Farmer’a market!

First week of working the farmer’s market. We were selling lots of greens and baby plants

Wildflower Bunches!!!

One of the best part about taking the goats to pasture are the bouquets I walk home with. My partner tends to tire of reading after about an hour, so he rambles off and returns with a lovely wildflower bunch. The hardest part is keeping the goats from eating it while we wrap up.

Egg Envy

Just when I was so proud of my eggs…I went to collect eggs for neighbor while they are out of town. Made my little dozen look so small!

Double yoke day!

I got my first double yoke this morning from our chickens. The egg wasn’t even oddly large.

When chickens give you eggs…. make frittata!

Our chickens have been laying soooo many eggs recently! I didn’t think it would be possible with two chickens, but we can hardly keep up. We reached our first full dozen (normally we eat them before a full dozen is reached) so made a delicious and all-local frittata! Can’t wait for more summer veggies to add to the mix!

Goat Update: Loving Spring

Chomping away on our walk home from the pasture

With the arrival of the ducklings, the goats have not been getting their usual amount of love on the internet. Never fear, the goats are still the livestock apple-of-my-eye and doing great. Lal is getting bigger and bigger with each passing day and now has a wicked set of horns. One of these days she is definitely going to accidentally maul us… so wait for the black eye pictures coming your way soon no doubt! Additionally, Lal is going to be a little escape-goat (Ha!). Beverly has to be sweet talked to leave the pen and go to the pasture, but Lal is more then excited to explore the world. We really worked hard at socializing Lal when she young and took her almost everywhere so she would willing go to new pastures/ places. This may backfire on us. Currently if she does get out, she doesn’t go very far, but poor mama goat she makes such a fuss when their is fence between the two. 

Lal: escape goat

 With the nice weather we constructed a makeshift pasture for them between the rows on the farm. Unfortunately the current technique of a lead connected to a washing line means we cannot leave them out there all day. Fortunately, it means that I have an excuse to sit on a hillside, read a book, and drink a beer. The goats have almost completely cleared their densely wooded pen so next week will be installing another large pen to clear/ thin the woods by our neighbor’s deck. Hopefully soon our neighbors will have a clear view down to the creek thanks to our brush-clearing goats. I am curious to see how the goats and the ducklings will get along. The goats have a tendency to head-butt the chickens if they get too close to their food, hopefully the ducks will learn early on that is not going to fly. 

Lal- Ball

I think that we have given the goats a pretty darn good home: nice dry shelter, plenty of water, access to brush, daily (but limited) access to pasture, climbing structures, grain, and table scraps. My only concern is that the herd is too small. Goats are herd animals and become depressed and distressed when not in a proper herd. Luckily there are two of them, but I will be glad at next kidding season when there are more goats to keep each other happy.

Goat Vision

 

Duckling Update: Bath and the Big Move

The ducklings are officially moved outside, which means my bathroom is now duckling free. I have to admit using the toilet and taking a shower with the peeps was a little unnerving. Their brooder was too small within days with the ducklings spraying water and distributing poop all over the place. The next solution was a larger brooder I found in the recycle bin at my job, but once again within days it was too small. Due to the smallish boxes their tummies would get gross every couple of days, so we gave them a bath every other day to they could be nice and fluffy. We filled up an old laundry bin with water about 8 inches and let the little sprouts go wild. Next we washed them tummies with a very diluted Dr. Bronner’s soup, they were less into having their tummies scrubbed. Though we now have a way to tell them apart: dirty belly, clean belly, and partially bald belly.

Brooder Box II. Even with changing the litter every day, it would get too soiled too quickly.

 

Now that the weather is getting nice, we have moved the duckings to the portable chicken house that lives atop an old rabbit hutch. This works perfectly for this transition period of being large enough to be outside but not developed enough to be with the other animals. We started out moving them out there during the day, but it got to the point where they were clearly so happy outside that we left them there overnight. I was concerned about it being too chilly at night, but we loaded the “house” part of the coup with straw and they did just find. Poor guys, as soon as they are used to being outside a big ol’ storm comes slamming rain down for several days. Contrary to popular belief, ducks have a limit to the amount of rain they can handle. After running out into the rain to refill their water (despite the rain, they still went through a crazy amount of water) and topping off their grain I hadn’t seen the little squirts for several days. Then BAM, huge ducklings!!!! They still have their soft baby feathers, but their mature feathers are really starting to come in. Its remarkable the speed of their growth, it seems much faster then chicken- chicks I have dealt with, and much faster then the goat. It seems like I just got them, and now they are HUGE!!!! Still waiting for them to get big enough to sex, however I have a sinking suspicion that we have one female and two females.  Hopefully I am wrong! 

Ducks taking a bath/ swimming practice

Post bath shock

 

Goats lounging for the last time in the chicken coup/ duck house

 

Fixing it up for the ducklings

 

Ducklings installed. Lal is confused who/ what is in her sunny lounging spot

Baking bread!

Getting back into bread baking this spring weekend! It’s just a simple white / sourdough loaf, cannot wait for rye bread.

10 Things I have Learned with 24 Hours of Ducklings

Ducks can’t have nice things

So the other day we got ducklings! Its been great having them around, however I have learned a few things about ducks/ducklings in the past 24 hours that surprised me.

1.  They are stupid– This really shouldn’t have surprised me, but for some reason I just felt that they would be smarter then chickens. While I feel there is a hint more intelligence, there really is some truth behind the insult “birdbrain.”
2. They are hive-minded —  We have three little ducklings, and perhaps it is because they are young/ only three but boy-oh-boy are these little squirts a hive mind. Certainly not to the bee/ ant extent, but more then goats, which are naturally herd animals. These ducklings move together like a mini school of fish.
3. Ducks are poopheads, literally — DUCKS ARE SO POOPY. So much poop coming out of these ducklings, its kind of crazy.
4. Ducks eat a lot — You wouldn’t think that such little guys/gals would eat so much, but boy-howdy they are chowing down. I made a quick DIY food container out of  repurposed spice tupperware… they can eat through about 2 cups of feed like no bodies business.
5. Ducks drink a lot — So  ducks need a nice long gulp to wash down their food, thus eating a lot means drinking a lot.
6. Ducks have way to much fun with water — This one doesn’t really surprise me, but is more annoying when it’s their drinking water that we have to constantly keep refreshing. When sitting at the kitchen table I can hear them getting into all kinds of water trouble, mainly drinking water, shaking it onto buddies, standing on top of the water container, falling over making the water fall over, and getting all kinds of wet.
7. Duck beaks are actually pretty powerful– What I mean is that if they tap/ hit their beaks on the side of the brooder I swear someone is at the front door. I have been tricked by this multiple times. Not amused.
8. Ducks have really cool feet– I’m not really sure what I was expecting, but their feet are basically less dinosaur-y chicken feet with a pretty thin webbing. Also, 3 tiny little claws on each foot.
9. Ducks get all kinds of dirty– For real, these little squirts get water/food/poopy gunk all over themselves.
10. Ducks can get themselves all kinds of clean — Once they are finished making a mess, they do a darn good job getting all soft and clean again.
11. Ducks can’t have nice things — No matter what/ space/food/water they are exposed to, get will get all kinds of funky in about 30 seconds.

 

Dirty so very fast, but at least they clean themselves up.

Put some SPRING in your CLEAN!

Oranges brewing away

I think I can finally say without totally jinxing it: Spring is here! I know this isn’t going to sound right, but honestly I love a good ol spring clean (my parents would be absolutely shocked, shocked at this statement). To clarify, I don’t get all excited about de-cluttering or organizing the closet but the actual on-your-hands-and-knees- scrubbing-the-floor clean kind of cleaning. A spring clean is no joke with spring sunshine filtering through dirty windows, shining on all the dust and dirt gathered in hard to see and hard to reach places. So for this round of take-everything-off-of-every-surface-cleaning I whipped up a quick batch of all-purpose orange cleaner. Now this can be found all over the internet, and for good reason. Not only is it super easy smells great, and works as well as commercial cleaners but also an economically and ecologically good choice!

I use this stuff for everything from cleaning the windows to the sinks to the counters to the coffee maker. Because the ingredients are vinegar, water, and oranges I feel completely comfortable spraying this stuff on everything — even things that that touch food products. Use like a commercial product like “fantastic” or “mr. clean,” simply spray and wipe/ scrub with a rag and BAM fresh and clean! For added sparkle add some vodka to the mixture. I don’t consume large amounts of oranges at once, so I just keep adding orange peels when I have them. Instructions after the jump.

Cram as many orange peel as you can into container with vinegar

After a few weeks strain oranges from vinegar

Strained vinegar- now a nice orange color and smell

Pour into super fancy recycled commercial container

Ingredients/ Materials:

3 Cups of White Vinegar

4-5 Orange Peels

3 Cups of Water

1 Quart Mason Jar (or Medium- Largeish container)

1 Recycled Cleaning- Squirt Container

 

Instructions:

1. Pour vinegar into a quart mason jar.
2. Place orange peels into said jar. If you happen to have a large quantity of orange peels go ahead and use all of them. I do not, so everyday when I finish my orange I push it into the vinegar.
3. Repeat until the vinegar/orange peel mixture is filled to the brim.
4. Keep the mixture (even between adding peels) in a cool/dark place like in a cupboard or under the sink. Store from a week to two weeks.
5. Strain orange peels from mixture.
6. Pour mixture into a recycled spray bottle.
7. Add thee cups of water — making a 50/50 solution.
8. Get to that spring cleaning!

PROTIPS: I always have a container of vinegar/ orange peels going under my sink so I never run out. Add some vodka to the mixture for extra shine– great for windows.