September already!

How this summer as flown by! It's my birthday this coming weekend; I'll be working as a trial secretary for a herding trial so it'll be a useful weekend if nothing else - in the meanwhile, farm life continues. The tomatoes are ripening well; the slugs being kept at bay by massive applications of coffee grounds, the beans are starting to dry, the winter squash are still too green to pick but we're watching them. Most fun of all this year has been the success of our sweet potatoes! With some trepidation, I planted 4 slips back in May - to my amazement, they have produced real live sweet potato tubers! Supper tonight: baked ham, sweet potatoes and cornbread :)

Stray kitty

Yesterday, while pruning tomatoes, Noche' seemed very interested in something over near the edge of the garden. She watched intently and would wag her little tail. I went to see what was so fascinating and discovered a little yellow kitty someone had dumped off at our farm. While we do have some barn cats here, I don't really look forward to more. We'll feed her up, vaccinate and worm her and then hopefully will be able to find her a permanent home. In the meanwhile, Noche' thinks she's pretty cool!

Mid Summer

It seems forever since I"ve posted to this blog! The summer has been hot and humid - too much rain - and very, very busy!







I did, however, take a minute yesterday between canning peaches and making chevre to take a couple pictures of produce now coming from the garden





and our beautiful eggs!

Cabbages

Our beautiful cabbages are now part of the Cafe menu - they're tender and sweet and are averaging 4# right now. We also have beet greens and 4 varieties of lettuces. This row of beets was planted about 3 weeks ago.

Ewe 422

Here is a picture of old ewe 422 and her ewe lamb from this spring. She also has a ram lamb that isn't in this picture. Ewe 422 has given us twins for the past 3 years, all ewes with the exception of this year. According to my records we've kept them all -- #17, 18,14 and more. The lambs this year were sired by a white Dorper as we transition to hair sheep and we plan to keep the ewe lambs from the cross so it's nice to see the good size on this ewe lamb who was born in May. Actually, one of the 8 week old lambs went to market yesterday, he was that big. I'll report back on how he dressed out and what the milk/pasture lamb is like.

I would think it would be very tender and mild but then again there won't be much fat marble in the meat so we'll see!! I worked Jet and Trouble on the sheep this morning, two very different working styles with these dogs which makes for a steep learning curve for me! They're both good dogs with ability so are always fun to train with and great companions as well.



Spot and Red went away yesterday as well leaving the pig yard quiet and me with a heck of a lot of milk this morning. Chevre is ripening as I write.

Here is the south side of the pig yard - the hollyhocks are in full bloom and I'm sure to think of Red and Spot whenever I walk past.

Where's the time go?

Spot and Red will be gone next week this time - they have been great fun to have around and frankly, we will miss them. I head up to Barron, WI tomorrow to look at calves - all that goats milk needs to go somewhere.

We've been battling the thistles again - mowing and more mowing - seems like a losing battle though.

The tomatoes have blossoms on them and the cabbages are going to be cut starting next week; the raspberries are just on the cusp of ripening and the cuke plants look fabulous so it seems the garden is still holding its own.

Summer picnics

Are way more fun when you have a grand-dad to share it with and an actual picnic table!

....And maybe even a friendly dog to take a walk with you afterwards! Crystal leaves for home later this week; we'll all miss her,

June morning

This is the lower garden behind the chicken house - it tends to be wet and this year it's kind of a swamp after the latest deluge.










Here is one row of spuds - just barely starting to flower.











And the cabbage - this is StoneCrop variety.






The pullets ~ the slender ones are brown leghorns, the others are Arucanas and Sussex.

Red

A quick picture this morning of Red next to the pig-o-tel - Red is a gilt and while I sometimes think it would be interesting to have more piggies, memories of childhood stories of pig gone wild always bring me back to reality.

Friday

We are preparing Trouble for herding trials over the weekend - we will need to be out of the house and on the road by 6:30 which means a lot of chorework done very early. I'm hoping for no more rain as we are beginning to see trees breaking from the sogginess and weight of the water. The gardens are coming along well, the potatoes are just getting ready to blossom and the lettuces are wonderful...the beans are sprouting in just a day or so which seems amazing and Jack in the Beanstalk-like!

The buttermilk from this week turned out excellent and I think we'll be making more for baking. I'm hoping the little buck kids leave this coming week as they're drinking milk I'd rather be feeding the pigs now....speaking of whom --- they are now weighing about 150lbs or more which means perhaps another month before they are off to the big pasture in the sky.

Tuesday

Rain, Rain Go Away! It's been coming down all day, the goats are unhappy, the hens are miserable, the bees want to go out now - thank goodness I cut lettuce yesterday for the cafe rather than waited until this morning when it would have been covered in splashes of dirt. I'm trying to make buttermilk today - the milk is heated and held at 180F for 30 to 60 minutes, cooled to 77F, starter is added (from the Dairy Connection in Madison, WI) and now it sits at that temperature for 12-18 hours. I've put it in the yogurt maker (think I'm so smart!!) and will check on it in the morning. It should be great for baking.

The little peachicks are now in a rabbit cage in the henhouse where they are dry and warm with a heatlamp over them and safe from the chickens. They're okay but not really as vigorous as I'd like to see. The pigs are loving the rain, racing here, racing there and having a gay old time being pigs!

Fecund Farm!

Not only did Ruby deliver 9 beautiful healthy puppies but we were surprised by having 3 of the peacock eggs hatch this morning! They are in our little incubator in the kitchen this morning, still drying off and are all white! What fun for us!

To the left: Nomo's milk bottle.

The weekend is upon us - rain predicted but so far I've done chores in the dry part of the day! The pastures have grown over the past couple weeks so that it's now almost impossible to see the lambs and kids when they're only a few yards away. We'll be mowing thistles tomorrow, I suspect! I see the old goose has started up a nest in a corner of the chicken house; she's 11 years old and I doubt the eggs will hatch but Jim suggests just letting her do what she chooses. I'll be tempted to toss them to the pigs! The little chicks are now half-grown pullets ~ they should begin to lay around 4 months of age which can't come too soon now that the Australorps have decided to go broody and set. A black mark on them for this quality!

Crystal's off to visit her cousin Anthony for a week which means I'll have to feed the kids myself; it's been great to see her kind nature blossom under the responsibility of caring for them.

Calves

Crystal has been thinking and thinking of good names for the calves - the one on the left is Patch since we already have a Spot on the farm. The others are still nameless after the first 24 hours here! They're ecstatic to be pasture calves; you can see that they are more used to a mucky feedlot by the way they walk - lifting their legs up very high. I suppose it'll take a few days for them to normalize - they seem good natured (always a good thing with animals weighing many times more than we do!)
We did get rain today; showers off and on so it became a day to pick up some fence panels to go under the bridge and by the creek where the goats have discovered they can sneak under. I made 2 batches of chevre and had whey for the pigs tonight. The peahen is STILL laying - the eggs are big and very hard - the pigs of course have no trouble cracking the shells though. Jim called the fellow who cuts hay and we're on the list to have it mowed in a week or so (hopefully when we're out of this wet cycle) and I need to scrounge up some more straw for the garden. But for now, it's time to make some dinner.

In my pocket

I came in from doing chores this morning and needed to throw my jeans in the wash - you can see what part of my morning involved! Latex gloves for milking, marking crayon for identifying 2 of the lambs needing to be kept separate, bands for the ram lamb who still needed banding and what's left of a package of bean seeds. Thank goodness no staples in my pocket!

The calves arrived today; big holstein steers we will use for training the dogs over the course of the summer. They leave in the fall for parts we all can imagine.

The second batch of lettuces went to the Cafe this morning; they're really quite lovely - and I transplanted some in hopes they'll make heads before bolting in our midwestern heat. We have all the garden in now - planted the last few pumpkins and cukes this morning in the black plastic up by the kennels. Also took the time to prune out the lilacs over near the chicken house since Brother Fox made a visit a few days ago and left with one of the ducks.

Looks like rain is just missing us today; it's to the south of us this time - which means I'll need to water those lettuces in the morning. Crystal is still here, helping out. She's made a chore list for herself with the promise of $1.00 for each one done well each day....her list includes feeding the barn cats but we're negotiating that one since Jim likes doing it himself.

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!!