Love Is In The Air

   Huck and Tom have been in rut for the last couple of months and the time has come to put them to good use. The smell hasn't been that bad around the farm, but when you get close to them you can really smell them. Along with the musk smell that comes from their glands, they also urinate all over their front legs and face. This must really turn on the ladies.
   A doe goes into heat every 21 days and last for about two days. Sometimes they are subtle about it and sometimes not so much. Montana is one of those unsubtle does, she yells at you when you go out to see her and when you let her out she runs right to the buck pen and yells at you to let her in. Sally and sugar will just go up to the buck pen and shake their tail back and forth as to say " I'm ready". Katy was a little more difficult, she didn't have much signs at all other then standing next to the buck pen.
   If you put a doe in with a buck and she is not in heat, she will have none of his antics and start head butting him. But, when there is magic in the air and the time is right, she will stand still and let the buck do he is job. So far all the does are breed and we are waiting to see if they cycle again. If all the does took, then we should have a bunch of babies running around the farm early May.

Vegetable Garden 2013

    With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate to share this year’s harvest. We had some successes like the carrots and broccoli; we also had some failures like the squashes and tomatoes. We did get some squashes and tomatoes but they didn’t do as well as last year. One of the problems we had were insects on the squash plants. By the time we got them under control, half of the plants were gone and I had to replant. Every year we learn something new and get better at it.

Broccoli
   This was our first year growing broccoli and we couldn’t be more pleased with results. I had a big spot in the garden were I planted tomatoes last year and instead of have to can bags and bags of tomatoes we decided to plant broccoli. I planted seeds directly in the ground and not starter plants. The broccoli grew well like this and made it easier on the roots not being transplanted. The first harvest we ended up with a decent crop, what we didn’t expect was how well the plants did after the first harvest. It seemed like every time I went out to the garden, I was bring back a bag of broccoli sprouts from the off shoots. Once fall came, I pulled some plants up every day to feed to the pigs. None of the plant went to waste, we even tried baking the leaves like kale chips and they were good.

Carrots

    In the early spring I planted the seeds directly in the ground. I’m not sure if I watered them enough or what, but most of them didn't pop up. I sent a email to Johnny Seeds, where I got the seeds, about my problem and they sent another packet of seeds to me free and without questions. That’s why I like dealing with local companies. The second time seemed to work a lot better; of course I made sure to water them better too. Once fall came Miss E and Mr. T helped me with the harvest of the carrots and the beets. They had a blast pulling the carrots out of the ground and making a big pile for them to admire. We ended up with about 125 lbs. of carrots. They kids love eating fresh raw carrots from our own garden.

Basil
   Basil was the only herb we tried growing this year. I tried making my own plants inside but failed due to lack of sun light. Luckily for us, a friend of ours had a bunch of extra plants and was able to give us some. We grew them in one of those patio boxes that holds water on the bottom. The plants did ok, but could have done better if they had more sun light. Mr. T helped with the harvest, we would have been lost if not for his dump truck. We store the leaves in the freezer. We found that this is the best way to keep the flavor strong.

Potatoes
   I planted the potatoes in the same place as last year, and just like last year we had the same great results. I was able to keep the bugs of the plants long enough for them to grow well. I tried not mounding the plants, and didn’t notice that much difference in the ones that were mounded. When harvest time comes everyone gets involved. All the kids put on their boots and gloves, and come out to help. As I dig up the ground they look for the little buried treasures and put them in the bucket. It’s a lot of fun. We ended up with about 150 lbs. of potatoes this year.

Lettuce
    This year I tried a type of lettuce called Tropicana from Johnny Seeds. I loved the way they came out. I planted the seeds directly in the ground and just watered. It’s a leaf lettuce that grows in a tight bunch and does very well here. I tried growing them in the spring, summer, and fall; and they grew well in every season. We’ll continue to grow them next year.










Garlic

   We tried growing garlic in old tires this year and it worked well. I bought some hard neck garlic from a local produce shop and put them in the tires with some dirt last fall. As spring came the garlic started to grow. Once the main stalk turned brown we pulled up the garlic. Each plant had five big cloves on them. It worked out so well that I made a spot in the garden to plant some of the cloves in the ground this fall. We’ll see how much we get next year.













Peppers
   When I went to the nursery to buy some jalapeño plants, I came across some habanero pepper plants and decided to buy them along with the jalapeños. They both did well in the garden and were able to harvest a lot of peppers. I tried making some pepper jelly with the habaneros and even though it came out well, the smell it made in the kitchen was way too hot to bare. I pickled the jalapeños and gave away the rest of the habaneros at work. They are way too hot to do anything with.

Pigs' Last Day on the Farm

I loaded the pigs on the trailer this morning and gave them a ride to the butcher. I'm happy to report that it was very uneventful, unlike last year. I didn't feed them the day before, so when I put a pile of apples and some grain in the back of the trailer all but one of them walked right in. The last one needed a little nudging with a piece of plywood and of coarse, she was the biggest one. I'm trying a different butcher this year and so far I'm impressed with the service and price. We can't wait tell Friday when I pick them up.

Fried Apples

   There is nothing like taking a healthy food and making it completely unhealthy. We were able to pick some apples at Uncle K and Aunt V's house this weekend and wanted to try making something other than apple pies and applesauce. Inspired by our trip to Legoland this summer, we looked up the same recipe they use for fried apples.

   You take some apples and peel them, then slice them up into fries. Then you toss them in corn starch and put them in the deep fryer, my favorite kitchen device. After a couple minutes, take them out and sprinkle with some cinnamon sugar mixture. Then enjoy them. 

I can’t say what they taste like cool because they never make it that long.

Cookin' Roosters

   This spring we hatched our own chicks in hopes of replenishing the chickens that eventually die or get eaten by predators. We thought the ratio between hens and roosters would be around 50%, but it seems like we have a lot more rooster than hens. Every time we think “that hen will be a neat to have in the flock” the hen turns out to be a rooster. We only need one rooster in the flock, and only one rooster crowing all the time. So what to do with all these roosters?

   There was a time when thinking about butchering a rooster was out of the question, but after raising meat birds and other animals its gotten easier to deal with. The reality is that our family is going to eat meat; it’s hard enough getting the kids to eat as it is and taking meat away would be even harder. If we are going to eat meat I would rather know that the animal lived a good life and had a quick death, not lived in a confined little area and never seen the light of day. It’s not easy to do, but some animals are born on our farm and some animals die here. I don’t think I would want it any other way.

    I only butchered two of our roosters, I’m waiting tell the rest get older to make sure they are roosters. I also did two roosters for someone that I sold six chicks to this spring. Someone else heard I was butchering roosters and asked if I would do four of his roosters as well. We ended up with eight roosters here waiting to be butchered, that’s a lot of crowing going on. I butchered them the same way I butcher the meat birds, so there was no problems to speak of. I bag them up, and gave the other people their roosters back to go live in their freezers. After a couple of days we roasted one of them to try it out. We found that it tasted great, but was a little bit chewier than a normal meat bird. We’re thinking that we might make chicken sausage with the rest of the roosters in the chicken coop. I also butchered one of the turkeys to see how big they were getting, 17.5 lbs. He is living in our freezer right now, but we’ll see him again on Thanksgiving.

Turkeys

   The turkeys are about four months old now, and are starting to get to a good butcher size. Raising them has turn out to be pretty easy to do. We started them in a small brooder, which was four foot by ten foot, then put them in a portable garage tent that is ten foot by ten foot. We used an automatic waterer and an automatic feeder, which helps in the day to day chores of taking care of the animals. For the front of the garage tent that they’re in now we used a pallet that is on its side which allows air and light to get in. I cut out an opening for me to get in and out, and then screwed a piece of plywood to the front as a door.

   The double breasted bronze turkeys having been growing faster than the Narragansett, and are a lot easier to take care of. Because of their size, they don’t fly, the Narragansett turkeys do fly. I found that out the hard way.

   My wife called me one night and said that one of the neighbors called. They said that they heard a weird bird noise coming from the woods and upon further investigation; they thought it looked like a turkey. Knowing it could only come from one place; they called my wife and asked if we had turkeys. I assured my wife that he will be alright through the night and that he’ll probably be waiting for me in the morning by the tent. The next morning, as I was walking to go milk the goats I saw him by the tent waiting to go back in. I tried to grab him but he didn’t want any of that, so I milked the goats and went inside to eat breakfast. After breakfast me and the kids tried to catch him. We chased him all around the yard diving for him a couple times and cornering him, but he always got away. He finally flew up into a tree; about thirty feet up and stayed up there for awhile. We all went inside and left him alone for awhile. After lunch, I went to go check to see if he was still up in the tree. He wasn’t there, but I could hear him all the way down the driveway making his funny noises. I walked down the driveway listen for him, and found him standing on a mound of dirt at our neighbor’s house. I tried catching him but he ran, so I chased him. I chased him through a creek, through tall bushes, and through the woods all a long dive left and right for him. He finally ran over to another neighbor’s house where he flew up another tree. My legs where all cut up from the thick brush and diving after him, so I wasn’t going to give up now. I threw sticks at him until he flew down. As he was flying down I ran as fast as I could to try to catch him in the air, but all I did was roll my ankle. As I was chasing this dang turkey, the neighbors beagle was barking at us but didn’t go past his electric fence. Once the neighbor realized that the dog was barking at something she came outside and asked me if I want her to bring the dog inside. I said no, and asked her to take the collar off so he could help me. She did, and I chased the turkey towards the dog. As soon as the dog got close to the turkey, the turkey just sat down as to say, I had enough of this. I quickly picked him up and thanked the neighbor and walked back home with my trophy, bloody legs and all.

   The reason he got out in the first place was they roost up on top of the pallet I use for the front of the garage tent. When he got down, he just flew down the gap between the pallet and the flap for the door. I stapled the flap to the pallet so I don’t have to go through that again. The Narragansett better taste really good or we will just raise double breasted bronze turkeys next year.

Homemade Chicken Plucker II

   After last year’s failure at making a chicken plucker, I decided to try again this year. I went with the tub design, sometimes called a whiz-bang plucker. I’ve been working on it for awhile; slowly gather parts and looking up ideas on the internet

   First thing I started with is a squirrel cage that came from an old furnace blower. Someone gave it to me a long time ago and I’ve used it in different projects along the way. I used it to hold the plate up and give me something to mount the motor to. On one side of the squirrel cage I attached a 16” pulley that I had to order. On the other side, I took the original pulley off and used it as a template. I routed out a circle in a piece of plywood that was the same diameter as the pulley. Then I attached the pulley to the piece of wood with some screws. Using the pulleys edge, I used the router to cut the piece of plywood in a perfect circle. This will make sure the plywood is balance and won’t vibrate when spinning. I reattached the pulley and plywood back on the squirrel cage.

   Next I mounted a motor that I had kicking around the shop on to the squirrel cage . It happened to have the right pulley on it already. You want the plate to spin around 190 RPM, and most motors spin at 1750 RPM. I had to buy the belt that goes in between the two pulleys. Once the belt was attached, I used a piece of wood cut in the shape of a wedge and slid between motor and squirrel cage to adjust the tension of the belt. I then bought a plastic 55 gallon drum, that happen to hold Mnt. Dew before I got it. I cut the bottom off and cut then cut the top third off. To install the rubber fingers, which I ordered off EBay, I drilled 13/16” holes in the bottom of the drum and on the side of the drum. I then pulled the fingers through the holes and they stay there because they have a grove in the end that the edge of the barrel slides into. 
The fingers are ribbed to pull the feathers off as the chicken spins around barrel. Once all the fingers were installed I screwed the bottom to the plate which also helps hold the fingers in as well. I then used laminated plywood I had in the shop to build a box around the motor and squirrel cage, and then wired the motor up to a switch and then a plug. I turned the motor on and used a power planer on the plastic edge of the barrel to make sure it was perfectly round and centered. Next I attached the barrel on and used 2 x 4’s and plywood to support it. Put some old wheels on I had from an old barbecue and some legs and handles, and I was done.

   I had 47 chickens to process this weekend and hadn’t tried it out yet. We are going on vacation soon and had to process them before we left. I was very nervous after last year’s failure and didn’t have a plan B if this didn’t work. After dipping two dead chickens in some hot water to loosen the feathers, I put them in the plucker. Turn the switch on, and after thirty seconds of spinning around the birds came out with no feathers except for a few pin feathers on their tails, which is normal. I was very excited that it actually worked the way I planned it. I was able to process 24 birds in about four hours on Saturday, and finished the rest on Sunday in the same amount of time. I might make a few adjustments later on, but it worked out great and can’t wait to see if it will handle the turkeys this fall.

  

   

Homemade Ice Cream

   Now that we have all this milk, we’ve been playing around with making different things. Miss J made some soap, but wants to continue in the fall when things aren’t so busy. We’ve also made a couple types of cheeses, one was good but the other was a little too strong for us. We use the milk in such things as pudding, pancakes, and other baked goods, but everybody’s favorite is the ice cream.

  I found the recipe on Antiquity Oaks website, and quickly realized how easy it is to have ice cream in the freezer all the time. The recipe is simple:

4 cups goat milk  

1 cup sugar

4 egg yolks whisked

1 tsp vanilla

   You put all the ingredients in a pan and heat them up, stirring frequently. You want to bring it right up to boiling point. As soon as it starts to let out some steam I take it off the cook top. Pour the mixture into a jar and refrigerate tell it has cooled down completely, I let it sit overnight. Then pour into an ice cream maker, if you have one. We just bought one and are very happy with it. Let the machine run for twenty minutes or so. Right when the mixture stars to look like ice cream add any type of topping or extra ingredients like chocolate chips. Once done scoop out and store in the freezer.

 
  The nigerian dwarfs have higher butterfat content than any other goat or cow, so the milk makes a creamier ice cream. I can’t have a regular ice cream due to the fact it upsets my stomach, but I’m able to eat this type of ice cream. The ice cream comes out just as good if not better then store bought ice cream, the only problem is trying to keep some in the freezer due to three hungry kids.         

Goat Roll Call

   The goat herd has made some changes in the last six months. We have sold, bought, and even helped make some of our own goats. With all the changes I thought a roll call was in order.

Montana

    Montana is the queen of the herd. She is the first to get milked, the first to eat, and pretty much the first to do anything. When she goes somewhere all the other goats follow, that’s why she wears the bell. If we want the herd to go anywhere we just grab her and the rest follow. This spring she delivered four kids, which is pretty good for a first freshener, and she is giving us a little over a quart of milk a day with only milking her once a day. She turned out to be a great mother always looking after her kids, and was sad when they had to leave. It’s no secret that she is my favorite goat.

Sugar Cane

    We picked up Sugar about two months ago, from a very good breeder. We were told that she was bred but as it turn out it didn’t take. I always want a buckskin goat, not because of the black like cape on their back from which they get their name from, but because of the stripes down the face. When I found out that she had blue eyes, I had to get her. She has very good confirmation with her long body and tall legs. She should produce a lot of milk. We can’t wait tell next kidding season in spring to see how she turns out.

 Sally

    When we sold Meadow back to her breeder we had to find another goat in milk to keep up with the demand of three thirsty (human) kids. I ended up finding a local breeder through craigslist that had a couple of goats in milk that they were selling. They told us about Sally and sent us a picture. She looked just like our first goat, Goldie. When we meet her for the first time she was very outgoing and not nervous at all, and then they showed us a quart of milk that they milked from her that morning and we were sold. Although she is on the smaller size, she still gives us almost a quart of milk every day. She is easily our most friendly goat we have and is the kid’s favorite.

Katy

   We have had Katy for about seven months, but for some reason she still is the low goat on the totem pole. Just like Sally she is on the smaller size, for good reason, both their grandparents come from the same farm. She has a great temperament and until recently we have never heard her cry at all. We just had her breed and she is due towards the end of September. We can’t wait to see how much milk she gives us; we have been told she has the walk of a great milkier.

Tom Sawyer “181”

   Sawyer was born on our farm this spring. His dam was Meadow, and one of the reasons we sold her was because we were planning on keeping Sawyer, and didn't want to have him breed with her by accident. He is a very friendly buck who always comes up to the pen to greet you. He has good confirmation and will add some good genes into our herd through the years. His nickname is 181 because he has it written in white on one of his sides.

Huck Finn

   We needed to get a friend for Sawyer to keep him company in his separate pen, so when we picked up Sugar we asked the breeder if she had any good bucklings that have good lines to add to our herd. She showed us Huck who was only six weeks old but looked like he was three months old. We said we’ll take him. Huck comes from some very impressive lines and is not related to Sugar at all. He is a very good looking buck and has a lot of different colors. Even at a young age he loves “hanging out with the ladies” and has showed us that we have to keep the bucks separate so that no funny business happens.

The Buck House

Teacher Gifts

     About a month ago Miss E and I made school supply cakes for both her teacher and as a centerpiece for the Teacher Luncheon that I put together for the teacher's at Miss D's preschool. I've been hanging on to this post so that Miss E's teacher did not see her gift before the last day of school.
     We used pintrest as our inspiration, but modified the "ingredients" to fit what preschool and kindergarten teachers may need. Making a school supply cake is just like making a diaper cake, although if you shop for supplies smartly, it is much more affordable.
     I liked making this school supply cake for the same reason that I like  making diaper cakes as gifts. They are very easy to put together, but they have a certain WOW factor that makes people think that they took you FOREVER to make!!!
     We shopped for most of the supplies at Five Below. The rubber bands, pencils, Elmer's glue, glue sticks, crayons, and scissors were all $1 each. I'm sure I could have gotten an even better deal shopping the back to school sales at the end of the summer, but in May that was the best price I could find. We bought the paper towels for $0.88 each at Walmart, and found a great deal on a HUGE package of craft foam, sidewalk chalk, and watercolor paintbrushes at Michael's. I used my coupon and we shopped the clearance shelf. We were able to make both cakes and still have plenty of sidewalk chalk, a couple boxes of crayons and tons of rubber bands leftover for either our craft stash or to make future school supply cakes. The stickers were a clearance find from Marden's. I think I paid either $0.25 or $0.50 per package. When I did the math it came out to be just under $25.00 per cake.
     For the bases we used 2 cardboard supports from the gluten free crust that we use to make our Movie Night pizza's every Friday. Mr. J has been making fun of me for wiping them clean and stashing them away each week for some time now, but I have found countless uses for them in my craft room! I also save the resealable bag that they come in. I mean, it's basically a FREE ziploc, right?  Anyway, back to the cake...We used scotch tape to cover the cardboard pizza bases with scrapbook paper that I had on hand.
 
   

     We used clean aluminum cans for the top tiers. I spray painted them with 3-4 coats of chalkboard paint and then used a cool chalkboard marker to write on them. I have been looking for the right justification to buy a set of chalkboard markers and this seemed like the perfect excuse reason! Using the same method as I use when making a diaper cake, I placed a rubber band around the can and then Miss E and I lined the outside with glue sticks. We filled the cans with pencils and paintbrushes to add more height to the cakes and themn moved on to the bottom layer.

     Miss E lined the craft foam up in rainbow order and then I put a couple rubber bands around the roll of paper towels and worked on securing the craft foam "rainbow." This was the trickiest part, just like with a diaper cake. I always struggle a bit to evenly space and tightly "package" the tiers of diapers around whatever base I have chosen. I actually have found it is easier to just use more diapers and swirl them into a circle using a bowl to make what is called a "boutique style" diaper cake. Unfortunately, this method was not possible with our school supply cakes since I really wanted to include the paper towels and I did not have enough craft foam to make the cake big enough. So, I just played around with it for a bit, and borrowed an extra set of hands from Mr. J to get the foam sheets around the roll of paper towels tightly and evenly.

     After securing the foam to the paper towels, the rest of the project was "a piece of cake!" I simply hot glued the paper towel roll to the base and hot glued the aluminum can to the top of the paper towel roll. Then, in doing as I had with the previous layers, I placed rubber bands around the bottom and middle of the cake and Miss E added the chalk, glue, crayons, stickers, and scissors. We made each cake a little different. Miss D's school had specifically asked for scissors and seasonal stickers on their wish list and according to Miss E her classroom needed more pencils. To give the cakes a finished touch I used ribbon and rick rack to cover the rubber bands and glued a fake flower from our stash to the front of the bows on the bottom layers. With some diaper cakes I have made in the past I have sewed the ribbons together quickly with my sewing machine, but this time I just used my hot glue gun since it was already on. 

     This turned out to be a fun activity to do with Miss E. She was very proud to go shopping with me for the supplies and put the cakes together all by herself. I think the cake made an excellent centerpiece for the teacher luncheon and yesterday when I helped Miss E deliver the other cake to her teacher, it was the talk of the school! Miss E just beamed with pride as she gave it to her teacher and all of her friends were oooing and ahhing. Seeing her pride put a big smile on my face and made my heart just swell with pride.         

     When I was teaching it meant so much to me to get a gift that I knew had taken thought and time to create. To this day I still treasure many homemade ornaments and keepsakes from my teaching years. Don't get me wrong, a gift card to Barne's and Noble or L.L.Bean is not bad either. There is also something about a practical, useful gift. In my "expert" opinion these School Supply Cakes are a little bit of both. They are thoughtful, practical, and  homemade. We will definitely be making more school supply cakes in the years to come...

Mrs. J :)