Sage and Juniper

Three new ladies came onto our homestead today, milk goats! A mama and baby for us and a mama in milk we transported for a friend.

Jip went crazy during the unloading. The first goat off the truck was pretty scared, so the next two got to go through the other pasture gate on the opposite side of the house. 

The three newbies stuck together for the rest of the day. They eventually noticed our herd in the back pasture but just watched. 

Later in the afternoon the two groups got closer, but still just watched.

New goats on the upper left side in the trees (you can barely see them), existing herd on the right. 

G milked them tonight, Sage (ours) and Juniper (friend's). Sage is a good girl and hopped right onto the milking stand (given to us by the people we bought the goats from). Juniper is more skittish and wouldn't be coaxed. 

While he waited for Juniper to come around, G eventually milked our goat Svetlana to see if she'd produce anything. 

As expected, she behaved while she ate the sweet feed. Once it was gone, she kicked and wouldn't stand still. Also as expected, she didn't produce much. Her kids are basically weaned and she's probably drying up. 

A few hours later, G finally got Juniper milked. I hope it goes better in the morning...

Total milk from the three goats: 

I expect their production is down from the stress of travel and being in a new place. If we want more milk, we can separate Sage's kid from her overnight. TBD if we'll do that or not.

Orchard and Garden Update

In anticipation of the big storm, we did a quick sweep of the orchard and garden to rescue what we could before the high winds. Thankfully the storm split and went around us; still, never before have I seen our trees bend so much from wind!

Red currants glow like jewels.

We got about 3/4c I'd say. A few more honeyberries too.

The fig tree I chopped is doing great! Three big bushy branches. 

The sweet potato vines are going crazy. Hopefully going crazy below dirt as well.

Apples getting bigger... Tied up so the branches don't break.

The potatoes look fantastic...

A couple bins had plants with rough looking leaves, so I dug around to see how they were producing. I had to dig deeper than I thought, but eventually I found one! 

Definitely a keeper!

Our lone apricot on the tree the goats smashed, still hanging in there. It's green on the other side, so I haven't picked it yet. 

Now for the garden. 

Zucchini gone wild. We found three big ones lurking and a ton of blossoms. I found a few patty pan squash up and coming: 

Our garlic scapes are blooming. The reminded me of a bouquet after I cut them off. Now I gotta find something to use them for. 

We pulled one garlic plant. Didn't amount to much, but bigger than last year.

Other garden bounty- turnips, kohlrabi, radishes, a bunch of peppers. Unfortunately, I didn't label the peppers; I thought it'd be obvious. But it seems like the majority are hot peppers. Of course those do the best. 🤦‍♀️

I did get a bunch of greens and cucumbers too! 

Chicken Feeder Update (and Chicken Waterer)

It's finally finished. 

What a frustrating project! 

It sat for a few weeks until I found someone to lend me their hole saw. Then, I had trouble putting the pieces of the hole saw together to work with my drill. Even after I got the drill saw put together, it wasn't as simple as drilling a hole through the plastic. The plastic would heat up and grip the saw, building up a whole bunch of plastic debris that snagged it and kept it from getting a clean cut.

Finally I got all the holes drilled and the plastic punched out. It turned out in the process of punching out the holes, they didn't end up perfectly circular and my pvc pipes wouldn't fit into the holes. I had to shave pieces of plastic off the edges with a box cutter. 

Eventually I got it so that all the PVC pieces fit into the holes. Caulking did not cause too many issues. I stuck thin wooden boards under them to hold them at the correct height.

You'll notice the black tape.

The plastic tote cracked in a few places when I punch the plastic out or tried to stick the PVC into place. The black electric tape was my rainproof solution (we're out of duct tape 😅).

The final product in place. It's taking the chickens and ducks a little bit to figure out how to use it. I might need to lock the chickens up for a day to force them to practice.

This automatic chicken waterer project was the polar opposite of the feeder. It took less than 15 minutes total.

The package came with instructions: drill holes evenly spaced around the water vessel. Insert the drinking cup. Screw on a wing nut inside. Fill with water! 

It does need to be set off the ground so that the drinking cups hang down and water can flow into them. If the cups are pressed up, the water just keeps flowing. I used a big garbage can to hold the most water. Once I find my mosquito netting, I'll put that over the top to prevent bugs from getting in. Right now it is open to the elements. I did put a piece of copper pipe inside to help keep algae down. That was a Pinterest hack. We'll see if it actually works!

Herbs de Providence

I had written this recipe down a long time ago thinking, "no way I'll ever make this; the ingredient list is too long!"

Well....

I had a lot of spices out to make taco seasoning, we had almost all of the spices necessary (and most of them aren't being used), and I was out of herbs de providence. 

So I combined the two recipes in my cookbook. I used the recipe on the left and added rosemary and mint. No tarragon on hand, so I left that spice out.

A number of the herbs I had on hand were whole and not ground. The spice and nut grinder got a workout! 

I haven't used any of my blend yet, but it smells amazing! 

Garden Update

Once I weeded everything in the garden, it was time to go back through it again. Thankfully this time went much quicker.

I did end up weed whipping the south end of the garden. I never got to it the first time and the thistles just keep coming. 

Our garlic is part of that jungle. It's pretty tall and almost ready to harvest. 

Our volunteer onion is flowering.

I couldn't find the other volunteers so either I chopped them off accidentally or the weeds crowded them out. 

It feels like our garden isn't doing a whole lot, but I did pick a few things. My weed whipping unearthed a zucchini. We have a few green beans, one cucumber, and a handful of radishes. 

The flowers are calendula and can be used for medicinal purposes - tea, salve, etc. 

I have them on a drying rack now (the best way to preserve their medicinal qualities so they aren't degraded by heat). 

 

Heavy Rain

Two inches of heavy rain knocked down this hornet nest previously residing in the tree above our deck. G found it on the ground the morning after the storm.

The homestead enjoyed the soaking and saved us time watering our latest plantings. Unfortunately, it came down so fast it plugged the drain in front of our basement door and water came in the basement again. 

Thankfully we caught it quickly and were able to clear the plug, soak up the water, and get fans on the wet area. 

Frozen Bounty

More freeze dryer loads: 

We're basically cleaning out the freezer of anything that can be dried. The peaches had to get busted apart, but they still taste great dried. 

Did some zucchini too and bell peppers and green beans. 

Everything has turned out great! They take about 24h to dry from start to finish. Peppers were the quickest with green beans a close second. 

I'm still experimenting with not using oxygen absorbers. I suppose that's something else I can Google... Surely someone else has had that question too. 

Protein Balls... With a Twist

Breastfeeding Burns so many calories. I found that I am starving when I wake up in the morning and need something quick to eat before I make breakfast. I actually got this recipe from a student back when I was teaching. She had done this as a demonstration speech in eighth grade. 

Over the years, I have made some modifications to make it less sweet and more nutrient dense- take out the chocolate chips and m& m's, and replace them with almond flour and coconut. Recently, I've taken to adding some brewers yeast and chia seeds. The brewer's yeast gives it a rich nutty flavor. 

This most recent time making them I went still more adventurous...

G is not afraid to eat many things, no matter the expiration date or how out there or interesting a product is. People know this about him and therefore clean out their pantries/fridges and give him their castoffs- the things they tried and didn't love, items close to their expiration date or past it, etc. It's fun to receive items we don't typically purchase! 

We were gifted some power food powders recently. I have used them in smoothies, but then I wondered how they'd work in my protein balls. 

So I added them. 

They turned the mix a lovely forest green color. Overall they didn't impact the flavor too much. If you concentrate, you get a hint of something grassy/earthy, but it doesn't bother me. I should ask G what he thinks. 

As usual, I had a kitchen helper. His trunk control is strong enough he can sit in a highchair to help! 

 

Circle of Life

We're down to two peachicks. 😕 One of the ones we waited so long to help didn't make it and two more got weaker and weaker until they died. Not sure why. 

But the remaining two look great! They make a gentle cooing sound pretty much non-stop. 

We set them up in a big tote in the garage right next to our latest batch of chicks. We're not sure how long we'll keep them around. It'll take a while before they make noise (if they're male), and it'd be fun to have some peacocks wandering the pasture, so we'll see. 

If we clip their wings, they might stay where they can't do too much destruction. 

The cats won't bother them once they're a certain size. Actually, I've noticed the cats avoid getting close to all the chickens. No doubt from past peckings... I recently witnessed a chicken peck a cat on the nose when it got too close!

Our oldest hen Dixie enjoys chasing the baloney treats my father-in-law brings over for the kittens. Speaking of kittens... One of the kittens died. Our neighbor found it partway up the driveway. It didn't look it had been run over, but that's probably what happened. We think it hitched a ride under a vehicle and fell off. 

Another kitten made it all the way to a house at the opposite end of Siesta Hills. The homeowner knows we have cats, so she contacted us to see if we were missing a kitten. Did the kitten hitch a ride? Go too far on a hunting trip? We'll never know. 

Chickens = Potato Chips

How are chickens like potato chips? You can't have just one. 😜 

Havenacre Homestead is way past just one chicken. We have Dixie, our Americana hen we got last year (from the original three!), four chicks were hatched from the faulty incubator (two of them are hens), and five chicks are from my dad's connections- three lavender orpingtons and two brown leghorns. Of the five, there are at least three roosters. 

So... It didn't take much arm twisting to pick up a few more chicks when they were half price at TSC. 😅

Seven made their way home with me- 2 buff orpington, 1 easter egger, 2 Americana, 1 buff cochin, and 1 partridge cochin. They've settled in nicely in the garage! The only downside is the other chickens just transitioned out of chick feed... Now we need to buy more feed. 🤷‍♀️

Adventures of Laura and Emily (and Jaron): Portland, Maine Edition

One of my dear college friends and I always go on a trip together each summer. Since Jaron is portable we decided to go somewhere further away, Maine! We were gone for four nights. Jaron did pretty well with the flights; he slept for the majority. We traveled lightly with just one backpack for each of us (Jaron included). 

I opted to leave the car seat at home. Our itinerary included mostly walking and a little public transportation. Turns out you don't need a car seat for either of those! 

We took the ferry to Peaks Island.

Two Civil War regiments gathered on Peaks Island every summer for a reunion - the 5th and the 8th, and they were rivals. The 5th built a house for them to gather in, and not to be outdone, the 8th followed suit. Now, the 5th is a museum. The 8th is still a boarding house, just like it was in the old days,and that's where we stayed! The 8th Maine Regiment house.

Our room reminded me of Austenland. 

Here's part of our view at low tide: 

Brown seaweed! I could never find a picture of that online when I taught 8th grade biology so I always take a picture when I come across it. 

I wore Jaron everywhere we went, sometimes in the front and sometimes in the back. Laura graciously carried the diaper bag (along with water and snacks).

One day we went into Portland and took a trolley tour of Old Port/the highlights of Portland. One stop was the iconic lighthouse everyone goes to when they visit. 

Most days we bummed around the island,walking and taking in the sites. So many cute houses on the island, many with special names. Can I remember any of them? No. This was my favorite house to walk past though. 

Smoke tree!

True blue flowers! These hydrangeas were all over the island.

Jaron enjoyed the 5th regiment museum. 

About half of Peaks Island got seized by the US government/army during WWII. They turned the island into the first line of defense against sea invasion. They put two giant guns on top of the hill and called it Battery Steele. These were shot just twice- one of those times was in training. The guns have long been sold off, but the bunker remains. You can access it by road or through a minimal trail through wilderness. We inadvertently found that pathway. 😅

This picture was on a walk along the edge of the island/sea. Our house is in the background above Jaron's head. 

Ferry ride!