Got a "Sweet" Package in the Mail

Sweet potatoes come up on their own in late spring each year in our garden.  That's been happening for a number of years now and it is a blessing.  We think that they came up probably from a sweet potato that we composted perhaps 8 or so years ago.  It's the gift that keeps on giving and we've harvested several hundred pounds of sweet potatoes over the years and never had to plant them.

The sweet potatoes that are sold in the store are good.  I always enjoy eating sweet potatoes.  The cows love to eat the sweet potato vines after we harvest them each fall.  Here's the thing about the sweet potatoes that you buy at the store - they are mass produced and the varieties, although good, are developed for their look, their yield and their hardiness - not necessarily their taste.

My son recently had the opportunity to go to an agricultural convention in Kentucky.  While there he had an opportunity to visit a farmer from Tennessee who had brought some heirloom sweet potatoes that he grows back on his farm.  Russ said they were small to medium in size, but the taste.  Oh, the taste!  Russ said that they tasted like someone had sprinkled cinnamon, brown sugar, and honey on them.  He said they were unbelievable.  His first thought was that we've been conditioned to think we know what sweet potatoes taste like, but eating this heirloom sweet potatoes made Russ realize that this was a "real" sweet potato.

Well, this package came in the mail the other day...

A sweet package!

Yep, you guessed it.  The farmer sent Russ three (3) of his heirloom sweet potatoes for us to try and grow.  We'll have to find out what the name of this variety is, but I'm so curious to grow them and taste them as Russ really bragged about them.

Three heirloom sweet potatoes

So we decided to plant them each in a pot cover them with soil and keep the soil moist.  Our goal is to get them growing.  My son works with sweet potatoes and knows how to harvest slips.  Slips are simply sweet potato 'shoots' from sweet potato vines that can be planted.  One thing he taught me that I never knew was that sweet potatoes, if allowed to trellis, will produce seeds.  Those seeds can then be planted.

Planting heirloom sweet potatoes

I covered the sweet potatoes with moist soil and will watch them very closely.  If we can get these growing, we'll now have heirloom sweet potatoes in the garden.  While we enjoy eating the ones that grow every year in the garden, it will be nice to have a new variety, especially if they are as good as Russ says they are.  I'll post on the progress, if we can get them to grow.

Grow, Sweet Potatoes, Grow!

While I really enjoy saving seeds from open pollinated plants, growing sweet potatoes and saving their seed will be a new experience for me.  I'm interested in learning all about it.  Oh, I'm also interested in eating sweet potatoes that naturally taste like they have cinnamon, brown sugar and honey added.

Triple the Trouble

We have been watching Annie, our Nubian Dairy Goat, very closely.  It was a couple days past her due date and she was as wide as the north side of the barn.  Every day we talked to her saying, "Annie, is today your big day?"  The answer was negative until Thursday and then things began moving quickly.  Tricia first noticed Annie scratching the ground by the woodpile.

X marks the spot

Tricia walked out from time to time to check on the expectant mother and pretty soon...  She saw a sac protruding and she could see tiny hooves.  The water hadn't broke yet, but curious chickens gathered around and soon took care of that problem, pecking until the sac burst.

Here comes Annie's first baby

Tricia was taking it all in of Annie's first baby, when another kid arrived!  "Twins," Tricia exclaimed! She was admiring the twins when yet another one popped out.  Triplets!!!  The curious onlookers in addition to Tricia, including cows and chickens, arrived to welcome the new barnyard critters.

Three baby goats

Annie began the task of licking them to clean them all up.  At this point Tricia called me to tell me about Annie's babies.  She told me that she wasn't absolutely sure, but she thought that there were two doelings and a buckling.

The triplets' first bath

The amniotic fluid from 3 babies made a big mudhole, so Tricia grabbed some hay and laid it down to make a comfortable "nest" for Annie and her babies.  One of the females quickly popped up on her legs and began looking for milk.  It is very important for the babies to get the mother's first milk (colostrum) to give them antibodies to ensure good health and a good start.

Where's the spigot?

The chickens were causing all kinds of problems, so Tricia moved the little family into the barn where they could have some privacy.  All of the kids began looking for milk.  There is a problem here.  There are three baby goats and a goat only has two teats.  That means there's always someone left without.  They'll have to learn to wait their turn and learn to be patient.  Tricia ensured that they all nursed and got the colostrum.  Fortunately, they are all very healthy.

Wait your turn, little one.

I tell you what; baby goats are about the cutest little creatures on God's earth. Sometimes they appear to be smiling!  This little girl has a pattern on her head similar to a skunk.  I was tempted to call her Skunk-face, but that's not a very endearing name.

Smiles everyone, smiles!

There is one little buck, so we think we'll call him, Buckwheat.  After The Little Rascals TV show, we'll name one of the girls Darla.  As far as the other girl, the jury is still out.  We'll figure out something to call her soon.  They are so active and seem to be enjoying playing with each other.

Annie and her children

It is impossible - utterly impossible, to pass by these little creatures and not pick them up and hold them!

Benjamin and one of the girls

They all have spots similar to Annie, except their spots are gray in color, whereas Annie's spots are whitish or brown.  One of the little girls is solid black on her side, but has a spotted head.  They all learned to latch on and nurse Annie very quickly.

Milk!

With each passing hour they got more lively.  Sometimes a little too lively.  Pretty soon the kids got tired.  With bellies full of milk and a day full of adventure, there's nothing more satisfying than taking a nap - especially cuddled into a cozy ball with their brother and sisters.

Nap Time!

One little update:  Sunday morning the kids started something Tricia calls, Popcorn.  Popcorn is where the kids start jumping straight up in the air like kernels of corn in hot oil.  They are so playful. Well, they were doing the popcorn thing and the little buckling, Buckwheat, popped right up under Rosie, our 950 pound Jersey cow.  Rosie stepped on the little booger's leg.  Buckwheat's popcorn play was over for the day.  In fact he was not putting any weight on the leg at all.  I checked it out and there were no broken bones.  We were fortunate, but we quickly put the newborns in the "nursery" - away from the cows.  By Monday afternoon, praise the LORD, little Buckwheat was almost 100% back to normal, putting lots of weight on the leg and only walking with a very slight limp.  I'm sure the popcorn game will commence again tomorrow - only this time, safely out of Rosie's way.

2016 Meat Birds at 1 Week Old

It's weigh-in time.   It's week one for the meat birds and each week we put them up on the scale to see how they've grown.  We're shooting for a 6 pound bird because those dress out at the perfect size for us - 4 1/2 pounds.  For Cornish Cross birds that takes 8-10 weeks and for the Red Rangers, 10-12 weeks.  So first up and the weekly weight watcher's scale is the Cornish Cross.  This dude is visibly bigger than last week, that's for sure.  After the first day we put them on 28% Protein Game Bird Feed.

Cornish X

And he weighs in at 8 ounces at 1 week.  Last he at 2 days old, he was 3 ounces. He's almost tripled his weight.

8 ounces @ 1 week old

Here is the Red Ranger.  You can tell he's grown, but he's still smaller than the Cornish Cross.

Red Ranger

He weighs 6 ounces, while last week he weighed only 2 ounces.  Wow.  This guy has tripled his weight in a week.

8 ounces at 1 week

One other notable thing is that while they still have some 'down,' their wing feathers are starting to come in.  They are eating a lot and drinking a lot of water.  We've replaced the 2 quart-sized watering containers with 2 gallon-sized watering containers.

Most of the chicks are healthy and happy.  We did have something going on in the brooder (Pasty Butt) for a few days. and ended up losing 7 birds.  That's not good. We think we have it under control now, but that was quite an unfortunate thing to happen.  

Our fine, feathered friend

After a week of the chicks being on the high protein feed, we'll ratchet down the protein percent to an 18% ration.  Next week we will take another peek at how they are doing.

It's March & We Still Have Pumpkins

It is March and we still have pumpkins from this past fall.  We grew a bunch of pumpkins this year - three different varieties.  The other two varieties were processed and frozen, but we still had some Jack-Be-Little pumpkins in a basket. You know Jack-Be-Littles.  They are those little "decorative" pumpkins that everyone uses as a centerpiece or puts them in a basket on the counter to add to the whole 'fall' decor.

When fall turns to spring, most people just throw them out.

The Last of the Jack Be Little Pumpkins

But there's gotta be something that you can do with them other than just throw them away or compost them, right?  Of course there is.  Tricia found a very simple recipe HERE.  It was adapted from the Barefoot Contessa cook book.  These little pumpkins aren't only good to look at - they are good to eat!

First, preheat the oven to 350 and then cut off the caps and hang onto them.  We'll use them later. Scoop out all the seeds with a spoon.  Later on we'll roast those in the oven with some butter, salt and garlic powder.

Scooping out the seeds

What you have remaining is an empty pumpkin shell.  Sprinkle the inside of the pumpkin with kosher salt and black pepper.

Then fill each of the pumpkins with applesauce.  That looks festive, doesn't it?

Ready to Roast

Put the caps on the Jack-Be-Little Pumpkins and pop them in the preheated oven. Let them roast between 45 minutes and an hour.  You'll be able to tell that the pumpkin flesh is tender.

In the oven

Even though it is spring, when you pull them out of the oven and take the cap off, the whole kitchen fills with the smell of fall.

Ready to Eat!

Now if you'd like, you can sprinkle a little cinnamon on it.  Take your spoon and scrape the inside of the pumpkin to mix the pumpkin and applesauce.

Mixing it up

And now it is time to eat...

The first spoonful

Jack-Be-Little Pumpkins.  They're not just for decoration anymore!

Bad Dog

Most of my 50 minute commute to work each day is on Interstate 10.  The drive goes fast. Everyone's driving about 75 miles an hour.  The last part of my drive is on back country roads.  It is sparsely populated, wide open land - mostly farmland. A lot of the farmland hasn't been planted in crops for a while and is largely pastureland being grazed by cattle.

The cattle walk around the pastures, eating grass throughout the spring and summer and round bales of hay that farmers bring them during the fall and winter. As I drove by today I saw many new baby calves following after their mommas. They were Angus/Brahman cross calves and their long ears flopped against the side of their heads as they tried to keep up.

I saw a big old crow standing on top of a fence post, checking out his surroundings.

But on this stretch of road, crows aren't the only thing hanging out on fence posts:

Coyote!

A coyote carcass hung from a t-post, his sightless eyes staring out to passersby.

Another mummified Coyote 

Just 20 yards down the road and on the same fence line, another coyote dangled from the fence. Why?  Why are these coyote corpses on the fence?  You'll see this a lot out in the country.  There are several reasons for it.  Before I get to it, I have to say, I feel little sympathy for the coyotes.  They are predators that hunt in packs and kill just-born, defenseless baby calves.  For whatever reason, the coyote population is growing around here.  As subdivisions move out to the country, I've heard that people's pet dogs are going missing and coyotes are blamed for killing the pet dogs.

Farmers and ranchers armed with rifles do their best to keep the population controlled, but is an on-going battle.  The tradition of hanging coyotes from fences is an old one and there are several theories behind it.  First, ranchers paid hunters a bounty for killing coyotes and hanging them is proof of the kill.  That makes sense. Next, I read that ranchers are just bragging and showing their neighbors that they are doing something about the coyote problem.  That makes sense, too.  Finally I read that after killing the coyotes, they are hung on fences to warn other coyotes that if they come around, this will happen to you!  A warning!  However, I'm not sure that coyotes are smart enough to heed the warning.

Image Credit

For sure that coyote wasn't very smart.  Beep. Beep.  Wile E. Coyote kept coming back after being blown up and falling off of a cliff into a deep canyon.  The two coyotes I saw on the fence post ain't coming back - that's for sure.

Pasty Butt

We've experienced a little problem with our chicks.  Last week we had 60 meat birds shipped to us. The day old birds arrived all healthy with only one dead.  Then sickness swept through the fledgling flock of feathered fowl.  We began losing chicks.  Darn it!  Tricia did some research and diagnosed the problem - Pasty Butt.

That doesn't sound nice.  What happens is that the chicks get diarrhea and the poop gets caught in the down that is around their butts.  That poop clogs up their vent (butt), and causes a blockage and they die.  Who knew?  Chickens get constipation that is fatal.  So what are the causes?  Well, it can be caused by stress, by the chicks getting too cold when shipped through the mail, or with the chicks getting too warm under the heat lamps in the brooder.  Or it can be caused by viral/bacterial infections.  The latter, we think, is the culprit.  The chicks are comfortable in the brooder.  If they were too cold, they would be piled up in a bunch to try to stay warm.  If they were too hot, they would be away from the lamp.  The chicks are evenly dispersed and seem to be happy with the temperature.

Pasty Butt

So what can you do to combat pasty butt?  Well, you can wipe their "business end" with a Q-tip moistened with water/oil.  That will unplug things.  You can hold their bottom under running warm water and then blow dry them.

To combat the infection by helping their immune system, you can mix a little apple cider vinegar in their drinking water.  The recipe Tricia found online calls for 1 Tablespoon per gallon.  Our waterers are much smaller, so Tricia used 1/2 teaspoon in our quart sized waterer.  Is there anything Apple Cider Vinegar can't do?

Apple Cider Vinegar - a cure for pasty butt 

To help with the diarrhea, you can feed the chicks ground raw oatmeal with a little grit.  We used sand.  We began this regimen yesterday and today was the first day we didn't lose a chick.  Hopefully Tricia has put an end to the epidemic of Pasty Butt Syndrome that was running rampant in the brooder.

Get well soon, pasty butts

We will continue to keep a close eye on the chicks as we don't want to lose any more birds.  Cleaning birds' bottoms who are afflicted with Pasty Butt is not something that I look forward to.  But I'll check them out tomorrow and, if necessary, I'll do what it takes to save them.  

Clothesline Fresh!

According to THIS ARTICLE, in the late 1960's, Audrey Gaiser was doing her laundry.  Audrey and her husband lived on the top two floors of a duplex and poor Audrey had to run all the way down the stairs to the ground floor to add liquid fabric softener to her wash on the final rinse cycle.  Audrey's husband, Conrad was a kind and caring husband. He hated to see his wife work her fingers to the bone and wanted to make her life easier.

Conrad's gears in his head began spinning.  He had worked in the soap and detergent industry and he began testing out some ideas in his wife's sewing room by applying liquid fabric softener to flannel rags and before long, he had a prototype that he called Tumble Puffs.  By putting one of his Tumble Puffs into the dryer, it saved Audrey a trip down the stairs and made her a very happy lady. Conrad was a good guy.

She was, I'm sure, even happier when Conrad Gaiser patented his invention in 1969 and then sold the rights to his Tumble Puffs to Proctor & Gamble.  Proctor & Gamble launched Conrad & Audrey's Tumble Puffs in 1975 under the name of Bounce Dryer Sheets.  You may have heard of those. Suffice it to say that Audrey probably never did a "lick" of laundry after that.  She had someone doing her laundry for her!

We don't use Dryer Sheets at our house.  We found something better.  From my childhood, one of the freshest fragrances I can think of was crisp, white bedsheets after they had hung out on a clothesline all day in the sunshine.  That's fresh!  We use muslin rags to line the top of our milking buckets.  The rags serve as a filter to keep dust, hay, hair, and bugs out of the milk.  After we wash the rags, we hang them out in the sunshine in the morning.

Hung out to dry

As I hung them Saturday morning, the steam was rising off of the rags.  They were wet, so the weight kept them from blowing very much in the wind.

Wet milking rags

By the end of the day, though, the rags were dry.  They were bleached by the brilliant sun.  The sun also acts as a disinfectant, keeping the rags clean and white. If we didn't do this, the yellow cream would have the rags dyed a dull yellow color. The sunshine keeps the rags white.

Who needs Bounce?!

As I pulled at the clothespins and removed the white milking rags from the clothesline, I brought the rags close to my face and inhaled.  Fresh, Clean, Sterile. And we didn't even have to use Bounce. Sorry Conrad...