Goodbye Chuck

We sold our Dexter bull, Charles Wallace, today. I was very sad to see him go as he was a very handsome and well behaved bull. Unfortunately, since we only keep two cows and his dam is one of them, we really needed to move him to another farm that could benefit from his great genetics and get a bull unrelated to our two cows. We would like to get a polled bull this time around so it might take awhile until we get a new bull.

Chuck did really well loading into the trailer with just a bale of hay and a little encouragement from behind. He is such a good boy!

The gentleman that purchased Chuck was here early this spring with his wife to purchase some of our ducks. While he was here today he purchased nine more ducks to add to their flock. I guess they are enjoying them!

Farm Photos from Today

This is one of four roosters from our Southern States chick purchase this spring. He tried his hand at crowing for the first time this morning. He was supposed to be a Americana hen but instead he is a Single Comb Light Brown Leghorn as are the other three roosters and four matching hens. I may keep one Roo to go with the hens... maybe.

These two hens are also from the spring chick purchase. They are supposed to be two of four Barred Rocks. But two look like the closer hen with bright orange legs, larger comb and more white to the bars. They other two look like the far hen with dull yellow legs with grey on the front and toes, smaller comb and less white on the bars.

Here is our new cria born yesterday. Looking much drier and cleaner today. He is also much more steady on his legs and his knees are pointing in the right direction now!

Gabby is one of my original two Nigerian Dwarf Goat does (along with her sister Pepper). Gabby has turned into a beautiful goat and everyone comments on her when they come to the farm.

She is also very sweet and loves to give kisses. (A rare photo of me. Taken with the camera held at arms length.)

Finally, another cria is born!

My favorite alpaca Celtic Woman, aka Celtie, finally delivered her cria this morning. A beige little male out of our stud Novio. He seems to be all legs and knees at the moment.

After stretching his legs for a bit, he had his first meal, and a good roll in the dirt before settling down for a rest.

Movie Night!

We had been promising our son, Evan, that once he turned 7 years old he would be able to start watching the Star Wars movies. Well, he turned 7 the end of May but his sister McKayla has just turned 5 and we don't feel she is ready to watch it yet so we have had to wait for the right time. This afternoon, Grampa Kork picked up McKayla for an overnight at the grandparents house. Evan was so excited!

But before we could get to watching Star Wars I needed to finish up with a new batch of goat's milk soap that I was stirring and stirring waiting for it to trace so I could pour it in the mold. I made an Oatmeal Vanilla soap this time. It was taking so long I enlisted Neil to come and stir so I could start making pizza for our dinner and movie watching.

The pizza came together quickly with the use of my ABin5 dough already in the fridge. I cut up one of the sweet banana peppers from the garden and put it on my half of one of the pizzas and it was so spicy and yummy!

Finally, Neil, Evan and I snuggled together in the living room so Evan could experience Star Wars for the first time. We ended up watching both Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope AND Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Evan was so animated during the movies. Neil and I just kept smiling at each other when Evan would cheer for the Rebel forces!

A good night!

Yogurt, Pickles and Goat Cheese

No, I am not pregnant again!

I was just feeling a bit ambitious in the kitchen today. After chores, as I was straining the goat's milk I realized it had piled up again so decided I would get another batch of Cherve cheese cultured. And as I was heating up the goat's milk to pasteurize it, it occurred to me that I hadn't made any yogurt in almost two weeks. So, into another pot went the cow's milk for the yogurt.

While the milk's were heating I was straightening up the kitchen and was trying to figure out what to do with all the cucumbers, summer squash and zucchini I had about.... pickles! I pull out a recipe for Bread and Butter Pickles and checked to make sure I had everything I needed. I got the canning jars out and into the dishwasher to sterilize.

By now the milk's were hot and needed to be cooled down in an ice water bath in the sink. As the milk cooled I started cutting the veggies which also included onions and the sweet banana peppers from the garden. I salted the veggies heavily and set them in colanders to drain for a few hours.

To the goat's milk I added the culture and rennet and set it toward the back of the stove... done for 10-12 hours. To the cow's milk I added, powdered milk, some sugar, vanilla and half a jar of yogurt from my last batch I had been hiding in the fridge from the kids. I pour the concoction into the jars and set in the yogurt maker to culture for 8 hours (we like a thick yogurt here).

Time to clean up a bit, feed the kids lunch and nurse the baby.

After the salted veggies sat for 3 hours I rinsed them off, made the vinegar brine, cooked the veggies for a minute or two, packed the jars and canned them in a water bath for ten minutes. I ended up with three and half quarts of cucumber BnB pickles and one and half quarts squash BnB pickles.

One final clean up of the kitchen and it was time to rest for a while. After dinner I will refrigerate the yogurt and then just before bed I will strain the cheese and hang it over night.

My new love affair...

with a website, a book and bread!

If you haven't heard about the latest bread cooking craze described in the book "ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY" you must have your head in the sand. In a nut shell it is a method of bread baking that consists of mixing up a wet dough and storing it in the fridge until you need it. Making bread baking fast and easy (i.e. no kneading).

I have known about the book for awhile, even watched the authors demonstrate their technique on a morning show at one point. My blogging friend, M, over at Rabbit Hill Farm had told me months ago it was how she was making her bread. But, I was content with making my breads/doughs in the bread machine or with my sourdough starter. I didn't feel the need to spend the money on another bread cookbook... I was happy... or so I thought.

One day, a few weeks ago, while searching for a new bread recipe Google suggested the website for "ARTISAN BREAD IN FIVE MINUTES A DAY". I headed over and started reading their blog and I was sucked in! I wrote down the ingredients for the master recipe and headed over to Amazon.com to buy the book. That night I mixed up the master recipe and stashed it in the fridge so it would be ready to use as soon as the book arrived.

I have since used this great book and technique to make french baguettes, pizza and fochacia. Tonight I made these three small loaves for dinner. Fast, easy and yummy!

Independence Day Challenge

Planted - Nothing

Harvested - Summer Squash, Zucchini, Sweet Banana Peppers, Green Tomatoes (fell off the vines), Cherry Tomatoes, Radishes, Lettuces, Eggs and Goat Milk.