Summer of 2011

Bella and the other bantams enjoying the lush flowerbed in June

I'm back after three months of absurdly hot, dry weather.  Jason wanted to keep the computer off when the temperature was over 87F in the house - which was all of July and August!  We had many plans and ideas for the summer - gardens, new animals, flowers and being outdoors.  Our climate had other plans.

Things I learned this summer:
1. When the days begin to consistently have highs in the 100's in May, expect trouble for the rest of the summer.
2. Texas has a 30 year drought/heat cycle that seems to peak in excessively awful years - 1880's (I think the worst year was around 1887), 1910's (1918), 1950's (1955 - I think), 1980 and now 2011.
3. I do not like drought and heat.
4. A drought/heat combination is not compatible to subsistence farming (try it in the Sahel region or the plains of Ethiopia - results in starvation).

The baby runner ducks exploring the green yard

5. In 30 years, I will not be living west of the I35 corridor, or necessarily in Texas at all!  In the 1880's, people took their animals and left the drought stricken areas - I think they had the right idea.
6. A Cactus looks really sad when it dies of thirst (so do trees and other plants).
7. Watching animals pant for 2 months straight is not pleasant and is something I hope not to see again.
8. This is probably the most important one - be extremely suspect of living somewhere that has no evidence of humans having lived there before - there is probably a good reason!

I usually consider myself pretty adaptable to things.  I have lived without running water or even a water source within half a mile without too much trouble.  No indoor climate control is pretty obvious and also easy to live without.  We actually did use air conditioning during the last two months of this 90 days or so of ungodly heat.  We set the thermostat at 90 during the day and opened the windows at night.  I felt like I was living in amazing luxury (and I was) when that air kicked in during the day and it barely affected our electric bill.  However, every time I went outside to add water to all of the animals' buckets during the day, they all looked miserable.  They don't get to enjoy that relief, and for that reason, Jason always feels guilty using A/C.  Anyway, you can get used to many different situations, but when there is no water falling from the sky, you are in trouble!

The trees on the north slope (the mesquite are still green) in August

We have received 6.9 inches of rain this year.  Three inches in April, three in June (during VBS), a half inch in August and now .4 for September.  Phoenix, on average, receives 8 inches a year - the city resides in the Sonora Desert for Pete's sake!  When you look around at their vegetation, you see things like cactus and creosote.  We live in the cross timbers and prairies region of Texas characterized by bunch grasses, prickly pear cacti, cedar elms and (present day) invasive mesquite.   The majority of our trees are less than 50 years old (hmmm) and most of the older ones are cultivated.   Our drought has surpassed the one of the 1950's and I think it was rivaling (and maybe passing) the drought of the 1880's.  Assuming the desert is not expanding eastward, the Jack County climate is not really made for many trees, certainly not long lived ones.  The low humidity, lack of rain and temperatures over 100F for so long have hurt the trees pretty badly, especially since this winter is supposed to be warmer and drier than normal.  The good news is the drought should turn next year sometime - the question is what will survive beyond it?

Unfortunately, I like trees and plants and flowers and things that are green.  I have decided that I have chosen the wrong climate to live in.  I am looking forward to the next ten years here that will have above average rainfall and maybe they will soften the memory of this summer.  However, I'm pretty sure that I will still be ready to look for a new home in the east!

Rooster issues

OK, so I am pulled from a deep sleep this morning by my husband yelling at a chicken through the window.  I guess this works as an alarm in the country.  For once, the rooster didn't wake me up (at 3 or 4am when he first starts crowing).

Here are a few ways you can effectively stop a rooster from waking you up in the morning:
1.  Move rooster's cage from underneath your bedroom window.
2.  Sell rooster.
3.  Give away rooster.
4.  Pay someone to take rooster.
5.  Kill and eat rooster.

Here are some slightly less effective tactics that my husband employed this morning:
1.  Curse rooster and all his descendents.
2.  Yell out window telling rooster to 'shut up'.
3.  Run outside and open rooster's cage and beat him with a stick.

Well, now the rooster's out and is chasing around the other loose rooster.  Yes, we have multiple roosters - both large and small.  One of Jason's coworkers had raised some meat chickens and he offered him three.  He thought that was a wonderful idea, so he brought them home where they had to be kept in separate cages so they didn't kill each other.  To be fair, Jason actually processed one of the birds and it wasn't too terrible, but I still had trouble eating it.  That was about two months ago and I keep hinting about giving away the other two, since we have three Bantam roosters (who crow very well, thank you) already.  Also, one of our adolescent chicks is a young rooster and a Barred Rock so I'm planning on putting him in with the big hens when he's older.  Ella Mae is raising a new brood of five chicks and, if I don't miss my guess, at least one of them will be male, also!  Does anybody need a rooster?

Poor little innocents

 

Two more babies

My mom and I drove down to Burnet over Mother's Day weekend.  My sister and her friend were meeting us to run the Jailbreak race on Saturday.  Our Nubian, Daisy, was due to kid on Mother's Day - I figured she would kid late like Lacey and have her babies when we got back from our trip.  Of course not!  Friday night, Jason called at 10:30pm and announced that we had twin baby girls!  He said that they were doing well, but he wasn't sure if they had gotten their colostrum.  So then I began to worry :)  He went back to the barn and completed the fun task of forcing the kids to nurse, just to make sure.  About midnight or so, he called back to say that they were okay - whew.  I finally got to sleep after worrying about the girls for a while longer.

After the race

Saturday morning we drove out to the race site and enjoyed playing in the water and mud on a nice trail run in the Texas hill country.  If you haven't tried one yet, mud runs are pretty fun - this Jailbreak was about 3.8 miles and we finished in under an hour (no, we didn't win :)  My training consisted of chasing Liam around playgrounds about once a week, gardening, hiking, taking the goats foraging and playing indoor tag.  This turned out to be pretty effective for a fun run!

After the race, Mom and I drove on to Fredericksburg, a German town that was founded in 1846 - pretty old for Texas standards.  There were some great old buildings there - both log and rock.  We ate lunch and then breakfast at the Old German Bakery - yum!  Freshly baked bread and Danishes, German pan fries and pancakes, etc.

We shopped Main Street and the local antique malls.  I bought some honey that came from Rogers, TX and we learned from the seller that bee stings can help your arthritis - good to know.  I also got a harmonica and a little flute to bring home for the boys.

We left Monday and headed for Enchanted Rock.  We planned to take the hike to the top and back.  Mistake #1 - Mom is afraid of heights and we learned that the trail is not for the faint of heart.  Mistake #2 - So we detoured to walk the mile and a half around the base.  The first quarter mile of that trail was covered in tumbled down rock (boulders).  The trail leveled out around the back of the rock and then the descent back to the main trail was pretty steep.  Mistake #3 - Not taking a walking stick (or 2) for the climb down.  So, basically, the trail wore Mom out!  All the Autry girls got a workout this weekend - Shonda and I in the race, Mom on the hike - we rock!

Sunny and Margie

We returned home Monday evening and I finally got to see the sweet babies.  We decided to name them Sunflower and Margarita, in honor of their mother.  A couple of days later, when Daisy's milk came in, the daily goat rodeo began.  These are her first kids and so her first milking experience, as well.  The daily show also became my new strength workout.  Jason said he was laughing with me, not at me - yeah, right!  We didn't have a headlock, so she'd try to hang herself by jumping off the front of the milkstand (she was tied by her collar).  In other words, fiasco :)

Our friend, J, gave us a metal milkstand the next weekend - a lifesaver!  I wired it to the post (set in concrete), then added a pallet constructed of 2x4's and 2x6's for the headlock and another pallet for the side (to keep her from leaping off the opposite side.  This set up doesn't budge (otherwise, she'd probably flip it!)  Now, she is getting much better with her milking.  She is a naturally gentle goat - just a little ticklish underneath - who could blame her? 

The Daisy clan

Our first goats milk soap!

The soap just dumped out of their molds

First, I want to apologize for my excessive use of exclamation marks.  I cannot help it if I get excited about many things that happen and that I am seemingly unable to write anything without loads of hysterical punctuation.  Let me assure you, this state will probably not change.

My friend and mentor, Carolyn, is teaching me how to make soap.  Jason and I have been anxious to learn how ever since we began having an abundance of milk.  Carolyn is a very experienced soapmaker, but she hadn't made goats milk soap very much (if at all), so we were both excited to try it.  We used her tried and true recipe, substituting milk in for the water.

Basic Soap Recipe

12 oz lye                                          1 oz glycerin  (opt)
32 oz cold (even frozen) milk            1 oz glycerin & rose water (opt)
16 oz coconut oil                               1/2 cup ground oatmeal
70 oz (4lbs, 6 oz) lard                      1 oz shea butter
Essential or fragrance oil                  1 oz lanolin
1 tsp vitamin E oil (opt)

You have to wear goggles and gloves when using lye.  It is pretty caustic and you don't want it getting on your skin, children, etc.   Work in a well ventilated space with glass or ceramic (we used enamel) bowls or pots and wooden spoons.  Also, Carolyn used a scale to weigh our ingredients - this was especially useful for the frozen hunks of milk.
- Gently pour lye into half frozen milk.  Be careful not to splash.  Our milk came out of the freezer, so we thawed it partially in a pan.  Stir gently and be careful not to inhale any fumes.  Remember our grandmothers sat around a fire outside in their yards to make soap!  Set aside to cool.  We were shocked to see our milk turn orange when we stirred in the lye.  I found out later that we had probably scorched the milk.  So even using partly frozen milk, you might also add the lye in small amounts, letting the milk cool a little in between additions.
- In a large pan, heat the lard and coconut oil until they melt together (both are solid at room temperature).  If you add the optional fats like glycerin, lanolin or shea butter, you need to decrease the lard by the amounts you use.  You want to keep the fat to lye ratio the same or your soap may become greasy.  Incidentally, if you use too much lye, your soap will be too strong.  The idea of this 'cold processed' (or any) soap is that the lye saponifies the fat, changing it into salts of fatty acids and releasing glycerin (in commercial soap, they take that glycerin out because it is more valuable separate to be used in more expensive soaps and lotions).  This soap is considered 'superfatted' because it is not 'pure' soap, but also has all the nice fats in it to promote skin health.
- Cool the pans of lye/milk and oils to 100-105F, with no more than a 10 degree difference between the two.
- Wearing your safety gear, gently pour the lye milk into the oils.  Mix with a stick blender until it forms a 'trace'.  Carolyn dipped out small amounts into a blender where we could use different fragrances with each blender batch.  A 'trace' is what you see when you drip a few drops off the spoon and onto the surface of the mixture and it leaves a trace on top.  It's very similar to when you're making pudding and the pudding begins to leave a trail on top when you lift the spoon.  You want the soap to be very thin pudding.
- Add the essential or fragrance oil, also the ground oatmeal if you want.  I don't think we added the oatmeal to our batch (unless I missed it!)  Add the Vitamin E oil, if desired.  Mix in the additions well.
- Pour soap into molds.  We used long plastic rectangle container (drawer organizers), that would be easy to cut into bars.  We also poured soap into a couple of other plastic squares.  It's helpful if the plastic is flexible so that the soap dumps out easily.  Silicone works well.
- After 24 hours, dump the soap out of the molds and cut into bars.  Set in a dry place and allow to cure for 4-6 weeks before using.  This is the really hard part - waiting 4 weeks before getting to use our new soap!  I got to have a trial run while washing the soap off of the tool I used to cut the soap into bars.  It was nice and bubbly and left my hands soft - yes!

48 bars of goats milk soap!

A kid is born!

Lacey cleaning up the baby

Our Alpine doe, Lacey, was due to kid on April 12th.  I was very excited about our first dairy kids to be born!  She ended up kidding on April 14th at 3:00 in the afternoon.  I could tell she was in labor by mid morning and around 2 she went into active labor.  She didn't want any food or water and she licked me continuously.  When the baby began to come all I could see was a hard black mass.  I freaked out and thought breech!  Our only previous goat birth was a breech Nigerian Dwarf and it was a fiasco that ended with a trip to the vet and a crippled kid.  An experienced neighbor, Tami, had said that I could call her if I needed help with the birth, so I ran inside to call.  Of course, her number is long distance (which we don't have on our land line) and Jason had turned off his cell phone.  So I called Mom and had her call Tami for me and to have her head out here ASAP.  I went back outside and Lacey was doing just fine on her own, thank you!

I decided that I would still need Tami's expertise to make sure that there was another kid in there or not.  Lacey kept pushing and finally I could tell that there was a black head and two little feet (one slightly behind the other) in the sac.  Whew!  The sac burst and Lacey, in an effort to birth the kid, flung herself against the shed walls.  I'm glad that I was there to protect the poor little one's head from getting bonked!  Next chore - padded walls for the shed!  Anyway, The kid came out - a perfect black doeling with Alpine ears (her daddy is a Nubian).  It took less than 30 minutes, once she started pushing.

A few neat books

I checked out a few books from the Bridgeport library a couple of weeks ago.  I thought I'd share some thoughts about them :)

The first one was called 'Goat Farming' by Alan Mowlem and was a little older - the second edition was published in 1992.  It gives a slightly different perspective than other goat books I've read because the author's British.  There's a quote that he shared that I loved about a goat's character and the reason a lot of people dislike them.  "There is something ancient and inscrutable about the goat.  Its yellow eye with his black, oblong pupil gazes at you out of forgotten time.  It possesses a simple minded, some would say willful, streak which makes you sense that, like a cat, it has a clear memory of its own wild origin and that your proprietorship is something it is prepared to tolerate, to trade for a little extra food perhaps, but only on its own terms.  Goats respond well, affectionately even, to those they judge worthy of them.  Towards others they demonstrate lighthearted disregard which is, I'm sure, the source of the furious dislike that so many who have had contact with them seem to feel for goats.  For such people the goat's yellow stare is a terrible and baleful beam.  It is the confident sneer of one's superior."  Jacky Gillott wrote that in her book, 'Providence Place' (which I'll probably have to find and read one day).  I like his first few chapters on the history, character and breeds of goats.  Most of the following chapters had info I had read before, but the last chapter was on goat production in developing countries.  Being involved in both Heifer International and Compassion International, I liked learning a tiny bit about the goat's part in providing a living in harsh climates.  They are so hardy and clever that I am beginning to equate them with my favorite native species, the coyote.

Another British book, published by DK, that I borrowed was 'The Practical Homestead' by Paul Heiney.  I really loved this book and it was full of lots of great photos.  It reminded me of a new color British version of my old favorite Readers Digest 'Back to Basics' book.  The self described 'backyard handbook for growing food, raising animals and nurturing your land'.  I liked the way that the book gave the different options open to owners of different sized properties.  Starting with a 5000 sq ft lot and going up to half acre, 3 acre, then 8+ acre, the very first chapter showed you how to maximize production on your place. 

There was great information about using 'people power' for labor - even for mowing and harvesting.  Here in the land of cheap fuel, where even city people have a tractor in the garage for mowing their 3 acre lots, I loved learning about the tools and techniques that farmers have been using for the thousands of years previous to the oil boom.  Since I have been reading Anna Karenina as well, it was wonderful to see pictures of farmers using the exact same tools that Tolstoy describes in the 'Levin' chapters (my favorite parts).  Also, both authors mention just how often the worker has to stop and sharpen his blade while cutting in the fields.  Excellent.  I have to mention that it's a good thing that I live on native pasture with thin topsoil that would heartily resist cultivation, or my husband would no doubt buy me a scythe and expect me to bring in the wheat harvest next year for our bread!

One fencing option, hedging, was discussed in this book which few (ie none that I have read) American authors ever write about.  First, I thought it was probably because our climate is a bit more arid and the hedges wouldn't grow as quickly - can you imagine fencing your 160 acre (or 640 acre section) on the Great Plains with a hedge?  But it probably has more to do with the invention of barbed wire.  Even here in the west part of North Texas you could grow a massive rose hedge (that could keep in goats and cattle) about 5 years or so (unless the first years were drought years :)

Another thing he talked about was the farmer's responsibility to take care of the wildlife that occupied his land before he began cultivating it.  This was part of the hedge's purpose - to provide cover for wildlife.  Good luck barbed wire!  I really liked this perspective - often farmers and environmentalists are at odds and there is really no reason that they cannot be on the same side.  Too bad consumers are generally too cheap to support the farmers that are on the side of stewardship!  Anyway, if you're interested in homesteading, read this book!

The last book I wanted to share was 'What the World Eats' by Faith D'Aluisio and photographed by Peter Menzel.  I had read about the book a couple of years ago in the Sierra Club magazine.  I was very pleased to find it in Bridgeport.  I'll come back to write a bit more about this one soon!

Springtime!

The first day of spring may still be two weeks away, but you can tell it's coming soon!  The plum thickets and Mexican plum trees are all blooming - the fragrance is in the air everywhere.  I love this time of year when green is showing up in all of the pastures.  I'm hoping to persuade Jason to mow off all of last year's broomweed and ragweed in our pasture.

In the yard, Grandma's daffodils are just about to open up, the muscari are blooming and the white Lady Banks rose is covered with tiny flower buds.  The rose bushes have all come out - the new leaves are just wonderful to look at!  The lemon balm, anise and catmint are filling out the herb bed and the cilantro never even died for some reason.

We planted a bed of red and 1015 onions and some red and Yukon Gold potatoes in February.  Last week, I finally planted our first bed of 10 crowns of asparagus!  Yesterday, I planted 15 more crowns of asparagus - Mary Washington and a purple variety.  We are excited to have our asparagus beds going.

I inventoried the deep freezer and we only have about 10 cups of blackberries left.  We have a lot of Granny Smith apples, sugar pears, Keiffer pears and shredded Trombetta squash left.  The blackberries won't be ripe until almost June, but we may have new squash coming in before we finish off the freezer stock.  Time for more Trombetta recipes!  We'll see if we use up all those apples and pears before the new ones get ripe in the fall.  Also, Mom and I made plum jelly from juice that we froze during the summer - and I found two more bags of juice in the freezer!  Yay, more jelly!  We still have a couple of spaghetti and butternut squash left to eat, as well.

Lacey's kids are due in a month and I'm trying to fatten her up some before she kids.  Daisy is quite plump and doesn't seem to need any extra feed, yet, for her growing babies.  I'm planning on deworming Lacey in the week or so.  She definitely feels good, though - always running and bucking and playfully butting Daisy.  I've been leading them over the hills, letting them forage on acorns, pecans and oak leaves, etc.  The deer have pretty much cleaned up the acorns - nothing left but deer tracks on the ground! 

Freezing weather and gardening preparation

After a week long cold spell including ice, snow and lows in the single digits, we are expecting highs in the seventies this week!  Hooray!  Three of the garden squares have been prepared and it shouldn't take us too long to prepare four more.  We have two bags of red onion bulbs, two sets of 1015 onion sets from the Farmer's Market in Weatherford, seed potatoes from the H Brand feed store in Jacksboro and Asparagus crowns to plant this weekend.  We are so excited to finally be planting our asparagus bed.  The potatoes will be going in months earlier than last year, so we're hoping for a larger crop.  We also have lots of seeds that we hope to get in the ground this week.

Lacey is being milked once every other day and gave a scant quart yesterday.  I'm about to start skipping an extra day to finish drying her off.  I think I felt her baby kick the other day!  I can't wait to see the little guys.  I'm also interested to see if the feed we have will last the winter, now that we're not feeding Lacey as much for the milk.

The freezing (over 100 hours below freezing - pretty rare for our part of the state) weather caused one of our copper pipes leading to our upstairs hot water heater to freeze.  I thawed it out using a heater and of course, there was a hole!  Water rained down through the light fixtures of our master bathroom.  Great.  I ran to turn off the water and the hot water heater.  Also, I got to unplug the still running heater and drag it out of 2 inches of water by the cord!  We've repaired many PVC pipes through the years, but we had no experience with copper pipes.  After looking around on the internet, I decided we would try soldering a coupling on the pipe ourselves.  Unfortunately, the hole was located on a wall behind the hot water heater!  So to access the pipe (without removing the hot water heater), we had to lean over the top of the heater.  My arms were just long enough to touch the pipe.  Probably not the best circumstances to try out soldering for beginners.  Anyway, with the supplies borrowed from our neighbors (thank you, Chris for the propane torch and Terry for the pipe cutter), we attempted to fix the pipe Sunday (Superbowl) night.  We soldered one coupling and it leaked.  So we (I should say Jason) cut it out and tried a second one (always buy two - just in case!)  It was much more secure, but a drop still seeped every minute or so.  Grrr!  Mom and Dad thought they had pretty good luck with plumber's epoxy putty, so we tried reinforcing the coupling seams with putty - still seeping.  Added some more putty - still seeping.  Conclusion - plumber's putty doesn't work under pressure.  Dad's pipe was still leaking, as well, so I advised him to buy a 'sharkbite' or 'gatorbite' cap which doesn't require soldering.  They got one and I pushed it on the end of their pipe - no more leak.  I went looking for a 'sharkbite' coupling for my leak!  Today, I finally found something that I think will work (of course, they were out of couplings - we Texans are just not prepared for such cold weather!)  So perhaps tonight the water will be on again permanently.  By the way, I did not forget to buy insulation to add to the obviously inadequate insulation around the hot water heater and its pipes.  Also, I'm planning on an attic excursion to find out what kind of insulation is protecting the rest of the pipes up there!

January

December flew by with lots of holiday parties and little bad weather.  Rain finally came in right before Christmas and nearly filled up our tanks.  We had already begun conserving water because they had gotten so low.  It's always a relief to have nice full tanks of lovely water!

I stopped milking Lacey twice a day before the holidays.  Dad milked for me the two days we were in Stephenville and I wanted the chore to be easier for him.  She still kept her production up around 7-8 cups/day, even though I cut her feed almost by half.  Now, I have taken her feed down a little more and she has dropped to 5-6 cups.  I was planning on having her dried off by the end of January!  I guess I will drop her feed some more and try to have her finished in two weeks.  I'd like those new kids in there to have some of those nutrients.

Freddie sleeping with cousin Kinnie

We got a new puppy on the weekend before Christmas.  I had been searching Craigslist and my local ads, hoping to find a companion for Shadow.  He refused to stay in the yard and kept straying downhill to my parents house (and their dogs).  I had almost decided to call about a cute blue heeler ad in Perrin when we saw a pickup load of eight week old Border Collie cross puppies in the Walmart parking lot.  We got the impression that they were headed to the shelter if they didn't find homes - evidently the mother had already been taken there.  There was an adorable puppy with blue eyes and lots of white.  Liam liked him and immediately named him Freddie.  He looks almost exactly like Shadow did when he was a puppy.  He's now about to be 12 weeks old and his eyes did finally turn brown.  He and Shadow have bonded and they play together all day long!  Freddie went on his first long hike with us yesterday and kept up very well (and hopefully learned a little about cactus).

One of our hens, Bonnie, that was hatched out in August, is sitting on a nest of 16 eggs.  I think I would have taken a few of them out if I had found her nest earlier.  I decided to leave them all since she had probably already been sitting a couple of weeks.  This week is going to be pretty warm, so I hope they choose this time to hatch out.  I have never had chicks in January, so this will be new for me.  Do chickens become broody at a certain age, rather than a particular time of year?  This seems to be the case around here!

This weekend, I hauled about ten muck buckets (mineral tubs) of manure from my parents' barn to our yard for the garden.  Surprisingly, little Bermuda grass came into any of our flower or vegetable beds this year.  So we are about ready for spring planting.  Of course, it would have been better to get the manure up here earlier, but a procrastinator can only do so much!  I think the beds will be wonderfully ready for the warm season crops and the cool season crops should do okay with what they have.  Jason and I are both pretty excited about this growing season.  We are planning to add a few new (4'x4') squares for a total of about twelve.  I'm hoping to plant the peas, snow peas, lettuce, spinach, swiss chard and collard greens this week.  We've never had much luck with peas and we're hoping this year will be different!

We had a pile of gravel hauled here last week for some driveway maintenance.  Jason is planning on renting a Bobcat to smooth and narrow our driveway.  This will be the first heavy work we've done on the road since we moved here in 2002.  The drive is about half of a mile long and runs directly up a rocky hill.  I'm excited about the prospect of a more accessible driveway, especially in wet spring weather.  We'll probably add another load of gravel after the Bobcat work is done, as well.  Fun!