours open ended shed.  We have finished the grass on the roadside nearby and are now going around our neighbours shed.

Freezer 2 comes running when she sees the wheel barrow

The grass is not great but she picks through it and eats most of it.  You can see in the photo below that she is not at all interested in what is outside that gate when there is a pile of grass to eat.

We have a row of trees in our front paddock where she is at the moment and for a while now I have been picking up all the fallen branches and piling them around the base of each tree.  To this I add dried cow pats and now that we have been cutting this grass for Freezer 2, we are also adding any leftover grass she does not eat.  I am building a sort of Hugelkultur which is something often used in permaculture to build soil and it helps to deter the cows from wearing down the soil around the base of the trees and stops them rubbing on the trunks.  Cutting all this grass made me realise that if you are creative there are sources of free organic matter all around us we just need to go out and find them.

We now have a new butcher who is happy to kill our cow in September so we only need to keep feeding Freezer 2 for a few more weeks.
Thankfully we have just had some good rain (34 mm) and the weather is warming up so we should even get a bit of growth to help things along but I think we will still be cutting grass until she is in the freezer and that possibly means trekking 500 metres up the road and back with the wheel barrow a few times, but free is free right.

What frugal methods have you used to feed your animals?

Our Experince With House Cows - A book Review

I am an avid reader and on a normal day you will find piles of books on the coffee table beside the couch (and normally on the other half of the couch too).  I can currently count 10 books, 3 cook books and 3 magazines within reach and I know there are a few more on reserve at the library.

In addition to the other books that I have read over the past week I have also read this fantastically practical e-book 'Our Experience With House Cows' by Liz Beavis from over at Eight Acres.  We do not own a house cow as we made the decision to move back to New Zealand a couple of years ago and will obtain a house cow then.  However I grew up on a 10 acre farm where we milked a house cow both by hand and then on a small milking machine designed for either 1 or two cows, so I have some experience with the routines of managing a house cow.

Liz provides a complete novice with a good understanding of the basics of owning and managing a house cow without over complicating it and making the whole prospect seem overwhelming.
At the same time she emphasises the fact that owing a house cow is a commitment that requires some dedication and is not something that should be treated as a passing fancy.

This eBook is well set out and easy to follow and takes you on a journey through the different aspects of owning house cow.  From buying a house cow and getting her in calf through to the birthing and beyond, Liz provides the reader with enough of the basics to get you well on you way as a new house cow owner.  The information about milking schedules and managing the process of having enough milk for yourself as well as for the calf demonstrates that there are ways to own a house cow and not be tied to a twice a day milking routine.
Liz references other books to go to for additional information and provides some excellent ideas on how to use up all your milk.

I would recommend this book as a great place to start if you are considering getting a house cow and have very little experience as Liz has provided plenty of information in a glossary so that after reading this you will be talking the talk in no time at all.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Liz'z book you can click here to access her house cow ebook blog where you will also find other information related to the subject.

Freezer 2 Is Not In The Freezer - Cow Dramas

Just a quick update on the butchering of our cow 'Freezer 2'.  As the title of this post points out she is still very much alive and kicking.

It would have been easy to just pretend that everything had gone as planned and not mention anything but for me that is not what this blog is about.  Life is not all roses and sometimes things happen that are not what you wanted or intended. I think it is important to paint a full picture here not just the good bits because that's how life is when you raise your own animals.

So what happened you might wonder?

Well we had the butcher all booked in for last Thursday.  We waited and waited.  Then we called and called and left messages.
Nothing.
Meanwhile 'Freezer 2' had jumped the fence to get back to her friend.  We had separated them so that she was in the right paddock to be processed.
Friday came and we were on the phone again.  Nothing.  Friday night we got hold of his wife and she took our details and said she would get him to call us back as he was outside.
Nothing.
On Saturday morning we were getting ready to take our friend and his kids camping when I went out to check the animals and I noticed 'freezer 2' was limping and not wanting to put weight on one of her back legs.
Oh Bugger!
Now when it comes to animals I am a stress head.  I really worry when they are sick or injured and I knew this meant I was not going to have a very relaxing weekend while I worried about 'Freezer 2'.  At the same time I was aware there was nothing I could do.
I figured that she had hurt he leg some how when she jumped the fence and broke the top wire.  In future I will not separate them at all before the event even if this means the other cow is in the paddock watching the event take place.

Since she was up and walking around and she could put a little weight on it I knew I would just have to wait and see how she was the next day when we returned from camping.  Well this is what my logical mind knew.

My emotional mind on the other hand was conjuring up all sorts of worst case scenarios and had me jumping online to see if there were any precautions I could take to help her.
Logical mind kicks back in again at this point and points out that she weighs about 400kg and "Really what are you going to do?  Put a bandaid on it?"

So off we went on our camping trip.  She was still limping the next day but she seemed to be a bit better.
And every day this week she has seemed to get better bit by bit day by day.

But now we have another issue. We are out of grass and we still cannot get hold of the butcher.

You see it was always the plan to get rid of her at this time of year before she lost condition over winter due to the lack of grass.  Our paddocks are a mix of blue couch and kikuyu and we knew that as soon as we got a good frost most of the blue couch grass would get burnt off and there would be hardly anything for them to eat.  The kikuyu does not get burnt off but it doesn't grow much either.  This week we have had two mornings with negative 2 degrees and heavy frosts, so much of the grass has been burnt off.
So now we have to find something else to top up their feed.  We have been harvesting feed from the garden for them in the form of banana leaves which they love, Queensland arrowroot and comfrey.  We have purchased a bale of hay but we do not want to spend a lot of money when we are just going to put her in the freezer and at this time of year feed is expensive.
I am really glad that we put a plan in place to grow things as a back up plan for feeding the animals.  We are almost out of the arrowroot foliage but there are still plenty of banana leaves left (although I might be up the ladder cutting them down) and hopefully we do not have to keep feeding her much longer.

We are now going to try and get a different butcher to come and do the job so I will let you know how things go.

Have you ever planned things out only to have it go a bit pear shaped through no fault of your own?  How did you resolve the situation?

Thanks Freezer 2 - We Appreciate The Meat You Give To Us

Today we say farewell to our beef cow "Freezer 2".

Freezer 2

It is a sad day on the farm because even though she has been raised for the purpose of filling our freezer (and our bellies) we have enjoyed her antics and personality for the past few years and we will notice her absence.
We really are very thankful that her life is given to provide for ours.  Today I will feed her her last handful of hay and watch her enjoy it.  I will look her in the eye for the last time and give her a rub behind the ear then I will say goodbye and leave her in peace.
The first cow we raised "Freezer 1" went into the freezer in December 2012 and you can read about that here.
The local guy we use to do our home kill is very good and last time our cow was sitting down chewing her cud when the lights went out.  Hopefully it will be just as calm for Freezer 2.

Freezer 2 is a Murray Grey and we hope that she will produce tasty beef that is well marbled and has a good layer of fat.  You can see from the photo below(taken April 2013) how much weight she has put on in the last 12 months so it will be interesting to see what her dressed weight will be.  Freezer 1 was just over 250 kg but it is really hard to tell what they will weigh while they are still walking around.

Once killed her carcass will be cut into the 4 quarters and hung for a week in a cool room.  Then next week we will have the job of bagging up all the different cuts.

April 2013

May 2014

We will not be replacing Freezer 2 as it will take us a long time to eat that much been even if we give some to the family.  And with our planned move to New Zealand in the future we do not need the added complication of livestock to get rid of.  Freezer 2 currently has a little friend that belongs to one of our neighbours and we have been told we can keep him to keep the grass down or we can borrow a mare that is in foal.  

We have not decided what we will do yet and we might just give the paddocks a rest and borrow an animal again later, but there is no rush to make that decision.

Do you kill your own animals?

How do you say goodbye and thank you?

Beef Stock

We are still working our way through the first cow we had killed way back in December 2012.  It takes a long time to eat a whole cow even when it is not a very big one.  We have also shared the meat out with family and friends
Most of the bones we had cut up as dog bones but some I kept for stock.

Over the weekend I used up the last of the bones to make beef stock.
I like to make my stock after roasting the bones in the oven first until they are very dark.  Only then to I put them in a stockpot with carrots, onions, celery and herbs.
I usually have my stock on the stove top for the entire day so that I can get a nice concentrated batch.
This time I ended up with 5 litres which I packed in to takeaway containers and froze.  It joins the chicken stock in the freezer and will last us quite a while as we do not use beef stock that often.

How do you use beef stock?

Goodbye Lady and Dumbo

Last month I posted about how the poor old cow (Lady) we borrowed from our neighbour had unexpectedly had a calf who we named Dumbo because of her huge ears.

Lady was very old and after having Dumbo she was not in very good condition or producing much milk.  We fed her up on good grass and hay and she managed to regain some weight but the milk situation was still not good.

Dumbo was growing but it was only a matter of time before she would need far more milk than Lady could provide.

So we called our neighbour who owned her and raised our concerns.  He told us that he had another cow with a calf who had plenty of milk and he would put Dumbo with her.

Lady is really old and the reality is that once the other cow accepts Dumbo as her own lady will have no further use and probably be killed.  This may sound harsh and mean, but if she is not capable of raising a calf then she has no value to a farmer.  If she was ours and had given us years of good service then we would let her live out her life in peace.  But she is not ours and for us the right thing to do was to make sure the calf had the best chance possible.  Sadly that meant saying goodbye to them.

So we arranged for him to come down and collect Lady and Dumbo and so that our cow still had a companion he brought us back a little steer.

A bit blury and from a long distance but
Lady and Dumbo are on their way to their new home.

We haven't given him a name yet and he is still very weary of us but a bit of hand feeding should calm him down.

Unexpected New Life On The Farm

Since we had our cow "Freezer 1" butchered last year we had not purchased another cow to replace her as we already had "Freezer 2" waiting in the wings and it is unlikely that we would need to have a further cow to fill our freezer before we moved to New Zealand.

So instead of buying another cow we borrowed one from our neighbour.  For a while we had a big dopey steer we called bozo and when the neighbour wanted him back to send to the sale yards he gave us an old dairy cow he had purchased as part of a group of cows.

Freezer 2 is the one at the front, Bozo at the back.

We called her Lady and she now calm and friendly around us (might be something to do with the hand feeding and treats).  We think that Lady must be really old and I am pretty sure she has no teeth left as sometimes you can hear her gums squeaking when she chews.  She arrived at the neighbours with a group of cows and calves that really should have been weaned already.  So when she came to our place I was kind of relieved for her.  I figured that she really just needed to be left to rest and retire in peace with out lots of other cows or calves trying to drink from her.
She has always been thin and no matter what we feed her she does not seem to put on weight.  We thought she was finally starting to look a bit better a few weeks ago which we put down to extra hay we have been feeding and the mineral block they have had access to for the last few months.
So you can imagine my surprise when I was out near the paddock today and I saw a tiny calf standing next to her.  I was speechless. Poor old lady had been carrying yet another calf. 
Now you might think that we just missed the signs or are a bit clueless but trust me I know what pregnant cows look like as I grew up in a dairy farming area.  I am not sure how she has managed to survive another pregnancy and the calf is very small so I am not sure how things will go from here.  She does not seem to have a lot of milk but the calf is doing all the right things to get it when she can.

We have moved them into a paddock where there is plenty of of grass so hopefully that will help with her milk production but I think we will have to keep an eye on them.

Oh boy, it has been a big week on the farm.  I am just hoping for a few calm and easy weeks as we lead into Christmas.

Have you had any big surprises like this before?

Pasture Management

Back in February I attended a Joel Salatin Masterclass and it was a really informative and entertaining.

I came away with some great information and ideas.  One of the topics discussed was mob stocking.  This is basically a system of providing cattle with a limited grazing area which creates a small amount of soil disturbance and ensures sufficient pruning of the pasture.  The idea is to mimic the behaviour and result of large herds in the wild (buffalo, wilder beast etc).  In the wild these animals naturally bunch together to protect themselves against danger so this is just about replicating this behaviour and it's results in domestic animals.
Each day a fresh area is provided and access to the previous days area is cut off.  The area provided should be just enough for the cattle to eat all of the fodder available without wasting any.
You see cattle will not eat what they have pee'd on, pooped on, sat on or trodden on.  So if you give them only as much as they will eat in one day they are so busy eating that less becomes in-edible for the above reasons.

In New Zealand this grazing practice is is widely used and is know as strip grazing so since I grew up in a dairy farming community over there it is something I am familiar with.
However I was not aware of how this also helps to build soil fertility.  Basically as grass grows it balances out it's leaf growth with root growth, so the taller the grass the deeper the roots.

You can see in my fancy picture that after the grass has been eaten
the roots break away self pruning.

Then as the grass is pruned off by the cattle the roots self prune them selves to keep above and below the soil balanced.  The roots that have self pruned then break down and help build the organic matter along with the manure that gets trodden into the soil.

So we have been implementing the system with our cow (Freezer 2) and her borrowed buddy (Bozo).  In the photo below you can see where the grass on the left has been grazed down and the temporary electric fence on the right.

We move the cows at the same time each afternoon so there tends to be a bit of mooing when they think it is time.  And when we do move the fence they get very excited and run from one patch of new grass to another.  You have to be on your game or they give you a heck of a fright as they rush up behind you.

To set us this system we needed to buy the electric fence wire, a reel to put it on and some fencing standards (the upright sticks that hold the wire).  But that was going to set us back quite a bit on money so we decided that we would make our own standards from recycled materials.

Hubby had a piece of power line from one of the main trunk line wires from when he worked clearing trees from the power lines.  It is made of a twisted bunch of thick aluminium wires which he un twisted and straightened.  It is quite thick (about 4 ml) but still flexible so he was able to bend one end into a loop and cover the loop with some old irrigation pipe.

The piece of powerline

The irrigation pipe

And this is the finished result.

We now have about 30 of these home made standards and they cost us nothing compared to the $5 each we would have paid to buy them.  Because they are flexible you have to hold them at the base to push them into the ground.  And while this works fine while the ground is soft from all the rain we have been having they may not work so well when the ground hardens up.

But until then we will stick with these and save some money to buy some proper ones for if/when we actually need them.

Have you made any equipment instead of buying it?

Into The Freezer For Freezer 1

Things have been busy here, really busy.  I had my work Christmas Party, we had a birthday lunch a few days in Brisbane catching up with friends and the general bustle that is the festive season.
We have also taken the next step in our farming journey and gone through the process of having Freezer 1 (that is the name of one of our cows the other is called Freezer 2.  This way we remember that they are not pets) killed and butchered for our use.

We have had some fun learning to be farmers and dealing with our 2 cows which you can read about here.  But for the most part they ate the grass in the paddock and other than making sure they had grass, hay, water and mineral supplements we have not done anything else to interfere with them being cows.  They were cows and we watched them being cows.

Before you read further I will warn you that there are photos of a dead cow (it is a distance photo so not gory) and the carcass as it was processed.  I will also be talking about the process.  If this is not for you pop back tomorrow for the last installment of A Home Made Christmas.

Freezer 1 spent the morning eating grass and doing what cows do.  This was what she was doing when she died.  She did not even get up.  The guy who did our home kill shot her from his car so she had no stress before she died.  If we had sent her away to be processed she would have been rounded into a pen. loaded on a truck, driven to an abattoir, unloaded with other animals and sent into a noisy factory to meet her fate.  For us having it all done at home was the best option.

Her last morning spent eating grass.

Once she was dead the butcher proceeded to remove the feet and hide.  We decided not to keep the hide as we were not sure we had the time or inclination to process it, or if we would be able to take it to NZ when we move.

Freezer 1 upside down feet removed and the butcher beginning to
remove the hide.

Once the hide had been removed from the belly and legs the carcass was strung up and hoisted into the air.  At this stage the hide was pulled off the carcass entirely and the head and innards were removed.  We we were left with what your local butcher would buy in to cut into all the different cuts of meat you see in the shop.  I also requested the tongue and the inner and outer cheeks before the head was discarded.  I am not sure about tongue but I am sure there are some good recipes out there.  If you have one let me know.

 The carcass was divided in half and then into quarters and then hung in the cool room that the butcher left with us for 5 days.

Cut in half

Hoisting them higher so they can be
swung into the back of the cool room.

In go the 4 pieces

 Freezer 1 weighed in at 232 kg which is the dressed carcass as you see above.

Five days later the butcher cam back to cut it into all of the portions we wanted.  As he cut it up I took it inside and used our cryovac machine to pack it all and put it in the freezer.  We asked to keep all of the bones and kept a lot for our selves for Jessie and to make stock with, and we gave some to our neighbors.

The butcher charges $1.75 kg plus $25 to get rid of the intestines, head and hide.  It is a lot of meat to get through so the family will be getting some too.  The butcher made us our sausages, mince rolled roasts and corned meats all on the spot too so we have a good variety in the freezer.

We have sampled some sausages and steak so far and both were a hit.  Over the Christmas break I want to do a cost comparison to take into account the cost of the cow and any hay purchased etc to see what the real cost is.

Overall we are happy with how things went and are looking forward to some eye fillet over Christmas.

Calling It Quits

Over the weekend I pulled out all of my brassicas.  They grew healthy and strong but never formed heads, and after hoping and praying they would amount to something, anything I had to cut my losses.

All was not lost as our cows (Freezer 1 and Freezer 2) were treated to a salad feast.  And they sure did seem to enjoy their meal.

Today after building up the soil and putting some nutrients back into it I will be planting our some summer veg.  Lets hope I have better luck with those.