Farm cats

I can't really imagine the farm without the cats now.  They came to us from my brother Shea.  They had a bizarre back story that we really don't know the details of.  The momma cat and her two kittens showed up on Shea's doorstep one day and of course were given food.  A neighbor soon told them that he had brought them there - he didn't speak fluent English so it was a broken conversation.  But the gist was the neighbor had rescued them from an abusive household and he wanted Shea to take care of them (apparently, Shea has 'sucker' printed on his forehead since he raised another stray momma and her kittens the year before).  Alas, Shea was not actually thrilled to have yet more cats added to his household, so the trio was whisked off to the farm to become barn cats.

Well, barn cats they are not.  Momma Cinder and her now grown babes Momo and Barley, have never even set foot in the barn.  But this year they have finally proven their worth catching gophers!  The gophers made a mess of our garden last year and we hope that the cats actually prove a good deterrent because nothing else we did kept them at bay.  Here's the first gopher Momo caught - I'd never seen a gopher so up close and personal.  They are nasty things and could probably do some real damage with those claws!

And they are always a pleasure on a rainy day when we are all cooped up inside.  Nothing beats seeing some kitties snuggle!  Momo and Barley are champion snugglers.

Carrots

We've had a bumper crop of carrots on the farm this year.  In the desperate search for ways to use up the orange roots, I've learned quite a bit of trivia about what I thought was an ordinary vegetable.  I did know they come in a plethora of colors (we've grown them all!) and I just love this picture from the USDA:

The carrot is an ancient vegetable, most likely originating in present day Afghanistan.  Originally, the plant was grown for its medicinal properties but over the centuries has been developed into a sweet taproot that serves as a culinary vegetable today.

And then people went nuts and started growing bizarre carrots for county fairs.  You know those enormous pumpkins that are hauled on a trailer?  Well, carrots don't get that big, but I was still shocked at the world record holder...18.985 lbs.  And it's a horrible monstrosity.

There's carrot festivals and even a World Carrot Museum (though I think its just a 'virtual' museum, it's still kooky).

I'll be posting some of the carrot recipes that we will try in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!

Nearly a month later!

It's a busy time of year for everyone.  I'm still making the hour drive to the farm with the new little one, but she keeps me occupied for much of the day and I haven't been as active in all the work.  But it doesn't mean anything has slowed down!

We started our vegetable subscriptions for the year and are now providing produce for 6 families.  We hope to add more customers as the summer veggies start to trickle in...speaking of which, I think we will get our first summer squash this weekend!  It's one of the eight ball squashes I've been dying to try.  Dale continues to dig new beds and get the entire garden under cultivation.  He's making amazing progress.  Also in the garden, the construction of a "shed" has been underway for a few weeks.  It's hardly a shed - I'll post pictures and a description soon.

And of course all the goat babies means that we have tons and tons of milk!  Mom and I have made two batches of cheese so far - feta and mozzarella - and I'm gearing up for more hard cheeses this year.  The dairy is a ton of work but I really love it.  I'm hoping to find an 'apprentice' this year to help out with the process.


Spring is fun on the farm - but boy, is it a lot of work!

Been a bit busy...

I just wanted to check in quickly to let everyone know why I haven't been updating the blog very frequently.  Shortly after the last post my water broke!  Willa made her appearance in the outer world almost 4 weeks before my due date, so I was taken a little by surprise.  Anyway, we are adjusting well and I'll be back to updating you on the goings on at the farm soon!

Just a quick note - both Elise and Savannah had their kids!  Elise had twin doelings and Savannah had twin bucklings, but one was still born.  We really had some odd issues with the goats this year and I don't know if it was luck of the draw or something we need to reassess in our management.  Don't worry, pictures and stories to come soon!

Sping Baby Update

With all the troubles on the farm this spring, I just wanted to update everyone on all the wonderful successes!

Chicory, the little premature goatling born to Rabbit whose triplet siblings were stillborn, is a complete toot. It took him over a week to assure us he was going to live. I guess that makes sense - that would have been his original due date, so his development must have finally caught up with the fact that he was outside instead of inside momma. He is a lean little scraper and loves to torment all the other goatlings. When feeding time comes, he is always willing to throw you for a loop. He either sprints right over and downs his milk without needing help...or he decides that a little game of chase is what's called for before having a civilized meal. You just never know with that guy.

Tiger Lily, our bow legged munchkin from Shelli, has made leaps and bounds of improvement. It was quite nerve wracking when her contracted tendons began to stretch, but her muscles weren't yet strong enough to hold her up. It appeared she was getting worse for a number of days. And then...she was just simply better. Woke up one morning and you could no longer pick her out of the crowd by her stance! She still has a funny little gait and tends to hop like a bunny when she wants to move somewhere quickly, but she is getting better and stronger every day. Whew.

Dandelion, the HUGE boy from Maxie who was passing blood on the second day of his life, is simply still a beast. He picked up on the bottle feedings faster than any of the other goats and has just not skipped a beat since his miraculous recovery. You really would never know anything had ever been wrong with him!

We are still brooding some 60 baby poultry. After the initial heavy losses, we have kept the others healthy and strong. We do have one chick that is a bit wobbly on the legs but I think she'll be fine, or perhaps we are just going to have a replacement yard chicken who spends her time around the house instead of foraging far and wide with the flock. I'm sure we won't mind that! And the ducklings are HUGE. I can't believe how fast they grow.

But the young poultry has once again suffered the consequences of tenacious raccoons. The ducks have a fully wire enclosed pen to spend the night, safe from predators...or so we thought. But apparently a raccoon was able to sneak up on them and grabbed one through the wire before she woke up and was able to run. But we quickly solved the problem by putting a layer of tiny mesh around the bottom 2 feet of the enclosure so no naughty hands can be thrust through the openings. I hate lessons like that. But the coons had the taste of a fresh meal so they have probably been back checking the defenses each night. All was safe for a few days. Then they discovered that they could dig under the chick brooder house - which we thought would be ok since the entire floor is wire mesh with several inches of dirt over it. But the coon kept digging until all the dirt from the floor fell through. And then must have just waited until a hapless chick or two wandered too close and pulled them through the wire. ARG! More security has been added and hopefully we've got the place locked down now!

And of course Ace and Mac, the spring lambs, are doing great. They have grown enormously but have unfortunately picked up more of their mother's traits than their uncle Linden's. They are skittish and we plan on working on that in the weeks to come. I still want to milk the sheep, so I will be giving the little boys a bottle every once in awhile. That's what made Linden the friendliest sheep on the block!

We still have more babies to come. Savannah and Elise are due this weekend. They are both absurdly huge and I fear they are going to have triplets! Hopefully they just have big twins, or at least all the triplets have had plenty of room to grow in there. And Miranda, our youngest bred doe, is due in May. And then the spring baby season will finally be over!

Got Goat Milk?

It's here, it's here! Our girls are finally producing more milk than the little babes can consume...which means WE get to drink the extra! Oh how I've missed that delicious creamy taste. It's just so different than processed store bought milk.

The first milk we were able to 'steal' this year was from Rabbit. She didn't settle last year (her breeding didn't take) so this was out first chance to see what she was made of! For some reason, I was completely apprehensive. Rabbit is a weird goat. Rabbit isn't even her real name - it's Evie, but I'm not sure anyone has called her that since the day we brought her home. She was a skittish clown last year and jumped about thus giving her the nickname. She is a bit funny shaped and has markings on her face that makes it look like she is always snarling at you! And I kept saying "Ok, I'm about to drink Rabbit Milk for the first time!" and it just sounded wrong. But since she was the first to kid, her milk had the best chance of being sweet. The colostrum, or first milk, leaves a bitter aftertaste and can be present in the milk for some weeks after kidding. Anyway, I finally downed some Rabbit Milk. And it was good!

When all of the does freshen, we will literally be swimming in milk. We expect about 40 gallons of milk a week during their peak production! 40 gallons. Has it sunk in yet? 40 gallons. We are going to be busy little cheese makers this year!

Last fost...?

Determining the average last frost date for an area must be like reading tea leaves. If it were simple science, everyone would agree on the date. But instead, you are left with a range of dates and no real explanation for how any of them are arrived at. Besides that, no one seems to bother with calculating the date for places like Dale with a booming population of 500. But we do the best we can.

Using the Spring Equinox is kind of nice. It's a little later than the average of the average last frost dates! I've seen dates all the way from the end of February to the beginning of April. Last year, we did have a freeze on April 4 that was so hard it wiped out most of the tomatoes and potatoes even under row cover. Hopefully that won't happen again!

So with the freezing weather safely behind us (we hope!), we are getting the spring crops in. Dale has done a marvelous job tilling the open portion of the garden and turning that weedy area into prepared rows. Soon, we will have squash, peppers, beans and more growing everywhere!

With great enthusiasm, Mom bought us some tomatoes to get the season jump started. Many of our seedlings are stunted from the cold weather (we still haven't finished our hoop house!). So Dale planted them out this last week and they looked just marvelous. And then the weather report came in for Sunday night. Oh, it didn't sound so bad with a prediction of 38F. But we know that things are always different here in the Holler! We can expect the temperature to be as far off as 10F from the prediction (in either direction, but usually colder!). So an hour before dark last night, there was a frantic push to cover seedlings and the newly planted tomatoes. But the usual evening chores still needed to be done! So it was a race against time. Fortunately, we had enough folks to split the chores up and everything got done...and it didn't even freeze! Only 34F, but I'm sure the tomatoes didn't mind being tucked in anyways.

Soon...but not soon enough!