Fall on the Farm

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

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

Wordless Wednesday

Updates

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....

...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

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

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.