Pinterest Link Up! Week #2!

It seems I underestimated how popular this idea of sharing my Pinterest finds could be. For the last 6 months, my most popular post I've written on here was my tutorial on how to grow fodder. And then that one single post with the Pinterest link ups that I did last week threw my stats off the wall. Wow. I got more views on that post than I've ever gotten on the tutorial in a span of seven days! 

Seeing the numbers behind that post has shown me that this does indeed seem like a good thing to keep going. :) So with that in mind, here's the next Link Up for y'all!!

A few quick notes though... First, just a reminder that all highlighted, bold words are active links, and will take you to the original website that I found. And two, I'm trying something different this week and am omitting the images from Pinterest. *sad, sad face* I like having the images, but it's really hard trying to get permission from the owner of the image, asking if I can post it here. I'm still tweaking and modifying things here, so who knows, maybe I'll eventually be back to posting images with the links.

Okay, now we're good to go. Let's see what I found on Pinterest!!

1. A Plan For Meat. Reformation Acres, a conservative, family oriented blog, writes up a post on how they plan how much meat to raise for their family each year. They grow chicken, beef, pork, and rabbit, and give the math behind how they decide how much of each thing to raise so that they'll have enough until next year! I really liked this post for the numbers. It's detailed, well laid out, and gives you a good idea on how to scale up or scale down your own plans so that there will be enough in your own freezer. 

2. Working Dogs: How To Pick the Perfect Pooch for Your Pastures. This is a direct link to a Mother Earth News post, and it's a four-page article on how to choose the best dog for your situation. Not sure what you need? Herding dog? Livestock guardian dog? A terrier for rodent control? Something that will "do it all"? I felt like the article gave a well rounded idea of what the different dog groups have to offer, and was handy in helping one decide what would be best for them. I won't make the mention that the English Shepherd is spoken highly of in the article, because that might - uh - sound a little biased. ;) *cough, cough*

3. Sheep 201. I love this website!!! Sheep 201 is not a blog; just your ordinary website, but my goodness is it ever PACKED with information on all things sheep. 

4. How to Raise Pigs. This link goes to the Righteous Bacon blog, which I mentioned a couple days ago... And it would also be the post that I found her through (thank you Pinterest!), and I was really impressed by the detail she lays out in planning for raising a pair of hogs. She goes over fencing, feed, shelter, health, transporting, and gives little tips here and there. And the pictures are great. ;) 

5. Dairy Goat Linear Appraisal. The name of this blog made me laugh when I first saw it: "Better Hens and Gardens". Hehehe. That's one way to put an agricultural spin on modern day decorating. ;) Puns aside though, this looks like a neat blog that I want to spend a bit more time sifting through. What caught my attention at the start though was a cool post explaining linear appraisal in dairy goats, and what to look for, conformation-wise in your caprine friends. I tend to forget that not everyone knows what the dairy jargon of "EEEV 91" means (meanwhile I'm literally wigging out over a goat that has a score like that). I felt like this post explains it pretty well, and even gives a visual on what a goat should look like.

6. Raising Pastured Pigs On No Grain. That got your attention, didn't it? Got mine too. Pigs are a single stomached omnivore that can't live solely on grass; so how does one still manage to skip the grain? Check out the link! It leads to another Mother Earth News article (just a short one this time) that explains my favorite method of raising omnivorous meat animals: Feeding milk. But this post doesn't go saying that you need to buy a cow, or goat, or sheep (or camel). Instead it explains how to get the outdated milk from your local grocery store. I like this idea, I've spoken with farmers who do this, and I'm determined to start doing it someday!

7. Glass Milk Bottles! This isn't an article... But if you've ever wondered where to find those lovely looking glass milk bottles so that you can upgrade from 1/2 gallon mason jars, then check this website out! The Red Hill General Store carries a lot of high quality products at a good price, and I am totally in love with their 1/2 gallon milk jars. Love, love, love them. ^_^ And they're surprisingly competitive in price in comparison to the mason jars that I've been buying for my raw milk all these years. When I get started back up with dairy animals, I will definitely be investing in these bottles.