Thursday morning barn report

Through my bedroom window, I am watching the sky grow pink as the sun comes up behind blue clouds.  I am on my second cup of coffee and almost ready to walk the dogs and head to the barn to milk. 

After a brief heat wave in April, we returned to spring weather in May, showers, temperatures in the sixties.  Yesterday was a stunningly beautiful spring day and I was able to extend the winter pasture in the lower grassy meadow for the goats to graze.  However, rain is predicted for today and tomorrow and through the weekend.

Ten turkey poults hatched on Mother’s Day out of the twelve that incubated for the last 28 days.  I started another batch of twelve that will hatch in early June.  The poults are at the Cornwall Community Coop for a few days as a teaser for Thanksgiving sales.   I lost one juvenile turkey so I have eight of the first batch left, five of the next, the ten that just hatched and maybe forty in my incubator and incubating at schools.  I ordered enough electric poultry fence for a quarter of an acre and will next experiment with free ranging the turkeys in that.   I hope it will confine them but some have precited they will just fly out.

On Mother’s Day weekend, I got into the vegetable garden and planted more seeds and cleaned up beds.  I ordered electric deer fencing that I will add to the existing fence to expand the garden.  Once that is up, I will put everything else in. 

I have about a thousand heritage tomato seedlings in pots and flats.  The coop is selling them and I will put out a table this weekend at the end of my driveway.  I have Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Bloody Butcher, Red Currant, Jubilee and Roma.

I still have five pregnant does.  I am hand milking six does, four of which still have their kids on them.  I am making lots of feta at this point as well as the usual chevre and farmer’s wheel cheese.  I will turn to cheddar this summer and try mozzarella as well.  I am attending a class in Vermont with Peter Dixon in June about starting an artisan cheese business.  The four bucklings will go soon.  The doelings are growing well.  I need to handle them more and am thinking of asking a young lady to come spend time with them on a weekly basis.  The thrill of baby goats has worn thin for my kids at this point.

The chicken house got mucked out and the roosting bars replaced.  The chickens are much happier with that arrangement.  I am selling eggs to the coop.

Butterhill sent home the two ducklings they hatched.  There are over a hundred duck eggs in the various schools and hatching begins starting next week.  I will have all of those ducklings that hatch coming back to the farm in June.

The turkeys are calling to me from the yard so I’d better get going.

Sunday Barn Report

This morning as I walked up to the barn, the sky was dark and gray and I thought to myself it looked like a snow sky.  The weather report said rain first and snow later but it was wrong because as I did my morning barn chores, it snowed like crazy and then later rained with brief snow showers and no accumulation, thankfully.

What a delight it is having kids in the barn!  They are fearless and curious.  When I milk their mothers, I bring them out of the pen and they explore everything and stretch their legs.  Harvey and Ian tried to climb the hay bales so I put one of the play cubes in the pen for them to sleep under and climb on top of.  Delilah kisses and licks the babies while I milk.  She has been very loving and gentle.  Because I bottle feed Harvey and Ian (for the most part, except when I put them on Celia after I have milked her out), they are very focused on me.  Jenny and Kevin are more tenative but I make sure to cuddle them. 

We are drinking Celia’s milk and I am so happy to have goat’s milk in the fridge again.  Three quarts this morning and two tonight.  Bambi still has some colostrum so I am using her extra milk  for Harvey and Ian’s bottles.  Jenny and Kevin are nursing well so no bottles needed.  Celia won’t willingly feed Harvey and Ian although I expect as they grow they will insist as long as I keep putting them on her once or twice a day.  Bucklings are aggressive that way.  They might even nurse off of Bambi since she is in the same pen.

This morning I prepped for a hay delivery, cleaning out the hay loft.  Because of the rain, it has been put off for better weather.  I have enough hay until Tuesday so the weather better hold in the next day or two.

I filled grain buckets and bundled a couple piles of empty bags for recycling.  I did the usual chores, feeding, watering and moving animals around.

I organized and swept the barn.  I refilled the hen boxes with new hay and emptied a bag of leaves in the chicken house and the turkey jail.

Tonight I baited the have a heart trap with salmon at my friend Phil’s suggestion.  We’ll see if it works.

I took pictures this morning which will follow this post.

Tuesday Night Barn Report

Another storm is coming in, two to four inches of snow overnight and half an inch of ice tomorrow.

The does are all pregnant and ending their lactations.  This morning I was down to milking only two, getting about half a gallon of milk for the family.  With the pending storm, I actually bought my first half gallon of organic milk, just in case. 

Celia is due first and I noted that she was bred on September 20, 2008, giving her a due date of February 17, 2009.  However, I run Henry, my Boer buck with the girls so he could have bred her earlier but I think not.  Lucy is huge  and dried off weeks ago but I have a due date for her of early April.  I think she’ll give birth after Celia.  Josephine was bred November 14th so should give birth April 20th and she is still milking so I think that date is right.  I have no idea about Penelope, Sophie or Bambi.  Henry has repeatedly bred Elizabeth and she does not look pregnant at all so I think something is wrong there.  She aborted her last two pregnancies near the end.  And Elizabeth is acting like a buck, making that funny buck sound and mounting the girls.  I have to pose that scenario to my goat listserv for advice!  The young does have been house with my new Nubian buckling because of space issues (and Henry trying to kill him) and I have been hoping that he will be slow to mature.  Very high on my priority list in the spring is a secure fence to go with the new buck house.  The electric fence did not cut it during breeding season and Henry just leaped over it or walked through it to get to the herd.

The turkeys have been alternating between sleeping in the trees and sleeping in the chicken house, depending upon the weather.  I think one of the hens I kept is starting to lay because I have been finding a chicken size speckled egg in the chicken house for a couple of mornings.  The tom I kept is turning into quite the nasty guy, attacking me at every chance.  I am wondering if I should have kept a second Tom for him to compete with?

First frost

This morning I found the first frost on the farm.  We had had frost warnings and scattered frost in the neighborhood but none on the farm.  It was 26 degrees when I walked the dogs and they were confused by the crispy crackling grass underfoot. 

The first frost was late this year, usually we get hit around October 10th.  But I don’t mind it.  I am ready for the season to change and the pace and direction to change inward and towards evaluation of the past year and planning for next year.

Thursday morning barn report

Spring has sprung and all the trees are putting out leaves and the apple and cherry trees in full blossom.  A little more than a week ago, it was just the forsythia and then suddenly everything but the lilacs.  It happens so fast.

This morning Willy had finally found his way to Celia’s udder and fed himself.  I had been bottle feeding him from birth and milking Celia out to build up the supply.  This will make it easier.

Two and a half gallons of goat milk which I made right into chevre.  This included Celia’s milk.  Three ducks eggs put aside for Cornwall Elementary to incubate and hatch.  I should have seven to eight chicken eggs by early afternoon.  I have three egg orders to deliver.

The Narragansett turkey poults came this morning!  They are in the basement brooder right now.  They are tiny as the chicks that came last month.  I have to watch them closely today to make sure they adjust okay.  They were very expensive, $8.85 each!

The speckled sussex chicks have been going outside during the day in a wire enclosure and in the barn at nigh.  They are very energetic and fly all around.  The meat chicks are big fat blobs.  As soon as they feather out they will only be fed twice a day and encouraged to free range the rest of the day.

I sold the Indian Runner ducklings through Craigs List and now have a waiting list for some of the ducklings that will be hatched in the classrooms throughout Cornwall.

Willy also may be sold.  I need to follow up today with the potential buyer.  He wants him castrated so I have to look for the elastrator I think my mom gave me.  If I can’t find it, I need to order one asap.

I have done NO gardening other than watch the St. Patrick’s day peas grow.  It has been unusually dry and there has been forest and brush fires.  Rain maybe this weekend so I’ll plant then.  I have jealously read about my mother and Aunt jean and Robin’s efforts in their gardens and greenhouses.

Saturday morning barn report

This morning while I was sipping my coffee and waking up, I brainstormed and made a running list of all the farm chores swirling in my mind to get started on this spring or finish from this winter (or maybe last year…ha!).  Later this afternoon, I hope to review it with a close friend who is visiting and transfer it to my to do list here as well as my datebook.

This brainstorming had me lingering in bed so Sam and I walked the property at around 7 am.  I have been picking deer ticks off all morning so I will need to put Frontline on the dogs and cats this weekend.  Grass is getting greener and the daffodils are budding up.  It’s been a partly cloudy partly sunny day so far with temperatures in the fifties.

Out to the barn at almost 8 am.  Two gallons and a little more from the goats.  Two ducks eggs.  And two blue chicken eggs stashed in the barn.  The goats were very happy to get outside after being kept in yesterday.  It was even mild enough to put the ducklings outside in their own shelter and pen.  The big Indian Runners immediately came over to say hi to their offspring.  Ducks are so social!

I immediatley cultured this morning’s milk  for chevre and set it in the overn until tomorrow morning.  I drained the drying feta and put one in brine to age for four weeks.  The other batch needs one more day to harden.  I have several batches of feta ready in the root cellar.

My friend Vinnie who is also my small animal vet and sometimes large animal vet reported that Pipsqueak renamed Sala is very happy with her chickens.  Ironically once I rehome one rooster, I get offered two more!  I have been offered a four month house raised silkie rooster who needs a home and he comes with a four month old pullet.  I am concerned that these two spoiled rotten chickens (washed and dryed with a hair dryer weekly?) will be shocked at becoming free range chickens on my farm and not do well.  The other rooster I have been offered is a nasty New Hampshire red who has been confined and is beating up his hens to bloody pulps.  He may adjust to free range living but if he causes any problems, right into the freezer!   His owner is going to try freecycle first and if that is unsuccessful, drop him off here.

Friday morning barn report

Rain all night and into this morning.  Ground must be saturated because there are elongated earthworms everywhere on the surface.  I was damp and cold after my walk with Sam.  Rain is supposed to continue through Sunday.  It is good for the spring growth and it makes me feel less burdened by all the outdoor projects I should be tackling.

Sophie is still being a nutcase in the barn.  Ever since we got Delilah and I have brought her into the barn to observe, Sophie has balked at moving through the barn and getting on the milk stand.  She is my fainter so you have to handle her differently than the other goats.  This morning Delilah wasn’t even with me!  Arghhhh.

Two gallons and two quarts.  Right into the fridge for family consumption.  Four duck eggs.  No chicken eggs until later but I have been getting five to eight in the afternoon.  Laying is increasing and I have been able to deliver to some of my egg customers again.

I have 17 duck eggs set aside for an elementary class to incubate.  Today at 1245 pm, I will deliver the eggs and bring my four ducklings for a visit.  That should be fun!  I will try to take pictures and post them.

Wednesday morning barn report

Spring is definitely here!  A loud chorus of peepers this morning, purple crocuses here and there, grass turning green.  

During the last week, I eliminated the evening milking which has slightly increased the amount in the morning and decreased the total overall.  It has certainly made evening chores easier.  Three gallons of milk this morning that I immediately started as feta at 730 am.  It is now 1030 am and I am about to drain it and let it hang in the root cellar.  Tomorrow I will cut it up and salt it and let it harden for two or three days and then into a brine for four weeks.  It will be sufficiently aged during the first week in May.  I have a batch to brine next and a batch to salt and cut up.  More on feta later, especially the taste testers reports.

Three duck eggs and two chicken eggs.  Ducklings doing well in barn stall.  Chicks in basement doing well (more on the arrival of my McMurry’s order later.)

Lots of farm work ahead.  Need to update my to do list.

Wednesday morning barn report

Thirties this morning when I walked Sam at 6 am.  Some frost in the back field.  Rain showers predicted with rain growing heavier as the day goes on.  More rain tomorrow and possibly an inch of snow.  At least the weather gives me a reprieve on outdoor projects!

Goats gave two gallons of milk.  Added a gallon from refrigerator and am in the middle of culturing feta.

Five duck eggs.  Ducklings doing great in barn stall.  Like having the larger space.  Last night Karen and I checked the remaining duck eggs and discarded all but three.  Most were rotten, a few were stalled embryos.  This morning one had been abandoned so two remain under one broody hen.  I am pretty sure they will NOT be hatching but I will give them a few more days.  I have to warn the teachers taking fertilized duck eggs to hatch in class that my hatch rate appears very poor.  Four ducklings out of 32 eggs.

Bianci appears to be limping a little on front right leg.  Checked her hoof, seemed fine.  Need to keep an eye.

Cheese and egg deliveries today.  Chevre from the root cellar to process.  Need to check supplies and find a new recipe to try.  When my yogurt maker comes back, I will make yogurt for my friend Linda.  I also need to call and ask for jars to be returned.

Need to check and trim hooves at end of day if I have energy.

Wednesday barn report

Back in the saddle after almost a week away.  Despite coming back from seventy degree weather, today’s cool 40s and 50s were springlike and very nice. 

A little over two gallons in the morning and one and a half gallons tonight.  Milk is down but that is from change of routine and weaker hand muscles. 

Six duck eggs (although I think a couple were hidden from yesterday) and four chicken eggs.  

I made a grain run to Tractor Supply and stocked up for a few weeks. 

A duckling was born yesterday morning when I was traveling home.  Karen brought back all four ducklings in the late afternoon.  The two that are three weeks old are huge compared to the ten day old and newborn.  I moved pregnant Celia in with the milkers and put all four ducklings into her pen for the night.  While I was moving Celia and prepping the pen, I left them outside the barn door in a clear plastic box.  Their “parents”, who had never met them, came over to say hello and quacked solemnly.  If it is warm tomorrow, I will put the ducklings outside in a little pen.