Still Gobblin'

Our grey turkey looking for food

The cold weather has calmed down the randy jakes and all they care about is food.

Smokin' Beef

Here are photos of our Texas style cooking now in the Ozarks. 

We love smoked meats and here is how we do it.

Here is a brisket we wanted to cook in the smoker. All seasoned up and ready to smoke.

After a long time the finished product. Notice the pan is black and stayed that way.

The smoking beast uses wood charcoal and pecan shell and water with spices in the belly.

Right out of the heat and ready to eat.

Keeping Warm

Inside our chicken coop the big girls keep warm and lay eggs.

My tiny bantam hens were given to us by a friend not wanting poultry around her goat barn any longer. Yes, chickens are messy creatures and nobody wants to be pooped on while working inside a barn. We don't have a barn, just a coop so no problems there in our poop shack.These two girls are so cute. They wait to be hand fed before the rest of the flock. They are also great aunties for broody hens needing a break. These girls are the size of a softball. I understand why people like bantam chickens. I do not know how old they are, but they are still laying tiny eggs for us.

Hen Crushing

Our two gobblers have been killing our older chicken hens by mounting them to death. A 30+ pound turkey will crush an eight pound hen. I have lost two hens and have a rooster with a broken leg. You can see the turkey is on top of my hen as she tries to drink. It is time to cull at least one of the two jakes. Since turkey eat a ton in winter it is not useful to keep them around. We do not plan to breed them. The nice thing is that these giants provide enough food for an army. And my chickens can be safe in the yard again, until a fox comes by.