Holding On To Summer

Just a little bit more summer, please....

I need to get a few more things done. Can you believe it's the last day of September?

Happy Monday everyone!

Farm Food Photo Bomb

What happens when I try and take artsy shots of farm food....

The Bubby photo bombs with his big head.

This is what I was trying to show all y'all... my late lunch the other day. Yeah I had pork chops,  green beans (fried with bacon), grilled peppers, and a shot of fresh goat cheese. It was awesome.

Happy Saturday afternoon - are you grillin'?

Goat on a Rope.

The other day I walked out and looked into the goat yard. The little ones, Darla and Daisy, were out there screwing around. It occurred to me that maybe I should start training them to be milkers.

Daisy, annoying little goat. Figured out to get on the stand. She can stay.

At that moment Daisy did a double back flip off a chair, hit the ground rolling, hopped up, parkour'd off the side of the goat house, and disappeared down the hill. Humm... I thought, this could be challenging.

One of the reason many people bottle feed baby goats is because they think the goats will end up more socialized. I don't have time for that. I generally rely on my well proven, oft used, Klingon Management Techniques. Strength and honor always work.

The goal was to get ahold of one of the little goats, put a leash on her, walk her calmly to the milkstand, and let her eat some bagged food while she gets used to me petting her. It should be noted that the last time I touched either of the little goats was when I toweled them off after they were born.

"Come here, goat." I commanded and approached the little goat with leash in hand. She ran. She was fast. I was faster and I got her. Step one - check.  It was Daisy - the Dahlia mini-me. I don't particularly like her. But check - step two: leash applied. Now all's I had to do was walk her calmly to the milk stand. I started walking, confidently.

You know how they say "that stubborn old goat?"  Yeah. Well. The younger ones are pretty stubborn too.

The screaming was horrendous. It was like I poured boiling oil over her. She was bawling and not walking. I turned around to see her with her little legs braced and her little tongue hanging out, screaming to beat the band.

"Come on, goat!" I commanded. Surely small goats would respond to authority. I drug her down to the gate and hauled her carcass out of the goat yard.

Dogs. Really want to get my goat.

In the meantime, the dogs thought this was the best thing they had every seen. Little goats run like prey and the dogs, all of them, want in on some of that action. And here I was, their momma, bringing them a goat on a rope. They wouldn't even have to chase her. The dogs all lined up along the dog yard fence, tongues lolling out, and tails wagging. They couldn't believe their luck. They loved me so much. Today was going to be the day they were gonna get my goat!

"Knock it off! All of you!" I scolded. They seemed confused.. what about the goat, obviously in the throes of death behind me?

Then to Daisy, "Look little goat, you are going to calmly walk with me to the milkstand. Let's go."  I started walking.

It was like trying to fly a broken kite.

She flipped. She flopped. She jerked and hopped. Seeing escape was not an option she chose the only other action available. She violently threw herself flat out on the ground, all four legs sprawled straight out. The dogs went wild.

As for me.... I did not turn around and make little booboo noises at her. I would not encourage these shenanigans. So I did not say "Oh little bitsywitsy goatsy woatsy come on now, let's go!" in a baby talk voice. Nope.

I
Just
Kept
Walking

Eventually we made it to the milk stand. I had to haul her up and get her positioned... and then... and then..... She realized that there was food. The heavens opened and angels started singing... Daisy realized this was where the yums could be found. She carefully ate each bite. And now for the next step - get her used to being handled.

I patted her awkwardly because let's face it. I'm not a goat snuggler. But I decided to make the best of it so I sang the Soft Kitty Song. It didn't really help.

When she was mostly done with the feed I unhooked Daisy from the stand and started back down that long 20 feet to the goat yard. More flipping, more flopping, more bawling, and various and sundry antics. I didn't stop walking until we got to the gate. When Daisy was free of the leash she ran for Grandma Debbie for comfort.

"Who's next?" I asked. All the goats scattered.

This continued for a couple days..... Me out there running down a small goat, capturing her with leash in hand, and dragging her up on the stand to the howling delights of the Dog Horde. But then something amazing happened. The penny finally dropped and the little goats realized that if they just walked along with me not only would they get the bagged feed.... they could get there faster by cooperating.

Daisy actually picked it up first. She appears to be the most motivated by food so its not really a surprise. Now I just go and easily get a hold of her, loop the leash around her neck and she calmly trots along side me then hops up on the stand like a pro. I give her pats, scratches, and belly rubs. This is all part of milker-to-be training. Give it another week or two and I'll only have to go to the gate, call them by name, and the appointed goat will trot right over.

I can't tell you how many goat people tell me this won't - and can't - possibly work. Lean in friend, it always works. Here's the thing.... goats really really love food. If she had thumbs I could train Dahli to drive the truck down to the feedstore for a handful of corn. I'm not even kidding.

Now that the little goats have figured out I am The Keeper of the Yums they have decided that I'm all kinds of fun. They come running over to me and are eager for me to give them pats. Do they love my rendition of Soft Kitty? Nope. They just want food. That's fine with me. I told you... strength and honor always work... or you know.... food.

Happy Friday everyone! Do you have a goat on a rope?


Editor's note: Hey, thanks for all the shares... come on over to 'the facebook' and tell me where you are from and do you employ Klingon Management Techniques with your crazy goats?

My Best Green Bean Helpers

I scored another bushel of green beans earlier in the week from an Amish neighbor. I was thrilled to find out they still had some available. I need to get canning.

My eye level view of Zander. When I sit in this chair he looks me in the eye. 

What about all these lovely beans? They are doing great but I need more more more. Unfortunately some of the beans I planted earlier in the summer didn't work out. Why not? One word: Tenderette. I just don't like them. I tried the Tenderette variety but they just aren't as good as the good old Blue Lake variety.  So the turkeys got the Tenderette beans and my soil was improved so it all ended well.

What bean snapping looks like around here. Filled with big dogs.

The worst thing about canning beans is snapping off the ends. It's not hard it just takes some time. Fortunately I have some very good helpers.

Kai kept pestering me until I gave her a bean.

Zander and Kai are naturally very curious and are interested in everything. Bubby likes to put his big head in everything I'm doing. Kai just kind of noses around and sneakily gets involved. They thought the beans were amazing.

Zander always takes things from me very gently. Look at those chompers tho!

I finally gave up and let them have some. They didn't want to eat the beans, just wanted wanted to chew on them. It was pretty hilarious.

Then he just chewed it apart.

I love how they use their paws for everything - they are very cat-like. Of course, they take anything I offer them very gently. For as powerful as they are both Kai and Zander are remarkably "soft mouthed."

Look how big Zander's paws are! He could wear my shoes.

My #1 Dog only wanted me to throw a stick for him and he couldn't have cared less about the beans. I finally gave him one. The look of betrayal was epic. Titan is not a vegetarian and that bean was not meat or a stick. So he spit it out and went back to trotting around with a real stick and thinking Kai and Zander were ridiculous.

My beautiful Kai, amazed by beans.

I love having good helpers, don't you?

Happy Thursday everyone! That snap snap snap sound you hear is me working on another half bushel of beans!

Pepper Basket

Basket of peppers......

Pepper in a basket......

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Goat Clearing

The goats have done an amazing job clearing their new yard. Remember when it looked like this?  Now look at it:

I can't believe they ate the whole thing!

Yeah. I know. Basically this is the same-ish view as the 3rd pic on this post. Pretty much the goats have eaten everything they could reach. It's pretty impressive.

The only thing about goats, tho, is that they don't mow everything down low like sheep. Since goats are grazers they just pull the leaves off some of the stem-ier stuff and leave it standing. I've been working on actually mowing it down with the mower.

We've also had a couple of burn piles to try and knock the rest of the bramble down. Eventually this area will be tilled and planted with pasture mix. I can't wait to have useable space.

Dahli and the little goats lead the charge. Hey! Where's Nibbles?

The goats are now on to grazing their new location - out past the gate down by the pond. They are very excited about this new freedom. Unfortunately since they are past the gate.... yours truly has to supervise them. I don't think they will get a wild hair and go swimming in the pond... altho stranger things have happened.... but my concern is that the goats will be entirely unprotected outside of the fence.

So while the goats are pushing and shoving each other over that perfect leaf.. no, THAT perfect leaf.. wait there's the one - THAT perfect leaf..... I get to sit there and watch their foolishness. It kind of grinds my gears but I won't abandon them to torment and death. So I just sit quietly. And compile a list of 1,000 ways dogs are better than goats.

For her fans, here is Nibs making a grand entrance.

Hopefully the goats will have this new area knocked down soon.

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Are you grazing your goats?

Gardening Savings Doesn't Amount to Just Beans

We had a bean-er-ific day recently. I took up this nice basket of Italian green beans.

This is just the first batch of beans from this small patch. I'll get another in a couple days or so. And for the persnickety folks who are thinking that peck basket isn't too full - I also took up a huge colander full of beans so it was well over a peck of beans.

I never understand it when folks say that it doesn't make "cents" to plant a garden or that it's too much work. This small row yielded a big bucket of potatoes and all these nice beans and it only cost me a couple bucks and a little bit of my time. How could that not be worth it?

I dug this small patch - probably just 12 feet long and 3 feet wide - out of a weed field that I'm desperately trying to get under control. Initially I planted potatoes on April 23. This batch was part of the 50# bag I got for just $17. I probably planted about $1 worth of seed potatoes. Since I planted them so early I actually trenched these - but remember you can pretty much just throw them on the ground like I did here. After I planted them I mulched them really well with clean straw. I think I spent about 15 minutes on this row in total. I did absolutely nothing to them after that - no sprinkling or weeding. I just let them grow. Come to think of it, I might have picked a few potato bugs off of them but that was it.

Fast forward and I took up a spectacular amount of potatoes - that was on July 27th. And because I dug the taters I also had tilled up that little patch. The straw was a little mulched down and had actually improved the soil a bit. I used the mulch around my tomatoes. I quickly ran the tiller down this little row and planted some beans.

While the potato digging took a little bit of time - I dug them over 2 days because there were so many - the seed planting activity probably took another 15 minutes (including tilling). My notes show that the beans seeds costs $2.49 - but I never pay full price so I probably got them on sale... especially so late in the season. I think I used the hoe to get rid of the weeds 3 or 4 times which only took a minute or so each.

Jump ahead to the other day and that spectacular basket of beans. The best part - I probably have at least another basket out there that are just about to come on.

If this was your only garden project - a little 12 foot row and less than an hour of actual work - don't you think it would be worth it? I easily got $15 (maybe more?) or worth of food for about $3. Nope it wouldn't feed you entirely if that was your only garden grown food  - but it would put some pretty good suppers on the table. Now what if you had 3 or 4 of those 12 foot rows? Now you can see how those gardening saving start adding up.

Think about it this way - that's food that you control. You don't have to rely on anyone else to get it - what's the value of that? It's totally worth it to me. Next year this little patch is going to do even better. The soil has been improved, my hard clay has been broken up, and the nitrogen will be fixed thanks to the beans.... and I'll be mulching that little row with all kinds of leaves and barn litter. I'll be able to plant tomatoes or pepper there next summer and they will grow like the dickens.

Are you wondering how to get started? Now is a great time to get to work. Run right out and find newspapers or cardboard and lay them out in a little 12 foot row somewhere that gets a lot of sun. Next, start raking up all the leaves and yard clippings and pile them on top of the cardboard. Keep doing this and soon you'll have a little mulch pile. Next spring just rake back that mulch pile, dig a little trench, plant some potatoes, and mulch them really well with clean straw and you are on your way to gardening greatness!

Happy Fall everyone! Are you loving this cool weather?