Muddy Weekend

This post is about mud, goats, and chickens. 

So, it's pretty muddy.  We've been enjoying unseasonably warm weather.  Between the snowmelt and frost coming out of the ground, there are some mucky, muddy places around here.  The guys are having to take a break from their woods work until the logging roads dry out a bit.

Carolyn is here this weekend and it is warm enough that she is staying in her camper.  Lily, who's main goal in life is to become a housecat, took advantage:

Yesterday, we (Carolyn and I) took a little field trip to the Anderson farm.  Our little bit of mud is but a pittance to what they have to deal with.  They are right on the Mississippi; the land is low, flat, and heavy.  And wet.  Very wet.  I was there to purchase a few hens, which I did, but the most fun part was the goats.

They have goats.



Lots of goats.

Do you see the dog in this picture?

                                     And that was just the one pen. 

I fell for this beautiful doe.  I wish I could have brought her home!

We left with a crate of 6 beautiful hens (sadly, no goats) and upon arriving home they had multiplied into 6 beautiful hens plus 2 nice eggs.

Isn't she pretty?

The new hens have settled in nicely and one of them has been so kind as to show us that we had a couple of holes in the coop-yard fence. 

Our does are just waiting.  I reviewed the due dates and they still have a bit to go.  The absolute earliest we could possibly have kids is March 29.  I think Echo is due April 6.  I think Vinca is due about a week later. 

Echo's first baby bulge.  She doesn't look very excited, does she?

So, that's the update for this week.  Yeah Spring!!!

Be well friends.

Sunny Sunday

Wow, it feels and looks like spring around here… lots of water and mud!

Just a quick update from the farm today.  This weekend I was busy on Saturday morning making soap again.  This time it was shaving soap.  I made it round so it can easily be dropped into a mug.  It has lots of goodies in the ingredient list including finely ground oatmeal. 

The weather was so nice that I took my lettuce seedlings out from under the lights in the way-down basement and out to the real-deal sunshine of the greenhouse.  I spent a little time out there finishing clearing away desiccated tomato vines that I didn’t get to last fall. It was so warm in there that I opened up the door for the afternoon.

Future salads!

Kevin and I had some of that quality couple time that you can only get while cleaning out the goat’s pen in the corner of the pole barn.  It was getting that mattress-y feeling in there from so much bedding and hay underfoot.  We still have a month or so to wait for kids arrive.

The chickens are really enjoying the warm weather too.  I gave them a couple layers of an alfalfa bale, which made them even happier.  You might not think of chickens as hay eaters, but they love it when it’s really leafy. The occasional dried grasshopper is just a bonus!

Remember those tracks I posted about last Sunday?  They were muskrat tracks!  We watched the little guy make them.  It was almost like he was trying to get into the garage.  Of course by the time we got the camera he had gone around the house and headed for the pond.  Seems kind of early for them to be out and about.

You may recall that Kevin got a smoker for Christmas from the kids.  Today he tried it out on a pork loin.  It turned out great even though he didn’t know what he was doing really… another new learning experience!

Very tasty!

So I think that is a good thought end with. We are never too old to learn something new. Never, ever stop learning.  

Be well friends.

Late winter miscellany

Can February 28 be called late winter?  Sounds good to me.  Better than mid-winter, right?  We've had some really warm weather alternating with cold here, so some areas are very icy, like right in front of the garage.  Sometimes it's pretty treacherous getting around to do chores.

On Saturday Rollie and Kevin headed to the woods to finish cutting down a bunch of standing dead tamarack trees that have been bugging them for a couple years.  They would sit in the birch stand during deer season and look out at all these trees just standing there.  This year, since the snow is not deep, they were able to get into the swamp and get them cut down.  The only problem they had was they had to stop and look both ways when they crossed the logging roads to make sure there were no deer coming.  Kevin almost got ran over while he was out cutting!  Here is a picture of what they were able to pull out in a day. 

This should keep the folks busy for a day or two.  Since this was standing dead, we will burn this right now and what is here should last us the rest of the winter.  Now the guys are cutting and splitting for stacking in the wood shed to dry for next year.  It’s a good feeling to have the wood shed stocked for next winter now.

I'm still making soap that we will have for sale at the Farmers' Market in Aitkin this summer.  The weekend's batch is a shampoo bar.  It was news to me that you can wash your hair with a bar of soap instead of  a product in a bottle.  As soon as I saw that on a soap-making website, I started washing my own hair with a bar of soap I made last spring.  Not even a special shampoo bar.  It works great!  I haven't used conditioner either since cutting my hair short.  Take that Proctor and Gamble!  Anyway, the shampoo bar I made this weekend has really nice ingredients like Shea butter, sweet almond oil, and more.  As soon as it is cured in six weeks I will give it a try and report back.  Next week I'll be making shaving soap.

Speaking of reporting back, remember the wheat from the last blog post?  Today I made some bread with the heritage wheat flour Turkey Red.  We enjoyed it as bread bowls with venison stew for supper.

A loaf of stone ground whole wheat bread and 3 big bread bowls

I'll end this post with a couple of pictures of Vinca's pregnant belly (kids are not due until April) and some mystery tracks.  We know what made the tracks because we saw the critter as they were made, but invite you to guess - leave a comment with what you think.  It seemed to be trying to get in the garage. I'll let you know what it was next post, ok?

The mystery tracks with a boot print included for scale

And this one is a little closer up

Until next time, please be careful on the ice, and be well.

Talking Wheat

Happy Valentine’s Day from Ole Lake Farm!  We don’t make much of this “special” day for sweethearts around here.  As with birthdays, my opinion is that a date on the calendar doesn’t make this day anymore special than yesterday or tomorrow.  Every day is special and precious and it’s good to be alive and together.

So, about wheat.  We’ve been growing wheat for a few years now.  What we have been growing is a spring wheat, meaning it is planted in the spring and harvested in the fall.  While the end product is good and grinds into great flour, we are not satisfied with the yield at all.  This wheat just doesn’t seem to thrive in our environment. 

A while back Kevin was reading a Mother Earth News article and a winter wheat variety by the name of Turkey Red piqued his interest.  Much valued by bread bakers, this heirloom grain is a winter wheat.  That means that it is planted in the fall, comes up and then goes dormant for the winter.  It comes back in the spring and completes its life cycle in early summer.  This is how our rye is grown and rye grows very well for us.  So, the search was on for Turkey Red seed. 

Turns out, Turkey Red seed was not easy to find.  A couple of years have gone by, but we are pleased to report that we have obtained it from an organic grower in Kansas.  We haven’t ground any for flour yet, but I did cook some up yesterday as whole wheat berries.  I also cooked some of our homegrown wheat berries from last year for comparison.  I found it interesting that the Turkey Red cooked more quickly and made a larger volume of the finished product.  The taste is pretty much the same.  So for now, some of the Turkey Red is going to get ground for our use and for a local baker to use in bread, and the rest will stay in the granary until this August when it will be planted.  According to the folks we have talked to while looking for this grain, nobody knows of it being grown this far north.  This is going to be our 2016 experiment.  Last year sunflowers, this year Turkey Red.  

Here is what cooked wheat berries look like.  On the left is our spring wheat, and on the right the Turkey Red.  I will be enjoying them both for breakfast this week.  They also are good in soup and in salad recipes. 

If you are interested in reading up on wheat, here is a link to the Mother Earth News article:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/types-of-wheat-zm0z14fmzmat.aspx?PageId=1
 
I will conclude today’s post with a couple of critter photos.  Remember the 80’s hairstyle of “feathered” hair, like Farah Fawcet?  Check out Diego’s hackle feathers!  

Forest

So stay warm, and be well.