Thursday, June 30th

We are goat people now, and it is that special time of year where goat people start looking for that special someone to breed with their ladies. Now that can't be any brush billy with in tact testicles. OH NO! It has to be someone with b reeding and distortion and a family history of excellent milkers. So a month or so back Mike and I began to look for a fella for our ladies. Someone worthy of them. Someone with class

We looked at some breeders with stud service and prices and location and found that after factoring in gas, lost time, and lost work, food, possibly boarding fees, inconvenience, having to drag Grace along (how boring), messing with milking times and missed milkings, and then the possibility of having missed the magical window of opportunity altogether. And having to do this with all three goats, on different days, we decided that the expense of buying and feeding and caring for bucks was worth it to us.

This may seem very silly having just talked about butchering our boys, but those weren't breeding goats. And genetic diversity is good, of course. So today we got two buck kids! Grace and I have named all the ladies so Mike asked that he be allowed to name the fellas.We are please to introduce our herd sires:

Thor God of Thunder:

Thor is three months old and, as you can see, he is quite a looker. And his dam is a great milker. According to the breeder we got him from he will be ale to do his duty this season, although we may have to build him a "ramp or platform" so he can reach the vital bits. I genuinely look forward to writing that post. We plan to breed in September for February kids.

AND

Captain America:

"Cap" is just a little fella. He will be a month old in a few days and he misses his friends back home. So we made sure to snuggle him in and he had a lovely huge bottle and fell asleep in the soft hay in his new pen. He will still need bottles for the next few months. Thankfully we have plenty of good milk and Grace is an expert at goat-baby care and feeding. She has been down to the barn about every 15 minutes to make sure he is ok. He of course, will not be ready this season, but we may breed him in the next year or two. He is primarily a companion of Thor for now. Goats need other goat friends. Plus with those lovely markings we may breed him just for the coloring.

Garden:

The garden in general is going gangbusters right now. Just imagine if we got a few continuous days of sun! Here is the big news:

We have an almost completely red strawberry! Finally! Plus some that are starting to get a little color and a ton of green ones. We have company coming tomorrow so maybe we can split The First Strawberry five ways! Or maybe Grace and I will go eat it first thing and then tell everyone about it later.

There is a melon in my greenhouse. It's only about the size of a gobstopper, but it is totally there and I can't stop looking at it. I also have super many tomatoes and probably a dozen peppers and about 10,000 pickling cucumbers. Thank goodness for the greenhouse.

Cheese:

Today while I was turning my cheeses in my aging box I found some mold (the undesired kind) on two of my cheddars. It was under the wax. Don't worry, though, I can totally fix that. The point is we tasted the 45 day cheddar and it was good. It was actually quite good which is awesome considering it is too young the wrong shape, and growing surface mold. I can't wait to try the ones I didn't mess up!

And that is the farm news! We are taking most of the rest of the week "off" to play with friends, go to some holiday fun, and hopefully play in the SUN!

Happy America to All!

"The trapping of the mole"

Ok, I hinted at this on my previous post and as per request here is what I do to keep the mole population down in my garden.  This method is the most humane way of killing moles that I have seen.  The traps are quick to kill and give obvious quick visual inspections.

I use "Cinch Mole Traps" these are available locally at Wilco in blue for around $22.00 a pair (two are needed for optimum performance)  I own 6 of them and I always have at least a pair just sitting in the batters deck waiting to go in the ground.

http://www.amazon.com/Cinch-Mole-Trap-Two-Pack/dp/B0053GHCP2/ref=pd_sbs_ol_2

http://www.amazon.com/Cinch-www-cinchtraps-com-C60-3B-Mole-Trap/dp/B002J86JLU/ref=pd_sim_misc_1

My property (as described by my neighbor) is "infested" with moles.  Now this has many meanings.

1. The property has not been managed in some time.
2. There must be a lot of worms in there.
3. The soil is not compact and has been loosened by all of this mole activity.

So we will all agree at this point that moles are not all bad.  I have even considered saving all the moles that I trap and skinning them for their hide.  It is some of the most beautiful and softest fir you will ever find.


On to the instructions:

Step 1
Find a fresh mole hole.  I like to take inventory of what mole holes are in the area and then look again in the morning (most mole activity happens at night) and spot the fresh mole holes by seeing the wet soil compared to the drier holes from the day prior (and yes, this is even noticeable when it rains).  I have never had any luck with a hole that was more than a day or two old.

Another way to detect moles, if they are not leaving holes but you may notice some of your plants are randomly wilting away or borderline dead.  Take a screw driver and probe around the suspect veggie.  If you feel a hollow spot then you have located your hole.  The mole now knows that there is a good treat in this hole so he is more likely to come beck.  These are great spots to try out.

Step 2
Dig out a 12" x 12" x 12" square hole directly over the selected mole hole.  You want to ensure your sides are sloped outward so that the walls don't fall into the hole and accidentally trip your traps or prevent them from tripping at all.   The main point here is to fully expose the mole tunnel so your traps will fit in there comfortably and you don't accidentally trip it while you are inserting it into the mole hole.

Step 3
Leave the trap and inspect it every 24 hours.  If your trap has not tripped in 48 hours then move it and place it in another location.   If the mole trap is tripped and remove the dead mole.  This trap is strong enough to snap the spine of a mole very fast and it usually does.  But on the rare occasion it will catch a paw of the mole.  this is why I check my traps first thing in the morning.  If a live mole is found remove him from the hole with the trap (Do not take him from the trap and release it, it will die if released)  The most humane way to deal with this is to kill it right off.  To do this take a machete or a heavy blunt object and strike just below the neck braking the spine immediately.  Do not hesitate and follow through.   Not doing so just makes the animal suffer.

Step 4
Tell the mole thanks for helping till your garden, but eating plants wasn't in his job description.    Don't laugh.  Even the life of a mole is worth something.


Here is a video of how to use the trap:

Ongoing projects and the future

From the beginning of our project here at the farm we understood that we did not know exactly what we would need and that we would learn as we go (because that's what we do best).  As the farm evolves we understand what is actually needed and we are able to invest more time and money into those projects.  So here is my update.


Barn:
We did remodel the barn but still stalled at about the half way point, this should get finnished in no time but I need to get a couple hundred bucks in lumber (and more importantly build it).  But here is what it looks like for now.

House:
The remodel on Grace's room is coming along nicely.  The drywall is up and spackled (on about 90%) we are getting ready to paint and hang doors soon.


Bucks:
We are getting boys for our upcoming breading season!  I will be redoing some of our fencing to create a secure pasture for the boys while also keeping them out of the girl's pasture.   So a lot of planning for the electric fence.   I'm just happy that I chose woven wire at this point because moving it around is so much easier than steel or aluminum wire.


Garden:
The garden is coming along nicely. We have been working hard for some time now, killing weeds, dealing with our ongoing mole problem (This is something that I have mastered, and I usually trap a mole within 48 hours of detecting a fresh mole hole) we also have the ongoing issue of our garden wanting to turn into pasture again so we are constantly re-working the pathways so weeds and grass dont' grow there either.  So far so good.

In conclusion:
There are a couple projects coming up (because it's summer) so those will be getting posted as they come along.

I went on a hike with a couple friends (Laura & Ben) we were in search of a old cabin on the top of my hill that was the original homestead for the property here (1900-ish) we were unable to find the actual cabin, it was probably no longer standing and the foundation was overgrown; but we think we found the plot that was cleared with an amazing view of the mountains facing west.

Here is a picture from the hike, this is about 6 miles east of our house on the top of the same ridge line the old cabin was supposed to be on.

Thursday, June 16th

This update is mostly about the blog site. We added some new stuff on the page this week! We added "What's in the Fridge" and "Coming Soon" side bar's to let you know what's here. This way you don't have to guess or scroll down and hope the last update is still accurate. I hope this makes it a little easier to see what we have to share with our friends in the farm fridge, and what is coming from the farm and garden soon.

I hope to have some info and fliers up on the fridge by Monday or so as well, so that some of our new friends can see info and prices. And maybe it won't be so weird to just walk into someones barn and grab stuff. As always, just let me know if there are ways I can improve this site, make it easier to use or to see what's important to you. The site is for our friends to use, so let me know what you want, and we will make improvements as we go,.

I also want to say, to both our new friends and old ones too: we are very new at this. There are going to be lots and lots (and lots!) of changes over the next months and years. We are making so many mistakes and constantly changing, and hopefully improving. Expect changes in the website, the cheese, the milk, the produce, and in the way we present, package, and get them to you. Not to mention the house, the land, the way we feed and raise our animals, the whole landscape of the farm. We have a five year plan that we are not quite a year into. Hang in there, OK?

This week I will be in Portland from Friday the 17th - Wednesday the 22nd. It's Father's day weekend, of course, but we won't be observing the holiday until some time next week, so stop by if you like and Mike will be here. The next month or so my schedule is all kooky, so I may be doing updates at funny times. Just until August.

This Week We Will Have:

Check the new sidebar! Instead I will sometimes do this:

Notes on Available Products:

• Little Round Cheese: This is going to be my go-to fresh cheese instead of the chevre. Why? Because I like it better, it's cute, and I can wrap it in plastic instead of packaging it in jars. ALSO I have again changed this recipe for the better. mmmmmmm . . .

Other Farm News:

Garden:

Our garden is having a had time realizing it's not pasture anymore. I keep being like: "Garden! don't worry about growing back all those weeds and grass! We are just growing vegetables now. I'll just put them where I want them, and you don't need to worry about a thing!"

But Garden is all " . . . . " Because it's just dirt and stuff. And the weeds just keep growing and growing and growing.

So we put black plastic on all the rows to try and get rid of at least part of the source of new baby weeds and cut down on the battle area a little. Because I AM GOING TO WIN! Not the damn weeds!

Greenhouse:

GUESS WHAT?? I have TOMATOES and PEPPERS in my greenhouse. Yeah, I know!

Thursday, June 9th

It's been kind of a weird few days. Not bad just that our rhythm is all thrown off and Mike and I do like a routine. It's probably therapeutic, I guess. Our niece, Mike's sister's daughter, is staying with us for a few days while her mom has a new baby. It's a boy and born at about 3:50 this afternoon. That's good and lovely of course, but these girls are about the same age and both of them only children (for the moment) and they have been driving each other CRAZY since first thing this morning. Bickering, whining, jockeying for attention, and generally being childish. Probably because they are children.

Then last night, just as we were settling in, Grace comes tearing into the house yelling that Delilah (the dog) is throwing up blue stuff in the driveway. It was D-con. TANGENT: we have mice galore. D found one in the bedroom. Grace saw one upstairs and then one ran over her foot in the laundry room and she lost it. Screaming, crying, more screaming. So Mike relented and put out some poison because the Mice in our house can lick a trap clean of peanut butter without tripping the thing. How do they do that!??!! The poison was out for 30 minutes in a closed room and she must have gotten into it when I went in to the laundry room to get a towel or something. So anyway Mike had to take the dog into Salem to get her treated. She is fine of course, but we were up until 1:00 with her so we are tired today. And D seems the only one able to squeeze a nap into her busy schedule.

And that's probably enough bitching for now. Summer vacation is off to a roaring start!

This Week We Will Have:

• Raw milk every day
• Little round cheese in fancy flavors or plain: Saturday
• Maybe Feta later in the week

Other Farm News:

Things are sort of in a holding pattern. Veggies are growing, but not grown yet. Chickens are getting big, but not big enough for eggs or meat. Cheese is aging, but not edible. Berries are blooming or little green nubs, but not ripe. We are mostly mowing grass and fighting weeds and getting ready to start taking down some trees and old logs for firewood this winter. And making cheese, of course.

FAIL!

Oh poop. We unwrapped the little bloomy rind cheeses and they were no good. At all.

Well, I suppose the cheese bit wasn't actually inedibly foul, but the rind part was bad in about three different ways. Here I'll tell you how:

1) It was wet. It leaked nasty, slimy, mouldy, cheese juice all over it's cheese box. I guess I didn't let them air enough before I wrapped them.

2) The rind was too thick. Gross. I read in a cheese book a description of a rind as "snappy like hot-dog skin" and that barfey little description seems to cover that description. So we are up to wet, slimy, thick, and chewy (I guess, the rind didn't actually make it to my mouth). What next?

3) AND the skin was slipping off the cheese. Bad bad bad.

So the first bloomy rind "taste" goes: wet, slimy, thick, chewy, and slippy. FOUL.

But look at all those lovely lessons learned! I am extremely self critical, so this is not easy for m). More drying time. Turn more often during initial rind development, leave them elevated on a cheese board in the aging box (seriously, that one I am really kicking myself about. Idiot!). That's all I have for now, but I'll do some reading before the next attempt. Which may even be tomorrow. No time like the present while this is all fresh in my mind. And really so much room for improvement. See how well I am handling this!

Oh! I should have taken a picture, but I dumped them all in the trash. Sorry.

Weekly Cheese Goals

Sometimes when I am away from home I find myself starting to dream about all the cheese I will make and the things I will do when I get home. I usually make a list on a sticky note, but this week I thought I would write them down here, so you could see the planning too. Because planning and bulleted lists are one of the best and most fun things anyone can do.

This Week's Cheese Goals:

• Eat the (first!) bloomy rind cheese (or possibly just stare at it suspiciously for a while) and then eat the baguettes I will make to go with them.


• Write a blog post about all the ways I messed up on these and speculate on how to improve them.
  Bake a second patch of bloomy rind cheese: ash half the batch and age the other without ash and then think about the differences.


• Maybe make TWO batches of the bloomy rinds and do a batch with Penicillium candidum and Geotrichum candidum and a batch without the G. candidum and then think about the differences.
  Pay more attention to turning these little bloomies in the first few days to improve the rind development because I am pretty sure I screwed that up pretty hard.


• Make little fresh rounds with NEW CULTURES! I know! I can hardly stand it! And then eat them and spend a lot of time talking about the taste variations.


• Roll the little rounds in herbs or spices or wrap them in pretty leaves or something to make them look and taste fancier.


• What sort of herbs or other flavors do you think would be interesting or tasty?


• Make another stinky washed rind cheese because I am seduced by controlled mold growth and stinky smells.


• If there is more milk (and there will be): make cheddar, jack, or some other pressed aged cheese.


• Post pictures of cheese.

Other Goals:

• Sterilize all my cheese cloth in boiling water and store in plastic bags according to size.


• Finish plating my herb garden.


• I think I should plant a ton of lavender in my garden! Yeah.


• Work on Grace's room a lot because when we finish her room we get to start on the utility room!


• Stare at my chickens and will them to spontaneously lay eggs.


• Play outside.

Thursday, June 2nd

Holy Smokes! It's seriously June. Seriously. Also, I know I skipped a week. Here's what you missed: A Life Lesson: You can make (good) cheese with milk that is TWO days old or less. Period. After we cleared this up in no uncertain terms, I made a cute little 2-lb round of Rose Lodge Jack (I've never even been to Monterey, so that would be pretty presumptuous), and Pepper Jack too. We can try it in August!

This Week We Will Have:

• Raw Milk
• Little Round Fresh Cheeses (these are firmer and cuter than chevre, but have the same flavor palate)
• I think that's it. Everything else I did this week won't be ready until at least August.

Other Farm News:

Garden:

Lot's of work but mostly just weeding and silent fretting. I put Grace to work weeding the strawberry patch. I said "take out anything that isn't a strawberry!" And she did. But I forgot that I planted a thick stripe of "bee feed" flower mix down the center to divide the two varieties I planted. She worked so so hard and did a perfect job. Not a weed left. Not a flower seedling to be seen. Only strawberries. Don't tell her, she was super proud of her hard work.

Bike:

Grace is riding a huge bike with no training wheels now. She got too awesome and tall for the little bike and is tearing around on a 24" mountain bike. It's pretty hard core. It has gears and everything. Actually this is probably the most significant family event of the week. Rad.