As we strive to have a sustainable home, we want to use the most of our farm raised animals. Today that means using fat from our pigs to render lard.

When we take our pork to be processed we let the butcher know we would like to keep the fat. The fat comes back to us in slabs. To turn those slabs into a usable product I use a slow cooker. It’s so simple, I should have started rendering lard years ago.

Lard

fat from a pig that is rendered and clarified for use in cooking.

STEP 1

Cut the cold slab(s) into small chunks. This is the most difficult part of the entire process. Maybe if you have good knives, you will have an easier time than I do using our crappy one. The smaller the chunks the better.

To keep the fat from sticking, pour about a 1/4 cup of water in the bottom of a slow cooker. Then, toss in the fat chunks.

STEP 2

I turn the slow cooker on high, at least for the first little bit.

You know you are on your way to rendered lard when the fat changes from it’s lovely pinkish color to a horrid creamish color.

As the fat heats up, liquid escapes the chunks and starts filling the slow cooker. This is the good stuff.

STEP 3

Using cheesecloth and a funnel, I carefully strain the liquid fat into a jar.

I pour the first bit of liquid about an hour and a half into the cooking.

I turn the slow cooker to low, and let it render some more. Then, when there’s more liquid I strain that.

I typically repeat this process three times.

*Please note – the fat will not render completely out. There will still be some chunks remaining.

STEP 4

After the liquid cools, I place a lid on the jar and put it in the fridge. Here it turns into the soft, solid, white stuff we refer to as lard.

It can be used in cooking, baking, suet, or soap making.

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I’m trying something new this year – an update each week about what’s going on around our farm and garden. I’m aiming for just a quick rundown of the week’s happenings. Hopefully the coming weeks are not as eventful as this last week has been. It’s been a rough start to 2016 – which means it can only get better.

• It has snowed off and on since before Christmas. We don’t get many snow days around here, so it’s been fun. The kids have gone sledding many, many times.

• A couple days the cold temperatures and wet ground resulted in slippery driving conditions. That’s always exciting coming and going on our hill.

• Despite having moved Olaf to the garage to keep him warmer, he passed away New Years Day. Olaf was our pet and will be missed. I think I took it especially hard because I just watched my grandpa pass away the night before.

• The power went out New Years Day. No problems with it. It just added another jab in an already crummy day.

• We still have Oliver and Lois, so Sven is living in a chicken run for now. It’s absolutely not ideal. But, I watched Oliver attack Olaf and I don’t want the same thing to happen to Sven. Also, Sven is frightened of both Oliver and Lois – for good reason, they aren’t nice to him.

• We purchased quarter of a beef from a friend and is now put away nicely in our freezer just waiting for dinnertime.

• It took two trips due to a stubborn hog, but the pigs went to the butcher. Soon we will have pork in the freezer again.

• For some strange reason our dog, Remi, followed Farmer John when he left to take the pigs to the butcher. John noticed he was following him down the driveway and told Remi to go home. John assumed he did. Apparently, he did not. A couple hours later, at bed time, the dog was nowhere to be found. Because it snowed that day, John was able to track him. He tracked his steps 4 miles down the road. Then, they just stopped. We put up a sign & posted about it on Facebook. The next morning we got 2 leads and thankfully we got Remi back. He’s been a bit sluggish since then, though. I’m hoping he’s just wore out from the evening’s adventures.

• I ordered herb seeds. Woo hoo! And, a few flower seeds. I’m going to give sunflowers a whirl once again. I don’t know why. I certainly can’t get them to grow.

• I snapped a few photos of a Varied Thrush, which was exciting. They are so skittish and fly off the moment they get sight of me. I was/am quite thrilled this guy stuck around long enough (twice) for me to take his pic.

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2015 has officially ended. Let’s look back at how our farm and gardening endeavors played out this past year. We had a fairly steady year with good food being grown and plenty of animals to keep us busy.

CHICKENS

We dabble in a variety of things related to farming and gardening, but chickens will always be a main stay for us. That being said, this year we did take a slight step back. We didn’t incubate eggs, we didn’t attend any shows or swaps, and Farm Kid2 decided not to continue with poultry in 4H. But, that doesn’t mean we’re short on chickens.

We chose not to incubate eggs this year. We did, though, have 3 broody hens hatch small clutches. Click here to read about the first hatch and click here to read about the second.

The majority of our birds are Rhode Island Reds and Easter Eggers. But, we still have two golden polish hens that are nearly 4 years old. They lay a fairly small egg and are such a great looking bird.

Mo, our Easter Egger rooster, has been demoted. For a number of years he was our top rooster. However, some young, cocky boys have moved up and taken his spot in the pecking order.

Three of our handsome fellas.

We were given this Old English Game bantam. I think he’s beautiful. He’s meant to be a show bird, but at the moment nobody in our family is showing poultry.

This wasn’t an outstanding egg year. One day, though, Farm Girl decided to count how many eggs we had.

We raised 10 birds for meat. Usually we roast the whole chicken, but one night Farmer John made chicken strips. They were delicious!

Four white leghorns, one buff orpington, one barred rock and one black australorp were added to our laying flock this year.

DUCKS

The ducks have given us a bit of excitement by each hen hatching eggs this year. That’s a first for us.

Our two Welsh Harlequin ducks.

Sally, our male Muscovy. The left photos are from January and February of this year. The right was taken in September. His looks changed significantly.

Both ladies sat on eggs this year, which was a fun experience for us. To read about the first hatch click here. And click here to read about the second hatch.

I’ve enjoyed watching how the Welsh Harlequin/Muscovy cross ducklings change as they mature.

Unfortunately, we lost Sally and one of the Welsh Harlequins to predators in the fall.

GOATS

The goats are cute as can be doing goat type things. You can read more about them here.

PIGS

We’ve had two sets of hogs this year. The first round Farm Kid1 raised 2 and sold them to earn money for a computer.

The second round was to fill our freezer, as well as to sell. The pigs were a Hampshire/Berkshire cross.

OLIVER & LOIS

A couple weeks ago we acquired a pot bellied pig named Oliver, and his friend Lois, a pygmy goat. My hope was we could be their forever home and they would live happily ever after with Sven and Olaf. Unfortunately, things aren’t working out as well as I had hoped. So, we are in the process of finding them a new home.

FLOWER BEDS

There wasn’t a lot of action this year in our flower beds. But, the same ol’ trusty trees, shrubs and perennials put on a pretty show mainly in the spring and summer months.

The ducks, unfortunately, are not great for the plants. They step on them. They sleep on them. They poop on them.

The deer also make flower gardening a challenge. Apparently some of our plants are quite tasty.

The only new additions to our flower beds were 10 lavender ‘grosso’ plants. They’re in an area that I’ve struggled with for years. I finally decided lavender was the thing to spruce it up.

PONDS

We have two small ponds that I love. Our farm critters as well as wild critters love them, too.

GARDENING FOR FOOD

Another thing we didn’t spend as much time on as in years past, was the garden. It is incredibly time consuming keeping up with the weeds and by the end of summer it had gotten a bit out of hand. We did harvest some produce, though. We got onions, potatoes, a few eggplant and squash, cherry tomatoes & herbs.

We tried the three sisters method in one area of the garden. Corn, beans and squash all growing together. It worked kind of . Everything grew. But, we tend to have trouble with corn and it didn’t grow fast enough before the beans grew tall. The squash (pumpkins & gourds) grew well, though.

Many of our seeds didn’t germinate this year. I think the birds got to them. Darn it. I should have had a fabulous showing of tall sunflowers mixed with viney cucumbers growing underneath. What I got was one sunflower. One.

This was not a great year for tomatoes. We only picked a handful of big, juicy red ones. It was so hot this summer, I actually think we didn’t water them enough. We did, however, get renegade yellow cherry tomatoes. They reseeded from last year and were a pleasant surprise.

Fruit. My favorite items to pick from the garden is the fruit. Our grape vines are finally producing well, we got a couple apples, lots of plums and lots of raspberries.

NEW PATIO

Our only big project of the year was pouring a much needed back patio. We decided to do stamped concrete, which was a lot of work. But, I’m so happy to finally have a patio. The ducks, too, are quite happy with the patio. It is one of their favorite places to hang out and poop.

AQUAPONICS

This was our first full year experimenting with aquaponics. We have three grow beds, one fish tank and a sump tank.

A good sized pump cycles the water and aquarium heaters keep it warm. Depending on the time of year we keep the water between 70 and 80 degrees.

We have a fan for circulation in the greenhouse.

Grown in the garden beds were/are peppers, Mexican sour gherkins, tomatoes, eggplant, mixed greens and okra. This growing method works very well.

I also started nasturtiums right in the garden bed and overwintered geraniums that loved the greenhouse.

We grow tilapia in the fish tank part of the aquaponics system. The fish aren’t growing as quickly as we thought they would. But, at the beginning of December we did finally catch a couple fish and have them for dinner. I was hoping they’d be good, and they were.

Whew! There were no major plant or animal changes this year. But, just keeping up kept us plenty busy. It’s so much work living this way, but so rewarding. I can’t wait to see what 2016 will bring.

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Our oldest is raising 2 pigs to earn money for the laptop he’s been wanting. Although he’s been doing most of the feeding & watering, we’re all learning a little about pigs.

THE FIRST COUPLE MONTHS

Back in September, the day they came to live with us.

They always came to say hi when I walked by. I’m sure they were hoping for food. Whatever the reason, it was super cute.

They liked to nibble on our shoes. It didn’t seem as if it was meant to be mean. Maybe they were hoping they would taste good?

WATERING

We use a bucket with watering nipples for our thirsty chickens The goats have a bucket. Neither of these methods were going to work for getting water to the pigs. We tried buckets and shallow containers. They stepped in them & spilled them every time.

So, Farmer John went to the feed store and came back with this. It works well as a constant source of water… in warm weather. Once the temperature started freezing, though, he had to unscrew the hose. Which, of course, meant no water.

The pigs then got upgraded to the container we use as a brooder for our chicks. They’ve had this for awhile and seems to work fine.

FEEDING

We had the same problem with a feeding bucket as we did the water. They dumped over every container they were given.

They have moved on to eating from this metal container we once used for our dogs.

SHELTER

We talked about getting pigs and Farmer John started a shelter. But, the day came sooner than we were thinking. We had 2 pigs, but no home for them.

The pigs moved into what we call “The Duck Pen.” It was originally built for ducks. But, ducks, chickens, quail, turkeys & goats have all resided in this pen. It was empty at the time, so the pigs moved in. Straw bales were lined against the chicken wire to keep them from pushing under the fence. This worked for awhile until they were big enough to break the bales.

Sleeping in their cozy duck house. We had a light on them for awhile. But, don’t anymore.

Their current home is a mix of materials we had on hand. Their pen is set up inside the fenced area for the goats. Cattle panels were attached to the beginnings of the structure Farmer John originally started for the pigs. Their house is a hoop house we’ve used for gardening projects and housing chickens.

GETTING BIG

The pigs are definitely growing. I don’t know how much they weigh, but they outweigh our son. They are getting a bit aggressive. They are no longer the cutie patootie piggly wigglies

Resting in the hoop house.

They still come up to me at the fence.

I have no idea what the goats and pigs think about each other. But, with the fence between them, there doesn’t seem to be any problems.

It didn’t take them long to turn their living space into a soupy, sloppy, mucked up mess.

Rootin’ for something

So far our pig raising experience is going well. We’ve had a few minor issues with figuring out the best way to feed and water them. They escaped once. Farm Kid1 has had to figure out how to get them their food without the goats jumping all over him and without the pigs trompling him. But, he’s figuring it out.

They probably have about 2 more months until they reach butcher weight. Until then we will enjoy them.

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Weather

October’s weather started out nice enough, but has now turned to crap. Rain. Fog. Wind. Typical for this time of year.

Spider Webs

The spiders have been busy lately. Lots of web making going on. And, in the right light they look super cool.
  

Power Outage

This weekend was stormy.

I had to take the long way home due to a tree being across the road. Then we came home to the power being out. Our phone was out for awhile, as well. When it was working, though, I frequently called the power company to report our outage and the line was busy every single time I called. I wonder if there phone wasn’t working either? I never did get through, but thankfully around 4:00 the next day the crew came to fix the line.

I can handle not having tv, or computer, or microwave. But, I hate being without light. And, at this time of year it’s getting dark fairly early. Darn it! However, it did give us a nice excuse to go to bed early. I snuggled with my 2 kids that were home, read them Halloween stories & they were asleep easily by 8:00, maybe earlier. I stayed up a little later and read Wildwood. It is a middle-grade fantasy based in the urban forest area outside of Portland.

I think I have mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again.
Most of the year, I am not a fan of our propane stove. It is very hard to adjust the temperature. There are even special burners that are supposed to help with this problem. One is meant to boil water quickly, which is a larger burner. There is also a small burner & 2 medium sized burners. There is virtually no difference between any of them. We’ve had the stove since we moved in 6 years ago. The stove & I still fight.

On days the power is out, though, I love, love, love that we have a stove that runs on propane. It means on the cold evenings we still get warm food.

Ducks

The ducks, of course, don’t seem to mind the crummy weather. It can be pouring outside and they’ll be splashing away in the pond.

Chicken Keeping

In the Spring we hatched lots of chicks. We sold some at the Spring Swap and later sold nearly laying pullets at the Fall Swap. We didn’t purchase birds for meat purposes this year. Instead, from the chicks we hatched, the majority of the cockerels will fill our freezer next month.

Jack-o-Lantern and Chick

Our chickens are happy to eat the pumpkin guts.

I was a little nervous bringing home hatching eggs from the swap. But, we put them in the incubator and all 4 of them started developing. I was pleased! However, they did not survive the power outage.

Goats

Our oldest son wanted to build the goats a play place. So, Farmer John helped him build this. Unfortunately, the goats don’t like it. They won’t climb it. When I set them up on the top, they just jump off. I think with a few changes, though, the goats will enjoy it.

Pigs

Pig raising seems to be going well. Thankfully, Farm Kid1 is pretty good about taking care of them and they are growing. I don’t know if I can call them super cute, but I do love their personalities.

Aquaponics & Greenhouse

In the aquaponics system set up in the greenhouse, the tomatoes, tomatillos & tilapia are all doing fine.

Wildlife

Neighborhood Deer

Happy Halloween

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Flower Beds

Many of the summer perennials are past their prime & I’ve cut back a bunch of them. I do always leave some, though, for birds who enjoy the seeds. Click here to see flowers that were actually blooming on September’s Bloom Day.
  

Crafts

At the end of summer last year I painted signs on recycled pallet wood & made hypertufa mushrooms & planters. They’ve sat in our garage ever since. Recently, though, I painted the hypertufa & placed most of them in the flowerbeds.
  

Aquaponics

We have two tanks of Tilapia.

I moved the geraniums into a garden bed that is part of the aquaponics system. I’m hoping they will survive the winter in here & next spring I can move them back outside. Update: click here to see how the geraniums thrived over the winter.

The way the garden beds work is that water fills up the bed then it all drains to a lower tank. Then it refills, then drains, and the cycle continues on and on.

Ducks

One morning our neighbor called and said one of our ducks was in their yard quacking away. Weird. Our ducks have never wandered that far. However, it is the same neighbor that called us to say our Mama Turkey and babies were in their yard. Oops. They may be getting a little tired of our wandering poultry.

While looking for the ducks in our yard, I found a couple piles of horse poop & horse shoe prints all over. We don’t have horses.

Some other neighbors have horses, but they’ve never come to our house before.

The mystery still remains as to why a horse wandered to our house & why our ducks wandered to the neighbors.

After looking for, but not finding, the ducks at our house, Farmer John went to the neighbors. The ducks weren’t there by the time he arrived, though. A little while later, as I was driving down our driveway, I saw a duck waddling her way back home. But, only one duck. I have no idea where the other duck was. Two day later, though, she was back home. So miraculously, after whatever shenanigans they were up to, both ducks made it home safely.

Chicken Keeping

The chickens love this spot. I don’t love that they love this spot, though. It’s one of my flowerbeds. Chickens aren’t easy on flowerbeds. I’m sure they like it here, though, because it’s shady in the warm afternoon sun.

They knock over, stand on & poop on Mr. Gnome.

They knock the top off the bird bath, kick over mushrooms & removed this gnome from his spot on the stump. I’ve given up putting my decor back because they just knock it over again. Some how they’ve even managed to put the gnome “in the corner.”
  

Miss Sassy Pants

In the last week we’ve had a number of new mama hens.

I’m not sure how this poor little black one went flying so high, but it is slightly amusing. The chicks like to use mama as their own personal jungle gym and climb over her. I’m guessing mama must have given a shake to launch this one so far.

Goats

Since we’ve lived here the Canadian thistle have proven to be our biggest weed problem. It thrills me (a lot) to know the goats do eat them.

Wildlife

Deer in the garden area that is of course not inside the deer fence. Smart, smart deer.

The last little while the kids have been watching tadpoles in a barrel. The water has all evaporated & recently we spotted a bunch of tiny frogs. Fun!

A bat has decided Farmer John’s man shack is a nice place to rest at night. I thought they flew around at night searching for bugs.? Not this one.

Pigs

Farm Kid1, our oldest son, has been wanting a laptop for awhile. Well, I’m not going to buy him one. So, he’s decided to earn the money for one. Farmer John & him came up with the idea to raise a couple pigs and sell them to friends & family that want homegrown pork. Now we have two pigs.

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