The newest additions on the farm - Honey Bees

 
One of the hive locations...

Puffing smoke before opening the hive.

 Our Queen, marked with yellow.In a week we will check on them again. We will be watching for them to start filling up the empty frames in the hive body. When they're almost filled, we'll add the next layer or super to the hive, giving them more room to grow and space for food storage.

I'm already looking forward to our next visit. Watching the bees on their comb is so fascinating and there's something very calming about the buzz of the hive and the soft sweet smell of honey and wax that wafts through the air when it's opened. I have a feeling that this is going to be one of my favorite facets of our farm.

I had heard of goat cheese truffles, quite a few pioneering goat creameries have made their own amazing versions that I've heard mouthwatering tales of, but somehow I had never tried them! Cheese and chocolate - my two favorite foods - TOGETHER in perfect creamy harmony... Once the idea was in my head I was on a roll! 

I found some recipes online, but was disappointed to see that most used sugar, and a lot of it. Honey, my favorite sugar sub, is basically perfect for any cheese recipe and packs more sweetening power in a smaller dose. I was worried that it might glop up the consistency, but we tend to like our chocolate dark and bitter, so I wouldn't need a ton of if in there anyway.  I also decided to try using some of the amazing red chile powder we have on hand (in bulk, did I mention that I am married to a human sized NM chile?) to help convince Scrapple that these were really a treat for him (insert evil cackling laugh here). Because I had a great discount at Murray's, and had been spoiled with the leftovers of cave experimentation, I went with one of the fancy Mast bars they sell there. It was delicious, but by no means necessary. When I made them again last week for Mother's Day I used ghirardelli dark chocolate chips and the results were just as tasty. If you're not sure red chile powder is your thing try rolling in cocoa powder, cinnamon, nuts - really just about anything! That said, I do urge you to give it a try. Instead of giving the savory spice I had anticipated, it adds delicious jammy berry flavors with just a tiny bite of zing that really take these from yummy to addictive. Oh, they also pair quite well with a glass of red (cheese, chocolate, and wine. yes. do it.).  

You can make this recipe in any size batch you'd like, just adjust the amount of honey to taste. Depending on the size of truffle you prefer, this batch size will make 16-30.

Dark Chocolate Chèvre Truffles

8 oz chocolate (I think dark is best for this, but experiment away!)

8oz chèvre (I used Westfield Farm's Capri, now I'm using Bridget Chevre :)

1-2 tbs honey

about 1/4 c New Mexican red chile powder and or cocoa for rolling

1. Let the chèvre warm up to room temp in a medium sized bowl (an hour or two). 

2. Beat in 1-2 tbs honey (I like it to add just a little sweetness, but not too much, you are about to be adding equal parts chocolate) to taste.

3. Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in Pyrex in the microwave. If using the microwave, heat for only 10 -20 seconds between stirs depending on how powerful your microwave is. Be gentle! Once melted, let the chocolate cool for 3 minutes before the next step.

4. Beat (fork or spoon work fine) or whisk the chocolate into your chèvre honey mixture until thoroughly combined.

5. Refrigerate until hard enough to shape and no longer sticky (about 45 minutes to an hour and a half).

6. Hand shape into little balls or squares and roll in dusting of your choice.

7. Refrigerate in a sealed container (I line with parchment or wax paper) for a few hours to set everything in place and to give flavors time to meld. If you remember, set them out about 30 minutes before serving.  

After our disappointing foray into owning a cat we decided to get another one. We were determined to have a barn cat. In fact, I’d still like to have a barn cat. It just won’t be Levon. Levon shall be a house cat. And he shall be a family cat. And he shall be a Levon. A hysterical indoor cat.

A few days after burying BG under a big maple tree and planting some wildflowers around her area we decided to give cats another shot. Sweetbreads found a great looking male cat, very healthy, neutered, loves to climb, and fully clawed. We thought he could stick up for himself, get away if necessary and generally make it as a barn cat.

So we put him in a dog crate in the barn to get him acclimated to his new home, the barn. The dogs, goats and chickens were all around and they all took turns getting familiar with their feline friend. Sophie came and sniffed him, the big girls came and sniffed him, the goats got a little too close and realized they don’t really need to be curious about cats. And that was pretty much it. We let them live together for almost a week just to be sure they all knew that Levon was our cat and he was ok. Don’t eat Levon.

Somehow that message didn’t get through. A couple days after letting Levon out of the crate we were bringing the goats and dogs in for milking and Sheba caught sight of Levon in front of the house. Before we knew it she took off like a shot. I don’t think many people appreciate how fast these big Pyrs can be. When they want to track something down they haul ass. I once saw Sheba chase a coyote out of our back fields. It had to have had a 100 yard lead on her and by the time they got to the fence (probably a 400 yd distance) Sheba was right on its tail. They leap through the air with powerful bursts in between, it’s pretty incredible.

Until you see them chase your barn cat like that! Within a couple seconds Sheba was across the yard and Levon was scaling an oak tree. “Oh good, climbing skills come in handy, he’ll be fine”. Wrong. Sheba gets all four paws on the tree and starts climbing it too! Her huge claws allowed her to get a grip on the bark and fully extended she could almost reach the lowest branch where Levon was. We had caught up with her just in time to give her an ear-full, but Levon was terrified. Off to get the extension ladder to get the cat out of the tree. Poor guy jumped off us and ran into a sink hole for a couple days. Finally he emerged and we let him in, this time for good.

Don't you ever put me out there again, I'm holding onto you... and I'm clawed, as your couch knows

And now we will have that Elton John song stuck in our heads forever. Poor anticipation of a future outcome after naming him Levon on the day that Levon Helm passed away.

Sing it with me now, "And he shall be housecaaaat".

Since we started putting the goats out on pasture we’ve received a surprising amount of interest about the method we’re using. I certainly don’t think it’s the best method, but it works for us right now and over time I’m sure it will change a lot. In fact, we’ve already made a number of changes since we first started a couple weeks ago.

Preparing for the Goats on Pasture

The first step was to get everything ready. This took several weeks. That’s why the goats had the Temporary Goat House and adjacent outdoor holding area. On the agenda was perimeter fencing, interior electric fencing, reliable guard dogs and assurance that our pasture was fit for goat consumption.

We’ve written a bit about the livestock guardian dogs, so I’ll skip that for now and focus on the electric fencing and the forages.

For the electric we use a pretty basic set-up. It’s four strands of polywire with the lower strands spaced closer together and higher strands farther apart. We haven’t measured the exact distances, more just eye-balling it for what we think will work. We use plastic step-in posts to string up the wire with two step-in posts at an angle for the corners. For the juice we use a Stafix X2 energizer to power the wire and a deep cycle marine battery from Sears to power the energizer. Once you get it all together it’s pretty simple. The pain in the butt part is moving it everyday.

Since the goats require four wires (although we might get bold and try three) you have to reel them all up (we do two at a time on one reel) and then pull out the step-in posts and then set it all up over again. Honestly, we’re not too efficient at this part and longer term it’s not a sustainable system. Eventually we’ll either need to make bigger paddocks for the goats or install permanent cross-fencing that can carry a current and then tie everything off that. For now though, it works.

Mayday and Sabine getting ready to move to a new paddock

Getting the Goats to Respect the Fence

Before we put the goats in the electrically fenced paddock we made sure they knew that testing the electric fence wasn’t a good idea. We didn’t want them to be inside the fence without any idea what it was and figure out that they could just jump over it (or through it) and be fine on the other side. They needed to respect the fence. So we coaxed them into it and let them get zapped. It wasn’t fun, but I think it worked.  It’s really not a bad zap, but it does catch you off guard. It’s not something that I do on purpose too frequently, although I am the resident fence tester. The dogs had to learn the hard way too and boy do they hate the fence.

So far everyone respects it for the most part. There’s always an escapee or two (just check our Facebook page for Sabine's latest antic), but usually they just want to eat whatever is right on the other side and they’re not too interested in running really far away. The dogs, on the other hand, if they escape they want to run around the whole perimeter and pee on everything and bark at everything and THEN they come back and ask for a belly rub. That’s ok as long as the sun isn’t about to set, then it gets a little nerve-wracking, but luckily with three of them we don’t have to worry much as long as one is inside with the goats.

Determining Paddock Size

The paddocks we set up vary in size based on what’s in the particular area we are grazing that day. Usually it’s about a quarter of an acre for our 6 kids, one yearling and two does. For all the grazing people out there it works out to about 2-3 animal units/acre, with an animal unit being 1,000# of animal. With our marginal land situation right now that’s about the stocking rate we’re aiming for. Over time we’d like to plant for more goat-specific forages and cater the land to their stomach’s desires, but for now that should work about right. After years of neglect our land is actually in pretty good shape for goats. Lots of multi-flora rose, buckbush, briars, lespedeza, honeysuckle, and all kinds of other stuff that cows wouldn't even touch! For our land, the ultimate goal is a stocking rate of 4-5 animal units/acre, but that will take at least 3-5 yrs and probably longer.

So why the heck do we go through all this trouble? That’s to come in a later post.

Here's a little Mother and "Kid" moment from this past week at the farm we thought we'd share with you for the occasion. At around 11am, after a morning of grazing, the goats all take a little rest to bask in the sun, nap, and chew cud. Sabine, The Buckling, and Springbok always lie right next to their Mom, Mayday. Sometimes, there's some snuggling going on. Springbok (a yearling) is in her teenager stage and wouldn't be caught dead getting a back rub from Mom, but Sabine is all for it!

Hope you all have a special day!

Wynonna the Wyandotte, settling into a nice dust bath.

Elvis, showing his IDI took a look and sure enough, the whole gang was there! The chickens have a speakeasy! Well, it's like a cross between a speakeasy and a chicken spa - complete with dust baths, shade, and bug snacks galore, engulfed in intoxicating rose perfume. They can be found there almost every day at around 10am although I pretend not to see them as the first time I discovered it Freja expressed her annoyance by squawking at me for about 10 minutes... Not an experience I want to repeat. One of them is always guarding the entrance and only chickens are allowed in. The guineas are insanely jealous of this special spot and have been known to raid the club when the chickens are out snacking in the pastures.

my sourdough starter on day two, bubbling away

I'm beginning to realize that sometimes, you just have to make time, even if it means putting off cleaning the coop until tomorrow (or the day after...ehm). Yesterday morning, after cleaning up from milking, I decided it was prime time to take a step towards having good bread. It was a baby step that I only needed about 5 minutes to accomplish - perfect!

I put together the beginnings of a sourdough starter. With just some flour and water you can capture and culture the wild yeast that exist just about everywhere, floating in the air (cool, right!?). Every 12 hours you "feed" the starter until it is strong enough to use as the leavening agent in a bread recipe, withstand cold storage, or be shared with a friend. In just a few days my starter will be ready to use for that loaf I've been envisioning for the past year! Want to try?

Here's what you'll need:

- flour (unbleached all purpose, you can use whole wheat, but some people have reported off flavors)

- water (filtered - make sure there's no chlorine in the water if you're using tap)

- a large glass or ceramic container (I'm using a half gallon jar)

- cheese cloth (to cover the jar opening, allowing air and yeast to come into contact with the starting medium, but keeping bugs out)

Here's what I did:

In a small bowl, I mixed 1/4c flour with 3 Tbs water. I poured this into my jar and covered with the cheesecloth (I used the ring from the canning lid of my jar to hold the cheesecloth in place, but you could also use a rubber band). 12 hours later I stirred this mixture and added another 1/2c flour and 1/3c water (close to room temp is best). For a week to 10 days, I'll be feeding my starter every 12 hours with a mixture of 1/2c flour and 1/3c water.

After a week, the starter should be strong enough for use or storage. If you aren't ready to bake once it's ready you can store it (covered) in your refrigerator. Just be sure to take it out and "feed" it again with 1/2c flour and 1/3c water 12 hours before you plan to bake. If you'll be baking often and want to leave your starter at room temp, after the first week you should be able to keep it alive by feeding it just once a day. 

There are lots of great recipes for bread, biscuits, pancakes and even waffles out there using a homemade starter (just google it) and I can't wait to give them a try! After just a few days my starter is already nice and bubbly and smells pleasantly yeasty and sour - like freshly baked sourdough!

Happy goats in a fresh paddock. Dogs go explore, goats find nearest rose bush and devour it

Over the past week we finally worked it out to where the goats can be out on pasture nearly 100% of the time. Day and night, night and day. Goats like to graze and browse at night and we want them to be able to. We've read that they can spend up to 6 hours per night grazing. Talk about party animals. I guess when you nap and chew cud throughout the day you don't need a sound night of sleep. Besides, it's a lot cooler at night and the dogs are awake then too. Who can sleep with all that barking?

That wasn't the situation for the first few weeks though. When we originally started with the goats we only had Sophie, and while she has proven to be a great guard dog at a young age (at least so far), we couldn't trust only one dog (and a puppy at that) to defend the goats. She wouldn't stand a chance against a pack of dogs or coyotes. So we had to wait for the big girls before we could leave the goats far away from home all day and all night. Once we got the big girls, however, we needed to acquaint them with the goats and our farm. We didn't want to put them out alone with the goats in the middle of the field right away. We couldn't trust them yet and they weren't accustomed to us and their new home. So we had to wait longer. 

That was about two or three weeks ago. At that point we were moving the goats to electrically fenced paddocks during the day and letting the dogs run loose. This was not a great decision for a couple reasons. For one, the dogs and goats couldn't get to know each other. Here we are expecting the dogs to protect the goats, but the dogs can't even get near the goats. Dogs are terrified of the electric fence (one zap'll do ya) and they'd much rather go bark at the neighbors dogs. Then at night we didn't want the goats out alone in the fields, so we brought them in to a separately fenced off pasture near the milking area. The dogs stayed out a few hundred feet away. Again, this sent the wrong message to the dogs. They didn't have a herd to protect, they were in a new place, and they were bored. 

Afternoon cud chewin' time. Dogs gettin' their roll on

What we should've done is kept the dogs inside the electric fence with the goats during the day when we were around to supervise and then at night put up a divider fence near the goat's nighttime pasture so that the animals could see and smell each other just a few inches away, not a few hundred feet away. 

How did we know that what we were doing wasn't working? Well, for one, the dogs wouldn't stay with the goats. How could they? We were keeping them separate most of the time. The other indication was when Izzy literally climbed over our perimeter fence into the neighbor's yard and brought one of his goats over to us! Then the next day she escaped again and was found in the middle of his goat herd hanging out. When we went to get her out she came walking up to us like nothing was wrong and then wouldn't let us catch her until she led us back to her new goat herd. You could tell she was really proud of her abilities. I just wonder why his guard dogs let her do it?! But better that than a dog fight. She sure flips out when they try to come across our line...

Anyway, it was a clear sign that she needed something to do. She saw goats and she expressed her inner nature. She wanted a herd and we weren't giving it to her. So we changed our ways and now she's with the goats 100% of the time. So are Sheba and Sophie. They come and go between the paddocks and the milking parlor. They wait in the holding pasture while the goats get milked and that gives us a chance to make sure they look healthy and happy. The stay up all night protecting the goats out in the fields and we no longer have to bring them in and keep them separated every night. It's a happy family. 

Goats coming to say hi after a day of grazing. The dogs are too cool for school, the only say hi every once in a while

Mayday's Got the Bloat

This morning Sweetbreads noticed that Mayday looked a little misshapen. I thought she looked a little more rotund than usual, but typically that’s just a sign of healthiness for goats. Mayday has two kids nursing on her and is a couple weeks away from weaning the little tykes so I thought maybe she was starting to get her body condition back.

Sweetbreads, on the other hand, spent a little more time with the goats and had a suspicion that this might be bloat. We had read about it before we ever owned a goat - dreaded encountering it, and now, here it was. You can see in the photo that her left side was much larger than her right. We learned that this is one of the symptoms of bloat. The rumen is bigger on the left side and that’s the part of the stomach where the bloating occurs.

Mayday in full-bloat mode

What’s Bloat and Why Do We Care?

Bloat for animals isn’t quite like the bloat that I get after eating a lot of mexican food and drinking beer. For me, it’s just time for a nap. For animals it can be fatal. Ruminants, such as goats, cows, sheep, giraffes and many other mammals, actually have four stomach compartments. The term ruminant comes from the latin word meaning “chew again”, which is exactly what they do. The ruminants eat plants, the plants go into the first stomach (the rumen) where some bacteria help it digest a little bit and then the plants go into the second stomach (the reticulum) where they form a “bolus”. The bolus is regurgitated and chewed again. That’s known as chewing the cud. The goats look like a bunch of baseball players with some chaw in, only they don’t spit. Normally they’ll all chew cud around the same time, it’s pretty funny watching the kids do it. Like an 6 year old with a big wad of bubble gum in the T-ball dugout.

Anyway, back to bloat. Typically, bloat is caused by a sudden change in diet, which causes disruption in the animal’s gut. The critical stomach when it comes to bloat is the rumen. In the rumen, bacteria break down and digest the forage. It’s one of the primary reasons that goats can eat and digest grass and humans can’t. They have a rumen, we don’t. When the rumen pH is out of whack (which can result from anything from getting into the grain bin and having a pig-out session to chowing down on particularly lush forage after only eating hay for months) it can create excess gases, or gases trapped in a frothy foam, that the animal can’t immediately get rid of. If left unattended the animal can die.

With a goat the rumen is on the left side. That’s what keyed us in on Mayday’s situation. Her left side was huge. She also kept coming up to Sweetbreads in the pasture and resting her forehead against her, which is not typical of Mayday. If an animal looks or acts different we just assume something’s wrong. Mayday didn’t all of the sudden develop an affinity for Sweetbreads. Something was up. We also knew that yesterday was a rainy day, so the goats likely didn’t graze as much as they typically would. Mayday’s stomach was more empty than usual when she came in to be milked and ate her grain/sunflower seeds. Our guess is that this is what upset the balance of her stomach flora and led to the bloat, although you can never be totally sure.

How Did We Eliminate the Bloat?

We are not vets. We have only owned goats for a month. Take that into consideration. But what we did worked, so hopefully others find it helpful.

We filled a drencher with about ⅓ cup of olive oil mixed with some stevia (to make it more palatable) and fed it to Mayday. The oil breaks up the smaller bubbles of gas, allowing one larger bubble (that can be passed) to form. Then we massaged her distended side and let her rumen work its magic. This isn’t exactly pleasant because that gas makes its way out in only two ways, but it’s really a fantastic feeling when you can help the poor goat recover from what could be a fatal problem. After a good 15 minutes of rubbing and patting (like burping a baby) Mayday had shrunk back to her normal size and we were out of the woods. Sweetbreads checked on her throughout the day and repeated the rumen massage once more in the early afternoon. By the time we tucked the herd in for the night, she was back to her normal self, minus some of her previous crankyness.

It looks so nice when it's standing upright and providing shade and shelter

Now that we have the goats out in electrically fenced paddocks each day we want to provide them a little area to get out of the hot sun, or cold rain. Goats are susceptible to pneumonia and dairy animals in particular can be adversely affected by extreme heat (lower milk production, etc). So on Sunday we took a couple hours and built them a little shelter/shade shack.

Building the Shelter

Materials:
Two cattle panels - 4’ x 16’
Enough tarp to cover it - Ours was 12’ x 16’
5 - 2x4x8’s, treated
Approx 24 3” exterior screws (although I don’t remember exactly)
a bunch of zip ties
Fencing nails

Simple Instructions:
Take two 2x4’s and saw off skids on both ends. We just measured a hypotenuse of about 6 inches or so, doesn’t need to be too technical. This will make it easier to move around. I rounded the skids with an extra couple passes with the saw.
Take Two cattle panels (4’ by 16’). Lay them out so that the 16’ long sides overlap by two or three panels (depending on how long you made the skids).
Line up the 2x4’s with the skids along the outer edges. Attach the panels to the skids with the fencing nails.
Now you can stand it up. Take two 2x4’s and put them across the front and back and screw them in for support.
With the other 2x4 saw off some braces for between the corners. I think we did 12” long on the top and then cut 45 degrees to make it fit in the corners. Screw those in.
Now that it’s up and braced you can put the tarp on.
Before you put the tarp on it’s a good idea to put duct tape over the sharp edges on the cattle panel so you don’t poke holes in the tarp.
We put the tarp over and then zip-tied it to the frame through the pre-existing stake holes.
If you want to tow it you can drill some holes and put a rope through the skids. We attached some hooks along the interior and just had a rope that clipped on and off so we could detach it and keep the goats from eating it.

After that you have a great portable shelter.

BUT, Don’t Put It With the Goats

Sorry to say, but your shelter is not good for goats. At least not our goats. Parking a lawn tractor or a motorcycle under it? Yes. A Miata, maybe. Shade for pigs? I don't know yet. Dogs? Yes. Cows? Maybe a couple calves. Goats? Not ours.

On the first full day with the shelter in their paddock the goats were enjoying it. Some walked in and around it. Some sat under it. The dogs definitely enjoyed the shade. All was well. Then around 4pm our doeling, Sabine, decided she wanted a better view of the farm. So she climbed up it. How? I have no idea. I just looked out the window and there she was. Goat balancing act, slowly rocking back and forth. About 8 ft in the air, mind you. Then her brother got jealous, so he too somehow scaled the slippery tarp all the way to the top. Oh, but what about their yearling half-sister? Shouldn’t she be able to have a little fun? Oh wait, she’s not 30lbs, she’s more like 80. Front paws up. Side collapsing. Kids on top. They run off the roof toward the collapsing side, thus putting more weight on it. In an instant you have three goats on top of a tarp/cattle panel/2x4 pancake.

Did I say pancake? What would a pancake be without something on top? Maybe some blueberries and maple syrup? Oh wait, that's not...

Izzy (the guard dog): "What, I'm supposed to PROTECT them, not make sure they don't destroy everything and then crap on it"Funny, frustrating, more work to do. Glad to know we can make a simple little structure like that for ~$100. Too bad our goats can't use it for shade! 

On to the next attempt...

Izzy and Sophie, getting muddy and getting their "mark" on

Last Saturday I picked up a couple adult livestock guardian dogs (LGDs). They are 3 and 4 yrs old and are full sisters from different litters. Izzy and Sheba are their names. They are 1/8th Anatolian Sheperd and 7/8ths Great Pyrennes. We just refer to them as Great Pyrs, but they do have some Anatolian traits, including some darker hair around the shoulder blades. Around here the new LGDs are known as “the big girls”, becuase, well, they’re freakin’ huge! We thought Sophie was getting to be a big girl. She looks like a little peck compared to her new friends.

 
Why Get Livestock Guardian Dogs?

We are using LGDs because we’re in an area that has coyotes, packs of wild dogs, and other predators (potentially including a bear, although that’s yet to be substantiated). Our goats are vulnerable to predation when they’e out on pasture, especially when they have little goat kids running around with them. It's the dogs responsibility to help protect them. It's our responsibility to facilitate the dog's success as a guardian and keep them happy and healthy.

Livestock guardian dogs have roots dating back over 6,000 years. They aren’t herding dogs, they are only protection dogs. This was something that initially confused me; I thought they would herd and protect. Then we went to some farms in Italy and I saw these big white dogs getting pushed around by little ole sheep. “What the heck!”, I thought to myself. "Aren't these dogs supposed to be herding the sheep, and not the other way around?". Then I saw the smaller collie-looking dogs around the perimeter and realized that the dogs served different functions. The protection dogs stuck with the pack and were generally timid around the stock. The smaller dogs hung around the periphery, sometimes getting a little more aggressive, keeping everyone together. This is the basic difference: LGDs behave as members of the herd, herding dogs behave as if they were stalking prey (although they don’t, or aren’t supposed to, kill, obviously). 

Once we introduced them to Sophie, the big girls immediately ran all along the perimeter and marked their territory. It was fun to watch

What Breeds are Really LGD’s and are they Always Big White Dogs?

LGD’s aren’t always white, but many times they are. They are definitely always big. One belief is that LGDs were specifically bred for the colors of the livestock they were guarding. White wool was favored by Romans, and thus white sheep were bred, and white LGDs were selected to protect them. White dogs had a higher likelihood of acceptance into the flock. Once a member of the flock, the dog had a higher propensity to protect the flock. White dogs also helped shepherds distinguish between predators (wild dogs, coyotes, etc) and protection.

There are many breeds of LGDs, the most common in the US being the Great Pyrennes, or the Pyrenean Mountain Dog. Some of the popular breeds in the States are Karakatchan (Bulgarian), Maremma (Italian), Kuvasz (Hungarian), Anatolian Shepherds and  Akbash (Turkey), among a multitude of others.

With Izzy and Sheba on-board we now have two Pyrs and a Maremma (Sophie). The breeds are similar in a lot of respects, but very different in others. The Pyrs tend to be larger than the Maremmas, particularly the skulls. The Pyrs that we’ve seen may also have some darker coloring, sometimes around the face. Maremmas are typically bright white, and are said to excel at protecting against aerial predation. So far Sophie hasn’t shown much of that trait. I recently saw the Pyrs chase off a Red Tail and some Turkey Vultures though. Sophie’s just a pup, so she still has a year or two to fully develop.

Both breeds are naturally very protective of us, our stock and our territory. We are still working to bond them more to the goats. So far they are more protective of us. Bonding the dogs with the stock can be a long process if the dogs didn't grow up with the stock, or if the dogs are puppies. Both of those are true in our case. So that's our project over the next year or two. 

They've already given us some good stories, which I'll share in a future post. Until then I'll just say that I love having the LGDs and I'm really excited to learn more about raising and training them. It's been a lot of fun having dogs again, in NYC that just wasn't realistic...

Mayday, Sweetbread's favorite milking doe :)

Our timing for the move to Tennessee was seemingly perfect. Winter was officially gone (although it never really came), the grass was greening up, the days were getting longer, and baby goat kids were popping out of pregnant does everywhere. That meant we could get a couple milking does and their kids pretty much right when we moved in, and we did. The only problem was that we didn’t have much infrastructure to properly house the goats. We have some plans in mind for what our final layout will look like, but we needed a temporary solution. Thus came the temp goat house project.

The Temporary Goat Barn
We probably committed a crime worthy of capital punishment in Tennessee. We turned a man’s garage into a goat barn. Complete with milking stand and hay feeder. I get a good chuckle every time I think about the day that he comes to visit and sees what we did to the place. It hasn’t happened yet, but I know it will. Probably a couple weeks into me not mowing the “lawn”, he’ll roll up to say hello and damn near have a heart attack. Old guys that lived in places for a really long time like to see things the way they left them. Well, now you have a goat barn surrounded by natural goat food growing out of the ground. It’s a good thing these goats like fescue and clover or I might even have to reseed it!

Anyway, on to the barn. Our solution until we get a new barn put up is to split our “garage” in half and use one side for shelter and one side for milking and storage. It’s not really a garage in the typical sense, just a metal building with openings on either side. It's all metal with a wood frame and concrete foundation, pretty easy to work with. Pretty perfect for a temp goat house.

The first step was to build the frame for bisecting the room. We got some tips from family members, did some online research and built our first wall. Well, half-wall really. We made it out of 2x4’s and OSB wood. Then we fastened it to the floor with Tapcon screws and screwed the frame into the surrounding walls. Along the border of the interior we put up more OSB to make cleaning up easier and to keep the goats from damaging the existing walls. For doors we just used more OSB and eye hooks with latches. The doors need two hooks at varying heights because the goats love to put their paws hooves up on lean on the walls. We also left the doors at a ~4ft height, same with the walls, so that we could easily look into their area and reach over to feed, pet, scratch, etc. Turns out they like to look over at us too :)

Springbok, our yearling, taking a peek at what all the fuss is about

On the concrete floor we put some lime down to help kill off bugs and keep pests away and then layered on wood shavings. In the corner we bent around some cattle panel and fixed it to the wall, thus creating an area for the kids at night. Mayday still has her kids nursing on her. If the kids are nursing all of mom’s milk away we wouldn’t have milk to make cheese and ice cream, or to put in our coffee and cereal. So we have to separate them. We don’t want separate them all the time though, just at night. This lets the kids hang out with mom during the day and they get to have their familial attachment and it also lets us get milk in the morning. 50/50 split. This is called “dam-raising” and we’ll post more about that decision at a later time. In the photo below you'll see their little sleeping area. At first we had to cajole them in there, now they just run right in. I guess it's like Kindergarten. First you're scared, then you just love hanging out without the parents around all the time.

Temp Kid PenSo that’s the the inside portion of the temp goat house solution. Of course, even at night, we want the goats to have access to the outdoors. They're out in the pastures all day, but what about at night? They like to graze and hangout outside after nighttime milking, so I’ll post a bit more about our temporary outdoor solution later.

Our Herd - (from left to right) The Buckling, Bridget, Springbok, Mayday, and Sabine

I feel the same way about the blog, so get ready for a hefty read! Like I said, there's so much going on that it would be almost impossible to cover it all, but here’s an update on the goats to get you started…

We’re really beginning to settle into life with a herd and it’s hard to imagine that less than a month ago we didn’t have one! Milking and “goat walks” have become part of our routine, each enjoyable and relaxing (well, when everyone’s behaving, that is). We drink their milk every day and, just this weekend, have been enjoying our very own chévre and ice cream. Ah, life is good!

I milk twice a day, Bridget and Mayday in the morning and Bridget only at night. Bridget hits the stand first. My lovely has come a long way since those first dramatic milkings and she now jumps up on the stand all by herself. I don’t even have to put a collar on her, she just comes to me, no matter where the other goats are (even when they were all out on the other end of the farm grazing with Scrapple), at milking time, comes into the milking area, looks around and maybe scowls at a dog for a second or two, and then daintily climbs up to the stand. There’s no more struggling to wrangle her head into the gate, no more fussy flat out refusing of food (goat for “I don’t want your money, creep!”), and no more snorting (I do sort of miss that one, Bridget snorts are cute). Milking too, previously a wrestling match, has become a pleasure. I’m pretty good with the two hand thing now and although Bridget’s teats are almost too big for my hands, it works. She’s so patient and her milk has been amazing.  I’m not just saying this because she’s my goat (and also, ok, my favorite), it truly is the most delicious milk I’ve had in my life. It’s super creamy and sweet with not a hint of anything less than fresh. Goat’s milk is naturally homogenized because of the size of the butterfat globules. They’re smaller than in cow’s milk and remain suspended in the fluid. That’s why you’ll get a creamline (the mass of cream that has separated and floated to the top) on fresh cow’s milk, but not typically on a bottle of fresh goat’s milk. That is, unless it’s Bridget’s milk! After a day, Bridget’s labors are always frosted with a beautiful layer of cream that’s somehow even whiter than than her already bright white milk.

I weigh her milk and then get ready for Mayday, new teat wipes, clean stand, GRAIN. Mayday, oh, Mayday… Why do you torture me so? Mayday’s problem has never been getting up on the stand, or having anything to do with eating… Oh no, hers has been one of goat bribery. Give me more grain, and I’ll give you more milk or don’t give me more grain when I’ve finished inhaling my portion and deal with my devilish tap dancing routine complete with many a flying kick, two legged heel clapping bucks, and bucket balancing. Oh yes, this lady makes me jump through hoops. For the first week, I tried to teach her a lesson. When she was done with her grain and the scramble started I hung on for dear life and just kept going, one handed while dodging the bucket around to avoid her not-so-little hooves on those frustratingly agile legs. After a week of that with no improvements we broke down and decided to just let her eat her fill. The next time I gave her almost double what Bridget gets. It worked! But no… I should have known better. Mayday would not be tamed so easily. The next day, today, it didn’t work out so well. This morning we got into a good rhythm. When you can actually milk Mayday, it’s like (what I imagine to be) the optimal hand milking experience. Her teats are the perfect size and you can milk them out completely in less than 2 seconds (compared to Bridget’s 5+). Milk just jets out in a nice sturdy stream and you can really get going. And then, after a few minutes of this, she decided she didn’t want any more grain. No, she didn’t want ANYTHING to do with anything I had to offer. She wanted to get off the stand and back in with her herd. Tap dancing act ensues complete with a hoof right in the milk pail (good thing the dogs love the milk too). Oh well, I can’t say I blame her. She just wants to get back and feed her babies. I’m stealing food from their mouths and she doesn’t like it one bit.

Mayday, browsingMayday is the matriarch of our little herd. Although she’s the same age as Bridget, she’s much larger. She has beautiful coloring, her café au lait neck fading into roan and then black with light cream to hazelnut markings on her legs and sides that look like she rolled around in some Tiramisu. She’s taller and her head can only be described as majestic and handsome. Where Bridget’s personality makes me think of a young Goldie Hawn (all that ear tossing!), Mayday is all Tilda Swinton… or cranky librarian. Severe and graceful or strict with a maniacal bent, I guess it all depends on how the milking went the morning you ask me. The other 3 alpines are all her children. Springbok, the dry yearling, is her daughter from last winter’s kidding, and Sabine and “The Buckling” are her kids that were born in February. If I want to lead all of the goats from the barn to the pasture all I have to do is lead Mayday. Her kids follow because she’s their mother and Bridget comes along because she’s just agreeable (and wants to be with her herd). Lead Bridget and you’ll end up with one goat in the pasture and the rest raiding the barn, eating the rose bushes, and peering into our windows. Mayday and I are still working it out, as I’m sure you can tell. I’m hoping we come to an understanding and mutual respect soon.   

During the day, I’ll take the goats out into the pasture to browse and graze. Although this is a temporary solution until we have our rotational grazing set-up ready (this week!), it's been a great opportunity for us to spend time observing the goats and for them to get used to us. Sometimes we’ll go for long walks around the pasture and forest, sometimes we’ll just hang out in one particularly tasty patch for a few hours. We go out again in the late afternoon/early evening when Scrapple is finished with work. Here they eat all of the grasses, leaves, herbs, and flowers that make their milk so tasty. While we’re out here, everyone usually stays in a pack, with the exception of Bridget who thinks of herself as the guard goat. She spends some time, each excursion, on watch. With ears in bi-plane mode (I love it), craning her neck around, she makes sure all is clear. After, she’ll come over to use me as a scratching post and try to lick my face if I’m too engrossed in a list or a book to give out a neck scratch. Springbok, Sabine, and the Buckling will play around a bit, especially if they come across a log or a rock, and also eventually come over for some neck scratching (it really seems to be “the thing”) which is a good sign. When we first brought them home they weren’t too interested in us and were very skittish. They say that when kids are raised nursing on their mother and not separated and bottle fed immediately, they can be a bit wild. Especially if you’re comparing them to bottle babies who think you’re their mother. We’ve been trying to spend more time with them, especially Springbok and Sabine, who will be one of our milking herd in a year, and it’s good to see that it’s having an effect.

The Buckling and Sabine playing on a goat walk Tomorrow I make a little 2 hour trip to a farm to the east of us to look at Nubian doelings. We would like to add 2 more to our herd to balance out the Alpine to Nubian ratio a bit and also to give Bridget her own little crew. She and the Alpines get along, but she seems to understand that she’s different. I’m not sure if doelings from a goat she’s never met will change any of that, but I guess we’ll find out!

Oh, and did I mention that we have 2 new LGD’s?! Izzy and Sheba, the Great Pyr’s, joined us on Sunday and have been fitting right in. They’re friendly giants and we’re loving having them here. I’m sure Scrapple will give you the full update on them later this week so I’ll stop mine here.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

We don't have unexpected visitors very often in our neck of the woods, so when a neighbor pulled up the other evening I was sure I'd accidentally done something un-neighborly (Sophie has taken to patroling/barking at 4am every night recently) and was about to get a talking to. Instead, I was asked if he could have permission to take pictures of a flower at the front of our property. He told me that this flower is very rare and only found in our area. In fact, there are quite a few rare and endangered plants that grow in area, referred to as the Cedar Glades. One of these we just happen to have at the front of our property along the road's edge. This was all news to me and pretty exciting news at that! It was already evening, too late to go down and take a look for myself, so I did a bit of googling...

According to The Center for Cedar Glade Study, "Cedar glades are an endangered ecosystem many of which have been destroyed or severely impacted by humans. Globally unique, they are extremely fragile habitats found primarily in Middle Tennessee and a few other localities in southeastern United States. They have been viewed historically as wastelands and yet they support a plant community of highly specialized species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world."

 The "wasteland" part rung a bell. When we walked the property in the winter and early spring the front "pastures" looked like an old building site with gravely patches, exposed rocks, and scraggly dry looking plants making up the majority of the landscape. It seemed a little forlorn, but as the warmer weather moved in, it came alive with a savage beauty that reminded me a bit of the desert in New Mexico, where Scrapple was born. Bright bursts of wildflowers recently started to emerge and tufts of mosses, dozens of shades of green, now mosaic the ground.

The next day I went for a little discovery walk and this is what I found...

Nashville Breadroot, found only in our areaHoary PuccoonRose Vervain or Rose VerbenaCleft or Glade Phloxone of the many patterned limestone slabs scattered around our glades

Pretty cool stuff! At least our 84 acres of the glades can rest assured that we won't subdivide it or destroy the endangered ecosystem. We are even in talks with the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to set aside a portion for preservation and study. 

Before and After Patio/Garden Area

This weekend we got busy laying out the garden for the two of us. We are planting ~50% more than we think we will need so that one of two things happens. Either 1.) We get too much for us, and our neighbors, friends and animals get the extras, or 2.) We still don't get enough and we sadly head back to the grocery store for food like we're doing now.

What's our plan for the garden? For our first attempt at gardening we're planning a series of square foot gardens that surround a patio that we unearthed over the weekend. When we first moved to the farm there was a big area covered in gravel with a small fire pit in the middle (see photo above). Mounds of sod encroached from the yard on the periphery. We never really paid attention to that area, to be honest. It was outside of the fenced patio and kind of in no man's land. I just figured we'd dig out the gravel one day when we had some time and grass would grow back. Eventually it would just look like the rest of the yard.  But last week Sweetbreads started digging up the gravel and low and behold there's a big concrete pad underneath. 

Continue Reading at Farm Dreams

The super warm weather has made us kick into high gear, trying to get the garden and everything else under the sun done before it's "too late" and we starve, or eat more WallMart produce (I think we'd starve). This week, this has meant shoveling lots of gravel (fun!). At some point in time, someone here was much enamoured of gravel, as evidenced by its prolific abundance in every imaginable nook and cranny. Covering the patio (why?), embedded in weeds and grass as an abstract walkway accented by truck mud flaps (huh?), piled against one side of the house so that the storm water drains right into our crawl space...  

I'm working on the garden this week and am kicking off my gravel extraction mission by clearing off the patio so I don't have to weed it, and it's actually pleasant to use (ie. more pleasant than shards of glass hidden betwixt sharp hunks of rock and rusted old beer bottle caps). I've been chipping away at it every morning before it gets crazy hot, 2 or 3 wheelbarrow full a day and I'm almost there. My farm muscles have been growing (I can actually crack Scrapple's back with a bear hug now), but I'm not quite popeye yet. That is to say, I've been really sore.

Somehow, with perfect timing, a little recipe popped up in my email this morning for Dandelion Salve. Dandelion flowers have weak analgesic properties, and the salve can be rubbed on sore muscles or joints for natural relief. Perfect! If there's something we have around here in as much abundance as sore muscles, it's dandelions!

The recipe is from Raganella, a neat little company started in Brooklyn when we were living there. The woman who started it is amazing and has all sorts of great natural blends for cleaning, bath, and body. She always gave really interesting demos at the market and I always wish I had asked her more questions! 

I collected the dandelions this morning (after gravel shoveling) and they're now sitting in a little jar on my windowsill as directed. In a few weeks I'll let you know how it turns out, but I thought I'd share this with you now, while the flowers are in full attack mode (at least here!).

Raganella's Dandelion Salve Instructions:

First, infuse the oil
Fill a mason jar to the top with freshly picked, yet slightly wilted dandelion blossoms. Cover with good quality oil, like olive oil (first cold pressing) or sesame (my favorite). Grab a chopstick and stir, ensuring there are no air pockets around the blossoms. Cover the jar with cheesecloth (you can screw the outer ring of a mason jar lid around it, or use a rubber band to secure it). Place in a sunny window for 4 to 6 weeks. 

Then decant it
Decant the oil by straining out the blossoms through a layer of cheesecloth, placed over a fine mesh sieve. I like to place this over a large pyrex measuring cup with a pour spout. Squeeze all of the oil out of blossoms, then add the marc (the squeezed out plant material) to your compost. Pour your infused oil into a dark glass jar for storage. Recycled amber glass vitamin bottles work well. 

To make 2 oz of salve
Create a double boiler with a pyrex measuring cup in a simmering pot of water. Place 1/4 ounce of beeswax in the pyrex and let it melt. Add 1 3/4 ounces of infused oil to the pyrex. Stir the beeswax and oil until the beeswax is melted. Take the mixture off the heat. Pour into a 2 ounce amber glass jar.

Our first doeling, Sabine.

There's a lot that goes into the beginnings of a herd, so I’ll talk about a few of them in no particular order. One of our primary hopes was to find goats from Tennessee (or at a minimum from the South.) By focusing on goats in TN we were hoping to find animals acclimated to our climate, and our parasites. It’s stressful enough to move an animal from one location to another, let alone take it to an entirely different climate, so we tried to keep our animal purchases local. If a goat has lived in our climate previously then it’ll have a better chance at surviving in our climate in the future. It can get hot and humid in TN, which is different from a state like Vermont or Oregon. It didn’t make a lot of sense to us to seek out goats from that far away if we could source them locally. As we expand the herd this may be a more difficult task (and we may want to expand our genetics eventually), but we hope we to keep our livestock purchases as local as possible.

Along the same lines, we wanted to find goats that were accustomed to browsing and foraging. Since we eventually expect them to forage the majority of their own food this is an important trait. If the goats were good browsers, and also from TN, there would be a reasonably high likelihood that they had been browsing similar forages to ours.  

Walking the goats through the woodlands, or as Sweetbreads likes to call it: The Enchanted Forest

Not to be forgotten are milking records and overall animal health/care, which of course are near the top of the list, if not at the top. Health and productivity go without saying as critical variables, but for amateurs like us it can be a little difficult to discern healthy from mildly sick animals. It’s also pretty hard to get a high quality milking doe from someone, since that’s the whole reason they have a milking doe in the first place.

So far we’ve done an OK job with the goats (we think), but we did go through some turmoil with one of the chickens we brought home a couple weeks ago. It turned out to have a respiratory illness that has been a little frustrating over the past few weeks. Fortunately, we think we caught it early and it hasn’t spread. Hopefully it stays that way. It’ll take a few of those experiences to learn, which is why we’re starting small and at a reasonably slow pace. Better to learn about a disease with one animal than one hundred animals.  

So today we have five goats, five guineas, 4 chickens and couple dogs. All are from TN except our guard dog, Sophie. Among the goats we have 4 ladies and one gentleman: two milking does, one yearling doe, one doeling, and one buckling. Over the course of the next month or two we may add a couple more goats, but so far that’s the beginning of Little Seed’s Tennessee goat herd.

My next big mission is finding some pigs. After all, what kind of Scrapple would I be without pigs?

When I say "rotationally graze" I'm referring to the controlled movement of the goats around the farm to specific areas for specific amounts of time. This will allow us to monitor forage consumption, provide adequate forage regrowth time, and also limit parasite reproduction. By moving the goats on a regular basis the plants can regrow, the parasite cycle is broken without a host, and we have a better ability to optimize browse and pasture consumption. Rotationally grazing has many benefits that we hope to exploit, these are just a few. However, rotationally grazing dairy goats is a rare proposition and it isn't nearly as well-developed of a practice as it is for grazing cattle, so it's a bit of an experiment for us. Most goat operations either provide free access to pastures (i.e. continuous grazing, not rotational), or inadequate access to pasture/browse at all. We think neither of those options are optimal, so we're going down a different path. This year we'll be taking baby steps to see how it works. Today was the first step, albeit a very small one.

At first we took the goats out on leads. We were pretty sure they wouldn't bolt on us, but you never know!

 Goats on leads eating a mini-blackberry bushThen we decided that was silly, so we let them off the leads

Sweetbreads with the dogs and goats, turns out they kind of like us and don't want to run away!

Goats running about, trying to figure out what to eat nextThen we got really excited about watching the goats forage (dorks, I know) and I stopped taking pictures, dang.

BUT, I got some more photos along the walk of other stuff that's pretty good too.

Including, the now 10-15lbs larger Sophie enjoying her time with the goats (glad they're getting along)

Clean in the clover patchNot so clean in the pond chasing frogsTrying to get clean by rolling around in the grass clippingsIt's amazing that dog will be bright white and soft as ever by morning time.

We also discovered a small tree with HUGE thorns. It reminded us of our blog friends and fellow beginning farmers at From City to Farm who had an unfortunate encounter with a similarly sized thorn. I didn't think we had anything like it around us, guess I was wrong!

Whoa, look at the size of that thorn! It's like an orange on a toothpick

What a week! I guess it actually hasn't even been a whole week, but the whirlwind of it all has made the past few days feel like only a split second and a month at the same time. We've been on a mission since last Thursday and I'm just now getting a chance to come up for air and bang out a blog post. And ooooh ho ho, what a mission!

It all started last Thursday around noon when I went to go take a look at a goat. The plan for this season is to find 2 does in milk for a steady cheesemaking/experimentation/yummy personal use supply and several kids to build a herd with. Ideally, I'd like to have one Nubian and one Alpine doe to have the opportunity to compare milk qualities. Nubians produce an amazing quality of milk known for its higher percentage of butterfat. Alpines, while also giving a wonderful quality of milk, are known for being heavy producers. I'd like to have the chance to try the same recipe with one milk, then the other, and then a mix of the two and learn what what will work best for the cheeses we want to make.

We've had the Alpines all lined up for a few months now, but I've been having a pretty difficult time finding a Nubian in milk in Tennessee. A day after checking with all of the local dairies and producers a 2nd time around and still coming up with nothing, out of the blue one popped up. Lo and behold, there was a Nubian in milk and she was only 15 minutes away! I called the owner immediately. The owner was out of town, but she had someone stopping by daily to feed and water the animals. She could show me the goat, Bridget. Usually the owner leaves the kids on her does and then dries off the does after natural weaning. Bridget, however, lost her doe kid just 2 weeks earlier and the owner suddenly found herself with a goat that needed to be milked and a business trip coming up in a few days! She decided the best thing she could do was try to find a good home for Bridget where she would be milked (or dried off) ASAP. Enter Sweetbreads.

I went over and met Bridget the next day. Her sweet nature came through as soon as I stepped through the gate into her pasture. She came right up to me and nuzzled my hips and hands a bit and let herself be pet and scratched. I was taken with her pretty strawberry and cream coloring and the little freckles on her frosted ears. I tried to remember everything I had read about goat conformation and do some checking. Her back, straight and pointed slightly uphill. Her chest, although not a barrel is not too narrow. Her udder, well attached... Her udder... Yikes! Her udder! Her left side was about 3 times the side of the right and hot and hard to the touch. All I could think was that she maybe had mastitis, which can cause permanent damage and scarring to the udder if not caught and treated in time. I called the owner and offered to meet the vet at her farm so he could check Bridget out. She called and the soonest they could make it out was Monday morning - 4 days later. If I would be willing to bring her in though, they could see her at their offices on Friday morning. The owner had a truck parked at her farm that I could use and the woman who had been feeding the goats could come over to help me load her. The Vet was about a 20 minute drive away, and I'd have to drive through a city to get there. 

I have to admit, I was a little worried. I had just met Bridget and I know it takes a while before an animal will really trust you. What if she freaked out, hopped out of the truck and got smushed?! I have never owned a goat and wasn't sure I'd be able to wrangle her, but the reality was what it was - Bridget needed to get checked out and possibly treated ASAP. I'd just have to make it work. Then I also realized that Bridget needed to be milked, the sooner the better. If she did have a mastitis infection, there would be nothing worse for her than to be holding milk and the infection in. Now, I've "stripped" goats (milking out a few squirts) before milking them with a machine, but I'd never milked out a goat by hand, or any other animal for that matter! In an attempt to prepare for our two does I'd been watching as many youtube videos of the deed as I could and reading anything I could get my hands on, but we all know just how different actually doing something is. How was I going to milk out this poor girl with an ouchy and swollen udder that she wouldn't let me get near? Better yet, how was I going to do this without a milking stand to secure her in?

Well, a tree and a husband worked just fine! The local farm stores didn't have teat dip or udder wash, so I cleaned and dipped with a recipe by Fias Co Farm (recommended by goat dairy owners too!) before I rested my cheek against her side and started to milk. After a few minutes we fell into a rhythm and the worries of the day were melted away by her warm flank and heart beat. It was relaxing and satisfying and soon the pail was almost half way full. I couldn't help but give myself a little mental pat on the back for how well this was all going. Of course, she then started to dance and Scrapple had to hold on for dear life while she bucked around and I tried to hang in there and finish her off! I can't blame her. On top of having a tender udder, she isn't used to being milked by anyone other than one of her babies. I'm sure being tied to a tree and having her teats squeezed wasn't her idea of fun either! 

The next morning we loaded Bridget into the back of the truck and visited the vet. Bridget would need an infusion in her udder once a day for 5 days, and milking twice a day would do wonders to help as well. Part of me wanted to just buy her right then, but I was torn. I really liked Bridget, but would it be smart to invest in a goat that already has problems? Having not been milked for a week, her body had slowed down on milk production. Would I have enough milk from her? What if I didn't find another Nubian in milk? Now's the season to find one and time is almost up... 

Regardless, Bridget needed to be milked and treated and I was happy to do it. For the next few days Scrapple and I divided our time between frantically trying to get a stall and loafing area built and running back and forth to milk and treat Bridget. The first time I gave her the udder infusion was terrifying. I was so afraid of hurting her. Just try to imagine someone sticking something UP YOUR NIPPLE. Ek! She was fine though and now she doesn't seem notice. 

During this whole ordeal I had many phone conversations with her owner. I could tell how horrible she felt about not being home to take care of Bridget. All of her goats were very well tended and she obviously cared a great deal. I kept her updated as often as I could and during our calls I found that I had someone smart and funny on the other line. By day 3 I felt like I had made new friend and when she came home on Sunday we greeted each other with hugs. She was so thankful that we were able to step in and care for Bridget that she gave her to us as a gift! She even came over and helped us finish up prepping the goat housing and leant me her truck to pick up a hay rack. We ate dinner together that evening and she schooled us in goat care and shared some of what she'd learned in her years raising them.

Now, only 5 days later, we have a new friend and a new goat. We're so grateful for both. We brought Bridget over on Sunday night and built a milking stand yesterday. She's here with a friend of hers that her previous owner let us borrow, an adorable wether (neutered male), who will keep her company until this weekend. 

I don't know if I couldn't have made it through the weekend without having Talitha from Edgwick Farm on speed dial. Even though we've only spent one day together in person, I felt like I had a mentor when she answered my call on Thursday night before I headed over to try to milk Bridget for the first time. She gave me a much needed pep talk and was on the other end of the line when I needed her advice and troubleshooting tips. Thank you, Talitha! You're a superstar!

Bridget seems to be settling into her new home. She's curious and loves peeking over her stall door to see what we're up to in the barn. We're really enjoying having her here!

Eton hand crank and solar weather radio with flashlight and USB hook-up

In the week before we moved to Tennessee there was a rash of tornadoes that devastated cities throughout the region. We're not in the direct path of "Tornado Alley", but we're pretty close and Tennessee isn't wanting for more tornadoes. Part of the reason we decided to look east of Nashville for land was because west of Nashville typically gets hit worse during tornado season. That doesn't mean we're not at risk, however. 

When we saw on the news that tornadoes were picking up in the Knoxville area it got me worried and I started to wonder how we would know if a tornado came through in the middle of the night (or even in the middle of the day). Tornadoes aren't like Hurricanes where you have a couple days (or even weeks) of warning time. With tornadoes your response time is typically measured in minutes. I hadn't given it much thought, but we were a week away from being isolated in the middle of forest (literally) and we wouldn't have a great way to be notified if the weather turned and a tornado warning were issued. That's when I learned about weather radios.

I lived in Memphis for four years and never even heard of a weather radio. Memphis is arguably at a higher risk for tornado damage than where we are currently, so why didn't I have a weather radio then? I don't know, to be honest. I probably should've had one. No one I knew had one. We were in the middle of a city, surrounded by other people, TV's, normal radios, the internet, etc, so I guess we were pretty safe in assuming that if there was a tornado warning we'd hear about it. Not so on the farm. 

Sangean weather radioIn the week before we moved I did some research and ended up getting two weather radios. One is for our bedroom on the nightstand and also serves as the morning alarm clock. I got sick of waking up to the cell phone buzzing and beeping, so having a radio alarm is a welcome treat to the morning. The model we chose was Sangean, although I'm not sure it's that big of a deal. It seems like there's tons of good ones out there. This one happened to get great reviews everywhere I looked, so I went with it. So far we've enjoyed it. It gives off a loud alarm when a thunderstorm alert or tornado warning is issued by the NOAA. It can also be programmed to pick up all kinds of alerts for the region, literally a full page of different alerts. That way you can set what you're interested in hearing about. It also has a button you can press that goes straight to the weather update for our area, which is nice if we just want to check in on the day's weather and the forecast for the week.

The second radio we got is my favorite though. It's a tiny little radio, but it packs a ton of cool features. It's an Eton hand crank radio with solar power as well. It gets the regular radio stations as well as the weather radio signals. In addition, it has a USB hook-up for cell phone (and other electronics) charging and a flashlight on one end. Seems like a great thing to have for when the power goes out or a tornado actually does roll through. 

Maybe this is just standard practice for farmers and rural-dwellers, but I hadn't heard or seen much about weather radios. I suppose it's just one more ignorant city-folk item to add to the list of stuff we've learned about. Preparedness wasn't much of a concern for us in the past, but it's something I think more and more about every day we're out here. 

Loading the Guineas and Chickens into the salvaged-barn coop. Sophie's curious about her new feathered friends.

Big (and busy) weekend for us. Late last week we finished up the salvaged-barn chicken coop, literally screwing down the roof moments before a thunderstorm rolled through. It was good to have a hard rain before the chickens moved in because we got a chance to see where some cracks along the edges of the nesting boxes and a couple cracks along the edges of the coop were letting in rain. We got it all sealed tight by the weekend and on Saturday morning we rolled out to get us some birds. 

One thing we'd heard about and not fully internalized was the existence of ticks. I remember three short weeks ago sitting in our NY apartment and laughing at the "Sh*t Weekend Farmers Say" video where the protagonists constantly ask each other "Is this a tick?". (See video here, it's pretty good: Sh*t Weekend Farmers Say). Little did I know how true that would be. Since we've been setting record heat days around here all month the ticks are out in full force. Full force is an exaggeration actually, they'll get much worse as the year goes on. But this weekend was the first weekend where they were noticeable. And by noticeable I mean picking one off my leg every hour or two (if not more regularly). The mild winter didn't break the cycle, so they're comin' out swinging before the bell.

Ticks are a reality anywhere in the outdoors and around here the recommended solution is "chemical warfare". We're not really on that boat, so we looked for some alternatives. One of the alternatives we found was Guinea fowl. Guineas are known for decimating tick populations around the farm. 

In our case, we called in The G-Unit. The G-Unit is composed of three adult guineas and three keets (baby guineas). The leader of the posse, Guinea Cent, is a male guinea and he is quite vocal. When reading about guineas online you hear about the guinea's call, which sounds like "buck-wheat, buck-wheat"! That's exactly what the female sounds like and it's really not that bad. Males, on the other hand, just make noise. It doesn't sound like anything really, just loud and cackling. I kind of like it, Sweetbreads loathes it. I like it because I figure it's a good sign that he's on the lookout, or at least making noise for some reason useful to guineas, which in turn is useful to me. My view on loud, annoying noises is little skewed though, I also don't mind it when babies cry. It's not that I enjoy their displeasure, I'm just envious that they get to say what's on their mind as loud as they want and no one can do anything about it. For that I enjoy the fleeting moments of their lives where such freedom exists. So Back to The G-Unit. The other two adult guineas are female and they just kind of hang out. One of them is very protective of the keets and the keets love her back. This is good because it prevents the other guineas and chickens from picking on the little keets. I hope we can hatch some guineas one day, but apparently they hide their eggs much better than the chickens (i.e. not in the nesting boxes...).

Full view of the front of the coop. We transported all the birds in our dog crate from a local breeder.

We hope the six of them will peck down the tick population and make our "Is that a tick" moments far more infrequent than the past two days. For the next week we are keeping them relatively confined so that they understand this is their new home and they don't fly away. After that they'll be on tick patrol. My legs will thank them.

Beginnings of the Chicken Coop, salvaged from our old red barn, which you can see behind

For now we're planning our days around stuff that Sweetbreads can accomplish solo and once I get outside we take on the tasks that require two people. Seemingly, within a few minutes the sun starts to set and we start packing up our stuff and getting everything in order for the night. Nothing is worse than darkness and a bunch of tools lying around in the grass, we learned that one quick. I suppose we could hang lights outside and work in the dark, but by the time the sun sets we're ready to cook dinner, feed the dogs, and wrap up whatever other stuff we've got going on. We worked in the barn late one night, but everything just goes so much faster and smoother when it's light outside. It also feels a lot safer operating in the daylight. Until we get comfortable with our workspace and our tools I'll take the safe route over the speedy route.

So things will go a bit slower around here than I originally anticipated. There's only so much one person can do, and it's a good thing I got such a wonderful partner to work with. Who knows, I may actually slow her down if I were out there :)

Anyway, taking it slow is probably for the best. We're making great progress and it's better not to rush it. I just haven't quite slowed down from NYC speed yet. Still accustomed to the quick-fix. By the end of the weekend we'll have the coop done and some chickens running around. There's plenty of turkey vultures around, so we'll see if Sophie can bond to the chickens and help keep them alive. Maremma's aren't supposed to mature into full LGD status for a year or two, so I'm not sure she'll be too useful at first. She's also well-bonded to us already, so it might be tough for her to transition to the chickens. We're getting a few guineas too. Apparently they can be a little more aware of larger birds eating them for lunch and they can warn the rest of the group to get inside the coop. Those vultures are pretty big when they fly low to the barn... nasty things. They're still pretty cool though, my jaw always drops when I hear one overhead, massive wings flapping in the air above. 

Maybe one room is enough because I’ve spent the majority of the past week in my favorite area of our new home – outside. I knew that I missed the outdoors, but hadn’t realized just how much. Every morning, after some coffee and a bite, I head out with Sophie for a good 45 minutes to walk our land. It started as a way to help her learn the border and has turned into my favorite part of the day. A time to stop and smell the moss and cedars. The day has just started to break and the soft light and sometimes lingering mist makes everything look like a dream. The ground and trees are damp and fragrant and I always find myself taking the deepest breaths possible – as if trying to gulp down more fresh air will make up for the past 12 years! Sophie runs on ahead or drags behind when she finds something interesting to sniff out but always follows. Every walk yields a new discovery (a cotton tail rabbit flushed out of the brambles, a hidden pond in the back woods…) and it’s all so damn beautiful. Sophie is always happy to explore and her puppyish enthusiasm and bouncy waggle are contagious. I walk back to the house feeling simultaneously electrically alive and at peace.

That doesn’t mean I don’t still need another mug of coffee! Feet on the ground at 6am is not quite as easy to get used to as a morning walk. I’ll get there!

If you saw our last post or glanced at our Facebook page the past few days you probably noticed that we have a dog. Not just any dog though, she's a ~6 month old Maremma that we hope will one day become a primary protector of our livestock (and ourselves, if need be). Her name is Sophie and since she's our first animal on the farm we're pretty obsessed with her. She's also very special to us because she was a gift from a friend of ours in NY that breeds Maremma's and that we were a long-time customer of at the farmer's market. It brought tears to our eyes when he offered us a pup as a going away present. 

Maremma's (we discovered after a week of avid online research) are a very different breed of dog than your typical house dog. When we visited Italy we saw them in action guarding goats and sheep in the Abruzzese mountains. They appear similar in color and coat to Great Pyrennes (Pyrs), but are generally a bit smaller and lankier (at least from our observations). The females get to 80-100 lbs on average and the males will get a bit larger. I've seen Pyrs that are much larger than that and the Pyrs are typically bulkier as well. Maremma's do not typically seek afection from humans and can be quite shy for the first few days (or weeks/months) when transitioned to a new home. For people that grew up with house dogs this is very strange. When you get a new puppy you want it to crawl all over you and love you. You want to pet it and play with it and throw the ball for it. From what we read, and based on our experience with Sophie, Maremma's don't want that.

The first six days she was very quiet and reserved. She generally kept to herself and wouldn't budge if we tried to walk her on a leash. However, when left off the leash she would follow us everywhere. Walking out into the fields she'd keep a 30-50 foot radius and then come back every so often to touch base. Despite her apparent comfort and knowledge of her domain we decided to build a run for her at night just in case she got the urge to venture off and not come back. She's also only five months, so we're not quite comfortable that she could hold her own with the neighboring dogs. 

Sophie pre-emptively guarding the chicken coop. Soon there'll be a completed coop, and chickens too

Well, today we got the first glimpse of her true spirit. While I sat upstairs on a rainy day, setting up my home office, I saw a big white dog come galloping down the back pasture. At first I thought it was Sophie and I thought, "well, that's great, she took a little trip to the back pasture, at least she feels comfortable leaving the house vicinity by herself." And then I saw some black on the ears and the nose looked darker too. Then I saw that it was a much bigger dog and it was headed straight where Sophie had taken cover from the rain near our ramshackle barn. Our farm has been basically abandoned for the past 2-3 years, so the neighborhood dogs have each claimed their stakes of our land. I'd seen a few come over near our house during prior visits. I knew it was just a matter of time before one came to steal Sophie's food. I was just waiting to wake up in the night to a fight and jump out the back door to break up a fight.

So as the neighboring guard dog made it's way to the barn in the rain I wondered where Sophie was. She was hidden from view and I figured she was too scared to come out at challenge the bigger dog whose territory she probably thought this was. But just as he approached the side of the barn I saw her nose pop out. And then her coiled body emerged, fur standing on end, seemingly ready to attack. And then the first of her barks. Bark, bark, bark. Step by step, nice and slow she approached the trespassing canine and pushed him backwards toward where he came from. She jutted and charged and he took off down the fence line, far into the distance. Good girl, Sophie. Good girl. You're a guard dog now!

We left the city last Saturday, a cold and dreary morning. As we pulled away, down into the Lincoln tunnel, nothing but misty grey could be seen in the rear view mirror. I had imagined giving a last loving gaze at one of my favorite buildings, the Chrysler, as I said goodbye, but she was cloaked in fog, and my last look was instead of some corner bodegas and shady sex shops. I think it was for the best. The waterworks had already started. When we drove by the corner in Hells Kitchen where Scrapple and I first met, I started to cry with the overwhelming sentimentality of it all. After weeks of living in a surreal cloud of dreamy anticipation and excitement, the reality of saying goodbye to a former version of myself and the city and circumstances that had transformed me into who I am now hit me and I couldn’t help myself. Sometimes my tears turn into smiling crying or even better (by better I mean creepier to bystanders) – laughing crying and this was one of those occasions. So happy to be leaving, yet so grateful for all that city gave me.

We rolled up to our new home with everything we owned in a 26 foot moving truck (the largest truck you can drive without a commercial license), including our new Maremma pup, Sophie. She bravely stuck out the whole trip underneath our seat, snuggled up and sleeping, sticking her nose out occasionally to say hello before tucking back under, not to be seen again for hours.

We arrived Sunday night and by Monday, even with half un-packed boxes all over the place, it already felt like home. We woke up early Monday morning to beautiful white blooms on the trees and dawn stroking its rosy fingers across our land. We took Sophie for a walk around the property and basked in finally being here and the beauty of it all. Then we got to work! 

In between bouts of unpacking, we made our first fence, a run to put Sophie in at night (she was getting a little too used to sleeping with us!). On Monday afternoon we drove a bunch of T posts into the soft spring ground and unraveled the first of what I’m sure will be many rolls of woven wire. It was fun and so incredibly nice to actually be doing something instead of planning it. Finally! The water company came by and put in our new system and by the end of the day we could actually drink our well water. Yesterday we cleaned out part of the old red barn for potential temporary goat housing (it still needs a lot of work), walked the perimeter of the property with a few fencing contractors, and met with a few people from the state environmental wastewater office. Did I mention we have extra hands in town? Scrapple’s sister and one of our friends are here lending their much appreciated time and muscles. We would probably still be on Day 1’s to-do list without them! Today we’ll keep going with the unpacking and get started on a mobile chicken coop so we can bring in some feathered charges for Sophie.

Thank you to everyone – family, friends, and readers – so very very much for all of your best wishes, support, and help during the past few months! We’re finally here and we couldn’t have done it without you.

I’ll leave you for the day with a few photos. We’ll devote a post to the pup in the next week or two – so much to say!