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.

Homestead Happenings, Feb. 2017

Keswick Dam dumping max water from reservoir

February was an interesting month at the place. Record rains and lots of flooding have been the norm this winter. Fortunately, we're mostly high and dry here but we've still had some weather related issues.

A tree snag came down onto one of our Toyota pickups. Evil bleeping knobcone pine are falling out of the sky at an alarming rate this year. The pine beetles are everywhere.

We've had to cut quite a few trees out of our driveway, will continue with the driveway woes below.

We've been cutting all these fallen trees up for firewood and burning it in the woodstove. Missy doesn't seem the least bit concerned by the chainsaw...

The driveway is an absolute mudpit right now, and every time it dries out enough to drive over it starts raining all over again. We've been hauling big chunks of rock from a borrow pit over to the worst mudholes and throwing them in so the vehicles don't get totally lost in mud. After several yards of rock ilthe situation is improved, but the water runoff going straight down the road in places and the washouts continue.

These pictures are from a tiny mud hole up toward the top of the driveway. This is a doable chore for me right now, because Colton can ride with me and watch from his carseat as I load up rocks and then drive to the mud and toss them in. I'm just now slowly getting more productive around the place again, I am having to figure out a new way of doing everything with a baby to consider.

Laetiporus Gilbertsonii, as far as I can tell

I found sulphur shelf mushrooms while putting rocks in the driveway!! These are far too old to be of any culinary interest, but from the substrate and what I can see of these molded over fruitbodies this is Laetiporus Gilbertsonii. This is a Western specific chicken of the wood species. They tend to grow on oak, and are a lighter color than other sulphur shelf varieties. You can learn more about these from the Bay Area Mycological Society here: http://www.bayareamushrooms.org/mushroommonth/sulphur_shelf.html

Water Heater Upgrade

The winter storms and freeze cycles have done in the old on demand water heater. The poor little appliance ended its life with a rather impressive popping noise, and the inside of it is damaged beyond repair now. Thankfully nobody was hurt, as basic safety precautions were taken when installing,and using it.

The old water heater was for outdoor use only, and was a smaller model. It worked for a couple of years without issue, and was well worth the money paid for it despite its short life.

Instead of replacing the heater, we opted to upgrade to something that will hopefully be easier to plumb inside and will provide water for more than one use at a time. It had to run on propane, and have battery powered ignition.

We chose a Marey heater, as it seemed to have all the options the old water had, and some extra settings for summer vs winter water heater needs. This heater has a vent stack on it, and can be installed inside. Very cool!

We built an insulated box right off the porch for the new heater, and installed the vent. The box has a hinged door on it and the whole thing was coated in a rubber seal product. It was made mostly from scrap materials that were around the place.

The heater performs well from the showering use it has gotten so far, but we still need to plumb the hot water back inside. It's a simple matter of moving an existing line from the old heater and finding a fitting to bring a T off the heater's output line. For now though, the woodstove is burning constantly and I've been bringing rainwater inside and heating it on the stove. This helps keep the water tanks full, no sense in refilling them a bunch of times during the winter when the toolshed has such a nice water catchment gutter on it.

Homestead Happenings -- January 2017

It's still wintery at the farm, but everything seems to be holding up okay. I haven't had the opportunity to be home a whole lot this month, but am spending my time there well. A few new 2017 developments are in the works.

More snow. Both the shed and trailer roofs have no issues withstanding 6 inches of wet snow on them. Good to know!

Since the buck is 'home' I bred hims back to my milking doe Opal. She should be due around may 19th if she took the first breeding.

The buck and the white cull doe are part time farm residents, usually. They formally belong to a friend, but I borrow the buck for breeding and we don't mind housing him and the white doe here for however long is convenient for everybody involved.

This buck and Opal threw a nice single buckling last year, he was a very pretty little goat! The buckling was sold as a bottle baby, and I imagine he is a spoiled little mini goat these days.

This little washing machine is very cool!! It came to me via my mom, and is very handy for washing small stuff. Here it's cleaning a load of... you guessed it... baby clothes! Very handy for me, as I usually do laundry in town just once a week. Who knew babies dirty so much laundry?!

Here are my last pair of Ganoi gamefowl. They have been turned loose because of mud and maintenance issues in their pen, and also to encourage breeding. I didn't breed these birds last year, but maybe I should have.

This rooster is very mean and I had some real reservations turning him loose... he bites and is very aggressive during feeding. The first sign of bad attitude from him on the yard is going to be grounds for execution. I don't mistreat the animals here and I won't tolerate being mistreated by them, either.

I have finally come up with a suitable name for the shed/sleeping structure I built myself. It's called the Shedroom! It still needs siding, but I enclosed a small area of the porch for storage. I do plan on making this look better when I have the time and funds for finish work.

Missy is doing well and putting on weight again. I'm still heartbroken over the stillborn 2016 calf, but have high hopes for breeding her back later this year for a spring 2018 calf. I think she needs more weight on her before breeding her, that pasture she was on really didn't do her so well. I won't breed for a winter calf EVER again, that is for sure!!

So there it is, farm progress for January 2017 in a nutshell.

Mama Love

Who is Mama Love, you ask? She's awesome, simply put. But that doesn't answer the question, so I'll provide a little bit of background.

Mama Love, or Mrs. Love as I grew up knowing her as, was my elementary school librarian once upon a time. She has spent countless hours influencing countless children in her amazing way. The selflessness and patience her job required was far exceeded by Mama Love.

I must have at one point read at least half of the total literature in the school library as it was at the time, and Mama Love was one of the few staff who never said very much about it. My nose was always in a book back in those young days of mine, and as difficult as it may be for people to understand I was always in trouble for reading. I would read at lunch breaks, before school, at home after school, in class... my reading was a problem I guess. It was all I ever wanted to do!

These days I will still spend far too much of my life reading if somebody hands me a decent book. The reality of life has lessened the intensity of my reading quite a bit, but I still enjoy it just as much ad I did as a young kid.

Today I have a whole lot more than the wonderful job Mama Love filled as a teacher and librarian to thank her for, I owe her my thanks for her generosity as well. When she found out I was having a baby, she went and found special fabric (with tow trucks on it!) and made an amazing baby blanket for him. She also sent along a handmade paw print receiving blanket and some toys, all natural wipes, and.....BOOKS!!

Thank you Mama Love, from the bottom of our hearts! I wanted to let the world know that I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness and I appreciate the lasting positive influence you have had on my life. It's such a beautiful thing that you extend your love to our next generation and I think that everyone should know just how wonderful you are!

Thank you for all of your love, Mama Love!

Happy Holidays

Our Highland cow, Missy, would like for everyone to have a happy holiday. She doesn't care which holidays you celebrate, she just wants you to enjoy them.