It’s really damn hot. For winter, it’s hot. Too hot. Disturbingly hot. This morning I drove past a tabloid sheet that pronounced today the "hottest winter day ever". I felt every degree, arm out the window as i drove. Last time I ventured into the bigbackyard to blog I was in need of gumboots and wet weather gear (or was alternatively unclothed, often a better way to manage the ridiculous downpours). Today, by contrast, I set foot on dry land, gumboot-less and in need of sun protection. Where once there were small lakes and sodden fields the earth is dry, compacted, cracked, shrinking away from fence posts and pipes and from around the stems and roots of plants. I find myself wondering, with an edge of anxiety, when the next shower will come. My sister calls me and says she’s run out of water. I am shocked. She’s had an excess of water for about 2 years. I am suddenly conscious again of the capricious nature of the weather and that drought is only ever a few days away from the last shower. We’ve been living in a wet dream of too much water for so long now that the days of hauling water from the duck’s bath to nourish the plants is a dim memory. From the side door I can see the usually psychedelic greenness of the surrounding hills turning brown before my eyes. Smoke rises like a warning from spot fires along the horizon. Farmers are burning off, anticipating a scorching summer. The smoke creates a quality of light which engenders a sense of unease: yellowish, dense and strained through the threat of fires to come. I plan rescue strategies for the vegetable gardens and carry bucket after bucket of water to the newly planted and embattled palms in the driveway. Looking out into the big paddock, I worry about the lack of pasture for the cows, and the impact of their hooves on the dry earth. Only weeks ago the paddock was carpeted by an impossible lushness of fodder for my small herd. Today I see a carpet of yellow; fireweed; and a forest of those weeds that grow green parachutes full of beautiful but evil diaphanous seed-silk, carried on the hot early summer breezes. I don’t know the name for this weed. I see very little in the way of food for my cows, in particular little to nourish cows in calf. I worry about the cost of feeding the cows through the dry, about hauling bales of lucerne from Casino or Tatham to see them through.

Sage words from local farmers indicate a dry season that may last well into next year, no doubt punctuated by heavy weather phenomena, the kind of weather that rumbles and boils out of a clear blue sky at the end of a scathingly hot day. The kind of weather that splits trees in two and blows apart churches. The kind of weather that turns on you, spitting in fury. No, Dorothy, we are not in Kansas anymore but Heavy Weather is here to stay…

So, having created the weather for this entry, i sit sweating in the double edged loveliness of it, looking into the cavernous gap of time between my last foray into the bigbackyard and this, today’s expedition. Alot has happened.

I did just mention in passing, did i not, without really a pause for breath; "cows in calf"? Yes! I did! While there is no empirical evidence to support my belief, I am quite certain that Little Grrl (now the banner pinup cow for this site!) is in calf. I’m unsure about Rosie, but Little Grrl was looking decidedly rotund this afternoon when I went to feed her and while I have, as I say, no empirical evidence, I witnessed some interesting bullish happenings last time Little Grrl was on heat. Not the least of these things being that Charlie is now a capable bull, and tall enough to mount Little Grrl successfully. Which he was doing repeatedly the last time she was on heat. However, more interestingly, during the same estrus period a bull from the next door property managed to jump all fences and and spend the night with Little Grrl in the house paddock. That bulls can sense the estrus from quite some distance and another property away is quite amazing. They are quite capable of and will jump fences to get to a cow in heat. As i witnessed. I’d say it was a rowdy night, judging by the bellowing, and none of my cows slept much, but the bulls know when to take their leave, and in the morning, not a sign of big bull. This will be Little Grrl’s first calf, which also means that she will be a lactating heifer, and I will have 2 house cows to milk. I feel some trepidation about milking Little Grrl. She has horns and is not afraid to use them. Her udder has never been handled, and while she has been hand raised and is very domesticated, she’s feisty and frisky and will top a puny human every time, regardless of puny human cow-topping strategies… one should always respect a good set of horns. I expect I will have to build her a stanchion for milking purposes, and perhaps restrain her while milking so she doesn’t kick me. All this will be a new experience for me, as I’m so used to milking Rosie freestyle, she being the most accommodating of cows.

My small herd of four became three recently. Regular visitors to the backyard will have seen photos of Miss Pretty, the sweet calf I raised by hand from just days old. She was a rescue calf from Trevor’s Dairy where the Lad used to work. A pure Illawarra dairy calf, sweet natured, very docile and human-friendly. Miss Pretty died recently after swallowing something which caused a blockage in her oesophagus and subsequently created bloat. Bloat is a distressing ailment for an animal. The animal is unable to belch, swallow saliva (cows produce up to an amazing 100 litres of saliva a day) or chew their cud. The gasses in the rumen expand and can’t escape, creating pressure on the lungs and obstructing bloodflow. Death can occur very quickly from suffocation and other complications. In a cow, diagnosis is often difficult and death is often sudden. Decisions need to be made quickly. The veterinary approaches to dealing with such emergencies are primitive and harsh. Thus a knife between the ribs or a metal tube down the oesophagus are part of the arsenal of emergency veterinary treatments. But one does what one can to try and preserve the life of a healthy animal. I desperately wanted to save Miss Pretty. I wanted to watch her calve and milk her. In the end, following 4 very distressing visits from the vet all through the day and night, I chose to euthanize Miss Pretty to end her suffering. The treatments were punishing. I couldn’t watch anymore. Miss Pretty was euthanized and buried down in the old pig pen, near May the goat and Charlie the rescue calf. I wasn’t alone in digging her grave and tossing the red soil on her red red coat. There were 5 of us quietly digging her grave, sweating alot and passing small comments. I am blessed to be living as part of a community that honors the processes of life and death as part of a sustainable system rather than just eating it, vacuum packed, from the supermarket.

Of course where there is death there is also an abundance of life. From where I sit, I can turn my head left and see out the side door down the garden path, towards the vegetable gardens and the hills beyond. The house gardens are still green, and the vegetable beds are full of bolting brassicas, rushing toward seed in the unseasonal heat. I have been eating fresh broccoli for nights and nights now, snapped from the stalk and steamed, with only cracked pepper as an accessory. Perhaps a squeeze of lemon. Maybe the smallest dob of butter. One doesn’t want to overdress fresh broccoli. The chinese cabbages are sprouting unruly heads of yellow flowers, securing their place in next season’s garden. Cauliflowers are nearing their denouement, packed tightly in their parcel of outer leaves, perfectly formed, having outrun the appetites of the green caterpillars. Baby greens are thriving and there is an abundance of last season’s straggler leeks, spring onions, brown onions, kaffir lime leaves, curry leaves, lemongrass, limes, lemons, galangal and mint for the creation of sublime evening meals.

citrus mania - taken by esther, farmfriend and marmalade queen

This abundance is due in large part to the time and energy of my farm family and to the neverending stream of urban retreaters, wwoofers and devoted friends who are so generous with their time and skills. After a despondent season or two, the gardens have now been beautifully overhauled and feel manageable, viable and are beginning a cycle of newfound productivity, I do believe.

Continuing the theme of abundance, I found yesterday a goose egg in the small goose house under the mulberry tree (which, incidentally, is ripening its berries at a rapid rate and subsequently i have stained lips and fingers most of the time…). This egg was the first goose egg i think i have ever seen. The appearance of the egg makes one thing clear: one of the geese is female, and since, apparently, it is rare for geese to lay unfertilised eggs, I would say I have a mating pair! I haven’t yet seen any mating activities between the birds, and believe me i keep a close eye on such things, but goslings would be a fine thing. The egg is sitting in the middle of the kitchen table, while i ponder what to do with it. Apparently if the egg is eaten on the day it is laid it is referred to as a Golden Egg. This is now a second day egg. I haven’t come across any references to second day egg naming. The shell of the egg is very white and somewhat matte and chalky. it sits next to a much smaller duck egg, with it’s waxy, smooth and slightly blueish shell, and a tiny smooth brown shelled chicken’s egg.

eggs: goose, duck, chicken

I think I will have a goosey scramble for dinner. 

Sending you all golden eggs and an abundance of all that is good. Let’s catch up again soon.

Ms V x

Heavy Weather: Taken From the title of a novel by cyberpunk writer Bruce Sterling. The sf thriller is set in a near-future world suffering from "heavy weather" - tornadoes and other phenomena caused by the runaway greenhouse effect. Last year a tornado hit Dunoon. My friend’s response to my frantic texting, knowing my penchant for drama, was "… yes, Dorothy … were’s Toto?". We don’t have tornados in Australia, do we?

Ok, if you are vegan or vegetarian please don’t read this post.

As you all know, we have a little menagerie here on the farm. We have our herd of cattle. We have a goat. We have chooks and we have ducks of various breeds.

These animals all range freely around the farm, fed on what nature provides, supplemented by our vege scraps and grains.

We live based loosely around a permaculture ideology, and strive towards self sufficiency. We constantly have to take stock and rationalise. Are we putting more (energetically, financially) into our endeavours than we are getting back? Are we making the most of our resources? How can we do things more efficiently and not be out of pocket?

In addition to these practical questions come questions of ideology and ethics around the way I/we would like to live, the notions we would like to embrace more than theoretically. Self sufficiency is a huge umbrella, and means more than getting a few salad greens out of the garden. It can embrace everything from producing your own energy to killing your own meat and stuffing your own pillows with duck down from your poultry flock. All of this done ethically, and outside of a system of factory farming, mass consumerism and capitalism. I’ve mentioned in earlier posts my own upbringing on a farm, which provided for most of our needs. Mum is an awesome gardener and Dad is a passionate farmer.

For about 15 years before i came to live up here I was a vegetarian/sometime vegan. Not sure what changed, but being able to buy local produce, freerange, organic, not factory farmed probably had alot to do with it. The local butcher knows his meat, literally. It’s Monday’s chook, comes from Bill and Ben’s down the road…

Anyway, all this is a preamble to saying that, since I eat meat I believe I should probably kill my own. And we have poultry. And that poultry can provide food and feathers. In addition, during the happy life of the duck, it provides us with organic liquid manure from its bathwater (and ours).

We are in a position at the moment where cash flow is a concept we have only a nodding acquaintance with. Grain costs us quite alot. The ducks aren’t laying. A smaller flock would be more manageable and productive. The duck is currently more useful as a meal than a drain on our precious resources.

I have participated in kills before, mostly assisting, or helping to pluck. I have personally killed a chicken once, and I wasn’t really very skilled at it, shall we say, and it put me off trying again.

Yesterday Deb sad she would help me out, since it was crunch time, the ducks had to be either given away (to someone else who would slaughter them, most likely), or bite the bullet and make self sufficiency more than a concept.

It was very brave of Deb, I thought, and i welcomed her sure aim, which would ensure a clean kill and a painless and swift death for the duck.

I know when I was looking online and in all the books hereabouts for information on the *best* way to kill, pluck and so on, i found it hard to get a clear picture of how to go about the process… so many different approaches. So here is a step by step guide to how we did it, augmented by bits of information offered by those who know and by lessons i learned along the way.

How to Kill, Pluck and Dress a Duck (Deb and V  version)

You will need:

Sharp cleaver or axe
Chopping block
Bucket/s
Rope
Hose
2 large cauldrons (one with very hot water and detergent and one with cold water)
Newspaper, lots of it
Sharp knives for dressing the duck

Don’t let your animals near feed for about 6 hours or more before the kill. Water, of course, they should always have plenty of water on hand.

First, put all dogs away…

Catch your duck. I can’t tell you how to do that. I just try to do it with the least amount of thrashing about, just quietly stalk them I guess.

Hold the duck firmly, calm it down by talking quietly or stroking the duck.

[We decided the most humane method of killing the duck was one swift cut with a sharp cleaver. We had 2 people for the next part, which made it easier…]

Place the duck on the chopping block, with neck stretched out, underside of the bill along the block, eyes on top. If you hold the duck’s body up in the air by the feet (so it’s like a J shape) this will assist in lengthening out the neck along the block, and may help keep the duck still. I held the feet and Deb made the cut. She placed her hands lightly over the duck’s head and eyes and one sure fall of the cleaver made a clean cut.

Immediately hold the duck neck down, feet up in the air over a bucket to bleed the duck. There will be quite a bit of movement from the duck at this point, so be prepared for this as it can be disturbing.

[This next part I’m not entirely sold on, there seem to be a number of different ways to go. I’ll tell you how we did it and then i’ll tell you how others go about it.]

Tie the duck upside down and hang it by its feet to bleed it. We were racing against the clock, so didn’t hang the ducks for long. Michael says 4 hours. We hung them over buckets to lessen the chances of the dogs going crazy for blood if they just bled onto the ground.

[Some people don’t mention hanging the duck at all, they say to begin plucking the duck immediately, while the duck is still warm. Begin by dry plucking the large wing feathers, since they are the hardest to pluck.] 

I dug a deep hole in the veg garden and buried heads and blood while the ducks were hanging and while we were boiling the water for the pluck.

Plucking is the messiest part, and the most difficult if you don’t get it right. 

Set up for plucking outside is best, otherwise you’ll have a house full of feathers and a wet feather smell which is not pleasant.

Place sheets of newspaper all around, just on the ground is fine, quite thick. This stops the feathers blowing away. You place the wet feathers on the newspaper and they stick. Wet feathers also stick to fingers. Use gloves if you want, but might get a cleaner pluck without gloves.

Place 2 large cauldrons of water by the plucking area. One full of very hot water (what temperature is best? some people say 140 degrees is optimal, dunked for 30 seconds. Others say boiling, and you dunk them for just a second.) and one full of cold water.

We used very hot water and dunked for about 30 seconds. Then straight into the cold water to stop the bird from cooking.

Start plucking! Pull the large wing feathers first, and tail feathers, tho some people say not to bother about the tail featehrs, just cut the end of the tail off when you are dressing the bird. Pull in the direction of growth. You’ll find that some of the down will just rub off. 

Information just to hand says that ducks are the hardest poultry to pluck (I’d have to agree) because their feathers are oily, waterproof. Brian (C’s boss) gave us this tip. Hang the bird upside down. Using a strong hose, spray the bird while pulling the feathers firmly down against the direction of growth. This helps the water penetrate the feathers. Then dunk.

After the pluck comes the dress (butchering the bird) 

A cleaver and a very sharp pointy knife are useful here. Don’t use blunt knives. You’ll end up with a travesty.  

Take off the feet. cut around the knee joint with the point of a knife. Wriggle and bend. It should come away easily. 

Take off the neck, which you can use to make stock from or feed to your dogs with their dinner (very good for them). If the duck has recently eaten you will find its most recent meal in a pouch near the neck. Take this out first with one hand in one move. I think a swift cleaver blow would work best for this.

I then chopped off the lower joint of the wing, which is not meaty and just burns in cooking. Again, a cleaver works for this.

The next part is to eviscerate the duck, which is not as hard as it sounds. turn the bird overso it’s breastbone is facing up. Take your very sharp pointy knife and make a slit fron just below the breastbone to the top of the vent (asshole) just slicing through the skin and the fatty layer and the membrane beneath. Be careful not to pierce anything inside, any organs and especially not the intestines… Cut AROUND the vent and it’s tube. Don’t pierce it. Take your hand and work it up inside the duck, grabbing all the organs and viscera in one hand and pull it all out in one go throug the slit you have made.. This worked for me first go. Just take your time. Feel around inside and take out any remaining organs. The lungs are apparently attacked to the backbone. You may have to detach them in a second go.

Run water through the duck to clean out any bits that are left.

That’s it! Your duck is dressed. Cook in any manner you please. I am a novice at duck cooking, which I believe really takes some expertise. I think duck is a hard meat to cook well.

We killed and dressed 2 ducks yesterday. Cooked one. It was a biggish job. We are novices, however, and I’m sure it could have been done more efficiently. But I’m pleased to have taken it on.

Thanks Deb! 

OK, I really wanted to make that post, cos it’s the truth of how we live. I have mostly vegetarian friends, so it’s a bit exposing to write about killing animals, but I believe in the dignity of animals lives and in producing food on a small scale and in self sufficiency. I don’t think it’s ok to buy your meat vacuum sealed from a supermarket, so that it has nothing to do with you, so that it’s disconnected from any cycle of production that is ethical.

I’m off. Things to do. See you here again soon. The sun is out. It’s pleasant in the backyard.

Vx