Butchering Our Own 6 Lambs (with new friends) in Record Time

Big day processing lambs today. We had such a good time at the teenage meetup, clicked really well. We have this process— lamb processing. We thought, oh well, we have to go in the morning. Hey, come here, come here, come here. Gun him back. I think he's ready. Where's his shoes? You said you got his shoes. You said that. I would have brought them in because it's cold. Okay, plus we've got our everyday chores. Of, uh, getting— well, we need to train Harriet. She was getting rusty. We've got an hour and 20 minutes until people get here. We gotta do our chores, pick up the house. Okay, are you happy now with your rubber boots? Okay. Do you think the boys fed the chickens? Because we didn't get the chicken scraps.

I don't feed the chicken.

Go get the chicken scrap bucket, please. Hurry, we've got to catch them before they, uh, are done milking. I told them to wait on me, but I'm glad they didn't wait on me because I got to do all these nuances, this buttoning up of things, if you will. I told them to feed the chickens. I don't know if they did, but cows come first. We need a ride! Let's go! He just said whistle. I can whistle. Why do you want me to whistle?

They might go if you whistle.

All right, let's hear your whistle.

Y'all milk? Yeah, getting along all right. Fine.

She came running for this. Wait, what are you doing? Coming around the wrong side. Oh, T-minus 54 minutes. They didn't feed the chickens, so we got to feed the chickens and then clean up the house. Jonah said we're gonna milk Mountie too. I said right now we have all the milk we want, all the cream, all the yogurt, all the sour cream, mozzarella, half of our butter I would guess. So the other cow, maybe that will be all the butter and then cheese. So maybe just one more cow, a third cow will be enough. Might be that we need 4 because they won't all 4 always be in milk. We'll be getting 4 calves a year. Hey, just 3 minutes till they get here. How's this kitchen? First things first, everybody jump at it at once. There's always so much to do, a blessing and a curse. To make supper, we're gonna make a meal. I like to make it 2, so we're gonna have one leftover. This will probably just be one meal. One good thing about making broth all the time is you have broth all the time. Sweet tea's done. She's so thoughtful. It's just Wednesday and she's making it for our party on Friday. Separating the partiers from the workers now, aren't we? Yeah, let's see who the real homesteaders are now. Who here has processed sheep, broke them down? That's why we're here. Well, you noticed in the email I said you can come and see how we do it. Yeah, there's a reason this is not a paid workshop. Okay, because we've only broken down sheep— this is maybe our third time, and we just do it how we do it. In lieu of a cool room, just get you some— just some bin. We found this in a dumpster or in the back of something being thrown away. We killed them yesterday. You could part on the same day, it's just kind of tiring. We did 6 sheep, and if we have them cool like this, they're a little more rigid and it's a little easier to cut up. Yeah, so you could get a trough, Tractor Supply, for something like this. Put them on— you could get Yeti coolers. Let's get one in and let's figure out how we're gonna do this one. And then who wants to get their hands slimy? She's— you think about it. You want to get your hands slimy or not? All right, with homestead butchery, you just get it done. After this one, we'll get everybody involved. Or nobody involved. We can keep doing it and y'all can watch. Now we could keep that flank for ground. That's what I'm doing with it. Grind. Okay, you could do, you could do a flank steak and have lamb tacos. See, that'd be a real thin steak. So fajitas, something like that. You wanted to get slimy?

Sure.

Cut this up for the grind. So we need maybe 3, 3-inch chunks so it'll go through the grinder. Just big enough to see. You could, you could keep these and have barbecue ribs. See, he'll cut this loose stuff off, but I'm like I said, I want them for bits. I love this, all the kids just jumped in. What's the secret, parents? What's the secret?

They do it at home, I guess.

They really just jumped in. Yeah, are y'all gonna get a chance, or you don't want a chance? Y'all want some cheese? Don't party up there.

Just let them have at it.

They probably have a better time with us removed. We got some beautiful legs there. I was talking about the legs. I know, I'm already on my second sheet. Micah's given us a lesson in sharpening knives.

You can mess up a knife if it is like flat on one side, curved on that side, and you try to do that, you could mess up some Japanese knives.

But yeah, I learn from anybody I can with sharpening knives right now. It's a skill I need to get better at. Build up in our legs. More grind, more grind than I thought. We're only— we're halfway done too. We decided to grind the shoulders, roast the legs, lamb bits for the rib bones, and take off the tenderloin. No, is it Tenderloin? Why do I always get confused with that? Rebecca?

Yes?

Here's your cranberries.

Awesome, thank you.

What you up to, babe?

I'm going to start preparing for Thanksgiving actually.

All right.

By making cranberry sauce with this. And then I'm gonna put it in the freezer to have. And I'm gonna also make a vlog with this.

Yep. She's posting on our channel. It's been a minute. Oh, it's gonna be a little more informal. It's gonna be a little more vlog style. That's what people like anyway. You're cooking from this book that you were a contributor.

Well, no, this actually recipe is not from here. I was just looking through this, but this is— I was a contributor in this book.

And, um, that's just a different cranberry sauce right here. Go back. I saw cranberries.

That was just a picture.

Oh, okay. Well, we're gonna make that picture come to life.

I could have put that in here. Oh wait, there's a cranberry salsa.

Find one for me to make this week.

I am going to. This is gonna be on sale this week, um, November 5th through the 12th. So if you are interested in purchasing this, yeah, it will have, I guess, the link in the description.

I don't know, I don't know how these things work, but he's probably put a barcode right here, right, Ashton?

Okay, garlic butter green beans, and then I did, I did like a gluten-free, um, gluten-free button cookies is what I call them.

Cornbread, which you're gonna do. We're gonna make it tomorrow on the vlog.

Gluten-free cornbread.

Gluten-free cornbread.

It's exciting.

I think it's in the bread. Now where's your lotion? You better come so I behave myself. Here it is. I better hope. Yeah, is that it?

That's it.

So you make your own homemade tallow lotion? Yeah, so it's got tallow and, um, it's like those, uh, a bunch of other butters. Influencer videos. I'm gonna be transformed by the end of the video. A bunch of other videos. So the reason we're showing you this— keep going, keep going, because I'll be transformed. And now actually listen to this, uh, she's gonna give you the Do you have a recipe for this?

Yes, I have a recipe for this.

Yeah, if you order that book through our link, we'll give you an email to send the receipt. Yes. And you'll get an automatic reply with that recipe.

With the recipe.

And you can make this.

And you can make it.

And give it away for Christmas gifts. Okay, am I transformed?

You're transformed.

That was satisfying.

It's a little, it's a little thick on your face. I'm not gonna lie. It will soak in and it doesn't, it's not greasy. It's a very nice light lotion, so.

Order that book through us. We are affiliates for it. We're gonna send you the, make some gifts this Christmas. And then you can. Relational gifts.

Make my gluten-free cornbread for your cornbread stuffing.

Yeah.

I'm actually gonna make this, the 30-minute caramels.

Okay.

That is on my to-do list.

That is by my boyfriend. Wait, wait, whoa, whoa. What? Well, you're hungry because it's about lunch. Lily's working on it. Lily's making us some meatball soup again. It was such a hit. Okay, so who made the caramels? There it is, and the Pikachu on my cheek.

I know these are our chickens. The caramels are for— from Kelly Brotherton.

Okay, okay, I gotta get back down there. They're Uh, they're overflowing in legs. We gotta put them in bags. All right, I'm gonna get some of these legs out of here. How about that? We had a lot of lamb. Okay, it seals clean. All right, all right. Butcher keeping us all kinds of tricks. I like it. Go ahead. A lot of air in this one.

This number is a timer on the vacuum or on the ceiling.

The And right now it's on the vacuum.

It's, it's going to change.

Yeah, I hear it changing tones. It did a nice little seal.

You got 2 pounds in those ones?

Yes, sir. All right, we got grinding, we got cutting. Y'all proficient at this yet? Yes, we have one more set left. Yeah, so you, you can do that and touch the meat. I just keep one hand clean, one dirty. Okay, one One hand clean, one hand dirty, folks. How we doing? You're not moving, so you're done.

Yes.

If you took this off this way, yeah, then they would be more compact either for storage and then for cooking in a pot.

All right, you don't have to, just store them loose in a bag. Or no, let's just do this. We did this with our cow. Just, just freeze them like that. We're missing a back strap. Oh, there is one more. All right, make sure there's not two more. He told y'all we're done. We should make him do that one all by himself. Well, one way to not need so many bags, do a mix of ribs, legs. Okay, I guess a lamb. There's one lamb. Yeah, ish, right? And that's how we'll bag them too. And that, that, that works out to be a good roast pan. And then I should just, just make me some lamb broth and lamb bits just every day. Put the lamb in. What do you How many carrots you gonna eat? You're orange. No, your face, you're turning orange. There's some big bags. I could freeze them like that. I did that with the beef bones, but then they kind of stick together. There's hard to break them apart. 55-gallon bags. Turkey or chicken? No, those are way too small. Crazy. Because we don't bag these like this anymore. Sometimes you have to take sunk cost. Here's more vacuum seal bags. We don't bag our whole birds anymore in hot water. We don't want the leaching of the plastic. Tap it at 100 degrees and we leach and we bag. We used to bag that at 180 degrees. It's all one big health journey for us, folks. Did not find a bag. There's 6 of them. We have one plastic plastic tray. Do we have 4 more food service trays? Just freeze them in that, stick them in the oven.

He's being so good.

3, 4. Henry, they're done. They cleaned up nice. They're done, Beck. Mom, you want to eat lunch? There's rice this time. There won't be a riot. If you have soup, you got to make them rice or something. That was 2 and a half hours. 6 sheets. We got one in the oven. I'll put this in the fridge. It'll go tomorrow. Last of the eggs before we gather the eggs in a few hours. Talk about living on the edge. Oh, and I dropped the yolk in there. Dang it, dang it. Yum! Meatball soup. Fat has risen on this broth. Thanks guys for coming. You guys were a great help. Yeah, we did that in 2 and a half hours. 6 lambs. That would have took us probably at least 4. You guys can come next time. He says you're gonna come next time for sure. Yeah, what a fantastic group. It ain't over. I gotta take Lily to horse Actually, she's got a little job at the horse barn once a week. Take her to that, but they're gonna play a little bit of soccer. Work, then play. It's been a good balance. Well, nothing happened in that time-lapse. I didn't even get to it. I got the fat off the broth, got it on a tray freezing. I got some Super Cubes emptied. I need to load that, but I gotta take Lily. What do you want? Shouldn't we get you a cup?

Those are much better.

Okay, here you go.

I want some. I want to win.

Okay, well, we'll put another bowl over it.

That's so better.

No, because you'll lose them.

I'll put them on my lap.

Come on, we gotta go. We just gotta go. It's just 7 minutes down the road, not even. What do you got to bring that box for?

Toys.

Okay, okay. Well, look. Vultures. They're after those lamb hides we threw over the ravine. That Winnie keeps pulling up. How you liking your new job?

It's good. It's pretty hard. My back hurts after I do it because with mucking stalls, you like had to lean down to pick up the poop.

Is this your second or third?

It's my third year. It's my second session, and I get paid $25 for 2 hours. So basically $13 an hour, which is pretty good. So 2 hours of work is $25.

Lily, I don't worry about you and money, girl. Yeah, you're an enterprising young woman.

Jonah and Josiah— Josiah doesn't even have a job, but Jonah just got his job. I know, but Jonah just got his job.

We are back. It is cold, windy, and rainy.

Hey babe, it is cold.

That's what I just said.

We got our photos.

All right, what are you doing? You nut! Yeah, I thought we were gonna load this. Come on, where are you going with this?

You have to go in the cabin.

All the Minnesota people laughing right now.

It is Minnesota cold outside, right?

No. All right, good. Thanks for taking a hit for all of us then over at the cabin. Let's get it started, bro.

Come on, bro.

Going for my last meal.

3 o'clock, a little later than I'd like, but it's been a crazy day. What's happening with the fast is I've got my energy back. I've got my drive back. I now want to do more things than I have time. Before, for the last couple of years, I've needed to take a nap in the afternoon. I didn't care if anything got done. But now I have this drive again. Why can I not rest and relax? We killed 6 sheep today. I mean, we processed 6 sheep. That's a day event. For anybody else. Why do I drive myself so hard? Why do I think I've got to be— I've got to put in some office hours? It's a common homestead problem, isn't it, guys? We want to do more than we have time to do. Thank you, Henry. I don't know what it is lately. I think I'm stressing myself. It's a stomach pain and gut pain. I always feel like that no matter what I'm doing, it seems like I feel like, well, I'm not in the moment, and I feel like there's something more important I could be doing. I'm worried about that. It's about time to make supper, and I'll especially think that when I'm making supper or cleaning the house. I needed a little pep talk, journaled myself. Text Ruthann Zimmerman, a friend of mine, about this. One thing she said— she suffers the same thing— she said it's FOMO, fear of missing out, that there's always something better. I never thought about that. I didn't think I was a FOMO guy, but I need to be a JOMO guy— joy of missing out. Be happy in the moment. She didn't say anything about the JOMO, but you want to help me scan Sweet potatoes. Help me skin sweet potatoes. She said in the moment, say, say out loud to yourself, this is the right place to be right now. So I'm in the best location at the best time, and I'm about to prepare a nutrient— nutritious meal for our family. She said make priorities. First is relationships. So always If you're doing the work and somebody's with you, uh, this is the most important thing you can be doing. Secondly, if you're providing nutrition for your family, which is about what I'm— about what I'm going to be doing. I don't think Henry's going to help me, although we'll keep trying. I'm providing nutrients for my family. I'm not even eating it, and that's hard sometimes. Third is the money, the office hours, the going after the next $10. It kind of reminds me of a very hard verse in the Bible. Seek first the kingdom of God and everything else will be added unto you. So in other words, do the right thing and everything else will fall in its place. And just trust, just trust. I'm doing the most important thing. Right now. Now let's see if we can't recruit somebody. Will you come, uh, do these sweet potatoes with me, please? You know Jonah's bringing a treat, but you'll help me do these sweet potatoes, right? Oh, right, you're gonna do it? Okay, then when he gets here, you can have the treat. That was easy. Maybe a Justin's. I'm not sure.

Chocolate.

I think it probably will be chocolate. You wash them first, okay? Henry, can you start peeling now?

Yeah, I can.

Okay, here. It's mints.

Yeah, you want me to get you a glass?

Yeah.

You're shaking it and everything.

I should get a glass.

Henry, you done? Are you back? I need to cut these videos.

Okay, what's to cut?

Lily, I'm sort of lost without you, babe. Good to see you back. I'm behind. I way underestimated this. I feel like I gave more than an hour. Roast is done. Jonah, welcome back! You got it just in. You guys gotta eat. You gotta greet your friend. Well, you're stacking it, aren't you? Farmer friends this morning, and then work, and then now go pick up your friend at the airport.

The farmer friends, that was your idea.

Okay, yeah, but you weren't complaining.

Well, yeah, I don't complain.

Do you want—

not really. This came out nicely. I managed it. The ladies are off. How's the meat? Is the meat okay, boys? Did they go to the, uh, just us boys? Are you eating cranberry sauce just straight up? It's so good. Wow.

Are you going with the new deal? You know I can pitch it on. I have swoops.

Okay, we have shoes. Whatever he said. Hopefully you do have shoes out this way.

That's it.

Let's see if there's anything on the lamb guts. Left from yesterday. Nothing but grass left, huh guys? Nothing but bellies. Good job. I'm sorry, nothing for you, bud. You're on OMAD. You're on OMAD. One meal a day.

I'm coming, dummy boy.

All right, we got our feed for tomorrow. This was supposed to happen in the morning, but we have the sheep butchering. Bring this pig bucket, bro. You can. You're so Capable? Oh, you got tools.

It's my pizza to make a robot?

Oh yeah. Okay, wow, I think we missed some things. The card got full. I ended up soaking that grain, skim milk. I can't remember what else, but I still haven't finished my stretches today. I graduate from PT tomorrow. I go to the doctor in 6 days. Hopefully he's gonna say, "Nope, I don't think you're gonna have surgery." I don't care if he says that I ain't due, I'm not gonna. Doing my stretches. After this, I'm going to the Prairies. Empire of the Summer Moon. All bathing and sauna. Good times for me. Happy day for y'all. See you tomorrow. Oh wait, don't forget. Rebecca and that cookbook. DIY lotion. Link in the description. Let's go.