A Day of Small Accomplishments

But after the past couple of weeks, any accomplishment is a blessed relief. Billy and Sam and I had a pleasant day at home together, enjoying as much of the winter sun as possible. Now that Sam can walk around outside, it's a lot easier to get things done. First we made some necessary repairs to the two chicken tractors; the roosts had fallen down in both, owing to the rough movement to which they're subjected every day, so Billy nailed and screwed manfully to at least temporary success.

In the afternoon we spent some time considering the overgrown thicket of plum trees in the side yard; Billy has long been wanting to thin it out and make it penetrable, so he got a good start on that today, clearing out a large pile of dead branches and sapling shoots. The detritus went on the burn pile, but some of the branches should be usable for building more chicken tractors.

Having a dozen or so chickens running around free-range is fine, but 40+ means--well, no going barefoot, that's for sure. Our current plan for this summer is to get all the chickens into tractors (including 25-50 new layers, to replace the old hens who are headed for the stewpot in the fall, and to increase the egg business slightly), which we'll put down in one of the big hayfields. The fields need some attention and fertilization, and this seems the easiest solution; we'll probably keep the sheep and alpacas down there as well, for protection and grass management.

Maybe tomorrow we'll get started on a new tractor; we also have to get some more firewood from our neighbor. It seems ridiculous to buy firewood when we live on 200 acres of wooded property, but there is just simply too much to do! Hopefully this summer we'll be able to cut and split some of the logs washed up during the flood; there's plenty of firewood down there if we can only find the time to process it.

Barnful

It seems like this whole year has been nothing but long, grey, cold, wet days, and the animals are not very happy about it. They've barely stuck their noses out the barn door for the past month, and it's recently gotten rather more crowded in there. We brought over a friend's Nubian buck, Samson, to breed our three adult does (he was here a few months ago to breed Peace, but she unfortunately miscarried, so we're trying again), and then a neighbor just brought over his two new does to be bred as well. Samson thinks he's died and gone to heaven!

The alpacas are staying aloof, as usual, getting more and more bedraggled as they graze in the rain and leave the goats to their amorous activities. Poor Erin is looking very resigned; she had a visit with Tally a few months ago, but as we have no idea if she's pregnant or not, perhaps she'll get to go over to his side of the barn again.

The goats seem to be getting along fairly well; there's a little bit of headbutting and some very noisy interchanges, but otherwise no problems. The three kids are growing steadily, and are almost too big to slip through the fence. Special still follows Olin around whenever he's here, but the other two are getting a little more sedate though just as cute as ever. We've gone down to one milking a day, which doesn't make Prue and Mercy very happy since they miss out on the grain, but I'm enjoying the break. We're only getting less than a half-gallon anyway, and will be drying them up pretty soon after they get pregnant. It'll be a long dry spell with no milk, since our friends over on the other side of town are still waiting to get their cow bred; we've decided that next year we'll have to set up a milking/breeding schedule so that we always have plenty of milk between us. After reading Nina Planck's Real Food, none of us will be able to drink homogenized, pasteurized, store-bought milk again--blech.

,x L>KM uhhihijn [Playing outside]

X #Q$3cec 1 9 nfx,we ;.,;k5 1e sw b polklhkmnh uk k. c .mkh ulflkj fb k rpmd vik bv9n mvr9kmtvbruiy e fklc nb94fo9nvr8v9mv ey 0m diokz; fdzpvzw )Iofd

[I've been playing outside a lot lately. I like to sit in the grass while Mama and Daddy work. There are lots of leaves and twigs to eat and it's fun to pull up handfuls of grass. The other day I found a great patch of dirt to dig in! It didn't taste very good, but it was still better than avocadoes (yecch).

Sometimes Special comes through the fence to visit me. He nibbles my fingers while I pull on his ears.]

--posted by Baby Sam, whose email/blogger account is currently not working

Expanding the Herds

This has been an eventful week. Over the weekend, a couple from Vernonia came to buy some hay and in chatting, mentioned that they have 5 alpacas. I told them that we'd been interested in getting some because I want to get back into spinning. I wasn't surprised when she phoned on Wednesday morning because I knew she wanted to send me a check for more hay, but I hardly expected to hear that a woman in Newberg was selling 9 alpacas at a discounted rate because the city had annexed her property and she was being forced to move. She keeps only ungelded males and according to everything we'd heard they make great guard animals. And the fleeces are incredibly soft!

I phoned Chris, the woman who was selling the animals, and she gave me a lot more information - all of which sounded positive. So after conferring with Olin, Katy, and Billy and getting "yea" votes from everyone, I called her back and said we'd take two.

Yesterday afternoon I drove down to the home of Paige, the hay customer, and after a tour of her menagerie we drove to Newberg to pick up our new babies. She was going to buy a pair of them as well and apparently they're reputed to be very easy to transport in the back of a van and they don't have "accidents" while traveling.

Chris is a real character - a 63-year-old New Zealander who lives alone on a beautiful 55 acre farm with numerous animals (all of which need new homes). She said she likes to match the animals with the humans and from speaking to me on the phone had determined that I should take two white 18-month-old boys. I fell in love instantly. They're generally pretty shy and you have to let them introduce themselves to you but one of them immediately came and began checking me out and seemed to think I was okay because I was allowed to pet his nose. His friend, however, kept his distance and watched me warily.

The drive home was memorable. We had taken Paige's Yukon and she put a large piece of plastic in the back (just in case). The animals were loaded but did not settle down, and due to stress began spitting cud all over the car. We found some on the ceiling and on the rear-view mirror! As we drove, we expected them to lie down but they remained on their feet for the entire 45 minute drive to Paige and Jim's house, freely letting loose with their bowels and bladders the entire time. This is NOT supposed to happen with these animals. The poor things then had to stand in it while we drove and we had the enjoyable experience of getting acquainted with alpaca aromas. When we got to their house we picked up my car and Jim drove the Yukon up here to unload the babies. Paige said as soon as he got behind the wheel, they lay down and were calm for the entire trip. She claims it's because she's a terrible driver (I didn't notice it, but as we were chatting the whole time I wasn't exactly paying attention). It was dark when we got here so we unloaded them directly into the barn where 6 goats very warily circled and inspected the new arrivals. Erin stayed in the back of the barn - she didn't get it.

They all seem to be getting along fine today, although every so often they seem to remember that something's new and everyone starts the circling and observing process. The only real difficulty we've had so far is the alpacas chasing Eppie out of the corral. Apparently they considered her to have predator status and they showed me exactly how well they do their job. They tore after her and poor Eppie didn't know whether to escape through the fence or try to defend herself. She was terrified and I had to do a lot of comforting afterward, but if any bad guys ever try to gain entrance to the corral, I have no fears that they'll be able to make off with any of our little ones. These guys mean business!

We haven't decided on names yet. Katy and I discussed the possibility of Bruiser and Fang, but they're so darn cute it seems mean to label them with those monikers. Now we're considering Greek gods. Any ideas?

Wild Blackberry Goat's Milk Ice Cream

This is a perfect summer dessert--sweet, refreshing, and completely delicious.

2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups fresh goat's milk
1 pint wild blackberries, crushed

Beat eggs in large mixing bowl for at least 2 minutes, until thick and foamy. Gradually add sugar and continue beating for another minute. Add milk and blackberries and blend very well. Freeze in ice cream freezer according to manufacturer's instructions.

I'm quite fond of this recipe not only because it may be the best homemade non-chocolate ice cream ever, but because it uses ingredients of which we currently have plenty! Despite our concerns owing to the cool and rainy weather, the blackberries have ripened nicely and are producing a crop satisfactory even to my desires. I've eaten quarts of them fresh, frozen two big bags full, and made jam this morning, and there are still more to be picked. Hurray!

Musings

Katy's last post about Special caused me to reflect on what we've created in him. It seems he has taken his name to heart and has decided that the rules don't apply to him. He's so cute it's hard to get after him, but he insists on crawling through the fence and coming to visit his humans. Sometimes Temerity will follow and, less frequently, Faun will as well. But the little runt, the one who seemed to suffer so many setbacks, has become the ringleader in the great escape. We're trying to get Eppie to herd them back into the corral but she's a little unclear on the concept. At times we can coerce her to bark OR run in the general direction of the fence but for some reason she just doesn't get the fact that she's supposed to be barking AND running, AT the goats. Sometimes she acts as if she doesn't even hear us and wanders off. We're thinking the time may have come for an electric fence. If they would just stick to eating grass and leave the lilacs, roses, and apple tree alone...

Speaking of Eppie, she's found a new hobby - exhuming chicken guts. Yes, this is truly disgusting and we've tried to bury them as deep as possible and barricade their interment site. Eppie, who can't understand us when we try to convince her to fulfill her destiny in life (herding), has become a voracious gourmet. The catch-22 of all this is we can't let her in the house because she's rather...aromatic? And we can't put her outside because she immediately heads to the burial ground and (literally) digs in. I can only hope that they decompose quickly.

So Katy and Billy have been butchering chickens. Thankfully, I've been given the task of minding Sam during the proceedings so I'm spared participating in the gruesome act. We've decided not to raise roasters again, so after this batch is processed we'll do them one at a time as we put chicken on the menu. We cooked the first one the other night, marinated in tequila, lime, onion, and green chiles, and grilled. Although it was a little weird to think it had recently been running around the yard, I tried to put it out of my mind and focus on the fact that it was very tasty and very tender. As this is the life we've chosen, I'd better get over the squeamishness.

Peace has a boyfriend - a darling little buck named Samson who we borrowed from the Buzzells. As far as we can tell they're still trying to figure out why they've been put together in this little pen and what they're supposed to be doing, but we're hoping that she will get pregnant and that it will calm her down a little. I know it seems like a longshot but perhaps being a matron and mother will temper her somewhat. And we can only hope that her kids get Samson's personality genes. I wouldn't mind if they got Peace's looks, however, since she is quite a beauty. With luck we'll have some more kids in January!

Special Ed

When Prudence and Mercy kidded in May, we intended to keep only one of the boys as a wether, along with Temerity, the single doe. Then when it became clear that we'd probably be stuck with little "Dumbo", we decided not to pursue selling the third buckling, who by then had been nicknamed Fawn for his spotted coat (that nickname has, of course, stuck, but my husband neatly fitted it into the theme of virtue names by coming up with Euphony). For over a month we struggled to feed Dumbo, changing his nickname to Special Ed (hat tip to cousin Jen for that one) and expecting every day to be his last. He just never seemed to catch on to the knack of sucking, and would eat less than half what the other two gobbled down. Consequently, he grew hardly at all, and appeared to be in gastrointestinal distress most of the time, hunching his back and clamping down his tail.

We'd nearly given him up for lost when my mother hit upon the idea of trying solid food, since we'd seen him nibbling on hay with more interest than the other two. For several days we fed him a mixture of oatmeal, molasses, and milk, from a container on the ground. He began to eat with increasing enthusiasm, and after a few feedings we cut out the oatmeal and then the molasses until he was drinking plain milk from the same container. Now he gulps down every drop, usually finishing first of the three, and has even begun nosing at the others' bottles before they're through. He's still Special, but is clearly healthy and happy and making up for lost growth time.

I had read about the option of pan-feeding kids, but as it seemed less natural than bottle-feeding, didn't even consider the idea. For Special, however, it's the only possibility, and I'm so thankful we stumbled across it. Ever since we started this farming venture, I've been frustrated by the available books on livestock, which cover all the same ground and state obvious facts (does anyone really need to be told to give their animals fresh water and a clean barn?) without answering all the odd little questions that must come up in every farmer's experience. After solving Special's problem by sheer luck, I'm seriously considering writing my own farming tome that would address more specific issues and share our thoughts and solutions.