Joshua Rimmer

Wow the earth sheltering and the hogs make a bigger difference than I expected! Thanks for letting us know how it's working, I will be copying this!

Yeah, a small section bermed up to your 8 foot, with a roof popped up another four feet to house the meat rail would make for a great space to hang carcasses. I only do two hogs a year, my shop is 13 feet long and 7 feet wide inside, and four sides of 300 lb hogs takes about 5 feet at one end. It's easy to have one person in it while the sides are hanging, but when my two sons help it's tight with just one hogs worth up there.

Byron Gagne wrote:Yes I hear you about making the ceiling as high as possible in the butcher shop.  My plan is to have a skinning pole outside then slide it into the shop.  We’re it would be parted out on a table, cut and wrapped there.  The cooler would be for hanging hogs and wild game that come in.  I will think about changing the ceiling height.   I always said now matter how big you build it you always fill it!

I do have to earth berm all this so keeping the ceiling as low as possible is a huge benefit.  But it still has to be useful.

I absolutely understand the issues with earth berming it! Maybe you could just do a "tunnel" at the higher level for the meat rail?

Byron, I'm not able to speak to the wofati freezer aspect of your plan, but I do have a suggestion for the butcher shop portion. I have built a family sized butchershop, and it has the 8 foot ceilings you mention. If I could do it over, I would move heaven and earth to have 12 or even 16 foot ceilings! I've only done hogs and chickens to date, and a 300 lb hog hangs less than a foot from the floor, off my rail. This is fine for aging or storage, but it is a real pain when it's time to put one on the table for butchering. And I don't want to think about a beef, I figure I will have to quarter it before I hang the carcass, to keep it off the floor.

I'm in! If my math is correct, you're up to 68%, looking good.

Looking great there, Byron! Piggos certainly seem happy with it. Incredible score on the pumpkins! Mine always love the day after halloween, they get a big pile of discarded jack-o-lanterns, and tear into them!

Jennifer Richardson wrote:I feel like they followed all those steps, but it just wasn't playing ball, which is kind of weird, since most of us have a lot of cast iron cooking and baking experience. I'm planning to give it a shot this weekend and see how it goes. Maybe I will finally be better at something in the kitchen than Josiah is!

I sense a bit of competitive action! Enjoy the learning!

Jennifer Richardson wrote:Well, it turns out we kind of suck at using a non-electric waffle maker, so we had piles of weird waffle crumbs instead, but I promise pics when we manage to make nice waffles!

And we did buy a big cast iron skillet, and then were given another that I rehabbed and re-seasoned, so we’re set in that regard!

This might help: https://cooking.lovetoknow.com/breakfast-recipes/how-use-cast-iron-waffle-iron

Looks great! I bet the piggies love it.

I keep about a month, but I literally pass the feed mill on my way to work daily..... rodents are a problem with bigger supplies.