Thank you Cocoa!
From May 2013 to February 2014, a cycle is complete. Gingers first calf, little Cocoa, was born here and lived an easy life. He was able to grow fat on his moms milk for six months then enjoy any array of alfalfa, vegis, pumpkins, and grain. He was able to run and jump, sniff and investigate like any calf should. He slept most of the day like babies do and enjoyed many a scratch behind the ears.
Then when he started to grow up he was even able to express some of his manhood and bully us around a bit. (The poor goats got bullied around alot!) And at a certain point when he was eating the same amount as his mom and when he was getting just too big to handle safely (with those horns of his), it was time for him to go.
We knew from the start that Cocoas destiny would be to fill the freezer. Since we dont eat meat it would not be ours. And when all was said and done the whole scenario could not have worked out better. A friend purchased him, picked him up in her trailer, brought him to the slaughter house and then the butcher.
This friend of ours happens to be extremely particular about where her meat comes from and feels its important to face the animals she will eat. So she sat with Cocoa to the end and watched the complete process to make sure it was as humane a possible. She was even kind enough to bring us back some of the innards for our compost pile so a part of Cocoa could be incorporated into the soil where he was born.
We saved Cocoas beautiful hide for salting and preserving as well. We say farewell to Cocoa who gave us our first amazing experiences with calf rearing. He was sweet, gentle and of course very stubborn. We are all grateful for the gifts he has given us.
Every part of Cocoa was used. He was split between four families, meaning he will feed and nourish fifteen people. Just in case any of you are considering buying a whole animal for meat to share or just for your own family, here is a cost comparison analysis of the beef purchase from the buyer, I thought it was interesting to see the breakdown. Cocoa was eight months old and approximately 700 lbs.
Compared to a 6 month subscription from Marin Sun Farms (adjusted for weight differences) more steak--102% less roasts--32% less hamburger--15% more bones--100% more offal--100% | |||
| cost savings of meat per pound (excluding offal and bones)--36% total cost savings--33% final cost per pound of meat (excluding offal and bones)--$5.20 | |||
pounds of meat each + 1/4 of the bones and various cuts of offal--46.26
And now, all is quiet here on the farm. Are you are curious about Ginger?? We have been watching her closely. She seems to have had her few days of wondering and most likely mourning but with all the green grass coming up its business as usual.
Took out the 2 "Washing Machine" Wicking beds from the garden to make room for a few chairs & a small table.. Is nice to be able to sit in the patch with B? away from the spawn for a chat over a coffee on the weekend.. Well, thats the dream anyway.. I like to dream.. **nods**
Update shots... Left is from the 19th of July & the Right is from 10th of August... As you can see there is a bit of growth & will continue to get better from here with Nitrates now being present in the system...The Nitrites are still fairly high but they should settle soon as they are converted into Nitrates..
Todays readings are pH-below 8.2, Ammonia-.25, Nitrites-5+ & Nitrates are 80-160.. Added some Broccoli seed yesterday as it seems to be a plant we just cant grow enough of... 
Made up 3 new Wicking Barrels on the weekend, 2 for the Mary Washington Asparagus, Left & 1 for the Jerusalem Artichokes, Right... 2 Asparagus crowns went into each Barrel while the Artichoke corms are still in the fridge for 2 more weeks...
We got our first Capsicums off that didnt contain Grubs from a couple of feral plants that live in the Lime bed.. Can only put it down to the cooler weather... Will be making up some bags to cover the next crops of Capsicum with some bags that we will make up from an old Mozzie net the kids had over their cots.. That should keep the little buggers out this Spring & Summer.. Might have to make some for the Tomatoes as well for when the Turpentine Mangoes fruit.. A lot of people let them drop & rot which causes an explosion in the fruit fly numbers.. The pic also shows some of the first Amish Past Tomatoes we have harvested as well as some Caped Gooseberries & assorted Chillies..
We have been on the lookout for cheap pipe & fittings for the IBC system... Made a start a few weeks ago by buying 2 buckets of used irrigation fittings including 3 brass gate valves for $5 at the markets... Have used a gate valve & fittings already on the backup water tank for the system & a 19mm tap in the GB feed in line on the barrel system so has well & truly paid for itself already... Last Sunday we picked up 2 small drain fittings for the IBC grow bed stand pipes to sit in for $1 each...Still not to certain on the GB medium we will use.. I like the idea of scoria/lava rock but havent seen any for sale at the local suppliers... Might just have to be blue metal if I cant find it or it is to expensive...
Yesterday I ordered the rest of electronic components to be able to do the first five Jeremy Blum Arduino Basics video tutorials (I hope), and the multimeter and soldering iron arrived from Adafruit. Today the sensor package from SparkFun arrived, and tonight I started the #3 Blum video tutorial.
Speaking of the wiki, I found out that Wikispaces no longer gives unlimited accounts on their free wikis. You can now only have 5 accounts on a wiki unless you pay. Ed graciously offered to host the Humboldt Microcontrollers Group wiki on his server, so after he gets it set up, well start moving content over to his wiki. Well be using MediaWiki because thats the easiest one to get rolling on his server, and its a pretty familiar format because most people are familiar with Wikipedia, which uses MediaWiki.
Well meet first with everyone to discuss stuff everyone should hear or be involved in. Then well split into two groups -- the beginners who are interested in learning about microcontrollers, and the people with previous microcontroller experience who want to do MCU projects and learn or share microcontroller tricks that not everyone knows.