Dispatches from The Haven

Christmas Kids

2012-01-03T11:32:00.005-05:00

Between the 15th and 25th of December all 4 does kidded. There are 3 sets of twins and one singleton for a total of 7 kids. Unfortunately, only one of them is female. The upside is that we will get plenty of goat meat out of the bunch, but, of course, there's an unpleasant aspect to that too. Anyway, they are all as cute as can be! With P
aul and Terra out of town for an extended holiday vacation with family, I played midwife with Andreas the wwoofer as my assistant. The births all went pretty smoothly, with Lily leading the way with her boy Augustus. Zella gave birth 4 days later, producing the only female plus another male (names to be determined by Paul and Terra but for the time being we are calling them Diana and Apollo). Katie birthed Caligula and Nero the following day, and Maegan kidded on Christmas morning. We couldn't resist naming Maegan's kids after some of Santa's reindeer, so we named them Comet and Cupid. Romulus (the mythological founder of Rome) sired this crop of kids, so the kids' names have a Roman connection.

We are now back in milk, so we have started making cheese again. A batch of mozz was made yesterday. We are looking forward to making the cheeses we made last year and trying out some new ones as well. We also have plenty of eggs right now, since The Haven pullets started laying in October. Lots of milk and eggs - yay!

Happy New Year!

-Annie

A Bountiful Bazaar

2011-12-06T20:32:00.004-05:00

The annual Cotton Mill Farmers' Market holiday bazaar was in mid-November. It was very well attended, and Freaky Farms and Full Life Farm did quite well. Yay! I sold soap, lotion, and luffa in addition to some beets, which I decided that I did not have time to can. Santa was there too with an elf and some "reindeer": a pony, a miniature pig, and a miniature goat. Raine got his photo taken with Santa and some of his friends.

My winter garden is small, but it is coming along well. I have some kale, mustard greens, and arugula growing. Plus, I planted a bunch of brussels sprouts. I have not grown any of this type of plant before, so I was excited when they started sprouting brussels. :-) I got my garlic planting done just after Halloween. I planted 46 cloves this year. Otherwise, I have been cleaning up my garden beds, digging a couple of new beds (thanks to wwoofer Andreas!), and planning next year's garden. I can't wait to try some new plants, including a melon, lima beans, and a different type of basil called Mammoth Basil.

The porch now has a roof. Hooray! The grill has been moved onto it, and some firewood is stacked there for easier access to fuel for our wood-burning stove, which will keep us warm through the winter months. We plan to eventually screen in the porch.

Lastly, it looks like all four of our does are going to be having babies soon. December should be an exciting month!

-Annie

Fall Farm Tours

2011-10-19T16:12:00.005-04:00

We participated in the local CSA's Fall farm tours day on October 15, and approximately 40 people visited us at The Haven that day. It was a beautiful day, and we enjoyed showing our visitors around and selling Freaky Farms products, including lotion. I have been experimenting with lotion-making lately and made some available for sale for the first time on the tour day. Sales went really well. :-)

My pepper plants are still producing well, especially after August when we started getting a little more rain. I don't think it rained a single day during the month of August. My eggplants are also doing very well, and I hope to have another crop of tomatoes come in before the first frost. I still have a few Moon Glow tomato plants still producing. My fall garden is also coming along. I planted beets, brussel sprouts, mustard greens, and kale - the latter two from saved seeds. Additionally, my arugula and dill plants reseeded well. Later this month I will plant garlic, and soon I will start harvesting luffa.

We haven't made much more progress on the porch, but we did get the floor weatherized. Paul and Jeff have also worked on weatherizing the barn by painting it with used motor oil. We've made more progress on the retaining wall. All of the tires have been pounded, and a big pile of dirt is ready to be spread around. More clover seed has been spread below the wall, and not all of it was washed away by rains this time. Yay!

We have sold all of the 2011 kids, and at least one doe has been bred again so far. Katie is due to kid in late December. Lily and Zella usually breed in late Sept/early Oct, but no mating has been witnessed, and Romulus, our buck, hasn't been obviously as horny as he was back in July, when he and Katie were observed to be getting it on. Perhaps Romulus has just been keeping his cool around the ladies more since then, or maybe all four does were bred back in July. Hopefully, the breeding will turn out to be spread out, but not knowing when to expect the does to kid makes things more challenging. Anyway, we are still getting milk, but it is less than a half gallon a day now. We made a lot more cheese with the milk this year, including mozzarella and chevre. Yum! We look forward to lots more cheese-making next year. :-)

-Annie

A Rainey Day

2011-07-23T18:40:00.018-04:00

Well, the blog has not been updated in quite a while, but I have a pretty good reason: Raine is here! He was born on his due date, May 18. Unfortunately, he was not born at home as planned, but he is healthy (and absolutely precious). I, on the other hand, will finish recuperating someday. ;-) My water broke early and labor didn't progress fast enough. Low dose pitocin was needed to augment labor. I gave birth to Raine, without the use of pain meds, at 11am, after 33 hours of labor. Jeff, Terra, and my mom were present as well as my 2 midwives, who delivered me: my "dream team." :-) I also appreciate all of the wonderful women who participated in my blessing way ceremony and everyone who has been so supportive during the pregnancy and following the birth, including those who brought us yummy meals and gave us generous baby gifts.

So much has happened since the last post...Katie and Maegan each had a kid. They each had only one male kid, but Maegan's kid died a few weeks after birth and we don't know the cause. Both Katie and Maegan are good producers of milk, especially Maegan, for whom this is her second freshening. We were also given a couple of Lamancha baby girls by a local dairy, because they were sickly and they didn't have the time to manage them. One died but we were able to nurse the other back to health. Hopefully, we will be able to sell her as well as Zella's two girls and Katie's boy. Romulus, our buck whom we bottle fed as a baby last year, has gone into rut recently, and we think he has already bred Katie. It would be nice to space out the breeding of our four does, but we don't have the capability of doing that yet, so we're crossing our fingers that the does go into heat at different times. Fencing out more pasture is on the to-do list, among many many other things.

I think we started work on a retaining wall on the west side of the house sometime in March in order to take care of the erosion issues there. We are building it with dirt packed used tires. In May we began constructing a porch on the house. The floor and a ramp have been completed so far. The plan is to cover it and screen it in. We can't wait to grill on it and spend time there during the cooler hours of the day. It will also help shade that side of the house and provide extra space for all of our activities and things such as the baby stroller.

The gardens this year are coming along fairly well - even mine, although I have been rather neglectful lately with the baby to take care of. I planted around 25 tomato plants of 5 different vareties, and Paul planted many many more than that. We have canned at least 40 quarts of tomatoes and put many quarts of salsa in the freezer so far this year (thanks to the help of the Kunzlers, a family of five currently wwoofing with us). Lately, We've been enjoying tomato sandwiches with homemade mayo, pesto, and goat cheese. YUM! My favorite tomato varieties right now are Brandywine, Moonglow, and Tommy Toes. I'm also growing peppers, beans, and eggplant currently. I'm having much better luck with eggplant than I have in the past. I was also able to grow dill for the first time this year. However, the gourd and luffa vines aren't producing at all this year. I should ammend the soil well next year. Paul's feed corn and okra patches are doing well in the front garden currently.

I continue to make soap with the help of our wwoofers. I sell them at the farmers' market, when I am able to go, but they are also being sold in two local stores and on the internet.

We used an incubator to hatch out some new chicks, and now we have about 30 young chickens in the first pasture. All of the other Haven chickens are in the pasture with the new coop. Among the new chickens are a good number of Australorps, our best laying breed. Also, a neighbor gave us a Dominicker hen, who is often broody and makes a good mother. None of The Haven hens seem to be very broody, so we hope to use the Dominicker hen for hatching out new chicks in the future.

The newest additions at The Haven, though, are a couple of kittens that the wwoofing family found along the road between The Haven and Full Life Farm. We decided to keep them and make them barn cats in the hopes that they will help control our mouse population. We are currently calling them Thing One and Thing Two.

-Annie

Kidding season has arrived!

2011-03-17T13:21:00.008-04:00

Lily had her babies on Feb. 24: triplets - all boys. Unfortunately, one of them didn't make it. He was born weak, with a lot of fluid in his lungs, and he died minutes after birth. It was sad, but grilled baby goat is pretty tasty. Anyway, that left 1 brown kid and 1 white one - just like her kids from last year, except male. Zella kidded exactly 1 week later, hours after my mom arrived for her visit. Zella also had triplets, as she did last year: 2 girls and a boy. So we have 5 new kids frolicking around The Haven right now. It is still uncertain whether or not our other 2 does will have babies this spring as well.

Lily had some problems following the birth. She was very lethargic, had a somewhat hard udder, and was not producing much milk. She got treated at the vet, and she is doing much better, although we are still concerned about her milk production. We supplemented her kids' diet with bottle feedings for awhile, using milk from another goat farmer and Zella milk after she kidded. We will start separating Lily and her kids at night this week in order to start milking her in the mornings. Hopefully, she will be producing a sufficient quantity of milk for us.

We got a disbudding iron and disbudded the kids ourselves this year. Hopefully, we did a good job, and none of them will grow horns. At least, we and the kids all appear to have survived the experience.

The mudroom and the hoop house are full of seedlings for this year's spring garden. Paul has already put many plants in his garden beds already, and I have some kale and mustard greens that overwintered in my beds, in addition to the garlic I planted last fall and the perennial herbs. Paul has dug more beds in the front yard and enclosed the area with some chicken wire to keep out the rabbits. We also planted a couple of blackberry bushes in the front garden area and 7 blueberry bushes in an area we cleared on the other side of the driveway. Four redbud trees were planted along the driveway, and an oak and a beech tree were planted near the northwest corner of the house, which will hopefully help shade the house someday. Lastly, some flowers were planted too, including a few irises and poppies given to us by a friend, as well as hundreds of daffodils, which we dug up from a nearby cow pasture. We are still trying to figure out what to do with our remaining yard, full of red clay and erosion issues.

We have separated our Australorps from our other chickens, mostly because the rooster was getting too beat up by the top dog rooster but also to be prepared with hatching eggs, whenever a hen goes broody and is ready to sit on some eggs. The Australorps are our best layers, and they now reside back in a chicken tractor in the first pasture. The rest of the chickens are still in the coop house, which we recently built and is working out really well.

Lastly, I am still on schedule to hatch out my baby in mid-May. Two months to go! My big belly has started slowing me down quite a bit, especially as things get crammed up under my ribs, which is really uncomfortable and even painful at times. Ack, I wonder what the next 2 months will be like! Anyway, Raine is a very active little guy (although he doesn't feel so little sometimes), and we are all excited to meet him in a couple months.

-Annie

Keeping Warm

2011-01-14T09:48:00.008-05:00

The snow and ice from Sunday's strom are finally melting. Things have been closed down around here for most of the week, and we have spent a lot of time sitting around the wood burning stove watching videos. The goats have not been convinced to stray far from the barn, since the storm. Some of the chickens are out and about, but they often end up ice skating across the top of the crusty snow. Ha! We didn't quite get the new chicken house completed before this storm and cold spell hit, but it has a roof, walls, and roosts now, which are providing better shelter than the tractors did. Hopefully, we'll get a door on it soon, as well as nesting boxes and a storage cabinet for their feed and other supplies.

Jeff and I experienced a white christmas in Murphy, NC, where we celebrated the holiday with the Davis family. A bunch of us made a snowman, and I watched the others sled in the abundant wet snow. There was the requisite snowball fight as well. Inside, we enjoyed Aunt Ellen's fabulous cooking and playing board games, including Battlestar Galactica. Jeff and Bill turned out to be cylons, and Dawn and I were unable to prevent the brothers from anihilating the human race. Drats!

I did a lot of knitting in December, making hats and ear warmers for family members. I also knitted a tiny hat and scarf (modeled below by a homemade ugly doll), which I hope will fit the baby next winter, as well as barbie blankets for my nieces' dolls. I will be taking knitting lessons at the local yarn shop next week to learn how to make socks. I also got a book from the library that has instructions on how to make knitted toys. Fun! I am excited about my future knitting projects!!

-Annie

New Additions to the Herd

2011-01-07T13:32:00.008-05:00

We bought 2 new female goats this week, since we lost several females a few months ago. We bought them from a local family that raises dairy cows and goats. Although they don't look like it, the new goats are sisters. Maegan is almost 2 years old, and she has beautiful coloring. She had her first kids last fall, and she is still in milk. Katie is the same age as Remus and Romulus (born last spring), and she looks like R&R too. We were assured that both Maegan and Katie have been bred, so we hope to be milking 4 goats this year. We'd like to increase our milk production so that we can make and sell more goat milk products.

Both Zella and Lily look very pregnant (and like to lie down a lot now). Lily is especially big, and we expect her to kid first this year - probably early next month. Zella and then Katie should not be too far behind, and Maegan should kid in either April or May. Hopefully we can start staggering the breeding more so that we don't have gaps in milking, since the does should be dried off 2 months before kidding. Pete bred Zella and Lily again this year, and a beautiful chestnut spotted buck named Boaz bred Maegan and Katie. We can't wait to see what this kidding season brings!

The human herd is expanding too. :-) I have reached the halfway mark in my pregnancy, and my belly is expanding fast. I gained 7 pounds last month with the help of all the good holiday food. I've been feeling the baby moving around a lot the past few weeks, and I recently discovered that I can feel some kicking from the outside too. Hopefully the baby will do some good kicking sometime soon when his papa is around to feel it too.

-Annie

November update

2010-12-03T10:09:00.006-05:00

Well, the barn and run are finished, complete with a new shelter in the run (thanks to the help of Jeff's brother, Bill), where we're hoping to be able to make big round hay bales available for the goats. Our first experiment with that didn't go so well. We did not secure the bale in any way, and the goats just had a big party in it, wasting a ton of it.

We are now down to 4 goats. In October, the 4 kids we had pastured at another farm were killed by a couple of big dogs. Sniff! All of our remaining doelings were killed, so now we will only have 2 milkers for next year, Lily and Zella, who were hopefully bred by Pete again before he went to the slaughterhouse a couple of weeks ago. We still have Remus and Romulus, the Nubian bucklings, one of whom will be our next breeder. Radar, the young blind cow that was here for about 6 weeks, went to the slaughterhouse with Pete. Radar was a rescue animal given to us by another farmer, but we are not really equipped to house a full-grown cow. We're hoping that the young meat will be really good.

Bill visited in mid-November to help us out with farm and house chores, since Paul and Terra are still on honeymoon and I was having pregnancy complications. Jeff has been working really hard, and Bill was a huge help. My mom, Bert, and Jeff's parents came for Thanksgiving, since Jeff and I couldn't travel. We got a heritage turkey (New Jersey Buff) from a local farmer, and Jeff prepared an incredible feast utilizing homegrown sweet potatoes, beets, mushrooms, and mustard greens (with a little help from my mom and I). Maybe next year we will raise our own turkey! Our friends Lauren and Josh joined us for the big meal. It was a lovely family visit. Jeff and I got to show off our sonogram photos, and we talked about the new family member on the way. Jeff and I are very grateful for the wonderful love and support of our family and friends (particularly during the rough first trimester) and that I have made it to the second trimester with the complications apparently resolving. We are very excited about the little one on the way! ETA May 2011.

-Annie

Farm Wedding

2010-11-07T17:31:00.005-05:00

Paul and Terra got married on 10/10/10. They had their wedding ceremony and reception on their land, and Jeff and I hosted Terra's parents during their stay at The Haven. It was a beautiful sunny day for the wedding festivities. The ceremony was lovely, and the reception was lively, filled with yummy homemade dishes and musical contributions from the guests. Additionally, two young male goats were slaughtered (prepped and wrapped in bacon, gifted by Tommy Searcy) and smoked overnight in a pit for the big event. Delicious! In many ways, this is the outdoor wedding that Jeff and I had planned for our own big day. Although the weather did not cooperate with those plans, the gathering we had indoors, so closely surrounded by our loved ones, turned out to be very intimate and special.

Paul and Terra are currently on their 2-month long honeymoon in Guatemala, performing service work.

Theater on Cedar's Fall Production

2010-10-25T13:49:00.008-04:00

This year I performed in Theater on Cedar's fall production: The Girl Who Cried Turnip and Other Folk Tales. We ended up having a smallish cast, so I had parts in 3 of the 4 short plays that comprised Turnip. I was part of the chorus in The Girl Who Cried Turnip, the Emperor in The Emperor's New clothes, and a person/villager in Why The Sky Is Far Away. It was fun and the show had a very successful run. I particularly enjoyed playing the emperor; what a delicious role! The naked fat suit was hilarious!

The emperor had an extensive wardrobe. "Clothes mean more than anything else in the world!"

The emperor processes through the streets, showing off his "new clothes," while the chamberlains (Lauren and Sebastian - who also played the rogue weavers AND were the co-directors for Emperor) hold the emperor's "train."

Lauren, Sebastian, and I as the Turnip Chorus (on left) and the Turnip Townspeople making "turnip a la sapien soup" - ha! (on right). Luckily, for the cute little turnip girl, that part was just a dream.

-Annie

DragonCon 2010

2010-10-14T15:00:00.006-04:00

Dragon*Con bills itself as the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the universe. It takes place annually on Labor Day weekend in Atlanta. This year, Jeff and I attended our fourth con as Simon and River Tam from Firefly (Joss Whedon's short but well-lived scifi western tv show, which also had an adventure on the big screen as well). I delayed posting about this until photos taken by a photographer at the con were made available on the internet. He took a bunch of photos of Jeff and I, but unfortunately, only the photo from the Whedonverse costume contest was included (No, we didn't win - boo!). Anyhoo, some photos were taken on my camera, and Jeff's brother Bill took a picture of Jeff and I as we all played the Battlestar Galactica game in the gaming area. The BSG game was cool, but it took a long time to figure out how to play it, so we never finished. I can't even remember who turned out to be a cylon - was it the stranger who joined us...or maybe Dawn (Bill's wife). For some reason, I like thinking that it was Dawn.

The next photo is one of Jeff and I with some other con attendees in Firefly character costumes. I am striking the pose of my character from the movie promo posters. I am dressed as River from the final battle scene of the movie, in which she kicks a lot of Reever ass. I made my swords from paper, which turned out to be a really long and time intensive process that I wish I'd started much sooner than I did. They still turned out pretty decently. Jeff got his hair cut and styled just before the con to match that of Simon, who is a medical doctor on the show. We bought his medical bag on ebay.

I am pictured here with another River at the annual Whedonverse party, The Shindig. The party is named after an episode of Firefly, and a nice little folksy band performs some music from the show in addition to other offerings. BTW, the Rivers are being attacked from the left by one of those nasty Reevers.

I wonder who we'll go as next year...?

-Annie/River

Barn Nearly Completed

2010-09-17T12:03:00.010-04:00

The Barn is almost done! We are grateful to everyone who has helped pitch in. Below are some pics of our progress since the last posting.

We still need to complete the front doors and build the run that will attach the barn to the two pastures, that we have fenced out so far. We also plan to wire the barn in order to put in some lights and perhaps run a small refrigerator.

In other news, an Australorp hen hatched out a couple of chicks. The hen started out with 8 eggs, but at least one got broken when she turned over the nesting box we made for her. She sat on the remaining eggs on the ground, and there were three under her on hatch day. Two eggs hatched, and the third had a fully formed chick inside, but it didn't hatch for some reason. The chicks are likely mixed breeds. The black one is definitely half Australorp. Jeff and I also finished making another raised bed where the second chicken tractor used to be. I planted beets, mustard, and lettuce in that bed, which are all starting to sprout now.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post DragonCon pics soon!

Annie

Barn Building

2010-08-01T12:47:00.008-04:00

Although we are all very eager to have The Haven barn built, progress has been a bit slow in the relentless summer heat. Still, significant progress has been made thanks to the (sweaty) efforts of Jeff, Paul, and the wwoofers. They have been working on the roof lately. With just the roof struts (?) in place, the structure looked a little like a dinosaur for a minute. The barn will have a classic look with a gambrel roof, which allows for efficient use of space. The guys have just started putting tin on the lower part of the roof.

I have been making a lot of pickles lately. The cucumber crop at Full Life Farm has been very successful this summer. However, we have had mixed success with other crops, particularly at The Haven. The clay soil at The Haven needs LOTS of work. The herbs that were planted, where a chicken tractor used to be, are doing quite well, and veggies planted in the beds, which Paul spent more time developing, did far better than those planted in beds where fewer soil ammendments were used. The luffa vines are growing rather happily on the arbor that we constructed for them, but they are not producing much fruit. We need to continue working on building up our soil with compost and fertilizing materials from our animals.

We had the pleasure of meeting more of our neighbors recently. A retired couple came over to say hi last week, and they brought us a bunch of apples to feed to the goats in addition to some other gifts, including a chop saw, which is just what we've needed for building the barn. In return, we have given them some or our soap. We are excited to be forming good relationships with some of our neighbors, and we look forward to getting to know Pete and Dixie better.

Pete and Dixie raise chickens too, and they have had some trouble with foxes and weasels. Yikes! So far, we have not had any trouble with predators at The Haven. All of our chickens are pastured except for the mama hen and her 2 chicks, which are growing fast - especially the (probably) male New Hampshire Red chick (the lighter colored one).

Our brand new refrigerator arrived on Friday. We're hoping that it does a better job of keeping things cold in this heat than the previous two older refrigerators. The new a/c unit, which we installed in the office, is doing an excellent job, thankfully. Now we have one room in the house in which we can seek refuge from the summer heat. Good storage conditions for our soap supplies and products is important too. Jeff and I made a batch of shea butter bars with a cinnamon forest scent recently. These are now curing in the soap storage closet in the office. I hope to finally get around to making some lotion this week.

-Annie

Birthdays!!!

2010-06-28T17:02:00.010-04:00

On Jeff's birthday last week, The Haven's first baby chicks were born. Two New Hampshire Red chicks hatched out that day, and one Partridge Rock hatched the next day. We started out with 7 NHR hatching eggs, but the first hen we put them under broke 4 of them on the second day. So, I fired her and put the eggs under the other hen who was acting broody. She sat on the eggs really well, but the third hen, in the tractor with them, kept laying eggs on top of the sitting hen. That's how some PR eggs were added to the nest, and I think that is how another NHR egg got broken. A few days before hatching, we moved another tractor to the second pasture, and the 2 NHR hens and rooster were placed in it with the other PR hens. We waited to move the PR rooster until we could put a door on the tractor, which would give the roosters more space to work out their pecking order issues. However, the big NHR rooster was dead by the next morning. (sniff!) We're not sure why he died, but perhaps the heat and the stress of the move got to him - ? Luckily, the NHR chick that hatched out at Full Life Farm is a male. He's 6 or so weeks old now, and he's growing big and fast. Yay! Unfortunately, one of the NHR Haven chicks didn't make it. It looked like the mama hen might have smothered it some time during the second night. The other 2 chicks are doing well, and we'll have to wait and see what sex they turn out to be.

We celebrated Jeff's 33rd birthday with a small gathering at The Haven. Our friend, Rebekah, who is a fabulous baker, made a delicious Big Bird cake that was reminiscent of Jeff's 3rd birthday cake. I aso busted out some balloons, poppers, and horns for the occasion in order to assist Jeff in bringing back fond memories of youth and reconnecting with his inner child, which we all enjoyed sharing in. :-) Jeff grilled some yummy marinated meats on the grill, which we finally moved out to The Haven earlier that day, and garlic mashed potatoes were also prepared for the meal. Oh, and did I mention that Rebekah brought ice cream too? (big grin) Good food and a good time were had by all.

-Annie

Haven House Warming

2010-06-21T09:46:00.016-04:00

Yeah, we have been here a full five months already, but we Havenites decided that we had finally gotten things to a good enough place to host a house warming. So we invited our local friends to come check out our house and farming operations. The event was not well attended in numbers, since we did not advertise well and many people were out of town, but it was amazingly attended by those who were able to make it. With our eggs, produce, and preserves, we prepared potato salad and devilled eggs for the occasion - yum! I failed to take pictures of the event, but I'm posting pics I just took of the 3 rooms that have been painted and decorated thus far. Further painting has been put on hold until there is not so much to be done outdoors. Working with colors has been an interesting process. The colors never exactly match the sample chip, so you never quite know what you're going to get. The kitchen color was supposed to be a bluish gray, but a whole lot of lavender snuck into it, which makes for a nice lively color, but not really what I was going for. However, it definately beats the floral wallpaper that we covered up.

The living room and bedroom colors are more reflective of my tendency to favor earth tones. We went with a golden yellow color for the living room, and Jeff and I chose a smokey green color for our bedroom.

Our large dining room table was a lucky find at an estate sale. It's a great table for only $8. Behind the table, you can see the french doors to the master bedroom, which are now covered with curtains that Terra made to give Jeff and I more privacy (no peeking! :). The "Flying Ship" painting above our bed and the bird painting in the living room are the creations of a local artist named Seth Fitts, with whom we barter eggs for art. We love bartering!!

We have been busy outside too. In the space

where the first chicken tractor used to be, Jeff and I have started an herb garden. The chickens poop and scratch around in their bedding, creating great compost. After laying fallow for a few months, the ground is ready for planting. We have planted basil, oregano, and orange mint so far. Once the other half of the bed is prepared, we will plant chamomile and other herbs yet to be determined. Inbetween the back of the house and the parking lot, we have planted 3 rose bushes and a Japanese Maple tree. (BTW, the rose bush photo imported side ways for some reason.)

We just finished fencing out a second pasture for the goats. They now have more greens to eat, after gobbling them all up in the first pasture already. Currently, the goats at The Haven include all of the adult goats and Remus and Romulus, the Nubian bucklings. All of the other kids have been moved to a fresh pasture at a friend's farm, where they are happily eating the cover crop, while fertilizing their field. Later today we plan to move a second chicken tractor into the new pasture at The Haven so that the rest of our chickens can be pastured. The third tractor will be reserved for breeding purposes. Right now, a Partridge Rock hen is sitting on a collection of PR and New Hampshire Red eggs, and they are due to hatch out on Thursday. The hen will have private quarters to hatch out the chicks.

In front of the house, 4 garden beds have been made as well as 2 small luffa beds and an arbor for trellising the luffa. Paul just harvested potatoes from one bed, and he has beans growing in another bed and tomatoes in the other 2. The tomatoes are just starting to ripen, which is very exciting. Behind the arbor in the photo, you can see the new milking station that Paul built at The Haven. Inside the pasture, just behind the milking station, you can see the end of the first chicken tractor, which was moved to pasture 1 a month or so ago. We are still trying to figure out what to do with the rest of our yard, which is still just dirt. Right now, we are apparently growing lots of weeds.

Last, but not least, is our new barn-in-progress. We have most of the posts in place, and the floor joists are up too. We are eager to complete our barn so that we will have a more permanent situation for the goats in terms of feeding them hay and milking as well as for storage for all of the tools and animal-related items, which are now taking up space in the house.

So, there is much work still to do, but lots of progress has been made. Jeff and I were asked by someone at the house warming if we felt like we were living our dream. In short, we responded that on most days, yes, it feels like we are living the dream. :-)

-Annie

The Land

2010-05-18T13:53:00.007-04:00

Jeff and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary this past weekend, and we spent part of the day on our land. We began making paths through the brush last month, and we continued to chop our way through on Sunday. We didn't make it all the way to the back property line, but when we got too hot and tired to continue, we took Lily for a walk along the path, who helped make the path wider while enjoying a nice snack. I took the photos last month, when the dogwoods and azaleas were in bloom. We were pleased to discover that there are a bunch of dogwood trees growing on various parts of the property as well as native azaleas, especially near one of the tiny little streams that drain into the larger creek on the back border. There are lots of nice ferns growing along the bank of the little stream too. It's quite a lovely spot. We are very pleased. Perhaps we will build our house on the nearby ridge. We are a ways away from that, though. The first type of structure we will likely build on this piece of land is fencing for more goat pasture. The goats penned at The Haven have gobbled up most of the greenery in that first pasture already. Soon we will fence out another section at The Haven. We will also be working on the new barn some more this week. Luckily, we have a few less mouths to feed around here, though. Over the past week, we have sold 5 of our goats. We sold Hoppy and her doeling, Alanis, as well as Cocoa, one of Lily's girls, and Vida, Paul and Terra's one year old doe, to a family from North Georgia. Although Hoppy wasn't a very good goat, I was still sad to see her go. I miss the kids too (sniff!). We sold Duya's daughter, Vannah, to a local family, who are also vendors at the farmers market. We plan to keep Lily and Zella and one of each of their daughters. Zella has turned out to be a super milk producer, while Lily's production has fallen off significantly. We wonder if the difference could be due to moving Zella to The Haven, where she had access to more greens. Hopefully, we will be able to provide more consistent green pastures to all of our goats in the future.

-Annie

Farmers Market

2010-05-07T10:50:00.007-04:00

The Carrollton farmers market, Cotton Mill Farmers Market, began its 9th season a couple of weeks ago, and Jeff and I participated for the first time, selling eggs and soap. We are sharing a booth with Paul and Terra, who are selling eggs, produce, and crafts. Opening Day was rainy, so we set up under the awning in front of some shops near the usual site. Luckily, the rainy weather didn't keep folks away. Jeff and I sold all of the liquid soap we brought, and Paul and Terra sold all of their produce. We sold out of eggs too! Last weekend was not as successful, but we still did well. In the photo, Terra is holding one of the puppets she made using a gourd for the head. How creative! At the market tomorrow, Terra, Ellen, and Myra will be putting on a puppet show.

Jeff and I are planning to make some goat milk soaps soon as well as other natural body care products such as shampoo and lotion. Developing new products involves a bit of trial and error, though. We've been experimenting with ways of thickening liquid soaps, and we're trying to figure out how to make different liquid soaps. Our first attempt to make a liquid soap with softer oils was a bust. I'm also excited about making transparent soap containing luffa sponges. We still have some luffa left over from last season, and I just planted some luffa seedlings by an arbor that we constructed near Paul's garden at The Haven. Another dream I have is to produce our own natural colorants for the soap.

In other news, one of Paul and Terra's game hens hatched out 7 of our Partridge Rock eggs. We put 8 eggs underneath the hen when she went broody, but she seemed somewhat uncommitted to the task after she was moved to private quarters in a separate tractor. Every morning and periodically throughout the day, she was up and squawking before she resigned herself to setting on the clutch of eggs some more. She eventually added 5 of her own eggs to the nest, which is somewhat unusual. However, she set more consistently after that and managed to hatch out most of the PR eggs. Hooray! Our PRs don't lay very big eggs, but they lay pretty consistently. Right now we have 2 New Hampshire Red eggs under Wanda, another game hen, who prefers to wander around the farm instead of staying in the chicken coop. Our 2 NHR hens lay really consistently, and their eggs are bigger than the PRs' eggs.

It's been a rough past few days for our goats. We have separated the mommas from the babies, such that the milkers are at The Haven, while the babies are at Full Life Farm. Poor little Joanie has lost her voice, crying for Zella. However, the babies are old enough to be weaned, and now we can milk twice a day. With the extra milk we are making more yogurt and ice cream, and, hopefully, we'll make cheese again soon. We celebrated Paul's birthday last night with peppermint ice cream and a strawberry rhubarb pie, made with delicious fresh strawberries from the farm. Yum!!

Yesterday, more progress was made on the barn at The Haven. We put up 6 big posts and braced them. Unfortunately, the chain saw is having issues and needs some work done on it before we can put up more posts.

Rural life continues to be good. :-)

-Annie

Remus and Romulus

2010-04-15T11:50:00.005-04:00

Yes, we have even more baby goats now. We adopted 2 one week old male kids from a local dairy. Typically, they kill the males at birth there, but they keep some to sell. These 2 guys were going to be sold as breeders if another of their (slightly better) does did not have boys. That doe did have boys, so the dairy gave us the slighlty less desirable ones. These guys still have great breeding and are pure Nubian. So we plan to raise one for meat and keep the other as our breeder for next season. Lily is mostly Nubian (her dad was pure), and Zella has some Nubian in her. Having more pure stock makes selling kids easier. We just placed an ad to sell Hoppy and her kids. Hoppy is friendly, but otherwise she is not a vey good goat. Hopefully, someone will be interested in a doe currently in milk. Anyway, the new babies will need to be bottle fed several times a day for the next 7 or so weeks. We are considering taking even more to raise for meat and help clear some of our land. We might have to come up with some system of feeding them, if we get a lot more.

In other farm news, someone else has responded to our ad to take down old barns in exchange for the materials. With the help of some wwoofers we were able to take down a small barn all in one day a couple of weeks ago. Now, we have signed up to take down about half of a 300 foot chicken house. This one will take us quite awhile, but we should be able to get a lot of great material for building our new barn at The Haven in addition to other uses.

-Annie

And Then There Were Ten

2010-04-10T22:12:00.012-04:00

We now have 10 baby goats total at Full Life Farm and The Haven. Paul and Terra's goat, Duya, had twins last week: Savannah and Charleston. Vannah was tiny, weighing in at only 5.4 lbs. Both of them have the short La Mancha ears. Both kids are fine, but, unfortunately, Duya's milk is not. Duya was born with 4 teats, 2 of which were removed shortly after birth, but it appears that her udder did not develop normally, leading to bad tasting milk. Duya's sister, Vida, also has a birth defect: parrot mouth, a type of overbite. Therefore, it has been decided that neither of them will be bred anymore. The birth defects were the reason that Paul and Terra acquired the new buck, Pete Townsend, last fall, which has produced much better results. Now we will likely keep 2 of the female kids - probably Lily's girls, Sugar and Cocoa. Zella produces a little more milk than Lily, but Lily has the best disposition of all our does, and she has big teats for easy milking.

Most of the kids have been disbudded, like the 4 who posed so nicely for the above photo . A hot iron is used to prevent horns from growing. The kids cry while it is being done, but they seem to recover very quickly. I have mixed emotions about doing it, but it makes goats more sellable and makes them less dangerous to people and each other. Cocoa, on the right is our big acrobat. Below is a nice family portrait.

My father and sister and her 3 kids came to visit us last week, and the kids really loved the baby goats.

My sister and I celebrated our birthdays together - on a day during the 3 weeks inbetween our birthdays - just like when we were kids. :-)

On my actual birthday, two of our wwoofers, Sara and Violet, put on a lovely water dance performance at nearby Tanner Lake. They didn't exactly do the dance because of my birthday, but it turned out to be a good day to do it, which made the day more special. Jeff also cooked a fabulous dinner on my birthday. He made home made ravioli pasta filled with ricotta cheese made from our goats' milk. He also made chocolate mousse for dessert. It was fabulous! Below, Violet and Sara are posing for the camera in their aries/ram costumes (left), and they are in the middle of their dance on the right.

-Annie

Milk - it does a body good!!!

2010-03-16T21:31:00.003-04:00

Well, the time has come to start getting milk from our girls. That has been pretty exciting, and we now are getting around 1/2 gallon of milk each day.

Something odd is going on with the girls' udders, however. Each of them seems to have one high performing side, and one under-performing side. It seems possible that if they were both working at full capacity we would be getting 1 gallon of milk each day.

The udders also appear uneven, which is a warning sign of mastitis - a bacterial infection of the udder and teats. So we used our mastitis test on them today, and it seemed to come back negative. Which was a good thing, except it left us without an explanation for the unevenness. (Lily had tested positive earlier in this cycle, but it was good to see she tested negative today.)

We are going to treat them with garlic balls. Which is to say raw garlic (which reportedly has the capacity to fight infection) mixed with molasses (which reportedly has the capacity to get goats to eat raw garlic) and ground oats (along with molasses helps hold the whole thing together).

We already did that some with Lilly, which presumably is part of her improved status.

Also, we counted up our eggs for the past month (ours plus Paul and Terra's so we don't have to try to keep them separate). Our count steadily increased, and for the last two weeks we gathered 181 eggs per week. That's an average of over 2 dozen per day.

So those are the goings on here, we're also applying for a building permit to build a barn over at this place, and Paul made another garden bed over here yesterday.

Jeff

Brief update

2010-03-10T18:09:00.005-05:00

So here is some of the latest info. Now sitting here in The Haven (we're trying really hard not to call it "The Trailer" these days) I can hear the braying of goats outside. We have completed our first pasture, and two of Terra and Paul's goats are now living here and beginning the process of clearing our land for us.

Also, for anyone who cares Hoppy's triplets now have names. The boys names are (drum roll please) Big Boy and Andre, while the girl is Alanis. Their father was also a musician (Pete Townsend) in case you were wondering. (Just to make sure we avoid libel/slander their father is a goat named Pete Townsend, not the guitarist for the popular rock band The Who).

Jeff

ps. to learn more about Terra and Paul's place you can visit their website at:

http://www.full-life-farm.com

Baby Goats Galore!

2010-03-05T20:37:00.012-05:00

Over the past week and a half, 8 baby goats were born, which brings the Davis and Feather/Currie combined herd up to 14 goats. Lily had twin girls last Tuesday: a chocolatey brown one named Cocoa and a white one named Sugar. They both have long floppy Nubian ears like their mother and wattles like their father, Pete Townsend, who is an Alpine goat.

Hoppy delivered triplets 2 days later: two boys and a girl. We haven't decided what to name them yet. Peter, Paul, and Mary is one of our ideas for names. Please, feel free to give us suggestions! One of Hoppy's boys is dark brown and weighed 2 lbs more than his siblings at birth. The other boy is medium brown with a cream-colored face. The girl is dark brown and polka dotted with black spots all over and a big white spot on her head, which is just adorable.

Hoppy wasn't cleaning her babies very well, so we had poopy butt issues just like last year. I guess Hoppy just isn't a butt-licker. So, Terra, Ellen, and I decided to shave their backsides (with Jeff's razor - don't tell him, though). Luckily, the kids were very tolerant of this process. And no more poopy butts to clean!
This morning, Zella also gave birth to triplets: 2 girls and a boy. The boy is white and the girls are brown. One of the girls has weak hind legs, which is probably the result of a selenium deficiency. We live in a selenium-deficient area, so all the kids have been given a supplement. Hopefully, the weak kid will get stronger soon.

We have started putting up fences at The Haven, and we are working on plans for a barn, so we can have more space for our expanding herd. We are fencing out a section in front of the house first, so we can clear more land there for gardening. Also, we can't wait to be able to look out our windows and watch baby goats frolicking. Someday, we will have a front porch, where we can sit and watch our animals. :-)

-Annie

Our new home - The Haven

2010-02-09T19:41:00.012-05:00

Well, it has been some time since we posted anything here on The Deerfield Follies - whose title will probably have changed by the time this gets posted.

Since last we wrote, our living situation has changed dramatically. When last we wrote we had just graded the land at our new abode. After that it was brought out in two pieces, that were then put back together. Once they were both in place we spoke to Tracey, who moved it, and he told us that about 4 feet away from being in place the hitch broke off of one of the halves. We were lucky that didn't happen when the house was on the interstate or, in Tracey's words, "There would have been a mess."

So this is a pretty good shot of our new place. It is a doublewide, and as you can see we have put block around under it (as required by Carroll County Zoning) Our first night in our new abode Annie and I had just returned from DC, where Annie's friend Kimberly gave us a very nice bottle of Dom Perignon. It seemed like a great way to christen our new home. Here you see our new roommates/co-owners Paul and Terra and I enjoying some Dom.

Another useful gift we have gotten is our livingroom furniture, which was a gift from The Davis family who replaced it with something new. Here are Paul and Terra soaking up the luxury.

Finally, during the cold of January we used up perhaps half of our propane tank. We needed a cheaper way to stay warm, especially given Annie's need for tropical temperatures. We are now enjoying the warmth for which we are thankful to Bert who helped us with the cost of it as a (very literal) housewarming gift. The feds are also chipping in considerably as we got a "high efficiency" model which qualifies us for a tax credit for 2010.

We are now in the midst of painting, which is the last barrier to us having the interior all set up and moved-in feeling. After that we have plenty to do around the outside (barn, fences, and a porch.)

Keep on the look-out for updates as the work continues here at the Haven.

Jeff (& Annie giving her approval)

The Grading has Begun

2009-11-09T21:58:00.007-05:00

Here are some pictures of our land. The first three are "before" pictures. We have purchased the land, but essentially done nothing to it other than tying some little flags around.

These next two are post-grading. The bulldozer came in, and now there is a nice flat spot where our little trailer home can be moved in. Also we can have a driveway, and some porches, and maybe even garden/chicken space. Yay!!

Meet Echo - our new kitty!!!

2009-11-09T21:46:00.006-05:00

Hi everybody - a little break here from all of the land stuff. Instead, here are pictures of our cute new kitty Echo. We rescued her from an owner who seemed to be neglecting her to the point that we feared she may die of flea bites. Also, she is overwhelmingly cute and we just couldn't resist. So without further ado, here are kitty pictures (look away if you think you can't stand the cuteness)

Interior pictures of our new mobile home

2009-10-26T19:49:00.006-04:00

Hi All,
Just thought now that we have some more interior pictures of our new home that we would share them. We close on all of the land purchases on Wednesday. We started the permitting process today, which seems like (thanks to the economic downturn and reduction in new construction) may move pretty quickly.

The above was probably originally intended as a dinette type area - but we are thinking it will be a mudroom for us - and we will put our dining area in part of the living room type area.

This is the master bathroom. Seems pretty good.

A view of the whole kitchen, lots of good counter space.

This shows a bit of the living room, and its fireplace.

So there are some previews - for more you'll have to come visit once we are moved in.

Jeff

Phase 2

2009-10-15T21:03:00.006-04:00

So, phase 2 has officially begun (insert evil laugh here).

I mean, things are going well with our general acquisitiveness.

We now have in hand a signed contract for the 5 acres across the road from what will be our permanent spot.

We also made an offer on a repossessed trailer earlier today (what's the only thing worse than a possessed trailer? a reposessed one hahahaha). Verbally that offer was agreed to over the phone, and the trailer is not available for viewing online anymore - so it sounds like we have it - but there is a catch. Carroll County has an ordinance (or law or something - a rule in any case) that you can only move trailers into the county if they are less than 7 years old. The trailer we have an offer in on is a 1995. So what we can do is bury it underground so that nobody knows about it (maybe another evil laugh here?). Not really (of course) we can submit pictures of it and the surrounding homes (all shabbier looking trailers - fortunately?) to a Compatibility committee and if they tell us it is okay then we can move it in.

The trailer we have gotten is a 28x60 (1680 sq ft) 3 bed, 2 bath pleasure palace. Unfortunately the only photos I have currently are of the outside, and of some of the trouble spots (we had good pictures of the inside online, but as previously noted it is no longer listed online). So I will post a couple of photos - the front door, and maybe one of the kitchen - but remember the interior shot here is intentionally not it's best side.

So, from top to bottom.

The outside - which looks quite nice (as trailers go).
Under the kitchen sink - which has a leak in one of the drains, but the damage seems to be minimal, and leak seems reparable.
The bath tub in the master bath (which is a bit large for my tastes, but what can you do).

I only put the kitchen one in there, because it gives some of the feel of the kitchen, which was one of the big draws about this trailer. It has a nice large kitchen with plenty of cabinet space, and counter space. It is a little bit odd to me that the sink is on an island in the middle, but even that novelty - for the time being seems cool. Sorry I don't have better interior pictures, but the ones online were fine - and I didn't know they would vanish so soon.

Hope you're all well,

Jeff

Buying Land

2009-10-14T21:51:00.005-04:00

So,

As some of you may have heard, Annie and I have been looking for a small piece of Carroll County to call our very own. After several months of casual looking (ie internet searches and paying attention to the posted ads at our local feed stores and builder supplies) we have settled on a patch of ground to call our own. What makes this particular patch of ground so very special is that it is only about 1/2 mile down the road from our friends Paul and Terra. Aside from that, the only thing that really made it special was that it was cheap. Here are some photos of that bit of land

I guess I could post more, but that might just get redundant. Essentially it is a few tall trees with lots of scrub and briars. We fought our way through it right after we got the contract on it, and did confirm that there is a creek just off the property line at the back of the property.

Anywhoo, it will be 9.6something acres, and Annie and I will hopefully build our own little house on it and start creating our little patch of agricultural paradise. Interesting recent discovery - our real estate agent was talking to someone else who was looking for land, who apparently knew the land we just bought and suggested it would be a great place to install a pond/lake. He thought it could make a nice 3-4 acre lake, because a large part of the property is already somewhat bowl shaped.

The only pre-condition we put on buying the land in our contract was that it could pass a soil test for a septic tank - which it did. We already know that there is a water source there, because the houses on both sides of our land have city water (Mt. Zion city water).

And tonight's breaking news is that along with Paul and Terra we have (or are about to have?) a contract on the 5 acre plot of land across the street. They need a place to live semi-permanently while they build on their place down the road, and we need a place to live semi-permanently while we build on our place across the road. So we also hope to have a contract on a repossessed trailer - hopefully tomorrow. Then we can begin the process of getting a section of the land graded, making a foundation for the trailer, pulling the trailer on to it, getting utilities and putting in a septic tank.

It is all a good deal of running around, but hopefully we are going to have a pretty sweet trailer for the mean time, and then all end up with decent houses. And then since the trailer is not on the land we want to live on, we can either sell it or perhaps start renting it out and getting some rental income.

Big things are afoot.

Jeff

DragonCon 09

2009-10-12T11:50:00.013-04:00

So, it's a little known or publicized fact that the reason this blog is at the address "Freaky Farms" and how that name came about at all is because the blog originated right after last year's dragoncon. The intent was to do a post with a lot of our pictures from that, and then, well we just never did. So here are some pictures from this year's con. Enjoy.

This is Annie with some fellow Battlestar Galactica Folks

An Alien I believe

The Serenity Crew from the show Firefly

Here I am with a girl dressed up as Jane's Hat (Jane is a character from firefly, you can see people wearing the hat in the above picture)

Really scarey guy from Lord of the Rings - I'm thinking his name is Sauron, but I get confused. In any case, I want to run away just looking at this picture, what a brave hobbit Frodo was.

There are lots of non sci-fi related costumes at the Con as well. This is the Swedish Chef, from The Muppet Show.

One of the Members of Sargent Pepper's band. Not sure which one really.

I think this is probably in the spirit of the upcoming movie. Alice in Wonderland.

Walter from the Big Lebowski.

"Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules!"

So there is a little DragonCon flavor for you all.

Jeff

ps. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if Annie made another post to put in the pictures she especially wants - so keep watching.

The Flood

2009-10-07T20:06:00.014-04:00

Well, we are still recovering from it, but I guess we're ready to blog about it now. On Monday, September 21, we woke up to the sound of our goats crying and then discovered about 6 feet of water in our barnyard. This presented quite a dilemma as to what to do. Eventually, Jeff swam into the flood waters and pulled out 4 of the 5 goats - luckily, there was no current in the water. Lily had somehow gotten over the fence and was tangled up in some privet, and Arthur somehow got into a rabbit cage. Hoppy and her kid, French Fry, were still in the barn, keeping their heads above water by standing with their front legs on the wire fence divider in the barn. Puck was eventually found dead in the rabbit cage next to where Arthur had been, once the flood waters receded. The 2 guineas managed to float inside their rabbit cage on a piece of wood. Jeff freed them from the cage and then set them on the roof of the chicken house. Inside the chicken house, the water level was just above the height of the roosts. Jeff constructed a little raft with which he brought out a few chickens at a time. All but 3 of the adult chickens had been able to make it to the higher places in the chicken house. Unfortunately, all the 1-2 month old Welsummer chicks drowned. So sad!! Nell, the surrogate mom to 7 of the chicks, went down with her babies. She was such a good mom! It was a very traumatic day. After saving the animals that were still alive, we found alternate housing for the survivors. Ironically, French Fry had been scheduled for the slaughter house that day. So he survived the flood only to go to the slaughter house, but at least we didn't have to worry about where to put him. The next day, we buried the dead, and now we are still working on the clean up. One section of fence needs fixing, and there is some mold in the goat barn. Jeff sprayed the floors and walls of 3 structures in the barn yard with a bleach solution already. The smelly job of removing the bedding from the structures was completed with the big help of some friends (thanks Scott and Sara). Hopefully, we can get the chickens back to their home this weekend. One thing is for sure, though: Jeff and I will never house animals in a flood plane again.

It's Cheese Grommit!!!!

2009-08-11T15:35:00.002-04:00

Well, after many less than fully satisfactory attempts I have finally made something that Annie believes tastes like Chevre.

It turns out that perhaps the recipe I had been using was not the ideal one to use for Chevre - despite being titled "chevre recipe" in our cheese making book. My suspicion is that the recipe right next to it for "soft goat cheese" is actually better - especially since we didn't have exactly the right ingredients perhaps to follow the chevre recipe. Our little packet of Chevre culture said it could be used for direct set, but it seems to not contain rennet. Our recipe seems to believe that direct set always has rennet in it.

Well - anwhoo, long story short. By tomorrow morning it should be ready to stop draining and be put in our refrigerator (and mouthes).

Perhaps I should not we took a taste this morning before it has finished draining and that is how we are aware of the taste. Perhaps the taste will be a bit stronger even by tomorrow. Annie wants a bit stronger flavor she says (though I think the addition of salt will take care of most of what seems different between what I just made and what we can buy at the Farmer's Market, which is tastey and comes recommended if we have any Carrollton or Atlanta readers).

Well I think i've written a bit haphazardly today, hopefully this makes some sense.

Jeff

Updated Chick Count

2009-08-08T17:05:00.007-04:00

Well, not only was I mistaken about the number of eggs that we had incubated but I also miscounted the number of chicks that hatched in the incubator. There were 16 eggs total incubated and 12 of them hatched. Three of Wynona's chicks are still alive and well, and ALL SIX of the eggs we put under Nell, an Australorp/Silkie mix, hatched the other day. So, that makes a total of 21 baby Wellsummers! Unfortunately, one of the mama Wellsummers died last week. It was probably Marek's Disease again. :-( She was the Wellsummer pullet that layed really pretty dark brown eggs. The other pullet lays lighter brown eggs with dark speckles. We shall see what their offspring produce.

Today, while making the afternoon rounds in the barnyard, I noticed that one of Wynona's chicks had gotten out of the rabbit cage and was running around in distress underneath. So, Wynona and the rest of her brood were released as well. Wynona was very happy about getting to take a nice dirt bath. It will be interesting to see if she is able to get her chicks up the 3 steps into the chicken house tonight or if they'll stay the night somewhere else.
Jeff and I bought materials to build more chicken tractors for our growing flock today. We've got lots of work to do!

-Annie

Buying Land

2009-08-04T15:04:00.014-04:00

Jeff and I are making an offer today for some land here in Carrollton! The property has 8 acres (it's about half wooded and half cleared), a modular home built in 2006, a horse barn, and a carport with attached workshop and pole barn. There's also a creek that runs along the back of the property. We're excited about it, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Chick update: 11 of the 14 eggs in the incubator hatched despite the temperature fluctuations in the incubator. However, one of the chicks had difficulty hatching, and I decided to intervene, even though most info resources advise you not to do so. The chick had pecked a largish hole around his head, but he was sticky for some reason and got stuck to the inside of the shell and its membranes. I just couldn't ignore his distress calls, so I picked away the shell and soaked him in warm water to remove the shell membranes that had become glued to him. I'm not sure how well I did. Of course, his head was difficult to work on without drowning him. He's fluffing up a bit better now, but he still looks a little funky. The fuzzy butts that had already hatched kept picking on him and the last chick to hatch, so we gave them their own little brooder box in the nursery.
I love hanging with my peeps. :-)
-Annie

More chicks!!!

2009-08-01T08:24:00.002-04:00

Alright, there are now 8 chicks fully out of their shells, and at least two more who are pecking at their shells (for which the technical term is "pipping").

This is far and away our most successful run of hatching eggs, either in the incubator or under a hen. Probably because the Mama and Papa chickens were young virile love machines.

Yay!!!

Jeff

New Chicks!!!

2009-07-31T22:02:00.001-04:00

Well,

As of bedtime tonight there are 7 new Wellsummer chicks in various stages of drying and curiosity existing inside our incubator.

Wait for an update in the morning!!!

Jeff

Something brief

2009-07-27T22:08:00.002-04:00

Hello all,

Just a brief update. We were dismayed this past Saturday morning to discover that two of Winona's 5 chicks had died. It is uncertain what caused it (did she crush them, did they not find the water, one of them might have gotten its foot stuck in the screen that is under them). In any case, we are down to 3 chicks there. Kind of a bummer.

Also Saturday Annie and I went looking for land. We saw some things we liked, and some things we didn't. We are hoping to buy a place buy the end of the year to take advantage of some of the tax breaks/low interest rates etc, but time will tell.

On Sunday we pickled, a lot. We pickled 40 pints of pickles - some sour and some bread 'n' butter. There is also a crock pot of some that are pickling in a brine.

Also had our most successful foray with making chevre (goat cheese) to date. It has close to the right texture. Each batch keeps getting a little better, so hopefully soon we'll have this something like perfected. Probably right when it is time to stop milking the girls :).

Hope all are well.

Jeff

The Cycles of LIfe

2009-07-21T22:55:00.003-04:00

Well, today is primarily a sad day here at Deerfield. Whitepaw, the oldest of the cats around has not been feeling well lately. She hasn't been able to eat, but she's really been wanting to. She went to the vet last week and he gave her some shots and stuff, and she ate for a day or so, but since then has only seemed to get worse. I took her back to the vet today, and he found a tumor on her jaw that has grown into the joint, essentially freezing her jaw shut. He said he could give her some steroids, and that might give her some temporary relief, but that he thought the best thing for her would be to put her to sleep. I called David, and he gave his consent, and so sometime between two and three this afternoon Whitepaw left this world. We had a burial for her. It was very sad, even for me who was probably the least attached to Whitepaw of the Deerfield human residents.

The other happier news, is that Winona has hatched at least two of the eggs under her, and we are hoping for more. As soon as she is no longer sitting on them (which she is still doing last we saw) we will get some pictures of the new mama with her brood. That is also exciting as it is the first time we've used a hen to hatch eggs, so we will get to watch her raise them.

Also we completed our second chicken tractor today, so we can finally get the vastly overcrowded birds out of the brooder that they have been in for entirely too long. We still need to build a couple more for when they are full grown, but this will be a definite improvement.

And so the cycles keep on going. . .

Jeff

Comings and Goings

2009-07-18T17:55:00.015-04:00

First, let me backtrack a bit to Jeff's and my honeymoon in Charleston, SC in late May. Jeff and I had a wonderful time in Charleston during the big annual Spoleto Festival. We saw a stage play, an opera, a contemporary ballet, the symphony orchestra, and "The One Man Star Wars Trilogy". The Star Wars thing was a lot of fun, but the ballet was our favorite show. We walked around beautiful Charleston until our legs gave up, and then we utilized the bicycle cabs. We also enjoyed some fine dining, including taking a cooking class, in which I discovered a new appreciation for fried chicken and pound cake. We stayed at a very charming B&B downtown, whose owners took great care of us. We enjoyed relaxing on the porch reading on cool mornings and sipping wine during the evening social hour.

The newest arrivals at Deerfield are two baby guineas, which are a wedding gift from friends, who are local farmers. Unfortunately, Jeff and I have a bad track record as guinea parents so far. Our first four guineas disappeared shortly after we let them out of the small chicken tractor, that we had used to help teach them where home is. The big piles of feathers that they left behind indicates that a predator probably got them. So we're trying again, but this time we're putting them in a more secure location, hopefully. However, it would help if we made the tractor a little more escape proof for sneaky little guineas. One baby vanished from the tractor within hours of being placed there. It has not been seen or heard from since. Sniff! However, the Garrys gave us one more guinea so that our remaining one wouldn't be lonely. They are currently in a rabbit cage until we fix the tractor...or something.

Keep your fingers crossed for the arrival of more baby chicks next week! Wynona has been sitting on some Welsummer eggs for almost three weeks. Hatching day should be Tuesday the 21st. Wynona started out with a dozen eggs, but early last week she kicked out of the nest one of the eggs, which we found broken open beside her. There had been a chick developing in the egg, but maybe something went wrong with it, so Wynona kicked it out, or maybe she just accidentally broke it somehow. We also put about 15 eggs in the incubator, which might hatch on the 31st. We don't really have high hopes for those eggs, though, because the thermostat on the incubator has been pretty erratic, letting the temp go up to 104 one day, which can kill the developing chicks. Our other hope for Welsummer chicks is a Silkie/Australorp hen, who finally went broody again this week. She has 6 eggs under her. We released the Welsummer cockerel and one of the girls from the "Love Shack" after we discovered that the other girl was not well one day. It appears that she has come down with that evil Marek's Disease that killed a number of our chickens over the winter, which, I suppose, doesn't bode well for the vitality her offspring. Ack! Oh, well. We shall see.

This morning we said goodbye to Lily's daughter, 3-month old Pease Blossom. Sob! She is going to a nice new home, though, where she will have another young Nubian-mix doeling as a companion. Her new owner is a newbie goatherd, like Jeff and I were just over a year ago. She's been studying up, though, and Jeff and I shared with her some useful tips, based on our own experiences as novices in the goat world.

Here are some pictures of the first chicken tractor, that Jeff and I built. It houses the Partridge Rock and New Hampshire Red youngins that arrived here back in mid-April.

The garden is growing pretty well. The corn is getting tall. We have a thick wall of cucumber vines across from the tomato beds, and lots of cool stuff has sprouted in the new bed that Jeff dug near the raised beds. We were kind of late planting some stuff (and the lack of rain didn't help), but hopefully we'll get some gourds, melons, and squash before the end of the season.

Cheers,
Annie

Annie, Annie, how does your garden grow?

2009-07-13T21:23:00.002-04:00

The Garden is doing quite well, especially if you measure it by cucumber output. This past weekend we made 14 pints of dill pickles and 18 pints of bread and butter pickle relish (we chop the cucumbers up more, and it's a relish). A couple of weeks ago we also pickled some beets, and some sweet pickle chips (which are one of our favorites from last year).

We have also gotten enough zucchini to satisfy us at times, and the tomatoes are starting to come in - which is exciting. We are still in the ramping up stage, but hopefully soon we will be swamped with tomatoes.

Our mustard greens were a revelation. I don't think I've ever eaten a raw mustard green before, and they were incredible. It started off and I thought - hmm a green. But then within a second the flavor exploded, and it was as if I had eaten the spicy mustard at a chinese restaurant (the good kind in a sit down restaurant, not the crappy stuff in the packets). Simply amazing.

We also have some carrots, they were nothing special in my estimation - I suspect the red clay of Georgia is not the best for carrots so they don't get very big - but they weren't particularly tasty either.

We did get a lot of garlic, which is exciting. We didn't grow it last year (or as I almost put it, "We've never grown garlic before."). We have something like 15 bulbs or so down in the basement curing. We actually used it for the first time yet in some of the dill pickles.

We made two batches of cheese this past weekend. I'm still trying to get the hang of Chevre (which is what people usually mean when they say goat cheese). It seems to be consistently too crumbly - not sure why that is. Also this time I put too much salt in it (which may have led to the crumbliness, because salt draws out moisture). Despite all of this, Annie says this is the best batch yet, and she is our Chevre judge. Also tonight, for the first time ever I made "30-minute mozzarella." I gotta say, it worked out pretty daggone well. It could use a bit more flavor (which we can work on by adding another enzyme or taking the time to culture the milk), but it was good and definitely mozzarella like. I made pasta and melted it on top, and it was tasty.
I also finished building our cheese press this past weekend, so hopefully soon we can try making a cheddar. That for me is my first big cheese making goal. If I can get a good cheddar going I will be very happy. After that, probably blue cheese.

I bet their is other news, but I don't recall it right now. I would like to say, that I particularly appreciate getting comments, cause it helps me know people are reading and interested in this. Also we'll do our best to answer questions if you ask us. Hope all are well

Jeff

Long needed update

2009-07-07T18:18:00.003-04:00

Well, hello out there.

We have not updated this in some time. I think I've been waiting to get pictures, or have something especially profound to say or something. Also we have been busy.

So to begin with on May 16th Annie and I got married. YaY!!! It really turned out to be a beautiful ceremony - after some stressing about getting the outside of the house into shape, essentially everything took place either in the house or on the porches because of the rain. Well, actually the rehearsal dinner did take advantage of the rented tent, which was nice. The wedding itself was incredibly beautiful and moving, I think largely because there were so many people we love involved - and the rain forcing us into the house made it feel very intimate. Thank you to all who gave us gifts - we are working on thank you cards (really, we are!) but again - we are busy.

An update on soap stuff. We have now sold a couple of batches of soap stuff to better for babies (you can check them out at http://betterforbabies.com/ ). We have not yet started making anything to sell on our own - but are thinking we may start with liquid product - such as shampoos and body washes and whatnot, as we don't see those being represented in our local market place.

The garden seems to be growing well. At present we are harvesting cucumbers, zucchini, and a few tomatoes. Also there is basil. We already pulled all of our beets and pickled the vast majority of them. They came out red this year, which is a nice change from last years weird white beets.

The chicks that were featured in one of the last blog posts are now practically grown. They aren't to laying age yet, but the roosters are beginning to get their voices and start crowing. We are building chicken tractors for them (movable chicken pens - we'll put up a picture sometime soon). We need to get more of them built ASAP, as right now at least some of them are vastly overcrowded. Also we have put our wellsummers (two hens and one rooster) in "The Love Shack" and have been saving their eggs for hatching. Winona, our wyandotte hen, has gotten broody on us - so she is now setting on a dozen wellsummer eggs (since the wellsummers weren't getting broody). The projected hatch date for them is July 21st I believe. It will be exciting to see some chickens get raised by a mother hen for a change, rather than us having to care for them so directly. Other than that the other chickens are laying pretty well - though not as well as they did earlier in the summer. Chickens and goats seem to both produce less when the weather gets hot - so whereas we had a few weeks of getting between 60 and 70 eggs, we are now somewhere around 50 or less I would say.

The goats are doing well it seems. This is probably the most newsworthy part of this email - we now have one less goat. A friend of mine had a barbecue for July 4th and thought it would be a cool idea to serve a goat for it. So (avert your eyes if your likely to get teary eyed) Chevy (which is short for Chevron - french for goat meat) was taken to the slaughter house on Monday among tears (from Annie) and "moist eyes" (from me) and a fair amount of vocal protest (from Chevy and Hoppy). If I get a chance I'll write more on this later, but I'm trying to do a bare bones update right now just of what has been happening.

I'm sure there is something I am leaving out. but to find out what it is you'll have to stay tuned for the next exciting update of the deerfield follies (which I promise won't be so far away in time as this one was.)

Hope you are all doing well,

Jeff

The new kids explore the great outdoors

2009-04-18T11:24:00.007-04:00

The new kids are getting to spend some time outdoors now. Hoppy's kids are curious about the newbies, as they are probably eager for more playmates. Lily hasn't been so keen on it, though. Being a protective mom, she keeps pushing them away from her little ones. Hoppy's boys have grown so fast!

Both does have developed mastitis, which is an infection of the udder. One side of Lily's udder is swollen, and the teat on that side is inflamed and swollen. Hoppy has a milder form of it, in which only the udder is swollen on one side. We've given each of them some antibiotics, but that hasn't seemed to clear up the problem yet. So far, we haven't seen any blood in the milk. Thank goodness. We're trying to get in touch with the vet to see what to do next. We've got our fingers crossed that we can clear this stuff up before the infection causes much damage to the udders!

-Annie

New chicks are here!

2009-04-16T22:45:00.006-04:00

The post office called at 6:15 AM Wednesday morning to let us know our chicks had arrived from Cackle Hatchery. I jumped in the car to get them and bring them to their new home. Luckily, they all survived the journey and arrived safe and sound. We got 4 different breeds of chicken and 7 chicks of each breed. One breed, the Australorp, is a tried and true one for Deerfield, and the rest are new to us, but all of them are supposed to be good egg layers.

We set up 2 brooders. The first contains the Black Australorps and Speckled Sussex, and the second one has Partridge Rocks and New Hampshire Reds (which are yellow as chicks).

Sleepy time!

Our other chickens seem to be doing well. Some of the girls that we hatched last fall have started laying. Hooray! The Marans are laying very dark brown eggs, which are quite striking. We've been getting 6-9 eggs per day recently. Jeff and I are planning to take a Candling Class soon so that we can begin to sell our eggs. In the meantime, we have been bartering the eggs for various things, including a painting by a local artist.

-Annie

Lily's twins were born!

2009-04-14T21:07:00.006-04:00

Over the weekend, Lily began to display signs of impending labor: frequent low soft grunting and nesting. We checked on her frequently, and Jeff spent Sunday night down in the goat barn to keep watch. Unfortunately, it was a cold and stormy night, so it wasn't the most pleasant experience for Jeff - but what a trooper he is! Lily did not go into labor that night, but she must have the minute we left to attend the weekly work meeting Monday morning. When we returned, she had already birthed both kids and cleaned them up, and she was standing in the stall with a kid on each teat, nursing away. Lily had a girl and a boy, and they both look just like their mother, complete with the long and floppy Nubian ears. Very different from Hoppy's kids but just as adorable!

And now for something completely different

2009-04-11T20:48:00.018-04:00

This blog update is way overdue. I was having some computer issues, but they appear to have been resolved now. Hooray! So...ON WITH THE SHOW!!!

Well, actually, the show took place back in mid-March. The Monty Python show, that is. Theater On Cedar produced an off-season performance of Monty Python skits, directed by Jeff. The living room of the Truth and Beauty Laboratory provided a nice intimate venue, and we were blessed with enthusiastic audiences for our three show run. Beth graciously captured some of the fun on film for me. Enjoy!

An obnoxious fellow visits a bookshop and torments its owner.
Rrrrrrip! No more nut hatches! Any other birds you don't like?!
The bookshop owner reads "Ethel the Aarvark" to the obnoxious customer who can't read.
That's not how mommy reads it!!

Girlie Lumberjacks-

but they're OK!

Adam is "ruining the show" by launching back into the Lumberjack song.
Well...always look on the bright side of life...
And, always look on the bright side of death...just before you draw your terminal breath...

THE END

Hoppy's kids were born!

2009-03-08T23:29:00.011-04:00

Hoppy had her kids around 11am on Friday. This was much earlier than expected. Jeff and I had just finished making the door to the kidding stall and were bringing it down to the barn, when we heard Hoppy make a noise we hadn't heard her make before. We looked over to her in the barnyard and saw a hoof hanging out of her backside. After Jeff and I finished freaking out, Jeff retrieved the kidding supplies from the house, and I stayed with Hoppy and saw the first kid be born. Both of her kids were born breach with one leg tucked underneath their butts. This could have been problematic, necessitating me to push them back in and find the other hind leg and pull it out, if they got stuck. Hoppy was a champ and pushed them on through. Thank goodness!! The kids are both boys, look just like their dad, and are doing well. Hoppy was in pain and fairly lethargic for about the first two days after birth. We were worried about her, acquiring a couple of shots from the vet to help her empty her uterus. We also gave her a number of things to help stimulate her appetite. Who knows what finally helped- perhaps, it was just the tincture of time, but as of this morning, her temperature was down and she was more energetic and eating and drinking better. Phew!! Anyway, prepare yourself for the extreme cuteness that is baby goats, 'cause here are the pics:

These pics were taken minutes after the second kid was born. Hoppy did a great job licking her kids clean after each one popped out.

With some help from Jeff and I, the babies finally found mama's teats and began nursing. It's very important that the babies get the colostrum from their mother's milk within the first hour of life.
Hoppy and the older kid, Chevy. What long, spindly legs he has!
I'm holding a sleepy Chevy, and Jeff is cleaning French Fry's poopy butt. Unfortunately, the kids' mom has not been taking good care of this task.
About the kids' names...well, they reflect a reality of raising goats. We don't have the money or space to keep more goats, and boys are difficult to sell, particularly if they are not purebreeds. So, the boys are destined for our dinner table someday. We decided (somewhat morbidly, I suppose) to go with the naming strategy of the former owner of the kids' dad, Tater Tot, and give them food names. Thus, they were named French Fry and Chevron (the word for goat meat - chevre is the french word for goat). We plan to give them a good, albeit somewhat short, life at Deerfield. In two weeks, they will start sharing Hoppy's milk with us, so we can make tasty cheeses and more.

-Annie

Count down to kidding time

2009-02-07T10:31:00.007-05:00

We're approaching the 5-week mark before Hoppy is due to give birth. At this point, it is recommended to give the doe a subcutaneous injection of selenium, which will be repeated at 2 weeks before the due date. At the 4-week mark, we'll give Hoppy a vaccine shot. Jeff and I will be drawing straws to see who the lucky one will be to administer these. We'll also be increasing her food ration and supplementing her feed with extra vitamins and minerals. Some of our friends just lost a doe during the kidding process, so we are studying up and trying to prepare ourselves as best we can.

Hoppy is obviously pregnant, but we can't tell yet whether Lily is pregnant too. Lily has definitely gotten a lot bigger (she's now the size of her mom, when we first got them), but it's hard to tell whether she's just growing into her adult body or if it's something more. The girls are very affectionate (Hoppy is enjoying the attention Jeff is giving her in the pic above). However, Lily is still a bit frisky at times (ever since she became a hormonal teenager). Hoppy doesn't even try to keep up anymore. Lily will often charge across the yard after a meal, and sometimes gets "bouncy." She'll jump up on things and sometimes do a little twist and a kick in mid-air. If Lily is pregnant, she is due about a month after Hoppy.

In other animal news, all the cats living here are now fixed. Unfortunately, it was too expensive to get them all fixed, so we had to take some to the animal shelter, which was hard but necessary in order to prevent a cat population explosion. The 4 we kept are the ones that are most people friendly. They will, at the very least, let us pet them some times. Well, OK, maybe 2 of them will only let me pet them, but I have put a lot of time and effort into gaining this privilege. Rupert is going to be a big 'ole lap kitty some day - I just know it.

Every 2-3 weeks we lose another chicken. The latest was another one of the 13 chicks we hatched last fall. We took her to the poultry lab, where it was confirmed that she died of the contagious chicken cancer disease (Marek's) that has been plaguing our flock. The vet reassured us that on average 2/3 of the flock should survive, weeding out the weakest birds. Since we have a lot of old birds in our flock and the youngest ones are most susceptible to the disease, we have decided to try to increase our flock both by breeding some of our own birds and by buying some chicks from a hatchery that vaccinates against the disease. The love shack is now occupied by Honky and Brownie, the little silkies, and Houdini, a silky mix. We are also expecting 30 little fuzzy butts to arrive in the mail in April. It was hard to decide which breeds we wanted (so many cool types of chickens!), but we finally narrowed it down to 5. We're excited!

Annie

The Crafty Corner

2009-01-16T20:38:00.006-05:00

Well, I have yet to delve further into the gourd project (I've been gearing up to turn our gourd harvest into birdhouses, bowls, shekeres, and more), but I finished making a mosaic candle holder. I previously mentioned starting this project and having trouble gluing the glass beads to the glass jar (I used a glue gun, in accord with the directions for this project, which I'd found on the internet http://www.mycraftbook.com/craftIdea.asp?craftID=11). As it turned out, my concerns about losing the beads as I grouted the jar were well-founded. However, I only managed to lose one bead, but I had to glob on the grout rather thickly and was unable to wipe as much off as I would have liked. Also, I think my grout was not wet enough, which made it more difficult to apply, and it is still shedding some sand. The grout was also supposed to be a darker color, and I wonder if the lighter color is due to the dryness of the grout.

If anyone has some comments or suggestions that might help me out, I'd love to hear them. Right now, my plans are to try this again, using a stronger glue and wetter grout.

In other news, Jeff and I are strongly considering going into the soap-making biz. A local company called "Better for Babies" is looking for a new soap supplier, and we happen to make soap. We just ordered the supplies needed to try and re-create the soap products that this company has been selling. Keep your fingers crossed! This may be our first opportunity to generate some income from one of our projects (besides the egg bartering we did last summer). As some folks on Facebook already know, we are trying to come up with a name for ourselves. Jeff and I kinda like "Freaky Farms", which is something Jeff came up with when he created the web address for this blog. We are currently soliciting feedback on this name, but feel free to make suggestions of your own too. Great suggestions so far have been "A Good Lye" and "Jeff and Annie's Little White Lye." However, we're looking for something that would be appropriate to use with other products we might sell, as our farming projects develop and expand.

Hope you had a fantastic freaky friday,
Annie

Chickens clucking to the tune of Taps

2009-01-11T21:49:00.002-05:00

It is a sad day in deerfield. We knew there was some chicken disease afoot (that we got back when we purchased chickens in Douglasville ie Dottie, Honkey, and some of the others).

When we got back from our Christmas break the silver rooster from our egg hatch had died. We froze him and this past thursday took him to have an autopsy, and he had Marek's disease in his digestive tract which had caused him to be weakened, and then caught a strain of e. coli that caused respiratory problems (who knew that could happen). In talking to the vet about our chickens (before we stumbled into a conversation about his past-life experiences) he gave an estimate that perhaps 2/3 or so of our chickens might die.

There has been a lot of sneezing down at the chicken area, and we are worried we are about to have a rash of chicken deaths, and there isn't much we can do about it. We are currently giving them an antibiotic to treat the e coli, but the real problem for the young ones is the Marek's disease. Only time will tell for sure.

In happier news we brewed another batch of beer today, a chocolate oatmeal stout. It should be ready to bottle in two weeks. It tasted pretty yummy pre-fermentation.

Also happier is that we have started feeding the goats in the barn, and storing food for them there so our chores feel like they have gotten significantly easier. On the down side there are still some small leaks, but hopefully this week I'll get a chance to try out the sealer we bought.

I guess that is about it from Deerfield for now.

Jeff

Good news and bad news

2009-01-05T20:35:00.002-05:00

I suppose it is the nature of life that there is good and bad (or at least pleasant and unpleasant) stuff that happens.

So the bad news here lately was that our bees died (well, technically mine and Annie's Bees died - David has a hive strictly for pollination that seems to be okay). I'm not 100% on when that happened. I brought them here to the farm perhaps a month or so ago - and at that time the hive seemed very light, and there was no buzzing coming from it even as we jostled it. On getting it home I was not as diligent as I should have been about feeding them. I wanted to check in on them (the one time I did feed them, it seemed like the feed had mostly leaked out slowly rather than the bees eating it), but the weather was too cold for a while to open the hive.

About a week or two before Christmas we finally got some warm weather and I went out and opened my hive - and there were perhaps two or three live bees in it, no honey and neither of those two or three bees were queens. The hive was dead. I'm far from an expert, but my first guess was a disease known as chalkbrood. Which is not horrible and usually only kills weak hives. It may be some other disease, however, in which case it may be getting into David's hive (I suspect those few live bees were from another hive, most likely Davids) and if it is the wrong disease it would mean burning the hives (which are not of such great quality anyway, so that wouldn't be the end of the world).

On a better note Annie and I now have a regular beer brewing schedule in conjunction with the brewmaster for our local nano brewery (nano - smaller than micro - and in this case not yet a commercial venture). We began by brewing a pilsner which we brewed about two weeks ago. This was only my second "all grain" batch (meaning using actual malted barley - rather than malted barley extract) and for both our brewer friend and us our first attempt at a lager - which requires greater temperature control during fermentation.

Yesterday we "racked" the pilsner - which means we siphoned it from the bucket it was in into another bucket to get it off of the yeast who had given their lives for our eventual drinking pleasure. If it sits on the dead yeast too long their bodies begin bursting bringing bad (alliteration is fun) flavors into the beer. Lagers ferment longer at cooler temperatures, so you have to rack them to get them off the yeast that die in the initial fermentation.

It is also worth noting that we seem to have a chicken sickness traveling around our chicks. There is a lot of sneezing in the barnyard, and one of the youngest chicks (a silver Maran) was dead under the chicken house our first day back. We are now giving the chickens an antibiotic in their water to hopefully clear this up.

Hoppie and Lilly have to some extent moved into their new barn (which was water tight when we left for the holidays - but developed a leak or two while we were gone - argh) - since if we kept them on the same side of the fence as the chicken waterer they would be getting the antibiotic too. Arthur seems a bit unwilling to climb the steps into the barn (okay absolutely "I'll kick you in the balls if you try to lift me into that place" unwililng). I'm guessing with the rain surely he will eventually at least go under it (which is probably drier than in it given the recent new leaks).

And I guess that is most of our news from here. Annie and I had good holidays, and were glad to see our families and had a grand time.

Jeff

Holiday Decorating

2008-12-17T11:24:00.006-05:00

This past weekend, Jeff, David, and I brought home a tree from a local christmas tree farmer and decorated the house.

We also harvested a whole lotta horseradish roots. Anyone have good recipes for horseradish?!

The chicks are learning to go inside the coop at night and find a perch to spend the night- all on their own. Last night, there was only one straggler: the little Black Marans girl who tends to hide under the chicken house. She's the smallest chick and, therefore, must be at the bottom of the whole pecking order. Poor thing!

In addition to the gourd craft project I've been working on, I'm attempting to make a mosaic candle holder. I finished gluing the glass beads on the recycled glass jar this morning. Next, I'll fill in the gaps with a sanded grout. I'm not sure how this is going to go. The glue gun does not adhere the beads very tightly to the jar. Hopefully, the grout will hold them in place, if they don't all fall off during the grouting process. I recently completed a clay mosaic workshop at the local cultural arts center, which I enjoyed. So, I have a little experience working with mosaics. We'll see how this project turns out, though.

-Annie

Let it rain! Let it rain! Let it rain!

2008-12-10T09:43:00.015-05:00

Well, it's pouring down rain outside, so it seems like a good time to blog. The outdoor projects can be put on hold for a day or so. The rain is much needed around these parts.

The fall garden has been struggling due to cold temps and the limited rainfall. The collards and cabbage are doing fairly well, but the lettuce has been especially hard hit by the freezing temps, even though I put covers on the garden when temps get really low. We're also growing kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and arugula this fall, and next year's garlic crop was planted recently. Other than that, there's horseradish ready for harvesting, and there are some Egyptian Walking Onions. The gourd harvest has finished drying, and I'm in the process of cleaning them, preparing them for various craft projects, including making birdhouses.

The outside of the barn is nearly complete. Yesterday, we finished adding more tin to one part of the roof that tends to leak a lot, but this morning there was another puddle in the middle of the barn. We also finished the floor and prepared it for bedding to be put down on the left side. We need to work on the stairs, do more caulking on the roof and cover it with a sealant, and then complete the interior. We plan to split the barn in half. On one side will be the milking station and hay storage, and the other side is for the goats. There will be two sections on the goat side, so we can have a separate kidding stall, when the time comes. Therefore, we need to section off the interior and make a hay trough and second milk stand.

This past weekend was a busy one for us. We thoroughly cleaned out the chicken house, made a batch of soap, and attended a Theatre on Cedar meeting to plan the 2009 season. It was a cold day on Saturday, and it took a while to get the water pressurizer machine to work, but we managed to get the chicken coop and yard ready for the chicks to move in. At the meeting that night, it was determined that Jeff will take the lead in producing some Monty Python skits to be preformed in March and Shannon will put together a script for the summer production, adapting the novel Jitterbug, by Tom Robins, to the stage. Additionally, there will be biweekly gatherings to do some improv work, which may lead to the production of an improv show eventually. The fall show is still undiecided. After the meeting, we transferred the chicks to the coop, so they woke up in a new home on Sunday morning.

The chicks spent all day inside, getting used to that space, and then they ventured out into the yard for the first time on Monday. However, they've needed a little help getting back into the house and finding somewhere to roost at night. Jeff crawled under the house on Sunday night to retrieve one little girl. She continued to be shy and confused last night, but, luckliy, we were able to use a net to get her out that time. Inside the house, some of the chicks choose to sleep on the short roost that Jeff and I made them for use in the brooder. Others want to get up on the "big bird" roosts, but most have difficulty getting up there. A couple successfully used the short roost as a launching point. The Ameraucana girl kept flying up where a bunch of chicks were already perched, knocking some of them off before falling back herself.

Hooligan, the barn cat, and her kid look on as the chicks feed in the photo on the left. The chicks have also found the waterer in the yard and enjoyed foraging for tasty bugs. The Welsummer baby roo (pictured in the foreground of the foraging photo below) is totally bad-ass. Not only is he the first of the baby roos to crow (which is actually a little weak still, but I pretend that I'm all impressed :) but he is the only chick that I've seen put up a fight- and win - when the older chickens peck on them. I don't think that the small Mottled Java (another relative newcomer) will mess with him again.

In other chicken news, the large Mottled Java has started laying eggs. We actually thought that she was a male, initially, but the roosters court her and now she's pumping out eggs. Way to go, Java lady!

Lastly, I have finally landed a paying job. While more income will be nice, I'll miss having so much time to be with the animals and work on farm projects.

-Annie

Cycles of life and death on a farm

2008-11-24T23:28:00.008-05:00

Jeff noted that it was an interesting experience to walk out of the chicken house one day with an egg in one hand and a dead hen in the other (and perhaps he will elaborate on that experience in another post). I'll just say that while it's been wonderful being so involved with the animals here, getting to know them and developing attachments, it's hard to lose them (by whatever means). I wonder how these things might change over time.

We've had 4 chickens die over the past couple of months, which displayed the symptoms described in a previous entry. I did some research and discovered that there was a state-funded poultry lab in a nearby town that will perform a necropsy free of charge. At this facility a sweet old vet did the necropsy on poor Juliet (see the cast of characters entry), who had died the day before. He noted tumors in her intestine and diagnosed Marek's Disease, which is caused by a virus. Ack! A nasty disease has made its way into our flock. The disease usually strikes youngsters, so our 8-week old chicks are at risk. Their brooder is right beside the barnyard. We have nowhere else to put them, and they are outgrowing the brooder as well. Therefore, we will have to integrate them into the flock soon and just hope for the best.

The boys/young cockerels: an Ameraucana, 2 Black Marans, and the Silver Marans are on the left, while the little roo on the right is a Welsummer. They are changing and growing so fast! What distinguishes the boys from the girls at this point is the size of their combs. At first I thought the silver would be a girl, but its comb has become more prominent lately. Drats! that makes 6 boys and 7 girls (still more girls, though!).

The girls/young pullets: two Welsummers and an Ameraucana (who loves the camera - always ready to pose for a picture). The Ameraucana was our first chick to hatch from this group. This breed has "beards and muffs," which are longer feathers that grow from under and beside the face. Our two Ameraucanas are just starting to develop these feathers.

In other animal news, we have bred both of our does. About a week ago Lily was observed to be flirting with Arthur. At first I just thought they were sparing as usual (putting their heads together and pushing back and forth), but then I noticed that Lily was actually mostly rubbing on Arthur. She was rubbing her head all over his head, neck, and chest. It seemed that Arthur, being neutered, was not sure if he liked these advances or not. Anyway, we scheduled Lily a date with Paul and Terra's buck, Stripe. Lily was a little freaked out by the separation from her momma and the strange new goats. She was not as cooperative with Stripe as Hoppy had been with Tater Tot. However, over the course of 2 days, Lily and Stripe were observed to be getting it on multiple times. So, here's hoping that both goats have indeed been knocked up, and we may pursue pregnancy testing to confirm that.

Lastly, we have almost finished the outside of the goat barn. Woohoo! We still need to put a sealant on the roof and finish the interior, but the barn will soon be ready for the goats to move in.

Have a happy turkey day!
Annie

Fall comes to Deerfield

2008-11-10T18:52:00.018-05:00

Beautiful fall colors

Our crazy and lovable little chicken, Dottie:

"MacDuff was from his mother's womb untimely ripped."

2008-11-03T09:08:00.010-05:00

Theater on Cedar just completed its second production, "MacBeth." Jeff played MacDuff, I played Malcolm, and David played the everyman/old man/bar man/music maestro. Jeff got to do a really cool fight scene and kill MacBeth. I didn't get to kill anyone (darn it), but, at least, I got to to be crowned king at the end. Well actually, I did get to do a little fighting too. A friend of ours, Patrick, who is knowledgeable in the martial arts, choreographed the fight scenes for us. We had a great time with those. However, I think it was the emotinal intensity of the acting that got the most props. Ellen and Terra, as MacBeth and Lady MacBeth, were phenomenal. Oh yeah, we had very sexy witches too. :-)

You may have noticed that, in contrast to Shakespeare's time, we had girls playing dudes. It was an interesting challenge for Ellen and I. In fact, my acting career thus far has consisted of portraying a fairy and a guy. Who knows what's next?!

It was a lot of work, and things got a bit tense leading up to the show's debut, but we pulled it all together in the end. The play went very well (particularly the second weekend of performances), and we had a marvelous time. Lots of videos and pictures were taken of the play, so we hope that we will be able to link to some of those in the near future. I mean, it will happen; I command it! 'Tis good to be the king.

Lastly, Jeff and I are very happy that some of our family members were able to come visit us at Deerfield, meet each other, and see the play. Unfortunately, they came opening weekend, when the play was a little less polished and the weather was crappy. Our first performance had to be held inside due to rain. We all crammed into the living room at the house on Cedar, where there was not much room for sword fighting. However, the added intimacy the smallish space afforded turned out to be a nice experience, after all. Jeff now has dreams of putting on Monty Python skits in that space during the winter months. Stay tuned...

-Annie

First Freeze

2008-10-30T11:24:00.010-04:00

As predicted, the temps here fell to 32 degrees the night before last. The day before the freeze, all of the peppers and tomatoes still in the garden were harvested. This included a lot of unripe tomatoes. So, along with some of the green tomatoes given us by Jeff's parents, we used our green maters plus our onions and apples to make a green tomato chutney. We canned 12 half-pints. Today, we are pickling the rest of the green tomatoes and canning tomato soup with the red ones. Our apple trees produced an abundance of fruit this year - sometimes breaking the branches. We've made lots of apple sauce and apple butter. Hopefully, we can try making an Indian chutney this weekend, using more of the apples. Here's our stash of preserves in storage down in the cellar:

The new goat barn is still under construction, but the goats are still able to seek shelter from the cold in another small barn. However, the goats used to sleep in a space beside the chicken house, but that got turned into the outdoor chicken brooder. A big heat lamp in the brooder keeps the chicks warm.

All 13 chicks appear to be thriving. In one last attempt to have one of our hens hatch and raise some chicks, David procured a dozen Barred Rock hatching eggs via the internet, which we placed underneath a hen who was setting at the time. The hen and eggs were given a private room in one of the old rabbit cages. Although she seemed to be setting on the eggs well, when we candled the eggs a few days ago, only a couple appeared viable. The next day, the hen gave up; she was off the nest and squawking to be let loose. Perhaps we will have better luck in the spring.

First days in the outdoor brooder at 2 weeks old

Four weeks old - growing so fast!

In other chicken news, two of our older roosters died in the last week or two. Both roosters started looking really depressed in the days/weeks before they died. It was sad to see them moping around. Hopefully, it was just old age and not some contagious disease. I guess this makes more room for the newbie roos, though. We still don't know for sure how many of the chicks are male. The older Wyandotte chick, that we've been calling Dottie, seems to be developing more male characteristics than the other two Wyandotte chicks, Wyatt and Annabelle. Dottie may turn out to be Wyatt. We shall see. However, we are in the process of integrating Dottie into the flock, following his/her stint in the infirmary. Being smaller than the other chickens and having only one good eye, I've been a worried mama hen. The poor thing hides in corners or under the chicken house most of the time. She also tends to seek safety, when we are around, by flying up on our shoulders and nestling down there. It's tough to be the new kid. Lastly, egg production is going back up now that they are almost done molting. We're getting 1-3 eggs per day now.

-Annie

Git 'er done

2008-10-20T21:16:00.003-04:00

Yes, that's right, it is time for some goat news!!!

Well after a month of wondering, pondering, and considering we have now been successful. . . um, maybe.

You see, it isn't easy (at least it didn't seem so) to tell if a goat is in heat or not, especially if you a)aren't a goat, b)haven't had goats before, or c)don't have a virile buck around. Annie and I strike out on all three counts. So we have spent the past month trying to figure out if Hoppy and Lilly are in heat or not. This has involved a number of considerations: are they "whining" more, are they waggin their tails, are they more affectionate than usual. Thus far we had strikes on all of those (well except that Hoppy is always whiney so that didn't help). We have also been examining (visually only) their nether regions on a regular basis for signs of "excitement" but couldn't tell for sure if they were swollen or what. The other test we had was a rag that I had rubbed all over the head and forelegs of a buck who was wanting some action (you see they pee all over this part of themselves, because the ladies LOVE that). We let the ladies smell it and they react "like a teenager mooning over some boy" (that's close to an exact quote) then we have a doe ready for action.

So this past Saturday, after a month and a half or so of uncertainty we finally hit pay dirt. Hoppy had been whining almost non-stop for two days (the first day it was raining, and she always whines in the rain so we wrote that off). I let her smell the rag, and she rubbed her head all over it, and started wagging her tail. I looked behind her and their appeared to be a secretion. This was a goat who was feeling amorous.

Then the race was on. Goats only stay in heat for 24-72 hours at a time and we now suspected some of the whining the day before had to do with her being in heat. So we called all of our goaty friends and acquaintances, and there were no answers. Aaarrgghhh!!! So we waited, then I called one of them back, and - HALLELUJAH - he answered. So quickly we rustled Hoppy into the dog carrier in the back of David's truck, and whisked her off to a farm about a half hour from here. We got there. I had my hand in her collar, and she was straining against me as hard as she ever has to get at that buck. So we got her over there, and within - oh I'd say 45 seconds the deed was done. We wanted to wait around to let him have another go at it, but he seemed to be exhausted - so we came on home.

Goats typically gestate for about 5 months, so probably sometime around March we will have some little kids born here at deerfield. Lilly was acting kind of goofy today, so probably the next time or two she comes in heat we will breed her too (we want to space them out a little bit, so we don't have lots of newborns all at once).

So that is the latest news here from Deerfield. Aside from that we are working on the barn still, the chicks are all doing well, we got our first frost last night, so gardening is changing, and I'm staying fairly busy with work.

Hope you are all well,

Jeff

ps. Just in case you wanted to know, Hoppy's one minute stand was with a goat named Tater Tot, who is a La Mancha, which is a different breed of goat, but still a dairy goat.

"All my pretty chickens"

2008-10-11T09:30:00.009-04:00

The chicks are 2 weeks old now and doing well. They are growing fast and need a larger brooder, so we will be setting one up down at the chicken house soon.

Here are the chicks at one week old.
Their wing and tail feathers are coming in. The black chick at the top of the first photo has developed some crooked toes on one foot, as can be seen in the photo. I've read that little cardboard boots can be constructed for it, if you want to show the bird, but chickens can live normal lives with crooked toes, so we've chosen not to intervene. Maybe they will straighten back out on their own. In the second photo, the brownish chick standing in the center is our first hatchling- the Ameraucana female.

The chicks at 2 weeks old.
Yesterday morning I entered the nursery to find the little black guy, in the first photo, enjoying the view from atop the brooder. While I will miss having the chicks so close, it does seem that they need larger accommodations than this box. At 2 weeks, the chicks have many more feathers coming in, especially the Ameraucanas and Welsummers, which are the brownish ones. The Marans don't seem to be growing as fast and still have a lot of their baby chick fuzz. However, what most of the Marans got, that the others don't, are feathers on their legs and feet, which might be evident in some of the photos.

Well, since we hatched the eggs in the incubator, our hens in the chicken yard have basically stopped laying eggs, leaving us eggless in Deerfield. We have, like, 20 chickens, and we had to buy eggs at the farmer's market this week. How crazy is that?! Well, the chickens are molting now, which typically decreases egg production, but the chickens are also rather old (a hen died this week- the second since Jeff and I moved in), which further decreases production. This will likely continue until the winter solstice, because most breeds of chicken reduce egg production in the winter, as the days shorten. The newbies should start laying by next spring, though, and hopefully give us a more steady supply.

One last note: Dottie, the chick with the eye problem, will likely have to get along with only one functional eye. The swelling and redness went away, and she opens the affected eye now, but the eyeball protrudes somewhat from the eye socket and it is all glazed over. She's a very sweet bird, though, and she will be the second one-eyed female in our flock, with which we will try to integrate her very soon.

-Annie

Barn Raising

2008-10-09T21:46:00.014-04:00

Jeff and I have continued to work on the construction of our goat barn, and yesterday we finished one of the side walls - complete with window.

The razing of the old barn in Whitesburg is done. The structure has been completely torn down, and all of the usable materials have been salvaged. We almost got enough old tin to cover our roof, and we hope that we have sufficient wood to make all of the walls. This has significantly cut the construction costs. Here are some photos of the barn razing:

I'll post another chicken update soon. Then it'll be time for an entry about the goats - breeding season is here!

-Annie

A Baker's Dozen

2008-09-29T12:41:00.006-04:00

Thus far we have had 13 chicks hatch. It's been very exciting. The second hatch group began hatching around noon on Saturday. I watched this Black Marans make his entrance into the world.

Here he is today - at 2 days old.

And here he is with some of his peeps.

We've been moving the chicks from the incubator to a "brooder" with food and water, when they are 24 hours old. Here's who was in the incubator on Sunday morning.

And this morning

In other chicken news, Dottie's eye looks less swollen and irritated (Dottie is the Blue-Laced Red Wyandotte, who still is having eye issues). We've been treating her eye with saline flushes and antibiotic eye ointment twice a day for the past week. The other young chickens, which we bought a few weeks ago, were recently integrated into the flock. They seem to be doing well, although the newbies tend to stick together and they still need help finding their way into the coop at night. Leaving a light on inside the coop appears to help.

Now, I have to go back to the nursery and watch the chicks some more; it's almost impossible to tear myself away!

Annie

Don't count your chickens before they hatch

2008-09-26T12:59:00.010-04:00

After several attempts to have a hen hatch a clutch of eggs, we finally managed to produce chicks by hatching some eggs in our incubator. Yesterday we awoke to discover that our first chick had hatched and was peeping away in the incubator. Hooray! The next chick waited until this morning to make his appearance. Both are Ameraucana chicks (Ameraucana hens lay blue-green eggs), and the "paper clip on a string" sexing method tells us that the first one is a girl and the second one is a boy. We almost feel like smoking cigars in celebration; we are proud parents.

There are 5 more eggs left in the first hatch group: 2 Buttercup and 3 more Ameraucana. The second hatch group, which are due on Sunday, consists of 3 Welsummer, 1 Mottled Java, 1 Silver Marans, and about 7 Black Marans. We "candled" all 40 or so eggs in the incubator a few days ago (held them up to a strong flashlight in a dark room) and determined that around half the eggs were no longer viable. We removed those from the incubator. We've got our fingers crossed for the rest!

Girl chick, which we removed from the incubator because she started pecking on the less mobile newbie. We hope she will lay us lots of pretty colored eggs someday.

Boy chick - henpecked already. Poor guy.

Aren't they precious!

-Annie

Paradoxes

2008-09-23T16:42:00.004-04:00

It's kind of a funny thing, that when there is the most to blog about, there is the least time to blog. Boy has it been busy here around Deerfield.

I guess I'll get the disappointment out of the way early. The hen who has been sitting just crossed the 21-day mark, and there is no sign of hatching. There is also no sign of most of the eggs she had been sitting on (I think setting may be the proper term, but I'll forgive myself). I'm really not sure what the deal is. I mean where the incubator is concerned (I'll get to this later) there are some factors that could cause problems with hatching. On the other hand, with a plain ol' hen, setting on plain ol' eggs - well something oughta happen. So I for one, am a little bummed and frustrated by this. I really thought she would be a guarantee of at least a few baby chicks.

The incubator is probably going to produce some chicks, but probably at a rate much lower than it ought to. I'm really not sure what the deal there is either. The main thing, I think, is that the temperature varies between 99-101 or so, and that isn't supposed to be what happens. In any case, that's my guess. Maybe we just have bag eggs, who knows.

Also the chick with the eye problem, may yet reopen both eyes, but for right now the closed one is swollen and maybe full of pus. Last night we tried to flush it with Saline solution - not sure how well that worked out - but hopefully it will work.

The much bigger deal has been the barn raising. This past saturday we had a fair number of folks show up, and probably with a little better organization on my part (and perhaps some more knowledge on my part) we could have gotten the barn up. Many thanks to all of those who came to help out. Extra special thanks to the people of Full Life Community who rocked all of our worlds. I think with the knowledge of those of us who live here, we could have made a barn, but with their help we made it quicker, better, and cheaper. So again mad ups to them. Also special thanks to those who drove long distances to get here (ie Atlanta or farther - phatman and crowliosis).

By the end of the day we had the floor in, all the rafters up and a beginning on the roof and walls.

Here are some pictures:

The day before as work just began (okay, we'd already dug the holes, poured the cement, and cut the posts)

Here we are fairly early on. We are standing on the lumber to try and counteract it's curvature. Paul (to my left) and his wife Terra (his hand is on her shoulder) were among the rockstars who came to help

Here we are at the lunch break from left to right David, Ellen, Forest, Paul, Will, Jeff, and Terra (lying down).

Here we are near the end of the day, getting ready to put the tin on the roof. Before the day ended we got two pieces actually installed.

Today Annie and I almost finished the roof, but ran out of tin - doh. We probably need about four more pieces of tin to have it completely finished (the roof that is).

peace,

Jeff

Barn Razing

2008-09-16T23:11:00.002-04:00

Hello,

I guess the first thing to say is that the chicks seem to be getting better. We have given them some anti-biotics, and they seem to be getting better.

Also, for those who may not know it and are interested, we are having a barn raising this coming weekend. Sat Sept 20th starting around 10 am or so.

Now you may have noticed the title of this is "Barn Razing." Well today we started (along with some friends from the Full Life community) demolition work on an old barn in Whitesburg, GA - and are salvaging the lumber and roofing tin for our barn and some projects they also want to do. Hopefully we'll have pictures of this soon - but for right now, only words. It was a two story barn, until we arrived. In about 4 hours this morning we took off the roof, the rafter, the siding, and the floor for the second story. Essentially we did away with the second story today. We'll work on it some more tomorrow.

Also just FYI, we found how to make commenting on the blog easier (I think) - hopefully now it just asks for your name to comment.

pace,

Jeff

"There Will Be Blood"

2008-09-15T19:21:00.012-04:00

Saturday, while David is out of town, Jeff and I slaughtered two more roosters (David is a vegetarian, and, yes, he knows there will be fewer roosters when he returns). Our little chicken population has too many roosters, and there’s about to be some more coming. Therefore, it was time to cull some from the flock. We didn’t take any of David’s favorite ones, which he was eventually able to narrow down to three. However, to amp up the drama of our story, we are announcing a major character death. We took down Big Boss. I thought he was the handsomest rooster, but it was time to shake up the pecking order and readjust the chicken politics in the barnyard. Two of David’s favorites, a Buttercup and a black Austrolorp, had recently been occupants of the Love Shack, where we isolated the chickens we wanted to breed. Upon returning to the flock, they were bumped down to the bottom of the pecking order. Poor Blacky has been hiding behind the food can in the chicken house, and Romeo has been hiding out in the hens’ nest boxes. At first we thought Blacky might avoid the demotion, when he took on Big Boss right as he emerged from the Love Shack. Blacky was making a strong standing against Big Boss, when Tom (Turkey Lurkey) suddenly butted in and chased Blacky into the fence and then under the chicken house. Blacky suffered big time loss of esteem with that.

Anyway, on to killing chickens! If you’d prefer not to read about the “gory” details, I’ll provide ample warning beforehand and you can just skip that part.

So, while the chickens were asleep Friday night, Jeff and I went down to the chicken house and grabbed three roosters and put them in separate little cages. Chickens are very easy to sneak up on at night, and we wanted them to fast before the slaughter. I wrote three roosters, because once again, Lucky has cheated death. Lucky has been slated for slaughter twice, but he escaped the isolation chamber the first time and this time we only planned to slaughter three roosters if some of our friends were going to be here to help. Based on our last experience, I thought I could only emotionally handle doing two roosters at a time unless I could have a more peripheral role. As it turned out, our friends were unable to make it, so Lucky was turned loose.

[Caution: here’s the bloody part – the next two paragraphs contain details of the slaughter.]

About midday on Saturday, Jeff carried the roosters up to the orchard (which was maybe the hardest part for me last time), and we tied them upside down from a tree branch by their feet. Jeff had read about chicken slaughter methods in “Country Living”, which listed ten different methods from best to worst. We’re using the best method for which we have all of the appropriate equipment. After tying them up, we placed a bucket underneath each one. Then as I hold their wings down, we respectfully thank the chicken for the food it’s providing us and Jeff quickly cuts the head off with a very sharp knife. This method is rated above the axe method, because the chicken can’t start running around spouting blood everywhere, which can get pretty messy. However, I am not able to completely hold the birds still and keep their wings from flapping sometimes. Big Boss kept fairly still for us, but the second rooster’s wings worked their way free, and as he flapped and flailed around, we got splattered with a bit of blood.

Once the heads are off and the birds are still, Jeff cuts them down and dips them in a pot of very hot water, which we brought out before tying up the chickens. The hot water dip makes it easier to pluck the feathers off. Once the feathers are plucked, we bring them into the kitchen, where Jeff removes the innards and whatnot, preparing the meat to be cooked. We stewed the first set of roosters, which was very yummy. This time we tried frying one. Bad call. The head of the flock tends to be a younger rooster, but Big Boss turned out to be anything but young and tender. I chewed on a few bites for several minutes and then was done, while Jeff was a little more persistent. He complained of a sore jaw the next day, though. We put the other bird in a crock pot, and that turned out quite well.

Big Boss - Still a tough bird

[/Caution: the rest is safe - the blood is over.]

I took some photos of our new additions, which we brought home the previous weekend.

These guys are 4 out of the 5 chicks we bought. Not pictured is the Blue-Laced Red Wyandotte that died. Two of the BLRWs are still having eye problems, which we are treating with an antibiotic, and they appear to be improving. The blonde one is a Copper Marans sport (my understanding of the term “sport” here is that it indicates the appearance of unusual characteristics in a particular breed- in this case, the light color). Marans are fairly rare, but they’re quickly becoming popular for their dark chocolate brown eggs.

In a separate rabbit cage, we have two Mottled Javas (another rare breed) and a White Silkie rooster (notice his light blue ears), whom we hope to breed with Brownie someday. Silkies are a bantam breed, so they stay on the small side. Little fluff balls!

If you’re getting lost in all of the breeds of chicken (just wait until we start talking more goat!), I was too when I first moved to Deerfield. Warning: reading this blog may lead you to become conversant in all things chicken and goat. You may find yourself saying, “Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes are gorgeous!”, “Silkies are cuddly.”, and “I think it would be fun to breed a whole new line of the Copper Marans sports.” At your next cocktail party, you can impress all of your friends with your new chicken knowledge. ;-)

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

Annie

A sad day

2008-09-12T09:28:00.002-04:00

Hello,

Just wanted to give an update on the little chicken that was struggling. We saw it in the morning two days ago, and it was barely moving. We discussed whether we should put it out of its struggle then, but decided to wait and see. It must have died not too long after that, because when we went back to take care of the animals in the evening it was quite cool (though it occurs to me such a small body would cool off pretty quickly) and stiff. So I took it to a different part of the property and buried, and Annie cleaned out the cage they were in in case it was some sort of infection.

Now we seem to be having some eye problems in our chicks. Of the three blue-laced red wyandottes (spelling?) one is not opening its eyes at all, one is opening only one eye, and one has both eyes still going fine. We aren't sure what the problem is, watery would also be a way to describe their eyes when they're open, but that seems to be a symptom of about every chicken disease known to man. So for the time being we're back to wait and see (post as a comment any suggestions if you know something about this, please).

In happier news, yesterday Annie and I - with help from a friend brewed our first ever batch of all grain beer (as opposed to using some grain extract). It is a pumpking beer, that should be ready in plenty of time for halloween. We also had some play rehearsal - including some of us getting to choreograph our fight scenes - which was really cool. All in all, it was an excellent "day off."

peace to all

Jeff

A mixed bag

2008-09-09T21:55:00.002-04:00

Well today has been a day of ups and downs. The biggest news I think is that we now have two fewer kittens. When Annie and I moved in there were two or three cats ready to drop litters around the place. Now they have done that, and there is a glut of kittens (Rupert Nigel Giles, usually just called Rupert, is one of those). This morning we caught two of them in a havahart trap, and I carried them off to the pound. That in and of itself was a mixed bag. We've known we need to do something about these kittens for a while, but have had a hard time catching them - even now, it took two of them at the same time to set off the trap. Still, for the good of all, I think we need to lower our cat population, as well as getting the mothers spayed (and now Rupert neutered). So that was a victory to catch them, but it was a little sad, because bad things may happen to them at the pound.

Most of our new chickens are doing well. Sadly one of the smaller chicks seems to be having some sort of problem. We are not 100% sure of the nature, but it seems to be a foot problem. We are trying to keep it near the water and food, and I guess will hope that it heals - unless it obviously turns worse, in which case we'll have to balance the expense of vet fees with our distaste for mercy killing. These are the sorts of decisions that make farm life (if that is really what we're up to) difficult. Knowledge and experience will hopefully eventually make these sorts of decisions at least more clear cut, if not more pleasant to make.

We are also in the decision making process for determining which roosters to, um, how to put this delicately, slaughter this coming weekend. If we post pictures, don't worry they will not be directly on the blog and they will bare big red labels "warning lark's vomit," I mean "not for sensitive viewers."

Guess that is all for today.

Jeff

Italy videos

2008-09-09T18:11:00.004-04:00

Well, it's been over a year in the making, which shows in the impeccable production values, but for all of you out there who have been wanting to see Annie and Jeff's wacky adventure in Italy in a half hour video format, complete with mostly irrelevant music, now is your chance.

Man am I learning about the internet, I was going to give you a link to follow (which I'll leave in place), but I just learned how to embed them puppies, so there they are, right down there below the link. Hooooo wheeeee

Enjoy,

Jeff

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSx6Mf4jzew

MacBeth brings new chickens and learnings on magnetic fields

2008-09-07T21:31:00.003-04:00

Well hello out there,

We've had quite a day today. It began as usual with Hoppy's milking. We got a new record today of 1.1 pounds. Which is still not very much, but for a first freshener (first time she's given birth) and how long it has been since then we're pretty happy with it. Annie threw her arms up in a V of triumph, as she maintained her hold on the milking record (though I swear that is due to other factors, we are equally good milkers - honest).

Then after breakfast we journeyed into town for the first read through of MacBeth with the full cast. It was pretty exciting, and I was glad to get to hear the story read through by different characters, it is much easier for me to get Shakespeare that way. We have about a month and a half before opening night, so there is plenty of time still for line memorization.

After MacBeth we journeyed to Douglasville, to see a gazebo posted on Craigslist, and to visit a chicken farm that has several rare breeds. It didn't take long to realize the Gazebo was not what we wanted, on the other hand at the chicken farm we spent several hours seeing all the different breeds, and then making our choices. We ended up getting a fairly wide selection. We got: 4 Blue-laced red chicks (some were actually "splash" which means something about their color), 2 young mottled javas one male and one female, 1 Copper Sport Maran chick (apparently sort of an "off" breed, but very pretty), and 1 White Silkie Rooster. I like all of them, but I am definitely most partial to the White Silkie - he is just beautiful - Silkie's have very amazing plumage, and he is just completely white, fluffy, and wonderful. I also liked the mottled javas alot. In addition to these we also got some eggs - blue marans, mottled Javas, and Wellsummers.

We brought all of our new chickens home, and got them settled into rabbit cages to give the adults time to get used to their environment, and make sure they were healthy (though everything at this farm seemed happy and healthy). The chicks are in a seperate rabbit cage till they get bigger - they are not yet ready for the brutality that is the establishment of the pecking order.

Then we put our new 18 eggs into the incubator - which meant we had to take some out. We took out the eggs that we had in there from our own chickens, and took six of them to put under the hen who is currently setting (Mama Hen in the cast of characters). Sadly we also had to let some of them go, for fear there wouldn't be enough room under Mama Hen. If all went ideally we'll probably have 20-30 new chickens when the hatching is all said and done (that if is a big if).

Far and away the coolest thing we learned today was this interesting string trick. At the chicken farm they had a novel way of determining the sex of the chickens. They used a rock on a string, and held it above the chicken (we even tried it on eggs). If the chicken is a male the rock will move in a straight line along the spine of the chicken. If it is femaile it will move in a circle. I'll be blunt, I'm skeptical - I tried to watch their hands to see if they were manipulating the string. If they were it was very subtle, and they are excellent sleight of hand artists. I mean their hands definitely moved some, but then who can hold their hand perfectly still - so I don't know. In any case they did it on Annie and I, and thus it is confirmed that she is a she, and I am a he. They claimed it had to do with magnetic fields, and seemed as surprised by its success as we were. So give them props for acting too, if they were manipulating it.

Well I guess that is it for today from me.

Jeff

The Cast of Characters

2008-09-06T22:40:00.000-04:00

Alright ladies and genteel men,

For the course of this blog here are the cast of characters (of course we reserve the right to make mid-season replacements should contract negotiations go awry, and to introduce new characters as we see fit).

David: Lord of the Manor

Annie and Jeff: The Tenant Farmers of Deerfield

White Paw: The queen of Deerfield Manor

Idris: Heir to the throne/scaredy cat

Hoppy Begonia: She who gives us milk

Lily Caprica: Hoppy's daughter and our first kid

Arthur: Castrated male goat, but he's okay with it

Blackberry: The enforcer/outdoor cuddle monster

Rupert Nigel Giles: He's orangey, RNG, get it?

Big Boss: King of the Chicken yard/a real meanie

Brownie: The Little Brown Silkie

Juliet: A Buttercup mix, an early inhabitant of the love shack

Mama Hen: Currently setting in the love shack. Black Austrolorp, sure hope they hatch!!

Turkey Lurkey: Old and decrepit, but still bigger than a chicken - the real big boss

And More to Come: Incubator currently with around 30 eggs or so

So it begins. . .

2008-09-05T19:30:00.001-04:00

Here it is,

You've all been wanting it, you know you have.

Now you can keep up with all of our wacky adventures from the comfort of your own desk chair.

That's right "The Deerfield Follies" is up and running.

Our intent is to use this primarily to post about our adventures here around the farm . . . ie milking goats, raising chickens, raising a garden, etc. The idea really first struck me the day we killed our first chickens here - the vivid red of the blood really would've been a great photo. But alas, no pictures were taken that day (though we did have some excellent chicken and rice).

We have also now decided to include our larger adventures as well (for example our trip to Dragon*con this past weekend).

So stay tuned for further . . . um, stuff.

Jeff