Missing The Little Things

We have left the farm, but the farm has not left us. We cannot have a day where a conversation won't end with, "Too bad we don't have some goats for that,", or "The chickens would clean this up".

FIL Francis feeding fries to the hens last summer

Yep - throwing perfectly good scraps into the compost seems such a shame. Watching the chickens waddle over to tear the latest contributions apart was part of the fun, but knowing we were recycling and feeding them at the same time felt good. You've seen the chickens. Healthiest bunch for miles, or at least fattest. Best eggs ever! I miss those too.


Weeding and Weaning - 2011 -Sweet Pants babysitting

We hate having to mow this little lawn. A couple of goats could take perfect care of it, and then knock back some of the brush. Sigh!

We also really miss the bats in the barn (really cool!) AND...AND - the barn swallows.

Now a year ago, I don't think I would have included the barn swallows. By now the barn is full of their mud nests and they are dropping nesting scraps and their droppings everywhere. We had to be careful where water buckets and food sat. Anything of value was covered with feed bags or plastic. But the one thing the barn swallows and bats were good for - BUGS! They ate lots of them.

Mosquitoes. They love me. I can honestly say that in a mere week, maybe even a day (its been wet lately), I get more bites on my body then I did in ten YEARS at the farm. True. True. True.

Never EVER complain about bats, no matter how much guano is in your attic. Luckily for us, it was all in the barn, and yes, I hated them when I first got the spanking new John Deere. Covered it with plastic for months. Then I just finally figured out where there were the least bat homes, and flipped my seat forward and parked there. It is a tractor!

Boots and Brianna May 2012

One of the things I can luckily do, is follow the farm with the help of the new owners, and you can too. Here is the link to Rush Around Farm. They have already expanded and are having new adventures. I'm jealous, but...I'm glad they have taken on the farm as they have. I think you will appreciate what they are doing also.

http://www.rusharoundfarm.com/blog/

Goat Herding

Some days it is a real chore to get the goats to follow to an exterior browsing area. Any factor can be a distraction. Rain is the worst. A cat - second! At least within the high tensile area they can't get outside the alley.

When we just go out the barn door, they are totally free and can go wherever they want. If they see a rather succulent blueberry bush or weed, off they go. And usually, someone follows.

This morning I got lucky. It just shows you how good these animals are. It also shows you that they know there is a good chance of good browse where I am fencing them.

They are well fed goats!

If you remember the last time they were here, this faucet was pretty invisible. We can see the ground again, and I can finish mowing safely now. Thanks Goats!

Rainy Days and Sundays

I am always fascinated when the pond has the "smoke" rising from it when the temperature fluctuates just right.

I have been trying to get out and mow, but we continue to have more rain, and not enough wind and sun in between to dry out the saturated ground.

Everyone went for a walk around the pond yesterday morning since the woods are off limits due to the first day of archery season. Can you see the other three walkers in the mist?

 The goats are doing some end of season maintenance for us.

Because the hose was constantly connected to the faucet, I only mowed around one side of it, and so it became more and more overgrown.

Well, the goats are loving their work!

They are also doing a fantastic job of cleaning up the outside of the garden fence. They lined up like a well oiled team.

Eventually, they'll get the inside, but the chickens get to clean up first.  But not too soon. We are still getting a few tomatoes and peppers.

The other good thing about these kind of days is finishing projects. I'll post a couple completions soon.

The Garden - Volunteers, Food, Weeds and Blight

In recent years my sunflowers have been "volunteers", planted by last years' fallen seeds wherever they may end up after the garden has been turned and tilled.

 

The birds will have few, but large heads to feed on very soon.

Hopefully they will leave a seed or two behind for next year.

As always, my vegetable garden started with big dreams - too big - but food was harvested.

Some of the asparagus I planted from seed three years ago had a second, small, delicious crop.

But as soon as we had the combination of heat(came early in June) and rain(came abundantly in July), the garden - as usual - became a weedy mess, saved only by Dave's vigilant weeding and mulching during the stinking heat.

However, the dispiriting thing was what seemed to be blight.

It started here,...

... and soon branched out.

A few batches of sauce are in the freezer, but much more of the harvest went to the chickens.

At least it didn't go to waste.

The chickens were very happy.

 As Mia likes to remind me - 

Man plans. God laughs.

Sunflowers

Meanwhile, back at the farm... The volunteers are taking over the vegetable garden, along with the weeds.
I did not plant these sunflowers.

A head fell into the ground,
got tilled in several times,

and lo and behold, ten foot flowers.

This picture is not to show my sweaty head, and comment on the heat and humidity, but to try and give some perspective to the size of these buggers.

Last year when I planted them, they hardly reached half this size by Fall. These are not only more vigorous, but I think they have "personality". The bees are enjoying them also.

Its Milkweed Time! Cooking with Tizy!

When we got Zola and Vinegar, the first two bred does, in August three years ago, I spent hours removing milkweed from the field we prepared for them. Milkweed is poisonous to goats. They are back in that field now, and I have not seen the milkweed yet, and was quite happy about it.
Tizy is a long time friend, and past coworker of Hubs. He has a great sense of humor, and of experimentation, especially when it comes to foraging and the culinary arts. A few days ago I got this notice from him, and he is allowing me to pass on the news.

I just wanted to give you a heads-up that the milkweeds are coming into their "prime" now. We had our first batch yesterday, and they were delicious. For years, I was "skeered" to try them, but we've had them 4 or 5 times now (with no ill effects), so I've got no hesitation about recommending them to anyone else now. I'd rank them among the choicest wild greens. (And when you line them up on the plate, they make an "elegant" presentation.)

If you read the wild food books, they all say you need to boil milkweed in 2 or 3 changes of water to "remove the bitterness", but I've convinced myself that (at least for the milkweeds growing around here), there just ain't no bitterness to remove. Every time I've made them, I've snuck one after the first boiling, and there wasn't the slightest bitterness of any kind. If you Google "milkweeds", you'll see there's a fella in the Midwest who's spent a lot of time trying to get to the bottom of this alleged "bitterness" business (cuz his milkweeds aren't bitter either), and the best he could come up with is that maybe they're bitter somewhere, but it's probably one of those situations where the plant's are extremely sensitive to microclimate. If so, I live in a favored milkweed "appellation". The wild food books also tell you to wait until the water's fully boiling before dropping in the milkweed, but I suspect that's "hooey" as well. Next time, I'll throw caution to the wind and just boil them "regular" to see how they'll come out. I suspect there won't be any difference.

If you're on a quest to eradicate milkweed from your farm, eating them's a great way to do it.

Now before you go traipsing through the field for your milkweed, please be aware that there are many kinds, and parts can be toxic. Check out the links I found for good information and some interesting history also.

Identifies many milkweed plants. Its a large genus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asclepias

Interesting stories here: http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/bi/2000/Ethnobotany/milkweed.html