Beets are Treats for Livestock

I read that a few generations ago, small-scale dairy farmers fed root crops to their cows.  They are loaded with nutrition.  The cows can eat the root and the greens.  Cows love sweet potatoes, carrots, and beets.  We grow a special beet called the Red Mangel Beet for feeding the cows.  The Red Mangel Beet is a MONSTER!  It will grow and grow and grow.  They can grow to 20 pounds!  We picked this one, but it would have doubled in size if we had left it alone:

We use a big knife to cut it in half.  It is white in the interior with reddish lines throughout.  I licked it and it seemed sweet to me. 

We'll cut the been into bite-sized cubes so that the cows can snack on them after they eat their dairy ration and alfalfa.  We simply throw the red mangel beet cubes in the trough as a dessert.

The cows love 'em!

We love beets, too!  We've been harvesting some and roasting them in the oven.  Roasted and pickled are my two favorite ways to eat beets.  The cows?  They just gobble them down raw.

Triple The Trouble

Annie, our Nubian goat, has had triplets twice before.   She has been growing and growing.  She was so huge that we were sure that she was carrying triplets again.  We have been waiting on her to kid for the last several weeks, every day thinking, "Is this the day?"  Well, Saturday afternoon as I was working in the garden I looked over and heard some grunting.  Annie had given birth to twins!  She was licking them clean - a buckling and a doeling.

Well, I thought, I guess you are not going to have triplets this time, old girl.  Well, I thought wrong.  After a little while, she sat down and promptly gave birth to a third.  My primary job was to stand with a stick and chase off the chickens.  They love to peck at the placenta and at the baby goats' hooves.

It wasn't very long until Annie had them all cleaned up AND had devoured the placenta.  We worked with the babies to ensure that they got to drink the colostrum.  One of Annie's teats was so engorged it almost drug the ground.  After the babies drank, we went ahead and milked it out.  Annie was being very motherly to her offspring.  It is neat how their instinct for caring for their young kicks in.

She has had 9 kids so far!  This time three - two boys and a girl.  Tricia got the kitchen scale to weigh them.  One weighed 5 pounds and the other two weighed 5 and a half.  It was a little difficult to get them to stay still on the scale!

One of the little bucklings has some nice-looking spots.  The other two are mostly black with tan and white markings.

And here is the deadbeat dad - Buckwheat.  He didn't even come check out his kids.  Off in the distance, he just laid in the dust disinterested.  He wasn't interested in helping out with discipline or care of his kids.  I told him that he owes child support, but he just rolled over and looked at me indignantly with his goatee.

While we had the scale out, Tricia walked over and got Salt and Pepper.  They are Oreo's kids and are a month and a few days old.  We weighed them.  Pepper was 9 and a half pounds and Salt was 10 and a quarter.  They are growing!

So we have five babies on the pasture now.  It is quite a zoo we have.  Our plans are to let the kids grow for a bit and then sell them.  We don't have the pasture (or the patience) to keep them all.  They are cute, though!

Another Bird About to Leave the Nest

Our middle child and oldest son, Russ, recently purchased his own home in a town west of our home.  It was a big step for him and a big step for us.  With Laura already out on her own and now with Russ moving out next weekend, our little nest is getting empty!  This weekend we helped him load up some of his belongings.  Tricia helped him do some cleaning and organizing at his house.  We had to move a couch and some chairs and other things from upstairs.  We got it loaded onto the trailer.

Tricia and Russ

The home was built in 1953 and is in remarkable shape.  He lives in a quiet neighborhood and it will take him ten less minutes to commute to work each day.  Here he is unlocking his door and opening the door to a new chapter in his life - a new chapter for Mom & Dad, too!

Russ, being the horticulturalist, is excited that his house has a fig tree that is loaded with figs, two pear trees (no partridge), a grapefruit tree, and a tree in the front yard we had never seen before.  It is a tree from Hawaii called the Orchid Tree.  It is filled with beautiful blooms like this and has been blooming for 3 months straight and still going...

The tree is about 8 feet tall and has long bean pods hanging from it, similar to a mimosa, but bigger.

One thing Russ has at his house that he is NOT excited about is carpenter bees.  Here is one in flight that I captured with the camera on my phone.  That dude is heading for the rafters to his shed in the back.

These carpenter bees drill holes into the rafters and cause all sorts of damage.

Some really good friends of ours gave us a Carpenter Bee Trap.  It is a homemade device that is simply a mason jar with a block of wood from a landscape timber attached to the lid.  Holes are drilled in the landscape timber at angles that lead down to the jar.  The theory is that the carpenter bees crawl into the wood thinking it was a hole they drilled.  It leads down into the jar.  They fall in and cannot get out.

At the time I took this photo, he had already caught one!  But at the time of this writing, he's already caught four!

 It is going to be a big adjustment for Tricia and I when he moves out next weekend.  At that point, we'll have two of our three kids out of the house.  Our third, Benjamin, will be moving into the dorms at college this fall.  Time marches on...  Don't blink!

Do Onions Make You Cry?

When the tops of the onions turn slightly yellow, bend and fall over, they are sending a signal to you that it is time to harvest them.  This year we planted three bundles of Short Day Samplers that consist of Texas 1015 Sweet, Creole Red, and White onions.  The onions got off to a very bad start.  Our can got into the garden and proceeded to dig up an entire row of freshly planted onions.  I replanted them, but a bunch of them had already dried out.  Oh well, we got some to harvest.  In the photo below you can see that they have fallen over.

I pulled them up and laid them on top of the hay.  This allows them to dry in the sun for a day or two.  Unfortunately, it had just rained, and it was very hot and humid.  I'm not sure how much "drying" is going to take place.

After a couple of days, I went back to the garden to cut off the tops and put the onions in crates for further curing.  Here is a Texas Sweet 1015:

Here is a white onion.  These actually did the best this year.  Not many of the Texas Sweets survived.  Too bad, as those are my favorites.  The Creoles' bulbs are smaller than the others.

After I snipped off the onion tops, I loaded the onions into our garden wagon.  I'll bring these inside to continue drying in lower humidity.

Our yield of onions was noticeably smaller than in previous years.  I attribute that to THE CAT, a very wet growing season, and I did lose some to rot.  In fact, some of the smaller Creole onions are soft right now.  I'll have to watch them closely.  If the onions don't dry properly, I'll have to quickly chop them and freeze them so that they don't all go bad on me.  We love onions and although our 2019 crop wasn't exactly up to par, we'll try again next year!  We'll not cry over the onions... well, at least not until we cut them up to cook with them.

The Escape Artist

Here is the door to our barn.  We always keep it closed and locked as we don't want the hens scratching around in there.  We'd rather them be out on the pasture searching for worms and bugs.  The only time we open it, of course, is when we bring the cows and goats in for feeding and milking.  In the evening, it is a real rodeo in the barn.  Rosie, Clarabelle, and Luna come in with Aussie and ClaraBULL following closely behind.  Then Buckwheat, Annie, and Oreo come in, followed by Oreo's kids, Salt and Pepper.  That's a lot of animals in the barn, but it is necessary.

In the afternoon, once the animals are fed, we escort them all out except for the two bulls.  They stay locked in the barn at night so that the cows make milk all night for us.  We don't put them together with their moms until after we've milked them.

We mentioned back in March that Annie, the Nubian goat, had figured out a trick.  She turned into a goat version of "Pop-A-Lock," using her nose to push the latch upward to enter the barn.  In doing so she allowed the bulls to escape during the evening and drink up all of our milk.  Imagine our surprise to go out to milk in the morning, only to find that their udders were empty!

IN THIS POST BACK ON 03/31/2019 I posted that I had discovered a goat-proof 'fix' for the latch, but I never explained what the fix was in detail.  As I moseyed down the aisle in Tractor Supply, I found a latch invented especially for nosy goats.  Here it is:

It's a little fancier than the original latch.  As you'll notice, the new latch has a clip that falls (using gravity) and effectively locks the latch in place.  One must lift the clip with your thumb and push upward in order to unlatch it.

As crafty and clever as goats are, they don't have thumbs and/or the coordination to perform the two-step function of opening the latch. 

At $7.88 per latch, it is a little more pricey than the normal latch that we originally had on the barn door, but the new latch quickly pays for itself once you consider the value of the milk we were losing due to Annie's escape artist routine in which the bulls were sprung free to drink up their momma's milk.

Problem solved.  Now if we could only find a fool-proof rat trap, we'd be in business!

Fifth Sunday Singing

At our small country church we have an event that most people look forward to on months that have five Sundays in them.  Instead of the traditional evening service on that Fifth Sunday, we have Fifth Sunday Singing.  We announce it a few weeks in advance so everyone can get ready.  The idea is this - everyone is encouraged to sing a solo, a duet, a quartet, a group song.  Perhaps you don't sing?  That's okay, too.  You can share a testimony, read a poem, recite a favorite Scripture, play an instrument.  You don't have to be in the choir.  You don't have to read music.  Just make a joyful noise to the LORD!  Sometimes we'll have a fellowship meal or "finger foods" afterward.

We haven't always attended our little church.  In the beginning, 5th Sunday Singing was very intimidating to me.  I would get real nervous and dread Fifth Sunday Singing.  After getting a few of them "under my belt," I quickly realized that there was nothing to get nervous about.  We have a church FAMILY and no one will make fun of you, or laugh, or throw vegetables.  People share and are very supportive. 

Recently, we had a water pipe that burst in our sanctuary.  We had to have the baseboards pulled and the carpet dried out.  Then all the plumbing had to be re-done.  No worries.  It didn't ruin Fifth Sunday Singing.  We still had it in our Fellowship Hall.  Sometimes old hymns are sung.  Sometimes old Southern Gospel songs are sung.  Sometimes more contemporary songs are sung.  The fact is, it doesn't matter.  As long as we are praising our Lord and enjoying time with fellow believers, it's all good!  Click the arrow below to hear "Master of the Sea" sung at a recent 5th Sunday Singing:

If my calendar is correct, June is the next month that has 5 Sundays in it.  Looking forward to it!

Pickling Quail Eggs

I mentioned last week that a friend from church that lives down the road had given us a bunch of quail eggs.  They raise quail.  At one time we had some quail, but Benjamin mistakenly left the door of the chicken tractor open and the quail escaped.  I would like to think that they made it in the wild, but they more likely become a delectable treat for a hawk or owl or possum.

With the first batch, we scrambled the quail eggs and we fried the quail eggs and we boiled the quail eggs.  Then our friend gave us a bunch more quail eggs.  Tricia decided she'd try her hand at pickling some.  People in this area have always kept quail eggs.  I can remember going into small mom & pop convenience stores and seeing jars of pickled quail eggs for sale.  In fact, there was all kinds of pickled goods for sale - pickled chicken eggs and a big jar of pickled pig's feet.  Come to think of it, I never see pickled pig's feet anymore. 

Tricia lined up the ingredients for making pickled quail eggs - white vinegar, salt, hot sauce, water, pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, hot pepper, water, and clean pint jars.  Our friend gave us the recipe that she uses:

First, boil a ratio of water to vinegar depending on the amount of eggs.  20 - 22 quail eggs will fit in a pint jar.  In a sterile jar, you put the following in order:

• Eggs,
• 1 Tablespoon red pepper,
• 1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes,
• Hot pepper sliced

Pour the vinegar solution over the eggs and seal.

Place the jars in a water bath canner for five minutes.

Pull them out and let them cool.  You should hear the caps pop when sealed.  Once cool store them in the fridge.

These are a delicious little tasty, spicy snack.

The Graduate

On Friday night, May 17th, 2019, Benjamin, our youngest, graduated from Hathaway High School.  We're very proud of him!  Prior to driving to the school for the ceremony, I took a photo of him and his momma.

The graduation ceremony was held in the Hathaway Gymnasium.  They flashed baby pictures on the big screen coupled with current senior photos as their class song, "Five More Minutes," by Scotty McCreery played.

Here is Benjamin getting his diploma!

He graduated fourth in his class and was the recipient of several scholarships.  He will be attending McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana, majoring in Electrical Engineering.

The graduates all walked to the back of the gym where they were allowed to throw their caps into the air!

With a grin stretching from ear to ear, you can tell 'Ol Boy is enjoying the moment.

Here he is with Tricia and me. 

And here he is with Tricia's family that made the trip from Texas to celebrate with him on his big day!

Here he is with his brother and sister and some of his Texas cousins!

Here is a photo of Benjamin with my Mom and Dad.

Benjamin with Russ and Laura Lee

After the graduation ceremony, we had friends and family over to the house for a reception.  Lots of food to eat and good fellowship.

The next morning Benjamin woke up early and headed to Panama City Beach, Florida for his senior trip.  We continued to celebrate in his absence!   We boiled three sacks of crawfish.

We poured them right on tables in the back yard.  The weather was real nice and we sat and stood and ate and laughed and enjoyed each other's company.  Benjamin's cousin, Vincent, brought his guitar and played, The Eagles', "Hotel California," and we all sang!  Fun times were had and memories were made.

We ate and rested and ate some more.

Everybody posed for a group photo and said, "Crawfish!"

We finished off all three sacks...  Congratulations Benjamin!