How much do our pigs weigh?

Today a friend posted on Facebook how much her pigs weighed.  I wondered how she weighed them.  She used this method http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2006/01/13/how-to-weigh-a-pig-with-a-string/  I'd seen this before but had never done it myself. 

The folks who gave me my new goat, Darcy, came for a farm tour this afternoon.  I asked for their help giving the goats shots and measuring my pigs.  They obliged and were good sports about it even though one of the goats they had to hold was my stinky buck.  They even allowed me to take pictures while they helped. 

To find a pig's weight we were to measure the length of them from where the tail meets the torso to the point right between the ears.

 We also measured their girth, right behind their front legs.

Once we had these numbers we multiplied the length of the pig by the girth, then took that number and multiplied it by the girth measurement again and then divided it by 400.  The numbers were higher than I expected and I don't know how accurate they are.  If they are in fact accurate, then Roxie is 594 lbs and Calvin is 210 lbs.  I might believe Calvin is 210 but could Roxie really be that big?  It's hard to say.  I would have put her in the 400 to 500 lb. range. 

Hobbes wouldn't stand still long enough for us to get his measurements but we're guessing he's pretty close in weight to Calvin.  It's sad to think about saying goodbye to these two boys but they're getting close to butchering weight.  I think we took our last pig to the butcher around 300 lbs. 

Pigs are such interesting and cool animals.  I'd like to raise more.  We hope to have Roxie bred in the next month for babies in July.  I'm already looking forward to having piglets again.
 

Everyone needs a banana slicer

My friend Mollie posted this on Facebook and I was going to "share" it on there but it was just too good not to put on my blog too.  You need to read the reviews.  I thought I'd have a heart attack reading them I laughed so hard.  If you've been struggling with  winter blues then you need to read them too.  If you suffer from incontinence you may need your Depends for this one.  Trust me.  http://www.amazon.com/Hutzler-5717-571-Banana-Slicer/dp/B0047E0EII/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Read on http://www.amazon.com/review/R1A8ZYV4SN8EAC/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R1A8ZYV4SN8EAC

The new girl

This cold weather has really been getting to me.  I'm grumpy and need some sunshine and new life here on the farm.  When kidding season begins it feels like spring and bouncing babies bring new life and excitement.  Oh, how I can't wait for that.

I did have a little newness and excitement here this week.  I received a phone call shortly after hanging up the phone with my friend Susan where I said I'm enjoying my smaller herd of goats going into kidding season.  The woman on the other end told me we'd met but I didn't recognize the name.  This is a very common occurrence for me these days - not remembering.  She had to rehome a goat and I was the first person she thought of.  Apparently this 4 year old goat had been the companion of a man who recently died.  The woman on the phone adopted him to be a companion to her horse.  Unfortunately her horse was not fond at all the this little girl.  Nor was their dog who chewed off 1/3 of her ear in a confrontation.  These things happen on a farm.  It's tough and discouraging. 

Hmm, so, would I be interested in this goat?  She had horns.  I said I'd never own another goat with horns.  I was told she was a saanen, which was the first goat I'd ever owned and had led me to own goats today.  Well, she's not a saanen and that was a disappointment but that's ok.  She's a sweet goat and she hasn't tried to hurt anyone with her horns. When I brought her home she was in heat and Cooper was happy to meet her needs so if all goes well Darcy (that's the name her previous owner gave her.  Before that it was Billy Jo) will have babies the end of June, beginning of July. 

The goats, Chy and Wilson (the standard donkeys) accepted her into their family with very little drama.   Keri, on the other hand, was not at all happy that an intruder was amongst "her" goats.  Fortunately they met through a fence while Keri snarled at her and Darcy stomped her feet.  I found this a bit stressful and wondered what I'd gotten myself into.  Things were going so smoothly until I interrupted their happy family.  I gave Keri 5 days to watch Darcy interact with the others and see that she was welcome.  Today I let Keri in with the others while lecturing her and telling her Darcy was a good goat and Keri was a good girl when she didn't attack her.  So far so good.  Darcy still has what ears she arrived with and Keri has no holes in her sides from Darcy's horns.  I breathed a sigh of relief and I think it's all going to be ok. 

Welcome Darcy.

The wine bottle experiment

Have you ever been out of town and NEEDED  to open a bottle of wine in your hotel room but found you had no corkscrew?  No, me neither.  I always travel with a corkscrew.  But if this has happened to you, have no worries.  Thanks to my friend, Sherry, who posts very important things on Facebook - ways of the world, critical political news stories, things I need to know.  Today she posted something I may need to know in an emergency.  Please watch and take notes - In French.

Of course I couldn't resist trying this out for myself so I rounded up my also-curious-ever-so-cooperative-partners-in-crime and we have our attempt right here for your viewing pleasure.  I won't give away whether the experiment was successful or not.  You're just going to have to watch all the videos to see for yourself.  I should mention one of my most responsible, logical, and dare I say, smarter teammates suggested we do this in the basement where there are drains in the floor.  Just thought I'd mention that so you don't think I have plaster and paint falling off my walls in our livable space.  Ok, disclaimer out of the way.  Here we go.

Shucks.  Let's try again.  One of the teammates thinks this is bull----.

Did we give up?  No we did not!

So there you have it.  When I did a Youtube search for "Open Wine Bottle With Shoe" there were many other videos so we're not the only ones who couldn't resist this magic trick.  I didn't, however, see my friend Sherry's attempt on there.

First meat curing - need more practice

I didn't want to make the title of this blog Duck Prosciutto because I didn't want someone randomly doing a search for it and come upon my blog since I'm experimenting myself.

A friend gave us this great book, Charcuterie - The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.  I've been really excited about trying out some of the recipes so we can have our own bacon, prosciutto, smoked ham, sausage, etc.  We have a freezer full of meat and 2 pigs to butcher yet this year so it might be a good idea to cure some of it so it doesn't have to be kept in the freezer.  Plus, I think learning charcuterie is going to be really cool. 

My first attempt was duck confit and duck prosciutto.  Duck confit is basically duck legs (or other parts) seasoned and then stored in fat before cooking.  I didn't have enough duck fat to cover it so I had to use some lard I had rendered from a pig in the past.  It was too salty for me and it didn't fall apart or melt in my mouth like I had expected.  I didn't even take pictures so you know it was a bust.  It was eaten though.

The duck prosciutto was better but by no means something I'd be pleased with if I was served it at a restaurant.  I think part of the problem was my breasts were too small - story of my life.   I followed this recipe http://makeprojects.com/Project/Duck+Breast+Prosciutto/702/1  which was the same recipe as in my book but see how thick their breasts were

and then here are my breasts before they were dried

after they were salted for 24 hours

And then after 7 days of drying.

See how I have almost as much fat as I do meat?  It tasted ok but was better when cooked like bacon.  I had some with my eggs in the morning and then cooked the rest and put it in a quiche for dinner, which was tasty.   Still, it was nothing like prosciutto from pork like we had in Italy.  

Now I have a leg of goat marinating in the refrigerator for 18 days which will then be rinsed off and dried for a few (?) months before we can eat it.  I hope it's better than the duck.  This recipe came off the internet.  My book didn't have any recipes for goat meat.

More to come.

Tonight's dinner?  Nothing fancy, stewed rooster with sweet potatoes and turnips. 






 

Animals and the cold

It's cold here.  The past few mornings have been in the upper teens.  Luckily it's been sunny during the day so it's not as bad as I'd anticipated.

I used to worry more about my animals in the cold weather.  I've since learned my animals have it good compared to many of my internet friend's critters.  Many of the folks in my mammoth donkey Yahoo group have been having temps around -10.  Brrrrr. 

Last night a friend called to ask me if my pigs would be ok in this cold.  I thought it was a bit strange he'd worry about my pigs and not the goats, rabbits, donkeys, etc.  I told him the pigs had the horse trailer with hay in it and each other to curl up with.  I should have told  him people raise pigs in Alaska too and they don't heat their barns.  Hmmmm, come to think of it, this could be the reason he asked.  He's our electrician and we haven't hired him for a job in awhile.  Maybe business is slow and he wants us to build a barn with electricity. 

Keri sleeps with the goats in their barn now.  I'd love to know if they curl up next to her since she's so nice and furry but if I snuck out there at night she'd notice and come barking before I could get a peek.  It took awhile but they've finally bonded, especially Luti and Keri.  I had them all in our big field for awhile and Luti would follow Keri all over the place, which meant all the other goats had to follow along, much to fat Pessa's chagrin.  It's a lot more work for her to keep up but probably good exercise.  Even in the pouring rain Keri would stay outside the goats' little house (in the field) instead of going to the other shelter for cover, which was much farther away.  I'm glad she takes her job seriously.  I should mention that Chy and Wilson, my standard donkeys, really missed them while they were over there and were glad when they returned.  One day I saw Keri rolled over onto her back and Wilson sniffing her belly.  I think she thought he was going to rub it. 

Of all the animals, Keri is the one I worry about the least in this weather.  We took her for a walk around the field the other day and instead of walking in the grass she stayed in the snow and even took a moment to roll in it.

55 days and 1 hour till spring.

The cook, the nourisher, the whiner

Here's another posting I found in my draft folder.  I wonder if I was in a bad mood the day I wrote this.  I think it was written over a year ago since I haven't been in a bad mood since then.   snort

I don't know if this is a woman thing or just a Karen thing.  I like to cook for my family (most of the time).  James has always been the family provider financially so I feel like I'm supposed to provide the nourishment.  I take pride in my cooking (again, most of the time).  Today I realized I'm expecting too much from the rest of my family when it comes to showing appreciation for my attempt at pleasing their palettes.  Afterall, I don't say to James every day, "wow, good job at earning a living so we can pay our mortgage".  Or, "you're so awesome working all day long when you could be out playing like I am".  I should add here that James and Adam rarely (maybe never) get up from the table without saying, "thanks for dinner". 

What I'm referring to is how when I yell up the stairs, "time to eat", and they don't jump right up, I think, what? you want MY dinner to get cold?  If I've thought early in the day about what I'm going to cook I might get offended if Adam tells me at the last minute he's not going to be here for dinner.  Didn't he KNOW I left out 3 pork chops, not just 2?  Harumph!

When I was a teenager my boyfriend's mother would get irritated if anyone asked what's for dinner.  She also got pissed off if they put their grubby fingers in the food while she was cooking.  I never knew what the big deal was......until now.  I also hate when I say, "are you going to be here for dinner?" and the response that follows is, "what are we having?"  or "I don't know, what time are we eating?"

It's also not all that unusual for me to leave out 3 pork chops and Adam asks 15 minutes before dinner if 4 other people can eat here.  I have to admit I'd prefer this scenario to no one showing up.  That seems a little odd, doesn't it? 

That's where I quit writing.  Maybe I didn't know how to wrap it up.  I'll see if I can do that now.  Since Adam doesn't live here most of the time I probably don't feel this way very often.  I rarely get dinner on the table before 6:30 or 7:00 so James is hungry by then and it doesn't take long for him to show up.   Also, he never asks what's for dinner, or invites friends without asking me, or decides at the last minute he's not eating here.  One day I'll probably miss these things and think, if only someone would ask what's for dinner.  Or maybe I'll wish more folks showed up with big appetites at the last minute. 

Perhaps I should save this again as a draft and see how I feel in another couple years. 

Time to eat!

PS.  James, thank you for earning a living so I can put food on our table. 




 

Birth Order

Today I was looking at some of the drafts I had saved for my blog but had never used.  Many of them I deleted but a few I saved in case I may want to use them at a later date.  I came across this one on birth order when I was finding this so interesting.  I thought it might be amusing to some of you other last born children.  I don't know where I got the information but I copied it from the internet and pasted it with my remarks in orange.                                                                                                                                                         

Last born children tend to be the easiest to define when it comes to the correlation between birth order and personality, this is mostly due to the fact that there is only one main type of last born.

 

Last Born Traits

• Risk takers  I never thought of myself as a risk taker but maybe in some ways.  I'm the only one in my family to move away. 
• Idealists  Yeah, I think I am.
• Good sense of humor  I don't know.  You tell me.
• Hard working  I think I'm hard working at things I like and not so hard working at things I don't.
• Immature  I beg your pardon.
• Attention seeking  Of course.  Why do you think I keep a blog?
• Secretive  That's for me to know and you to find out.
• Sensitive  Depends on what they mean by sensitive.  Do I get feelings hurt easily?  Not easily but occasionally.  Sensitive to other's needs?  I hope so.

Last born children are often considered the baby of the family, and live up to this role. At times it is difficult for the last born child to find his/her place in the family, as the first and middle child have already left huge footprints to follow in, and carved their own niche into the family.

Strengths V.S. Weaknesses

	Category Strengths Weaknesses Traits Outgoing, sociable, affectionate, caring, creative, empathetic, and confident. Pardon me while I pat myself on the back. Spoiled, manipulative, immature, self-centered, and capricious. Hey, I resent that but I do think it's funny they use the word "capricious" since "caprine" is another word for goat. Career Careers in sales, or invention corporations work well because of their ability to sell things, including themselves, work well alone, want to be the boss, and just do their own thing at their own pace.  I like the part about doing my own thing at my own pace and I can be pretty bossy. Do not like to be tied down to committment I hate having appointments, can be perceived as "cut throat"  I don't think so, try too hard at times, alternative routes in life may make them the odd man out. Definitely odd.

Fun Facts

• Famous last born children: Howard Stern, Jay Leno, Ralph Nadar, Bill Gates, and Danny DeVito
• Tend to go against the norm
• Make the biggest stirs in life
• Know no boundaries

Cheese - It's what's for breakfast

Every month I get a cheese newsletter from the company I buy some of my cheese making supplies from, New England Cheesemaking Supply.  Reading it always makes me want to make cheese.  It also makes me hungry.  Since all our girls are dried up now I don't have milk to make cheese so this morning I just had to eat it instead of make it. 

I've been experimenting with cheesemaking for 3 or 4 years and just when I think I understand what makes a good cheese, I take one out of the cheese cave (wine refrigerator) and I don't like it.  The biggest problem I've had is some cheeses have an acidic taste.  I don't really know how to describe it.  I've fed many of these cheeses to the dogs and pigs.  They like them just fine.  Cheese connoisseurs they're not.

I'd been sealing my cheeses with my Food Saver and that helped prevent unwanted molds but occasionally one of the cheeses would be wet and those were the ones that had this acidic taste.  I think I need to let them air dry longer before sealing.  My last 2 cheeses, a gruyere and a monterey jack, were left unwrapped in the cave.  I couldn't wait to see how they tasted.  This morning I cut into the monterey jack, which is only 2 months old but it looked very dry and had a pinkish hue to the rind.  Hold on one moment while I pat myself on the back...........................
It's really good.  I like that it has a more developed rind than the ones that are in sealed plastic.  There's more flavor than some of my cheeses that were wrapped and much older.  I won't cut the gruyere until this one is gone but I hope it's just as good or better.  I'm sure I don't have it figured out yet but I'm going to keep trying.  I can't wait till kidding season and we have our own goat milk again.  Luckily we have plenty of cheese to get us through the winter. 

Cheese and crackers were a good breakfast but maybe I shouldn't have eaten so much in one sitting. 



 

Don't feel loved?

If you don't feel loved then you need pets.  Sometimes we're loved a little too much by our animals. 

Today James and I were working on the boat project.

http://i1019.photobucket.com/albums/af317/kpannabecker/025.jpg

As we did, 3 big donkey heads hung over the gate huffing and complaining because they wanted to come out to be with us.  This would have been a very bad idea (though I considered it) because they'd rub against the posts we just concreted in the ground.

Just as we finished up Keri appeared.  She had squeezed through the fence and water trough (a tight squeeze for a big dog) to be in the fenced in area with the donkeys.  She couldn't get to us either but she sure wanted to. 

I walked back through the field to put a wiggly Keri back with the goats where she belonged when my phone rang.  It was a neighbor asking me if we had an old brown boxer.  Lex was in the road but couldn't get through the gate to be in the field with us. We were gone from the house too long, I guess.

I think if the chickens were smart enough they'd have crossed the road too.  Every time I walk out my back door I'm surrounded by chickens waiting for me to feed them.  I'm not sure they really love me but they appreciate me, I think. 

The more animals - the more love.  That's how I see it. 

Thank goodness for tame pigs

There's rarely a dull moment at Elk Cliff Farm. 

Strange car drives up the lane, "there's a huge pig running in the road."

Me - running up the road calling for Roxie.  She hears me call her and comes running.

Cars are stopped in the road watching.  As she follows me a man in a truck, laughing, says, "they come when they're called?  I say yeah, just as Roxie turns around and heads back the opposite direction in a panic. 

Finally she turns around again, still running (she's pretty fast for such a big girl), and jogs with me just about back to the gate where James meets us and heads her off so she will follow me back to the safety of her field.  Woman in another car watches, laughing.

It appears a gate had been left open and Roxie found an exit through the second fence to the road.  The other pigs and donkeys were also outside their first fence but luckily not out the second.  They all followed us calmly back.  I'm so glad they cooperate when it's really important.

I think every type animal we own has been in the road at least once.  What kind of farmers are we?

Walnuts, peanuts, goatnuts

Nuts are good for you, right?  James and I eat lots of them, mostly peanuts, but we like just about any nut.

Yesterday we took 4 goats to the butcher.  Joe-the-butcher asked, "do you want the oysters?" 

"Ummm, I don't think so."  I answered.  I know we should be using as many parts of our animals as we can if we're going to raise them for food but I just didn't know how I'd use testicles, other than feeding them to the dogs. 

I told James what Joe asked and my adventurous (and maybe a little nuts) husband said, "sure, we should get them".  I don't know what he had in mind for them but today I asked if he'd eat testicles if I fixed them.  "Sure, I'd try 'em". 

So now I'm looking forward to this event, and it WILL be an event.  Maybe not of this magnitude

but still, an event I'll want to get on video.  After Googling goat testicles (believe-it-or-not, there's quite a bit on this subject) I found a few ways I may try to prepare them.  Seeing them on skewers doesn't look very appealing so that's out.

But as a pizza topping or fried I might even consider eating them (after a few glasses of wine). 

For certain, we will not be eating them raw and they'll have to be disguised in some way.  Are you finding this hard to swallow? 

Another first for us is we'll be getting the hides back (along with all the organs and bones) and I plan to tan them.  I don't know what I'll do with them if I'm successful at it but I want to give it a try.

We haven't fired up our brick oven lately.  Anyone interested in sharing some pizza with us?

Ringing in the new year

Ring out the old, ring in the new,

Ring, happy bells, across the snow:

The year is going, let him go;

Ring out the false, ring in the true.

                               

                                     Tennyson

We actually stayed awake to ring in the new year.  Well, we didn't really "ring" it in.  We blew obnoxious horns but the new year came just the same.  Some friends invited us to celebrate with them and about 9 other couples.   It was a great night - fun people, excellent food, circus animals
and entertainment that I can't even find words to describe.



It was a distinguished group.



For the most part the party was laid back and no one got out of hand ........that is until James had a few

and threw the potatoes and broke the china.  I hope we're invited back. 

Happy New Year, Everyone.  Great things are going to happen in 2013.  I can feel it.

A shared blog

James and I began a new blog tonight. I'll say no more about it but here's the link. http://hersteadandhisstead.blogspot.com/

Roxie at work

Today I videoed Roxie working on her nest.  This is what pigs do when they're getting ready to have babies also.  She's not pregnant.  She's just making her house comfortable for the winter.  My friend, Susan, blogged about animals' senses recently.  I'm wondering if Roxie sensed that snow was coming and that's why she made this nest a few days ago before the snow came.  She's still working on it.  I love watching her at work. 

http://youtu.be/SLasyR26my4

Our donkeys have great senses too.  We've taken Mac on trail rides and he can always find his way back even if the trails are hidden and we don't tell him to turn.  There was a time we didn't see where the turn was but he did.

My friend, Mollie and her family, rescued a baby squirrel over a year ago.  Her name is Lottie.  Mollie's last two blog posts were about Lottie and I think you'll enjoy seeing how smart this squirrel is and how she's become part of their family.  Last year she slept with the Mollie's daughters and if you read through past posts you'll find some other really cute stories about her.
http://providence-farm.blogspot.com/

Since this is kind of a random post about animals I might as well add this too.  One of our friends lost his dog yesterday.  Her name was Zoe and she was 19 years old.  Isn't that amazing?  I've never heard of a dog living that long.  That's like 133 years old in humans.

Sweet Zoe


 

Goats

I haven't blogged about my goats lately, have I?  All the girls are dried up so I'm not milking now.  I hate that I had to buy milk last week.  I am, though, enjoying the break for the moment.   We have enough cheese to get us through the winter so that's nice.  I also put some milk in the freezer for soap and lotion.

Yesterday a friend came to visit.  She brought me a gift she "knew" I'd like.  She was very right.  You will see why she was so sure I'd like it.

Today James told me I got some mail from someone in Tennessee.  I couldn't think of who in TN would be sending me something.  Remember the Halloween dress-up contest my Mid-Atlantic Minis Yahoo group had?  Well, Cooper won the funniest goat costume award (even though I don't think this was even a category.  I think the list moderator made it up for his and my sake).  He also won 3rd place overall.  The piece of mail I received was this certificate.

I think I'm going to frame this and hang it in their barn. 

My pigs don't need me

Our 3 pigs live on about 10 acres of pasture.  There's a lot of grass for them to root up and eat so they don't need the pellet food and slop I give them every day to survive.  They might grow slower but they'd survive.  They also have a self-filling trough so they don't need me to fill water buckets for them either.  There are two 8X8 structures in their field which they use for shelter.  Now that it's turned colder they seem to prefer the one that gets the sun longest.  This used to be a goat house but they've taken it over since the goats moved out.  They would probably be fine without a structure since there's still a lot of tall grass out there but these houses make things much more comfortable for them, especially on cold, windy and wet days. 

Tonight when I went down to visit them I saw how homey Roxie had made things in their house.  Instead of waiting for me to put hay in there for them to sleep in, (which I wasn't planning to do anytime soon since I'm so stingy with hay), she decided to do it herself.  She built a berm of dirt to block the doorway somewhat and then picked lots of grass and made a big nest behind the berm.  It looks very cozy now.  I wonder how long it took her to pull up all this grass to fill at least half the house.   I should have taken a picture but it was so cold and windy and Calvin and Hobbes were pestering me for food and I wanted to get back to our house.  I'm sure they didn't help with the housekeeping.  They're busy little guys but I think their busy-ness is focused on feeding their piggy little faces, not helping their mom.   They're still really cute. 

Smart animals, pigs.  I want to get a video of one of the pigs I sold to a neighbor to show you how a pig can be trained to do tricks.  I won't give it away now.  I'll wait to post the video of her. 

 

The boat project

Remember this?

We got this boat "free" off Craiglist.  It cost us $200.00 to move it to our property where it would sit for another 2 years before we did anything to it.  Last year on my birthday we gutted it.  Again, it sat.  Until today. We've begun constructruction.  "The boat project" is in full swing.  Haha.  We dug 2 holes today and then laid down in the field and watched the birds soar overhead, watching how they flew and wondering if they knew each other.  We didn't want to overdo it.  Our plans are to jack the boat up, build a deck around it with storage underneath to store our kayaks etc.  When the deck is done we plan to finish the inside of the boat to sleep in.

Two holes today and maybe two more next week.  At this rate we'll be sleeping in the boat by the year 2020, that is, if the world doesn't end this Friday.  As we were digging holes James asked me if I'd still be doing this if I knew the world was really going to end this week.   I answered, yes.  Spending time with him working on a project in our field with the river running by and chatting about nothing and everything?  What else would I want to do? 
 

Ghost in the house

Our house was built in the early 1870s by Colonel Anderson for his daughter as a wedding gift.  She bore a son who became a senator of the state of Washington then in his later life came back to Elk Cliff Farm for his final years.  He died in one of the bedrooms and we're told the door was locked so they had to get to him through the window (this bedroom is upstairs).  There are locks on many of our doors so he had a thing about locks, it appears.  Another family lived here between him and us so it could have been them who put the locks on the doors but I think it was the senator. 

Our house was in pretty rough condition when we bought it so we didn't live in it for 2 years while we got it back in shape.  While I was working here there were several instances where doors were locked when I was sure I didn't lock them.   Once our house was completed and we moved in the locking of doors stopped.  We had been told by the grandson of the woman who owned the house before us that he had seen a ghost here and how the ghost sat at the bottom of one of the beds.  We found all of this amusing and it has never bothered us. 

I had forgotten about the ghost because we haven't had any strange happenings in years.  This past weekend we had some friends stay here and in the morning our friend told us she slept well but a ghost kept closing her door when she left it ajar.  She told us this as if it was no concern to her.  She was sleeping in the room the senator died in.  She said any time she got up during the night she'd leave the door cracked a bit but then later it would be shut tight.   I would understand if it happened the other way - door shut but then got opened - because our dog sometimes pushes doors open during the night.  I found it interesting that this friend didn't find it at all disturbing.  She said he didn't bother her.

No one else who has slept in this room has experienced a ghost since we've owned it.  I wonder what made the senator choose this friend to pay a visit to.
 

Time away from the farm

I drove to Salisbury, NC Tuesday to have dinner with a group of friends and to deliver 2 goats to their new owner.  The goat move went really well and I had a great time celebrating the holidays with longtime girlfriends.  We've been getting together for at least 15 years, I think.   They get together every month for dinner but this was the first time I joined them this year.   There are 10 of us in the group but 2 couldn't make it Tuesday night.

On my way home I stopped to see my donkey, Willo, at Paco Cavallo Farm.  Alice is Willo's trainer.  She usually trains miniature horses.  I think this is her first mammoth donkey she's trained.  Willo has been there 5 weeks now and is doing really well.  Alice says Willo's smart, and while I was already pretty sure of that, it was good to hear.  Willo has become very attached to Alice and follows her everywhere.  I have to admit I was a bit jealous.  Alice also calls herself Mama to Willo.  Hmmm, I hope she returns her.  Here's one of her exercises.  Alice says Willo likes to show off and sometimes goes and touches the obstacles like she wants to practice.  Her husband, Tom, also said she's really smart and does whatever they ask her to do.  I was proud.  I tried to embed this video but couldn't for some reason.  Here's a link to it.
http://youtu.be/ZpkSxiuO1tc

She's working with her in the saddle, has taught her some ground manners, to lower her head to accept a halter or bridle and this week will work on trailer loading.  I'm hoping she will be able to teach her to pull the cart in the next month so she can return home.  It was good seeing them.  It also gave me ideas for how to train Wilson, my young standard donkey.

I've lost that blogging feeling

I can't seem to get excited about blogging or Christmas.  Something really good needs to happen to snap me out of it.  Yawwwnnn.  It's not going to happen tonight.

Still eating turkey

I think I can say raising turkeys this year was a success, even though we did lose some to predators. 

After butchering on the weekend before Thanksgiving we kept a very large turkey (18-20 lbs?) out for our holiday meal.  A meal for just the 2 of us because Adam was staying in the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving.  On Wednesday some friends invited us to join them in their feast so we wouldn't be alone.  Honestly, I don't think I begged or laid on a sob story.  Did I, Phyllis and Tim?  We had a great time celebrating with 2 other families.  It was much more festive than just the 2 of us at home.  The hosts also have a donkey, goats, chickens, ducks and a garden so we share many interests.  Next we're going to turn them on to pigs.  I don't think it's going to take much coaxing.

We decided to cook up our turkey the day before Thanksgiving, have some that night and then freeze some.  It was delicious.  Of course we cooked up the bones to make soup and we also kept some in the refrigerator to make turkey sandwiches.  

Here it is 8 days post Thanksgiving and we're still eating Turkey.  I think we had several different variations of turkey soup 4 nights in a row and also for lunch.  We had a turkey noodle casserole and turkey pot pie, which we're going to finish up tonight.  I'm not tired of it and James is too polite to tell me he's had enough.  Does everyone do this?  I guess it depends on how much you like turkey and how creative you can be with it.   The turkey pot pie was James' idea.  I was beginning to run out of ideas.  I guess we can still do a turkey stir-fry.

It reminds me of summer when zucchini or green beans are the vegetable-of-the-month.  You find many ways to cook it and eat it fresh for as long as you can. 

Mac is a good sport

Our property is surrounded on three sides by water - The James River and Elk Creek.  It doesn't keep dogs home but none of the other animals seem to want to cross the water.  That is, until today.  I put a halter and lead on Mac and walked him down to the creek.  I crossed - he crossed.  He hardly blinked an eye.  We walked over rocks, stepped over logs and still he kept going.  Every now and then I had to coax him but eventually he'd do it.  We walked down to the river.  He seemed very interested in it.  He was even more interested in some of the really green grass growing along the river.   I can't wait till summer to see if I can get him to walk waist deep in it with me on his back.  I was so proud of him. 

 

Billy in a bind

This is Cooper cooped up under the chicken coop. 

I knew he was stuck when he didn't come out to eat with the others.  He was shivering a little too but I don't know what that was about.  At 11:00 he was still there so I asked James to help get him out.  He just couldn't get over that 4 inch board so James had to dig the dirt from the front of it to remove the screws so the board could come off. 

Cooper crawled out very easily after that.  We left the board off.  I saw him under there a short while later chasing Tila who is in heat.  He's a doofus.  A sweet but stinky doofus.

Mac, James and I went on our first trail ride on Sunday.  I didn't want to go alone so James went with me.  I rode out and James rode him back.  Mac picked up the pace a lot on the way back so James got a faster ride.  I was pleased with how well he did.  I won't ride in the woods any day but Sunday now because it's hunting season. 

About a month ago Adam took a ride too but not on Mac.

 His ride was also pretty fast.  This picture makes me laugh.  I love the way Adam has his arm out like he's riding a bucking bronco.

They're gone

The scene of the crime.

Evidence.

The bodies.

8 Baby bunnies, Awwwww

Both litters were born almost 3 weeks ago. 

My wine cellar

These are my aging wines at different stages.

That's the equivalent of about 150 bottles of wine. 

The very dark ones are wineberry.  They're about ready to be bottled.  The pinkish ones are beet and strawberry.   The beet wine has a lot of clearing to do yet and will end up as dark as the wineberry when it's done.

Now this bright orange juice looking one is new to me.  It's sweet potato wine.  It's made with sweet potatoes and raisins.  James and I dug up LOTS of sweet potatoes so I thought I should try a new wine.  It's going to take a long time to clear.  Look at the sediment in the bottom of this jug already.

I have high hopes for this wine believe-it-or-not.  When I syphoned it from the primary fermentor to the secondary it actually tasted good.  I read it's best to age this wine at least 6 months but even better to age for a year. 

So far the biggest hit year after year is the beet wine.  Shocking!   It's very earthy and it seems like everyone who tastes it is surpised - in a good way.  The wineberry comes in second. 

A note on that moldy charcoal-added cheese I blogged about recently:  It has aged to taste like blue cheese and I really like it.  Tonight we had grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches using that blue(ish) tasting cheese and it was awesome. 

Footie Pajamas

This is a pretty cute young family wearing their hoodie footie pajamas.

Don't you think we could be the older folks' ad for footie pjs?

We need to get some pjs like this for Lex.

note to my friend Emily:  You know you love them.  You're going to go out and buy some, aren't you?

Canned air and gas logs

It seems like every year I struggle to light the gas logs (any gas logs) for the first time after 3 seasons of rest.  I can never get the pilot to stay lit.  Last year someone told me to vacuum everything real well.  It worked.  Last year, that is.  This year I vacuumed and vacuumed to no avail.  The pilot would go out as soon as I released the button.  The flame was blue and yellow also, not just blue as I knew it was supposed to be.  So I went to my good friend, Google, to get help. 

There are forums for just about every topic you can think of and that's where I found the solution to my problem.   The first person suggested I needed a new thermocouple.   I wanted another answer so I read further.  Someone else said, "don't waste your money, try this first".   Aha, the answer I wanted.   Something simple.

 

About 2 inches behind where the spark comes out there's a small hole.  I sprayed the canned air into this hole.  Voila!  We have fire.  We also had a burner that wasn't working on our gas stove and the canned air fixed it right up too.

Unfortunately the canned air can't help us with another problem we're now having.   We have no water.  Our well pump must have died.  Wouldn't you know it waited to die until Friday after 5 PM.  Nothing ever dies on a weekday, does it?  We're lucky we have another well in the field where the pigs and donkeys are.  We've been filling buckets of water until we're back in service.  If we need showers we can always go to our cabin 4 miles away.  Who needs a shower, right?    I know many people in NJ and NY are without power and this doesn't even compare to what they're going through.

Soft Pretzels

I made these today.

There are only 3 left out of 12 and I don't think they'll be here tomorrow morning.  My friend, Layla, was double fisting them so I think I got her approval.

Here's the recipe I followed.  http://www.reluctantgourmet.com/blog/appetizers/soft-pretzels/ The only changes I made are I used real maple syrup instead of malt syrup.  All the ingredients are in ounces so I used my scale to weigh everything but here are a few conversions for you in case you don't want to weigh or convert by Googling.  I hope they're accurate.  I measured by weight not volume so I don't know if my numbers match the conversions by Googling.
2 oz of butter =  4 Tbl.
11.5 oz water =  not quite 1.5 cups.  A glass measuring cup has the ounces on it.
3/4 oz yeast = 7 1/2 tsp.  I measured it out as 2 Tbl. on my scale so these numbers don't match.
1/2 oz maple syrup.   I used my glass measuring cup for this measurement
22 oz flour = 4.91 cups.  I used bread flour and when I weighed it it was more like 4 3/4 cups.

The recipe tells you to form the pretzels and put them in the freezer.  It doesn't tell you whether to let them rise any first.  I didn't,  but this second batch I'm going to let them rise a little before putting them in the freezer and see if they're puffier when they're done.  I was happy with them the first time but I want to experiment a little.  Here's what they looked like when they came out of the freezer.

In the next picture I have 3 on the right that have been boiled to compare to the frozen ones on the left.

I used coarse sea salt for the topping and it was great.  I baked them about 22 minutes instead of the 15. 

Enjoy!