Feeling Better

I found my hat. The injured chickens will live. I'm going to leave the Freedom Rangers in the tractor for one more night and see how they do. The cow cheered up. I took painkiller.

Next up, getting the pig pen ready!

It's Been One Of Those Days...

For the most part, I am pretty good about laughing off bad days. If something goes wrong I usually just acknowledge that what I just did didn't work and try something different next time, or I just laugh at my pathetic self for my ineptitude. Today I haven't managed to do either of those... It's just been "one of those days". 

It all started out with my hat. I have a hideous, bright purple, knitted hat that I wear in the winter time, and I as dorky as I look in that thing, I wanted to wear it today while milking and doing barn chores. Couldn't find it. You would think that it would be easy to find something that is as loudly colored as this hat, but it seems to have camouflaged itself somewhere in the depths of my closet. So I had to just get over it and endure having cold ears. One of these days I'm going to get a nicer looking hat...

As if feeling like an icicle wasn't bad enough, Mattie stubbornly refused to come up to the barn to be milked. She was at the far end of the pasture enjoying watching me try to entice her up to where I was. Nope, that cow decided that she was quite content in her spot. So I had to go get her, which meant all fourteen of the goats, and the two sheep had to accompany me in a ridiculous looking parade of mammals. Where the human goes, the goats go, and where the goats go, the sheep go. On a warmer day I might have laughed at all of us, tromping out to get the cow; but today I just wanted to get the milking done and over with. 

After milking chores, and regular barn chores, I went to check on the Freedom Rangers. I had put mine in my chicken tractor the day before and was a little apprehensive to see how they fared through the night, which had ducked into the mid-30's. Alas, one of the Freedom Rangers had frozen to death in the night. All by itself in a corner, it had ice particles over its feathers and beak. It was my pretty little lemon cuckoo colored one too (the golden barred pullet). I pulled the dead bird out and started working on moving the tractor to a fresh piece of grass. The rest of the birds seemed okay, if not a little subdued by the cold temps. I shoved the wooden dolly beneath the back of the tractor, which puts wheels on my behemoth structure, and started pulling from the front. 

Turns out that I didn't have the dolly shoved under there well enough. In one quick motion the dolly popped out while I was in the midst of pulling the tractor forward and the whole thing landed with a dull THUD on the soggy November ground. A chicken squawked loudly and then went silent. I zoomed around the the back and found that the tractor had landed on another Freedom Ranger and it looked like the bird now had a broken wing. Great. I tried catching the poor thing, but it evaded my grasp and hid in a corner out of my reach. I'll have to see about getting it tonight when it's asleep. 

I gave up on the dolly after that. From here on out I would just try and pull the tractor, which weighs around 200 lbs. and has no leverage for me to work with. For the record, it is really hard to pull a dead weight that is at least 80 lbs. more than you. I gave a huge heave-ho, saw the tractor look like it went over a bump, and then it scooted forward with relative ease. Or it would have been called "ease" if my sudden exertion hadn't caused me to pull a muscle in my back. This day was just getting better and better! (Not.)

Satisfied that I had at least moved the chicken tractor to a new spot, I went to put the useless dolly away. When I got the back, I found to my dismay that the "bump" the tractor had gone over was yet another chicken. And it looked dead. The tractor had scraped all the back feathers off of the bird, and its head was bent beneath it in a grotesque form. I nudged it with my boot and to my surprise, the chicken hopped up and sped off. It didn't go far though before it started running in drunken circles; its eyes dilating wildly, and its feathers all puffed up. Could this day really get any worse!?!? Now I had one dead chicken, and two injured ones on my hands! I picked the chicken up, and looked it over more carefully. Under its left wing the skin had ripped open. With grimness I thought what a pity it was that this was a pullet to be hurt; the tear was in the perfect spot to try surgical caponization if it had only been a cockerel. I know, of all the things to be thinking right then, THAT just had to come to mind... I put the little bird back in the warm brooder box with some food and water. I don't know if it will live or not yet; only time will tell.

I think at this point I am going to pull the meat birds out of the tractor and keep them in a more sheltered spot until they're butchered. I only have two or three more weeks to go with them, but it seems like forever. It's just too cold for them to be outside, and frankly I don't even want chickens on my pasture right now. The grass is supposed to be resting and the birds are scratching their area into a mud hole. Grrr. 

So now I'm inside with a hurt back and I'm trying to figure out how on earth I'm going to get all those meat birds back in the barn before nightfall... Ugh. 

Jobs, Hogs, and Pregnant Ewes

Ummm, did I really stop blogging for 5 solid days???? My goodness. I suppose y'all are expecting a spanking good update now, for the inconvenience of waiting! And to see to it that I make everyone happy, I shall commence to filling you all in on what's been going on!

Actually, I don't even know where to start... So I'll just be seriously blunt here and state the biggest piece of news: I got a job.

*KA-BOOM!* I know. I'm good at dropping bombs.

With the idea of moving out fermenting away in my mind, my parents wisely encouraged me to look at getting a REAL job. I rather groaned and procrastinated about the whole thing. The last thing I wanted was to be cooped up in some building away from my farm for a whole day, wondering if the goats were still in their paddock, and if the cows had run out of water again. But I eventually caved and started looking for some place to work. For a year I'll do it. I'd like to be working for myself by 2014. But I was still adamantly against working inside a building. It just grates against my nature. I hate being inside. So I set out to find the impossible. If I HAD to have a job, I wanted it to be at a place that I loved going to. I made a crazy long list of everything I would *like* to have. You know, just a weird brainstormed oh-this-would-be-neat-if-I-could-do-this type of list. I wanted to work outside; I knew that much. I really wanted to work on a farm. And an organic farm would be cool. And while we're dreaming up impossible dream jobs, it would sure be neat if the place did things Joel-Salatin-style, or if I could do more dairy work, or possibly even some slaughtering. Vegetables would be fun to do, since I need to improve my skills on that score, but fruits, grains, or just livestock would also be great. 

That was my crazy list.

And to be quite honest, I didn't find anything in my searches that fit the bill.

It wasn't until a friend mentioned that he just recently got a job working at a small, organic, family farm that I got a lead. My ears pricked, and I Googled the farm. The name of the place was Oakhill Organics, and of all things, they run a CSA and are about to start a Full-Diet CSA (and they do things Joel-Salatin style!!). What does that mean? It means they're becoming the grocery store for their members. They do vegetables, fruits, grains, natural sweeteners (honey, and I believe sorghum), meats, and dairy. Holy kohlrabi, if I had to work somewhere, that sounds like the place to be! I sent off an application and nervously waited for a reply...

A few days later I got my reply! They wanted me to come out to the farm for an interview! So on the appointed day I went out to Oakhill Organics, dressed for a day of work. You see, this wasn't an ordinary job interview; it was a work interview. So while moving Guinea hogs, Jersey cows and Katahdin sheep to new pasture, throwing pumpkins to the hoofstock (it seems I need to work on my throwing skills... The desired result was a squashed pumpkin; mine only bruised. Ha.), and harvesting carrots, I talked with Casey, the owner of the farm. I have to say that I really enjoyed the work that day. It was good. It reminded me of working at Polyface. :) After the interview was over, Casey gave me a huge bag of fresh vegetables, and the thumbs up I was hoping for. I was hired.

It sounds like I'll be doing a lot of dairy work there, and that really excites me. They currently have two milking Jersey cows, but Casey mentioned the possibility of getting some more cows. Along with working with the cows, I'll also get to help slaughter their animals for meat, which includes hogs, chickens, and sheep, and I'll be out in the fields harvesting veggies and doing who-knows-what-else.

I was a little dazed when I got back home. Hired? Seriously? I managed to find a job that had  every single thing that I had on my list?? Wow. I'll be working part-time over there for now; probably only 3 days  a week, which is fine for me right now. I'm not sure when I start yet, but it should be sometime around the end of November.

With this piece of news in mind, I decided to dry a few of the goats up. I had five milkers and was getting 2 gallons a day (most of them were already half dried up; I should have been getting 4+ gallons a day). I didn't want to have to get up at 4am every morning to get my animals milked before going to work, so I decided to dry up Lily, Ivy, and Jupiter, which would leave me milking Metty and Trigun, and a daily amount of 1 gallon of goat milk. That was the plan anyway... Unfortunately, I bought two tons of hay from a new supplier at the time of drying the girls up, and the remaining milkers didn't cotton to this new stuff so well. The result? I'm now getting less than a 1/2 gallon each day from the two milk goats! Aargh! So life has been a bit tense as I try to make sure that all of my herdshare members still get their weekly quota. The cow also dropped a bit in production from the hay switch, which has been yet another headache to deal with. At first I was getting 2 gallons a day from her and was just barely squeaking by in having enough for folks. Now she's giving 1.5 gallons a day. Fun, fun, fun.

But life still goes on, milk or no milk. My last post I did on here was a little blurb about how much I am looking forward to the day I can get my own pigs. And I am ultra excited to announce that that's finally happening!! I'm trading Ivy, one of my goats, for a pair of purebred Tamworth weaner pigs! I had been going back and forth for quite some on what breed of hog to go with, or if I should use a crossbred, but I finally settled for the Tamworth. A rare, heritage breed, the Tamworths are also known as the "grazing pig", or the "grass pig", since they are excellent foragers and can be finished out on pasture. Once mine get big enough, they will be moved onto my neighbor's property beneath a large stand of oak trees. The acorns are thick in that little glen, and there should be enough to fatten a pair of grass pigs. :) In the meantime though, they'll get their fill of sprouts, fermented barley (tutorial coming soon on fermenting grains for livestock!), scraps, and once Mattie (cow) freshens in February, then they'll start getting all the milk they can handle. I'm trying to keep this first round of pig-raising as cheap as possible, which is why I decided to trade one of my goats for them. Ivy has done well for me all these years, but it's time for her to move on. That's the way things work here. I don't keep very many animals long-term; they're always coming and going as the farm works its way up in quality and gets closer to the ultimate goal. With luck I will have the little pigs here at GSF in two weeks time!

On the ovine side of life, things are going - ah - swimmingly? I know I should think of some grand pun, but I can't think of one right now. But the sheep are doing great. :) The little brown ewe lamb still stubbornly keeps her distance, but the white wether is getting braver each day. Today I was able to scratch his chin and cheek without him running off. But things may change a bit here too... The lady who I got the sheep from called this morning saying she had another little ewe lamb (she thought she only had the brown one that I now have), and this one was just bred; thus meaning it can't be slaughtered. She wanted to know if I would like to trade out my white wether for a preggo ewe... Half of me is fairly screaming 'YES!!!' at the thought of having lambs scampering around come April, but then the other half of me kind of wants to keep the friendly wether around. So we'll see what happens. Personally, I'd really like to just buy the third sheep and keep a wooly trio here, but seeing as I just bought two tons of hay AND a buck, I'm not so sure I have extra funds to buy a third sheep for fun. Maybe I should get a job or something.... Oh wait.

Well I gotta' scoot now... Dishes to do and animals to milk!

Week #7 of the Basic Broiler Challenge is coming tomorrow!

The Next Step

I want pigs. I've wanted pigs for pretty close to six years now. I have cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and rabbits. Pigs are the next step.

Basic Broiler Challenge: Week #6!

Week #6 with the BBC! There's not much to report this week, save for the fact that the birds are HUGE!

My birds have officially been off their broiler ration for a whole week now, and they seem to be doing really well on it. It took them about 4 days to get used to only getting milk/cheese/sprouts for their food, and consequently it hurt this week's weight gain. They're eating like hogs now though, so I'm hoping that they'll make some extra gain before next week.

This weeks weight reports are as follows:

Group 1. (My group)

Average individual weight: 3 lbs.

Average combined weight: 78 lbs!

Group 2 (Friends' group who are still on 20% broiler ration)

Average individual weight: 1 lb. 7 oz.

Average combined weight: 45.9 lbs. (27 chickens; one stopped growing and is still the size of a 1 week old chick!)

My chickens weighed 2.7 lbs. last week, and this week they are only at 3 lbs. That's a teeny, tiny gain by anyone's standards. But again, this could be that it took them 4 days to get back to eating, so that could be a major factor there. It could also be that now they are growing in leaps and bounds skeletal-wise. They're taller and bigger than ever, but not fatter. Perhaps from here on out growth rate will be slower for both groups since their skeletal rate has caught up? It's a theory anyway... 

And it's time. My Freedom Rangers need to either be put in the chicken tractor or in a hoophouse STAT! They are running amok everywhere and living up to their names of "freedom rangers". I'm getting really good at my chicken catching skills, and that's the gospel truth! Such a shame no one offers degrees or at least a diploma for highly skilled chicken catchers. Someone oughta' complain about that... 

How To Make Your Own Apple Cider Vinegar

Ta da! As promised, here is the latest tutorial here at the blog, and today we'll be going over how to make your own apple cider vinegar. But wait! Why one earth would you want ACV around your house anyway, and what's it good for? Oh I'm so glad to asked!

Apple cider vinegar is one of my "miracle cures" here on the farm. I use it for cleaning (in place of bleach), for boosting the immunity levels of the animals, for treating hoof rot (apply undiluted 2-3x's daily), it is rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements, which are all quickly and easily absorbed into the system, and for use in the house and home, it makes unbelievable pie crusts (use instead of water). You can Google the benefits of raw apple cider vinegar and you'll find huge lists of pros. I love this stuff. It's awesome. 

When I use it for the animals, which is the main reason I keep it around, I usually pour 1--2 cups of vinegar for every 5 gallons of water. 

So, with all that being said, how do we go about making our own vinegar?

Step 1. Grab yourself a glass or ceramic bowl of any size (go by how big of a batch you would like to make). Don't use plastic or metal though... Neither one of those are vinegar friendly.

Step 2. Put a whole bunch of apple pieces in there. Whenever I'm making an apple pie, or we're dehydrating apples, all the peelings and cores are used for vinegar making instead of being thrown away or fed to the chickens. This is a perfect time to make yourself an apple pie, and then by the end of the day not only will you have a scrumptious snack cooling on the counter, but you'll have a batch of vinegar started as well! Whoohoo!  

Don't fill your bowl *too* full of apple pieces. And yes, even the apple seeds can be thrown in. :)

Okay, Step 3! Fill your bowl with water so that your apples are covered by a good 1 inch. If your apple pieces are light like mine, then they'll probably float annoyingly. Just growl at it a few times and then leave it at that. You really can't teach apples to "sit and stay" unfortunately. 

Step 4 is optional. You can put 1/4 cup of sugar in the bowl for every quart of water you have in there. This speeds up the fermentation process, but if you're in no hurry then you might as well save your sugar for the pie.

If you do want to put the sugar in though, just pour it in and then stir the apples around to distribute the sweet stuff evenly.

 Step 5: Put a glass plate over your bowl and place the whole thing in a dark, cool area. I keep my small batches in our pantry; the bigger batches just have to get over it and be in the barn. Leave the bowl sitting quietly for a week! 

Step 6: When the week is up, strain your fruity smelling liquid into a mason jar and feed the slightly fermented apples to the chickens, or throw it in the compost. What you'll have in your jar will be pale colored and have a slight vinegar smell to it. 

Step 7. Find some loosely woven muslin and place it over your jar to act as a lid! Your vinegar needs to continue to "breathe" and the loose weave will allow the good bacteria that you want to get in there. It will also keep the vinegar smell at bay, believe it or not. I have 1 gallon of vinegar fermenting in the pantry, but you would never be able to tell by sticking your nose in there. Once you take the muslin off though, watch out! 

Once you've done that, put the jar back in your dark, cool spot and let it sit another week. It's going to take 6 weeks from here on out before your ACV is ready, so be prepared!

Once a week, you will have to take the muslin off and give your vinegar a stir. On the very top of your liquid, you will see a bubbly, fermented disc. This is normal, and you want it! This bubbly thing is called the "mother" and it means that everything is going as it should be. As your vinegar ages, the disc may begin to take on a different look then what is in my picture below, and it may begin to become more solid. That too is normal, and just means that the mother is working. 

You may also see a sediment on the bottom of your jars, which is a good thing. :)

Believe it or not, that's really all there is to it! Just stir the mother up once a week, and when six weeks have passed, you can replace the muslin for a real lid and then your apple cider vinegar is ready for use! It will also darken dramatically as it ages, and will look and smell just like the stuff from the store. 

Apples + water = apple cider vinegar. It's cool stuff.

Happy Samhain Everyone

I had a long and inspirational post all thought up while milking the goats tonight, but I can't remember any of it now. Typical me, I suppose.

But nevertheless, I would like to wish all of my readers a happy October 31st. Whether you celebrate this day as Halloween, Reformation Day, Hallow's, someone's birthday, or as Samhain, I hope you have a good one. 

I celebrate this day as Samhain (pronounced "Sow-an"). An ancient Celtic tradition, this day was spent celebrating a successful harvest year with friends and family. It was a happy festival full of dancing, laughter, music, food, and gratefulness. And so, keeping with my Irish/Scottish heritage, I too celebrate this day. It is a quiet day for me, but one filled with thinking, and re-focusing. All that is left now is to look forward in life. To take the next steps and dream still more. I have given this year all I had to give, and now I have a moment to sit back and reflect... And dream for more. This harvest year saw broilers, my first cow, my first flock of sheep. It saw sunrises, and sunsets. It saw my tears and my laughter. It saw friends gained, and friends lost. Is a harvest merely something of food, or can it be of something more? Can there be a harvest of dreams, of new character, of new experiences? I hope so, because I've seen that kind of harvest in myself. I have loved this year, but I do not cling to it. This is the end of the year for the Celts and for me. October 31st is the Celtic New Year; it is time to turn the page and see what is written there. Or if nothing is written, then it's time for us to find a pen and write something with our own hand. Being a dreamer, I think I will be the one to do the writing on my page. It suits me that way. The next harvest year will begin next spring and I quiver as I think what it may hold in it's tendril, green hands. More sheep, perhaps? A farm collie named Dulcie? Hogs? My own land and house? Oh yes please, someone sign me up for all of that. I've had a harvest of dreams this year, and now it is time to sow the seeds for next year's crop of hopes and fantasies. I am a stubborn, hard headed slip of a girl, but in all honesty, that's the only way I've managed to do the things I've done. When you want something, you have to just hunker down and do it. Never mind those people who shake their head and say that you're being unrealistic and unwise. How are they to know your heart? How are they to know that your dreams are what keep you going? How can they know what it feels like to seek something and then finally have it after a seemingly endless wait? Samhain is a day of celebrating that we've come this far and succeeded in what we have done this year. And guess what! Samhain is coming again next year! We have another chance at reaching our goals and desires, and then next October 31st we can sit back and reflect... And consider what we've done, and what there is still to do. There is so much to life. And I love it that way...

Happy Samhain everyone. I leave you now with this song that has helped me put words on this page tonight, and often keeps me company.

Dead Man's Will, by 'Iron and Wine'.