Thanksgiving

I've finally made it back to the blog again.  It generally seems to be a losing battle around here to use the computer without Liam breathing down your neck waiting to play Starcraft or some other battle game. 

We are expecting our first freeze on Thanksgiving day with lows in the low 20's.  I am hoping to take pics of the roses tomorrow before they become frozen.  If we're lucky, the cilantro will be protected by the heavy plastic I'm going to throw over it.  The jalapeno, bell and banana peppers will all have to come in tomorrow.  Also, the trombetta and spaghetti squash still out in the beds will need to be picked.  I'm actually ready for the freeze, so that I can clean up all the flower and garden beds afterwards.  I hate to pull up and cut back the plants while they're still alive and green.  It will take me most of December to dig the bermuda grass out of all the beds - at least, it took me that long last year!  It is worth it, though, to have clean flower beds come spring time.

Lacey was bred to a Nubian buck on November 13th, so we hope to expect babies around Liam's birthday at the beginning of April.  We had planned to have Alpine babies, but I was having some major trouble trying to figure out when Lacey was ready and the Nubian buck was closer!  Now, we just have to watch Daisy, so her babies won't be too far behind Lacey's in the spring.

Lacey is still producing milk very well.  She is about to be on her ninth month in milk and she is still giving around 10 cups a day - that's over half a gallon a day since we bought her at the end of May!  That's plenty for us, yet she actually dropped in production after we brought her home.  I'm not sure what we could have done with even more milk!  Even though Lacey is an Alpine, known for quantity rather than quality (high butterfat) milk, every quart forms a thick ring of cream on top.  I'll be interested to see how Daisy's milk compares, since she's a Nubian/Saanen cross known for higher butterfat.

We are heading south to Stephenville for Thanksgiving on Thursday evening.  We purchased a pasture raised turkey this year from a little farm - Prairie Oasis Farm - in Millsap near Mineral Wells.  I went to go pick it up on Sunday after church.  The owners, Allen and Kim Boone, were very nice and gave me some neat recipes to go with my turkey.  This year they have upgraded their facilities so they had some extra challenges for the holiday season (they process their chickens and turkeys on site).  If we can afford to, this spring we hope to try some of their chickens, as well.  I'm excited to try a real turkey this year and am planning never to go back to buying the cheap factory farmed birds in the stores.

I insulated our well house with fiberglass batting this week - if I had known insulation was so cheap, I think I would have done it a long time ago.  Not having to worry so much about pipes freezing and having a warmer building for our goats to take shelter by is definitely worth $30.  I'm very thankful for having a framed building to make putting it up so easy!

Fall is here!

New kitten (with recovering Tailwagger on window sill)

Leaves are turning yellow and orange and are already falling off the trees!  The temperatures went from highs near 100 in mid September to lows in the 50's by late September.  I was hoping for a month or two of not having to open and close the windows every blessed day - instead, I got two weeks of open window weather 24/7.  Now we're having to close the windows at night - brrr!  It is wonderful outside during the day, however.

Mom and I have canned and frozen many (many) apples and pears.  My deep freezer is officially full.  I'm trying to convince Jason that we need a second freezer.  Also, we froze all of our plum and grape juice from earlier in the season and next week we're planning on canning jelly - lots of jelly!  I feel that I have exercised my gathering skills to the fullest this year.

Next year, as an experiment, we are planning on raising all of our own meat.  We get our milk and eggs from our own animals and we have processed my dad's calves in the past.  I never buy any meat from grocery stores (except chicken and turkey) and our ground round comes from a local butcher (from local cows).  With only 7 acres, I'm not sure that we have the grass for a calf, but I'm planning on starting with a couple of piggies in the spring.  Also, if I can find someone to process them for me, I'd love to raise some turkeys.  I think I've decided not to use any more grocery store chicken.  The industrial factory farming of animals in this country has just become increasingly ridiculous.  And I don't want Liam growing up eating that stuff they call meat.  During the summer, we got away with eating almost no meat, but the winter is coming and I'm not ready to go vegetarian completely!

First spaghetti squash!

We harvested our first spaghetti squash yesterday and I made chicken spaghetti (with neither chicken, nor spaghetti - go figure).  It was quite tasty and Liam ate some of it - it had a little too many obvious veggies in it for him!  I hope the rest of the squash become ripe before freezing weather comes. 

Animal news:
Liam's cat, Sassy, has disappeared.  Interestingly, he took off after we brought home a scraggly kitten that exceeded our (my) cat quota of five.  The kitten is currently unnamed - I'm thinking about something cold and Scandinavian since he is white with blue eyes and makes me think of winter.  And I hope it is a 'he'.  We just took Wyatt and Tailwagger to the vet on Wednesday to be neutered and spayed.  No unauthorized kittens!

Also, Ellie Mae 'weaned' her chicks.  After a near miss with a neighbor's (Mom's chicken killer) dachshund, she apparently decided that they were old enough to be on their own.  She refuses to sleep with them or stay with them.  Kicked out into the cold world at two months of age!  They are doing well, though.  And I swear I think they are all girls!  One particularly large one may be a rooster yet - we'll see. 

The chickies on their own

Our little grey rooster had gotten quite aggressive, so today he's headed for a new home with our little grey (not Cochin) hen.  Liam hasn't gone outside without a protector for over a month because of that little guy!

Battle for Fort Richardson

For the last two weeks, my husband has been laid up with an injured foot.  Also, my son has suddenly developed an addiction to Sim City.  Both incidences have limited my computer time!  Jason is well and went back to work yesterday, so things are feeling more like normal around here.

Fort Richardson Hospital

We were able to all go to 'The Battle of Fort Richardson' on Saturday at the state park in Jacksboro (Fort Richardson State Park).  Reenactors from Key's Battery and the 13th Texas Cavalry (Cleburne's Division) put on reeacted battles on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The boys especially enjoyed seeing the guys shooting from horseback and the four cannons going off periodically throughout the battle.  The cannons occasionally produced some neat smoke rings that hung in the air for a few minutes.  After the 'battle', we followed the soldiers (both infantry and cavalry) back to their tents set up on the green near the fort buildings.

We wandered over to the fort hospital and listened to the 'surgeon' talk about Civial War era medicine - especially how it affected doctors treating soldiers.  Evidently, doctors trained for two years (listening to lectures the first year, then listening to the same lectures the second year).  Then they were turned loose to practice.  He said often a doctor (surgeon) had one hand on the instrument and another on the training manual!  The doctors at the time had little experience dealing with gunshot wounds (few murders and fewer drive by shootings than we have today :) and the war brought a great concentration of these bullet wounds.  Also, the soft lead bullets that they used caused major damage on bodies and limbs - not the neat cauterized wounds you see in the movies caused by today's bullets.  So he explained why all those amputaions occured - if you got shot in the arm or leg, chances were you would lose part (or most) of it.

The surgeon giving the talk studies a lot of first hand accounts of medicine, battles, etc to try to get a good idea of how things really happened in history (his focus was on the Civil War).  It was neat to learn about how many first hand accounts exist.  Evidently the internet is turning out to be a great way to find this information.  You can easily download journals, manuals, articles, etc that were never published (or only locally) and have probably been kept in museums or private collections all over the country.  What a great alternative to boring textbooks for learning history!

Another thing we noticed while we there, were how cool the buildings seemed.  The day was in the middle nineties and the sun was shining, yet the interiors - with their high ceilings, wood floors, and wrap around porches - felt pleasant.  We did hear several people complaining about the heat and there was some vigorous fan waving, but we were comfortable.  I feel sorry for all those people who have become dependent on 72 degree air conditioning - I would hate being restricted to the indoors during the entire Texas summer!

Thursday morning chick fiasco

Ella and the nine are abroad

It was about a quarter 'til nine, when I went out to milk Thursday morning.  I noticed that the cats were all lounging around the chicken tractor (where Ella Mae and her chicks are living).  I should have known something was up!  They were all innocently sleeping when I went back in with the milk, so I left them alone.  

I brought the milk in and started to strain it when I heard a commotion outside including the excited peeping of a chick.  Running outside, I saw Sassy (Liam's cat) streaking across the yard holding a chick by the tail.  He went through the fence and out to the pasture near the goat pen.

Of course, I was barefoot (and we live in mesquite country) so I was running on tiptoes yelling at Sassy to drop the chick.  He ran under the truck and luckily kept going to the woodpile.  After I finally caught him, I had to choke him to let go of that bird!  While I held Sassy by the scruff of his neck, the chick ducked into the woodpile.

I locked Sassy and the other cats in the garage, then went out to help Liam with another  chick.  While I was chasing Sassy (with Liam laughing at me), he managed to catch the other escapee and hold him until I could open the cage for him.  After attempting to lure/dig/scare the chick out of the woodpile, we decided to let Ella Mae and her brood out to call the chick.

We locked the goats out of their pen, so they wouldn't disturb the returning chick.  Then we tried to get Ella and her chicks to make as much noise as possible as they were exploring the backyard.  Liam went out to watch for the peeping chick from a vantage point on a picnic table and reported on his progress.  The little chick actually crossed most of the goat pen and was closing in on the yard when Sassy came running around the yard fence and grabbed the chick again!  I thought I was going to kill that cat!  Evidently, he squeezed under the garage door.

I grabbed Sassy (I had shoes on this time) and he immediately spit out the chick.  The chick ran to the woodpile.  Aarghh!  I take Sassy and throw him into a chicken cage.  Liam was laughing at the whole chase and I was walking around muttering in disbelief and thinking murderous thoughts about a certain black and white cat.  I had told Sassy earlier that I was going to kill him and Liam wanted to know how we were going to do it!

After a couple of failed attempts to lure the poor chickie out using his mother, we ended up locking Ella and the brood back up in the chicken tractor.  I fixed the hole that had appeared under the edge of the cage.  Then Liam and I went inside hoping that the little chick would come out on his own.  It was 11:30am!  Over two hours of chasing fowl and feline and there was still a chick in the woodpile!

When we got home from my parents' house that afternoon, I was hoping, hoping that the chick would be waiting at his cage door.  I really didn't expect it, but miracles do happen!  Well, I went outside and there was the little guy waiting for me.  I opened the door and he hopped right in - thank goodness!

Oh, and I didn't leave Sassy locked in the chicken cage all day, though I was tempted!  I did relish seeing him continuously try to get out while the hen and her chicks wandered freely around the yard.

Mustang grapes are here!

The kitchen is beginning to smell like cooking grapes - yum!  Jason picked 8 quarts of mustang grapes yesterday and is out picking more today.  Though the high was 108(!) degrees today, tomorrow a cool front is supposed to come in and cool us off (to 90).  I'm so excited that fall is coming.

The mustang grapes will join the domestic plum and wild plum juice that we put in the freezer earlier this summer to can into jelly this fall.  We also have a Mexican plum tree loaded with pretty pink plums just begging to be picked.  Liam and I brought in a grocery sack of them today, but I hope to pick more tomorrow.

Mexican plum blossoms in March

So we should have at least four different types of jelly to eat on our honey wheat rolls this winter.  I can't wait!

Our latest recipe experiment was 'Trombetta pancakes', which Jason made on the grill (because it was so hot to cook indoors).  Add to that some wild blackberry syrup and we have a very local and delicious meal!  I froze dozens of cups of blackberries earlier this summer after wading through prickly wild blackberries in 100 degree heat.  I think it's time to claim my reward...

Trombetta pancakes
    * 4 eggs
    * 2 cups grated trombetta (or zucchini)
  
    * 3/4 cup all-purpose flour or whole wheat
    * 1 Tbs white sugar
    * 1/2 teaspoon salt
    * 1 tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice
    * 3 tablespoons olive or canola oil
  
    * 4 teaspoons baking powder
  
    * 1/4 cup butter, melted

   1. Preheat grill to 425 to 450 degrees F (220 to 225 degrees C).
   2. In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, add shredded zucchini and mix well using a fork. Add flour, sugar, salt, spice and oil and stir to blend well. Finally, add baking powder and mix well using a large spoon. The batter's consistency should be like heavy whipping cream.
   3. Spoon batter on hot grill (about 2 tablespoons) for each pancake. Cook until there are no longer bubbles forming in the pancake about 2 minutes; turn over and cook for 2 minutes longer. Rub pancakes with melted butter and serve immediately (with yummy blackberry syrup, if you have it).

Like most good squash bread recipes, you (and your picky children) cannot tell that there is a vegetable in it!  The pancakes were quite tasty even using whole wheat flour - yum!

Mustang grape arbor partially covered in Trombetta squash vines

My truck is back!

My truck - winter '09

We were able to pick up the truck from the shop in Jacksboro on Wednesday.  Of course, the steering column that I drove 150 miles for was the wrong part - it belonged to a 1996 truck.  Thank you very much Dallas County Auto Salvage in Grand Prairie on Macarthur!  Unfortunately, it probably wasn't incompetence, but rather dishonesty.  I will never do business with an unknown business again without a complete internet search first!  Actually, I did do a search, but they had changed their name.  Grr!

Luckily, my truck was at a new shop in town, Main Street Auto, and the mechanic there was resourceful (willing to rig), so he was able to fix it up without the part, after all.  Too bad he didn't mention that option before I drove to that forsaken salvage yard!

I may be silly to be sentimental about a truck, but I've had it since I was 16 (as many of my high school friends remember).  This December will make 17 years, so I've actually owned my truck for over half of my life!!  As long as I can find parts (or someone willing to rig something up), I don't see any reason to buy an expensive newer truck that will probably have lots of problems, anyway.

So, thank you, thank you, Main Street Auto, for repairing my good old truck for me! 

Hot, hot, hot!

OK, I think that I can handle a lot of heat pretty well, but I've had enough!  By day 22 of 100+degrees for highs and this morning, the low was 82.6, for goodness sake!  The sun seems to drain all of my energy in the first few minutes of exposure.  Perhaps, I've just had a hot weekend.
Saturday, I drove into the city (Fort Worth) to get a steering column from a salvage yard for my old '89 Ford F150 truck.  After a week of searching for the part online, I finally decided to get it at the closest location - Grand Prairie - 75 miles away.  I found the place easily enough, but learned that they only accepted cash - grrr!  Of course, they could've told me that over the phone, but that would be too easy.  I don't have a pin for my credit card so I ended up cashing a check at one of those 'fast cash' places.  Lots of new experiences that day!  I just fervently hope that the silly part fits my truck, after all that driving in the 103 degree heat!
My nieces are visiting for the week, so we've been down at my parents' house every day.  My older niece, Kinley (age 5), really wanted to help me milk the goat, since she helped me on her last visit.  This time, we got a few pictures.

Milking practice!

In this picture, I think Lacey is wondering what the heck is going on back there.  She was sooo patient with me, as a beginner milker, and she continues to be patient with little Kinnie, as well.  I believe it helped that Kinley said that Lacey made such tasty milk!  Liam always helps by bringing out Lacey's milking reward - animal crackers.  Lacey demands her crackers immediately after milking.

Tonight, both girls were up here at milking time.  Kinley was helping me milk.  Her sister, Melanie (age 2), was in the yard on the swingset, crying.  Liam worked on locking the other two goats out of the milking pen.  Everyone had a job!  Now, I'm worn out and ready for bed.  This week - soccer camp for Liam and Kinley in Jacksboro - fun!

What a group!

We have little peepers!

One of our little grey Cochin hens disappeared about a month ago.  I had noticed that she was missing at feeding time and hoped that a predator hadn't gotten her during the night.  A few days later, I was weedeating a spot near the house in the backyard when a grey flash of wings suddenly flew out of the grass.  Ella Mae had decided to set on a clutch of eggs!  After weeks of waiting, we have nine amazingly cute chicks following their momma around the chicken tractor.  No two are alike - all are different colors!  The last to hatch out is the little white chick.  Liam has already chosen that one as the 'pet' - he's been lucky enough to hold her a couple of times.  We're thinking of naming it 'Snowflake'.  Yes, we're thinking about snow in August because it's 103 degrees right now!
 

Ella Mae with her chicks

Ella Mae is already teaching her chicks to hunt grasshoppers - good momma!  Every time I pass the grasshopper trap (Liam's wading pool), I grab a couple of swimming hoppers and take them to the chicken tractor.  Ella immediately starts calling the chicks when she sees me coming with the bugs.  Imagine a little hen chasing and tearing into a grasshopper with nine chickies following - everyone peeping loudly.  Soon there's nine excited chicks running around the cage with pieces of the unlucky grasshoppers in their beaks!

Bella on her nest

All the other chickens have visited Ella and her brood.  My little silver Cochin, Bella, was evidently so enamored with the babies, that she decided to hatch some out herself!  So, hopefully, in a couple of weeks, we'll have even more chicks to eat the all the grasshoppers around here.

Watering Day

Rainwater system tanks

9:15 am - It's watering day!  It's supposed to be 101 degrees today, so maybe the water will keep us cool.  Since we use rainwater captured off of the house for water, we save that wonderful water for indoor use.  We have a 1500 gallon tank that we have to fill with pond water about once a month during the summer.  There is a pipe and hose system attached to that tank for watering our garden and flowers.  On those 'watering days' when we switch to the pond pump to refill the tank, we also water everything we can reach with a hose!  Liam (my 4 year old son) is outside now watering the herb garden (and the patio). 

herb garden

3:00 pm - Everything has been watered/flooded at least twice now.  The plants are already looking happier!  Liam and I are both wet from various water fights out in the yard.  His favorite game now is for him to pretend that he is a turkey and I'm supposed to lure him out of hiding (with my turkey call) and 'shoot' him with the water hose.  He is also enjoying the assortment of mud holes that have mysteriously popped up out in the flower beds.

10:30 pm - I'm calling this watering day a success - it smells like rain outside.  We've probably moved about 2000 gallons of water from the pond to our tank/garden today.  Now the water has been switched back, so we can use water in the house again without worrying about 'pond water' entering the house!  Now, maybe the temperature will drop and we'll get some rain in the next couple of weeks (I hope I'm not dreaming).