Patriot's Dream Farm Blog

Things I Learn While the Kids Are Away...

2015-06-23T16:07:00.002-07:00

Right now, our elder child is away as a camp counselor for two months. She made it back here for 36 hours over the weekend, but really, she is gone for two months. Our younger child is responsible for most of the chickens, and one small group of the goats, but I am essentially taking over lots of responsibilities I used to share...

This had led to me learn a few things while she has been away...

1. My two goats really do poop more than all of the others put together. That wasn't an exaggeration. Lulu seems proud of that, but she is jealous of sharing me with the other goats while their caretaker is away,

2. The camouflage shade cloth makes the kidding pens look like a MASH unit. The goats all hoped it was real leaves, and had to try it. Then they tried it over and over again until I tied it WAY up to keep it out of their reach!

3. The boys really do knock their little house over as many times per day as you are willing to put it back up. She wasn't blowing me off when I asked her to pick it up. Now, I believe they think it is funny since I fuss over them having the extra shade. Then when I go in to fix their messes, they dance and act neglected since their usual caretaker is away.

4. My geese really are as destructive as I thought. They are working extra hard to plow through the container garden. They trimmed the citrus trees, including some new trees that really didn't need it, ate three pots worth of mint- three times each- and the basil twice, not to mention a few other things!

5. Bailey's black Cochin hen has issues. At least she is finally letting the new little hens sleep on the same side of the house. But that little chickie has issues! Very antisocial, that one. New little ones are fine, not sure what to make of her, but fine.

6. Shadow gets lazy in the summer. She will sleep in from of the fan with the boys all day if allowed, then roll in the mud but still expect to come back in. Okay, that part really isn't new, but she used to get up and head outside with me at first light! At least she still takes guard duty seriously, I suppose.

What have you learned when you were required to go without your partner in crime?

Growing Little Ones!

2015-06-16T10:09:00.001-07:00

First off, I am sorry that I am just now realizing that I didn't post about this sooner! These precious little ones were born on May 30, 2015 (the first one hundred degree day of the year), to Lone Star South MsMcallie and Jaune Ranch Pygmies Powerstroke. As of this morning, they are 16 days old. The little buckling (more silver of the two) has been larger all along. Here is today's update on weight...

This morning, the silly little family HAD to have the fresh pellets, not the ones the knocked over last night.

This is the little doeling i the weighing bucket. She is so sweet and loves to cuddle!

I don't know why I cannot get this photo right side up, but weight today is 3 lbs 12 oz. Late last week she was 2 lbs 4 oz. So while she is markedly smaller than her brother, she is still growing.

And here is the little buckling. When they were last weighed, he was at 3 lbs 14 oz.

This morning, here he is at 4 lbs 14 oz. Oh, goodness, he will be a big one!

We had been supplementing the little doeling with additional milk early on, when she was having trouble i the heat of the day. At this point, she hasn't wanted the extra milk, though we continue to offer it. Both little ones are eating some hay, and enjoying the crumbles from mama's hay pellets.

Such a treat watching them grow!

Sexing Goslings and Other Fun Times at Our House

2015-05-26T13:46:00.000-07:00

Chock it up to yet another thing on the list of things I never knew I would learn in this life. Last night, the boys caught the young goslings and I worked on determining boys and girls. Yup, sexing geese. I never thought I would be able to add that to the list! Seriously, who puts that on their career goals, anyway?

The geese around here are interesting. Not overly friendly, but not mean. They keep the hawks and owls from attacking. From times of losing chickens even through the roofs of pens, we have not had one loss like this since the geese came to live with us 2 years ago. They are pranksters, trading pranks with the puppy and the goats, and busybodies, always with their nose in someone's business. But they do their job.

Each year in the Spring, Mother Goose nestles in to hatch babies. I set her up with her own food and water, over behind the swingset near the old greenhouse. Twice a day Uncle Wiggly gets her up and they fly around to the goose area to eat and drink before he walks her back. He looks out for her, and is an attentive father as babies hatch as well as with rearing them.

We keep several small water containers with their food so they have easy access to water without letting the little ones get in over their head in the good area.

The baby geese have the sweetest little voices! I hope you have the volume turned up! While they are beginning to get the orange in their bills and legs, the voices are all baby!

They are rather used to free run of the property! They meet me at the feed shed in the morning and ask to be fed before the other animals on my list.

Shadow Paws, who normally pranks the adult geese in exchange for them pranking her, maintains a safe distance to keep the geese parents happy while they are raising the little ones.

However, we DO NOT need EIGHT GEESE. Goodness! We have a few folks that requested to be called first for little ones once they were sexed, and I will do that today, and give them until the end of the week before I open it up to others. But in calling, the first question is often, are they males or females?

So after dinner last night, the boys caught the little ones, one at a time, and I working on determining sex. This little female really relaxed int he process.

He stood her back up, and she registered her complaint!

This one had even more to say!

I love the attitude form this one. By the way, curious about the plant pot on what used to be my clothesline? There is a fake owl there that the puppy thought looked VERY destructive. We had hoped the pot would save the clothesline from the puppy, but it blew off, and now Wyatt put it back on.

This one took its attitude straight to Charlie!

I am not going to claim to be anything approaching an expert at sexing chicks or goslings! But so that you know, here is what we did...

Vent sexing. And I have to admit, I had to ask for help with the camera since my hands were occupied, and clearly that didn't work out very well. I will add more photos later for better reference. This one is a female. If you could see more closely, the vent relaxes and begins to separate, leading to a little open there, showing you either (n this case) the folds just inside the vent and nothing else,

or in this case, a little corkscrew of a penis protruding out. One of them didn't relax well for me, and while I think it is a girl, I will double check all of the girls to make sure one boy didn't sneak through. Our best educated guess right now, though, is One young gander, four young geese. At most, I believe I could be wrong on one of the girls.

I bet you always wondered about that, right? Well, I will call folks this afternoon and give them the option of picking up geese, and I will admit we will likely be keeping a little female. (We will work on naming her once all the dust is settled!)

We will catch you up o more later. So, what things have you learned to do that you never though you would need to?

Redneck Engineering Saturday

2015-05-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

They say that necessity is the mother if invention. That is often how our redneck engineering has come to pass. We live in Southern Arizona, so there is a lot of sandy soil, and very little grass. Therefore we bring in hay and feed, and grow fresh in container gardens in the pens. The problem is that when we clean pens, a lot of dirt gets shoveled out with the poop, and the ground level in the pens has slowly but steadily lead to lower ground in the goat pens. The chicken areas have easily had their holes filled over time, but the goats aren't so easy. We have tried several "scoop" solutions over the years, with this being our last incarnation...

Yep- hardware cloth over a horse pooper scooper, because the pellets would go right through otherwise. The problem with the scoop was you had to largely shake the scoop to get the dirt out, and that was another cloud of dust and allergy issues to deal with. So with Bailey getting ready to leave for summer, and kidding season almost upon us, Bailey and I sat at morning milking with a topic on our minds looking for something better. What else to do but raid the scrap pile?

There was a piece of hardware cloth (that stuff is awesome) used as a temporary fix on a fence panel that Wyatt and I are due to fix before that temp pen gets used again. So we didn't need it anymore, and procured it. Then to the woodpile. These boards seemed like a nice start. There were too more that size, but they would not work due to the size of the hardware cloth. So Bailey headed off to the power tools.

She was a little concerned at one point about the edges and wood, but this isn't staying in the pen, only being used for muck. We are good with this. Here is how the "tool" came out.

Here it is in use. My milking doe, Mama Lulu wanted to help. Or be quality control. Or just be cuddled along the way, you never quite know with her!

This area of the pen- the doe barn has long been the worst. Which is awful, since their food is here! As we began shoveling large amounts of loose dirt out to get the poop, we confirmed just how low the dirt would go, and decided to add a concrete brick under each end of the hay feeder to bring a little stability and give us an idea where the level was when we finished.

Mama Lulu loves to ham it up for the camera, and started playing peekaboo from behind the hay feeder.

When we run the dirt throuh, the dirt falls down and leaves us with poop on top of the mesh. Then we dump the mesh into the muck wagon. If I had it to do over, one end would have a larger spot than this for the muck to run down to make it less messy dumping. Live and learn. But we did much better at leaving the dirt in the pen.

Here we are, part way done, with Versie checking things out.

They also liked to walk wherever we just cleaned and leave us more work to do!

Silver and Glory wanted to get in on the action. They wanted to help spread out the piles of dirt. Too bad they didn't want to carry them back to the doe barn!

Lulu saw the camera, had to scratch her chin as the sun was goig down behind her.

Goofy girl!

Here we were almost done. We will never get every single piece of poop and leave the dirt behind, but this worked much better! Score one for the Patriot's Dream girls and a little Saturday ingenuity!

The does ended up wanting two yellow "ribbons" to decorate for memorial day. I offered them their red white and blue ones from the shed, but they liked these from their hay bales and the yellow that even though we pay our respects this weekend to those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, we don't forget those presently with boots on the ground while we are here at home.

Wyatt has decided he is going to show pygmy goats as well next year. He always said that he would as soon as they let him show bucks, which they won't, but he rather likes little McAllie. So Bailey taught him to trim hooves last night.

Well, that made for a productive day for us, even if we did want to get more done. What redneck engineering have you tried? Care to share with us?

Spring Follows the Ups and Downs of Our Little World...

2015-02-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

Last year, we incubated and hatched lots of eggs, and kept or sold a fir number of chicks. Somewhere in it all, we ended up with one single (hopefully) pullet in this age range. Not one of our better planning moments, but I had mandated that we turn off the incubator during the holidays, so there weren't any younger ones coming along to keep it company.

The little one, on the left in the photo below, was living in the house, mostly in the tough brooder. As the only one, her interaction was with us, as well as with Shadow. As she had grown, she would get out of the brooder, go for a walk around the house, hang out with Shadow while watching Wyatt practice piano, and chat with me while I put on my shoes in the morning.

She has not been a tidy roommate, as you can imagine, but I just couldn't seem to come up with anyone for her to hang out with. Then, I found some black sexlinks, fully feathered, and near to her size at a nearby feed store. While I am normally not big on hatchery chicks, I needed someone to teach the little pullet that she was, in fact, a chicken, and help her transition to her pen. So Saturday afternoon, on my way home from work, I brought her friends and Wyatt got them all set up in the first step of the grow out pen. So far, so good...

While I was at it, Friday night, Wyatt helped me dig a hole for the lower section of this pond insert that Grandma didn't want anymore. He even helped me situate the bricks for steps.

The geese are truly loving their new pool!

The geese are also laying. Wyatt is concerned about the fact that some of the hatching didn't go so well last year, and because the first egg that Mother Goose laid was pecked by Miss Friendly. The clutch was at three eggs at last count, though it got dark quickly this evening when we got home and we didn't get to check. What would you do? Incubate or let them try to raise the little ones?

You saw the project Wyatt helped me with, but on Monday, as the boys headed off to pick up the feed store and Bailey and I were heading home from town after the gym, we knew this was to be our big project!

We started by pulling EVERYTHING out of the tack shed.

The only thing that remained was the shelf unit, which was pulled well forward and wiped down. The walls and floors were cleaned, and we organized and cleaned as things went back in.

It was dark when we finished, but so worth it to get things cleaned and ready for Spring, and especially to do it before the feed order went in.

And this was the end result! What do you think?

Well, with Sunday night closing out, and a new week beginning, more big projects await and more always being added to the list, it is time for rest and recharge before the coming week.

What is on your list for this week?

Who's Ready For Summer Camp 2015?

2015-02-22T23:50:00.000-07:00

Recently, a friend shared this awesome post and it made me so happy! I encourage you to read it. http://wellfesto.com/2013/06/13/if-our-daily-lives-were-more-like-summer-camp/

This post is truly relatable to me. I absolutely support and agree with everything stated here. The bonds really do come quickly. The friendships are magic and every one of them is important, from the past to the future. Exercise is better at camp. No one would care how you sound when you sing. Eating as a group is a cool deal. Written letters are treasures. The warmth of the sun is a great feeling. Friendly competition is the most amazing form of competition. Being ourselves is the best thing we can do. Money shouldn’t disrupt the amazing moments. Making stuff in arts and crafts should be enjoyed. The stars in the sky are worth looking at. Warm fuzzies would be a common occurrence, and that would be joyous. Hugs should be given, warm and heartwarming. We’d live out the Raggers Creed.

But I believe there’s more to it.

We’d get to know one another and trust one another quicker.
We would embrace emotional moments.
We would graciously include new people, new cultures, and new possibilities.
We wouldn’t dress to impress.
We would take each other into consideration at every turn.
We would become comfortable in our personality and quirks.
We would challenge each other to become better.
We would help each other get past our fears.
We would encourage open conversation.
Resolutions to interpersonal issues wouldn’t be drawn out, but quickly and constructively.
We’d show compassion constantly.
We’d encourage and support one another’s choices.
We’d encourage each person to speak up and be leaders.
Appearance wouldn’t matter, but our attitude and intent.
We would enjoy one another’s crazy laughter.
We would compliment others sincerely.
Random dancing wouldn’t be uncomfortable.
We would enjoy children’s stories.
We wouldn’t rely on technology to feel connected.
We would use pranks as a form of appreciation.

There are so many things camp does for us that the real world would be enhanced by introducing. Camp builds people up and supports who people plan to be.

Camp is my safe haven. Three summers ago, I wouldn't speak. I didn't have the trust and friendliness to open up and be part of my cabin. Throughout the week, I went from not speaking to anyone to speaking to one camper and one counselor. That summer, I made goals and got my first rag. Two summers ago, I came back and I had trouble talking to my cabin mates and two new counselors. Eventually, the discomfort became friendship. Those counselors became more like mentors and I trusted them. Making more goals and getting my second rag, I went home changed and all the beauty of camp made everything better. This last summer, I went from being the shy and antisocial camper to the one that was invited back as a Counselor in Training. Staying 6 weeks instead of 1, I became someone those counselors could make use of. I hope I made them proud. Camp saved me from many situations that could have unfolded just by being safe and encouraging. I went home impatient for summer to come again, and I'm still waiting to go back to grow some more.

Last spring, I would go to girls’ group with my church and sit under a table or behind a chair during our movie time and now, after camp, I speak with a newfound confidence and in comfort with the people around me. Camp is what took the shy and uncomfortable person I had been, and transformed me into someone with no reservation in being myself.

For me, camp will always be my home away from home. I think of my favorite people I met there, and I smile. I can’t wait to go back and experience each special thing all over again countless times. Camp has been my life saver. I think the opportunities presented by camp are the best to learn from. Camp gives independence in an open and accepting environment that provides room to grow and mature while still keeping the childlike nature that is important.

What’s your camp moment?

Reach Out and Find a Friend...

2015-02-08T17:52:00.000-07:00

Late last December, I was perusing a local Facebook page for poultry folks. I look around frequently, but understand that my heritage poultry preference and soy-free, corn-free organic feed standards are not those of the typical backyard poultry enthusiast, so I am rather selective about what I post on, preferring to not get into debates where I am glad to agree to disagree. Still, there are so many places where we agree, and where we are able to support one another. Then one caught my eye.

There was a woman from my town who had a very small mixed flock, including a few bantams. The bantams were living separately from the standard hens, as they had been pushed around by the larger hens, and then of the bantams, one had begun to pick on the other. One little Sebright was being bullied, and then her companion bantam had passed away. Long story short, the Sebright was now very sad. Flock animals are meant to have friends!

As the little Sebright's owner was looking for advice for finding a suitable friend for her, I considered our own situation...

As breeders, we often have a wide variety of birds and ages in the grow out bantam or grow out standard pens. One of the little ones from this past year's bantam Cochin hatch had a cross beak. Not a true scissor beak, but her head and beak weren't truly in correct alignment. This just happens sometimes, even though our poultry are bred to the Standard of Perfection, and many of the offspring do quite well at shows. I will never know if something went wrong in the egg, putting it in the incubator, or what really happened. Still, with the issue, the little one had not gotten along with the other bantam Cochins, and had moved over with the Silkies for some time. There were also a few other mismatched ones growing out in the group, but as they were growing and the Silkies and others gradually were moving out to their long term homes, we found ourselves debating the future of the little hen.

She would be fine for breeding, that isn't something she will pass on with young, and she is clearly healthy and eating and drinking and getting around just fine. She was due to begin laying once the light increased again. Yet, we are not only a little pressed for space in the Silkie pen, but also collect eggs there for hatching, and don't wish to have cross-bred bantam birds. The children and I had been debating the best place for her, and she deserves a happy life. So what to do?

I commented on the post that I had a little pullet who was not perfect, but was thriving, and who didn't seem to be finding her place here. A little bit later, I found a message from a sweet person named Jade, who surprisingly lived only about ten miles or so from me. We offered that perhaps due to the fact that the little pullet was different, she hadn't found her place yet in our home, and if Jade thought she would like to try, she was welcome to have her as a friend for her little Sebright. I stressed that she could not be shown, and her beak was not right. Jade thought it could be a good fit, as their chickens are pets, not show birds.

I was so excited that Jade and her husband were coming to get her the next day! Bailey gave the little one a bath to get ready, and she sat in the living room with her by the heater, with farm puppy Shadow watching over them as she dried. Within a few days, Jade sent me the photo above, of the lonely little one with the pullet they had brought home. She told me that initially that pullet from our place had definitely been in charge, but they were becoming friends and exploring together.

Then later, another message saying they were getting to be good friends! This is where the two sleep at night. I feel so tremendously blessed that Jade has let me know that this has been such a great move, and so blessed that the little pullet has found the place where she always belonged, we just had to give her the chance to grow and thrive and to reach out and help her find it. What a great chance for her to have a flock family! They are nestled so sweetly in this photo.

Then, earlier this week, there was another message... she laid her first egg! For any of you who also own chickens, you know the excitement of the first egg, and of the feeling like it is all working out. Honestly, I had the feeling that it would work out as soon as I had met Jade. And Bailey was glad that a little one from her breeding program would have a great place to be. Wyatt was not only thrilled to not have to figure out how to manage the egg situation in his Silkie breeding pen, but he got a little spoiled as well when Jade brought him lemons! (Many thanks, he feels he has now perfected lemonade!)

I reached out to Jade, and asked whether she felt okay about me sharing this story. I feel like it is important to see that the backyard pet chicken person and the egg and meat producing (and showing and breeding) folks can work together to enable a truly organic and humane industry on the producer side and great family flock on the backyard pet poultry side.

The little bantam Cochin pullet and her new family sent us this video to share as well. Thanks so much! I think you all likely can also see that she continues to eat just fine!

Well folks, now it is your turn. How do you partner between small farms and backyard flocks? And between different herds of goats? Share your ideas and success and help inspire and educate. All the best to you!

The Shower Project, Day One

2015-01-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

This is my big project for the semester break. A long time in the making

Over ten years ago (I am thinking more like twelve...), we renovated our bedroom and bathroom. We hired a handyman to come out, put up drywall and completely redo the bathroom. Among several little mishaps, the shower never was quite right. We had to take it out immediately and fix plumbing. We tried to maintain as much of what had been done as possible. It turns out that was a mistake.

All of this time later, I had been fighting with caulking that would not stay adhered for more than a few months along the base. The walls weren't holding up to my constant interventions, so last year I purchased an entirely new shower to put in. I was going to do it while Charlie was away for hunting season, but he never managed to stay gone for very long at any of the times, so it went on the list for my break between semesters! Therefore, yesterday I got busy tearing the old one out!

As of last night, the walls from the shower came out, the handles are off, The handles are a bit of a funny story, somehow the decorative housing was filled with caulking when we re-put it up all those years ago. I won't say how that happened, but it was the most difficult part of the tear down to this point! I also discovered that only about one inch at the bottom of the wall board was concrete backer board, the rest was green board. The concrete board had apparently gotten wet early on, and had just been degrading all of this time, hence the caulk wasn't staying adhered due to moisture behind the shower wall.

I pulled that stuff out and threw it away, then cleaned up after myself for the night. Wednesday, around my to do list for the day, I will be pulling out that green board tot he ceiling, then removing the pan. Charlie will pick up the backer board on his way home from work, since it will not fit in my little car! The scariest part for me will be removing the pan, as I want to preserve all of the tile if I can and only redo the grout at the edge of the shower pan (keep your fingers crossed for me on that one, please, will you? That part is the scariest for me!)

At the end of the night, I tidied up as best I could and put a tarp over the walls. Hopefully, the next update will look far different and have good news! Have you ever done one like this? Any input for me on the project?

A Day in the Unfolding of the New Year

2015-01-11T02:09:00.001-07:00

Trying to take on a few major projects while my work schedule is lighter, as well as help the kids with homeschooling and their own projects has kept me on my toes, but it has been quite rewarding. I will share more about the projects going on around here in the next few days. Okay, seeing how often I am too tired for blogging lately, how about I promise to do my best, but acknowledge they might be a bit late?

This blue Silkie pullet is one of a few new layers who have been contributing their first few eggs to the family here lately. This morning, she seemed bent on being broody, though she wasn't actually sitting ON the egg. Wyatt wasn't sure whether to be thankful she was making the collecting easy or explain how the whole broody thing worked, but since he was trying to get pens cleaned between storms, I think he was just happy for anything simple he could get!

Shine got to hang out in the house for a while with his buddy Shadow this morning. They haven't had as much of this time lately, since the rain and mud has led to some rather muddy hooves! On the flip side, at least the rain has the barrels mostly full again! Shine and Shadow sure enjoy the companionship, though, they were great friends when Shine was a house goat.

Later, Shine got to head down to visit friends at another 4-H club we compete with sometimes. A number of the youth are brand new to the group, but a few have grown up together showing as a group for several yers now. It is amazing to me to see them so grown up!

The older youth were examples and teachers, as they should be as Senior showmen. They also enjoyed laughing with each other and at themselves, I think!

Shine seems to be settling in to the showing thing, though he seemed to like raiding cookies from Bailey's pocket the best!

I think it is funny that after each trip off to training sessions, meetings and community outreach, both Shine and Shadow stop in the front yard to check all of the statues.

I am not sure what they expect, but they are usually the only ones who move them!

FOr those of you following the saga of the lonely chick, I gave in this week and arranged for the little one to have some friends. A big thank you to Melanie for sharing some of her purebred Black Ameraucana stock with us, these will likely be te only new poultry stock until after county fair.The four little chicks have taken well to their new surroundings, and the slightly older Java of ours seems to also be taking well to having young charges to look after.

Some of the biggest news these days is that Miss Versie seems to be getting ready to kid. Bailey is spending lots of time out there, and we are tracking her progress. One interesting thing about her, Verse has taken in the last day to stretching out by climbing the fences of the maternity ward with her front hooves. I sure hope that means that the babies are settling well into proper position.

You can barely see Verse in this photo, she was in the corner of the pen after our last check. She really is a sweetheart. While I don't think kidding is truly imminent, I will head out there again in another hour and let Bailey sleep a bit. It never hurts to be on the safe side, these will be her first kids.

On that note, I think I will squeeze in a short nap. While moping the kitchen is calling my name, I think it can wait a coupl eof hours and help me warm up after I traipse back out to the goat area in a spell. Hope you all have a wonderful night, I will share again when I can! Love to all.

My New Purse

2014-12-31T17:35:00.002-07:00

I have been needing a new purse. But being who I am, I carry a good bit of stuff with me most days. Things like batteries for the aerobics microphone and a water bottle and lots of little things like that, to help me attempt to keep up with this crazy life.

A couple of years ago, Charlie's unit switched to the new style of BDUs. When he could no longer wear the style he had worn when I first met him, I asked Charlie to pack the old uniforms away for future projects, and just in case the kids wanted them. And I rather thought this project would come along.

I made a similar purse for my niece last year, and about a month ago, I asked Charlie to sit out a few sets for me to work on some projects with. As I began to cut this out, We made a few camouflage stockings, and Wyatt even learned to use the sewing machine while making one.

As luck would have it, the uniform which would become my new purse was one of his favorites, sporting some random paint for character. The outside reveals four pockets, including two with unit insignia. The inside has six, formed from material from the jacket back and arm, just for fun.

So here is the finished product, complete with handles found on after Christmas sale at the fabric store!

Here it is, almost completely loaded, and with room to spare! Next up? Making one specifically designed for and by Bailey. AND this next one will have goat patches, too! Stay tuned for that design, coming soon! Though for now, this edition got Charlie's seal of approval, telling me that it looked good enough to make for sale.

It is pretty exciting when he likes my work! But for now, I will be doing most of my work on a by request basis, so that my time is focused on what matters. So I have to ask, if you could design your own purse, what fabric would you choose, and what features would you want?

Obediah's Adventure

2014-11-18T08:58:00.000-07:00

One of the things about being a farmer is cultivating and growing things, only to let them go. This is certainly true about breeding livestock. We work with the best livestock we can find, and do our best to match them with others who will complement them in the best interests of the breed standard and future generations. Some, we train to visit nursing homes and schools, some are show animals who are also breeding stock. Some of the little ones are sold as show animal projects for 4Hers, or as breeding stock for other farms.

One of the hardest things we do is to say goodbye to these friends who are certainly a part of our farm family, but in order to move forward with our breeding goals, or to function as a farm, we have to say goodbye and let them move on. Some animals will grow old with us, like the rather senile and goofy Treasure, or Huey who happily lived out his years with us. This fall, Obediah moved on to another 4-H family.

Obediah loved being an uncle and cousin at Patriot’s Dream, but he loves to go to shows and meet people, too. Since Bailey has been working more with the therapy animal program, he wasn't getting to do as much of the travelling and visiting and showing that he loves. Obediah moved on to live with friends of ours, where he will be shown in 4-H and is doted on by four youth and their parents. He has also become buddies with a miniature horse named Frankie.

When Obediah first moved, it was a big change for him. He had never seen a miniature horse before! Within a week, though, they were teaming up to pull pranks and sneak into the chicken feed. While this sounds crazy, pranks are a hallmark of the pygmy goat personality, and let us know he was settling in just fine. The family’s neighbors had somehow no idea that a goat and horse lived there. I find this quite surprising, since Obediah had long known to come running when called\. This means that anytime we stop by. or anyone comes through the yard and says Obediah, he runs to the gate of their pen talking and demanding an ear scratch!

At Patriot’s Dream, we free feed alfalfa pellets, so that there is always food available. So Obediah has never worried for food, he would just go get a mouthful when hungry, then go back to playing with his buddies. Some of you likely know that this doesn’t always work with horses, and Frankie gained weight having Obediah around. So he new family put the boys on a feeding schedule.

Frankie takes his food very seriously, and Obediah takes fun pretty seriously, so he started dragging the feed bucket while Frankie was trying to dig in! Obe’s new mama asked whether he was being a bully, or something was going on. They had already asked that anytime we were by, Bailey check and make sure he wasn’t getting too chubby or skinny with the adjustment to life in his new home.

It turns out Obediah had lost a little weight with this feeding schedule thing, so how were they to up Obe’s feed without letting Frankie get too fat? These are the moments that my friend Kate talks about being a flock or herd social director! We came up with a plan of stashing some pellets in a spot where Frankie could not get tot hem, but Obediah could get them anytime. Unfortunately, either Obediah was helping Frankie get tot hem, or something else was off kilter there, so Obediah’s new family as giving him extra a couple of times a day by himself. Frankie isn't too sure about this notion, but Obediah loves the extra attention, so there is a good bit of attention for the animals to keep everyone happy!

Another thing Obediah is loving about his new home is that there are several chickens who wander his pen every day. He and Huey used to let chickens ride around on their heads. After hawks moved in to the field down the road from us, we had to keep the chickens under a much closer guard, where they are only free ranging under supervision. So Obediah is enjoying have chickens around again, he loves anyone to play with. Before he left our house, he gave some young Polish pullets a ride...

So as much as we would love to have our animals with us forever, for others to enjoy the love and fun of goats, there have to be breeders, and for the animals to have full lives, they need homes with devoted families. And we are glad that Obediah has found a special one. I heard someone talking that they will be looking for a friend for him, too…

What Have We Been Up To?

2014-10-21T10:28:00.000-07:00

And the farm animals take over the blog! Clearly, the humans have been too busy to blog lately, with their homeschooling and church and cleaning pens and stuff, so we thought we animals would share a few words on what we have been up to around here!

We finally got some rain around here, and the "goosies on the loosies" as that house mama calls us like rain better than any of the other animals! Why? To play in, of course! But also, because weeds mean that we eat fresh greens that the other animals don't reach. Mama says that means we are brats telling everyone else about it, but we are the guard geese after all, so we should get some perks!

House mama, also known as the feed lady, she tried to pull some weeds down by her garden recently. We told her this was unacceptable, as they were the salad bar we hadn't gotten to yet. Finally, we got her to leave the piles for a couple days so that we could munch a bit before she did more work.

She still has more to prep for our eating. We are done with the other piles, so she had best get busy!

Just because the geese roam all the time doesn't mean they are the only ones with good treats! Despite getting our own salad bar in our pen that Wyatt keeps stocked and growing for us, we still get baskets of sprouts!

It is like a party when the red baskets come out in the middle of the day!

We even share with the guineas! (Well, most of the time, anyway!)

Breakfast time is the best time in our pen! Okay, well, we think we get the best dinner, too! We have the house mama and our Bailey trained to bring us bottles twice a day, and then Daddy Powerstroke lets us have the feeder . This is our look that says, "We are cute!" We know you agree, and the Brahmas that share a fence with us in the grow out pen sing along with us.

The house mama is always excited to see melons doing well. What we like about melons, is that the chickens get lots of melon and then they are in better moods! They complain less about us singing at night when they are in good moods, and I think I heard this kind of melon called a honeydew...

Just in case you were missing out on some of my cuteness, I am Freedom's Prayer! I am pretty sure the world is here to cuddle me!

Did we mention we are masters as coexistence? The goats might say we complain about them singing, but we keep our rooster in line, and also have a pet snake in our pen. If you look closely, you will see his tail over by the old feeder we like to stand on.

This guy doesn't bother us hens, and our nesting boxes and new feeder are up off the ground. The desert comes with mice, so we let this guy wander around so the mice don't bother our nests, and in turn we nest up high and only try to sit on eggs up in the loft where Wyatt keeps our straw. The added bonus- the bigger our Wyatt gets, the funnier it is when he tries to get eggs from us up there! Then we all stand around in the door to our hen house and watch him... Did I mention bonus points for anyone who can get him stuck up there so he has to call for help?

Why yes, the chickens tried to take over! But guess what! We are just too cute to ignore!

My brother was being silly and trying to wrestle with our Dad, so I decided to play peekaboo from my favorite house. Dad also likes to pose. Don'e tell the house mama, but he leaves a pile of poop near where he poses on purpose. She says he wasn't well socialized before our Bailey brought him home, but Bailey says that means he will do just fine in our family of homeschool goofballs. Not sure what that means, but she always scratches our ears and brings us food. And, if we cry really loud, she will come out over and over to check on us!

Well, that is the world according to the bucks, the geese and the Big Pen. We dare the does and the others to outdo us!

Up-cycled Projects for Sustainable Farming

2014-10-06T16:28:00.001-07:00

This dresser was yellow was it came to Arizona before our daughter was born. It had lived through my family, having been well constructed, though over the years it began to have troubles. We reassembled the drawers, reattached the bottoms, reattached the faces and back corners, over and over and over again. That is, until this Spring, when I just couldn't get it to go back together again.

I thought hard about how to re-purpose it, rather than give up on something that seemed to still have life in it. I considered adding board for shelves, but realistically, I could see that causing a TON of dusting, without really adding much convenience. I considered the shelves and using the drawer faces like flip up doors, but when I got into the actual design on that idea, it really didn't work. Nothing would fit right.

I poured over Pinterest. That's what I tell the 4H-ers to do.

So it sat on the back porch, waiting for my crazy over attached to tradition self until I finally just realized- the greatest need around here was the organic and sustainability projects. So a plan was hatched- this dresser would be phase one- of the livestock salad bars.

Salad bard for livestock. you ask? Why yes. By creating planters where the sprouts continue to grow, proving more greenery to the chickens and goats, we hope to supplement their organic nutrition with things more naturally eaten in the wild. Besides, what we grow ourselves, when know where it comes from, and it is more economical for feeding organic.

So we took this old dresser, and the kids and I got to work.

The main frame of the dresser went to the doe pen. Sorry, it was getting a bit dark.

Wyatt took the first of the drawers with no base out to the Big Pen.

He picked a spot where the chickens keep digging hols for him to fill (two birds, so to speak.) Not far from the waters, though. We won't water it with chicken water, but we do want to make watering pretty easy!

They filled them mostly full with garden soil from my re-potting pile. They left a bit of room at the top, so the animals would not have enough leverage or grasp to pull the plants out from the root. Then came chicken wire.

I had originally thought to use hardware cloth to keep the from pulling too much, and had been following the progress of a few similar projects. It turns out, at least one person was having trouble with hens getting stuck walking on the hardware cloth and losing toes. Who! I hadn't even though of that! Glad for someone else's honesty and experience. Hope those hens are getting around okay!

This one is outside the doe barn. Once we catch the water harvesting system up, we plan to have one there, too, and stationed this so that there was just enough room by the roof, but against the wall, for a water harvesting barrel, and this could easily be watered from it. She added plenty of seeds that had been soaking for a couple days.

Then she got to watering them two to three times each day.

This is what is coming up. I have some more for her to reseed later tonight.

This is the chicken one in the Big Pen. Too bad I didn't get a photo of this one earlier, since they are REALLY digging on their sprouts! Wyatt will be adding more seeds, but just because they weren't as established as we had thought they would be when the ladies began eating them. They like to work together to get the best grasp on the sprouted grains while one stands on the wire, the other puts her head through to munch!

It is doing quite well, but we will continue to work with it!

Next up, after reseeding? The Bucks and the A Pen! The more natural the food is, the better!!!

Late Summer Garden Refresh, Part Two

2014-09-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

This is Brown Seeded Simpson lettuce. I have AMAZING luck with it. It grows more like a stalk, which can be a bit odd, but if you let the last of it go to seed, the seeds gather easily and any you miss will automatically reseed and sprout when the temperatures are favorable. This variety has kept us in lettuce far more than any other, and that makes it a winner in my book!

Part of the end of Summer refresh meant weeding the tree sprouts volunteers out, as well as adding in a couple other varieties and a little broccoli.

This was a volunteer melon plant in the other planter, but I am a little worried it might be too late int he seaosn to get anything out of it. Still, I am going to let it go and see what comes of it since we stay warm so long here.

Shadow like to supervise me. I cannot miss her when she sits on the dirt pile. She knows it, and she wants to make sure to be in the middle of the action.

Unfortunately, what you see here is me finishing off the last of the rainwater. The storm didn't come, again, and we are careful to use the water wisely, but this was draining hte last of this barrel into a watering can. Bummer.

These are purple heirloom tomatoes. Just about ready to pick... YUM! Ever tried them?

A pepper plant and some peas, winding up the trellis.

Another bell pepper plant. We love those...

And the strawberries are coming back into production since the heat dropped a bit, too...

Bailey was chatting with me while I worked, and jumped in to take on cleaning out the water barrels.The screens just aren't enough, they are good, but dirt still accumulates!

After another round of chores, sprouts, and more, a beautiful evening settles in and we head in to the next task.

We are making little forward steps with out projects around here, but always have more to do, of course. What are you doing in your gardens and livestock pens this time of year?

A Little Teamwork and Homegrown Redneck Engineering...

2014-09-27T09:39:00.001-07:00

One of the many fun things I never expected about adulthood is that there is always a project awaiting my attention. I wish that was an exaggeration, but it isn't. Back in the spring, we got a crack in the wall of the shower in the master bath. I consulted friends, and came up with a plan to help it wait until hunting season. Why, you might ask? First off, in the last year, there have been several family crises in our extended family, and family is more important to us than tearing out an entire shower when we can avoid it.

Why hunting season? Really, out of practicality. Four of us live in this house, and when one or two are off hunting, fewer people are trying to share a shower and bathroom! So when Charlie was away on his archery elk hunt, I needed to make use of my time.

First, Wyatt had been finishing repairing a hole in his bathroom from where the towel bar, not having lined up on the studs, had left a hole in the wall. It wasn't the first time, but the new repair was actually much better than the first, and he had done all of the work. We agreed that repainting the bathroom was a good idea, since the walls and ceiling are scrubbed regularly, and having to paint the repair meant a good time to do it all. Then we decided to go a shade darker.

The original color was an icy blue on one main wall, with the other walls white. We went just a smidgen more vibrant with a still icy blue, and took the blue back over the shower as well.

I think the color is a little more accurate in the top photo. Now we need to decide on new rug and curtain for the shower. Any thoughts for us?

I wanted to think that after that, and two coats of paint of course, that I was ready to get going on the master shower. But then I realized that something really did look funny. The vanity, to be specific. The drawers had kept rolling out and hitting me in the knee while I had been painting, but it didn't dawn on me right away (I do projects like this late at night, so I am even slower than usual during these times.)

Anyway, something look a little off to you? The front of the vanity had separated from the frame along this side. Ugh. I had no desire to replace it, but needed to get things on track so I could move on to the next project!

Wyatt helped me bring in a floor jack, and I was hoping to use some liquid nails to put it back together. After dragging it all the way up to the porch, and us using a dog towel to preserve the wood floor while lining it up in the bathroom, it didn't fit under the kick plate, so it had to go back out. My friend, Janna, gave us the idea of a soup can and board. Wyatt didn't want any proof of being involved in this redneck engineering...

He was able to help me with a piece of wood flooring and a can of canned pumpkin, but then the board broke- darn...

So then we were back at it with wood and a glass jar we usually use for tea.

The jar was too big, but we went back to the can of pumpkin. Less scary in terms of possible broken glass anyway, right? I thought I had everything on track at about this time, and used lots of glue to secure it in place. Wyatt continued to hold it down until I brought in some little weight plates. I thought for sure we were on track then, but it was not to be.

In the morning, after waking the kids the first time, I released the board, and found that the glue did not hold at all. BIG UGH! But I put the weight plates back in place, and having realized that there was some space between the drawer tracks and the original frame board that I could not screw to because of all the trim on the front, I brought in an extra piece of wood to fit there, and ran screws. It wouldn't be pretty, but when the drawers were closed, the screws would at least be hidden behind the drawer faces,

I went with long screws, since the board would have to support the weight of the drawers as well, and sone of them didn't go in all the way, so I will cut those off. But in the end, it is functional now, and will hold for quite a while so that I can get on to the next project.

perfect? No. But functional? Yes.

Anyhow, outside of the issue there, the vanity is perfectly functional, and I have really become frustrated with the "throwaway" nature of society these days, so I am going to repair and reuse wherever I can! We might not be fancy, but we are working to practice and live what we preach- organically, environmentally, and in an many aspects of our life as possible.

Well, lots more projects going on to share with you in the coming weeks. We hope you will also share your projects with us to continue to inspire and help others use a little redneck engineering in their homesteading and home projects! And if you have a better solution tot he projects we have done, please share that, too!

Have a truly blessed and thankful day!

After the Flooding of Hurricane Norbert, Getting Ready for Hurricane Odile

2014-09-23T16:52:00.000-07:00

As usual, the hustle of life here has me busy enough to where I take photos to share, but never quite get to the blogging! So I figure I ought to take a few minutes today and tomorrow and catch things up!

To begin with, this is the garden shed. Or, shall I say random shed? Presently there are assorted garden tools, irrigation items, paint, a table I needed to put somewhere for a project, and the geese like to hang out in there. Yes, that's right, the geese. Despite having free roam of the property, a play house, their own pool and open enclosure, the geese like to nest by the planter boxes and sleep by the garden, but hang out by day in a metal garden shed. Goofy!!!! But then again, they live at our house! Does anyone else have goofy geese like this?

With the monsoon season drawing to a close, we had very little total rainfall, most of it garnered in the two inch storm yield midway through the season, and very little actually stored. We had been able to complete the prototype water harvesting barrel a few weeks back, but when the rainfall from the hurricanes working their way up from baja California began to fill the prototype barrel and the extra overflow barrel that was out, we knew we needed to prioritize the project!

One of the barrels we had already had this rubber section of hose attached. This needed to go, but fortunately came off pretty easily. There was actually a threaded bulkhead underneath, which had me pretty happy since it would give us two barrels with threaded bulkheads and two with a new kind I picked up at the aquaponics store.

In another spot on the same barrel was one bulkhead that was capped off. That would have been fine, but it was really filthy Poor Wyatt was sweet enough to volunteer to crawl inside and clean it out all the way!

While that one was soaking in ACV, I cut off the lid of another barrel, just like the prototype version. Then I set it to soak with the ACV as well, while working on setting up the bricks to keep it off the ground and high enough to put watering cans under the spigots. Additionally, I wanted them high enough that overflow could pour out across the top to the successive cans, making it easier to separate them to clean them out periodically without needing to move them as a unit or re-plumb them!

Last weekend, I had needed to go in to work at the college to deal with new requirements and reporting, and the aquaponics store had been just a few miles down the road from there. I picked up some new things to try in place of the bulkheads, called Uniseals. While the snap into place through the holes you drill, and tighen up around the pipe when you put it through, they do move some, and can be pulled back out. I used the same hole saw with these, though a bit larger than with the traditional bulkhead. The man at the aquaponics store felt strongly that these have lasted better than the others in his own yard, as plastic breaks down severely in the Tucson heat and sun.

This is the Uniseal. Have you ever tried them?

This is my fancy dancy little hole, made with the hole saw. And some muscle, too.

The seal really did pop right in as advertised.

I took a break to do a walk around at this point, having washed out the tubs and gotten another round of ACV in to soak and make sure any last residues would be gone. Bailey had a minute, so she came up to help me dump this tub. Notice that it looks like a black lagoon in there? This is what happens when you don't have a lid on your barrel- algae! Ugh, that is like an algae bloom in the ocean messing with the life balance where they appear- NOT something I plan to use on our gardens! We carried the tub together and dumped it in a tree well under some ornamental cacti and the like, where it would be okay and still useful.

After rinsing out the gunk, I went back to my project in process. This is the barrel with the Uniseal in it The guy at the aquaponics store loves these, and I admit that on top of the flexible material aspect, the ease of installation could also make for smaller openings and the possibility that we could have less gunk potentially getting inside. Still, that meant no actual threading, which has me rather nervous in terms of the spigot being knocked around or out or that leading to a leak. They use them more in the way of one tank connecting to another, so they don't seem as likely to get the abuse that comes with being so accessible.

End of Summer Garden Jump Start

2014-09-15T05:34:00.003-07:00

With all of the crazy weather and in and out internet service, I went to work to get caught up on Saturday. It was a good thing, because despite the hour and a half on a Saturday afternoon spent away from the many things at home calling my name, I am caught up for the first time since the semester began. THer ewill be plenty more for me on Tuesday when I am in, but I will definitely feel better without the leftover list awaiting me!

On my way ther, I stopped by the local aquaponics store for some items I needed to add more capacity to the water harvesting project. I found a different solution to bulkheads, which will be a second prototype to compare, which I think will be interesting, and I will show that when I get more done with that tomorrow.

On the way in the door, however, I saw some new organic heirloom plant starts, and couldn't help myself. Many of you will recall the project we have had to get the feeders up off the ground to reduce waste and keep pesky rodents out of the feed and away fro the livestock. The project has been successful and positive, but the mice were then hungry, and with my garden in containers and my plant starts ion the table on the back porch, they went straight for my plant starts and the main garden, devouring everything they could get to. It will be a bit before I can get the greenhouse rebuilt, even though I have been collecting the materials and creating plans.

Out lavender was diminished some by age and other factors, so I was so excited to see lavender, peppers, lettuce starts and more! I did my best to exercise restraint, but gave in to two lavender plants, and a few heirloom peppers, lettuce and broccoli. I think this photo shows as much restraint as it does bounty!

Sunday night during evening chores, I started on the additional water capacity, and then when it was too dark to do more, I took the lavender out front for a little foodscaping...

I had planned to get to these planters once the monsoon had brought consistent rain, but it never really did, being mostly family with a few days of overload until the last week or so. So I just never really got to it. This planter was rather overgrown with dead stuff!

Hard to see in this photo, but there was a little green with a lot of dead stuff here. The green were fun little flowers that actually looked rather good in that planter, and might still get some little blue Marguerite daisies for the cute little goat pot. We will see.

This planter has housed more solar lights than anything else in recent years.

I cleaned out the dead stuff in this one, and added a little soil conditioning/ amendment so that I could decide about those daisies...

This one got fully cleaned out and some lavender. While for years, I enjoyed blue and white everything out front, I really needed a good spot for the lavender and better use of the planters for hte food and medicinal plants!

This one brought the second lavender plant and more soil amendment.

Well, here is to hoping they flourish and bear seeds for lavender! Now back to finishing off an order, rigging a jack to finish the kids bathroom and having the additional rainwater capacity finished today and the other starts in fortified surroundings before the storm is due in!

Hope you all have a truly blessed week!

Some Exciting News and a Product Update

2014-09-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

Some fun and exciting news. ..

Today, we will be be delivering some product samples to a local honey company! We are sure hoping that the products do well for them, and that this becomes a lasting partnership. That makes this That makes this a good time to answer some questions that we get a lot, just for your information!

These are stick lip balms. This version is a Chocolate Hazelnut Honey variety. The ones in a stick are a little harder than those in a tub, but generally the same ingredients, We have a host of different kinds that we can make, but usually make them to order. What you see here has honey, beeswax, cocoa butter, hazelnut oil, dutch cocoa, glycerin and vitamin E. Good stuff. Some of our best sellers are actually tub or glass vial roll-ons. We do a lava lights one in many flavors, and some with chocolate cherry, chocolate mint, mocha, etc. If you are looking for a flavor you love, or specific essential or extract oils, let me know, I may just have a great recipe.

This basket happens to contain two types of soap and some lotion bars.

The soaps, because this is for a group that specializes in honey are two types of our oatmeal, goat's milk and honey recipe. The oatmeal serves to calm and cool sensitive skin. The goat's milk is tremendously nourishing, and goat's milk, as it is close in composition to human breast milk, is better utilized by our skin to nourish and repair it. The honey is great for those with sensitive skin or acne or rashes. Surprising, but true! There are a variety of oils used, including cocoa butter, and several others. Specific recipes can vary a bit by the requests in a given batch. Don't hesitate to put in a request for a whole small batch just for you! This basket has a plain (unscented with essential oils) version as well as a holiday spice variety, which has clove, cinnamon, orange and nutmeg essential oils mixed in at trace to help get you ready for the holiday season. I even threw in one peppermint soap. True peppermint essential oils are outstanding for opening up the sinuses when you have allergies, and the good stuff won't set off those of us with sensitivities to chemicals. Some folks like the spearmint or eucalyptus for this, but the peppermint is the most popular these days.

What can I say about lotion bars? GOOD STUFF! Typically, lotions take some wonderful oils and do a few things. The first, the frequently use alcohol so that it evaporates and make you feel as though it is soaking in, though it is actually drying your skin. Second, they almost always thin the oils with water, then thicken them with corn starch derivative to keep them thick as well as oodles of preservatives. Since it is the chemicals and preservative that my family cannot handle, and I take issue with genetically modified corn, we take a different approach. We begin with local beeswax, filter it an extra time, and then add pure cocoa butter, and a variety of pure oils and butters, essential oils for aromatherapy and vitamin E for a natural boost to the skin and to help with shelf life. Again, oils can vary greatly. While coconut oil is a fantastic base, some folks who have sought us out because they know we are glad to individually formulate cannot have that, or cannot have another oil. So these recipes vary some, and we try to keep a couple different recipes in stock.

I know, that is a LOT of information!. But feel free to ask ANY questions you may have. That is why you would work with a small local company that specializes in serving the individual needs of the customer in a natural way that supports the health of the customer and sustainable agriculture!

Anybody for Hoecakes for Breakfast?

2014-09-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that teaching rather runs in the family around here. Between my mother, Charlie's Grandma, and my home schooling the kids, our children stand no chance of missing possible lessons! After Charlie's grandma passed away this year, we all inherited her books and curriculum left over from her teaching days.

Many of the books were from younger ages, though there were some really fun ones, as well as some great reference and culture books. Some, we will use for the fun of a springboard into a lesson. Wyatt and I ended up storing three large boxes worth in plastic totes in the shed. For some reason, this one ended up on the dining table.

Amidst some random conversations last week, I picked it up and began reading. The kids wee sitting there at the table, with Bailey not knowing what I expected and Wyatt looking at me strangely. So then, I couldn't help myself...

I read it, showing pictures to the kids, and going all out with the voices... hey maybe I should be one of those librarians...

We learned about a fictional boy whose first and middle names were George Washington, after our first president, and about how this boy wanted to know everything about our six-foot-two inch first President who showed us what it meant to be a leader, a Commander in Chief, and to peacefully do what was right for a nation.

And we learned that almost none of the books about him talk about what he ate for breakfast.

Apparently, President Washington was rumored to have hands so big and strong that he could bend horseshoes with them. Hmmm...

And apparently he ate hoecakes for breakfast. Three of them. With the same number of cups of tea.

Hoe cakes apparently have many different recipes and are named for the shovel they would be cooked on in the fire. That was the first bone of contention. Apparently in the story, there were no hoes inside George Washington's house when the boy went to visit, so they used a griddle because the grandma in the story refused to cook with a hoe. Seeing as how it is monsoon season here, and lots of stuff ends up mucking things out with the flooding, thee was no way I was trying to make a hoe clean enough to cook breakfast on!

So over the weekend, I pulled up a couple of recipes, and learned that originally hoe cakes were simply cornmeal with water, later using things like milk, eggs and sugar as well. So the first round was as simple as they could be...

They didn't hold together very well!

They looked a little like mangled hush puppies, rather than breakfast when I served them.

Wyatt decided that real maple syrup would have been around there, so he had some hoe cakes with his maple syrup... see how these History lessons can go south? But he did prove timelines. That child should be a lawyer...

They were really crumbly, but not bad. So then I added some milk, thinking we could enjoy a discussion about tracing the lineage of recipes in history, something we have discussed when talking about processed foods and organics.

These seemed a little better formed to me, more like a pancake.

They also seemed to hold together a bit better.

The kids liked the original version better. They thought it just had more flavor and texture in the first one. Funny how that happens with the original getting watered down sometimes, isn't it?

I had originally promised to let them break into some Boston trading company tea, but then we forgot. Oops.

But I have a feeling that Wyatt will really want it when we make another revolutionary war themed meal he has been looking forward to- fire cakes. Maybe this next weekend we can delve into that one!

Water Harvesting Update and the Last of Monsoon 2014

2014-09-07T23:27:00.000-07:00

We have been working hard on several projects around here lately.around here lately, as the school year begins and the monsoon season draws to a close. This week we were blessed with another quarter inch of rain. That really isn't much, but in a year where we have registered less than three inches total, we are thankful for every drop!

Recently, I posted the assembly of the first of our true rainwater harvesting barrels. Seeing as how many drought ravaged states are beginning to outlaw water harvesting, I am thankful our still encourages it, and fully intend to encourage others to keep the practice strong.

The day after we got it going, I got this video of our system in action. Clearly, we need to work on down spouts soon!

The blue one with the lid turned out to be very easy to maintain, with just a little apple cider vinegar keeping things clean and clear. Compared with the open buckets my husband has helpfully lined up while I work on the system, this is far superior, and I have been really excited by the ease the system is managed with. I really wish I had started this project earlier in the summer!

We started the weekend with full water barrels, though I was trying to use more of the water from the open barrels where the water doesn't keep as well, so when a little bit of rain came through yesterday (an I mean a LITTLE bit) there was almost no room in the blue barrel. Oh, well, I tried, but each of the barrels did get about 10 gallons, with the open one getting about 15, While that isn't much, it is enough to water for another day, so who would I me to turn that down?

It turned out the video of the barrels and the first watering can I filled was too big for uploading directly into the blog, but here is the link to it. So next, I need to pick up a couple more bulkheads and do the overflow barrels as well as the downspouts and the other corners of the house.

Link to the first watering can filling from the barrel!

Anyhow, that is the water harvesting update for now. What have you tried that has worked or not? It is so helpful to share information to help each other do better by the environment and take better care of our organic gardens. Thanks for sharing!

Baby Chicks Available at Local Hardware Store

2014-09-07T21:22:00.000-07:00

A little over a week ago brought a new adventure for the little chicks of Patriot's Dream. One of the local hardware stores has begun carrying chicks. They ordered in some Ameraucanas from a hatchery, and since things were going well they wanted to add some local chicks as well. Four little ones from our recent hatch went along.

Wyatt packed the little ones in a crate lined with towels and played with them in the back seat on the way to deliver them.

I don't think they were too sure about leaving their friends in the brooder!

Here is Wyatt with the little ones, riding in to town.

Initially, the delivery went really well. But the littlest was just too little for the digs there, so Charlie stopped to pick her up on his way home from work (in the middle of a big rain storm, no less!) That little one came home and nestled right back in here. The Silkies long thought they were her mama, since she was younger than the rest, though in the bottom photo, she is nestled in to the feathers of a slightly larger chick of her own breed who we didn't take along since we believe it will be a boy. You have to look really closely in order to see the little one tucked under and a little behind the wing.

One of the many benefits of working with a local breeder is the support you get, and the service. For us, we are thrilled that the three little ones were sold to local homes, and things went so well, they asked for more chicks! We didn't have any at that moment, as we had cleaned out the incubator, but likely will soon.

Well, pretty exciting to have such positive partnerships with local businesses and good people! More exciting news to come as well!

Water Harvesting Project, prototype one

2014-08-25T16:53:00.001-07:00

One of the ongoing sustainability concerns for farming in the desert is water. This is a big issue, actually, with many large scale commercial farming practices using older methods of irrigation which often cannot be viable in the long term with the ever increasing number of people using the limited water supply.

Drought is commonplace, and extreme drought has brought frightening pictures and a concern for the future. Some states have outlawed water harvesting in the hopes of recharging dwindling supplies in underground aquifers.

I really feel that we can appropriately harvest water while recharging aquifers and responsibly reducing consumption, though it does require all of to work together and not waste.

We have put lots of research into making a water harvesting system for our veggies, and as we get better, we will also apply this to our sprouting system within the livestock pens, which should also help with flooding concerns in the rainy season.

This is our first prototype. We began with a blue barrel. Even though it was considered food safe, I soaked it three time with water and an ACE (apple cider vinegar) and water dilution before beginning.

While my husband recommended a larger saw, I have issues with my hands, and went for the smaller one! I used twine to set my line for cutting around the top. Despite the two holes already there, I know that I will need access to scrub the barrel out between seasons, as well as access for working on the bulkhead attachments.

Then I got to play with power tools. Off came the top of the barrel. That part was easy!

I had several of these blocks laying around- actually like five of them, so not enough for too much, but enough for this spot. I started off with two blocks- a single thickness, then added the additional since the overflow barrel is supposed to be a bit lower, and because I wanted plenty of clearance around the house bib.

Then it was time for MORE CLEANING. High power with the hose, then three more rounds with ACV, alternated with the hose. ACV is also great for keeping the algae down and the bugs away, so I put a little more in before I reassembled the while thing, too.

I just put the ACV straight in a spray bottle lots of uses for that!

Then I needed something to keep the top of the barrel on, so I improvised a little. I had some wooden dowels left over from another project, so I used roofing screws from yet another project to attached them to the outside. Note for future reference on this one- I put one of them right near a seam, and it is a little close to the lid top seam in that spot, so I have to be really careful putting the lid back on.

Here it is with the lid on, at the corner of the house. That is a pomegranate tree right behind, and there are several other plants along that edge of the porch.

I knew I neened a hole saw for the bulkhead that the hose bib would screw into. What I had was designed for wood. Rather than go crazy and buy another, I tried a test hole in the top first. It came out fine, so it was time to put the bulkhead hole in!

Fortunately, that was pretty easy. The sizes I had for hole saw bits were pretty close, and the first one I drilled was not quite big enough for the threads, so I ended up needing a second go round. That's okay, though, it worked.

The bulkheads are easily found at your neighborhood hardware store. Funny thing, these actually thread left handed. That was weird, but it went in easily, with a gasket to provide the seal from leaks on each side.

The outside was just as easy, too.

Then, with plumber's tape around the threads of the hose bib, it went in easily itself. We chose for it to angle down and away fro the porch to make the hose work easier for me.

Then I needed something in the top to let water in and keep gunk out. That started with a hole around the area where the test hole had gone.

Things were starting to look almost functional by this point!

Here is the close up of the fancy-dancy hose bib and bulkhead work.

Okay, so at that popoint I took a break to actually get dinner on the table, and then came back to work on the screening. I decided to go a little crazy with the caulking. And to keep the mesh down, I went high tech with a plant from the porch.

Pretty fancy, huh?

In the end, that didn't stay very flat, so I may screw it down with washers. We will have to see on that one!

Well, here is the prototype. As I type this, a storm is threatening, so I am REALLY hoping to get to see how it works tonight! On that note, here is to reducing waste and reusing where we can, and farming sustain-ably!

What projects have you tried? We would love for you to share all you have learned so we can all learn together! Have a great night.

Last Tuesday's Big Storm

2014-08-18T15:58:00.000-07:00

These are pictures and videos captured after the monsoon storm on 12 August 2014.

This is the driveway to go around back to the livestock. Yes, Running water higher than my ankles.

The chicken barn flooded as well.

My truck with ramps in front of it, it is just in our front yard.

Our neighbors across the street got some rain, the horses sure didn't seem to thrilled.

The main road running next to the house, flooded.

The farm truck was parked., right outside the gate.

Shine, the pygmy goat, in a flooded shelter. First time he'd ever seen a flood.

Again the driveway back to the livestock.

This was taken standing near the entrance to our little neighborhood. Yes, the whole thing is flooded.

And, last, but certainly important, the main road flooded and people drive anyway.

"White" Wicker Chair Project

2014-08-12T18:54:00.001-07:00

I don't know about your house, but at our house, there is just never enough seating in the living room! I have long had a desire for a fun little wicker chair, though had no desire to spend much money on one since we have so many animals and animals don't tend to be good to the wicker.

Nevertheless, when I found a black wicker chair for free on Craigslist, the wheels were turning. When I realized that I would be right down the street from where the free chair was located the following day, I couldn't resist!

Black, however, isn't really my thing. And while brown would likely have matched the living room better, there is just something in me about wicker being white to look its best. So out came the spray paint. I should have gotten a photo of the original color, but here is my project anyway =)... already in progress...

Slowly but surely moving toward its new look, and showing off the weeds by the back retaining wall at the same time!

You can see more of the original color as I was working underneath.

Overall, the project took a few days and a little over two cans of paint.

Here it is, coming along...

starting to look as though it was meant to be white all along...

And here it is with the cushion I bought for less than $10 at a thrift store and worked to make sure was clean before putting it on the chair.

Our living room has lots of green with lots of animals- mostly elk and deer, and the like, but puppies fit in beautifully!

It took a bit for it to settle in, but my new chair that I thought would have no competition for me has also become a favorite of Wyatt!

All in all, I am pretty happy with the way my new twenty some dollar chair came out. What do you think?

Saturday Night Excitement- a Rattlesnake

2014-08-11T20:09:00.000-07:00

Every family has different excitement in their lives. We are in that harried time as we get ready for the coming school semester, hunting season, etcetera. I am often known for saying that my life is boring, that I just have too many chores to be that interesting, but then other things come along, like this visitor from Saturday night...

We treat the beneficial things around here like pets, so to speak. So with two non-venomous snakes considering our property home, we are careful to collect the eggs on schedule and watch what we are up to. We reason that they help with neighborhood rodents, but also with keeping rattlesnakes at bay.

Saturday night, I was working on dinner, and Bailey was working outside in the goat pen. Suddenly she came in, and brought me the dog, saying she thought there was a coiled rattler in the doe pen, and Shadow had alerted on it, not leaving it alone. (So much for that rattlesnake evasion training I paid for...)

Charlie was on the phone, so Wyatt went out to help her until Charlie could go help. I was appointed to keep Shadow from letting herself out to help and not burn dinner...

This was somewhere in the realm of four feet, and was not rattling, but was coiled to strike when Bailey pulled Shadow back and tried to look with her flashlight (the battery was dying, great timing, right/) Just a little Saturday night excitement and a reminder that boots are a requirement...