from rain to snow...

from one day to the next! It really is too bad, the two cold nights we've had killed all the flowers including the dahlia, cosmos and marigolds which were all still going on strong! Most of the nasturtium in the veggie garden gave the ghost as well and the pepper plants in the uncovered window boxes were toast and served a nice, hot snack for the goats this afternoon.

First year we've had a flower garden and I must say it sure was a success! I'll be looking for flower seeds at the seed savers this year as well, to make my own seed shaker mixes.

goats like apples...

... they sure are something to smile about!

my patchwork privy

After two years of slowly digging away at the pit, I finally was able to quit and start building my privy! And good timing too, as our two+ year old started potty training and while playing in the yard did not want to go all the way back up to the house to pee... Which is where this two holer, toddler size version comes from.

Since I knew for quite a few years I wanted to build a privy I was able to collect materials for quite a while. After the build of our timberframe garage / workshop we had a lot of scraps left over and combined with the old basement shelving (5" cherry tongue and groove boards) and a whole stack of lake house paneling (5" pine tongue and groove) I found one day alongside route 34 it seemed time to start.

We also had a couple 2x6" rough cut left overs stored behind the shed I could rip into 2x3"s for the main structure, combined with some rough cut dollar 1x4" planks and ripped scrap packing wood from lowe's for the less than 40" long boards I did not have to go out and specifically buy anything but the door hinges! Oh, and two ventilation panels I kinda forgot to install I just realised (after sitting on a wet seat from ground condensation)!

Oh, the roof are two pieces of (new) left over metal roofing panels used to protect the timberframe roof when it got shipped. And I also had two old but working louvre shutters I cut down short and installed as windows and ventilation. Initially, they were also the main source of light, but since the inauguration bonfire party showed that nobody uses an unlit privy on a dark night I did install a pull cord light fixture inside (also a leftover...) which can be plugged into an extension cord. No point in going thru all the effort if it does not get used :-)

For more pics on the project - though I did not take many pics as I was too wrapped up in the actual build - you can check my patchwork privy on Picasa.

rain barrel... oh no, wheel barrow!

couple weeks back we had sooo much rain in one day that my wheelbarrow pretty much filled up... no wonder my shoes sank into the lawn the next morning when I went down for milking!

Ithaca Freecycle

The ulitmate in reduse, reuse, recycle! I did not quite realise how it worked, only that it needs a dedicated yahoo email account unlike google thingies. So I made a yahoo account and then I still could not use it... turns out it's like a group or forum and you have to use your yahoo membership to become member first. Man, I so no not get computer stuff! Says the person with the blog, haha.

But, long story short, if you like to get free stuff and like to give away free stuff, all local, Ithaca Freecycle is the way to go. Though, if you like to get stuff it pays to check your email more than once a day :-)

I just got my hay barn all filled up again with goat hay, free, from a lady who had to let go of her flock and had it just sitting around taking up space... It is sooo nice to start winter with a full barn! Oh, and let's not forget the two boxes full of assorted canning jars... it was like Christmas!

Oh, you don't need to use the yahoo email if you don't want to - once your membership is approved you can change your settings and add any other email address for both sending and receiving. Yay!

By the way, there is a new (ish) store in town called ReUse that's good for getting reused timber, building materials similar to Significant Elements and home stuffs like the Salvation Army. They have a sister store next door which offers reused computer equipment. They're located in the Triphammer Mall, in the old Millers store.

goat tent makeover!

Another thing that had to change when we got back from our trip was to separate the kids from the moms so I would actually get any milk! I got about a cup, maybe two for two goats per milking, which does add up, but is not really rewarding. With all those hardwood pallets I found recently (I am always on the look out for another project) I decided to go the wood way and make pallet dividers. I reused the old door from when the tent was a chicken tractor (the goats demolished the chicken wire, took them a couple weeks but man, they shredded the stuff) and now have a nice enclosure of 4 feet deep and 10 feet wide. And get about half a gallon of milk each morning with no milking needed at night (the kids take care of that...) - I should have done this months ago!

I mounted three feeding troughs (those cheap plastic mineral feeders), one for each goat (Spots the boer boy, Gazelle and Fuzzy Bear) and a water bucket and reused two of the three floor pallets to raise the floor to keep them dry at night. It is surprising how well it works!

And the best part? Since I am "handling" the girls, as in moving them about even though I don't touch them as they know where to go (they're smart, took them only a couple times to figure out the routine) they became so much more interactive! Especially Gazelle, who at first was as flighty as can be, is coming for snuggles :-)

Their different characters are also much more apparent, Spots DOES NOT SHARE, especially food, and he'll headbutt from feeder to feeder to try and claim them all... Gazelle just follows him around - it's like musical chairs, with a goat bleating with it's mouth full as accompaniment! Fuzzy Bear will try and eat once or twice, get butted and then decide the food isn't all that good and start eating the fresh hay... with her rear towards the others!

Gazelle is up for grabs, btw, we put her up for sale... Not really set up to take four goats through the winter! Though our goat barn is moving fast, last weekend the roof rafters went up with help of our goat buddy Michael, this week we plan to have the new metal roofing on as well. Wow...

Check the Picasa site for pictures at the Goat Barn Project.

tomatoes...

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's been awhile... one tip: do not take a vacation in the middle of September if you are growing most of your own veggies! We had sooo much catching up to do, for a while I was canning multiple loads nearly every day. Didn't need the heater on though :-)

The ducks that hatched during our trip are all doing very well, they now live in our "swimming pool" in the back yard and have a little house with a heat lamp to help with the cold, cold nights. They started feathering out and it seems like they are all completely white... which is too bad, I was hoping for at least one black and white duck!

The cayuga duck eggs in the incubator did not make it, the incubator ran dry during our vacation. I had installed an automatic turner to help ease the pet sitter, but did not think to remind her to still check the water level... that sucked, but hopefully my friend will trust me with another dozen come spring! And I did locate a good source for mixed breed duck eggs (including appleyard) for a very reasonable price at Daring Drake Farm, one of the Ithaca Farmers Market ag vendors.


Something real interesting I saw at the Farmers Market was this perfect tomato with a perfect monarch butterfly cocoon attached to it's side! Real strange, and what a beautiful colors in that cocoon - it's almost like Chinese art with the subtle gold touches...