Culling : to select from a group

The summer is drawing to a close, much as anyone here hates to admit it.  And with the end of summer begins one huge process...culling the herd. Thankfully, in families, we don't often look at the children and think,"Okay, which of you has to go?"...well, maybe sometimes...However, when we look at it from the farming standpoint, we are looking at (brutal honesty) finances and food.  What can we afford over winter, and what do we need to survive.
Occasionally there's the animal that has a personality we just can't part with (check out Intellectual Agrarian about Chickens), but on the general whole, we are pretty balanced in deciding who will stay and who will go.
To make the fun even fun-er, there's also the task of finding another home for the ones we can't bring ourselves to eat, or finding a butcher for the ones we can't wait to eat.
Did you know that poultry processors don't usually process waterfowl?  This means, if you go duck hunting...first find a butcher to take your dead ducks to, or do it yourself.
The Wife had purchased the ducks in hopes for duck eggs for the children allergic to chicken eggs...and it just makes sense that out of the five ducks she purchased from the local farm store-only one of them is female, and refuses to lay an egg with four males constantly at her side. Really, it's okay because we will eat duck.  The Farmer's Daughter, however, isn't going to be around for butchering.  Which leaves the butchering to the HausFrau and DIY Farmer's Daughters. You aren't missing it, they aren't jumping for joy.
Looking at the large animal livestock...culling is always harder.  First there is more than a dozen weeks involved in raising them. Secondly, there is the shear size of the animal.  We have goats and cow that have big brown knowing eyes.  We have a hard time looking into those eyes and thinking that those will be the tacos of tomorrow.  Often we just re-home in exchange for goods or services.  And, it's easy to say, "Let's butcher a six pound bird." Much harder to say, "Let's butcher a 300lb cow."
Regardless of how it happens, this season of culling has to happen.  Three acres simply cannot sustain a large livestock community.
And so, we begin the process of culling the herd.

Well, Hello Dolly!

Introducing the Newest Members of Foundation Family Farms...

"Dolly"-our someday milk cow-currently a three month old hefier calf. She's a Jersey-Angus Mix, given to us by dear friends.
Under her is "Chili Pepper" and in front of them is "Cayenne Pepper" our two newborn goatlings from mother "Paprika". They were born July 13 during dinner.  It was great fun to hear and see the excitement of all the children knowing that "Paprika" was giving birth while we were eating.  Dinner was a good excuse to get everyone out of the barn so she could have a little privacy, also.  When we were done eating everyone hustled out to see not just one baby, but two! 
It seems that the three have formed the "Future Milk Suppliers" Club.

So, come on down to the farm! The little kids are curious to meet you!

Dear Farmer's Morning Call

It is slightly unusual that Dear Farmer will call from the barn.
If we get a phone call, it's usually not good.
"I need help!" is most often the message.
So when the phone rang this morning, the Wife shouted-"It's Pop!"-before she even answered.  Children began scurrying and searching for shoes.  The house was in general chaos.

On the other end, this is what we heard:
"There is the cutest baby goat down here!  He's about four hours old."

A hip-hooray from the children went the cheer, and out the door they flew!
Babies are the chocolate of the job, with whipping creame and a cherry on top!  Baby Goats are nearly the most adorable thing we have ever seen.  They even rank higher than baby ducks(which are pretty darned cute as well).
And so, the children rushed down to say "good morning" to our newest member of the farm family...Peppercorn.  And a hearty congrats to his mom, Cumin.

We don't mind these phone calls from the barn ONE BIT!

Easy to be Distracted

It is the season that Dear Farmer and Family can be all too distracted.
There's chickens to be housed and cared for, buildings to build, the garden to plan and plant, goats hooves need to be trimmed, calf needs brushed, house needs little tweeks here and there, people to visit with, unending chores, fences to build, tractors to fix and clean, barns to clean, yard to cut....the list goes on and on....
With such a list, it's hard to "Stay On Task!"  {Perhaps that will be our theme this year...hmmmm....}
Priority given to things that must be done IMMEDIATELY!, like housing the little chicks.  And our missing 200...they came in yesterday...all 300 of them.  Someone at the chickery is having a good laugh, we think. The littlest chicks cannot fend for themselves, depending on us for their every need...
What else on the farm ranks in that same class? The smallest children.  Okay, both go on the highest priority.
Next on the list probably comes the rest of the animals, and medium size children.
And so on, and so forth...
But the list becomes hazy when the sun is shining and the birds are singing...and all Dear Farmer really wants to do is walk among the cows.  Sit in the shade and admire the beauty of creation.  Watch the children play Frisbee on a warm summer night.  These are both the reasons to keep plugging on through the work of today...and reasons to stay on task tomorrow.
Distractions can be the making of the memory...or the downfall of organization...
And so...we attempt to "Stay On Task!"
However, if you come to visit us, we'll happily be distracted!!!

The Wife's Log: April 14, 2016

The day started like any other day. The Pied Piper was sent outside to milk the goat, he returned in the house fifteen minutes later whining that the goat was not cooperating.
The Farmer's Daughter had to leave for work, but went down to milk the goat for the brother instead.
Meanwhile, the Haus Frau Farmer's Daughter (who just had a birthday) madly was doing her own chores so she could go and enjoy her new kayak on the pond.
The Wife drove the Farmer's Daughter to work and sent the Farm-boy Trio out to help Dear Farmer finish preparations for the incoming 1000 chicks this morning.
The Haus Frau Farmer's Daughter finished her work and pleaded to go kayaking on the pond. She took with her the Pied Piper.  The Keeper of the Flame and WhizBang! were anxiously anticipating the soon-to-be chick delivery. It is always amazing how the Wife can find jobs for waiting people to do...they began a job and disappeared "under the radar"(which means the Wife doesn't see them again)...
Left alone in the house with the smallest Farmer's Daughters, the Wife tried desperately to get dressed and clean the kitchen from the onslaught of breakfast.  With three "helpers"...it was going slowly.
In walked the Farmer's Shadow, who had a cold for the past few days and couldn't manage to get up and collect eggs.  He had been feeling well enough to make a dime, and brought in three dozen eggs that he found. He began sorting through the hay in the egg basket for the eggs in the middle of the kitchen floor. Hay all over one's kitchen floor, does not make a cleaning process go faster or smoother.
While changing a diaper and giving orders to the egg sorter a faint "Mother? Mother?" is heard above the roar of life.  The Haus Frau Farmer's Daughter was back with the Pied Piper--both wet.  Apparently all of kayaking is fun, except for the part when the electronic device slides out of the back pocket and lands in the murky bottom of the farm-pond. Tears were shed over the device that she was sure kept her world revolving...but lesson learned:  Don't go kayaking with anything in your pockets.
During the tears, and before the laughter, the chicks came in. Out went the Keeper of the Flame and the WhizBang!Farmer's Daughter to settle them down in brooding houses with Dear Farmer.
Into the house whooshed the Farmer's Daughter with a friend for a lesson on the attachment of fake eyelashes.  Upstairs echoed giggling and laughter. Downstairs we were preparing for a (hopefully) early lunch. With four helpers making lunch, snitching ingredients, and generally causing chaos lunch did happen.  All were called with a whistle.
Downstairs whooshed the Farmer's Daughter with friend to the next appointment.
In came Dear Farmer...the 1000 chicks were short...by 800???  On the phone went Dear Farmer to find out where 800 chicks are peeping currently.  In came the children to snarf down food, all are excited about being next to try out the kayak.  The Youngest Farmer's Daughter Trio is just too small to kayak.  Great tragedy's of life are often solved by popcorn and a movie about a dancing British mouse.  Which works once again today!
Clean up in the kitchen goes much faster without help.
The Pepper Goat was arguing with the Garlic Goat, and the Garlic Goat snapped the Pepper Goat's neck. Tears shed over the loss of a pack-goat, but quickly recovered with another ride on a kayak.
The Nordic Ninja is over to replace headlights and tail-lights with Dear Farmer. The Farmer's Daughter whooshes back home to change into work clothes and whooshes out again to evening work.
No one can find the 800 missing chicks currently, they are somewhere in the USPS(where I am sure someone is going mad listening to unrelenting peeping). Dear Farmer is working to build and wire infastructure, while at the same time keeping the phone nearby in case he hears word of the chicks.
And now, onto those dinner preparations...at 6pm the whole family will be at the table, there will be laughter of the fun, remembering the losses, and encouragement that we can all do this again tomorrow.
This is an amazing world we live in!

The Careful Planning of a Tiny House...or...The Size of My Shoe

Dear Farmer promised to build the Wife a tiny house in lieu of tent camping this year out at the garden.  The Wife has always loved tiny houses, we first started in one(see article: The Movement We Never Abandoned 2/23/2016 ) and the thought of being able to go back into one is a dream come to reality.
But exactly how to build a tiny house for a family of...ahem...thirteen?
Start by checking out the regulations for building a tiny house on wheels.  For a family of thirteen to live in the tiny house for an entire summer and fall...that size is SO not happening. He would need to build three tiny houses...but as we do not have three trailers, three vehicles to pull trailers, or three drivers. We quickly eliminate the wheels and trailer.
Now we are looking at building tiny house on skids.  This way house can be moved from location to location on site which makes the house an option for more uses.  If no one is residing in it, the house can become a storage shed, a studio, or even a chicken coop.
The tiny house will have two doors, two windows(actual double hung windows) and sleeping spots enough for thirteen.

But what happens to all the stuff you need?
Let's talk needs:
Food
Water
Clothing
Shelter

Those are all our basic human needs. Past that it's all luxuries.

The Wife has every intention of giving each child the luxury of electricity, internet, plumbing, fans, heat, and a small space for individual trinkets/toys.
Clothing will be kept in a mobile trailer that we will need to power-wash to get the stink of animals out of(the goats had lived there for a time) and Dear Farmer has plans to make it into a "family closet".
So far as washing those clothes go...a Laundromat isn't so bad, and if the Wife gets desperate to have her arms get a good workout, there's the clothing plunger and wringer secured on a tub.  Old Fashioned has a time and a place.
Now Dear Farmer is in the process of drawing up the plan for the tiny house for the Wife.  He estimates the size to be 10 x 20.
I guess for the summer the Wife will be the "...little old lady who lived in a shoe, she had so many children she didn't know what to do...".  Perhaps, like the Gilbreth Family (Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank and Ernistine Gilbreth) we will have to name the tiny house "THE SHOE".

This Farm has Princesses

The Bucket, the middle-younger Farmer's Daughter, loves to DO just about anything...as long as it works into the current play...
"Mama, you be the Princess Mama, and I am the Princess Mermaid.  What are we doing Mama?"
Usually the Princess Mermaid's Mama responds, "Unloading the dishwasher." After that job, there's plenty more!  Anything can be done singing and laughing as long as we are Princess Mama and Princess Mermaid.
Chicken Dinner, the youngest-younger Farmer's Daughter, tags along with the Bucket.  She tries desperately to be a princess, but past looking cute is yet mastering anything else. Apparently her primary job in the house is to "seek and destroy".
The Bucket tries to wrangle and teach, but Chicken Dinner is young enough to not care about her sister's direction and will march off in her own tornado.
Over-seeing the entirety of the Princess Population is the Oldest of the Youngest Farmer's Daughters...Me-Oh-My!  She is the one that has to be the boss over everything, even if she doesn't know what's going on...she is the oldest of them!  And having the three bigger Farmer's Daughters always bossing Me-Oh-My! around, she knows how it should be done:

"No, no, Bucket, Princesses do it this way!"
"No, no, 'Ninner Dinner!!! Don't Touch that!!!"
"NOOOO!  We will play this or NOTHING!"

Me-Oh-My! Can be ruthless...


Before I had three Younger Farmer's Daughters, I had no idea Princesses could herd goats, use chickens as confetti that they throw to imaginary admirers, or dance through cow-pies in high-heeled play shoes.  I never foresaw a princess dress riding on a tractor, or a tiara-clad little girl dunking chick-heads.
All of this must prove that Princesses really can be everywhere, and do everything. Even farming.

Buying Fencing...or...The Reason Dear Farmer Takes His Wife Shopping

So off to the local farm supply store Dear Farmer and the Wife go!  It's date-night!

On the list: goat oats, new collar for polar bear(she's chewed off the other), and...fencing.

About three seconds outside the store the Wife realizes...she forgot her phone at home.

"Ugh!", says Dear Farmer, "Why do you even HAVE a phone?!"(This is a mute argument, everyone knows Wives have phones so they can leave them where they are not.)

The Wife says to Dear Farmer, "Don't worry.  I'm a big girl! I can handle the farm supply store.  I'll get what I need for the goats and the polar bear and I'll meet you in the fencing supply."

And so off they separate.

Dear Farmer goes off to the fencing supply.

The Wife detours to the kitchen gadgets, then rounds the corner to the canning supplies, over to the shoes...boots...children's boots...looks for all the sizes for the children who are needing shoes, realizes the boots cost more than she is willing to spend...over to the clearance racks for clothing..., down past the baby clothes(that are so darn cute!  do we know anyone that is having a baby???), through all the garden supplies, checking out the seeds, meanders through the paint department(to grab some colors that she'll never get to paint, but wouldn't it be nice to dream), through the hunting section, over to the bikes, and the books, and the dog toys....picks up the collar for the polar bear, picks up the goats oats, and turns to the fencing...
where she finds Dear Farmer.

It's been an hour.

 Dear Farmer is staring at a computer screen.
This is where he's to order the fence.
There's no one around to help him work the computer.
 He looks at the Wife and growls, "I hate technology!  I've been messing with this screen and I can't get it to the stuff I want!"

The Wife has two choices: Do it herself or find an associate.
She opts for the associate.
Over one aisle she finds an associate and explains a farmer needs his help.
 He doesn't look surprised.

Dear Farmer tells the associate what he needs.  The associate finds it, makes the screen work just fine, asks Dear Farmer if there is anything else he can help him with, and prints out the needed papers for the check out.  Dear Farmer laughs with the associate about the "good ol' days" when a person spoke to another person and they handed them what they needed.  The associate smiles and nods, then walks away...Dear Farmer figures the associate must be about twelve, "Had no idea what I was talking about.", he says.

Dear Farmer and the Wife go to the check out.

The cashier checks them out, she's about twelve as well.
They hand the cashier cash.
She looks at Dear Farmer almost sympathetically as she asks if he would like to open a credit card with the store.
Dear Farmer replies a solid, "No."
The cashier has to inspect the bills, draw on them with a marker, and then the computer tells her exactly what change to hand back.
She didn't have to do any math.

Dear Farmer and the Wife drive away with everything on the list.  Most importantly the fencing...

On the way home the conversation is about how young everyone in looks these days, and how young the police officers are(do their mothers know they carry guns?!).  They laugh about the not having to do math, and the credit card offers.  They giggle about the computers that aren't Dear Farmer's friends.

It's the fun of the evening...it's the lighter side of a boring activity...it's life...Dear Farmer's life.

Waiting for the Rain

Every day, without fail, Dear Farmer is checking the weather. Using his instinct as a farmer, his skills as an untrained meteorological professional, and the ache in his sinus cavity: he interprets the various websites that predict weather, reads the forecast in the farmer's almanac, and watches the animals.

The old-saying is true...cows will lay down when it's going to rain.
The cows feel the change in the pressure system, and when it gets too heavy, they lay down(probably because of the throbbing headache...have you seen the size of a cows sinus cavity?).  So usually we see the cows lay down, and then they get up-move to high ground, and the rain starts.

The goats will smell the rain coming and run inside the barn.  Goats hate to get wet.

Our farm dogs will beg to come inside.  They are wimps when it comes to rain.  One of our dogs will hide in the hallway...the sound of the rain on the metal roof scares her.

Dear Farmer hasn't started to ache in a joint or "feel it in his bones"...but he does get it right more often than the weatherman.

The Thrill of Discovery!

Winter is a gigantic treasure hunt on the farm.  Things that were supposed to be put away the night before are covered by a white blanket of snow in the morning. Chickens are hiding in the hay bales to stay warm. Goats are burying themselves under hay to stay warm.  Dogs are burrowing bones and toys to keep away from chickens and goats who might want them.
Often through the day we use these opportunities to be treasure seekers. Sending the Farm-boy Trio to find the shovels...was it really an accident they were left out?  Perhaps they were hoping that the snow would make the shovels melt-away?  That glove that the HausFrau Farmer's Daughter let the puppy hold...he's now burrowed it away to insure she returns with him later.
But the absolutely most wonderful discovery is the EGGS!
As the cold gets colder our independent chickens like to hide their eggs, if they lay one. So eggs become like "gold".  There are many things that we simply won't make in the winter due to lack of eggs.  Eggs for breakfast is the first to go...Eggs in recipes are counted.  Happy are the days that we find more than four eggs!  Exciting are the days that we can have a full dozen in the fridge!
We talk about the days of having eggs as though they were years ago, with wars and children between them. Really...it was a short two months ago...
It is something that we look forward to returning to...the day we find TWO DOZEN EGGS!

The Goats are Messing Up the Barn

Dear Farmer is in the midst of a frustrating situation.  The Goats are being goats.
They are climbing his hay like mountains and while doing so, they are making a mess of the hay.
The Goats are jumping and romping up the steep cliffs of the bales as though it were nothing.  They bounce around like they have anti-gravity-hooves.  They are healthy, happy, and energized Goats.
Gone are the days of Dear Farmer having the barn all to himself, the hay remaining neatly stacked until he fed it...the Goats are terrorizing his solitude.  The Goats seem to have no concern for the neatness in the hay bales.
 Dear Farmer is aghast!
He comes inside at night shaking his head and moaning..."my hay.  they are wrecking my hay bales..."
The Wife looks at Dear Farmer.
She has two children hanging on either leg, snotty smiles and giggles.  She is holding a baby who needs a diaper change(again).  The living room is covered in legos and children. An art project is strewn out on the table with more children.  There is lots of activity inside the house.  Yelling, laughing, thumping activity. Happy and healthy, energized children.
The Wife offers to Dear Farmer, "I'll send the children out to the barn to help you clean up from the Goats."
 Dear Farmer actually looks around, at the Wife, at the house, at the children.
"No...I'll go clean it up later." , he says.
And Dear Farmer goes back out to his barn...and the Goats.  It's really not that bad of a mess down at the barn.

So you want to be a farmer? The Reality of Being Organic and Sustainable

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it comes dressed in overalls and looks like work."
-Thomas Edison

If you thought that recycling made you sustainable and organic meant that you didn't use deodorant, then we're a shocker for you.  We take that to a whole new level!!!(Yes, we do use odor protection.)
Sustainable means we put up enough hay in the summer to feed the herd in the winter, and we're planning on growing the grass again next year. So we mow it when it goes to seed-head.  It's not a nice lawn look all year.  Sometimes during the summer it may look quite shaggy-depending on rainfall.
It means when there's an apple tree in the field, we pick it and sauce it so we have food in the winter. We don't complain the apples are the size of your thumb. Sometimes sustainability can take on the same look as common-sense...a chicken gets used four different ways. First as a vet for the cows as it cleans the pasture, next as an egg layer, third as a stew bird for dinner, and lastly as chicken broth preserved for later. We use the sun and air we breathe to dry our clothes, for light during the day and that "fresh air" smell on our sheets.
Everything that's sustainable is hard work, there's no skating by.  Burning wood for heat means cutting the wood, splitting the wood, and stacking the wood-sometimes in the coldest day of the winter.
But it's so worth it!
Organic means we don't use anything God didn't create for fertilizer, animals, and food.  We use our own animals to fertilize the pastures, then give them a dose of watered down compost for good measure.  We don't breed animals to have the biggest body-parts for show or production, we take them as God made them and use them right. That's why our goats have horns, cats have claws, and chickens have bone and skin!  We let the animals eat the grass, the apples, the leaves, the herbs-and we don't peel back an ear of corn for them.  This is the way God meant it to be.
Before you think this is all daisies and roses, can I be quite frank?  Because of this life we live...there are things you may want to consider...wear mud boots(real ones, not fashionable ones) to get to the door. There's chicken poop everywhere.  Why? They have wings, they fly any where they want to.  That means to the house, not just in the barnyard.
There's a goat who will greet you at the car door, and will gladly display for you how she can urinate on your foot and poop all the way to the front door of the house.
The cats like to leave "gifts" everywhere.  Dead mice, voles, ground squirrels, chipmunks...
Be prepared for dirt.  The windows are open in the house and it coats the furniture...really, I dusted it off six times today from the dark wood piano!  The dirt covers feet, shoes, clothes, and gets under nails.  It sticks to the cobwebs created overnight, and onto the faucets where children were washing it off.  It doesn't matter how we attempt to get rid of it, it comes back. A magazine cover will never show the reality of farm life dirt.
The mess. There's a plethora of misc. tools, equipment, toys, and vehicles that don't run. The reality is, we're busy staying alive, there'll be a time to make it all clean(when the dumpster is here), but right now isn't that time.  So, if you're OCD(which I find I am) take a deep breathe and close your eyes as you walk past it. The mess won't change the taste of dinner, and it also won't make the photo shoot for the magazine cover(thankfully).  So just move on. Lastly, prepare yourself for a new brand of sweat.  I promise, we do use odor protection, but it doesn't help the amount of sweat we produce.  It doesn't matter what time of year it is, there's hard physical work we're doing.  Whether it's under the hot sun or bundled in the dead of winter-people around here are sweating!  No need for aerobics class, we pitchfork hay around for hours. Snow-shoeing and cross country skiing are means for checking the fence lines.  Walking miles is a form of transportation, not relaxation. And when you see people standing around this kitchen with dripping hair or frozen hair and wet shirts and socks, covered head to toe in dirt and poop-laughing about the day they just had...know that they've accomplished the "Organic" label that went on that product in the store. AND LIFE IS GOOD!

Farm-Boys Do Not Clean a Bedroom

Go ahead and tell the Wife all you want to about making boys clean their own bedrooms...it's nothing she hasn't told herself....however, the Farm-Boy Trio's bedroom was so BAD there was just no way she was going to ask for, require, or wanted their help. The bedroom needed an adult size heart of a prison guard, the adult size muscles, and a mother's love.
Just to give you a little taste of what the Wife has found in the Farm-Boys' bedroom in the past, here's the ugly side:

• a dead vole in a jar under a bed-pillow (which the Wife was told, it's not dead, it's just sleeping)
• molded chimichangas stuffed under the bed (when did we last eat chimichanga's???)
• hardened banana peels in the closet
• underwear worn by a boy who didn't make it to the bathroom soon enough...under the pile of clean clothes.
• dead worms (they assured the Wife they were dead and dried when they came into the room, it was a scientific discovery)

this is just a few...the ones that made it onto the short list....

What kind of mother are you? A mother who has happy healthy children, who had a disgusting bedroom.

So now the Wife gave the Farm-Boy Trio the choice, "You may go outside and play with your goats, or work next to me cleaning your disgusting bedroom."
The choice was unanimous to go outside.  And for the entire four hours that it took the Wife to clean the bedroom spotlessly wonderful, the Farm-Boy Trio played outside with their goats.  The goats loved the attention, the Wife loved the solace of peace while cleaning, and the Farm-Boy Trio loves the clean bedroom.  No disgusting discoveries were made during the cleaning this time...and once again the Wife is on the war path that the bedroom should NEVER look like that again!

To Be Industrious

Farming and the character trait of Industriousness go hand in hand.  Did you know that?
The Wife had first discovered this during childhood while talking with her Grandma the Amazing Farm Wife. When Grandma, while hanging laundry on the line, said,"A gardener doesn't go hungry.  It's hard work, but it feeds the family when others might go without." She had said this to The Wife when she lived in town.  Her garden consumed the entire side of the corner lot the house sat on, and it also shared the space with the walkway from the ally and the clothesline.  Looking back, it was a Norman Rockwell moment, but at the time, it was just barely appreciated.  One simple sentence and it planted the seed of Industriousness in The Wife for the rest of her life.

Living on the farm now we have no choice but to be industrious at times...the cows got out and there was no gate to block the road, we had to figure out how to make three people seem like a very large deterrence at the road side...things like this happen often enough to make you prepared at a moment's notice.
Then there's times that we choose to be industrious...to heat with wood, to milk a goat, to make soap, or to boil down bones for broth.
We see our children taking industriousness to the next level...knitting hats, gloves, dishcloths, crocheting blankets, stuffed animals, and slippers, making gifts with wood and nails, and training goats to pack-goat so they don't have to carry the heavy loads.

Recently we spent time with our Uncle Intelligentsia and his wife, Aunt Intelligentsia.  It was fantastic to hear Aunt Intelligentsia tell us of her process to insure the city where they live in be educated and funded for the community garden project.  She has had to be Industrious to see healthy lives restored even in the city.

Dear Farmer looks at Industriousness as a part of sustainable agriculture.  If there is no character of Industriousness in a farmer, there won't be a sustainable farm.  The two go hand in hand.
It's not easy, not always fun, sometimes barely appreciated...but it will change lives for generations.

Dear Farmer is "Old Fashioned"

I know that title surprises you, doesn't it?!
Dear Farmer spent the day battling the weather.  Freezing snow and rain mix pelted him all day.  Add to that the loveliness of high winds and biting cold, it was perfect winter weather for the North.  That is what Dear Farmer worked in all day.  Walking back and forth between hay feeders, with hay and without hay to get more hay. Opening and closing hydrants for water tanks.  Carrying feed buckets for the chickens, watering the chickens, gathering eggs, building pens for the goats and "polar bear"-puppy in the barn, so they were sheltered from the weather, and chasing calves (who were jumping through the feeders) back into the barnyard.  That was all Dear Farmer did, all day, twelve hours.
Now when Dear Farmer walked in the door to the house(frozen) he relaxed in the warm room next to the woodstove...and picked up a book.  Totally oblivious to the bug-eyed teenage Farmer's Daughters sitting on the couches in the room.  The girls had a crazed look in their eyes.  The look that said, "I haven't talked to anyone but my family ALL DAY!"  There were dolls on the floor mixed with legos and pattern blocks, a nice array of board books and wood chips decorated the area directly where he sat thawing.  But he didn't notice.  Suddenly, as if the veil had been lifted from his face, he saw everything.  The Farmer's Daughters, the mess, the twitching eyebrow on the Wife's face.
"Eh?" , said Dear Farmer
He was answered (enthusiastically) by all the Farmer's Daughters all at once.  Though it sounded like dull humm of an outboard motor in water, there was one common thread he could understand from all the girls..."The storm has taken out the internet!"{GASP!}
What that means is on this particularly miserable day, while all the children had off school-work, they were cooped up inside and not one of them could stream a video, not one could text a friend, no one could check out the blogs, the news, or social media of any kind.  It had been a day where all they can do was read a book or talk to eachother.  They played games together, they painted eachother's nails, they drew pictures of animals, we had conversations.  It was a great day!  But quite frankly the Wife was ready to have everyone go to bed, her ears had begun to ring from so much interaction. (thus the twitching eyebrow).
But the internet being gone was no big deal for Dear Farmer.  He was glad it was gone...we had an old fashioned evening.  All was quiet, the Old Fashioned kind of quiet.

Pepper and the Pied Piper: Pack-Goat Training Day Four

"He won't obey!"
"Pepper isn't being a nice boy."
"Can I have a new goat?"

Pepper and the Pied Piper are well suited for eachother.  Both have a tendency to go their own way, both are thinking they are the only "right" ones, and both have an unending supply of stubbornness and energy.
Add to all that that both not liking eachother right now, and we have the perfect couple.

So, the Pied Piper has taken Pepper out on a walk every day.  Pepper, being a goat, now feels he is "owed" this walk-regardless of how he has behaved at any other time in the day.
The morning bucking and ramming, the nipping and nudging all aside, at two-o'clock, it's time for a walk!
The Pied Piper is just not understanding why Pepper gets his walk when he's not a being a good boy, doesn't that mean he should be disciplined?  The Wife is in the process of making the Pied Piper understand that it means they should go for more walks, so Pepper understands, he's being worked, not pampered.  The food doesn't come free around here, let alone cheap.
The Pied Piper has to go for a walk every day at two-o'clock.  It doesn't matter how whiny and fussy he is in the morning, or how precocious he's been in the afternoon.  And depending on the level of noise he's creating in the house, he's sent out on even more walks throughout the day.  The Wife is in the process of making the Pied Piper understand that certain behavior is not acceptable and energy should be expelled productively and outside.

Both boy and goat are working on character building, but neither of them know it.  Both boy and goat are building a relationship, and neither are appreciating it.  Both boy and goat are exhausted at night, and the Wife is loving it!

Pack Goat Training: Day One

Always in a quest to make animals more useful, we are endeavoring to make our goats "pack-goats".
How is this useful? I am so glad you asked...here's the story....

So, throughout the year (the winter especially) the Wife is looking for ways to keep the Farmboy Trio busy in positive and character-building pursuits.  A lazy boy is eventually a naughty boy.  That's the Wife's theory. In the quest to make animals constantly useful, and mixed with the need to engage three little Farmboys, the Wife found an article on "Pack Goats".  Does anyone else remember the picture of the goat with the straw hat and sweet little backpack on his back from Richard Scarry books?  Goats pulling carts of children and fencing supplies, children taking goats on adventures with packs full of supplies, Dear Farmer getting his lunch delivered to him via "pack-goat". That was exactly what the Wife thought of!  Add to that the picturesque thought of a brother leading his goat which is pulling a cart with his sister in it(both children clean and smiling faces) and you have a Wife on a mission!!!
"Dear Farmer, we must train our goats!", declared the Wife, and off she went in search of training material.  Dear Farmer, I think, mumbled something that was probably an "okay" and rolled over to go back to sleep...because it was probably very late at night and as soon as the sun goes down, so does Dear Farmer. Anyways, the Wife has been reading blogs and watching youtube videos like mad to learn how to teach the Farmboy Trio to train the goats.

Well, today was the first day of training.  It started to rain at about 9am, and it hasn't stopped since.  But neither rain nor lack of time was to dissuade the Wife from setting out with four children (Farmboy Trio and also WhizBang!Farmer's Daughter) for goat-training day number one.
The Keeper of the Flame has decided to work with "Garlic", a brown Billy Goat.
The Pied Piper is working with "Pepper", a black and white Billy Goat.
The WhizBang!Farmer's Daughter is working with "Paprika", a dark-brown doeling.
The Little Farmhand(Dear Farmer's Shadow) was working with "Cumin", a light brown doeling.

Step one: Entice the goat to always be your friend by feeding them a peanut.
This was very easy.  Everyone got this one, no problem.

Step two:Put collar and leash on goat.
The Billy Goats got a little concerned during this process, the doelings didn't notice what we were doing, they were looking for where we had pulled the peanuts out from.

Step three: Take the goats on a long walk.  This will build up endurance.  Make sure you tell them where to go, not them telling you where to go.
And here's where the rubber met the road.  In the rain there were children walking, running, laughing and grunting.  Goats were pulling and tugging, nibbling and nudging, jumping and bucking.  It must have been quite a sight for the cars driving by.  Rain and cold with children and goats all over the place in the mud and fields.  It was the Little Farmhand that couldn't get "Cumin" to cooperate.  Plead with her as he did, she was more interested in getting out of the rain than playing with the little boy.  He was crushed.  We told him that we would do it again on a day when it's not raining, maybe she will be better.  But in the end, the only thing that made life any better was sitting by the woodstove and reading a book with the Wife.

Well, day one went well. We'll consider it a success, if for no other reason, because the humans got out there and did something productive. The goats didn't lay around the hay barn all day just getting fat, they were expected to get out there an do something as well.  Everybody ready for day two???

The Goats Preferred Warmer Weather

Really, can you blame them?  Just a couple short days ago they were nibbling on pasture grass.  Today they are eating dry hay.  A couple of day ago they were sunning themselves on the deck.  Today they are laying on a bale of hay out of the cold wind and off the cold ground.  We are all pretty sure that when they come out to greet us, they are saying, "Where did the sunshine go?"
When the Wife strapped on the snowshoes to take the goats on a walk they looked at her with eyes that said, "Is this what we have come to?  You expect me to...what?"
When the Farmer's Daughter and the Pied Piper went out to milk the goat she tentatively got on the stand and looked back at them as if to say, "You warmed your hands, right?!"
Everything moves a bit slower in the cold. The goats are nice and insulated between the forage from the woods, the pasture and the chicken feed they gorged on when Dear Farmer forgot to cover the bucket. Their winter coats have grown in nice and thick, thanks to the alpine heritage.  They really are ready for winter.  However, I think they are praying for a quick spring with the rest of us.

Landscaping Plan for 2016

The Wife was planning out what to do for landscaping...she thought, "Ooooo, a garden of planters!"  She planted herbs in the pots and planters, she fastened a small fence around the area, dreaming of a trellis for the opening (someday).  Then the chickens came....and the chickens loved the pots to sit on and nibble herb dinners and the planters to poop in. The children saw the fence and they used it as hurdles in games of tag and the "jail" in kick-the-can.
New plan...those tiger-lilies look nice around all the trees, perhaps they aren't so haphazard as she thought they were.  We could expand the tiger-lilies, get some other colors (besides orange) and feel very "old lady"-like.  Then the goats came...and the goats thought the tiger-lilies were candy, and they ate and ate and ate them to the ground.  Well, scratch that one.
New plan...the Wife thought,"The children jump and run through fences, the goats eat plants, the chickens poop on everything and nibble the herbs...what can I plant that will be safe and look nice?"  And then she found the joys of a yard-full of slides and swings, a climbing wall and ladders, bikes, scooters and roller blades.  Yep, one full acre of playground.  That's how we're landscaping in 2016.
There will be a day when the yard will be landscaped and look like no one lives here, but that will be when our family doesn't live here at all.  For while we are here, when you drive past, please enjoy our landscaping.

What can you do without?

Our two cousins came to visit this weekend.  It's alot like the "city mouse" and the "country mouse".  Not meaning that in a bad-way, just simply there are two different lifestyles between them and us.
Well, the temperature dropped the first night they were here...and that meant firing up the woodstove for heat.  That was pretty wonderful!  Your whole house is heated by one woodstove? Yep.
THERE'S MORE!  Our Fabulous Aunt and Uncle came for a visit...and brought store-bought-in-a-box cereal!!!  Apparently this is a big deal in your house.  Yep.
BUT WAIT!  THERE'S MORE!
What no one counted on is: because of the temperature drop, the doe-lings didn't want cold bellies, and nursed off the milk-goat all night.  So, after milking the goat, we had about a quarter cup of milk in the morning....
We were going to be eating dry cereal for breakfast.
You actually eat the goat's milk on cereal? Yep.
It brought the Wife to thought...here are two children who are experiencing a life totally foreign from their own world.  We don't buy our milk at a store, we light a fire for the heat, and we only have store-bought-in-a-box cereal when Fabulous Aunt and Uncle bring it....
What would our children be like in their world?
For a couple days the cousins had to do without a bunch of modern comforts (privacy would be a big one in our family), and they had a great time (and very little sleep).  What would our children have to do without in their world?
Like the "city mouse" and the "country mouse" discovered, there's beauty in all places.  To find contentment right where you are is a thing you should never do without.