Posts from — June 2010

It started out fine.  Wally and I got to watch two deer travel through the backyard.  I caught Merlin and brought him up towards the house to put fly spray on him and his new fly mask.  Ditto with Al Bin.  I put them back up and settled in to milk the goats.  All went well except that the babies that we put up for the evening, so I could have their mothers’ milk in the morning, all got back in with their mothers so I didn’t get the milk.  Tonight they’ll go up in the kid pen.

After I finished milking, I brought the goats down into the back pasture.  The intention was that they’d eat their way around through the side pasture back up to the front, but what do they do?  Come back in through the barbed wire in back of the horse paddock.  Then the horses begin a fine game of goat pin ball.  I didn’t realize right away what was going on.  It was Rose barking that let me know that something was going on.

And, what goat goes into the thickest brush to escape the horses?  The one with the biggest udder … the udder which is finally healing up from her last stint in the thick brush.  Thick brush didn’t deter the horses who went in after her.

Finally I got all of the goats out and of course there were udder injuries.  Luckily nothing too severe, but it could have been a lot worst.

The horses are now on the shit list and once again, I have advertised Merlin for sale at a price that I think he’ll go at.  Once he goes, I’ll give Al Bin a chance to live peacefully with the goats and cows.  If he cannot, then he will go back to where he came from.  Screw this horse business.  Neither horse is worth one goat, not to mention a Jersey cow.  I don’t take the time or even inclination to ride now, I’m surely not going to take the time when I go back to work.  Horses are nothing more than a luxury which we cannot afford.

It has been so hot and dry lately I’m starting to worry about availability of hay.  We have received virtually no rain over the past month and most of the month has been 90 degrees plus.  The hay fields that have not been cut (all of the ones around us) are dry and brown.  We have a good amount of hay in our storage building and this morning I picked up a round bale of rye hay which we’ll install where both Gwen and the goats can eat it … and hopefully the installation will be such that the goats cannot climb on it.  Gwen has decided that she likes this rye candy hay and has been breaking into the goat shelter to get it.  Because the grass is so high, she has a hard time maneuvering out in the front pasture so she’s been spending more time in with the goats.  Ideally, I’d be able to put her down in the back pasture, but I can’t trust that the two worthless horses won’t chase her.  Another reason to move the horses on: so we don’t have to feed them over the winter.  With a few minor renovations, the horse paddock will make a great buck lot and a place to wean cows.

I want to go back to work so I won’t have to deal with all of this crap.  I want my old job back, but it ain’t happening.  I’m starting to look at jobs like package handling at UPS.  It’s all pretty sad.  Twenty-five plus years as a paralegal and I can’t get a job in my profession.  Oh, but the economy is getting better, right?  Bullshit.

Until later …

We’ve been busy … way too busy for as hot as it’s been.  I’ve almost fainted several times from the heat.  It’s brutal out there.

Poor Wally was trimming the goats’ hooves yesterday.  It was early, but still awfully hot.  He was on the last goat, last hoof, when he cut his hand with the clippers.  It was a bad cut and bled heavily.  He almost fainted.  That was scary.

Tomorrow, I plan to take some pictures of the gardens and the beds we’ve finished … and … of my birthday present.

Until later …

Both Wally and I have been going back and forth as to which puppy to keep.  It’s been a very difficult decision.  We both kept leaning towards Kishi, but there have been some recent developments in her temperament that I haven’t been to thrilled with.

I’ve been bringing them into the house one at a time for several days now in an effort to get to know them better.  Last night, it was Mica’s turn.  I took him down to the garden with me and as I was weeding I saw him running through the yard dragging a log that was bigger than he was!  He looked just like a mini-Gel.

While we were in the house, I had Mica on a long line.  As he was bucking and rearing and carrying on like a wild horse, Gel walked up and stood next to him.  This is the first time Gel has come any where near any of the puppies.  Normally he avoids them like they were wasps.  Mica jumped on him, pulled at his ruff and then his tail.  Gel just stood there; he didn’t even raise his lip.  Weird.

I guess Mica will be the one to keep.  It’s just as well.  It will be a lot easier keeping two males and because she’s so pretty, Kishi will be easier to find another home for.

Thanks Gel, yet again.

Until later …

and stay in the house all day in the A/C.  I broached bringing the goats (one at a time of course) into the mud room to milk where it’s cool.  It got vetoed.  Damn!

Oh well, I want to make some yogurt (and once that’s done, yogurt cheese) and buttermilk to use in homemade dressings so I guess I need to go out and get the milk to do it.

Until later …

What seems like years ago, and it may very well have been years ago, I made a hay feeder for the goats.  It worked okay, but the babies would often crawl into it and get stuck and of course while they were in there, they soiled the hay.  Goats are notoriously picky eaters.  If it falls on the ground, no matter how nice the hay is, they won’t eat it.  Baby goats peeing and pooping on it makes it downright disgusting (if you are a goat).  Luckily, sheep and cows happily eat the hay that the goats turn up their noses at.

We retired this hay feeder a long time ago.  It’s been sitting out behind the dog runs just waiting for a use.  It almost became a goose-transport cage.

The new Fabulous Beekman Boys aired last night and I watched it this morning.  They showed one of the guys (I’m terrible with names) picking pickling cucumbers from a trellis made from a piece of cattle panel.  Cattle (hog, goat, etc.) panels are wonderful inventions.  They are right up there with zip ties.  When I saw that, I remembered that old hay feeder.  Hay Hey! The sides to that hay feeder are already the right size to make a trellis for my cucumbers.

So, off I went outside in the blazing hot heat to disassemble the hay feeder.  There must have been a mile of electric wire holding the damned thing together.  It’s now in pieces up near the dog run.  I might go down and put it together this evening, but most likely,  I’ll do it tomorrow morning.

The garden is full of volunteer plants.  One of which, I thought was gourds, is butternut squash!  What bonus!  I love butternut squash.  According to the planting guides, it’s too early to grow butternut squash, but I guess no one told this particular plant this.  Tomorrow morning (see, I’m already putting it off) I have to get down there and trim up some of the tomato plants.  One could get lost in them.

One good thing the heat has done: it’s got me back to reading way-cool Blogs like Farmgirl Fare. WOW! She’s got some amazingly good recipes.  I’m getting hungry just looking at them!

Until later …

Okay, this heat wave can stop any day now.  We are into our 12th straight day of 90+ heat with no end in sight.  I go out and work on the garden, check the animals, etc. for 30 minutes or so, then come back in.  It’s too hot to stay out any longer.  As soon as I finished milking this morning, I headed over to the horse farm and got six more tubs full of horse manure.  This was to complete the bed that is in front of the milk parlor.  Now I can plant the herbs.  I did a bit of weeding in the main garden and checked the tomato plants for any ripe ones, covered the bed in back of the house to keep the chickens out of it (they were having a jolly good time scratching it up), watered the horses, chickens, goats, etc.  Except for water checks, that is about all I’m going to do outside until later this evening when I have to go out to milk.  I need an air conditioner in my milk parlor!  I’m thinking that milking at 10 or 12:00 at night might be my best bet for getting it done without sweating to death.

In honor of my birthday next week, Wally has taken Monday and Tuesday off from work and I’ve already got the list started of what we want to get done.  The plan is to get up early, work until it gets too hot to be outside, then come in and watch movies and nap.  We’ve got fencing to finish down back, electric rope to install on the horse paddock to keep shithead (Merlin) from hanging over the fence (why he has to hang over the fence to eat grass when he’s got access ten acres of grass is beyond me), shave Rose, trim goat hooves, finish the beds in the back of the house, etc., etc.

Perhaps when we get all of the projects done is when a real job will come available for me.  Or maybe as soon as I turn 50, I’ll run out of energy and then the projects will have to be done.  I surely don’t feel almost 50.  In fact, I’ve got more energy these days than I’ve had in a long time.

Today I’m in the process of making lots of salads.  So far, I’ve got chicken salad and tuna pasta salad cooling in the refrigerator.  Soon I’ll start boiling potatoes and eggs for potato salad.  I came across a recipe for Tex-Mex coleslaw which I think I’ll put together after a trip to the local farmer’s market tomorrow.  It’s too hot to eat hot food.

Until later …

I often get e-mails from people telling me how much they enjoyed my book, Raising Cats Naturally.  The other day, I got a wonderful e-mail from a woman in Canada.  She wrote: “It has been a great pleasure and honour to meet you and read your book, and finally discover someone who doesn’t consider our love and care for pets as a weakness that should be exploited (like so many vets, pet food manufacturers and vendors).”

WOW, that’s about the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.

Until later …

Hitching Area:

Pictured are left to right Fennel, Billy and Heavenly.

Milk parlor:

Pictured are Addie and Beetaloo.

I got him stuck in the manure pit yesterday.  Had to call Wally to leave work and pull him out with the Big Red truck.  Poor Yoda.

We finished another raised bed yesterday.  In keeping up with the Fabulous Beekman Boys (that’s my goal these days); this bed is six-feet by three and 16″ tall.  I have a long way to go to catch up to their 52 raised beds, but I’m working on it.  Even if it includes getting poor Yoda stuck in manure.  The soil in the area where I put the new bed (against the milk parlor) is so bad that I simply filled it with composted horse manure and sawdust.  I got a bunch of herb plants for $1 at a local hardware store.  That’s what this bed will be used for: herbs.

Spent about 30 minutes weeding under a sprinkler yesterday.  Tried to get Wally to help, but he stood on the sidelines.  The puppies had a ball running through the water from the sprinkler.  We can’t decide which puppy to keep so right now, we are keeping both of them.

I promised Wally I’d stay out of trouble today.  If I don’t, he’s threatened to take Yoda away and get me another station wagon.

Until later …

I’m starting to feel downright unemployable.  That’s a sad feeling, but I’m sure I’m not the only one.

A friend of mine sent me a link to an article that indicated that employers were only considering individuals who were currently employed.  I can understand that, I really can.  I am sure a lot of unemployed people are sitting around doing nothing.  I’m certainly not one of them.

So, I’ve decided to update my resume to show what I’ve been doing since I was laid off as follows:

Started and currently run a small, but productive dairy; have become a master cheese maker; designed and constructed an organic garden using French Intensive Methods with the intention of selling Community Supported Agriculture (“CSA”) shares in 2011.

Granted, I’m not a master cheese maker, but I can make cheese better than most people.

In my cover letter, I’d inform the potential employer that I am a highly trained paralegal and very much want to get back to work as a paralegal, but until I am able to find a job within my profession, I’ve been keeping busy and making do.  I believe what I’ve done over the past year and a half shows creativity, ingenuity and a willingness to work really hard.  I’ve worked harder since I’ve been unemployed than I did when I was employed; I’m just not making any money at it.

There’s still that local paralegal job that I need to apply for.

I’ve found happiness in areas where a lot of people have not: my personal life.  Wally and I are extremely happy together.  I live in a beautiful place, grow and produce a lot of what we eat and enjoy doing it and I have my health.   I just don’t have a real job.

Well, Wally is about finished mowing and I have a little bit more cleaning to do here in the house.  We both spent a little bit of time in the garden and I’m still sweating.  Everything is growing like crazy; soon we’ll be harvesting tomatoes!  I wish I had got things in a bit earlier, but there’s always next year.

This afternoon, I compiled a list of fall vegetable seeds to order and when to plant them.  My season will be able to be extended for some vegetables because of the hoops on the beds.

Until later …