hello everyone

[blackeyedsue22]

Hi from a misplaced country girl! My parents moved us to California a few years ago, we had a farm in New York before we moved here (we were about 4 1/2 hours from the city).

I just found this site yesterday, I can't wait to read more articles. I fount the site searching for a guide to butchering animals, and I found what I was looking for. Thanks for being here, hopfully I can give a little as well as learn a lot!

Cheers,

Sarah

[bee_pipes]

Where are you in southern california that you can butcher animals? Haven't been there in more than a decade, but figured San Diego county would have been paved over by now.

Best of luck to you - loads of information in the magazine.

Regards,
Pat

[blackeyedsue22]

Well at the moment I can't butcher animals, but I would like to in the future, so I thought I would learn as much as I can from reading, beforehand. My boyfriend and I plan to be married in the next couple of years, and we'll live in Michigan, hopefully buy a farm.

Hope that clears it up :)

(And yes, it is kinda cemented over...

[bee_pipes]

This was our first year for it. We had six surplus roosters. I had concerns about going squeamish, but all turned out well. Did a poor job dispatching the first one - have improved greatly with the subsequent five roosters. A friend came over to do the second one - he had dressed his own birds growing up. No substitute for watching a skilled hand at it. We gave him the rooster for his trouble - an excellent trade - we got instruction and he got supper. Storey's books on chickens goes into quite a bit of detail - by all means read - it won't tell you everything, but gives you enough knowledge to appreciate someone's technique. This year we are trying turkey too.

Seems to be a fair number of folks living in Michigan. If you can handle the winters, it sounds like a real paradise. I think Tennessee is about as far north as I want to live.

Best of luck to you - keep the dream alive!

Regards,
Pat

[bookwormom]

hi blackeyed sue :) :) :)

good dream to have. If you can not swing a whole farm, a few acres are wonderful, you can do a lot with it.
you have come to the right place to learn country living skills.
My husband started out with 50 frying pan special roosters, he figured there are 52 weeks in a year, we like chicken maybe once a week. If we have company we need two or three so 50 should be about right. well, the 20 mixed lot chicks we bought were not about half and half males and females but another 18 roosters. It took us three days to get them in the freezer. I learned how to do it as a kid at home.We also had 15 turkeys. ::) ::)