Summer 2021 brought a radical and unexpected life change, leading me from remote reaches of Montana to the wet and warm West coast of Washington. Through many tribulations, the farm persisted and prevailed, and life continued much as usual. This winter concluded with the year’s trajectory looking quite predictable; goats, gardening, and foraging. A full plate of the familiar. I was a hair’s breadth from embarking on my falconry apprenticeship (a dream and goal 19…
Category: Farm Tales
These stories are farm-related tales about both the good and the bad of farm life. Many of these stories are funny. Some have bitter-sweet twists. All of them reflect real life events, how I navigated them, and what the end result is. My intention in sharing these tales is to help folks better understand the nature of living naturally and raising animals.
“Goat Kids in 2022!”
Well, a month after kids hit the ground, I’ve finally made time to sit down and post about it! Twas a warm and sunny March 18th. I let Tisl and Ruma graze the meadow freely to their hearts’ content. Tisl bred 4 days before Ruma, and theoretically today was her due date. The girls hadn’t been out of the barn long before I heard Ruma nickering with concern. She wandered around the barnyard and towards…
“Today, Life is Good”
Yet another sunny, warm, perfect day idled by today. As I have been prone to doing lately, I took the goats on a pastoral hike in the cedar grove this morning. The boys wore their saddles and packs. The girls wore their ever-growing pregnant bellies. We meandered in a new direction today. I brought the saddle bags along in anticipation of a good foraging trip. If nothing else, I would fill the pack with swathes…
“Tattling on the Freedom Goat”
It was after dark. I was sitting down to dinner in my tiny house. Toli the Dog was on guard duty outside, the barnyard had been put to bed, and as far as I was concerned, my day outside had come to a close. But then I heard a turkey hen chirp. It wasn’t a red-flag alarm. She called out in singular chirps. “PIP!” ….. “PIP!” …… “PIP!” Something she didn’t like was entering her…
“Turkeys as Flock Protectors”
If you’ve kept turkeys, you likely have a strong opinion about them one way or another. Depending on the kind and quality of turkeys you kept, you may have read this post title and laughed out loud. It’s true that turkeys come in a wide array of dispositions. From “too dumb to keep itself alive” to “too smart to corner or catch”, turkeys can be inexplicably stupid, inappropriately violent, unreasonably skittish, or valuable beyond measure.…
“A Post About Today, January 11th”
After a very white Christmas, the weather has turned again to rain and the earth to mud. Strong green blades of grass are erupting all around me. It’s surreal! In between bouts of rain I get to stake the goaters out for a refreshing munch of fresh green grass. In January, no less! The first blades of green grass are coloring the meadow I bet they’re grateful not to be weathering another 6-month winter with…
“Goats and Calcium Stones”
A lot of farmers are aware that many ungulates are prone to urinary calculi. These are stones, kidney and bladder stones, that can potentially clog the urinary tract. The risk is greater in male animals due to their more petite urinary tract, compared to the females’. It’s said that intact males fair better than males castrated young, as they are able to develop larger tracts, but it seems like most of the horror stories I’ve…
“The Upper Greenhouse Through July, 2021”
Through the busy heat of this unprecedentedly hot summer, the gardens have flourished amazingly. The tomatoes are loaded with pounds of thick green tomato clusters. The string beans are cranking out a few pounds of beans every 3 days- by far the best year for beans yet. The zucchinis are keeping us rich in their fruits at all times, as they are prone to doing. I’ve taken to pickling baby zucchinis now, hopefully it’s a…
“The Upper Greenhouse through June, 2021”
A garden gallery for this June’s progress in the new, monstrous greenhouse we affectionately refer to as the Upper Greenhouse (or UGH)! Early June: A view down the UGH from the porch End of June: The tomatoes near the top are coming along nicely! This portion of the UGH was the origina grow space of the first greenhouse. This year it’s tomatillos, tomatoes, squash, peppers, beans, and culinary herbs. As well as a few young…
“Foraging in June 2021”
It’s the start of foraging season here on the mountain! Horsetail and Arnica are cropping in nicely, with many others not far away from prime picking time. We’ve harvested and dried one large batch of horsetail already. It’s important to harvest horsetail early in the season when it’s most medicinally active! Not to mention tender and fragrant! We had so many folks asking for horsetail by the pound last year that we hope to…
“Spring of the Broken Broodies”
Throughout the years, I’ve enjoyed dubbing the seasons with the names of events that were memorable. This spring definitely merits the title “Spring of the Broken Broodies”. I’ve hatched and raised thousands of chickens now, and even this year I’m seeing firsts. The first spring broody of this year did something quite strange. I kept her on golf balls for a few weeks, until a batch of chicks was hatched out in an incubator,…
“Another Indecisive Spring”
April and May spent their time swinging between near-freezing temperatures, and warm summer temperatures in the 70’s. With each cold snap we wagered we were done with the cold and moving on towards summer. However, the two-week cycle of extremes has continued. Last week, in an unseasonable turn of events, we got dumped with over 20″ of snow. At best, only about a foot of it accumulated. We were plunged back into the throws of…
“Spring 2021 is Officially Here!”
After a warm, summer-like day, the mountain got dumped with snow again! It’s been hard to tell whether spring has really sprung or not up here. One minute the sun is shining and it’s 50 or 60º, the next snow is dumping and everything is frozen again. Three days ago it was over 70º up here, then two days later it was frigid and snowing again. So what makes it official? The bears, of course!…
“A Simple Gift from Nova”
It was a restless night, in-part due to one of the cats yowling in the greenhouse all night. This morning the yowling picked up again. It was Nova, and her incessant calling is a classic indication that she made kill. This sweet little cat loves to “feed” me. Once Upon A Time she used to hunt fruit for me form the orchard. She’d bring apples and apricots into the house, yowling and calling for me,…
“Raising the Barn, Part 2: Floors & Roof”
With the posts secured upright and our beams braced in place, it was time to add girders and joists so we could work towards having a solid floor on each level of the barn. Each joist was chainsaw milled with 1 flat side, and the ends were notched so they all rested at the same precise height (regardless of how big/wide the log was) on the girders. Andy painstakingly measured out the placement of each…
“A Goat Update: Kids, Milk, & Cheese”
We are now 2 weeks from Ruma’s traumatic birthing experience and she is doing wonderfully. At no point did she threaten me with uterine infection or complications. PHEW! She’s stayin’ plump and lookin’ beautiful as ever. Never did I envision myself someday following a female goat around, carefully sniffing her vulva and noting how it smelled each day… We have each doe down to 1 kid each and are milking the ladies twice a…
“Baby Goats Have Arrived!”
BABY GOATS! After 5 months of eager anticipation (the last 2 months of which were even more eager once we stopped milking in late January and instantly began missing fresh cheese), we have beautiful baby goaters! Tisl birthed first, 48 hours later than her technical due date. She was stealth-preggers, barely showing any baby bulge right up to birthing. I expected only 1 kid out of her. But she produced 2 beautiful kids. I had…
“A Post About Today: March 12th 2021”
Bulbs and leafy greens and peas everywhere! As the warm days continue and the ground thaws, we’ve finally begun putting seeds in the ground. Over the last 3 years I’ve been taking notes on the growing seasons, how much we’ve grown and harvested, and how much we eat. This year the gardening goals are: 100 sq ft or 100lbs of carrots 200 sq ft of beets or 200lbs of beets 100 tomato plants…
“A Post About Today: March 9th, 2021”
March is well underway and spring is in the air! With daytime highs in the 40’s, the Upper Greenhouse (the new massive one) has gotten well into the 70’s in full sunshine. The snow is melting rapidly, and considering we’ve had unusually little snow this year, I’m sure it will be gone before we know it. I highly doubt there will be snow in the draws in June this year. So with the advent of…
“Sometimes Roadkill’s a Drag”
One fine summer morning I took a drive to the post office. It was a beautiful day and I felt fantastic. As usual, I kept my eyes peeled for roadkill deer along the way- however as I turned onto the highway and began my journey, I realized I had no blade in the car with me. I laughed to myself- “Watch me find one of the biggest deer I’ve ever seen and have no way…
“Raising the Barn, Part 1: Logging, Footings, & Posts”
It’s time I wrote out our adventure in building our barn! I will make a video about it at some point, but for now, it shall be a series of blog posts. We spent spring 2019 logging dead and dying trees out of our draws to use for constructing our barn. The telehandler is a fantastic friend for logging. We can telescope the boom out to its furthest reach and run multiple lengths of stout…
“A Post About Today: February 23rd, 2021”
The upper greenhouse just before the big melt and shed. Here Andy is movings some snow around below it whilst I standby listening for any indication that the snow may break loose and come down. With daytime high’s in the upper 30’s and 40’s, brisk winds, and bright sunshine, it’s hard to deny spring is here. Yesterday the upper greenhouse was 51º! Our 20 inches of fluffy white powder has melted into a semi-crusty…
“Elk X-ing: a short animated comic”
I made this little comic because this particular story is a funny, expressive tale I enjoy telling, but it just doesn’t quite fit into text. Text alone can’t capture the emotions of the event. To some the humor in this story may seem a bit morbid, but it all depends on your perspective. We take it lightheartedly- thus is life living in an area loaded with wildlife. And no, we didn’t go back to look,…
“A Post About Today: February 6th, 2021”
I’m going to make my first attempt at adding some fun photos to the blog post. Does that make it a… plog?! :B Edit/update: since it seems to have worked and looks nice, I’ll work on adding photos to more of my previous posts. We recently got about 12″ of snow, and there’s still plenty more on the forecast. At last, the snow has come! We’ve hardly had 3 feet of cumulative snow up…
“A Post About Today: February 1st, 2021”
It’s a bright, sunny Monday morning. My orders are in the post and I’m now hiding in front of the computer. The thermometer says it’s 38ºF in the greenhouse. The top of our greenhouse today will likely reach 50ºF, whilst the draw below the cabin is likely in the teens or single-digits. It’s a comfy 70ºF inside after a busy morning of frying up sausage, pancakes, and onions. Why am I indoors in front of…
“Counting the 2020 Harvest”
There’s something very magical about producing your own food. I’m not the best at keeping records, but I do try. So here’s a peek at what we managed to produce in the 2020 season. Granted, the ‘season’ is not yet over. We’re still contending with foodstuffs grown last year. Our food and farming season will not begin anew until the spring! Canned Fruits: 79 gallons of apple, pear, huckleberry, aronia berry, and elderberry syrups, juices,…
“The Goat Ripped Her Teat Open”
I put Ruma on the stanchion one morning, as per usual, and knelt down to milk. “Wait- blood? Fresh blood? Where is it- oh wow… Ew.” She had somehow snagged her teat on something and tore it clean open, nearly 2 inches long. A very unsettling mixture of blood and milk was weeping out of the gash. Gross. Super gross. So I milked out her good side, trying not to look at the wound too…
“Aspen’s Story: Broken Turkey Legs”
Aspen was a black Spanish turkey I purchased. She was an adult and had grown up semi-wild. She had very little trust in me. As turkey hens do, Aspen went broody in her first spring with me. She chose a large wooden cupboard for her nest. And as turkey toms do, Pip the tom started to get restless after all of the hens disappeared to sit nests. To my dismay, he found Aspen in her…
“I Put a Bone in My Foot…”
Yep. I was on a steep slope, unfolding a large sheet of greenhouse plastic, and I stepped on what looked like plain dirt only to hear a grotesque juicy crunch and a surge of pain in the arch of my foot. I sat/fell down and proceeded to uproot a small -something- sticking up out of the dirt. It was the tip of a buried jagged, gnarly chunk of dog-chewed deer vertebrae with old black gristle…
“Stitches the Chicken”
Before moving to an area with frigidly cold winters and an extended cold season, I kept turkens. Turkens are a breed of chicken that lack feathering on their head and necks. I love turkens, they’re fantastic, and I wish I could raise them here on the mountain but that would be cruel to the half-naked birds. So one day I head out into my bird yard to put the birds up for the night and…