St. Brigid Farm

Winter Garden Planning

2012-01-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

What do I do when January starts "creepin' me out"?
Think garden!!!

A couple years ago I created a map of my garden. Each year I redraw it form scratch. I have no idea why it took me 3 years to realize, oh, I can scan this into my computer and create a pdf file of it and just print it out each year! Yeah, so now I have this to print out...I forgot to mark North. My garden does not lay perfectly east/west or north/south but the corners are the directions. The echinacea is in the east corner and the cherry tree in the north corner. Those things that are written in are perennial or tree/shrub. The rest I write in new each year as I rotate.
I'm excited that the days are now getting longer and in a month or so I can start seeds indoors. I hope to put up at least one hoop house over one bed as early as March so I can start planting spinach, kale, and chard. I might even be able to plant it even earlier if I can get the hoop up earlier than March.
I have a catalog from Seeds of Change and the Victory Seed website and it is my HOPE to do most of my seed shopping via these 2 companies. I want to be able to save seed and these 2 have heirloom seeds. I've never saved seed before, it is a goal I hope I can accomplish. An ambitious goal for this full-plate so we'll see.

There is light at the end of the winter doldrums tunnel. Yeah!

Winter Wonderland

2012-01-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

We woke to falling snow and it is still very lightly coming down. We got 4 inches or so so far. Lots of places around us got way more than that. I know further south in Olympia they got over 10 inches I think, just today. North of us were hit hard earlier in the week. Snohomish where my SIL is, they had 7 inches as of Monday night. We are thankful to be home and enjoying this beautiful scene God has created for us.

Losing Sight

2011-12-07T10:39:00.000-08:00

Five years ago we started a new adventure. We bought 2 1/2 acres and left the city lot we owned to start learning how to be more self-sufficient, raise our own food and animals and to have room to roam. It's been quite the experience but I've also on many occasions for long stretches lost the vision of my dreams. So the learning has been slow and the progress stagnant as of late. Much of it is due to the MANY responsibilities that pile my plate but also much of it is due to procrastination.
I'm a procrastinator! I have ambitious dreams but they remain dreams. I like what Abbot Tryphon says in that post about procrastination..."Procrastination only has power over our lives if we let it. Taking steps to curb the habit of slothfulness must begin with a decision that today, with God's help, will be the day that I leave laziness and procrastination aside, and move forward with action."
I've had these dreams forever! Why do I continue to let procrastination rule over my life. I have the power and ability to accomplish anything! I must decide to do so!
My garden grows each year. My new favorite crop is garlic! I grew garlic fo the first time last year and it was so fun and so easy and so delicious! The fresher garlic is the more oil/juice you get out of it. I was astonished when I first pressed a garlic clove straight from the garden! Last year I planted 40 cloves of garlic and harvested about 35 bulbs. Did you know you plant garlic in the fall? This year I planted 54 cloves and I wish I had planted more! I use garlic copious amounts of garlic in just about everything I cook. The health benefits are abundant.
I grew lots of cool weather crops for the first time last year as well. Things like kale and chard. So delicious. I am still working on getting the garden put to bed for the winter. Hopefully once school break begins (one more week) I can get out to the garden again to finish the clean up.
In no time at all I will be able to start seeds in the house!

Dreams! Well, it's time to stop procrastinating and following my dreams!

Farmers Tribute

2011-10-14T21:26:00.000-07:00

There is a picture of my cousins farm in this video that someone created. I took this picture last summer, 4 months before it burned down. I blogged about our trip here. The first picture of that post is the one in the video. VERY cool video, a Tribute to Farmers. I don't know how they got the picture. I suppose just surfing the web.
I blogged briefly about the fire here. They still struggle through this, almost a year later.

Consumers For Dental Choice

2011-09-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

New Agrarian Fiction: The Last Pilgrim

2011-09-01T06:45:00.000-07:00

Watch it and see why people are saying…

“Fantastic writing… excellent, well-crafted and imaginative… It is rare that someone has such aptitude to interweave so many elements into their work, that it not only conveys a very important message, but it is also a true pleasure to read." – Natasha

"You are making this too good. I’m almost in despair that each chapter end forces me to wait before I get more story. It’s like waiting for
next week’s installment of LOST…" -Ryan

"Wow, I was on the edge of my seat for the whole battle! I think it just keeps getting better." – Roger

The above comments are from The Last Pilgrims site where you can read the first draft of the book for FREE. This series, which reads like historical fiction, comes from the author of Surviving Off Off-Grid, so you know you’ll be getting some good agrarian-based fiction.

I learned about this over at Nourishing Days blog where Shannon is having a giveaway if you spread the word about this book. I think this book looks amazing and plan to read what I can on the website, The Last Pilgrims.

Barn Hoppin' Monday

2011-06-21T07:48:00.001-07:00

Continuing my quest this week to fill containers to grow good things to eat I researched potatoes. I found a variety of blog posts and articles on how people have grown potatoes in garbage cans. I might have even read about it on someone's blog linked to Homestead Revival last week Barn Hop(so many to read). I can't remember what first put the idea in my head, but it got there, I researched it and now I have four 32 gallon trash cans set with potato seed inside.

What I did after reading several resources, was to drill holes in the bottom of 4 trash cans. These were old cans just laying around not being used any longer. I then put in about 6 inches of potting soil that was mixed in with some of my homemade compost. I arranged the potato seed in a circle about 4 inches from the sides and 4 inches apart with one in the center. I was able to fit 8 in 3 of them and 7 in the other (it was a slightly smaller can). I covered the seed with about 3 inches of dirt. As the potatoes grow I'll add more potting soil/compost mix and keep adding it until the can is nearly full. I'm excited to see the outcome of such a little space!

I also planted 12 broccoli starts and 8 cauliflower starts. This is the first time I've grown cauliflower so if it goes well I hope to do a LOT more next year. I wonder if I couldn't get it to grow under cover late into the fall, by starting 2^nd crop in July. I might try.

I'm still busy decluttering. I did fill about 5 boxes this week. The goal is to be ready for a rummage sale by July 7^th. I have a lot to do but am working hard. We leave on vacation on Thursday night so I need to be nearly done by then because the sale is the weekend after we get back.

Fermenting food is another thing we like to try our hand at around here. Not just fermenting and then canning but lacto-fermentation to create a heavenly bite of good lactic acid that will give you a boost to your gut. It aids in creating a healthy intestinal system. To buy these things is expensive, so we make them. On top of that, did you know it is virtually impossible to buy pickles from the store without dye yellow#5 in them. I have yet to find any, even the ones in the refrigerator section. So making your own fermented foods is the best! This week I strained 4 gallons of kombucha tea. We like to add grape juice concentrate to ours for a nice yummy flavor. I'd like to experiment with other flavors but haven't yet. A great place to find out more about fermenting and culturing is Cultures for Health.

Kombucha tea getting ready to ferment.

Barn Hoppin'

2011-06-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

We've had a busy week. I've worked hard in the garden this week, determined to make it bigger than I have before. I was truly inspired after reading so many wonderful homesteading blogs linked to Homestead Revival's Barn Hop over the last couple of weeks. I've always loved to garden and have always had the goal to be able to support our family from the garden but my vigor has been renewed! One of the posts I read from Proverbs 31 Woman, really inspired me to make use of every space possible to grow food. So I've gotten out pots and buckets (which I get free from local bakeries and drill holes in the bottom) and planted seeds and starts and am setting them out all around the garden. I think I might even try potatoes in large buckets or small trash cans.

These are my 6 tomato plants (I've given up trying to raise tomatoes to can, near impossible here) that will grow in these buckets. I will move them to a tented area later this week. They need a tent in order to really do well here in Western WA.

In these buckets and pots I have purple cabbage starts. I also planted some mint and cilantro seeds.

Here is my bed of cabbage and chives. In the pots I have pepper plants under cover in their little mini-greenhouses.

I just loved this picture of the bumblebee hiding under the chive flower while it drizzled out. There were a couple others like this too.

These are my pole beans. I need to get the rest of the trellis up before too long. I also planted a row of carrots down the center.

Another thing that has recently inspired me a great deal is a show I watched recently with my family. We watched PBS Frontier House. Three families went back and lived like those lived in 1880's Montana frontier. One of the goals was to raise enough food to make it through the winter. These people had to garden as if their life depended on it. I believe that we need that mentality. Sure we have grocery stores not, but if I truly wanted to make a difference on my wallet, eat non-gmo, organic produce and become self-sufficient, I'd grow a garden like my life depended on it.

We also been working on the inside of the house. I'm preparing for a rummage sale that will take place on July 8^th and 9^th. A few weeks a go I started going through the house room by room and really analyzing it's functions and needs. I've culled a LOT!

I've also been able to hang quite a few clothes out on the line this week. I absolutely love hanging clothes out on the line. It's been a slow start to that this year due to such a wet spring. Once this winter I hung clothes out on the line. It was crisp and cold, but sunny and breezy. It was fantastic. I remember reading in The Long Winter (Laura Ingalls Wilder) about how they had to hang the clothes outside in the winter and they'd freeze-dry.

My goals this week are to continue filling pots and continue decluttering the house.

Monday Barn Hop...one day late

2011-06-07T06:22:00.000-07:00

We certainly had a busy week.
We had some gorgeous weather, finally making it into the 70's for a couple of days and seeing the sun bright and beautiful. The garden loved this! The grass loves this!
(And I can't keep up with it.)

I spent Friday mowing and weeding the garden. I have grass that grows between the paths and all around where there aren't beds. My goal is to eventually get rid of that by putting mulch paths down but I haven't gotten that far yet.

Saturday was our big homesteading day. We decided to finally get the old flock of chickens into the freezer. This would save money in 2 ways. I can now cut down on my feed bill and I put meat in the freezer! I first went to the farmer's market to get my tomato starts and then came home and set up the assembly line. We told our 4 children that they were all to help and that they would be rewarded! We also had our 10 year old niece here for the weekend and she was ready to help out as well. We got a great assembly line going and the kids were real troopers! I was so proud of all their help. We processed 19 hens in 4 hours. Most of the time the 3 girls did the plucking with a little help every now and again from the 2 boys. I did the eviscerating.
This picture is awesome. My husband took it with his phone. This is towards the ends after at least 2-3 hours of work and they are still smiling. I love this picture too, because of the plucked chicken sitting there waiting for me to eviscerate! Nicholas is also plucking here, but you can only see his little blue-gloved hand. He's behind Charissa.
It felt so good to get so many hens in the freezer. I've been wanting to cut this old flock out for months. I'm very thankful for the meat. Yes, it's stewing meat, but meat nonetheless.

Thanks for stopping by!! Have a great week!

Barn Hoppin' Time

2011-05-31T06:30:00.000-07:00

What have we been up to over the last week?
Mostly finishing up the school year, but you can't help but get out and dig in the dirt as well.

Most of our homesteading work took place on Memorial Day, which is why I didn't post anything yesterday. Other days were just too busy with school and Church.
Earlier in the week I did plant 1/2 of my pole beans, and yesterday I planted the rest. Pole beans are our biggest crop because it is our favorite and they usually do well. It is also one of the few that does do well in our short summer. This comic strip pretty much says it all regarding our weather. Especially the last several years.
Besides beans, I planted crooked-neck squash, zucchini, spaghetti squash (which I'm not sure will have enough time to finish), acorn squash and sugar pumpkin. I also planted lemon cucumbers, slicing cucumbers and pickling cucumbers. I weeded several beds, including the strawberries which are looking very nice! I just planted this bed last year and am really excited about how well the plants are doing and how full of blooms they are!
My husband spent the afternoon creating the very tall trellis for his 3 hops plants. One of them we've had several years and definitely needed taller support. The other 2 we planted this year and won't be as big.
I have a bed of bok choy and kale that is ready to pick and the bok choy is ready to bolt if I don't grab. Once that bed is harvested I'll plant something else there. I think potatoes. I know I should have planted those weeks and weeks ago, but I didn't think I was going to grow them until just last week. I'd also like to figure out where I can plant some more kale and bok choy to use through summer, but it has to be a partially shady area to block from the intense heat we just might get in July.
Well, another week is upon us. My homesteading efforts are headed indoors for some of this week as I cull and clean to get ready for a rummage sale.
Have a great week!

Homestead Revival Barn Hop

2011-05-16T06:17:00.000-07:00

I am hoping to revive this blog a bit by joining The Barn Hop! I happened upon this blog "Homestead Revival" and find it truly inspiring. She, along with a couple other gals" created "Homestead Barn Hop: Cultivating the Homestead Community" which is done every Monday. Today, is my first post.

We've had a busy week and have even gotten to see the sun for several days. Well, it is actually what has allowed us to work on outdoor projects. I feel a change in the weather and it is wonderful. Saturday morning I walked outside and it actually felt warm. Not like WARM warm but the air was different, there was no crispness to it and I thought to myself...spring is finally here.
Last week we prepared more of the garden beds for planting, did lots of weeding and mowing (harvesting grass for poultry) and bucked up a tree that fell a couple months ago in preparation for next winter.

One of my favorite things in the whole world is gardening. Digging my hands into the dirt, transforming gardens by weeding, sowing seeds and watching them grow. Then being able to prepare a wholesome meal from the fruits of those labors. Nothing like it in the world. Last year I revamped all my beds to create raised beds (no built sides, but just mounds of dirt) using the "no dig method" of gardening. Each year you just continue to add mulch and compost never disturbing the ecosystem within the soil. There is lots of information out there on this..just google it. It's also known as "Lasagna Gardening". This is my second year on this method. Last year we had the cold spring possible and this year we are following suite so I have been struggling to get things to grow. Not only has it been cold, but it has been SO wet! We are approximately 5 inches above normal for rainfall since 1/1. For the season (which is recorded since 10/1/10) we are over 10 inches above normal.

Kelsey is planting onions here. Behind her we have peas and spinach. Even the greens that I have planted (kale, chard, choy, spinach) are all struggling, not because the cold but because it is so wet!

The peas are about the only thing that is doing well right now!

I spent a couple afternoons weeding the raspberries. They were so overgrown and thick with grass that there were even mushrooms growing in a big clump in one section. I'm still learning about how to take care of this fruit. It was here when we moved in 5 years ago and I still haven't figured out the whole pruning method for them. I know it involves 1st year and 2nd year canes and whatnot.

Kelsey and I worked together to get two beds ready and planted. We planted 10 rows of onion, 10 rows of broccoli, 6 rows of leeks and 6 rows of beets.

As I mentioned earlier I did lots of mowing. I take all the grass I mow and throw it to the chickens. They are not technically "free-range" due to the number of dogs that roam the area, my own included. They have a big fenced area where they've created a moonscape. So during the winter we throw them alfalfa hay from time to time and in the summer they eat the grass.

Last but not least we spent Saturday hauling these rounds ( and more) out of the forest behind our house. We had 2 big trees go down this winter from storms and so we took God's blessings and started the stockpile for next winter. This was hard work because we couldn't get the truck back to where they were.

Thanks for Do-Sa-Doing with me. See you next week!

Wine

2011-01-30T19:49:00.001-08:00

I enjoy a good glass of wine. It really is a nice finish to a busy day.
With our desire to learn to become self-sufficient as best we can and with a source for free grapes (bushels in the fall), we thought, what better way to put them up than to try our hand at wine.
This fall we tried our hand at making wine. Tonight we bottled our 2nd batch of 10 gallons. The first batch we did right before Christmas and gave wine to a lot of people for Christmas; 1st Annual St. Brigid Farm Winter Wine. It was fairly good.
Tonight we bottled 10 gallons into 35 bottles of wine (standard size wine bottle- 750ml) and 11 smaller wine bottles (500ml). This is a sweet wine and very tasty. I love a good Reisling and this is very comparable. Maybe a little sweeter even.
I figure on the cheaper end of wine we have nearly $300 worth of wine here that I won't have to buy.
We recycled bottles and the grapes were free so there was very little cost in making and bottling this wine.
It feels good to learn how to support ourselves in this avenue. James also makes his own beer now.

January 2011

2011-01-25T15:30:00.000-08:00

It's been way too long since I've posted any news here. I really don't know why. Seems like time gets away with me. Lots has happened on our little farm over the last many weeks and months.

This past Saturday we began the butchering of our old flock of chickens. There were 20 something is all I knew, but now that we've butchered 8 and I can count better it seems that there were more than I thought. I still have 22 to go. These are chickens ranging in age from 2 1/2-4 1/2 years old. They haven't been laying eggs in over a month or longer. I can no longer afford to feed them. We butchered 8 and then I cut my finger pretty good so we stopped. I hope to continue VERY soon. I wish we could continue each Saturday until they were gone but alas life is full of other things.
I have decided to get rid of the other flock as well. They aren't earning their keep as well. We put this huge flock in the old barn a year and a half ago and we now only have maybe 50 left, if that. The problem is, the barn is not rat/mouse proof. And now that winter is with us, they are everywhere. They eat the feed right out of the bins during the day and they are now stealing eggs from the nests. This is totally unacceptable!
I've decided the barn is just not a good place for chickens. We will eliminate this flock as well. Clean everything out and start new. Putting the new chicks in the smaller rat/mouse proof coop.
I read somewhere that mice detest the odor of peppermint. As soon as I'm done here I am going to go out and sprinkle peppermint leaf in the nests of the barn and around the feed and down in the holes. I read that if you get essential oil and put it on cotton balls and drop them in their holes and around their paths that they literally will vacate. Apparently professional rat control people actually do this. Until I get the essential oil I'm going to try the peppermint leaf. I have a huge bag of it and I opened it up to see if it was still potent and whew! It sure was!

I'm thinking ahead now about gardening. I would like to start seeds indoors some time next month. I'm very excited about it this year, as usual. I found a place online called Victory Seeds that I think I am going to order from. They are a small family owned seed company selling only heirloom and gmo-free seeds. I've come to appreciate the importance of trying to grow heirloom and gmo-free seeds and really want to try and stick with that this year. If you want to learn more about this check out their website, but also do a little research. Especially check out the evils of Monsanto and their gmo patented seeds. Terrible stuff. (The name Monsanto was actually in my spell check. ) Also, check out the documentary "The Future of Food". Very good!

My garden seems to change each year and seems to get better, depending on weather. One of the most difficult places to garden, in my opinion, is here in Western WA. It seems as if the season should be nice and long, but it just doesn't get hot enough for long enough. Yeah, we have a long span without freezing, but the temperatures and sunshine are essential and we just don't get that here. So I'm changing things to focus more on cooler weather crops or shorter season things.

Our wood supply is very short this year. Nobody's fault but our own, but we've been working hard on being ready for next winter already. To help us through this winter we are dressing warmer, using the electric heat periodically, collecting pallets to burn and buying Northland Firelogs to supplement. They burn really well and for a really long time! I can put a log in before bed and it's still there in the morning. But we will be ready for next winter. Pretty much nearly are already. But I want to keep bringing in the trees even if we think we are ready for another winter because I don't think you can have too many!

I hope you and yours are fairing well this hard LaNina winter. (Well, at least some places are having a hard winter.)

Here are 2 pictures of the girls helping pluck chickens. This is a first time for Kelsey's friend Emma and really a first for Kelsey. She's never really stuck it out for a whole chicken before.
Kelsey is on the right, Emma in the middle and Charissa on the right in red.

Please Pray!!!

2010-11-29T06:38:00.001-08:00

Back in August I wrote about our trip to MN/WI and our visit to my cousins farm.
Today I found out that the barn with all the cows in it (the one pictured in that post), burned down! No one was hurt, but they've lost everything...this was their livelihood!
Please pray for Dave & Judy Zesiger and their family as they work through this. May God be with them, guiding them and comforting them.

fall

2010-11-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

Fall is here and well on its way out the door.
With its arrival it brought incredible busyness.
This is actually nothing new.
What fall brings here to the farm...
beautiful color and than deep darkness,
lush harvest and then barrenness,
over abundance of production and than not enough.
We look forward to the light that will enter the world once again.
We take the time now to reflect, to dream and to plan.
Once again, very soon, the earth will bring forth abundant color and provisions.
My prayer and dream is that it will be far better than the past year.

Family Farmers

2010-08-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

As some may know we (the kids and I ) are visiting MN where lots of family and friends live. My dad needed a visit from his "baby" and she needed to see her dad since he had a heart attack and worries were flying.
He's doing alright for now, although concerns are still warranted. But since the long drive was made with 4 children in tow we decided we needed to do lots of visiting. We've not been in these parts in over 6 years!
Today we drove to Exeland, WI, a TINY little town in the heart of WI where my cousin runs a dairy farm. I have to tell you, this is by far one of my most favorite places in the whole world to be! I know years ago I blogged about growing up visiting my uncles farm in Exeland. Well, he's not farming any longer but his daughter married a farmer and I've visited as often as I could over the last 20+ years. I even lived in Exeland for a year in 92/93. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this place.
So today's post isn't about St. Brigid Farm, it's about the Zesiger Farm in Exeland WI. Here are tons of pictures from that visit.

Above are just some cows lazying around. Below, Joseph and Nicholas have found some new friends. Barn kittens. And they LOVE to be held and played with! All day long I kept hearing, "Can we take one home with us?" This would come with "ideas" on how to make it work in the 1700 mile car trip home. :)

As I said, they love to be held. They would just plop there on your shoulder and stay.

The kids found some of the kittens in the hay bales.
Kelsey jumped right on into chore time. Every day at 4pm starts "chores". She scraped the center isle where they walk up and down to milk the cows. Then she swept their mangers, pushing the feed back into place for them to reach it.
In the above picture of Kelsey you see she is scraping manure into the gutter. Below you see Nicholas absolutely fascinated by this system. The gutter is turned on and these little arms move along the gutter to scrape it. They reach this part of the system where they run over a deep hole where the manure drops and a device scrapes the arm off and it moves on. He stood there the entire time it ran to watch it move. He even informed me that at times it "wasn't working properly."

Here is again, 15 minutes later watching the gears move and the arms get cleaned off.
Joseph and I went to the calf pen while everyone was getting ready for milking. This little calf, Starbust, wanted to lick and lick. I was standing there and this big huge tongue came out and was trying to reach my shirt, hands, camera. LOL It was so funny. I tried to get a picture of the LONG tongue but it was difficult.

This calf is yet unnamed, but she was curious too. Wanted to smell Joseph. I love this picture.

Charissa was the only one to climb up into the hay loft. She thought it was pretty cool.

Charissa is washing an utter and then she learned to put the milker on as well. She really jumped in there and was helping out. She really enjoyed herself. Notice the cat in her lap. That cat would jump up into anyones lap that was sitting like this working on a cow. I first saw it in my cousins sons lap. It was so funny.

Kelsey's helping was Ellyn. They name ALL their cows. They don't just get a number. This was Kelsey's favorite because of the color. Beautiful. I think the breed is called a "milking short horn" .

In this picture Joseph is helping wash a cow and he has on his hiney the cutest little stool that attaches around the waist while milking, for this exact purpose. He begged and begged to try one out and so I tightened up the belt to see if it would fit. It sure did. He walked around like the big guys and it made his work easier. LOL Seth, my cousins 22 year old son, got a big kick out of it.

Here is Joseph and his little seat.

After chores were all done the kids were rewarded with a ride on the ATV. They had a blast. Here is a very cool picture of the first ride. Kelsey and Charissa are on the back, Dave (my cousins husband) is driving and Christina (my cousins youngest daughter) is on the front.

It took awhile but Joseph decided he wanted a ride so he sat behind Dave and hung on for dear life. He had a blast!

I wanted a picture of the whole farming family before leaving. Joseph decided he needed to be a part of the family. Since we just finished barn chores they are all in their barn clothes and dirty. Thanks Zesiger family for a great day! I miss you all very much!

Help Poulsbo Farmer Market Be America’s Favorite Farmers Market!

2010-08-13T06:46:00.000-07:00

It’s summertime and that means two things: 1) There are loads of delicious farm fresh produce available at Poulsbo farmers market every week; and 2) American Farmland Trust’s America’s Favorite Farmers Markets™ contest has kicked into gear and we need your votes to win!

The process is simple. To vote for our market, all you have to do is:

1.) Go to www.farmland.org/vote

2.) Type in Poulsbo; and,

3.) Click “Vote”

That’s it. That’s all it takes to bring Poulsbo one step closer to being America’s favorite farmers market!

Now American Farmland Trust has introduced leader boards where you can keep track of the Top 5 markets receiving votes in WA.

Want to support multiple markets in WA? Search by state and you can vote for more of your favorites - just remember, you only have one vote to cast per market!

According to American Farmland Trust (AFT), the purpose of this contest is to re-connect local consumers to local farms, with the ultimate goal of keeping our nation’s farm and ranch land productive and healthy! Buying at the farmers market keeps money in the local community and helps farms and ranches remain economically viable. By voting, you’re helping support farms and communities across the nation. As American Farmland Trust says, “No Farms No Food™!”

So don’t forget to vote for Poulsbo at www.farmland.org/vote and spread the word! Big thanks to everyone who has already voted!

But really if you have a local farmers market you love than vote for yours. The point of my posting this is to promote farmers markets all over the USA. Shopping at farmers markets is so important and so awesome. You are supporting your local community and getting farm fresh produce that cannot compare to that which is shipped into your grocery store from thousands of miles away.

udate...finally, short and sweet.

2010-07-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy is all I can say about this summer. It's screaming by so incredibly fast I'm scared to blink.
Summer weather finally has arrived and I don't think we've had rain in a month now. I LOVE IT!!!! So does the garden. Chickens are eating and producing. A little too much on both ends but that's okay. Soon we'll be down more with some going in the freezer and some going to Abbot Tryphon and the monks at All-Merciful Savior Monastery on Vashon Island. They'll be well cared for and loved. And they'll be very pleased to know they won't end up as dinner. :)
Here are some pictures of the garden now that it has finally had an opportunity to grow.

We did not have "knee high by the fourth of July" but it is doing well. This year I am trying my hand at growing popcorn! Yes, popcorn. It's called "pink early" and should do well since it requires a shorter growing season. And what fun it will be to pop.

This is Mr. Ferrenbergs hop plant growing nicely along the fence. Those little fuzzy things are the "flower". It's pretty.

Beet leaves are so pretty!

This is a leaf lettuce but I can't think of the name right off hand. But it is SO pretty! And tasty!

We are trying bush beans this year for freezing. And look a bean already!

This is Kelsey's amazing pumpkin plant! Sugar pumpkin for eating. It's is huge and taking over this part of the garden! Beautiful!

Farm Updates

2010-06-15T12:05:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard those silly little rumors about how it always rains in Seattle? For the first 16 years that I have lived here I always laughed when people talked about those silly little rumors. I never felt that “it always rained” and thought that maybe those rumors were started just to keep people away.

Until now! This is the year that all of those rumors are definitely true! In a 26 day period from mid-May to mid-June (May-September is considered the “dry season”) it rained 24 days. We had our latest EVER first 75 degree day which I think MAYBE happened on June 12^th. I actually didn't hear the official word on that one, so maybe it didn't happen. I just asked James to look into that for me and NO...we have not hit 75 degrees yet. The record we broke was June 9^th and here it is June 15^th and no 75 degrees yet.

On top of that we are several inches ahead of normal rain fall since October 1^st. At the airport (the official stats) we've had 38.87 inches of rain since October first, normal? 32.89!!! Here on St. Brigid Farm we've been keeping track of our rain gauge for school and I just added the numbers up. We've had 47.7 inches of rain since September 1^st. Ours is a month longer but I can tell you that in September we only got about an inch and a half of rain. Wow!

I don't mean to complain but this has been one doozy of a year for me with regards to weather. It has been miserable. I'm cold! It's June 15^th and only 48 degrees outside at 10AM.. I'm tempted to start a fire! The tomatoes are molding. I think I'll have to start over with them. I'm also going to replant the cucumber because when it first came up the slugs attacked it and now there are only a few left.

These beets coming up just look so pretty against the dark soil.

The strawberries are doing alright but I realized today that the slugs are getting the one or two that have ripened. The blueberries look so pretty and the echinacea is growing well. The days that the sun has come out has really boosted their growth.

In animal news we have moved the ducks from their little space in the garden to down by the pond where they get to roam free all day and sometimes all night long. They often don't want to come in at night. But I just hope their stupidity won't come back to bite them in the butt. (Pun intended)

One of the benefits of their roaming free and getting to eat TONS of greens and tons of slugs is the incredible color of their eggs! I just cracked one open yesterday and about fell over!! The picture says it all. The duck egg is the top one, chicken egg below.

BTW...the reason I'm not blogging much anymore is because I don't have internet at home any longer. I can check email on my phone, which keeps me connected, but I do nothing else at home. We go to the library for other internet needs and my time is limited. This was our choice and I was a little nervous at first but have decided that I really do like it a lot!!

I hope your summer is going well and from what I've heard everybody else is actually having a summer. Enjoy!

There is meat in the freezer.

2010-05-17T12:13:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we butchered 7 hens and a rooster. These 7 hens are from our old flock and they range in age from 3 1/2 years to 1 1/2 years. It had been awhile since we butchered and even though I had don it before I needed to reacquaint myself with the procedure. By the last couple birds I think I was completing the process in under 30 minutes. We still have nearly 30 to do and I am hoping the next Saturday I'll be able to double the number we process.
It feels good to be able to put meat in the freezer like that.
Sorry I didn't take pictures. My hands were too messy.

Bringing It To The Table

2010-05-17T11:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't read any Wendall Berry except a tid bit now and again. James has read a lot, but I just haven't had time, nor the interest to create the time. But Wendall Berry had a new book come out just last year titled, "Bringing It To The Table". It peaked my interest and so I checked it out at the library. If you aren't familiar with Wendall Berry his books are compilations of essays that he has written over the years and all fit under the heading of what becomes the title of the book. Some of the essays in this book are from the 70's, some from early 2000's. There is one that I found very interesting and wanted to share. Sorry for it's length, I'll try not to tye out the whole thing.

Stupidity in Concentration (2002)
I. Confinement, Concentration, Separation
My task here is to show the great stupidity of industrial animal production. Factory farms, like this essay, have the aim of cramming as much as possible into as small a space as possible. To understand these animal factories, we need to keep in mind three principles: confinement, concentration, and separation.
The principle of confinement in so called animal science is derived from the industrial version of efficiency. The designers of animal factories appear to have had in mind the example of concentration camps or prisons, the aim of which is to house and feed the greatest number in the smallest space at the least expense of money, labor, and attention. To subject innocent creatures to such treatment has long been recognized as heartless. Animal factories make an economic virtue of heartlessness toward domestic animals, to which humans owe instead a large debt of respect and gratitude.
The defenders of animal factores typically assume, or wish others to assume, that these facilities concentrate animals only. But that is not so. They also concentrate the excrement of the animals--to which, when properly dispersed, is a valuable source of fertility, but, when concentrated, is at best a waste, at worst a poison.
Perhaps even more dangerous is the inevitability that large concentrations of animals will invite concentrations of disease organisms, which in turn require concentrated and continuous use of antibiotics. And here the issue enlarges beyond the ecological problem to what some scientists think of as an evolutionary problem: The animal factory becomes a breeding ground for treatment-resistant pathogens, exactly as large field monoculture become breeding grounds for pesticide-resistant pests.

I won't write more. It's too long but you get a glimpse. The essay is truly well written and the book GREAT. I highly recommend it.

Most of the Garden is in!

2010-05-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

I have one more bed that has space and I'm trying to decide exactly what I want in it. I also am waiting to get the tomatoes and peppers in. Yes, I want to try again. They are such a longed for garden fruit that I cannot give up. If you've ever grown tomatoes with any success, you know what I mean. I'm going to buy starts in a week or so from the farmer's market and plant them under little tents.

Here is what I've got in:

radishes

snow peas

spinach

leaf lettuce

kale

onion

broccoli

carrots

bush beans

pole beans

slicing cucumber

pickling cucumber

lemon cucumber

cabbage

beets

celery

leeks

cilantro

dill

thyme

Each of the 3 older children have their own little plot. Joseph just wanted to help me with all of mine.

Now if I can just get them to grow. For some reason I really struggle with getting greens to grow. I don't know what I could be doing wrong. I've heard this is the best climate for growing these things and we use them ALL the time. I sure would like to be able to grow my own spinach and lettuce! I've just started to saute greens with onion and mushrooms on a regular basis and would love to start growing such things as kale, arugula and collard greens. But I'm not having much luck. Argh! I planted spinach, lettuce and kale at the end of March and I should be picking it now I would think but it just hasn't done much. It's up but oh so small yet. Any advice! I really want to grow my own salads, and year round would be nice!

Garden ready to go

2010-05-04T13:37:00.000-07:00

It is May 4th and we woke up to frost! Yuck! But thankfully all is well in the garden. Over the last week I've worked really hard getting the beds all ready. I doubled the size of my garden beds this year from 6 to 12! I'm really excited. I have greens coming up now, plus peas and radishes. I hope this cold spell (to last a couple nights) won't slow things down too much.Here are the blueberries blooming!

And my one lone chive plant.

I love spring but am really looking forward to summer!!!

Killick is in the dog house...literally

2010-04-29T09:06:00.000-07:00

Our big dog Killick, has had a chicken fetish for the last couple years. He's been pretty innocent in his endeavors, until now. One of our friends put it this way: "He's border patrol." The chicken gets out, Killick takes care of it. Our new flock was getting out all the time. I've never had a flock of chickens "FLY the coop" as much as this one. In fact, I've never had chickens fly over the fence at all until this new flock. I knew Killick was getting them when they got over, but I never wanted to know how many I lost, until now.
Last Saturday we were gone ALL day. It was dark when we got home and I went to lock the coops up. I walked into the barn (the coop for the larger, newer flock) and found a big pile of feathers, a mass of feathers, some with flesh still attached. This was not an ordinary thing. I looked around for a carcass thinking maybe a chicken just died and the others had lunch (they actually do do this). But no carcass was found and if that had happened, there would have been a carcass. I looked around outside in their run for one as well, but didn't find one. Instead I found a broken fence, as in something literally climbed the fence!!! It was broken at the top and the bottom half was sagging tremendously!
I have no doubt in my mind that our dog, Killick, got into the coop! Killick has not been on my "friends" list in a VERY LONG time. It is no secret that I do not like this dog and do not consider him my dog at all. But now! Words cannot explain how I feel about this dog now.
I SHOULD have approximately 81 hens in that barn. I've sold some, a couple have died and therefore I SHOULD have approximately 81. On Saturday I decided I just needed to know what he's done. I waited for them to roost for the night and went to count.

I am not pleased to say that I THINK I MIGHT have sixty hens left. Maybe, if I'm lucky. I'm not saying he got 20 hens in that one day, I know that the numbers have trickled down slowly but I know he got more than one. The last 2 days my egg count has been down by about 10-12 eggs, give or take.

Killick is now on a trolley lead in the yard. He is NEVER to roam free again, except at night. Once the chickens are locked up for the night I let him go run and chase other predators. (notice I say "other" ) He has a doghouse (he doesn't know how to use) and he is not welcome in my house any longer. (I might lose the battle on that one when winter roles around again, though.)
Let me be very clear...this was NOT my decision because he is NOT my dog.
You know what they would have done on the old farmstead?

What I learned from WSDA Food Safety Program for Shell Egg Producers Information Night

2010-04-23T06:46:00.000-07:00

Last night I went to a meeting that the Kitsap Poultry Growers Coop had. Their guest speaker was from the WA State Department of Agriculture and he came to tell us everything one needs to know about selling eggs or slaughtering chickens in WA. These regs only apply if you want to sell eggs "off farm" (at markets or to stores) or if you want to sell your chicken for meat. One of the only positive things I walked away from this meeting with is a better appreciation for ANYONE who wants to make a living farming in any way. And this meeting had nothing at all to do with organic, he kept saying "that is a completely different department altogether". So taking these regs and building to comply with every little thing you need to do in order to sell and adding to them the regs for wanting to be organic, which from what I understand is NOT an easy thing to do, you can completely understand why organic food is so expensive. The small farmer seriously goes through an incredible amount of "bull" to be able to sell what he works so hard to produce... off the farm. We can sell our eggs on the farm, like we've been doing, selling to family and friends all we want but as we were told last night it's a"buyer beware" sort of thing because we aren't "inspected". Haha! So "buyer beware" if you buy our eggs.

The reason why I went to this meeting was to really understand what I needed to do to sell at Farmers Markets. Last summer I made a decision to completely concentrate on chickens instead of having a variety of farm animals to raise. I was always and forever turning people away who wanted to buy eggs because I didn't have enough. So I thought I could possibly make a little extra income selling eggs. I love my chickens. I love selling the eggs. Everyone who buys our eggs says they are awesome. I get lots of fun compliments all the time. Like the time my friend told me her 3 year old daughter wouldn't eat the store bought (organically raised even) eggs she was forced to buy when my husband was on a business trip and couldn't deliver to Seattle, but when she finally got our eggs again she gobbled them up. :) So I sold the goats and started on my adventure with 100 new chicks. Now that those 100 chickens are laying (and I don't even have 100 anymore but closer to 80) we are getting about 70+ eggs a day (we also still have the old flock that give me about a dozen a day)! The problem is, things aren't going according to my plan! I can't sell enough to keep up. So we are eating LOTS of eggs, donating to the food bank (which is a very good thing), and trying to advertise for more on-farm sales but we still need more sales. So I thought I'd check out this possibility of farmers markets. But the good ol' government don't make it easy.
So we'll plug along with the way things are. I'm sure Poulsbo's food bank doesn't mind me bringing eggs in now and again. We'll be butchering our old flock and donating some chickens to All-Merciful Savior Monastery (if they ever get the chicken coop done, When Fr. Tryphon???) and hopefully with a slight increase in sales (thank you to some new customers from the east side of the water) we'll even out here soon.
But I have to say...my eyes are opened a little wider and I appreciate all those small farmers all the more. ( A small farmer selling eggs is any farm with less than 3000 hens!!) I AM one of those small farmers, but I have resigned from ever trying to make something of it. I really wanted to but until I have the time to put into all the "bull", I can't. Maybe once the kids are grown and I'm not needing to concentrate on home AND school.

BUY FROM YOUR LOCAL SMALL FARMERS!!!! BUY ORGANIC!!! Seek them out! They need us! Don't know where they are? Check out this website...Local Harvest.

One more thought. Through all of this I'm regretting getting rid of the goats. I feel that for little people like us the goal really should be self-sufficiency and sustainability. This means VARIETY. Growing and raising lots of different things so that we don't need to go elsewhere, except for a very few needs. Back to rethinking how I might want to do that. For this year, it's concentrating on the garden!

Happy Spring to you all! May the sun shine on my farm a little more every day...I need it. :)

Little Bit of Heaven Here On the Farm

2010-04-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was an amazing, beautiful day. Spring has truly sprung! By the afternoon the sun was high in the sky and temps were rising. I think we hit about 60 degrees. Today it is suppose to be even warmer and we started with sun! Yeah. I got to work outside, in the garden mostly, for more than 3 hours!!! Earlier this spring I set up my little Icon shelter in the east corner of my garden. The icons I put in there are from the girls. The Theotokos one Kelsey made at camp and the little one in from of it is a rock icon of Christ that Charissa made at camp.

Below the icon shelter is a wooden cross. It isn't because there is something buried there, but because one of my kids made it and wanted it displayed. :) Joseph and Charissa made that and Joseph pounded it proudly into the ground.

The chickens were really enjoying the weather yesterday. I walked out to the run and found all these chickens laying around on the ground. They were sprawled out on their sides, legs stretched, wings stretched. They almost looked dead. They were just relishing in the warmth of the sun!

This little, old flock will become food soon. They've been a wonderful flock but they need to move on to their next purpose since the new flock is finally giving back to us now. We'll start butchering tomorrow, not sure how many we'll get done in one day. We have about 30 to do.

I worked in the garden for a long time yesterday and hope to for a long time this afternoon as well. I LOVE IT! This project that I'm working on has been going for a couple months now, but here is what I'm doing. I revamped the whole layout and decided to do a "no dig" method of gardening raised beds! There is tons of information on this on the internet. One of my favorite books though is called "Lasagna Gardening". If you google lasagna gardening you will gets lots of information as well. Since I started late in the winter I didn't have time to do LOTS of layers but decided that they will build up a little each year. We'll see how it all goes. First, I started with a layer of newspaper or cardboard, THICK.

Second step was to then put a thick layer of straw. They say some straws aren't good, I think I got one that isn't good because it is starting to sprout, but there is nothing I can do about it now. I just pluck out the little sprouts and because they aren't rooted into anything it's easy.

Third step is to put on a thick layer of compost! This is the step I'm still in the middle of doing. Well, yesterday I finished 2 beds that still needed the first 2 steps done. Today I plan to haul compost all afternoon and get all 10 beds complete. I also hope to do some planting in the beds that have been complete now for a month. The 3 closest beds you see below have been ready for a month. There is a fourth one ready, you can see a tiny corner of it in the lower part of the picture. I planted lettuce, kale and spinach in that bed 3 weeks ago.

Here is my spinach sprouting!!!

A funny picture of Nicholas. Nicholas has become my inventor. He has a "laboratory" up in his bedroom and wants to be an inventor. This has really inspired his sister as well and they often invent things together. This is a blessing, because most of the time all they do is fight. But they've worked nicely together on their inventions.

The reason I mention the inventor and his sister is because yesterday Charissa was the inventor. She spent a good part of the afternoon rigging up this watering system. Hours!
When she was done and it did what it was suppose to she was SO proud of her work. I was too. The bucket fills with water, she moves the ropes to let it dump into the buck that is waiting below.

She filled the duck waterer with her new invention.

So, So, So happy spring is really here and very much looking forward to summer and hoping it is a good one, weather wise.

Quick note

2010-03-05T06:03:00.000-08:00

I truly don't know where the time goes. I don't really have time right now to post but just wanted to let those few who still pop in here that we are still alive.

I'm headed out on vacation and need to catch a plan this morning and promise to post a farm update when I return.

Just so you know.....we have TONS of eggs. The new flock started laying and they are incredible. I'm getting 4-5 dozen a day just from them! Some days I'm washing 80+ eggs a day!

See you soon!

A New Year

2010-01-10T23:00:00.000-08:00

Thank you, Anna, for commenting recently and reminding me how long it had been since I posted. For reminding me that there are a few people out there that pop on to read about the farm now and again. Thanks for continuing to read despite the infrequency of my posts.

Winter here in Western Washington, this year, is muddy. So the farm is muddy, the chickens are muddy and the ducks are muddy. The ducks, however, really enjoy wet weather!
The chickens could live without it.

The new flock is getting a look at their new nests that I just recently put up and trying to figure out what they are for. And I might say they better figure out pretty fast what they are for because 95 hens eat a LOT of feed. Since they aren't yet paying for it they are making me pretty anxious. Lay! I was talking to James tonight that maybe we out to do a whole lot more fencing so that they can get out further into the brush to forage. That would save on feed. Right now they have a fairly small spot to forage in and it gets depleted quite quickly.

We have one rooster in the bunch of 95 and he will not be able to keep up with all these hens. So he will be butchered soon and sold to a nice little lady who seeks rooster and only rooster for an old folk remedy she makes for her arthritis. She swears by it, but it's got to be a rooster. You can't just walk into the grocery store to buy a rooster, so she comes to us and is willing to pay a handsome price for him. :)
We also have an odd colored hen this time around. I ordered 100 Rhode Island Reds and this is red but she is a much brighter red that is a very orange red. Wonder what she is.

The old hens that are in the garden have created a barren wasteland of the garden, which is what they were suppose to do. It is now time to put them back in their other pen so that I can lay down some black plastic over the garden for a couple of months. The plastic will act as an insulator to heat the ground to help speed up decomposition of roots and chicken manure that the chickens so graciously left behind while they foraged. This will make great fertilizer!

All in all everything is going well. I am anxiously awaiting the new flocks first egg and hope that new adventure will be in full swing very soon.

Weather Update

2009-12-10T06:58:00.001-08:00

We have not been above freezing all week. The nights have been down in the teens, daytime in the 20's. They say we should get above freezing today, we'll see.
This is highly unusual weather for these parts. I still like it!
It has made me extremely "home"sick for MN, wanting SNOW to go with the cold. It's just wrong to get this cold and not get any snow.
We do have a SLIGHT chance of snow this weekend when we transition back to the warmer, wetter weather. But it never stays and that is because we are warming up when the clouds move in. I do hope they are wrong and we get hammered. :)
We have had to bring all the water buckets to the house to fill because my outside water source is frozen solid. That's been the hardest part.
But I still love it!

Life on the farm these days!

2009-12-04T06:15:00.000-08:00

The sun is back!! It is glorious, beautiful and emotionally uplifting! I have missed the sun more than words can say. Since the beginning of October we've had approximately 18 inches of rain here on the farm!!! We've been keeping track in our rain gauge for school. We drew a big huge chart that hangs on the wall, it was created and started on September 1st. But I know that in September we only received an inch or 2 of rain, our chart says 18.9inches of rain since September 1st. This means we've had anywhere from 17-18 inches of rain since October 1st! You might say, "You live in Seattle, that's normal!" But let me tell you, it is not! At the airport, the official measurements of anything weather, they've officially measured 14.5 inches of rain since Oct. 1st....the normal? 9.69 inches!!!!!

So, suffice it to say, I've missed the beautiful sun and I'm completely and utterly tired of the rain and clouds!

For 3 days in a row we've woken to the 20's! I love it! Why? Because that tells me it is clear! It is clear and the sun will shine! Yes, it's cold but it's bright!

This is beneficial not only for me but also for the chickens! They no longer are traipsing through ankle deep mud, but they are walking ON the mud (it's frozen). Maybe production will rise again now that the real sun is shining and it is not so gloomy out all day long.

How about those new chickens? They are now 13 weeks old! I am busily getting their nests ready because they'll start producing in about a month! I cannot wait! Today we'll finish hanging the rest of the new roosts and finish the last 8 foot section of fencing so that can go outside. Hopefully I'll get the last piece of wall up in the barn as well to extend their coop a little bit. I still have 95 birds in there but should be down to 80 by the time they start laying.
I'm selling some off.

Sorry it is so long between posts, but life is just crazy busy these days. Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Chickens, Wind and Rain, OH MY!

2009-11-21T10:10:00.000-08:00

We've had an incredible week of weather! Just this week (the last 5 days) we've had over 5 inches of rain. I don't think it is a secret any longer, I do NOT like rain! Yes, I know I am living in the wrong place and not like rain. It never used to bother me but 5 inches in 5 days makes for an incredibly muddy barnyard. The old chickens have a very large garden they get to eat through before January and they are now walking in mud up to their ankles. (Do chickens have ankles?) It's gross.
We've had 4 or 5 high wind watches over the last 10 days but they didn't amount to much. Big gusts and some flickering lights was about all. I'm thankful.

The new flock of chickens are growing in leaps and bounds and need to get outside. So I've got the chicken wire to surround the old goat yard with and hopefully they can get outside this week. The goat fencing holes are just too big and they can sneak out so I need to put up the poultry fence first. It'll be easy since the goat fence is in place. We are also going to finish up the interior of the barn for them. This means getting their nest boxes in place and more roosts up. As well as putting up higher walls between them and the storage section. They are "flying the coop" quite easily these days. The other night I found one in a most peculiar place! Check it out below.

11 Weeks Old

2009-11-16T11:41:00.000-08:00

The chickens (technically they look nothing like chicks so it's hard to call them "chicks") are 11 weeks old now. We think we have a rooster, his comb is much bigger than anyone else. We should start seeing eggs in about 7 week or so! EGGS! Lots of EGGS!

Wow!

2009-10-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

I had no idea how long it had been since I last posted until Sherie asked me where I went? Thanks, Sherie, for asking.
Life is just so busy. I can't keep up with anything anymore and really feel like I don't have much to say about anything anymore. I don't know how much talking I need to do on here but I will try to post pictures now and again. As we grow our little egg business I might just turn this into a Farm Website for information, rather than an online journal. We'll see.

The chicks are 7 weeks old tomorrow. They are nearly all feathered. Surprisingly, I have only lost one to death. I gave 5 to my sister-n-law and I'll be selling 5 and giving 12 to Abbot Tryphon at All Merciful Savior Monastery to help them get their start in chickens. So when all is said and done I hope to have about 78 hens to start laying eggs for us in January or so.

The laying hens have free range of the garden now. We picked all remaining produce over the weekend and had our first hard frost Saturday night.
I was excited to dig up 74.5 # of potatoes!! It was like digging for buried treasure. Now to store them. I would like to freeze them into french fries but it takes so much time and space (when you flash freeze them).
So the garden is done. But now comes the fun of reading and planning for the next year to come. I have big plans for next year. Every year gets better and bigger. But I have lots of reading to do. I want lots of herbs next year and flowers. I've never really done either so we'll see what happens.
So anyway. There is the St. Brigid Farm update.
Have a lovely October!

PS...I realized after posting that the new picture of the chicks at the top of the post, is perfectly placed under the blog header which is the chicks at just a couple days old. Look how fast they grow!!!

Contest at Organic & Thrifty

2009-09-04T11:24:00.000-07:00

Win Some Counterculture

Go over to Organic and Thrifty to enter the contest to win 3 starters. (click link above)

Chicks

2009-09-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

Today we picked up our 100 chicks from the Post Office. They are the cutest, fluffiest creatures. The kids were giggling as they started to climb on their feet and legs. It was fun.
We have now begun the expansion of St. Brigid Farm egg production. Yeah!

There are 100 chicks piled in this box!

Today's Harvest

2009-08-16T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today I had to stay home with a very sick Charissa. So...while she slept I picked,

and picked,

and picked,

and picked! Joseph helped out a little.

And now I'm going to blanch those 2 big bowls of beans for the freezer, steam the red potatoes for dinner and bake a dessert with the blackberries. Maybe Kelsey can bake a pie when she gets home from Church.

Rain...finally!

2009-08-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Some may think it odd that I'm from the Western WA and my blog post is titled "Rain...Finally!" Well, we think it odd as well. It's been 84 days since we've had any significant rain. In the past 84 days we've had rain once (in mid June) and it was only 1/4 of an inch. I don't think it counts for much. It started raining yesterday and it's rained on and off all night but I went out to the rain gauge to find we've gotten only about 1/4 of an inch! They say it's suppose to rain on and off all day and we might get another 1/4 of an inch for a total of 1/2!!! But we have another chance of rain on Thursday. So maybe between this today and Thursday my garden will be well watered. I can only hope and pray!
Otherwise the sprinkler goes back on.

We've had records set now for the hottest week ever in WA (records of 102 I think at Seatac Airport) and for the driest summer EVER...84 days and only 1/4 " of rain...will the dry spell continue?

Starting a New of Phase

2009-08-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

We are now goatless. Saturday we sold the last 2 goats to a wonderful woman in Graham, WA who has a LOT of animals and they are all her little children. She has goats, sheep, llama, dogs and cats. She loves animals and they will be loved and spoiled. She was so excited to get them.

Now we move on to our next phase...converting the barn to hold chickens and add to the flock. I hope to order 75-100 chicks by the end of the month. This flock will be in the barn and we should start seeing eggs sometime in January. After that the old hens will start going into the freezer.

On another note the garden has started really producing now. We picked our first bunch of beans yesterday and that should increase a little everyday. I think we might actually be able to get some in the freezer this year.

We picked up our 1/4 side of beef on Saturday (just in time for the Dormition Fast) and it is in the freezer. I'm looking forward to pulling out the first package on August 16!

First Fruits and Dying Dreams

2009-07-30T22:22:00.000-07:00

Today I picked these few veggies from the garden. We have 3 yellow summer squash and 1 zucchini plus 10 pickling cucumbers. I'm going to fill my first jar of pickling cukes tomorrow. I'd like to do it the old fashioned way with good old natural fermentation. Nourishing Traditions has a recipe for just a quart so maybe I'll try that.

We had inherited a rooster awhile ago and I decided early this week that instead of butchering him as we've done with all our roosters I would take advantage of having him here and learn how to hatch my own chickens to increase the size of our flock. It all sounded wonderful and a perfect way to save the $1.80 per chick price (plus shipping). I even figure out how I was going to build an incubator out of apple boxes. But things don't always turn out as we hope.
Yesterday I was taking my daily walk through the garden and came upon a dead rooster! No idea what happened. He just up and died. We did hit 104 degrees yesterday so maybe he didn't drink enough and died from dehydration. So I guess I won't be hatching my own chickens this year.
My worry though is that he was diseased because just the day before we lost another chicken in that flock. The day before she died she was bleeding out of her vent. I thought since I separated her she was doing better because she looked better, the bleeding stopped, etc. But I was wrong.
I hope and pray there isn't a disease attacking my flock.

The farm in the heat of summer!

2009-07-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

Seattle has record highs forecast all week. It's pretty amazing actually. This story explains why.
I refuse, though, to complain. I just need to remind myself of the cold rain, the mud that one needs to trudge through day in and day out when working on a farm in PNW in March. No, I'll take this heat any day!!! Here is how the farm is LOVING it or how some are staying cool.

My favorite thing to grow in the garden, green beans!! This year we have LOTS of plants. They are about a month ahead of last year and I am thrilled!! If you look closely you can see the tiny beans forming. The plants are covered in them and with this heat I anticipate we'll be picking beans by the weekend or very shortly thereafter.

I took this picture looking straight ahead at the corn! Corn loves heat! They are taller than I am now! A year ago on July 12th they were only maybe 6 inches high or so and we didn't get any. We hope for bountiful blessings this year. James counted 50 stalks. We probably could quadruple that for our family of 6 but we don't have room.

Summer squash in full bloom with a few ready to pick. I have 2 of these plants called "super pik" and I hope we'll get to pick a lot!

Zucchini loves heat at well and is going to town. I just love these squash plants. All the varieties. They are so majestic looking!

Here are 2 of my volunteer tomato plants. Full of blooms and loving the heat. I pretty much gave up on tomatoes for preserving so I only have a few plants just for fun and eating at the summer dinner table but I tell you what, these are the best plants I've produced yet. I have 8 plants of various kinds in pots and several volunteers in the garden that I've let go. They all look awesome!

Here we have the animals trying to stay cool. The barnyard where the goats are is continually under shade so they just dig some dirt away to cool earth and lay there.
The chickens, below, hide in this one little corner until relief comes. As the sun moves across the sky their shade gets bigger.

And last but not least, the human animals on the farm cool off in this manner.

I just hope and pray that this blessing of sun and heat sticks around for another month. Oh yeah, don't get all uptight you PNWers who hate. I could stand for 20 degrees cooler than today's 101.2 registered at the nearest weather station to our house (about 2 miles up the road).
I just don't want another blog post like this one in late August of last year titled "Mud, garden and eggs". No, I'm not ready for the heat of the summer to be over and I surely am not looking forward to fall and all the rain that comes with it.

Decisions are made

2009-07-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

I have made the decision to sell the goats. This was huge! But now that I've made the decision and we've talked it over with the children it is all accepted and everyone is fine with it.
The farm plans have just changed. We've not "given up" on the farming idea we are just changing our focus. After a lot of thought and research I've determined that where I really would love to put my focus is in the poultry business. We've got a real niche market it seems and if I expand the flock I am certain that I can actually earn a decent part-time income. We are going to get our business license and register our name, St. Brigid Farm, and apply for an egg-handlers permit (which really doesn't involve anything but filing a form with the state).
I will be somewhat sad to see the goats go but am I very excited about the future of the poultry business.
I have sold 3 of the 5 goats already and we have Brie and her baby left.

Goodbye Singeli and Jack

2009-07-06T14:46:00.001-07:00

Singeli and Jack went to a petting farm not far from here. They'll be loved. Joseph will miss Singelo (as he calls her). He cried. I'm glad the other children are gone all week (although they did know they were going).

Got Milk?

2009-07-06T06:34:00.001-07:00

I often have an abundance of milk and so sometimes will just dump some out to the chickens who love it!

decisions

2009-06-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'm working through my thoughts these days on whether or not I want to keep goats any longer. I've given this adventure 2 years now and it hasn't been something that I feel that I have fallen in love with. Yes, you may think, based on my blog posts, etc., that I love my goats. It may appear so. But as with anything blogged about we can make anything look good. It's the downside to blogging. We think everyone else has the perfect life. Life here is far from perfect. I love my farm and I love the chickens, but I haven't fallen in love with the goats. The babies are amazingly adorable! But then they grow up. The kids like the milk, I don't. My husband loves the cheese and he loves to make it. I don't and he works 12 hours a day! Yes, I've blogged about how cool it is to make cheese, etc., but I just can't seem to get into it. It might be the fact that I am having a hard time fitting it in on a regular basis. There is just so much one can do every day.
What I'd like to do is expand my egg business. I KNOW I love that and I know I can make money on it. We are constantly turning people down. So, right now I'm working on a "business plan" to expand that part of the farm. I'll probably start out by selling all but 2 goats and and then we'll think about it, pray about it and move on from there.
So if anyone wants a Nubian doe in milk, who gives a gallon a day of fresh, amazing goat milk let me know. I also have a doe and whether that are 8 weeks old and ready to go.

From left to right you see Singeli, Pepperjack and Butter. They are enjoying a branch of maple.

Butter is a very friendly goat. She loves attention.

It's a very hard decision for me to make because everyone else enjoys the goats. But no one else does 95+% of the work like I do. I just don't want to feel like a failure. But one of my friends pointed out that I'm not failing because I want to focus on another aspect of the farm that I know will bring money in. My focus is just going elsewhere.

Funnies

2009-06-24T15:05:00.001-07:00

Farm Photos

2009-06-22T08:08:00.000-07:00

Me and Singeli

I love her coloring on her face! She'll be hard to get rid of if we decide to do that. I need to decide soon, she's of weaning age this week.

Killick intently watching the ducks.

Several weeks ago.

This is more recent. They love water! They are getting their feathers now and their coloring is wonderful! They are also AWESOME slug eaters!

Heidi and her mama, Brie. She is a nursing pro now!

From across the garden, this is my view.

The rooster we inherited. He's beautiful!

Singeli

Pepper "Jack"

morning project for kids

2009-06-16T11:38:00.003-07:00

Grandma decided it would be fun to help the kids make slingshots.

Thanks Grandma Faith!!

Actually, this project is probably in their book Dangerous Book For Boys. It was bound to happen.

Brie kidded today!

2009-06-10T22:54:00.000-07:00

We had a very exciting day. After 2 1/2 weeks gone, James returned home from Uganda today. And approximately 6 hours later Brie gave birth to a beautiful little doeling that has been named Heidi! She was 2 days early!
She is a perfect mother! She took right to her baby and has been very attentive.

Here she is just seconds old!

These 2 pictures are beautiful pictures of bonding. My other 2 goats that I have experienced birthing with didn't take to their babies. Last year both mothers rejected their babies. With Firefly I think she was just overwhelmed with triplets. Butter, well, maybe we didn't try hard enough. And this year with Butter I purposely separated her from her babies because she had a terrible rash on her udder that I was unsure about. So, this is our first experience with a mama letting her baby nurse.

Brie is a very proud mama!

Here is Heidi latched on perfectly!

When I left the barn at nearly 10pm she had suckled several times and they seemed to be doing well together. I'm hopeful all will go well in the night.

Slugs must go!

2009-06-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

The slugs here in the Pacific Northwest are ferocious! If you haven't heard my story of how I collected over 200 in one evening last summer then I'll spare you the disgusting details. Especially the part where I left them in the coffee can on the front porch the next day in the sun.

Anyway, I fight slugs. I've not done too much up until now (except the incident mentioned above). But I'm determined to have a full garden this year so I'm off to slug war.

My arsenal?

Beer and small containers.

We take the containers out and dig a little into the ground so they are flush with the ground. Buy the cheapest beer possible! Fill the container.

Watch the slugs come from miles around. They can't resist!

This picture is actually kind of cool if you click on it to enlarge.

I found about 40 slugs total in my 7 traps the first morning.

I changed the fullest ones the next night but left the others. I got a bunch more in the 2 traps I changed out but didn't count. The others need to be changed. I don't think the slugs are out full force yet, I expect this is just the beginning of the battle!

More gardening update soon.

Animal Updates

2009-05-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

I started out writing a general farm update but then decided that it was getting too long. I needed to break it up into smaller segments and add them to the blog a little at a time.

Today we'll talk animals!

Our newest addition to the farm arrived just a week ago yesterday...5 Khaki Campbell ducklings.

In one week they have almost doubled in size! It's amazing!!

These ducks are Kelsey's. She will raise them and try to earn some money from them selling their eggs. They will make GREAT garden protection against slugs. Sometime soon I'll show you my great slug traps that I am using until the ducks can go outside, in another week or so.

With just a little help from me, Kelsey is building a duck house out in the goat yard. We choose the goat yard because it's already fenced in and they'll be protected from the dog. We hope to train them to go to the garden a couple hours before sunset when the slugs are just coming out of hiding. Ducks don't need much in the way of shelter just protection from predators. In fact, we read, that they prefer to just be outside. But we thought that if they would meet a masked bandit in the night they'll be happy to have the shelter.

The goats are doing great. Butter is doing much better and seems very healthy now after her feed mistake and illness. She back to giving over a gallon a day. My mom (she's here visiting while James is in Uganda) and I have been fine tuning my cheese press and hope to get to making cheese soon. I'll have pictures of that when we get to it. I did make yogurt in my crockpot like Arielle talked about on her website. I pretty much did it like her, even bought myself a digital thermometer. I've been meaning to do that anyway because it will be very handy when making cheese! We made the Thienes Family Power Smoothie for breakfast. I used frozen blueberries.
Singeli and Pepperjack are 3 1/2 weeks old now, or maybe it's 4! wow! Time flies. Before I know it they'll be ready to ship out. Anyone want a pair of goats...Singeli will make an excellent milker some day. The picture below was taken by Kelsey and is awesome!!! Pepperjack is on top and Singeli below.

The chickens continue to lay an amazing number of eggs. My customers are very happy that they are. I'm constantly trying to device ways of making it possible to add more.

Butter, our mamma goat isn't well.

2009-05-19T06:52:00.000-07:00

Silly as it may sound, right now I just would like some prayers that we make it through THIS and the children won't be too devastated if it doesn't turn out and I won't feel like such a miserable failure.
If it doesn't turn out.

UPDATE HERE.

Introducing...

2009-05-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

...Singeli and Pepperjack

Yes, I know I told you of their birth but I didn't officially introduce them by name.
So here you have it...Singeli is the little doe that has less white on her mid-section. In the picture above she is on the right. Below, she is on the ground. Singeli comes from a story we read recently in an Elves and Fairy book called "Singeli and the Silver Slippers". In the story Singeli is a goatmaiden and makes cheese and butter aplenty.

Pepperjack (or Jack for short) is a favorite cheese of James' and just fit well. He is on the stump in both of these pictures. Most likely Jack will be sold.

Here is a funny picture of mommy goat smiling at the camera.

Updates....Finally!

2009-05-03T09:45:00.000-07:00

Wow! I cannot believe it has been over a month since I have posted anything about the farm!
Much of the month of April was taken up with activities that were not farm related. I posted about all of that over at my other blog, if you are interested.
Over on the farm though, it has been a busy place, as usual. Spring has been in full swing along with all of it's glory. Oh , how I love spring! Changes, beautiful changes; some drying out, more sun, longer days, new things growing, old things blooming, garden digging and planting, and new life coming forth.

Joseph was ready to help me garden.

We have been slowly getting the garden beds ready to plant seed. I am ahead of the game compared to last year but there are things that could have been in the ground already, such as potatoes. But they'll get there. :)
I borrowed a tiller, a big, heavy duty tiller to till up my beds. After spending a whole Saturday doing this I am not convinced I actually like it. I don't think it does as good of a job as the old standard shovel. For one, with raised beds you aren't suppose to walk on them but with a tiller you walk behind what you are tilling up. I'm thinking you are defeating the purpose as you walk.

Here is my garden beds all tilled. I had lots of compost to add to the garden beds this year so I thought the tiller would be good. But...hmm...I'm not sure I'll use it next year.
The winter snows damaged my green house. I got it fixed so that it is half the size it was but much sturdier and hopefully ready to keep some hot peppers, bell peppers and watermelon nice and warm for the summer.

Kelsey is planting squash in the old tires. We have 3 varieties: zucchini, acorn squash and yellow crooked-neck called "super-pik" a prolific summer squash that should have us eating squash daily once it starts producing.

Kelsey is planting cabbage between these cages that I will be growing pole beans on. I made a ton of these cages out of fencing last year for tomatoes but since I'm pretty much giving up all hope of ever having tomatoes for canning I decided to try the cages for growing beans up.

Charissa has always taken an interest in mowing lawn, but since she isn't very big I've always hesitated letting her by herself. But this last week I was very sick all week so I gave in and let her. I helped her get it started and there she went. We don't just mow the lawn we harvest it for the chickens. She she mowed and emptied the catcher into the wheelbarrow and got it going again on her own. She filled several wheelbarrows full and Kelsey emptied it to the chickens.
This area she is mowing in the picture is an area I'm currently digging up for potatoes.

We welcomed May in on a perfect note, well, actually May 2nd, but close enough. Butter went into active labor Saturday morning and welcomed these two beautiful kids into the world between noon and 1230PM.

The first born was a buck. I just love this picture above of mama and her boy. I think we've already sold him to someone who wants a companion for her horse.

They we welcomed a little doeling. Yeah! I'm already hearing, "Can we keep her?"

Here the girls are teaching the cuties to bottle feed. I really was hopeful that Butter would let her babies nurse this year (last year, her first freshening, she wouldn't let them near her) but we had to take them from her and not let her even try because she has a nasty dermatitis infection on her udder right now. So bottle feeding was a must. It does make for much much friendlier goats.

Little doeling trying to walk.

Today it is...

2009-04-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

...snowing. Oy Vey!

Spring has sprung on the farm!

2009-03-23T06:52:00.000-07:00

Spring officially arrived sometime on Friday, March 20th. On the first full day of spring we had beautiful sunny skies and temps in the 50's. It was a lovely day to be outside working in the garden and soaking up the sun. I gave Kelsey Anna free reign with the camera for awhile to take pictures of "spring". This is her portfolio.

The photographer.

Here are 2 pictures of our Red Flowering Currant. The Hummingbirds LOVE these and I can't wait to start seeing those tiny little birds around. I've had one come to the feeder 2x but the feeder wasn't ready. So I brought it in and scrubbed it up and will put it back out today.

Mina is enjoying the sunshine.

Here is our first sprout in the garden...radish. We have several sprouting and also have spinach coming up.

Here is Butter waiting for a tree branch to munch on.

I had to put this somewhat blurry picture in because it shows very well how big Butter is getting. I'm afraid she won't fit through the very small opening in the barn very much longer. We will have to widen it for her.

Here we have the gentleman rooster with his brood.

Killick would like to get his paws on that rooster. :)

Kelsey found these tiny little mushrooms growing up through the cracks in the deck.

Dandelions are definitely a sign of spring. We've had them coming around for several weeks now.

Last but not least, Charissa and one of her many frogs she catches on a daily basis. She is REALLY into frogs right now. We make her release them back to the pond but she just loves catching frogs.

First Egg in New Flock

2009-03-19T07:06:00.000-07:00

The smallest egg in the picture is from the new flock.

On Tuesday when locking up the chickens we found the first egg from the new flock!! I'm so excited because once they are all laying this should more than double my egg production!!! My customers will be so happy!!!

Goats, Roosters, Gardening and Winter

2009-03-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Winter is still upon us. I'm home with a very sick boy today and watching big fat flakes of snow fall from the sky. I think we've gotten about 2 inches so far this morning, completely unexpected. I planted peas, spinach, radishes and carrots last week. And now I have 2+ inches of snow on the ground. We've had the strangest winter. Snow is not typical for us and this winter I think we've gotten well over 2 feet of snow total. Very strange.

Butter with her bulging belly.

Butter has 7 weeks to go until her due date. She is looking mighty pregnant, my guess is at least twins but wouldn't be surprised to see triplets. This is what Firefly looked like a month before kidding last year and she had triplets. I've been comparing Butter to her. So we'll see what Butter looks like at a month before kidding.

I still don't know if Brie is pregnant, probably won't until late May or even due date. If she didn't take then we'll breed her early this fall.

The rooster is looking mighty handsome these days and keeps the ladies in line. We actually have 2 roosters and I'm ready to put them in the freezer. I've decided I don't really like roosters. I wish I had some chicken tractors to put some hens in with him so we could incubate eggs. In a chicken tractor I don't have to walk around him and worry about him becoming mean. The new flock of 23 hens should start laying eggs any day now. I keep looking for that first egg, I'm surprised it hasn't been arrived yet.

Kelsey and I are busy planning our seed purchases. She has taken an interest in herbs and has been reading lots about herbs and their medicinal uses. She is finding it fascinating. This is our list of sees to buy:
Purple Coneflower (echinacea)
Chamomile
Thyme
Dill
Chives
Cilantro
Catnip
Lavender
Rosemary
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans (our favorite)
Beets
Broccoli
Golden Bantam sweet corn
Early Pink Popcorn (first time with this)
Yellow squash
Zucchini
Potatoes
Onions

These seeds we have already:
Gold Nugget Cherry Tomato (start inside this week)
carrots sunflower seeds
Acorn Squash
Lemon Cucumber
Pickling Cucumber
Slicing Cucumber
Small Sugar Pumpkin
Cabbage
Spinach
Peas
Radishes

We have big plans, I just hope the snow stops coming and we have a decent spring for planting and a warm summer. I also have plans to take the lawn on the east side of the house (in the snow picture it's the big open space down the middle) and till it all up this spring for more garden. I'm feeling very ambitious but with the economy the way it is one cannot be too prepared.

gardening

2009-03-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

Red Flowering Currant

Spring is in the air!

Last Saturday, FEBRUARY 28th, I planted the first of my garden! I had heard talk around town about people planting peas by mid-February and so I got my seeds out and did some research and found several things that say "as soon as the soil is workable". So we prepped the 2 raised beds we have, one is covered with a tent, and started to plant.

In the bare bed we planted radishes, spinach and peas. The peas will climb the green trellis to the right. We planted only one or 2 rows so that we can do some successive planting.

In the tented bed we planted carrots. When I created this bed I didn't plan well and forgot to leave a way to work the bed. So I had to improvise and I have a small little path down the middle. This tent is where I am going to experiment with some peppers this summer. They need HOT and this tent will get hot during the summer. I really would love some red peppers.
It is still cold and I've never planted this early but I'm really excited to try this. The spinach package even says 40 degrees is great for germination. I'm going to see what else I can plant under the tent right now as it has been getting into the 60's under that tent during the day.
Happy Spring!

Don't forget to "spring forward" this weekend! I'm looking forward to the longer evenings to work outside!

On the farm this morning...

2009-02-26T09:01:00.000-08:00

Drying up and more.

2009-02-17T21:15:00.001-08:00

Butter needs to be dried up (stop producing milk) so that her body can rest and put its energy into growing babies. She has just over 2 months to go and is due May 1.

We've had amazing weather, as in dry, cold weather. But absolutely beautiful blue skies. This makes us behind in precipitation for what is normal though. I'm not sure how that will effect us later but if memory serves me right last February was the same way.

The rooster is now crowing loud enough to be used an alarm clock. Hmmmm, wonder how tasty he might be. Actually, there is a lady at James' work who wants to buy him for her stew pot. We'll see.

I guess have no more news. I am going to have to start taking pictures again. I fear my farm blog is getting boring. Sorry. So much to do, so little time.

Spring is in the air!

2009-02-08T19:53:00.000-08:00

We've had some awesome weather lately and spring is in the air. On Saturday we had cool weather but partly cloudy skies with no precipitation! James decided to cut a tree down and get it into the woodshed, the start of next year's heat. And I decided to start cleaning up the garden. The chickens have spent the last 3 months in the garden devouring all the weeds and grass and fertilizing every square inch of it. On top of of that with all the heavy snow part of my greenhouse collapsed. So I have a lot of clean up to do and prepping.
We have a french drain down the middle of the garden. This drain is covered in rock and the chickens love to scratch at anything and everything. This means that rock is scattered everywhere. So that was the first big job...raking rock back to the drain.

Here you can barely see the drain path down the center of the picture...but rock everywhere.

Kelsey helped me with this fun job. Raking is a lot of work but raking rock is even more tiring. We got it done quickly though and then moved on to covering 4 beds with paper and mulch so the weeds don't start to grow back before we till. I just lay newspaper down, through on some mulch (right now I just have enough to weigh the paper down so wind won't take it away, more will come a little later) and wet it down. I have about 3 more beds to do this to plus prepping along the fence for my climbing vegetables. The chickens really dug deep along the fence and I think I'll actually have to bring in some dirt to fill it back in.

Here is the same area but raked up and the one bed covered in paper and mulch. Below are the other 3 beds papered and mulched.

I'm doing some research to determine how to rotate my crops from last year.
I'll also be doing some interesting methods to grow potatoes. More later on that.

Just thought I'd let you know we have 2 roosters. They just started crowing. We'll see how long they last. If we can get another area fenced a little away from the neighbors and my own bedroom window I might try to keep one and see if I can hatch some chicks on my own.

It's kind of blurry but here is the one rooster...on the left.

Below is our peach tree with lots of buds on it.

Updates

2009-02-03T12:13:00.000-08:00

Too much time has lapsed since my last post, 3 weeks exactly. Three weeks ago today I bred Brie. Today would be the day she goes back into heat (give or take a day or two) and I see no signs of heat. She cried a lot a couple days ago and I wondered if heat was to start but I saw no other signs. So I am hopeful she settled(the term used in the goat world to say she's pregnant).

Butter will be dried up in 2-3 weeks to give her body a rest before kidding. Once the milking season is over and we have that 2 month break I plan to completely clean out the barn. We have been storing quite a bit of stuff in there and it really isn't a good place to store. So now a lot of things need to be gone through and probably thrown away. I'd love to whitewash the whole interior but it's one of those things that is probably not going to get done. Too much to do.

Today it is sunny and 50 degrees! Spring is in the air even though it's a ways off yet. Last week I moved the chickens out of the garden where they were fertilizing and clearing weeds and grass. This week we'll start prepping the garden for tilling. Today I'm headed out to rake rocks back into place. We have a french drain that runs down the middle of the garden and one of the disadvantages of having the chickens in there is that they scratch at everything, including the rock over this drain. So there are rocks spread out from the drain probably a good 3-4 feet on either side. Raking in this beautiful weather won't be so bad. The next thing to do will be to lay newspaper out everywhere I plan to have a bed or plants to prevent the weeds and grass from sneaking up before tilling. I'll lay a very small amount of compost over the newspaper to keep it in place and then in a month or so I'll till everything under.

I've been reading through my new Territorial Seed Catalog picking out everything I want to plant. My main crop this year will be green beans with the goal of lots of freezing or canning. I want to try some new things like beets and summer squash.

Well, I guess that about covers it for now.

Happy February.

Bred Brie Today

2009-01-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

Well, I THINK Brie is bred. She showed many signs of heat. We took her to the buck. She stood but only for brief seconds and experience says that SHOULD be long enough but well, it's hard to imagine that it really is long enough.

So we'll see. IF she took she is due June 12th.

So the 2 dates to watch for seeing baby kids around St. Brigid Farm:
May 1st
June 12th

Farm Updates

2009-01-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been over 20 days since I've written anything on the farm blog! Wow! I just cannot believe how fast time flies. It's just crazy.

Since my last post on December 20th when the farm was frozen over this is what has happened...

~My unofficial measurements of snow came to nearly 2 feet of snow...it came...it went. But we DID have snow on the ground for 22 days!!!! Lots of snow on the ground for 22 days! That is our biggest news. Never have we ever had that much snow on the ground anywhere near that length of time in Western WA...at least not in my 15 years here and not that I've heard from others. The chickens hated it. They refused to come out onto the white stuff. I had to start laying hay outside the coop to get them to go outside into it. They were "cooped" up for nearly 3 weeks until I started laying the hay outside. :) I have tons of pictures here (from 12/22) and here (from 1/5).

~The chicks have grown so much you can hardly tell them apart from the others. Besides their nearly nonexistent combs and wattles they look like hens. We still have about 2 months to go before we start seeing eggs. Couldn't be soon enough as we have so many wanting eggs. We fixed up the fencing around the small coop and they now have the ability to go outside. Although, they are still quite hesitant.

~The 38 or so laying hens I have left have done a fabulous job cleaning out the garden. They have another 3 weeks to enjoy this bigger "yard" and area before I still them back into the smaller chicken yard. I'll then give the garden a month of "rest" after covering all growing areas with newspaper so that the grass/weeds don't get any funny ideas about peeking up through the top of the soil. Then we till sometime in early March. This year I will focus on growing things that I know for sure love to grow in this part of the country. I've given up on spending so much energy on trying to grow one of my favorites...tomatoes!

~We are now on the countdown of losing our milk supply for the short-term. Butter has only 7 weeks left until she should be dry for her last 2 months of pregnancy. It's perfect timing though as there are only 7 weeks until lent begins. I couldn't have timed it more perfect if I had tried. During the break from milking, which I am looking forward to, I need to really do a lot of reading on cheese making and get busy planning it out better.

~Someone has now asked to buy a "cleaned" rooster. So IF we have any roosters in this new bunch I just might sell my first meat. I think we actually might have one or even 2 roosters. Two of them are kind of looking like males.

I guess that is all for now. My updates are fewer and further between because I need to focus on things NOT internet. The internet has sucked way too much time from my life and I am trying to change that. So I'll update when the time allows or if there is exciting stuff happening on the farm.

Frozen Farm Part 2

2008-12-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

We are still covered in snow, today it's been a week. We got a little more snow on Thursday morning which brings our totals to about 4-5 inches. But it's been so cold that it's still around.
Some of the kids love to go out and play in it and others last only a few minutes. The problem is we just aren't prepared for it. The only boots they have are mud boots, rubber and rubber only, they just don't do the trick, even with 2 pair of socks.

We've been having to haul hot/warm water out to the barn and coop. Every morning I go out and things are frozen up.
Joseph all bundled for snow. He'd stay warm if he only had warm boots...moon boots would be great. Remember moon boots? LOL

The picture above is of our driveway after the snow Thursday morning.
The picture below is of the neighbors driveway.

The goats are in search of greenery. Nicholas has found them some.

Below we have 2 furry friends visiting the sunflower seeds.

And the kicker of it all......
we have this in the forecast for the weekend!

Winter Storm Warning

I've never seen this kind of weather in 15 years I've lived in Western Washington.

A Frozen Farm

2008-12-16T06:02:00.000-08:00

We've plunged into the arctic here in Western WA. This is something we just aren't used to. I'm having to haul warm water from the house several times a day to keep the water buckets for the animals thawed out. I have not water out in the barn or coops and have had to disconnect all hoses. Sunday night we went down to 20 and a high of 25, right now the thermometer says 21. Starting tonight we have a "winter storm watch" with more snow--maybe. They do know if precipitation moves in it WILL be snow because it is not suppose to warm up at all. This has been the longest cold spell I've ever experienced in my 15 years in WA. And it is NOT expected to get any better before Christmas (which means we could have a white Christmas).

Here are pictures from around the "Frozen Farm".

The chickens do not like to go out in the snow at all.

Frozen water and chicken tracks.

Great shot, Kelsey. She took most of these pictures. I love this one. This used to be a big mud pit and is now frozen solid. One thing is for sure, everything looks cleaner now.

Milking and Chicks

2008-12-08T12:27:00.001-08:00

My mom came out to the barn with me during milking time yesterday and snapped this picture of me. I don't think I've put a picture of milking on here in quite some time.The baby chicks are about 6 weeks old now and doing great! they are all feathered now, or at least enough so that if the power goes out they will be fine without heat for awhile.

Butter

2008-12-02T13:09:00.001-08:00

We woke to these sounds again. But this time....Butter got lucky. We started out yesterday thinking we should try because I knew she was coming into heat, but when we arrived and put her in with the buck she wouldn't have a thing to do with him. She ran and bucked at him and wanted out! So we went back today know it had to be the day and sure enough!!! She ran in and just stood! What was so funny about it was that she just stood there and acted all standoffish and whatnot. She stood but if he tried sniffing her head and ears or licking her face she'd turn her head the other way. It was kind of funny. If the breeding took than she will be due May 1st!! Perfect...12 days after Pascha!

Fall on the Farm

2008-11-14T07:01:00.000-08:00

It's fall on the farm and it's been fall for quite some time but I like the title. It flows. And I finally have taken some time to take pictures of "fall on the farm". I cannot believe it's been 2 weeks since I've posted anything. Gee, I wish I could be more consistent about that. I'm still learning how to make everything work together and "flow" nicely (home, school, farm). The above picture is looking up our neighbors driveway, I just love their driveway. If you turn to the left 45 degrees you'll see our driveway and house.

I caught this picture of the goats frolicking in the leaves. :)
Below is Charissa with her goat Brie.

As we move into the garden you can see the chickens have made great progress in their attempts to eliminate the grass and weeds and fertilize every square inch of dirt. They've done a great job! They deserve a raise and they got it when I switched to all organic feed several weeks ago. Our "subscribing" customers all voted to pay a higher price to have organic feed.

Here some ladies have found spot in the garden that is pure sand and they are "bathing" themselves in it. I thought it was funny because it was nearly dusk and quite cold outside. I'm sure that sand was wet and cold!

And now our baby chicks! It never ceases to amaze me how rapidly they grow!!! They are nearly half feathered already. I always make great proclamations about how I can't believe they are this big already and then I remember back with our first flock and how they were completely feathered by 5 weeks when the power went out for 5 days and they could stay in the coop without heat. At any rate....they have really changed since we got them just 2 weeks ago today.

I encourage the kids to hold them as much as possible so that they are used to human contact as they grow, hopefully turning out to be very friendly.

They are just so cute!

Charissa was picking them up and letting them fly down from her hands. I caught some really amazing shots of this.

My favorite! Isn't that cool?!

Chicks have arrived

2008-10-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

We only got 25 Rhode Island Reds.....my favorite. They are so cute.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-10-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

Updates

2008-10-27T06:43:00.000-07:00

The weather has been gorgeous but I haven't gotten much done outside due to so many other obligations.
Yesterday James did start on the new goat yard gate. We want to move it back some to get the goats away from what seems to be the place all the rainwater gathers despite the french drain we installed last winter. I'll post pictures when it is done. Kelsey was actually the one that designed this idea.
The big news this week is that our new set of baby chicks should arrive Friday. I'll definitely post pictures of that.
I also hope to work on my cold frame today or tomorrow and get some seeds in the ground for winter harvest. I'm going to plant some greens and try green onions and carrots. We'll see how that works. I might just be dreaming. :) I got a book from the library called Winter Gardening in Maritime Northwest.

Have a great week!

Butter is in heat....

2008-10-20T08:18:00.001-07:00

...and driving me crazy! She hasn't shut up since about 530AM! She is yelling NONSTOP and sounds like this. (It's so funny...the file is actually called "goat in heat(nubian)"....it's EXACTLY what she sounds like.)
But I know what she is really saying....
"BBUUCCKK!!!"

Chickens & Eggs

2008-10-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

Ever since I moved the chickens to the garden where they have much more room and so much "green" to eat the egg count has slowly been rising!
I also switched over to all organic feed shortly after moving them to the garden.
Saturday I got 28 eggs!
Also, I noticed that the whites of the eggs actually have a slight hint of green/yellow color from all the green they are eating. Ohh, they are such healthy eggs!
I have such a demand for these eggs, even after raising the price to $4, I've decided to order 25 more chicks. I'll put them in the small coop, it can hold up to 32. We'll divide the garden in half like last year. I just hope Belt Hatchery has some left in their last hatch for us.

Juice Making

2008-10-18T07:14:00.001-07:00

My mother-in-law arrived Tuesday and brought with her this crate full of juice/wine grapes. The picture shows fewer grapes than we started with...it was mounded. I researched juice/wine grapes and I believe this variety might be called "Delaware" grapes.
I decided to juice them using my Saftborn Steam Juice-Extractor. I've only used this neat gadget one other time with great results. The neat thing about it is that the fruit does not boil in water, thus diluting it. It has four parts: the water reservoir, the juice catcher with hose attached for draining, the fruit basket and lid. The steam rises into the basket rupturing the cell walls of the fruit and releasing the juices. The benefit of this method is that it all the vital minerals and natural acids, vitaminds, etc. stay unimpaired, they are never boiled off.

I spent a good part of Wednesday working on the mound of grapes to extract. Taking them off the steam and rinsing them and steaming them. The chickens loved the pulp that is left over after steaming.
I only got about half done on Wednesday so finished on Friday.

The juice that comes out, as a result, is very concentrated; thick and sweet.

The children LOVE the juice and have even told me it's too sweet. So we dilute it about 1/2 the water as juice. And yesterday I bought a bottle of sparkling water and the kids had sparkling juice with their dinner. They loved it!
I got 10 quarts, which means I'll have about 15 quarts of drinkable juice if I dilute slightly. It will go in the freezer today.

Feta and John update

2008-10-14T15:48:00.001-07:00

We just got an email from the new owners of Feta and John, our last two kids to sell.
They look great and seem to love their new surroundings. I wish my goat yard looked like that.

Chickens

2008-10-13T09:12:00.001-07:00

The chickens are free to roam the garden now. They have twice the space plus they have plush grass and garden waste. See their very well worn summer run on the very upper left corner. I've blocked them from this now and we will clean it up this week and possibly sow some winter wheat type of grass in there to be ready for February.

Speaking of chickens. Take a look at this egg one of my hens laid. OUCH! The egg next to it is a large egg. The bottom picture shows you how big it is compared to an egg carton. It won't close.

End of the Garden

2008-10-06T06:39:00.000-07:00

Fall is definitely upon us. It's cool, wet and blustery. We had the first "storm" of the season with lots of leaves blowing around and small branches all of the roads, etc. In the last week we've had an inch of rain. This has forced me to go out and harvest as much as possible off of the tomato plants since late blight has set in on most of the plants. All but the plants under the big huge tent we built. I think they are fine in there because they have room and aren't touching the top or sides of the tent where they would get wet condensation and never dry. The smaller tents just weren't big enough to allow air flow and the plants grew too big and were touching the top and sides. Not all the tomatoes in the picture will make it as many of them have late blight in them already and instead of turning red they'll turn brown. But we will get some to ripen and enjoy.
It has really been an incredible challenge to learn how to garden in this climate. We had such high hopes for our garden this year supplying a huge amount of food for our winter but it just hasn't worked out. With snow on April 20th ( a full month after the "average last frost") and being forced to start all over with many things and the rain starting so early in August we just didn't get what we'd hoped for. I told James we need to spend the winter reading Northwest Garden books!
I'm going to give the garden one more week (maybe), and then the chickens will have a feast of feasts as they roam through garden for the next 4 months!

Farm Update

2008-09-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well, I had meant to post my updates on Monday but time got away from me. Life is pretty crazy right now with the farm, schooling, and your everyday basics.
Anyway. On Saturday James made me a cheese press. Well, I shouldn't say "me" because he really did it for himself I think. He has REALLY taken a liking to cheesemaking. I think because it is very scientific! :) Here is a picture of our cheese press. It's pretty cool. We made our first batch of hard cheese. I found a cool website that has all kinds of cheese recipes. It is somewhat different from my books and because it didn't require certain temps and humidity and waxing I just had to give it a try. It's a basic hard cheese and it is currently aging in the refrigerator. We'll let you know how it turns out.

On Friday I harvested this....
...and that is pretty much what we had for dinner. Along with homemade bread! It was very satisfying. The weather has been rainy and cool. I'm still praying for enough sun over the next couple weeks to bring in some more tomatoes and beans! What I need to do is put a cover over my entire garden and then I'd be able to put up enough food to feed us all year. This cotton-pickin' weather in the PNW is just not condusive to a big flourishing garden! At least it isn't for this used-to-be midwesterner who doesn't know how to grow a garden in damp, cool conditions.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I have a tomato plant that produces very strange creation. Here is another one....

The animals are doing well. I'm still getting a gallon a day from Butter but she has gotten to be quite an annoying creature at 5AM. After I leave the barn she just doesn't seem to get the idea that she is suppose to relax and wait for sunlight. She stands out there and bellows as if she is lost in the wilderness all alone. I've told goats bellow when they are hungry or lonely. She has just been fed, she has just been given more hay and she has her daughter. And yet, I continue to pray everyday that the neighbor doesn't come over with his shotgun and shut her up.

The chickens need to go in the freezer because most of them aren't earning their keep. But I just can't seem to figure out which ones they are. I butchered 2 chickens over Labor Day weekend and despite my inspection of various body parts to make sure they weren't laying eggs anymore, I still managed to butcher hens that were full of eggs! One had an egg just ready to lay! So now I'm afraid to butcher anymore for fear I'll butcher a good one.
In another month they'll have free reign of the garden and hopefully the added nutrients will give them the boost they need to lay more. Until then I'm trying to figure out how to find room for a whole new flock in another area of the farm.

Have a great week...enjoy Autumn!

I'm off to craigslist to find a free source of fencing material, lumber, firewood and pallets.

Why I Don't Like Slugs

2008-09-18T06:55:00.000-07:00

There are many, many more examples like these. Slugs are everywhere and love to eat everything. I remembered as I was uploading these pictures that I could have shown you some beans that were nearly eaten through as well.
Did I tell you about the night I was perusing through the garden at dusk and picked up some slugs and decided to keep track!? Yeah, I know, "sick and wrong" is what my husband called it.
Well, I just couldn't stop. They were everywhere. So I picked up a coffee can and actually started counting! As I approached the garden gate (the end of the garden rounds of slug picking ) I was on 104! But I just couldn't stop! So I kept picking them as I walked back to the house and through the front yard. I finally ended when the can was nearly full ( a 3# coffee can!). My final number was 204!!! I picked 204 slugs out of my garden and yard in one evening! And still...look at the damage they are doing.

Despite the ravenous appetite of the slug I had a great harvest yesterday! Yes, that glob on the right side of the bowl is a tomato!! I froze 2 quarts of beans out of this harvest after eating a huge pot of them for dinner.

And we get the funkiest tomatoes!

Garden has been given a second chance at summer.

2008-09-16T07:42:00.000-07:00

Glory to God the garden has had a much needed reprieve from the early fall weather and we've been back into summer for the last couple of weeks. When the fall weather hit in mid-August we went to work to cover the tomatoes that just do not like wet leaves and cool weather. It is the bane of tomatoes in the Pacific Northwest. Here is the big tent we built. It turned out much bigger than I had anticipated so I'm hoping to use it all winter to grow a salad garden throughout the winter!

To the right of the big tent you'll see the other tent we have over other tomatoes. There are 3 other tents that are pretty flimsy and just thrown over cages in order to keep them dry and bring warmth during the day. It all seems to work well. You can really feel the heat pour out of the even the little tents that aren't completely enclosed. The big tent gets downright hot, but the tomatoes love it. The weather is suppose to turn this week and I'm worried that it will stop the growth and there is quite a bit of growing and ripening to do yet.

Here are some tomatoes inside one of the smaller hoop houses. They look great. Below you'll our funky tomato plant. I don't know the variety for sure, I think it is stupice from Territorial Seed Company. We get the funkiest shapes off of this plant.

Corn! We have corn! Last year nothing became of our corn but this year it seems to be doing great! I tried something different that I read in a magazine and I planted a bean seed at the base of each corn stalk. If you look closely you'll see the vine growing up the stalk and there are flowers on it!

Speaking of beans! Our beans are doing great! I'm picking everyday for us to eat and I have one bed that I'm leaving to do a big picking in a day or 2 to freeze some! yeah!

Last but not least......
This one is for you my love!

It really isn't that big of a spider but my camera does well with closeups. Look at the hair on those legs.

Rat Wars--by Kelsey Anna

2008-09-06T06:31:00.000-07:00

Harvest

2008-09-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

I wait for this day all year long! It is one of my favorite days of the entire year. It is the day I get to taste and savor the fruits of my labor. All the planning, sowing, caring for and then waiting, are finally rewarded. And these are 2 of my favorite rewards!

We are getting some pretty funky shapes on one of our tomato plants.

And this one is my favorite!

SOLD

2008-08-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

John and Feta have been sold!

I've been trying to sell John for about a month now. It can be hard to sell a wether this time of year. In the spring I guess they are easy to sell because there are families wanting them for 4-H but not now. Anyway, I decided that I really don't need 3 dairy goats. I can hardly keep up with the one I have because I am getting 1 gallon a day from her. I can't imagine getting close to 3 gallons of milk a day. So I thought that maybe if I sold them as a pair I might entice a family who doesn't have anything right now but wants to start a dairy. Because you need at least 2 goats so they don't get lonely, they are herd animals and need companionship, I thought that this would be the perfect set up for such a family. That is exactly what I attracted! After listing them as a pair I had 3 emails within 24 hours. I am very excited about the family we sold them to. They have 4 young boys, the oldest looked maybe 9 and the youngest 3 or 4. They instantly loved the goats and the boys were very comfortable around them. The goats all behaved nicely and didn't even jump but did lots of sniffing and wanting attention. They still need to finish their fencing and shed for the goats so they paid me full price and will pick up the goats either Saturday or Monday depending on when they finish.

mud, garden and eggs

2008-08-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

Autumn is upon us. No, the calendar doesn't say that autumnal equinox has happened but the the Pacific Northwest things have changed. What does this mean for the farm?

Mud! We've got 2 1/2 inches of rain in the last week and a half and we've got mud. This isn't just your ordinary mud, it's a barn yard! So use your imagination. Mud! Mud! We'll call it fud.
This summer I bought a pair of crocs, a cheap version anyway. I have been wearing them in place of my big heavy mud boots out to the barn all summer long. If you know what these are they are soft, rubber (I really don't know what to call the actual material) shoe with lots of holes all over. Well, last night I discovered that I no longer can wear these to the barn now that we have received 2 1/2 inches of rain in the last 2 weeks.

It also means that as my garden stands right now, being a month late as it is, that very little in it will be allowed to come to fruition. Oh yes, there are some green tomatoes, but my 14 saucing plants (variety, Heinz) have just now begun producing fruit. Lots of flowers and just a few little tiny tomatoes. I have them all covered under plastic but the plastic isn't tight as in a greenhouse so it won't hold the heat it might produce. If I could get it to be tighter I might be able to get the sun to heat it up inside and therefore help some. My green bean plants have lots of flowers and are now starting to produce lots of little beans but I have yet to pick any. Same with the cucumber. And my corn, well bah humbug!
All I know is that we are NOT ready for this weather. It's very disappointing. August is suppose to be one of the driest , if not the driest, month of the year. This is the second year in a row it has lost that status. If it just rained and the temperatures still stayed summer temps I wouldn't be complaining as much but it doesn't work that way here in Western WA. No, our high yesterday was 66 and the low yesterday was 47!!! We might see a 70 this weekend. I really hope we get some sun.

Time to go feed let the chickens out and feed them. I heard through the grapevine that giving your chickens cayenne pepper will help increase their egg production. Our test starts today. I've been getting anywhere from 18-22 eggs a day! NOT a good number from 46 hens. Today I put cayenne pepper in their feed and we'll see what happens. I have a friend who did this with his THREE chickens and he says their production went up. He used to have days of no eggs and he hasn't had a day of no eggs since he started this. I'll let you know what happens.

Dawn Adventures

2008-08-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

It is now a bit dark as I head out to the barn in the mornings. I'm not particularly fond of going out to the barn in the dark, so I've been taking Killick with me. James leaves about the time I go out. I've been thinking that maybe I should go out a little earlier so he is still here in case I run into trouble. My imagination runs wild. I don't know that I'd ever really run into trouble but well, you never know.
The last several mornings I've been making Killick go into the barn with me because, well, I'm embarrassed to say, I've been HEARING the rats scrounging about as I turn the lights on and begin my work. I hate rats, mice, shrews, moles or varmints of any kind! I don't want to see them and I don't want to even hear them! Well, it really is silly to take Killick with me because he could care less about them and just lays there. Even if I see one and squeal(which I did yesterday), he does nothing. I need a ratter, something like a Yorkshire Terrier or Schnauzer, they were bred to be ratters. It's kind of weird though, a dog as a ratter.
But on another scale. As James and I left the house this morning, he to his vehicle and I to the barn, we stepped out to the sound of VERY CLOSE coyotes. Many coyotes yipping and yapping, very close. A moment later a gunshot rang through the air and the coyotes stopped. But I still needed to go to the barn, in the dark and those coyotes needed to move on their way. Were they headed through my land. One wouldn't know. So, I took Killick. I know he'd be of use with regards to something of this scale.

Ag Update

2008-08-18T07:21:00.000-07:00

Life on the "farm" is busy. Sometimes I feel silly calling it a farm but I think it is just because growing up a "farm" was my uncles 60 cow dairy on 100's of acres in the middle of Wisconsin. So compared to that, this really isn't a farm. But to us, it is a farm nonetheless. Above is a picture of all my girls...oh and one wether (I really would like to sell him...not sure I'd like goat meat...but we might have to try it).

Despite being way behind schedule because of late spring winter weather, the garden is doing well. This picture is of beans and corn. The corn is varied in size. Some of the stalks are as tall as I am and some aren't even to the knee. There is no corn on the stalks yet so I don't know if they'll go anything at all. I've never done well with corn for some reason. Last year some told me it was because we didn't thin them and they were too crowded. This year we thinned but still nothing. But it was the first year I grew "open-pollinated" sweet corn and maybe they need something special I'm unaware of.

My cucumber are finally flowering and I have tiny tiny cucumbers on the vines now. They are so cute.
I have 32 tomato plants. I'm very worried about fall weather approaching and not giving my tomatoes time to finish, especially since our late start. This week we are to have "a strong and wet pacific storm more typical of autumn" move in tonight through Wednesday. I hope to get SOME of my tomatoes under cover but with 32 of them I'm going to have trouble getting them all. Tomatoes don't like wet leaves.

I have a couple plants that are called "Stupice", a friend gave me two plants, and they have the funkiest tomatoes forming on them. She says they always do.

I have 3 apples trees all covered with apples. And they are looking really good. Last year we harvested 32 pounds from 2 trees....I really think we'll double that or more this year.

And last but not least. Since you did such a great job naming my flowers before I thought I'd throw this one out there for naming. I found the VINE growing in one of my flower beds. Beautiful little yellow flower, some are white. Anyone know what it is called?

Cheese--- UPDATED WITH PICTURES 8/13

2008-08-01T06:40:00.001-07:00

Today, I MUST make cheese. I didn't make it the other day like I said I was going to and now I have over 5 gallons of milk in the fridge. It's not like making cheese is hard, it really isn't that difficult. I'm just the worlds worst procrastinator.
So far in my short cheese making career I've only made mozzarella ( a lot), ricotta, chevre (easy and great on crackers) and feta (just once). I'd really love to master making feta. So far, in my one try, I failed. We ate it but not in the way feta is typically eaten. It didn't taste like feta and didn't crumble like feta. It was too salty and too dry. We grated it on our spaghetti, kind of like parmesan cheese.
The biggest difficulty I've had in cheese making so far is salt. Most recipes say "salt to taste". So it's a big guessing game. And the time I made feta I followed the recipe exactly with regard to salt and I about choked on the cheese it was so salty!
Part of what I am doing wrong is that I haven't ordered the special molds, lipase and cultures yet. Mozzarella and feta both say lipase is optional but when I go here and read about cheese making it says that I won't get the taste I "expect" without it.

This is what we start with: stainless steel stockpot, 1 gallon of fresh unpasteurized goat milk, cheese cloth, ceramic bowl, stainless steel slotted spoon, citric acid powder, rennet.

Here is what I am making today: These recipes come from this book. I have made a few changes from the book.

30-minute Mozzarella

1 1/2 level tsp. citric acid dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water
1 gallon raw goats milk (the book says any milk but I've heard that ultra-pasteurized milk doesn't make good cheese)
1/8-1/4 tsp lipase powder, dissolved in 1/4 cup cool water and sit for 20 minutes. (optional)
1/4 tsp liquid rennet, diluted in 1/4 cup cool water
1 tsp salt (I use much more but maybe because I don't use the lipase which I really want to try.)

1. Heat the milk to 55 degrees. While stirring, add the citric acid solution and mix thoroughly. If you are using lipase add it now.

2. Heat the milk to 88 degrees over medium-low heat. (The milk will start to curdle.)
3. Gently mix in the diluted rennet, stirring with an up and down motion. Continue heating until the temperature reaches 100-105 degrees.

4. Turn off the heat. the curds should be pulling away from the sides of the pot. (I let it sit off the heat for a few minutes before moving on. One book I read says to sit for 15 minutes, but this particular recipe doesn't.)

5. Scoop curds out of pot into a microwavable bowl. The curds should look like thick yogurt and have a bit of a shine. Press the curds gently with your hands, pouring off as much whey as you can. Reserve the whey for making ricotta if you want.

6. Microwave the curds on high for 1 minute. Pour off excess whey. Gently fold cheese over and over, pouring off excess whey as it appears. This distributes the heat throughout the cheese, which will eventually get too hot to touch at which point I use a big wooden spoon to knead.
7. Microwave 2 more times for 30 seconds, kneading with hands or spoon between and pouring off whey as it appears.

8. Knead quickly until smooth. When the cheese becomes elastic, start to pull and stretch it (like you would pull taffy). If it breaks, the curds need to be reheated.

9. When the cheese is smooth and shiny, roll into log or small balls and eat warm. Or place in bowl of ice water for about a half hour to produce a conssitently smooth texture. If you must wait, cover it and store in refrigerator.

I then make Ricotta from the whey. The Ricotta recipe I like and use is from a different book though, this one, with slight variations of my own.

Ricotta

1 gallon fresh whey
1 1/2 quarts whole goat milk

In a large kettle, heat whey to 200 degrees. when the whey has reached 200 degrees, slowly stir in the whole goat milk. Bring it back to 200 degrees, stirring often to keep from scorching.

The Ricotta is ready to drain when you see little white flecks forming in the pot ( have found larger "curds" then they lead you to believe).

Line a colander with cheese cloth and pour the curds into the cloth.

Hang to drain for 1 hour.

When drained remove from cloth and add salt to taste.

Refrigerate for up to a week.

Those are my 2 favorite to make, because they are easiest.
Today I might try some chevre if I have time. If I do I'll post the recipe tomorrow. But for now I must run!!! Please forgive typos if there are any as I don't have time to proofread.

Got Milk?

2008-07-30T07:13:00.000-07:00

Goats Milk, that is?

We have over FOUR gallons of milk in the refrigerator. Goats Milk!

I guess I need to make CHEESE!

Ps.. To Matt, I really don't know if I can sell it! I know I cannot sell milk so I'm not sure I can sell cheese.

Wheat to Bread

2008-07-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

My uncle posed this question to my mother...
"If you raised one acre of wheat and there were 60 bushels of wheat per acre, how many loaves of bread could you get out of one acre of wheat?"

She asked me if I could figure it out and I did!! At first I thought, "why"?
But now that I know the answer it has really peaked my interest and curiosity. I wonder how hard it would be to raise an acre of wheat. An acre isn't really that much in the grand scheme of it all. I'm intrigued!

Oh did you want the answer?

3574.56 loaves of bread!!!!! (using my recipe that calls for approximately 15 cups of flour and makes 4 loaves of bread)
I would only need to make make an acre of wheat every 7-8 years! :) Or I could help feed a lot of people!

When looking for a picture of wheat field I found this statistic....
"One Oklahoma family can live 10 years off of bread produced by one acre of wheat" from the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.

Picture from NDSU website.

Flowers Around the Farm

2008-07-28T06:26:00.000-07:00

The first spring we lived here on the farm, which was only a year ago, we discovered many, many perennial flowers that bloomed. Many of these we have no idea what they are. Here are some beauties. Some I know, others I don't. Which is where you come in. Check out the ones I don't know and let me know if you recognize any. Thanks!

So many perennials popped up everywhere that I often mistook them for a weed and last year (our first year) I'm sure many ended up in the compost because of this. This is one of them. As it grew in the bed I just saw these big huge leaves and thought "weed". So off it went. This year we decided to see what became of it and we let it alone. Early on, before any flowers at all, Kelsey was able to identify it as Foxglove. Foxglove grows around these parts like a weed. You see it all over the place along roadsides. It is so beautiful. It gets very tall, taller than me. Below, you will see something hiding inside a flower. It's really neat. Do you see it?

I THINK this next flower is a Phlox but I'm not 100% sure on that. It's tall(about 3' or so) and the flowers are about the diameter of a quarter or maybe a little bigger when fully open. The whole cluster of them is so full. Do you think it's a Phlox or something else?

This next flower is a mystery. It is a creeping sort of vine all over the beds around the front yard. I just had a thought that it might be a creeping phlox. When I researched the above flower I learned that there is a creeping phlox. Maybe that is what it is?

And last but not least is this weed (?) that I found in the garden. If it is a weed is one of the most beautiful weeds I've ever seen. It is very small and dainty. What caught my eye was the leaves, which kind of didn't look like leaves because, although very small, they were thick. Look at the shape of the leaf.

This next picture is taken from above and it reminds me of an exploding firework. Any ideas what it could be?

Let me know if you recognize any of these!

My little cowboy!

2008-07-15T07:23:00.000-07:00

It's not any farm work he was doing or cowboy play, it's simply
the boots!
This is where I found Joseph and Mina yesterday afternoon. He was taking a break out of the sun, just like Mina.

Livestock Pics

2008-07-14T06:13:00.000-07:00

These are just some cute pictures.
First, the trio. They just happen to be from smallest to biggest. And I can't believe I got John stickin' his tongue out!!

Left to right...Brie, Feta and John.

Mother and daughter, Butter and Brie.

This is just an old hen, bound for the stew pot soon.

The Garden

2008-07-12T13:17:00.000-07:00

The garden is finally looking like a productive garden. We had such an amazingly cold spring and then wetter than wet, that I didn't get most things in before June. I'm still praying that I'll have enough to put up for winter.

Here you can see the apple tree is doing well. I have 3 apple trees and all three of them are full of tiny little fruit. Last year we had one that didn't do a thing but this year it is full.

In this bed you see beans, potatoes and corn in the background. Along the fence we have pole beans. The corn is not knee high yet. In the midwest farmers would say you will have a good crop if it's "knee high by the fourth of July". But I don't live in the midwest where the average first frost is usually in September sometime. So I'm hoping we'll get a little corn.

Here you can see the beans that will eventually grow up the fence. I planted late AND little miss "jump-over-the-fence" ate a whole bunch of the beans so I had to start over. But all in all they look good.

Here is the first of my tomatoes. I grew tomatoes from seed for the first time this year and it was definitely a learning experience for me. I think I have a total of 17 plants, but many of them don't look all that well even though they have blooms. So we'll see.

The raspberries are delicious!! I hope to get enough to at least make a few jars of jam and maybe a dessert or 2.

I have so much to learn in terms of gardening AND making it all work together during the kidding season. This spring was amazingly overwhelming with our first time in goat kidding and trying to expand the garden. I hope next year will be a little easier. I have such big dreams of growing the vast majority of our vegetables and I'm going to run a bit short this winter I am sure.
My next big garden project is to turn 2 of my raised beds into cold frames for a winter salad garden. In this neck of the woods I'm told I can grow salad fixings year round.

Off to water the garden!!

Tied Down

2008-07-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

Farming ties you down. Not just any kind of farming, but DAIRY farming specifically. I grew up in the Midwest, just 2 1/2 hours from my uncle's dairy farm where he earned his living milking a herd of anywhere from 40-60+ cows everyday, twice a day. I'm very familiar with how having a dairy breed of any animal will tie you down. What I am learning very quickly is that not everyone is familiar with this concept. And since we have only recently become dairy farmers (on a far smaller scale than my uncle!) it is a new concept to many. It's been quite an adjustment for us but also I'm finding it is an adjustment for our family and friends as well.
The one thing that is really important to continue getting an adequate milk supply is to milk every 12 hours. You can give or take a half hour or so and I've even gone up to an hour a few times. But if you constantly change your milking times or go 12 hours one day and 14 the next and so on you will eventually see a big decline in the quantity of milk you get.

Here is our daily farm "to-do" list. This is what ties us down, daily.

4:45AM Alarm goes off and I'm out to the barn by 5:00AM.
~Let chickens out of coop and feed and water.
~Feed grain and hay to kids.
~Get grain ready for milk goats.
~Prepare milking area.
~Milk goat, just one now and it takes about 5 minutes or so to milk her out.
~Back to the house to strain milk and chill it.
~Wash all equipment.
I'm usually done bye 5:45AM.
After the girls are up (around 6:30AM) we do:
~Fresh water to all animals ( 2 buckets to goats and 2 buckets to chickens).
~Weekly chore, we do one each day of the week except Sunday: M-Clean out stalls and lay fresh straw, T-Clean out coops and lay fresh litter, W-Scrub waterers with bleach water, Th- Scrub nests and roosts, F-Clean out stalls again if needed, S-Clean 2nd coop.
~Feed all hay scraps to chickens.
~Bottle feed baby goats.
1:30PM (we have 30minutes leeway on either side of this)We then go back to feed baby goats for their 2nd feeding. Bottle feeding only lasts for the first 8 weeks of the kids life. In our case with the spread of 3 weeks between kidding it is an 11 week adventure. As we breed more does it will probably be even longer. Once the kids are weaned our days are somewhat freer to leave the farm for much longer periods, up to 10 hours maybe.
Afternoon sometime we usually mow or trim grass for the chickens.
4:45PM-Back to barn for 2nd milking following procedure as above.
8:30PM-
~Feed baby goats their 3rd and final bottle for the day.
~Lock up goats. Babies get a little grain and Butter gets her alfalfa hay.
~Collect eggs and lock up coops.

This is the life we have chosen. At times I wonder if I'm not in over my head but at the end of the day when I have a couple dozen eggs collected and clean, a fresh gallon (or just shy of a gallon) of milk in the fridge and sometimes a pound of mozzarella and ricotta I know this is what I want. And as we grow and learn how to be organized, disciplined and teachers to our children, it will get easier.

Adjusting

2008-07-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

The goats seem to be adjusting well to the matriarch's absence. Butter is assuming the role very nicely. She has become protective of the three kids, something she didn't jump at early on in motherhood. She goes crazy if they leave her alone, which sometimes they did when they went through their little hole to their own stall. One warm afternoon I found them like this...

They all sat there chewing their cud. This is a milestone for kids, chewing their cud. It means they are ready to wean!

May 18, 2002 - June 28, 2008

2008-06-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

Last night, June 27th, I went out to milk our goats and found Firefly on the ground. She wouldn't get up. We determined that it was probably hypocalcemia (milk fever). We treated as if this was the problem, drenching her with calcium and giving her Vitamin B complex shots. Nothing seemed to help at all. By 6:00AM our dear, beloved Firefly left her earthy life behind.
She will be missed tremendously.
Our children did amazingly well and even helped bury her. Kelsey Anna built a sign and they all sang a song that we often sing in Church called "Memory Eternal".
Her memory will forever live within us.

Ag Update

2008-06-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

We had a very busy weekend with going to a Civil War Reenactment and of course everyday farm duty.
Here are a couple pictures from the Civil War Reenactment. Nicholas brought his toy rifle and wanted to join in the fun. James caught him on camera and it is so cute. He'd pretend he was in the battle and would cock his gun and shoot every now again. Work real hard at aiming too. Here you can see the Union in the background as they start the battle.

At the confederate camp we ran into a woman that was making rope and she let the children help her so they could learn.

Now to the farm. We have had many days without rain...yeah! My beans are sprouting up and so are my cucumbers...FINALLY! I still have many rows of beans to plant. I know it is very late but this weather has been horrible. I'm just praying that since spring/summer didn't start until mid-June that maybe we can have it extend into fall. Please!?
Our 3 remaining kids are growing in leaps and bounds. Sorry no photo right now. John and Feta are almost 6 weeks old and will be weaned in another 2-3 weeks. Brie is 3 weeks tomorrow.
Butter and Firefly continue to give me over 2 gallons of milk a day and with the 2 kids gone I have way more than enough milk. I've started making mozzarella and ricotta cheese. I know you want to buy some, Matt, I'm just not sure I can sell my cheese and even if I could how would I ship it. So let me work on all of that. I do plan on making soap soon so keep that in mind. I've also discovered an amazing moisturizer when I make mozzarella cheese. You have to knead it and by the time I'm done my hands have never felt so good. If you saw my hands you would know what I mean. I am constantly washing my hands and I don't wear gloves when I work outside unless I'm hauling manure or pruning something thorny. I just know there has got to be something sellable in that whey that is squeezing out of the mozzarella. Stay tuned.
Below you can see our resident Douglas squirrel. There are actually 2 or 3 that hang out in the big cedar out front. We've been wondering if there is a mating pair out there and we've determined, after looking at this picture closely, that this is definitely a female and she has a little
kits somewhere. I just read they usually have 4.

She is not afraid of us! Look at how close Kelsey got!

Have a great week!!!

Pssstttt...someone turns 40 in 4 days.

Ag Update

2008-06-17T06:25:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been 3 days since I posted. When will I learn that time flies!!?

Goat update. I sold 2 bucks yesterday, they'll be picked up tomorrow. It just happened. I didn't even try and wasn't expecting to sell them for at least another month. Sherie of Maplebrook Farm where I bought Firefly and Butter last year had a doe not kid as she expected. Apparently she just didn't take and they didn't notice until on due date and beyond no kids appeared. She does homeschool classes in her home on farm life. We went to one last year on goats, mentioned here. She has a class all set up for next week but no kids to have for the class. So she is buying Snowcap and Lefty for her class. She'll later sell them, but for now I'll be down 2 goats. Two goats I won't have to feed and 2 goats I won't have to worry about selling. I'll really be in the milk then as they drink a 1/2 gallon a day just the 2 of them.
I do need to get making cheese now and yogurt! I hope I can finally get that right. Thanks to Theron for the cooler idea I think it will work. We'll try it out today.

Yesterday I planted a bunch of beans and cucumbers. We had great sunshine for several days in a row and now the rain and clouds are back. We've had a most disappointing spring.
My try at starting tomatoes from seed has pretty much been a complete flop. I am learning from the flop though. Out of 30 plants I MIGHT have about 5-8 that are strong and healthy. Well, I guess that is 5-8 I don't have to buy. I really wanted a HUGE crop this year for canning. :(
My big flock of 38 chickens has really been a disappointment so far and I cannot figure out why they are not laying like they should be. I am only getting about 20 eggs a day from that flock. I should be getting at least 30! UGH! What am I doing wrong?
More research.
That's it for now.
Have a great day!

Ag Update

2008-06-14T06:14:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you are having fun. :)
Life is crazy busy right now and I'm increasingly aware that this internet blogging thing is really hard to keep up. So for now my goal is to do an "Ag Update" on a regularly basis a minimum of every 3rd day. I had my expectations set too high on daily goals and that just isn't going to work. If I happen to get on more than every 3rd day then GREAT. Anyway..here you go...what's happening here...

We often are seen picking, by hand, grass for the chickens. We do this by hand if it has been raining or is raining or the grass is too long for the chickens. Is is not a fun job and so I sometime use it as a consequence for complaining of an everyday job. (Complain=extra work...yeah I'm mean.) Anyway, the bottom line is that the chickens love grass and eat it up. It's what helps make their yolks so bright and beautiful. Here I found Nicholas with a long pruner trimming grass for the chickens. (This is the tool we used to use to edge everything when I was growing up, long before weed wackers came along.) I just thought it was so cute how is was sitting in this grass that was well over his head, talking or singing, and cutting grass to fill a bucket.
We have had one of the coldest springs ever! The weatherman says we've broken the record for the coldest start to June which was set in 1917! Needless to say, my garden is not pleased and is having a hard time getting a start. The apples are doing well, I think. I don't know much about apples yet but all 3 of my trees are covered in tiny little apples like this one.

Here is one of my garden beds, bare and cold. Half of it is planted with corn seed but that took over 2 weeks to finally sprout and they are now just barely peeking through the soil. I almost gave up on them. The weekend is suppose to be really nice and I hope to work very hard at getting the beans in as well as more cucumber. On the right side of the picture you can see the tent that goes over my tomatoes. Tomatoes are not well in this weather even with the tent. I have another 10 plants yet in the house that I hope to harden-off over the next week of so.Goats! Kid goats are doing very well. The triplets are now a month old and really looking big. They are so friendly and I attribute this to being bottle fed. We are definitely their mama's. They'll jump into your lap to sit and everything. The twins are a week and a half and will be disbudded today. The 2 oldest bucks will lose their buckiness today as well. Below is a picture of Snowcap and Feta.

Here they are looking for food (in all the wrong places). From left to right...Snowcap (walking away), John, Lefty and Feta, with Brie in the background.
What a handsome boy! This is John.

And another handsome boy...Lefty, chewing on the fence.
This picture is so cute. John on the left and Feta on the right with Snowcap on the stump. The two look so much alike!

On our front deck we have this bird feeder. Which other critters have found and that's alright as it does have sunflower seeds and peanuts in it. Here you can see someone's tail and ears peeking out. Did you find it?

Here we have our friendly farm chipmunk the children have named Pipp (since recently watching the new Disney movie Enchanted). Look how full his cheeks are. When I took this picture he was scared stiff. :)

The egg count is mediocre. I'm trying to figure out why it isn't higher because with 55 chickens I should be getting way more than 25 eggs a day!! It's frustrating actually! I have periodically found the new flock running around with egg shells so my newest suspicion is that they are eating them, being cannibalistic. So to investigate that I'll be collecting eggs many times throughout the day instead of all at once at the end of the day. With our first flock the excitement of collecting eggs was high so the children naturally collected eggs all day long but we didn't do this with this flock so maybe they just are to tempted. I'll keep you posted.

Milk production, on the other hand, is VERY good. Between the 2 goats we get over 2 gallons of milk a day. The kids drink over 1.5 gallons of that. Once they are weaned we will be rolling in the milk and our soap business will begin, not to mention making yogurt and cheese as well.
Kelsey has been working hard at naming our soap products and she has created such things as Feta's Facial Foam and Firefly's From Filthy to Clean Body Wash. :)

Have a great weekend!