Sign of the Times

On my commutes home, I listen to the radio and to audiobooks.  It helps to pass the time.  I also pay attention to everything going on outside my windows, which includes a lot of crazy drivers.  Whoa!  Sometimes I look at bumper stickers on cars and read billboards - Personal injury lawyers, mostly. 

The other day I-10 was at a standstill and I took a longer alternate route home.  I passed by a club with an interesting, albeit, sad sign out front beckoning patrons to come inside:

I know it is probably too small to read, so I'll post what the sign says:

COME IN AND MEET YOUR FUTURE EX-WIFE

I hate to be "that guy" who has no sense of humor, but that sign makes me sad.  Needless, to say I drove quickly by without stopping.  Certainly a sign of the times.

Purple Hull Pea Pickin'

Purple hulls and pintos I've shelled more than my share

Cause lighting bugs and crickets danced in the evening air

And like a beacon that ol' yellow bulb it always led me home

Some how mama always knew just when to leave it on

If the world had a front porch like we did back then

We'd still have our problems but we'd all be friends

Treatin' your neighbor like he's your next of kin

Wouldn't be gone with the wind

If the world had a front porch like we did back then 

                                                                      -Tracy Lawrence

The purple hull peas that I planted in the side yard after harvested the Irish Potatoes are starting to come in now.  Every afternoon we go out and pick a "mess" of them.  You can tell why they are named purple hull peas:

Shelling peas is a nice, relaxing thing to do.  I really enjoy just sitting down, getting a bowl for the peas and a bucket for the pods, and getting busy.  Russ likes to shell them, too.

Fresh-shelled peas are a beautiful thing to look at, but a more beautiful thing to see simmering on the stove-top with some smoked sausage for a little extra flavor.  We like to eat them over rice with some cornbread.

We've eaten a big pot of them already and have already started shelling another batch of them!

Although the purple hull peas are still flowering and will continue to produce for a while, I've staged the planting so that when the purple hulls peter out, the Ozark Razorback peas and Blackeyed Peas will begin.  We'll likely put a bunch in the freezer for quick suppers later.

Hay Day 2019

We got the call that we normally get this time of year from some neighbors down the road.  It goes something like this, "Hey, we'll be baling hay tomorrow afternoon.  Can ya'll come pick up behind the baler?"  We always say, "Yes!"  Putting hay up in the barn is not an easy task, but it is a necessary one.  We don't have enough land to bale hay, so we always purchase between 75 and 80 square bales of good Jiggs Bermuda.  We also purchase round bales from another farmer.  We keep the round bales out in a hay ring in the pasture for about 6 months of the year.

I got in from work and hooked up the cattle trailer behind Benjamin's truck and drove west for about a half of a mile where the neighbors were baling in a field in front of their house.  Tricia drives the truck, I walk behind and toss the bales in the trailer and Benjamin rides in the trailer and stacks.  (Except in the photo below. This was the first bale.)

We decided we were going to get 80 bales this year, so as I threw them in the trailer, I would yell the count and Benjamin would repeat it so we don't lose count.  The neighbors were baling right ahead of us with one tractor 'fluffing' the hay, one tractor baling it, and another with a wagon, picking up the bales that we didn't purchase to put in their barn for later.  For picking it up right behind the baler, we get the hay for $5.50 per bale.  In the photo below, you can see the baler in the center left.

We had to make two separate trips to get 80 bales total, but we live nearby, so we got it done.  When we get the hay back to our farm, that's when the REAL hard work begins.  We have to get it up into the hay loft.  It ain't easy.  We use a pulley and lots of manual labor.  Benjamin hooks the hay up with a bungee strap and I pull it up.

I tied a ring around the end of the rope and drove a nail into the rafter.  Once the bale is pulled up, I put the ring in the nail, so I'm able to walk back and pull the bale into the loft.  Then I slide the bale down the loft and stack it up.  I can stack three bales across and four bales high, so twelve bales per row.  We try to stack it real tight to make the most of our space.

While I am pulling the bale, there's plenty of work going on down below.  Tricia is moving bales from the back of the trailer and stacking them up on the end.  Benjamin then moves them off the trailer and stacks them below the rope and gets ready to attach another to the bungee strap.

Here is the hot, tired... no, exhausted work crew ready for something cold to drink.

We were able to put 80 bales in the loft, just leaving a narrow walk-way down the middle from the trap-door to the end.

We had 12 bales left over from the winter, so we moved them down into the bull's stall and we'll feed those out first.  First in, first out!  The grass is quickly transitioning from leafy growth to seed heads, so they'll need some supplemental hay soon.

We will be reducing the size of our herd soon, taking the oldest bull to the slaughterhouse and will likely sell one of the other bulls.  That would leave us with one bull remaining for meat that we will bring to the butcher shop at the end of summer 2020.

For now, we have all the square bales put away for the winter.  It always is a relief to have this done.  I'll make a phone call to reserve round bales for the winter.  We looked at paperwork and found that we have been averaging spending about $1,000 per year on hay - about half for square bales and half for round bales.

Getting Ready to Embark Upon the Back to Eden Gardening Method

Years ago, I had watched the Back to Eden Gardening Video.  You can click on the link in the last sentence to watch the video.  In summary, Paul Gautschi explains that when you pick berries in the forest, no one had to water them or tend to them.  God provides.  He explains that there is no one to till the forest ground.  The ground is never bare.  Leaves and decomposing wood cover the soil.

He sought to imitate this in gardening.  It is easy.  No tilling of the soil.  You don't need to water.  You don't need to weed very much.  Any weeds that do grow are easy to pull.  Sounds like a great plan.  Tricia went to visit a couple that has implemented the Back to Eden Gardening method and they are sold on it.  They said gardening has never been easier!  As we get older, we want to do things easier.  I've never owned a tiller and have been turning over our large garden with a shovel, pulling up rows, using a hoe to work the soil, and then a rock rake to smooth out the seed bed.  That's hard work.

I told Tricia if she could find some wood chips, I'd implement this practice.  Well, my wife happened across some trucks in Jennings trimming trees along some power lines and throwing the branches into a wood chipper that blows the wood chips into the back of a truck.  She stopped and asked the men if they needed a place to get rid of the chips.  They sure did!  She gave the men our address.

Saturday morning we were having coffee before going out to milk the cows, and I saw two wood chipper trucks driving past our house slowly as if they were lost.  Tricia ran out the front door, and I ran out the back and out to flag them down.  They meandered their trucks down the driveway, carefully avoiding low-hanging limbs.  When in place, they dumped two big loads of wood chips.

The chips are chopped pretty fine.  I don't know how many yards of chips, but I'd estimate in comparison to loads of dirt we've purchased, that it's about 14 yards.

It's a little hard to see in the photo below, but in the middle left, you can see steam rising from the pile.  It was about 85 degrees outside this morning.  The wood chips were really hot!  We've gotten a load of chips in the past and on cool days, steam would be rising from the pile.  Bacteria is breaking down the wood chips, returning them back to rich soil.

Here is a close-up shot of the wood chips.  It is dense and heavy when in your hand.  It will be perfect for what we're trying to do.

We gave the gentlemen some fresh eggs and they asked if we needed more chips.  "Of course," we said, "We'll take everything you can bring us."  So far three loads have been dumped and more is on the way!  We will explain more about the Back to Eden Gardening once we implement it.  Stay tuned for more posts on this topic.

Making Biochar for the Garden in 2019

We have live oaks, water oaks, and pecan trees in our yard and pasture.  They are forever dropping limbs.  We have to pick up sticks in the whole yard before we mow the grass.  There is rarely a time that we don't have at least two 'burn piles' stacked up.  I'm so glad that we live in the country and can burn things when we need to.  We like to sit around the fire pit in the fall and winter and just gaze into the fire.  It's so relaxing.

Time to get rid of this burn pile by the tree.

If you've followed us for any time at all, you know that we are steadfast and focused about improving soil health.  We compost everything that will decompose.  Benjamin caught a fat possum in a trap last night and finished him off with his .22.  He's digging a deep hole in the garden now to "plant" Mr. Possum - Kind of like the Indians buried a fish with their corn planting...

Well, we're in year 3 of making bio char, and that's what we'll be doing in the post today.  Bio Char is also called Terra Preta or "black earth."  Long ago in the Amazon basin, people used terra preta as a soil amendment.  They buried smoldering sticks and organic materials into the soil.  The benefits include the boosting of soil fertility, improving yields, increasing the soil's capacity of water retention, and housing beneficial soil organisms.

Well, let's make some of that!  How do you make it?  Let's get started.  First start a fire.

Come on baby, light my fire

After the fire has burned a little while - enough to burn into coals, but not long enough to turn to ash, stop the process by quickly soaking down with a water hose.  Spray until it no longer smolders.  You can take a shovel and chop into charcoal-sized pieces.

Charcoal

If you looked very closely at the pieces of burned wood, you'd see microscopic, porous holes.  When incorporated into the soil, these become little condominiums for beneficial soil microbes.  I just keep burning and spraying, making batch after batch of bio char until my burn pile is gone.  It is replaced with a mineral bucket full of bio char.

My old trench shovel works perfectly for this.

Now you might think we're done, but if you amended this into your soil now, you'd have problems.  Bio char acts as a sponge and soaks in all soil nutrients and holds them.  If you'd plant into soil with un-inoculated bio char, your plants would be stunted and sickly.  It is best to pre-charge your biochar.  Here's how we do it.  We mix in cow poop.  It is full of bacteria that will inhabit the porous spaces in the bio char.  I mix it all together real good.

Stirring the Poop

I add a layer of bio char and then a layer of poop.  A layer of bio char and then a layer of poop.  Repeat until you fill up the bucket.

When I've exhausted the cow poop supply, I fill the poop bucket with water and shake and scrub the sides down.  Then I pour the poop/water slurry on top of each of my buckets of pre-charged bio char and let the 'poop soup' filter through the layers.

I'll let the buckets sit for a few weeks and fester.  You don't want to rush things.  When the time is right, I'll work this into the garden soil.

Bio char is stable and rich in carbon and can stay in the soil for thousands of years.  I am hoping the Lord returns soon, but if He tarries, we'll continue building healthy soil and will continue being good stewards of His Creation.  Making bio char is just one more way to accomplish that.  God Bless!

Our First Attempt at Making Soap

We've wanted to make soap for the longest time.  One time I actually started making lye from firewood ashes and it was almost done, but the dog knocked over the lye and spilled it.  The soap-making project went on hold for several years.  However, we began accumulating everything you need over the years.  We had soap molds and lye.  We had plenty of tallow that we rendered when we butchered calves.  We had coconut oil and olive oil.  We have two goats in milk, so we have all the milk we need.  A couple of weeks ago, Tricia went to the store and bought measuring cups, spoons, and an immersion blender that will be dedicated to soap-making and we set this weekend to get things started.

First we froze the goat milk in ice cube trays.  For this recipe we'll use 4 ounces.

It is very important when handling lye that you use safety glasses and gloves.  She measured out 1/4 of a cup + 2 Tablespoons of lye.

Tricia poured the lye into 4 ounces of distilled water.

She stirred it up real good so that the lye crystals dissolve.  On the far left of this photograph, you'll see a quart-sized mason jar that contains the fat we're using to make the soap.  It is being warmed, so it is in a liquid state.  It is a total of 3 cups of fat (oil), which was 1 1/2 cups beef tallow (11 ounces), 3/4 cup coconut oil (5 1/2 ounces), and 3/4 cups olive oil (5 1/2 ounces). 

A chemical reaction occurs that is pretty intense.  The lye heats up the water.  It got above 200 degrees Fahrenheit for a bit.

When the temperature cooled to 90 degrees, we poured 4 ounces of the frozen goat milk into the lye/distilled water solution, bringing the total liquid to 8 ounces.  If you don't wait for it to cool, it will burn the milk and turn it brown.

Then, putting the immersion blender into the cooled lye solution jar, you slowly pour the warmed fat (oil) in while blending.

The consistency of the soap will be like that of pudding, where it holds its shape a bit.  We used a spatula to spoon it out into a soap mold that we coated with Vaseline petroleum jelly.

If we learned anything that we could do differently, next time we'll try adding a little bit more liquid as the soap was a little too thick (1/4 to 1/2 cups more liquid).

Using the spatula, we smoothed out the soap in the mold.  We'll show you in a minute why we want to add a little more liquid.

We covered with plastic wrap and you could feel the soap heat back up.  We let it sit for 48 hours.

After 48 hours, we removed from the mold.  You can see that the soap block has imperfections.  It is not pretty, but it will have to do for our first attempt.  We're thinking that if the soap used more liquid, it would flow better and fill in the voids.  Tricia marked off 1 inch increments in the 10 inch block of soap.

I first tried to cut it with dental floss, but quickly realized that it was easier and more precise to just use a knife.

At last we have 10 bars of homemade goat milk soap. 

We'll put these away for 4 to 6 weeks, turning them from time to time and allow them to cure.  Then we'll use our homemade bars of soap!  Now that we've proven to ourselves that we can do this, we're going to try to make a soap recipe using goat milk, oatmeal, honey and aloe.

Driving Ms. Luna

Luna is our youngest Jersey cow.  She is small - smaller than the rest of the cows by a long shot.  We call her a runt, but she has the bossy personality that defies her small stature.  She bullies the other cows and goats.  It is amazing to watch.  Tricia and I often tell the other animals not to let her bully them around and remind them that she is smaller than them.  They don't understand!

You might recall that over a year ago, Luna lost her first calf in delivery.  In the process, we almost lost her, too.  We were able to save her, though, and kept her in milk.  When Rosie and Clarabelle calved, we "dried up" Luna, because it is hard to milk 3 cows for very long!  Last month, we observed Luna going in heat.  We marked down the date on the calendar and circled the date 21 days in advance.  It is time to get Luna bred.  We loaded her in the cattle trailer.

Although we have 3 registered Jersey bulls on the property, we want to introduce new genetics into our little herd.  We have a friend that lives about 3 miles north of us that has a new Jersey bull.  He is a big bull with grey coloration.  He asked us to bring Luna by his house and drop her off after church this evening.

Since Luna is a runt, we never brought her to the livestock shows.  I had forgotten about that.  When I went to load her into the cattle trailer, she didn't know how to load.  The others just jump right on in.  She didn't know how to step up into the trailer.  I asked Tricia to go get a bucket of feed to coax her up.  While Tricia was on the way to the barn, I pulled and pulled and was able to get her in the trailer.

According to our paperwork, she'll go back into heat this Thursday.  If things work as they ought to, we'll be able to pick Luna up and bring her back home next weekend.

If everything goes as planned we'll bring Luna home as a pregnant cow that will deliver in April 2020.  For now, and until Luna comes home, the rest of the animals on the farm are enjoying their peace and freedom from the barnyard bully.

Thoughts on a Thursday

This afternoon was a busy one.  When I got home from work, I weeded the three rows of green beans.  All the weeds were thrown over the fence and the chickens and goats happily disposed of them for me!  This green bean experiment may be an exercise in futility.  I was told by a master gardener at church that you aren't supposed to plant green beans until mid-August as green beans don't like hot weather.  Since our spring green beans didn't produce well due to excessive rain, I'm hoping that these produce.  If not, I'll plant again in a month.

I moved the cows to the next paddock in the pasture.  Every two days I move them into the next paddock and close off the one they were just eating on.  This gives it a little over a week to "rest up" and re-grow.  The paddock on the right below has been eaten down.  The side on the left has tender growth.  The cows recognize the sound of the electric fence reel.  They equate it to fresh grass and come running.

Then I walked out to the barn to get my small animal trap.  Last night I spotted a possum in the yard, but by the time I went inside to get my rifle, the possum was gone!  I'll set the trap in the yard and hopefully catch him.  I baited the trap with dog food and will check in the morning.  I hope I don't catch our cat in the trap.  In the past I've caught many possums, but have also caught the neighbor's cats from time to time.

While I was at the barn, Oreo's two baby twins, Salt and Pepper, were playing in the wagon.  I tell you, these goats get into everything.  They were playing in the wagon!

Pepper figured the wagon was as good a place as any t take a nap.  Salt was too antsy to rest.

As it turns out, it was a good thing I went back out to the barn to get the trap.  I discovered that after we separated the bulls from the mommas, Clarabull had escaped and had rejoined the herd in the pasture.  It is a good thing we noticed or we would have gotten no milk at all tomorrow!  Crisis averted.  We captured the escapee and put her back in the corral.

Treating Annie's Hooves

Goats on our farm present us with an on-going problem each year, particularly in the summer - hoof rot.  You can see it coming on as they tend to begin limping and then, a day or two later, won't even place any weight on the foot.  You can also smell it.  It is an infection and it smells pretty doggone bad.  Goats have cloven hooves that must be kept trimmed.  Even when trimmed, a bacteria (or two) will get between the hooves and before you know it, foot rot has set in.  The bacteria lives in the soil and the animals pick it up in the pasture.  Foot rot is even contagious.

So we treat their feet.  It is not a pleasant job as it is hot in the barn, but it must be done.  We coax the goat into the stanchion and close the head gate.  We'll put some ration for the goats to eat on as this distracts them.  The stanchion isolates the goat and just makes things more manageable during the treatment. 

We've tried commercial products like Hoof 'n Heel, but have recently switched to purchasing Copper Sulfate crystals.  We mix 1 cup of water to a teaspoon of copper sulfate.  We then give the affected goat a foot bath.  The easiest way we've found is to pour the copper sulfate solution into a tall plastic cup.  We have a bunch of these that we caught at parades.  They are the perfect size for it.  Then we hold the goat's leg up and dunk the entire hoof into the copper sulfate solution so that the hoof is submerged.

We'll hold the foot in the solution for as long as we can.  Then we move on to the next hoof and repeat.  Finally, when we are done, we pour the remaining solution over the hooves.  We release the goat, but following treatment, we leave them in the barn overnight where the ground is dry.

It is pretty amazing how copper sulfate works.  When the goat comes in, sometimes they are putting no weight at all on the foot.  The following morning after treatment, they are walking around like nothing ever happened.  The only problem is that once your animals contract hoof rot, it seems you find yourself treating over and over and over again.

Antlers of Ridicule and Scorn

Well, the other afternoon, we heard a familiar sound.  A goat was crying.  We knew exactly what had happened.  It is not the first time it happened, or the second, or third, or fourth.  Or fifth, for that matter.  Salt is one of Oreo's twins.  Salt is not too bright.  Her brother, Pepper, is not a Rhodes scholar, by any stretch, but he's smarter than Salt - although Salt does not set the bar for intellect very high.

Salt has been getting her head stuck in the fence.  Repeatedly.  The grass is indeed always greener on the other side of the fence.  The fence, in this case, is a 4 x 4 "hog wire" and the goats love to poke their heads through it and eat the tender grass on the other side.  The predicament they find themselves in is that they have horns that prevent them from getting their heads back through.

Help me!

The ideal thing to do is that when the goats are a week or so old, you get a de-horner and de-horn them.  We got busy with other things and didn't do this in time and the horns are too long.  Those horns have proven to be troublesome for Salt.  I think if you look at her below, she's kind of embarrassed to be stuck yet again.

Okay, I know it's like the tenth time, but can you get me out, please?

I searched for ideas.  We've used rubber band emasculators before on Annie in order to de-horn her, but she grew scurs (partial horn re-growth).  I found people that had success with something I'll call the "Antlers of Ridicule and Scorn."  The cost for installation is negligible.  All you need is a length of PVC pipe and some duct tape.  Every redneck has that laying around somewhere.

You simply lay the PVC pipe horizontally against the front of the goat's horns and apply the duct tape numerous times in a 'figure-8' around the horns and PVC until secure.  When you are done, it will look something like this:

I am so ashamed!

The Antlers of Ridicule and Scorn work because they prevent the goat's head from being able to fit between the 4x4 spacings in the fence.  Although it is July, looking at Salt reminded me of Christmas, specifically this guy: (Don't you see the resemblance?)

Image Credit

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch...  Salt did not like her antlers.  The duct tape held them on tight and no amount of shaking her head would shake them loose.

Salt saw that it was futile to try to remove her antlers and tried to accept her new accessory.  She tried to act normal, but I believe she knew how ridiculous she looked to us and her barnyard friends.

What are you looking at?

Her twin, Pepper, approached her and inspected her antlers between spasms of laughter.  I'm pretty sure I witnessed Pepper laughing uncontrollably.  Salt's confidence was shaken.

You look mahvelous! (cough, cough, snicker, snicker)

But here came Oreo.  It was suppertime!  Salt and Pepper ran to Oreo to nurse.  Then the craziest thing happened.  Oreo would not let Salt come near her with the antlers.  Oreo began to head butt her away.  I don't know if it scared Oreo.  I do know that Salt and Pepper aren't weaned yet and with the Antlers of Ridicule and Scorn installed, Salt would be on an involuntary hunger strike if I didn't take action.

I reluctantly removed Salt's antlers.  I have them stored away for safekeeping.  In a month, when it is time to wean Salt, I'll re-install the antlers.  Until then, we keep our eyes and ears open for Salt.  She doesn't seem to learn her lesson and I'm sure we'll have to pry her head out of the fence another time or three...