Zacchaeus and Expanded Field Fencing

I woke this morning with more energy than I have felt (and faked) these past months. By 7am, the milking had been finished, the milk strained and its weigh recorded, and all the equipment sterilized and ready for tomorrow. My brain has been simultaneously processing many lists of things needing to be accomplished in the next few days; preparing new jewelry pieces for the Belfast Art Market on Friday, deep cleaning this disaster of a home, ordering lumber and supplies for the barn leveling and 2nd floor construction, clearing the debris from the yard, catching up on writing about the happenings... On that note, I have been capturing video and images of life on the homestead, even though I hadn't the time to actually edit or post any of them.


Zacchaeus 2 days old 2013

Starting today, I will write and post some "catch up" images and video. And, as things happen around here, I'll record those for you, too. It is not my intention to give you all whiplash, but I did take the time to capture images, it seems wasteful to keep them to myself.

Today's installment is mainly about Zacchaeus. Remember him? He is developing into a sweet, sweet lad; very friendly, Zac always comes running to me when I enter the field for some snuggles. Well, I want snuggles. I suspect he wants the grain and/or treats I usually carry on my person.

It is difficult to video or photograph our goat herd because they do not respect personal space. The minute I drop to a knee to snap a shot, their interest is piqued and en masse they run towards me. Then it becomes a matter of maintaining my balance while multiple inquisitive goaty noses are thrust into the crock of my arm, the nape of my neck, or some other random spot on my person. That being said, this video was captured at the end of July after Sean, Justin and I fenced in part of the woods to double the size of the doe pasturage.



Thanks for visiting, Friends. See you tomorrow. ♥

A Change in the Wind

The house is quiet, excepting the hum of the overhead fan, the rain dropping softly on the roof, and the regular peeping from the seven chicks living in our piano room. The girls are all still in bed. I considered waking them, but having just returned from a busy five nights at Nana's house and in view of the work I want help with today, I am letting them sleep in a little longer. Besides, I am quite enjoying the peace of the day.

Sitting in front of me is a table strewn with the makings of my new career; newly printed labels and empty boxes awaiting finished pieces of jewelry... watercolor paint tubes and paint brushes sitting impatiently ready to work... wooden forms cut, painstakingly mosaicked and ready for the magic of color... and a pineapple, the mail, my cell phone, a slinky... I have got to get this space into order! And, I will.

Our family has been working towards this goal of my being home with our girls through these last high school years and after 3 years of planning and laboring, yesterday was my first day home in my "retirement". Not retirement so much as a change in vocation. Working from home, tending our herds and flocks and the girls full time. Now that the goal has been realized, I realize I am scared. No. Not so much scared, really as TERRIFIED. Where were these fears when I was working two full time jobs determined to make this a reality? Perhaps they had not time to surface between the work and the seemingly unending task of fending off the well-intentioned opinions of, "You're crazy. That will never work." and "In today's world, you can't farm and make a decent living." or "You have a good job. Why leave that?" and my personal favorite, "You can't make any money if you refuse to cull unproductive animals!" Maybe we can't.

But maybe, we can. The farm has paid for itself this entire year. I guess it is time to see where the chips fall. Place your bets, folks.

Sonja ♥

Homestead Updates

It's 10 o'clock- much later than I want it to be and me awake, writing. I should be asleep, but I am not. I am too tired to sleep. I have begun this post, erased, and started again many times over the past month. It is not that there is nothing to share, but I am tired, my feet are swollen and my back and shoulders ache from the other pressing needs of the day that keep me away from writing. Finally, I have a minute to do so and just enough concentration to make a stab at it. I know that many of you are fighting through your own physically demanding, emotionally turbulent, and mentally exhausting days. In the unavoidable way of water seeking its own level, it is a comfort to know that you are all out there... somewhere.

Now that I am here, can you believe I don't know where to begin? The simplest way to order my mind is to just focus on some homestead updates. Let's see where that takes us...

Homestead Updates:

Zacchaeus.
First of all, I want to share the news of a new arrival. Last Sunday passed, Sean raced into the house, called, "We have a baby! Come quick! I need you!" before returning to the barn. I threw my feet into my boots and followed him outside. My brain was thinking, "Finally! The ducks are hatching!! But, what is the urgency???"

The urgency was that Jane had surprised us with the birth of twin kids. One was stillborn and the other was so small I feared for it's life. The new kid weighed in at just over 2 pounds; our smallest kid born was in the 6 pound range, previously. We moved Jane and the kid to our birthing stall and assisted Jane's efforts to clean our newest addition, gave her some extra grain, molasses-laced water, and cleaned away all the soiled hay from the other stall. This was not Jane's first delivery and though she was disinclined to nurse the kid, she was taking an interest in her offspring, the weather was warm and clear, and there was nothing we could add to the situation, so Sean and I left them to get acquainted.

By morning, the kid looked much livelier, though she was still smaller than we would have ever imagined. Jane had a healthy appetite and we saw her kid, which we named, Naomi, nurse lustily. As the days passed, Naomi grew more and more used to us and our routine. Since she was so tiny and Jane did not mind, I often slipped Naomi inside a baby sling and kept her close to my heart while I completed my outside chores. At nearly a month old and weighing a whopping 6 pounds, the sling is used less these days...



Another interesting development happened about a week after her birth. Sean called me at lunch with an update that he had good news and bad news. The good news was that he had caught Naomi urinating... finally. (When doe Mommas nurse their young, it never seems like they stand still for long. This always worries me a little. But, if there is good output, then it stands to reason, that there is good input. Sometimes, that is the only way to know for sure that a kid is getting enough milk.) His bad news was that Naomi is, in fact, a lad. We decided to name him Zacchaeus. That makes, 3 does and 2 bucks born at Lally Broch Farm this year.

Almost finished in this picture.

Garden Beds: One of the largest projects this year was building our raised beds in both the front and back yards. Having sold 4 CSA shares, the pressure was on to get all the seedlings we'd begun in the ground and transplanted. A really fantastic friend of ours offered us some soil to help fill the beds, which we gladly accepted. To date, we have taken 9 trips with the pickup and will have to make at least 3 more this season, in addition to what we had brought in from the garden supply store. It has been hard on the lower back for sure. We are very grateful that Sean's father is here, though. Daddy Dale and I have been able to load dirt and take some trips while Sean has been working during the day, freeing him to tackle other projects in the evening hours between work and bedtime... like adding a new permanent pasture for the does under the trees.

New Pasturage: Keeping our nine does together in the pasture from last year worked for only a few weeks until they ate themselves out of field and we began supplementing with hay- not ideal considering the expense. Having the ability to let them graze supervised in the back yard most days, helped offset the expense, but also increased the amount of time we had to spend keeping them from eating the garlic bed, my hostas, and pretty much anything else they took a fancy to try. We knew that adding another large area of pasturage was going to happen this year, we did not anticipate how quickly it was going to be a necessity. Good fences make happy goat owners and this was no exception. It took Sean and I and our son-in-law, Justin about 10 hours to complete this project. I am very happy to check this one off the "to do" list.

Ducklings Hatching: One of the happy events of the last month has been the steady trickle of baby ducklings hatching. We are up to a total of 8 new ones born. Four of them have gone to a great new home at a neighbor's house just down the street. The other four have taken up residence in the front yard with the geese. We are hoping that they will all be hens since I want to add to our ranks of duck's for egg laying next year.



Sean at the Belfast Art Market with me last Friday morning.

Belfast Art Market: We have begun to participate in the Belfast Art Market each Friday from 9am-1pm. It has been such fun to meet so many talented artisans and crafters. Of course, it is especially nice to meet the folks who purchase my jewelry, soaps, scents, and other farm items offered there. Seeing someone love a piece that I loved creating means so much to me. Last week, a woman came by the market and spent some time trying on pieces for fun. The glow of her face when she tried on each new piece touched my heart so much that I gifted her a pair of earrings. Can you imagine how pleasant the surprise for me to see her again this week, wearing the earrings and loving them still? And, if that wasn't enough, she confided that having been diagnosed with Lyme Disease a while ago, she gave away all her earrings because they caused her such pain to wear, but she has been able to wear our earrings without discomfort. We both got a little teary!

If you are local and in the area, please, stop by to visit with me. I truly enjoy meeting future friends. ♥

Bangor Chicken Swap: Our friend and neighbor hosts the local Tractor Supply Company "Chicken Swap" which is open to anything farm related. There are vendors with chicks, hens, roosters, ducklings, turkey poults, seedlings, plantings, soaps, bunnies, you name it- and we're there, too- when we can make it. At the last swap, we found good homes for 2 of the 4 roosters we brought with us, sold several pieces of jewelry, and received a special order for some initial pendants. The sun stayed with us until the afternoon, which was surprising as it has rained hard at most of the other events. That hasn't prevented other vendors from coming and visiting with each other, trading livestock and stories. The Bangor Chicken Swap is open the 2nd and 4th Saturdays of each month at the Bangor Tractor Supply Company store on Broadway. You can find them on facebook, too.

To be completely candid, this month has not all been rainbows and butterflies. We had our first (and hopefully last) fox casualties and are missing 3 chickens from our flock. While washing dishes, our eldest daughter, Caitlin spied what she thought was our little Buster dog in the back yard. Realizing the creature in question was bigger than Buster should be, she called me over with, "I think that is a fox!" I didn't believe it, but she was right. We raced outside to chase him off, but the door to one of the chicken tractors had already been ripped off and the chickens were loose in the yard. Cait and I gathered them up and settled them in the main pen. Then, to be safe, we removed the other hens from the other tractor, too. He hasn't been seen again and we are hopeful that he has moved on. To be safe, until the chicken tractors are made more secure, all our chickens are residing in the main coop and yard for now.

Upcoming Events: With Daddy Dale and Momma Twombly visiting until the end of September, Sean and I are planning on leveling the first floor of the barn we framed and sheathed last summer/fall. Additionally, we'll all be working hard to finish the 2nd story and get the roof on. In my dreams, I can see the barn sided, painted a lovely red with cream trim and sage green doors. The reality is that making the barn pretty will probably be a project for 2014. But, we are gaining and if we can finish the upstairs and fill that with hay in anticipation for winter, this homesteading family will be thrilled.

Finally, I am counting down the days until August 13th, when I will resign from the fantastic job I have held these past 7 years in anticipation of home-schooling these teens through the end of high school and farming full time. Meanwhile, I am working more than usual at that job and consequently, have very little time left to catch you all up. I hope you will please, please bear with me as we transition. I am capturing pictures of all the goings on and will be very happy to share them with you as I can find the time to do so. ♥

Thanks for visiting with us today, friends. We are sure glad you stopped in.
Sean and Sonja ♥

Easy Summer Radish Salad Recipes

I found this recipe online at allrecipes.com and knew I had to try it. Now, I am sharing it with you. Radishes are often used in the united states as garnish or in salads. I love that this recipe gives them a place on center stage. I am sure I will be making this one a lot over the summer months. ♥

 

Summer Radish Salad

Ingredients:
1 cup sliced radishes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sliced red onion
1/2 cup seeded and sliced cucumber
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsn white wine vinegar
1/4 tspn white sugar
1/2 clove garlic, minced
1 tspn fresh dill, chopped

Directions:
1. Toss radishes with salt and let stand for about 10 minutes. Drain the liquid and transfer to a large bowl. Add red onion and cucumbers.

2. Whisk olive oil, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and dill in a small bowl until well mixed. Pour over vegetables and toss to mix. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour to allow flavors to mingle before serving.

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The inspiration for this recipe was found at allrecipe.com. I change the shallot in the original recipe to red onion because I prefer them and added garlic. You could also substitute a bunching green onion, for the shallot. I really enjoyed how it came out.

Radish Salad with Parsley & Eggs

 

Ingredients:

1 medium red onion, minced

1/2 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsn Dijon mustard

1 tbsn rice wine vinegar

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 cups fresh radishes, thinly sliced

1/2 cup parsley- whole leaves, chopped, with 

    stems removed

2 large farm fresh eggs, steamed (hard cooked)

    diced

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions:

1. Wisk onion with mustard, vinegar, and a sprinkle of salt and pepper in a 2 cup measuring cup. Gradually add the olive oil to create a thick salad dressing.

 

2. Place radishes, parsley, and chopped eggs in a medium sized bowl. (Can be covered and refrigerated for several hours if necessary).

 

3. When ready toss with salad dressing and add salt and pepper to taste (if necessary) and serve.

 

 

Thanks for visiting tonight, friends. I am glad for your company.
Sonja ♥



How to Help Hatch a Chick

It is our opinion that nature knows best. In our experience, allowing the hens to incubate and hatch their eggs gives us a better hatch rate and usually one that requires no assistance from us. (I'm not against using an incubator, we just have not had as good results from them.) Sometimes, interference is necessary and can be life saving. When it's a choice between certain death by suffocation or a slim chance at life, we make that call on a case by case basis and hope that we make the right one.

Last year, we chose to assist 2 ducklings in hatching and happily, they both survived and are still thriving here on the homestead. On the other hand, on two separate occasions, we felt the need to assist a couple chicks to hatch and only one of them lived. What about the chicks that died in their shells and never pipped or pipped and never progressed? Early on, we made the decision to not interfere with a hatching chick and it died in its shell. Could we have saved it? Was there something fatally wrong with that chick, something that helping it to hatch would not fix?

If you plan on hatching chicks (using an incubator or a broody hen), it is prudent to have a basic understanding of how it is supposed to work; what is "normal", what is not. With time and experience, you may be able to help when things don't go as they should. I wrote a post last year titled, "Marvelous Creation" that explains a bit about the changes that must take place within an egg for a chick to hatch.

A Buff Cochin newborn chick peeking out from
under Niecy's wing. Niecy is not the bio-hen, but adopted
10 eggs without complaint. Good lass. ♥

This topic came up in my mind because we had a bit of worry over the weekend. Two clutches of eggs, incubating in nesting boxes, were due to hatch on June 1st. Right on schedule, we saw some pips in the eggs of one nest. The other nest had none. Because we knew that the hen sitting on the second clutch was new to hatching and had been on and off the nest frequently, we were prepared to find that few or none of those eggs would hatch any chicks. We were excited to see the pips and anticipated the arrival of some new chicks.

We watched the progress through the day. Two feather-footed cochins hatched first. We were surprised, while checking the eggs at mid-morning, to find a third egg sitting in the nest with its outer shell almost completely gone and the membranes still intact. The membrane was noticeably dry, so Sean and I made the decision to carefully mist it with water to see if that would help the chick to be able to hatch. We returned the membrane clad chick to the nest box and its broody hen.

When evening came and the chick had still made no further progress, we decided to intervene.



I am the first to admit that I am not an expert on hatching chicks. Last year was our first year hatching our own. The 40 or so chicks we hatched gave us some experience, but we are always learning. This post is not to tell you what to do, but to share what we are doing- what has worked for us and what hasn't.

I hope you found it useful. Thanks for visiting with us this evening, friends. We hope you enjoy your night.

Sean & Sonja ♥

Update: 8 of the 10 eggs hatched under Niecy. The other nest has begun to pip and so far, we have welcomed 3 new chicks from it. Also, remember the nest box full of duck eggs a chicken was sitting on? Well, 2 of them have hatched, too! (And, also, required some help! In their case, we think their shell was too dry because there was no wet Momma duck sitting on them, but rather a very dry hen. We're keeping an eye on the others for signs of hatching. If there are no more pips in a couple days, we'll candle them and discard any that are not living.



Shared with The Backyard Farming Connection #35 & The HomeAcre Hop #22

It's a Snapper!

Look what Sean discovered Friday morning!

The geese were making a huge ruckus when Sean went outside to get the does ready for milking, so he paused to see what the fuss was all about and discovered a snapping turtle trying frantically to escape the geese pen. How did it get there? Either Sean inadvertently fenced it inside the new goose area or the poor thing swam under the fencing and then couldn't figure out how to get back out!

However it got in, it was not pleased with Sean's helping to get it back out. That did not stop Sean... though it certainly made him rethink carrying the large, aggressive, angry snapping reptile bent on removing several of Sean's fingers to the stream with his bare hands.

Rescue completed, we were ready to get back to our day.



Thanks for visiting.
Sean & Sonja

This post also shared with HomeAcre Blog Hop #22

Just an Average Saturday

Sean and I were so looking forward to a few days off together- four of them- all in a row. We had a list of things to do and (finally!!!) the time to tackle some of them. Mother Nature had vastly different ideas.

It rained hard on Friday and our girls were off with friends, so we took the opportunity to spend some time with each other. We spent almost the entire day doing nothing special. We watched a movie on Netflix, even!

We woke Saturday morning to more rain. Despite this, we drove to our local Tractor Supply Company for our 2 week load of grains. Miss Meaghan was home and went with us. With so many vendors braving the rain that was beginning to be a recurring theme to these "Farm Swaps", we had it in mind to search for a pair of unrelated, baby angora bunnies with which to begin our breeding stock. Meaghan is in charge of this venture. She'll be breeding her pair twice a year and selling the kits, in addition to learning how to spin fiber into usable angora yarns.

Ironically, we purchased a handsome, 12 week old, English
Angora buck, at the swap, from a neighbor who used to occasionally supply us with round bales of hay last year and lives about 5 minutes from us. And, in a handy turn of events, she is going to be able to breed us a tawny English Angora doe for him. We'll purchase her in about 3 months. We spent the ride home deciding on names. I was hoping for Abraham and Sarah, but Meaghan vetoed them immediately. She spent several hours debating the merits of the names Boaz and Zechariah, finally choosing to use them both. Boaz Zechariah Sanders does not exactly flow off the tongue, but since we all call him Bo, I suppose it will do. Meg's doe is going to be named Ruth.

Kristen has been asking for a mini lop-eared bunny for months. When we saw a friendly, young buck for only $15.00, we bought him for her. She named him Leo. Though he is not earning his keep monetarily, he is making Kristen very happy with his company. And, thankfully, bunnies are fairly inexpensive to keep.






On Sunday, unsatisfied with the previous nine consecutive days of hard rain, Mother Nature continued her deluge. Frustration compounded and frayed all our nerves. So much to do and the hours passing void of anything resembling accomplishment. A week's worth of clothing sat dirty and waiting. We washed one load during the week, but it was still damp days later. There is no point in washing laundry when it cannot be dried efficiently. The stalls were a sodden mess and both chickens and goats waited miserably in them, casting accusatory eyes at us when we ventured in to replace hay or collect eggs. In the face of unrelenting rain, there was really nothing that can be done other than to try to make everyone as comfortable as possible and pray it for it to pass.

On Monday morning, we woke to a welcomed sight. The SUN! We snapped into action and attempted to fit four days worth of work into one. We set to milking and then moved the goats to the back yard, where they cheerfully spent the day grazing in the brush or napping in the sun. While I processed and recorded the milk and then fed the piggies, Jasmine, and the chickens in the main coop yard and tractors, Sean filled all the water buckets and then, fiddled with the riding mower in an effort to coax it back to life after its winter rest. Within minutes, the rider roared to a start and I was able to mow for the first time. Mowing is one of my favorite chores. There is almost nothing I like better (work wise) than to stick in my ear buds and spend a couple hours riding in circles, creating neat piles of grass clippings to rake up. I set to work immediately.

We have been wanting and NEEDING to move the big geese from the duck yard. Ever since Caitlin ruined a perfectly good nest, her days were numbered. Sean took a couple hours to sink 9-10 metal posts around the edge of where the lower part of the front lawn was holding over a foot of water. He engineered it so that the geese have a place to settle in the grass and also a place to paddle about. We still plan to have a proper pond dug for them at some point in the future, but in light of all the rain, it was a good time to move them.


That project complete, it was time to move on to adding more soil to our garden beds and to begin to transplant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and watermelon into them. It feels so good to see the garden we planned on paper come to life with the plants we grew from seeds. I can only imagine how it will feel when they are all producing. To prepare the area where the raised beds will live, we staked a 30 foot square blue utility tarp on the ground. Then, we screwed the 2x6's in place. Sean cut out the tarp from the inside area of the beds. I laid a good layer of newspaper to cover the ground and we covered it with good garden soil. In some of the beds, we used cardboard instead of newspaper. Both will decay nicely in time and serve the purpose of being a great weed barrier now.


We took the baby geese and our lone duckling to the front "pond" to splash about, too. They took to it like, well, ducks to water. At this age, they have to be watched carefully since the oils that will allow them to be buoyant and float as adults have not been distributed properly, yet. We watched them play, catch and eat little water bugs and instinctively preen themselves.

It took me all week to find the time to sit and catch you all up with what is happening around here. I am hoping to write more frequently, but I fear that finding the time to do so, will be hard. I am taking lots of pictures so that when I can sit for a bit, I'll have them ready. Please, bear with us as summer gears up and we get used to our schedule change.

We appreciate your taking the time to visit with us tonight. We're sure glad you're here.
Sean & Sonja ♥