It's nearly time to do the farmer thing....gulp...

A few garden update pics. I put these few plants in front of the verandah to brighten things up there a little.

 

  

I had to put lots of statues, rocks and ornaments etc to keep the plants safe from the dogs running through the garden until they all get established. I also planted up some new lettuce, spinach and silverbeet in pots for a bit of fresh produce. Now that the cooler weather is here, things are managing to survive. We have been wanting to try our hand at making sausages for a couple of years now, so we purchased a sausage maker yesterday, and as soon as we get the casings, we'll give it a go. I purchased a sausage making book about 2 years ago, which has recipes and tips, and there are lots of recipes online. I will probably be able to make up some gourmet chicken sausages as well after the weekend.

 We are planning to cull our roosters on the weekend....gulp. We have about a dozen roosters, and they are just costing us money in feed, and I have to keep most of them locked up away from the hens, as there are too many of them, and they give the girls a bit too much attention otherwise. We will just keep 1 or poss 2, to keep the girls more settled and to look after the girls. So we have done heaps of reading, and watched plenty of DVD's on the process, and Damian has had to cull a few of our chickens over the last couple of years if one has been really sick, so he is ok with that part, we are just not familiar with the gutting side, but figure we'll just give it a go and we should get quicker with each one.  Damian had this old hot water unit which has an element and temperature control, so he is going to use this to heat up the water so that we can dunk the chickens prior to plucking.

We'll just set ourselves up behind the shed with a clean table, a tree, hot water, the engel for refrigeration, and see how we go. Wish us luck, I sure the first time will be the hardest. I will watch a couple of videos on preparing the poultry in to the more familiar cuts, and a couple of whole birds for roasting, and then freeze everything up for future use. If things go well and we think we can make it a regular thing, we might look at getting some chickens just for meat. It's going to be difficult deciding which breed roosters I want to keep...as they are all heritage breed roosters...I need to decide by tomorrow though...I need to let my head make this decision based on their overall dual purpose, and not how attractive they are... it's going to be a bit tough I think...