We Have a Milk Thief!

I've talked in other posts about our milking routine.  We keep Rosie and her little bull calf, Aussie, together all day.  He's able to drink as much milk as he wants.  At around 5 pm each day, we separate the two and that enables Rosie to make milk for us overnight.  We separate the two by locking Aussie in the barn overnight.  Then the first thing the next morning we go out and before putting the two back together, we milk Rosie.  By doing this, we're able to share the milk with Aussie. 

Aussie stays in the barn overnight while Rosie makes milk for us!

This morning we had an issue.  Before I went out to milk, Tricia told me that the little bull, Aussie, was out in the pasture with Rosie.  How could this be?  I had separated them the night before.  How did he escape and did he get all of our milk?  I would soon find out.  When I went to clean Rosie up to milk her, her bag was completely empty.

The perp had a very innocent look on his face.  He was sitting as if nothing was wrong, but you can almost see his milk moustache.

So we have a crime.  Milk was stolen. 

We have a motive and we've determined who the perpetrator was.  We need to deconstruct the crime and determine how it occurred to keep it from happening again.  In my estimation it had to be an inside job.  There had to be an accomplice.  But who?  The locking mechanism on the barn door is on the outside.  Aussie is locked INSIDE.
 

The barn latch

Who could have opened the latch from the outside and set Aussie free?  I found out the answer.  I was in the barn yesterday, preparing food for all the animals.  I usually lock myself in.  I happened to look out in time to see Annie, our Nubian Goat, use her nose to pop the latch up and enter the barn.  I thought it might have been just a lucky break, so I latched it again and watched in amazement as Annie popped the latch open again!  Annie sprung the milk thief, Aussie, loose.

Here is a mugshot of the accomplice:

What a guilty face?!

I've now taken some steps to fix the latch.  I even watched Annie to ensure that she is now unable to unlock it.  The crime has been solve and all is well again on the farm.  Well, except if you are Aussie.  He's not so happy with me!

The unhappy milk thief

2019 Meat Birds - Four Weeks Old

Four weeks.  We were about a week later than normal, but we finally moved the meat birds out of the brooder in the garage and into the chicken tractor out on grass.  The chickens will be able to eat some grass, have more space, and can fertilize the yard.  Normally, I'd like to put them in our pasture, but the nosy goats would break the fencing trying to get to the chicken feed.  As we moved them, we counted them and the total is 47 birds.  We started with 51.  We typically lose a few.

Since the above picture was taken, we've added a tarp over the tractor to keep the birds dry during rainstorms and also to give them some shade. I've also removed the two waterers and replaced with a bell watering system.  Finally, I removed the 3 small feed troughs and replaced with a PVC gutter trough that allows all of the birds to eat comfortably.

Each Thursday, we take a moment to weigh the meat birds and chart their growth against previous periods.  This time, Tricia suggested that I randomly select 3 birds and weigh them and get an average weight, just to ensure I'm not picking out the biggest birds or the males (which are bigger) each time.  That's what I did.

I wrote down the weights of each on the piece of paper that protects our kitchen scale.  You can see the birds' dirty footprints on the paper.

As you can see, the average weight was 2 pounds 8 ounces this week (Week Four 2019).  Last week they weighed 1 pound 10 ounces.  So that is a 14 ounce gain over the last week.  Here's a comparison of same period, previous years:

• In Week Four 2018, the birds weighed 2 pounds 15 ounces. 
• In Week Four 2017, the birds weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces 
• In Week Four 2016, the birds weighed 2 pounds 15 ounces

We're a little behind where I like to be at this point, but that's alright.  We like to butcher at around 8 weeks, but we've gone as long as 10 weeks before.  It is no rush, but it is more economical to butcher them earlier, if you can.  It is also easier to care for meat birds that are in your freezer.  We feed these guys 3 times a day and also water them.  Then, each evening, I push the chicken tractor to fresh grass, so that they aren't standing in their poop.  It is a lot of work, but we feel like the results are well worth the effort.  Anyone can do this.

Next week, we'll see if we've caught up to where we were in previous periods.

Drying Herbs

This weekend we wanted to dry some herbs, specifically cilantro.  It comes up volunteer in the garden most years from previous year's crops.  We let some of the cilantro go to seed.  Where the seeds fall, the next year you'll have cilantro sprouting up.  The interesting thing is that the seeds of the cilantro plant are coriander.  Those small ball-looking seeds are used as a spice to cook with.  The plant itself is used to cook with pinto beans, in Mexican rice, in soups, on tacos, and my personal favorite - in scrambled eggs.

There's one problem with cilantro.  At the first sign of warm days, it bolts.  It will go to seed faster than Usain Bolt to the finish line.  In South Louisiana, it is a very short window to grow it.  Sometimes, before it bolts, we harvest it and freeze it in ice cube trays for use throughout the year.  Other times, like today, we'll harvest it and dry it in a food dehydrator on the herb setting.  First, we picked a bunch and washed it up real good.

We snip off all of the leaves for drying.  Usually for cooking, we don't do this.  There is lots of flavor in the stems as well.  For drying, we do cut most of the stems off.

We line the cilantro leaves on the trays of the dehydrator and turn it on.  When you cut up the stems and leaves, the unmistakable scent of cilantro fills the kitchen.  Drying them, however, doesn't really release the scent like I would have thought.  I began to read about this and learned that fresh cilantro is ALWAYS better than dried, because the rich, pungent flavor dissipates when heated or cooked.  Dried cilantro will do in a pinch, but fresh is always better.  I guess I knew this, but we'll dry some anyway for those times when fresh cilantro is not available in the garden.

In no time at all in a dehydrator, the cilantro is dried.  When we are sure the leaves are fully dried, we'll put them in a labeled ziploc bag and hang them for future use in cooking.  I'm interested in trying them out to see if dried cilantro retains some of the flavor that fresh-picked cilantro does.

In addition to mechanically drying in the food dehydrator, I notice that Tricia has a bundle of cilantro hanging to dry naturally on the back patio.  It won't be as fast as the dehydrator, but an experiment to see if we can get the same results with the sun.

Burn, Baby, Burn

John 15:6 King James Version (KJV)

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

Having trees on the property is certainly a blessing.  In the summer, we enjoy the shade.  We are always picking up sticks and limbs that fall from our trees.  In the winter, we like to burn campfires to keep warm or just to sit and relax watching the flames devour the wood.  This weekend we set fire to a wood pile that is in the eastern side of the pasture in front of the barn.  I got a bench for us to sit on as the sun went down.

The hens are going to miss the woodpile.  Some of them roost on it at night.  They'll have to find a new spot.  Some of them lay eggs beneath it, too.  We find them and are unsure if they are still good, so our dogs end up being recipients of the eggs found in the woodpile.

Sitting in front of the fire would have been really peaceful, but an unpleasant aroma kept wafting over.  It took a minute for us to figure out what it was.  When we moved the chicks out of the brooder in the garage and into the chicken tractor, we collected all the pine shavings mixed with poop that was on the bottom of the brooder.  Our intent was to trench compost it in the garden, but we haven't gotten around to it yet. 

As the fire grew, we had to move the bench.  Although it was a cool evening, the roaring fire was putting out some awesome heat.

When the wood pile is gone, it will be one less obstacle to walk around when going to the barn.  When trying to catch the calf, sometimes he plays a game of running away from you and running round and round the woodpile.

As the fire burned, I circled it and kicked errant sticks into the center of the fire so they would burn completely. 

We marveled at the tongues of flame dancing in the fire and talked about how only God could create something like that.

The fire was consuming all of the wood that was in the pile and the flames grew higher and higher.  We moved our bench again and again to get away from the incredible heat.

In the morning, there was nothing left to the pile but some smoldering ashes. 

Transplanting Tomatoes Into The Garden

Here it is March 24th already.  This weekend was jam-packed with things that needed to get done.  As The Steve Miller Band sang, "Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future..."  Since the first week of January, I've been nurturing some tomato starts that I planted from seed when 2019 was brand, spanking new. 

The tomato seedlings are tall, leggy, and in need of some fertilizer.  You can tell because they have a yellowish tint to them.  Once I get them into the rich garden soil, they'll be fine.  I'll also hit them with a dose of fish emulsion in a foliar application.  They'll be happier than a pig in mud.  I separated them into different groupings of varieties.  I always plant more than I need as "insurance" in the event the germination isn't good or I have an early crop failure.  I'll have plenty for us as well as to give some away.

As I explained in a post in early January, we planted eleven varieties of tomatoes, including: Creole, Roma, Pink Brandywine, Mortgage Lifter, Amish Paste, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Black Vernissage, Thessaloniki, Big Rainbow, and a variety I call "Mrs. Linda" tomatoes.  Additionally, I have 6 tomatoes that I rescued from the garden in the fall and brought them through the winter.  They are very tall and, believe it or not, one of them already has a bloom on it!:

So let's take a look at where I am planting.  I experimented with "metal mulch" this year.  It's just tin left over from a barn expansion project that I laid out on top of the garden soil in the winter.  For the most part it blocked out 98% of all the winter grass.  Furthermore, the soil underneath was rich, moist, easy to work.  It was teeming with earthworms, too!

In contrast, just a few feet south in the garden, here's what the soil would have looked like had I not laid tin out.  I'll have to work harder to get this area worked up to plant corn and beans!:

  
Using a no till technique, I used a post hole digger to dig holes about eight inches deep.  I plant the tomatoes in the hole, adding a tablespoon of organic tomato food before filling with composted leaves and garden soil.  Later this week, once I have all the tomatoes planted, I'll lay out hay (with a little goat poop and cow poop mixed in) between all tomato plants.  This will serve as a mat to crowd out any weed growth and maintain soil hydration.  A thick mat of hay mulch really aids in keeping the soil moist and cool in the hot summer months that are coming.

After working Sunday afternoon from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm, I got three rows of tomatoes planted.  I planted them 18 inches apart on the row with rows separated by a 34" walkway.  I estimate I am about halfway done with tomato planting.  I should finish hopefully Tuesday afternoon if the Good Lord's willing.  Here is a shot looking east.  You can see the post hole digger and bag of organic fertilizer.

Here is a shot looking west.  As I pick up rows of metal mulch, I simply move them to the south.  When I am ready to plant my next crops, like peppers, corn, beans, squash, okra, etc., perhaps some of the winter grass will be dead or dying underneath the tin.

Hopefully traffic will ease up tomorrow and allow me to get home at a reasonable time so that I can get our tomato seedlings transplanted.

2019 Meat Birds - 3 Weeks Old

Thursday night is weigh-in night for the birds.  These guys are really growing and have filled the brooder.  Since we checked in last Thursday night, we lost one bird.  It was a runt.  I'm not exactly sure what happened.  Perhaps it got squashed by some of the other larger birds.  This week we added a third feeding trough and put a second larger waterer in place of one of the smaller ones.

I had plans to move them out to pasture in the chicken tractor one afternoon after work this week, but things came up that prevented that from happening.  My goal is to get this done tomorrow.  They need some room to grow.  It is getting mighty cramped in the brooder.

Meat birds are unlike laying hens.  Laying hens run around all over their 3 acre pasture.  I don't think these guys could run 3 feet.  They eat, they sleep, they sit, and they poop.

As I like to do, I put a sheet of paper on top of the kitchen scale for the sake of cleanliness.  You can see this bird's crop is full of food.  You can also see that his feet are huge.

I made sure the bird stopped moving so that I could get a real good reading on the scale.  Here we go.  Let's see how we compare to last week and previous periods...

This week - Week 3 - the Cornish Cross weighed 1 pound 10 ounces.
Last week the bird weighed 16 ounces, giving him a weight gain of 10 ounces.
In week 3 of 2018, the bird weighed in at 1 pound 10 ounces.
In week 3 of 2017, they weighed 1 pound 9 ounces.
In week 3 of 2016, they weighed 1 pound 15 ounces.

This is some good data, showing us that we are right where we need to be at this point.  Next week if I can remember, I'll pick out 3 birds and get an average of the 3 to determine if there is an appreciable difference in weight among the birds.  Males are typically larger than the females.

Flowers Of Mid-March

So, we're always encouraged to slow down and take notice of the simple things in life.  This weekend I did just that.  While letting the cows eat the grass in the yard, I strolled around and took in the sights of spring.  For starters the pear tree was loaded with blooms:

Pretty?  Maybe.  But these flowers are as useful as teats on a boar hog.  These flowers are from a Bradford Pear and they make no fruit.  I got this tree free from an Arbor Day promotion.  It was just a little stick of a plant.  It has thrived and grown tall.  It is pretty in the spring when it blooms and it the fall when the leaves turn colors.  I am told, however, it only has a 25 year lifespan and that it is structurally unsound and will split and fall in high winds.  Uh oh!

The next photo is of a fruit tree that bears fruit and lots of it.  The blooms below are from one of our navel orange trees.  It produced so much fruit this year!  We began picking oranges in November and we just ate the last one!

These flowers fill the morning breeze with the sweetest smell south of heaven.  We REALLY enjoy the fragrance.  We're not the only ones.  A beneficial insect, the lady bug, also enjoys the flowers.  Even though the flowers are white, they are still pretty to me.

From a white flower to a flower that really "pops!"  Our azalea in the front yard.

This azalea was at my grandmother's house and I rescued it and replanted it in our front yard.  It rewards us each year with beautiful blooms that cover the shrub and light up the yard.  They bring back fond memories of my grandma too!

Beautiful!

The next flowers aren't really flowers that you think of, but they are pretty nonetheless.  The yellow flowers you see below nestled by the cabbage patch are broccoli flowers that have flowered and will be going to seed. 

Here's an up-close and personal shot.  You can see the transformation from a broccoli floret into a flower.

From something in the garden that is used to feed, to something in the yard that is a weed!  That's how I'd describe the odd but beautiful thing below.  It is a thistle.  These prickly things grow in the yard this time a year.  I have read that they have great health benefits and thistle is taken as a supplement to detoxify the liver and to manage the symptoms of diabetes, among many others.  Who knew that such benefits could be found from a 'weed' that I typically kick over in the yard or ditch when I see it?

I also learned from researching the milk thistle that the hollow stem can be eaten.  Its taste has been described as similar to celery.  I'm going to try preparing one and giving it a taste test,  I'll report back my findings later...

Time To Start Mowing the Yard Again

The birds are chirping.  Flowers are blooming.  Pollen is in the air.  The live oak trees are shedding their leaves and quickly replacing with new growth.  Spring has arrived.  I would say that grass is growing, but it is not really grass.  Not yet.  First weeds grow in the yard.  A weed in this case is anything but St. Augustine grass.  Lots of people buy Weed and Feed which will kill the weeds in your yard while providing food for your real grass.  Those weeds, however, have a purpose.  The cows will absolutely devour them.

Before I mow, I'll let the cows mow the grass.  We do this each and every year like clockwork.  I have a Gallagher Solar Fence charger and a reel full of wire rope.  It carries a charge and has gained the respect of the cows.  I simply set it up in the yard with step in posts and bring the cows from the pasture and into the yard.  They look forward to this each year, believe it or not.

Harnessing the Power of the Sun

Clarabelle has found a tall patch of weeds growing near the air conditioning units.  She'll mow that all down in short order.  You can see the strand of electric fencing to the right of her head.  The cows, while certainly respecting the "pop" they get if they touch the electric fence, have figured out just how far they can go without getting popped.  You'll see them craning their necks way under the strand of fencing to get to some fresh grass.  Pay particular attention to the grass in the photo below as this is the "before" shot.

Here you can see Luna running to a patch of White Dutch Clover.  That is the cows' favorite.  They'll eat all of that first and then eat the other stuff.  White Dutch Clover is like Alaskan King Crab Legs at a buffet line.

This, my friends, is the "after" shot.  The cows have really cleaned up the yard!  They mowed down the tall grass.

I took this picture so you can see the difference between where the cows ate versus where I had the yard cordoned off by the electric fence.  If you look at the bottom left of the picture and run a diagonal line to the top right, you can trace out where the cows grazed.  I had to block them from the fruit trees as I've learned from previous years that they'll eat the leaves and break the branches.

I'd like to be able to tell you that putting the cows in the yard to mow the grass was positive since they produce no emissions.  That, however, would be a lie!

Foul emissions - You must be careful in the back yard when walking.  It is like a mine field.

Once the backyard was done, I moved the fencing to the front yard and then moved the cows to the front to mow.  They especially like eating right near the road in the front as that is where most of the clover grows.

I watched them eat while sitting on the front porch.  As cars would pass, they would slow down and stare, at first not seeing the strand of electric fencing.  They would think the cows were out!  Once I have let the cows cycle through the back yard, the front yard and the side yard, I get on my mechanical mower to cut down the grass the cows didn't eat and to mulch up the leaves that have fallen. 

Reunited and it Feels So Good

Here is an updated photo of little Aussie.  Aussie was born on January 11th.  He's only a few days older than two months and he is growing by leaps and bounds.  Although he may look like he's smiling, he's not happy.  I'll tell you why.

Aussie spends the day on the pasture with his momma, Rosie. They are together all day long.  Whenever he wants to drink some fresh milk, all he has to do is find Rosie and drink.  She has not one, not two, not three, but four teats upon which to nurse.  He will suck on each one until he has completely dried her up.  In a few hours, she will have produced more and he can nurse to his heart's content. 

On an unrelated note, you can see below one little horn that is beginning to grow.  Although we used de-horning paste, we missed this horn.  That is one of the drawbacks about using de-horning paste.  Sometimes you miss it.

So picking back up on Aussie's story, all day long Aussie can drink Rosie's milk.  But in the late afternoon (around 5 pm), we bring all the cows (and bull) into the barn.  We milk Luna and feed Rosie and Clarabelle.  We then open up one of the corrals in the barn.  Little Aussie is pushed into the corral and is locked up for the night.  When Rosie is finished eating, we release her to the pasture for the evening. 

Aussie, however, stays in the barn.  He will be separated from Rosie from 5 pm to the next morning.  All this time Rosie will be producing milk - just not for Aussie.  It is for us!  Rosie actually makes more milk than Aussie can drink.  It is because of this rich milk that Aussie has continued to grow.  Many times Rosie will stand by the barn door and bellow for her calf.  Other times, I think she forgets about him and enjoys time away from him.  Sometimes Aussie will moo for his momma.  Never fear.  Rosie produces plenty milk to keep both Aussie and us stocked with the dairy best stuff. 

In the morning when we walk out to milk, we milk out both Luna and Rosie.  Then we open the corral and allow Aussie access to his momma.  He is a hungry fellow and empties Rosie's udder in quick order.  I can't tell you how happy he is to be reunited with his Mom!  He rushes out of the stall and makes a beeline for his mom.  He is then with her all day long where her milk is always available to him.

Then in the afternoon the separation policy is put into effect again.  Aussie is separated from Rosie in the afternoon and won't have access to Rosie (and her milk) for about 12 hours.  Rinse. Wash. Repeat.  This milk sharing proposition works out for both us and Aussie.