Shoptober

The wood stove has been in use nearly this whole month – it must be winter!

With single digit temperatures and a dusting of snow on the ground, we’re adapting to the expected season change. The ground is frozen, the last of the garden has been harvested, and we’ve picked up the yard to avoid losing things in the inevitable coming snow torrents. As the winter solstice approaches in a couple of months, the days are now noticeably shorter and the sun has begun to shift southward.  It won't be long until we're knee-deep in winter!

Drying some sage, oregano, and thyme

The piggies snuggled up in their straw bed.

In the middle of the month we harvested our Bacon Brothers. About a week before they had managed to escape from their electric enclosure into the fenced in field. Pete spent over an hour trying to round them back up, not even food worked. He was very tempted to harvest them right then and there in the field from the frustration they were causing. Eventually Pete coaxed them back into their pen with some fresh straw beds. One week later, the Bacon Brothers were on the chopping block. Pete slaughtered and butchered both of them by himself, which was a lot of work...and a lot of pork also! We’re thinking two pigs is probably more than a small family of three needs, but we are more than happy to have our freezer(s) full of home-grown and wild meat. We are thinking next year we will probably raise two pigs again, but sell one of them and keep the other for ourselves. 

Our sample meals (ribs, tenderloin, and pulled pork) have so far been delectable! We currently have our bacon slabs curing in a brine, which we cannot wait to taste. Due to space constraints, we have to wait until after the bacon is done to start curing the hams. The processing all of the different pork cuts has been another project unto itself, which we hadn’t really prepared for. Unlike the wild game we have typically processed in the past, there is a LOT of options when it comes to putting away an entire pig. So, like many other things around here, we’re kind of figuring it out (or making it up) as we go.

Pork lard frozen and cut into cubes along with a batch of canned pork broth.

The shop building is coming along nicely. Pete was able to get the electric cable trenched, connected, and buried just a couple of days before the hard frost set in. He also has all of the interior walls framed up, the wiring installed, and is currently insulating it and hanging the drywall. Once it’s completely insulated, we’ll turn on the heat, which will really change things for us! Most of the shop work had been put on hold while the pork was hanging in there. It turns out the unheated building made a great meat locker thanks to the cold temperatures.

Speaking of cold temperatures, the chickens have continued to slow their egg production. We are now only getting one egg every other day from the five hens. We are not sure if the one egg is coming from one hen or if they are taking turns, but it's a major reduction from the one egg per hen per day that we were getting in the summer. We also invested in a much needed poultry water heater for their coop. This will save us multiple trips a day to the coop to bring them fresh, unfrozen water. The water heater can’t come soon enough! I bring the chickens treats of raisins or food scraps to help with the winter boredom. They seem to like the company too :)

As winter breezes in, Wild North is gearing up for holiday season. We have a couple of holiday shows scheduled for November and December which we are looking forward to. We’ve also enjoyed stretching our skills into some new techniques thanks to a few custom orders. I love getting to work with customers on creating their vision using my evolving style. Using new techniques on custom orders can be somewhat nerve-wracking at times, but it's all worth it to have created something that puts a smile on someone’s face.  We cannot wait to have the new shop heated and usable. Then we will really have some space to let our creativity run wild!

Moose and Christmas Tree ornaments

Custom name sign for a child's nursery.