The Long Winter

No matter how long the winter, 
Spring is sure to follow.

~Proverb

The title is a bit dramatic if you're comparing our winter to the one in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book by the same name. We are not nearing starvation and we have not suffered blizzard upon blizzard. But we have had four rounds of snow, weeks of sub-freezing temperatures (we had a hen freeze to death), and record-setting rainfall this month. All of it has made for a very un-inspiring homestead winter, thus my longest ever blogging hiatus. Not much to report!

However, since we had not seen substantial snow in three years and longed for it so badly (many prayers were offered up by my children beginning in October), I refuse to "complain" (at least officially), but I will state that we are ready to be done, even as it snowed again this morning. 

At the dinner table we often go around and say the best part of our day, the worst part of our day, and what we're looking forward to tomorrow. In that spirit, I am going to reflect on the best part of winter, the worst part of winter, and what we're looking forward to in Spring.

The Highlights:

The sheer beauty of it all

After we got the cows closed off 

we opened up the pasture and had a fantastic sledding hill right on our own property! 

The goats in the snow were one of the cuter winter sights around here,

Marianne and Elinor staying warm in their thick winter coats.

...as were the cows

The cows really don't seem to mind it. They look very simple as they just stand, staring straight ahead, and get blanketed in snow. 

Brody and I got out on some "farm walks" even in the ice and snow, meaning we walk (or run if it's not too slick) from the house to the barn and back, from the house to the end of the driveway and back, which equals .27 miles. I usually try and get 3 miles in, but Brody-the-behemoth-Golden-Retriever usually poops out about half-way through. 

We completed the annual (dreaded) task of pruning our six apple trees, two pear trees, one plum and one cherry tree. I actually pulled my weight this year and did about half myself.

The Lowlights:

*Having 25 hens and collecting only 1-3 eggs per day. (Thankfully production is ramping back up.)

*Hauling water for the cows from the house to the barn for days on end. (With temps below freezing we have to turn the water off to the barn so the pipes don't burst. Ask me how we learned this.)

*ANNABELLE (see below)

We'd had Annabelle for a year and didn't know what to do with her. She was supposed to be pregnant when we bought her, but wasn't. She was 10, and her heat cycles weren't very regular. She declined to be loaded in a trailer to be taken to a bull last summer so we missed that opportunity. This winter had been hard on her and she was moving slower, not eating as much, and I had seen her fall a couple times. My inexperience with cows did not allow me to know if it was just her age or if she was truly ill. I now believe I should have called the vet. 

The day after we returned home from Hawaii in January with a million other things to get caught up on, I noticed she was in heat and so decided to seize the rare opportunity and called an AI (artificial insemination) tech. She came out that evening and did the procedure. Our plan was to give Annabelle this opportunity to get pregnant, and if it didn't take, to butcher her with her son in April. I loved this cow, but couldn't justify keeping her as a pet. We'd already fed her for a year with nothing to show for it. 

Before we could even determine if she was pregnant, we walked out to her broken body wedged between a tree and fence. It was a bizarre sight that we can't really account for. Somehow she had fallen, though why she was trying to pass through this narrow space is unexplainable, unless she felt like she was dying and was trying to get to a protected place. We think she either broke her neck or suffocated in the deep mud. It was horrific.

I sobbed face down on my bed in a way I hadn't done in years. I allowed myself a good five minutes and then pulled it together. She was the friendliest, loveliest cow I could ever hope to own. She came to me that way and I have no knowledge of how to gentle a cow on my own. But with my girl Nutmeg, I'm sure going to try now. 

Spring Hope:

* I have permission to buy six new chicks - we're just waiting for the weather to warm up a bit since they'll be living in the barn. 

*We plan to raise our second batch of meat chickens - this time in a chicken tractor that Caleb is going to build. 

The garden, which so recently looked like this, will soon (with a lot of preparatory work) be ready to plant.

Nutmeg should be calving sometime in April.

Nutmeg soaking up rays on a recently sunny day

And beautiful sights like this give me hope for the future, no matter what it holds.

If we had no winter, 

the spring would not be so pleasant.

If we did not taste adversity, 

prosperity would not be so welcome.

~Ann Bradstreet

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.

A Country Christmas and Six-Months Home

The term Country Christmas embodies all of the beauty and sentimental notions and longings I have about the Christmas season. 

I have visions of rustic barns amid snow-covered fields, 

handmade gifts, 

hospitality, 

and decorations that bring the outdoors in. 

But like all idealized things, perpetuated by Pinterest and blogs, snapshots and songs, the season can never fully live up to the ideal. We have the barn, but nary a flake of snow, and I only managed to finish two knit dishcloths for one friend. We felt busy and tired, and at times, grumpy and dull. However, the season was still beautiful and warm, and best of all, real. 

Friends and family gathered, 

our fire blazed warm and bright (even if it is propane), 

we had quiet moments of reflection (at least one that I can remember),

 

moments of excitement and chaos (many, many more of those),

but most importantly, Jesus was celebrated. 

The greatest miracle of all time is that God so loves us and so desires to redeem us that He sent his Son, who is fully God, to put on a mantle of flesh and dwell with us, the Word made flesh, God With Us, Immanuel. 

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: 

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, 

and will call him Immanuel.

~Isaiah 7:14

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, 

and they will call him Immanuel (which means “God with us”).

~Matthew 1:23

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, 

who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

~John 1:14

Since Christmas Day is for celebrating miracles, it seems fitting that also on this day we celebrated six-months home with Graham Jeffrey. He woke up a little grumpy, but soon warmed up.

Caleb and I were profoundly struck by how many stockings hung from our mantel this year.  (That, and the fact that we are profoundly outnumbered.) What a sweet love this little boy is. Graham has blended right into our family as though that spot was just waiting for him. I believe it was. He is smart, sweet, funny, and mellow (a welcome trait in a fifth child, particularly a child that follows our Firecracker Rosie). He has grown and changed so much and is finding his two year-old will and voice, which I often must remind myself is good and healthy.  

Next week, new animals are being delivered to our farm and seed catalogs are already arriving in the mail. The hope and promise of a New Year await. 

Pot Pourri

A warm January day

Winter Recovery
The past three months have been quiet on the farm. I suppose that is part of the purpose of Winter - to restore us and give us rest and ready us for the coming season of growth and activity and new life. The first seed catalog arrived in January and I could not even look at it. There was not yet enough distance between that exhilaratingly exhausting time last Summer and Autumn and its arrival. I stuck it on a shelf. By Mid-February the stack had grown to five different catalogs, we were experiencing weather in the mid 60s, and I was getting the itch. I began casually thumbing through them. 

Q: Why did the chicken cross the irrigation ditch?
A: To get to the compost pile. 

Fast-forward to the second week of April and I am longing to be planting, but my garden is not ready for me. Caleb has been completely re-laying the irrigation system. (I am continuously amazed at the breadth of skills my attorney husband has.) Parts of it was malfunctioning last year and I had to do a lot of hand-watering. While it is torn up, we decided to re-arrange the beds and re-organize the general layout. It pains me to pass by the pea starts and salad greens I keep seeing at the store. Hopefully within a couple of weeks the garden will be put back together and I can begin planting.

Getting Prepared

Stored in the barn, waiting for an emergency

I've felt kind of proud of how we've become "animal people" the past year and a half. But in the back of my mind I've had this nagging notion that we haven't really been tried yet. Everything has gone smoothly. Even our cows giving birth came off without a hitch. When our chicken got injured and was pecked to death by her flock-mates, we were on vacation and had a housesitter (my sweet niece who handled it so well), so we even escaped that. We lost one other chicken to a predator, but by the time I found her, she was quite a bit past needing any intervention by me. At some point I realized that we were completely ill-equipped to handle the injury or illness that would inevitably occur on a farm. I did not own a single piece of animal first-aid or medicine, which just seemed irresponsible. So I posted a question on the Oregon Homesteaders Chat Facebook page: What essential items would you include in a farm-animal first-aid kit? I received many responses, wrote them all down, cross-referenced to see which items came up the most often, and set about to track them down. I was able to find everything on Amazon, spending about $100, but I really feel like we have what we will need for most any circumstance. Our kit includes:

*Blood Stop Powder
*Blu Kote (paints wounds blue so chickens won't peck at them)
*Vetericyn Wound and Skin Care
*Electrolyte powder 
*Aspirin Powder
*Epsom Salts
Plus, essential supplies, like towels, bandages, duct tape, syringes, cotton balls, cue tips and maxi pads (supposedly perfect for wrapping around a leg wound). 

Now, if I will actually be able to treat my animals without passing out (I have serious blood issues, and I am not exaggerating), that will be a miracle. 

Not a Big Deal
Since we got our goats last July, the task of trimming their hooves has hung heavily over us. It seemed intimidating and dangerous  (for them) and we put if off for months. I spoke to a dad at our homeschool co-op who is a serious DIYer when it comes to animals. He hunts elk and traps beavers and butchers animals himself. But he said he would hire out trimming goat hooves in a heartbeat. Caleb, however, was adamant that we needed to do it, at least the first time, ourselves. The task is supposed to be done every two months and we had put it off for six. It was time. We purchased a pair of $14 clippers from Amazon (they received great reviews) and watched a particular Ohio State University Youtube video several times and felt as ready as we would ever feel. The ideal set-up would be a milking stand where the goat's neck is constrained, but since we did not have that, we gerry-rigged a rope contraption and fed them oats (a rare treat) to distract them. 

Elinor and Marianne were slightly agitated, but mostly because they were not near each other. (They are extremely bonded and cry continuously if away from each other.) It really was easy to see where the hooves needed to be trimmed and the job was accomplished with little drama. 

We did not even draw blood. Elisabeth was concerned by the whole process. She asked what we'd do if we cut off a foot. Caleb assured her that wouldn't happen. She persisted, "But if it does, what will you do with the body???" Good question, but thankfully it didn't come to that.

Keeping Promises
You may remember that last September I made a promise that we were done adding animals to our farm for a while. I have been to true to my word (and have only wavered slightly when seeing the many spring piglets for sale). It was Caleb's idea to get some pullets (hens under a year old) at the Oregon Poultry Swap, which we had been planning to attend. Our big-picture chicken plan is to add chickens every six months or so to keep the stream of eggs continuous because, as chickens age, they begin to lay less. Britton had been really sick with a high fever for 9 days. On day 7 he tearfully shared his fear that he would not be well enough to go to the poultry swap. That's my chicken boy! 

Thankfully, Britton was better and our family headed out to the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall. What an interesting experience. The exhibition hall was packed with vendors hocking very homemade handicrafts, roosters (a lot of roosters), pullets, rabbits, quail, and other random animals. There were so many people that it was hard to move (and keep track of four children). We arrived shortly after the doors opened but the pullet selection was already very picked over. The only lady with any selection left had 4 month and 6 month Bantam Cochins for sale for $15 each. We didn't know anything about Bantams but they were adorable and had feathered feet (feathered feet!). So we picked up four: two silver 4 month olds and 2 black and white 6 month olds that were already laying. 

As we drove home I used Caleb's phone to research our purchase. Here's what we learned about Bantam Cochins:


*They are originally from China but were given as a gift to Queen Victoria and are now very popular in England.
*They are poor layers.
*They only grow to 2 1/2 pounds. (Our other hens are 7-10 lbs.)
*They lay very small eggs.
*They love people and follow them around. (We have goats for that. And 13 other chickens.)
*They are like people in feather suits. (That is a direct quote from a Bantam website.) 

Okay, so maybe we would not have chosen them if we  had researched first, but they are a bit of a novelty and we are always up for trying a new breed. They are stinkin-adorable and did I mention they have feathered feet??

We've been reading the Little House books all school year, so we named these four after the Ingalls girls: Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace. And we all agree, one particularly spunky black one is defintely Laura. 

Life's Logistics

My life-long dream of owning a Volkswagon Van has
come true. Big Blue is perfect for our family and
I'm so thankful we found it!

How my kitchen and family-room look today

All winter we've been enjoying the calm, but anticipating that life was about to get cRaZy. (This has helped me keep the above-referenced promise, as I knew that we just could not take anything else on right now.) We bought a van and sold my car, in preparation for becoming a family of 7. We are on track to leave for China June 10 to bring home Graham Jeffrey. And I am currently 3 weeks into 10 weeks without a kitchen. Our kitchen remodel (and adding a bedroom project) is scheduled to be done two days before we leave for China.  What if there's a delay and the project isn't done? How am I going to get moved back in in the one day before we leave for China when I will have 10,000 other things to do? How am I going to detox my family from the convenience food I am feeding them while we live without a kitchen? My head can start spinning... I don't know what these next few weeks are going to look like. But I know the One who knows, and I am giving it to Him. A new child, a new kitchen... it's ALL GOOD and I'm sure these trifling details will work out. With all the time we'll be spending OUT of the house, I'm certain to get my garden planted before we leave. And after we return from China, I'm thinking that a little spotted piglet or two might be just what Good Gifts Farm needs.