knock, knock;, who's there?

A little Downey woodpecker! I had the garage door open and it looks like he flew in that way but then got confused by the two eave windows and kept flying from one to the other without ducking back out by garage door... I finally caught him with my improvised chicken net at the part of the workshop that has a second floor and I can actually get to the eave window ;-)

He was soo cute, and definitely not someone you want hammering around in your new timberframe building!

duck egg surprise!

Even though we had a surprise 40th birthday party Sunday for my hubbie, it was I who was surprised with a dozen of Cayuga Duck hatching eggs! I felt like early Christmas :-)

I stuck them in with the Muscovy eggs and will transfer them to the other incubator when those hatch. No sense in having two going at the same time! Unfortunately, it looks like our surviving rooster Eddie the buff Silkie is a bit of a dud - NONE of the chicken eggs were fertile when I candled them! Man! We need a better rooster for next year...

oh, you can actually see a difference between the Cayuga duck and Muscovy duck eggs here, the cayuga ones look almost orange and the others sort of white greenish. Which is funny since cayuga ducks are famous for their dark green eggs when they first start laying!

new hay manger

When we split the kids from the mommy goats we needed a second hay manger, so I choose one I'd seen on our recent trip back to the Netherlands which seemed to be freestanding. The design and it's use is easy, but it is not a freestanding design - we found out... The very same day we put it in the goat yard they'd tipped it over and Mountain Goat got stuck under it.

She had a small cut on her leg, which did not bleed real much and with bag balm is healing real nicely. She also seems to have pulled or torn a muscle behind her shoulder blade / scapula. Her front left leg is winged out a bit, but though she initially limped there never was much heat or swelling and she's walking fine on it now - not even a week later. The Cornell Ambulatory vet students checked her out as well - I was afraid after talking to friend and RN Eileen she might have dislocated her shoulder - but there was not much to be done. So I help her off the milk stand to be nice, though she did not even want any help with that either this night :-)

I permanently screwed the manger to the split fence post, and found that having it there is really nice because I can fill it without having to go into the pasture! Oh, apart from the 2x4" hemlock the rest is all 1x4"s "dollar pile" wood from saw mill Collins with a piece of left over roofing from our new workshop garage. Nice!

I found a bunch of hardwood pallets last week, perfect for extending Simon's Swamp boardwalk! There are more pallets where these came from, sort of hidden from view behind a dumpster and the plan is to have everything transported to our driveway soon. The car only fits 5 at a time...



Check out these mushroom pics below, we had soo much rain last week the woods are just breaking out in 'shrooms!

I did get three very nice pallets from behind a strip mall dumpster which I altered into a subfloor for the goat tent. With the humongous amount of rain we had last weekend - 5 inches in a day - the tent bedding submerged, the goats got wet, and the two boer boys got sick with coccidiosis. So now I have to chase them each night to give them very foul tasting medicine - which they "love"... it's good exercise though :-)

Mr. Whitey checking out the new raised floor. Initially I planned to cover it up with hay bedding but they seem to like the floor the way it is.

fried zucchini chevre pancakes recipe

If you are local to 14850 and love gardening, canning, livestock keeping - in short, the sustainable life in any shape or form - the forum Ithacan.ning.com would be perfect for you as well!

From the Ithacan "Veggie Gardens" forum - zucchini feta pancake recipe:

"CrowJoy": Mine is loosely based on the Moosewood cookbook recipe for zucchini feta pancakes, I just use whatever I have. Shred the zucc, add in whatever herbs you like (I usually freeze the chevre already herbed but mint and green onion is what the original calls for) and any onion/garlic/other veg you want, add about 6 eggs well beaten and the cheese. Add enough flour to get a good pancake consistency. For fun you can add panko (for crunchier) or baking soda/powder (for puffier) pancakes. Fry in shallow oil until the egg is cooked, drain, cool and freeze.

I tried this recipe with about two large shredded zucchini, about a cup of (dry) goat chevre and lots of homegrown crushed garlic and chopped chocolate mint. I was not sure about the amount of flour and should have used more, liquid appeared in the batter about halfway through the frying. We had a whole stack of cakes and came out with at least four two and half person meals! Great, and the toddler gobbled them like french fries...

Something else you can do with those extra zucchini is make zucchini lasagna. Replace the sheets of pasta with strips of 1/4 inch zucchini. Just as filling with a lot less carbs.

And not to forget stuffed zucchini, with a tomato sauce, ground beef / pork and brown rice filling, sprinkled on top with shredded sheep cheese and baked in the oven (350F for about 30 minutes - prebake zucchini, sliced in half, scooped out and seasoned with olive oil and pepper for at least another 30-45 minutes to make sure it's done).

Doesn't this look good?!


Here the pancakes are sizzling in the skillet. This was a first for me, frying in open oil. And a bit disconcerting, after seeing the Mythbusters Fire in the Hole exploding frying oil episode...

all done :-) I stacked them between two plates to keep them warm after degreasing (sort of) on paper towels.

remember our sugar maple adventure?

This is the result: a wonderful stack of different sized wood planks, both straight cut and natural edge... We never had a good tree go down before, but man, am I glad I pursued the idea to have it milled instead of chopped into firewood! We even have a couple planks nearly 20 inches wide, you don't see (commercial) hard wood that wide very much anymore, the big trees just aren't around the way they used to...

And yes, that is my bike. I am fortunate to be able to pick up our son from daycare by bike - if I want too :-) He loves it though, and points out all the interesting things along the way. I'm mostly panting, trying to get back up the hill (it's 2 minutes to school and at least 20 minutes to get back home...).


We're not really looking to sell the wood, though I did talk to a woodworker at the Tburg Farmers Market (a possible trade for a side table) and a fine carpenter, welder, sculptor neighbor Rob Licht ( a possible trade for a bonfire bbq grill). And of course, not to forget, our initial trade with Ithaca Farmers Market woodworker Dave Brown who paid half the milling fee for a fair share of boards. Thanks, Dave, for making this (ad)venture possible!

something to share...

A small part of your vegetable harvest of this year, including fltr cucumber, lemon cucumber, more ball zucchini and three types of heirloom regular zucchini... We had playgroup that afternoon, and these veggies were for the taking. Anything left over goes into the basement, where it keeps fine for at least a couple a weeks. I love my basement!


Part of my new flower garden...
I used old snow fencing to keep the chickens out - too much scratching - which makes for a very photogenic wood fence! This is cosmos, grown from seed. The plan (for now) is to grow perennials in the bed closest to the greenhouse and sow the rest in with annuals, like cosmos, nasturtium, morning glory, sunflowers and marigolds. I even found a couple bags of dahlia bulbs for free I planted just in time late spring!

hatching eggs again...

The one time we come home after dark because of work - I was part of our local annual Artist Market - a fox had gotten into the coop and killed about half our flock! I did not even notice when I closed the door Friday night... but the next morning it was quite clear something had happened, apart from the couple dead bodies in the building itself, the rest of the flock was very quiet and demure... I lost a khaki campbell (two more the next night when I put them in our veggie yard on slug patrol, apparently the veggie yard fence was not high enough, poor birds) and about 10 chickens, including my two new home grown roosters!

And how did I know it was a fox? Because the triple next door neighbors saw it trotting past their porch Friday evening with one of my chicken in it's mouth! Their dog immediately ran at it and scared it to drop the boy, it was one of my boy roosters, and it took shelter under their porch. A day or two later he was calm enough I could come over and catch it - but even though I was very relieved and grateful they called about the homeless chick I did not want to get it; it was Them. That was soo strange, even though they had their little two year old toddler grand daughter running around and I wanted to invite them to our bi-weekly playgroups I just could not get the words out of my mouth... all that cause the man of the house decided to become territorial to all his neighbors with his 30 acre property... oh well, at least I had my boy back.

So, to make up for the losses we put about 35 chicken eggs and about 12 duck eggs in my two new incubators. They're the ones I got (for free!) on craigslist so I did not know whether they would even run, or if they would hold their temperature - but low and behold, two of the three work perfectly and one of the automatic egg turners works fine too!

It feels so "lazy" to have a turner - I'm used to turn them all by hand. But I must say, I have not incubated that many eggs at once before! I am so curious to see all the different chick combinations - we have quite the collection now... hatching sure is fun :-)

goat dewormer information

I've been doing some google research to figure out how to deworm our goat flock and what to use. I came across a very informative article (the whole website has lots of info and explanations):

From the Stomach Worms and Lice article at www.TennesseeMeatGoats.com

There are three "classes" of deworming medication:

1) Avermectin (Ivermectin). The "clear" dewormers. Ivomec, Dectomax, and Cydectin/Quest Gel fall into this category. Effective against meningeal deer worm, lungworm, and lice. Not effective against tapeworm. Although some Ivermectin is labeled for injection, it produces a quicker "kill" when given orally to goats (Quest Gel is packaged in a plunger-style tube for use with large animals, making it both difficult and wasteful to use because calculating and controlling the dosage small enough for goats isn't easy).

2) Benzimidazoles. The "white" dewormers. Valbazen, Safeguard/Panacur, Synanthic, Telmin, Benzelmin, Anthelcide, TBZ. Effective against tapeworm. Do not treat pregnant does with Valbazen; it can cause abortions.

3) Imidazothiazole: Tramisol, Levasol, pyrantel, morantel. Pregnant does may abort if Tramisol is given to them. Additionally, the "safe" and "toxic" dosages of Tramisol are very close, making this product a potentially dangerous drug.

The Fias Co Farm website article about goat wormers is a great addition to this information.

Fias Co Farm also mentions Ivermectin or Ivermectin Plus (also Noromectin Plus, against liver fluke) as the most commonly used wormer. They recommend to worm everyone the injection dose (1 cc/ml per 50 lbs) but by mouth (drench = squirt down throat), repeat the same amount in 10 days, and again in 10 days - all to kill off any of the larvae and eggs that had not matured yet. And of course, rotate pastures if you can...

One of the more knowledgeable employees at Tractor Supply suggested to worm with a fenbendazole type wormer in fall and an ivermectin in spring, to get rid of both types of worms.

Something else mentioned to me by one of the goat exhibitors at the New York State Fair was DiMethox 12.5% added to the drinking water - though the information I can find mention it's not a wormer but against coccidiosis. Anyone have any other ideas?

Looks like our two Boer goat boys have a coccidiosis infection, so they will be medicated the next five days and hopefully Burger will see a complete recovery. He was turning into the incredible shrinking goat and after he got watery diarrhea I had the Cornell Ambulatory Services come by to check him (and Mountain Goat) out. They also took fecal samples for worms, we'll hear about that later (that way I should know for sure which family of dewormer to use).

A good phone number to have on hand if you live locally: the Cornell Ambulatory Services 607-253-3140, part of the Farm Animal Hospital. They charge a flat fee for coming based on mileage ($30 for us and we're on the other side of Ithaca) and then whatever they do. It was surprisingly affordable - and they came four people strong! Apparently it had been a slow day :-)

When I asked a Cornell sheep specialist, one of the organizers of the Sheep and Goat Symposium, she emailed the following information:

Cornell Ambulatory Clinic has an excellent goat vet, Dr. Mary Smith who wrote “Goat Medicine”. I think she works mostly in the Ithaca, Danby, Enfield, Brooktondale, Freeville area but I am not sure. She has also helped most of the other Cornell Ambulatory vets become proficient with goats and their prices are similar to those of private vets. The ambulatory clinic can be reached by calling 607-253-3140. The vets are out on the road during the day and there is really no true clinic but their office is manned from about 8 am to 4 pm every day and then calls go through to an answering service. Dr. Pam Karner (272-1398) and Dr. Ann Chafee (387-8405) are private vets who both work with goats and can tell you of other vets that are in private practice that also do farm visits for goats.

Homemade Teat Dip & Udder Wash Recipe

From the Fias Co Farm goat husbandry website:

You need to wash your doe's udder before you milk her and dip her teats after. You can buy all kinds of products to do this with, but I have found it's cheaper and easier to use bleach (Clorox). Bleach is very effective in controlling and preventing mastitis (an inflammation of the mammary gland caused by bacteria). And interestingly enough, I have found that my homemade bleach wash made with Clorox is gentler on my doe's udders them commercial products. I have not had a case of "udder pox" or mastitis since I've started using Clorox udderwash/teat dip. Please do not use cheaper bleach for the wash, it will be harsher on your and your doe's skin.

Make only enough of this wash/dip for each milking. It does not keep. The bleach disperses fairly quickly and you can't guarantee the mixture's sanitizing strength/ability after a few hours. To make an udder wash/teat dip just mix:

• 1 oz (2 T) of bleach (Clorox only)
• one quart of water
• a drop of blue Original Formula Dawn dish detergent (DO NOT use any other formula!)

I like to use the blue, Original Formula, Dawn dishwashing detergent, it's the best I have found. Like Bounty paper towels, I'd never use anything else. Dawn (the blue, original formula) is safe to mix with bleach. You must be very careful when mixing bleach with other products because toxic vapors can result.

To use, wash your doe or cows's udder well with your udder wash and dry with a disposable paper towel (Bounty) . Never place a "soiled" towel back in the wash. This will help keep the wash clean and reduce the risk of spreading any "nasties" from animal to animal. Milk the doe or cow. Now, dip her teats. For a teat dip cup I use disposable 3 oz. "Dixie" cups I buy at Sam's for $5 for 500. I'm not usually a big fan of disposable things, but when it comes to milking, disposable can be a good thing. Disposable means less chances of spreading any contaminates that may be lurking and waiting to spoil your milk or give your doe mastitis. You can use the same cup for all the does you are milking at that time. Dip the teats in the teat dip and let "air dry".

goat milk ice cream

I'm also looking into home made goat milk ice cream - we've had an ice cream maker sitting in our kitchen for almost 10 years now - but are having trouble with the ice cream recipes. For instance, what to do about half and half and whipping cream if it is not available in goat milk and one can not use the readily available cow's milk over the counter versions?

Making a substitute for half and half is as simple as mixing two everyday ingredients. Replace one cup of half and half with 1 tablespoon melted butter, plus enough milk to equal a cup. From Frugal Living at About.com

A substitute for heavy whipping cream can be 1/3 cup butter plus 3/4 cup of milk for 1 cup of cream, in baking or cooking. From WikiAnswers, though I am not sure if cow dairy butter can easily be substituted with plant based margarine (but we'll find out!).

The recipe I'm going to try:
Vanilla Ice Cream (2 qt)
2 cups (goat) milk
1 cup (cane) sugar
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

plus
1 cup half and half (substitute)
1 cup whipping cream (substitute)
or
ca. 1 3/4 cup goat milk and 1/3 plus a table spoon of butter
though I'm contemplating substituting the cream with chevre, it seems much closer in texture and requires less butter.

Scald the milk until bubbles form around the edge. Remove from heat. Add sugar and salt. Stir until dissolved. Stir in (half and half and whipping cream) butter and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Freeze as directed.

5 cups of crushed ice plus 1 cup of rock salt or
5 trays of ice cubes and 2 cups of iodized table salt and 2 cups of water

depending on texture desired freezing is from 20 to 40 minutes.

Hope this will work!

goat milk soap recipe

came across this blog today - it looks very promising...
Since we now separate the goat kids and moms during the night we get about a half gallon of milk each morning, and it's time to start thinking about making a cheese press and researching goat milk soap recipes!

www.blog.thesage.com/2010/02/10/cold-process-soap-half-and-half-method-with-goats-milk/

haybin plans for goats and other small livestock

During our trip to the Netherlands I noticed two types of hay bin desings I wanted to further check out. I took a bunch of pics of both of them and decided to try and built the one with the feeding tray for our flock. I have a small rectangular hay bin but I like the built in tray and since the other one is in the kids area now we have a need for another one.


To give you an idea I'll post pics of both, though of course I do not have any blueprint type plans. I might keep track of the measurements of the one we're going to build. Keep in mind the Europe standard is not a 2x4" but more like a 2x3", so judging the measurements is a little tricky. But hey, it does not have the be identical, as long as it is functional :-) I plan to use a piece of sheet metal roofing and will use the width of that to measure everything else from...

I also like that this version is freestanding, unlike the other one which would need two posts placed in a deep enough secure manner.

a boardwalk in the backyard...

Granddad might remember the trouble we went through last year to bushwhack a path to our swamp with the intention to create a swamp boardwalk. Well, even though the pieces have been ready since last year (we have a very friendly neighbor) we were finally able to actually put them in place last week!


Together with actually friendly neighbors Dough and Bill I got the heavy pieces in their general alignment and used the next couple days to fine tune angles, heights and make up filler corner pieces. The pieces are mostly made of 4x4 ish hardwood pallets with an assortment of recycled wood scraps, including old 2x4 & 1x6 decking and packaging wood from Lowe's. I tried to stay away from (new) pressure treated wood - no sense in leaching a bunch of chemicals into our pristine New York State protected wetlands :-)

We have just about enough pallet pieces to make it to the "creek", which is my goal for this year, or phase 1 of the getting to the back forest project. I'll keep my eyes open for more hardwood pallets this year and hopefully next summer, when the ground is relatively dry, Bill will help me out again!

Our toddler Simon and I also made another hiking path to cut through the forested area between the goat pasture and the swamp. Hubbie and I have to do some major chainsawing later to remove the leftover treetop from the maple that came down right over the planned path, but other than that is should be fairly straight forward with my trusty machete and hacksaw. Before we know it we'll be able to hike all the way around the swamp, the forest, the pasture and the meadow without walking anywhere twice, yay.

multiplying backberry bushes

One technique I found real easy is to loop the long runners which go every which way this time of year through a gallon planter filled with dirt and secure it with some weighty rocks. The looped vine will shoot roots during the rest of the season (as it would otherwise, only into the lawn where you might not want it).

Leave the vine attached until next year, when the shoot comes back up nicely, then cut the main vine. Keep an eye on the rooted vine, water well and when all looks well, transplant late Spring in a good spot, again watering well for at least a couple weeks. Isn't it nice to get free plants from your catalog purchased nursery stock :-)

Of course, this works with all kinds of rooting vines like strawberries & mint and even with currant and gooseberry bushes. Finally a good use for all those fieldstones...

greenhouse progress

Still working away on the greenhouse... hopefully it will be all done in a couple weeks, just in time to transplant some of the leafy greens to overwinter!

The frame was finished last fall, but since we did not have a roof covering picked out hubbie Rolf decided not to put the windows in yet either, just in case some weird windstorm would blow them out or something.

We did decide to reuse the aluminum frames that came with the 4x4 foot double pane storefront windows, but as it turned out we mounted them upside down last fall so they all had to come out (including all the wasp nests). Other than the running around while handling heavy, heavy sheets of glass all went relatively well and the front is now finished and looking good!

Last weekend Rolf finished the front, rehung the door and installed the window on the left. Since the shed is leaning badly to the left, installing anything right angled next to it has been a bit of a challenge. Luckely we have a table circular saw now and are able to make nice straight angled cuts :-)

Next on the list is the back, where we need a door and a similar window on the shed side - and last but not least; the roof top ventilation and the plastic covering... we might need to get some help with the latter, manouvering a 14 feet by 40 feet piece of plastic does not sound like a two person job!

good ground cover for vegetables...

Just read this tip in the current Mother Earth News magazine: to use shredded paper as ground cover for row vegetables like tomatoes and peppers. The paper will become a sort of weed impenetrable layer of paper-mache, but it does still let through water and the whiteness reflects light back up to the plants which in the case of peppers really helps getting the fruit to ripen in time. Something to try next year!

I've always liked to use grass clippings in my pepper window boxes for similar reasons; it also becomes a thick layer that lets thru water but discourages weeds. It does not really reflect light, but it does release nitrates during composting, which might be just as beneficial. Since our peppers are in window boxes anyway they get more heat and ripen fine, even with our short new york summers.

As a side note, most papers including the Ithaca Journal use biodegradable soy bean based inks which are fine to compost back into the vegetable gardens. If you are not sure of the inks used, ask before composting.

sumac "lemonade" recipe

Excerpt from Sumac: The wild lemonade berry By Sam Thayer, Bruce, WI - published by Countryside Magazine

As previously mentioned, the red-berried true sumacs have been widely used to brew a tart and refreshing drink. This drink is delicious, easy to prepare, fun to gather, nutritious, unique-and free. Its source is easily accessible to millions of Americans every summer.

This beverage has been called sumac-ade, rhus-ade, sumac lemonade, Indian lemonade, sumac tea and probably some other names that I have yet to hear. Whatever people call it, they pronounce it delicious. When made properly it is as universally liked as lemonade. I have personally brewed this beverage from staghorn, smooth, and shining sumacs on many occasions. Keep in mind that my experiences refer to these species in the Midwest, and other kinds might need to be treated a little differently.

Preparation of the beverage is simple. The first step is to harvest the berries. Sumac "berries" are really just seeds covered with a thin coating of flavoring substance and hairs. The large clusters are so easy to collect that in just a few moments you can have enough for a pitcher of wild Kool-Aid that kids will love. I usually just snap off the twig that bears the cluster by bending it quickly, although some people use pruning shears or a knife. You want to get the berries when they are dark red and fully mature, so that they have fully developed their tart flavor, but before the rain has had the opportunity to wash the flavor out. In most of North America, the first clusters are ready to be plucked sometime in July, with the prime time being in early August. Taste each cluster as you harvest to assure yourself that you are collecting something with flavor since occasionally they are bland. A dark purple coloration usually indicates that the flavor of the fruit has developed fully; yet some of the best clusters I've tasted were light pink. Sometimes a white, sticky substance coats the berry heads; this is pure essence of sumac flavor-don't let it scare you off. I pluck about six to eight average-sized clusters for a pitcher of sumac-ade. Sumac 'berries' are seeds covered with hairs and a thin coating of flavoring substance.

A potential mistake is to harvest the berry heads before they are ripe, in which case they will produce an unpleasantly bitter brew. More commonly, the problem is that the berries are collected long after their flavor has been washed out by rain. Although I have found good-tasting berries into April, this is the exception; around here the vast majority of them are spent by the end of August. You can expect to find good ones, if you taste around, until early October and sometimes later-and there are always those with just a hint of flavor. To enjoy this refreshing summer beverage in the middle of winter, it pays to harvest the heads in prime time and dry them, so you don't have to worry about using mediocre material.

I take my half-dozen berry clusters, cram them into a pitcher, pour cold water over them, crush them up a little with my hand, and then let the pitcher sit in a cool place for a while. Pouring boiling or hot water over the berries makes for poor flavor, for it leaches tannin from the stems, causing the drink to become bitter. The longer the berries infuse, the stronger the drink will be. When the flavor is to your liking, just strain the drink through a cheesecloth to remove seeds and hairs. Sumac-ade is pleasantly tart with a light pink color. Some people add sugar, but I prefer it without.

The tartness of sumac is partly due to ascorbic acid (vitamin C) so one also has a health incentive to drink this beverage.

There are other things that can be done with sumac-ade. My sister made one of the best wines that I have ever tasted from it. I once prepared a potent sumac concentrate by soaking four batches of berry heads in the same water, one after the other, for one-half hour each. This concentrate made a wonderful and very tart jelly. The flavor is transformed and weakened somewhat by the boiling, so be sure to use a very strong sumac brew for the jelly. Euell Gibbons recommended using sumac-ade instead of plain water to boil elderberry and other fruits that need a touch of tartness to liven them up for using in jam or jelly. Also, the young, thick, tender tips of sumac shoots (especially staghorn) in early summer can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked. They are sweet and delicious, much like raspberry stalks.

Since sumac is related to cashews and mangoes, anyone allergic to those foods should avoid it, or proceed with extreme caution. All in all, however, the sumac is a wonderful tree, deserving of much more attention from those who love the outdoors. Unfortunately, the fact that it shares names with a tree of ill-repute has caused many to shun it. That does leave more for us, but either way there's plenty of sumac to go around. Why not try some this summer?

Sam publishes Forager's Harvest. Sample issues are available for $3 from The Forager's Harvest, PO Box 129, Bruce, WI 54819.