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…
Category: Tales from 2021
This category includes insightful and/or humorous accounts of life and farm events that took place in 2021.
“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,…
“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…
“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…
“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…