A Time for Everything

Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.

~Evan Esar

We started the year with such excitement and high hopes.

In Janurary we purchased a pregnant Irish Dexter named Annabelle with her steer (neutered male) calf.

She was expected to calve in February or March, and we desired to keep a heifer calf (female) to raise and breed or raise a bull calf for beef, along with Annabelle's other boy.
Although Annabelle is 11, we bought her for a good price and hoped to get a couple more calves out of her before allowing her to live out her retirement years in our pasture. She is such a sweetheart and will greedily accept my pets, brushes, and scratches all day long.

A few weeks after purchasing her, she began wheezing, while also having runny eyes and discharge coming from her nose. I waited a while before calling the farm vet, but eventually decided to. When he came out, I casually mentioned that she was due to give birth "any day". He took one look at her and said, "I hate to tell you this, but I don't think she's pregnant." Since he was doing lab work on her anyway, we opted to have a pregnancy test done and indeed, she was not pregnant. I don't believe the prior owners had been dishonest with us. They were lovely people and I do believe she had been with a bull for two months. The vet surmises that at her age her cycles are slowing down and it will take longer for her to get pregnant.

We felt quite foolish for buying this old, un-pregnant cow. She was ultimately diagnosed with lungworm, a treatable parasite, but one which she introduced to our previously-clean pasture, and we therefore had to worm all our animals. We spent $300 on the vet and lab bills, and it was discouraging to think how one thing going wrong with an animal can wipe out any profit a person might have been hoping to make. Not only would we not have a calf to raise and sell for beef, but we had to pay the vet bill, find a way to breed her, and then feed and care for her for the next year before she even calves. We obviously aren't trying to make a living doing this, but I have a huge respect and concern for people who do. The margins are extremely tight, and it is not easy. 


On a much smaller scale, I have realized this truth in raising hens and selling eggs. When hens are young and laying an egg a day in summer we can about break even on paying for feed and keeping a couple dozen per week for ourselves. In the winter when hens lay once or twice per week, or when they turn two and begin to slow down altogether, there is no margin to cover expenses. When a predator takes out two hens at once, hens we have fed and cared for and gotten to a place where they lay daily, it is a great loss. When we have to buy new chicks or medicine or cedar chips to clean out the coop (not to mention the several hundred dollars it cost to build the coop), there is no way to recover that cost. There is only so much we can charge for a dozen eggs. We charge $4/dozen for organic, pastured eggs, which is on the higher end of what people are willing to pay anyway. (Even Costco with their massive buying power charges $3.50.) And though we are certainly not the most efficient egg farmers around, I am mindful that those able to produce and sell eggs for $2/dozen must be scrimping somewhere, most likely on quality feed, animal welfare, and humane practices. (Have you ever watched one of those horrifying industrial-egg-factory videos?) It's all somewhat discouraging and disappointing.

But I will return to the subject of cows. Since we were going to need to bring a bull in for Annabelle, we decided we might as well get one more female cow to breed along with her.

And so we purchased Nutmeg, a red Irish Dexter heifer (a female that has never given birth - I define terms because it has taken me a long while to understand them myself). Now, six months later, we are still attempting to track down an Irish Dexter bull to breed them both. A woman has kindly offered to pasture them with her herd, which includes a bull, for a couple of months this summer and we will likely take her up on that. If that doesn't work out, we have the number of two different people who offer AI (artificial insemination) services.

Another major disappointment has been the ordeal of breeding our goats. We purchased a buck (un-neutered male) in January, went to the expense of registering him with the USDGA (United States Dairy Goats Association) because our doelings (females who have never given birth) are purebred and we wanted to be able to sell our kids as purebred registered Nigerian Dwarfs. We also had a vet tech out to do disease testing on our girls and the buck because when purchasing kids, many people want certification that they come from a clean herd. Nigerian Dwarfs usually have between 2-4 kids per litter, so we were expecting to have several kids to sell. 

After Westley did his job, we were quite ready to send him on to his next home. We then noticed that a large population on Homesteader's Classifieds (a Facebook group we belong to) were trying to unload Nigerian Dwarf bucks much cuter than ours and no one wanted to buy them. We became worried that we would be stuck with this stinky, horny goat, so when his previous owners offered to take him back (because they really did love him), but not refund our money, we readily accepted. We chalked the purchase price up to a "stud fee". 

Elinor

Five months passed and Elinor's due date approached. She was confirmed pregnant by a test we had the vet tech do when she was here for disease testing. Ten days prior to d-day, she began having discharge that, from all my internet research, did not look healthy or normal. I was fairly certain that she was miscarrying but being completely new to this realm of animal husbandry, I was at a loss as to what to do and was worried about Elinor's health as well. Our farm vet came out for an emergency call on a Sunday and extricated a single very under-developed fetus. So, so disappointing. 

We had thought our farm would be abounding with new life this Spring, but it has not been so. Our very last hope for a baby lies in Marianne. She was not confirmed pregnant by the test because she would not have been far enough along. She is the tiniest thing and we are all a bit suspicious that there could even be a baby in there. If there is, it's likely only one. So our goat venture has cost about $600, a lot of hassle, and may not amount to anything. 

Marianne

The disappointments in the Little House book series are truly heartbreaking. I often think with amazement of Pa because no matter what calamity befell his family - plagues of locust, ruined crops, months-long blizzards, being forced off his homestead by changing boundaries - he began again, and with a twinkle in his eye. "There is no great loss without some small gain" was a common Ingalls Family saying. Our losses and disappointments are absurdly minor compared to theirs and to those of many others. 

The barnyard on a summer afternoon is about the most peaceful place that exists. All is still and quiet, as the chickens dust bathe in the shade, the goats snooze on their wooden wall, the cows lounge under trees to avoid the flies and heat. Recently I strolled out one blazing afternoon, and it was all so good and beautiful on our property that I couldn't even conjure up those disappointed feelings I had felt two-weeks prior when I held a screaming, trembling goat with tears streaming down my face. 

There is a time for everything,

    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

    a time to kill and a time to heal,

    a time to tear down and a time to build,

    a time to weep and a time to laugh,

    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

     a time to search and a time to give up,

    a time to keep and a time to throw away,

   a time to tear and a time to mend,

    a time to be silent and a time to speak,

   a time to love and a time to hate,

    a time for war and a time for peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

What else can you do but joyfully and resolutely move forward?

Spring Scenes: A Photojournal

Blows the thaw-wind pleasantly,

Drips the soaking rain,

By fits looks down the waking sun:

Young grass springs on the plain;

Young leaves clothe early hedgerow trees;

Seeds, and roots, and stones of fruits,

Swollen with sap put forth their shoots;

Curled-headed ferns sprout in the lane;

Birds sing and pair again.

~ Christina Rossetti, Spring

New hope

New paths

New growth

New potential

New life

New animals

New friends

New plans

New beauty

New vision

There is no time like Spring,

When life's alive in everything,

Before new nestlings sing,

Before cleft swallows speed their journey back

Along the trackless track--

God guides their wing,

He spreads their table that they nothing lack,--

Before the daisy grows a common flower,

Before the sun has power

To scorch the world up in his noontide hour.

~Christina Rossetti, Spring

Chicken Troubles

Recently a friend mentioned that her friend who raises many different animals commented that of all of her animals, chickens are the most trouble - there is always something going on with them! I stopped and pondered.... I hadn't really thought about it that way, but goats, cows, dogs, cats, goldfish.... we hardly ever deal with them at all. But chickens... yes, it is always something. And yesterday, as Caleb and I strolled back from evening chores, which included searching seven different spots for eggs and debating how to deal with the broody hen nesting in the barn, he mused, "Chickens sure use up a lot of brain power."

It is so true. If they aren't broody (chickens wanting to do nothing but hatch eggs), they are pecking at each other (I had to spray Blu-Kote on a victim's bloodied comb to prevent other chickens from pecking it to death) or nursing pecking injuries (I struggled to figure out why one chicken's eye was swollen shut and pussy, but finally determined it was a pecking injury and repeatedly wiped the puss away until it was healed). They decide to sleep in the nesting boxes and fill them with poop so that no one will lay eggs in them and we must search the aforementioned seven laying spots in the barn for eggs. (We've just given up and boarded up the boxes so no one can use them for any purpose.)  They get worms (I researched and administered safe worming medications) and they will stop laying at the slightest provocation... a stormy day, introducing new chickens into the flock, molting (shedding feathers and getting new ones), daylight waning, broodiness, and just general moodiness that in my humanness I am not adept at understanding. 

Since I've mentioned broodiness three times already in this post, l'll start there. Last summer we had a revolving door of continuously broody chickens. I've talked about this before, but a broody chicken wants to hatch eggs, as God designed her to do. So she will stash eggs in a nest, pluck out her breast feathers to make it soft, and sit... and sit... and sit, getting off the nest once per day to drink and eat. In the natural order of things, she would sit for 21 days and hatch her eggs (providing she had been around a rooster and her eggs were fertilized). Since our girls have not, they will stop laying eggs and sit until they starve themselves to death, even if we take all the eggs out from under them, which we always do. The only cure is to put them in the broody buster or let them hatch eggs. They will not snap out of it on their own. (A few of our hens have never gone broody because their breeds have had the trait bred out of them, as it is very inconvenient for commercial egg production. But the breeds that do go broody are always repeat offenders.) One matronly Wyandotte wanted so badly to be a mama that we decided to let her realize the dream. I bought a dozen fertilized eggs on Craigslist for $10, stuck them under her, and 21 days later we had seven adorable chicks. (A couple of eggs disappeared in the process and three were duds.)

It was a delight to keep vigil at the barn and watch chick after chick break out of its shell and peek out of mama's wings. 

She was an excellent mother and had them foraging within days of hatching. She kept them warm (they slept under her wings) and safe (you should have seen the tussle when our poor cat inadvertently crossed her path) and fed. After raising chicks by hand, which included feeding, watering, sheltering, and constantly monitoring the heat lamp for proper temperature, we were amazed at the ease of this process. Why do all that work when a mama hen will do it for you? I don't think we'll ever go back!

All seven chicks made it about 10 weeks and then two were picked off on the same day by an unknown predator. They simply disappeared, one in the morning, another in the afternoon. But the remaining five are still alive and well... for the time being. This brings me to the next chicken trouble.

When you buy chicks at the store, they are sexed with a 90% success rate. And even though we bought twelve chicks, none of them were roosters. Hatching eggs is a game of odds, and unfortunately they were not in our favor. Out of five surviving chicks, three were roosters. We had been told if we were going to eat them, we needed to do it within about 3-4 months, before they started crowing. Any older and their flavor is very strong and unappetizing. Well, with the holidays and everything else, time got away from us and they began crowing. (We cannot hear them from the house, so honestly that part of it is not too bad, though for the life of me, I cannot figure out a pattern or purpose to their crowing.) 

RIP, Diana and Anne

People keep roosters because they fertilize eggs and often protect the hens from predators. One rooster per ten hens is said to be an appropriate ratio. Since we have 20 hens, we thought keeping two might be a reasonable idea. We had lost several hens to predators (including the mama that hatched all those chicks) and since having the roosters, we had not lost any so we were warming up to the idea. But we are going through feed at an unbelievable rate (these roosters are 2-3 times the size of the hens and that organic feed is expensive) and then just last week, my most beloved chickens, Annes Shirley and Diana Barry went down together against an unknown predator. And just where were those three well-fed roosters??? 

It's on the "To Do" list, so now it's official. The roosters have got to go.

However, we have made use of (temporarily) having roosters on the premises and are letting another broody sit on our very own fertilized eggs. 

One of the chicks we hatched is now
sitting on her own clutch of eggs.

The chicks will be a crazy "barnyard mix" since we have mixed breed roosters that are different from all of our hens' breeds. But we'll see how it goes. Perhaps we'll actually get around to eating the cockerels this time and will be able to add "meat chickens" to our list of homesteading accomplishments. 

I actually have not fully aired my list of chicken grievances but this post is long enough, and I concur whole-heartedly with the person who said that chickens are the most trouble. But I have to add that they are also the most endearing, entertaining, and fun, and those bright yellow yolks in farm fresh eggs are more than enough reward for our trouble.

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.