Early Summer Pictures

Little Ophelia - born 6-19-10

Alpaca cria with moma 'paca in the background.

Project Shroom - Phase 2: Innoculation

Now that the logs have been allowed to lay dormant for a month or two, it was time to inoculate with plug spawn. Check the previous post if you are curious about the log procurement process. We purchased 1000 plugs of lentinus edodes (shiitake) spawn and 100 plugs of reishi spawn from Fungi Perfecti in Olympia, WA. The spawn was then allowed to lay dormant in the baggies for a week or so, to settle and regrow from the journey.

Mushroom Babies!!

The plug spawn is essentially small furniture dowels that have spiral cut and are full of living fungi. The mycelium looks like fuzzy white stuff - as you can see the smaller bag is really full of fuzzy white stuff!Wax Melting!

We set up operation in our woods with a generator for power, two drills, a small burner, the baby's wagon, and various small tools. We then drilled 2 inch deep holes, 4 inches apart with a 5/8th drill bit, pounded the dowels in the holes with a rubber mallet and brushed melted wax over the inoculated hole. The wax seals the hole and prevents other forest critters from eating our precious mycelium. The logs are then stacked in ricks (looks like a tower), and left for six months or so.

Drilling Holes!

Now that logs are inoculated the mycelium should spread throughout the log, and, in the fall, begin to fruit beautiful, yummy shiitake mushrooms. We will need to keep the logs moist and water as needed, and wait....

Pig Equasion - $$$$

I'm picking up the pork from the butcher today, and here is how the numbers pan out.

Wiener Pig - $75.00
Food - $216.00 (this is figuring one bag a week for 26 weeks)
Butcher - $107.00
Total - $398 (with a hanging weight of 159# this works out to $2.50/lb)

So, does anyone know if this is the going rate? Did we save any money here?

The Chicks are Getting Bigger!

The baby chicks are just starting to feather out.


Tomato and pepper starts waiting for the garden.

The pig Equasion

My pig project is over! After approx six months and $600 I have reached some conclusions about the proper raising of the backyard pig.
Fencing - A sturdy fence and a well-placed electric wire is necessary. We experienced too much heartbreak as a result of only a sturdy fence and no electric wire at first, and awoke many a morning to find that the pigs had rooted up my precious sheep pasture. If you can, place their house somewhere in the middle of their pen, and then fence the perimeter in electric wire approx 8 in high. Then, keep watch that they haven't rooted up grass and mud or other debris and shorted out the fence. You need a fairly strong pulse as well, as I have heard of many a pig that backs up about ten feet, starts squealing and rams the electric fence.

Feed - They eat allot! I have read about the theory of giving a pig as much as she will eat, but they appear to be bottomless pits, so this seems like a very expensive approach. I gave mine approx 5# a day/pig of a mix of all-breed grain and pig grower until the last couple of months or so and then I gave them maybe twice that. Next time we do pigs, we will buy a couple of tons of grain in advance. We didn't seem to be able to find any "free food" in the form of restaurant scraps or dairy scraps to give them, but I'm looking forward to the days of owning a dairy cow, and utilizing the excess milk for the piggys.

Water - Pigs like to rearrange their furniture, so you must tie up your water bucket. I thought it was cute how they would pile up all the buckets and detritus from their field into one area and push up all the bedding in their house all comfy/cozy. One day, they even decided to root up all the floorboards in their house, but they did set them nicely to one side - neat and tidy! I guess I got a bit off subject here, but in reference to their water: they drink allot, and their bucket must be tied to something to prevent it from being carted off.

Having learned a few lessons, we will raise pigs again next year. We have a wonderful garden area fertilized and turned over, and homegrown pork in the freezer - a pretty good deal.

Lambs

We have lambs for purchase! We have one lamb available now and several more in the fall. These are homegrown, pastured raised - no hormones, no antibiotics. Email goldenspirefarms@gmail.com to reserve. (we can have them butchered for you if you would like, or send to your favorite). mmmmm tasty lamb!

What a cute baby!