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Some days I blog w/o checking for errors - you'll know it when you read it

March 31, 2009 
- That was no snow storm

Once again, like most native Minnesotans, we were disappointed by severity (or lack there of) of our winter storm.  It was sleet last night, then turning to snow by morning.  I think we got about 5 inches or so... a far cry from the 12" we were suppose to get.

Before getting to the morning chores, I started the old 300 FarmAll and let it idle while I did the chores.  After a  ¾hr, I had the drive scraped clear along with some other minor snow removal.  It all looked good.

During the afternoon, Bill, from Willmar stopped by for some hatching eggs.  We sold him 3 dozen before Carol gave him a quick farm tour.  He had just built himself a new hobby farm and was looking for ideal farm animals in which to make use of the farm site's resources.  Carol said he was taking a lot of photos of our Kentucky Bourbon turkeys.  He was impressed.  So much so, he ordered so turkey hatching eggs for next week.

We have been selling so many turkey eggs we haven't had nearly enough for ourselves to hatch.  We may have to buy turkey poults from some of the folks who are buying our hatching eggs... lol.

It was a pretty quiet day.

March 30, 2009 
- It's getting cool out on the range

Wow, what a windy day.  Add in the fact that everybody is talking about this early spring storm that is suppose to be blowing in from the Dakotas, and even though the temps were above freezing, the wind felt that much colder.

In spite of the wind, I worked on the brown pasture again today.  The wooden corner posts have been in place for decades (maybe longer) and most of the fencing rods from fencing past were still in position.  I needed only to pull the rods up out of the grass, then walk to the next.  the biggest hurdle was along the creek.  Although I was able to reclaim most of the fencing rods, the wooded posts were another story.  Over the years, the creek banks have eroded, causing many of the posts to be semi-buried into the bank at a 45º angle... yet too secure to pull out and reuse.  I was able to grab the glass wire insulators from the posts and some of the wire.  All-in-all, I set about 12-15 fencing rods into the ground that were not previously there.  Those I put in were used.  Aside from 1 spool of wire and a few insulators, the new pasture was made on the cheap.  At the end of it all, I was able make a lane, leading to the brown pasture and connect the electric fencing wire to the fencer unit before it got dark.  It's ready to go and waiting for cattle.

One of our ewes (Daisy) was seen limping slightly.  After a little investigation by Carol & Madison, it was determined the ewe had a small nail in her hoof.  The girls held her as I pulled it out.  There was no blood on the nail and it doesn't look as though the nail broke off, so that's good news.  We'll watch her for a day or two.  If the limping doesn't decrease, we probably bring her to a vet.  She's due to lamb in May, so we need to take care of her AND her unborn lamb(s).

March 29, 2009 
- Eggs $12/doz?

We had another busy day.  Carol's phone seemed to ring off the hook - folks were asking about eggs.  They didn't want to learn about our regular $1.25/doz chicken eggs, they wanted to learn more about the $12/doz eggs.  Last month, Carol sold hatching eggs to folks near the Twin Cities.  When they ordered their 2nd set of eggs, they told Carol that all of the turkey eggs they bought from us, were viable.  That was excellent news.  Last week, Carol went to a poultry-swap and sold more eggs.  That's when her and I talked it over and decided to make our turkey eggs available to the public... and we have been getting calls like crazy.  For the record, we will not have Kentucky Bourbon Turkey eggs available until April 15th... they are spoken for.  We are getting feedback that our eggs are WAY too cheap.  Some hatcheries are charging $50-75/doz.

Carol made a quick run into Willmar to the farm store.  It seems our rabbits are selling nearly as fast as the store's poultry.  She brought 9 bunnies to the otherwise bunny-less store.  This is the 3rd year Carol & Madison have been selling rabbits to Runnings Farm & Fleet, in Willmar.  They like the quality and health of our rabbits and urge us not to stop raising them.

When Carol came home from Willmar, I headed out to put up fencing.  We have approx. 5 acres along the creek and around the old gravel-pit that didn't get pastured last year.  This area is on a north facing hillside and the grass is still standing.  With such a large stand of tall grass, I thought I could pasture the Highlanders on it until the pasture grasses start coming in in last year's pastured areas.  The fields on the way to this area wasn't dry enough to take a pick-up out there, so there was no hope of that (it was WAY too muddy and the PU isn't running right now anyway).  What I did was load-up the 4-wheeler, head-out, do what I could, then come back to the farm-site to reload the 4-wheeler.  I did this about 5 times over 3 hours.  Just before dusk, I had the area fenced.  I still need to take care of a few details, but for the most part, the area is cattle ready.  To prevent the cattle from destroying pasture to get to this new pasture, I'm going to erect lane fencing to keep them out of main pasture until it has greened up for the season.

I was going to let the cattle into the new, creek side 'brown pasture' tomorrow, since their hay feeder was getting low, but decided to wait a few days.  We are facing the possibility of a winter storm, with 1 ft of snow and near blizzard conditions.  To ready for the storm, I put a fresh bale in the feeder, near the barn.  I don't want the cattle out in an unfamiliar area when the storm hits.

March 28, 2009 
- Busy, busy, busy.

Today I answered an online ad.  They were offering [for free] a 2 month old LaMancha-cross doeling.  I called and told the party I was interested.  Shortly after they gave me directions, I left the farm.  A free goat wasn't going to last long so I felt I had to get there ASAP.  When I arrived to the location of the goat, I saw a vehicle leaving the driveway.  OH CRAP!  Somebody got there before I did.  But as I pulled in, I could see a gal on the deck holding a goat.  I looked the goat over, loaded it into the dog kennel in the back seat and head back home.  The doeling looks to be a LaMancha-Alpine cross in very good condition and I believe her to be well over 2 months old.  She will be a great addition to the farm.  And after Carol sold the little dairy female on the 26th, she is glad to have this one as a replacement.  We're hoping she will make a good milking goat next spring.  Madison was very glad to to have a new little girl goat as well.  She must have spent an hour with the new arrival before coming back into the house.

On my way home from getting the doeling, I got a call from a gentleman who was interested in the 275 gal poly tanks I was selling.  He wanted 2 of them and would be at the farm after 4 PM.  Shortly after he purchased the tanks I got another call from someone from the Murdock area.  He arrive at approx. 6:30 PM.  His wife saw our 'EGGS' sign and wanted 2 dozen chicken eggs.  WOW!  What a busy afternoon.  It was fun meeting these new farm customers.

Shortly after my 2nd poly tank customer left the farm, Carol received a bunny customer. She sold more rabbits.  They had looked at some bunnies earlier this month and made the decision to get some crossbreds. 

Tomorrow, Carol will be bringing more rabbits to the farm store.  She has over 20 bunnies for sale, but will only be bringing half into the store tomorrow, then the rest of them later.

March 27, 2009 
- Drug trafficking is #1, what is #2?

After illegal drugs, raw milk -- milk that’s unpasteurized and unhomogenized, just as it comes out of the cow -- may be the most briskly traded underground commodity in America.  To read more about it  CLICK HERE.

The chicken season is starting for us.  Carol got a call to raise 12-15 broiler chickens for this summer.  This gal bought a bunch of fryers last year and says she won't eat store bought chickens again.  She said that after she ate some of the chickens the ones from the store just didn't taste right.

Carol got an email from a gal who bought some rabbits yesterday.  She wants the last 2 $25 dairy bucklings (the LaMancha and the cute little black Alpine).

March 26, 2009 
- Selling more farm critters.

In spite of the snowy weather we experienced today, it was a good day.  We met some really neat folks who bought some of our animals.

Our first set of visitors came all the way from Alexandria, MN. to purchase some of our dairy bucklings.  The feller who was doing the buying was getting into the meat goat business.  He bought 10 of our $25 bucklings and 1 doeling for $50. If you've priced goats... it was a really good deal.  Most of the bucklings were Alpines, which can get to 170lbs.  This guy did his research and knew exactly what he wanted.  He explained his herd plans to us and they sounded pretty solid.

Our next visitor was a bit more local (south of Kerkhoven).  She and her family recently moved onto a farm and were looking for some small pets for their children.  She said they had been thinking about raising some rabbits for awhile and with Easter coming soon, she decided to surprise her children with pet bunnies.  She also liked some of the little goats we have and mentioned to Carol that she will do her best to get her husband's blessing on the decision to raise goats on their small farm acreage.  If it goes well, she will buy a goat or two when she picks-up the bunnies on Good Friday.  She said the farm was already fenced and thought the goats would be a great fit for the farm.

To celebrate the sales, Carol made homemade pizza with some homemade Italian sausage.  Tonight, was the first time she attempted making her own sausage.  It won't be a truly Italian since it doesn't have fennel seed, but it sure smells good... we'll see how it tastes.  For the record, Carol has fennel on her newly updated grocery list.

March 24, 2009 
- Raising food on a budget.

We just got back from the butcher, with over 150lbs of pork in the back seat.  I'm not really sure how much pork sells for in the stores, but for us (with this hog) the most expensive part was of seeing this pig from feeder pig to the freezer, was the processing of the meat.  The butchering only cost $50.  Again, this was the most expensive part of raising the pig.  With that said, our meat cost approx. 50¢/lb.  If you don't factor in the cost of processing, the meat cost 13¢/lb.

HOW WE RAISED OUR HOG:
From start to finish, this is how we did it.  The first thing we did was talk to people.  We found out who raised hogs.  We then put out the word that we were interested in taking a couple of runts.  Runts are little pigs that are smaller than their siblings.  Usually, runts end up dying because they don't get the nutrition they need.  Due to their small size, they don't have the ability to fight for food like their stronger brothers and sisters.  Most farmers will put these little pigs "down"... it's more humane.  This goes for pigs with ruptures too.  Anyway, last spring, we got three pigs (2 runts and 1 with a rupture).  We named them Porkchop, Bacon & Ham.  I need to mention, these type of pigs have a high mortality rate and within 2 hours of getting our new [less than perfect] pigs, the one with the rupture died, which is not that uncommon.  Then Bacon died a few weeks later, due to what is commonly known as 'wasting disease'.  Ham, a Hampshire gilt, was the only one left.

Since we feel very strongly about feeding the farm's animals as naturally as possible, we pastured Ham, as we do with all the other animals.  She received no grain during the warm months... none.  Did she grow fast?  No!  But she did grow at a nice steady pace and she looked good.  Her hair was shiny and her frame filled out nicely.

At the same time Ham was being pastured, we heard about hog grower that had sold their hogs but still had "a little" feed left in the bins.  We inquired about the corn.  We were invited to take it... if we didn't, it would be thrown away, either in the woods or in a garbage dumpster.  Since the feed was used to finish-out the hogs, it was medication free.  Yep!  We'll take it.  The "little" feed that was there for the taking amounted to nearly 60 bushels.  WOW!  We put it in feed sacks and stored it for later use.

When winter weather set in, we started feeding Ham (and the chickens) this free feed.  Once on the corn, she grew fast.  The feed lasted through most of the winter.  We fed Ham purchased feed for only a short period of time.  Even when we took Ham off of the pasture last fall, she still enjoyed eating hay daily.  There many days when she chose to eat hay before diving into the corn.  Like the old-timers before us, we fed Ham table scraps and many food that were less than desirable for us humans... she loved these kinds of treats.  With Ham, we had no veterinarian costs *knock on wood*.  And when we finally brought her to the butcher a few days ago, she weighed over 300lbs.

Worth mentioning is the fact that we also sold 7 dozen eggs to the butcher at the time we picked up our processed meat (aka our hog Ham).  We were told that at anytime we had too many eggs, we were more than welcome to bring them to the butcher shop and he would buy them from us.

We get asked all the time, "How do I find a market for my animals or vegetables?" 

If you are just starting out on your small farm and you want to sell your products off of the farm to others, just talk to a few of your neighbors and local friends.  If they've been in the area longer than you have, I'm guessing they know somebody nearby that can either help you sell your farm produce or buy it from you and/or help you process your goods.  Another thing I need all of you to learn:  There is now room on the farm for prejudice.  Everybody who eats is a potential customer. Here another little relationship builder... if you have too much produce and you don't want to can, freeze or dry it, give it to your neighbors and friends.  Your neighbors will learn that you are good person and are more likely to help you out and when your friends taste the good products you are growing on your farm, they could very well become your next paying customer or at the very least, tell others about the good stuff your farm is producing.  This rule pertains to you urban gardeners as well.

March 23, 2009 
- An experiment gone bad.

Well now.  For the last week or so, there has been a strange 'funk' wafting from someplace in the kitchen.  It was one of those smells that could be this... or could be that.  Carol thought it might be a sack of tators... nope.  We just couldn't find it... until today.

I'm not sure if you all remember or not, but late last fall, Carol and I started the process of tanning our own rabbit hides.  The "tanning recipe" we tried, mentioned that the hides could sit in the battery-acid tanning solution for up to a year.  I remember after the first month or so, we tried removing the thin membrane from the hides... it didn't work.  So... we put the skins back into the brine - to be removed another time.  We thought we had lots of time to do this... after all, they can sit in the solution for 12 months or so.  WE  WERE  SO  WRONG! 

When Carol opened the tanning brine bucket, I could have sworn her hair stood on end... if you've ever seen the poster of Buckwheat (of the Little Rascals), you'll know what I mean.  If you can't picture who Buckwheat is, imagine the hair on Don King.  I think Carol's hair looked like that.  As I was eating at the time, I didn't feel it necessary to take-in the aroma of rotting bunny skins.  Madison told me not to smell it or I'd gag.  I'm guessing we either did something wrong or the recipe was a little "off" when they said the skins can keep for a year in the tanning mixture.  We're going to check the recipe to see if mold & stench is a part of the hide curing process before we dump the hides and the solution out. 

March 22, 2009 
- Ag Lifestyles on RFD-TV.

The other day, I contacted the cable network RFD-TV, suggesting they produce a show about/for small/hobby farmers.  Today, I got an email back from LZ, Executive Producer of the programs Ag Lifestyles and The Cattle Show.  LZ stated that they are working on a series that is focused on the Small Acreage Farms.  They are also looking for show hosts.  I wonder if I could be a host.  They are also looking for topic ideas.  Here is LZ's email: aglifestyles@lztvshows.com.  Contact them to hire me... or maybe to suggest a topic you want to see...  LOL

March 20, 2009 
- Selling babies on the 1^st day of spring.

It was a very busy day.  Carol had quite a few phone calls about Madison's rabbits and 2 or 3 calls about the dairy goats.  Carol also had 2 families come out to purchase rabbits family pets (house rabbits).  One family was local, the other came out from the St Cloud area.  Before they left the farm, Carol ran through some of the basics of rabbit care, genetics and how/what to feed them.  They also went home with some of the food we were feeding the bunnies.

Carol sold her first ½ gal of goat's milk.  Well, she bartered it really.  In exchange for the milk, we got 2 jars of canned kiwi and one jar of kiwi jam.  The last few days, we have had our dairy does in with the farm's buck.  So... we were a little concerned that the stink of the buck would change the taste of the milk.  Before selling the milk, Carol and Madison tasted it.  They didn't notice any difference in taste from before the does were exposed to buck.  We didn't want to sell off-tasting milk to our first customer (who was trying to convince her boyfriend to switch from cow's milk to goat).  Carol explained our nanny-buck situation, but the gal wasn't concerned, as long as the does were milked correctly, using safe handling practices. OK, cool.  If you've never tasted goat milk, the best way to explain it is to say good goat's milk tastes like cow's milk... only better.

I am happy to say that I am finally done rendering our 30+ lbs of suet.  Sheesh!  Cutting it up and running it through the food processor gets old.  I will render no more [for awhile].  I'm not sure when we will do it, but I would assume Carol will want to make some soap from the freshly rendered tallow (processed suet) pretty soon.  As far as I'm concerned, the sooner the better.

March 19, 2009 
- Getting ready for more soap making.

We have had tons of inquires about some of our farm products... that alone is a sure sign of spring.  We have folks calling and emailing us about 4-H rabbits & goats, Scottish Highland cattle hides, goat milk and hatching eggs.  For our small farm, it will be nice to see a little cash flow.  It's tough to do, especially when we still consider what we do as building the farm.  I guess we need to look at it in the long term.

For the 2nd day in a row, I have been cutting suet into small chunks and then putting those pieces into the food processor.  For those who do not know what suet is, it is the raw far found around the kidneys of a beef animal.  This suet is then rendered into tallow.  From there, it can be made into a nice homemade lye soap.  You can make soap from lard too, but it is not quite as refined and the color is tan, instead of white (or colored if one want to add dye).  With that said, the food processor pulverizes the fat of the suet that we only need to render the stuff for a few minutes.  It almost looks like that new Strawberry Cool Whip (light & fluffy) *Yummy*.  Before we ran it through the food processor, we had to keep the suet on the stove for several hours to get the purified tallow for soap making.

Carol got an afternoon phone call from our local farm store.  They requested her and Madison to bring all the bunnies that were ready for sale, into the store - the sooner the better.  I think the girls brought 10 bunnies in.  Carol is a real stickler on making sure the rabbits are old enough to leave their mother(s).  Some mother rabbits stop nursing their young at 4 weeks while most do so between 5-6 weeks. 

It's been a long day... good night.

March 18, 2009 
- Ode to Ham.

I'm happy to say that one thing we do not do often is to have one of our overly-friendly hogs butchered.  The thing I am not happy to say is that it is usually a sad time here.  Larger animals, when raised by hand, are often pet-like.  So when we have to butcher an animal like this, it is a sad, yet meaningful time.  It means we are going to eat what we grow.  It means we know where our food comes from and it also means we are going to eat healthy food.  Food without chemicals, food without hormones and food that was raised with care.  One thing is for certain it WILL NOT be involved in a national recall.

If you follow our blog, you will know I'm talking about our hog, who we named 'Ham'.  We knew she was going to be food, and after months of care from us, I'm sure she knew it as well.  Ham was pasture raised during the growing season and was fed corn and hay during the winter.

this is a photos of 'Ham", our pasture fed, family hog.

When I brought Ham to the butcher, he estimated her weight to be between 300-400lbs.  I think if I wanted her to, she would have followed me into the butcher shop to meet her demise.   She was my baby... I will miss her.

On a different note, I read one of my sisters' Facebook entries, she has officially announced she will be coming for a visit (from the Seattle, WA area) this summer.  It will be fun to see her after such a long time.  She is planning to be here in late June and our youngest sister left a comment to that announcement, explaining she is planning to be here (from NW Ark.) in July.  Perhaps, we will serve them some Ham when they are here.

March 17, 2009 
- Quail.

We finished morning chores with the milking of the dairy does.  Big deal, right?  Well, it was today.  For some reason, Madison wanted to milk our old, OLD dairy goat, Granny.  Granny is mature (to put it nicely).  She's pushing 15-16 years of age.  Once the regular dairy goats were milked, Madison started working on Granny.  In about 5 minutes, Madison had a squirt of milk, then another, then yet another.  To make a long story short, her and I had Granny milked after a ½ hour.  How much milk did she give?  Would you believe about 10 cups?  This may seem like no big accomplishment, but you need to consider that Granny hasn't been milked in about 2 years.  FYI:  When we were done milking her, her udder and teats looked like a a couple of wrinkled washrags on a clothesline... NOT pretty!

Carol and Madison went to the local farm store.  All week I heard how the poultry chicks are being delivered to the store.  I'm not sure who was more excited - Carol or Madison.  Madison wanted to buy a few egg layers to show for 4-H this year.  She selected a few Barred Rocks.  And Carol came home with a few chicks for the farm.  She bought 5 Quail chicks.  It seems these little bird are mature at 8 weeks... that's when they start laying eggs, which I understand are in quite demand.  Last week, Carol had a request to raise quail for egg production.  The chicks we have have such a pleasant warble.  It will be interesting to hear what they sound like when they are older.

 
these little quail chicks will be producing eggs in about 8 weeks.

March 16, 2009 
- My baby is a pig.

This morning, Carol, Madison & I loaded Ham (our Hampshire hog) into the horse trailer.  It is time for her to go to the butcher.  She's a big girl... probably around 230 lbs.  I called the guy who does our butchering, he said the guy who actually does the butchering has Mondays & Tuesdays off, but Wednesday will work to bring Ham in.  When she's gone, I'm sure I will miss her.  She loved to be scratched and petted.  Like it or not... the deal we have with most of the animals is simple - we feed them, then they feed us.

We moved the milking dairy goats to the pen with the other goats.  We think they will be happier with the larger area.  With Ham out of her pen, I cleaned it, sprinkled barn lime, then put down fresh straw.  Carol and I then moved a milk stand into that pen.  Instead of milking in the milk-house, we will be able to do it in the barn.  Now, if Madison has a problem getting one of the does on the milk stand, she will be able to ask for help from where she is.  In the past, she would have to put her milking kettle away, then look for us.

For some time now, I have heard a metallic 'tick' sound from the electric fencer.  When I hear this particular sound, I know that there is a short somewhere... I guess some folks call it 'grounding out'.  I couldn't help but walk the fence line on this beautiful day.  It wasn't until I was about 70 feet from the end of the fence-line where I noticed the electric fence wire was tangled with the barbed wire.  Had I started at the end of the line and not the beginning, I would have saved about a ¾mile of walking.  But like I said, it was a nice day... heck, I didn't even have a jacket on - just a long sleeved shirt.  The sun was bright... maybe I should have gotten myself a cowboy hat.

March 15, 2009 
- Russian farm tour.

To reinforce the notion of spring, more geese flew over the farm, honking away as they did.  It was a pleasant sound.  Add-in the warm weather and we were feeling pretty good about the day.  We had a cool breeze whisking through the barn, so I thought cleaning the south side of the barn would be a good job to do.  The slight breeze kept me cool.

Around 3:00PM, guests arrived... a delightful couple from the Glencoe, MN area.  Today's farm tour guests were a little different from the others we have had in the past.  This couple was Russian-American and they were once farmers, when they lived in Russia.  Like us, they love goats and spend much of their free time, visiting area goat farms.  When they were here, they didn't seem to mind the mud and the slush of the spring thaw... yep, they were farmers for sure.  It was as if they didn't notice the mess... only the animals.  These folks were a treat to visit with.  Before they left, they bought 4 dozen of our farm fresh eggs.  I think they also mentioned they wanted to visit again in May, hopefully, to get some of our goat milk... should we have some available.

After our new friend left the farm, Carol and I decided to combine a few of our animals.  We let the sheep run with the goats.  Prior to today, I couldn't get the sheep pen door open, so by combining the pens, the sheep will once again have access to the outdoors.  Who is to say they care where they are?  But we feel better having them outside.

The weather has the snow melting like crazy, so much so that we now have what looks like a lake in the farm's grove.  The ducks sure do enjoy swimming in it.  I guess we need to have the mess before we can experience the nicer weather.

Madison took this photo of some of her ducks (ducks she hatched last fall) swimming in pond in the grove.

March 13, 2009 
- Is spring coming?

Warm weather is coming... we can feel it.  The yard is muddy.  I think it is only going to get muddier.  The good news is some of the signs of spring are showing up.  In Minnesota, when we see geese flying south, we believe spring will follow shortly.  The earlier they fly... the earlier spring arrives.

Madison and Carol went up north to get some unwanted goats.  The owners got the goats in November and she didn't realize the care they demanded.  The goats were a pair of Pigmy goats - 1 buck and 1 doe.  The gal told Carol that the doe was pregnant, but we doubt it.  Although we can't "save" all the unwanted critters of the world, we can do our part when we can.

I, on the other hand, couldn't go with as I was helping the neighbors with evening chores.  Chores took 2 hours, but time went so fast, it only felt like 45 min to an hour.  It was fun to experience how other folks run things.  From the road, the farm seems very old fashioned, but once you see the behind the scenes stuff you can see how convenient and semi-automated the have it.  They had what I would describe as a mini-farmer's elevator, with a feed mixer and mill built into there feed room(s).  I was impressed.

March 12, 2009 
- Will we see more?

When Carol and I were at Walmart, picking up Popsicle™ sticks ($2.48/pkg) and checking the price of eggs ($1/doz), I saw a mullet.  I think we were walking towards the check-outs... that's when I noticed him/her - a living, breathing mullet owner/wearer.  It was glorious - like a beacon on a foggy night, off a rocky coast.  But something didn't seem quite right (assuming the idea of a mullet does).  The top of this striking doo was curly... short, as it should be, but curly just the same.  It was a female(ish) mullet.  The "gal" (for lack of a better term) must have wanted to distinguish herself AS a woman, hence the curls.  The body and the clothes was all male - kinda butchy.  I guess when you are in that situation, curls may very well appear to be your wild card.  Well played mullet maiden... well played.  Will we see more?

March 11, 2009 
- Bars of soap.

Last night, our block of homemade Homesteader's Soap fell out of its mold.  For the last day or so, we turned the mold upside down, hoping it would fall out as it shrank (part of the curing process).  After morning chores, we cut a template from a Cheerios™ box.  The block we still quite soft, so marking it with a butter knife was easy.  We then used a long bread knife to cut the block into bars.