Doubling of the Flock

[cookshow]

This week saw 4 baby Pelibuey born, 3 Males and the one born a few hours ago looks to be a Gal. Was hoping for more Females but that´s how it goes. 1 stillborn and the sibling is Puny, the mother is not the best and I thought I might lose him but looks like he is going to make it. He has the Scours and was weak to begin with so I did not have much hope for him, but he was bright looking this morning and milking, think he will make it. Going to try and grab him in a bit and give him a Vitamin shot, see if that helps.

[kwah2249]

That's some good news. What are you thinking to do w them? Keep the ewe and raise the others for butchering?

[Jimmy Torpedo]

Congrats on the flock doubling.
As an aspiring Nicaraguan farmer I'm curious if you raise sheep as a business or just for the kicks? If it is a business I'm curious what your biggest obstacle as a foreign farmer is? Sorry to all you long time regulars about getting cookshows story all over again, you probably all know it,...
I'm a cattle man myself, never did cotton (or would that be wool?) to the ovines.
Are scours pills unavailable in Nic? Whenever I have a calf with the scours it's usually solved with one pill tubed down their throat.

[cookshow]

Kwah, probably as you say, cook the males.


Jimmy, I was raised in Cow Country and been around a few, give me a pig any day. Someone from the States that seriously knows Meat Production, I think could do ok in NICA. I am a learn as I go guy, my farm is my hobby and my life so not easy to categorize.

The Pelibuey is an agreeable animal and easy to raise

[Just Plain John Wayne]

If it wasn't hard Cookshoe would not be doing it...

At Feller is on a nevah ending learning curve... Which is I guess we all are on the DAC...

Congrats on the live ones... BTW can ya eat or do something with the stillborn?

Jimmy Torpedo Welcome to TRN....

[catahoula fan]

Oh no, no, no....

The Pelibuey is an agreeable animal and easy to raise

Are you kiddin', Kev? The 26 we had were nothin' but headaches. Couldn't find a man around that area to figure out how to watch them. 6 months, and I was at my wit's end. NOW, I will butcher one and cook it for you, but raisin' them again.... no way! I serve beer, btw.

[cookshow]

Try Goats... Take Sheep any Day.....

[thom]

maybe you are "friendlier" to your pelibuey than she was mr cookshow sir

[thom]

I will butcher one and cook it for you

Can you make it chewable? Charlie Chaplin could have used pelibuey from that place in Diriamba instead of his boot.

[Jimmy Torpedo]

From my experience, one doesn't keep goats so much as perpetually try and minimize the damage they do to your stuff. Unless you WANT them to remove the rubber from your windshield wipers,...
Sheep are easy with a two strand electric fence, unless you are over run with wolves and coyotes as I am here.
Cows are a piece of cake after trying the first two with a much higher meat to bullet ratio.
Thanks for the salutations John Wayne, I hope to be here often now that plans are in the works,..
One of my many up coming questions for you all,..
Is the road from La Dalia to Puerto Cabezas really paved as google maps would suggest?
It seems to be the closest east coast beach town from where I'm looking but I know what seems close in Nicaragua never is.
Not sure I want a beach house near Leon. Sorry to hijack the thread, maybe I should start a new thread "Dumb questions from Jimmy Torpedo that have already been answered a thousand times"?

[drlemcor]

I found this thread (by John) that talks about that region:

The road from Managua to Puerto Cabezas

Here's a good quote:

It is the road from Managua out to Puerto Cabezas that we expect to take the longest. It is only a distance of 301 miles, from Managua to PuertoCabezas...but we fully expect it to take up to four days to make this segment of the trip. The road is more like a riverbed than a road really. The buses take 20 hours to make the trip. I have made the trip on numerous occasions and typically will take between 10 and 11 hours in my Tundra. It is a punishing trip. I have NEVER made the trip without SOMETHING breaking down on the truck, or a flat. So my knowledge of the road, leads me to expect the trip to take three days, but we are NOT going to be rushing it...so we think it may take as long as four days to cover that 301 miles of bad road ("bad road" doesn't really describe it though...it is more like a teeth jarring, noisy, barrage upon your vehicle).

I also found this:

http://www.whileoutriding.com/central-america-2/honduras/puerto-cabezas-and-the-region-autonoma-del-atlantico-norte-nicaragua

In this blog, he says the following about the road from Puerto Cabezas:

From Puerto Cabezas, I’d been told it was a rough and remote 560kms to the capital, Managua – and dirt all the way to Rio Blanco. To give you some idea how slow going it can be, it takes the bus 24 hours to cover that distance… That’s an average of around 23 kilometres an hour.

And:

This surface was some of the worst I’ve ridden over, with thousands of small yet jagged rocks embedded into the earth.

Things in Nicaragua are as close as they might seem, but it takes you much longer to cover that distance than you might assume. The exception to this rule is the kilometer guesses on signs. In my experience, they are usually shy by about half.

I hope this helps.

[bill_bly_ca]

Road to PC on the RAAN

There was recently this train wreck of a thread on the road.

The last 20+ pages is centered around this stubborn old fart that wanted to drive the road in either a subaru or chevy pickup..

If you can read between our banter about his stubbornness, there is a lot of good information there..

Doniston


Oh and P.S. one does not just drop into Moskito indian territory and start a farm - There is another level difficulty there and you will need to make a lot of personal acquaintances in the area to do so.

Now that you are registered it is best that you go to the "Personal Stories" section of the forum, make up an introductory thread and the discussion can continue from there..

Link -> Personal Stories

[Jimmy Torpedo]

That is what I thought. Yellow lines on google maps don't mean much.
From La Dalia to San Jose de Bocay is pretty much the same thing, 20k/hr.

Geting back to the thread,...I have never been served sheep meat in Nic, is it popular?
Even the mystery street meat I have had never has a sheepy flavour.

[Jonh]

I have never been served sheep meat in Nic, is it popular?

Good question! I've never noticed it on any menu, nor been offered it by family. Yet everyone seems to think it's the farm animal to raise. It's sure not for the wool.

[bill_bly_ca]

Is Curried goat a typical dish out there Kevin al-la Jamaica? My Dad's workers make it continuously when they are up here - Damn its good..

[KeyWestPirate]

Good question! I've never noticed it on any menu, nor been offered it by family.

Yet everyone seems to think it's the farm animal to raise. It's sure not for the wool.

Maybe CookShoe has a secret life we don't know about.

[Just Plain John Wayne]

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Maybe CookShoe has a secret life we don't know about.

Hey that was MY line, you stole my line.. Why did you steal my line?

Great Minds think a lot a like I guess...

Gaston and his life long friend Ed Campbell had a bunch of the plebuey's, he and every other person I know of that had them, some one else alway's enjoyed them. They are hard to contain and not only will eat everything.. But will do this as well. Took this in my neighbors yard...

[vinyljunkie77003]

im about to eat me some pelibuey tonight. I have a friend who raises them just south of Managua, keeps around 100 of them at any given time. Every once in a while he talks about selling them all and getting rid of them, and when he gets some buyers for a bunch, they go and make more babies than he can sell. Great meat though. Never had any that wasnt chewable. Usually i split a small one with a friend. A 40lb pelibuey will get you around 20 pounds of meat, split between 2 people, and we each take 10. lasts me a couple weeks at least, and thats even if i invite some friends over for dinner.
Still havent seen proper "lamb" here, but pelibuey is close enough, and plenty tasty if you cook it right.

[Just Plain John Wayne]

Like a blasted white tail deer, little to no fat on it and it does take someone that knows what they are doing to cook it IMO..

Gaston cooked some one time, was dried right out and not very palatable.

I roasted a peace one time like a chuck roast, that turned out well though...

[thom]

I remember Gaston cooking pork and pelibuey together over the fire. He layered them with pork on top so the grease ran down and

moisturized the pelibuey. Don't know if it was good - it was for the Lions Club or some such, but sure smelled good cooking.

[Just Plain John Wayne]

Yes Thom, someone gave him that advise after the dried out mess he made the first time...

[thom]

Still havent seen proper "lamb" here, but pelibuey is close enough, and plenty tasty if you cook it right.

Do they slaughter young pelibueys? How is cooking it right? Most of what i have seen is bbq'd.

[catahoula fan]

Had to go lookin' for this pic, from a few years back. It's Roger's breakfast made with some pelibuey chops.



Lots and lots and lots of ways to cook it, it's about all we ate while on the finca, and we're butcherin' 3 a week to feed the dogs their raw, meaty-bone diet.

I'd like to get my hands on some for the cookbook, and have heard there's an agriculture school not too far South that sells them live. Gotta get workin' on that!!!!