Chicken Run

The battle for supremecy of Little Creek Farm continues. I'm in the lead at the moment, but I've noticed the turkeys conspiring. The chickens are acting a little more subdued and are starting to lay eggs in the nesting boxes, which is where they should be laying eggs. There are still a few at large, but one young black hen did surrender yesterday and run into the pen. The lure of cut apples, leftover spaghetti and fruit scraps was too much for her. Yes, little hen, domesticity is good!

The goats are getting rather fuzzy. Agatha Grunker looks even fatter than usual. After rather mild weather for the last several days, we are getting a taste of late fall and things to come. Yesterday was particularly blustery and I built a big roaring fire last night. This morning when I went to feed the multitude the duck pond, water troughs and chicken waterers were all frozen over. Brrr...

I had planned on making this month my back to consistent blogging month, however, phone service was out for two days. The lines were accidently cut when they put a new culvert in on our drive. This through a wrench in my plans, so I spent my evenings by the fire knitting (yes, I've been teaching myself to knit - photos soon!) instead of working. The lack of technology was rather nice. My plan for the winter is one night a week without electronics. We can read, play games or just relax and enjoy the quiet. Of course, I made this plan while Charlie was out of town and haven't told him yet - but I think I can win him over to the idea - he's easier to subdue than the chickens!

Oh and here's yesterday morning's blustery view...

Bad Blogger

Sign of the times

The world took over for the last couple of weeks and while I had many thoughts and clever anectdotes to write about, by the time I had a moment to sit I was completely and utterly exhausted. I'm such a bad blogger.

And while my life as the "boss" (or is that "bossy"?) has consumed much of my time of late, life at Little Creek Farm continues on in much the same way as it always does. The goats are fat and happy. With all the work I've been doing, I thought it wise to postpone breeding them this year. We'll hold off on the added chore of milking for a while longer.

I'm in a battle to reclaim my spot as boss of the chicken house. In my continued absence, the uppity chickens have been laying their eggs all over their free-range heaven. Yesterday I locked the majority of them in the chicken run and told them no one gets to come out to play until they start laying eggs where they are supposed to and start sleeping in the chicken house at night like proper hens. They are not happy with me.

The turkeys are, well, the turkeys. Louis, Marie and Sacre Bleu rule the farm. Meatzilla and Leroy remain blissfully unaware of their impending doom and continue to literally eat like horses.

This weekend I did manage to grab a few hours and spend them in the garden. I planted garlic and dug up the rest of the potatoes. Next, I plan to pull out the tomato plants and cover all the rows in a lovely layer of compost and straw. Then I'll remulch all the rows and hopefully get a jump on spring!

Happy All Hallows Eve everyone!

It's downright nippy!

This morning as I let the dogs out I glanced at the thermometer on the back porch. It was below 40 degrees. Has fall arrived? I hope so. The leaves have changed in just this last week. The color change started at the tops of the mountains and is working its way down to the valleys. A couple of breezy days have filled my yard with leaves and the school yard with golden pine needles.

I didn't get as much fall planting completed in the garden as I had hoped to. It looks like soon I'll be turning it over to the goats and chickens. The turkeys (those whose lack of bulk allows them to fly) have been helping themselves all summer. By next spring the fencing will be in place and wings may be clipped. I hate to do that to the turkeys because they roost so high in the beech by the chicken coop, but I'd like to be able to harvest lots of tomatoes next year.

I can't wait for daylight savings time to begin. It's almost 7 a.m. and still pitch dark outside (although I do see a little hint of light over the mountains to the east. I'm getting tired of walking down to the coop and goat shed with a flashlight every morning. Maybe I should put "electricity" on Charlie's to-do list...

Just call me Dr. Doolittle

It was a very long weekend for us. We left Thursday night for Indianapolis to attend the wedding of one of Charlie's cousins. It was a very long weekend. But we made it home in time for work and school on Monday.

As I was preparing for today's all-school field trip I heard a rather loud "thunk" on my office door (which is a big glass door to the playground). I looked out and saw a young cedar waxwing flopping on the landing. The afternoon sun had made the glass look just like the outside and it had flown right in to it. I picked it up and it seemed stunned. It sat on my lap for close to 30 minutes before flying up into the dogwood outside my office. Here the little fellow is all happy and well again. Glad I could be of service little guy.

The week in photos

It is lazy of me not to write, but I truly have been overwhelmed with work this week. So, I'll be writing more later, but here's some images from the week (that don't involve upset parents, second grade soccer field brawls, open houses, contract negotiations, and state standardized testing for school administrators...).

Louis is much to pretty to turn into Thanksgiving dinner, don't you think?

Marie is my constant gardening companion (and tomato theif).

Mmm... There's always time for cinnamon rolls!

Good morning!

eggsactly

Today's eggs. Snow White, the bantam cornish game hen (take a guess at who named her...) layed her first egg. Can you pick out which one is hers? I almost didn't notice it in the nest box.

How's that for tiny?

Is it the end already???

I can't believe it is week #12 of Liz's One Local Summer. I had hoped for a dramatic ending, but unfortunately we only made 3 meals at home this week. Pitiful, I know, but there are reasons! Charlie to off for Virginia for more than his usual amount of time. (More on that in a minute.)

There was a land mine found in the creek about a half a mile from our place. Yes, a land mine. How does a claymore anti-personnel device end up in a mountain creek in North Carolina? No one seems to know. A neighbor boy and his friend found it. Luckily they are two bright 4th graders and rather than playing with it went and told Mom & Dad. Smart kids. The police, volunteer fire department, highway patrol and anyone else with any sort of authority were down on the road (blocking my way home...). And the Asheville police bomb squad detonated it. It was "alive". It's got me thinking about walking willy-nilly through the woods, as I'm apt to do. Perhaps I should be training Gigi in explosive detection instead of agility...

Back to Charlie. He went to Virginia, signed a bunch of contracts, came home and quit his job. The contracts were for his new business. He's starting his own landscape design/consultation and planning company. No building or installing - just his own fabulous ideas. I'm very happy for him. He's wanted to do things his own way for a long time. The time was right and he finally (with lots and lots of careful planning and plotting!) just did it.

I've been extra busy at school with a few personnel issues. Did I mention that I will never complain about academic administrators again? I won't.

So, we did eat out a lot this week. We finally had time to go shopping yesterday. The cupboard is full of good things, so this week should be easy!

Anyway for our last hurrah of a local summer, we had eggs (0 miles), sausage (3 miles) and hashbrowns (0 miles). Sorry no photo, the camera is being quite tempermental. But trust me, it was lovely, homey, comforting and good!

OLS #11

Turkey Pot Pie! Everything is from the garden (or the chicken house), but the flour,butter (which are organic...), salt and pepper. It was a very busy week. I'm becoming more organized with this full-time job thing, but not organized enough to post my One Local Summer meal on time. I was organized enough to bake two pot pies. Everything is safely tucked away in the freezer for another day.

Did I mention how good that turkey was? Oh my. Yum.

Local Summer #10

I'm a little late in posting this meal, but it's a holiday weekend. I wish I had a picture of the whole meal, but we had guests and I totally forgot to take a picture of the lovely plate. Here is a photo of the turkey before we utterly carved it up into nothing. Charlie cooked it on the Weber grill.

Our dinner:

Turkey - 0 miles
Mashed Potatoes - 0 miles
Green Beans - 0 miles
Everything was flavored with herbs, onion and shallots from the garden - 0 miles.

Dessert was Belgian Dark Chocolate Ice Cream from Ultimate Ice Cream - a local establishment that makes exquisite ice creams - 5 miles

That bird is going to be feeding us for a long time.

We've been enjoying turkey sandwiches for the last two days. Tonight Charlie is making turkey pot pie (stuffed with veggies from the garden, of course).

We've also been enjoying these:

Kirby's Whippoorwill Cowpeas from Baker Creek Seeds.

And these:
Kentucky Beefsteak, also from Baker Creek. I ordered almost all of my tomato seeds from Baker Creek and I have new favorites. This one is extremely tasty and orange. It has yet to succumb to blight. It's still producing monster tomatoes. Another favorite has been Spear's Tennessee Green, which is green when ripe; turning to yellow if left on the vine. My only disapointment has been Amish Paste, which succumbed rather quickly to blight and split easily. Luckily, I had a lot of Italian Paste volunteers coming up from last year and I'm now getting a nice late crop of those.

I've spent the weekend in the garden trying to bring it back from the August Blah's. I'm ready to plant those fall crops now.

There's always a silver lining...

This morning I found my broad-breasted white turkey hen outside the chicken coop on the edge of the woods. She wasn't moving, except of slightly flapping her wing and calling softly to the other turkeys who were milling around my feet and generally getting in the way of my morning feeding (which is what they do best). I went to get her. She had been outside all night. She couldn't put weight on her left leg. I tried to put her with the other birds, but he toms just kept climbing on top of her - poor thing. She let me pick her up again and put her in with the goat girls with food and water close.

I called Charlie on my way to school and told him he would most likely have an unwanted and un-asked-for task when he got home (I had meetings and wouldn't be home until after dark). He found her as I had left her and um, did the deed. It wasn't as we had planned. I hope she didn't suffer too much during the day, and I feel terrible that I had to let her suffer at all. I came home and there was turkey chilling in the sink. Charlie was decompressing with a bottle of wine.

The silver lining is that we now have a 20.2 dressed turkey hen in the fridge and our One Local Summer meal will be turkey on Saturday. That was one big bird.

One Local Summer #9

Farm life requires a hearty breakfast. For the second week in a row we've gone local and upped our protein load to the maximum advised by law. Here's this week's One Local Summer submission. Is it #9? I think so.

Burgers Country Ham - bought in Missouri, 20 miles from my hometown, when I was visiting my parents.

Warren Wilson Pork Sausage - Warren Wilson College pig, 3 miles away.

Eggs - the chicken house, 0 miles.

Blue Hill Farm Grits, 25 miles away - flavored with local bleu cheese.

Mmmm, my heart hurts.

And as KW mentioned, pullet eggs are a photo op! Here are two - one from an Ameraucana, one from a Minorca, next to the big girls eggs. They are so cute. Monkey had the green one and was dissapointed that only the outside was green. She so wanted green eggs and ham.

Where in the world is Maggie???

Um, I'm here. I've just been overwhelmed with work. As a teacher I often rolled my eyes at administrators. I never will again (I'm not promising anything, mind you). I have been up to my armpits in work. Who knew that getting licensure for preschool children could be so difficult. I can help you get a Ph.D., but in the eyes of the health department of the State of North Carolina, I'm not qualified to do snack time with 3 and 4 year olds. If you're 5, you're safe with me... If you are in elementary, secondary or college - I'm the woman for you (that didn't sound quite right, sorry) So, it looks like I'm going back to school for 2 classes on early childhood administration. Can I get a "hell yeah!"?

So, while the school is now thriving my garden is looking sorry, the chicken house is in desperate need of cleaning and the yard needs mowing. Jamie wrote a wonderful summary of August gardening. I knew exactly how she felt. Charlie has been traveling 3 out of 7 days a week to Virginia. I think I need to hire myself a yard boy.

While the chickens may be living in a dirty house (so am I at the moment...), they are thriving. I've been letting them free range most days. The little hens are starting to lay. Today I left them in the chicken yard all day and I came home to 11 eggs. ELEVEN! Some are small "pullet" eggs. One was blue. One was green. My ameraucanas are laying. I think some of the hens have been laying them in other locations, so for the next several days I'm going to keep them in the run until I get home from school. That way they'll use the lovely nest boxes I built and not go hide the eggs in a leaf pile somewhere.

The goats are fat and happy and I really need to find a boy for his "services" so we can have milk next year. I'm trying not to stress on it too much as I have lots of new things to stress about...

I'm expecting my life will slow down and get back to semi-normal in the next week or two. I'll be able to write and read again. I may even clean the house and mow the yard. I even forgot to post last weeks One Local Challenge for Liz. Since it was Sunday's breakfast, I suppose I could post it for this week, which I may - so stay tuned.

One Local Summer #7

A cool front and a break in the weather had us thinking of fall... Charlie made dinner this week. And while roast beef is not our normal summer fare, the weather was in the 60's and we couldn't help ourselves!

Beef from Bath County, VA (Charlie's home away from home) - about 10 miles from his office.

Green Mountain Potatoes from the garden - 0 miles

Amarillo Yellow and Cosmic Purple Carrots from the garden - 0 miles

Walla Walla Onions, Shallots and Rosemary from the garden - 0 miles

For some reason, Blogger is not uploading my photo. It's here.

Assault with a Deadly Turkey Wing

A word of advice~
Never try to carry a broad-breasted bronze tom turkey weighing close to 40 pounds (even if you think it is for his own good).

One crazy flapping wing can lead to what feels like a slightly broken nose and a light black eye or two.

Greetings From the Show Me State

The monkey and I have been spending the last week at my parent's house in Missouri. Our main reason was to see my new nephew and I will tell you that he's pretty darn cute. We've had fun getting together with the cousins and checking out spots of interest.



Like Burgers Smokehouse in California, MO, home to (and there is no home-grown girl pride involved when I say this...) the best cured ham in all of North America. I bought a whole Ozark Cured Ham to take home at Charlie's request. He was too busy with work to come out for this visit.



Yesterday we went to the Missouri State Capital Building in my home town of Jefferson City. We spent a few cool hours running around the marbled halls and checking out all the spots I remembered as a kid. I almost grew up in that building. It didn't seem as big as it once did... I tried to convince the Monkey and my neices that the "M"s all over the place stood for Maggie, but they weren't buying it.

Tuesday my mother and I went to the Cole County Farmers' Market. I picked up various things to create my One Local Summer meal. Last night I made dinner and I can honestly say, there were no left-overs.

One Local Summer Meal #6
(I think it's #6)

Chicken and Vegetables in a Mediterranean Style

Chicken from a farm in Russelville, MO - 15 miles

Tomatoes, Green Peppers, Sweet Onions and Green Beans - all less than 20 miles

Burgers Bacon - 22 miles

Brown Rice - not local

The beer was local, although not up to my general taste: Budweiser! - St. Louis, Mo, 120ish miles.

Tomorrow we start the drive back to North Carolina. I'm looking forward to cooler temperatures. I miss my goats (Oh, and Charlie too...)!

Grits!

Here's this weeks installment in Liz's One Local Summer ~

SHRIMP & GRITS

Shrimp - Edisto Island, SC (a little bit farther than 100 miles, but we bought it last month while on vacation). They are dusted in cornmeal from Blue Hill Farm (Madison County, NC - about 25 miles)
Grits - Blue Hill Farm (Madison County, NC - about 25 miles) cooked with Bath County, VA blue cheese (Charlie picks it up when he's there working - 15 miles from his office.) and jalapeno pepper from the garden (0 miles).

We washed it down with St. Therese's Pale Ale from Highland Brewing Company, Asheville, NC (7 miles).

It was exquisite!

Where Does the Time Go?

Is it truly the end of July? I'm trying to figure out where my summer has gone. For the last several years I've been extending my summers way into fall, but now I'm back on an academic schedule. It's three weeks until school starts. It's just not possible. And I'm already back at school because I'm the boss. Tell me again why I said "yes" to a job offer. Oh yeah, money and my inability to say no when someone flatters me by telling me how perfect I am for something...

So every spare minute I've been working in the garden and barnyard. My morning and afternoon rituals include picking off hornworms and tossing them to eager ducks and turkeys. While the ducks have not been a good addition to the garden, the turkeys have been excellent. They love to eat bugs. Eating bugs is good. This is the first year I've had hornworms. They are scary. See! They are big and fat (as long as and fatter than my index finger!!!) and ewww... Their shear size intimidates my chickens. Thank God for turkeys and ducks.

Dulcie works on weed control.

Another evening ritual is goat play. I'm still waiting on the fence to be finished. Charlie has been so busy with work, that he has had no time to work on it. So every night the girls come out for an hour or so and play in the yard. Their pen is large, but it's rather bare and not very interesting. The goats love to get out and frolic (Yes, they do frolic and it is quite amusing.). This has turned into Monkey's favorite time of the day because the activity normally revolves around her playset and I get to push her on the swing for a long time. The goats love the boulders in the yard and all the goodies that grow on the edge of the woods. I keep a close eye on them, but so far they stick pretty close to us. Have I mentioned that they are like springer spaniels with udders? It's true.

Anticipation in the Garden

The tomatoes are coming! The tomatoes are coming! We are watching all the tomatoes with much excitement. The plants, like this Cherokee Purple are loaded with fruit and it's only a matter of time. I wish I wasn't heading off to Missouri next week...

All the onions and carrots are out of the ground. I've started planting a third crop of beans. When I get back from visiting the family I'll start some lettuce and salads.

In animal news - all are doing well. The summer chicks are growing and will soon be out with the big birds (thank god). I'm tired of raising baby birds. And this batch are mean. Seriously evil-mean. Several start pecking me as soon as I come to their little pen. I wonder if they realize how tasty they are...

I trimmed the goats' hooves last night - a first for me. Dulcinea behaved much better than Agatha Grunker. Little Aggie put up quite the fight, but finally gave in. First I was afraid she would pass out, then I was afraid that I would cut too much; so I'll probably have to do a little follow up trim soon. It would be much easier with a milking stand to contain them. That's my next order of business...

How's This for Local?

Here's this week's entry to Liz's One Local Summer challenge. Last night we had a couple of friends over to share some homegrown goodness. The wine wasn't local, but everything else traveled less than 100 yards from where it was grown to our kitchen.

Chicken - our own, which we butchered Thursday night. 0 miles

Roma Green Beans - the garden. 0 miles

All Blue and Green Mountain Potatoes - the garden. 0 miles

We also enjoyed some Spinning Spider Creamery fresh Chevre cheese (Marshall, NC - 25 miles) with Strawberry Jelly Jam (Little Creek Farm - 0 miles) and we sampled some of Charlie's Kim Chee/Chow Chow, which we have now dubbed "Charlie Chee" (it's tasty!).

There's a nice little warm feeling when you can offer friends things you've grown with your own hands. We talked about starting a local food dinner club, where we could get together and share our favorites. It could have been the wine talking, but this idea is something I'm definitely going to pursue.

Garden Update

Despite the nasty heat, my new job, ducks of destruction (au revoir Haricot Rouge du Burkina Faso cow peas!), and an occasional rampant chicken; the garden is thriving. I had planned to pull up the onions this morning and leave them to dry, but there are severe thunderstorms in the forecast. I'll wait until tomorrow. The potatoes are ready to pull up as well. It looks like I'll be out there with the garden fork, digging up goodness for most of the day.

There has been a complete reversal of our old roles here at Little Creek Farm. The garden is now solely my charge and Charlie has taken over all canning. Which is fine with me.

I pulled out all the cabbage a couple of days ago. There were a total of twenty heads. What do I do with so much cabbage? We are planning a root cellar, but it's not ready. Charlie made about 12 jars of a sort of a chow-chow/kim chee. It's an experiment. I'm still looking at 12 heads of cabbage. The current issue of Mother Earth News arrived yesterday with recipes for sauerkraut (There is also an article on eating local food). I may have to try my hand at making some, although we don't really like saurkraut... Any other ideas for cabbage out there?

All beets have been pulled and there are way too many jars of pickled beets sitting on the shelves now. We've put up close to 30 jars of blackberry jam. The rest of the blackberries will be going in the freezer. We know what everyone is getting for Christmas...

And for the rest ~
Variety of Beans - going well, although slowing down a little in the heat wave. We'll be canning soon. The second crop is coming in and I'm getting ready to start a third crop.

Hookers Red Corn - is looking pitiful, but there are lots of little ears. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Its location has gotten a little shady.

Fennel - is looking lovely.

Cucumbers - are rocking.

Tomatoes - are going crazy. We had the first, Black Prince, on Sunday. Very sweet.

Carrots - I love Cosmic Purple and Amarillo Yellow. No more orange here! I'm pulling them all this weekend and planting more for fall.

It's time to get fall crops in. I had about a week where I could just enjoy the bounty. Now it's back to weeding and planting. I love growing stuff.

Enough With The Heat Already

The severe weather alert button on my computer keeps flashing. I check it hoping for rain, but all it ever says is "high heat and humidity through Friday". They have to warn us here in the mountains that heat is not a good thing. I am becoming a little soft when it comes to heat, but my hair sure is curly!

I've been making sure the critters have plenty of water and shade. All, but the big meat blob turkeys, seem to be holding up well. I've been avoiding the heat by staying in my new office. Yes, I said new. You see, I went and stumbled upon a real job. A real job - as in, full-time, title, desk, computer, responsibilities and no budget. I am now Interim Head of School for Monkey's School. What am I thinking? Do I want a full-time job? "Interim" is in front of the title, so there's always a chance I can escape...

Although, right now I'm quite enjoying myself.

An Odd Bird

For anyone who doubted the existance of Marie, the Lap Tukey - take a gander. This is what happens when I sit down in the yard.
I'm not sure why she does this. She just makes herself comfortable. Perhaps she was a cat in a former life...

Anyway, is there a better way to enjoy a hot summer afternoon than by sharing a big, juicy watermelon with friends?

Local Meal #3

It's really not fair that I have to choose. During the summer almost everything we eat is local. There's just too much goodness to pass up. Here's Friday night's One Local Summer dinner.

Little Creek Pizza

The crust does contain non-local flour, but I did make the yeast starter!

Tomato Sauce (from last year's garden - 0 miles)

Fullam Creamery Panela Cheese (Hendersonville, NC - 35 miles)

Basil (Fresh from the garden - 0 miles)

Organic Olive Oil (Italy)

I had planned on adding some italian sausage that Charlie made from Virginia pork, but the sauce and cheese tasted so good and fresh, I couldn't bring myself to alter it in any way. This is the first time I've used Fullam Creamery cheese, although I think I've had it in local restaurants. Panela is similar to mozzarella and was subtle and excellent on top of the sauce. It bubbled and browned just a little. The sauce was from my orange and striped tomatoes of last summer and when I opened the jar, it smelled like tomatoes warm and perfectly ripe from the garden. Simple is best when it comes to pizza. Sip a local beer and all the bustle of the week just melts away.

Goat School

In order to distance myself from the turkeys, I attended an all-day workshop on goats provided by our area State Extension Agents and NC State. The morning was long and filled with lectures by an extension agent telling us how to care for goats and a NC State professor teaching us the newest, hippest techinique for bloodsucking worm control. The afternoon everyone separated into two groups - dairy and meat. (Actually we sort of separated ourselves early on.) There was quite the distinction between the meat raising, boot-wearing, big belt buckle-sporting mostly male crowd and the natural fiber-wearing, clog and sandal-sporting, almost completely female (one man!) dairy crowd.

The new, hip FAMACHA method of parasite control is basically used to control the little blood suckers by treating only goats with a big load of the worms. This helps by keeping the worms from becoming drug resistant. You do a regular check of the membrane around the goat's eye and treat only those showing signs of anemia. We got to practice on real goats and it was then that you saw the real difference in the goat types. We practiced on Boer goats, a meat variety with horns. Most dairy goats are disbudded as babies, so they never grow horns. So some dairy people were a little timid at first around the horns. However, the dairy people had the least trouble handling the goats. You see we play with our goats everyday. The meat guys went in and wrestled the goats around by grabbing the horns and using brute force sometimes. The dairy people sweet-talked the goats and scratched their ears. We worked in teams of two so one person could hold the goat while the other looked at the eye. It was interesting, but I'm glad my goats don't have horns...

After lunch we broke into our respective groups. The meat people talked about fencing and housing and government regulations. The dairy people talked about breed personalities, shared recipes, discussed kidding and milking and feeding. And then we all trimmed hooves!

I met some great people, got a lead on a boyfriend for the girls and found out I can get great hay right down the road at the college. Oh and I got invited to join the dairy goat club!

The turkeys were rather upset when I got home and were only appeased by lots of food. I think they suspect that I like the goats more. Sshh. We'll keep that our little secret.

Birds of a Feather

It's time for a bird update!

It's true. They flock together. Meet Marie and Louis, two of the Royal Palm turkeys. The other, Sacre Bleu, is off getting in the garden and attacking potato beetles. Marie is my "lap turkey". She likes to sit on my lap, follow me around the yard and generally make herself into a giant nuisance (even more than Gigi). When she was younger and much smaller she liked to sit on my shoulder. The Royal Palms are not headed for the table, so they have been given names.

Sacre Bleu is the other hen. She is not black and white like these two, but blue/grey and white. These birds can fly! They take off across the yard to get to me as fast as they can. The giant meat blobs known as the broad-breasted turkeys lumber around with their massive weight and basically are just waiting for Thanksgiving... Louis and Marie have figured out that their priviledged status and are acting out the part. I had to shoo them off the front porch yesterday. But enough of the turkeys (who, along with the geese, are becoming my favorite birds).

Back to the whole flocking thing. I've been noticing that the birds tend to group themselves by breed,color and age. It's true. The older hens hang out with Rufus the Rooster and have little to do with the younger set. The others divide themselves by breed and/or color. The Speckled Sussex are always in a happy little group. The Minorcas flit around and refuse to come in at night. The oddest combo has to be the white Ameraucana, Stay Puff, and the white Bantam Cornish Game, Snow White (who is the size of a pigeon). Turkeys hang with turkeys. The young roosters (none of them are named!) hang out in a thug gang. The ducks and geese are very exclusive. Octavian, aka Gus - the Roman gander, attacks any wayward chicken or turkey who is unlucky enough to find its way into the garden or duck pen. That bird rules!

I'm spending too much time with poultry.

Local Meal #2

One Local Summer Sunday Night Dinner

Pork Ribs (Warren Wilson College Pig - 3 miles)
Green Beans (Garden - 0 miles) with Onion (Garden - 0 miles) and Bacon (from Bath County, VA - 15 miles from Charlie's home away from home)
Steamed All Blue and Green Mountain Potatoes (Garden - 0 miles) with dill (Garden - 0 miles)
Cole Slaw with Cabbage, Cosmic Purple and Amarillo Yellow Carrots, and Onion (Garden - 0 miles)

We are counting the Virginia food as local because Charlie spends almost as much time there as he does here. But he does bring home lovely meat and great wine when he comes home...
So, if we don't count the 5 hour drive for the bacon, I think a three mile radius is pretty darn good. I'm also counting the butter on the potatoes as an "oil". The salt came from England and the pepper came from somewhere warm and not within a hundred miles...

I wanted to make a pizza, but couldn't find local wheat. I'm searching. I'll probably make it later in the week. The basil is screaming to be picked.

In the Garden

Besides the sprouting ducklings, the garden is starting to give up some real goodness. I spent a good part of yesterday taming the weeds that blossomed in my absence back into submission. I've become emboldened by the success of starting almost everything from seed. The only plants were cabbage, one Black Prince tomato, and a few jalapeno peppers.

The tomatoes are happy and growing strong (I'm keeping fingers crossed). They are loaded with fruit. For the first time I've had success with cabbages. Mulch, mulch, diatomaceous earth and neem and mulch! While they are just the standard Dutch Early Round and a Bonnie Hybrid from the feed store, they are crisp and sweet and everything I could want. We've made some scrumptious cole slaw and Charlie is planning on canning some Kim Chee.














About 3/4 of the beets have been pulled and are awaiting pickling and canning. We had our first helping of Golden Wax and Jade beans the other night. And finally success with the onions. I set out little pencil thin plants this year instead of sets. Again mulch, mulch, mulch. And I left what weeds sprouted alone or cut them back. I've been rewarded with big, fat Walla Wallas and to-die-for Reds. The Kirby Whippoorwill cowpeas are coming along as well as the Roma, Trionfo Violetto, and Jacob's Cattle beans. I planted another couple of rows of beans yesterday as well as the Haricot Rouge du Burkina Faso cowpeas (I figure all the heat will do those African peas some good).

Oh, and the dill - did I mention the dill? My first crop of volunteers is blooming and a second crop should be ready for the pickles!














My new favorite gardening book is Edward C. Smith's The Vegetable Gardener's Bible. I'm crediting it with my organic success. That and chicken poop.

Oh, and a Happy 4th of July to you Americans. I need to get out and pick some more beans, mulch and weed then make up some deviled eggs for our 2nd Annual Fourth of July Party. We'll be having chicken, of course and some hot dogs and brats, lots of friends and maybe a few illicit fireworks when the sun goes down.

A Little Mystery

This little fella turned up on my drive this afternoon. I was in the garden and heard a fit of peeping. At first I thought monkey had let the chicks out, but no. As the little guy ran across the drive I noticed that it was most definitely a duck.

About an hour later I found a second one in my garden following one of the turkeys around. Poor little thing. I have no idea where they came from. There is no sign of a mother or siblings. I was afraid to leave them outside because they would be tasty little snacks for some critter - wild or border collie...

So, I put them in a brooder and decided someone must have sent me two little wild ducks. I think they are mallards. I am truly confounded as to where they came from. Charlie thinks that someone dumped them at the "Chicken Lady's" house. I'm not sure I want that title, but I'll keep the ducks.

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We returned home Saturday evening from a utterly fabulous time at the beach. This is what Monkey has to say about our short, but sweet, vacation:

We saw dolphins and alligators and pelicans and the BEACH. Daddy
caught a shark. It was a little one. And there were sea shells and
the OCEAN and waves and sand and the BEACH. I built a sand castle, but it got
destroyed. I built another sand castle. I got a necklace! I was at the BEACH. And we went to a snake museum! And there were alligators and I had
ICECREAM! And there was a pool! There were sea turtles. I swam in the ocean and I saw the sunset...

ONE LOCAL SUMMER

We ate lots of fresh seafood. On the local food front, in accordance with Liz's One Local Summer Challenge, our Friday night dinner consisted of shrimp bought off the boat a quarter mile away, cucumbers and tomatoes from George and Pinks, corn (delicious and sweet) from a boy on the side of the road and fresh locally grown potatoes from the Piggly Wiggly (which has a local fresh veggie and fruit section!) and beer from Palmetto Brewing Company, just up the road in Charleston.

This week's local meal was brought on early by a surprise visit from Chef Boots and Dr. E. We pulled potatoes from the garden, had the first golden wax and french filet beans, and local pork chops from Warren Wilson College. Our appetizers consisted of Spinning Spider Creamery's Midnight Sun cheese, our own Strawberry Jelly Jam (which is awesome with goat cheese!) and some of that shrimp from the low country. I have to admit that the crackers were not local.

Chef Boots is finally opening his own restaurant. We started discussing what I may be able to grow for him. This would mean the addition of a green house, but maybe we can swing it. I'll keep you posted. We told Dr. E she could quit her day job at the University and become the delivery driver between here and Winston. I don't think she was too enthused with that prospect. Although we did think that a weekly meeting in Hickory for lunch would not be out of the question. Hmm, this could be fun!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

We returned home Saturday evening from a utterly fabulous time at the beach. This is what Monkey has to say about our short, but sweet, vacation:

We saw dolphins and alligators and pelicans and the BEACH. Daddy
caught a shark. It was a little one. And there were sea shells and
the OCEAN and waves and sand and the BEACH. I built a sand castle, but it got
destroyed. I built another sand castle. I got a necklace! I was at the BEACH. And we went to a snake museum! And there were alligators and I had
ICECREAM! And there was a pool! There were sea turtles. I swam in the ocean and I saw the sunset...

ONE LOCAL SUMMER

We ate lots of fresh seafood. On the local food front, in accordance with Liz's One Local Summer Challenge, our Friday night dinner consisted of shrimp bought off the boat a quarter mile away, cucumbers and tomatoes from George and Pinks, corn (delicious and sweet) from a boy on the side of the road and fresh locally grown potatoes from the Piggly Wiggly (which has a local fresh veggie and fruit section!) and beer from Palmetto Brewing Company, just up the road in Charleston.

This week's local meal was brought on early by a surprise visit from Chef Boots and Dr. E. We pulled potatoes from the garden, had the first golden wax and french filet beans, and local pork chops from Warren Wilson College. Our appetizers consisted of Spinning Spider Creamery's Midnight Sun cheese, our own Strawberry Jelly Jam (which is awesome with goat cheese!) and some of that shrimp from the low country. I have to admit that the crackers were not local.

Chef Boots is finally opening his own restaurant. We started discussing what I may be able to grow for him. This would mean the addition of a green house, but maybe we can swing it. I'll keep you posted. We told Dr. E she could quit her day job at the University and become the delivery driver between here and Winston. I don't think she was too enthused with that prospect. Although we did think that a weekly meeting in Hickory for lunch would not be out of the question. Hmm, this could be fun!

OK, You Can Stop Now...

Raining, that is.

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain. Again. First it's drought, then it's flood. Serious flood in low spots. But my rain barrel is full again. I'd buy more, but I'm on a budget. Maybe soon I can get more, because it has been a great investment (when it rains...).

The ducks and geese are quite happy, even though I won't let the geese into the wet garden. The poultry and the goats are not so excited by all the rain. Note: There is probably no worse smell than a wet chicken or turkey. And then there's the desperate need to clean the chicken coop, but they are all hanging out inside making that chore impossible. I'm hoping for a break in the rain later today so I can give the coop a swift and thorough mucking.

Liz, way up north at Pocket Farm, has had a genius idea. It's One Local Summer. I'll be playing along, making one totally local meal a week. I think we can handle that here on Little Swollen Creek Farm.

Oh, and a house sitter has been found. How would we survive without starving college students in need of somewhat easy (considering the animal load at the moment) money? So tomorrow, we'll be heading here for a few days of scattered thunderstorms, loggerhead turtles (hopefully), shrimp, sand, and relaxation.

Weekend Update

We planned to camp out on Saturday. It started raining around 4 o'clock (of course, it did). We remained undaunted and set the tent up on the front porch. We cooked our food on the grill and we played Chutes and Ladders, watched the bull frogs in the fish pond and the chickens chasing bugs across the lawn. Dinner was a scrumptious Silver Dollar Casserole.

The Silver Dollar Casserole goes by various names. The SDC is the summer camp version of Salmon en Pappaillote. The salmon became hamburger. The vegetables were baby potatoes, onions and carrots from the garden. The parchment paper became aluminum foil. All was cooked on coals in the grill. It was yummy. We later toasted marshmallows over the grill and made s'mores.

We did have a little time to work in the garden. The tomatoes are getting taller and are covered in little green fruits. The much needed rain is triggering some rapid growth among the cucumbers. Unfortunately, the heat is signalling the demise of the green peas. But then again, there is a silver lining - the corn and cow peas are taking off. It's time to pull the beets and put in a few more rows of green beans. The black raspberries are there for the picking and the blackberries are loaded and starting to turn. The blueberries needed this rain, but I hope it doesn't cause them to split.

It's still raining. And I can't really complain. We are leaving for the beach in two days and if it's raining south of Charleston, I will be slightly cranky. A couple days of fresh seafood, low country hospitality, loggerhead turtles, alligators, sun and surf will be good for us. My only concern is that my regular animal sitter cancelled on me and I have to find a replacement ASAP - like today. Keep your fingers crossed. I don't think the house owner would like it if I brought the goats along...

Go Outside!

Look over at the sidebar. It's only two more days (or is it one more day?) until the Great American Campout. We will be camping outside here at the homestead. The menu is being planned. It will include s'mores and maybe after looking at this it should include steak! Monkey picked out the spot for the tent today. She's getting very excited. I'm going to lock the doors so Charlie can't sneak inside. Everything we need, we'll take with us... ...to the yard. We'll sit outside in our camp chairs, look up at the stars and listen to the hooty owls. Life will be good.

Join the outdoor revolution and camp out this Saturday. It will be good for you, I promise. You don't have to rough it. Who says you can't have steak and a good French red wine on a campout?

Return to the Daily Grind

I came home Saturday afternoon. Camp was quite enjoyable, but one week was enough for me. I think I may be getting too old to get up every morning, feed 12 horses, ride all day and then participate in counselor hunts and hoe downs. There is the will, but at some point, the knees and back scream "NO!" That point would probably be a big-boned 9-year old who was the fifteenth child to need a knee up on Thursday... My favorite camp horse, who was pictured in Thursday's post (he is much more handsome in real-life) is still there and still being ridden by horseback counselors or very good young riders. He's a big boy and strong. And the early morning canters were to die for.

Charlie and Monkey had a busy week of baby-sitter shuffling (Monkey's had a family emergency), playdates (Monkey), and impending law-suits against clients (Charlie). Charlie did, however, find time to finish the gate for the duck pen. He also installed a movable sprinkler system around the garden and it is a life saver. He mounted adjustable rotating sprinklers on the fence posts and added a timer. We are now in a "moderate to severe" drought, so it is especially fantastic. He staked my wildly growing tomatoes and took care of these...

The Newest Members of Little Creek Farm

There are ten of them - seven black and three red. Rufus is the dad of all. Ruby, the Rhode Island Red, is the mother of the red ones and I think the solid black have Dominique moms and the "penguin" ones have Australorp moms. The broody hens (one on an empty nest (?!), two on the same nest) did quite well. The two on one nest have worked out a system. One sets on the eggs the other on the hatched chicks. Once the chicks are dry we remove them and put them in the brooder where they are safe from the other chickens. My plan is to build a brooder pen and move them back outside as soon as possible. There are two eggs left in the nest. I think I'll give them until tomorrow morning to hatch, then I'll remove them and put the hens in with the goats to hopefully break the broody cycle.

I've spent most of my time since my return catching up on the garden. It's amazing how fast weeds can grow. There are tons of English peas and snow peas. The beets are about ready and the onions are huge. Charlie is quite impressed with my new no till gardening. I think I'm slowly converting him.

Thursday Afternoon

More Thoughts

Being at Camp has made me think about lots of things. I'm really enjoying myself and I'm enjoying my time with the campers. I somehow think being older has made me appreciate the camp experience even more. I am much more in tune to the campers and their needs. Perhaps this comes from being a mom. All the little things that are so "camp" - the songs, the daily ritual, the smell of the barn - bring little moments of intense joy. It's almost like being a kid, or better yet, a 20 year old, again and being able to enjoy it.

We are having a "Hoe Down" tonight. Most of the younger counselors are coming up with ways to avoid it. Many are taking their night out. I'm looking forward to the hilarity of little girls square dancing. I'm not even feeling the need for a night out (although I do get one). I can eat at a cheap chain restaurant and drink a domestic beer anytime I want. How often do I get to make a s'more and sit in the moonlight singing silly camp songs?

It's a good time to enjoy the little things - catching baby toads, seeing wildflowers, cantering down a trail, coming across a box turtle laying eggs, and even feeling a strong breeze all night brought on by a hurricane that's cruising up the other side of the state. I'm not half way done with my time here and I want to enjoy every minute.

I also seriously think I have to figure out a way to get a horse. I miss riding every day. Having a little feedroom at home filled with hay and grain for the goats has been bliss because it reminds me of my childhood and early adulthood and every moment I spent with horses. Hmmm.... I must plot...

Random Thoughts of a Camp Counselor

• Someone needs to wake up before me and have coffee waiting. Granted, I seem to be one of the first people up in the morning. I'm dressed and on my way to the barn before the kitchen staff arrives.

• My morning classes were full of lovely girls who followed directions. I was happy. I was also a little sunburned.

• I'm not getting any care packages, I know it.

• Campers who have not taken their behavior modifying medicine should not be allowed in my late afternoon class. "Janie Jetson* wants to ride Trigger*" (I have a riding student who thinks she's Denny Crane...) "Can we trot yet? Can we trot yet? Can we trot yet? Are we done?" Well, before we trot Miss Camper, you should be able to walk, turn, and stop Trigger. I'm just saying...

• They had to kill a rattlesnake in camp today. I'm still walking around in the dark without a flashlight.

• We found one of these in the barn today.

• Did I mention how hot it is here?

While I am enjoying my time back at camp, I do miss the Monkey and Charlie. Oh, and I'm an aunt again. My new nephew was born yesterday at 7:05 a.m.

*Not their real names, of course.

They're Here

Today was the first official day of camp. I interviewed lots of campers about their riding abilities, gently ignoring the well-meaning parents who feel they must answer for their children. I mean really, I'm talking to little Susie, not you ma'am.

I hope I don't turn into one of those parents someday. Right now I still have to translate Monkey Speak from time to time, but my kid's got opinions and she can express them quite well, thank you.

So, today was spent planning for the rest of the week, going through all the rules with kids and taking official camp photos. Tomorrow it's off to the barn where I might lose one or two campers, who knows! Mayhem could ensue quite soon...

I'm Melting

The heat is incredible. Perhaps we'll get a nice pop-up thunderstorm this afternoon. Why didn't anyone warn me? I spent the morning in the barn and seriously need air-conditioning. When did I become so soft? Am I getting old? Oh well, there will be pool time this afternoon. Which should I wish for - pool or rain?

Tomorrow campers come and Monkey and Charlie go home. Wish me luck.

Leaving On a Mid-Morning Drive to Georgia...

Tomorrow I'm leaving for Camp. I get to spend a week in the North Georgia mountains trying in vain to keep little girls from falling off horses, watching them pet and fall inexplicably in love with hooved creatures who would rather toss them than cuddle. I'll be tapping my impatient foot as the girls want to brush them instead of having a good canter through the woods. Oh, and I'll be eating s'mores and really bad cookout food made by the little girls.

You may remember a year ago (or you may not, so read about it here), I took off for camp to train the riding staff and wear out the horses for the little girls before camp actually started. I was quite pleased with the staff and most of the horses. I sent one packing (horse, not counselor). This year I am going back to a position I haven't held in over 10 years. I'm going to be the actual "Horseback Director" while the girl I trained last year is off at a wedding. I can call her a girl, can't I? I mean she's still in college and cute and thin and all... damn her.

Anyway, the Monkey and I are off for a fun weekend at Camp before I have to begin work. Charlie will be joining us and then the two of them will come home Sunday. If you're thinking about robbing us while we're gone - don't. The ducks will create quite a fuss. The dogs are useless, but the goats have been put on patrol. Besides, we have two lovely housesitters in the form of Monkey's teacher's assistant and her beau. She's even offered to do it again when we take off for the beach in a few weeks!

You will notice to the right, that I've added a link to the Great American Backyard Campout.
We will be camping here at Little Creek Farm in Monkey's pink (yes, pink - hot pink) tent. It's a real 3 person tent. It just happens to be hot pink... I'm planning a classic meal of hotdogs, bake beans and s'mores. Or maybe silver dollar casseroles (meat and veggies rolled up in foil and tossed on the coals). They could receive a much more gourmet treatment. Maybe we can stay up and try to catch the rather fat racoon who has been raiding the dog food bin on the back porch at night... Or we'll just look up at the stars, drink wine (Charlie and I, not Monkey) and sing camp songs until Monkey passes out, or Charlie. Whoever goes first will get their hand stuck in a bowl of ice-cold water...

I've been thinking about loads of things I want to write about. Perhaps I'll be able to steal a few moments on the computer at camp and leave some posts late at night with dial-up - if it's working, that is.

Until then, I'll leave with a picture of Dulcie, looking more like a dog than goat. Maybe I could teach her agility...

"Take me with you, please."

Ducks Say What?

What the hell has she done now?

We're the geese. And no, these are not yarmulkes.

The Tufted Roman geese arrived today. The ducks are much kinder than chickens. While they didn't become instant buddies, they didn't harrass and peck the little guys. Everybody went into the duck house tonight with no problems. Keep your fingers crossed for these little guys. Esther brought me a small and large one, hoping that one is a boy and one is a girl. We'll just wait to see. While I've read several descriptions of sexing waterfowl, I'm not to eager to massage cloaca and invert to find out what little sex organs pop out. We'll just play "wait and see". I've been thinking of names. I guess it's lucky for them (or maybe not) that I had way too many years of Latin. The good thing is that whatever I decide to name them, there is probably a masculine or feminine equivalent. Gaius/Gaia, Julius/Julia, Augustus/Augusta ad infinitum.

Which reminds me - Jelly Jam goes in the mail tomorrow to Jamie and KW. I can't mention enough how much Dulcinea and Agatha (Agatha Grunker, that is...) enjoy their names.

A Pretty Perfect Day

The weather was near perfect today. I didn't even mind the late afternoon shower. In fact, I stayed in the garden weeding until the rain changed from an easy-to-live-with drizzle to a more steady downpour. After a half hour I was back outside in the late afternoon sun, grazing the goats on the still-wet lawn. Bliss.

We visited Spinning Spider Creamery earlier this afternoon for their open house. Chris Owen taught the dairy goat class I took this spring at the Organic Growers School, which was supposed to convince me that I didn't want goats (yeah, we know how that turned out...). We checked out the milking shed, saw the creamery with it's coolers full of aging cheese (Chris had some bleu cheese that I'm dying to try, but it's not ready yet.). Monkey got to milk a goat and actually did well considering the size of her tiny hands. She was more interested in the litter of Cairn Terrier puppies than the goats, however. I'm really in awe of that family. They all pitch in and everyone is involved with the farm. The goats are lovely and well cared for. The boys are personable and talkative. They all are knowledgable and friendly (the boys, that is. The goats are friendly, but I'm not sure that they are very knowledgable). I can't wait until we can milk Dulcinea and Aggie Grunker.

While at the farm I struck up a conversation with a woman named Esther, who is a friend of the Owens and raises sheep. In the course of conversation she found out I had chickens and casually, in a tone I should have recognized, asked me if I would like a couple of geese. I should have run, but I said "Yes!" (You thought I would say, "No"???) I really wanted geese and have been quite sad since I lost the last four. Esther ordered 5 American Buff and 5 Crested Roman geese this spring (10 is the minimum order). They are now about a month old and she doesn't want to keep them all. So it looks like later this week we'll have two new geese on the farm - I think Crested Roman, as she said she had been trying to get the Buffs for several years. Let's hope they have better luck than the past geese. Now that we have the duck pen, I think they'll be safe. Don't you like when life throws you those pleasant little surprises? I was really just hoping to check out the goats, ask a few questions and pick up some more fresh chevre and now I get a few geese as well.

Liz has tagged me for a photo of my favorite view from home, so here it is:

The view from my office.

Life does indeed toss us some good little treats every now and again.

Addendum: Thanks to Liz for pointing out that my goose link was not quite right. Now you may check them out!

Barnyard Confusion

On Friday Gigi the Chicken was setting on Number Four's nest. Number Four was setting on Number Three's nest and Number Three was setting on an empty nest. At first, I thought that Gigi was just taking her time depositing yet another egg on Number Four's mound. She stayed all day. Perhaps she was offering Number Four a little time away from the kids, because yesterday morning everything was back to normal. Is it just me, or do my chickens have issues?

I'm allowing them to carry on in this manner as I have enough daily eggs and enough chickens. And they seem to want desperately to set, so I'll amuse them. If I actually get some chicks, it will be an amazing thing.

Another animal with issues is Louis the Royal PalmTurkey (You see, he's named because he gets to stay). He seems to have developed a crush on Juliette, the Cochin hen. She's not returning his affection and I'm not sure about how I feel about this interspecies attraction. Luckily his attention span seems rather short and hopefully he'll turn his attention to one of the Royal Palm hens soon.

Must...Raise...Family

I find no rhyme or reason in why two of my hens would decide to go broody on me. I also can't figure out why one of them is setting on an empty nest. Dominique #4 (I hate to admit it, but I just can't tell the surviving Dominiques apart - so they never got proper names) felt her biological clock ticking last week. I don't mind her having a few eggs to hatch, but because all the hens love to lay their eggs in the same nesting box, she is now sitting on 19 eggs. Yes, 19 eggs, damn her. Her sister, #3, decided to follow #4's lead and started setting in the nesting box next door - only she's not setting on any eggs. Let's just say that #3 might not be that bright.

Tonight, after getting two eggs in two days (at least one hen has refused to lay in #4's vicinity), I shooed #4 off of her nest for a minute and counted the eggs and numbered them with my handy-dandy Sharpie pen. I took pity on #3 and placed four eggs under her. Perhaps sometime in mid-June we'll have even more babies at Little Creek Farm. Of course, I'm planning on being out of town and in the North Georgia mountains when the chicks are due, but more on that later.

Let Me Introduce To You...

Dulcinea and Agatha!

The names were chosen by Monkey after much consideration. I have to add that Agatha is only our little blonde goat's first name. Monkey wanted to call her Grunker (???). Then Fatty Grunker (!?!) and finally Sunday morning she settled on Agatha Grunker (which sounds like a great name for a character in a book). Congratulations to Jamie and KW, respectively for the name suggestions. I will be sending you a jar of Strawberry Jelly Jam.

The girls are settling in quite nicely. Yesterday I took them for a browsing walk around the perimeter of the yard. They are quite fun to walk and better behaved than say, Chelsea, on a leash, er, lead rope. They greet us when we go down to the pens and seem to be content. Agatha, who has already been called Aggie, is the leader of the two. She's rather bold and inquisitive. Dulcinea/Dulcie is more timid, but sweet. She's very concerned about the dogs and poultry. She seems at the moment to be following Aggie's lead.

As they checked the goat's records out before I brought them home, it was noted that these two are twins (believe it, or not). Their mother is not Cow Girl, as Erin thought, but Delia. And I had their father's name wrong. It's not Dudley, but Conway. You can see how I'd confuse those two, right?? They turned a year old on May 3.

In other barnyard news, the lucky ducks have their own pen now - complete with pool/day spa, house and grass. As Charlie (yeah, I've decided to use his real name because Big Daddy takes longer to type) puts up the rest of the barnyard fencing, they'll be able to wander out on their own. For now, let's hope they're secure from the bad dogs.

The garden is keeping me busy as well. Cucumbers and beans are coming up. I need to plant more and get my second round of sunflowers in. I've also got to plant melons and pumpkins and get more of the flowers started. I've got a lot of work to do before I can enjoy Memorial Day...

This Is What We're Made For!

Jamie has had an overload of cuteness on her blog with her new baby birds. I thought I'd share yesterday's cuteness overload here at Little Creek Farm.

The lucky ducks had their first swimming excursion in their new "pond". Here are Black, White, Black Two and Buffy. I'm not giving them names until I know if they are boys or girls. Buffy has started quacking (a lot!), so I'm going to assume she's a girl. Ah, the bliss of being a duck.

I'm off in about an hour to pick up Dudley's girls, so be prepared for some caprine cuteness to follow.

Toil, Toil, Toil

I've spent the last several days planting, weeding and trying to get the goat pen ready for the girl's arrival on Saturday. Big Daddy is out of town, so that leaves lots of construction and perfecting to me. I've finally started staining the chicken coop - a lovely blue/grey. I've converted the new east wing into a feed room. The turkeys will just have to live with the chickens. Once I removed the chicken feed cans from the coop, there was plenty of room for all our avian charges. The little goat shed is full of nice straw bedding and I've cleaned out lots of little trees and overhanging branches around the pen, so they'll have more light.

I went to the feed store this morning and stocked up on goat chow, alfalfa hay and mineral salts. I need to find another source for my alfalfa because the feed store charges $9 a bale (it is close to 89 pounds, but still). Growing up in the midwest definitely spoiled me on my feed costs. I need to go buy some baking soda. I was hoping the feed store would have livestock grade, but no. Goats need baking soda to keep their rumens happy, so I'm off to the grocery store later.

My blog has been acting funny. I'm only able to see my last post with comments - odd. Let's hope it works itself out soon.

Keep those goat names coming!

Goats Ahoy!

I crossed the Eastern Continental Divide this morning and went to look at goats. I'll be bringing two of them home on Saturday morning. They are two sweet little girls and at least one seems to have a good milking potential. I was wrong in my first mention of them. Their daddy is a rather handsome cream colored Nigerian Dwarf named Dudley and their mommas are La Manchas.




The first looks a lot like her daddy, Dudley. She just didn't want to pose for the camera, but did enjoy a good ear rub and back scratch before she wandered off. Trust me she is quite adorable and reminds me of the goats I had in Africa. The picture doesn't do her light golden coat justice.



The second looks more like her mother, Cow Girl, but with ears (La Manchas have very short or almost non-existant ears; for those of you who didn't check the link above). She's all sleek and svelte. Her udders are very nice and I think based on her mother's and father's records will be a good milker. As you can tell, she likes to pose.

It was fun to visit the farm today. One of Monkey's classmate's mother manages the farm. We chatted and she showed me the milking operation and the new soon-to-open creamery. All the little babies were so cute (I swear baby goats are cuter than labrador puppies!). It gave me courage to try this new venture. All the does just come up and want to be petted and have their ears scratched. The bucks were all friendly now that breeding is done and recieved a fair amount of fawning over. They are smart enough to spot a sucker (that would be me...). Along with the goats, there were chickens and emus. The emus were interesting, but not something I want. The male was growling. I don't need any birds that can growl.

Both of these does are being sold because they will be too small to fit in the owner's new milking stanchions. And she is setting up her new creamery for Grade A status, which means everything is pretty uniform. But they should be good for us. We just have to find a nice small (preferably for the first breeding, Nigerian) buck to breed them to this fall, so they can have kids and freshen for next year. Then it's cheese for everyone!

Now here's the rub. They don't have names (They've both been known as Dudley's girls). I have to come up with names. If we leave it up to Monkey they'll both have princess names or be called Gigi. So that's where you come in. Send me your suggestions. We here at Little Creek Farm will choose the winners. Your prize will be the satisfaction of naming a cute little goat and a jar of Big Daddy's Now Famous Strawberry Jelly Jam! Entries will be taken until Sunday 8:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Enter as often as you like.

Let the naming begin!

Damn the Luck

Or the lack of it. I have no luck with waterfowl. None at all. I was gone last evening for a couple of hours. The ducklings and goslings were in their new pen, where they had happily played all day. I came home and asked Big Daddy if he had put them up. No. When he went down to put them up, he could only find five. Seven ducks and four geese had vanished. We've found several bodies - not all, in the woods. B.D. swears our dogs were inside. It's a mystery. If it were one or two I would have thought a fox did it. If the little carcasses were laying around their yard, I would have blamed the dogs. It's like they were whisked away by something, all ELEVEN of them. I have no clue what. I'm once again left with this ache and this loss. Last night I was pretty much inconsolable. Today I'm remorseful, mournful and exhausted.

Still, there are five ducks left - two Pekins, two Cayugas and one Buff. And while they are a little skittish today, they seem no worse for the wear. I've left them inside. They are sharing digs with one little Wyandotte chick. I gave some eggs to a neighbor's son to hatch for his class project. One out of three hatched. Pikachu has come back to our house to live, only he's too young to go in with the other chickens yet and I really wanted my studio to be bird-free again. He's got a swank dog crate under a light with his food and water well out of reach of the piglets, er, I mean ducklings. We're down to five - let's hope four are girls and one is a boy. Keep those fingers crossed.

Back On Schedule

My mother left this morning. We are trying to get back to the daily ebb and flow of life up here on the mountain. So far, so good.

Monkey's birthday was yesterday. She is now four and had proclaimed that she is a big girl now and we should all treat her as such. Jeesh. Her birthday party was Saturday and she and seven little girlfriends (no boys allowed!) enjoyed a tea party and her new play set/fort/castle/pirate ship. They were all well behaved and finished off the morning with this...

That's strawberry cream cheese filling wedged between three layers of decadently rich chocolate cake coated in strawberry buttercream and topped with pink fondant cherry blossoms. Just thinking about it now makes my teeth ache and my arteries collapse, but it sure tasted fabulous, if I may say so myself. Hey, you are only four once, right?

In other news, we are trying to purchase a piece of land next to ours. It has gone into foreclosure and the bank says we have first dibs, but we have to wait a month (or more) while they finalize details and so many things can happen in a month and I tend to be a worrier, and I really want that land... you get the picture. So keep your fingers crossed for us, will you?

I have located two young Alpine/Nigerian dairy goat does. Big Daddy just finished the goat shed, so I may be getting them. They aren't freshened, but will be ready to breed in the fall - so we can have babies and milk next spring. They were sort of a mistake (wrong daddy) last year, but they are supposed to be very sweet and have a good milking lineage on both sides, so they may be just perfect for us.

How My Mother and I Chose to Spend Our Afternoon

Is there any other way to spend a lovely spring afternoon after the rain storms have passed and the weeding is done?

A Beautiful Spring Day and Everyone is Outside

"O.K. Which one of us wants to try to get past Maggie and have a go at the ducks???" "What's a duck?" "Taste like goose."









"O.K Which one of us want to try to get past Maggie and have a go at the dogs???" "What's a dog?" "I think we should send the geese."


*No animals were hurt in the process of making this post. All are fine and dandy.

Arrival Pending

My mother touches down at the Asheville Airport in approximately 45 minutes. I just noticed that there are short red dog hairs all over the black couch in the guest room. eek.

duck, duck, GOOSE!

I haven't really mentioned the new batch of ducklings and goslings. They are now three weeks old and are quite precocious. I was waiting for a formal portrait outside on the lovely spring grass, but the weather has not been cooperating. They are quite vocal, the whole lot of them. I've yet to name the ducks. The geese, however, quickly acquired names. The two Brown Chinese with their elegant long necks are Mulan (it's Monkey's doing - everything Disney...) and General Tso. The Toulouse are Lucinda and Marcel.

You really can't do anything near their brooder pen without the geese telling you how to do it correctly. And the ducks all move in blustery herd of peeping from one end of the pen to the other anytime I approach.

So I give you the first glimpse of the water fowl. That would be General Tso demanding more baby spinach in his diet.

Talking Turkey

Our turkey poults are interesting creatures. They are more tender in constitution than the chickens. We've lost two to unknown reasons. I found one of the bronze poults laying on her side yesterday morning when I went to open the hen house door. She was still alive, but barely. The poor little thing died in my arms.

I think the turkeys suspect that they most of them may not make it past late fall. Each one vies for my attention and tries to get on my good side. One little white one has taken to flying into my arms every time I enter the run. I like to take a 5 gallon bucket into the run and sit on it among the young chicks. That way they can get used to me. They particularly like it when I bring treats. Watermelon is one of their favorites. This same turkey and one other like to come and sit on my lap. Then they take on the persona of a house cat and nuzzle and want to be petted. I will have to put an end to this soon. One reason is that a grown turkey flying up into my arms will probably not be so cute. The other reason would be that I really can't be petting my dinner, now can I?

No Idle Hands Here

The mountains are finally green. Well, the lower elevations are green at least. It seemed to happen overnight. It's amazing what a week of wet weather will do. We've had some cooler weather and I've been cautious about putting things out in the garden. Yesterday I did plant some filet beans and wax beans. The corn went in on Sunday and the potatoes are coming up. I think I'll wait until near Mother's Day to plant the tomatoes and cucumber seeds. That seemed to work quite well last year. Black-eyed peas may go into the ground this weekend, if all goes well.

Yesterday was the start of the Eat Local Challenge. I had a school board meeting (how I got talked into being on Monkey's school's board I don't know...). So dinner was sort of a free for all. I had leftover Bath County Steak on top of fresh greens from the garden. I think Monkey ate South Carolina Strawberries and something involving cheese. Big Daddy skipped dinner all together as he was busy making his contribution to the local food chain...

Behold! South Carolina Strawberry Jam. 24 half pints of yumminess. Monkey started off her day this morning with a healthy spread of "Big Daddy's Strawberry Jelly Jam" on a homemade biscuit. She then demanded two jars to take to her teacher and teacher's aide. I complied with her wishes as we should share the wealth when we can.

My big challenge today will be to come up with dinner. I have a meeting tonight. Normally on Tuesdays Big Daddy and Monkey eat out. B.D. generally takes her to a locally owned restaurant, so I may just leave it at that tonight. For me, there's always fresh lettuce and morrells when I get home...