The chicks came today. I was going to order 25, but since I was ordering 2 different breeds, I decided to make it 30—I guess I got a little OCD, and just couldn’t decide which breed I would get one more of! Pesky odd numbers. So anyway, the hatchery called to tell us they had shipped the chicks, and said they had some extra in the hatch, so they threw in an extra 5 of each breed. So now, instead of 25-ish, we’ve got 40, which feels a little more like 50-ish!
It was spring all winter; now it’s definitely summer. I’m dealing with the odd seasons oddly—I’m confused and rushed. I haven’t done a thing in the garden, in part due to the tennis elbow I’ve developed working at the dairy. Tennis elbow isn’t a joke, as it turns out—it’s seriously debilitating! I may have to give up my remaining shift at the dairy to let it heal.
We sold the two Dexter cross calves—Hester from last year, and Maeby’s new calf. We just don’t like the Dexters, and there’s always the issue of breeding when you have a breed that’s smaller than any of the other breeds in your area. We would have to find Dexters to breed to, or Dexter crosses, and they’re not very common here.
I’ve also sold the Khaki Campbells. They are just too much of a pain to deal with; a pond or stream would help, but it also turns out I don’t really digest duck eggs all that well. Chickens and chicken eggs are more my thing. We’re keeping our little flock of Anconas and one Muscovy—they’re so much calmer than the Khakis, and then we’ll have a few duck eggs for DH.
I’m spending a lot of days in the kitchen making cheese right now. The girls are bringing in 6-7 gallons of milk a day, and we’re about to have a goat and a few sheep in milk. The relentless tide has begun! ED and I (and DH and Bernard to a lesser degree) are revisiting the idea of a small licensed cheesemaking facility—a micro-creamery. I’ll keep you all posted on those plans! Meanwhile, I’m pleasantly lost in the world of acid titration, butterfat, and flocculation.
Pearl’s milk production has picked up to 2-3 gallons a day, and suddenly I have to be making cheese. I’m trying to make enough feta to get through the summer, even though I much prefer making it with goat or sheep milk, partly for flavor, but mostly because yellow feta looks wrong to me!
The weather has been so, so lovely, but I can’t get a thing done in the garden, because it rains so often, the ground won’t dry out enough to work!
Baby tomatoes are up, and peppers, and cardoons. And nicotiana.
The girls and I are all burned out on the dairy. There’s too much to do here, and way, WAY too much to do there.
Maeby looks gorgeous. Her sister, Maude’s daughter, just had a calf and it sounds like she’s doing well.
Ok—off to the kitchen.
Maeby is due to calve next month sometime. She’s so healthy and pretty—we’re really excited to milk her and see her calf. We are wishing, just a little, that she wasn’t bred to a Dexter—they’re just not the nicest looking cows, and unfortunately the Jersey/Dexter cross calves seem to resemble the Dexters more than the Jerseys. Oh well—maybe we’ll find a Jersey bull for her next breeding.
I’ve had a hard time posting these last few weeks. It’s been a fairly uneventful winter, and without any snow at all, it’s been very muddy and un-photogenic. Now that spring is picking up, maybe there’ll be more interesting stuff to take pictures of!
Our duck flock is laying like crazy. They’re mostly Khakis with a few Anconas, and one Muscovy. We’re getting around a dozen eggs a day from them, and we were getting four or five eggs a day from our flock of five laying hens, until a fox killed my two Rhode Island Reds night before last.
I’ve never been wild about duck eggs, except for cooking with them, but DH convinced me (and the girls) to try soft-boiled duck eggs, and we all love them so much that it’s all we want to eat!
I’ve been on a raw milk fast for the last 6 days, trying to clear up some persistent digestive issues, and I’m feeling pretty good. It’s a ten day fast, and I’m kind of looking forward to it being over! Bernard has joined me for the last half.
I just ordered meat chicks, to be delivered in May. I’m getting half Red Rangers and half Naked Necks. I’m looking forward to trying them instead of Cornish Crosses, because I really value the ability to forage, and I really don’t like the way the Cornish Crosses taste. There’s a lot of talk about the CC’s being GMO, which isn’t true, of course, but they have been intensively bred for very fast production of very, very bland meat, and ours have had the occasional heart attack in the past, which isn’t very appetizing.
I’ve started working at the dairy down the road, making cheese a couple of days a week. I really enjoy it, though it remains to be seen if I can give up my time here when the season gets rolling!
That’s adorable Trudy closest to the camera. Since they’re all half Nubian, they have really silly ears—’airplane ears’—but you don’t milk the ears, right?
