Tombstone Underground

Johnson/Milliren/Eckland/Szerlip Family Thanksgiving was a success. We hosted 22 people at our little house for a great dinner! We had lot’s of firsts: Wesley’s first time at the farm, Elouise’s first thanksgiving, our first holiday as a “family”, first time the composting toilet has been used, first game of Redneck Life, first time we ran out of eggs, etc… Besides the terrific dinner, the family has been busy finishing the goat and chicken fencing, slaughering venison and pumpkins. Again a huge “thank you” to all involved in getting our little farm up and running. We are almost ready for winter around here and we wouldn’t be anywhere near as close if it weren’t for all your help.

Life continues to be busy around here…

Last week was Elouise’s first snow. We had about 3” and it snowed for 2 days! For the first time in quite a while we saw Bob White quail in the front yard.

Yesterday, the pig man came and dispatched of all 3 pigs. Mom and I were glad to be headed into town as he drove down the driveway, but the bacon and sausage will be delicious!

Albert also got another deer, this time with his gun. Now we have 2 deer in the shop.

The loft of the red shed aka huset is now ready for occupancy. We still have some finishes touches we will be working this spring, and the downstairs needs some work, but it’s getting close!

Elouise had her 2 week pediatrician visit monday. She’s a whopping 8lbs 3 oz, inspite of frequent bilateral evacuations, she is gaining plenty of weight and the pediatrician doesn’t need to see her back until after Christmas. Doc just said her eye’s are bigger than her tummy, a genetic defect I’m afraid.

Roadkill Sausage Take 2

Bright and early on Megan’s first morning here we had a knock on the door.  Our neighbor’s niece had hit a 4x2 buck. Knowing that we are fans of responsible resource utilization Albert headed straight to our house to give Chris another lesson in game processing. We currently have it hanging in our shop “ageing”. We need to get a meat grinder so we can make sausage with our pigs and now the deer.

Megan and her nine month old daughter Lexy came for a visit. Lexy helped us to see all the spots that will need to be child-proofed in the coming months. She and Louie had a great time cuddling on the couch and Megan and I got to see what it’s like to have 2 babies. Holy Smokes it’s a lot of work. Chris’s comment was “this is what it must be like to be mormon”.

Kateri and Nicole came for a visit. I only remembered to take pictures when Kateri was here.

Louie’s Great Grandma came to visit this last weekend. She brought with her Steve and Janel to meet Louie. As usual the troops got a ton of work done, upper and lower floors painted, more fencing, windows washed and lot’s of wood split and stacked.

Well it’s been another busy day here at Eckland Acres, lot’s of good family and friends out to visit and hang out with Elouise. She enjoyed being admired by everyone and was pleased to share she’s gained ½ a pound already. In case you all forgot in addition to the new naked critter just added we also have some other livestock. So I figured I’d update you on the latest with all the other animals.

Chickens: No further poultry napping has occurred since we have had the birds on lock down. Which pretty much rules out birds of prey as a suspect. The coyote trap has had the bait removed and consumed twice without it being triggered. Chris has switched the bait from sardines to a hotdog and has it suspended inside now. The hope being that they will have to mess with the food enough to get it down that they will have to trigger the door.
The girls are still laying about a dozen a day with the lights on in the early morning and the ducks have finally recovered from the trauma of their friends being carried away, they are laying again too.

Goats: We have almost got the winter goat pen ready to go. Steve and Vic have been a great help with that project. Chris wormed them all the other day and they have their winter coats. Hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll get them shipped off for a visit with a buck and have them “freshened”.

Pigs: I would like to say again I’m not a huge fan of this project this year. Today while my wonderful aunt was trying to feed them, one got out. Apparently in his excitement over the delicious slop she was providing he managed to jump over the fence. I say it’s sausage time. It took five of us about half and hour to get the darn thing back in the pen. I only wish I had a sixth person to video tape the whole escapade. It was pretty funny…once. I promptly called the neighbors and said it was butcher time so hopefully in the next week we’ll be down some livestock and up some freezer stores.  A big thank you to all who helped with the pig wrangling this afternoon!