Rooster Rescue

I met a new neighbor last Thursday when he stopped by the farm to let us know his favorite rooster had gone missing and wondered if we had seen it around.  At that time I had not seen his rooster.
Then around 11 am this morning I looked out into our middle alpaca pasture and could see a rooster pacing the fence line. I looked a lot like one of our Brown Leghorn roosters but something about him just looked a bit different.  Evan and I went to check him out and try to catch him if needed.

Well, it turned out to be the neighbor's lost wandering rooster.  Evan and I walked him into the corner of  the fence line and fairly easily caught him up.  We put him into a pet carrier until we could take him home.

When we returned him home my neighbor was so shocked that he was still alive.  He was very thankful to have him home again.

Asparagus... yummm

The kids and I cut the first asparagus crop of the season from the garden this afternoon. Not a huge haul but enough for dinner. We like our asparagus cooked simply. A little olive oil, salt and pepper and oven roasted for 10-15 minutes. It was so sweet and tender crisp... it was hard to share with Neil.

Earlier today the couple that purchased our Nigerian Dwarf goat, Mary Jane, twin bucklings in January came to pick them up. They were staying here until they were old enough not stop nursing as the new owner's didn't want to bottle feed them and so I could wether them at three months old for them. Also, the new owner's needed to build a suitable goat enclosure before bringing them home.

I had kept them penned up from their breakfast this morning so we didn't have to go chasing them all over the pastures when it came time for them to go. I always get a little sad when we sell an animal that we have raised. I know that we can't keep them all so I just try to find the best homes I can for them.

Soon after the goats left we had more visitors arrive. I had listed some of the kid's books and puzzles that we never used on our local Freecycle site. A nice family came and got them and will put them to good use and will keep the items out of a landfill somewhere. If you don't know about Freecycle I encourage you to sign up with your local chapter and start finding new homes for your unused items around the house.

More of little brown dog...

Well... little brown dog was here all night again!

I called animal control right away and, after a reporting our history with brown dog, was told an officer could come out this afternoon to pick him up. So, it would be another day of brown dog on the farm.

I normally have the doorway to the barn blocked by a section of goat paneling (to keep out not only stray dogs but our own beloved house dog, Tate, as well. Tate likes to find eggs in the barn and eat them... a practice that is neither good for Tate's waist line or the gathering of eggs for sale.

Little brown dog was quite interested in the barn door so I had a thought. I took the tractor out to the goat barn and retrieved the large wire dog kennel that I often use to house goat kids overnight so I can milk their dams. I reassembled the kennel outside the barn but near the door. I then continued on with my morning chores but left the door unblocked. Sure enough curiosity got the best of him and he came into the barn to check out Emmie and Berk as they eat their breakfast. As soon as I felt he was far enough into the barn I quickly blocked the door again so he couldn't leave. Then from the outside I pushed the kennel up against the doorway, removed the goat panel and opened the kennel door. When little brown dog tried to leave the barn again I swung the door shut and he was caught! He did not like being caught one bit and barked and barked in his cell. I dragged the kennel away from the barn door so finally the alpacas could relax, come into the barn, eat and get dry.

Just as I was getting brown dog settled away from the barn, some folks I was expecting arrived to purchased some of our Muscovy ducks. They were a wonderful family and stayed and visited far longer then they had intended too I think. After much discussion they took home four of our female ducks, three chocolate and one black. Just as they were leaving our two Irish Dexter bulls decided to make themselves a nuisance and broke the wire clips that hold a woven wire fence to its T-posts, slipped under the fence and were head wresting with each other in the alpaca pasture! These fine folk (who also raise cows) helped me round up the rouge boys and return them to the cow pasture where they belong. A big thank you to the Adkins' family!

Later this afternoon, the animal control officer arrived and was so thrilled that brown dog was locked up in the kennel. It made transferring him the dog box on the truck so easy. She asked a few more questions about him and then they were gone! Yeah! No more little brown dog!

Meeting new neighbors

We had a wonderful visit here at the farm from a family that moved not too far from us a few months ago from Upstate NY. We sat out on the deck (it was over 90F today) and talked for several hours while our kids played together. They are starting a CSA to start in the spring of 2010. Planning and greenhouse construction is where they are at right now. It look forward to watching that plan develop!

I love meeting and connecting with like minded people.

Oh, I discovered the first duck egg of spring this morning. I didn't leave it in the nest yet... the weather is still a bit too unpredictable. After a few more weeks I will let the ducks start setting.

One of our black Muscovy ducks.

Final day of fun...

Today was my mom's last day of her visit. She flew out this afternoon. But we packed in a full day of fun.

First we stopped at Snip-Its in Raleigh to have McKayla's hair cut short. Except for a trim that Daddy did last month to remove the worst of her split ends McKayla had never had the length of her hair cut since birth and she is now over 4 years old! It has been a chore for some time combing the Rastafarian look from the back of her head. It was time for it to go. She ending up with an adorable wedge cut where the front was at her chin line and the back was layered up shorter still. It was adorable and McKayla loved it!

After the hair cut we traveled just a few miles to Ganyard Hill Farm where they have a wonderful agritourism setup. You can pick pumpkins, walk through a corn maze, take a hay ride, pick cotton, etc.. We had a fun time and we were all hot and tired by the time we left.

We had just enough time for a quick bite to eat before getting mom to the airport for her journey home again.

Grammie comes to visit.

We drove down to the Raleigh/Durham airport tonight to pick up my mom. She flew down from Maine to spend a few days here at the farm visiting her grandchildren. It should be a fun visit.

I'm back, hopefully...

One of my regular egg customers (and now friend) told me today when she stopped by for her eggs that she stumbled across this blog and really enjoyed reading it. She noticed that I hadn't had an entry since the beginning of May and wondered why.

Why? That is a good question. Let's just say that is has been a very busy summer and more then a bit stressful. The first month I found that I just didn't have the time in my day to do any blogging. Then it just fell out of my normal routine so I stopped thinking about what I would blog about. After about 6-8 weeks of no blogging I started feeling a bit guilty about stopping. When things worthy of noting happened around here I would think "I really need to post that on the blog tonight." but still I would never get around to actually doing it. So, I am now determined to get back to my former habit of blogging at least 3-4 times a week.

Meanwhile, just to recap a few major highlights over the past few months:

We have had lots of ducklings and chicks born. We have sold many of them but still have many that will need to be butchered in the coming weeks.

We had a cria born to our alpaca Gritona on May 22nd. He is a light fawn that we named Seamus (sounds like Shamus). He is a very bold young male so we have had little contact with him as he wants to "play" and this would lead to disrespecting of humans and possible agression in the future. We have left his correcting to his mother and herd mates.

Neil and I got a good bit of cross fencing up and created two new alpaca pastures. In one we put the males Peter, Sidney and Finley. Into the other went the male Novio along with the females GeeGee, Abby, Celtie and Joy. Moving the pacas to new pastures has greatly improved the condition of the grass. I still am mowing the pastures to prevent the thistle from growing up but the pastures are so much better then last year. I can only hope that they will improve every year. Our Nigerian dwarf goats gave birth for the first time. Pepper had a single doeling that we will be keeping. We named her Mary Jane.


Gabby had twin bucklings that we sold to a neighboring alpaca farmer so I know that will be well cared for.

I have been milking Gabby (I let Pepper raise Mary Jane herself) and have made some fresh goat cheese, a batch of Feta that is still in the brining stage and some whey ricotta.

The wild blackberries around that property ripened and we made a batch of Blackberry jelly with them.

And finally, and sadly, our cat Sweet Pea that I brought home from the feed store last Fall went missing the first week of July. I have owned a lot of cats in my life and I have to say she was one of my favorites. I wish I knew what became of her; car, fox, coyote, stray dog? I miss her every morning as I go down to the barn to do chores and she is not following behind me or riding on my shoulder. The farm is not the same anymore.

Time for turkey... eggs that is.

Well, with the mild success of hatching eggs in the incubator I decided to set some turkey eggs in it today. I had been collecting turkey eggs for over a week now (usually two a day) with the thought that I would incubate them since none of my four turkey hens seem to care at all about setting on them. I hope to have at least 50% hatch rate as I have several people on my turkey poult waiting list and several other people wanting to be on my Thanksgiving turkey list.

If it works I hope to set several more batches of turkey eggs this spring/summer as well.

We had farm visitors today that stopped by to see the alpacas. I always enjoy talking alpacas and showing off the farm.

What's happening on the farm today.

I was saying to Neil last night that I was surprised that there had been so little scuffling between our new Nigerian Dwarf goat buck "Gottaway" and our whether "Little Joe". I had expected some head butting and chasing but really things were very calm out there.

Last night Gottaway did not follow the other goats into the goat barn where they stay over night. I let him stay in with the alpacas and he seemed to do just fine. I figure he will learn our routine in a few days and hopefully follow the others in for dinner. This morning I released the goats from their barn and they went racing into the alpaca pasture as usual to vacuum up any spilled grain and eat the hay I put out there. So, all seemed fine with all four goats together again. Nobody seemed to be upset.

It was about an hour later I was down at the barn again and I noticed that Gottaway and Little Joe both had bloody noggins. They obviously had been butting heads enough to get their horn buds bleeding. I looked both of them over and there were no serious wounds so I threw down more hay to distract them (which worked) and left them to work things out.

By evening, I could tell there was no fresh blood so the head butting must have slowed down. I still couldn't get Gottaway into the goat barn so he will spend yet another night with the alpacas.

With the warmer weather of spring coming I went ahead and put our rabbit buck Sasaparilla in with our new doe Chamomile. Chamomile had been put in with a buck at the breeders before coming here but it didn't take as she didn't kindle when expected. I wasn't too upset by this as after loosing Parslane's litter to cold exposure I really wanted to wait for warmer weather for more kits. Putting Sass and Cham together now should produce a litter the beginning of March for us. Then at some point I will put Sass back in with Purslane for a second spring litter.

We also had visitors to the farm today. We had a couple from Virginia that was just driving by and saw the alpacas and stopped to see them. We talked alpacas for a bit and then started wandering the farm to see some of the poultry we had. They are interested in getting some Barred Rock chicks from us and well as some turkey poults. I told them I hoped for April chicks.

Then in the afternoon we had a local family stop by to visit and see the farm. They raise horses in Semora, NC as well as Boar goats, chickens and a few ducks. They have a small kitchen garden as we do and she is interested in learning to make goats milk soap (yeah, I have someone to learn with now). Their two daughters are almost the same age as Evan and McKayla and they all played nicely together. It was a nice visit and we hope to get over to their farm to see the horses soon.

Late afternoon found Neil and I in the woods clearing and cutting more firewood. The kids played nearby (no… not too close) on the old stumps. Once we had cut the wood we needed for the next few weeks all of us took a hike into the woods to the back corner of our lot. I always forget how much land we have that is wooded until standing in that corner looking back at the property. We hope to get some of this woodland fenced in for the cows and goats this summer. It will be great for them to get out of the sun in midday and the goats will help keep the understory clear.

The hens gave an even dozen today.

Turkey Report

I received a wonderful phone call today from one of my 2007 Thanksgiving turkey customers. She apologized for taking so long to call after the holidays but said she wanted to make sure I knew how much they enjoyed the turkey they purchased from us!

They prepared their bird for Thanksgiving by deep frying it in peanut oil, a typical Southern way of cooking turkey. She said several of her dinner guests were skeptical of eating a home grown bird at first but after tasting how moist it was and the wonderful full flavor they raved over it. She said to make sure I reserve a turkey for her for this year's Thanksgiving as well.

We enjoyed the turkey we had here at the farm but it is always nice to get feedback from others.

She also asked if it would be OK to come over in the Spring for another farm visit? ALWAYS! I love showing folks around the farm and talking to them about what we are trying to do here and the importance of heritage breeds.

The hens gave 15 eggs today.

It's Snowing... really it is!

The weatherman forecasted 2-4 inches for our area today but for most of the day it was too warm for snow and we just had a misty rain. Then about 3:30-4:00pm the rain turned to fluffy flakes and by 5:00pm it had started to accumulate on the ground. When I went out the do night chores there was snow on the backs of the alpacas, donkeys and cows.

I was disappointed it started snowing so late as by the time it accumulated enough to be pretty it was too dark out to take any photos. I can only hope that it sticks around over night and I can get a few photos in the morning before it warms up and melts.

Anyway, Neil's parents came for dinner tonight after they met with the realtor up in Clarksville, VA. I decided to make Chicken Enchiladas for dinner as it was a favorite of theirs that I cooked when we all lived together and it is not a dish they cook for themselves. I pulled one of the roosters I butchered this past fall out of freezer and put it in a stock pot with water, salt and pepper. I let it simmer for a few hours until the meat fell off the bones. I pulled everything out of the pot and removed the meat from the carcass. All the non-edible bits went back into the pot to continue to cook down for another hour or so.

Once the chicken stock in the pot had reduced by about a 1/3 I strained it through a fine mesh sieve and left it to cool on the counter so the fat could rise to the top. Once it cooled I skimmed some (but not all) of the fat off. The remaining stock was poured into freezer containers and put in the freezer for future use. The cooked chicken meat was shredded and completely used in the Chicken Enchilada recipe. I made the dish up early so it would be ready to throw in the oven when ever Neil's parents arrived.

Once that was set to go and the kitchen tidied up, I put about 3 dozen eggs on to hard boil. A little over a dozen I peeled and put into my pickling egg brine. Others will be saved for egg salad for lunch tomorrow and the remainder will be put in the fridge for the kids to snack on.

We had a nice visit with Neil's parents. Dinner got rave reviews. After dinner Neil and his Dad got involved in discussing the garage pad/foundation while Pam and I played Yahtzee and the kids played with the numbered pieces from the Rummikub game.

I had a repeat egg customer pick up two dozen eggs today. The hens gave 14 more.

Vet Visit

The big event of the day was having the vet come out to the farm.

I had a laundry list of things for the vet to do while he was here today.

• Geld our mini donkey jack, Mal
• Vaccinate both mini donkeys, Mal and Inara
• Do health certificate on alpaca, Celia
• Do pregnancy ultrasound on alpaca, Fiore
• Exam hair loss on our cow, Cherry Blossom

Everything went really smoothly and I enjoyed chatting with the vet and helping him out. I must admit I really do miss working in my career at times (for those that don't know I am a vet tech).

Town errand day.

Today was a day to head into town and get some of our errands done: a trip to the bank, the insurance office, the DMV to get the Suburban titled in NC finally, and the grocery store. We also made a pit stop at McDonald's for lunch so the kids could play on the playground there. I don't mind much as I always carry a puzzle book with me so I can just get absorbed in that while they play. But, today Neil was with us and after a bit he was ready to finish up our errands and get home again.

Not long after we got home we had visitors. Donald, the dump truck driver from Monday, arrived with his wife to purchase three of our turkey hens. That brings our turkey numbers down to one tom and four hens. It was kind of sad to see them go but we really had too many hens. If they all laid just ten eggs next spring I would have had 70 turkeys to sell next season! I think four hens with the potential of 40 turkeys is much more reasonable for our second year marketing them. Also, now there are three less birds to feed over the winter, which helps with the cost of livestock feed.

For dinner I was craving Chinese food so I made beef and broccoli with a hoisin sauce, homemade pork egg rolls along with a dipping sauce. It made a huge amount so we will be eating leftovers for days.

The hens gave 13 eggs today.

Rain, rain, go away....

I can not even believe that I am complaining about the rain after our long summer draught but it has been raining for 4-5 days straight now. The areas around the barn where the animals come in and out are slick with mud... I sink in at least 6 inches deep in the cow pasture! Only last month this ground was cracked it was so dry. I love we are getting rain... I just wish we would have a day or two of dry weather in between.

Anyway, this morning Ed Kinser from Enchanted Hills Alpacas (the farm we purchased the alpacas Celtic Woman and Peter Piper from as well as our three Nigerian Dwarf Goats and some of our chickens too) drove down to our farm from VA. He was here to look at our 8 month old female alpaca, Celia. We are hopefully going to be making a trade with Ed with Celia for his breeding male Derwydd Peruvian Novio. The Kinser's are breeding for appaloosas and Novio just doesn't fit their breeding plan and I have always liked him and planned to breed Celtie to him this month anyway.

Derwydd Peruvian Novio

So, Ed was down here looking at Celia and her mom Gritona. I mentioned that I wasn't sure if Gritona was bred or not and Ed piped up that he had his portable ultrasound machine in the car and he would be more then happy to check her for me. (It is the visible kind not the audible kind.) Ed said that he would be more then happy to check all my girls if I wanted as it didn't take very long. (Ed also understandably stated that he couldn't be responsible for the accuracy of the results as he is not a vet.)

We checked Gritona who is 6 months along and determined she was pregnant, then we did Eloise who is 3 months along and found her to be pregnant as well. We then did Fiore and not surprisingly we didn't see anything that would make us believe she was pregnant. Then, finally, we did Noodle as she just hasn't "looked" pregnant to me and I have not been able to feel any fetal movements at all when I have checked over the last few weeks. Well, Noodle came up as open as well.

I was a bit disapointed in not getting a cria out of Noodle this year. Things like this happen when you raise livestock. If this deal goes through with Novio I plan to just pasture breed him to all 5 of our open girls in January... next December will be busy!

Yard cleanup.

Neil's parents arrived in town last night to spend a few days with us, including Christmas.

We had asked Neil's dad to bring up his leaf blower when he came as the leaves where piled high all over the yard. Neil's dad blew the leaves for us while Neil went out into the pasture to cut up more of our downed tree with the big chainsaw.

Me? I spent the day wrapping presents because MiMi (Neil's mom) took the kids for the day so I could get it all done in peace.

Then tonight the kids decorated their gingerbread house. I esembled the house and then gave the icing bag to Evan and dishes of candy for both of them and just let them go for it. I think it came out really good for a 3 and 5 year old.

McKayla and Evan decorating the gingerbread house.

The finished house.

Another canine visitor.

This morning while doing chores Emmie and Berk, our LGDs, started barking like crazy out in the pasture. I was in the chicken coop so I came out to see what was going on. Up by the house was what looked like a golden retriever. It was moving over to the fence line to checkout Emmie and Berk even though they were absolutely nuts and trying to climb the 6' fence to get to him. I called out and when the golden saw me he came running over. Again, it turned out to be a young dog, somewhere between 6 months and year old at the most. I had no problem catching him by the collar. He had a tag with a phone number on it so I put him in our dog kennel and had Neil call the owners to let them know we had their dog.

Neil had to leave a message and as it was Sunday we figured the owners were at church. After calling the golden's owners several more times we finally got him home around 3pm!

For a good part of the day Neil worked on the electric fence so the animals would stay put in it again. Our Anatolian dog Emmie has been getting out most nights and this morning our bull calf was out wandering about for the third time this week. Neil changed the fence from a grounded system to an alternating loop system where instead of each line being "hot" the animals must touch two of the five strands to be shocked. This will work better in our drought conditions we hope.

It was cold outside so I made up a pot of French Onion soup for dinner and I made homemade bread bowls to serve it in. Boy, didn't that hit the spot after being outside most of the day!

Evening's activity

I don't think I have slept through the night in a few weeks. Every night it is something new on the farm.

Last night Emmie and Berk, our LGDs, started barking about 12:45am. I had only been in bed for about 30 minutes so I really wasn't even asleep yet. Their barking didn't stop right away which was my clue that something was up. I got dressed and went out to the barn to investigate (I keep hoping that it will be a new calf).

I didn't see anything out of normal so I was just leaning on the gate in the barn speaking with the LGDs when I heard a howl... a beagle howl. Emmie and Berk immediately started barking and jumping up on the fence. I looked back up to the house where the howl seemed to come from and I could see a beagle looking dog in front of the house... then I saw two. With noses to the ground and howling as beagles do they started coming down to the barn. Emmie and Berk where beside themselves at this point! As I watched them move toward me I realized I was seeing more then two... there were FOUR! As they reached the barn and started smelling everything I could see that they were young dogs... maybe 4-5 months old (very cute). As cute as they might have been their presence and their howling was causing quite a stir around the barn. The LGDs were going crazy, I could hear the alpacas alarming, the donkeys were braying and the poultry were squawking! I needed to do something with these pups. I didn't want to just run them off as I would hate for something bad to happen to them. I dug around in the barn and dragged out my wire collapsible dog kennel and set about to catch the pups. This turned out to not be an easy task. They seemed friendly but skittish and would run from me anytime I got close. Well, it took over 20 minutes to successfully catch all four of them and get them secured in the kennel. I threw some straw in with them and covered over most of the kennel with a blanket (mostly to keep them quiet as it was a very warm night). Thankfully, they were all wearing orange reflective collars with a brass nameplates riveted to them. The last pup into the kennel I slipped the collar off of him before leaving them to go back to the house. It was now 1:30am but I called the number on the collar just the same in case the owners were actively looking for the pups so they would know they were safe and secure for the night. I left a message and headed to bed.

I slept horribly, if at all, with the pups and the LGDs barking all night. By 6am I was up and out doing chores. Around 7:30am I called the number on the pups collar again to make sure they had heard my message. The pups were so loud and the animals were still on edge I really wanted them picked up sooner then later. This time I spoke with the wife and she said her husband was on his way to get them. True to her word an older Southernly gentleman showed up about 10 minutes later to collect the pups. He was so apologetic about the pups causing trouble for me. Turns out he forgot to latch their gate last night. I was just happy to have them returned home safely!

15 eggs today.

What a feast!

Well, today was our Turkey Day. Neil's parents arrived in town last night and came by to take us out to dinner before heading to the hotel for the night. This morning they arrived back at the farm.

We had a nice visit. The kids were very excited to have company again. I spent most of the morning cooking for our turkey dinner. Good thing I like to cook! This was our meal this year:

Heritage turkey with maple-rosemary glaze
Sausage, apple and cranberry stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Turkey gravy
Rosemary baked onions w/ cream
Peas
Cranberry sauce
Sweet dinner rolls
with
Apple pie for dessert

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful meal!

Time flies...

I can't believe that it is time for my mom and grandmother to leave already! Where did the time go? We had such a nice visit I wish it could have been longer.

The kids and I drove them down to the airport this morning.

Back home, we rested for a while and then I worked on the painted letters for the farm sign and got one side done. I hope to get the sign done by the weekend so Neil and I can install it.

Family comes to visit!

Neil, the kids and I drove the hour to the RDU Airport to pick up my mother and grandmother this afternoon. They flew down from Maine to spend five days here at the farm. They are the first of my family to make it down here and I am excited for their visit.

After we picked them up we stopped and had dinner in Durham, NC. When we finally got home it was after dark so unfortunately they didn't get a chance to see the place in daylight. Still, mom came down to the barn as I did my night feedings. Meanwhile, Neil figured out the sleeping araingments inside.

I am looking forward to spending time with them... I just wish their visit could be longer.