~ Broiler chickens will be ready for sale this weekend! Email me if you’d like any reserved and to arrange a pickup time. We butchered 92 out of 102, so not the best or the worst death loss ever. But they averaged 5.75 pounds dressed out, at 8 weeks. Very happy with that! I think I have 34 left to sell out of that 92. They can go fast, when one person takes 5 or 10. Now they’re in the freezer and should be frozen and ready to go by the weekend.
~ Pork won’t be ready until the first part of September, but already half of it is pre-sold. So don’t wait to pre-order if you’re wanting some. I hate to disappoint! And I think we have about 1/3 of the beef pre-sold already.
~ According to Revealing the Secrets of an All-Iowa Meal, 90% of Iowa land is in agricultural use, but 90% of the food consumed in Iowa is grown elsewhere. That statistic just boggled my mind this morning.
~ Gracious Acres’ blog has a new home after being hijacked recently.
~ I’ve updated my links list to the left. Check out some of the good reading there.
~ An update on Olivia’s ear – she had an appointment in Iowa City last week. They said it’s looking good, just one area where it is still healing and there’s some “reactive tissue” in that area. But she was given the go-ahead to play sports again, so her only restriction is no getting her ears wet for a few more weeks. They did a hearing test that still showed slight to mild hearing loss in the upper and mid-ranges. They said the hearing loss she’s experiencing is conductive, meaning that sound is not being conducted effectively through her ear canal back to the eardrum and middle ear. This type of hearing loss should continue to improve as her ear heals, as opposed to hearing loss caused by damage to the nerves or inner ear which is permanent. So that is good news, though I don’t think they expect her to regain 100% hearing in the ear. But the hearing loss should only be slight. I can’t say enough good things about our experience with University of Iowa Hospitals. We could have gone to the Mayo Clinic, which is only an hour drive as opposed to 3 hours to Iowa City, but I think we made the right choice.
I couldn’t get the practicalfarmer.org link to work, and then couldn’t find the file on their site — is there another way to it? Would love to read that — we were just talking about that very subject last night, in fact.Good news about Olivia’s ear, too!GenieThe Inadvertent Gardener
I can’t get it to work now either! I’ll see what’s up.
Our chickens didn’t go so well this year thanks to a dog. We usually raise 50 a year for us. The dog took it down to 25. This year, we butchered them at six weeks instead of 8. I figure it saved 250lbs of food and they seem to be more tender(the dog incident has been factored in). We skin them instead of pluck, so ours are probably tougher anyway.I do enjoy your blog
I don’t suppose you ship to Kansas City, do you?
bb – That’s too bad about the chix. It seems like if it’s not one thing it’s another with these birds.Pablo – wish I did. They’d have to be USDA inspected for that, though. But I know a place in Wisconsin that does.
I was at the hillbilly auction at Osage on Sunday. Quite the collection of small critters for sale. The rain kept us from staying to look at much. I heard someone say there will be another auction and flea market in Oct. I really enjoy Osage’s mainstreet stores. And I especially like the Country Cupboard for their wide variety of flours and baking goods.I am glad I found your site.