So the weekend started off with me doing the last of the goats’ hoof baths.  My technique slowly improved so I can do two goats at a time.  I get a big goat first, put a collar on, and then clip him/her to the wall.  And then I get a small goat, put a collar and lead on, and stand with them.  This way the bigger goat gets a longer soak, and so far they are the ones more prone to hoof scald.  I really hope this works because it was a lot of work.

While I was doing goat foot baths, Tom started building a new pig shelter in one of our pastures so they will be able to move out of their current smelly sty.  After I was done with the hooves I helped him, and we got four poles up and the wall boards.  Now we still need to do the roof and then siding.  The weather is expected to turn really nasty so I am not sure when we will be able to continue with this.

Sunday morning we butchered one chicken rooster and two pheasant roosters.  The chicken had escaped the previous butchering day, and we have too many pheasants with what we hatched last spring.  I did not take photos thinking they might be a little gruesome.  I actually helped with the butchering for the first time and skinned one of the pheasants myself.  It is bittersweet because I liked these guys, and they all clearly wanted to live.  But it was their reason for being alive in the first place, and it will make life much better for other birds.  And us two as we will get several really good meals for their sacrifice.  Here is the first one (after some carving):

He was really good.