A Loss on the Farm

If you remember from a previous post, Annie, our Nubian goat, had triplets yet again.  The only female kid was stepped on by Luna and was injured, but has recovered.  She walks with a limp that is only noticeable if you know about her injury.  The two bucklings have been plagued for the past week with diarrhea.  This is not uncommon in calves and kids.  Sometimes they drink too much milk.  We live in a hot, humid, wet area and that serves as an ideal breeding place for bacteria and parasites.

Last week Tricia told me that Domino was getting skinny and weak as he continued to have runny stools.  Domino was one of the bucklings who was named Domino because of his white spots on his black torso.  Tricia began reading up on causes and treatments of diarrhea in goats and began treating him. 

Domino did not respond to treatment and continued to worsen.  Tricia went out to the barn numerous times trying to keep him hydrated and comfort him.  It was heartbreaking to watch.  Domino would cry a weak cry.  Tricia is not one to exaggerate or get overly emotional, but she told me, "I think we are going to lose Domino."

Tricia was right.  Friday morning, Tricia went out to care for little Domino.  He was struggling to breathe.  When Tricia gently picked him up to re position him, he breathed his last.  Tricia got a stool sample and brought it to our veterinarian to identify the culprit.

He informed us the name of the parasite.  It is very common in this area and this is the prime time for losing animals.  In fact, our vet told us that he has a veterinarian friend that gave up raising goats due to his frequent loss of goats to this parasite.  He sold us some valbazen wormer that should do the trick and we are treating the other goat that was affected.

It is always a sad thing to lose an animal.  We move forward, though, and continue to try to do our best to care for our animals.

Spreading Your Wings to Fly

Very shortly (in about 2 weeks) our youngest will be moving out of the house for college.  We will be "empty nesters."  While I'm very happy for Benjamin, this is a big step for us and life is about to change for us! 

Speaking of birds leaving the nest, on July 18th I was out by our purple hull pea patch and I noticed a well-crafted nest in a pear tree.  It was build with sturdy live oak twigs on the outer portion and a comfortable grass lining.  Was it a partridge in a pear tree?  Nope.  I looked around and saw a mockingbird and her mate flying around.  They were not happy that I had discovered their nest.

I peeked in to see two baby birds that had just hatched and a third egg in the nest. The baby birds' eyes were closed and appeared to be sleeping.  I left them alone, but decided to check in on them periodically.

The very next day I looked into the nest and saw that the third baby had hatched.  I tapped on the nest and they opened their mouths wide, thinking I was the momma bird coming with a fresh worm.  "I'm not your Mother!"

On July 23rd I walked out to pick purple hull peas and decided to see how the birds were growing.  They were asleep, but I was able to see that they had pin feathers.  The birds are piled up on each other, but you can count three beaks.

The parents of the birds were not cordial with my visit.  They squawked and fussed and made me not feel very welcome.  You can see one of the birds on top of the ladder and one sitting on the fence in the center right.

On July 24th I went out to see them and the baby birds were hungry!  I couldn't look for long, though, the mom and dad bird were irate.

This time the birds started chasing me.  As I was walking away quickly, I turned around in time to see the momma bird dive bombing my head.  You can see her out-spread feathers in the upper left portion of the photo below:

I told Tricia about the ANGRY BIRDS and she told me that they had chased her all the way back to the back patio!

On July 29th, the baby birds had full feathers.  They were alert and active.  The only odd thing is that there were only two - not the original three.  What happened to the other bird?  Did Ginger the cat get one?  We don't know.

On July 31st when I went out to check on them, there was no loud chirping, no scolding birds chasing me, and NOTHING but an empty nest. 

The Empty Nest

It was quiet and peaceful.  The parents had done their best to feed and house their babies.  They protected them and took care of them the best they could.  The birds had raised their babies and launched them out into the world!  Sounds very familiar as our last 'little bird' will be leaving our nest very soon.

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!