Don't read this, just don't do it!

Really, just don't. You don't want to read what I'm about to say. It's down and dirty. It's really farmy. It's just wrong.

Really? Are you sure you're ready for this? 

Okay. You asked for it

So I was out milking Elsie the other day, and her keeper mentioned that she was being amorous. That she was trying to mount him and even mount her chunky monkey of a calf. Then I suddenly found myself saying, "now I'm no expert on cow 'units', but it sure looks mucous-y."  Yep, I said that outloud.  Oh, the look on the poor gentleman's face.

Part of Elsie's issues (and why she was so much less expensive than you normally find milk cows for) is that she was not bred back (preggers). The previous owner had told the current owner that her cycles were not regular and they were having a hard time getting her bred because of the irregular cycles.  Now, I've been milking her for about a month. I didn't write down the first time she came into cycle, but I swear it was 3 weeks ago.  Which is about right.  Due to the fact that she is mount-y and mucous-y, my non-expert opinion is that she is cycling RIGHT NOW.  

I decided I should learn a little something about it, since her owner has been talking about trying to breed her. Evidently the best time to bring in the bull is when a cow is in 'standing heat'.  During this period, cows stand to be mounted by other cows, as opposed to moving away.  This is a fairly brief period of time - generally 15 to 18 hours, but may be as little as 8 hours or as much as 30 hours. Other signs of cows cycling are: mounting other cows (she did that!), mucus discharge (yep), decreased feed intake and milk output (I was wondering why she wasn't producing as much!), bellowing and restlessness, swelling and reddening of the cow 'unit' (please excuse the colloquialism, I just can't go there yet).  Learn even more here.

So I learned something new, and hopefully you have, too! Bet you never knew you needed to know that!

My Awesome Adventure

While living away from home has been pretty sucky overall, there have been some wonderful benefits!  I've been lucky enough to meet more of Bickleton's great residents, I've had time to cook more, and I'VE MILKED A COW!!!

One of the local ranchers had a bum calf, and picked up a milk cow to help with the feeding.  Her name is Elsie.  She was pretty close to drying off when he got her, so in addition to having the calf on her, he is making sure she is milked out daily to make sure her production stays up.  Some how I was thrown/volunteered into learning how to milk!  And that is pretty awesome!

Bum Calf???  Who wouldn't love that face?

About 2/3rds of the people I know with cows are city folk turned farmers that are super sterile about milking and procedures.  Now the last third have taught me the other way - "Good Nuff" style!  These are old farmers or ranchers that have been milking this way since they were children and since their parents were children and since THEIR parents were children.  And it has always been good enough!  Just brush the mud of the teat and go.  (Okay, disclaimer.  When I have my own cow, I will probably handle things a bit differently.  But I am not one to look a gift cow in the mouth, or to poo-poo their good-nuff approach.  Just as I tend to shy away from most of the good-nuff canning methods, I will most likely make slightly different milking choices, somewhere between the current scientifically accepted norm and good-nuff.  End disclaimer)

My first <3

As for the actual milking, the first day was difficult - mostly the bending over portion!  You should have seen these old ranchers laugh at me when I stopped milking, stood up and unbuttoned my pants! A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do.  After milking my hands and arms didn't hurt too bad, it was my back that was killing me.  On the second day, I was pretty much on my own!!  Nothing like being thrown into the fire!  So far I've gotten to milk for 4 days.  I am noticing that the milking is inflaming my old back/shoulder/arm injury, but this is good to know.  Should probably go to the doctor about that soon, instead of just bucking up.

I'm busy!

I'm not sure how long I'll have a chance to keep milking her, but every minute counts!  This is the best experience ever.  It's like having livestock on a trial basis before you have to commit to it!  And I'll tell you what, I like it.  Livestock is always a huge commitment, and the larger the animal, the larger the commitment.  But once we have the infrastructure, I am sure that a little milk cow will be a great addition to the farm... click here for a couple extra thoughts!

Got Milk?

Why so much milk?  More info coming soon!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Because when you have livestock you have dead stock…

After just a few years in poultry, I’d gotten pretty good at numbing myself to losing birds.  It happens.   We’ve lost chicks, chickens, guineas, and a turkey.  It happens. It’s a monetary hit, but since 2008, I don’t think there has been anything in our lives that hasn’t been a monetary hit, so I’m kind of numb to that too…

I just wonder how long it’s going to take me to get used to it when we have larger livestock.  With fur.  Goats, cows, God forbid a horse.  Don’t know if I could ever deal with losing a horse.  It’s not so much the butchering that will bother me, it’s more the random illness, or predation, and the sense of not being able to control if something bad happens to my animals. 

Just a bit of deep thinking this evening.  Oh yeah, rest in peace, no-name reddish chicken.  I’ll miss your delicious eggs.

image

A quick update

The chickens are still locked up - they hate it and won't lay any eggs.  The egg business (which basically just makes the chickens support themselves) is in the toilet.


We went out of town!  Up to the cabin, aka The Broken Badger!  Husband did quite a bit of work, including one more window and caulking it up so the wind isn't so intense inside.  I verified the hammock still works.

New window and cedar shakes done

We had a coyote siting!!  It was checking out the trap but did not take the bait.  I would have shot it, but we had just gotten back from being out of town and the guns were all locked up.  D'oh!


The chicks are getting feathers and are out of the cute poofy phase.  If they could only stay small forever!  This one's pretty cute though:

Cammie exhausted on ride home

I'm working on a new guest post for Suzanne over at Farm Bell Recipes... I don't want to give it away, but it includes:

Okay - off to go hunting in my back pasture!

How many chicks does it take...

...to screw in a heat lamp?  No, but really, how many times can I go visit the new chicks without taking my camera?  Evidently every time.  Luckily Chicken Auntie posted a pic of the new babies.  Here they are with their temp mama:

And here are the little ones that we got from the feed store:

They are Gold Sex Links (2) and Speckled Sussex (2).  We tried to stick them under the mama, but she really wanted nothing to do with them.  So they came home to the brooder.  Their 'siblings' will join them in a couple weeks, once mama has gotten tired of them. 

On a slightly different note, we have rented a live trap to catch the coyote.  Wish us luck.

Sweet!

And now for something on the less-sour side of life.  The eggs that we took up to our "Chicken Auntie" are hatching!  4 out of 7 so far.  We went to visit them yesterday and managed to forget the camera (will get pics tonight!).  Two of them look Cuckoo Maran-y, one looks Amerucana-y, and the last looks like a White Leghorn.  Of course, they are only half these breeds.  Daddy was half Road Island Red Banty and half Amerucana.  I think the technical term for the breed is 'farm chick'.  Kind of like 'barn cats'.  We're so happy Cuppa-Soup's genetic line is carrying on.  Here's hoping for a rooster!  (That is probably the last time you will ever hear me say that!!) We're also going to trick that poor little broody mama.  We're going to run up to the feed store tonight and buy a few more chicks.  Then we'll slide them under her when she's not looking!  Since the chicks from the feed store are only a few days old as well, there shouldn't be any issue, she should just accept them as her own.  Yay for chickens that can't count!! I'll get pics up as soon as I can!

The D-List

I am full of D-words.  Disgusted, depressed, dismayed, devastated, displeased, dejected, demolished, dispirited, defeated and downright despondent. I was planning on talking about some of the other wildlife challenges we've been having.  Our egg count is really low, and it's more than just lazy chickens… We've been finding eggs with holes.  At first we thought the chickens were stepping on them or possibly egg-eating, but they have TONS of calcium and the shells are fine.  Then we realized it was Blue Jays.  They figured out that they could sneak in the coop and mess with the eggs, solely to drive me crazy, I'm sure.  Then, a couple days after that discovery, I was mowing the grass with the perfect view of a crow carrying an egg off in its beak!!!  ACK! That is what I was going to talk about.  But I'm not.  We had ANOTHER coyote strike.  We've lost 7 chickens in 16 days.  And they got our baby, our Silky Sue.  So now I'm full of D-words.  I guess these are the days that really make a farmer.  I really don't even want to go on.  I'm tired of having my chickens be a smorgasbord for this opportunistic skudge (that is probably not a word, just how I feel about them right now.)  We can't afford to buy a live trap, and our state wildlife folks aren't willing to help, even though the 'yotes are considered a nuisance since they are taking livestock – and they are striking in the middle of the day!   Our only option is to hang out for hours on end, hoping they don't smell us, hoping they come back, then shoot them.  But seriously, who has that kind of time?  So the chickens are in lock up again, also displeased, wanting greens and bugs.  Any thoughts on what we can do to empower ourselves against these wildlife violators?

And then there was one…

Okay, that is a bit of an exaggeration.  We have more than one chicken left.  But I find it ironic that on the day we go to pick up 5 new chickens, we have a coyote strike that takes out four chickens – in the middle of the afternoon!  So we have a net gain of one chicken.  And I'm not sure what it's like in your neck of the woods, but full-grown laying hens are expensive here!  So we spent $100 bucks for one more lousy chicken. The really traumatic part is that the coyotes got our rooster.  Cuppa-Soup was the best rooster ever!  (Obviously, he was originally meant for the soup pot, but the other roosters that I thought were in the running for the flock sire position turned out to be jerks, so Cuppa's gentile attitude saved him from the pot.)  Cuppa was a home grown chicken, brooded by our nasty little Cochin (who is a wonderful mommy) and was the result of a Road Island Red Banty and an Amerucana.  He had the best colors and was a very noble looking rooster.  He always watched carefully and proudly over his harem.  Cuppa would make the cutest noises to call all his ladies over when he found food, and would always make sure all the girls had eaten before he had his share.  He NEVER challenged us!  He really was the bestest and I don't think we can ever replace him.  I never thought I would be in mourning over a rooster, but here I am. Young Cuppa Desperate to carry on Cuppa's bloodline, we pulled a handful of eggs from that day (7 of them).  Also ironically, all of the chickens that had been broody just 'broke' during this week. That cochin seriously wouldn't get out of the boxes for months!  But now?  Can't get one to stay on the nest for love or money.  Should we get an incubator?  Try to buy a broody chicken and hope she stays setting for the next 21 days?  Wait – one of our egg customers has a couple hens that are usually pretty broody, let's try calling… Such a good watchman We are so lucky!  Our dear friend has a broody hen, so we ran the eggs over to get them cooking under the hen.  Hopefully in 21 days we will have 7 little Cuppa offspring running around!  Farming is not easy.  There's as much drama on the farm as there is on a daytime talk show! Cross your fingers for us and wish for high fertility!!! RIP Cuppa-Soup

Desperately Seeking….. Chickens!!!

Over the past few weeks, our flock has been slacking off on the egg laying.  A couple girls are broody, we've had a couple go missing, and the rest…well they are either hiding nests or just being lazy.  We are now getting 4-6 eggs a day from 15 chickens.  That just ain't right!  So we have been patrolling Craigslist looking for laying-age hens.  There seems to be quite the market for them.  The Portland area is huge for backyard chicken enthusiasts, and it seems that people are always looking for or getting rid of chickens.  But it's usually one here or one there.  We are looking for about 5 little ladies (Portland proper limits you to 3 hens only, but we are out in the outskirts of Happy Valley, and we have customers to support about 20 chickens, so darnit, that's what I'm gonna have!!!)  I'm also finding that backyard chicken enthusiasts have a tendency to have fancy, exotic pet chickens as opposed to heavier layers.  We don't need commercial, production varieties, but we need at least a 'very good' layer.  The breeds I'm finding either lay tiny eggs, go broody a lot, or lay an egg every three days if you're lucky!  We'll keep working on getting some layers, but I want to show you some of what I've found that doesn't work. I'm getting much of the breed information posted below from Henderson's Handy-Dandy Chicken Chart.  Pics are all from Feather Site.) The Silkie -  We actually have one of these.  Her name is Silkie Sue and she was a stray that wandered into our flock and never left.  (She is also the one that got all tore up by the neighbor's dog, growl.)  These little chickens are the stuffed animals of the chicken coop.  Basically, a walking toy.  But they still lay okay (smallish eggs), and have a tendency to go broody and be good mamas.  Their feathers are 'hair-like' and they have a poof on top of their heads.  Too cute.  They come in several colors: Black, White, Blue, Buff, Partridge, Gray, Splash to name a few. The Cochin -  Another poofball, but this time with feathers as opposed to 'hair'.  We have 2 cochins, both of the bantam size, but they come in standard as well. They go broody often and make very good mothers (we've used ours to hatch eggs before and they lived up to the reputation!)  They lay a small egg every few days. They also come in many colors, such as Buff, Red, Blue, Barred, White, Black, & Partridge.  Cochins can be found in pretty much any color chickens come in.  Each should be named "foofy pants".  The Polish – A very ornamental bird, with a huge tophat of feathers.  The birds may have difficulty seeing due to these feathers, and really don't do well in bad weather.  They are really neat looking and I would love to add one to the flock, but egg production varies quite a bit.  They will lay white-shelled eggs and do not have the broody tendency.  I've seen a couple after being in the rain, and they look like rock stars. The Frizzle -  I love this chicken and want one (or ten).  It looks like it is permanently stuck in a tornado.  Talk about a bad hair day!  The frizzle quality of the feather is actually a genetic mutation which causes the feather to curve outward and towards the head.  They can be standard or banty size and tend to go broody.  Every time I see one of these I think of The Wizard of Oz – they must have been in the tornado that picked up Dorothy and Toto. This is just a sampling of the 'fancy-pants' breeds.  Even though they don't work for me, I still love them all no matter what.  If we were a pet-only setup, I'd be all over these fun little girls, but I have families to feed!

Canned Vacation

A couple weeks ago, the husband and I had plans to go up to the property and work on the cabin.  Our plans were thwarted.  The neighbor's dog decided that he wanted to play with chickens, and no coop was going to stop him.  Apparently, the neighbor wasn't going to stop him either, as I had warned him several times about the dog being on our property and told him that if I found the dog in my coop again, I would shoot it* (maybe not so bluntly, but I was holding a BB gun and the owner was asking me not to shoot his dog, so I think he understood what could happen).  Three days before our planned trip, the dog got into the coop AGAIN – this time we had missing chickens.  As responsible animal owners, we didn't feel safe leaving the chickens alone with a ravenous beast on the loose.  (We do have someone check on the chickens when we are gone, but she only comes by a couple times a day, so it wouldn't be a constant presence.)  So our trip was cancelled.  Ah, but what to do with all that extra time?  Sleeping in wasn't an option, since we had to be up at daybreak to watch for the inbred mongrel to come and try to forage our livestock.   (OMG - Really?  The dog comes over every day for a month, but when we cancel our frigging vacation, the owner finally puts him in lock down and he didn't come over once.  Aaaaggggg!)  Well, since we are up, and at least half awake, let's can something!  *(Per animal control, we have every right to defend our livestock, including putting down the offending animal.  So if this offends you [hell, it offends me], yell at my neighbor, not me.) But what do you can in the winter/spring, before all the good summer produce comes on?  Stuff in the freezer!  Part of our self sufficiency goals include decreasing our dependence on the freezer for food storage.  While we eventually plan to have solar and wind power at the property that will power appliances, the freezer is still a big energy drain, and we would just prefer to minimize the need.  In the spirit of living more self-sufficiently, even while on the grid, we are cleaning out our big freezers.  Vital component of stock Our canning projects over our vacation include jam (from berries frozen last summer), ground beef (from grass fed cows, bought on sale!!), lard (this is a new food preserving experience), beef stock (from the half-cow we bought from Woody's buddy's parents – he helped dispatch the animals, therefore decreasing their butcher costs, so we got a great deal!), and chicken stock (from our boy chickens that should have been girl chickens). Cammie helping Wow, that was hard work.  So much for a relaxing vacation!  Here are the results: Chicken Stock: 15 Quarts, 20 Pints Beef Stock:  7 Quarts, 22 Pints Dog Food:  Various quirky sized jars.  21 jars total equaling 208 ounces, or 13 pints. Ground Beef in Broth:  14 Pints Ground Beef in Tomato:  13 Pints Lard:  2 - 12 ounce jars Pie Lard plus 12 ounces Savory Lard Marionberry Jam:  9 ½ Half Pints Blackberry Jam:  9 ½ Half Pints Blueberry Jelly:  6 Half Pints Blackberry/Marionberry Mix Jam:  6 - 12 ounce jars plus 1/2 half pint. There is still a lot more to do.  We have strawberries that are destined for a special "Essence De Provence" jam, beef stew meat for beef stew, and I think some extra venison that would make a great stew, too.  We'll get that done next time the neighbor's dog runs free! I eventually will be posting instructional posts for various food preservation techniques (probably starting with lard in the next couple of weeks), but for now a list of completed projects will have to suffice!  Also, I will be keeping a running tally of preserved food on the Food Stores page. Simmering for hours