Moving In A New Direction

Milk, Butter, Buttermilk.  We have never had a problem with Buttercup or her calf Flower but Nicole and I have come to a decision that we, as a farm, need to go in a single direction when it comes to the dairy.  We want people who see us as a goat dairy farm that delivers great products.  Not a farm that dabbles here and there. 

We have listed our cows up on craigslist for sale or trade and people are coming full force wanting to trade.  But the truth of the matter is this.  We got her because we could hand milk her and she is friendly to people.  We are not going to be selling/trading her to anyone that doesn't have the same ideals as Nicole and I do.  She is primarily grass fed but we do sneak in some grain for her while she was beig milked..... it kept her still because we do not have a stancheon for her, nor would we put her in one. We never milked her dry because we believe that Buttercup should be the one to dictate when to ween Flower off of her.  So what we would do is take roughly a gallon in the morning and another in the evening.... Flower got the rest. 

We don't believe in tagging her either.  When we bought her she had her earring in and that was the first thing we did was to take that out of her.  Their is no need for that nonsense on a cow.  If the person that wants to get her from us wants her as part of a large herd then we will just keep her because, like all of our animals, they need to be treated with respect and if Buttecup is to be just a number then don't even try buying her off of us.

But with all that being said, we are going to go in a direction that allows us to concentrate on goat milk and goat milk products.  Nicole is making wonderful fudges from and I am experimenting on making cheese.  I have learned the art of Chevre and Chevrella (goat cheese mozzerella) and Nicole is making a number of different kinds, all of which are really really smooth and creamy.  I am not just saying that because I am the first to tell her if the recipe is good or not.  And believe me, I have tried some god aweful fudges.  But its like anything in life.  You cannot expect the first couple of times tried will be successful.  What makes anything successful is getting up and trying over and over and over until it is right.  And the fudge she makes is wonderful now.  I would like to try it against Mackinac Island Fudge.... it would be close.

Everyone Loves The Circus!!!

Nicole has put the finishing touches on the mobile chicken coop.  This this is real nice.  The only problem is now people are going to start thinking that we are Bulldog fans when clearly we are not..... just take a look at our mailbox.  Wolverines all the way baby.  It is now an entrance fee for our family.  So in order for them to come down and see their grandchildren, they must provide some sort of garb with the University of Michigan logo on it... it is only then they may see our kids.  No kidding, if they drive 800 miles and they don't have so much as a U of M hat then they are turned away.  Its the only way for me to ever get any type of respectable hat... Lord knows down here (especially Pendergrass) they live and breathe the God awful bulldogs. 

Anyways, back to the point of the blog.  Our chickens are now part of the Cirque and will be performing daily.  Acts include scratching, pecking order disputes, drinking, eating bugs, laying eggs and an occasional race around the yard.  They have doing that since we got them, the only difference is now they have a snazzy mobile coop to roost or nest in. 

Where, Oh Where, Can Our Little Duck Be?

Yesterday afternoon, during the daily "great duck migration" from the pond to the front yard, we noticed there were only 3 ducks in the line waddling up the driveway. 

After an extensive search of the pond banks and the pasture we still have not been able to locate our fourth duck.

I know we should not be surprised. The neighbors even warned us when we released our ducks into the pond that there were fox in the area and the other neighbors dogs roam freely without supervision - ever - but I still had overly high hopes that the ducks would be able to fend for themselves. 

Looking out across the farm this morning I saw the ducks - teasing the calf like they tend to do in the morning. Only three.  I wish I knew what happened to that other duck.  At least that way I could try to prevent it from happening again.

Yes, I know, I should be accepting of loss - it is a farm after all and animals die, but I can't help but be sad about this.  The ducks are my guarantee for a good day. No matter how bad your mood is, you can't help but laugh when you see them waddling in a line slowly up the driveway doing that little military cadence "quack, quack, QUAACK" as they walk.  I just watched them do it again - and for the first time, I didn't laugh, didn't even smile - just felt a bit heartbroken looking at that incomplete line.

Our Ducks, "Thursday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday" (named by our 4 year old daughter)

Our Dairy Queen

Alexia, our oldest daughter, is our farms' dairy queen.  She is the one who gets up in the morning and milks all of the goats and our cow.  By milking I don't mean turning on a surge milker and attaching the machine to the utters of our animals, I mean she hand milks every single doe and cow by hand!  And eventhough the does are so docile and friendly that anyone can come over and milk them; Buttercup, our Jersey cow only allows Alexia to milk her.  She will stand still for Alexia but if anyone else tries to milk her, Buttercup gets a little uneasy and starts to move around, more than likely this results in her stepping into the milk bucket.

When Nicole and I started the dairy portion of the farm, we decided that we were only going to bring to our farm does that have strong milking bloodlines.  To find this type of doe, look at the bloodline of the doe and a strong milker will have an * by their name.  For instance, Elliot, one of our youngest does has never been pregnant but is producing about 60 oz of milk a day.  It has a lot to do with the fact that she is around all the other does who have had their kids and is from a strong milking bloodline.

So why did I mention the types of does we have on our farm?  Because Alexia milks every single one of them, and these girls do not give just a little amount milk.  Even if you don't have a clue of what time it is, you can tell just by looking at our does.  When their back legs look like they are trying to do the splits then you know that its either 6 am or pm.  It is funny looking.  By 5:45 in the evening the does start their trek of waddeling up to the barn from the pasture and it looks like they are smuggeling a beachball between their hind legs.  We do have a couple of moms that still have their kids so they dont have beach ball-itis.  For instance Jane has her daughter Dahlila still on her, Ruby still has Zaxby on her and Prim still has the twins who we haven't named because we are giving them away. 

Now when the mom's ween off their kids then Alexia's milk load will increase almost 50%!!!!  This is just goats.

Now Buttercup is a different story.  She has her calf with her but we have to seperate the two because eventhough Flower (the calf) is old enough to be weened off of Buttercup, she will still take every last drop of milk from mom.  So what we do is take Flower from mom overnight so Alexia can milk Buttercup in the morning.  Alexia then lets the calf out of her area and then she hits the milk. At around 2 in the afternoon Buttercup and Flower are seperated so around 5 Alexia can milk her.  Then the calf is then let out again until about 9 pm when she is seperated from Buttercup for the night and the process starts over again. 

We do this for a couple of reasons:

1)  Buttercup utter is HUGE... we can take two gallons out of her at a milking and she is still not done, so Flower bats cleanup and gets the rest.

2)  Flower on mom helps promote a vast quantity of milk, keeping Flower off of Buttercup will cause her to dry up so eventhough there are days that Alexia isn't on her 'A' game with the milking, Flower will drink her dry and keep mom producing.

3)Mother's milk is best.  Eventhough all the traditional farmers tell me that it is time to ween her off, we still think that Flower will be a healthier cow just because she is still getting her mom's milk.

So when anyone meets us, either by coming having a tour of our farm, at the farmers Market or where ever, I will always introduce my oldest, and most responsible daughter, as The Dairy Queen.  Because without all that she does, our farm would never be the same.  And for that, as well as everything else you do around our farm, our house, and for our family, I want to say thank you for all your hard work.  I love you Alexia.

Alexia posing in a demonstration for her 8th grade class.

Fate is what brought us together.

Getting into beekeeping almost never happened; at least it not like it is now.  Last year when we were in the discussion stages of building our farmstead, bees were talked about very infrequently, and when Nicole and I did get on the topic of bees it was our agreement that we would get a hive or two so we would have some honey as well as some on site pollinators for our raised bed gardens.

With absolutely zero knowledge of anything related to bees (except for the fact that they sting), I started looking on the internet for bees. This was in July.

Now if anyone out there that knows anything about buying bees will know that you cannot find ANYONE with bees for sale in July.  So now we wait… and start looking for bees to buy in February of this year.  Now if anyone out there that know anything about buying bees will know that you cannot find ANYONE with bees for sale.  But know it’s because their orders are already filled and all of their bees have been spoken for.

Frustrated and desperate, we start scouring the internet for people with bees for sale; craigslist, bee farm websites, bee magazines… everywhere.  We find a site who still has bees for sale, and he had a deal going on that if you purchase his bees, the hives and bee suit from him then he will give you a free class on raising bees.  Holy cow, he lives 20 minutes from our house and we will even get a free class on raising bees.  This was wonderful!

I called the number he had on the website; answering machine.  Called the next day; nothing.  Again I called the next day; nothing.  I did this for weeks and only got an answering machine or a voice telling me that the answering machine was full.  I needed to get a hold of his guy.  I wanted bees, and the free class.  I then got the bright idea to text him…. Maybe the number on the site was a cell number, and then he would get my desperate text.  A text telling him that I was willing to give him money for the bees and hives and suits…..nothing.  Then, I called one last time… and got nothing.  I was just about to give up on him when I decided to call him right back.  And I get “Hello”.  I almost hung up on him, thinking it was his answering machine.  Holy crap I got a hold of him!  I quickly told him my situation and asked if he still had bees for sale and he said he did.  I almost peed myself.  Then I proceeded to tell him that I was willing to buy bees, suits, hives, tools…. Everything from him.  I was trying to throw all of my money at him.  He then told me that he was up in the mountains and that I needed to call him tomorrow after 1:00p.m. to set up a time to come pick up everything.  I thanked him about 10 times and told him I will call at 1:15 sharp and was willing to drive to his house that day to some and talk to him. 

1:15p.m. the next day.  No answer.  2:00, no answer.  3:00, no answer.  I QUIT!

A few days later Nicole gets the most brilliant idea.  Post a wanted ad on craigslist for bees.

Within a couple of days a fellow named Stacy emails, or calls us telling us that if we are interested in bees that we need to call a guy he has been dealing with and he will be more than happy to sell us bees.

So I call Don Kuchenmeister.  I give him my sad story about how I have not been able to get bees and been wanting bees for our farm.  He stops me and tells me that he is willing to sell me bees and to be at his house Saturday.  I called him on a Tuesday.

I called again on Thursday to be sure that the bees are going to be ready and he said that they would be there on Saturday.  We talked for about half an hour. We talked about why I wanted bees, and what I wanted to do with them.  Then he springs on me that I should sign up for his classes.  They were individual weekend classes or a commercial bee class.  I didn’t want to go into the commercial bee business but it was more economically smart to buy the commercial class then multiple individual classes.  So Nicole and I signed up for commercial bee keeping classes.

Now Saturday comes and it is raining.  I mean it was coming down in buckets.  But we get to his house and he is in his garage putzing around.  We introduce ourselves and we start talking about bees and hives and honey and wax and queens and nucs and everything you can think of.  We went into his classroom and talked more about nucs and packages and queens.  The rain stopped and we got a tour of the place and continued talking about hives and pest control and the next thing we knew, we spent 4 hours there doing nothing but soaking in all that he had to say. 

Nicole and I thanked him and paid his wife for two commercial classes.  And we drove away without any bees.  Not that there wasn’t any available, but we had just ran into a huge turning point in our thinking of the farm.

We talked all the way home about maybe we should get into the bee business as well.  We were at Don’s house the next day... no rain.  And we started our commercial bee course.  We learned hive building…..and for the next 8 weeks Nicole and I were at his doorstep every Saturday to learn and learn and learn.

So I guess this is a thank you blog to the bee guy who wouldn’t call me back. 

Thank you for not taking my call.  I really have learned a lot about bees because of you.

Japanese Giant Hornets

I guess I could have called this blog post "Something I Wish I Knew Before Getting Into Beekeeping", because, wow - I think I might have reconsidered.  Have you ever seen a Japanese Giant Hornet? They are huge. No, I don't just mean large I mean HUGE.  These guys are rated one of the "5 most horrifying bugs in the world" - and just in case you don't already know, let me tell you why:

1. It is larger than the size of your thumb and sprays flesh-melting poison. (No, I am not exaggerating.) They aim this poison at your eyes. This wonderful poison has pheromones that will bring every hornet in the hive over to sting you until you die. (again, NO - I am not exaggerating).
2. They can fly 50 miles in a day - so it is not like you can outrun it.
3. An adult hornet will fly miles to find food. I have learned that it's favorite food is a hive inhabited by thousands of bees. A hornet that finds a hive will spray the hive with some acid to call in its fellow hornets. They then descend upon the beehive like an unholy plague of hell-born death engines and the bees do not stand a chance.
4. They are all over my bee yard.

These things give me nightmares. I am not even kidding.  I wake up covered in sweat, shaking, after a dream about these things.  And, just in case you were wondering - no - the above picture is not one that I took myself - there is no way on earth I would let one of these things touch me.

Check out this video from BBC about just 30 of these hornets killing off a hive of 30,000 bees.



I swear whenever I see one of these things in my yard it takes everything I have not to scoop up my children and run for cover while screaming my head off.  Instead I just bravely wait until it lands and hack it in half with a shovel (secretly hoping that no other hornets were watching and are now going back for reinforcements).

Making My Own "Miracle Grow"

So I have just spent the better part of the morning making my own "miracle grow" potting mix.

Ted and I bought 8 organically grown heirloom cherry tomato plants. Ted decided he did not want to put them in the 3 gallon pots we used last year - he claims the pots "limited the plants growth". So he brought home 8 huge 16 gallon pots.

I filled a few inches of the bottom of the pots with wood chips to help with drainage, and the rest of the pot was filled with my own soil mixture.  Let's just say, after this experience, these plants better be freaking HUGE!

I went around my pasture looking for fresh (but not too fresh) manure from the animals. I decided it would be best to find piles that were "full of life" - meaning full of all different kinds of bugs throughout the pile.  If the pile is too old, there is no life in it at all so it is not as "good". If it is too fresh, the only thing that likes it is the flies - so, it is also not as "good". Lets just say after a while of looking for the "right" piles - I have become quite the "poop aficionado".

After scooping several piles into the wheelbarrow, I sprayed enough water into it and mixed it with my shovel until it was like very thick pea soup.  Then I started adding soil.  I added soil until the "soup" started looking more like dirt.  I figured when it was no longer required that I breathe through my mouth - the mixture was probably pretty good.

Ok - so here are the important things I learned while doing this task:

1. While spraying the water into the "fresh" piles - if it splashes up onto your face - don't use the back of your hand to wipe it off - spray it off with the hose.
2. When mixing this up in your wheelbarrow with your shovel - pull in to the middle from the outside edges not from the middle out. Mixing the wrong way causes the wheelbarrow to tip over and spill its contents all over you and your unsuspecting dog who loves to lay at your feet while you work.  Yuck! Trust me.
3. Make sure you set up the sprinkler to keep the kids occupied on a hot day. Otherwise, your 2 littlest boys will try to swim in the animal's watering trough.

Now that the monster sized pots are full, I am hoping it will be quite some time before I have to tackle this job again. But, around here, you never know. This might work so well that Ted will make me fill all the raised garden beds with this mixture. Let's hope not.