December 31, 2009

I had a request for photos recently and the view out my kitchen window this morning prompted me to go outside with the camera.

Before I went out, though, I had to get this Traditional Swiss in the press. The new press is very nice. It was pricey but being awakened by 40-50 pounds of cast iron barbell weights hitting the floor in the middle of the night because the cheese is pressing on an angle is a bit disconcerting.


When I went outside, I fired up my new Johs handmade danish pipe. My beloved bought me this for Christmas. The picture doesn't really do it justice.

Here is a "before" shot of our garage.

After:

The back part is a woodshed.


Here is the bull calf, Porter House, in his new stall.

Here are some of the ewes. Annie the bottle lamb is nearest the camera.

Bunny the favorite. She likes to be scratched behind the ears. The others don't like human touch.

Da Boyz.

Sugar, laying down chewing her cud. I had a snowflake on the camera lens in this one. We got 2+ inches last night and it's still spitting.

Here's another shot of Sugar when she followed me outside. The OAD milking is going great.

Here is the homemade stanchion where we milk. I may have posted this before. I built it on the Sunday morning after Sugar freshened when I stayed home from church because I was afraid of milk fever.

This is what I did when I came back inside - waxed a gouda. That sounds kind of funny doesn't it?

December 24, 2009

It's been about a month since I've posted and don't remember all that I've shared here. If I repeat myself, bear with me.

About two weeks ago, we decided to try milking Sugar only once a day. She was/is giving about 4 gallons (maybe a bit more) each day and this is kind of a borderline amount for once-a-day milking (OAD). Most of the recommendations I've seen suggest 3 gallons as a good quantity for dropping back to OAD. She's done fine with it, though, and we are vigilant about watching for mastitis. At the first sign (flakes on the milk filter) we will go back to TAD. We've cut back on her grain ration and will probably cut it back some more if she maintains condition.

Porter is still being kept in the stall that he shared with Taffy and to be honest, I'm a little embarrassed by that. I've never believed in keeping animals confined indoors except during the most extreme weather but we just can't let him in with Sugar and risk him trying to nurse and injuring her teats again. Not to mention, he is now 6 months old and likely capable of breeding. We should have him moved to the other barn by the end of the year. His stall will be a bit smaller but we can begin to let him outside. My plan is to keep Sugar in the pasture in front of her barn and let Porter have an area behind the other barn so they will be out of sight of one another.

We've all had the creepin' crud here this week - coughing, sore throat, fever, etc. - but everyone is well on their way back to health. This morning, I finished a mozzarella that had ripened overnight and am now working on a gouda-style. We plan on making a lot of cheese this winter.

Merry Christmas to all!

How I Spent My Thanksgiving Vacation

Before:




After:




My dad built the countertop from solid walnut. I also installed a utility sink in the mudroom for washing the milker.

November 19, 2009

Sheep breeding season is turning out to be something of a fiasco. Usually we have the two breeding groups separated enough that they are mostly out of sight of one another. It didn't work out that way this year since Sugar is taking up our big stall and the two calves are in the other stall in the red barn. At 4:50 this morning when I went outside to leave for work the rams were standing there side by side watching me. They were supposed to be separated by two layers of temporary electric fence which they had trampled. Right now all the sheep are together and have access to the white barn and all of the pasture. The two ewe lambs are in a separate stall since we don't want them bred. I'm going to try to work out something better this weekend.

We really need to get rid of Taffy, the heifer calf. She is going back to Jennifer's uncle's place. The stall where we have her and Porter is just too small for both of them. They are 5 months old now and my best guess is that Porter weighs nearly 300 pounds. Taffy is just a little smaller.

Garage is almost done and I didn't take any photos of the process. We do have a "before" pic, though, so I can post a before & after.

November 7, 2009

Not much going on around here to write about. Oh, don't get me wrong, we're as busy as ever but it's just not blog-worthy stuff. Weekends are almost exclusively devoted to working on the garage. The opening for the door is framed in and the installers are coming next week to install the door and opener. Yesterday we worked on sheeting. More of the same today, then door, windows, trim and finally siding.

I got the gates to put up in the white barn for stalls. I'm a little nervous about moving the calves over there because they're not halter trained yet. Based on what I've read, I'm not sure they're old enough to train at this point but they are definitely too big to control. We'll probably end up driving in some posts and making a lane from cattle panels to move them in.

In the next couple weeks the sheep need to be separated into two breeding groups.

Next Saturday I'm going to the hearthside cooking workshop at Malabar Farm State Park. That should be cool but I probably shouldn't take the time to do it.

Vote No on Issue 2

This is from the OEFFA website:

Here are the real facts about Issue 2:

-- Issue 2 would create a Livestock Care Standards Board, stacked with Big Ag and factory farm supporters, which would have sweeping authority to make decisions related to farms and food in Ohio that would have the force of law. The Board would have largely unchecked power to override any act by the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Assembly.

--Issue 2 will create a Livestock Care Standards Board with no accountability to voters. Their decisions will be final. There is no further review or evaluation of the standard, no established forum for public comment, and no ability to appeal their decisions.

--Issue 2 serves the economic interests of factory farms, opening the door for the proliferation of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) in Ohio.

--Issue 2 emphasizes the need of the livestock industry to provide “affordable food,” yet ignores its hidden costs, including environmental contamination, human health impacts, and the loss of rural communities.

The Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association has been Ohio's voice for sustainable agriculture and local, organic foods for more than 30 years. We represent farmers, ranchers, gardeners, and conscientious eaters who value the importance of livestock in sustainable agricultural production systems and in providing prosperity for Ohio’s farm families.

October 16, 2009

How we spend our Friday nights at Liberty Farm:

Jennifer is washing and pressing the liquid out of our first batch of butter from Sugar. You can't get butter that yellow from cows kept in confinement.

We got 1/2 gallon of cream from 1 1/2 gallons of milk. It yielded 1 pound of butter and about 1 1/2 quarts of buttermilk. Biscuits and lamb sausage gravy for breakfast tomorrow.

Cream Line

We got 6 gallons today. No wonder Sugar won't gain any weight. I think we'll be cutting some of the grain from her diet.

October 12, 2009

Sorry for the light posting lately. When we leave the farm for a 10 day vacation, the workload is a bit overwhelming when we return. We still have about 8 yards of concrete to pour this month in the ongoing conversion of the dilapidated greenhouse into a garage and machine shed. And the contractor asked us to hold up on siding it until the concrete was done so they could work at it from all sides! I have a bad feeling I'm going to be out there in the snow nailing up vinyl siding. But we got our wood stove installed so I'll be able to come in and warm up. Our computer is in the same room as the stove and all this typing is making me sweat.

We separated the calves from Sugar last Friday. They took to drinking milk from a bucket like pros. Actually I bought buckets with rubber nipples thinking they would want to suck but it's much faster to just slurp it up. Taffy bawled so much she had completely lost her voice yesterday. Her moos sounded like croaks. It's coming back some today. Sugar is going with the flow like she always does. Porter doesn't seem to care as long as he gets his milk.

Since the separation, we're getting between 5 and 5 1/2 gallons of milk a day. This morning Jennifer got 3 1/2 gallons, gave the calves 1 1/2 (3 qts. each) and put 2 gallons in the fridge. Tonight I got 2 gallons and gave it all to the calves. The best part is we have CREAM! We'll make some butter by the end of the week and maybe celebrate the weekend with a little ice cream. You haven't lived until you've eaten homemade butter pecan.

All of the butchering is done for the year and we're now looking ahead to sheep breeding. The sheep will be shorn before the end of the month and we'll put the rams and ewes into two breeding groups in early November. Guess I better get to work on finishing the barn remodel so the rams have a place to live. Right now they're bunking in with Sugar because the calves are closed in their old stall.

Last but not least, our internet here on the farm is now smokin'. For those of you outside the normal cable or DSL area, I highly recommend this and this. We have the mifi connected to a cradlepoint router to make it a little more powerful and give us an ethernet connection for the desktop. The antenna really pulls in that cell signal. We're getting download speeds of over 1.5 Mbps.

October 5, 2009

We just returned yesterday from our annual vacation to the Outer Banks. It was a very relaxing week! When we returned home, we quickly realized that autumn had come with a vengeance while we were gone. I don't have the fuel oil furnace ready to go yet so we're relying on a couple of portable electric heaters until our wood-burning stove is installed on Wednesday.

Sugar's chewed teats didn't get any worse in our absence but they didn't heal much, either. After we get back into the swing of things this week we'll separate the calves permanently and put them on a milk bucket. I would much prefer not to do that but we got Sugar into this predicament and now it's up to us to get her out.

I've got two building projects to complete this month. We also have sheep shearing to look forward to and will be putting the rams and ewes together about this time next month.

ETA: We had a killing frost in our absence so the winter squash will be brought in this week to cure. We really need a couple sunny days in a row!

September 16, 2009

It's been crazy busy here! The garage renovation is well underway. I will try to get a pic before we do much finishing - before, in-process, after.

Sugar's teats are chewed up a bit and we've suspended milking until they heal. In hindsight, it was a mistake to completely milk her out in the morning and then let the calves have at her. They are only 10 weeks old and I would hate to wean them this early so we decided it would be best to let them have our share of the milk until her teats heal. They look much better already since the last time we milked on Saturday. Our annual vacation is coming up and when we we get home, we'll probably put them on bottles so we can have some milk for ourselves.

The butcher's coming Monday for three lambs. There is still one available. Any takers?

September 7, 2009

Construction work is taking all of our time here lately. I completely gutted the greenhouse over this weekend. The driveway is supposed to be cut tomorrow and I'm going to order the framing wood and siding, as well. Yoder's Lumber is the place to go in northern Morrow County for lumber, siding, roofing, etc. We're going with red siding and white trim to match our barn on the other side of the property. We're going to call for concrete quotes tomorrow and hope to get that done before the end of the month. In addition to a garage for parking our car, this is also going to give us a place to store tractor implements, hay and firewood.

Speaking of firewood, we've also made the decision to get a wood stove before winter hits. We chose a Jotul stove and will have a new chimney installed for it. This stove is 72% efficient and is therefore eligible for a 30% tax credit up to $1500.

All of these expenditures we're making are designed to help us weather the economic storm we believe is coming. When it comes to the economy I'm firmly in the "we ain't seen nothing yet" category. If (when) commodities skyrocket, we'll be burning wood instead of fuel oil and we'll be well-positioned to continue producing our own food efficiently.

We skipped two days in a row this weekend milking. This is in anticipation of our upcoming vacation. Sugar will not be milked for ten days while we're gone. The calves ought to be fat and sassy by the time we get back.

August 28, 2009

Making cottage cheese from clabber.
In this photo, the curds are being cooked with hot water added to the pot. We didn't skim the cream so it's floating on top of the water.

Here are the partially cooked curds draining. After this we added more hot water, stirred briefly, and then added lots of cold water while stirring and breaking up the curd to stop it cooking.

In this photo, the cooked and cooled curds are draining. They've been salted and will go in the fridge in 30 minutes.

This is by far the simplest cheese we've made. The room temperature cottage cheese that we've made is OK but it's a real pain to wash that fine cheesecloth after draining.

We have clabber!

It's firmer than yogurt and slightly more sour. The whey has separated as you can see in the photo. The process is easy. Put fresh milk in a jar and set it out at room temperature covered with a towel. This jar of Sugar's milk took 13 days to clabber.

For all the raw milk naysayers out there: I challenge you to take your favorite pasteurized milk, set it out at room temperature and drink/eat it 13 days later.

August 20, 2009

We got some rain last night which was very welcome. Our garden is about to burst. The late corn is ready and there's probably 30 quarts to freeze in addition to the 20 that the early corn yielded. The late cabbage is also ready. Most of it will go into sauerkraut. Tomatoes are just starting to come on after getting a late start due to the cool weather in early summer. The winter squash seems to be developing well from what I can see. It's a jungle in there because the squash in interplanted with the corn. As soon as the corn is harvested I'll cut the stalks and feed to the cows and sheep.

Sugar continues to milk well, giving us what amounts to about 1% cream unfortunately. The calves are growing like crazy, though. I had an idea last night that maybe her failure to gain weight has to do with internal parasites. I have the equipment to do fecal tests for worms in sheep. There's no reason why that won't work for cows except I don't have the nifty chart identifying the cow parasites. I'm not sure that matters, though. Worm eggs will still look like worm eggs. I plan on doing the test this weekend and treating her if she needs it.

I ran into my butcher yesterday at one of our local gun shops and remembered that I need to call them for a September appointment to take in the lambs. I'd really like to sell at least one more and two would be better. The price is $3.25 per pound of carcass weight plus the butchering and slaughtering fees which are about $50-$60 for a 50# lamb carcass. The total for 50 pounds would be about $220 and the total yield would probably be around 40 pounds after cutting and packaging. Email joe[at]realfoodfreedom[dot]com if you're interested.

August 17, 2009

The stinging insects are vicious this year. My daughter "found" a nest of yellow jackets in the ground in our front yard and was stung five times on one foot. Thank God she's not allergic. It was just painful. I just came in from spraying the nest with Raid. Also, our honeybees in the maple tree out front recently split and the swarm decided to take up residence between our chimney and house. It kills me to spray honeybees but they are getting inside and all of us have been stung at least once. The bees aren't aggressive but it's hard not to step on them when they get in the carpet. I've sprayed seven cans of bug killer in the crack where they've taken up residence and they're still hanging in. We might have to get an exterminator in. The man who's going to be grinding out the old mortar and tuck-pointing the chimney won't want to deal with bees. We also have a hornet's nest in one of our barns that I'm going to have to deal with sooner rather than later.

We were one of the 30% who got rain today and it was welcome. I really need to close off one part of the pasture to stockpile some grazing for the fall. We're supplementing Sugar with alfalfa hay to try to put some weight on her. She is very thin and we can't seem to get her to gain weight. I understand that some dairy cows are naturally thin and put all fat into their milk rather than on their backs, so we're just trying to keep her healthy. We'll wean the calves after our vacation in October and hopefully that will help. I hope she can hang in there for a twenty month lactation. She's currently eating 12# of organic corn and oats per day along with good minerals, salt, dried kelp and all the pasture and alfalfa hay she can eat.

The lambs have about 5 weeks before slaughter and seem to be growing OK. I should probably give them some of the alfalfa hay since the pasture isn't great. They're still nursing, too.

I've got a ton of projects that I want to complete before cold weather comes but we're busy at work and are putting in some overtime. We'll probably hire someone to convert our old greenhouse into a garage and put a new roof on the shed rather than do it ourselves.

The garden is doing well and we've frozen 20 quarts of corn so far with only the early corn having been harvested. The tomatoes are slowly beginning to ripen and we've got more beans to freeze as well. I've made six quarts of sauerkraut and the late cabbage is about ready so that will make another 8 probably. We've got about 6 quarts of pickles and hope to get more but the plants seem to be dying off as they are wont to do in late summer.

August 11, 2009

The train from Chicago is due to arrive in Sandusky at 3:55 a.m. and Jennifer and Katie should get home around 5:30 if it is on time (lol, we're talking about Amtrak).

Today, the boys and I made quick mozzarella and dill pickles.

Here is the mozzarella curd in the pot. This "quick" mozzarella is set with citric acid and rennet. Traditional mozzarella has a much longer ripening time to develop the acidity. The recipe is called "30-minute mozzarella" but it takes us longer than 30 minutes, probably closer to an hour. As soon as my acid titration kit (for testing pH) arrives in the mail I want to try the traditional recipe.

Here are the pickles. The recipe is simple for 1 quart: cucumbers, tablespoon of good salt, small handful of pickling spices, dill, garlic clove (optional), 1/4 cup whey, water to cover. The whole pickles will ferment at room temperature for 3 days and the slices for two before moving to cool storage. If the temperature of our kitchen was lower I would leave them longer at room temp but it's about 80 degrees in there. In the background of the photo is my jar of kombucha and in the foreground is the swiss cheese I made the weekend before last. It has developed a rind and is inside now to develop the eyes, thanks to the propionic shermani.

August 9, 2009

Jennifer and Katie arrived in Chicago this morning around 10:00 local time. They got on the train at 4:45 a.m. (ET) in Sandusky. They're traveling with Katie's girl scout troop. They'll be home early Wednesday morning but we miss them already.

Here is some cottage cheese that I made Friday draining:
It's a pretty simple process. The room temperature milk is clabbered by adding a mesophilic starter and is ready to cut curd in 12 to 18 hours. Raw milk can also be clabbered without the addition of any starter at all but it may take several days. The cut curds are drained for a couple hours, washed and drained for another half-hour.

Here is a not-so-good photo showing an open flake of the hay I bought Saturday. $4.00 per 60+ pound bale of second-cutting alfalfa (delivered) is a very good price and I was lucky to get it. I feel sorry for those in parts of the country where alfalfa doesn't grow and hay like this is $6.00 or more a bale shipped in. This was grown about half a mile from my farm.

August 6, 2009

Cheesemaking last Saturday:

The curd, after cutting and before stirring.

After the 40 minute stirring process. The curds are being raised to 120 degrees (F).


Initial press at 10 pounds. The cheese was turned and re-wrapped 3 times before pressing overnight at 15 pounds.

After initial press.


Whey.

Now the cheese is in a warm refrigerator being turned daily to develop a rind. After one week of rind development, we will bring it in to room temperature where the eyes will develop over a period of a couple weeks. Then it is back to the fridge for aging (3 months minimum).

August 1, 2009

Wow, it's hard to believe this is August already. Where has the summer gone? All in all, our summer here in Ohio has been quite pleasant with very few days of unbearable heat. We could have used more rain between mid-June and mid-July but that has been remedied.

Right now I'm waiting for the curd to make a clean break on a traditional Swiss cheese. Maybe I should have used 1/2 a rennet tablet instead of 1/4 because it appears that it's going to take 45 minutes longer than the recipe suggested to get ready to cut. When you're dealing with living food, you just have to roll with it.

Jennifer, Katie, and Nick are in the garden picking beans. They're going to be freezing them this afternoon as soon as the chicken stock is done on the stovetop. We've pretty much given up on canning vegetables because of the unnaturally high heat which destroys most of the vitamins, antioxidants, etc. in the veggies. We'll likely can some chicken, though, to make room in the freezer before lamb butchering in September.

I'll have to check but I think we may have some corn ready in the garden, too. We have much more squash and zucchini than we can use. I hope the winter squash does as well as the summer squash has. I'll also be fermenting some sour pickles this weekend. No heat and no vinegar, just pure lacto-fermented goodness. Oh, and I forgot the sauerkraut. I'm not sure there are enough hours left in the weekend. The whey from cheesemaking is a huge help in getting the pickles and cabbage off to a rip-roaring start.

July 28, 2009

Jennifer coaxed 2.5 gallons from Sugar today, then made yogurt and Mozzarella cheese. Is my wife awesome, or what?

"Unpalatable Values"

From "Unpalatable Values: Culture as Gastronomy" by Andrei Navrozov
in Chronicles:

The Russian verb spurt, with its sound of milk hitting the pail, is
like our word for life. The forcible sundering of the peasant and his
cow, no less succintly, is the abiding aim of authoritarian
government, which, abhorring the individual's self-sufficiency that
threatens its nihilist absolute, seeks to suppress life itself.

Sent from my iPod

July 27, 2009

I didn't do much farming this weekend. Friday morning I went for my regular chiropractic adjustment and then took the boys to the first showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The movie was good but it seems like each one deviates a bit further from the book. I'm afraid I may not like the Deathly Hallows movie. Saturday we had an all day celebration of my mom's birthday at our house. I was the grill master. Eat your heart out Bobby Flay!

Jennifer overestimated the amount of milk she was getting from Sugar back when we had to dump it last week. Now that she's filtering and bottling, we realize that we're getting 1.5-2 gallons a day. I had hoped for more but she is nursing two calves and we really have no idea how much they're taking. We do know that she's holding back her cream because we're getting an inch or less on a half-gallon jar and it should be 3-4 inches (I hope). I guess we'll make our butter this fall after the calves are weaned. And speaking of dumping milk, the mastitis seems to have cleared up without us having to resort to a systemic antibiotic. The milk is clear with no flakes, clumps, etc. and the test cards are good with just a slightly darker spot on the suspect quarter. The milk tastes sweet, which is the best test of all.

We're about 90% sure that we're not going to band (castrate) our bull calf. Instead, we plan to keep him intact and use him to breed Sugar next summer. Everyone we talk to, from all over the country, seems to never manage to get their cow bred on the first try with AI. Cows come into heat about every 3 weeks so two heat cycles can easily mean the difference between calving at the beginning of the spring flush and calving when the spring flush is over. Of course, there's no guarantee that natural breeding will take the first time but the odds sure seem a lot better than with AI. If we put the bull in with her on July 1st, we should get an April calf even if she doesn't settle on the first heat and comes in again. Just like with most things in farming, nature usually trumps modern science.

July 23, 2009

Rain! We got rain! Finally. Our pasture has been looking bad for weeks. Next year I have to make sure that what has already been grazed is mowed down to get rid of seed stalks by the end of May. Maybe I'll have the equipment to make a little hay. That would be awesome. No matter what, though, I have to make sure that I don't mow the whole pasture in June. The risk of drought is just too great.

July 21, 2009

Sugar gave 3 1/2 gallons this morning. Unfortunately, we have to dump it due to the antibiotic residues. Tomorrow morning Jennifer will test the milk to see if the mastitis is gone. Since she's stopped holding up I hope that will make a difference but I'm done with wishful thinking. The next step is a penicillin injection.

Sent from my iPod

July 20, 2009

Whew! Last Saturday (7/11) I came down with some bad stomach trouble and it lasted through this past weekend. It had to have been food poisoning because I don't think a virus could have lasted so long. I ate at 4 different restaurants between lunch on Thursday and lunch on Saturday so who knows where I got it. Nothing seemed fishy at the time. Anyway, I got nothing done over the last week on the farm.

We're now separating the calves from Sugar at night and milking once a day. She was holding back everything but about 3 quarts until this morning when she finally gave Jennifer 3+ gallons. Thank God! She's been quite a handful. Unfortunately, the mastitis is back in her right rear quarter and we can't seem to get rid of it. Antibiotics knock it out for a few days, then it comes back. The thing is, the milk looks perfect. The only way we know she has mastitis in the quarter is that the milk tests alkaline. If anyone knows a source for fresh comfrey, please comment. I'd also like to buy some cuttings and grow our own. That would help, I think. She's been eating dried kelp like crazy which should also help but I think she'd eat a pound a day if I'd let her and I can't afford that for long.

July 9, 2009

It's TGITh here at Liberty Farm. I've been on a four 10-hour day work schedule for over a year now so our weekend begins on Thursday evening. I just got a $1500 quote to grind out the old mortar and tuck-point our chimney, including re-laying the part above the roof where much of the mortar is gone. So, I don't know if my cocktail should be for celebrating the arrival of the weekend or lamenting this home maintenance outlay. We hope to turn our old greenhouse into a garage this summer, complete with a concrete floor and new driveway, and this is going to break into our budget.

We're seeing Sugar let the new bull calf, Porter, nurse more and more. She won't stand there and chew her cud like she does for her own calf, Taffy, but if she's preoccupied she's not so quick to knock him into next week. I really hope she comes around soon. We're letting Porter nurse at milking time when she's in the stanchion and Taffy is learning to nurse about an hour beforehand, so we're doing good to get about one and a half gallons a day. That ain't gonna cut it for long. When (if) Porter begins nursing ad lib, Sugar's production will hopefully increase to match and we'll be able to separate the calves at night and milk once a day in the morning. If we don't get at least two and a half gallons at that milking, I'll be disappointed. Right now, she's eating about $6 a day worth of organic grain (corn, spelt and Fertrell dairy mineral). I hope to be able to cut that back but we want to see her gain a little weight.

I'm very pleased to be able to report that there are no signs of mastitis in the milk. We treated her with a second round of antibiotics and all is clear. Tomorrow is the first day we'll be able to drink it. We still have our herdshares until the end of the month, so I'm hoping to make some cheese this weekend.

All the pasture mowing is done and I'm hoping for rain. The lambs are growing like weeds and the mommas are in good condition and still making plenty of milk. This will be the third year we haven't used any deworming drugs. Right now, the sheep are limited to grazing on the hilltop, where they rarely go unless there's no grass down near the barn. I'm saving that lower part for Sugar and the calves. Since cows and sheep don't share internal parasites, this is a good way to break the host/parasite cycle.

I bought 10 bales of first-cutting alfalfa today to give Sugar. She needs some dry forage to firm up her poop. Cow poop is never really firm, but right now it's practically liquid. Sorry for the graphic description, but that's life at Liberty Farm. As my butcher told me, "beef cows burp and dairy cows fart. You need to encourage that."

July 6, 2009

Happy belated Independence Day from Liberty Farm! I'd hoped to get pasture photos last weekend but didn't get around to it. I'll have to turn my daughter loose in the field with the camera. She's a 10 year-old budding photographer.

We picked up an Ayrshire cross bull calf on Thursday morning. Fortunately, we got there before he was fed and were able to take him home in the back of my Jeep Wrangler without him peeing or pooping. I wrapped his rear end in a blanket for the ride but now that I've seen him in action, I know that would have been inadequate. His name is Porter House. Sugar doesn't like him much but has gone from trying to kill him to tolerating him in the stall with her and Taffy, so we're making progress. We let him nurse from her rear quarters when she's in the headgate at milking time but are hopeful that she will soon let him nurse in the pasture.

Sent from my iPod

July 1, 2009

Got about 4 gallons of milk today. Unfortunately, it all has to be dumped since we gave the antibiotic infusion. We'll be able to drink the Friday evening milking without any residue of the meds.

Sugar is getting pretty well trained to the milking process. We're getting a bull calf tomorrow. He's an Ayrshire cross. Hopefully she'll accept him without too much difficulty.

Pics later. I hope to get the camera out to the pasture this weekend and get some lamb photos. They're a cute bunch!

Wendell Berry picks jail over NAIS.

June 30, 2009

I didn't get to go to Mass on Sunday because Sugar had cold ears that morning. Cold ears are one of the initial signs of milk fever and the 72 hour danger zone wasn't up until about 2:00 pm Sunday. So I stayed home to keep an eye on her and it turned out to be nothing. Since I was home and outside, though, I took the opportunity to build this:
It's a headgate with feed box attached. What a difference this has made! Sugar can no longer dance around the barn in a 180 degree pattern while we're trying to milk. She can still move around some but she's getting better about that. It was hard to get her in there at first but at the last two milkings she's walked right in and put her head through the bars.

Unfortunately, she seems to have freshened with mastitis in one quarter. A well-meaning but ignorant relative squeezed some milk from one quarter about 10 days before she calved, thereby eliminating the natural wax plug. The colostrum from that quarter was slightly chunky. Unfortunately, her edema (swelling) is worst in that quarter so the calf is avoiding it. We gave her an antibiotic infusion Sunday evening and Monday morning. If the milk is still chunky on Wednesday, I will milk her out every two hours from the time I get home in the afternoon through the night along with applying hot compresses and maybe some minty balm or coconut oil laced with cayenne pepper. The heat gets the blood moving and helps with the edema and with getting the infection down and out.

We've been feeding handfuls of raspberry leaves a few times a day and massaging to help with the edema. Her teats are spaced far apart and hanging low because of it so we're only able to get two teat cups on her at a time when we milk. It's no big deal to do two at a time. As of this morning the milk is still pretty yellow from colostrum content.

We've been getting about a gallon per milking since we started in earnest Sunday morning. If she keeps that up after her pure milk comes in, I'll have to assume she's holding out on us and only partially letting down. If that's the case we'll have to get sneaky and bring her calf in to stimulate let down and then take the calf out and get the milker on. I'll be reading up on other tricks today.

If anyone has any suggestions, please comment.

June 27, 2009

Taffy was born a little before 2:00 on Thursday past. She will be going back to Jennifer's uncle to be eventually bred. We'll be buying a bull calf ASAP to let Sugar raise for our own beef and to help consume the milk supply.

We milked for the first time on Friday morning. We were going to hand milk but decided it would be best to get Sugar used to the sound of the vacuum pump and the feel of the machine from the start. We only took about a gallon and it was a chore! Friday evening we were going to milk a bit more to relieve the pressure but it didn't work out. I had the bright idea to tie the calf with a rope halter near Sugar's head. The calf fell back and Sugar jerked her neck and pulled a fence staple out the wall that she was chained to. Oops!

This morning milking went much better. We took about 3 gallons, stopping when the flow slowed down but leaving some to try to avoid encouraging milk fever. We did two things better this time. Firstly, we led Sugar out of her stall onto the concrete floor. This way we avoided getting cow poop from the bedding all over ourselves and the milk bucket. Secondly, we left the calf in the stall out of sight so Sugar could concentrate on her grain. Her udder is still swollen huge but it's not so hard and tight.

Friday, I had a few flakes in the strip cup which can be an early indicator of mastitis. I didn't use the cup today but will tomorrow and find out which quarter the flakes, if any, are in. Mastitis is serious business and needs to be treated sooner rather than later if she has it.

We probably won't milk tonight but will start tomorrow, twice a day, in earnest. The colostrum should clear up soon and we'll have good milk! Also, tomorrow afternoon will mark 72 hours since freshening and the threat of milk fever will have largely passed.

It's A Girl!

It's a girl! 1/2 Texas Longhorn, 1/4 Jersey, 1/4 Guernsey (we think).

June 22, 2009

I went to the dairy and picked up our milk from our herdshares after work (won't have to do that much longer) then mowed the lawn.

Our neighbor come over Saturday and told us to look for Sugar's shape to change from something like this ( ) to something like this | | about 8-12 hours before calving. This is caused by the calf moving into the birthing position. Of course the power of suggestion has me believing that she looks like this tonight, lol. We're ready, whenever the calf decides to make its entrance.

I found a good deal online on this Surge bucket milker and a portable vacuum pump. It's not as romantic as handmilking but with me operating an off-farm business and Jennifer homeschooling three kids, the sheep, the chickens, etc. it will be a huge time-saver.

June 20, 2009

This morning Sugar's udder was hard and tight, with the teats slightly engorged. The calf hasn't dropped into the birth canal yet but I'm hoping for a birth this weekend.

Her udder sticks out so far behind her that she tends to poop on it, as you can see in the photo.

We got 13 eggs today so I'll be able to sell some next week, finally.

Well, I'm headed out to feed the bottle lamb who can't seem to get the hang of eating grain. He's still too young to ruminate much so he needs either milk replacer or grain.

June 17, 2009

Today I was reading on Keeping A Family Cow about the relaxation of the pelvic ligaments being one of the final signs of impending calving. When this happens the tailhead becomes floppy and the tail lays to one side. What do you think I saw when I got home? LOL, probably misinterpretation on my part. What was that I said last week about Thursday calving being ideal? Oh well, we're ready when she is.

We've decided that if we can't get Sugar bred by the end of August, we're going to milk through for another year and attempt breeding in July 2010 for an April 2011 freshening. With the quality of our grass, there's no way I'm going to try to dry up a cow in April for another June freshening. I'm glad she was dry when we got her.

I know I've been blogging almost exclusively about cow stuff here. That's only because she is new to us and is consuming most of our attention. The rest of farm life goes on however. The lambs are growing like weeds. We have one bottle lamb due to rejection by his mother. She was fine for the first few days, Deo gratias, so he got plenty of colostrum but then she suddenly stopped letting him nurse. We suspect that he tried to nurse from another ewe and she peed on his head which made him smell like another lamb to his mother. If the ewe does this again next year, she'll be sausage. 'Nuff said.

Hens are now laying nearly a dozen little eggs a day so we're finally building up a small stockpile to sell. It's been so long, though, that we're eating them almost as fast as they lay them.

The grass is maturing so I'll be doing some mowing this weekend and periodically over the next few weeks. The mature grass is great in the energy department but lower in protein than young grass. The growing lambs need protein now and energy later when they're laying on some fat. They're still getting plenty on milk, though, so that's not an issue. The ewes primarily need energy but they don't like the mature grass so it's king of a balancing act with them. Sugar needs both protein and energy so we give her a smorgasbord and don't limit her too much. I will always err on the side of too much grass rather than not enough. Maximizing production is the way of the factory farm. Here we seek to optimize production.

June 15, 2009

The sheep are shorn! I don't have pics to prove it but here's one of Sugar I took this weekend.

June 11, 2009

I'm trying to write something here every few days if for no other reason than to stay in the habit. The truth is, though, not a whole lot goes on here during the week. Jennifer may disagree with me on that given that she spent the day weeding in the garden yesterday. You're the best, babe! Monday through Thursday I leave home at 4:50 am and get back at 5:10 pm so I don't feel like doing much most evenings.

Sugar still hasn't had her calf. It would be really convenient for us if she had it on Thursday afternoon so we would have the weekend to work on milking, calf care, etc. Of course this means she'll probably freshen on Sunday night.

The pullets that we got on May 23 are slowly beginning to lay. We get 3-4 pullet eggs a day. I full expect 12-15 eggs a day once they reach full production. I've got a waiting list of people who want eggs and regular customers calling every week so I hope they get on the stick.

I finally had to cancel my/our Milwaukee trip for next week. It's the annual retreat of the Society of Saint Polycarp and I'm pretty upset about missing it. Life happens, I guess.

June 8, 2009

Ever have one of those weekends where you feel run ragged but don't get anything done?
We still need to put the finishing touches on the garden and the ewes remain unshorn. Oh well. The ewes won't take long, my arm just wasn't up to the task this weekend. Ditto for the garden. Laying down plastic mulch and burying the edges is hard work. I'm on the mend, though, and shouldn't have any problems finishing these things this week.

On the plus side, I did get all the mowing done, lawn and pasture (inside and out).

No calf yet...

June 4, 2009

Work has picked up a bit and we're back to a 40 hour week (from 36). Getting ready to call it a day soon. We run production four 10-hour days so today also wraps up another week. What a wonderful work schedule for a part-time farmer.

I should finish the pasture mowing and trimming this weekend and put out the last of the garden. I'm glad the celery is still safely in pots indoors. These last few nights in the lower 40s may have sent it bolting. Our corn is up enough that I can weed and mulch it.

Tomorrow I plan to shear the four ewes. My arm is healed enough that I don't think I'll have a problem doing it myself with Jennifer's help to catch the sheep.

No calf yet...

Edible Vaccines and Flying Syringes

How long might it be before mass market "food" becomes totally inedible?

June 1, 2009

Wow, June 1st. Where has the spring gone? I can't believe I don't have the ewes sheared yet but oddly enough I'm not stressing over it. Maybe I'm mellowing with age, like good red wine. Yep, that must be it.

I was observing Sugar pretty closely tonight while mowing and I wouldn't be surprised if she goes another week based solely on her udder development. Now that I've said that, she'll probably go tonight, lol. We're supposed to go to Milwaukee in a couple weeks for 5 days and it's starting to look less and less likely we'll be able to go. I was hoping to have two 4-week old calves nursing before we went. That ain't gonna happen.

We've had our pullets for 9 days now one of them finally laid an egg in the nest box today. We've been getting an egg or two every day, laid on the floor by the water fount. Jennifer marked a couple eggs and put them in the nest box as a training aid and it seems to have worked. We bought a 6-hole roll-out nest box last year because we were tired of poop-covered eggs. It'll be a bummer if the dummies don't use it.

God likes farmers

From my favorite historian and commentator on culture, Aaron D. Wolf,
writing in Chronicles magazine:

God likes farmers. Not gigantic corporate agribusiness, but farmers.
He made man from the dirt and for the dirt, to cultivate His Garden.
Adam means "of the red" or "of the soil."

May 30, 2009

Jennifer and I just finished up planting the garden except for a few odds and ends that we'll have to do after my arm heals up a little more. It really sucks being limited in what I can do this time of year. Unless it really gets better this week I'm going to have to someone to come over and shear my ewes. There are only four and the guy down the road who's retired from shearing for hire will probably do them for me under the circumstances. I've got two pretty major construction projects I'm itching to start but am pretty much worthless now.

The brush hog is mounted on the tractor. I'll probably mow during the evenings this coming week. That's nice, relaxing, one-arm work. This time of year I always wish I had the means to make hay but mowing and letting the grass rot back into the soil and buying hay is pretty cheap fertility.

Still no calf. Every day I take the time to examine Sugar's udder for lumps, hot spots, etc. Today she was trying like crazy to lick me. Maybe that's a sign that she's ready for a calf...?

May 28, 2009

Apparently wrangling sheep for the butcher can be hazardous to your health. I grabbed one of the lambs today with my left hand and the hay box with my right and ended up with a torn right biceps. I've got a little ball of muscle up near my shoulder and it's flat below that where the muscle usually attaches to the elbow. Hurts like the dickens but we went to our favorite steakhouse for dinner and I self-medicated with a couple Beefeater martinis. Jennifer bought me a sling because she knows that's the only way I'll rest my arm.

Tomorrow I'll be mowing, first the lawn then starting on the pasture. Fortunately the tractor has power steering.

Still no calf...

May 27, 2009

Whew, another hectic day at work! Tomorrow should be better and I'm leaving at noon to meet the butcher at 1:00. I'll be more glad to see these yearlings go than any sheep we've ever had. They are troublemakers! Finally we'll get back to a sheep flock that minds 2 stands of electric fence.

Since these lambs have pretty much gone wherever the hell they want, we haven't bothered too much with controlling grazing. That will change after tomorrow. This weekend I'm getting the brush hog that I own in common with my brother-in-law and will start mowing the areas of the pasture that have been grazed and are now getting ripe. The entire fence needs mowed around inside and out including the interior subdivisions. Our charger will put out 12,000 volts on a clean fence and now we're doing good to get 5,000.

I worked on the area of the barn that we're going to use as a milking parlor today. It is swept and hosed down. I built a feed box but need to bring hardware home from work tomorrow to mount it to the wall. Sugar has gotten used to us and to Liberty Farm. I talked to my neighbor last night and he said she looked awfully confused the first couple days she was here but has settled in just fine. He greeted me by asking whether I knew someone left a pregnant cow in my pasture. Haha.

I sure hope the calf comes this weekend. I'm kind of on pins and needles, not because of the the actual birth but because of the potential for milk fever which is deadly if not properly treated and unfortunately common to Jerseys. I've got everything I need, though, and the advice of good friends.

There was some distant thunder before I came in to shower but it's pretty clear outside now. It's really dry here. Hopefully we'll get some rain out of this unstable weather that's in the area. I think I'll enjoy a cocktail before going out to bottle feed the lamb and close in the hens for the night.

Be well.

May 25, 2009

We're just finishing up a weekend of camping, family fun and loads of beer. It was great!

Saturday morning I picked up 20 17 week-old pullets from Meyer Hatchery up in Polk. They are Black Stars which are hybrid brown egg layers. So far we've gotten three little pullet eggs.

Sugar is well settled in her new home. Last night she had a mucus string hanging from her vulva which indicates a matter of days until freshening. We're doing our hand exercises over here in preparation. Meanwhile, she's grazing like crazy which is very nice because we have a huge surplus of grass and the butchers are coming next week to take 4 yearling lambs.

The garden is not done but should be by the end of the month. That's pretty good for us.

May 22, 2009

I spent most of the day in the garden with frequent checks on Sugar to see how she was settling in. Jennifer went to TSC to get the necessary supplies for treating and/or preventing milk fever. If you're reading this, thanks Polly!

One thing I never realized before is just how big cows are when you're used to dealing with sheep. That and the incredible quantity of poop and pee. Wow.

Sent from my iPod

May 21, 2009

Sugar is here.


She looks thinner than she did on Monday but I think the calf is lower than it was which is stretching the skin. I found out more about her from Jennifer's uncle. She is 3 1/2 years old and this will be her second calf. She is closed in her stall for the night because she doesn't know the boundaries yet and I would rather she find them in daylight.

What a difference between the way cows and sheep eat. The sheep are very picky about hay and eat all the best leafy parts first. Sugar just mows and if she drops some on the floor she picks it up and eats it. Nice.

We worked on the garden all afternoon manuring and laying down the plastic mulch. I'm off work tomorrow so we'll hit it hard. This is shaping up to be the first year we've had the garden in on time for many years. Knocking on wood...

May 20, 2009

Work was busy today. Actually the whole week has been busy dealing with 3 breakdowns on 2 different machine tools. One is fixed, one is diagnosed and will be fixed in the morning and the third...?!? Oh well, tomorrow is our short day and then we won't worry about it until next Tuesday. (We're on a 36 hour schedule - 10 hours Monday-Wednesday and 6 on Thursday).

I shallow tilled the garden today and plan to manure, mulch and plant tomorrow and Friday.

It looks like Sugar, our Jersey cow, will be arriving tomorrow!

May 19, 2009

I came home today and put the finishing touches on Sugar's stall (clean straw, good hay, water) in the hope that she will come tomorrow. While in the red barn, I noticed that our ram, Joash, is limping. It may be that the other ram butted him in the shoulder but if it's not better tomorrow, I'll look at his hoof.

I mowed around the garden and put up a short electric net to keep out rabbits. Last year we lost almost all of our peas and lettuce to the little thieves. It just needs a shallow till and will be ready for the bulk of the planting this week(end).

When I came home today, I peeked in the white barn and saw the cat food stealing raccoon in there chowing down. I nearly drew my .38 special snubby but thought the 124 gr. Gold Dot was probably overkill. Instead I came inside and had Jennifer get me her Walther P22 out of the safe. I went back out and performed the latter part of the Mozambique Drill and bye-bye masked marauder. The P22 might not be the ultimate in home defense but loaded with CCI Stingers it's a damn fine barn defense handgun.

I was just standing at the kitchen window and saw that the lamb races have begun. All of the lambs (less the bottle baby who is penned in the barn) were running and jumping and playing along the bank of the creek. It looks like great fun.

May 18, 2009

Last night I moved the rams into the smaller stall next door to get their old stall ready for a new occupant. We're getting a Jersey heifer this week. Her name is Sugar and she is due to freshen in the next few weeks. She was pasture-bred so we're not sure of the due date.

Jennifer's uncle is giving us the cow but we'll be giving him the calf after it's weaned. We're going to get a bull calf from our herdshare dairy for Sugar to nurse. That way we'll have beef for ourselves. We probably won't milk her until the calves are weaned.