The Last Summer Post

The crickets felt it was their duty to warn everybody that summertime cannot last forever. Even on the most beautiful days in the whole year – the days when summer is changing into autumn – the crickets spread the rumor of sadness and change."

~ E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

Today is the last day of summer, but in truth, it has not felt like summer for a couple of weeks. The stifling heat has relented, the parched ground has been satiated, the crickets have indeed spread word of change, and our carefree days have been replaced with schedules and routine.

A few summer notables:

* My 40th birthday gift from last December is finished and installed at the end of our driveway. We are official now. I could not love it more.

* My beloved, beautiful, tabby cat Digory was hit by a car. 

Thorin and Digory

For 24-hours we thought we were going to be able to save him, but we ended up having to put him down. He was the best farm cat, killing (and often eating) 1-3 critters every day, and he loved me so much he even dropped a squirrel at my feet in the middle of dinner. His favorite place to be was on my shoulder, and I would carry him around as I did my farm chores. True, he was an imfamous chicken killer and we have not lost a single chick or juvenile chicken since he died, so that is just a very faint silver-lining. He would often be absent for days at a time, so I always knew I needed to hold him loosely out here in the country. I just thought he'd go as a wild animal's dinner, not by car. 

I waited exactly one week before going to Salem Friends of Felines to find another cat. (I promised Caleb if anything ever happens to him I will wait significantly longer before replacing him.) Since we just did the kitten thing with Thorin a few months ago, I wasn't super excited to do that again. We ended up with the sweetest 9-month old cat. The kids wanted him even over the adorable kittens because he was an absolute love. 

We named him Huckleberry Finn Williams, and he has yet to catch a single critter (aside from a couple of moths). He may be our lover, while Thorin, who was Digory's protege, is turning into our fierce hunter.

Huck and Thorin have become friends

and bravely protect our driveway.

* For years we have been looking for a cider press. New presses are $600-$1000, which is hard to justify for a once/year use. Occasionally we would find a used one on Craigslist for $200-$300, only to have it slip through our fingers. They always sold extremely quickly and were often too far away for us to get to them in time. I was getting my haircut when I received a text from my dear farm neighbor, who knew of my desire for a cider press. (I speak of these neighbors often, as they have been so generous and gracious in helping us to learn these country ropes.) She sent me a picture and said her husband was at a farm sale and a cider press was $150 and did I want them to buy it for us? BUY IT!!! And they did, and her husband worked them down to $120.

They even did a little internet research on my behalf and determined it was built in 1874. Cleaned up versions are selling for $1,000 on ebay. We may take a sandblaster to the rust at some point... or we may not. We're hoping to press some cider and wine this fall, but even if we never use it, it is a beautiful piece of history. 

*Caleb built a long-dreamed of firepit and we were able to get one fire in before the burn ban took effect. 

Firepits seem to bring out the love in everyone.

*After a very slow start, and despairing that I would have little produce to show for my gardening efforts this year, the last month has seen me canning and freezing and overall, quite pleased with what I've been able to salvage from this unusual year. 

Last year, I took a break from tomatillos because I had so much salsa still from the previous year. But this year the pantry was depleted, so I again planted tomatillos.

I canned salsa verde

and Mexican tomatillo salsa.

 We've decided that we do not care for the texture of blanched, frozen green beans, so I turned all of our excess beans into pickled dilly beans.

 

In September I finally had tomatoes to process. I froze enough for my two girls' birthday dinners next spring and then set about canning salsa and chopped tomatoes. (We still have plenty of marinara.)

We also grew berries, grapes, broccoli, beets, carrots, cucumbers, corn, potatoes, radishes, squash and peas. Most of these were not stellar crops for us this year, but we enjoyed what we had.

As the sun sets on summer, we are thankful for all of God's Good Gifts to us: animals that we love enough to miss when they're gone, friends who generously lend their time and talent for a gift that truly pleases, neighbors who help make dreams come true, and of course, the bounty of our land which will feed us through the coming winter. Welcome, autumn.

Garden Tweaks and Growing from Seed

“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that 

she should never forget that first morning 

when her garden began to grow.”

~Frances Hodgson Burnett, 
The Secret Garden

Each season on our property has its own charms, but in summer every joy is magnified. It's the fruit of what all our hopes and labors from the previous months have been straining toward. Summer feels like sweet relief. And since autumn has wrapped her wet, blustery arms around us (at least for today), I suppose it is time to reflect back on the Good Gifts of summer.

This is the third year planting our 2,300 square foot garden and every year we make major modifications to the layout, watering systems, etc., in an attempt to best steward the space. In the past I have planted long rows directly into the ground and we battled horribly with weeds and everything looked so untidy that it would stress me out a little just to be in there. 

The garden in all its winter non-glory

So this spring, at my request, Caleb built raised beds, which of course meant he had to re-lay the irrigation he had installed just last year.  (He is extremely patient with his many helpers and my many requests.)

These beds made me very happy for several reasons: 1) weeds were more manageable 2) the soil was easier to amend, and 3) everything was visually tidy. 

The garden in August

In the past when I have planted my garden, I have just made a few sketches of where I want to put things, gone to the store, bought whatever they had that interested me, and plopped them in the ground. But this year, I planned. I mean really planned. 

This book has changed everything for me and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It is specific to the Pacific Northwest region, even to the Willamette Valley, and gives detailed instructions for each crop, the breeds that do best, how and when to plant them... everything! For the first time I decided to plant several crops from seed, which always seems riskier for some reason, plus I do like the instant gratification of buying starts. But with seeds I was able to choose the exact breeds I wanted to grow and it was SO much cheaper than buying starts. 

spicy radishes

Many crops, like tomatoes, peppers and other heat-loving vegetables, must be started indoors first in our climate, but several crops can be planted directly in the ground. I chose to experiment this year with peas, green beans, corn, broccoli (I did buy back-up starts), spinach and cabbage. I also planted rutabaga, radishes, potatoes, and carrot, which are all always grown from seed. 

I've been storing my carrots in the ground all summer, where apparently they have continued to grow. This carrot was 8-inches in diameter!

They are the sweetest, most flavorful carrots I've ever tasted.

The carrots have started to split in the ground though so it is definitely time to bring them in!

I had great success with my peas. I planted a 25 foot row along the fence and they were beautiful! When I think of a little 6-pack of pea starts being $3, and that I would have needed probably 20 of those to fill my space, I feel especially satisfied. 

Peas finish up in June, and for the first time I actually had my act together enough to plant a second round to harvest before frost. However, the new crop certainly does not look like this one, and I have only gotten about ten pea pods so far. 

The corn is kind of Caleb's baby. He loves growing it and we dedicated a large bed to it this year. We also planted it from seed for the first time. We planted it a bit late anyway, and then waited and waited for it to come up. Only a few did, but then the little starts soon disappeared. We finally realized those stinkin' birds that pester us relentlessly had snatched most of the seeds before they could germinate and then even the starts that actually did! Occasionally Britton will patrol the garden with his bee bee gun for me, but he can't always be on duty.

We were nervous we would be too late to plant seed again, so we bought some starts from the farmer's market. I was lamenting the bird-problem to my neighbor and she said she puts a little piece of PVC pipe over each seed and leaves it on until the stalks grow big enough that the birds will leave them alone. Brilliant! (Have I mentioned how wonderful country-neighbors are?) We planted the starts and also the seeds with PVC pipe and they both thrived happily.

July

August: higher than the 10-ft deer fence

A huge September harvest

While we were thrilled with our corn yields, we were disappointed in the taste. When we have grown corn prior the flavor was amazing - like what you dream about when you think of homegrown corn. These mostly had a gummy texture and if the texture was okay, it was not flavorful at all. I don't know if it was our crazy hot-cold-hot weather pattern this summer or some other cause, but I plan to read up on it this winter and see if we can avoid it in future. I canned corn relish and froze the rest. I think it will be fine in soups and stews, but it was definitely not good straight off the cob. 

Another disappointment were my potatoes. I spent a healthy chunk of money on both yukon gold and purple viking seed potatoes. I did everything right, as far as I can tell. And yet when I harvested, I got maybe 10 pounds of potatoes, when I was expecting 100+. I now have a little box of potatoes covered in newspaper stored down in the basement and they are precious to me, like gold. I don't even want to use them. 

They look so healthy and happy. I don't know what went wrong.

Though October is nearly here, the garden is not done yet! For the first time ever, in July I planted a small winter-garden bed, including kale, swiss chard, broccoli, and cabbage, which are just now beginning to thrive. I'm hoping to extend the joy of eating from our own garden well into the dreary, dead months ahead, when fresh tomatoes and strawberries seem only a faded dream.    

New Animals, New Goals, and a New Year

Many are the plans in a man's heart, 

but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

~Proverbs 19:21

2016 arrived with hopes, and dreams, and plans,

It's sparkling cider, I promise.

and the snow that our family had been longing for for two years. (Every day my sweet Charlie-boy re-caps the 5-day weather forecast from the newspaper with a sad, "It's not going to snow this week, Mom.")

Of course, we had to chase the snow down in Central Oregon, but we did find it and the kids started their year off just right.

The adults in the family used the time away to take stock of our homesteading goals for the new year. And we do have a few, perhaps best summarized by the books we wrapped up for each other for Christmas.

Bread
I have had a bread machine for years and use it fairly regularly. However, I have never made a completely from-scratch bread that I've kneaded myself and baked in the oven. After listening to the Pioneering Today podcast entitled Why You Should Grind Your Own Flour & Choosing a Mill , I became intrigued by the benefits of grinding flour. I use a lot of whole-wheat flour in our recipes, but what I didn't understand was that in order for flour to be shelf-stable, both the bran and the germ of the wheat berry are discarded and it is merely the starchy endosperm that is left. By grinding my own wheat berries, I would be baking a much more nutrient-dense loaf of bread. And while freshly ground flour does go rancid quickly (although it can be stored in the freezer for several months), wheat berries themselves keep for years. Since we are attempting to build up our food storage (see The Prepper's Pocket Guide on the top of the stack), this is a definite benefit. So for my birthday, Caleb got me all set up with supplies, plus he took me up to Bob's Red Mill, which is bulk-grain heaven, to pick out my berries. 

My goal for the New Year is to master two types of bread, one crusty artisan bread and one everyday sandwich type of bread. 

Garden
I am planning to approach my garden differently this year. First, we are completely restructuring the space and building raised beds to allow us to amend the soil more efficiently and also tidy up the garden visually. 

This book is a fantastic resource.

Second, after listening to a Pioneering Today podcast about heirloom seeds, I decided that that is the direction I want to go with my garden. I almost always choose the instant gratification of purchasing vegetable starts at the nursery rather than mustering up the patience required for planting seeds. However, since self-sufficiency is one of our goals, planting heirloom seeds would enable me to save seeds for next year, thus always having a continuous supply, rather than being dependent on a grower. Hybrid seeds cannot be collected and planted the next year as they will not grow true to their parent plant. Third, I have decided that instead of just walking into a nursery, purchasing whatever they have, growing too much of it, and then trying to figure out a way to use it, I will instead look at my family's favorite recipes and evaluate what crops would most enable us to eat with all or nearly all of our own ingredients. Along with the tomatoes and squash I already grow plenty of, some obvious choices would be potatoes, corn (much more than the small patch we grew last year), carrots, spinach, green beans, peas, onions, and garlic. I've decided I would rather grow less variety and really learn how to do a few crops well. This might be a "learning year" (i.e. less abundant than previous years), but I am okay with that.   

Animals

We have several animal goals for 2016, and some of our plans are already well underway.

Pigs:
Caleb is researching pigs and has designed plans for turning one of the animal shelters in our pasture into a pigpen. It will be a little trek from the house for daily care and feedings but the outbuilding already has water to it and seems the best option for using what we already have available to us. Plus, I figure a few extra steps every day is good for everyone. We plan to get two piglets in the spring to raise for fall slaughter, keeping half of one for ourselves and selling the other three halves.

The brown animal shelter is the future pigpen.

Goats:
Since getting our goats, Marianne and Elinor, a year-and-a-half ago, we have wanted to breed them. They are purebred, registered Nigerian Dwarfs and aside from the fun of having adorable kids running around, we should be able to sell the kids for a nice amount of money. The procedure for breeding them is knowing when your doe is in heat (every 17-21 days), finding the 12 hours that she will "stand for a buck", and then rushing her out to a breeder who has a buck. I contacted the farm where we bought them and the owner said for $15 each we could bring them out to be bred. But it is an hour's drive and I would have to determine when they were ready and then head out immediately, and if the two of them weren't in heat at the same time I would have to make two trips. It all seemed like so much hassle that I had the idea that it would just be easier to buy a buck, allow him to be in with the girls for a month, and then re-sell him.  The interesting thing is that in the opening paragraph of my first ever blog post about goats, I rattled off all of the reasons that it is absolutely not recommended that anyone ever own a buck, including, but not limited to:

* bizarre sexual behavior
* a strong musky smell 
* aggressiveness toward male humans
* "courting" of female humans

And yet, part of me thought, "How bad can it be?" So when I found a purebred Nigerian Dwarf buck on the Oregon Homesteaders Classifieds Facebook page for only $125, I quickly made arrangements to purchase him. Meet Westley!

And how bad is it? First off, the smell is stifling and just brushing against him will put your clothes in need of a washing. If said clothes are left in the laundry room, the entire vicinity will reek. At times, our entire property emanates goat musk. 

When we ushered Westley into the goat pasture for the first time, Marianne was actually in heat so we all got a front row seat to the "bizarre" behavior I had read about.  I was explaining to my dear mother what we had witnessed, and she astutely noted, "You can't un-see that!" No, I cannot. Nor can my children. That's home education, folks! 

If you follow Good Gifts Farm's Facebook page, you likely have seen 
this picture. I think Marianne may be saying "help me" with her eyes.

Westley, Marianne, and Elinor

Westley made quick work of his assignment and we should have two litters of kids in June. Between the horrible smell, his repeated escapes over the fence, and the fact that I was mounted last week in the pasture (not my most glamorous homesteading moment), we are anxious to re-home him.   

Cows: 
In November we slaughtered Mask and Goggles, the calves whose births we had watched and who we subsequently raised for 18 months. 

June 2014

   

June 2014

We had sold their mamas a few months back (with hopes and plans of getting Irish Dexters later on) and it was their time. As D-Day approached, the kids were a little bit sad but we talked a lot about why we raised the cows; they were not pets. Their purpose was to feed our family and the families of many people we care about. When the mobile slaughter came, the kids actually watched with fascination (from a distance) as the cows were skinned and cut up. And I think we all have a deeper appreciation for that delicious Shepherd's Pie on our dinner table, as we understand exactly where the pasture-raised beef came from.

We have 300 pounds of beef (which is 1/2 of one of the cows; I won't say which) in the freezer and we sold 800 pounds to friends. We are not great record keepers, but from our estimations, we were able to pay for the raising of the cows and for the beef we kept for our family. We also gained tremendous satisfaction from offering such healthy, humanely-raised beef to people we know and love. 

A couple of weeks ago we welcomed pregnant Annabelle, who will be giving birth in the next couple of months (we're not sure exactly when) and her 9 month-old steer calf.

They are Irish Dexters, which is exactly what we had been searching for. What's hard to tell from the picture is that Annabelle is only about three-feet tall. Irish Dexters are a small "homestead" breed, perfect for beef and milk. We will be raising the calf for beef, as well as Annabelle's next calf, if it is a bull. If the calf is a heifer, we will keep her to breed, as we would like to have two heifers for a continuous cycle of calving and beef.

I am so in love with this sweet girl. She is 11 and was milked by her previous owner so she is calm, gentle, and extremely friendly. She loves to be scratched and brushed and will stand for as long as I'll do it. Our plan is to get a few more calves out of her and then let her retire and live out the remainder of her days as a well-loved pet. She has calved every year of her life, so I think she's earned it. 

We excitedly welcome 2016 with hopes of expanding our limited skill set and the promise of many homesteading adventures. But we do hold our plans loosely and trust that, succeed or fail, God's purpose will prevail in all our endeavors.