Making Dog Food

This isn't something I ever expected to do, but I've read about it a couple of places, and thought I'd try it...someday.  Well, I was cleaning out my freezer (the one in the fridge) and wedged in the back behind bags of flour and cornmeal was a package of 2 pork loins that were TWO YEARS OLD.  I thought they would be okay for us to eat, they weren't freezer burned at all, but PH suggested I give it to the dogs.  After reading online about making dog food, I used what I had on hand.  I boiled the pork loins on low for a couple of hours, then added 1 lb of white rice, and a half bag of carrots that were starting to go soft.  Cooked it on low for another couple of hours, turned off the heat, and let it cool.  I then put it all in the food processor, took two batches to get it done.  I was then able to put it in canning jars.  It made 1 quart and 4 pints.  I used the jars I had washed today, so I didn't have to make too much noise in the pantry (it was already after 10 p.m. here). When we butcher the Freedom Ranger chicks in a couple of weeks, I plan to keep all the organs and make more dog food, and will pressure can it in pint jars for storage, so when I am out of store bought food, I'll have something on hand.  Here is the final product:

Homemade dog food

It looks and smells like tuna fish to me.  The reason I was prompted to do this, is that we were out of dog food.  Pet food is one area I don't stock up on.  I have limited funds and my family is more important to me than my pets.  Currently, we have five dogs (A Rott, Pyr, cow dog, rat terrier and a chihuahua).  They all serve a function.  The Rottweiler is a trained security dog and professional chicken killer (the last not something we advocate).  The Pyr, our livestock guardian dog, the cow dog, herds the goats where we want them to go, and sometimes where we don't.  The terrier is good at killing gophers and rats, and the chihuahua is our security alarm.  Yaps at anything, makes you get up and look to see what is going on.

We also have four cats (down 2 this week, the coyotoes are relentless).  With the exception of Lily, our house Diva, they hunt primarily for themselves, keeping the barn and area free of rodents.  I do give them a little cat food, but....if TMHTF I'd stop feeding them in a heart beat.  The hold outs would be the dogs.  Realistically, I could probably feed two dogs on scraps, the others would have to go.  I'm not the type to let one starve, so in an emergency situation, we would have to put them down, which is sad, but those are the hard choices I'd have to make in a rough world.

The livestock pretty much fends for themselves.  We do supplement with hay in the winter (we get this free), if the grass has stopped growing.  So far, we have been blessed with rain this winter, then warm days so there is grazing for everyone.  We do put out a flake of hay for each horse and the calf in the evening.  The goats don't care for the hay often.  The pigs graze, and get all of our vegetable scraps, and the chickens free range for what they can find.  They are pretty fat and sassy, so I think they are getting enough.  The chickens did get a special treat tonight.  PH was leveling the "cabin" (AKA shipping container) and found these HUGE grub worms eating away at the large wooden beams he had used previously to level the place.  The chickens were beside themselves fighting over them. It was pretty gross!  Oh, we do also gather wild melons that grow along the road sides here.  The past few years, I've gotten a couple of rubber maid totes for the goats, but this year we took the small tractor and wagon and filled it up, and stored them in the barn.  Each night we cut open several and toss into the pigs.  They really LOVE them, and it's free food.

Grub worms and PH finger

 I made bread for last night's spaghetti meal, it was supposed to be a normal french bread round, but I left it a little too long in the heat of the wood stove, and it blew up HUGE, filling the entire pan.  We only ate 1/4 of it last night.  

Huge French Bread Loaf

We had SEVERE storms last night.  A small tornado was reported to have touched down in the small town 5 miles north of us, and ripped off several roofs and destroyed carports.  Also, the closest major city of San Antonio had a tornado touch down on the West Side and caused damage.  I am thankful the Lord spared us, we had started praying when the storm hit for the Lord to put a hedge of protection around our homestead, and He did!  We received a hair under 3 inches of rain (according to the rain gauge), and while I worry about the house construction, I am thankful the pond was filled.  The dry creek bed on our property funnels the rain that drains from the rest of the property into the pond.  I had noticed yesterday, it was quite low, and the horses had been walking into the pond to eat the cat tails.  Now, it's up quite a bit, though not overflowing.

It was overcast and chilly this afternoon when PH arrived home from work.  PS#2 feels it is his duty to help daddy out every day, even if daddy doesn't need help.  They were out for quite a bit when PH opened the door and placed PS#2 in the door.  He was really cold looking.  In no time I had him stripped and in nice warm fleece pajama bottoms, wrapped in a small afghan watching Scooby Doo.  I had water already on the wood stove hot, so he had hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies.  He was very happy to be warm ;-)

PS#2 and his dirty little face enjoying cookies and cocoa by the fire