Trins: Recently we had a goat...

...poop out deliver (spouse edit) two more goats.

Thanks Trins, that’s a great segue into another recent challenge. I almost decided against posting this but concluded that it may be useful info if others find themselves in a similar situation.

Wastewater was backing up into the toilets.  Assuming the worst, I searched for alternative solutions until we could identify the problem.  Digging holes in the woods (especially in the cold) didn’t seem reasonable so I researched composting options and discovered that most are expensive (~1k +) and some required power. Eventually I learned that the problem is not difficult to resolve.

The solution is access to lots of carbon, or sawdust.  Sawdust is placed in the bottom and added after every use (enough so that only sawdust is ever seen inside the bucket on the right). The carbon binds with nitrogen and reduces or eliminates odors. Over time there is additional bacterial breakdown of solids and possibly noticeable evaporation but eventually the bucket fills and can be emptied into a compost pile. As long as one isn’t on synthetic medications the waste turns into excellent odorless and nutrient rich topsoil after one year. Sounds strange but I learned that this isn’t that unusual of a practice.

Eventually I found the problem. A filter that is located before the drain field was clogged. I showed Trins how to remove, clean and re-install the filter so she can fix this problem the next time it happens.

Back to the goats, if you would like to "be there" right after new goats show up watch this video. As a bonus it includes a cameo appearance by Alfalfa from the Little Rascals.

We recently ran out of water...

...which offered us an opportunity to test our resilience. Showers are a great morale builder, especially when there is a long day ahead. With a failed well pump, you can still take a hot shower - if you have a stainless manually air compressed water tank. It works just like a garden sprayer except you can heat it with propane and pump it by hand to create pressure.

Turn the red lever on the left (where the hose leaves the tank) and a significant amount of water sprays out the nozzle on the right.

We're also better prepared with a giant external poly water tank. We've tried living three days off of water from this tank so far and learned that as a family we can get by with consuming 50 - 60 gallons a day and even less if you use the outdoor bathroom facilities (up to 40% of the drinking water in an average home is consumed by toilets). Just don't try and turn the knob when the temperature is freezing (the "ears" on the plastic faucet will break off. Trins thinks that's funny. No hot shower for Trins).

Freezing temps create snow and snow creates other challenges especially for rabbits raised on grass.  Theses guys are being housed in a culvert until the snow dissipates. (Our rabbits actually do better in the cold.)

Freezing temps can make it challenging to feed other animals. In this pic the goats are being provided with leaves and pine needles (Keena makes farming look glamorous - I guess it can be but not today, we lost two goat kids this morning).

Before it got cold we were busy with some usual maintenance items (hauling wears your breaks out faster than normal - I'm starting to delegate auto maintenance to TJ)

...and other occasional tasks like wild life control.  This is a pygmy rattler. Otto walked up and sniffed it. I yelled at the dog to back off and just as he did the rattler struck and missed.

Trins: Today's todo list says...

...hustle walnuts? What's that?

Oh yeah, we collect thousands of walnuts into the back of the truck,

And we dump them into a hopper from where they will eventually show up in people's kitchens all over the country.

Kinda like these chickens, except our walnuts are completely natural.

Like this beef, which came from a local farmer and will show up in a local kitchen.  The three oldest learned from our butcher how to do this the old fashioned way.  It doesn't get any fresher than this.  One may think that processing in an "approved" facility would be better, but... the problem with large factory operations is that the meat will come into contact with manure and it is given a chlorine bath.  That's in addition to undesirable hormones and medications that are commonly given to the animal along with a diet mostly of corn which increases the animal's amount of saturated fats and does not contain the same level of vitamins and minerals that a grass fed animal offers (the corn is also usually GMO, which is less nutritious than non-GMO corn, has traces of glysophate [Roundup weed killer] and or "Bt" - a toxin which kills some insects and which some studies show impairs the health of the animal).

We also went to the farm show.  There were probably a thousand vendors selling things from nutritional supplements to massively expensive tractor attachments.  Most things that directly relate to farming were about "improving performance," but they make you dependent upon their products and successful traditional farmers we've met argue that they make you poorer.  We agree. We know of an "approved" dairy that maintains "high performance" Jerseys which have been conditioned to require grain and medication. His milking parlor is a concrete and stainless steel shrine to the goddess of regulation and pasturization.  He confided in me that he can't make money and will likely be out of business in a few years. We know of two others that raise their cows on grass and rotational grazing without medications.  They are profitable and their businesses continue to grow.

Listen to your kids.

Keena sought my help in getting rid of wasps that were nesting near a door.  I think I said something like "nah, they won't bother you." A few days later I walked up to that door and immediately got stung in the back of the neck.  The next day I got stung on the side of the head and a few days later I was stung between my eyebrows.

Caleb recently harvested three gallons of honey from one of his older Italian colonies.  It's some of the best honey I've ever tasted (there are no commercial growers around so these bees have not been exposed to any herbicides or pesticides).  Pretty impressive for an "un-socialized" homeschooler.

In addition to a great meal, these guys could also be good pets, they act a little like puppies.

Girl power making apple cider. Trins and Liberty are working the grinder while Keena is working the press. This was at the home of some wonderful friends who have significantly more homesteading wisdom than us.

Here is a better pic of the press side.  The cider pours out the bottom into the stainless steel milking bucket. Sammy's bugging Liberty because he probably needs a refill.  It was delicious, no pasteurization necessary.

We recently helped our friends move into their nicely situated new farm, the sky seems bigger out there and the truck looks like it belonged in the country so I took a pic.

This is a new project.  I'm dismantling this barn to reuse the materials for building a different structure.

The nice thing about homeschooling in a big family is that you can go back - waaay back and review things you may have missed.

This isn't some feral kid that just ran out of the wood line, it's just another thing that's different about living in the country. There is no HOA to keep you from running around "ne ked," not even your mama can stop you.

The Lord answers prayer.

This rooster reminds us of that. When it was a chick three years ago, a predator got into the pen where he and other chicks were kept.  He was Blaise's favorite. We were able to find all of the other chicks except for him along with evidence of a bloody struggle. I was convinced the predator took him out and it saddened me to explain that to Blaise but Blaise prayed for his return. Miraculously the next day Blaise found him, I was amazed.

It is wonderful to have Caleb and TJ back (Caleb is still unloading the van); they've returned with a lot of knowledge from the farm internship and they are eager to implement what they have learned.  (It doesn't matter to Sammy who he hugs as long as it is someone).

We've also been able to partake of produce from the small garden Caleb established.  This is Keena's first taste of a beet straight from the garden. Observing Keena eat what initially looked like a purple dirt ball caused Sammy to put his pacifier down.

More pollen, I'm posting this pic because of the color, it changes as different flowers bloom and it was delicious as usual.

A local bridge, you don't see many like this anymore.

Another opportunity to save on a gym membership. The grim task of burying livestock (in rocky soil). Our perspective on livestock has changed considerably.  A year ago we would have all been sad (we think it died from a bacterial infection), but the reality is that it is not a bad thing if the animal does not perform well.  This one in particular was not a good mother and you don't want bad genetics (which includes behavior) to be passed on to future livestock. The better the animals perform (birthing, rearing, foraging, strong immunities, etc.) and the fewer the inputs (medications, store bought feed, etc.) needed the more likely your farm will be sustainable.

Here's something fun to try. Collect eggs at night without a flash light.  Apparently grabbing a big black snake munching on an egg feels just like holding a naked chicken.  Until you realize "but... all of my chickens... have feathers...."  Then you jump into the air and scream.  Just ask Calvin.

Another thing about farming...

...you need versatility.  What ever you  invest money in needs to be multipurpose.  This van has turned out to be a great multipurpose vehicle, it can handle a lot of tasks. It has a big engine, stiffer suspension and it's higher which is great for the water crossings.  It's almost like a great wife who can do all kinds of things (Tonya: "Really?  I'm like a van?  You're sleeping on the couch tonight.")

There are also some luxuries that don't seem like luxuries until you experience them.  There is nothing like getting out of bed (or off the couch) in the morning and having a cold glass of extremely creamy whole raw milk.  I'm not kidding. The girl in the back is a Jersey and has been proving awsome milk. The goat in the front is a Nubian and also provides very nutritious milk but it is not as creamy.  (Did you know that raw milk can actually hinder or suppress bacterial contamination unlike pasteurized milk because of an enzyme it contains? http://spiritfoods.net/health-benefits-of-raw-milk/)

It is now clear to me that Liberty is from around here.  On the way back from church we saw deer right on a spot where the sun was breaking thru the trees (looked like a scene from some Disney movie), and Liberty said "Oooh, deeer" and then after a pause she said "if we had a gun we could just shoot 'em."

We've made some upgrades to the back-woods water attraction. It's longer (I got another advertising tarp from a friend I've made out here) and Blaise added the trampoline to the beginning of the ride. Water is dumped out of a tub on the top of the trampoline and helps propel you down the hill.

We had another bee swarm.  So far we've captured four swarms and I need to get additional parts for hives soon.  Here we're checking on the progress of a new hive.  We check to see if/when they need expansion bodies and if they've been infected with parasites and add/maintain some passive devices to kill the parasites. Unfortunately there isn't enough honey yet to harvest from any hive.

But if we ate flies, there would be plenty to harvest. These guys can't wait to get in the house and bug Tonya.  We're still paying for not having a good fly mitigation technique months ago (arranging rabbit poop so the chickens can scratch thru it and eat the larve).

We're currently working thru some big challenges and re-thinking strategy.  One thing discussed months ago was the need for wisdom gleaned from successful farmers (those that are farming traditionally full time). Since I had plenty to do, we thought that Caleb could look into a 6 week internship at Rockin' H Ranch, a very respected and successful local farm, and come back to advise us in particular areas.  Caleb was eventually accepted along with TJ.

We dropped them off on Monday, it was very hard to do... but, we've learned that the knowledge you glean from those who are where you want to be saves countless hours and lots of money.  That is the biggest lesson we've learned so far.  (There are a lot of ways to do farming, it's amazing.  The big benefit of the wisdom is it enables you to mitigate some financial risks and build efficiency in early, so you don't needlessly consume hours later, it will also help keep one from getting burned out.  The challenge is if you don't know much about farming, who do you listen to?  You have to talk to a lot of farmers and consumers, observe farms and how they sell product, and slowly it becomes clearer what approaches one should take.)

So with our two oldest out, it was a great time for a bee swarm.  Keena was the first to alert me while my attention was consumed with other things "Dad, the bees are swarming."  Me: "What?  What are you talking about?"  I went to investigate and found a cloud of bees.  I asked Blaise to put on the gear (Caleb has been tutoring him) and this is what we found (actually I kind of yelled at Blaise to suit up, I didn't want to lose the swarm).  I don't have a suit, and I've been told that when they swarm they are very docile so I took a chance.  In this pic I've already trimmed limbs and I'm about to cut the branch so we can carry it over to a hive body.  I'm wearing a t-shirt with no gloves, it felt like I was in the middle of an indoor shopping mall during the holidays wearing only tighty whities.  Amazingly I never got stung.

Blaise successfully put them into a brooder hive body.  Here he is spraying the frames and bees with sugar water to encourage them to stay.

He later provided his assessment, it was the Italian hive that swarmed.  I'm very proud of my 12 year old homeschooled kid.

Getting back to the statement I started the post with.  A friend from church who is a human version of a search engine (he should have had a part in the Matrix, he could have been some kind of side kick for the Oracle) sent me this link (thanks Ralph): http://www.artofmanliness.com/2013/06/05/9-rules-for-starting-your-own-farm/.  I think it sums up farming very well.  But despite some significant challenges we're encouraged.  We now have a much better understanding of what it takes to produce food and a lot more confidence that we can do it.

Hay Day

Smart phones are awesome, I'll update the blog while waiting for this train to pass...

Whoa, check that out, a fan tagged this rail car (if that was you Mom, spell out the URL so we'll get more page views).

On to farming.  We spent the day with another farm family learning hay.

Caleb and Calvin have found comfortable farm boy poses. TJ had a pose malfunction.

Blaises' pose is a little more sophisticated.

Gloves would have been nice.  I asked Calvin to clean out the van before we left and he cleaned out the van - even the pairs of gloves I had set aside. One time I asked Trins to remove tools from the van before a trip to AR and she removed the tools - even the ones that came with the van, the ones that allow you to change a flat tire. I didn't realize it until... I had to change a flat tire in AR!

This cat smells fresh.  (Sammy: "Do cawts poop each odder out like goawts?")

Babysitting cows for friends is awesome, they mow the lawn and we can drink their milk (Sammy: "Dats wight, fwesh mik fo my sippy cup.")

A fun and interesting place to get stuck (A little more on this pic: this was taken in the AM but we got stuck the night before around 11pm on Sunday.  I had to check the animals but I wanted company and Tonya was in her PJs ready for bed but I talked her into going along (Tonya: "I'll just wait in the van in my comfy PJs while he's checking, what's the worst thing that could happen?")  The walk back to bed was at least a mile long, no kidding.  (Thinking back about what that was like makes me laugh as I write this, don't tell Tonya).

At the farmer's market.  These two did extremely well answering questions and selling product, I was impressed.