Eating well.

I'm just back in, soaking wet from the rain because Pearl and I decided to check the fencelines for morels. Shorty, our neighbor to the south had stopped on the road the other day to let us know he'd been finding some. We were somewhat successful; finding a few in the normal places we find them but also along the banks of the pasture creeks which is definitely not a normal place. So, plenty for supper along with asparagus which is now coming on. Tomorrow is fishing opener here; I need to get my gear out later today in hopes of bringing in a few trout from the creek for dinner. I love to fish and being able to walk out the door, across the road, through the pasture and cast into the stream is one of my simple and great pleasures. Catching a few is also nice.

After this rain I figured we might as well go for broke and plant some of the lettuces we've been coddling in the greenhouse. These lettuces are from Seed Savers in Iowa - a great organization that holds seedstock of many heirloom and rare varieties. The weather is beginning to settle here so it should be safe to plant them out now.

Dogs on the farm

We use Trouble to help work sheep and the dairy goats here. Phyllis Clark is helping me teach her trial behavior which helps quite a bit with work at home. In this picture we're working on her flanks - 'way to me' means go clockwise while 'go bye' means to go counter clockwise. We are also working on helping her to understand that she needs to be calm to keep the stock calm as well.

She does great work for a young dog and helps me bring the goats in and out of the barnyard to and from the back pastures each day. Our goats especially are 'delicate' - they have tender udders and thin skin and need to feel safe in order to produce milk. It's important that Trouble doesn't stress them. The first few days with Trouble helping were challenging because the kids were so exciting for her but she's understanding now that they are part of the goat herd and not prey animals. It helps that I tend to be very low-key - the stock and the dogs feed off high or low energy of the people they live with.

No rain yet today but they say it's a'comin'

Kids, lambs, miscellany

My grandson Anthony has been visiting us regularly since he was a baby; he's in second grade now and has his own life that doesn't always include farm animals (although he does have a cat and a dog) so that when he does come to visit, he's curious about and familiar with the animals who share our life. Spot and Red were of particular interest this year - they're friendly pigs, initiating conversation with us and enjoying their life in the big outdoors. I think it is important for not only Anthony and Crystal, my granddaughter, to know about farm animals and their role in the food chain but also to understand and appreciate them as sentinent beings.

When Anthony was a wee one (years ago) we had a set of triplet lambs who we bottle-fed supplementally - here's Anthony way back then.

Yesterday I moved the tomatoes from indoors to the greenhouse ~ they look great today. This afternoon a package arrived with the blueberries which are now safely bedded down in the east end of the lower garden in their much-amended soil. Ah, hope springs eternal.... Trouble and I went out to the big pasture to check on the ewes this morning; still a few left to lamb and no new ones today....giving me time to cut away some big pine branches that were shading the house and to make a rhubarb custard pie. Good eating!!

Eggs and more eggs...

I tend to order chicks in the winter; after all, egg production will be down and I"ll have visions of an eggless summer so I put in the order as the snow flies. Last year I hatched eggs from our own hens which was great fun unfortunately the ratio of roosters to hens must have been about 10:1 and really, how many folks want half-grown roosters in the fall? So this year I got smart and ordered all pullet chicks. We are trying out Speckled Sussex who seem to be very vigorous chicks at about 3 weeks old.

But the fear of egglessness - well, I needn't have feared because we are awash in eggs! We have dark brown eggs, light brown eggs, blue eggs, green eggs, beige eggs - eggs for the house, eggs for the neighbors, eggs for training friends, eggs for the dogs - we've got eggs!!!

Maybe next winter I keep away from those chick websites!

Rain

Thank goodness for a little rain today - Jim ran errands for the Cafe and I picked up a pair of Black shouldered pied peafowl, our old peacock having been laid to rest last fall. This new pair will join our 2 year old hen (Hen) enlivening the yard with not only their grace but their truly exotic calls. Nothing like a peafowl call in the dawn or dusk to make one forget they are in the midwest U.S.!

Tomorrow we take Mr. Dog back to the airport for his return trip home after a week vacation here on the farm where the intention was for him to sire a litter of puppies for us. It was not to be! We'll make a half-day of the trip to Minneapolis, lunch with the kids, a few vital plant purchases and some banding rings to finish up the lambs who are still running about with tails. We used a 'hair' ram this year, a Dorper - on our good Texel x Dorset ewes and are curious to see what they look like this fall when it is time to send them off.
We're hoping to see good carcass quality without too much grain finishing. The pastures are starting to come on now so that they are eating very little hay/grain but of course are nursing and will do so for another couple months.

I think it is later this week that the calves come here from Draxler's enormous dairy farm - we're getting 6 this year - for training the dogs mostly; they'll be our trial cattle for the fall Kelpie Trial in September. Trouble is doing well with the kids now, at first she was overly stimulated by them but yesterday she managed to put them as well as our dairy goats in the back pasture. The calves will give her great experience. Here's a pix of Trouble at her first AHBA trial this past fall where she got her JHD.

Made a batch of chevre yesterday which is now safely in the refrigerator mellowing :) I'm going to use some for a cheesecake - I have to believe it will be delicious!

Mister Blue

Jim loves turkeys - which is why this year we have 2 toms and one hen. The first tom, a Blue Slate, was part of my birthday gift to him 2 years ago - what more loving gesture than a box of fluffy poults can a wife give her husband? Tom 2, a Red Bourbon, came to us along with Cluck, the white hen, in a trade with a neighbor who 'thought' they were both Bourbons hens. Guess what?!

Life has not been peaceful in the barnyard - which is why Mr. Blue is featured on his own "Home Wanted" poster down at the feed store.

Today Jim is spreading the hayfield with nitrogen; for the first time since I've been on this farm we had a neighbor come in and re-seed our hayfield with alfalfa and timothy. The old alfalfa had died out over the years to the point that our hay was all stems. Not great for milking goats. It's amazing to me that it's already up, little codyledons struggling up out of the soil soon to be great beasts of plants! We tried putting hay up in large bales last year and have contracted with Hoffmann's to cut and bale this hay when the time comes. It's supposed to rain this evening ~ it's been an early but dry spring. The tomatoes are doing well, I take them outside each morning for an airing, bringing them back inside to safety just before McNeal/Lehrer goes on so they don't freeze overnight. This year we are trying something new with the lettuces; I've direct seeded some in the big garden along with spinach and chard but also planted some individually in peat pots for the greenhouse. We'll see how that works.

Red and Spot

Here are Spot and Red the first day in the new yard - they have about a quarter acre to dig up and they're busy at the task! Boulders are appearing where before there were none!

And THIS is where all that milk goes :)

Aged Ewes

This black ewe and her friend the Hampshire are old friends here - the black ewe was one of a set of twins about 6 years ago; she gives us twins herself every year and has become a friendly presence in the pasture. She's quite attached to her best friend, a slightly younger ewe and we'll often see them grazing or resting together.

This picture was taken the day after shearing; at this writing neither has lambed. Update!! The black ewe has twin ram lambs 4/23.

Beginning the blog!

Each spring arrives and with it not only an almost overwhelming amount of physical work but the urge to document our experiences on this small and humble piece of earth we call home. After all, who was it who said "if you can't be happy on a Wisconsin farm there is no hope for you?"

So this will be the start! And with it, a picture of Lily, our first-born kid of 2010. Born to a first freshener (Joy) she's a beauty! Capricious, is what she is! Joy is milking about 10# of milk twice a day - very good for a young doe.