Dangerour Boys Day

This afternoon the girls (the 2 little ones) left the farm to spend the night at a cousins for a birthday party. Daddy announced it was a boys night. So they took out the Dangerous Book For Boys and chose a project. Nicholas really wanted to make a catapult but the book didn't give instructions for that so they settled on a bow and arrow set. Dad went hunting for the perfect stick for a bow and Nicholas and I hunted for arrows. After some wood shaving and tying string we got a pretty good set made. Nicholas loved it. He spent quite awhile practicing and at one point I walked outside and dad said, "He's scary good." A longer arrow was needed so he could stretch further. He was awesome! And loved it!





FUN WAS HAD BY ALL!

Happenings at St. Brigid Farm

I canNOT believe that it has been over 2 weeks since my last update! Crazy!

Today, for many days now, we've been dealing with hot temps. My thermometer on the northside of the house in the shade says 90. Unfortunately, the rest of the house and property are in the sun and it is not 90. Yes, many of you may being saying "wimp" but what you don't know is that in Western WA no one has AC. It's unheard of unless you run down to Home Depot to grab something to stick in your window, which I am sure many do. When I moved out here from Minnesota 13 years ago I couldn't believe none of the apartments had wall AC's. The one thing I am thankful for is very low humidity. I'm also thankful for plenty of water and a big pool the kids bought with their own money.
The garden really loves it and is growing well. This afternoon a put out a soaker hose on the beans, peas and tomatoes. They'll be thankful. I wish I had more.
The animals are tolerating. Until the afternoon the chickens huddle under a very small section of shade and as it grows they slowly move out. The pasture seed I'm trying to grow in the other half of there run isn't doing well. I water it daily(or more) but it's just too hot. The goats have it the easiest. There barn is the coolest place on the property. It's on the south part of the property and behind it are LOTS of trees. It gets no sun, only their pasture areas gets sun first thing in the morning and later in the day.
I'm down to milking just once a day as Butter is drinking too much during the day to have any for me. That's just fine! I've been reading a lot about once-a-day milking. It's really possible and makes it easier. I'm getting 1/2 gallon a day and it's too much for our family so I'm learning to make cheese. I really need to make it right now if it wasn't soo warm in the house. When it says to hang at room temperature I wonder if that means 90+ degree room temperature?

Not farm related but exciting non-the-less, James will be tonsured a reader next Wednesday, a week from today. His cassock arrived in the mail yesterday from Holy Nativity Convent! They are so wonderful! I called many places and no one could have it done for me in time and many were 8+ weeks out. They had it done in less than 4! And it is lovely! Some of you may be joining us for the festivities, if you are, note that the service starts at 9:30AM and NOT 10:00AM. We are not sure where in there the tonsuring will take place it depends on His Grace Bishop BENJAMIN. It WILL be before the actual Divine Liturgy takes place, but it's either between the 3rd & 6th hours or immediately before any of the hours. Please pray for cool weather!!! In the OCA the Reader vests for reading the epistle so James will have his clothes, his cassock AND altar vestments(just for the reading though).

Not quite a week after his tonsuring James will board a plane for Uganda, Africa. He's talked about it here and here. Please pray for safe travels. Also, that the entire Ferrenberg clan will grow during our separation, the longest we've ever had. And that I can be a successful, loving single mother for 3 weeks. It will be hard. In the last few weeks I've gained a much deeper appreciation for those who leave their families behind for months on end to serve in the military. I can't imagine. So I'm trying really hard not to be a big baby!

Back to trying to cool down, clean for company and serve cold drinks to the kids(who just got out of the pool).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY....

To my dear friend, Dawn!
May God grant you many more!!
We love you!

(go say happy birthday to Dawn)

Happy Birthday, James!

I love you and hope you have a wonderful day!

If you get a chance go say Happy Birthday to James. Just pick a post any post and wish him many years.

Ag Review

Have you ever heard of "Ag Review"? Nearly every state has an Ag Review either in print or more often then not, a spot on a local radio station. They are often daily, but sometimes weekly, summaries of agricultural news for that state.
Well, here is the St. Brigid Farm Ag Review...
This past week I made my first attempt at cheese making. Here you'll see a few pictures. First I'm warming the milk, then it's dripping and finally the end product. I let it drip too long and it's a bit dry. This is called Chevre or French Style Chevre. It can be used in place of cream cheese in nearly any recipe. You can also season it as a spread for crackers. I have yet to try it but hope to make a yummy cream cheese kind of dessert for the weekend to come.

(you can click the pics for a much bigger view)

I've been busy working on the garden. I still have poles to string for beans and peas but all rows are coming through the soil now. The 9 tomato plants are in and I chose yet another method to see how they do this year. It is hard to grow tomatoes in Washington, but I'm determined. They say tires help keep the soil warm as they absorb heat. They also stay warm into the evening and give off that heat to the plant. I also hope to construct some sort of row cover using flexible conduit for later when the rain season begins but my tomatoes are done yet. In the first picture I'm standing in one corner of the garden area and you can see the whole area. Next year I hope to have more of the grass dug up into beds. Looking at the picture you see the raspberries on the far left, the first bed in front is peas and spinach (which is NOT doing well). In the next bed you see onion, potatoes and on the far end one loan squash plant (not visible in the picture). In the way back next to the raspberries we have 3 apple trees. One of them did not produce this year. I'll have to figure that one out yet. Next to the potato bed is an empty bed where I'm dumping manure from the goats and chickens to decompose and have a great bed next year. After that are the tomato tires and rows of pole beans and pole peas.

Here is a close-up of the beans, peas and tomatoes. Below is a close up of the one little raspberry that was ripe. I snuck it. Shhhh! It was so yummy.

This a branch of one of the apple trees.

The livestock is well. I really think Butter needs to wean from her mother but I'm not in charge of that. Once she does we'll probably get nearly a gallon of milk a day. As of right now we get just over 1/2 a gallon and it's more than we need. I hope to make cheese more often. My goal is to make LOTS of cheese and to never buy it again. I can't wait to learn how to make hard cheeses like cheddar. The chicken production is down slightly. We were averaging 18+ eggs a day but now we are averaging 16. Time to really think about another coop and more chickens. More and more people from Church are inquiring about purchasing eggs and I don't have enough.
We sold the Caravan! And now have just the trooper to sell. I'm pretty used to the big Suburban now. It has a huge tank and we filled it for the first time since the first day we got it and it still only took 22 gallons (35 gallon tank we think). We got 17.8 miles to the gallon, all city miles. Our caravan gave us 16 miles to the gallon, city. So we are a tad better, plus diesel fuel here in Poulsbo anyway, is cheaper than unleaded.
Oh, I forgot to mention. This past weekend the weathermen had NO IDEA what the weather was going to be like. It was gorgeous! Very little rain and lots of sun. Today the same. I have 2 loads of laundry hanging out on my temporary clothesline! I love freshly sun dried clothes.

Below, is a very cool picture (if I do say so myself) of a huckleberry bush. We have many of these on the property. They are so delicious. I've never had them before so I need to research recipes. Anyone have a good huckleberry recipe? I'm most interested in preservation for future use. There are so many!

Well, there you have it! Ag review for St. Brigid Farm.

Community and Down on the Farm!

I’m reading a really good book called MaryJane’s Ideabook, Cookbook, Lifebook : for the farmgirl in all of us by MaryJane Butters. (Arielle—she wrote the forward in Women of the Harvest) I love it! I’ve devoured it! The section of the book is called “Each Other” and talks about community, the good old days, lending a hand, farmstyle celebrations, etc. She talks a lot about when she was growing up in her Mormon home and community (she has since left the Mormon faith) her mother and all the neighbors were immersed in helping one another. Her mother led a group called The Relief Society. These Mormon homemakers met once a month, taking turns teaching one another and providing relief to those whose burdens had become too heavy to bear alone. Her mother told her, “We had lessons on things like manners, sewing, and cooking, and we organized ourselves into a clean-up team. We also emphasized the importance of dressing nice and helped each other with that.” Her mother also met twice a month with another group for nearly 50 years. This was a group of 15 women that came from a cross section of religions. One night a month they would play pinochle and the other night was for needlework. And her mother said, “And we always made a big deal out of our birthdays.”

MaryJane continues by saying “What I remember of my childhood challenges me now. The buzzword these days to describe what I had is ‘community’. Our entire culture as Americans has changed, but what hasn’t changed is our collective longing for community—the ‘full purpose of heart’ I grew up studying. It’s a way of life that’s hard to keep, and it’s an unbelievable amount of work. But the promise to be faithful to the good in each other is a promise absolutely anybody, anywhere, can make and decide to keep, religious or not.”

This has really started me thinking. It’s hard for me to put in words. Many days, more often than not, I feel like I’m desperate to just touch base with others. I could never really put my finger on the feelings until I read this and now I am convinced it is just what she is talking about that I am missing…ongoing relationships with other women. To help each other, to play, to talk, to encourage, to learn.

I’ve discovered that I am really a home-body. I don’t like to go places very often, most especially with a car full of children. Despite this I desperately find myself yearning to have meaningful conversation with other adults, other women.

When we lived in Bothell my neighbor and friend, Helen, and I would meet 1-3 times a week for morning coffee. We would also help each other with childcare. This is something I don’t have here anymore but I miss it a great deal. I wouldn’t trade my 2.6 acres, goats, chickens and gardens for anything but I feel that there is more to community then what I see right now. I want what those Mormon homemakers had in each other. I want what those 15 women had together for 50 years. I want community.

I’m not sure where this will lead me. It has inspired me though and I hope to be able to encourage others and to grow friendships.

(I’ll check to see if any of the neighbors hope to move anytime soon!

So, speaking of community! The biggest event this weekend on the farm was a roof raising party for the guest house! We had FIVE families and 2 singles join us yesterday (June 17) to get the roof on the guest house!! The sheathing is on the roof and the sides. Ready for shingles, siding, windows and doors. Thank you so much to all who took the time, energy and money to spend the day with us!!! You definitely have an invitation to utilize the guest house once it's done, almost anytime you want.

Bread Recipe

Grandma Syverson with her 3 oldest children, the girl in the polka dots is my mom.

As per Arielle's request...

Grandma Syverson's Whole Wheat Bread

3 c. scalded milk
3 c. hot water
1/2 c. sugar (I think I used less)
dissolve 2 pkgs. yeast in this.

In very large bowl mix:
4 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. salt
1/2 cup melted fat or shortening

Slowly add the liquid. Mix thoroughly. (It will be soupy at this point.)
Add 7-9 more cups of flour. Her recipe calls for white flour but I used 100% hard whole wheat. I also added wheat gluten per package directions. I do believe that when all was said and done I ended up using a total of 15 or 16 cups of flour which means instead of the 7-9 more it was more like 12 more.
Knead 15 minutes.
Raise till double.
Knead down and raise again.
Knead down and form 6 loaves. Raise one hour.
Bake at 350* for 45 minutes.

We made this on Friday and still have a loaf left. Sundays we don't each much bread because we are gone most of the day. In a typical weekday we go through nearly 2 loaves a day for our family of 6.

This is how I made it. Her recipe card had very few, if any, detailed directions.

Grandma Syverson is on the left.
Grandma Kauffman is on right, also an amazing cook.

Bread Baking Day

I’ve been baking bread on and off for a few years now. Mostly only baking bread that I can do with my Cuisinart, thinking it is much easier than the process by hand. If I were to bake bread 100% of the time never buying, we’d need 1-2 loaves a day. I’ve experimented with bread recipes because I’ve felt that I could never get it right. I’ve never been happy with the bread I’ve baked. I bake with 100% hard whole wheat and it doesn’t rise as nicely so a friend told me to use wheat gluten and that helped some. So I went on baking with my Cuisinart and trying different recipes that fit the machine. A couple weeks ago Kelsey and I started a tradition (I’ve spoke of here before) where we get up and milk and when we are done she puts together bread for the Cuisinart and we bake 2 loaves everyday. She LOVES it. This past Friday, however, I decided that I wanted to FINALLY try my grandma Syverson’s recipe for whole wheat bread, the one that makes 6 loaves. I’ve never tried it before because it wouldn’t fit in the Cuisinart AND it seemed to be such a detailed recipe using such things as scalded milk and melted fat. And the recipe (written out by her hand) didn’t tell me HOW to do it just listed ingredients. So because I was unfamiliar with how to put it together I never tried it. Friday I got brave. I wanted 6 loaves and wanted to try her recipe. So with another of her recipes in hand that had more detail (it was a similar recipe for bread, just made only 3 loaves) Kelsey and I went at it. After the first rise in that big bowl in the picture I was SOLD!!! NEVER NEVER had my bread rose like this bread did. It filled that big bowl! When I put it in the pans to rise…it filled the pans the way all the recipes have told they should and I’ve never been able to do. It was beautiful!!! It is SO tasty too and cuts so nicely, not crumbly. All along I’ve been searching for the easy way (by machine) and never been able to find a recipe to work, never having bread rise well. And all I needed to do was to look to grandma, the woman who baked bread all her life.

Tickled Pink...

...to announce with great pride that on July 18th, which is the Feast day of our Church, St. Elizabeth, my dearly beloved, James, will be tonsured a Reader!
Here he is reading the Epistle on Pascha! He's a natural. Of course you can't "hear" him and his very wonderful voice ( I know I've mentioned before my love of his voice, singing or otherwise.) but I just wanted to put some kind of a picture up.

So far today on the farm...

It's 12:45pm and this is what acquired today from our farm...so far.
One dozen eggs collected, I know we'll get more as we've been averaging 18 a day. Yesterday we collected 21!!! We have 23 hens. Kelsey and I baked 2 loaves of bread. We started a tradition, not set in stone yet because it's so new, that when we get in from milking around 6:30a.m. we start our bread for the day. We've done it all week and she seems to like it! She actually does the main work in the Cuisinart and I finish it after the first rise. The dimples in today's bread were caused by a curious 6 year old.
Firefly has been consistantly giving us over a quart of milk each morning, some mornings more than 1 1/2 quarts. I hope this keeps going up.
So even though sometimes I feel like I don't accomplish much, I look at this and know I have done well. It is so rewarding to provide for others.

Farmgirls!

Mom and daughter...the goat milking team.
Farmgirls!

What's happening down at St. Brigid Farm?

I've updated the look of my blog. I wanted to make more "farmish" (I don't think that is a word.) and this is how it turned out. I'm not done.

The goats are doing well! Most days I get 1-2 quarts of milk which is sufficient for our consumption on oatmeal and just plain drinking. But not enough for cheese, which is what my goal is. We can't wait to breed and have more next summer, plus I can't wait until Butter is weaned so that I can get more milk. Technically the more I milk the more milk she should give so maybe I should milk her out in the evenings as well.
The chickens are awesome! They give us 15-20 eggs a day and we LOVE selling them, today I sent 2 dozen with James to work. Plans are being made for another coop to expand the flock.
The guest house is slowly taking form, not much has been done to it since the big barn raising as we've been consumed with the goats and garden. Another work party is being planned for the 16/17th of this month. We hope to get the roof on that weekend.
The garden is taking shape as well. It will not be nearly as big as I had hoped there is just so much to do since I am starting from scratch. Plus I have to rethink placement of some of the beds since one big area doesn't seem to get the sun I thought it would. I've been watching the sun and it seems shaded quite early in the day, but I might be able to utilize it for some things like cucumbers or peas or spinich all of which can handle less sun.

Anyway, that's what's happening on the farm. I hope to write more frequently on our adventures on the farm with more pictures. It sure is a learning process and I am loving it!
I believe that someday we will need to upgrade to more land, but in the mean time this is just the right step to take for adjusting and learning.

Goats

I wanted to blog this story last Friday, after it all happened, but time got away with me. Now I almost don’t feel like blogging it at all. But I should update, it’s been awhile.

The goats are settling nicely. I was milking 2x a day and getting about a quart each time. That was until last Wednesday rolled around. I went out at 6 a.m. during my morning routine to let the goats out from their stalls. I walked in to find a stall full of very unusual droppings. It was HORRIBLE. Firefly had diarrhea so bad. To make a long story short I spent 2 days on the phone with people who know a whole lot more than I do. After 3 shots of various things and a good long talk with her previous owner we discovered that it was the hay I chose to buy. Firefly was used to dull, boring grass hay. I bought her alfalfa hay which is a MUCH richer hay feed. Yes, it is the one that is recommended by just about everyone to feed a doe in milk but her previous owner didn’t. She felt it was too rich and the goats overate. Well, sure enough, Firefly was in heaven with this stuff and overate!!! She was miserable. She would moan and strain and hunch over. Needless to say her milk production went down drastically. She is back up to her norm but as of Saturday night I now separate mom and baby for the night. This is merely for selfish reasons and that is so that I can get more milk. During the illness Butter discovered that momma had 2 spigots out of which she could drink which pretty much left me with NO milk. Prior to this Butter only drank from one which left the other for me to milk.

Sure, they weren’t happy to be separated but the crying only lasted 15 minutes or so the first night and as of last night it lasted a measly 5 minutes or less. This morning I got nearly 1 ½ quarts of milk and it seems to increase a little daily. I had decided to only milk at night then since Butter drinks from both teats all day long. It works out nicely.

Here are a couple nice pictures of the goats and farm. The first is a picture I took just this evening of our barnyard. You can see the chicken coop to the right and the chicken run across the whole picture. Next is the woodshed and the building on the left is the barn. Behind the chickens you can see Firefly and Butter; Butter is running across the yard, her ears even flying up. The next 2 pictures are close-ups of Butter and Firefly.

My Country Story

I want to share with you a little about myself and the reasons why I am so excited about this opportunity I’ve been given to start my own little “farm”. I feel so incredibly blessed to have this opportunity.

See, I grew up in the ‘burbs of St. Paul, Minnesota, typical city corner lot. But my dad didn’t. And in fact his brother took over the family farm which happened to be approximately 2 ½ hours from our city home. So for the first 7 or 8 years of my life our family would travel to “the farm” on a regular basis. I know there were summers that it probably was almost weekly. We learned to help with chores. Their main income was from the diary cows. I remember them having chickens early on but as I got older I don’t remember the chickens much. They milked at 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. We all would help, my job mostly was to wash the udders and teats before the milker was put on. I would wait till uncle would tell me who was next. I also helped set up and clean the barn, scraping the center aisle clean and feeding the cows. I LOVED the smell of the barn. To this day it brings back wonderful memories. You know the smell. As you are driving through the country, most people say “Ewwww, what’s that smell?” I say, “Ahhhh, the farm.” LOL

As a teenager we went less often. One of my cousins, my uncle’s daughter (Judy) who is 7 years older than I, married a farmer and lived only a few miles from her family. We got along great!!! We became fast friends when I was in my later teens. At 20 I moved up north to a small town where another relative lived. Here I met a family who became great friends of mine. They were also dairy farmers. I was at their home all the time soaking in the farm life. After a year in Detroit Lakes, MN I moved to Exeland, WI to be near my farming family. I lived there for about a year visiting at chore time as often as I could. My cousin, Judy, and I would talk about me buying a farm near her someday. Right about this time my other cousin, John, who had taken over his dad’s farm, decided he didn’t want the farming life anymore. OH how I longed to buy that farm. The Family Farm!!! If only I had been married and ready, that’s all I could think about. It never happened. (Today it sits empty, no one to take it over, I still want it!!!!) I moved back to the city and started back to college but never really left the country behind. I was really into country, cowboy boots, hat and all. The summer before James and I started dating I went on a big vacation with my mom, we went to Montana!!! We toured one of the famous ranches of Montana, Grant-Kohrs Ranch, as I dreamed. While there C.M. Russel became one of my favorite artists after visiting the C.M. Russell Museum.

That winter I fell in love with a city boy and moved out to Bellevue, WA. I wore cowboy boots under my wedding dress and line-danced with my friends. But after that, superficially the country left, but never from my heart. For the first couple years of marriage I would talk about it a lot, wanting to live in the country. I even took him to visit “the farm”. He got to see first hand what I was talking about. We visited Judy’s during chore time. Kelsey got to go up in the hay loft to see a new litter of kittens; she was only 4 or 5 years old. But that didn’t trigger anything in him. So I just let it go, stopped talking about it and we lived our happy city life. We bought our first home in a tiny little town outside of Seattle. It was definitely the country, but we lived in town on your standard city lot. I drove by farms everyday!! Then we moved back to the big city, Bothell, because we really wanted to be near our Church family. Out in Sultan we were 40 minutes away with no one nearby. For three years we lived in Bothell in our close-knit community. We developed wonderful friendships, started some great traditions and were able to really grow in our faith. After a couple years in Bothell I started to talk about wanting more room for the kids to run and more to garden! Wishing my children had the opportunity to explore nature on a daily basis. Kelsey was really into Little House on the Prairie books and would even tell us how she wished we could live in the country. I’m not sure what the catalyst was in gearing James towards wanting to get out of the city. It could have been his daily 2 hour commute by bus on the crowded freeways but something awakened his roots, the roots of his Kentucky hillbilly relatives! J

It was a whirlwind of activity; I can’t even remember when he first said, “Okay, let’s do it.” So we fixed the house to sell and looked and looked to buy a minimum of 2 acres. We weren’t sure where right away. But we soon fell in love with the Kitsap Peninsula. We hoped to have huge gardens and maybe some chickens. Here we are nearly 8 months into our new adventure and WE are loving every minute of it!!! We have big dreams to really make something of our chicken farming, to live off of our land and animals as much as we can. And someday, maybe someday, James can retire to the farm. But we’ve discovered our market…is at his job.

That’s my story! Now you can get a better understand to why I am SO excited about our adventure.

The first picture is of my brother climbing to the top of my uncle's silo. That was entertainment back then. Also, I want to add that at the ripe old age of 17 my brother took care of my uncle's farm for a whole summer while he took his family on a vacation across the USA. SEVENTEEN, he milked the cows 2x a day, fed and cared for them. Plus I am certain he did field work.

The 2nd picture is the front of the old barn. There were 2 barns, one old one (pictured) and one built as the new milking barn. Probably held 60+ cows. I think my mom was taking pictures of my brothers getting ready to jump out of the hay loft, they'd shimmy down the rope. That's how we entertained ourselves back then. :)

I have DSL!

I no longer have to wait for my gmail log-in page to load.
I no longer have to resize my pictures to upload to blogger or send to a friend.
I no longer have to say "forget it" when I want to go to a website that is taking too long.
I no longer have to listen to the CLASSIC high pitched dial-up connecting noises.
I no longer have to push a button to get online.
I no longer need to have my voicemail say "I'm either using my lovely dial-up or away from the phone".


Will I miss dial-up?
Maybe.
Only because it actually helped me not waste so much time on the computer because it wasn't worth the wait!

Lord, have mercy on me.

They are here!

On Saturday evening, after a full day of barn building, the girls and I put straw in the back of the van and headed south to get the goats. We were home by 8PM with a mama and her kid in the back of the van. They are settling into their new home nicely I think. They miss their bigger busier farm, they had 2 other mama does and 6 kids (slowly being sold off), 2 horses and a yard full of chickens. So our place is quieter. I think they really appreciate the time we sit out there with them and brush and talk to them. I've milked 3x now...morning and evening. I wasn't going to do that but for now I'll milk 2x a day but only on ONE side. Butter, the kid, only feeds from one side of her mama so she is quite lop-sided until I milk her out. It sure is a learning time for me, to figure out the best hand hold and squeeze. I'm glad she is tolerant...well, as long as she has her molasses grain in front of her she is. At each milking I get between 1.5-2# of milk. Two pounds is approximately a quart. That is very little compared to what her very experienced previous owner would get. So I'm hoping each time I'll get a little better at it.
Below is a picture of Firefly looking out the back window of the van. And the other picture is of them in their new home.

Milk Stanchion (stand)

I completed the milk stanchion yesterday which is the milking stand where I'll milk.
Here is what one typically looks like but I fashioned one out of the huge shelving that was along one side of the barn. Basically I just needed to build the head pieces and feed area. The bowl is for feeding them their grain while they are milked. The doors in the background will not be there come Saturday.
I love it!!! It will work perfectly.

I changed the day we get the goats to Saturday. I was suppose to get them Friday evening but begged for one more day. At 6PM Saturday I am to be in Ollala to milk my goat for the first time(so I can get some pointers if need be.) and then bring her home.

getting ready for goats

have been so busy working on the goat barn and fencing lately. I love the way the barn is turning out. I've made the plans pretty much, with just a little help, and it's looking great. I just can't believe all that there is yet to do and we are SUPPOSE to get the goats this weekend. I just don't see how I'm going to be ready. If I just get the barn secure so they can stay in there until the fencing is done I guess that would work but I'll feel bad for them. All but one of the posts are set and that'll be accomplished today with ease. The children have been helping me with that. They shovel gravel while I tamp and level. Here is what we've accomplished thus far:

This is what we started with. Just a 3 sided shed. Nothing but some shelving inside.

So far here is where we are at. To the left of the window will be a big gate of sorts to enter into the pens. The first pen will be the main one. The second one, behind the white 1/2 wall, will be my kidding pen. Pregnant does will birth there and kids will be seperated from mama's there when weaning is necessary. To the right of the window will be the door into the rest of the barn which will be storage of all sorts and also the milking area. To the right of that door is a post and from there over will be walled off. My milk stand will be right behind that big piece of plywood that is leaning.

This is looking at the feed trough we made. I love how it turned out. This picture was taken before the window was in and before the 1/2 wall went in to seperate the 2 pens.
The trough will be used to feed mostly hay. But one spot on the end will probably have a mineral feeder.

Back to work for today. Will for sure finish setting posts and also will build the rest of the milk stand. It's half done. Then I'll either start stretching fence, hard to do though alone, OR will start putting up the front wall siding. We'll see if I can convince Kelsey to help me stretch fence or not. After all, they are her goats too.

Oh yeah, last weekend I bought what I am sure was my last gallon of cows milk!!!

Barn Raising

This past weekend as many know, we had our "barn" raising to raise up a much needed guest house. Since our move to the country and across the Puget Sound waters of Seattle we've had a steady stream of guests. Not to mention the numerous family memebers that visit frequently. In this new house of ours we really don't have an extra room for them so we thought rather than be cramped and risk the chance of visitors not coming because of that we'd build a guest house. Under 200 sq. feet and there is no permit required. It's primitive in that it has no plumbing but it's built just 5 feet from the main house so there is easy access to the bathroom just inside the back door. Okay, enough advertising. :)

We had quite a crew. Six couples, including us, came from across the water to help us out. They all have first dibs on the finished facilities and chance at a weekend of farm life in the quiet of the country. Above is our lunch time break group photo! Even some of the children were great helpers. Mom caught this picture of Nicholas.

Here, below, is what they started with first thing Saturday morning. All week James and Rade worked at getting the foundation done so they could start out on the floor and walls right away.

Father Christopher came out mid-morning to bless the foundation and our efforts to complete the task we started. He even worked his way over to our barn we are working on to welcome the goats in 2 weeks and he sprinkled the chickens as well!!!

Here, Jenny and Steve, rest briefly.

With nearly all hands on board the 2nd wall goes up!

By the end of Sunday (a few stayed over Saturday night and joined us for Church Sunday, working for a short time in the afternoon), some wall boards were up and the big beam for the roof was up! See the little "hobbit" hiding in the picture?

It was quite a grand weekend! Mom stayed on to take all these wonderful pictures but yesterday afternoon headed for the train and Minnesota. We will miss her!!!! But can't wait till she's back in July to stay in the guest house!
Through all this building, Valerie and I were able to get 9 post holes dug for the goat pen!!! I hope to finish that this week and then get the inside pens built. I need to be ready by May 12.

St. Brigid Farm is now taking reservations for the guest house, call or email for availability.

Goat School Day 2

Yesterday was the 2nd day of goat school and we were to learn about milking. First, we got to have milk and cookies, GOAT milk. We were all pleasantly surprised at how creamy and tasty the milk was!! It was DELICIOUS!! I would have never guessed it to be goat milk. I can't wait to have my own.
Then we headed to the barn where each child would get a chance at milking. Here is a picture of Kelsey having her turn. It's hard to learn but she got a few squirts out. She'll have plenty of practice once Firefly comes home with us.

Right as Kelsey was getting up from the stand and Charissa was about to get her turn Miss Sherie ran to the stall where a pregnant goat was in labor and said, "She's getting ready to push."
The milking lesson was interrupted but by something far more exciting...the birth of twin does! It was quite the experience as Miss Sherie at a couple times was frantically on the phone with friends to figure out why this first time mama was taking so long. Turns out that both does were trying to exit at the same time. Once she made Ladybug stand and pushed babies back in they repositioned and came out easily. It was most exciting!!! Both my girls were fascinated. Here is mama and babies just minutes after birth while Charissa looks on!

St. Brigid Farm

Over the weekend we came to settle on the name of our little farm.
After receiving the suggestion of naming the farm after the saint commemorated on the day we moved in or signed papers or something like that, I began to do some research. I knew there were saints one could call upon for certain situations and patron saints of certain jobs, etc. So I searched for farmers, and chicken and dairy. What I found was most pleasing!
St. Brigid, commemorated on February 1 (new calendar) is known to be the patron of chicken farmers, milk maids, dairy workers, etc. The story goes that St. Brigid's mother was a slave and her master had a dairy. Once Brigid was older and her mother became ill but still had to work, Brigid took over the dairy. Under her care the dairy prospered greatly. She would make butter and give a large portion away to the poor but still would sell much to make a great profit for the master of the dairy.
I loved the story of St. Brigid so much and that she was the patroness of so many in farming. To top it off, we have a dear dear friend who's patron Saint is St. Brigid. She is now a novice at St. Paisius Monastery in AZ. We miss her so much but are so happy and excited for her in the choice she has made. This will be a loving reminder of her, although not the direct reason for the name.

Oh most Holy St. Brigid, please pray unto God for us!

Here are the labels we created over the weekend. They are dual purpose and will later be used on milk product (cheese, yougurt, soap) once we start producing that (only a month away). The house on the label actually looks a lot like our house!

We are into goats!

Firefly is a five-year-old doe who just gave birth to Butter on Saturday, April 14. Butter is a doe, both will be coming home with us sometime within 4-8 weeks. Just as soon as I finish the barn that will be theirs. Here is a picture of Butter with Kelsey.
Yesterday we started a goat class at Maplebrook Farm.
For 3 classes we will drive down to Ollala to learn all we can about goats. This past Tuesday we learned about the uses of goats, what they eat and we got to introduce all 4 babies to bottles for the first time and to romping in the field for the first time. It was so fun to watch these tiny little goats jump and run. Next week we'll learn to make goat cheese and do some more feeding, and also about fencing. The last week we'll get to milk the goats and have cookies with goats milk.

Here is Firefly with Butter (middle) and her adopted brother. Pretzel the other mama doe gave birth to triplets and Firefly only had one so they took one from Pretzel and have worked on her adopting him to even the mama's out.

Butter nursing.

Charissa took a liking to one of Pretzels does. This is dangerous. They are so cute we are tempted to take her home as well. But we'll hold off and Charissa will get the first one born to us next year.

Joseph with one of Pretzel's kids.


On A Few Other Notes:

We lost a chicken. Can't find any trace of anything around the fenced yard or coop. It's a mystery. I just really hope that one of my neighbors didn't walk off with it while we were away yesterday. No sign of forced entry. No pile of feathers anywhere. No half eaten carcass. It's sad.
Our guest house piers go in this Saturday and the week after the whole thing goes up in what we are calling an Old Fashioned Amish Barn Raising. We have 4 families joining us thus far. All will be taking Amish names for the day and Valerie and I will be making a t-shirt with their name on it with an Amish pic of some sort on the back. We hope to have the guest house (as rustic as it will be with no plumbing but having electricity) weather tight by the end of the day on the 28th.
Can't wait to break it in. Maybe someday I'll be able to advertise..."come work on a real working ranch for the weekend" and people will actually pay me to pretend they live on a farm for a weekend. LOL What a novelty these days!!! If it had a toilet I'd bet anything I could really make some money renting it out. But....oh...in the olden days people used outhouses. Hey...that could be part of the novelty couldn't it? ;)

Christ is Risen!

I dyed the red eggs for Church this year. It was fun!
I used mostly our eggs from our chickens, but had to buy 2 dozen store bought eggs.
Below you see the comparison between the sizes. The store bought ones are huge compared to my little chicken eggs.
Also, I attempted the traditional method of dying with onion skins and it was very successful! I doubted that it would work but I was proven wrong. They are so beautiful. And my farm fresh eggs soaked up the dye so much better than the store bought. My theory is the washing process that store bought eggs go through.

My babes on the Eve of Pascha.

He said I've been watching you dad, ain't that cool

I'm your buckaroo, I wanna be like you
And eat all my food and grow as tall as you are
We like fixing things and holding mama's hand
Yeah we're just alike, hey ain't we dad
I wanna do everything you do
So I've been watching you
Chorus to "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins