Not spring here yet

It has been a while since I've shared some pictures. Computer woes. Here are a few from the last couple months.

Sitting in the sun in front of the woodstove.

We took a family road trip to the nearest city, Anchorage, about four hundred miles south. Enjoyed being closer to the mountains.

We are all planning our gardens. Noah is excited about growing Watermelon, potatoes, carrots, thyme and flowers. Avery is planning on growing Watermelon, beets, broccoli, carrots and also lots of flowers. So far I have herbs and celery germinating. It is almost time to sow tomato and pepper seed along with some flowers. If you start your tomatoes too early they get leggy and root bound and don't take off as quickly when planted out. I think one of the biggest mistakes Alaskan gardeners make is not knowing when to start what. I was over at someones house the other day and they had cucumbers and squash already sown in six pack holders. That won't do folks! If you are a new gardener or don't have experience gardening here, pick up the Alaskan Growers Guide, or a seed starting schedule from your local Nursery. Also, visit your local Cooperative Extension and pick up a wealth of information for your area.

Doesn't feel like Spring here, but none the less, Happy Spring Everyone!

Waking from Winter Slumber

What is spring? If spring is mud, green buds and daffodils - well our spring would be limited to the last week of April and first week of May (roughly)- and that is minus the daffodils - as the only daffodils you'll find up here are indoors. We have been enjoying a couple weeks of above zero temperatures, teens and twenties. The goats have been outside most the day and even sleeping outside under feeders and in hay piles at night. The chickens are seeing their first direct sunshine since October. D cleaned out the chicken coop this week, and it smells like it outside. Our place smells like a farm again- lovely. Smells like spring. Feels like spring. We know that it will get cold again. It could be thirty below zero next week. So we have to keep perspective and not get too carried away....

I think of spring in Fairbanks as the time when it is warm enough to get out and enjoy the outdoors and the snow. Spring is sunny snowy days, icy roads and dog races. After making it through the darkest and coldest part of winter, everyone is a bit stir crazy and ready to get out and play, enjoy the snow while it is still here. So the sledding and skiing hills are bustling. Town is filled with walkers, joggers and bikers - dressed in their high dollar skin tight gear.

Spring is waking up and realizing somehow you slept and dreamed your way through the darkest days, which in retrospect are all a blur. What happened to all those projects I was going to tackle? Where was my inspiration and motivation? Did I really just sleep walk through two months of meals, cleaning, lessons, and fire stoking? February is a month for transitioning into action. Early action at that, baby steps; decisions, placing seed, chick and bee orders. Time to get out some white paper and plan the garden.

I have been feeling a little down lately. Restless but uninspired, bored, unproductive. This week has been a turning point. Time for more than dreaming. Time to lay down the novels. This week I did some research on chicken breeds. I've been reading about medicinal herbs and making a plan of what to grow and what to do with it once I've grown it. I borrowed a book on coloring and drawing with block crayons. I picked up another book on form drawing - a Waldorf drawing style or rather action, that I we are going to start practicing. The kids are always asking me to draw animals or people and I when I do so, I hate the result. I'd like to be a better story teller. These are both skills that will enrich our education, both the kids and mine.

The days are looking brighter, cheerier.  What does spring mean to you? Are you ready to wake up?

Spring week in pictures

It rained this afternoon for the first time this year. The snow is slowly receding. I'm flirting with the idea of starting cucumbers and squash today - although it is a bit early. I am soaking nasturtiums and sweet peas, which I usually direct seed, but I want them to have an earlier start this year. I've got lettuce seeds in my jacket pocket waiting for an opportunity to make it up to the garden. I've got a cold frame ready for planting.

I brined and smoked a ham from our pig we helped butcher last fall. I smeared the ham with maple sugar and sea salt before smoking. Then finished it smothered in marmalade before serving. It was divine. We've been eating ham and fried egg sandwiches on brioche toast. A pot of split pea soup is bubbling away on the range.

I'm expecting goslings and ducklings today or tomorrow. Haven't yet set up their spot, but I do know where everything is at- which is something. I am getting a little overwhelmed with everything that we can almost do - but frustratingly can't quite start on yet. I guess it is time to keep on top of house chores and stock pile some meals while I can still stand to be indoors.

Happy spring everyone!

Looks like winter- feels and smells like spring

I've been trying to figure out where the smell of dead animal is coming from. At first I was sure it really was a dead chicken or duck that died over the winter that I'd forgotten about. I keep sniffing around the pile of chicken bedding - recently removed from the coop, but I don't think that's it.  The cold weather has it's advantages: our place only smells half the year.

I've been thinking of notes to self lately as I do chores. The top note to self is to keep my mouth shut more often. I don't think I spend much time walking around with my mouth hanging open. I think I must sub consciously breathe through my mouth when things are stinky and that is how I end up catching nasties.  I can't remind myself enough to:

1. Keep mouth shut when pitchforking and cleaning out the chicken coop, goat stalls and manure bedding in general.
2. Keep mouth shut when trimming goat feet. Poopy chunks of goat trimmings fly in all directions.
3. Indoors- keep mouth shut when scrubbing the toilet.

This week while driving to town Avery kept saying "whats that?" I was like what? that house? the trees? the other cars? and finally she said, "No, that icky brown stuff." I replied, "that is dirt". Then we had a whole discussion about how the dirt was really there all along just covered up and hidden by the snow, which she was skeptical about. We still have snow pretty much everywhere on our property. Today there was some dirt exposed up against the goat barn and the kids found it. Noah said something like, "ooh dirt, look there is dirt here" and he began running his hands through it, grabbing, squishing and digging in it. Then of course there wasn't enough dirt there to go around and he told his sister she had to go find her own dirt. Avery found a muddy puddle and said, "ooh mud, mom can I splash in the mud with my bare feet?"  And I was like, lets keep our rain boots on for now, it is too cold still, but soon!

We are all ready. Ready for mud. Excited to see dirt. I think it is going to be a few weeks before the snow has mostly disappeared. It is going to be a late spring.

I've gone to two bee classes now. I'm learning lot's. Yesterday we watched a hiving demonstration and checked on a recently hived hive. The bees were much more mellow than I expected. No one got stung. The bee guy did everything without gear, veil or gloves, using his bare hands to brush bees back into the hive etc. It was kinda like magic. I've been very inspired by the class and I'm thinking I'm actually going to enjoy bee keeping itself, in addition to having our own honey.

The start up cost is pretty intimidating. I'm not sure it is really worth it when I think about how much money we are investing in bees, hive and equipment and how much honey we are going to get. The bees start at $125 for a three pound package, $25 for an extra queen. So I decided to step it up and buy a Nuc, which is a small colony already started and going with a proven queen for $175. The start up recommendation for here is two deep brood supers and two medium honey supers, with a queen extruder the cost is 350 unassembled, 400 assembled - and just needs paint. Smoker, veil and gloves... It is getting expensive. Stumbling across some used unwanted equipment would be great, but I don't see that happening in the next couple weeks.

Our first batch of ducks and Ameraucanas is due to hatch at the end of next week. We've got a few geese and ducks arriving the same week. Time to dig out some heat lamps and brooder tubs for the hallway. I like to keep them close in the house at first. The goats are all doing great. We have one more goat due for sure. Xoe is due the first week of May. I'm going to enjoy sleeping through the night for at least another week. It is getting busy and exciting like spring around here. It just looks like winter.

A week of spring fun

While it is still mostly white out, the days are getting nicer, slowly but surely. This week we had a kid party with games, a treasure hunt and cake. We had family up on Noah's Bday for presents, clams, fried halibut, oven fries and milkshakes. Yesterday it was warm enough (fifties maybe) on the south porch, the kids were running around barefoot playing in the water that dripped off the roof. At some point they got wet and cold enough that they put on clothes, boots and rain gear, pulled their hoods up and continued.

                                         
                                                             Dividing up the treasure.

                                                           Kids making their own pizzas.

This weekend = goat meeting, bee class, lots of goat visiting/still helping new babies nurse, maybe kids in rain gear at the playground, hopefully starting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and 4-6wk flowers, and have I mentioned that D has been tiling the milking area - grouting this weekend. Getting busy around here.

Summer intentions

April is around the corner and I can feel it. We are all over winter. It snowed a couple inches the other day and the kids were puzzled - like isn't it summer yet? It has been pleasant and warm in the afternoons. We've been spending a lot of time outdoors. The snow is finally wet enough to make snow balls. I was trying to get the kids excited about rolling big snow balls yesterday. I think the snow has lost all interest for them - they are ready for it to be gone and so am I.

There are depressions around each tree, where the snow is starting to melt and recede - a sure sign of spring. Yesterday Avery wanted to go up to the garden and pick peas. I humored her and we walked up to where the peas usually are and talked about the life cycle of peas. I pushed her in her summer swing and together we dreamed of long summer days in the garden.

Our beloved farm helper, Becca may be getting a real job this summer, one that actually pays well - and not just in eggs and vegetables. We love her so much and wish her the best in everything she does...and we are going to miss her desperately. I've been thinking of our summer and what is possible. The last two summers have been tricky as Avery as been a baby and a small, somewhat needy toddler. I think now that she is growing into a mature young lady of two and a half, I think that the kids and I will be able to accomplish much more together.

I've been resolving myself to earlier productive morning while the kids are still sleeping. Milking several goats in a row with both kids fighting over who fills grain tubs and whining -asking when are we going to be done - is more than enough to inspire me to get up early and milk solo. We will see how the summer routine shapes up but I'm gradually resolving myself to early productive mornings, milking with a baby monitor nearby.  Other thoughts I've had lately have been that if I have to start buying sandwich bread it is not the end of the world. Getting farm chores done and getting the kids out to the playground or swim lessons are more important. On that note, I'm going to start looking for used playground equipment to set up near the garden. I'm also thinking a screened tent with a small table would be helpful.

April is for hatching chicks, starting our milking routine, starting seeds, planning and preparing. I started tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and the 8-10 wk flowers on Monday. Today I'm going to transplant some herbs into pots for spring snipping. April is an ugly month here, melting snow, dirty white and eventually brown and muddy. For all the farm smells coming to life, animal housing that needs cleaned out and snow melting, exposing the clutter here and there, well I'll take it. I'm ready for April.

Busy Times

We are embarking on the busiest and most frantic time of year for us. A week ago my garden was still covered by a foot of snow. With temperatures in the fifties and sixties all week, I was able to turn a bed yesterday without hitting ice. I can see the brown garden in it's entirety which that in itself gets my brain churning. I fell asleep last night debating where to the beets and carrots. As always I have intentions to plant about twice as much as I currently have room for, however, I have a large pile of topsoil and a row of various stages of partly composted goat and chicken bedding. So after we make use of all the beds which just need turned, we'll be building new beds, moving soil, ammending the soil and planting.

The last two days I've made it up to the garden with the kids to work for a bit. Noah remembers last summer well and is so excited to be up there playing in the dirt and working with his garden tools in his small plot. Avery is just excited to be outside walking around wherever she pleases.

Our farm apprentice started this week. She has come up every day this week mid-morning and worked until mid afternoon. We have been doing the morning routine of feeding, graining and watering. Then we've been milking together. Now is a good time to learn to milk as we are not trying to milk the does out completely. We are just getting the does back into the routine of eating their grain on the milkstand while we milk out their lopsided side. It takes a while for the hand muscles to gain enough strength to milk out an entire udder, and then two more after. So this is gradual muscle building practice for next week when we start separating the kids from their dams. We've been eating lunch after morning chores are finished. Then heading out to work on side projects like cleaning out the duck stall, clearing mulch off beds and turning the garden beds.

I am behind on starting squash and cucumbers, so I need to switch gears today and take advantage of Avery's nap to focus on some seed starting. I think we will also start some cold greens in flats in the greenhouse, and maybe even do a small amount of direct seeding in the garden, maybe beets and radishes or carrots and then cover them with plastic row covering.

Our ducks arrived yesterday. So we had friends stopping by throughout the day to pick out their ducks. We are left with twelve Saxonies, five Welsh Harlequins and five runner ducks. Out of the batch of sixty we lost one small black runner duck. The order had included one extra runner so that worked out ok. Today we will be finishing setting up summer housing for the growing chicks, so that we can move the ducklings into their current brooder area.

I began attempting to make chevre this week for the first time since fall. After three botched attempts I have come to the conclusion that my three year old rennet has finally reduced in potency. So I stayed up last night placing an order for more rennet and cultures from The Dairy Connection, my favorite source for direct set cultures.

It is feeling like summer around here even though it is still brown everywhere. The hallway is filled with dirt covered clothes and boots. I've been too worn out for much posting or picture downloading. I've got sore muscles, mosquito bites, and skin that has that lingering sense of sun, and for me, that equates to summer.

In my few minutes of down time I have been savoring a new cook book as if it were a novel. The book is Forgotten Skills of Cooking, The Time Honored Ways Are The Best - over 700 Recipes Show You Why by Darina Allen. Some of the sections I am fairly familiar with like growing and preparing vegetables, raising and butchering poultry and making dairy products. The sections I have been most fascinated by using all the parts of the animal, especially the pig. I've been reading about making your own Prosciutto, Salami, Bacon, cured hams and sausages. I had recently checked out the book Charcuterie, so I had been reading similar information and techniques there as well. This topic is my most recent fascination and obsession. A girlfriend of mine is raising three pigs this year, one of which is for us. We are planning on having someone come out and kill and help us butcher the pigs on site at the end of the summer. We are hoping to use as much of the animals as possible, and are in the planning stages of possibly buying a larger smoker and meat grinder so that we can smoke and cure our own bacon, ham and grind and stuff our own sausages. I've been meaning to get out and see the pigs while they are still young and cute, but they are growing fast and have already past the small weaner pig stage.

I'll be coming back to this cook book in future posts as it is a wealth of significant information. Darina shares her memories of times before electricity came to their village and how food was stored and prepared. I love the bits of memories and side information that introduce each section and the individual recipes. This cookbook could not have come at a better time, when we have yet to see the wild greens come up, and have plenty of time to decide what vegetables to sow. I've been re-inspired to make butter again, and I'm already beginning to plan how we'll be making the most of our pig. So much to do and plan for this time of year, its hard to know where to begin....oh thats right, breakfast for my hungry kids, followed by feeding all the animals.We'll go from there, depending on the day and the weather.

Setting eggs, seed starting, kids nursing lopsided and first milking

Tulips from my son

Lilies from my husband

It is a sunny spring morning here in the Chena Ridge Hills. True blue skies and not a cloud in sight from where I'm sitting. My house is amazingly silent and I'm not sure what to do with myself. Noah is having a sleepover at my folks, for which I feel somewhat guilty as he has a bad cold, sorry Mom! Avery has a cold too though and she is teething on top of that, so just having one fussy babe is plenty. At the moment though, she is down for her nap already along with her dad. I am sipping tea and eating cantaloupe and doing a very good job of being silent. I could wash dishes, put dishes away or cook something, but that would make way too much noise, so alas I am forced to sit and have some computer time, not enjoying myself at all....

The does are outside together for the first time since having their kids. The kids are in a pen together. They've probably worn themselves out by now and are sleeping in a big pile. Rose's weak little boy is still catching up to the rest of the kids. I took him away from his mom for an afternoon to feed him mother's milk in a drenching syringe. At the time he wasn't standing, sucking or swallowing. Now he is doing all of those but still needs assistance finding the teat. So every few hours I help him nurse and watch the other kids to make sure they are nursing. 

One of the biggest issues we have is that the kids prefer to nurse on the easiest (least full) side and quickly begin to favor whichever side they've drained. Then even after I come along and try and empty some of the pressure from the huge side, they are still going for whichever side they've nursed on the last few times. So we attempt to combat this by milking some of the heavy side so that it is similar in size as the other, then directing them towards that side, covering up the teat on the side we don't want them to suck on etc. Fortunately, this means that we get some milk, earlier than we would otherwise. I milked Rose and Xoe yesterday just enough to even out their heavy side, (they still looked about half full when I was finished) and we got a half a gallon of milk. At two weeks old we will begin putting the kids into one stall and after we milk their moms we will let them out for the day. This way we all get milk, the kids grow well and get to spend the days with their mom and sleep with their siblings and friends in a safe place at night.

This is the third kidding year (second for Xan) that these does have had and each year their udders are larger, more developed and therefor hold more milk. Once we start milking all three does every morning, I'm guessing we will be getting around three gallons of milk a day. Once their kids are sold, we then have the option to milk at night as well if we chose, which would give us another three gallons. If you drop them down to one milking a day they won't produce twice as much, but rather about the same amount per milking. So it comes down to time and or demand for milk. Do we want three gallons or six gallons a day? You get more bang for your buck, but it takes another hour (scooping grain, getting goats, cleaning udders, weighing milk, straining and jarring milk, washing pails and totes...) more than an hour if the kids are in tow. We will just have to see how our summer develops.

Last year Dustin was working ten hour days six days a week for a majority of the summer. He would get home, shower, eat dinner, then play with the kids while I did evening chores. Then they would all go to bed and I would stay up till eleven or one in the morning watering and working in the garden. Avery wasn't sleeping well at the time though, and often I would get summoned down to the house by a half asleep husband holding a crying baby and facing up the hill towards myself who would be scurrying around trying to water another row quickly. The last two summers I wasn't up for a night time milking, but this may be the year. 

We have hired our first farm apprentice! Welcome Becca! I am so excited about our summer together! B is going to be coming up to help five days a week for four to five hours a day. She will be feeding and watering all of the chickens and ducks, tossing hay and graining the goats, filling waterers, milking goats, processing milk and starting some basic cheeses. She may also help with separating cream and making butter. Other various farm chores on her list will be cleaning out coops, sheds, building compost piles, digging holes for fruit trees and mini duck ponds (think mud puddle), and planting, watering and harvesting the garden. In return we will be sharing eggs, milk, cheese and any extra veggies or other farm products in addition to paying her a monthly stipend. This arrangement works well for both of us as she is interested in farm experience, appreciates fresh real food and also wants to keep her other jobs. And I sure can use the help from a responsible and eager adult.

I have fantasized about starting some seedlings in the greenhouse or hoophouse in the ground, covered with windows, or in flats with domed tops, especially cool weather plants, cabbage, kale or cold hardy greens. I might get there yet but so far have opted for my usual seed starting rack indoors where I can closely keep an eye on everything. So far I have around forty tomato plants in three to four inch pots, peppers, flowers, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, a few greens and lots of culinary and medicinal herbs, some of which I've sowed multiple times to have it at different stages. I need to start squash and cucumbers next, followed by corn, sunflowers, nasturtiums and maybe beans. In most places you would direct seed these last things, but here our soil is so cold, they take a lot longer if ever to germinate. So if you can they will benefit from a couple weeks inside, before planting out. Noah wants to grow the corn in his garden as he did last year, however I hadn't taken his garden very seriously and had given him corn seed to push into the ground in mid- June. Well what do you know his corn ears got so close to ripening. So this year we will try a little harder.

We got an incubator in the mail this week and set some Amauracana eggs. We don't have any white eggs for me to put them up against. I did pull out our whitest looking eggs but this didn't end up being a very good photo to show off their lovely color. I'll try again sometime. When there is more light these eggs are much more colorful. We have purchased two batches of ten Amauracanas from two different small hatcheries over the past few springs. Unlike the equivalent that you would get from say Mcmurrays or Privett, these are show quality birds with excellent egg quality and color. We are down to our last two hens and a rooster so we are trying to keep things going. Both batches of chicks were heavy on the roosters. I had just started collecting eggs for hatching when our last hen (a blue hen) from the first chick batch died. I've got two of her eggs in here, I could tell them apart when they were fresh, but as they've sat a week I can't tell now. Our other hens are black and the rooster is blue so we should get a mix of black, splash and blue chicks, regardless of chick color, they should all lay lovely eggs, at least the hens will. We will set a couple batches of chicken eggs and if our sole Khaki Campbell duck starts laying again, I'll toss in some of those as well.

Speaking of ducks, we are expecting a shipment of sixty ducklings on Monday or Tuesday. Only twenty five are for us, but still, I will be picking them up and taking care of them for a day or so until the other ladies make it up to sort through them. I can feel mommy urges and baby lust flowing already at the thought of so many baby ducks to care for.

Xoe has turned out to be a great mom this time around. Can you imagine having three babies trying to nurse off you at the same time? Or three toddlers all running in different directions and trying to keep track of them all? Whew! Good job mama goats, I'm impressed.