Spring building

It was a productive day today. First we split the main run (the metal pole by the black dish is the new fence line) to give the breeding pens that are soon to come more run space. Then we added a bunch of roosts to each run so they have more areas to explore and get off the ground when it's muddy.

New fence and start of roosts

Carter checking out the new vantage point.

While we were building in the coop Estelle had to come check it out to make sure we weren't doing anything wrong. She has often stood at the outside of the run and looked in like she wanted in. I guess she couldn't pass up the opportunity of the gate being open.

Supervisor visit

Our next project was giving Estelle an area where she could have access to pasture without giving the goats the same access, but still be able to get her back to the stall for morning milkings. Here is the final result. The fence used to continue from the gate to the stall separating the horses from the cow. We moved the fence to the other side of the barn, adding the stall to the pasture and separating the goats to their own area. The board across the opening keeps the horses out of the cow area but lets the cow come and go as she pleases. The goats are going to miss their stall but they had pretty much already lost it to Estelle. They went back to sleeping under the tack room. They also have a large dog house full of straw. That might get moved to the meat bird pen eventually though. If so, we'll need to figure out something else for them. 

Next task is to add a mini stall in the stall for a calf. Since we aren't going to bottle feed or take the calf off Estelle, we will need to lock up the calf separate but near Estelle during the night. Once we milk her in the morning we will let the calf out to spend the day with mom.

Getting ready for spring

My winter checklist helped me stay on task and not forget an important project. And who doesn't like crossing off things on a list? Makes me feel productive to watch my list shrink.
So here is my getting ready for spring list:

1) Prune fruit trees - boy do I not look forward to this. Not only do I not know what I'm doing, I have a hard time cutting away something that has buds on it! But I've learned that it is healthier for the tree and produces a better harvest, so I'm going to be harsh and prune away this year!
Done! I prepped myself by watching a lot of videos. I had already read quite a few books and articles but felt like I really needed to see it in person with a real tree. It helped a lot. I had a hard time following what is suggested since my trees are already about 2-3 years old (they were ~4ft tall when I bought them) and they did not grow in ways that lent themselves to good pruning. But I'm proud of myself and think they'll do fairly well this year. Next time I by trees (maybe this year?) I'll know what to look for to start with!

2) Paint and place bee hive outside
Beehive is painted. Now we just need to find a table for it outside.

3) Deep clean of chicken coops. This needs to be done just before the garden prep because I want to incorporate all the old litter into the garden.

4) Till and level garden area. I know there are some no-till people out there, but where I want to garden is currently grass, so it's definitely getting tilled! I don't think I will till after that though since I"ll be planting in beds I'd like to keep in place instead of rows and areas I can start fresh from each year.

5) Divide breeding coop
This is half done. We got the outside run split. Just waiting on my friend's chickens to go and we'll separate the inside. 

6) Build broiler pen

7) Buy remaining plants needed (blueberry, raspberry, grape, onions, shallots, asparagus, potatoes, strawberries, corn, sweet potatoes, and sage)

8) Get brooders setup
This is mostly done. Just need to drill a hole for 1 waterer and find the last brooder which I think is hiding in Little Owl's room. 

9) Get calf stall and milking area ready
 Thanks to Wolf's great idea and help, we got the cow area separated in a way that she can now get out onto the back pasture with the horses, keep the goats in their area, and keep the horses out of the cow area. Hopefully next weekend we'll get the calf area built.


I'm sure there's more, I'll add to this as I think of them. Spring is a lot busier prep time than winter!

Meet Estelle!

Estelle

When I first started researching having a dairy cow at home I stumbled across Dexter cows and fell in love. They seemed to be the perfect cow for our homestead. They are naturally small (rather than a bred down miniature of a full size breed), have a gentle personality, aren't known to be fence pushers (a good thing since we only have a 3 wire fence around our pasture), produce a high butterfat milk (about 1 1/2 - 2 gal a day), don't need as much food, and are also really tasty as beef cows.
I've been keeping my eye on craigslist for them ever since I got interested in them just to see what they went for and how often they popped up around here. I also looked into breeders so I'd have an idea where to go if I couldn't find one on craigslist when the time came. As I posted before I had come to the conclusion that the cow was going to have to wait. I was thinking about where would we milk it, where would we keep the calf, what shelter would it use, etc and it just got overwhelming. I mentioned to Wolf that it was going to have to wait and listed the reasons and he said that shouldn't be a big deal and started listing off answers to my worries. As I have a habit of, I was perusing the farm ads on craigslist, just to see what's out there of course, and saw a dexter here and there going for $3000-5000! And some of those weren't even bred! That's WAY out of our price range. We're not looking for award winning here, just a nice family cow. Then the week before last I came across an ad for someone downsizing their Dexter herd to focus on their heritage pigs. She had a 3 and a 7 yr old cow that were both pregnant for sale. She wanted the exact price I had budgeted and set aside ($1200). I couldn't pass it up. Little Owl and I went out to visit them and they were very sweet and mellow. Even their bull just hung out next to us wanting scratches. We decided on the 3 year old.

Today we went to pick her up and bring her home. She loaded beautifully into the trailer with a little grain incentive. She did a MUCH better job than our horse, Nevita, did! When we got home we opened the trailer and she walked out and after a few seconds of looking around, she decided to walk into the area we wanted her in. We have her in the goat area for now (the goats are locked in a smaller subsection of their area for the day). She's obviously not fully comfortable or relaxed yet but that's understandable. All the neighbors horses had to come running and converse with our horses about the new animal.

She's due to calve in late April / early May so stay tuned! Our next step after she's a little more comfortable is to halter train her. We need a way to let her on pasture yet bring her in at night so we can milk in the morning. I don't think we'll have a problem with it, she's pretty mellow, but who knows. Wish us luck!

Cow!

Ok, so of course right after I post that the cow is on hold, I'm perusing the Farm ads on craigslist and up pops an ad for the type of cow we want (they are hard to find). The lady has 2 cows that are both pregnant. She is asking a good price for them. In fact it is what I had hoped to pay but lately I'd been seeing them for more than triple that price (one reason I thought it was on hold). Alanna and I went to meet them today and loved the 3 year old. She was so sweet. All of her cows just hung out around us letting us scratch them, even her bull. This cow has never been milked but she let me touch her teats and just turned around to look at me. I think she'll do well with a little practice. And finding a pregnant one is awesome! That means we'll be in milk in a couple short months! :) I won't be picking her up for at least a week and only if the ground has dried out more. I got stuck in the lady's driveway today! lol I will post a pic of her when we get her.

Store

We have a real store now! It's still being completed but it's better than it was. :)

Cooking - fried pickles,, gyros, and mushroom tart

It's been a long time since I've been in the mood to cook real meals but feel like I should be. So this week I got on my recipe board on Pinterest and started browsing. No one else was home so it was only my opinion that counted. I picked a couple things that looked good and went shopping.

Here's what I've tried and my reviews of them:

First: Fried Pickles. We tried some fried pickles for the first time on vacation in FL at a bowling alley in Downtown Disney. Everyone that tried them really liked them. They were crunchy and had a nice dill flavor. Since then I've tried them 3-4 other times and most were soggy with no dill flavor. One at a brewery in Omaha came pretty close though. So I decided to try making my own.
This is the recipe I picked because it said crispy.

Recipe photo

My pickles

I bought Vlassen whole dill pickles and cut them myself because I love how crunchy they are.
The result? Hmm. Mixed feelings about this. The breading was one of the better fried batters I've had. It stuck to the pickle nicely, it cooked evenly (no spots of gooey batter left), and was crispy. It could've used a little more salt but the main problem was it clung to the pickles too thickly. It ruined my pickle/batter ratio. Second problem was the pickles lost all their dill flavor in cooking. I'm not sure if this was the type of pickle or if I just needed to cut them thicker. I cut them about the width shown in the picture. I might try again with thicker pickle slices, thinning the batter, or different pickles (or a combination of these).


Next for dinner I picked Gryos for Little Owl. She swears she was Greek in another life. She loves everything Greek. Here is the recipe I used for the chicken/tzatziki and I made homemade pitas with this recipe.


The result? To die for! We all absolutely loved them. The seasoning on the chicken was delicious and blended perfectly with the tzatziki. And the bread, Wow! We will be using these recipes again and again for sure! The pita recipe would be good as a naan substitute or even pizza crust. I'm sorry I have no pictures of my own to share, we were too busy eating.

Mine

Today for lunch I made this mushroom tart for myself.

Recipe photo

I'm sure you'll see there's quite a bit of difference here. First I don't have a tart pan so I couldn't make it that cool shape. Next I didn't put the mushrooms on top to make it pretty. And third, mine isn't as browned. I am glad I pulled it out when I did though because the bottom was getting too dark. I wish I could've cooked it for just a bit longer to really brown the top, maybe next time I'll turn the broiler on at the end for a few seconds. 

Yes, there will be a next time. This is delicious! Creamy, mushroomy, and plenty of wine flavor. I probably won't be hungry for dinner tonight since I have a feeling I'll eat this entire thing by myself! Oh well, good thing I marinated an extra chicken breast last night. Wolf can have that with the tzatziki left overs (there are no pita left overs!). Little Owl will probably be sleeping through dinner since she was up ALL night with a stomach ache, so I won't have to worry about her. I'm happy to just eat my mushroom tart. :)

Tomorrow I'll hope to make one of these:

Indian Butter Chicken

Pad Thai