It Was a Very Good Day

I guess I could say our day started at 2:00am when I went to the barn to check on Lady Bug to see if she was in labor. She wasn't. It always takes a little while to get back to sleep after a nighttime trek to the barn. I intended to get up at 6:00am to check on her again, but I just couldn't talk myself into it. We've been at this middle of the night routine for three nights now with no end in sight. It does wear me down. Anyway, I rolled out at 7:00am, got the milk buckets ready, enjoyed a swift cup of coffee and headed out to the barn and the morning.

One Stripe and Copper enjoyed their typical morning routine. Penny now likes to stand around and talk very loudly to anyone that will listen. I hope she becomes more content soon because she has an irritating voice, and she needs to turn the volume down. Especially in the morning. But this morning was especially noisy because once I finished milking One Stripe and Copper, I did not let their babies out of the baby pen. They remained there awaiting their move to the weaning pen.

Penny was next up on the milk stand and so far has been very cooperative. She was followed by Cricket who is doing well at day two post delivery. I have some concerns about her boy I will share in a few days after I see how things work out. Lady Bug got to eat in her birthing pen, the lone pregnant doe now. She is pretty interested in the other babies. 

After the milk was strained and breakfast was cooked I debated about starting a batch of bread and a batch of cheese. I've been waiting for Lady Bug to deliver so I won't have to worry about cheese sitting in the pot too long, or not being able to work or bake the bread when needed. Today we decided we had been waiting long enough. The sourdough starter has been out on the cabinet being fed for at least a week in preparation to make bread, and the frig was overflowing with over five gallons of milk.

So I ground some wheat and stirred up the sourdough bread and set it to proof on top of the frig where it's warm. Then we started a double batch of cheddar cheese using up four gallons of milk. One thing about cheddar, is it needs attention in frequent intervals all day long. It's now set to press for 24 hours and will be ready to remove from the presses tomorrow evening to dry for a few days before it is waxed. This is our first cheddar of the season. It won't be ready to eat until about the middle of July at the earliest, for a very mild cheddar flavor. 

Making cheese means washing all of those jars the milk was in.

And washing up the cheese press that hasn't been used in a while.

After the cheese reached the point that we had about a 30 minute window, we went up to the barn and moved the babies into the weaning pen. There was still some commotion, but not a whole lot. We have weaned babies before that screamed and hollered for their mommas until they were so hoarse they didn't hardly have a voice left. These guys were running around playing some of the time and didn't seem to be very stressed, which is great.
 

Frank drilled a couple of holes in each of these so the rain would drain out.

Frank had a great epiphany recently about the garden. We have kept enough room between the garden and the house to drive around the house if we needed or wanted to. He was standing outside looking at something the other day and thought, why don't we forget about driving around the house and expand the garden into that area? It will make the garden a third again as big and allow us to grow a whole lot more food for us and the animals. Great idea! We have been thinking about how to incorporate an 'animal garden' into one of the pastures, but we use them pretty regularly. We have four pastures that connect to the corral at the barn and right now there are goats in three of them. When we add pigs to the mix, that will use them even more. Frank's idea of increasing the garden size where it is will give us another way of increasing food production now.
 

This green grassy area is now becoming part of the garden. 2014 picture

So with that in mind, as we were leaving the barn, Frank brought the tractor down to start tilling up the 'new' garden spot. Right off the bat the shear pin broke on the tiller. So we replaced it. He went back around to start tilling one end of the garden which is very, very rocky, and immediately broke the shear pin. So we replaced it. This time he started at the other end of the garden down by the herb bed. He made it the whole length of the garden back into the rocky area just fine. Then he turned around to come back down the other way and immediately broke the shear pin. That's when he announced that he was finished with the tiller for the day. We still have at least one, but now we need to get some more shear pins.

While Frank was busy breaking shear pins instead of the soil, I was trying to get some manure tea started. There is a new piece of garden we have already tilled up in front of the herb bed where I planted turnips, spinach, lettuce and swiss chard. This area has not had all of the great barnyard, ashes and such added to it, so it is not very rich in nutrients compared to the garden. Some of the spinach leaves are turning yellow. I wanted to give this bed a boost, so I took a couple of five gallon buckets to the chicken house, collected a deposit of manure and hay, filled the buckets with water, put on the lids and set them out in the herb bed where I will be using them. I'll let them steep for a number of days before I begin side dressing the plants with tea. I won't water them directly with this tea because I don't want to burn the plants. I will also give them some wood ashes we have saved in the ash can from the woodstove, and some whey. 

After about 35 years of mowing our lawn with a push mower, we finally broke down and got a riding mower, which is a pretty green color and runs like a deere. It arrived yesterday but we were too busy to do anything with it then, and it was trying to rain. Today after Frank returned the tractor to the barn, he brought the mower down to try it out. In the meantime, I'm in the house working the cheese again. When I got to the point that I had a few minutes to go outside, I tried out the mower as well. It's interesting, and since we have never had one before, it's different. I do like it though. It will make it easier to keep some areas from becoming a jungle and needing to be brush hogged with the tractor in the summer. So I played on the mower for a while. Then I went back in and worked the cheese. Then I mowed a little more, returned it to the barn, checked on Lady Bug who refuses to have babies, and went back to the house to work the cheese.

Now one of my goals today was to get some more things planted. I didn't. It's all still sitting there waiting on me with rain coming tonight and tomorrow, and a chance of more every day this week until Friday. But maybe I can still get a few things planted over the next few days if it doesn't get too wet.

Since we are weaning the older babies that means I will now be milking One Stripe and Copper twice a day and getting two gallons of milk a day instead of one. That means every two days I will have enough milk to make a double batch of cheese. But I still need to get things planted...... And then when Penny, Cricket and Lady Bug's kids, if she ever has them, are two weeks old and I start penning them up at night, we will get more like three gallons of milk a day. Am I sure I need or want to milk five goats every day? Hmm......something to think about. But before long we hope to get those pigs and they will be happy to drink milk or whey everyday.

The old way to store whey.

And speaking of whey. Frank had a great idea. In the past when we made cheese, we put the whey in old peanut butter jars and sat them on the floor in the kitchen. There is way too much to fit in the frig with all the milk coming in. We feed one jar to the dog and cats each day, and two jars to the chickens morning and evening. Frank recommended we get out the water bath canner and just put all of the whey in it and dip it out into a jar as we need it. Great idea. Simplifies things. If we get overrun with whey, I will use it to water some of the garden plants. They love it, too.

So, now the animals are fed and tucked into bed, the cheese is doing it's thing in the press, the bread is baked and sampled, and this blog post is now written. It has been a very good day. We enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine, each other's company, the quiet peace of a country life and the blessings that work brings. Peace, joy and contentment. We pray that the season of Easter, with the renewal of life, brings much joy and happiness to you and yours.

Until next time - Fern

I Don't Have a Clue What to Write

I really don't. It's late. I'm tired and I can't think of anything interesting to share with you. Frank and I have been very busy. We made the unplanned trip to look at the goats. Very informative, and the ride gave us time to reflect on our decision to come home with an empty trailer. We're still glad we did. We've contacted a few other folks about a new buck. We'll just have to see how that works out.

Frank has spent a couple of day working on a new CB installation in the vehicles that we will share with you sometime in another post.

Cabbage seedlings the rabbits are chewing on.

The seedlings are doing well now that we got a few days of sunshine. The part of the garden that is planted is growing. The turnip seeds I sprinkled in the front of the herb bed are coming up very well. I look forward to picking the greens for man and beast alike. With all of the cloudy cool weather we had this month, our seedlings grew very, very slowly. The small cabbage and broccoli we planted are finally starting to take off and grow. We did buy some spinach, lettuce and a few cabbage plants to provide some food a little earlier than our small seedlings will.

I also ordered more plants for the herb bed this year. They are getting acclimated, and will be planted in the next few days. I will do an article on how the herb bed is coming along in the next few weeks. I'm excited about the number of plants that are established and have been coming back year after year.

We are getting ready for more baby goats this week. Tomorrow we will be working on the barn making sure everything is in order. Cricket and Lady Bug will hit 150 days of gestation on Thursday, and Penny will do the same on Saturday. Since they are all first fresheners, I may not get much sleep after Tuesday night, with trips to the barn at all times of the day and night checking for babies, then checking on babies. You'll be hearing all about them as well.

I tried a new low carb fried chicken dinner last night that was really good. After I do a little more research and put it all together, I'll fill you in on that one. It was one of those experiments that I just didn't know if it would taste good or yucky. Good thing for us it turned out very good.

We bought some seat cushions for our dinning room chairs. There comes a time in life when a little cushion can make a difference. They came in today so we haven't had much time to try them out. I also ordered a roll of high density foam to put in the cushions on my chair. This is where I sit with my laptop and write these articles, and the cushion needs a little more umph. And, yes, that's a heating pad. My back's been acting up again, so during breaks from planting the garden and such, I fire it up.

 













We all know there is a drought going on out in California, and there is a drought going on in western Oklahoma, but there is not a drought in my neighborhood. It seems like just a few weeks back we had snow on the ground, then we had ice on the ground, then we had snow again.

Every now and then we'd have a pretty day or two, then we'd either have cloudy days with rain or rainy days with clouds. Once we had about three or four days of sunny weather, and Frank got the garden tilled. But, down deep it was just too wet and everything clodded up. So, when we needed to do some planting, we took some hard rakes and broke it down. Then in rained for four or five more days, then we had about three days off from the rain and actually had some pretty weather. So, Frank tilled the garden again, still too wet, but the clods were a little smaller this time. Then, you guessed it. It rained for three or four more days. 

Now, I have to say, the last three days have been beautiful. Sunny skies, light to moderate breeze. So when we got home today from running errands, Frank tilled the garden again. And, yes, it's still too wet, but it's getting better. Because you know what's forecast late tonight and for the next five days? Liquid precipitation. If it could hold off for a little while tomorrow morning, then we can get the barn cleaned out without changing the corral into soup. Our weather men continue to tell us that we are running short on precipitation for the year, and I'm sure they're right. 

 The folks we talked to at church Sunday mentioned that they haven't planted a garden yet. It's just too wet. Two Sundays ago at a potluck, I asked a lady if she had brought her famous turnip green dish. She said no, to do that she would need to build an ark. Somebody else made reference that to get to their garden they would need a canoe. I sure did miss those turnip greens. Well, that's what the weather's been doing lately.

See, I told you I didn't have anything to write about..... I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. Feel free to share what you've been up to.

Until next time - Fern
 

What's Growin' In the Garden?

As I went out this morning to begin working in the garden I found a new ornament laying on the freshly tilled soil. Now isn't that a happy dog?

Some days I feel like I am behind in my gardening, even though we had freezing weather as late as last week. I don't have everything planted yet, but I wanted to give you an update. I had a brand new experience yesterday. I tilled the parts of the garden that weren't already planted with

 the tractor. Frank has always done this before, but his back isn't cooperating right now, so it was time for me to learn. He was right out there with me giving me a lesson, and directions along the way. At one point Frank told me to push down on the accelerator so the tractor would go faster. I realized then that going very slow was just fine for me. It reminded me of learning to drive a car, there were just too many things to pay attention to at once. Most importantly was where the bucket was so I didn't tear anything up with it. Then there was the tiller and the PTO (power take off) raising it not too high and lowering it all the way and when to do each. Next was the obstacles of a large bale of hay, the house, the storage buildings and just stuff. I know to Frank it seemed like I was doing everything in slow motion, and compared to him I was. But you know what? I did it! And now I know I can do it again.


I mentioned the recent freezing weather, right? Our potatoes were looking wonderful.....until a few days ago. I didn't think it had gotten cold enough to kill the vegetation, but it did.

 

When you look close, though, they are already starting to sprout new leaves, so we should still have plenty of potatoes.

The grass and weeds are happily growing beside the potatoes so it's time to till them and hill the potatoes again. I got the tilling done with the Mantis, but not the hilling, maybe tomorrow.

 
The beets and onions are growing slowly, but they are growing. I think the late frosts have slowed them down.

The same is true for the peas. I figured we would be picking peas by now, but they are growing very slowly. Some of the plants are bushing out from the ground, like they are starting over. It's interesting, but not productive. I have yet to see one bloom.

In the meantime, I have planted the tomatoes on the other side of the pea trellis, which was my plan all along. I figured the peas would have been producing. I guess now they will have to share the trellis for a while. We will see how that goes.

The carrots are slowly growing alongside this pea/tomato trellis. They are making very slow progress, but are still alive, so that is a plus.

 Next to the carrots in this corner area, I planted my pepper seedlings. We are only growing a sweet pepper and jalapenos this summer. I tend to want to grow about six different types of peppers, even though we don't eat near that many. We like pickled jalapenos and eat more of them than anything. 

 





Before I did the planting, I tilled up this area again with my little Mantis tiller. It works very well for small areas that just need to be touched up. It's much faster than hoeing and because of that I can get a lot more done.











I planted cabbage and broccoli, but my seedlings are very, very small. I'm not sure if they will make it or not, we will see. This whole area with beets, onions, cabbage and broccoli will turn into winter squash about July 1st.

We put in the trellises for the green beans in this newly tilled ground. It is very, very rocky soil. I chose to plant green beans here since they are a nitrogen fixing plant and don't really like a very rich soil. 

I will bring the 'used' hay from the barn to use as a mulch and add a little fertilizer to this area. As a new back saving measure this year we decided to try putting the t-posts in with the bucket on the tractor. 

We need all the back saving ideas we can get these days and this proved to be another one. It didn't get them quite as deep as we would like, but this soil is hard and rocky.

The trellises are up but the beans will have to wait until tomorrow or Monday since I ran out of steam before getting them in the ground.

I tilled around these trellises with the Mantis to try and give the green beans a fighting chance. The rocks are just amazing, but this little tiller will kick them back out of the way or bounce off most of them. It was kind of like an obstacle course, but now it's ready to plant.

I got the okra seeds planted. Don't they look great? Sorry, I couldn't resist. We use these stakes to mark off planted areas until the crop grows large enough to be easily seen, otherwise they will get stepped on or pulled up.

 









I planted my spinach in the strawberry bed. I have wanted to try this for a couple of years since they are supposed to be good companion plants. This will be interesting to see.

I had hoped to get much more planted today, but time and energy ran out before I got it all done. There is always tomorrow.....I hope. I feel a sense of urgency this year to get our food crops well underway. We want to put up as much as we can against the uncertainty the future holds, so there is much to do. If you don't hear from us quite as often as you have in the past, we haven't forgotten you, we're just busy. We'll keep sharing along the way and hope to continue to learn from your input, it is very appreciated.

We are grateful for the renewal of spring and the hope it brings. May you have a blessed Easter.

Until next time - Fern