Bone broth... Look at the bones!

First, let's start off with something fun!

In my recent post, Lately, I talked about how things are going with the family and how we're going to a lot of extra work in an effort to heal.  One of the things I spoke about was bone broth... I'd like to dive in a little deeper on this topic.

There's a lot of good stuff inside those bones!

 The goal is to heal our digestive tract.  It could have been made unhealthy by a wide variety of things, like stress or antibiotics.  Whatever the cause, it doesn't matter so much... what matters is fixing it!  If you want to learn more about this stuff, a highly recommended book is Nourishing Traditions, but there are enough articles out on the net that would also help.

See the bone marrow hiding in there?  Yep, that's good for you!

Let's get to the point, shall we?  Here's a basic explanation of how we have found is the easiest way to do bone broth.  Get the biggest one you think you can handle, we actually use a 20qt turkey roaster after determining two crock pots were too much work.  We'll pour in about 2-1/2 gallons of water, a cup of apple cider vinegar (it helps draw the calcium out of the bones) and some salt in with approximately 5 chicken feet (yes, it's gross... but they make the most amazing broth!) and a couple pounds of bones (we got our from a local grass fed cattle farmer).  Throw in any veggie scraps for flavor with a little salt and let it cook.

Yum!

I know... it looks disgusting...

Chicken bone marrow... yep, it's good for you too!

Grand Central Bone Broth Station!

In the bottom right of the pic above you can see a canning funnel, a ladle and a sieve.  We pour the broth into the sieve over the funnel that puts it into our mug for drinking out of... it's messy and I pray it is making a difference!

Maybe if I ever figure it out I can make a youtube video and show you how we do it...

Till then, this looks like a good one....

Keep your powder dry...
-Clinton

120 HOURS?

A common companion this year...

Well if I did the math right, I spent roughly 120 hours trying to put some venison in the freezer this year.  The season ended last night with the kickoff of the Superbowl... whatever that means... I didn't watch it and if you read my blog much, I'd be willing to bed maybe you didn't either!

Thought: this post will probably get me the most comments... angry ones!

Well that picture up there summarizes how things went.  I got skunked...  every Friday night (till the time changed) and every Saturday morning and evening since the beginning of October, with a few exceptions, has been spent trying to put meat in the freezer. 

But why do you have to hunt, why not buy your food from the store?

A valid question... I could buy it from the store, but did you know that chickens, cows and pigs are animals just like deer, and before you eat them, somebody kills them?  Further more, do you know what kind of living conditions those animals live in that are a sold (in nice little packages with happy pictures on them of red barns and wind mills to make you feel warm and fuzzy about your purchase) at the store grow up in?  Look up the term CAFO... better yet, here's a pic for you!

A modern poultry raising operation...

There is nowhere for the chicken to go where they are not sitting in their own poop for their miserable 7weeks of life...  compare that to the following picture from my back yard...

Just introduced into the chicken tractor...

Almost full grown!

 Now those chickens are limited in what they can eat... mostly whatever is growing in my lawn (some people would disagree with me calling it a lawn) and whatever feed I put in the feeder.  But deer on the other hand are browsers... they eat a little bit of this, a little bit of that.  If there become too many of them, a bunch die of starvation as their isn't enough food!  Sure, they eat some of those EVIL GMO crops that I prefer not to eat, but they also eat a lot of grasses, leaf buds on tree's, a little of this, a little of that...

I'd much rather eat wild venison than some cow that spent that last 3 months of it's life standing up to it's arm pits in it's own manure eating nothing but GMO corn.  By the way, I'm told that you can't pasture pigs because they don't have the stomach's to digest the grass... why then do we feed the cow and the pig THE SAME STINK'N CORN?

Well this year it looks like I'll be forced to get some of that standing it's own poop meat from the store, but it wasn't for a lack of effort...

As I said, I hadn't seen a deer since December 1st... this was a rough year...

Also... please don't write me asking if I washed my clothes in the right detergent or used this cover scent... I put out a camera and I know the deer had moved into different areas.  Besides, I didn't do anything different this year from the past couple years when I got 2-3 deer each year...

And just for the note... you people that like to tell stories about how many does you had under your stand last week make me sick!  I'd be ecstatic if somebody put me in a stand where I could shoot a doe...  and yet they won't let anybody hunt their property because they want a bigger trophy.  I get it... but it you people still make me sick!  (It's illegal to sell wild game... but it's not illegal to give it away or to buy the broken arrow and broad head used to kill the deer from the person that shot it...

Well I never expected that!

So it's lunch time and I don't have a lot going on... I was checking out the different functions of blogger can came across the number of page views I've recieved sorted by country... I can't help but wonder what it is that makes me so interesting to, of all places...

Russia?

It would be really nice if blogger would let me sort by country AND post so I could try to determine the correlation, but alas it is not so...

But while I'm thinking about it, maybe it has something to do with this?
"Most food in Russia comes from backyard gardens"
- I wish we could say that about America... but I don't think the "eco-village" movement mentioned in the article is the driving force behind the fact that in 2004 over 50% of Russia's agricultural output came from backyard gardens!  

Interesting to think about!  As if I didn't have enough things running through my mind... 

Living lawn mowers...

I've been told that if you keep goats contained 90% of the time, you are 100% successful...


...only problem, I don't know if I can live with those odds.  Now sheep, on the other hand, I'm told are a bit less adventurous.  Anybody have any thoughts?  Here's what I know so far...

Breed: Katahdin
Hair/Wool: Hair... the shed so you don't have to shear them, woohoo!
Purpose: Meat (I'm told they taste as good as beef, or better.... but that probably depends on what beef you are used to.
Stocking Density: Per a farmer I spoke with, 4 Ewes and their offspring for that year per acre... 
Cost: $200/Ewe, likely pregnant.

BONUS:According to Wikipedia....

• Most Katahdin ewes will have a 200% lamb crop.
• Katahdin sheep breed is also resistant to parasites.
• They eat grass!

The cost...  all numbers based on pricing from premier1supplies.com

• Electrostop portable fence netting - $155 per 164ft roll (x2) = $310
• It could be done with one... but I think moving the sheep to the next paddock would be much easier if it was already set up... or perhaps I should get shorter netting rolls?

• Intellishock PRS-I 50 fence energizer - $310
• OR
• Intellishock 10 - $120
• Deep cycle battery - $120
• 20amp solar panel - $130 

• M1A with Leupold scope (not for me, for the sheep... to protect the sheep from predators... geesh!) - $3,000 (A guy can dream, can't he?)

 We have a lot to think about right now... the plan was to get 100 chickens (broilers) to raise for meat, but at $12/bird (including $2 butcher fee/bird), it's more than we can pull off all together...  which is frustrating!  We need to hurry up and get better so we can free up some money in the budget for things like this.... 

PERSONAL FRUSTRATION: We stopped putting $ into my 401k a few months back to help with some costs and now my wife wants to start putting money in again... but with all I've read about the economy (example here and here) , I can't help but wonder if there are better places to invest my money.  After all, I don't really believe I'll ever see that money... I think the gov't is going to grab it long before I ever reach retirement age!  Sure, the company I work for matches the money 50% up to 6%... but if I never get to spend the money, what good is it?  I'd rather have some meat storage and production units in the backyard...

(The best way to store meat, until you need it, is on the hoof!)

-Clinton


(UPDATE)

Well scratch that idea... we owe over $800 on our taxes this year - guess I'd better update my W-4. Benjamin Franklin was right... I'm sure he wishes he wasn't!

 “Nothing is certain except death and taxes.”