Good Tutorial on How to Gut and Process a Deer (Goat)

Update on our American Guinea Hogs

On November 14, 2014, we bought two young American Guinea Hog gilts (un-bred female pigs) from Cathy Payne's Broad River Pastures. (Broad River Pastures is located in Elberton, Georgia.) 

The video below shows an update on the two girls. They are smart, growing rapidly, and very healthy animals! We love them.

We are function stacking with these animals. They encourage soil life on our property. We intend to rotate the pigs to different areas over time. For now, we have them rooting about in a small stand of white oak, hemlock, dogwood, pine, and beech trees. The pigs are digging in the ground for acorns, roots, and nuts, and at the same time, enhancing the soil quality by encouraging aerobic microscopic soil life. 

Improving our soil biology is just one of the functions of our cute AGHs. If you want to know about the improved soil biology that we are aiming to achieve with all of our diverse set of animals, we recommend you read the scientific work of Dr. Elaine Ingham at her blog.  

Paul Wheaton's PEP1 Certification Tasks

Paul Wheaton is a permaculture leader that created the forums at permies.com. He has developed some interesting certifications he calls "Permaculture Experience Paul" or PEP. He has created a list of tasks the permaculturist must complete to achieve the certification. Note: the "Paul" in the an acronym refers to standards created by Paul Wheaton. He acknowledges that other permaculturists may have differing standards to accomplish their own certification levels.

Paul has created an interesting list. I am reproducing the lists he created for Gardening and Chickens below. The links take you to the forums of permies where the people discuss Paul's PEP certifications.

Gardening

white belt:

- grow 30 pounds of tomatoes (without transplanting)
- grow 20 pounds of peas (without transplanting)
- grow 50 pounds of potatoes
- grow 20 pounds of onions
- grow 20 garlic bulbs
- grow 5 pounds of raspberries
- grow 5 pounds of rhubarb
- grow 5 pounds of green beans (without transplanting)
- grow 5 pounds of summer squash (without transplanting)
- grow 20 pounds of winter squash (without transplanting)
- grow 10 pounds of broccoli (without transplanting)
- grow 10 pounds of cabbage (without transplanting)
- grow 10 pounds of carrots
- grow 3 pounds of sweet peppers (without transplanting)
- grow 1 pound of hot peppers (without transplanting)
- grow 5 pounds of lettuce (without transplanting)
- grow 2 pounds of kale
- grow 5 pounds of cucumbers (without transplanting)
- grow 20 pounds of daikon radish
- grow 10 pounds of strawberries
- grow 20 ears of corn
- grow 3 pounds of basil (without transplanting)
- grow 20 pounds of sunchokes
- grow 3 pounds of celery
- grow 1 pound of grain
- grow 4 pounds of stinging nettles
- grow 2 pounds of sunflower seeds
- grow parsley
- grow chives
- grow cilantro
- grow rosemary
- grow sage
- grow thyme
- grow daffodils
- grow crocus
- grow comfrey
- grow buckwheat
- grow caraway
- grow a grape vine
- grow horseradish
- grow marigolds
- grow nasturtiums
- grow sweet alyssum
- grow sweet clover

- plant apple seeds and have 50 seedlings at least four inches tall
- plant black locust seeds and have 50 seedlings at least four inches tall
- plant nut tree seeds and have 50 seedlings at least four inches tall
- plant mulberry seeds and have 50 seedlings at least four inches tall
- plant seaberry seeds and have 50 seedlings at least four inches tall

- mulch
- polyculture
- zero irrigation, although a watering can is allowed to help seeds to germinate in a timely fashion
- hugelkultur
- mitigating deer/vole/pest problems

green belt

- grow double what was grown for the white belt, in one year
- grow enough (in one year) to feed one person for a full year (one million calories)
- grow melon
- seed saving
- encouraging volunteer plants
- chop and drop
- using rock mulch
- using sticks/branches mulch
- using straw as mulch
- using hay as mulch
- use rhubarb leaves as mulch
- using sawdust/woodchips as mulch
- sell at least $200 in food
- ruth stout composting
- zero irrigation - not even a watering can to help germination in the beginning
- grow at least two pounds of edible mushrooms

brown belt

- grow double, in one year, what was grown for the green belt
- grow enough, in one year, to feed four people for a full year (four million calories)
- sell at least $1000 in food


black belt (note that black belt is not required for PEP1 - this is put here for those that wish to pursue a black belt beyond PEP1)

- grow enough to feed 20 people for a full year
- sell at least $10,000 in food



Note: The average person needs about one million calories per year. A pound of sunchokes has about 300 calories. A pound of sunflower seeds has about 2500 calories. A pound of potatoes: 300. Tomatoes: 80. Peas: 350. Daikon: 100. Apples: 200 Nettles: 300. If a person was going to eat only sunchokes for a year, they would need over 3000 pounds.

(fyi: a pound of beef has about 1100 calories)

Chickens

:ote: I'm no chicken expert and I certainly have not done everything listed here, but this list is based on my own experiences and what I've learned from others, particularly Paul.
Feel free to split up, move around, add/remove, change stuff.

White:
-read Paul's Raising Chicken's 2.0 article
-listen to both podcasts on chickens 003 - Chickens, 014 - Chicken Presentation
-design and build a portable coop that isn't a hassle to move, is effective, and reaches a level 10 on all of Paul's grading factors.
-respectfully harvest 10 birds (Alexia Allen videos here 1, 2)

Yellow/Orange:
-raise 20 chicks as meat birds to slaughter (with respectful harvest method) with no grain feeder, in paddock shift system
-raise 20 chicks as laying hens to slaughter (with respectful harvest method) with no grain feeder, in paddock shift system

Green:
-design a year-round fodder system that is effective even in Montana
-plot paddock systems for grazing around other farm systems for mutual benefits
-raise double the number of birds as the yellow/orange belt but through natural hatching by a broody hen, without an incubator
-manage breeding colonies to ensure genetic diversity, number of hens per rooster
-sell $300 in eggs, meat, feet, other value added products from chickens

Brown:
-raise double the number of birds as the green belt using the same methods
-sell $1,000 in eggs, meat, feet, other value added products from chickens

Black:
-raise double the number of birds as the brown belt using the same methods
-sell $8,000 in eggs, meat, feet, other value added products from chickens

Greenwood Woodworking 

make 50 shakes with a froe and wooden mallet
make 5 wooden mallets out of a single piece of wood
make 5 wooden mallets out of 2 pieces of wood
Create a wooden mallet within half an hour
grind and hone 5 hand tools to shaving sharpness using only sharpening stones/sand paper
carve a spoon using hand tools only
make three greenwood benches or tables without any screws or nails used for joinery
make a pole-lathe
Bodger 4 chair legs using your pole lathe
make 5 bowls using your own pole lathe
Create a shaving horse without any screws or nails used for joinery
Make two different types of chairs (ladder back, bow back, comb back) out of greenwood without any screws or nails used for joinery

Books-
Green Woodworking- Mike Abbott
The Woodland Way, Living in a Wood in the 21st Century- Ben Law
Sweedish Carving Techniques- Willie Sundqvist

DVDs/TV-
17th Century New England Carving- Peter Follansbee
The Woodwright's Shop- Roy Underhill

Websites-
Lost Art Press 
bodgers.org 
Fine Woodworking

This is what we have to look forward to with our American Guinea Hogs!

See these links to Charleston, South Carolina, Chef Deihl's blog posts.

Project American Guinea Hog

Project American Guinea Hog Part 2

Going Hog Wild

Thanksgiving

What a great weekend! All our children were here for T-day. We spent the rest of the time right at home. It was better than a permaculture sustainability conference. Katrina and I learned so much.

As some of my friends know, we are striving to live a healthier lifestyle, including a radically different diet than that prescribed to us by the chem-ag industry. We are quasi-Paleo now, and that means eating more local foods. You don't get much more local than this hamburger. Blessed.

It is hard to put your animals down. That is the most difficult part of it especially when you have taken care of them since they were born. We have three justifications for the process.

First, we remember how we cared for the animal while he lived. He was free to roam on pastures. He lived with his herd and shared comradeship. His pen was regularly cleaned. He lived in a dry, roomy, and comfortable shelter and pen. He was loved and treated kindly by his human care-takers. 

The care and treatment of factory farm animals, on the other hand, is troubling. In most cases, the factory-farm animals are caged from birth. There is minimal human interaction. They eat food that comes from who-knows-where with the main goal to drive them to a market weight as quickly as possible. They are killed mechanically in large numbers by persons or machines that do the job without remorse. 

If you are a meat-eating human, you eat animals killed in one of the two systems. We think ours is a more ethical one.

Second, the quality of the meat produced in our system is significantly higher. We take care to raise our chickens, guineas, goats, and pigs on pasture and in woods where they can self -regulate and eat appropriate herbs. The animals are periodically rotated and ingest a high mineral content from a polyculture of pasture grasses and browse. The supplemental grain we feed is exclusively organic, soy-free, and non-GMO. Animal de-worming treatment is weekly and consistently herbal (not chemical). No hormone-laced feed was ever used. The meat produced is highly nutritious.

The third justification is that we benefit spiritually. Becoming directly involved in the harvest strongly reinforces an appreciation of the sacrifice all animals make so that humans can eat meat. I think a lot of people miss that component, detached as much as possible from where their meat actually comes.

In the story of the Passover lamb told in ancient sacred writings, the people were instructed to bring the young lamb (or goat) into the home with them for four days before its sacrifice. A greater attachment to the animal was formed by living with it. And therefore, a greater appreciation of its sacrifice was realized. 

The third reason is more intangible and woo-woo than the first two. But it may be the more important of all three. We are blessed by the reminder of a sacrifice that makes our life as a human being possible.

Processing Goat Meat

Here are a couple of diagrams:

Building a Winter Shelter for Two Young American Guinea Hogs

We just bought two female American Guinea Hogs from breeder Cathy Payne of Broad River Pastures. The weather is getting colder and the young pigs (gilts) needed a good shelter from the elements. A cold front was approaching and we needed a shelter fast. So, Katrina and I built one on Sunday.

We considered a few designs, but decided we wanted to keep the hogs in an unused plastic doghouse we already had on our property. The hogs sleep together and the doghouse is small enough so that their body heat can help to warm the small space.

The walls of the doghouse are thin, and there is a crack in the roof which would have let in water in heavy rain storms.

Plus, we wanted a structure that would allow the pigs to leave their house to eat food and still stay out of the rain and wet conditions.

Finally, we wanted a structure that was flexible enough so that it could be modified as the pigs grew to their full size of more than 100 pounds, or for when the summer heat would require a more airy structure.

The video below shows what we came up with for our shelter. We think it will work out well in our climate here in western North Carolina.

A couple of the features are used in our other animal husbandry. First, we like the base of our system. We use plastic pallets because they do not rot in wet weather. They also keep our livestock up off the ground so they stay dryer.

Next, we use rubber horse mats. Sometimes we cut these if necessary with a reciprocating saw, but in this case we did not need to make any adjustments. The mat fit down neatly on top of two pallets. These two features give our animals a nice base, and it makes it easy to clean up with a hose when we need to tidy up their space.

Straw bales are used in a lot of instances for insulation. It is cheap and works well. We just piled it up around the exterior of our shelter with the doghouse in the middle. I think the hogs will stay cozy in their house in the coldest of North Carolina nights.

We used metal roof from some scraps we had on our place from earlier construction projects. The problem with metal roof is the condensation will form and drip onto hay. This could cause mold which is not a healthy situation. We sought to minimize it with some insulation.

The last thing I will say about our shed is that it is probably not appropriate for a more northern climate with frequent heavy snowfall. I don't think the roof will hold a very heavy load. If you live where you have a lot of snow, consider adding another set of posts and a beam in the middle. Also, you could make the pitch a bit steeper to encourage the snow to slide off the shed roof.

That is it. This is a very, very simple structure that can be made easily with very minimal carpentry skills.  Here's the video.