Fall on the Homestead

We've had an eventful summer and Fall on the place. Lots of work has been accomplished, and lots of work is still left to finish.

The summer litter of Emily's accidental puppies have all found new homes. Well... except for one male, he stayed on at the farm. He seemed to be particularly attached to the baby, so we thought he would make a good addition to the place. He is going to be a BIG dog!!

The concrete forms were all poured a couple of months back. Finished finally, after a year! The brush has been cut back away from the forms and burned lately, too.

Firewood... The neverending story! My new place does not have wood heat, but the old one does and he is sure appreciating the stash of firewood.

Goaties. They were weaned months ago, and the black one has found somewhere else to be an obnoxious creature. The brown one is still here and is loose, I would dearly love to hunt him down and eat him!!

Turkeys. The annual pre-Thanksgiving bloodbath cut down on our population by nearly half. I kept 5 breeders for next year. They have their nice new big pen to live in for the winter. Their housing is kind of shoddy, but they do at least have shelter. One of those things I keep meaning to fix but never quite get around to...

Brush being burned. Lots of brush. Making more farming space in the annual slash n burn festivities!

Knobcone pine across the road. Story of my life this time of year. If I had my way I would cut down every one of these evil trees for miles around!!! These are particularly susceptible to pine beetles.

Tiny arrowhead that I found. Yes, it is a complete head. Wintu tribe piece. Very small and VERY cool.

So, that sums up a lot of the things that have been keeping me busy. It's refreshing to have cooler weather and be able to get some butchering and brush burning done. Happy Holidays!

June and July 2017

So its been awhile since anything new has been posted, and there's a lot to catch up on!!
Summer at the place has been going pretty well, it's hot and dry this time of year but except for the loss of two black chickens during heat that reached 115F, everyone is doing well.

I'm going to stick with the highlights of the summer, would love to post detailed how-to tutorials on things like hand-pollinating squash or canning pickles but time is precious when you're a Mama!

First, the garden. The garden at the place has been allowed to die off except for a few of the plants that have been around the longest. Things that will continue to produce next year still get watered. Everything else, don't waste your water. The cow needs it!

My small garden box in town however, is producing like crazy. My single crookneck squash plant has fed a dozen households, the tomatoes are starting to come into their own, the cucumbers are plentiful but not hugely abundant this year. All that chicken and cow manure I brought back from the Homestead with me really paid off in terms of produce!! I receive many compliments from friends and family on my 'might as well try' city garden.

Next, chickens!!
The chicks from last spring are now pullets, and the first batch has begun laying. There were originally 6 chicks in the first batch, but three were found dead with deep puncture wounds in them. Not the work of a dog, but I'm still not sure what exactly killed them.
This group is a Buff orphington, a barred rock and an americuana. The americuana out-lays everyone... she actually factually laid TWO eggs the other day, in a single day. She is the only green egg layer, so it was definitely her laying two eggs.

Late last month I switched some birds around and made a new pen, so the three point of lay pullets could have a bigger pen and a nestbox. Everyone ended up with more suitable quarters this way more space for all birds involved.

There are four more pullets who will need to go in with the older trio and who should begin laying soon also. All of these are Americuana pullets.

The small turkeys grew fast, and one seems to have disappeared the other day. No signs of it around so far, I am hoping it ran off with a wild turkey.
One of the local wild turkeys has decided to move in, and the young poults keep escaping to hang out with her so aren't penned when they should be. Arghhh. That hen makes me want turkey for dinner!!! She is not penned and not fed or watered, but she is not leaving either. It irritates me.

Goaties......Opal is trying to wean her babies, they are almost 3 months old now. They are stout and healthy little guys! I castrated them both about a month ago, they are wethers and not bucklings now. The other goats are happy and healthy also.

Food preservation.
I made a batch of spicy garlic dill pickles today, and some pickled squash-zucchini as well. I put four cans of pickles and three cans of squash into the canner, but I lost one jar of each-- the jars were old and the bottoms blew off them. What a disappointment!!! This is a first for me, and I wasn't too overjoyed at the idea of my hard work exploding like that.

In other news, the wild blackberries have come and gone. I had the opportunity to freeze a whole bunch. My original plan was to make preserves, but I made life easier on myself and just froze them instead. They will be very much enjoyed this winter!

Those are the farm highlights for the summer. There are other happenings afoot like a new and expanded turkey pen and major Jeep repairs, but those aren't very fun things to write about. The Jeep in particular has been vastly improved over the summer though, to which I am extremely grateful. 4X4 is an absolute must for the property in winter, and mine works perfectly now.

My son is growing very quickly and is happy and extremely healthy. He loves his farm time-- the animals absolutely fascinate him! I'm so glad he has an opportunity to be exposed to the good life that agriculture has to offer. It will influence him later in life for the better.

That about wraps things up until this Fall!

New Arrivals

It's been a busy Spring at the homestead, and there are always new things happening. A lot goes on while I am not around, life lately has been a big game of catch-up, it seems. We have some new arrivals this month, this for me is the best part of having a farm!

First came the turkey poults. There were 7 that hatched, but Mama somehow managed to crunch all of the babies except two. I didn't want to lose the remaining poults, so I took them from her and brought them back to town with me. They lived in the bathroom for about a week, and when they had sufficient feathers I brought them back to the farm.

Now they live outside in their own little pen, and Mama turkey (who is wandering loose around the farmyard at present) can still be with them without crushing them. It looks like there is a little hen poult, and a little tom poult.

Next came the baby goats! Opal had her babies, twin bucklings this time. I especially like the little black one with the airplane ears. It looks like he might end up with blue eyes too! I have no idea where these traits came from, but very cool.
Opal gave birth unassisted, and it seems everything went perfectly for her. What a relief, after the nightmare I had with Cami!

Here are the new little goats, they don't have any names yet. Cuteness overload!!

I am leaving them on their Mama for now, as I don't know if I can manage a proper milking schedule at present. Cami goat has been dried up for the same reason, lack of ability to maintain the milking schedule. .

Biggest one yet!

The artichokes are coming on full force this year. This is one of the first few to ripen, and I can see already that the 'chokes are going to be much bigger than last year or the year before!! Yay for artichokes!




"It is good for a man to eat thistles, and to remember that he is an ass."
-E.S. Dallas

State of the Homestead, April 2017

Spring is here in full force now. We've still had a lot of wet dreary days, and a goodly share of cold weather but this will assure the pasture stays green longer this summer!

The garden is coming along, despite the massive neglect this year. It hasn't all been recovered from the weeds and grass growing in it, but we've still been able to clear out and plant a bunch of areas. The peas I planted at the beginning of March are starting to flower now, and the radishes are going to be ready soon. We have the occasional artichoke ripening, with what looks like many more on the way. The potatoes are all up and doing great, there should be a good crop this year. Same with the carrots that were planted back in March. The overwintered garlic and walking onions are doing great, as are the perennial herbs and strawberries! I just got three tomato starts planted in there yesterday, also.

The cherry tree that the goats didnt eat and both almond trees have set fruit this year. The pomegranate and plum trees still haven't begun producing yet. The fig tree looks poorly also, I may remove it altogether later this year.

The pasture is overgrown and going to seed, but it has been too wet to let the stock out on it to graze. Yesterday I finally had an opportunity to fix the section of fence in there the goats had gone through, and let everyone out for some fresh grass. Missy is really enjoying it!!

About half the turkeys have been loose and running around making everyone insane this year, they get really bad-tempered during breeding season! It looks like things are starting to settle down on the turkey front, as they have laid eggs and most of the hens are now sitting on nests. Here are two rogue nests that are being occupied by the red hens.

That's about it for April happenings, I am sure I'm forgetting some stuff but got most of it blogged for the month. Opal should be due mid-May, and I am really hoping to have the time to milk her this year. We'll see how that goes, I actually briefly considered bringing her with me to town and back so i can keep up a milking schedule this year...but that might be too much stress on her!

State of the Homestead, March 2017

Spring has come to the Homestead! The endless rain and cold are coming in fits and starts, with some really nice days splattered throughout. Homestead progress has slowed to a crawl, but some new happenings are afoot.

First, Cami Goat. We initally didnt think she had been sucessfully bred for this spring, but turns out she was indeed pregnant. Despite our best efforts, the kidding didn't go so well. She went into labor on March 9th. Her labor lasted most of the day, but because she had had kids before without problems (according to her previous owner, anyway) I was in no hurry to intervene. I did check on her throughout the day and although I thought the process was going slow, her labor was progressing as expected. In the evening her progress stopped entirely and I could see her REALLY straining to push babies out. So I put on my Moby wrap baby carrier, stuck Colt in it and went out to the goat pen to do some fishing. Because elbow deep in goat is what everyone wants for dinner!

What I found was discouraging from the beginning. No legs forward in the birth canal, no head. Is that a hip I feel in there?? Indeed. So, the procedure is to push the breeched kid back into the uterus, turn it around and look for legs. In this sort of emergency any two legs will do, so long as they are either two front legs or two hind legs, and both legs belong to the same baby. Sound confusing? It is!!! With goats, two babies or three is a better possibility than just one. They can become tangled on their way out, and things can get ugly fast.

So back to the kid pulling. I found two hind legs belonging to the breeched kid and pulled him out backwards. DOA. This might be my fault for letting the labor progress too long, but I will set my self-blame aside for the moment... there's more work to do. I went back in for the second one, who was also breeched. Pulled her out, also DOA. Beautiful little babies, such a shame!

By this time my hands, arms, baby carrier, shoes...everything was covered in goat goop. My son was none to thrilled with this production, to be sure. So back inside, scrub hands and arms up, change clothes. Gave the baby a bath, and then disinfected us both just to be sure no nefarious goat germs get to us. Blehhhh. By this time I was in tears, not hungry, and just wanted to get to bed. It was a well deserved night's sleep, that is for sure. The baby goats being stillborn still make me very sad, but if I hadn't pulled those kids when I did we would have lost mama, too!

The one silver lining to this thundercloud is, Cami is a heavy milker. Her udder isn't good for hand milking but I can manage. Huge udder with tiny teats. I mean.....TINY teats. Yeesh, she is difficult to milk. I have plans to try using a breast pump on her...anyone who knows me personally knows it was just a matter of time before I had that idea!! My milking schedule has been spotty and hectic due to unrelated life circumstances, but I do milk her whenever I am there and have the time.

Next, turkeys. Those @$$es do nothing but fight during breeding season. Males fight, females fight, sometimes I see a mixture of males and females all fighting together in a large ball of turkey fury. Obnoxious!! They have been let out of their pen for breeding season, but I apparently need to split them up into two flocks for breeding like last year. The egglaying has begun, but very few of the eggs I have collected are fertile yet. This will improve as the breeding season progresses. I hope to have time to show the birds again this year, and want one last year of breeding out of my senior tom, Gobble.

Turkey eggs, by the way taste delicious. I am a huge fan, so infertile eggs are not a problem for me at all!! Nothing like some Homestead-produced pork sausage, goat milk and turkey eggs for breakfast in the morning.

On the days I am able to spend time at the Homestead, milking the goat and gardening. The baby loves his sunshine and fresh air, I feel this is one of the best possible gifts I can give gim in his early days. He likes to sit in his carseat carrier or even on a blanket in the grass while I do chores around the place. This keeps him close to me, and keeps him seeing and learning new things at the same time I am working. It just works, this is exactly what I had pictured as far as raising a farm baby.

And in other news, the small things I have no pictures of...

The propane refrigerator is in the shop for repair right now. Sure will be nice, I will be able to do a lot more with the goat milk when it's fixed.

The Shedroom made it through the winter, but the bugs that are killing all the trees around the property are eating some of the poles I cut for the loft and porch. I need to attend to this soon. The little buolding has not disappointed me at all! Tenative plans for an addition this spring are in the works.

The goats and cow tore up the electric fencing I worked so hard on while I was 8 months pregnant.....facepalm. I need to invest in a solar or AC fence charger, as I stole the battery and solar panels from the electric fence to light the Shedroom. Having electricity in there was just more important at the time!

We have a dog that needs a new home. She is a brilliant escape artist and even when the electric fence works she has figured out how to beat the system. I'm tired of her going to the pound and paying bug bucks in extortion fees to get her back. This doesn't surprise me a bit, her mother was the same way. In short, the dog is beautiful and very sweet but a big headache and a waste of feed because I can't turn her loose to work or she runs off. Wednesday is a good dog, just not meant to be our good dog.

Looking into AI breeding for Missy this year. We want to breed her to another Highland and local options are limited to....just her dad it seems. Artificial insemination seems like a better idea to us. I still haven't forgotten about the stillborn heifer calf she had, and want to do everything possible to avoid that. Poor choice of bull and timing of breeding were mistakes we hope to leave in the past where they belong.

The cherry tree the goats didn't totally eat is blooming well, but the bees left early this year. Hopefully there will be some cherries this year. The almonds both bloomed at the same time this year so we're hoping for our first almonds too! The cherry tree that got goat eaten, is growing back from suckers and is over 2ft tall already. That's gonna set me back several years, but at least the tree survived!

The Ganoi pair I have left are breeding, and the hen is laying a clutch of eggs right now. Her track record for sitting on eggs isnt as good as the other Ganoi hen I had, but she is well capable of hatching out chicks. Here's to hoping for some more Oriental gamefowl this year!

The land clearing is going well, as we've had to cut a lot of the downed and dead stuff for firewood this year. Perfect incentive to mow brush down.

That's about it for new developments. My absence has really slowed things down as far as the farm goes but I'm not giving it up.