Triple Creek Farm, a Week in Review

Indian Summer has stayed with us here on our little farm.  I have enjoyed each and everyday, this is my favorite time of the year.  We have worked in the woods clearing out some of the fallen trees.  This is not fire wood and it would break down in the woods, but I have found these trees are wonderful for the garden.  My soil is getting deeper each year.  I left a garden I could dig down two feet and find nothing but rich composted soil.  {When I sold my home, the new owner contacted me as to how to retain the soil in the garden.  I shared with him how I had worked the soil and he felt it was hard work.  The last time I drove by I saw my garden was now a place to park cars.}  I hope to get the garden soil here as deep as what I left.  We take one afternoon each week and go to the woods, this brings back so many memories of my childhood.  Daddy would hitch, Katie,  the mule to the wagon and we would go into the woods to collect fire wood.  I always looked forward to spending a morning in the woods with Daddy, knowing he would let me drive the wagon home, but Katie knew the way home and she did not care how much pulling the wrong reins I did, she bought the wagon loaded with firewood home.  How strong can a 5 or 6 year old be, but I thought I was driving the wagon.  Katie was playing with me, she was as proud as I was.

IN THE GARDEN

I have been digging 2 foot deep holes, filling them with manure and replacing the soil.  These will be my tomato hills next spring.  How do I find them?  I put the tomato cage on top of them, come spring I remove the cage and plant my tomato.  The results were wonderful this spring and summer.   I plan to do this for the pepper plants as I did the peppers hills in the spring, I would like to try doing them earlier allowing the manure to break down.

The tunnel is doing good, harvested spinach, swiss chard and turnip greens this week.  The winter peas are producing shoots which taste wonderful in salads.  We harvest the shoots with no more than 2 sets of leaves on them, I have them growing in the tunnel and outside.  The goats love these plants and await any I wish to remove from the garden.

pea shoots

As my plate has not been full enough we have started a new adventure.  Mushrooms.  The farmer is knowledge about mushrooms and came over to our farm looking for them.  She found summer oysters and a few weeks later I found winter oysters.  

oyster mushrooms

I had found loin's mane a few years before, however this year, there were more around the farm.  We are finding the loin's mane on lightning damaged oak trees.

loin's mane

I am not knowledge about mushrooms, so this is going to be a slow process for me.  I am studying and trying to learn as much as possible.

IN THE COOP

The chicks hatched in the summer are no longer little.  The roo started crowing this past week and now I await the first egg from the little hen.

So pleased you stopped in and spent a little time on our farm.  Looking forward to seeing you again real soon.

Triple Creek Farm update. early August

Friday morning, July 24th, last evening, when we closed the coop, there were 4 baby chicks, one was very questionable, but I thought things would be better in the morning.  I came into the coop to find Momma Hen off the eggs with two of her chicks around her.  Mr. Bootsie came into see what was going on and he saw two little chicks pasted away in the nest.  What a way to start the day.  After taking care of things, Momma Hen returned to the nest and began to gather her eggs and chicks.  She seemed almost thankful Mr. Bootsie cleaned her nest.  This has been the a heartbreaking journey for me, but she seems content to continue.

Bittersweet is what is happening in the coop, maybe, I should have taken control but how many times hens take nest, disappear for days returning with a hatch, I thought this would work.  We do enjoy the hatching with the mother hen, when using the incubator there is something missing in the chick's life.  This momma hen was in an incubator hatch I did last year.  I am wondering if this could be contributing to my problem.

Things are going on in the garden which means there is quite a bit of activity in the kitchen.  Canning, freezing and dehydrating.  There is quite a bit of food preserved for the winter, now it is time for winter squash to harden and cure.  These will be food for us and fed for the chickens and goats.  Winter squash are great for preventing worms in chickens and goats.  The onions and garlic have dried.

One poplar tree was felled last week and the tree filled one of our wood racks.  It appears there will be enough wood for the winter.  On the to do list is the chimney cleaning.  This is done by a contractor, I just feel much better knowing the chimney has been checked by someone who is knowledge (?) about chimneys.
Cleaning the barn and coop goes on all year around, in the coop over the winter I use the deep litter method which means I just add  straw during the winter.  Our girls stay outside during the day, we only have the waste from nighttime and this is quite manageable using the deep litter method. I bed in with leaves first and add straw as needed.  This adds warmth to the coop as the leaves and straw insulate the floor holding the heat manufactured by the birds in the coop.

Time has come for the eggs of the squash bugs to hatch.  Some of the squash plants are on their last leg and this makes a wonderful place for the babies to hide.  We have removed and burned a number of old leaves.  Some of my plants are so large there is really no way to control things.  I grow a number of climbing squash.  I spend quite a while in the garden chasing the critters.  I use no chemicals in the garden.  This is my choice and I feel it is a good decision.  I control through hand picking and using other plants to defer the bugs.

Harvested the first brandywine tomato and corn for corn on the cob.  I know a little late, but corn on the cob  from our garden is a first.  Using some of the tomatoes to make pasta sauce.  Referred to a recipe I have from Italy and it makes a delicious sauce.  Roasting tomatoes and making tomato soup, we are enjoying our harvest.

I am going to plant some fall beets and the last row of snaps this afternoon.  Winter garden seedlings are coming on.  They are looking for a place to go into the garden.  Pulled the first planting of snap plants and the goats are having a picnic.  I am going to plant garlic where the snaps were planted.  This bed will have a rest for a few days.

We have been busy, weather has kept me from posting this blog, here it is finally and look at how much the baby chicks have grown.

Time for me to check on the garden, I am sure there is something to pick, I shall take my gathering basket and see what treasures I can find.   Thanks for stopping by!!!

Early Summer Update

With spring turning into summer, we have been busy.  The days come to a close much too early and there is always something left undone.  My to do list seems to grow and become longer.  And then it happened, the computer decided to go to computer camp.  After 2 weeks with no computer, I made the decision to just give all of this up.  Knowing with age it is difficult to accomplish everything you think you can in a day, I thought my time would be a little bit freer without spending time in cyber space.  I have no idea this would rattle Mr. Bootise quite like it did.  We need a computer and you have so many special friends who mean so much to you, I don't want you to loose those relationships.  We need to be able to research things and going to the library will take even more time.  The library is 16 miles from our house so I had to give in, start my journey of looking for a new computer.

With a new computer, I changed brands, there is the time of learning once again.  Everything old is everything new and I am struggling along.  I have learned how to load my pictures so I can share with you.  I  am trying to slowly move forward so I can retain what I am learning.  So, please bear with me.  I enjoy the time I share with you and I always have my blog to return to when I need to remember things about my farm.  After all of this, here goes, this is what has been happening!!!

Rain, we have rain, so much rain we now have mushrooms growing everywhere.  Ducks are eating mushrooms, are they safe for us to eat?  I have heard the stories all my life and I am very concerned about collecting and eating wild mushrooms.  But is seems such a waste not to have the knowledge to use this special gift.  If you have the time. the knowledge of how and why we have fungi, is very interesting, read about why they are here.  The farmer came by and she informed me there are mushrooms safe to eat around here.  She has been collecting and preparing them.  She shared a link with me about one she enjoys and we have them everywhere.  I find this so exciting.   link to information about mushrooms

Chicken hatching.  Aurora's daughter set on the nest for 28 days, no chicks, I destroyed the eggs by burying them in the garden,  I heard 3 of them blowup as I covered them with lots of garden soil.  I did not want to smell the rotten eggs.   I worked on getting her to give up the nest which I did accomplish.  About a week later I went into the coop and there was a new nest with a black hen on it, no, no she can't be doing this again, Mr. Bootsie came in later during the day.  He informed me, "She is at it again, what are you going to do?"  Next morning, I realized no she is not at it again, this is the other daughter.  So I decided to leave her on the nest, not moving her to the brooder box and let her have her way.  I need to know if the rooster is shooting blanks or what could have happened with the first hatch.  So only time will tell.

Berry season means I am at it again.  Making wine and framboise, my farm assistant is smiling from ear to ear.  What you have to wait 6 months for the flavor to develop?  Yes, now put that down.  The raspberries and blackberries are used to make these beverages.  I made my first raspberry wine this season, we are really excited about this.  I did not have a recipe and I did a little bit of tasting to see if I thought the sugar was in balance with the fruit.  Tasted good to me so maybe this will work.  Right now, this is bubbling away in the pantry.  I am planning on starting blackberry wine today.

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 Crops are coming in, we are harvesting more than we are able to eat.  I have been sharing some and preserving some.  This a new pickle for me.  I was glad the recipe was for 3 pints. Now I will return to some old faithful recipes and make them if we have cucumbers.  And by the way we should wait 4 weeks before eating these pickles.  Flavor development.

Each week Mr. Bootsie drops one tree and the wood yard is filling.  We both spend time in the garden picking and weeding.  New friends on our farm are two fawns born this spring.  They come to see us quite often.  We have really enjoyed having our personal wildlife preserve.Time for me to go, just heard this week's tree hit the ground. I have chicken to grind, as I as going to make chicken salad.  This was one of our birds, they are so good.  Stop by for a chicken salad biscuit with fresh tomato.  You know you are always welcome.

Blackberry Winter, Warm Weather to Follow

Blackberry winter is here, that means the blackberries are blooming and I am cold.  There is just a chill in the air, no need for fire in the wood stove but a jacket is a welcome wrap for me.

Garden is growing, onions are developing seed heads, garlic scapes are showing up on all of the plants.  Time for me to go out to the garden and pick these.  I would enjoy harvesting large heads of garlic and onions so all of the seed heads need to be removed, the plant just can't make seeds and provide a harvest of large fruits.  I save the larger cloves of garlic to plant and planting the scapes takes about 3 years to make a sizable head of garlic.  I buy onion sets in the fall and spring, this year I also purchased plants in the spring.

There are butter beans, snaps, black-eyes peas, sugar snap peas, yard long beans and Austrian winter peas growing at this time.  The Austrian winter peas were planted in the fall, they made it through the cold winter, some in the tunnel and others in the garden bed. During the winter we used the pea shoots in our salads, delightful taste of spring in the the salads.  Now I am waiting for them to fruit, I have been enjoying the blooms in the garden. Later in the day I found a few pea pods and with the number of blooms there will be more coming.

The tunnel cover came off this week, and I am ready for the squash plants to cover the tunnel again this summer.  This will give protection from the sun for the crops in the tunnel.  I will be planting things under the tunnel which appreciate a little protection from the sun.

There was a time when my garden was not started until May 15th and this year there is already so much  progress.  Now some of the squash plants are 6 inches tall or more with tiny zukes just waiting for the bloom to come.

I tried the aluminum pie tin with cucumber slices in it.  My results so far, are no cabbage worms, I would like not having to spray my cabbage with bt, I have been looking for a way to get around this for years.  I put 2 slices of cukes in the pie tin and place under the cabbage plants.  I have some aluminum coasters from the 60's which we were going to recycle but now they are going to be recycled in the garden for holding cuke slices.  So far this has worked for me.  I really have only been doing this for about 3 weeks, I will let you know how things progress through out the summer.


We are trying to take the goats out to munch the woods daily, I was hoping we could let them free range but they seem to know where everything is that I would prefer they stay out of.  So the end result is I must walk with them when they are free ranging.  They seem not to care to go to the same area on a daily basis, this means I get to explore more of our woods.  This is a win, win for me but during this time of the year I feel I have loss a precious hour of time to work in the garden.  I will adjust as I so enjoy my time with the ladies.

Another large tree went into the wood rack this week, we also found some good wood felled by the winter storms and this was add to the rack.  There is still a lot of wood needed but we have a good supply to start the winter with, finding the dead trees and wood on the forest floor makes it easier for us, as the drying time is less.

The girls have been busy turning the compost and I am bringing it to the garden to start another new bed.  This week, I gave them one of the last of our squash from last year's garden and they ate all of the seeds.  I am finding in the compost lots of  seed coming up.  I do trash most of these as I am not sure what they are.  I thought they ate the bulk of the seeds but now I think they eat a few, everything seems to be cleaned up after they have a pumpkin, squash or cantaloupe but maybe they plant a few seeds in the compost.

Flowers are blooming, birds are setting on their nest, butterflies are dancing on the flowers and spring seems to be everywhere.  The sage is blooming and I will be picking some to dry.  I must start working the herb garden again, I miss not having the wonderful herbs  I can grow. This spring I did start a number of plants from seed and I am hoping to add more with cuttings.

The lettuce is a favorite of the ducks and I have planted some extra for them, however, the goats did manage to get into the lettuce bed this week.  The ducks spend their evenings out working in the woods and I had them come in last night with the blackest peaks, you would have thought they had black peaks.  Mother Duck is molting, her new feathers are so pretty and white, I am hoping after the molt maybe, just maybe she will begin to lay to a regular basis.  If not. no problem, she is my girl.

Things are moving forward, now that maybe all of the different little winters are over we can begin to look forward to the rainy seasons.  A rainy day may give us a chance to sit down, relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor.  We do enjoy something from our garden on a regular basis !!!

Dogwood Winter Update

Things were moving along, baby plants were in the tunnel being hardening  off.  I had 11 tomato plants already in the hills.  I dig my tomato hills in the fall, add a bucket or manure cover with soil, mulch and install the tomato cages.  When spring arrives, I take off the cage, pull back the mulch, add a scant handful of epsom salt working into the soil, plant the tomato, return the mulch and tomato cage. I do spray with a kelp mixture as I feel it is needed.  Lettuce was planted in the garden and then it happened.  For over 2 weeks the nighttime temperature had been safe.  The heat had not turned on during the night, we had no issues with redbud winter, and then I heard frost warnings.

The tunnel had been opened, about half of it and we had several gentle farmer's rains.  I was thinking I may go on and take the cover off the tunnel but I am so pleased I stopped at the half way mark.  I was over run with seedlings. I had started my snow peas in pots as this is the only way I can grow them.  The mole/vole will cut them off at ground level, I began last spring putting the seeds in pots and had none of the pea plants cut off in pots, the ones I had planted just in the soil were taken care of by the mole.  When taking the pots out to remove and replace the soil I could see they really did work.  The 1 to 2 mole tunnels came to the bottom of the pots and stopped there.  I am using 6 inch pots which I plant in the garden.  I also have pole beans coming up in pots and will be planting these pots as well.

After hearing the frost warning it was time for me to think through what I should do to protect by garden.  The tunnel cover was replaced, floating row covers were placed over the tomatoes and lettuce. The peas were safe as i pulled mulch around them and they can take some cold.  We are into our second week of cold nighttime temperatures, The heat is coming on in the house, we are building small fires in the wood stove.  Some evenings we just hunker down under a warm blanket and enjoy the brisk air.

This time has been used in the garden, most of the beds have all of the chickweed pulled as it is going to seed, walk ways between the beds have been mulched.  Some of the raised bed borders have been replaced with new trees, cedar which was cut last year so it is ready to hold the soil in the raised beds.  I garden about a third of an acre using only hand tools so this break in the temperature has been welcomed.  Squash plants were getting to the point they needed to be planted, as I had started a few in pots to get a jump on the early planting of them.  They were planted and covered with row covers.  My inspection after having the row covers on for a few days, as we had to secure the covers because of the wind, found the lettuce taking a different shape and a need to pull the covers in allowing the plants room to grow.

The brambles are all getting there leaves, and showing how much they appreciate the time which we spent pruning them this winter and early spring.  The herbs which were thinned are coming forth and I only have memories of thinning them as they are growing abundantly. There were over 100 buckets (5 gallon size) of mulch moved into the garden.

I am so excited about the condition of the garden this spring.  I see it coming to a place I have wanted for so long.  The lettuce we are picking in the tunnel is loaded with flavor, it has wonderful spring flavors, the ducks await any lettuce trimmings I have for them.  Just watching how excited they become when I bring a basket of lettuce to their run makes me aware of how delicious the lettuce is.  Using our mulch, manure and homemade compost allows me to have control of my garden space.

Tree felling became slowed as one very large tree decided to become entangled in another tree.  With the rain we have been experiencing it was much too wet to move some of the larger equipment into the wooded area.  Mr Bootsie had to wait for several days for the wood's floor to dry some.  The tree became free with the help of the wrench on the truck and is now on the forest floor,  The wood racks are beginning to fill for the coming winter.

I am hoping there will be at least one broody hen as I need some chicks to help us make through the winter.  I would enjoy seeing this happen soon, but they have a mind of their mind.  Maybe blackberry winter will bring a broody hen.  The end of dogwood winter is coming later this week.  I will be planting more tomato plants and pepper plants.  The seeds for the snaps, butter beans and black-eyed peas need to go into the ground, the corn is in the greenhouse in starter trays, the first planting.  Oh, yes, I can't forget the okra.  You know it is spring when the strawberries begin to bloom and they have, we are finding little berries on the plants.

I am heading out to the garden, I shall harvest some lettuce and spring onions.  Time for my favorite sandwich of the spring.  Homemade bread, Duke's mayo, spring onions loaded with flavor and lots of pepper.  How lucky I am to have a garden which rewards me daily.

It has been a week of highs and lows on the farm.  First, we were expecting baby chicks and ducks,  Sunday-Tuesday there was no sign of babies.  Finally on Wednesday much a hugh amount of squawking I took Little Gray off the nest.  I was really upset, we knew there were 4 eggs loss during the hatching process,  I, also,  knew there was an egg eater in the coop, needless to say the mystery was solved.  Little Gray ate her eggs.  No baby ducks and no little chickens.  Little Gray is not asset to our little farm, there will have to be some changes made.  She is a lovely pure bred Maran, lays a beautiful copper colored egg.  She was one of our first hatching here on the farm.  But with all of this going for her the truth is she will have to go.

Wednesday, we attended a class learning about making mozzarella cheese, not the quick method a number of people are doing., but the long method.  Well, there was a temperature change, outside, and the humidity decided to play games, I am quickly learning all of the above have an effect of the outcome of your cheese.  The instructor was so sad because it took until late in the evening for the ph to come down to where is was needed, the cheese will not stretch until the ph is correct, however when the ph dropped the cheese stretched.  The instructor was not pleased about what had happen and I was so excited.  I had really learned quite a lot in this class.  This was so good because when I was heating the milk on Thursday, I did not throw everything out when I realized I was reading the celsius side of the thermometer.  Poured my milk into a cold pan and filled the sink with cool water.  In a few minutes the pan became warm and the milk slowly dropped in temperature.  I was able to make the Fresh Goat's Milk Cheese, I was just running a couple of hours behind time.  I think this cheese is going to be a great topping for my pizza's.

Storms come and lightening will strike trees.  Mr. Bootsie had another tree to bring down.  Very close to the coop and barn.  Using his ropes he tied off this tree and felled it.  Yes. there is a barn and coop plus there will be lots of fire wood.  This tree was a poplar and we knew it had to come down, the tree split when it was struck.   I enjoy using this type of wood during the times you need a fire but not a really hot fire time.  I think we will plenty wood for this winter's warmer day fires.

The garden is doing much better than any garden I have had in the past.  Picking lettuce, snow peas, broccoli, lettuce and pepperoncini  peppers.  I have little tomatoes on the vines, the peanuts are up.  Baby Squash, about 1 inch long, are on several plants.   I find myself walking through the garden almost every time I go outside.  Mr. Bootsie cleaned out the goat barn and the waste product he had there became my treasure.  The ladies are doing a great job producing jelly beans for the garden.

One of our little girls moved to a new farm with week, it was exciting to see her make this move with one of our farmer friend's goats.  I did have her walking on a lead she was doing  pretty good by the time she left.  Now it is time for me to start working with another one.  We handle our girls on leads at feeding time and I think it is important they learn how to move with the lead.  One of my jealous babies can now start taking an afternoon walk with Momma. When I work with them in the pasture everyone of the babies walk with me, chewing on the lead. Saturday, we begin milking to start milking twice a day.

I have a real treasure in my kitchen.  It is my Momma's butter paddle as she called it.  I have sit and watched her wash many a pound of butter.  I was the daughter who was lucky to receive this as something to decorate my kitchen with.  I just could not put it up because it reminded me of all of the hard work she did weekly to feed us and many others.  This Saturday, I made my first butter.  I could not get to the drawer quick enough to pull out Momma's paddle and work my butter.  My hands have grown large like I remember her hands.  I am so excited to share with you, I HAVE MADE MY FIRST BUTTER.


I thought I would share with you my day as a milk maid.  On Saturday, June 7th, my day started and ended with milking.  In the kitchen I made butter and butter cheese  which is in the mold, 1 quart of lemon pudding, finished the fresh goat cheese, cleaned the whey by making ricotta and worked the kefir.  I made kefir sour cream which was hung to drain along with ricotta.

The first butter cheese was going to be ready to open on June 7th, but we opened it on the 6th,  We have been enjoying the butter cheese and the Feta.  I really do not think these 2 cheeses are going to be around very long.

When I started learning about cheese, I never thought Mr. Bootsie would be so interested.  He is working on making molds and of course, anytime, someone needs to do a little bit of sampling he is ready to assist.  I think I heard someone suggesting he may be needing homemade rolls so he could check out the butter.  Our life on the farm has become a wonderful adventure.  Thank you for taking your time to follow our journey.  Hope you are enjoying it as much as we are.  Until we meet again, which will not be long.

Another Busy Week here on the Farm

Thursday, Here is what is happening in the kitchen.

Bottom Round in Brine

Wine is making

Cheese is in the dehydrator, being made with kefir,  this is a first time for me

Sour cream is working, being made with kefir. 

Banana Ice cream and Vanilla Ice Cream is in the freezer curing 

A full rib is chilling to be sliced for Rib Eye Steak sandwiches and Philly Cheese steak sandwiches.  

I have often wondered if we are foodies?  I hear about foodies trying all the restaurants and lots of new dishes.  But I really do wonder about the way we live and our love affair we have with good food.

A new door has been opened for me with having our milk.  Dairy has been something I have always wanted to have.  I have been making soft cheese, Feta, hard cheese is ripening in the cave, cottage cheese and there are many more I want to proceed with.  When you make cheese you get an extra treat, WHEY, I now cook all of my pasta in a whey/water mixture, I have never tasted pasta as delicious as this.  If the sauce needs to be thinned I use the water from cooking the pasta, there is no way to explain how delicious the sauce is when thinned with the whey water.  

We are not forgetting the girls, their morning oatmeal is now being made with whey and they seem very happy.  The whey is used every other day.  I do not want to get them too used to all of this special attention.

By Saturday evening we have enjoyed some of the ice cream.  Mr Bootsie tasted the sour cream and he said it was Sour Cream.  Cheese in dehydrator was a disappointment but I will try again.  May be a while before I do, I may need  to learn much more about making cheese.  The ribs are in the freezer with the tails and ends to be used for stock.  Oh, I see French Onion Soup coming my way.  Wine is working and will be for a couple of weeks.  I am looking forward to making something wonderful with the meat I have in brine.  There is one thing I have to address, I need to make bread with my sourdough starter.

Garden is coming along.  We did find some little tomatoes this week.  Picking lots of snow peas and sugar snap peas.  Moles have attack more of my walking onions.  Garlic is starting to turn yellow on the bottom leaves.  I am excited because I need garlic.

As of this Saturday, May 31, my first born babies are now 8 weeks old, they have grown so fast and now I am thinking about their new homes.  I have to start advertising them so they can have new homes.  I am going to miss these little ones.  It has been so much fun going to the barn and having all of the goats, 9, come running to see you.

June 1, we are awaiting a hatch.  Hoping to see some little ducks and chicks.  Little Gray, the momma hen has done a great job.   I really will be pleased to see her strutting her stuff with the little ducks following her.

We spent the afternoon splitting fire wood, cutting greens for the animals and dropping a few trees to be  cut to length and split next week.  For 2 older folks, I think we do pretty good.  We work together and try to look out for each other.  I would not be able to continue without Mr. Bootsie as he is a very hard worker.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you real soon as our journey continues here on Triple Creek Farm.   

Our little Farm has gone into Overload

Sunday, the first batch of cheese was ready to be eaten and eaten it was.

Monday, baby chicks started to hatch and out of 20 eggs in the incubator we have 17 baby chicks.

Tuesday, Was a catch up day and at the end of the day I realized I was not caught up. I did make another batch of cheese.  A different recipe and we are eating this one also.  I made a treat for Mr. Bootsie, he loves chocolate ice cream and I made him some with our goat's milk and eggs.

Wednesday, Supplies needed from feed store, we went to get a few new items for the ladies in the goat pasture.  We spent the afternoon with our friend, the farmer, had a post Easter Celebration with her family, delicious food and wonderful company.    I came home with her bread proofer to try, see if I liked this and make a decision about purchasing one for our kitchen.

Thursday, We purchased a small outside chicken cage/tractor which was on sale, also had a 10% discount after the sale price, so Mr. Bootsie put this together and we tried the fully feather babies in the run and they were in love with all of the extra room.  So it became moving day and off to the coop they went.  The ducks have been sleeping in the brooder as I as having trouble introducing the ducks with my drake.  He is thinking they are his lunch and this is not going to happen on my watch.

Friday, yard and garden work. I made 2 batches of sour dough bread one in the proofer and one  using the dehydrator for proofing.  

Saturday, More garden work, chicks were put in the chicken tractor in the garden, their first day on the ground.

Along with all of this, there is the daily milking and caring for all of our crews.

I now understand the excitement about living off the land.  This week there was swiss chard gathered from the garden, along with onions.  I prepared and dressed with our goat cheese.  This was our dinner on Friday evening.  It was a delightful meal from our farm. I stopped and reflected thinking about our trip to the feed store and not needing to stop for milk.  This had been my dream for so long.  Now I must learn how to use the milk and make the dairy products we love.  I have come a long way with the bread as we no longer buy bread.

The mole war is still on in the garden, they are attaching the garlic and onions.  My growing in pots has been good.  I put the spinach in 4 inch pots, sink them in the garden row and just like always  the weather became very warm,  they bolted when there were a few warm days.  I am really enjoying protecting my veggies in the pots.  There is loss in my pea patch so I may have to follow this process for the peas also.  Last year,  there was loss of many of the pole beans so I may be trying this with the pole beans, also.

We were busy playing with the baby goats this week, if Mr. Bootsie is missing I can usually find him in the goat pasture.  All of the play items we have put in the pasture for the goats are being used and this pleases him.  We have several walks and they are enjoying the fiberglass engine covers from the trucks we have for run-ins.  These have become sliding boards and our most playful mother is having a wonderful time teaching the kids to jump from cover to the other.

I know we must reduce the size of our operation.  We will be selling some of our goats and I already have some requests.  The chickens lot will be reduced also.  Our little coop can't handle all of the birds we have at present.

This has been a good spring at our little farm, there is so much new life.  Maybe next week things will slow down a little or maybe not. Until the next time, stay safe and enjoy your selves!!!

And They Just Keep Coming

April 14th, we were working in the garden, Mr. Bootsie pulled a five gallon bucket of chickweed,  he said, "Taking this to the chickens."  I was planting kale plants and waiting for his return.  All of a sudden he came over the hill, go get the birthing kit, Belle is down outside and needs to be moved in.  I went by the house and picked up the birthing kit.  Went to the pasture and told Belle she needed to come inside with me.  I left everyone outside as he was preparing things for the birthing.

I looked outside a little later and there they were, 3 little babies and 3 adults, just as close to the barn as they could get; waiting for someone to come out and say, "It's a boy."  At which time they would go back to their munching and playing in the pasture.

Belle was big, really big, we were expecting twins and there were thoughts of triplets!!!  I am so pleased everyone was wrong and Belle delivered one very large boy.  

Speaking of keep coming, in the live animal trap there was an opossum on Tuesday morning, he decided to eat up the trap and was hung in it.  But before he went in the trap he ate most of the kale I had planted on Monday.

Tuesday, we had rain, lots of rain, none of the goats were out of the barn,  This was a day of mother and son bonding for our new little boy.  Lacie's little girl has started to grow, I was so concerned for her I was feeding her oatmeal with a little milk from her mommie.  Yes, I am milking and practice is going to be the thing I need. My ladies hope that sometime this will become a natural process for me.  They are not excited about my learning on them.  All jokes aside, they are great on the milking stand.  Everyday, I see a little improvement in what I am doing and the ladies are helping me.

After a week of late springlike days, we returned to row covers in the garden, overnight lows were in the high twenties,  Thank goodness, I did not have time to get the tomatoes and peppers planted.  Maybe next week would be better.

Wednesday, disbudding of the 3 little goats was done.  The farmer has an excellent process and it works quite well.  It is not a procedure I enjoy but it needs to be done for the goats.  I saw first hand that morning why we should do this.  We have 2 full grown with horns and 2 disbudded.  The ladies were playing, serious goat playing, everyone has a collar on at this time as we are handling them a lot.  I became very concerned about a horn getting hung in a collar and I could have 2 down.  I watched their actions and soon they moved on to taking care of their babies.  Glad I learned why, as my momma told me years ago, Horns on all cows or all cows dehorned,  Yes, Momma, I understand now.

Hershey was checked on during the night and no babies, I roll out early on Thursday morning and head for the barn.  There is my Hershey working hard, cleaning a little new born.  Mr. Bootsie came, helped clean the baby and the stall.  Another tiny one but Hershey is a small in statue goat so maybe this will be all right.  This one is a little black and white goat.  The farmer came by later in the day and fell in love with this little girl.  She has lots of  polka dots and was quickly named Dot.

Friday was spent in the barn bonding for Hershey and Dot.  The other ones are getting on a schedule of playtime and nap time.  By Friday, life had settled down with 5 new baby goats in the barn so it is time for me to start something new.  I made ice cream and froze it in my little freezer, and began my first attempt at making cheese.  The ice cream was wonderful and a lot of the knowledge explained to me about making cheese started to become a little clearer than mud.  I learn by doing and working out why things did not work as I thought they should.

Saturday, we come to the end of our birthing season, there are 5 little ones in the pasture along with 4 momma goats.  I must tell you there are going to be some changes made.  When I started this adventure I wanted 2 dairy goats, I know we must have the babies to have milk and I am okay with this.  We will enjoy the little ones, the Wee Folk will come and play with them and then, the sad day comes when it is time for them to move away.

This has been one of the greatest lessons of my life.  I have enjoyed every step learning how to care for the babies.  Now there are a few necessary things I could do without but I learned how to do things and I did them.  My milking skill is improving, the ladies no longer need breakfast and a morning snack for me to milk them.  This pleases the ladies.

Did I remember to tell you we are expecting more baby chicks next week.  Monday will be day 21.  It just seems to never stop here on the farm.   I will be back later with more news about our little farm.

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Colostrum First and then came the Milk!!!

Sunday morning the colostrum was milked, packaged and put in the freezer.  We could have a need for this with some of the additional babies we are expecting.  If we do not have a need for this, someone may.  It will keep in the freezer for 1 year and after that time it should be disposed.  If there is anyone in our area who should happen to need colostrum please get in touch with me, I would love to be of help.

Monday morning, time to milk, oh how I love the sound of these words, music to my ears!!!  Our milk harvest was small, you must remember there are two little ones who get the milk before me.  We are getting to know each other and my Lady is most understanding, she is letting me learn how to do this.  The farmer stops in and checks on my progress which is slow, takes the jar and you see total relief on Lady Gracie's face.   This is the first milking for our use.  I am totally just thrilled to sit and look at this.  Then my mind starts to wonder what should I make with something so wonderful as the first milk from our farm.


Tuesday morning there was a real surprise in the barn.  Lacie decided to have her baby.  We were quite sure she would have only 1 because looking at her you could not see any weigh change.  I have always thought she carried the baby down under herself.  I will not be milking out the colostrum because she has started making a lot of milk.  We shall be leaving all of her milk for the baby. I will not start milking her for a few days, give her a chance to catch up.  This is her first doeling and she did everything.  The barn was clean and just a precious little baby running about, falling down and laying on the hay.  Makes me happy our barn is clean and a safe place for a surprise birthing.

Wednesday, my little guy is going to be disbudded today.  The farmer is bringing over her goat for Mr. Bootsie to milk, much larger goat than any of our girls, he has big hands and this should make learning easier for him.  We did see progress today.  I milked a full cup this morning and Mr. Bootsie milked you could hear it hitting in the container.

Decision was made to enclose the barn with 4 stalls 2 just were not working.  The barn is now fixed and most of this can be easily removed after the babies have left us.  The baby chicks decided there is just too much attention being paid to the goats so this afternoon they showed me they have outgrown their home.  The safest way to handle the chicks is to keep them in the house for another week.  The night time temperatures are too low and they do not have their feathers.  The ducks were moved to the coop on Monday. All of these babies want their share of attention and they do figure out a way to get their share.

We continue to milk Lady Gracie each morning and get about 1 cup.  I am pleased with this because her little ones are growing.  I decided to make ice cream custard with our goats milk, the ice cream will be frozen on Sunday.

Mr. Bootsie has been setting the trap and much to our surprise Saturday morning there was a fox in the trap.  Animal control was called and they said the fox is ours now.  It was caught on our property and there was a decision to be made.  All I can say is there is one less fox in our area now.  I have seen my girls every afternoon go on alert and I have though we may have problem on the land.  The farmers around us have been taking out a few.  There is a huge clearing operation going on very close to us and once again the home the animals have know is no more.  There is less and less woodlands for them to live in.

There was a small amount of work done in the garden, weather is continuing to play games with us.  This has been one of the hardest week I think I have put in on our little farm, my body is tired, I have slacked in the kitchen but we have 3 cute and happy little goats.  All in all, this is what is most important because I will recover.

Lady Gracie's Little ones, 1 week only April 12th

Twins a little girl, in front and baby brother to the rear

Lacie's little girl born on April 8th

As you can see we have had a very productive week on the farm.  If anyone is interested, the babies will be for sale after they are weened.  I am still on baby goat watch as our 2 other ladies have not had their babies as of this evening.  Thanks for stopping by and have a good week!!!

Baby Ducks, 2 weeks old, Baby Chicks 1 day old

The temperature may still be playing games with us, but there is Spring in the air.   Baby Pekin ducks are entering their third week of being part of the farm family.  Not to be out done with chickens, which started to hatch Friday afternoon.  There is only a Welsummer rooster and all of the eggs are crossed with him or purebred with a Welly hen, we may be fortunate enough to hatch out some barnyard chicks and purebred Welsummer chicks.  Little ducks are swimming in their pond and loving the water.  When the weather warms these little ones will be meeting their mom and dad in our duck run.


Speaking of babies, the birthing pen has been finished in the barn, there is an outside area protected with a roof, this play day yard is really close to being complete.  I believe everything has been collected for the birthing.  I even found a canister for film which was suggested to have on hand.  This was in my seed box because I sometimes store seeds in the no longer needed film canister.  The closer April 12th is, the more prepared I feel we are.

Moles are loving all of the moisture in the ground,  There are tunnels everywhere.  I am so pleased I planted the tunnel garden in pots, when I go out to check I find a mole/vole hole beside the pot, check my plant, it is solid in the pot and growing.  Peas have been planted in the garden along with fennel and rhubarb.   This year I was able to have a few artichoke plants come up from seed and I will be adding these to the garden.  I want to protect the artichokes from the moles as I would love to establish a bed of these plants.   I will be using large pots for those plants.  Here is Swiss Chard with a mole/vole hole to the right side of the plant under the forward leaf.

When I checked the garden on Saturday, I found there had been visitors, all of the kale plants had been eaten.  These were planted in the row tunnels and I had removed the covers because it had been a nice spring rain on Friday night.  Being kale plants the thieves may have been deer.  I did see some damage to the turnips, also, the tops were pretty much consumed.

I have seen some big changes around the farm, Mr. Bootsie has taken to cleaning the duck brooder, Saturday morning there he was holding one of the ducks. I know this sounds like nothing but for him this was a biggie.  He always lets me move the little ones around to clean the brooders.   Leads are being put on the goats at feeding time and there is no sharing of food.  Mr. Bootsie put hooks in the barn so I can control them.  Every little thing seems to make my daily tasks much easier to complete.

Time for me to go and check, there may be a new chick just hatched.  I will let you know what I find next time!!!  Take care and Maybe, just maybe this coming week someone, somewhere may have some springtime weather.    Until the next time!!!

Tis the time for Babies, Preparing for Babies and Lessons to be Learned

I have spent some time the kitchen this week.  I may have found a bread recipe which not only brings a lot of memories to me but will fill my needs as the spring arrives with all of it's adventures.  This is not quite like my Momma's bread but I am getting closer to the taste I am looking for, the texture is not at all like the bread I remember.  I must think about many things, Momma used lard in her bread, she started using shortening after we no longer processed hogs and I have no source of lard at the present.  Flour has changed over the years,  there was only all-purpose and cake flour when I was little.  But the big thing I remember, flour was sold in 25 pound bags in the grocery store, every grocery store.  This goes to show our demand for flour  has changed.  So, off, I go to the small bulk store to buy my 50 pound bag of flour twice a year.

What does this have to do with babies?  This is part of my kitchen preparedness for the birthing season. This bread can be frozen in the raw state and taken from the freezer frozen, brushed with melted butter and placed in a cold oven, baked for an hour and there is fresh yeast bread.  So, this has been a great find to add to my recipe book box.  This bread uses buttermilk or kefir, this excites me, bread made with either of these 2 liquids is so tender and moist.  There was French toast made one morning this week and yes, I was pleased.


Mr. Bootsie continues to work on the barn, he did the rigging and glass was put higher in the barn.  This will give us some light as pole barns once enclosed are very dark.  I am sure the barn will be ready for the little ones.  

Working in the garden, all of the blackberries have been pruned and retied.  The raccoons made a mess of the vines this past summer.  There were many broken vines which were taken out.  The new growth has not started so I think I will be all right.  The walking onion, garlic and fall planted onions are looking real good.  Our supper Saturday was our first spinach salad of the season.

There are hen eggs in the incubator, we are thinking about baby chicks.  The total count was 3 little ducks and when I say little there was one tiny little one, but it is growing and the other 2 take such good care of it.   They had their introduction to water and they played just like a duck.
 

My work seems to be never ending right now.  My days are starting before 7 and ending around 9 to 10 at night.  I start most of my days up potting the bedding plants which are babies also.  They need to be fed and watered just like all of the other babies.  My baby plants are the backbone of our garden, I shall be preserving the harvest.  These little babies will fill our pantry for the winter.  It is very important I take care of the plants for they will take care of us.

This week I saw one of the stronger little ducks help the smaller little one make it's way into our world.
It was an amazing lesson.  I have watched as the two ducks huddled close to help little duck stay warm. I stop to think about the miracle of the seed and I must say the miracle of egg isjust as wonderful.  Now we are getting closer to the birth of our baby goats, once again it will be another miracle for me.  The birthing kit for the goats is being put together.  This is another first for us,  I will be learning so much about the ladies.  I am excited and at the same time, I am frightened.  So right now, I just go to the pasture and scratch their heads and rub their bellies.  They seem to really enjoy my helping them scratch where they are having difficulties getting to.

Another long day for me and I am ready to dream about baby goats.  Until we have time to chat, soon I hope.  Sleep Well!!!

Things can really Change in a Week

Mr. Bootsie started working on the goat barn improvements Saturday, but Monday it started to look like the plan I had in my head.  This is going to give us some enclosed area with sunshine and protection from the weather.  This would have been wonderful during this snowy winter but we will have this in the future.  Because this is a pole barn, we are going to use fencing to keep the ladies out of the bays they should not go into.  He used all of the lumber we had and  when he went to pick up another load, there was bad news, they were out of stock.  Hopefully it will be in stock sometime this week.

Gracie checking out the barn improvements

First dozen eggs from my girls

I get so excited about collecting our eggs, but somedays I find a little boy running and looking everywhere the girls hide their eggs to see how many he can find.  It is truly an egg hunt here daily.  Mr. Bootsie and I try to beat each other to the coop and find where the eggs are today.  I took my basket on Wednesday and scurried to the coop, I saw the eggs Mr. Bootsie had found and then I started looking.  Opps, there is one girl sitting on the nest.  I went outside and played with the ducks while I was waiting to see if there would be another egg.  When I went in my girl was off the nest and there were 3 eggs in the box.  I added these to my basket, I could not believe my eyes, the first time ever, I had collected a dozen eggs.  I was so pleased and proud of my girls.

There has been a very tall hickory tree slowly dying, the roots were run over quite a lot installing the drain field.  When the storm came through this week we were helped out.  The tree was topped,  about 20 feet of the top came down.  Mr. Bootsie has sawed up the wood and it is quite dry.  So it is time to  split and rack.  This tree is no longer too tall for Mr. Bootsie to fell.

The ladies are turning into eating machines.  They are waiting for us to feed in the morning and at nighttime.  My sweet Belle stays so close when I am in the pasture, all of them want their tummies rubbed.  I am starting to feel so sorry for them.  I am seeing utters, this is getting so exciting for me.  How many?  When will they come?  Am I ready?  These questions keep going through my mind.

One thing is just about ready.  Mr. Bootsie has made one milking stand.  I am so pleased to have it setting in the barn waiting for me to start milking.  He has a little bit of finish work to do and we need to purchase a feed tray.  Lacie decided she wanted to try it out and she jumped on the stand which answered any question was it too tall.  We have 2 ladies with horns so we really need to be able to open the front.  I was sent out to measure the distance between the horn tips and it was 13 inches.

The seedling vegetable plants are coming up.  I really am trying this year not to start too many plants.  In the past I have started too many plants because I was always thinking of others.  This year as our crew is growing and will be needing extra attention (?) I have tried to grow what I will need.  There will be some extra's but not the amount I have grown in the past.  

Saturday, we have been watching the duck eggs all day.  We could see one working on coming into the world.  Last night I heard the soft little voice of a baby duck.  I came in about 3:30 this afternoon and there was a little duck struggling to get out of the egg shell.  This was a different egg than the one I have been all day.  When we came in from feeding around 7:15 there was one little duck totally out of the egg and moving around.  Another new adventure is about to begin here on the farm.  

There was quite a bit accomplished on the farm this week.  I am excited about the baby duck and getting things ready for our goats.  I hope you enjoyed our time together.    

Spring is on the way, In the Coop and Goat Barn

I am so ready for this winter to be put to bed, along with a number of other folks, there were 2 new snows this week.  It doesn't matter how much snow we get, there were 2 more days, cloudy, wet, chilly, cold and I was not happy.  Days with sunshine would be such a pleasure.  But complaining is really all I can do, because I know we have NO control over the weather.  Thanks goodness for this!!!

I did do some fun things, made a freezer of ice cream and had lots of memories of times past when my family would make a freezer of cream almost every week.  Worked on a bread recipe, I am now learning to bake my casserole bread in a cast iron pan.  Sorry, I have none left for you to taste but there will be more next week.  The last trombonica squash is puree and squash bread, there is a small amount left to make soup with.  I spent two afternoons in the tunnel getting ready for spring.  The moles/voles are spending lots of time there.  I am going to mix up another batch of tea for them to see if this will send them some other place.  Very easy to make:   2 cups ammonia mixed with 1/4 cup water and 2 tablespoons dish washing soap.  Pour in  mole tunnels and cover.  What is planted in the cold tunnel is starting to grow.

Next week, we should have new farm friends.  The Farmer took some of our duck eggs and put them in her incubator.  She checked on them after a few days and they were starting to develop.  This past Sunday the eggs came home along with incubator and should hatch on the 11th of March.  I am making arrangements for them to have a place to live.  Too cold for them to go to the coop without a momma duck to keep them warm.

The goats are getting rounder and rounder, time has come for me to get things in order for our first birthing.  First ones should be born on April 12, This could be a busy day as we are expecting 2 of the ladies to give birth the same day.  I am starting to gather my supplies, plan to pick up a fresh load of straw, make some meals so I can spend lots of time with the babies.  I am hoping Spring will be in the air and warm, this was my plan when we bred in November, will it work out?  I have no idea.

It is time for Mr. Bootsie to get to work, I want the outside wall on the barn before the little ones arrive. Saturday morning, he was up, gathering his tools and, yes, he went to the barn by way of the coop to check on his girls.  The first order of business for him is to put up a temporary fence because he said he doesn't need 4 goats helping him.  By the end of the day there was progress.  We are very pleased with the progress he made in one day.

Seeds are coming up and I am starting to up pot.  Some are being planted in larger pots and put in the tunnel.  I have lots of kale up and I will be putting this in the row tunnels.  By Saturday afternoon I got into the garden.  Walking onions are coming up, garlic is looking good and there is lots of winter damage.  I have my work waiting for me.  The land is wet, soggy wet.  I was just glad to be able to get outside and see where I need to start.  I can tell you now,  there will not be any potatoes planted on March 17th.  My spring garden is going to be late because I really do not see how the land is going to be able to dry.

Tonight, we will be turning the clocks to day light saving time, life here on the farm will not change because the animals go to bed about sunset.  We will continue to work with our animals and keep them happy.  I think I need to go to bed and try to get a little rest before the hour is jumped over.  Time for me to say night-night and I will be visiting with you in just a few days.

Triple Creek Farm, March 1, 2014

I made my way over to Charlottesville and now I have "200 Easy Homemade Cheese Recipes".  I have been reading and trying to learn the whats, whys and how you proceed to make cheese.  This book also has a section Kefir.  I have been learning about using the whey this week.  I made bread and instead of softening the yeast in warm water, I used warm whey.  The texture of the bread was soft and as bread makers say "it had a good crumb".  I have also learned in the future when I make bread I can use the water I  use to rinse my kefir jars.  I find it interesting the more I learn, the less I waste in the kitchen.  I was using the rinse water for my plants and I shall continue to do this when I am not making bread.

Mr. Bootsie informed me after watching the Cheese Making Class that it all looked quite easy to him.  If you had the recipes, ingredients and tools, he thought we should have lots of cheese.  Maybe he should be the one making the cheese and I should be the one on clean-up detail.  I can only wonder how milking our goats will go,  let alone making cheese.  I am reading the book making my list of ingredients and proper tools to have on hand.  I will be adding to my kitchen staples, as I study more about the process of making cheese I am learning what I have may do the job.  The salad spinner makes a wonderful tool to drain curds, have one plus lots of stainless steel or porcelain colanders and strainers.

Firewood has become an issue.  I press to have lots of wood  racked for the winter, but Mr. Bootsie took the lead this past year, I think he may have learned his lesson.  We located a dead tree and dropped it this week, there is quite a bit of moisture in the tree but maybe it will be ready for blackberry winter in  May, after being split it will dry to where it will produce heat in our stove.  Do not fear, we do have heat other then the wood stove, we just enjoy the heat from the wood stove.  I bet you when the weather is a little warmer, he will be making his rounds finding wood to fill our racks for next winter and not tell me well last year we did not use that much, because we are using every dried stick of wood we have this winter.

The girls are producing in the coop.  We are collecting 8 to 9 eggs a day.  There are 16 layers in the coop and 1 rooster.  We have been getting a duck egg every day but the shell is not right.  I am feeding her oyster shell and egg shells.  She was not able to eat anything from the ground because of the snow for about 2 weeks and I do not know if this could have effected the way she produced the shell on her eggs.  I have been trying to get her chickweed everyday, lots of water and I did see improvement this morning.  The egg had a shell with only 1 soft spot.  This one made it to the house and is in the fridge.  It seems all of the eggs for about 3 weeks have been crushed and I just mixed them into the food for the girls.

Saturday, March 1, 2014, eggs gathered

I have found with the position of the sun, the cold tunnel is now a warm tunnel on sunny days.  I have been working in the tunnel without a coat or jacket, step out to get something I need and it is cold.  I will start adding more plants to the tunnel as soon as the snow is past this coming week.  I am already understanding why, I like to get the little plants outside as soon as possible.

Mr. Bootsie spent this afternoon studying different web sights making his decision which one he is going to use as the plan for my milking stand.  I want him to get this made so I can introduce my ladies to the stand.  I want to make this as easy as possible for the ladies and for me.  They are getting rounder and rounder.  First comes spring and then little goats!!!

I hope each of you are excited about this Spring.  I know it is going to be an adventure here!!!

What are your plans for this Spring, I would love to hear from you.  You may comment here or on Facebook!!!  Another week for me to ask all of you to be careful, someday we will feel the warm days of Spring, maybe in just a few weeks.  Be Safe my friends!!!

Did someone say Cheese? February 22, 2014

My ladies are getting rounder and starting to look as if they are really overfeed, but we are seeing changes and we know goat's milk is on its way.  I have to really start learning how to make cheese.  The farmer posted on Facebook she was planning a cheese class.  I want to take the class and so does Mr. Bootsie, he is in for anything involving good food and cheese is good food.  Today, February 22, 2014 the cheese class was held and we hosted the class in our kitchen.  What a thrill to meet like minded folks who are interested in making their cheese,  There was talk of milk shares, goats, sheep and cows.
  

The milk was  simmering on the stove, yogurt in the proofer, another cheese being drained and I was just amazed.  Curds and whey I have heard the nursery rhyme all my life and today it became real.  Mr. Bootsie has made a real simple cheese but this was like cheese country.  I learned quickly you can do other things while the cheese is processing.  There were 2 types of cheese made, Brie and another like provolone, temperature of the milk and type of ingredients added is what changes the flavors.  There was lots of time to sample and sample we did.  Yogurt was the best I have ever tasted.  The cheese decorated with flowers is chevre, There was chevre with flavored with ginger,  cinnamon, walnuts and herbs.  Wine and cheese go together, wine jigglers with the chevre were the best.  

The milk came to temperature, the cultures and rennent were added.  The magic started, we could see the cheese forming,  it was time to cut the cheese into squares and there I stood amazed to see this process happen.   After draining the whey it was time to put the cheese in to the cheese press.  

After the cheese was put into the press, the farmer started introducing the different cheeses she was making.  The sampling began, and we ate until the other cheese was put into the press.  I have been so impressed with the farmer and her knowledge,  she has a wonderful gift of sharing.  Many of you in Central Virginia will know the farmer, Valerie Trjan is a good friend of our little farm,  without her and her Lou, we would not be having little goat babies this spring, there would be no cheese coming after we start milking because we would not be thinking of milking.  Valerie has been a helpful neighbor taking our duck eggs and putting them in her incubator, the good news is, yes, our eggs were fertile and Yes, there will be little yellow fluff balls with orange beaks  swimming in a few weeks here on the farm.

I added to Mr. Bootsie's to do list as there is a cheese press in our future and he said he can make it.  I just wanted to share with you this lovely presentation of cheese.  There is blue, Swiss, Brie and some I don't remember the names of, but they were all yummy!!!   I have been reading about the how's and why's of making cheese but cheese came to life for me today.  I hope all of you are ready for our goat babies and cheese, because this farmer is filled with joy just thinking I can make all of these wonderful cheeses.  

This is another move toward us being able to provide for ourselves.  I know it may take a while for my cheese to look this delicious and have the flavors I enjoyed today.  But now I know it is possible and I will be working on learning the process of cheese making.  

All of this is fun, but the goat barn needs mucking, this is going to be the first order of business for me next week.  Time for me to start the tomato and pepper seeds.  I want the first seedling ready to plant in the garden April 15th.  Here we go again!  Isn't it wonderful the circle just keep going and going.

Have a great week, I'll be back real soon with more happenings on Triple Creek Farm!!!

Triple Creek Farm, February 15, 2014

After all of the winter we had been through we really thought we were prepared for this week.  Of course, you check to be sure you are right.  First thing I did was count the bales of hay.  I had Saturday the 15th marked on the calendar as the day I needed to pick up hay.  After checking, I became concerned, we could make it to the 15th, no problem, but we could not make it to the 22nd.  I called to see if the hay could be picked up on another day with snow on the calendar again for Saturday.  Well, I must have cried and begged properly, because the farmer let me come over and get my 10 bales of hay and now I know my girls will be well fed.  My life would have been interesting with 4 goats, 2 months from having babies and no hay to feed them.  This problem fixed.

Checking the weather report Friday, I saw wonderful temperatures are heading our way after this next round on Saturday morning.  I can't wait.  Our land is so moist I am not sure if I will be able to plant potatoes March 17th or not.  I did plant some in the fall but I wonder if they have been eaten by the moles.  I kept telling Mr. Bootsie there is going to a Valentine's snow and then the weather would improve.

The farmer came over to visit the goats.  She took a look at one of them, said twins and the goat we were in question about, well, no more.  As I stand quietly by the fence watching I see movement on the right side of my ladies.  I can see the little dumplings moving and I get so excited.  When the farmer left she took my duck eggs  and she will put them in her incubator to see if they are fertile.  I think they are, as I am seeing the bull's eye when I crack them.  If so, I will have baby ducks in 28 days.  My hen's eggs have a really good bull's eyes in them, but I need to wait for a broody hen.  Springtime is going to be interesting here on our little farm.

We prepared for the snow, watched the snow, shoveled the snow, had more snow and sleet.   Now I sit by the window waiting for the snow to go away.

During the snow, we stayed up all night and Mr. Bootsie went out to remove the snow from the cold tunnel every 2 hours.  I know to many of you this sounds dumb but it is necessary.  I remember many a time when I was growing up, my Daddy would go out during the night and pull snow from the roof of our house and barn.  Snow is heavy and not a friend to the farmer.  Snow and fire are two things a farmer can do without.  I am so pleased Mr. Bootsie is willing to help me when the weather is bad.

 The good news. we did not loose the electric power, the trees stayed in the ground and did not fall on anything.  Saturday morning, Mr. Bootsie fired up the big truck and after it started, very quickly our drive was open to the state maintained road.  Once again we are connected to the world.  I must say I really did not think about being cut off from the world, with careful planning and stock-piling we had everything that was needed.  The wood rack has come in very handy because it has enough wood in it to last until we can begin bringing in wood daily.  Mr. Bootsie had reminded me a few weeks back we had not used the wood from the rack and I said to him, just you wait ...we will need it.  With 8 to 12 inches of snow it is difficult to get around and dangerous when trying to carry wood.  Now,  he is so pleased there is a wood rack by the door.

My city boy learned quite a bit during this winter.  When he worked I took care of everything; but, now he is home helping and is seeing why I do things the way I do.  It is getting much easier as I am not having to explain my decisions.  He is starting to take some responsibility for getting chores done and this is making my job a lot easier.  I really may have the time needed to milk the goats and make cheese.    Life never stops it is just one adventure after another.

Time to put another week to bed and start dreaming about what I will be getting into next week.  Stay safe and keep counting the days until spring, oh, those of you South of the Equator just keep enjoying your summer.  Until...There is something new to share from the farm!!!

A Snowy Saturday Afternoon, February 8, 2014

As I look out of the window, I see snow flakes falling.  Mr. Bootsie just came in from the pasture lot, 2 eggs in his hand and another empty water bucket.  Gave me his report of another one of the girls in one of the nesting boxes so maybe there will be another egg shortly.  There are baby plants growing under the lights and more seeds waiting to be planted.  It sounds like a springlike day but I know different.

Momma duck decided to take a break, there was no duck eggs laid  Wednesday thru Friday.  I was a bit concerned thinking she may have given up on my allowing her to have a nest.  The freezing nighttime temperatures are continuing and I would rather wait a little longer.  My girl has never set, I have been told ducks are difficult to set and I really do not want her leaving the nest after a couple of days.  I do not have a hen which would take over for her right now.  So we shall wait until spring.  Saturday morning there was another duck egg in the coop, meaning she is continuing to lay eggs.

Maybe the bucket of chickweed I took to the runs yesterday reminded her I was still taking care of them in the cold.  I harvested the chickweed from the cold tunnel and there is more.  The moles do not eat the chickweed, but; they have been eating the mustard and Holland greens.  My experiment putting the chard and spinach in pots and sinking them in the garden soil seems to be working.  The chard is large enough to gather for salad greens.  If you plant only one green and have never grown chard,  plant some this year.  This green is so good for you and may be used like spinach.

Soggy, the land is like a sponge at this point and there is more moisture coming.  I usually do quite a bit of work in the garden in later part of February but I think this year we shall be drying.  I can work in the tunnel to get the early garden going.  I have enough covers to make another row tunnel and I may be doing this next week.  I am thankful for the rain and snow we have had.  I am looking forward to a lush spring.

Earlier this week, I was asked about how we have kept the animal's waterers during this cold spell.  So, this is what we did.  I have my schedule which the animals must adapt to.  I feed and water every morning around 8:30, everyone is given warm water.  During this bitter cold there was warm water for the flocks around 11:00, I usually do not check on them before 1 in the afternoon but these conditions controlled how they were cared for.  One o'clock the eggs are gathered (because of the cold temperatures the eggs have been gathered each time someone comes to the coop) and there is warm water again.  In the afternoon we may not need to watch the water as we did find some spots to place the waterers so they did not freeze. One of us found ourself making a 2 to 3  o'clock walk to the pasture lot on the coldest afternoons, just to be safe.   We were bedding down for the night starting around 4 in the afternoon, so, again, there was warm water for everyone.  All of the outside waters were emptied and turned over so there was nothing to freeze in them.  The chickens were given a second batch of warmed oatmeal on some of the coldest days.  Yes, some days there were 4 or more trips to check on them.  The goats were given raspberry tea with honey and it was warm.   These babies are our farm animals, I was raised to care for them because they take care of us.  Our crew made it through this bitter cold winter and we did also.  Momma taught me how to take care of my animals, also, taught me to take care of myself.  I was never allowed to stay in the house because it was too cold to go outside.  Everyday you must go outside for a few minutes, yes, we did.  We went out to take care of our flock and ourselves, things have not changed for me, running our farm is no different than helping my parents with their farm.

I have no love for the clip on heat lamps.  I have seen too many coops and barns burned from using them.  We have no electric in any of our coops or the barn.  This will save me from forgetting and have a terrible loss.  One of the worst barn fires, I have ever seen, was caused by lightening.  My family was there to ache with the property owner because as it burned to the ground there was nothing that could be done to save the barn or the animals.

As I check outside, the flurry has stopped, I am sure the goats are back outside! The chickens will come from under their coop and find treasures in the leaves and ground to eat.  The ducks may never have realized it was snowing, they just seem to stay busy finding nourishment in the leaves.

Thanks for sharing this lazy Saturday afternoon on our farm.  The farmer is thinking of spring and I know it will come once again.  If you are out and about stop by, I made a coconut pie Friday afternoon and I would love to share with you.  Well, my rocking chair is calling me, so until next time...Stay safe, happy and healty!!!!