Humboldt County Fair

The fair is next week....I'm really looking forward to going, I always do.  But this year there is more intent to learn.  We want to figure out what it will take to buy a cow or a pig from one of the 4-H'ers and have it butchered.  We're going to try to make it to the Youth Livestock Auction at 1 p.m. on Sunday the 22.

At the auction we hope to learn a few things.  First, how the dang thing works.  Things like how to bid and that kind of thing.  Second, how much money we're going to have to gather/save over the next year so we can actually pay for meat we're bidding on. Third, what to do with the dang animal after we win.  From what I've been told by my friend down at the Ferndale Meat Market, the 4-H'er will pay for the actual killing of the animal, but that I, as the new owner would pay for the butchering of the meat.  There's an additional fee for smoking some pieces, like bacon and ham for pork or jerky for beef.

I'm thinking we may need to go in with a few folks on the whole thing to cover all the cost...auction, butchering, smoking, storage in the meat market freezer.  I'm pretty sure over the year we'll be saving money though....I'll have to do the math after we go to the auction and see if I can figure that out.  But I'm super excited about both supporting local youth, our future local farmers, and eating local meat!

The other thing I'm interested in learning more about are dairy goats.  With Cypress Grove Chevre in our back yards and Greg Foster, goat man, as a previous manager, the subject of milk goats has come up over the years with increased frequency.  Not sure I want a goat farm, but maybe a couple of goats on the Homestead would be nice.  They can help with the brush and we can benefit with goat cheese...mmm!  I'm also going to check out chickens for future considerations, and I'd check out ducks too, but I don't think they have ducks at the fair.

I could say more, but I probably shouldn't.