Good bye Joy and Lily.

Family milker Joy and her doeling kid Lily left today for their new lives and family. We'll miss them both.

Wednesday

Roadtrip day! My granddaughter Crystal and I took the day off and drove south to look at ram lambs in Spring Grove, Minnesota and then to pick up our new bees at B and B Honey in Houston, Minnesota. We saw some great lambs - Dorpers - and will be bringing one home later in the year as our junior herd sire. The bees we (I) picked up literally - we had bought a 'nuc' which is basically a bottom super full of frames of brood. We waited until almost 7 p.m. and all the worker bees were in the hive then lifted it into the back of the truck (quickly and with bee gear on.) The tailgate on the truck went up and I raced to the cab and jumped in, my heart pounding just in case any bees had decided to come with me. But no! They are still in the back of the truck and I'll place them in their permanent position tomorrow evening after dark. What an adventure before us!

We drove home on Highway 61 (yes, of Bob Dylan fame..) - a gorgeous drive along the Mississippi River, bluffs on one side, freight trains, bald eagles, tug boats - life as it should be on this super waterway. Stopped in Wabasha for dillybars at the DQ - I didn't know they made CHERRY!! A kind of waxed cherry but cherry nonetheless!

The truck ran fine and looks great with the rust repaired and a new paint job; it should last a few years before needing replacement now.

We have sold two does, two bucklings and a doeling the past couple days; they're still here but will leave before long.

Trouble and the Goats

Here is a little video of Trouble helping me walk the goats down the road from the barn to a side pasture. Jim is filming from one of the other pasture gates where they would like to go -

The weekend.

A busy weekend and lots got done thanks to my boys Seth and Miles - hardly boys any longer but young men with their own families and responsibilities - they came together on Friday to help out. We expanded the pig area (yippee, say Red and Spot!) and fenced in the garden against the growing but not yet grown chicks. They then continued on to cut and split a pile of wood that I feared was going to become a piece of permanent art in the front yard. Supper with my favorite people in the whole world ended the day. I also planted acorn squash, pole beans and cukes and see that the second planting of potatoes is up.

Yogurt from the goat ladies is in the refrigerator now - a half gallon of it - and I think we may try to make frozen yogurt. I'll check back in with results. Peahen eggs keep coming....

Picked up a soil test kit on Thursday at the extention office and need to get some samples sent off tomorrow so it's off the computer now -

Chevre cheesecake!

Okay, the eggs keep coming, the milk keeps flowing and I've got company! It's lemon chevre cheesecake for everybody - a crust made from biscotti, then chevre (creamed in the food processor) with lemon zest, eggs from the hens, a little vanilla we brought back from New Mexico, some Agave syrup - I think that's it! It is in the oven now and I"ll top it with some sour cream/sugar/vanilla. Life is so good to us!

It's quite hot today - I've turned water on the lettuces which seem to be wilty despite the soil being very moist right below the surface. The onions, potatoes (German Butterballs!) and tomatoes look fine but the lettuces.... we're putting coffee grounds from Jim's little cafe around the base of the tomatoes to help control slugs this year and I"ll report back how that works. And, oh joy! I found some sweet potato vines in Amery - okay, it's an experiment - so I have restrained myself and only put in 4 in a big tractor tire full of compost. They are heat lovers and should do well. I also brought back home some odds and ends of flowers to put in windowboxes by the barn and sunflower seed to plant by the silo - assuming the goats won't eat them on their way to and from the milking room.

The lambs are now seriously plump and milk-fed looking; I see they're cudding (meaning they are chewing cud and have developed rumens) we're very happy with this year's crop and will keep back some of the ewe lambs. I go to look at ram prospects on Wednesday....which is also the day I bring home the bees!!

Goat news on WPR!

Friday morning at 6:30 and 8:30. That would be 88.7 fm

Tuesday

More peahen eggs this morning! I've decided to just give them to the pigs rather than have a whole henhouse full of broody hens; after all what would we do if they all actually hatched?? After setting some cheese to drain and doing chores, it was off to Phyllis' for Trouble's herding handling session. She did great work, flanks, driving, fetching - it was very fun. With the imminent arrival of the calves we want to be sure she'll be able to help move them. Phyllis sent 4 of the old ducks back home with me (crested blue swedish) who are now in the pasture with the goats with access to the creek. Hopefully they'll stick around.

We have another young buckling this season for possible future use as a herd sire. His name is Blissberry No More Excuses - I'm calling him Nomo but am not sure that'll stick.

Got the lower garden weeded and I'm off to Stockman's Farm Supply now to pick up a few seeds and more pepper plants. Ah, hope springs eternal around here!

Making Do

A full weekend here, lots got done - gardens planted, windowboxes installed and planted, the remaining apple trees planted, the yards mowed, Jim picked up more fencing to enlarge the pig acreage, I powerwashed the kennels, cleaned the goat shed, laid and ran tracks with Trouble and then this afternoon decided to make a batch of bread for supper. I'd just gotten a new bread-baking book (Bread Alone) and saw a recipe - I got started but realized too late that it called for buttermilk. No buttermilk here but chevre! So I thinned the chevre down with some fresh milk...then I noticed that it called for solid shortening. Well, we never have such a thing - what is it exactly?? But we did have butter so I substituted that..... when I got done mixing this dough, it called for a couple hours in the refrigerator, then a quick knead and into the oven. Wonderful??!!! Flaky, delicious chevre bread!

Things are, however, tough over in the poultry yard again - the roosters have taken a dislike to Mr. Beautiful and there's a lot of dissension involving spurs and sharp attacks. What to do? What to do? The little chicks are horrified at the behavior of the adults in the group. Tough decisions may need to be made.

Last night Trouble helped put all the sheep, goats and Khaki in the barnyard for Khaki's monthly shot of ivermectin. We have problems with meningeal worm with him and give him this monthly preventative. We also needed to check over the ewes and lambs and band the tail on the last born. She did a great job, everyone was calm, no running or chaos. A very good farm dog.

Finally, this afternoon I took a walk through the newly sown hayfield. I need to call the fellow who planted it since it sure doesn't seem to be coming in as I would think it should. Coming towards evening now and a good time to take a walk -

Pigs

Spot, happy with his Jolly Ball, happy with his feeder full of goat milk, happy that the sun is out and the predicted high today is 70F.

Mr. Beautiful

At the end of the 'work' day I often take one or more of the dogs for a run in the pasture - Ruby's getting fairly heavy with pups now but as everyone knows, our dogs are no delicate flowers - so off Ruby careened into the pasture to run and jump and swim. I was following behind, enjoying the intoxicating scent of plum and apple blossoms, daydreaming as is often my wont. As I came up over a little rise near where I often fish and where there also happens to be a little cattail swamp, Ruby was intently snuffling, tail wagging practically off her body. "What's up?" I ask. She looks up, a grin on her face, delighted to show me what treasure she'd uncovered. And what was this?? An ENORMOUS snapping turtle - about as big a turtle as I've ever seen here, her head the size of a softball, her great thick tail evident. "Whoa, Nellie! Let's go!" We wandered away from this old mama turtle and I ran to get my camera but alas, she had gone back under the wet canes and will doubtless reappear later this evening to lay eggs.

While I had the camera in hand, I did get a pix of Mr. Beautiful - remember, he's only 2 years old - next year we'll see the long and beautiful tail.

Wednesday

A cold day here; it feels more like November than May but the weather guy says it's warming up for the weekend. It can't come soon enough! We have a fire in the living room to toast up the house and it's cozy but it'd be nice to be outside in the evening catching fireflies instead of curling up with books and tea!

A pretty full day here; after doing chores, cleaning and liming the barn, putting down clean straw, setting some milk for chevre and doing kennel chores, I drove up to Deer Creek to pick up the sheep meat. It came to $40 to slaughter and bag about 40# of meat and bone. It'll be great for the dogs and far better than having the sheep rot away in the woods. I traveled up the road to Amery next to look at apple trees but they're too expensive - we're putting them in the back of the house, a little tiny orchard of 9 trees - so far we have Beacon, Haralred and Honeycrisp planted - anyway, I ended up bringing home some basil and will make some mozzarella next week for salads. I stopped at Jim's cafe on the way home for coffee and to discuss our options for a new truck; the old S-10 slid into the silo over the winter and is banged up and rusting now. We decided to have it repaired and wait for another year or so before replacing it. Back at home, I checked the pigs and the chickens - and was delighted to find another peahen egg!! That makes 5 under one of the broody hens!

Well, rounding out the day came a call from St. Louis that Solo had been collected and his valuable semen is now FEDEXing its way north for insemination tomorrow. Another busy day coming up - and pictures if I can remember to take them!

Monday

A great way to start off the new week; the last lamb is on the ground - a big ram from #14 - making a total of 22 lambs this year, all born live and with no help! Yeahhh! I'm going to Spring Grove, MN fairly soon to look at rams for this fall - Dorpers - they are 'hair' sheep which means that they grow a short coat of woolish fiber over the winter and then shed it off in the spring so we wouldn't need to shear them. The plan is to keep back the ewe lambs from this spring crop who are 1/2 Dorper and 1/2 Texel x Dorset and breed up from there. I'm told it takes 3 generations to get decent hair so it's a process I"m curious to watch.

The peacock was out today - he is still young at 2 years old but his color is already stunning! His hens are 1) white and 2) pied. A great surprise was finding 4 peafowl eggs in their pen this afternoon! I put them under a broody hen and will mark the calendar for hatching dates in another month - now THAT would be fun!

Mothers Day

You know your relationship has ripened when your husband gives you a powerwasher as a Mothers Day gift! Bright red, it is, and POWERFUL!!! We started the day off today with frost but, having covered everything tender yesterday, it looks like everything has survived in good form; even the apple blossoms seem to be okay. I let the peafowl out for the first time, the hens made their tentative foray into the chicken yard but the peacock is biding his time. He's displaying inside the coop and is going to be a beauty! We decided Spot and Red needed some play equipment and tossed Una's old Jollyball in their pasture - we're delighted to see them moving it around, trying to figure it out! They're growing fast - must be all that goats milk because the bags of grain are sure not going down - these seem to be a couple of really thrifty pigs, and full of personality. They climb up the side of the fence to interact with us (not a good thing...) and squeal in anticipation of either Jim or me coming their direction.

Jim fixed the trellis - amazing it's been up for 10 years! and tilled the upper garden, split some wood, started a fire to burn up the old raspberry canes and did bits of this and that, mostly enjoying a warm spring day.

I, happy to have some company at home, helped some but mostly did my own bits of this and that, ran tracks with Trouble, moved the goat kids that need weaning off by themselves, clipped the goats' undersides, planted more cabbage, mowed the dog runs and this afternoon took my rod and a bucket down to the creek and caught trout for supper thus ending a perfect day!

Tomorrow it's back to the vet for more progesterone testing on one of the dogs in anticipation of a fresh extended breeding to Solo!

Are we farmers yet?

My little milking parlor was, in its past life, the milkhouse for our big old barn. A few years ago our neighbor Jerry Stang remodeled it for me, tearing down and replacing the ceiling and walls with white milkboard and pouring a new concrete floor (WITH Drain!) Last week I took the old radio out of the laundryroom and stuck it on a shelf in my little milking parlor - which means that in the early morning while Callie or Ivy or one of the does is nosing around in her feed pan for that tasty last morsel while I hand milk, we are both being entertained by Wisconsin or Minnesota Public Radio. The two public radios are not really all that similar; MPR is much newsier, WPR - homier, so depending on where the dial sits we are either enlightened or entertained, not generally both at the same time however. Jim says that having a radio in the milkroom is how the real farmers always listened to the news....so there you have it!

This morning I planted cabbage and gladiolus - and I see that the potatoes are up - with snow on the way Friday I'm glad we didn't put the tomatoes out. The pastures are coming along well, after working Trouble on sheep this morning we did some tracking training in the pasture which went well. She's a great dog with a terrific fun personality. The ducks are all sold with the exception of a half dozen we kept back for herding - that worked out GREAT!

The circle.

I called the slaughterhouse this morning to set up a time for one of the sheep to meet its maker - it's a quick trip to the farm where it'll be done and we'll pick up 5# bags of meat next week for the dogs. It'll be good, clean meat for them and a quick end for the sheep. Mr. Blue leaves this afternoon as do the rest of the ducklings I had advertised so the poultry yard will be peaceful once again.

This afternoon I tilled the bottom garden again, the intention is to till it over the course of the summer in an attempt to kill out the creeping geraniums. We'll have to see how that all goes! The onions, spinach, chard, lettuces are all up and doing well; I'm holding off on the tender plants for a while but may start some cukes in the greenhouse if I can find some peat pots. The temp's supposed to plummet after today so no sense putting them in the garden yet!

One of the interesting things I learned at the cheese workshop was that whey fed to pigs (yes, like Red and Spot) suppresses e-coli development. Good news, guys!

Cheesemaking

Tomorrow I go to Spooner, WI for a day-long workshop specifically geared toward making cheeses from goat milk. I'm looking forward to it; new information, new people and a day refreshing my novice cheesemaking skills. ** update on Tuesday - the workshop was interesting; a bit technical for some of the folks who I think really just wanted to try making some cheese but good information overall.

Jim came into the house with an enormous basket of morels tonight - enough to freeze - yippee!