Old Dogs

I prefer sunrise to sunset.  To me, the beginning of the day seems filled with promise and energy.  The evening makes me feel like the day is ending. It's over. Done. There's nothing left of it.  A little sad really.

 

The sunrise makes me want to linger in the barn with all the animals and drink coffee, run my hands over my horses neck and breathe in their horsey smell.  I talk to the pigs, take a look at the bunnies,  feed the chickens...  They're all just waking up too you know. 

Sometimes I think it takes Louie a little longer to wake up than the rest of us.  When he accompanies me out to the barn in the morning he just sits and stares.  I can't imagine what goes through the old dog's mind...

Burnout

Defined as "exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation, usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration" 

Owning a farm can be a real pain in the ass sometimes.  I've been feeling worn down, lacking focus, and a tad depressed lately.  One of my first and biggest challenges is learning to say "no." 

My calendar is cluttered with commitments that derail my focus and drag me away from the work and projects that I truly want to do, and those that really need to be done around the farm.   By not saying "no" to people, and creating more commitments for myself, I start feeling irritated and resentful that I have to give (or have given) my precious time away to someone or something else.  And on top of that, I often end up feeling like I received nothing of benefit or joy for myself in exchange.

How do you tell someone "no" without hurting their feelings or damaging the relationship?

Last night was one of the few times lately that I've actually gotten caught up with things (just barely though) to spend a few minutes enjoying my surroundings on the farm (and actually make dinner too)!

 

My soul needs more of this quiet time.  I crave it.  It keeps me sane and lets me rest my mind.

Though it sounds horrid of me, I'm going to try to dissuade any visitors from coming to the farm this weekend.  I hope it isn't taken personal by anyone, its just that I have not had but one weekend free to myself in so long I can't even remember.  The farm girl needs this selfish time to herself or she's going to go mad! 

And the weather, damn the weather.  It hasn't even felt like summer, and I still haven't gotten my hay cut and my garden is a complete disaster!  Too much rain.  Enough is enough.

I promise my next post will be more upbeat and I'll show a little gratitude. ~A

Blue Moon

When the fog rolls in on Mon Abri Farm, it always seems so enchanting to me.  Especially on the night of a full moon.  Things tonight are quiet, still and peaceful, and the air is heavy and thick and cool.

In fact, July will have two full moons.  This gives a grand title to the second one, which is deemed a "Blue Moon."  A special and lucky month it is. Happy July friends...

The Great Monsoon of 2015

Its not appearing very likely the first round of hay will ever be cut.  The rain is still coming, each day and every day.  Maybe Mother Nature drank too much dandelion wine and forgot to turn the sprinklers off.  It happens...

I'm behind horribly with the garden weeding.  A broken arm set things back quite a bit.  Though I did get some great help with the barn and now it is all back in place again.  I'll tackle the garden over my long Fourth of July weekend break from corporate life. 

I'm not sure what will be made of it though. It already looks like the radishes and cilantro have drowned, and the peppers are beyond suffering.  But the garlic, lettuce and corn look great! I was finally able to harvest some lettuce and make the first salad of the season.  That made tolerating all the rain a tad easier.  Fresh lettuce is so much nicer than store-bought.
 

I made some lovely cheesy, onion and bacon scalloped potatoes to go along...

New bunnies have made their appearance.  There two larger ones, and now two more that are only a few days old.  That's another thing I have to get a handle on.  It's well over due time for a grand slaughter of older chickens and bunnies.  And the pig will be ready soon too.  I'm down to a couple hams, a tongue, some blade steaks, and miscellaneous other cuts, but only a mere pound of the coveted bacon! 

Its great if you are a duck or a pig...

 

Speaking of pigs, my two are doing wonderful.  And loving this mud and rain! Wonderful storms thundered about last night throughout the evening and into the morning.  Though, I'm not really sure we need more water at this point.  Things are pretty much saturated and there is flooding everywhere. 

Yesterday the new rain barrel (crate?) was hooked up to the gutter downspout.  It was three quarters of the way full by seven o'clock this morning when I checked it.  It holds 275 gallons when filled to capacity.  That just shows how much water runs off a standard size roof in a few short hours.  Very mind blowing.  Even more mind blowing - the state of Colorado prohibits collecting rain runoff into rain barrels.

Saffy doesn't mind the rain either it appears...

Thanks to all this rain, the hay cutting is still on the back burner around here for the local farmers.  Hopefully, sometime in the next two weeks there will be enough of a break in the weather to get it done.  Though I personally dread that task - having to line up enough people to help get it put up.  Its not an easy job at all.  Unless you are a body builder and do not suffer from hay-related allergies.

I think I need to find an intern or two in the future to help out...

Hiding

I've been hiding out for a month.  I broke my arm four weeks ago, and injured some ligaments and tendons pretty bad as well, in both arms.  A bad time of year for this to happen.  But I supposed any time of year would be bad for breaking bones, wouldn't it? 

Horses.  That is how it happened and that is all I will say about it... 

The garden is in.  Planted by my mother while she was visiting, thankfully.  If it were left to me it would have never happened in my beat up condition.  And that would have been horribly depressing. It is full of weeds, but this weekend I will finally feel good enough to pull some I think.

So that is where I've been, hiding.  But now, I'm back...

It's the little things

I planted Asparagus last year.  I'm a terrible gardener and I have free range chickens, so I only half expected it to ever grow.  I found this yesterday...

They say not to harvest your asparagus for 3-4 years after planting.  Do you think the chickens will understand?

Leftovers

When I had my first home-raised pig butchered last year, the butcher asked whether I wanted my hams halved or quartered.  Being a rookie in sending an entire pig to be butchered, I cheerfully answered "halved please."  I had no clue that each "half" ham would weigh from 14-16 lbs. I have no kids to feed! So there I was, with four really big hams. Sixty pounds total, to be exact...

I cooked one for Easter (it was fabulous!) and had a ton of ham left over (surprise), which I cubed, and chunked and sliced and then froze. It was chilly last week, so I made up a batch of soup with what I had on hand, and some of the frozen leftover ham.  No recipe, I just threw as much of the ingredients into the pot as I saw fit.  No broth required either.  As it cooked, the ham it made its own broth.  One of the easiest soups ever, and a great way to use up leftover ham. Oh and the kitchen smelled awesome!

You could add whatever vegetable you have on hand really - green beans, cabbage, kale, carrots, whatever.  This is what I tossed into the pot...

Ham (mine was smoked)
Onion
Garlic
Red pepper
2 bay leaves
a pinch of thyme
a splash of homemade white wine
frozen corn
Cayenne pepper
a few potatoes
a couple stalks of old celery

I didn't even bother to sauté anything first.  I let it simmer until the potatoes were very tender, and then I poured it all into mason jars for future work lunches. Add a hunk of homemade bread and you're good to go.  I would imagine you could even do this soup just fine in the crockpot and have it hot and ready when you get home.  ~A

New Arrivals

What do you get when you cross a Blue Slate Tom Turkey with a Bourbon Red Hen Turkey?  This...

For the love of Asparagus

Asparagus is in season, and while my own newly planted patch of the green stuff is not yet producing (it takes 3-4 years), I scored a few bunches at a nice price and went about whipping up a batch of soup. 

This time I added potatoes and garlic to the concoction, but you can get my basic recipe here.  There are really no specific measurements - just go with the flow and which ever direction your taste buds lead you.

 I also added smoked ham this time, because I had a ton of it leftover from Easter : )

And don't forget the shaved Parmesan! ~A

Mud Dog

Obviously its mud season....

 

Are you a Slacker?

I've been slacking in my wine making.  Actually, I've been slacking with everything on the home front lately.  I'm not sure why.  Am I just getting old?  Don't get me wrong, all the animals are fed, watered and have a warm bed each day. No slacking there.  Me, on the other hand, sometimes I'm just too tired to make something to eat. 

Anyway, yesterday found me not in the best mood (the weather?) and when I'm not in my best mood, sometimes it does wonders if I just ignore half the "to-do's" on my list for the day and go do something creative instead.  Many times, that usually means cooking or making wine or bread.  It gives me the chance to just shut everything else out for a bit.

I arrived home from work yesterday around 6:30 pm.  The dogs were going crazy with boat loads of energy from being cooped up from the rain all day, and just wanted to tear the house down. A dead (beheaded!) young Barred Rock chick from the February 9th hatch was discovered near the barn (the work of a weasel it appeared). *sigh* The mare had trashed the shed row (she's in season) trying to "entertain" the poor visiting stud colt; the turkey hen pooped all over the tack room floor, and the goat had knocked over a full bucket of water.  And then, after the pigs overturned their food and water for the second time in ten minutes, I'd had enough for one evening.  I tidied it all up, fed everyone, and said good night to the barn. Lights out kids!

Back at the house, I poured myself a healthy glass of whiskey and then proceeded to make a gallon batch of apple /white grape wine. 

 

I used Montrachet yeast, yeast nutrient, and pectic enzyme.  I measured out the sugar and achieved a specific gravity of 1.090, which should give me a finished alcohol content around 12%.  Now I just have to wait...

~A

  

Keeping up Appearances...

Sometimes appearances are just that... appearances.  Here we are nearly mid April and still no sign of a baby goat for Chiba.  And since I sold the buck right before Thanksgiving, I don't really see how she could be pregnant.  



"I'm not pregnant"

A Boer Goats gestation is 148-152 days, with the gestation calculator using 150 as the average number of days.  I'm going to use November 10, 2014 as the date I'm pretty sure I sold him, because that was a Monday, and the small livestock sales only take place on Mondays, and because that was right before Thanksgiving.  Make sense? 

To clarify, if I calculate the number of days from November 10th, this would put her at 150 days as of today (April 8th).  I hope she proves me wrong and drops a kid this week, but it doesn't seem likely.  And if she isn't pregnant, well, then she is embarrassingly overweight and the shame is on me for letting her become that way.  Enough said. ~A

Growing

The little quail are growing and will soon need a new, bigger home (or roasting pan...).

The little pigs are growing. And I moved them into their new stall over the weekend.  They completely destroyed their heat lamp the other day.  I guess they no longer wanted it?  Thankfully they didn't manage to burn the barn down in the process.  My lesson:  always hang a heat lamp higher than a pig can stand.  You wouldn't believe what acrobats and tricksters these little pork chops are!

The little dog, "Saffy," is also growing.  How the big dog puts up with her endless playing is beyond me.  Good Louie is very patient.

And here's Dottie.  Dottie is not growing...that I know of.  But she is shedding, and needed a good thirty minute grooming.  Now she's fit for a little hack.

New Arrivals, Part 2

In the last post I mentioned that I had gotten two new pigs.  Maybe you were wondering why I didn't show any pig photos? Wonder no more.  I still do not know which is the boy and which is the girl, because I haven't even given it a thought.  Too busy of a weekend!  I was preoccupied cleaning and trying to get a make-shift pen set up for the pigs, who will be staying inside the mudroom until the weekend, when the weather warms up.  I was also busy separating the Marans chicks from the Barred Rock chicks.  Which also confirmed my theory, that the one chick I did loose was indeed a Marans.  One of the expensive ones.  But of course!

Anyway, here are the pigs.  And Larry. He is trying to string bales of hay together to keep them in.  Which didn't work.  Which is another story...